#and theres so many boxes? and they keep getting smaller and i just? maybe i dont want people to put me in a box | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

Visit Blog

Explore Tumblr blogs with no restrictions, modern design and the best experience.

Fun Fact

Tumblr has 4 main sources of revenue.

#and theres so many boxes? and they keep getting smaller and i just? maybe i dont want people to put me in a box

valpogossip · 2 months

Text

VALPOGOSSIP TEACAP: APRIL 2024

You lot sure have be busy the last month. If I was of lesser mind or simply someone with something better to do, I would have resigned myself to my silence and let you all carry on. But business pays. And unfortunately for you, it's yours that pays me, and you're all not going to believe this.

It's always the ones in the most denial that scream the loudest and Abril is a banshee. While at La Fiesta De Vindimia, Abril confronted our favorite blonde bombshell, Mallory Jade, about song she assumed was about her. Now theres something about a fight over a song like Pretty Girls ending in a kiss that just doesn't feel all that... straight to me. But Abril was quick to prove all of us wrong by locking in with Giovanni !

Speaking of Giovanni, the timing of this is quite suspicious considering he had a bit of his own meet-not-so-cute with a Yazmin. The two getting off on the wrong food but helping each other find the right one another and getting all cozy enough to take a nap outside. I don't about you all, but I don't think i've ever been that comfortable. Wonder with Yazmin thinks of this. Or Abril for that matter.

We could also ask Aivryn for her opinion on the matter considering how upset she was when Abril's new beau launched to the world to see. Apparently, even as her best friend, Aivryn found out at the same time everyone else did. I can't help but wonder why that is.

In more confusing but entertaining news, Omar and Dante are going on a date to decide which one gets to take which...one... on a... date ? I think I'm reading that correctly. Yes, bowling date. Loser takes other on date. No, yeah that's right. Well, whatever love looks like for you. Whenever there's a Dominguez-Herrera involved we're sure it'll be healthy and sane.

Maybe it's the bowling date nerves that led Dante to break Drew's nose? We hope that's healing up just fine.

Every month we hope Alba will stand up, and this month they came really close ! It was much of a hunch, but hey we'll take it. After a cold war, Milani raised the first white flag but all it took was one. You'll get there Al, we believe in you !

The festival seemed to be a hub for rekindling kisses, as Arlo and Esme were spotted liplocked on one of the benches. Sad thing about Leia bearing eye witness. Has anyone checked on her? What is it about good wine that makes you want to relive the past? Maybe they can go on a double date with Mallory and Abril and relive the past together.

Speaking of rekindling, but this time no kisses, exes Elijah and Sariyah, and Luna and Enzo were both spotted with frowns on their faces and eyes that were looking everywhere but each other. What conversation has you guys that deep in thought? Maybe you should take a drive, we here that helps.

If you're looking for a palette cleanser from all the mess, look no further than Jasper and Hunter. Gentle conversations and cutely planned dates. We wish them nothing but the best and maybe they could teach our many ( many ) confused couples a thing or two.

We hope that's enough to hold you over until next month. And if I missed anything, don't hesitate to send in a little tip to us via our anon box.

Here's some things we're keeping a close eye on for next month:

Ysla and Adem seem to be getting extremely close to little Emmie. Is it all just for her benefit? Astrid and Kaito already have the perfect starter for next month's tea cap, I wonder what else they'll get up to. What's the history there? How is Sariyah involved? Why does vic hate birthdays so much and why does esme suddenly care so much about his? Ximena and Bryce seem to also be spending a lot more time together. Aksel and Sarah's dinner table keeps getting bigger and bigger whole Luna's looks to be getting smaller, why is that? Will Drew ever get his double date? Is Luna like... okay?

If you didn't make this rounds teacap don't worry, we're still watching closely.

#valpoteacap #i feel like i missed.... so much this month im sorry yall

7 notes · View notes

alstroemerian-dragon · 10 months

Text

ouuuuhhh so ive been attempting for a hot minute to associate this particular san fermin song w kuzuhina because i really like the vibes but i couldnt. find the bit. yknow the Bit. the Nugget.

finally found it.

(under the cut. warning: this is an au ramble and it gets Long)

first off:

youtube

okay. the au:

these two kids live in a small town. maybe not super rural, and not right by the big city, but its your typical smaller japanese suburb. neither of them are happy. theyre maybe ten or eleven, but one of them lives in an upper class, extremely controlling household, one where his parents constantly fight, and hes been subjected to at least some level of abuse. he also knows theres something wrong with him, something that makes him different from even his peers, though he cant quite see what it is yet. the other is alone, distant from his parents, distant from his peers, deeply depressed and unaware that hes even himself.

but theyre friends. in some ways, theyre all the other has in this fucked up place, and a majority of their happiest memories are with each other. they make a promise, one night, that someday, when theyre a bit older, theyll run away together. theyll escape this terrible town and theyll travel the world and theyll be together, and everything will be okay.

and then they grow up.

theyre still friends. but now hajime has figured out, to an extent, who he is, started at least socially transitioning as they get into high school. they make other friends, outside of fuyuhiko’s odd relationship with peko (the daughter of one of their family’s servants), find people to connect with. hajime reaches out, gets a crush on chiaki that she returns, maybe they even start dating. he changes.

and fuyuhiko… doesnt.

maybe hes too stubborn, maybe hes been burned too many times, maybe hes just too poisoned by his parents’ rhetoric. but he wont, or maybe cant, step too far outside of the box hes placed himself in. he watches hajime drift, feels panic inside, doesnt know how to fix it. they argue. hajime worries. fuyuhiko shrugs it off.

when theyre seventeen, fuyuhiko’s dad finds out hes been fooling around with other boys. hiding magazines, clearing his search history of anything incriminating. the confrontation doesnt go well.

he has to get out. its the end of the line, at this point. fuyuhiko has to get out. he packs, he plans, he prepares. he waits just long enough to knock on hajimes window, late at night, like he used to when they were kids and hed sneak out so they could run into the woods together.

he asks hajime to come with him. just the two of them, like they promised.

and hajime… says no.

he cant. he cant leave, not now. not when hes built something around himself. he has a girlfriend, a support system, his parents are barely in his life and as soon as he doesnt live with them they basically wont be. hes already preparing for university, locally. he cant just throw all of that out the window.

he tells fuyuhiko that he doesnt have to go. fuyuhiko knows better. wiping away tears and ignoring how it feels like his heart rips in two, he leaves, gets on the first train out of town, and doesnt look back.

hes gone for more than six years.

in that time, hajime goes to university, gets a degree. he and chiaki go steady, they both start hormones, they get good jobs that keep their heads above water. his parents arent in his life anymore. the kuzuryus move out of town, and he and natsumi share awkward goodbyes. she knows, deep down, that the only thing that could have made fuyuhiko stay was hajime, and since that didnt work… nothing could. peko stays, having grown up in her own time, and she and hajime bond over this quiet feeling of emptiness.

hes not sure exactly what it is. he misses fuyuhiko, of course, every day. misses him like a sickness that lingers in his lungs for weeks. but theres a piece of him that doesnt quite fit right, and it takes a long time for him to figure out how its connected.

and then, one day, out of nowhere, fuyuhiko reappears.

theyre in their mid 20s at this point. hes grown, though not much taller. he has scars, shorter hair, tattoos. hes cagey about where hes been, what hes been up to, who hes been with. he mentions traveling, and he mentions hospital visits. at some point, hajime stops asking, because some part of him doesnt want to know. the rest of him is just happy fuyuhiko is here again.

he asks how long fuyuhiko will be in town. the man shrugs, says ‘depends.’ hajime asks if he has a place to stay yet. he says no, he was probably just gonna book a hotel room.

he and chiaki have a pretty comfortable pullout couch, hajime says. if that would be okay for fuyuhikos back.

a bit hesitantly, fuyuhiko agrees.

for a week or two, things are… good. amazing, even. having fuyuhiko back in his life is like a puzzle piece clicking into place, like hajimes found something he didnt even realize he was missing. at first, theyre just catching up, getting lunch, roaming old haunts. catching up on lost time. but then they stop being away from each other at all. its like theyre joined at the hip, unable to be out of each others presence for more than a few minutes, and chiaki starts to notice. of course she does, she and hajime are engaged. she knows him better than he does, sometimes. and she and fuyuhiko were friends too, of a sort. though he wouldnt have let himself admit that.

she sees how he looks at her fiance. she understands, too, that hajime looks back just the same.

and then one night, shes out of the house. out with friends, staying at work late, out of town for the evening, it doesnt matter. its just the two men at their apartment, and hajime breaks out the sake. they drink, even though fuyuhiko generally cant stand the stuff, and they talk about the past.

it gets… personal. strained. they talk about things they probably shouldnt. they get heated, and upset, and they argue, and they say things they dont mean. fuyuhiko admits to being involved with unsavory business on the outside, that yeah, he fell in with the yakuza, and hes kind of on the lam right now if hes honest. hajime says if hed just stayed they could have been fine. he wouldnt be scarred and constantly looking over his shoulder. he would have been okay.

fuyuhiko says he couldnt have bared to be here any longer. that this town was smothering him, was smothering them, and he thought hajime understood that. says that he probably wouldnt still be alive if hed stayed.

in the middle of the fight, he kisses hajime. its something thats lived in his heart for so long, something hes never let himself admit or even indulge in, that even with the distance between them, even with all that time away, he cares so much for hajime. too much. so much so that it makes him reckless and impulsive and a danger to himself. hes not sure if its to prove a point or shut hajime up or stop the argument or just because hes an idiot, and he immediately regrets it, except… hajime kisses him back.

and then he kisses fuyuhiko again.

it doesnt last long. theyre both far too drunk on too empty stomachs, they both feel sick, from nausea and from the sinking realization of what theyre doing. what this means. its late, and theyre exhausted and wrung out, and they both go to sleep, apart. hajime in he and chiakis bed. fuyuhiko on the couch.

early in the morning, when chiaki returns home, that couch is empty. fuyuhikos things are gone. there isnt even a note.

and nearly ten years go by before they meet again.

hajime and chiaki get married. they settle down. they get an actual house, shockingly enough, and they end up adopting a kid. they start to get the surgeries they want and need, they change jobs, they branch out. they have support networks, and more experience just living, and maybe chiaki realizes first, maybe she realized a long time ago, maybe she knows that her husband loves her dearly but understands that there is a piece of him irrevocably tied to someone who isnt there. she knows. she gets it.

she doesnt force it. doesnt bring it up. leaves it to the man she loves to discover on his own, and he’ll confide in her if he needs to.

and then, in their mid 30s, on one nice afternoon, hajime and chiaki take their daughter to the zoo in the city. its warm and sunny, the place is full but not too crowded, and their daughter is around six or seven. shes tugging her dad around by the hand, unbelievably excited, and hajime is indulgent and laughing as chiaki trails after them.

they approach the part of the exhibit where the cranes are, tall and majestic and white, with their curved necks and sharp beaks. hajimes daughter runs to the edge of the balcony, jumping up and peering over it, and he calls after her to slow down, that hes only so fast. she looks back, but something catches her eye.

the man standing beside her, a couple feet away, has his sleeves rolled up.

“daddy!” she calls, as hajime approaches. “why does have pictures on his arms?”

hajime looks, down, at the colors that swirl across the mans skin. up across scars and the loose white dress shirt he wears. the fairly nice camera held in hands with long, lithe fingers that are far too familiar.

hes almost afraid to look up too far. his chest aches.

he does anyway, and meets a single golden eye, soft pink lips parted in surprise, as he and fuyuhiko are face to face again.

they dont have long to take in whats happening. six year olds are curious and far more observant than their given credit for, and hajimes daughter scoots closer, asking about the ink in fuyuhikos arms. what that is, what the pictures are. it distracts him, from staring into hajimes eyes, and after a brief moment of hesitation, he leans down and starts to explain tattoos, that his were very traditionally done, that he usually hides them but it was just so nice today.

he glances back up into hajimes eyes. says he doesnt really care what people think right now.

chiaki, a ways behind them, finally approaches, and greets fuyuhiko warmly. explains to their daughter that hes an old friend, that they havent seen him in a long time, and that her dad and he have a lot to catch up on. picking up the little girl, briefly squeezing her husbands shoulder and giving fuyuhiko a warm, steady look, she walks away, and the two men are left alone.

for a while, neither of them know what to say. finally, fuyuhiko asks about the kid, if shes, yknow, theirs or not. no, hajime laughs, they adopted. but he adores her, takes her to school, runs around with her outside, plays video games with her. theyre just in the city for a day trip, today, and have plans to go out to eat before heading back home.

its silent again, for a while. he asks how long fuyuhiko will be in the area. quietly, achingly. how much longer until i lose you again.

but fuyuhiko laughs a little, fiddles with his camera. hes actually in the city for school, weirdly enough. hes a lot older than most of his peers in his classes, but hes back to get a degree, maybe get a real job. hes done with all the shit from before, cut ties with the yakuza. its the first time he openly admits what hes been doing for the past eighteen years, and hajimes heart aches. that he wasnt able to help, wasnt able to pull fuyuhiko out of that.

they look at each other, and realize they dont know the person standing next to them. not anymore.

but somehow… that doesnt really matter. maybe the new person standing in their place is worth knowing too.

as they talk, hajime texts chiaki. when he gets a response, he invites fuyuhiko to come with them to dinner that night, for old times’ sake. he agrees, and actually joins the three of them wandering around the zoo for the rest of the afternoon too.

they take the train together, eat dinner. fuyuhiko is incredibly sweet with their daughter, falls in love with her instantly. shes bright and curious and talkative and constantly moving, and she points out that hes shorter than even her mommy and he cant even find it in himself to get mad.

at the end of the night, they have to go home. hajime, chiaki, and their daughter back to town, fuyuhiko back to his apartment. they say their goodbyes, and hajime lingers, unable to keep himself from hugging fuyuhiko for far longer than he should, far longer than what would be considered normal. cant stop himself from reaching up and brushing his fingers against fuyuhikos cheek below his fake eye.

he asks if fuyuhiko has a cell number thats available. fuyuhiko smiles and pulls out his phone.

they stay in contact over the next few weeks. their both busy with work and fuyuhiko with school, and they steer clear of talking about anything too hard, but they text almost daily. its not that hajime is neglecting his family either, hes just… there was always some space, a hole in his life that never felt right. and now theres something there, and it doesnt quite fit properly yet, but hes willing to just be happy its there at all.

fuyuhiko mentions reconnecting with peko, reconnecting with his sister. going to classes, exploring the city. he sends dumb selfies of him and his new puppy, and hajime sends pictures back of his daughter covered in paint from when they were painting the bathroom.

a few weeks in, chiaki asks if fuyuhiko should come over for dinner some time, maybe even to stay the night on their couch. like old times. hajime is reluctant, at first, memories of the last time that happened cropping up. but theyre older now, and fuyuhiko has responsibilities and ties, and he cant run anymore. neither can hajime. so he asks, and fuyuhiko says yes, and they plan for it to be a night where none of them have responsibilities in the morning so they can stay up after the kid’s gone to bed.

they do. dinner is wonderful, of course, and they watch a movie afterward to put their daughter to sleep, and once shes been moved to the bedroom, they break out the sake. fuyuhiko refrains, and hajime and chiaki dont drink much, just enough to loosen their tongues. the three of them talk, about the past, about when they were kids, about their families. about chiaki and hajimes transitions, about how they stayed together despite everything, though there were momentary break ups. fuyuhiko talks about his own journeys, about being caught in a spiral with the mob, about debts and violence and breaking out of it. he talks about how deeply in the closet he was for such a long time, how much it was tearing him apart. he talks about his parents, and his sister, how glad he is that she broke free from them after so long. he talks about boyfriends and one night stands and drunken mistakes.

chiaki tries to say something. tries to get them to talk properly. but hajime shuts it down, still unwilling to go too far.

when they turn in for the night, fuyuhiko on the couch, the two of them talk in bed before sleep. chiaki finally verbally says what shes been thinking for so long, that she thinks hajime loves fuyuhiko, has for a long time, maybe since they were kids. that she thinks he should give it a chance. theyre already two trans people, theyre already all queer, whats one more social transgression?

hajime is quiet. its something hes known, he thinks, for a while. just hasnt wanted to admit it. hasnt wanted to ruin what he has, what hes so meticulously built. hes just grateful fuyuhiko is here again, that hes alive and in hajimes life again for the first time in years. he doesnt want to, cant lose that. not again.

so he keeps it locked down. he says he cant, and he doesnt want to talk about it. chiaki, sadly, turns over, and flicks off the light.

in the morning, hajime gets up and finds the couch empty. for a moment, he panics, before realizing there are sounds coming from the kitchen, and when he enters, he finds fuyuhiko making breakfast. hes not doing a great job. hes not really much of a cook. but he wanted to pay them back for how kind and open theyve been, how accepting theyve been of him being back in their lives. he wants to show how grateful he is.

hajime just laughs, and says if he wants to do that, he can show it by letting hajime help so that breakfast doesnt burn. fuyuhiko cant really argue with that. they move around each other like its second nature, like theyve done it forever. like this is how its supposed to be.

when chiaki appears in the doorway, they dont see her at first. but she watches, and she smiles, and when they do notice her arrival, she slots into the dance easily. like there was always going to be space for her.

their daughter is sad that uncle hiko has to go home, but he promises he’ll be back. maybe he’ll even bring a present for her next time he comes over for dinner. that gets her excited. he looks up at hajime and winks, says maybe he’ll bring a present for him and chiaki too. it makes hajimes face feel warm, and he shoves the sappy thoughts away before they can get too strong.

for a while, they live in this limbo. fuyuhiko comes over for dinner, spends time with their daughter, watches movies and plays board games and rants about school with them. he and hajime text constantly when hes not around. his absence leeches into everything, now, far more openly than before, and even for chiaki. she finds herself missing him when she and her daughter watch a movie the girl loves for the millionth time, because the last time they watched it he was here. theres a cold spot on the couch where fuyuhiko should be sitting.

one day, hajime runs into peko, very suddenly. its been a long time since theyve seen each other, with her having her own life, and him being busy with work. they were never that close when they were young anyway. but he asks her to get coffee, spontaneously, and to his surprise she agrees. they talk, skirting around the elephant in the room for a while, but eventually it becomes impossible not to talk about fuyuhiko. peko is happy to hear hes been coming over so much, mentions that she and him have remained in contact as well, though not the extent hes maintained contact with the nanamis. they mostly talk about school, if shes honest.

she admits, quietly, that she used to love him. that part of her probably always will. but shes happy with her girlfriend, and glad that she has him as a friend at the very least. and she thinks hes happier with hajime anyway.

hajime stammers that theyre not, like, together, hes not with fuyuhiko, not like, well, like that. peko just tilts her head and gives him a knowing look, takes a sip of her coffee. says something about chiaki being reasonable, about how it hardly matters. says that the people who really matter wont care.

it lingers in hajimes head for a long time. eventually, he cant stand it, and he sits down with chiaki to have a long talk about this, about how he loves her so much and he doesnt want to leave her, that he cant, but that at the same time, he does love fuyuhiko. he can admit that, finally. he wants to be able to hold fuyuhiko, to kiss him, to be close with him and feel that warmth between them. and all chiaki does is smile, agree that he deserves that, that she wants fuyuhiko in their lives too. that he doesnt have to leave her to be with fuyuhiko. that she wants this for both of them.

hajime plans meticulously. something nice, maybe even fancy, but not too over the top. fuyuhiko likes subtlety, likes class. doesnt like too much attention on something like this. they decide to wait until their daughters class trip, so she’ll be out of the house for a few days, chiaki with her as a chaperone. itll just be the two men.

fuyuhiko is surprised by the invitation, but he doesnt say no. hes nervous, obviously. he doesnt know what hajime does, is scared if taking things too far. hes loved hajime for years, has known for years, and he doesnt want to fuck this up like he did when they were in their 20s. when he was far more hurt and far more scared and far more reckless. hes come to terms with the fact that hes never gonna have more, that he missed out, didnt manage to get the guy, and is happy enough to just have hajime in his life like he does.

they go out to dinner, just the two of them. hajime mentions at least twice that chiaki helped him plan this whole thing, trying to get across her approval. hes not sure it works, and fuyuhiko seems generally bewildered by the heavier atmosphere, confused by hajimes insistence on paying, and how hajime asks him to get in the car but wont tell him where theyre going.

their daughters class trip is for a festival, to see the bigger celebrations in the city. but there are still smaller ones here, in their hometown, and when hajime parks the car on a hill and gets out, and fuyuhiko looks down on the lights of the festival and the garlands and moving rivers of people down below, hes not confused anymore.

okay, maybe thats a lie. he is still confused. but he knows sort of why theyre here.

they sit and watch the lights, watch the sun go down and the stars twinkle into existence. they talk, mostly about nothing, about life, about school and work. they eat karinto, because hajime knows its fuyuhikos favorite, and they make jokes at each others expense and laugh and get close. and then theres a lull in the conversation.

hajime quietly asks if he can try something. asks fuyuhiko not to freak out when he does. as confused and scared as that makes him, fuyuhiko agrees.

and hajime kisses him.

theyre not drunk this time. they dont have that excuse. fuyuhiko is frozen, unsure how to respond, if he should, if hes allowed. when his voice comes back, he croaks something about chiaki. hajime reminds him that she helped plan this whole thing. “even this?” “…well, maybe not down to the exact details. but kissing you was the end goal, so… yeah. even this.”

fuyuhiko cant barely believe whats happening, can barely breathe. hajime murmurs something about needing him, about the hole in his life that had been there so long it had turned to normalcy. how fuyuhikos return had upended that normalcy, had made that hole in his chest ache like crazy because finally something was here that could fill it. how hed denied himself even the ability to consider it because he was afraid of taking that leap.

he says how funny it is, that after all this time, theyre both still running away.

fuyuhiko sets his jaw, cups hajimes face in his hands, and kisses him back.

they stay for a while, on that hill, with the distant sounds of the festival and their sweets forgotten between them. trading kisses and soft touches, hardly any words. its hard not to just get lost in it, this feeling of completion, of two pieces that never quite fit right finally finding the angle that makes them match. hajime insists that chiaki supports this, that when she comes home fuyuhiko can ask her. that she’ll be thrilled. that their daughter will be confused, sure, but ultimately fine. she’ll come to understand as she gets older. it’ll be hard, and weird, and they wont always get to be open about it.

but he doesnt care. he just wants to lie here, pressing his lips to fuyuhikos, and running his hands over the mans skin like its all hes ever wanted in his life.

eventually, they have to leave. its chilly, and theyre both tired and full of both food and warmth. on the drive back, hajimes hand lingers on fuyuhikos thigh, warm and heavy. at some point, fuyuhiko takes it in his own, brings it to his lips and kisses the knuckles. he flushes when he does, and all hajime does is smile and stroke his cheek.

chiaki is, as we already know, supportive. she insists that she knows hajime loves them both, that shes confident in their relationship, and that she cares about fuyuhiko too. they tell their daughter that if she sees daddy kissing uncle hiko, its perfectly okay, and mommy knows and is happy for them. she gets it, eventually. kids are smart, and a lot more accepting of things that people give them credit for.

fuyuhiko still stays in school, aiming for his degree. he still has his apartment in the city. but he comes over as often as he can, for family nights, for dates with hajime, for late nights with the married couple talking about adult things. for babysitting their daughter. uncle hiko becomes one of her favorite people, because hes just a little bit too indulgent, and will let her get away with stuff her parents never would. neither of them mind too much. they love watching him interact with their daughter, love that hes in her life. that hes in their lives.

thats all they can ask for.

#personal #half for half #words on the screen #thats the tag for my writing i think #this is less meta and more. actual writing. its mostly a summary but. Hroughr #idk if ill ever actually write this i have so many other aus and fics to finish #so just take this for now #kuzuhina #thats all ill tag i think. for this #so sorry this got so FUCKING LONG.#im having thoughts and ideas and fucking concepts in my brain #also throwing my poly shit in there because i have no self control and the ‘married hinanami with hiko as their third’ dynamic captivates me

7 notes · View notes

happys-crazy-queen22 · 3 years

Text

Fertility Struggles II

Gif credit @angels-reyes

Part 2 to Fertility struggles. Hope you all enjoy.

Taglist @nocturnalherb16. @jesseswartzwelder. @leaalfred. @creepers-baby-girl. @writerwithasoul. @twistnet. @baylishh. @believinghurts. @ilovetaquitosmmmm. @mayans-mc.

Month after month since starting IVF, you've gotten your period. It was starting to make you mad. You were actually getting tired of using periods at the end of a sentence. They were everywhere. One month you did get your hopes up because you missed your period but wham that bitch hit you at the end of the month. She wasnt going to let your dreams come true.

It was the first day of your period and Nestor came home happy thinking this might have worked. You've been moody and eating a lot. But you were scared to tell him.

"You got your period"? He asked when he saw you on the couch, with your sweats, a box of tissues and icecream with a blanket wrapped around you.

"Yeah. That bitch can't give us a break. I'm sorry". You said with a sniffle.

"It's okay. We can try again". He came over to the couch and sat down pulling your legs to his lap.

"I dont know if I want too". You replied, playing with your icecream in the tub.

"What do you mean"? Nestor moved in his seat to look at you. He was confused. This has always been the number one thing you have ever wanted.

"IVF seems to not be working. I'm getting my period every month. It's like I'm taking this drug for the fun of it. I'm putting us through hell and getting nothing". You wiped away tears with your sleeve.

"Its not for nothing. We're going to make a baby. You can't give up". He rested his hand on your stomach.

"I havent. Maybe we should look into adoption or a surrogate"?

"So you're wanting me to take my sperm and put it in someone else that is not my wife"? Nestor looked confused and like you wanted him to walk into this trap.

"Maybe. There wont be any contact with your junk and her junk. Itll be through a doctor. So calm down. You're not sleeping with anyone but me". You laughed as he sighed a sigh of relief.

"Alright. Why dont you go to the doctor and make sure that they can't do anything before we jump to those options".

"I'm tired Nestor. I'm tired. I dont want anymore doctors".

"Just go for me. We cant give up".

"Alright. Fine. For you but if they say they cant. I'm done. My body has been through enough. I cant". You shake your head. Tears rolling down your cheeks. Your heart has been broken so many times and you couldnt go through that again. Your heart couldn't bare it.

"What brings you in today"? Your doctor asked, she probably already knows the answer.

"IVF isn't working. I've tried everything you said. I keep getting my period every month. I'm just, it's like it's no hope for me". You explain.

"How long does the periods last"?

"Two maybe three days but it's like spotting. No heavy flow".

"Okay. I'm going to do a ultrasound and see if we can see anything".

"I'm telling you theres nothing in there". You sigh laying back on the table.

"You never know". She said before stepping out the door.

She came back in with a nurse and the machine. The gel she squirted was cold on your stomach.

"Alright, let's see what we got".

Looking at the screen, you saw nothing. Blank uterus. "Told you".

"Dont be so sure. What is this"? She pointed to the screen and saw two little jellybeans just floating around in your uterus.

You about hopped off the table when she said that. "How is that possible". You asked about in tears.

"Well, when you're on the IVF, occasional spotting happens and some mistake it as their period. But you're pregnant. With twins. It's to early to tell what they are but they seem healthy". She said taking pictures of the jellybeans.

"Oh my God. Nestor is going to freak when I tell him". You gasped as she handed you the ultrasound photo.

"Thank you so much for everything. You have no idea what this means to us". You hugged her crying.

"I think I have a idea. I too had a hard time having children so I know what it feels like to get that news that you're pregnant". She smiled and gave you a prescription for prenatal vitamins.

"Thanks again". You said before leaving her office.

You were so excited to tell Nestor that he was going to be a daddy. But then the nerves kicked in. What happens if this is like last time? What if you lose them or even one? You were going to take every precaution there was. You put yourself on bedrest and a healthier diet. Thinking those could help to keep the babies.

Getting home, Nestor was already there. Walking into the house, he was cooking. Something so good it made your mouth water.

"What are you cooking? I hope you made tons of it"? You moaned when you got to the kitchen, the aroma getting stronger.

"Its my fathers recipe. I knew you would like it. It's great for getting women pregnant. Just look at me". Nestor said with a wink coming over to you and kissed your head. You wrapped your arms around him.

"How was the doctors? Everything okay"? He asked looking down at you.

"Everything's wonderful". You grinned from ear to ear.

"Really? Just last night you didnt want to go. What changed"?

"Oh just the two little lives growing inside me". You swiftly pulled out the sonogram and put it in his face with a squeal.

"You're joking? What? How? Oh my god". He picked you up, kissing your lips.

"Babies. We had tons of sex and oh my god is right. We finally did it. The doctor said they look healthy".

"Oh baby, I'm so happy and so very thankful". Nestor held you tight. All his dreams were coming true.

"Me too. But I'm not taking any chances. I'm putting myself on bedrest and we're going to start eating healthier foods. No delicious tub of icecream or chips or tacos". You frowned licking your lips. Now the cravings start.

"Babe, you can have all of that just eat it a little at a time. Foods not going to hurt you. Might make you nauseous or give you heartburn but you have to eat".

"I know. I'm just scared. Because we dont know what caused the miscarriages. Anything can be a trigger. We just have to be careful and watch out for signs".

"We will. Um, can we not tell anyone until we know for sure we're out of the woods"?

"I was thinking the same thing. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up if they will be torn apart. I'm scared to get excited but I am. I cant for these jellybeans to be in our arms. Safe and sound". You squeezed Nestor. He was so happy. But the little voice said something could go wrong. Praying that it didnt.

During your pregnancy, you had one scare but that was it. You made it to 38 weeks then your water broke. Then the real nervousness kicked in. The babies room was prepared and you had everything they needed. You were just nervous about them getting here.

Luckily they came out healthy and strong with tons of hair.

Cruz Valentino Oceteva weighed 7lbs 4oz. He looked just like Nestor and a head of hair. Nestor tried to braid it like his. He succeeded in doing so. Heartburn was the worst.

Maya Jade Oceteva weighed 6lbs 2oz. Se was a lot smaller than her brother but was a strong little girl. You know how they say you carry them for nine months and they come out looking like their father. That's true. She looked like Nestor but with your nose. And a head full of hair that you put little bows in.

God you were so lucky to have Nestor and the babies. Life was complete. Well maybe. Another kid wouldnt hurt. Or three. But for now you were going to enjoy the baby moments and the smell of their little heads. Which you and Nestor took turns sniffing each of the babies heads.

#nestor oceteva fanfiction #nestor oceteva imagine #nestor oceteva x reader #nestor oceteva #nestor x reader #mayans mc imagine #mayans fanfic #mayans imagine #mayans fanfiction #happys-crazy-queen22

140 notes · View notes

ehstarwar · 4 years

Text

a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves (3/8)

He would be just gentle enough that nothing hurt, but firm enough that she felt it. Every touch, every stroke; he would make her feel it all, make her delirious with it.

Yes, letting herself fantasize about Ben is all too easy.

Rey tries not to think about what's making her so frustrated and irritable. Ben knows exactly why. Also, Leia meddles.

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 4K

Read on AO3

Notes: our space babies are back at it again with their BIE. (Big Idiot Energy). enjoy

(´∀｀)

Chapter 3: this tiger-footed rage

It’s as easy as breathing, Rey thinks. Imagining him, large and imposing, all hard plains and thick muscle, nudged between her thighs. All around her. Consuming her. She imagine what his hands would feel like. Would the trace her, lightly and teasingly, or ding into her skin and mar her for all the world to see. And his legs; strong enough to hold her up, to carry her around without so much as a strain.

He would be just gentle enough that nothing hurt, but firm enough that she felt it. Every touch, every stroke; he would make her feel it all, make her delirious with it.

Yes, letting herself fantasize about Ben is all too easy. Made even easier by her fingers currently pushing into her sopping wet cunt.

It should be embarrassing, how many times over the last few days that Rey has gotten off to imagining Ben. She’d had to stop herself from going into the employee bathroom and shoving a hand between her thighs the day he scented her; the smell of an omega that just came would outweigh the scent of an alpha and she’d be in an even worse situation. Rey had dutifully waited until after work, after the inspection, after she took two trains back home, before collapsing in a heap on her bed and getting herself off to Bens’ scent within two minutes.

And that was only the start of the evening.

Rey had refused to shower that night, trying to keep a hold of every molecule of scent Ben had given her, but come morning, she had to wash herself. She totally didn’t cry in the shower, rubbing one out to the last remanence of Ben washing down her drain. The wetness coming down her face was only from the shower.

She though that when his scent was no longer clinging to her person that she may finally get some relief from the near constant arousal, but it only made it worse. Now, the comforting scent of a big, virile alpha wasn’t consuming her, it made her desperate.

Which is the state Rey was in right now; hand pushing in and out of her, wanting to find a release that is never quite satisfying enough.

Twenty minutes of trying to get herself off before the evening was proving frustrating instead of relieving, causing Rey to scream into her pillow before removing her hand from her cunt and getting into the shower. She definitely did not sneak a smell at her overalls from the other day, just to see if there was anything left.

Rose was hurrying around the apartment when Rey walked out of the bathroom, still unsatisfied and a little more than irritable.

“What the hell, Rose?” Nearly every kitchen cabinet was opened, and a small pile of different kitchen items were being shoved into reusable plastic bags.

“Finn wants to bake a pie for tonight, but like, has nothing that he needs if he wants to make a pie,” Rose explains, stuffing multiple pans that were decidedly unnecessary to make a pie.

“Is he making a pie for a small third world county?” Rey huffs. Rose stills, a box of graham crackers falling to the counter below her.

“Are you feeling okay?” Rose asks, giving Rey a once-over.

“Yes… why?”

“You sounded a little upset that we’re making pie. Pie, Rey. You once said you’d give your left tit just to eat pie every day.”

Rey bristles, feeling much more defensive than a statement like this should make her.

“Its just… You’re taking quite a bit of stuff from our kitchen to make this. What if we don’t get it all back?” This only makes Roses’ gaze harden.

“It’s for Finn. We basically share everything with him. And I know for a fact that you two shared a toothbrush for four months in college because neither of you could be bothered to buy a new one. What’s going on?”

Rey is still wrapped up in a towel, dripping onto the linoleum floor. Her fist is clenched, holding her towel so tight to her person that she knows there will be red marks on her skin. She tries to figure out why she’s feeling this way, why she cares at all. Rey doesn’t get territorial like this, ever, especially with Finn. She’s just as curious as Rose is to figure out why she’s acting like this, but is too proud to concede.

“Nothing is going on. I don’t care if you take that stuff to Finn’s, just… make sure we get it back. That’s the only strainer that I’ve ever liked and I just want to make sure its near if I need it. Rose has her eyes narrowed at Rey, and looks like she wants to prod further, but Rey doesn’t give her the opportunity.

“I’ll see you at Luke’s!” She shouts over her shoulder on her way back to her room.

The commute to Luke’s isn’t too bad. Rey has to take two trains and walk four blocks to get there, but his part of town isn’t too bad. Rey’s side is a different story, but that’s a worry for later tonight. Her irritability hasn’t completely worn off when she leaves her apartment, but she figures some fresh air will do her good.

Or, it would be good if she could actually enjoy it. Problem is, she’s itchy.

Not in the ‘I’m covered in poison ivy’ or ‘I have a bad case of the chicken pox’ way, but in the ‘my skin feels too tight and I’m ready to peel it off my body’ kind of way. It doesn’t help that her glands are throbbing. Any brush of material over them sends a shiver down her spine, but it’s too cold and impolite to go out in public naked with pulsing, red glands.

It’s the suppressants working their way out of her system, probably. In her limited research on what to expect when detoxing, Rey discovered gland discomfort was fairly common, but it usually happened within a few days of stopping. It’d been a few weeks for her. But it was probably nothing.

Probably.

All this discomfort was unpleasant, to say the least, but it was at least distracting Rey from the worrying-session she would be having about seeing Ben tonight. Rey had texted him when she’d gotten home the other night. A quick ‘hi i’m alive. thanks for today. see you around.’ before promptly blocking his number so that she wouldn’t be tempted to call him and ask him to fuck her nine ways to Sunday.

Maybe it was too far, but Rey was still a little jaded from the experience and didn’t trust herself to fuck it up even further. Best to just forget the whole thing ever happened and move on with their respective lives and try very hard to think of literally anything else but Ben when she masturbates. Totally fine.

It’s a good plan… well, it’s at least a plan. And one that seems to be totally fine and likely to work, until she opens the door to Luke’s townhouse.

On their normal trivia night, it’s just her small group of friends playing trivia games being moderated by Luke who seems to know the answer to every question. Theres a few drinks, some snacks, and maybe a joint or two.

There is not the entirety of the Organa-Solo-Skywalker clan and a buffet table that looks like something out of a Thanksgiving issue of Better Homes & Garden.

This will not be their normal trivia night, Rey realizes with a deep sigh.

“Oh Rey! You came! I’m so happy to see you!” Senator Organa grasps Rey in a bear hug before she can even make it entirely through the threshold. Rey is shocked, but leans into the hug once she realizes what’s happening.

“Senator, it’s been so long.” The older woman tuts while pulling back, arms still holding onto Rey’s shoulder.

“Oh please, Rey, what will it take for you to call me Leia instead of stuffy ‘Senator Organa’?” She asks.

“It’s… what’s proper?” Rey raises her shoulders in a shrug.

“My wife? Proper? Ha!” Han shouts, over-exaggeratedly slapping his knee. “That’s a good one, kid.” Rey smiles sheepishly as the Senator slaps her husband’s chest. From the corner of her eye, she sees a seated figure, with perfect posture and even more perfect clothes.

“Grandma Padmé!” Rey says, before moving between them to hug her. Grandam Padmé opens her arms wide as Rey leans down to hug her. Even in old age, she feels strong beneath Rey’s body. It’s comforting in a way that Rey isn’t used to, but loves all the same. When she pulls back, Padmé cups her cheek with a thin hand.

“My goodness, Rey, you look lovelier every time I see you,” She says, making Rey grin even harder.

“Thank you. How is Naboo?” She asks.

“Well, I think it’s beautiful this time of year, but I think it’s beautiful there any time of year, really,” She laughs. “You’ll have to come visit me this winter. Maybe you can drag my wayward grandson along with you.” Padmé gestures her head to the corner, where Ben is standing.

When Rey sees him, leaning on the bookshelf, shoulders hunched like he’s trying to make himself smaller, she has the urge to run to him and shove her face into his broad chest. While Rey could never forget just how big Ben is, it’s still shocking every time she sees him.

“Rey doesn’t like the cold, Grandma.” God. His voice.

Rey wants to say that she would literally follow Ben to the ends of the galaxy if he asked her to follow, so going to his grandmothers estate wouldn’t be an imposition whatsoever. But that’s not conducive to the situation they’re in, so Rey goes for something a little more vague.

“I’d love to come and visit you, someday, hopefully,” Rey says, turning back to Padmé.

“Very soon, hopefully,” Rey doesn’t miss the glint in Padmé’s eyes, “Not many years left in these old bones.”

“Geez, Mom,” Luke says, walking to the living room from the kitchen, “Don’t talk like that. Hey, Rey, will you help me with the sink; it’s all leaky again.” Luke was a brilliant man, with many wonderful qualities, but his ability to break a house like it was a china plate was unprecedented.

“Of course, do you have a wrench-” “She’s a guest here. She shouldn’t be put to work.” Bens’ voice is practically a growl and Rey can feel the displeasure radiating off of him. The rest of his family stays silent, all looking towards a glowering Ben. His glare is firmly set on Luke, and she thinks she might see literal fire coming out of his eyes.

“It’s really no problem, it’s an easy fix. Won’t take very long at all.” Rey tries to cut the tension, but Ben doesn’t seem eased by this. “It’s really no problem, Ben,” She says to him. Only then does he look at her, mouth still pressed in a thin line.

“Why don’t you go get her the wrench, Ben. I think Luke’s got one in the cellar. We can look together.” Senator Organa is not at all who Rey thinks is going to step up to the plate, but she does it anyways. Ben mumbles a few terse ‘fines’ before following his mother down the hallway.

Ben looks at Rey the whole way.

“How do you know where a wrench is in Luke’s house?” Ben asks his mother as they go down the stairs.

“I don’t,” She calls back. Ben stops at the bottom step, giving his mother a confused look.

“Then why did you-”

“I figured you’d need a minute. I mean, I’m mated and all that but geez, Rey’s scent was strong. I’m honestly surprised you’re even able to stand upright with that walking around. The betas can probably smell her from-“”

“Mom, can we please… not do this right now?” Ben pleads, letting his face drop into his hands.

“That was a pretty big display of ‘alpha prowess’ you showed back there. I don’t think we can not do this and make it through the rest of the night.”

“You didn’t tell me what you’re doing here tonight. Maybe we should discuss that first.” Leia shrugs.

“Mom wanted to see you, and I know you all have trivia every other Wednesday, so I figured we’d drop by.”

“Uh-huh. And the catered meal that you managed to have delivered two whole hours before anyone showed up; that was easy to get on short notice?” They’re in a glaring match now, both too stubborn to back down.

“I work quickly, Ben. Clearly unlike you, who can’t even tell a girl how he feels after years. Do you honestly think this is healthy? For you? For your friendship? You can’t go all alpha on people every time they suggest your omega goes to a different room.”

“She’s not my omega.” Each word feels like ash coming from his mouth.

“And who’s fault is that? Luke and his leaky sink?” For such a short woman, Leia is able to show a disturbing amount of confidence and control, something Ben has yet to master. It makes the words even harder to hear sometimes, like right now. Ben winces before running a hand through his already disheveled hair.

“I’m working on it. It’s just… difficult.”

Leia softens at this, and seems to remember that she’s fighting her son and not another political enemy. She walks towards him, brushing the hair out of his eyes.

“I know it is, honey. But I promise you, you’ll feel better once you tell her how you feel, no matter the outcome.” Leia’s voice is soft and gentle, and Ben is reminded of being a teenager and his mother comforting him when he was too scared to ask a girl to prom.

“I don’t know that that’s true,” he chuckles humorlessly.

By the time Ben and Leia rejoin the group upstairs, Rey has already fixed the sink with her bare hands (because of course she’s stronger than any measly tool) and is currently stuffing her face with pigs in a blanket. Ben wishes that he didn't find the pastry puff crumbs already lining her shirt so stinking cute.

“I just don’t see how you can go from making a pie to making beanie weenies,” She says, mouth half full. When she realizes that Leia is in the room with her, she snaps her jaw just and brushes off the crumbs. “Do you want some?” Rey extends the plate towards them, even though Ben knows that she will be more than able to eat the whole thing herself.

“No, we’re good,” Ben says before Leia can speak and take one away from Rey. They lock eyes for a moment, and Ben gets caught up in the flecks of gold around her irises. It’s better that they’re around other people right now, because if they were alone Ben wouldn’t trust himself not to cross over to her and hold her face so he can get a better look at them.

Leia elbows his stomach and mutters ‘get a grip.’

“What is Scotts?”

Buzzer.

“Poe.”

“What is Tudor?”

“Yes. Pick a category.”

“Ugh, 1990’s for 600.”

“A 1990-91 war in the Middle East was fought in Iraq and this oil-rich nation.”

“Iran?”

Luke gave a pointed stare at Rose.

“… What is Iran?”

Buzzer.

This had been much the same interaction for the last hour. Everyone participating, even Grandma Padmé. The questions were hard, which wasn’t wholly unusual for Luke, but it made Ben struggle that much more to actually pay attention. Ben easily dominated the board most trivia nights, but his heart wasn’t in it tonight.

No, tonight, Bens’ heart was in an entirely different place all together.

Said place was picking at her fingernails, not even bothering to pick up the handheld device. Rey was just behind him in winnings, but it seemed that even the second champion was struggling to keep up.

Ben knew that he wasn’t being inconspicuous like this; staring at Rey so hard that he’s surprised his eyes still worked. His whole body was inclined towards her, not the center podium everyone else was facing. Ben could swivel around, actually use he device handed out earlier and answer the damn question everyone seemed to be avoiding, but he just didn’t have it in him. Not when Rey was there, barely six feet away from him, smelling like that.

Like cinnamon rolls and clean linen and sunshine and sex and daisies and babies and home and-

Oh shit.

Heat. Ben realized. Rey was going into heat and she was sitting six feet away from him. In a house with many other people. People who would not appreciate a Sasquatch jumping across the living room couch to sweep Rey into his arms and take her to the guest room and fuck her very loudly for a whole week.

This whole charade got that much harder to endure.

Ben doesn’t realize he’s standing until he feels the gaze of everyone on him, looking confused as to his dramatic rise.

“I’m… going to the bathroom,” Ben announces to the group, before stalking off towards the kitchen. Ben made route to the furthers part of the townhouse, where Luke’s master bedroom was and very spacious master bath. Ben honestly didn’t care if he was waling into a room filled with creepy porcelain dolls, he just needed to get away for a minute and try not to think about Rey.

Rey.

Who he had scented exactly 76 hours ago.

Who he had jerked off to probably more times than that in the following days.

Who he was probably in love with.

Who he wanted to marry and mate and fill with his pups and build a house for and live happily ever after with.

Rey, who was going into heat.

Ben defiantly didn’t need to be thinking about that.

He stood at the vanity, knuckles white against the marble countertop as he stared at himself. If it weren’t for his distinguishable ears, that stuck out despite his best attempts at covering them with his hair, Ben wouldn’t have recognized himself.

His eyes were bloodshot. Skin flushed. Lips bitten so roughly the were swollen. In short, a mess.

A light tap on the door, brought him out of his self-deprecation as he dropped his head and sighed.

“Ben?” He hears Rey ask. Ben resist the urge to punch the mirror or the countertop, knowing that it could only end with him being more battered. When he didn’t respond, Rey spoke again. “Can I come in.”

No, he should say. No, get as far away from me as humanly possible because there is no way I can control myself around you without restraints of some sort.

After another minute of silence, Rey opens the door. Ben looks back up into the mirror, seeing Rey over his shoulder.

“Are you alright?” She asks, voice quiet. It breaks his heart a little to hear her so timid.

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” Her voice is a little more sure this time. Ben quickly turns around to face Rey. It is a horrible time for him to be made acutely aware of just how small she is compared to him. But he is aware of it, all the same.

When Ben opens his mouth to speak, he’s met with a thick cloud of pheromones entering his body. It’s like getting body slammed by a sumo wrestler without knowing what the fuck is going on.

“You’re not fine. Please, tell me what’s going on, Ben.” The whine he emits when she says his name is involuntary and embarrassing, but Ben can’t think about that right now.

“You’re going into heat.” He says it through clenched teeth, eyes clamped shut.

“What?” She asks in disbelief. “I’m not going into heat. I’d know if I was going into heat.”

“Rey,” Her name feels heavy in his mouth, “You are going into heat. You don’t know how you smell.” Ben dares to open his eyes to look at her. Reys’ face goes from confusion to sadness and it makes Ben ache.

“Oh… I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how bad I smelled.”

Bens’ jaw drops.

“What?” She asks, seeing his expression.

“You think you smell bad?” Ben sees a flash of anger across her features.

“Well, I’m sorry for however awful I smell! I can’t tell, ya know. You could’ve been a little nicer about it, instead of running off because you couldn’t stand the smell of me!”

Ben is frozen in shock for a minute before Rey turns to leave, but snaps out of it when she reaches the door.

“Rey.” She stills, hand on the doorknob. “You don’t smell bad. You very much do not smell bad. Rey, I’ve never met anyone who smelled as amazing as you. It’s like.. like the most delicious smell I’ve ever encountered. Like warmth and love and babies and home and… I can’t handle it well. You smell so fucking good, Rey. Letting you go that day was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life, and if you asked me to do that again, I honestly think I would loose my mind. If I can smell you and be as close to you as I was then without being able to keep you next to me, I wouldn’t survive. You don’t smell bad, Rey. You smell like everything I’ve ever loved.”

Her back is still turned to Ben, but she’s made no movement. Ben wants to spin her around and force her to say something, just so he can know what she’s thinking, but that turns out to be unnecessary. When she finally does turn around, there are tears just staring to spill over the corners of her eyes and her lips are quivering.

“You think I smell like home?” Her voice is shaky with emotion, and Ben can’t hold back anymore. Not when he sees his omega like this.

Ben closes the distance between them, enveloping Rey with his body. One hand goes to cradle the back of her head while the other snakes its way around her waist. He tucks his head into her neck, making him squat down. He feels Rey’s knees give out, and he guides her down to the floor, gently, resting between his legs. Her hands are tightly wrapped around his torso, holding not him just as he holds onto her.

“Yes, Rey. So good, it hurts,” he whispers into her ear. She holds onto his chest, quietly crying against him. His hindbrain is going awol trying to figure out how best to comfort her while his realistic brain was trying to figure out how far she would be okay with him going. He figures kisses to her hair won’t be a stretch, so he peppers kisses along her hairline, holding her head between his hands.

They stay like that for god knows how long, until his butt aches from he hard tile on the floor. Not that he would dare tell Rey that. He’s sit his bony ass on concrete for days if it meant being next to her. When the sniffling subsides and Rey uses his shirt to dry her eyes, she looks up at him.

Ben wishes he could map the constellation of freckles across her nose with his tongue. He barely refrains from doing so.

“I’m sorry… I don’t know what’s wrong with me. My emotions are all over the place.”

“It’s the heat,” Ben reminds her.

“How do you know, though? I didn’t even know, and normally I’m pretty good about guessing that kind of thing.”

“Have you ever had a heat while not on suppressants?” He asks her. Her silence is all the answer he needs. “That’s probably why.”

Her head drops agains his chest, groaning against the fabric coated in her snot. Ben rubs his hands along her back, trying to soothe her. When his hand gets a little too high and gently brushes against the edge of her gland, a tremor runs through her body. They both still at that.

“Ben,” He feels her say against his chest. When she looks up at him, her eyes are glassy but determined. He wants to tell her he loves her. “Lets get out of here.”

Ben can only manage to nod.

come say hi on twitter!

#me @ myself: when are they gon fuck?#myself @ me: bitch when u make em #reylo #rey #ben solo #kylo ren #adam driver #daisy ridley #star wars #sw #fan fiction #ao3 #my work #appihtg

2 notes · View notes

blondecarfucker · 5 years

Text

Bed of Roses (Last Chapter - 21)

Roger Taylor x Reader

BoRhap!Roger Taylor x Reader

Fic Summary: It's 1971. You just moved to London to study, and you find a band on a local pub after a bad date. The encounter doesn’t go the way you expect it, and neither does what follows this evening as you try to deal with loving Roger Taylor.

Fic Note: So I’ve had this story in my head for the last three weeks and finally decided to write it down. It’s completely planned. It will have 21 chapters and it’s divided in three acts: Dusk, Night and Dawn. It’s will be a bit angsty in the future, and it will most likely have some smut as well. I hope you guys enjoy it! Tell me what you think about it in the asks/comments/messages. If this is your first time stumbling upon Bed of Roses, thank you for stopping by! The rest of the story is in my masterlist, the link is in my bio - can't put the link here or else the post will disappear from the tags.

Chapter's notes: THE LAST CHAPTER. I CANT FUCKING BELIEVE. i feel like before i start my thank yous i could give you some weird trivia on the story. i wrote the entire outline for the fic at a weekend shift at work, where i always have free time. i had some smaller ideas - them meeting at a bar and not seeing again, the whole kensingon-taxi-class thing from the beginning - but there was a sudden burst of inspiration and in like twenty minutes the outline was done, and very little has changed, i mostly just added some more details. also, i imagine the reader as alicia silverstone in the 90s?? idk. i just do. also, the reader thing with new york comes from the fact that i lived there for a while and i miss it so much, so thats why theres so much detail about places and stuff - its my form of revisiting my favourite spots there. also, will (REMEMBER WHEN) was written with sebastian stan in mind, and liv tyler (in her lord of the rings days) was poppy. i did too much research for this fic on queen history, and everytime i had to change something (especially in the first act) so the dates made more sense, it KILLED ME.

anyway, now the thank yous: SHIT THIS FIC IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT CHAPTER ON MY LIFE. its my first time writing such a long story without abandoning it, and my first time writing fiction in english, so i learned so much!! i was doing some research the other day, and the great gatsby is like 47k words long, and the first harry potter is around 70k words long - bed of roses is around 60k words long. this is crazy.

it's also my first story to get this many readers interacting with me, and i'm so grateful for you all!! i thought about thanking you all by name, but i dont want anyone to feel left out so i just want every and each one of you reading these words to know: if you read my story, thank you. thank you for giving me your time of the day, thank you for connecting with what i wrote, thank you for telling me in any way possible that you've enjoyed it. thank you. a writer must write, but theres not a lot of joy in talking to an empty room. you filled my small room with warmth and love and there's not enough words to express my gratitude for you all. thank you.

about my writing: i plan on FINALLY DOING THE MANY REQUESTS I HAVE IGNORED OVER THIS FINAL ACT OF BED OF ROSES - requests are still open, too! i'm also outlining a smaller roger x reader fic where she's one of the videographers on the news of the world documentary, so keep an eye out for that! i'm gonna open a permanent taglist for the requests (and eventual new fic), so if you want to be added, hit me up in the ask box/comments/inbox!

anyway i'll finally wrap up this chapter's note cause you have the final chapter to read. enjoy my loves

Words: nearly 4k

Warnings: none??? part of their dialogue is inspired by some of my favourite movies and books like her and the wife and almost famous and before sunrise and the fault in our stars and eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and maybe more I DONT KNOW ITS BEEN AN EMOTIONAL RIDE OK I CANT EVEN REMEMBER WHERE DID I PULL THIS FROM EXACTLY. some errors too cause i didnt revise it completely my bad im crying ok

ACT 3 - DAWN

"It's the moment night time seems weaker and everything seems easier to figure out"

Chapter 21

Roger lit a cigarette in the train cabin, and tried to open the top window, the one you can usually pull open.

"Rog, it's not gonna open, you know", you told him as you watched him fiddling with the glass.

"I guess you're right. Hope you won't be bothered by the smoke", he said, taking a puff.

"I won't if you share it with me", you answered, and with a half smile on his lips, Roger lifted the cigarette to your lips, and you breathed in the smoke while looking at him through your lashes.

"Don't look at me like that. Especially if the cigarette smoke is going to leave the cabin sultry and hot", he told you, and you laughed.

"Yeah, and we won't do anything about it", you said, trying to make yourself more comfortable in your seat.

"And why is that?", he asked, batting his lashes innocently at you, you you lightly elbowed his ribs.

"We need to do something else, something we've been ignoring the whole trip", you said, and he raised his brow. "We need to talk about us", you told him, and he breathed out, smoke coming out of his nose.

"I guess you're right again", he said, then slid a bit down on his seat.

You didn't think much about talking about your future with Roger while in Paris, so now has to be the time, on a train that will take you to London and to a whole month of Roger being away, promoting News Of The World.

While in Paris, you never talked to Roger about the future, and talks of the past where subtle - you talked about how you felt with the development Doctor Who took over the years, but didn't think much about the fact that you were separate during years of the show.

You enjoyed the city, but most of all, you enjoyed each other's presence, not only going to museums, churches and castles around you, following them up with fancy dinners and walks along the Seine, but you also spent time inside the room, in your pajamas, ordering take out from restaurants you found on the phone book, having a hard time trying to speak french as Roger tickled the sole of your feet and kept trying to distract you.

You would always remember the peace you felt as you ate cheap chinese food on Roger's shirt on the balcony at night, the Eiffel Tower shining over your meal and Roger's electric blue eyes as he hummed early David Bowie's songs under his breath, or how at home you felt sitting on the couch, Roger on the floor with his head on your lap, his soft strands on your fingers as you tried to braid them while watching re-runs of I Dream of Jenie, Roger focused, trying to understand the french dubbing until he noticed what you were doing.

"Babe, are you trying to braid my hair? Think I'd look better if I'd look more girly?", he said, moving his head back so he can look at you.

"Yeah. Always thought so, but I'll have to keep imagining, since your hair is too short to braid", you pouted, and he laughed.

"Don't you like my new hair, then?", he asked, pouting back, and you moved your head to his level so you could press a quick kiss to his lips.

"I love it, Rog. Especially cause since it's shorter, it looks even messier after I pull it", you said, and he smirked. "My favourite look of yours is when you're all dishevelled after sex", you winked, teasing him.

"That's my favourite, too", he said, turning completely around and pulling you in for a kiss, his hand on the back of your neck.

But now, while in the smoke filled train cabin, you needed to make a few things clear.

"I've been avoiding this for a reason", he said, looking out the window, and you raised your brow, waiting for him to explain. "I have this weird, innate fear of you telling me it's all good but you don't want to see me again, or something", he said, and you gave him a half smile.

"I don't want to do this, Rog. And I won't do it", you told him, and he sighed in relief.

"Even though loving you is a bit complicated, I'll admit. Especially if you're me", you shrugged, and he turned to you, confused.

"Let me explain. I loved your idea for a bed of roses, a few days ago, cause it can exemplify our relationship so well. The roses feel so good against the skin, the smell is so intoxicating, it looks so beautiful - maybe too beautiful, ethereal, even. But then there's always a few thorns here and there, and they hurt so much when they lodge themselves on my skin, but I'm so intoxicated by the whole experience that I don't mind - I convince myself that it's nothing, and even that it's already part of me already, cause the thorns fit so perfectly on me, on my little stabs made by myself, by my own insecurities", you say, and he stares at you.

"What I'm trying to say is that every minute that I'm with you always distract me from the issues that come with being with you - the fact that there's a few expectations that come with being your serious girlfriend, be them always travelling with you while we're young, or eventually staying home once we have kids, knowing that you'll eventually cheat on me with a younger version of myself, while I'm too tired of taking care of the babies to even think about my sexual needs", you said, and you watched him frown.

"I'm not sure where you're going with this-", he started saying, but you cut him off.

"Let me finish, I promise it will get better", you said, fixing your posture as you start again. "But the thing is, I love you. I always have, ever since I started talking to you, you always trying to outflirt me, always seeing me as your equal. You desire me, but you also listen and see me as another human being, you never back down or ignore me if I challenge one of your beliefs, and you never treat me as a trophy-wife-to-be", you say, and you can feel your eyes fill with tears, but you're smiling. That's what you always loved about Roger. He smiled back at you.

"And because I love you, I don't want to deny myself the pleasure of being with you. I'd rather be in a bed of roses than in an empty bed - or worse, a blank bed, someone being there just so it's less cold at night. I want to be with you, Rog", you say, and he pulls you in for a hug, and you hold him back for a few moments before pulling away and looking at him in the eye.

"But also because I love you and I want to be with you, Rog, I don't want us to try to fit into this type of relationship I just mentioned. I don't want you to make me the other woman, either, when you eventually find someone so you can settle down, if it's not me" you said, rubbing your nose. "I guess I want to settle down with you, eventually, as we planned before, but this whole thing - living together and cheating if we're away for too long - it kills me, and I think it kills you, too. I respect you too much to want to cheat on you again, cause if I ever do and you never find out, I'll lose respect for you, and the same thing will happen if you cheat on me and I don't find out. And these are ugly truths, but this isn't our first time together; we know each other, we need to think about this", you told him, and he nodded.

"And I need to make it clear that I'll never be a simple rockstar housewife - I'll never be able to quit my job and look out for the kids while you travel the world and I make them lunch. I'll never be able to sit down on a dinner table on some award show with you and when someone asks me what I'll do, I'll smile as I say I'm a king-maker. I'm not", you said, firmly.

"And I'll never be satisfied with dumb spa and shopping trips as you do the actual work when we travel. If I have to live this life, I'll resent you, and I don't want that. I like being domestic with you, but this type of forced domesticity will poison us again - we're both too wild, too career-focused, for this. We've always been similar", you said, and he gave you a smile as you sighed. "I guess that's all I have to say", you shrugged, and he laughed. "Not much, right?", he said, running his fingers on his hair, pulling the strands back.

"Guess it's my turn now", he said, and you nodded, encouraging him. "When I saw you again, at the pub, there was so much that I wanted to say. I mostly wanted to apologize - it got lost as I got infatuated with you again, and tried to get you in bed - you know, usual stuff", he winked, and you laughed.

"But yeah, I kept looking at you while you updated me on your life, your skin glooming under the stars and the moonlight, and I couldn't stop thinking about all the things I wanted to apologize to you for. All the pain we caused each other. Everything I put on you. Everything I needed you to be or needed you to say. Cause no matter what - even if you had decided on never seeing me again after all this - I'll always love you, because we grew up together. And you helped make me who I am", he said, moving strands of your hair behind your ear.

"I just want you to know that there will always be a piece of you in me, always. Whatever someone you become, wherever you are in the world, however this" he said, pointing his finger to the two of us "works out, in whatever form it might take", he said, sighing "I'll always send you love. Before being anything else to me - and I hope to God you're always something more - you'll always be my friend, to the end", he told you, and the tears were already streaming down your cheeks. His cheeks soon mirrored yours.

"And now, after you so eloquently told me all your fears about our future, I need you to know something else, too", he said, as you wiped the tears under your eyes. "I always loved you for being the way you are. You always challenge me, you always make me work harder, try harder, to be better. And it's not even something you force me to do; I just follow your lead. The way you look was what first got into me, I won't lie, but the way you are is what made me stay. It's what will always make me stay", he said, a genuine smile on his lips. He made you feel warm, like the sun.

"You're the smartest person I know, you're funny, you enjoy sex, you're unapologetic, you're proud of who you are, even proud of your insecurities. And you have such a huge importance in my life: you made me who I am. Whatever way you want to make us work, I trust you. I just want to be with you, in whatever form it takes", he said, smiling, and then getting up and opening his bag.

"I forgot to give you something", he said, pulling a string out of the front pocket. You recognized the red glimmer. It was the heart necklace. "It's still yours to keep. Even though it's not in its original glory, it will always be yours. The necklace and my heart", he said, and you couldn't help but smile at him.

"Always so cheesy, Taylor", you said, joking as you moved your hair to the side so he could put the necklace on.

"You always loved it", he winked, and you laughed. "I do", you said, smiling.

"So, what does it all mean? Where are we?", you asked, and he shrugged. "Wherever you want us to be. I just hope that you keep me around", he told you sincerely.

"I will. So, we're not going back to our old ways, right? We're not back at sharing a flat and stuff", you said, and he nodded. "Sure".

"And you're going to spend a month away, all around the world. I don't want you to feel pressured not to cheat", you said, and he nodded again.

"Yeah, and you're back in London, starting a new job. I don't want you to be worried, too", he said.

"So, maybe no exclusivity, this time? At least not now. This is still debatable, in the future", you said, and he agreed.

"Makes sense. But I'll have a hard time desiring anyone but you", Roger said in a low voice, and you laughed to break any mood that might have settled. You needed to get things clear before making out in the train cabin.

"Me too, Rog. But I don't want to create any expectations of loyalty because we know each other too well, and I don't want a stupid fight to break this thing we're building together", you said.

"It's a good idea. So, no titles, too? I can't call you my girlfriend?", he said, and you laughed.

"You can, if you want to", you told him, and he pulled you closer to him.

"Good, cause I want to call you that on the News of the World launch party, that I'm hoping you'll go as my date", he said, pressing a kiss on top of your head, breathing in your fruity smell.

"Of course I'll go. I need to see the boys again", you told him, and he laughed.

"So you're not going for me, then?", he pouted, and you laughed again.

"No, I'm just going so I can meet Deacy's kid", you told him, and it was his turn to laugh.

Once you got to London, Roger offered to go to the airport alone - he had to get on his flight, and he was late. He knew you had to go home and get ready for work tomorrow, but you wanted to spend as much time with him as possible.

He looked relieved when you got on a cab with him to Heathrow.

"Big day tomorrow, huh", he said, rubbing your arm.

"Yeah, I still can't believe I'm finally going to work at the British Museum. It's so surreal, it feels like a dream. Like I'm living someone else's life", you said, looking out at the window, the early sunday morning reminding you of fresh starts - you were in the middle of one.

"Well, it's your life, and it's your job, cause you deserve it, babe. I never met someone who worked so hard to get where they want", Roger said, smiling, proud.

"I did. You and the boys", you said, and he huffed. "Guess you're right. Me and that pack of idiots, we turned out okay", he joked.

Once you got to the airport, you followed him to his gate.

You were feeling nervous - you had him for a week, and now it's time to say goodbye again.

You're both aware that the rest of the band is already waiting impatiently in the jet, but you can't help it - you hug him, dropping your luggage on the floor, and he does the same, the hug soon turning into a kiss as you rub your hands on each other's body, as if you're trying to remember how every inch of the other feels like, as if you're both about to disappear.

But the airport worker clears her throat, and you break the kiss, looking at each other longingly.

"Don't say goodbye", you beg Roger, putting your hand on his lips as he opens his mouth.

"See you soon", he says between your fingers. You smile at him, grateful he found a way with words so you're not repeating the same old goodbyes.

"See you soon, Roger", you say, hugging him again for a few seconds, just trying to capture every detail - his smell, the feeling of his arms around you, his body against yours.

And once he has to go into the jet, you go to the glass wall, and you can swear you see some familiar faces from the windows of the jet.

But before you can focus, soon Roger's well known face takes over the window you're watching, and he puts a hand on the glass.

You can't help but think about the last time you did that with him, him being on your place as you were inside the plane, moving to another country, your heart weighing down on you, filled with doubts.

But now your heart warmed you up, filled with joy and love, and you could feel Roger's crystal heart on top of your chest. He was right. There would be always a piece of him on you, too.

Epilogue: News of the World Launch Party

"Y/N! You're back!" Brian's voice welcomed you to the ballroom.

You squeezed Roger's hand - it was the first time you saw the band in years, and you couldn't help but feel a bit nervous about it.

"Darling, you're really back! We thought Roger was getting high too often and hallucinated a week in Paris with you. But I guess you did come back to him", Freddie said, hugging you by the side as he held a glass of champagne on his other hand.

"I'm back with him only so I can see you all again, of course", you said, winking at Roger as he pretended to be offended.

But then you heard Deacy and Veronica scream your name in unison, and you turned to see them.

"So you're really back!!" Deacy said, but your eyes were on the baby boy on his lap.

"This is the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life.", you said, trying to get his attention. Roger looked at you, adoringly, as you moved your eyes to Veronica.

"Ronnie!! You're so big!" you said, trying to hug her through her belly. "It's coming out in a few months! It's a boy, Michael. Someone our young Rob can play with", she said, and Roger frowned.

"I could swear it was a girl", he said, and John smiled. "Maybe next time", he said.

"Hey, Bob. Do you want to play with me? C'mon", you said, and he motioned to go to your arms. You picked him up as he started playing with your hair.

"You'd be a good mom, Y/N", Veronica said, and you got tense. "God, Ronnie, don't even joke about this", you said, and Roger chuckled. "It's a sensitive topic at the moment", he explained.

"The moment will take quite some time, you know", you told him, the youngest Deacon pulling your earring before playing with the crystal heart on your neck.

You talked to the boys and Veronica for a while, updating each other, but no one brought up how you and Roger got back together. It just felt natural - no need to question.

You stayed with Roger for the whole night - behind the cameras as he did press, by his side during dinner - where he was back at his old ways, teasing you lightly with his hand under the table. You felt good in his arms, getting back into his life.

He was interested in getting back into your life, too. He came back to London last night, and went straight to dinner with you. You were trying different food, and now was time to try Indian food.

As he ate his Chicken Tikka Masala, dipping the naan in the sauce, you invited him for a party your bosses would be throwing next month to celebrate a new exhibit.

He gave you a bright smile. "I'd love to be your date, my love", he said.

And after the Deacons went home - Robert was asleep on his father's lap - the party got louder, the dance floor more full. You could swear you saw an angular face that could only belong to Bowie pick someone to dance - was this Princess Leia? - but before you could process the whole situation, Roger pulled you to dance.

"Thought you didn't dance, Mr Taylor", you told him, wrapping your arms around his neck as you tried to slow dance to All The Young Dudes, by Mott The Hoople.

"I don't dance very well, indeed. But it's just an excuse to be so close to you in public, and God, I'm dying to call you Ms Taylor", he said, and you chuckled.

"Take it slower, Rog", you told him, and he leaned in to rest his head on the curve of your neck. "And why do you want to be close to me in public? Is it still one of your weird fetishes?", you joked, and you felt him laugh against your skin.

"No, it's just that you've been killing me with this dress of yours, and you've been killing a lot of the guys here, too. Could swear I saw Bowie checking you out", he told you, and you gasped.

"Taylor, don't even joke about this. I'd have a heart attack", you said, and he laughed. "You'd leave me here for Bowie, is that it?", he asked, and you laughed.

"Of course not. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that he might acknowledge my existence", you said, and it was his turn to laugh. "The only eyes I really like to feel on me when I look away are yours, Rog", you said, and he gave you a quick kiss.

"Okay, had enough of trying to dance. Let's get some fresh air", he told you, and you followed him to the balcony.

As the cold, fresh air brushed against your exposed skin, you heard the first notes to Tiny Dancer, by Elton John. You walked to the balcony, leaning in and taking in the view of London at night.

Roger soon took you into his arms, hugging you from behind, and you felt safe, his body heart making you warm in the cold evening as he jokingly whispered "Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man" into your ear, and you scoffed. "Slower, Taylor", you told him, and he laughed.

"However you want it, babe", he said, now paying attention to the view, focusing on the feeling on you in his arms again. Finally.

But oh how it feels so real

Lying here with no one near

Only you and you can hear me

When I say softly, slowly

"I could die right now, Y/N. I'm just... happy. I've never felt this type of happiness before. I'm just exactly where I want to be", Roger said in his husky voice, and you nodded lightly in agreement.

Because in Roger's arms, you feel home. You feel what you hoped to feel for years - what got you to move to London in the first place. You feel like you belong.

---

1988 Special

Taglist:

@taylorroger-s @sarai-ibn-la-ahad @its-nessi @anamcg317 @frenchieswiftie @queen-danielle-dani-dan @minihemo @shutup-sorry @theyrealllegends @killerqueenisthebest @ashagracelove @hardy-s @fuckinghurricanesoul @secretsweetscollectionblog @mrswinterhater @11mb0 @tamtam-go92 @derptatosaur @brianandthemays @phantom-fangirl-stuff @the-hysterical-queen @rogerofmylife @notevenlxvely @discodeakyy @x1975sos @16wiishes @jennycidesstuff @partydulce @melros-e @onevisionliz

149 notes · View notes

morkmywords · 6 years

Text

Peaches |Werewolf au | Exo | Chanyeol |

Masterlist | Epilogue

Werewolf!AU

Length: 23.7k

Note: This took such a long time to finish and I’m sorry but I promise I’ll try and get some other things written now also please excuse and errors since I’m too lazy to edit this ALSO THIS WILL CRASH YOUR MOBILE APP BECUAE ITS SO FREAKING LONG

Warnings: theres mentions of fighting and blood and some mention of the devil’s tango(Sex)

Pairing: Chanyeol x Reader

Genre: Fluff/angst

Summary: Werewolves live peacfully with the humans but not always peacefully with eachother.

The autumn sun beat down on the back of your neck as you pulled weeds from your garden, summer had ended a while ago but the sun was still hot as it washed over your fields. The Festival of Fallen Leaves was drawing nearer so you had to make sure everything was perfect because when The Festival of Fallen Leaves arrives so does the mating ritual, which means a lot of hungry wolves. You loaded up the last cartons of produce in your wagon before heading to town, the road was long but it wasn't like you hadn't done it before. You made your way through town with your head up as you greeted all the human elders and younglings you crossed paths with as you made your way to the banquet hall where all the food for the feast was being kept.

You waved to the young mother trying to grapple her children and organize the food collection all at once. “Hey Irma, how's everything going?” she gave you an exasperated groan in response as you put down your last carton full of peaches and picked up one of the two toddlers that were clinging to her legs.

“It really would be so much easier if Songho was around to help take care of these little rascals but I think we’re doing fine for now.” She said as she wrestled the other one away from the boxes.

Irma was your closest friend for as long as you remembered, she had always been your friend even when the other omegas weren't. You weren't small and fragile with long silky hair like the other omegas in the village, your arms and legs had muscle to them from your days spent working in the fields and your hair was cut you above your shoulders so it wouldn’t get in the way of your work. And the whole expectation that omegas need to rely on somebody to do basically everything for them you definitely didn't meet also helped, your mom was an alpha of the pack but your dad was a rogue so when the rest of the pack found out she was pregnant and from a rogue they exiled her, but she left you here and now you were the outcast. The toddler in your arms began to squirm out of boredom so you put him down and began to play with her until you were both giggling messes.

“You’d be a good mom you know.” Irma said as she placed the other toddler down in front of you. Irma and her husband Singho had been married for two years and already had three kids, as much as you loved the idea the thought of gaining so much responsibility in such a short period of time made you kind of uneasy. “And who knows, maybe you’ll get to be one soon after the events of tomorrow.”

“I doubt that.” You snorted, the thought of one of the wolves from across the lake wanting to have you as a mae was utterly ridiculous. From the past festivals they had come to the village you figured out they were the same as the wolves on this side of the lake, they wanted nothing to do with you and you wanted nothing to do with them. “I’ll probably just live out the rest of my days on the farm in peace, with none of the drama that comes from wolves and their hierarchy.”

Irma sighed, you'd had this conversation many times before and your answer had been the same since the first time you could remember. “Don't get yourself too down in the dumps, even if you won't be one of their mates you can still oogle them. Werewolves have the best bodies and even humans know that.”

“You're the worst,” you groaned, Irma may be married but she still acted like a lovesick teenager. You gave her back the two now sleepy toddlers before standing back up, “ I have to go and finish up the flag that I still don't understand why I have to make a while im being forced to participate in this event I hate!! But I’ll see you tomorrow.” She giggled at your little outburst before she waved goodbye and you headed back to your farm. On your way down the main road you noticed the group of the highest ranked omegas staring at you as you pulled your wagon past. There weren't any official rankings but they were considered the best of the best, they all had top notch skills in cooking, cleaning, sewing, and being small and pretty. This was the year Chanyeol, the alpha next in line for head of pack, would be participating and everyone was sure he would pick one of them with their brightly coloured clothes of the highest quality and prettily painted faces. Chaeyoung was the omega he seemed to favour when Chanyeol had come for past festivals and they seemed like the perfect match. As much as you wanted to stay confident and keep your head up as you walked past them you didn't, so you avoided eye contact and strayed to the other side of the street while trying to stay out of the spotlight. You didn't really mind if the wolves didn't like you since most of the humans were pretty nice to you, once you got out of the center of the small town you let your shoulders relax as you made your way back along the dirt road to the small farmhouse you called your home.

Your wagon rattled across the bridge that ran over the river that separates your land from the main road and your neighbour’s property, the sun had set by the time you walked back to your front porch and you were just ready to sleep. You opened the curtains and peered out the window as you heard the sound of paws crunching on the dirt road, a pack of wolves were walking down the road and you could see their glowing eyes from where you were standing leaning halfways out your window. Your hand slipped from the windowsill and you let out a muffled scream as your stomach hit the edge of the window, you felt a blush from embarrassment rise to your cheeks as you pulled yourself back up and saw most of the wolves turn to face you. They were obviously from across the lake as their wolf forms were the larger more muscular ones of alphas and betas compared to the smaller stature of omegas. You ducked back into your house after shutting the curtain in a flurry of movement and flopped on your bed while trying to calm your racing heart. Once your breathing returned to normal you rolled off the side of your bed and began rummaging in your trunk for the supplies you needed to complete the banner. The banner was one of the reasons you hated the festival so much, the omegas were supposed to create a banner to be displayed and judged to see who’s was the best, it was the only competition out of all the competitions designed to show of your omeganess that was mandatory to enter and you hated it the most. Some omegas spent months planning out and designing theirs unlike you who had left it till the night before, you finally finished it and crashed onto your bed to sleep for a few hours until sunrise when you would have to get to work again.

When you got up the next morning you could feel the excitement of everyone in town at the arrival of all the wolves last night even though you didn’t actually see anyone. You dragged your heavy legs out of bed and threw your work clothes on before heading out to the fields behind you house, the other omegas in the town would be putting on layers of makeup and their best silks in an attempt to look their best in preparation for the later festivities. Once you were finished with your daily chores you went inside and do your best to get ready, unlike the traditional silks that the other wolves would be wearing that were brightly coloured and decorated with crystals and other beads made of various gems yours were a mixture of blue and yellow colours with a simple pattern on the outer layer but otherwise no decorations. You added a bit of colour to your cheeks and lips before struggling with your hair, you tried your best to braid it back and away from your face but you were helpless. You let out a groan as your fifth attempt of a braid got tangled and fell apart, you banged your wrist on the vanity as you threw your arms down in anger. You winced as you held your tender wrist and got a glimpse at the clock, you shot up from your seat and rushed to the door since you had to be there in ten minutes. You shoved your banner in your bag before wedging your feet into the dainty slippers that were part of your whole getup before running out the door and down the road.

----

You were panting by the time you handed your banner to the village elder that was organizing them and the bottom of your skirt was covered in a thin layer of dust. All the wolves were in their fine clothing, covered in jewelry and expertly done hair and makeup while you looked like you'd just rolled out of a barn, it was a bit embarrassing as the wolves around you all stared at your unique appearance. You walked away as quickly as you could in search of someone you knew to distract you from the stares, you were walking past the display of professionally crafted blankets and other weavings when you heard a few alphas and betas talking.

“Are you sure she’s an omega, she looks quiet….. Robust,” one whispered to his friend.

From the corner of your eye you saw one of the friends let out an amused huff. “I’d hate to be the unlucky idiot that ends up with her.”

“Even if she was the only wolf left in the forest I wouldn't be her mate.” one added and they all nodded in agreement. Your eyes travelled to the ground and you felt the flush of embarrassment rise to your cheeks as you rushed past them while holding your sore wrist against you body, you were jittery around the festival until you found Irma and her husband. The festival was filled with different competitions and activities, there were cooking, sewing, dancing, singing, and art competitions which were basically just an omega talent show. There were also various sports competition and strength competitions for the alphas, betas, and humans to participate in, of course you chose not to take part in anything that wasn't mandatory and would preferably be back home sleeping some more. The omega focused events were all happening today to show off before the mating ritual and the other events would follow in the weeks after, and the painting exhibit was where you finally found Irma.

“You look like death,” Irma commented on your appearance as you walked over to her, “Did you get eaten and spit out again by one of those chickens you have in your backyard?”

You sighed and leaned your head against her shoulder letting your eyes drift closed. “I stayed up till about an hour before dawn trying to finish that stupid banner.”

“Did you finish it?”

You yawned and nodded still keeping your eyes closed

“Sometimes I’m glad I’m not a wolf with all your weird customs but I do have to admit this one is kind of romantic.” she sighed.

You snorted while opening your eyes and standing back up.“Romantic my butt……” you paused and yawned again before continuing on, “By the way, where are the kids?” you asked her as she guided you to a bench.

“Songho offered to take them for the day.” you saw her evil smirk as you both sat down on the bench.

“Stupid man, you're never going to see him again.” you said and closed your eyes once again, you felt her shrug in agreement beside you. You both stayed seated at the bench for a while just chatting about this and that before you eventually got up and made your way through the various exhibits, there was nothing extremely special about any of the winning items but you looked nonetheless. You were sifting through the endless poems that seemed to all be about love or nature when your stomach let out an unusually loud growl.

“Did you forget to eat lunch again?” Irma teased as she placed her hands on her hip playfully. You nodded your head and a pained expression set up shop on your face as the emptiness of your stomach caught up with you. “Let’s go.” She grabbed your hand and dragged you through the crowds to the hall where all the food was before she wedged some sort of meat sandwich in your hand. You practically inhaled the first sandwich as you listened to her chatter about the minor issues in her life, your mood definitely lifted when you had food in you as you happily munched away. You were halfway through your third sandwich when some younger girls made their way past chatting.

“We wouldn’t be so late if you hadn’t been filling your guts with pastries.” The taller one hissed at the girl by her side.

The smaller girl’s eyes grew wide in panic and an embarrassed blush coloured her cheeks.”We still have two minutes before it starts.” She stuttered.

“But we’ll still be late to the banner contest if you don’t pick up the pace.”

You choked on the piece of bread that was in your mouth when you heard the word ‘banner’, you knew the hall seemed oddly empty of people and you quickly glanced at the clock on the wall before grabbing Irma’s hand and breaking into a run for the town square. You sprinted past the two girls from before with Irma in tow who was utterly confused until she saw the crowd surrounding the stage that had been put up and had all the banners hanging from the back. You dropped Irma’s hand and began slipping through the crowd and not so gracefully slipping under the rope to join the crowd of omegas whose work was going to be displayed. The crowd of both male and female omegas were glaring at you while you tried to stand up after you tripped on the hem of your own dress and landed with a muffled screech. Thankfully you didn’t draw anyone else’s attention and on any other the crowd of glaring omegas would be enough to make you want to throw up but in your sleep deprived state you didn’t even notice them and just waited for the presentation to begin already knowing yours would be dead last.

“And in first place, Kim Chaeyoung!” The announcer exclaimed not to your surprise but the crowd went wild. Her banner was more like a tapestry you would hang in a castle, it was embroidered with a mountain that slowly bled into the forest and lake where you lived, beads and sparkling gemstones were sewn on to look like the orange hues of fall leaves and right smack dab in the Center there were two figures that were obviously meant to be her and Chanyeol in wolf form, his massive wolf with a dark brown almost black coat and her with her soft dappled grey fur. Your eyes followed her like most of the other jealous omegas as she went up on stage to recover her reward, you may have been completely out of it but you didn’t miss the disgusted glare she gave you when she caught you looking. Only the top three participants revived rewards and were called up on stage and unsurprisingly it was two of Chaeyoung’s followers who got second and third, the current head alpha and his mate were the ones to rank the banners and even though it was supposed to be based on quality alone there was obviously some favouritism at work when you saw their pleased smiles. After that the banners were shown in ranking from highest to lowest but no names were called although it was still painfully obvious who’s was whose, they kept going until there was only one left. Yours palled in comparison to all the other with their fancy decorations and high level skill, yours was a plain cream coloured piece of fabric to which you had embroidered a few leaves and a cluster of peach blossoms onto one corner. There were no beads or gems, there were no bright colours or artistically sewn images, it was just plain and simply showed off who you were. You still flushed red when you saw the knowing glances fall to you and you wanted to shrink back into your cocoon of a dress until everybody left but unfortunately you couldn’t do that as now it was time for the feast.

——

The eating part was the easy part since your stomach was an endless pit but now the eating was over and it was time for the hard part. You hated the traditional dances but you still attended the rehearsals that taught you how to do it, the basic idea of it was to dance past the alphas and betas who would be taking part in the ritual so they could scent you you thought but really didn’t know. It sounded simple enough but it was a lot more nerve racking, the entire of the human village and werewolf pack would be watching you as you danced as if you didn’t get stared at enough and aside from that the actual dance you had to do wasn’t choreographed. The dance was usually passed down from a mother to a daughter and the dance was unique to each family but you were completely on your own since the only thing that was choreographed was the order you would go in which was the same as the banners were ranked which meant you had to go last. Your palms were already sweating as Chaeyoung began her dance flowing smoothly across the space and stopping to linger in front of an alpha or beta she seemed to like, this year there were only three betas and two alphas that were participating. On the other hand omegas had found every loophole possible to try and participate because the next head alpha would be participating. Although you didn't realize, soon there were five omegas left before it was your turn, then it was four, three, two, and suddenly it was your turn to go. The musicians kept a steady beat as you began trying your best to dance on wobbly legs, you were so tired it hardly seemed real as you moved across the open space. At this point in time you were so exhausted you really didn't care anymore, you kept your eyes on the ground and did your best to copy the moves you'd seen at previous rituals in an attempt to move gracefully. Your legs wobbled here and there and sometimes your feet got tangled or your steps faltered but you were still definitely the fastest to do it. You paid no attention to the jibes the others threw at you as you joined the group of other omegas who had already finished their dances, you just wanted the festival to be over so you could go home and sleep but it was far from over. Now it was time to go to the edge of the forest because the mating ritual was about to start, Irma caught your eye just as you were about to leave and gave you a huge thumbs up to which you replied back with a huge thumbs down. You were led to the edge of the forest by the head alpha’s mate before he started explaining the rules as if you already didn't know them.

“You’ll be released into the forest in the same order as the dance, with the first place in this case Chaeyoung having two hours to find her place and after another omega will be released every five minutes until the last one is released who has only one hour to find their place. Once the alphas and betas are released if they want to mate with you they will mark their territory and proceed, tomorrow morning the omegas will meet back here and the ones who have been mated with will get ready for the ceremony while the others go back. During the ceremony if you are mated your mate will choose your banner which announces it to the pack that they are your mate and the vows will be exchanged. Everyone understand?” the head omega asked and everyone nodded, as if he hadn't learned about this from the time they were old enough to speak. “Well if everyone is prepared Chaeyoung will start.”

At his signal Chaeyoung took off into the forest to find her hiding spot, the others were buzzing with excitement but you being the last would have to wait an hour before you could go. Eventually omegas left the group and headed into the forest nervous and excited all at the same time, you waited through every departure until it was finally your turn to go. As soon as you stepped foot in the forest you heard a rumble of thunder and the rain began pouring, your plan was to head through the forest to the river where you could then cross it and hideaway in your house before returning the next morning without anyone ever knowing but now that it was raining it might but a halt to your plan. You only had an hour before the alphas and betas were released so you had to move quickly, your senses were not nearly as strong as they were when you were in your wolf form but it was still stronger than humans so you used them to steer clear of any of the other omegas which you could smell of hear but most would be crowded around where the alphas and betas would be released and not this far into the forest. Once you deemed yourself far enough away you stripped out of your silks and placed them in your bag before changing into your wolf form which made it much easier to navigate the dense forest, the rain was still pouring and lightning struck a few times but you continued on. You heard the river before you saw it but when you did see it all your fears came true, the river was more than double its usual size and running at least three times as fast making it impossible to cross even in wolf form. You were dumbfounded as to how it rose so quickly and you stayed there in utter shock for a few minutes before a clap of thunder broke you out of your thoughts. You would have to stay in the forest until the water calmed down which meant all night, the rain probably washed away most of your tracks and scent but you still didn't want to draw any attention to yourself.You only had about ten minutes left until the alphas and betas were released so you had to be fast, you trotted through the forest in the surrounding area looking for a place you could stay when your eyes caught on a rocky outcropping the resembled a cave. You ran over there and tucked yourself under the stone roff thankful to get out of the rain but unthankful you had to spend the night in this damned forest, you put your bag down in a far corner before scanning the area for signs of anybody else. You stayed there for a while scanning your surrounding until you deemed it safe and tried to sleep but the anxiety of being in the forest and the pouring rain kept you awake, it was like all the exhaustion from earlier in the day had disappeared and you were wide awake. A little while later the rain had stopped pouring so hard and you decided it was time to investigate since all the other wolves were…..preoccupied. You cautiously stepped out from under the protection of the rock and explored the small clearing to the left of the cliff, the heavy rain had created a small stream of running water in a divet of land. You bent down closer to get a closer look at the miniature river when you heard a small croak and looked up to see a little brown frog staring at you from a rock that was about a foot in your face. You observed the small creature out of curiosity and it seemed to do the same, you were about to lean closer when there was a rustle in the bushes behind you and his hopped away. You whipped around and straightened your legs as you saw the familiar yellow eyes and large body of a werewolf come into view, you stood frozen as it lifted its leg and marked the territory without ever taking its eyes off of you.

‘You shouldn’t do that.’ Your panic got the best of you as the wolf began advancing towards you. The wolf was almost twice the size of you with dark brown almost black fur and glowing yellow eyes, it must have been an alpha and you could tell from its scent that it was a male.

‘I don’t think you are in any position to be telling me what I can and cannot do.’ It growled back as it stalked closer and closer to where you were.

You were no longer frozen in shock and again,out of instinct, you began to move backwards which only seemed to make the alpha angrier.

‘Don’t.’ He growled again but you didn’t listen and instead made a break for it trying to swing in a wide arc around him. You thought you were going to get away until your body was slammed onto the ground with the alpha pinning you down, an unreadable look in his eyes.

‘You can’t- I can’t- you- I can’t be your m-m-mate I’m not-‘ You tried to make excuses as you stifled helplessly underneath the much larger animal, even though you had some hard earned muscle it did nothing against him as your cries seemed to go through one ear and out the other. Just when you were about to give up you caught him off guard and pushed one of his legs off balance before slipping out from under him and trying to make another escape. You barely got three steps before you were pinned to the ground again, alpha boiling with rage above you.

You began to struggle again but he cut you off with a low growl. ‘Mine.’

You let your body fall limp underneath him knowing there was no way you could escape this.

——

You woke up at dawn out of habit and your entire body was sore, the left side of your neck especially. You ignored the aching of your muscles and sat up letting the blood rush to your head and the memories of last night with it. You turned your head to see the sleeping face of Chanyeol staring up at the sky and you began to panic, it would have been bad enough if any wolf mated with you but Chanyeol being the next head alpha was one thousand times worse. You sprung into action changing back into your wolf form before grabbing your bag from underneath the small overhang and booking it to the river. You splashed through the river not caring if it was safe of not and bounding out of the trees and into your orchard, once you were safely behind the various fruit trees you changed back and threw on your silks. You tentatively reached a hand up to your sore neck and let out a hiss as it stung when you touched it, you tore out the small mirror in your bag and sure enough Chanyeol had bit your neck and marked you as his mate.

You paced up and down the rows of trees trying to figure out what to do, you couldn’t be his mate ever, it was unheard of and you surely would get banished from the pack just like your own mother, you had to pretend like nothing happened because there was no other way. You gathered your skirts and readjusted your top to cover the red and purple mark bite mark on your shoulder before heading to the meeting spot.

“You’re the last one, where have you been!” The omega in charge called out and you tripped over your long skirts as you hurried over to where the rest of the omegas were gathered.

“I’m sorry, I got lost and had t-to take the long way.” You mumbled but got no response, confused you looked up to see everyone staring at…… your left shoulder. When the realization hit you your hands flew up to check your neckline and sure enough your neckline had slipped down to reveal the mark.

Once everyone got over the initial shock you were put in a group with the four other omegas that had been mated and were marched to the village while the others were dismissed.

“Who in their right mind would mate with her?” One of the other omegas in the group of five seethed. Your cheeks turned bright red and you hung your head at her words while she just snickered. Chaeyoung and one of her minions were mated with and were walking in the front while there was one of the others walking behind them and a boy who looked as soft as a marshmallow walked beside you.

“Don’t listen to her, she’s just upset because her mate is a beta. You raised your eyebrows at the boy who was at least a foot taller than you with hair the colour of a cloud.

“How do you know that?” You were confused by the boy who was talking to you but more curious about what he said.

“I saw them together as I was walking out and I’m scared for life.” He whispered.

You both were pretty sure she heard because of the glare she sent back over her shoulder, even so you both giggled at the statement while you continued your treck to the town. “I’m Jongin.” He said with a smile that would melt anyone’s heart. “Let’s be friends because you seem really nice even if people say bad things about you.”

You looked over at the smiling boy and you didn’t sense any ulterior motives coming from him. “Ok Jongin, let’s be friends.”

——

Once you arrived in the village you were all sent to different huts where pack elders were waiting for you. You were first stripped of your clothes then put in a hot bath where you were scrubbed from head to toes as if you couldn’t clean yourself with various soaps and scrubs that left you smelling like some sort of fancy flower. Next you were placed in a dressing room where you were outfitted with traditional robe that was probably more expensive than everything you owned altogether, you were sat down in front of a mirror where they did their best with the little hair you had and painted your face with makeup you had never even seen before. The sun was beginning to go down by the time they were done and you were exhausted, they put you in front of a large mirror to make sure you were happy with it and all you could do was nod. You could hardly recognize yourself as you stared in the mirror, other than your hair you looked completely different with the layers of makeup and fancy clothes but you didn’t want to be rude so you hid the discomfort you felt and quietly thanked them. You were led into a larger hut with all the other omegas who were participating in the ceremony, you were definitely the least extravagantly dressed but it’s not like it was unusual. The others were in traditional dress that was specified for their families, and many had family heirlooms which could be a hairpin to a belt but were always beautiful and covered in glittering gemstones. Jongin chatted idly beside you like some of the others in your room but you weren't really paying attention because you were too focused on your racing mind and pounding heart. You had seen this ceremony so many times in the years before now but you never actually thought you would be the one participating in it, when the whole process was explained multiple times you barely listened. Finally it was time to leave and the veils were placed over everyone's head before they were led out into the field where the ceremony would be taking place. Through the thin fabric that covered your eyes you could see the alphas and betas lining up parallel to the line of omegas you were standing in and the speeches began.

After what seemed like endless people speaking the alphas and betas were called one by one to claim their mate, the omegas beside you were claimed one by one until it was only you and Chaeyoung left. The name of the other alpha was about to be called when the head alpha was interrupted, you missed what was said but your eyes shot up to see Chanyeol looking back at you with a garbage eating smirk. He walked forward staying right in between you and the omega beside you until he stopped two feet in front of you two. Everyone held their breath in anticipation to see which omega he was going to pick and even more anxious for who was under the veil. He seemed to be charged by the tense atmosphere and his smirk on grew as he took a step and stopped in front of you before gently lifting your banner from your hands and unwrapping the cloth covering it. You heard multiple noises of shock when the crowd recognized the plain cream backing with a few small peach blossoms in the corner, your heart was beating so fast you thought it might stop. He leaned forward to lift the veil from your face as the crowd prayed it wasn't true but when the summer sun washed over you it was clear their worst dreams had come true. As you blinked back the sunlight he leaned even closer to you and in the ruse of placing a kiss on your cheek he whispered, “It was incredibly rude for you to run away this morning Peaches.” He stood back up and you could already feel how red your cheeks were getting as you followed him you to the platform where the head alpha and the head of the human village were standing. By the time you had reached the proper positions everyone had seemed to have gotten over themselves enough to continue on so both men cleared their throats and began. You stumbled through the vows while Chanyeol was the picture of calm enunciating every word perfectly, almost slowly and when the time came to complete the ceremony with the wine you were more nervous than ever. First he took a sip then offered the cup to you which you took with shaking hands and did your best to sip the strong liquid but when you thought nothing worse could happen you inhaled some of the liquid which made you let out a cough embarrassing you even more. The next ceremony continued with almost nothing going as wrong as yours but you could hardly pay attention to anything.

----

The feast was in full swing with people dancing around and singing drunk on the exceptionally strong wine they were serving, while others were gouging themselves on the endless tables of food. You were sitting on a cushion next to Irma by the farthest table while watching her children dance around with hands full of different sweets.

“I still cant believe youre letting them have so much sugar.” You laughed as her son shoved a cream puff into his small mouth and smearing the cream all over his nose.

She sighed and filled her cup with some more wine before downing it in one gulp which you giggled at. “It’s a celebration therefore it’s Songho’s responsibility. And I still can't believe that the next head alpha is your mate.”

“Dont remind me.” you muttered and reached for the pitcher of wine and filled up your cup, but before you could take a sip Irma knocked it out of your hand. “WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!” you exclaimed.

“Don't forget that now you're his mate you could possibly have a mini you swimming around somewhere in there.” she poked at your stomach. Your heart dropped, you hadn't even considered that possibility and you started panicking, you couldn't have his baby inside your stomach, that would just make everything worse. “Don’t freak out too much, there’s hardly a chance you would get pregnant after only one time. It took at least five for me to get pregnant with my first daughter.” Irma said as she wrapped her arm around your shoulder and tried to comfort you.

“I really didn’t need to know that much but thanks for telling me I guess.” you said as she dropped her arm off your shoulder and reached for a roll off the center of the table.

“Now go find your big strong alpha.” she said before taking a bite out of the bread and shoving you up from your seat. You laughed and made your way back to where you remembered sitting a few minutes before, stopping to wipe the cream off her sons face before whispering goodluck to Songho and continuing on your way. You skirted the outer edges of the tables in an attempt to avoid the drunken crowd who was dancing around the bonfire in the center. You dodged through small groups of people who were stumbling around and ducked behind a tent where food was set up. You turned the corner and walked around the back of the tent to where you remembered the table you left a few minutes ago, you rounded the last corner you stopped in your tracks.

Your jaw dropped to the floor when you saw Chaeyoung dropping herself across Chanyeol’s lap and presses kisses into his neck. In a rustle of many layers of fabric rubbing together you turned and headed back behind the tent and into the maze of huts that surrounded the town square. You moved as fast as you could with all your finery but you only got a few small huts down before you were stopped by a hand on your arm. You were spun around and came face to face with your mate. You were surprised he left the omega who he was so happily chatting with just a few moments before to stop you.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He demanded without releasing his hold on you arm.

“Leaving.” You grunted as you wrenched you arm from his grasp. “What’s it to you anyways? You seemed perfectly happy with your little friend back there.”

The look in his eyes darkened into something frightening as you finished talking. “And how do you know she was my ‘little friend’?” He spit out.

“Well it didn’t seem like you were making any objection to her little show for you.” You didn’t know why you were angry you just knew you were.

“How are her actions my fault!?”

“Well you weren’t doing anything to stop them, in fact, you seemed to be enjoying it!”

“Why are you so oblivious?!” He growled, “Everything with you is always poor me, poor me. You’re so selfish you can’t think of anyone but yourself! You always go around wallowing in your own sadness about how hard your life is and you’ve never cared about anything else.” He was breathing hard now and his eyes seemed to darken even more. “At least you could be yourself, I’ve had to life a life of perfection since I was a child without even a chance to mess up!”

Your breath hitched in your throat “Is that all I am to you? You’re one big mess up!” You exclaimed, throwing your hands into the air, “I’m just a pawn in your stupid game and you thought I was selfish! Maybe I do wallow in my own sadness but it’s your and the others fault I’m an outcast to begin with! Maybe you lived a strict lifestyle but it sure is a hell of a lot better than being abandoned as a baby then shunned by the people who were supposed to be like your family!” You were screaming at this point, not caring about the look in his eyes or anyone who was around to hear.

“You’re ruining everything for me, be quiet!” He hissed as he took a few steps closer which you matched with a few steps back.

“I was perfectly fine with marrying a human if I ever got married at all but then you had to come along and now it really is you who ruined everything for me.” You could feel the warmth of tears on your cheeks and the crack in your voice from a dry throat as you struggled to take a breath. You turned away from him and fled back to your little farm which seemed to be your only safe place now. You didn’t pick up on any footsteps behind you but you ran anyways as your many layers caught and ripped on things and your breath turned ragged. You were almost to your house as sons racked your whole body and suddenly you couldn’t go inside, you wanted to forget about this whole thing and you couldn’t go inside because you knew the supplies for the banner were still strewn about on your bed.

You had barely slept in three days and the exhaustion was really catching you this time as your stumbles down the river bank, your vision swam as you took a step into the water. You didn’t care that it was freezing cold or that it was ruining your fancy garments as if they hadn’t been ruined enough already, you walked deeper as more tears began rolling down your cheeks. You wanted the cold mountain water to wash away the memories of the past few days as you stopped an crouched down so the water came to just above your elbows. You wanted the river to wash you away but you didn’t have the strength to do anything but sit there in the chilly water and cry, your emotions seemed to be coming just as fast as the water was rushing.

——

“Check by the river!” Songho called from his seat at the table that the rest of his family was currently sleeping on.

Chanyeol’s sharp eyes trained on the person who was speaking to him. “What?” He asked confused as why a villager just blurted out a random piece of information at him.

“You’re looking for Y/n right?” Songho asked the alpha who had stopped his frantic search of the crowd. He took the silence he got as confirmation. “She lives on the farthest farm by the river, she probably decided to head home.”

“That’s her house?”

“Mm, she’s lived there her whole life, best peaches around.” Songho answered before he was interrupted by his half asleep wife rolling on top of him and their pile of kids following. When he finally looked back up the worried alpha was gone.

——

You felt warm arms against you as they lifted you from the water. You snuggled into the warm chest behind you for the brief moments you were conscious before you passed out again to the rhythm of the running water.

—-

You woke up to your throat feeling like sandpaper and your lips cracked and dry, your limbs felt stiff as you tried to shift on the bed your recognized as your own.

“Y/n?” Somebody called out. You heard a shuffling in the next room over before Irma popped her head into the room. “You are awake!” She exclaimed before scurrying over to you with a large glass of water in her hands.

“Thank you.” You croaked before grabbing the glass of water from her and drinking it entire contents. You let out a heavy sigh as you finished drinking and handing the glass back to her, you tried to push yourself further up into a sitting position but your vision began to swim.

“Take it easy there.” Irma warned as she snaked her arm around your back and helped you up, placing more pillows around you as she went. “You’ve been asleep for so long I would be careful.”

“Exactly how long have I been asleep?” You questioned, you remembered what happened before you passed out but nothing else.

“I think it’s been about two weeks now?”

“WHAT?!” You exclaimed while shooting up from the bed but quickly falling back as the dizziness came back.

“Calm down,” Irma said, “I’ll tell you but first you need food because your stomach sounds like a thunderstorm.”

You felt the pink in your cheeks as she disappeared back into the kitchen and began crashing around again. You peered out the window to your right across the orchard outside of your home, winter was already just around the corner as the sun hid behind clouds and the cool winds ripped the falling leaves off their branches. It seemed like only a few days ago you were out in the fields at the beginning of harvest season but now it was almost winter and you were going to be forced to leave your farm for what would most likely be the rest of your life. At that moment Irma decided to barge back into your room with a giant bowl of stew in her hands she made your way back over to your bed before climbing in next to you and attempting to hand you the giant bowl.

“Earth to Y/n?” She said before jostling you with her elbow and bring you back to reality.

“I have something to ask you,” you started but we’re cut off by Irma shoving the bowl into your face.

“Eat first and I’ll explain, then you can ask questions.” She demanded. You reluctantly took the bowl and took a small bite before starting to shovel it into your mouth at a speed you didn’t think you were capable of, you had forgotten how good of a cook Irma was. “Slow down there sport,” she laughed at your frantic eating, “You’re not going to able to hear me speak!” She teased.

Eventually you slowed down enough for her to explain though you still ate at an unnaturally fast speed.

“Well I guess I should start from the beginning of it even counts as the beginning,” Irma said, “Chanyeol was wandering around the feast like a lost puppy until he bumped into Songho, we may or may not have seen you run off earlier and were kind of worried. Anyways, Songho told him to go look by the river and he took of so fast it was like he wasn’t even there in the first place.” You finished your food and we’re just listening quietly at this point while she explained everything. “The next morning I decided to go check and see if you made it home alright and I almost got run over by your mate who was running back to the village. He told me you weren’t conscious and had a fever so he was going to get a doctor and I’ve been here taking care of you since. There was one point where we were scared you weren’t going to make it because you weren’t sick anymore but you weren’t conscious, the doctor said it was your wolf senses reacting to shock. I’m just glad you’re okay.” She finished.

“So what day is it today?” you asked her as you laid your head on her shoulder and huddled back under the blankets.

“Friday.” “So I’ve actually been asleep for almost three weeks?” “I guess…” you laughed at the way Irma was subtly trying to avoid your question and ended up poking her in the stomach which launched a full out tickle war. There were limbs flying and the sound of your laughter was filling the entire house as you two tumbled over each other with wiggling fingers. In that moment you forgot about everything that was changing in your life and you were back with your best friend just having fun until Irma brought up the festival again.

“You’ve missed most of the games but there's still the Kickball tournament before you leave, the first game if tomorrow and I'm pretty sure your mate is playing. Don’t you want to see him all shiny from the sweat, and his muscles-” you quickly cut her off by slapping a hand over her mouth, you let out a groan of disgust as you felt her lick your palm.

“Don’t remind me about leaving.” You muttered as you crawled back under a pile of blankets. “I just want to stay her forever.”

Irma sighed and was about to say something before there was a sharp knock at the door, you made no move to stand up so Irma was making her way to the door when you let out a frantic whisper. “Don’t tell him I’m awake.”

After a confused look you returned to your blanket cave and sure enough when she opened the door you heard a familiar voice.

“Did Y/n wake up?” Chanyeol asked, he sounded out of breath and his voice was tinged with worry which only made you wonder about what he was doing before.

“She did and we talked for a while but she just fell asleep again and i think it’s best if we dont disturb her.” Irma said calmly.

You heard a loud sigh. “That’s good.” Chanyeol sounded much more relaxed now though you didn't know why. “She’s alright though?” He asked after a slightly awkward pause. What followed was some more conversation and you heard a doctor being mentioned a few times before goodbyes were exchanged and the door was shut again. You felt the bed dip with Irma’s weight as she perched on the bed beside you.

“You might want to put on some clothes since Chanyeol said the doctor would be here soon.” She whispered. It took a few minutes of mumbling and grumbling before you finally gave in and got up.

----

“So doc, is she dying?” Irma asked from beside you. The doctor let out a low chuckles as he placed his equipment back into his bag.

“No, she’ll be perfectly fine if she takes it easy for the next fe days.” He explained as he continued packing away the various bottles and tools.

You fidgeted nervously underneath the blankets unsure of whether to ask your question or not. “So, what was wrong with me?” You finally blurted out.

He paused to scratch his head and he seemed to be thinking of what to say. “Well, It’s most likely from shock. I don’t really know the way werewolves bodies well enough to determine the exact cause but from what experience i do have I believe it was shock mixed with the fact you hadn't been eating or sleeping in the few days beforehand. There may also be a slight chance your pregnant but i wouldn’t be too worried about that.” He paused to did around in his bag a bit as you went over what he said. “Now i want you to take one of these a day until they run out, just to get your body back on track.” He explained as he handed you a bottle of what looked like vitamins. “They’ll help with your sleeping habits as well as get rid of nausea and headaches.”

You two bid the doctor farewell before he left again and you went back to reading the label on the bottle he gave you.

“So you can go out and have fun now but instead you choose to read a medicine bottle?” Irma sked when you refused to get up.

“You can go, I’ll be fine on my own. I’m just not feeling like going out.” You said. It was true that you were tired and didn’t really feel like going out but it was mostly due to the fact that you didn’t want to see your mate. In the bottom of your stomach there was a pool of guilt, you felt bad about what happened between you and just the idea of being around him just made you nervous.

“Are you sure you’re going to be alright?” Irma asked.

“Yes, now go have fun!” You were thankful that she was worried about you and it warmed your heart but you couldn't make her stay here with you so you ushered her out the door from your spot at the bed.

----

Somehow it was four days later and you were at the games. Irma had finally managed to drag you out of the house saying that she needed your help to take care of the kids but you two ended up at the large playing field and your plans of avoiding Chanyeol were slowly slipping away. It was an uncharacteristically sunny day for winter which was creeping closer and closer, you were standing at the side with Irma and Songho each holding a squirming child.

“We should go find seats.” Songho managed to mutter as he tried to keep the toddler that was using him as a jungle gym still. You both nodded and began to make your way to the stands which were already full of people, you still had an hour till the final game started but people were already filling up the stands with screaming and cheering. You were beginning to get nervous as humans and wolves alike began recognizing you and you felt their eyes following you, thankfully Irma and Songho chose a few seats that were far enough away from the main crowd that nobody even noticed you tucked away in the corner.

----

A cheer erupted in the crowd as the players burst onto the field, you thought you were going to go deaf from the noise and it was magnified by your wolf senses. Horns were blowing and people were cheering as both teams got into their positions, you caught a glimpse of Chanyeol in a serious discussion with his teammates before breaking and heading to their respective positions. The whistle blew, the ball was dropped, and the game was underway. Both teams were amazing and you thought you would get whiplash from how the ball flew from one end of the field to the next, unhindered by the strong winds that seemed to pick up speed as time went on. Goals were scored from both teams and you couldn't tell who was who from volume of dirt and mud that were covering all the team uniforms, Irma left earlier with her youngest and now it was just you, Songho, and the two toddlers.

Suddenly the wind picked up and thunder rumbled across the sky, a large raindrop hit you square between your eyes followed by another, then another, and soon it was pouring rain. The wind was whipping the hair into your eyes as you stood up, it had only been raining for a few minutes and you could already feel the water soaking through your clothes. The whistle blew and the referees called the game to a stop. The weather conditions continued to worsen in the next few minutes and Songho gave you a nod signalling he new you needed to head home and make sure everything was alright back at the farm. You pushed through the crowds of people who were trying together their things to protect from the rain as you raced back home. Your equipment wasn't put away and you shutters were not closed so your windows could blow in and get everything ruined, you sprinted through the huts until you got to the main road. Raindrops were already dripping off of you so splashing through puddle and getting your pant legs all dirty wasn't really your main concern. You had never really been athletic so you did your best to keep running even if you fell a few times and got all battered up.

You burst into the farmyard with new found energy as you began to pick up your scattered tools and locking them in the shed while trying not to be blown over by the strong gusts of wind. Once you were sure everything was locked away tight you ran around your house and strapped all the shutters shut as best you could with your limited vision. The wind was howling and lightning was striking by the time you finally bolted your door shut behind you, your boots made an uncomfortable squelching noise as you padded over to a chair before pulling them off, followed by your equally as soaked socks. You quickly shedded your soaking wet clothing for a more favourable outfit of your warmest nightdress, warmest sweater, and a pair of soft leggings in an attempt to bring some heat back to your body.

Just as you were about to curl up on your bed there was a loud pounding on your door, you stayed still, frozen in place. You thought it might just be the thunder but then there was another harder knock, at this point you were close to panicking as you slowly picked up a pan from your dish rack. You crept up to the door with your pan poised and ready to attack at the first sign of danger, you took a deep breath before slowly twisting to handle before the door was thrown open by the wind. Standing out on your small porch in the pouring rain and howling wind with his fist poised to knock again was your mate, Chanyeol.

The pan fell from your hand as it went limp at your side, the loud crash it made seemed to break both of you out of the trance you were in. You reached out and grabbed his arm yanking him inside with an unnecessary amount of force before pushing the door shut and latching it again. He opened his mouth to say something but you cut him off.

“Just stay here.” you told the dripping man before your shuffled back to your closet and started digging around, it felt like the piles of clothes had eaten you before you finally found what you were looking for with an exclamation of joy. You grabbed the pile in one of your arms and headed back to where the alpha was waiting for you expectantly, without a word you signalled for him to follow you with your free arm and headed to your tiny bathroom. He took a step inside before you threw the budle in your arms at him.

“What are these?” He asked as he began sifting through the pile.

“Clothes you idiot, if you don’t want to get sick you’ll change.” You sighed, he looked like he was about to say something more as he sniffed one of the shirts but you beat him to it. “There are towels in the cupboard.” Without another word you closed the door and walked back to the kitchen.

----

When Chanyeol wandered back into the kitchen you had already set out a dish of warm food for him as well as more blankets than you could ever need already set onto your bed. Without needing any instruction he walked over and sat in the chair across from you at the small table, while he scanned over every nook and cranny of your house you took the time to observe him. You couldn’t see his bottom half but the shirt you gave him was old and stretched out but it was still snug on him, your wolf instincts had definitely gotten the better of you as your almost started drooling while discreetly running your eyes over his well muscled arms and chest which were showcased perfectly. You saw him turning back around to face you and you quickly focused on something else, you landed on the sewing basket you left on the table this morning and pretended to be digging through it before he cleared his throat and you brought your attention back to him.

“So, why do you have men’s clothes?” He asked. His tone of voice was odd and almost jealous which for some reason made him even more sexy than you were already being brainwashed by your wolf senses to think he was.

“They’re Songho’s.” was your simple reply before you got up and headed to dig through a drawer in the ruse of trying to find something but you were really trying to clear your head.

“Songho’s?”

“Yes, Songho, Irma’s husband.” The tinge of anger seemed to grow in his voice and you didn't know why you were trying to defend yourself from him.

You saw him cross his arms over his chest and furrow his eyebrows from the corner of your eye. “And why do you have his clothes?”

“Have you ever tried to garden in a skirt? Oh wait, you were privileged enough to not have to work to feed yourself.” You spit out at him before storming over and picking up his still full bowl and bringing it back to the sink.

“How would you know?! I may have not had been abandoned but I had to work-”

“Work my ass!” you cut him off, “Showing up to events and frolicking around with your other alphas and betas does not count as work.”

“It’s not like you can speak from experience, all you’ve had to do is sit on your little farm and pick fruits all day!”

“You’re right a sit on my farm and pick fruits all day, and starve when there’s a bad harvest, and freeze during the winters when there hardly enough blankets to cover myself, and throw every last penny I made back into the farm to repair things and buy new equipment in the hopes of making more money! So I am going to keep taking hand-me-downs from my friends and you can leave if you have such a problem with it!” You stormed into your room and grabbed and armful of blankets and pillows.

“Wait, Y/n,” He started but you cut him off.

“No, here are blankets. You can sleep on the couch but I want you gone by tomorrow morning.” You threw the blankets down and slammed your bedroom door behind you before crawling under the mountain of covers still on your bed. You managed to get a few hours of sleep even if you were kept awake through night by either the storm or the aching in your heart, and just as you asked Chanyeol was gone the next morning only leaving behind a pile of folded blankets and clothes.

----

You had just finished lugging a pile of fallen branches and plant pieces to a pile when you heard shoes crunching on the gravel. You made sure everything was in the right place before turning around to see Irma jogging up to you.

“The wolves are holding a pack meeting, we have to hurry!” She exclaimed and without any further explanation she grabbed your hand and pulled you after her as she headed back to the village. Thankfully you had done the rest of your cleaning up before Irma arrived and all that was left for you to do were a few minor repairs here and there, you knew it was going to cost you so there would be no more living in comfort for the next few weeks. You moved as quickly as you could along the dirt road, you weren’t really worried about the meeting since usually they were just for show but how you were going to survive and buy things for repairs was taking up all of your thoughts.

----

You could smell the nerves before you even entered the council room and you immediately were on edge, in all of the past meetings you’ve attended it was mostly the heads of families but every single wolf was here today and everyone was nervous. The thoughts of your farm wentescaped your mind and were replaced by worries of why everyone was so stressed, your first thought was that it was about you and Chanyeol mating with you. The obvious course of action was to sneak in as quietly as possible and sit in the farthest corner at the very back so that’s exactly what you were doing, you cringed as the chair let out a small squeak as you sat down but you were otherwise unnoticed. People were chatting amongst themselves in hushed whispers as you scanned the room, you skipped from one person to the next until you landed on Chanyeol who was sitting at the head table with his family and the head omega. His eyes met yours and you quickly looked away, focusing on one of the many paintings on the wall before the doors banged open and the head alpha stormed in. The only sound in the entire room was the sound of his boots echoing against the floor as he made his way up to the head table by his mate and Chanyeol. The room seemed to take a collective inhale once he sat down but the relaxation was short lived since he started speaking at once.

“I bet you’re all wondering why we are gathered today, so I’ll get right to the point,” he cleared his throat and took a deep breath, “As many of you know, we are supposed to be heading back to the village in two days time, yesterday we sent the scouts ahead and they have just returned hearing news. The trail has been completely cut off by a rockslide during the storm and there is no way around it, which means we can’t get back home.”

The room was dead silent, quiet enough to hear a pin drop before someone shouted. “We need to get home, our mates and children’s are still there.”

Shouts of agreement were followed and you could see the alpha getting flustered. “I know but-“

“Let’s start moving the rocks!” Someone yelled, even more shouts than before followed until the head alpha threw his fist down on the table. The sound was so immense you thought the table had cracked in half but he was only standing there and breathing heavily.

“I know you all want to get home to your families but as I said before there is really no way! Moving the rocks was our first idea but after further inspection even if we did somehow manage to find the manpower to move them all we would have to wait until the beginning of summer which is ten months away!”

“Isn’t there any other way?” What seemed to be a female voice called from the audience.

“Only one, as far as we know the trail that goes around the far side of the lake is still in usable condition and it would take us less than half the time it would take for us to clear the rocks.” It was Chanyeol that spoke know. You were awed by how commanding and serious he sounded, it was no wonder he had the wolf’s blind trust as a leader.

“But that means we would have to travel through winter, isn’t it dangerous?” The same voice from before asked.

“Yes, not just because of the cold winter months the but the routes that wander the territory near there. I never said it would be easy or pleasant and before you decide on any of it you must know it will be much more dangerous but it’s the only alternative.”

Mumbles and whispers floated through the crowd before the head alpha called for a vote, stones were cast one by one and counted until there was a verdict. In the hour it took to wait people were huddled together, nervously whispering about what was to come. Mated omegas and their children usually stayed behind in the wolf village across the lake with a few alphas and betas while all the rest cane for the festival of fallen leaves which meant that all theses people’s families were waiting for them on the other side of the lake for possibly another year.

——

Everyone piled back into the hall where the results had been counted.

“With a unanimous vote, everyone has decided that we will travel the long way around the lake to get back home.”

A cheer went up in the crowd with people embracing and shouting in joy, it went on for a few more minutes and you observed until the head alpha began to speak again.

“We will leave in two days time so everyone must be ready by then or you will be left behind.” With those last few words everyone began to file out chattering nervously and excitedly about the journey but you stayed silent. While most other were happy to be finally heading home you were in somewhat of a depressed state, for your entire life your little farm in the human village had been your home not the wolf village across the lake but know you would have to pick up everything and leave all because of some selfish alpha.

Once you were out of the hall you almost made it to Irma’s house before you started crying, emotions just came rolling over you and you were a sobbing mess as she tried to comfort you. Eventually you managed to calm down enough to explain everything that was going on and Irma was everything you could have asked for in this situation.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so emotional lately.” You sniffled as Songho handed you both mugs of tea.

“It’s okay Y/n, we understand. It’s a big change and we knew it would happen eventually and Songho and i have been talking….” Irma paused, unsure of what to say next. “Well we’d be happy to take care of your farm for you.”

You swear your jaw hit the floor. “Really?” you asked, of course your best friends offered to take it over for you, “You don’t have to do this, it’s a huge effort and you have kids and jobs-”

“Shush and let me talk.” She cut you off. “Yes we have jobs but Songho is actually planning to quit being the town treasurer because of all the stress and I can make dresses anywhere as long as I can sell them.”

“What about the kids?”

“The kids would love the space to run around and play, plus they could learn some valuable skills.”

“You still don’t have to do this.” “I know, but I also wanted to ask you if we could build our own little house in that empty field so we don’t have to take over yours.”

“You can take over mine!” you exclaimed. “It’s so much work already and I don't want you to do more!”

Irma giggled, “No offence, but your house definitely isn't big enough for our ever growing family.”

You pouted but agreed.

“Plus Songho wants to build us a house of our own, it’s probably some man thing.” she whispered.

“I heard that!” Songho yelled from the other room and you both burst into giggles.

“Be careful Chanyeol doesn’t do something like this for you.”

As soon as Irma said that your mood immediately swung back and the tears were bubbling back up again. You spent that night in Irma’s guest room as she tried to comfort your tears by telling you little silly stories, eventually you drifted off to sleep. You woke up in the middle of the night to the door opening and a whispered conversation but you dismissed it and fell back into dreamland.

----

The next morning you woke up with a heavy heart as you all headed to your small farmhouse to begin packing. It was an odd mix of happiness and despair as you went through all your belongings to decide what you would take with you. As you dug through everything you owned and sorted it into piles you got to remember all the good times you had in this village and this house. There was the ceramic chicken Irma stole from her mother to give you as a birthday gift when she forgot, overtime the hideous pattern and colours grew on you as it was proudly displayed on your fireplace. You found pressed flowers from the first ever spring festival you attended in between multiple heavy books and you smiled at the memory of dancing in the fields of flowers and stuffing your face with deserts until you were sick. Irma’s children had found a box of your old toys which you had happily given them, content to see the bright smiles that lit up their faces. Of course mixed with the good memories there had to be bad, you found some old school books that were ripped and torn when they were thrown around by your omega classmates. And the memory of you stealing the pastries in secret and dancing in the flower field alone during the festival instead of the town square with everyone else because you were scared of the other wolves left a sour taste in your mouth.

When lunch came around you were about halfway through all of your things and you decided to all have a picnic by the river and take a well needed break before continuing on, it was unnaturally sunny and warm out but you decided to enjoy it because you knew there wouldn’t be such nice days for a long while. The kids splashed in the shallow banks of the river while You, Irma, and Songho chatted on the dry land. At one point someone got splashed and the next thing you knew everyone was dancing and playing in the water until you decided to head back and dry off. This was one of the things you would definitely miss and suddenly you wanted today to last forever.

----

You could feel the tension in the town as you dropped of your luggage for tomorrow, the omegas were each allowed to bring one trunk of belongings aside from the bags that would everyone would carry. The announcement had been made that the wolves would be travelling by foot as to minimize the wolf scent that would attract rouges so your carry bag had to be light enough for your human form. Everyone was saying goodbye to each other and sharing meals in the town since the wolves were leaving at dawn the next morning. You were making your way to Irma’s house where she had apparently created a goodbye feast in your honour, she told you to dress formally so you were walking up to her door in the only fancy silks you had left when you saw a familiar figure waiting at the door.

“What are you doing here?” you spat at Chanyeol who was standing in front of the door.

“I was invited.” He said plainly. You were about to ask something else before the door swung open.

“Thank goodness you’re both here!” Irma exclaimed, “The food was about to get cold!” She grabbed your arm and pulled you inside, you caught a sympathetic glance from Songho who stayed to chat with Chanyeol at the door before you disappeared into the kitchen.

“What is he doing here?” You hissed at your best friend who had shifted her focus to the various dishes on the stove.

“He's your mate so I invited him.” She said nonchalantly before grabbing some spices and shaking them into a pot and stirring.

“Doesn’t he have his own family thing?” you insisted before coming up beside her and stirring something else.

“Songho asked and he said it was fine.”

You were about to say something else before you felt small arms around your legs and looked down to see the two toddlers wadling up to you. You shot Irma a glare which she only replied with a sweet smile before you followed the two kids to the living room to play.

Playing with the two toddlers lifted your mood for a while until dinner started, you were sat next to your mate which made you incredibly tense through the entire meal. Irma and Songho happily chatted away while you sat in silence pushing around the food on your plate, normally you would have eaten but your stomach had been feeling upset since this morning. It was probably the nerves of leaving tomorrow but it wasn't getting any better, eventually you excused yourself saying you were tired and saying you had to go home. Before you got out the door Irma shoved a giant winter coat in your arms.

“It gets cold in the winter so make sure to stay warm and safe, I’ll miss you.” She whispered before pulling you into her arms and sniffling into your shoulder. You felt big, fat, crocodile tears roll down your cheeks as you said goodbye to your best friend who you might never see again. You turned around from the porch still sniffling as you made your way home for the last time.

-----

The travel formation would work like this, the omegas would stay in the center while the alphas and betas sandwiched them from the front and back, it was the standard form although stakes were high because of all the rogues in the area. Because of this, the alphas and betas would be on watch at all times and there would be no mixing as the omegas stayed grouped together, this really meant that you wouldn’t have to see Chanyeol but you would be stuck with Chaeyoung for the whole journey.

You stuck to Jongin like glue as everyone was preparing to leave, you were always one step behind him as he mingled around with all the wolves. He introduced you to his friend Kyungsoo who was the healer that would be travelling with the omegas, he was a beta but he was the softest wolf you had ever seen with a smile made of pure sunshine. You felt a cold shiver travel down your spine and you turned around to see Chaeyoung stalking over to the wagon you were standing by with here entourage of other omegas. She shot you and icy glare that felt like you were already in the throes of winter before walking past to the next wagon.

“Was she looking at you?” Kyungsoo asked once she was well out of earshot, he seemed concerned and genuinely confused while Jongin looked annoyed.

You sighed and turned back around to the two wolves at your sides and let your shoulders droop. “Yeah, it’s not really an out of the ordinary thing.” You told them as you adjusted one of your many layers of skirts, now that you were part of the pack you were expected to wear dresses and skirts but you had no idea how long it would last.

“Why does she look at you like that, it’s not very nice.” Kyungsoo said with a frown.

“She's not the only one.” You sighed, you had gotten used to the looks but people who weren't got confused easily.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“You really don’t know?” Jongin exclaimed. Kyungsoojust stared back at him seeming even more confused than before, there was no way he couldn't know why, right?

“I’m Chanyeol's Mate.” Was all you said, he furrowed his eyebrows and you could see the gears in his head turning as the realization exploded onto his face.

“So your mom was…” He started, you nodded and all he said was a simple “Oh,” before seeming to disregard it completely.

“You don't have an issue with me?” You asked in disbelief.

“Not really, I never really saw anything wrong with you and the pack was overreacting when they kicked her out.” He said simply.

You stared at him in disbelief for a few moments before wrapping your arms around him and pulling him into a tight hug. “Thank you.” You warbled into his shoulders as you sniffled through some tears, you stayed like that for a few more seconds before releasing him and wiping your cheeks on your sleeve.

“What was that?” He asked once your eyes had stopped leaking.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been really emotional lately and I don't know what came over me.” You said bashfully as Jongin giggled at your awkwardness. Kyungsoo gave you a quizzical look and observed you for a few seconds before shrugging and continuing on with your conversation. A few minutes later the party started moving and you were on your way to the wolf village and away from your home, after a couple hours of walking your nerves had almost disappeared, you saw some of the other omegas struggling to keep walking which Kyungsoo had to go help while you and Jongin kept chatting. You stopped for a quick meal halfway through the day in a small clearing beside the trail, as some of the betas went to scout ahead the pack of omegas gathered to eat. You were put as the chef even though you were nowhere as good as the others but you still had to do the job, what you didn't know is that cooking also meant cleaning the dishes. Once everyone finished they handed you their dishes before heading back to the wagons to rest as you went to clean them, Jongin offered to help but you declined since it was your job not his. After assuring him that you would be fine you took the bucket of dishes and headed to the edge of the treeline to wash. You crouched in front of the bucket of water and started washing, you weren’t really paying attention to what was going on around you until shouts went up and you heard the sound of boot against the ground, the scouting team must have returned. You looked up to see a group of panting wolves gathering to those that stayed behind and greeting each other before a familiar voice rang out through the crowd.

“There’s a place camp a few miles away but we have to make it there before nightfall so start packing up because we have to get going.” Chanyeol called out. The wolves all nodded before hurrying to pack up, you stayed there for a few seconds as you couldn't seem to take your eyes off your mate, his gaze drifted to yours and as soon as you made eye contact you quickly snapped out of it and picked up the full bucket. You could feel his eyes watching you as water splashed the hemline of your skirt as you carried the full bucket back, your heart was racing until you finally put everything away and joined Jongin before starting to walk again. You chatted to Jongin for a while but eventually all words were replaced by heavy breathing as the trial got tougher.

Compared to the first half of the day the trail got steadily more difficult, the mountanus hills grew taller and more rocks and roots littered the overgrown trail. As your breathing got heavier you refused to show your struggle as you pushed ahead, you kept going at a steady pace until you finally stopped a few hours later when you came upon the clearing just as the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon. Thankfully you weren’t chosen to make the meal again and you immediately went to set up the tent you were going to be sharing with Jongin. It really ended up being you setting up the tent with Jongin holding something here or there since he couldn’t figure out how to put up the poles or tie any ropes. Once you were finally finished and had set out your bedroll you wanted to just curl up and fall asleep but your stomach had other plans as it let out a large grumble.

At the campfire you shared a meal with Kyungsoo who was busy checking everyone to make sure there were no injuries, you chatted for a little while before you felt your eyes get heavy and you decided to call it a night. The next morning you woke up at dawn like usual and began preparing for another day of travel.

----

Most of the omegas hated the journey but you loved it. You had never left the village before so this was a whole new experience and you were determined to enjoy it, instead of grumbling as you walked you tried to memorize every detail of the world around you, from the way the sun reflected on the water to the colour of each leaf on a tree. You sincerely hoped you weren’t driving Kyungsoo and Jongin insane with all your questions but they never opposed as you asked and asked again about everything you saw. After about two weeks into the journey the weather had already dramatically changed, you started hoarding extra blankets and layering your clothes to stay warm. The other wolves predicted it was going to be one of the coldest winters in the past hundred years so you all had to be prepared for the worst, but you kept asking your questions and trying your best to enjoy it. You started memorizing the birdcalls that you overheard one of the other betas talking about as you were washing clothes though they soon disappeared as the weather began to get colder. The first snow fell in the middle of the day about one month into your journey which you had quickly gotten used too, once camp was made that night the alphas held a meeting to see if it was still a good idea to carry on. News travelled through the camp quickly when the verdict was to continue on even if the snowfall came early but what shocked people even more was that it had been Chanyeol to make the final decision, he was going to become the leader soon.

----

It was almost a month later when you woke up at dawn and rushed from your tent. The weather was colder than it had ever been before and you were walking through blizzards most of the time, thankfully nobody had gotten hurt although there had been a few colds going around. It had stopped snowing last night and had yet to start again when you rushed to the treeline. It felt like your stomach was doing somersaults as you released its contents into the bushes, it had been like this for a few days now but it hadn't gotten this bad until now. There was an arm that came around your shoulders as you continued to empty your stomach into the bushes, Jongin was whispering comforting things as you continued to gag until there was nothing left for you to do.

“Are you okay?” He asked as you both began to walk back to your tent.

“Yeah I’m probably just getting sick. Thank you for being there by the way you didn't have to.” You told him as you weaved through the field of tents. “Of course I did, your my closest friends but…” He said as he squeezed your shoulder tighter in comfort.

“But what?” You asked.

“But you might not be sick.” He explained.

“What do you mean?”

“You could be pregnant.”

You fell silent as the shock of what he just said washed over you. “There’s no way, It’s probably just the cold getting to me.” You mumbled.

“Well if you are mates you had no-” “We should get going or else we’ll hold everyone up.” You cut him off before hurrying back to your tent. Jongin quickly forgot about your conversation but it kept circulating through your brain as the day went on, you couldn’t be pregnant could you? There was absolutely no way.

----

The snow had continued to fall as you reached the most perilous part of the journey, the snow had melted in the sunlight only to freeze into ice at night making the rocky mountains you were crossing even more dangerous than they were in the first place. The pack had slowed their pace and people were being extra cautious in order not to get injured and Kyungsoo was on high alert. People were checked daily for injuries and everyone was full of nerves during the climb but thankfully nobody was injured by the time you got to the peak. You could feel the tensions shift into nothing as everyone settled down for camp that night since the climb was over, and although it was a lot more difficult that the descent you still had a ways left to go.

You were almost to the next campsite and nobody had been injured yet so something just had to go wrong. You had hardly slept the night before since you woke up early sick to your stomach, so you were half asleep as you trudged along next to Jongin, you felt the overwhelming urge to yawn so you squeezed your eyes shut and as you did your foot caught on a patch of ice. You let out a small shriek as your feet slid out from under you and you tumbled into a snowbank on the side of the trail, everything flashed before you and you came back to your senses as arms wrapped around you and pulled you out of the whole you’d created from falling. As you were being pulled up your foot caught on a rock and sparks of pain shot up your leg as you let out another scream and fell onto the person holding you up. Jongin managed to catch you and himself before you tumbled to the ground and Kyungsoo came rushing over.

“What’s wrong?” He asked in a rush as he began scanning up and down your body.

“My foot.” You managed to choke out before another wave of pain washed over you.

“Set her down on the wagon.” He ordered Jongin before grabbing his bag and digging around in it, You leaned heavily on Jongin and winced as you limped over to the wagon that thankfully was moving slowly. You eased yourself onto the edge of the slowly rolling wagon as Kyungsoo came back with a blanket that he draped over you.

“We’re almost at the campsite and i can check you there, are you ok to hold on for a few more minutes?” He asked you as he kept spreading the blanket to cover all of your limbs.

You could only nod as you didnt think you could speak without letting out a cry of pain.

He saw your agonized look and grabbed your hands as comfort. “I’m sorry I can’t give you anything to numb the pain but it’s a precaution until we can be sure.” You missed the look he sent Jongin as the wagon went over a bump and jostled your foot and you tried not to cry out. Just as promised you arrived at the camp a few minutes later even though it felt like an eternity because of the pain, you were rushed into your tent as soon as it was set up and not going to fall over because of Jongin’s mediocre tent building skills. You let out a few squeals and moans of pain as Kyungsoo inspected your leg, you were afraid that you were going to break Jongin’s hand from how hard you were squeezing it until Kyungsoo finally sat back.

“Well you really know how to sprain your ankle.” He said as he pulled out a bandage and a waterproof bag from his larger one. “Go fill that up with snow while I wrap her ankle.” He told Jongin who squeezed your hand once more before grabbing the bag on his way out.

You sighed and braced yourself for more uncomfort as he began winding the bandage around your ankle. “Don’t you have some sort of painkillers you can give me?” you hissed out as he continued to wrap your leg.

“I would under almost any other circumstance but I can’t.” He sighed as you let out another squeak.

“And why not?” you managed to ask him.

“I’ll tell you once I’m done and Jongin brings back that bag of snow to stop the swelling.”

You sighed and bit down on your lower lip as he continued, focusing on how the bandage was getting shorter and shorter. Jongin came back just as Kyungsoo was tying off the bandaid and handed him the bag which he placed against your ankle, the sting of pain that came with the cold when the bag hit your skin was soon replaced by relief as you felt it soothe the throbbing of your ankle.

“Can you tell me know?” you asked as Jongin came back and sat beside you, Kyungsoo only stared back at you for a few moments before answering bluntly.

“You’re pregnant.”

Your jaw hung open as you processed what he just told you. “You’re sure?” Was all you could say as you felt the tension in the tent rise. He only nodded before reaching into his bag and pulling out a small jar of tablets.

“These are vitamins that you need to take, it will help with the sickness and make sure you're getting enough nutrients.” You took the bottle from his hands when he held it out to you before placing it beside you, “I can’t believe you hadn’t noticed since you haven’t bled and your stomach has noticeably grown.”

“I thought it was something with the cold and I never really paid attention to my body since the winter clothes cover everything.” Was your lame excuse as he started packing things.

He hummed and continued shoving things into his bag while Jongin scooted closer to you. “I told you soooooo.” He sung into your ear but was rudely surprised when he felt your elbow connect with his stomach, Kyungsoo frowned from his spot on your other side and you two quickly stopped bickering.

“You’ll have to stay with me in the medical tent so I can monitor you for the next couple days,” He started but quickly noticed your sour expression, “I won’t tell anyone about the pregnancy, I’ll say it’s because you’re sick or something.” He quickly reassured you. One thing you liked about Kyungsoo was how observant he was, after knowing him for only a short while he already picked up on the nature of your relationship with your mate and the rest of the pack with no questions asked, you were really grateful to have him with you right now. You nodded gratefully before he dragged Jongin out of the tent to go grab their things and some food with the promise to return soon, you settled back under the mountain of blankets they forced on top of you and tried to relax but it was difficult with the sharp pain still shooting through your ankle.

About half an hour later you were startled by the sound of tent flips opening, you pushed yourself into a sitting position expecting to be greeted by Jongin or Kyungsoo but to your surprise Chanyeol was standing at the entrance with a dish of food. You were tempted to ask him so leave but just the sight of food made your stomach growl with hunger. “What are you doing here?” you managed to ask him once he came in farther.

“Kyungsoo told me what happened and I wanted to check if you were alright since you’re my mate and all.” He said before kneeling down at the end of your bedroll and extending the dish towards you. You kept a blank expression on your face as you took the bowl from his hands and took a tentative bite, you almost sighed as the food hit your tongue and you realized how hungry you were.

“I should get going.” Was all he said before turning around and heading back out into the cold, once he was gone you started shovelling the food into your mouth before eventually falling into a deep sleep.

----

After a few weeks you were back walking with everyone else walking along the snow covered trail once Kyungsoo gave you the okay. The morning after you found out you were pregnant Jongin began interrogating you, it was a constant back and forth of what you were going to do and if you were going to tell Chanyeol or not. In the end you finally shut him up by saying you would tell him when you were ready but then the question started circling you, when would you be ready and what would happen if you told him? You were carrying his pup inside of you so you should tell him but at the same time you couldn’t, it wasn’t like it was an out of the ordinary thing to happen, it was in fact expected after the mating ritual but you were still the outcast with the pup of the next head alpha in your stomach. You made Kyungsoo, Jongin, and his mate which he accidentally told not to tell anyone under any circumstances and thankfully your heavy winter layers covered up the steady growing of your stomach which you became more aware of each time you changed. It soon became obvious that you were behind schedule because of the heavy snow and the multiple times you’ve had to stop because of blizzards and soon came the official announcement that it would take up to and extra two months before you reached the wolf village. There had been only a few run ins with rouges which were quickly scared off since even they were smart enough not to be out in this weather but every time you even heard about the sighting of a rogue you got shivers. Thankfully the medicine Kyungsoo gave you was working and you stopped getting sick as often even though you did have off days, it was now when you really missed Irma since she had already went through this multiple times.

Eventually the weather calmed down and even though it wasn’t full of freak snowstorms it was still very cold, the pack began to get excited since you were nearing the end of your journey and getting closer and closer to home but you got even more anxious since you still hadn’t told Chanyeol. Ever since that night when he brought you food you kept seeing each other everywhere, it made you incredibly nervous since your stomach was almost too big to keep hidden and sometimes it felt like he already knew. It was midnight a few days ago when you felt a shove to the inside of your stomach and you quickly rushed to Kyungsoo’s tent, after a few minutes of panicked blabbering to the half asleep healer he was finally able to calm you down and explain it was just the baby in your stomach moving around and kicking you. From that point on the urge to cover your swollen belly with your hands was like second nature and you had to stop yourself from doing it in front of everybody but you still had a little smile every time you felt the pup move around in your stomach even if it could cause you discomfort sometimes.

----

You woke up early in the morning just before the sun rose to a small fall of snow, you sighed as you saw the serene view and since only a few wolves were awake yet you decided to take a stroll. Your layers were thrown on quickly and sloppily with your heavy coat going on last as you were anxious to go out and explore before there were too many people, you also knew that Jongin and Kyungsoo would object but what harm could a little fun be?

A childlike wonder filled you as you took a tentative step out of the tent door and into the undisturbed snow, as soon as you heard the crunch of your boots you took a step and then another, and then another until you were bounding through the trees surrounding the campsite with squeals of joy. The boundless energy you were filled with before didn't last for long as you were soon out of breath and back to walking through the trees but your joy didn't disappear. You drifted between the trees as you let the absence of sound other than your boots through the snow calm you, you let out a deep sigh before letting your hands drift over your still growing stomach. “Someday I hope you’ll love the snow.” You whispered in the sanctuary of the trees. Soon enough your stomach would grow too large to be concealed by your large coat or heavy layers, what would you do then? Would you tell him? These thoughts swan through your mind as you continued to wander, not realizing that you were getting further and further from the camp until an uncomfortable feeling crawled up your body. You stilled and quickly snapped your head behind you to look around, right when you thought you were safe a warm mass knocked you to the ground. You let out an ear splitting scream as you looked up to see a large snarling wolf that was foaming from the mouth pinning you to the ground.

“Be quiet.” It growled before pinning you harder. You continued to thrash and scream until hoping someone would hear you and come to your rescue as the wolf snapped from above you, your throat went raw and you felt your arms being scratched until suddenly the weight was thrown off you. You rolled to the side to see a familiar black coat fighting of the wolf that was on top of you before, there was snapping of jaws and growls as the wolves wrestled through the snow. Breathing heavily and still lying in the snow you watched them as they left trails of crimson in the snow as they continued to fight on, the rogue that had attacked you and the black pelted wolf were a pretty even match but eventually there was a whimper of defeat and the rogue ran off with his tail between his legs. You reopened your eyes when you felt a wet nose against your cheek that was soon replaced by a warm hand, you saw Chanyeol hovering over you with furrowed brows before there were more footsteps in the distance and another pair of arms wrapped around you. You felt like you were swimming and dreaming at the same time as Chanyeol and one of the other alphas carried you back to the camp, nobody said anything as you lent your head on Chanyeol’s shoulder and let them carry you.

You came back to your senses enough to understand what was going on around you when Kyungsoo came running up to you.

“Get your hands off my mate.” Chanyeol growled before jerking you backwards behind him.

“And I’m the healer so I need to take a look at her.” Kyungsoo stressed as he tried to come up to you again only to be stopped by Chanyeol once more.

“She’s my mate and I’ll take care of her. I know how to treat scrapes and bruises just fine.” He snarled.

“I really think you should let me-”

“NO!” Chanyeol cut him off, “You’d better get out of my way Kyungsoo or your just going to make it worse for yourself.”

You could tell Chanyeol was getting more and more worked up while Kyungsoo was panicking more as each second passes.

“Chanyeol, I need to check if the baby is all right.” Kyungsoo finally blurted out as Chanyeol began pulling you away again.

“The baby?” Chanyeol said as he froze.

“Yes, the baby. Now you better bring her to my tent before something you regret happens.” Kyungsoo warned before you felt yourself being moved again.

----

You woke up to the sound of voices around you and the familiar setting of Kyungsoo’s medical tent.

“She has mild hypothermia and she ended up going into shock but other than that and the few scrapes and bruises she and the baby are fine.” Kyungsoo explained to the other person in the tent.

“Are you sure they’re going to be fine?” Chanyeol asked, he seemed afraid but you couldn’t put your finger on why. “I’m sure.” Kyungsoo answered. The memories of what had happened slowly started coming back to you and you could feel the soreness in your body, you started to shift into a more comfortable position but immediately froze when you heard Chanyeol start talking again.

“If you don’t mind me asking, uh how far along is she?” he asked and you heard some more shuffling before there was a reply.

Kyungsoo cleared his throat and you felt a hand placed on your stomach and then it suddenly disappeared as if it was yanked away. “Around six months I think which means there’s only a few months left.”

There a lull in the conversation and at that point you couldn’t hold it for any longer, you let out a groan as you tried to shift into a sitting position and arms quickly wrapped around you to help you up. Once you were relatively secure with a mountain of pillows behind you Chanyeol unwrapped his arms from around you but didn’t leave your side.

“Good to see you’re feeling better.” Kyungsoo said with a smile.

“I’m definitely not feeling good but I am feeling better.” You said with a half smile before letting out a small grunt of pain when a particularly deep cut caught on one of the blankets. You saw Chanyeol flinch and move his hand out to help you but quickly pull it back as a second thought.

“I’m glad to hear that, you’ll have to rest for a few days which means no more wandering off and as little exertion as possible but you’ll be fine.” Kyungsoo explained as your hand ghosted across your stomach for reassurance as if it might not be there. He turned back and started packing up some equipment as you continued to sit awkwardly as you could feel Chanyeol's eyes rake over you, you swallowed uncomfortably as the tent was still silent except for the sound of shuffling medical supplies but before you could start freaking out Kyungsoo turned back around.

“There’s also something I wanted to tell you two,” He started as he shut the chest of supplies, you both stared back at him waiting for him to continue. “You probably already know but werewolves have a higher chance than humans of having twins, triplets, or even quadruplets and since you’re expecting I thought I would warn you just in case.”

Before you could even begin to think about the information Chanyeol immediately cut in. “When can she move into my tent?” He asked but more like demanded.

“Hold on-”

“Whenever is okay but just let me know.”

“Okay, we’re going now.”

“Hey wait a minute-” Before you knew it arms were wrapped around you and you were lifted into the air blankets and all. You hardly even felt the chill outside before you were gently set down in an unfamiliar tent you were guessing was Chanyeol’s.

“What makes you think that you can just drag me around like this?” You demanded once you were set down.

“First off I wasn’t the one who wandered into the woods and got attacked by an alpha and second, I didn’t drag you a carried you.” He stated before sitting down across from you.

“That doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want just because you’re a stupid alpha!” You exclaimed.

He scoffed, “I’m not the one who didn’t tell my own mate I was pregnant with his pup, unless it wasn’t mine.”

“Do you really think of me like that?” You asked in disbelief.

He let out a emotionless chuckle. “If that wasn’t the issue then why wouldn’t you tell me, huh?”

“I was scared!”

“Scared of what?!” he exclaimed as he threw his arms into the air.

“Of everything! Of your family, of the rest of the pack, of you.” Your voice died down as you said the last few words. Your hands were balled in your blankets and he was fuming as your eyes fell to your lap, there was absolutely no way this was going to turn out well.

“You were afraid of me?” He asked.

You nodded and took a deep breath before answering. “The only reason you mated with me in the first place was to get back at the pack because you were angry and now I get pregnant which is just what they want so why wouldn’t you be angry at me?!”

“So you decided to keep it a secret?” He questioned you.

“Yes!”

“Why would I ever be angry at you for carrying my pup?” Your head shot up at his now soft voice. Your eyes caught on his which now weren’t filled with the flames of anger like before but a soft almost loving look, you opened your mouth to say something in reply but the words caught in your throat when you felt a familiar pressure.

“Oh-” you exclaimed and brought your hands up to your swollen stomach. Chanyeol frowned and quickly scrambled to your side at the first sign of distress. “What’s wrong?” He asked frantically as his hands hovered over you, “Is something wrong with the baby?”

“No it’s just kicking, it’s been doing that a lot lately.” You sighed as you felt another bump against your stomach, you looked up to see Chanyeol staring back at you with a wonderstruck expression hands still hovering. “Do you want to feel it?” You asked in a moment of surprise which seemed to break him out of the trance and look back at you.

“Can I?” He asked and you just giggled at his excited expression and grabbed his hands to guide them to your stomach, he hesitated when you pulled your sweater up to reveal your stomach so he could feel better. You just sighed and placed his hands onto your stomach shivering when his cool hands touched you, he gave you a concerned look and you just smiled before shifting his hands around so he could feel it. The look of pure shock on his face when he felt the little bump against his large palm was enough to make a huge smile burst out onto your face and you felt your heart lift as he began running his hands across your stomach trying to find it again with his smile growing every time he felt it again.

“That’s amazing,” He breathed out, “I wish you would have told me sooner.”

“I’m sorry.” You whispered as your eyes fell back to your lap, you hung your head back down for a few seconds before he wrapped one of his hands around yours while leaving the other one resting on your stomach.

You brought your head up to meet his before he started talking again. “You don’t have to apologize, even though I may not understand completely I understand enough to know it was my fault too. I should have never said those things to you on the night of the feast, especially since they weren’t all true.” He took a deep breath before explaining. “I didn’t specifically choose you as my mate to piss off the pack, I could have chosen any omega other than Chaeyoung and it still would have pissed them off but I decided to go to the first omega I was drawn to which happened to be you even if you were the farthest away. I guess remembered you from previous celebrations since your peaches were always my favourite and you always looked so happy when dancing with your friends.”

“I shouldn’t have said the things I said to you either, we’ve both had hard lives in different ways and it was unfair to put my troubles before yours.” You confessed shyly. This was the most civilized conversation you’ve ever had with your mate and it only took you almost getting killed.

“How about we start over with a clean slate?” Chanyeol proposed. “We haven’t really had the best run but after seeing you laughing and having fun with Kyungsoo and Jongin I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous and don’t you think that this little guy deserves it?” He asked angling his head to your stomach.

“Ok.” You agreed. Ever since you left the human village the feeling of hate you’d once had for Chanyeol was replaced more with curiosity and admiration as you saw him lead the pack, of course you still had a pang of jealousy whenever you remembered the night of the feast with him and Chaeyoung but it gradually disappeared as you saw him refuse her attempts time and time again.

A bright smile grew on his face when he heard your answer and the pure joy you saw was making your heart flutter before it was interrupted with a huge yawn.

“What time is it?” You asked once he reopened his eyes, it was dark outside when he carried you to his tent but you couldn’t gage what time it actually was.

“I think it's around one in the morning.” He said sheepishly.

Your jaw hung open. “I was out for that long?”

“You were really cold and Kyungsoo said you were in shock and it was really scary.” He explained from his seat beside you.

“So you were awake that whole time?” You asked and he only nodded. “We’re going to sleep now.” You ordered before shuffling over on the bedroll and pulling him down next to you, you could see the dark circles and worry under his eyes which only strengthened your resolve.

“But what if something-” He tried to protest as you threw the blanket over him and cut him off.

“If you don’t sleep I won’t sleep.” That seemed to shut him up as you blew out the lantern and buried yourself under the blankets. You hadn’t slept very well for the past few days, whether it be the pup in your stomach kicking nonstop, the cold, or just general discomfort you hadn’t slept and you were thankful for the chance to now. You felt a warm arm thrown over to you and land on your stomach before it was followed by soft snores and you knew Chanyeol had fallen asleep.

----

There was only about one month left till you reached the village and everyone was getting more and more excited as well as you. Chanyeol had taken to hovering around you like a parent making sure you were fine every second of everyday as much as he could, long story short he was incredibly clingy whenever he could afford to be. After the news got out that you were pregnant it travelled through the pack like wildfire and the next day you two must have been congratulated by everyone in the pack except for the other omegas of course which were fuming with jealousy. Jongin and his mate were ecstatic when they figured out and immediately volunteered to be your personal babysitters whenever you needed it.

From that night on you shared a tent with Chanyeol since he could barely go a minute without making sure you were alive when you weren’t hiking, eventually you had to tell him to stop worrying since it was getting to be a little too much which almost turned into another argument but thankfully didn’t. In the next month you and Chanyeol got a lot closer than before and you realized he wasn’t a stone cold alpha but still a fun loving child at heart. Your stomach grew steadily over the next month and it looked like you were about to burst which was also accompanied by a whole new onslaught of aches and pains.

----

The day you finally arrived in the village it was amazing, mates threw themselves together and families embraced with tears of joy, cheers went up in the crowd when everyone was finally home and the families who were reunited made you couldn’t wait till you had one of your own. When the news that you were Chanyeol’s mate and that you were pregnant travelled through the wolf village there were whispers but they were easily outshined by the onslaught of congratulations. The feast that was thrown that night was completely different from those held back at the human village, the dancing and food was all the same but there were different traditions with the wolves. After everyone was finished eating and all the traditional dance performances were finished the new mates who arrived were lined up and given congratulations, gifts, and wishes of joy and fertility from the pack before being carted off to their houses with the doors locked behind them. It was a flurry of hoots and hollers as older omegas from the village grabbed your arms and older alphas and betas grabbed chanyeol’s and took you back to the small house that was given to your mate before he chose one of his own. After the door clicked shut you observed the surroundings in the house that was more like one large room, there was a large bed covered in lush furs right in the center with a small table and a wash basin off to the side. A few candles gave off a soft glow and there was a small door off to the side which you only hoped led to a bathroom, Chanyeol moved from beside you and kicked off his boots before collapsing on the large bed.

“I really don’t understand this.” You stated before kicking of your boots as well and shedding your layers before sitting down. “I mean why would they lock us in a room together?”

“Well,” Chanyeol chuckled, “Most wolves get told about it by their parents but it’s kind of like an insurance policy after the mating ritual.” He explained, you felt heat rise to your cheeks as you understood what he was insinuating and ducked away which only made him giggle. “Don’t worry, I don’t expect anything since we just came back from a long journey and we already have a bun in the oven.” He assured you.

You sighed and leaned back next to him on the bed. “I have a question.”

“Ask away.”

“Do we have a house or are we going to have to stay here?” You asked before wiggling over as close as your belly would let you, you saw a huge smile find its way onto his face. “Why are you smiling like an idiot?” You demanded before he let out a chuckle.

“You said ‘we’.” He told you.

You felt a blush rising on your cheeks again as you realized what he said, you tried to duck away again but he caught you and pressed a soft kiss against your cheek which was followed by another one against your lips.

“Don’t worry, it was cute and I loved it.” He assured you which made you smile. “And to answer your first question, we do have a house and we can move in as soon as you want.”

“Tomorrow?” You immediately asked which made him laugh a little.

“Tomorrow is perfect, I just hope you like it.” He agreed and kissed the top of your head.

“As long as it’s with you and this little one I’ll love it.” You told him before snuggling even closer than you already were, you two stayed like that for a few more minutes before he started talking again.

“Do you think I’ll be a good dad?�� He asked.

“Of course I do.” You answered almost immediately. “You are one of the most loving and strong people I have ever met and I think you’ll be great.”

“Thank you.” He sighed. “Fo what?”

“For everything, at first I thought I would just mate with you once then ignore the fact completely but now I’m so glad that we’re going to have a family and I couldn’t have picked anyone better.”

“You’re going to make me cryyyyyy.” You whined and he chuckled, “I couldn’t have asked for anyone better either, at first I thought you were a spoiled brat that was the worst of the worst but now I think you’re my favourite person in the entire world.” You sniffed.

“You’re my favourite person as well but your title might be stolen when that little one decides to make an appearance.” he teased and you faked a small pout. “I’m just really sorry because now that we’re back I'm going to have to be away a lot since now everyone and their mother is preparing for me to be appointed head alpha and tensions with the rogues are rising especially after all the run-ins we had on the journey.” He explained.

“I understand and I’ll wait for you.” You assured him, “Just keep the pack safe.”

“Yes mam!”

You giggled and both eventually fell into silence that was soon replaced by soft snores, deep breathes, and dreams.

----

The house was beautiful, you couldn’t have asked for anything better. It was on the edge of the village in a little clearing at the edge of the forest, compared to some of the giant houses other wolves had yours was small but perfect for your small family. There was three bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and Chanyeol assured you that there was room to expand if it was needed but the best part by far was the little fenced off area in the back which was already set up perfectly for a garden. A bashful blush made its way onto his face when he admitted he sent a message ahead with a few of the runners who arrived back at the village first asking for it to be built before you returned. You giggled and squeezed him tight before immediately heading to the shed where all the supplies you’d brought with you were already all set up and you got to work with Chanyeol helping you here and there.

That night Jongin, his mate, Kyungsoo, and his friend MInseok which you had met at the feast the night before all came over for dinner that also doubled as a housewarming party.

“You really should have entered that pie contest back at the festival of fallen leaves!” Chanyeol exclaimed as he devoured another piece of pie. “This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted!”

“You’re just saying that because you haven’t had any decent food in like six months idiot.” You teased him which brought out laughs around the table. The night followed similarly until you bid everyone goodnight and collapsed on the bed beside your mate, immediately falling asleep.

The next month followed much as Chanyeol had warned you about with him rushing around and only seeing you in the mornings, evening, and rare times when you he had a day off. You felt somewhat lonely during the days but your newfound friends helped you and when you saw your mate you immediately forgot about all your worries. News travelled fast through the village when it was announced that the pack from the other side of the river a few miles away would be coming so that a treaty would be formed. Most people thought it was to avoid a war between the two packs but Chanyeol confessed that it was really to provide protection from the growing threat of the rogues that was looming over both packs., they had gotten more violent with more attacks regularly on hunting parties and travellers. Although he hadn’t said it outright you could tell they were preparing for a war which was making you increasingly nervous for you, the pack, and the pup.

----

It was one of the days where you were feeling good enough to move around without your giant belly weighing you down, you could feel your due date approaching faster and faster while Kyungsoo warned you to take it easy since you were finding it harder to do even small tasks. You were out watering your plants in the garden when you heard the crunch of gravel behind you, today was the day the envoy from the other pack was supposed to arrive so Chanyeol had left early that morning.

“Y/n!” Jongin called out as he reached the edge of the gate. “One of the wolves from the other pack is asking for you in town!”

You frowned wondering why a wolf from the neighbouring pack would ask for you but set down your watering can and wadled behind Jongin as fast as you could with a few breaks here and there to the center of the village. You were leaning against Jongin who was probably the only reason you were still walking as you approached the crowd. You could hear the questions from a few feet away as people were chatting with the visitors, Jongin was about to leave you on a bench to go find the wolf when you saw the crowd break and someone walk out. The She wolf was definitely and alpha as she walked through the parted crowd, as soon as her eyes landed on the two of you she broke into run heading in your direction which shocked both you and Jongin but decided to go with it.

“Y/n!” She called out as she got closer. You caught a whiff of her scent in the wind and were vaguely aware of all the eyes following her before you shot up from the bench and waddled over to meet her. You two immediately threw your arms around each other and embraced as best you could with your huge belly in the way.

“Mom.” You whispered into her shoulder as you inhaled the familiar scent that you hadn’t known since you were a baby. Once you broke apart you grabbed her hand a brought her over to where Jongin was still standing at the bench very confused trying to get away from all the eyes.

“Jongin, this is my mom.” You introduced her to your friend and the look of shock on his face when he realized what you said was priceless. Introductions followed quickly after before you finally asked the important questions.

“How did you get here?” You asked once you were all sat down.

She let out a long sigh before replying. “It’s a long story.”

“We have time.” Jongin assured her.

“Well, everyone thinks that I was banished from the pack because Y/n’s father was a rogue who attacked me but that’s not really true. As you know alpha relationships rarely ever work out and are generally frowned upon and that’s part of the story but not all of it. Before either of you were born and before your current head alpha was the leader there was a competition for who would be the next leader, I was one of the candidates. During the competition I fell in love with one of the other candidates and became pregnant with you, I didn’t tell anyone who your father was to protect him but I was quickly removed from the competition. After many months had passed the new current head alpha was selected as a leader and the competition ended around the same time as you were born. He always held a grudge against me throughout our whole lives and once he gained power he fabricated the story that your father was a rogue and banished me but not before I left you here. I ended up joining the pack across the river after I told them what happened but I couldn’t come get you since tensions between the packs were high until now when your next head alpha is taking over and the threat of rogues is growing.”

Everyone was silent for a few moments when she finished.

“I’m just glad you’re finally back.” You breathed out before leaning your head against her shoulder.

“I am too pumpkin but let's talk about you, you’re about to burst!” She exclaimed. “When are you due?”

“The healer said anytime now so I’m just waiting.” You told her.

“Well thank goodness I got here now before I became a grandma.” she teased, “So who’s your mate.”

“Chanyeol.” You whispered.

“Chanyeol as in the next head alpha?”

You nodded your head and she squeezed your shoulder. “You got a good one darling, he mentions you at every turn and you can tell he loves you a lot.”

----

Chanyeol was obviously surprised when you introduced him to your mother but welcomed her with open arms even after she explained the circumstances of your heritage. She ended up staying in one of the extra bedrooms in your house and you were thankful for all the time you had together after so many years of lost time. You learned that she had kept tabs on you through her whole life and you got your green thumb from your father since she couldn’t keep a plant alive for more than a week no matter how much she tried to help you with your garden. At the end of the week you felt like you had known her your whole life until you woke to her shaking you awake.

You opened your eyes groggily to see your mother standing and looking panicked above you, it was only you two in the house since Chanyeol had night watch.

“Y/n an army of rogues were spotted at the border and are moving to attack, we have to go now!” She whispered hurriedly. It took a few moments before you realized what she said and pushed yourself up from bed as best you could and threw a sweater over your nightclothes before following her outside. Your arm was around her shoulders and she was supporting you as you did your best to move forward, breathing heavily. You both heard the crunch of gravel and caught Kyungsoo's scent coming towards you with a sigh of relief.

“I’ll take her, you go help the others!” He called to your mother before she let Kyungsoo take her place.

“Make sure Chanyeol is alright and promise me you’ll come back, I’ve just gotten you back and I can’t lose you again.” You said with teary eyes while squeezing her hands.

“Stay safe.” Your mom whispered before pressing a kiss t your forehead and quickly turning to her wolf form before running away.

“The rest of the omegas and children are in the medical center so we have to get there, okay?” Kyungsoo told you and you nodded. You managed to walk for a few more minutes and were almost to the medical ward before you felt a wave of pain in your stomach and liquid drip down your legs, you let out a groan of pain and looked over at Kyungsoo who was staring at you with wide eyes.

“What’s happening to me?” You whispered as the pain slowly disappeared again.

“I think your water just broke.” Kyungsoo said. You two stared at each other in shock for a few seconds before you heard a howl of pain from the forest and broke out of your trance.

“We need to get to the medical ward because this pup is coming now, can you still walk?” He demanded. You nodded and he wrapped his arm under your shoulders and took most of your weight onto him before starting to move again. You made it a few more meters before another wave of pain washed through you and you let out a low hiss but kept moving. A few minutes later Kyungsoo burst into the medical ward with you on his arm.

“WE NEED HOT WATER AND TOWELS NOW! PREPARE ONE OF THE ROOMS!” He called out to the room of frazzled omegas and children who immediately jumped into action. You were taken by two omegas into a room with a bed and full of medical supplies as others rushed around you gathering supplies.

“It hurts!” You cried out as another wave of pain washed through you and Kyungsoo came and clutched your hands.

He winced as you squeezed them but didn’t make a move to pull them from your grasp. “I know it hurts but just a few more minutes and you can push.”

“Okay…” You breathed out as the pain slowly faded again and you leaned your head back breathing heavily.

“Y/n, I want to warn you that it might be multiple pups so you have to be prepared.” He told you as you let out a low groan, you nodded before he gave you one last squeeze on your hand and disappearing out of your sight. You could hear the battle that was going on at the edge of the forest echoing through the valley, you could hear the battle cries or many wolves and the vicious growls, even the howls of pain and in that moment all you wished for was Chanyeol to be ok.

----

‘Where is Chanyeol?’ she growled to her packmate as she approached the thick of the battle.

‘Where he always is, at the front lines.’ the wolf replied.

She let out an annoyed huff before shaking her head, ‘That boy better survive or I’ll find him in the afterlife and kill him again.’ She growled before bunching her muscles and taking off.

----

Chanyeol let out a hiss of pain as the rogue who was on top of him slashed up his leg. He had been fighting since the first rogues had been spotted over an hour ago and hadn’t been able to figure out anything going on outside of the battle. He’d been in wars before and even if they knew this was coming and were preparing for it he was always shocked at the reality of war, Y/n had been circling through his mind since the first sighting. She was pregnant and had no battle experience but if anything ever happened to her he knew there was no way he could live with himself so he had to get back to her as soon as possible.

The rogue on top of him let out a surprised howl as he was thrown off by another alpha throwing herself into him, he immediately flipped onto his feet ignoring the searing pain and went to go help the alpha he recognized was Y/n’s mother finish fighting off the alpha. Once the rogue was running away with its tail between its legs Chanyeol was yanked behind a large bush.

‘Promise me you won’t get yourself killed.’ she hissed ‘You can’t leave Y/n and your pups alone.’ ‘I won’t I swear.’ He told her.

‘Good now we have to get back out there and finish this.’

----

“Now push!” Kyungsoo exclaimed as you grip on the sheet tightened, you had tried to wait but the pups refused and you had to start pushing. You let out another anguished scream before the pressure suddenly released and you heard a cry.

“It’s a boy!” Kyungsoo called out but you cut him off with another scream as the pressure returned again.

“What’s happening?’ You strangled out as you couldn’t stop yourself from crying out.

“It’s twins, you need to push again!” Kyungsoo called out as you yelled again. You pushed as hard as you could until it felt like you might actually explode before the pressure was relieved once again and didn't return.

“It’s a girl.” Kyungsoo whispered as he placed the two crying babies on your chest. “One girl and one boy.”

You felt tears prick at the edge of your eyes as you looked down and the little wiggling pups who were lying on your chest “Thank you,” you managed to say through ragged breaths, “Is the battle over?”

“Yes, somebody just went to go find Chanyeol and he should be here any second.” He said in a soft voice. “Just rest, you did a really good job.”

Right as he finished his sentence the door burst open and Chanyeol came limping in and collapsed beside you, you could see the tears that were already streaming down his cheeks as he looked at the scene before him.

“They’re so beautiful.” he whispered as he reached out a finger for a tiny hand to grab, he gave the biggest smile you had ever seen as a small fist latched on and refused to let go. “You can’t believe how happy I am.” He told you before pressing a soft kiss onto your lips. “I can’t believe we had twins.”

“Are you okay?” You whispered before reaching up and brushing a stray lock of hair out of his eyes to see the blood dried on his forehead and the bruise blooming on his cheekbone.

“I’m okay don’t worry,” He assured you as he grabbed your hand and held it in his own, “You rest and I’ll go get checked out by Kyungsoo when you’re asleep.”

“But what are we going to name them?” you asked him and he chuckled.

“How about Daewon and Miso?”

“That's perfect.” You sighed and looked at the little pups as they wiggled around.

----

Epilogue

Daewon and Miso were almost a year old when the trail was finally travelable again. The previous head alpha was one of the many casualties in the battle so immediately after Chanyeol was appointed as a replacement, he kept the treaty with the pack across the river in place which had rapidly grown into a close bond between packs. The day when your mother left with the rest of her pack full of tears and sad goodbye, Chanyeol had offered her a place in the pack if she wanted to stay but she declined saying that it wasn’t her pack anymore. You made her promise to visit as often as she could which she happily agreed to before sending her off, you would miss her but you knew that it was what’s best. As your two pups grew your garden did as well until it was flourishing with plant life of every sort but it was still nothing compared to your farm but you knew it was being taken care of well by Irma. You and Chanyeol had never been closer with your little family and now Jongin and his mate were expecting a child of their own which they couldn’t stop asking questions about. It was easy to say that Chanyeol had proven himself wrong and was the best father your pups could have ever dreamed of as he could always make them laugh even when he was grumpy from the many, many sleepless nights.

Now he had proven himself once again as you were all greeted by the human village as you returned for the festival of flowers. You heard the telltale scream before you saw Irma hurtling towards you through the crowd with Songho in tow only to freeze right in front of you when she saw the sleeping baby in your arms.

“When did this happen?” she asked excitedly when she saw the little one yawn.

“Mating ritual.” Chanyeol cut in with a smirk which only surprised her more when she saw the second sleeping baby in his arms. You knocked your shoulder into his and he faked an injury as a blush rose to your face, of course there had been many other encounters after that but it still made you embarrassed when he brought it up.

“There’s two.” Irma whispered in disbelief.

“Daeho,” you said gesturing to the little wriggling baby in your arms, “And Miso.” You said gesturing to the little bundle in Chanyeol’s.

“I knew you’d be a great mom!” She exclaimed before throwing her arm around you as carefully as she could and shooing the two men away. “You have to tell me everything!” She exclaimed before the two of you followed the men who were chatting a few feet ahead as you all headed to the farm. You told her about your whole journey in as much detail as you could muster as you slowly walked down the road, she listened intently making a few comments here and there before launching into her own story.

The farm looked the same as you remembered it in the spring, flowers covering the fields and the river running by with the addition of the second house a little farther away. Irma’s family was just as chaotic as you remembered and the festival was beautiful with flowers covering the entire town and delicious food everywhere. You danced and sang till you felt like you couldn’t walk or talk anymore, It felt like you’d returned back to your childhood as you leaned your head against Chanyeol’s shoulder. You ditched the town festival early and were sitting in the flower lined riverbank with the two sleeping pups in your arms.

“I love you,” you sighed into his shoulder as you listened to the rush of the river and the music from the town in the distance.

“Then why don’t we expand on our little family?” He teased and you elbowed him.

“You’re such a dog.”

“I was just kidding,” He wheezed as you placed your head back on his shoulder, “I love you too and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.” He whispered before placing a small kiss on each of your cheeks, your forehead, your nose, and the leaning down to capture your lips with his.

414 notes · View notes

notguiltylol-blog · 5 years

Text

heres a big post for lifters that i hope may be helpful!

personal experiences of stores:

keep in mind, these may not all be accurate for every location! each location is likely different in some ways. try to scope out a store and figure out if its gonna be busy before you go to lift. most importantly, if you think you NEED to leave, then LEAVE. drop your items if necessary, keep your safety first.

all of these stores are places ive either lifted from several times or have done extensive research on and lifted from!

u/ta: cameras in most areas except haircare. usually at least three employees working, usually minding their own business but walking around. a lot of items (including lipkits, mini n@ked makeup palettes, hair dye, etc) are not tagged !!! somewhat easy as long as you body conceal well and dont get too greedy! i got five masks, one mini palette, one normal sized palette, one lipstick, a lipkit, and a few other items in one haul (all body concealed, not slipped in bags).

hot top!c: the one at my mall has only certain clothing tagged. no makeup tagged and no accessories tagged. they sometimes count your items for the dressing rooms. no cams so its easy to focus on simply hiding from the workers, also theres only at MOST two workers in smaller ones, maybe more in bigger ones. its pretty easy if its a smaller store.

rue 2 1 (if theres one near you): theres a bit of walking space between the entrance and the towers (if that makes sense) and i believe the towers may be fake. the underwear and accessories arent tagged, but bras and most clothes over about $15 are. most of the time they dont count clothes but you need an assiociate to open a room. its beginner level for lifters.

v s: they have big dome cameras and possibly hidden ones as well and watch out, the workers are on track. in the dressing room i accidentally ripped the paper tag (without even realizing) while concealing and before i even left the employee helping me said on her earpiece "we had a walkout for ____." they count items and have an associate usually in the dressing rooms, along with two other workers. there are some places to conceal however. id say v s is between easy and difficult, you probably need practice concealing on floor and not looking sus to associates because they pay a lot of attention.

wa/mart: now ive heard many mixed opinions. some say they wont fuck with walmart while walmart is easiest for others. lots of the workers at my walmart dont really care about their job, so theyre not constantly walking around and keeping a close eye on you. most items are not tagged. best concealing method in my opinion is to body conceal in blindspots and then detag in the bathrooms. blindspots i know of are the toy section, pet section, and some areas of the food section. do not fucking conceal in the beauty or pharmacy sections!!!! dont!!! my walmart is personally so easy, but one just twenty minutes away is really secure and ppl get caught all the time! the safest time to go is later in the night (if possible, after midnight as thats when lp leave i think).

b & bw: they have dome cams in one side of the store and the other side has many blindspots to conceal behind. i dont believe items are tagged but some might be!!! ive never had a tag on an item. theres only one or two workers but they are attentive. id say likely dont worry if they talk to you a bit, they are likely just doing your job. but if you feel genuinely anxious, drop and leave. can be easy or difficult depending on the workers and amount of customers

here are some things to remember when lifting:

-even if you dont think youre in view of a camera, some stores have hidden ones! some wa/marts do!

-at sephor@(?) and u/ta, and possibly other stores with expensive makeup, certain items, like the n@ked palettes, have the infamous white box. most recently i went to u/ta and picked up a n@ked palette to look at it (i somehow didnt know of the white boxes) and when i sat it down, it beeped!!!!! not too loudly, but it was definitely noticable! so be careful and probably dont lift things with the box..

-find blindspots!! this is obvious but make sure youre hidden from cameras AND people!! if you do end up being accused by lp, if theres no footage and you body concealed, they mostly find the customer innocent!

here are some of my favorite concealing methods:

(eventually ill post pics of these methods for yall)

-body concealing: my go to method! its the least risky in my opinion!! some ways ive body concealed is by wearing tight leggings under jeans (not baggy but not skinny), high waisted underwear (sort of like waist trainer undies), binders (helpful for my fellow masc presenting lifters!), and loose but stylish clothing.

if you wear a tight pair of leggings under jeans, it can hide undie lines if you wear more than one pair of them out and can also hide small item like jewelry, lipsticks etc.

high waisted undies/waist trainers are a blessing!! ive snatched things like big bottles of lotion, $50 palettes, hair dye, and clothing by concealing on floor then fixing any lumps in a dressing room!

binders are probably my last resort when im lifting. i am often wearing a binder when lifting, and there have been occasions in which ive had no way to conceal everything id like without stuffing the small items in (in a dressing room ofc). its painful for a bit, as binders are tight and compressing, but its worth it for the items! for this method you should definitely wear stylish dark looser clothing.

loose clothing is beneficial for body concealing many bigger items and making big hauls! the key to this is looking stylish! loose clothing can be sus to lp if its not the right weather and not fashionable.

ill make a part two of this soon if this post gets good feedback! part two will mention more methods, dos and donts, and more uncommon things that some lifters may not know!

16 notes · View notes

tumblunni · 5 years

Text

I LOVE YOKAI WATCH SO MUCH

All these monsters are just so soft and the music is great and there's so much craftsmanship put into the environments i keep finding new tiny lil secret animations for stuff?? Like when you go into houses you take off or put on your shoes, when you cross the street you press the button on the traffic lights, when you run and stop real fast you do a slide, YOU CAN RUN UP AND SLIDE DOWN ACTUAL SLIDES, you can sneak behind houses to find secret routes and crawl underneath stuff cos youre short, when yoy run too much ypu get winded for a few seconds, and ONLY JUST NOW i discovered you can use all the equipment in the school's outdoor gym field by walking up against it, and theres several shortcuts because of this! You can climb up the rope strengtg test thingie and then POLE VAULT OVER THE WALL holy shit this kid is hella reckless but i appeciate cutting a good two minutes off my commute across the town.

And can i say that the idea of an open world town game is really really fuckin good?? Its just like all those open world explorations except its in an urban area instead. Like this town is HUGE! And theres so many hidden areas in alleyways behind houses and roads under roads and stuff. Lots of places where they placed a treasure chest in just the right spot to say "hey this area is reachable!" and then yoy have such a great time figuring out how! And so much is already open just at the start of the game, ive got totally sucked into this!! I've already found a few places thatre clearly intended for later in the game but they open up JUST enough early on for you to get a taste and feel hyped to come back later!! There's a sewer dungeon and a mine tunnel dungeon that you can just get one floor into and see hints of where theres treasure chests or boss enemies you'll someday be able to reach! And aaaa ive had this delay in the lp's progress cos i got so sucked into finding all the yokai currently available. Thats the BEST part of the open world town stuff! You dont just find monsters as random encounters or in special supernatural areas, the whole damn slogan of the thing is Yokai Are Everywhere! You're encouraged to search under vending machines, cars, windowsills, plantpots, flowerbeds, trees, lakes, sewers, trash cans and goddamn everything!!! All the actual town stuff in the town is a monster spawning spot, and the randomized nature of it means theres always a reason to run around town even if youve already been somewhere. There's always only (for example) three or four trashcans around the town that have Dimmy, out of like 15. And you have a radar system to track them down so its super fun! And then theres some rare spots which are kinda frustrating, like hungramps only in the cardboard box in one alleyway and pupsicle only in one of tge many ponds which honestly doesnt make sense. That one took the longest to grind! Oh and there's the weirdness of Slush's recolour Droplet which is THE SAME COLOUR except slightly darker! Its only rare cos you dont notice when you got one, lol. Apparantly it has an even rarer version but that one's bright red, thankfully! Cant get that one yet tho, otherwise id keep grinding for even more hours lollll

Aaaa my heart just feels so full when i play this game! It really captures the fun of exploring new places as a kid! Sucks that im not allowed to run arpund collecting cute snails now i'm an adult, but this captures the feeling of it more than pokemon does. Its possibly the reason why pokemon go was so monumentally popular? But i think this captures the feeling of more interactively SEARCHING for your monsters while also having the actual substance to back it up and keep you playing. Also it has such loving replication of childhood! I already mentioned the cute animations giving personality to your kid, but there's also the little touch that currency is in kiddy bucks. I.e. you gain smaller amounts of pennies from all money sources, and working up to £5 feels like 4000g in other games. Tho ive actually been grinding so long that i have £400 now! Im spending it on food to give all my monster friends!!! THEY ALL HAVE FAVOURITE FOODS AAA IM FEEDING A SENTIENT WALL A POT NOODLE one of the monsters is a fake wall with legs yo these designs are SO cute! Bit of a missed opportunity tho that its just a random find in grassy areas when it could have been its own minigame maybe? Like, test how well youre memorizing this giant map by having one out of place wall appear somewhere and you need to find it. There's a hide and seek minigame in every game this company's ever made so i'll be sad if there's not one here!

Aaaanyway the wall is the last yokai i need to grind for and then FINALLY i will resume the goddamn tutorial and get past the first story event, lol. Really i feel like they shouldnt have opened up the world so much so early, ive got sooooo sidetracked by joy~!

The lil wall guy is named Noway aaa i love them...

Oh oh oh and ive accidentally got attatched tp some yokai i didnt really like the designs of, cos the way they play in battle is so creative and useful! Currently my big pal is Leadoni ("lead-on" + oni aka goblin). Theyre a weird kinda mehh design thats a neat concept but the execution is weird. Cos their supernatural power is making you get lost, they have one giant hand doing a beckoning gesture, and one tiny one waving a little flag. But what makes the design meh to me is that otherwise the design is just 100% a generic cutesy oni like in any other game. So it looks kinda extra gross to have a massive muscley hand on a tiny child thing. I feel like the more cutesy you make the body the more creepy that hand is, lol! But its really useful in battle cos it leads enemies astray too, it takes attacks that were originally targeting its teammates. Thats just so kind!!! So i feel bad that i named mine Doomfist and Foomdist XD i didnt expect id use them so much! But i like that the game is so good it made me go "aww kind babby" even for the one design that looked legit scary to me. BABBY PROTECTS THEY FAMBLY AAAAA

God i love this game...

#bunni plays yokai watch

7 notes · View notes

fujoshiandfudanshisupport · 6 years

Text

you say that the submit box is for sharing stories, so here we go. im gonna type out the reason why i enjoy BL as a girl.

It’s because I’m absolutely terrified of men. Not because of a single traumatic incident or anything, but because of a lot of smaller things that built up throughout my life. its mostly because of my mom– she raised me to believe that men are evil. lets just say she taught me about rape before she taught me about consensual sex. she kept telling me that men are predatory, and that i always have to watch out for them. it didnt help that my older brother was really mean to me. i was also bullied a lot by boys throughout school. i was an easy target because i was quiet and nerdy. in middle school, one of my bullies punched me in the face, and im still mad about it. it reminded me of how powerless i was. i couldnt fight back, because he was stronger than me. almost all boys are stronger than me.

and because of the media, its so easy to hear about the horrible things men do to women every day. and i had a radfem phase about a year ago, and that certainly didnt help. theres just so many misogynistic men in the world and its depressing.

of course, logically, i know that not all men are evil. but fear isnt rational. i cant help it. i wasnt “logic-ed” into this, so i cant be “logic-ed” out of it. im working on overcoming this, but its difficult. it might take years. in the meantime, i just want to cope with it however i can.

so, because of my fear of men, i just cant enjoy m/f content. because id subconsciously self-insert as the girl in the couple, it would feel like the boy was attracted to me personally. its ingrained in my mind that boys being attracted to girls is predatory, so i cant stand the idea of a boy being attracted to me, or touching me, or god forbid having sex with me. not to mention that m/f content is filled with tropes im not a fan of.

so with m/m, i can explore my attraction to boys from the sidelines, where im out of the picture. its a way for me to explore the idea of sex and relationships in a way that makes me feel safe. and also, since a lot of BL is made by and for women, i can relate to it a lot better even if its not about women, if that makes sense.

it kinda of frustrates me that theres the sentiment going around that girls shouldnt be reading BL at all because its “fetishizing mlm”. its really not. when i read a story about two anime boys, i dont think of real mlm at all. and when i see real life mlm i dont assume that theyre like the boys in BL comics because… i know that its not real. i can read fiction without taking it literally. i feel like anti-fujoshi people dont give teenage girls (and even women) enough credit. like… we’re not stupid lol.

i still remember that one post that was like “hey 13 year old girls on this website, i know how hard it is to explore your sexuality under the patriarchy, but dont use yaoi to do it because its problematique uwu”. it frustrates me because they didnt offer any alternatives. if they cant use BL, and everything else makes them uncomfortable for one reason or another, what else are they suppose to do? not explore their sexuality at all? thats just unfair.

sorry if this was a little rant-y, or if it didnt make much sense. i just wanted to get this off my chest somehow. if other pro-fujoshi/pro-shipping blogs want to reblog this, then you can go ahead. maybe anti-fujoshi people will see this and maybe understand why girls like BL, and that they dont read it for the sole purpose of spiting mlm. thats probably wishful thinking though, but whatever. and if someone wants to argue with this, pls keep in mind that im still a teenager, and im a pretty sensitive person, so just… be nice lmao. you wont change my mind about anything by being mean.

153 notes · View notes

dsa1980 · 5 years

Photo

The most painful, but most straight forward bit of today.

My head is a mish mash, although a tidy eyebrow mish mash!

I had decided for my updated blog I wanted to go all ‘Homes under the Hammer’ and find a cornily related song to the entry, but struggling to find one that can sum up the wierd thoughts and sensations I have had today.

Maybe that can be left for next time and you just have this lovely photo instead!

I’m sure you’re all dying to know:

Mircroblading was totally doable, the first ‘pass’ wasn’t comfortable, a mix between the sensation of waxing really long hairs, and a needle scratching your skin. Not pleasant but as long as you keep chatting and trying to not think about it, is over relatively quickly, and to not have to draw my eyebrows on anymore is sooooo worth it. On reflection this morning, it’s great not to have to put loads of makeup on, and the colour is great. Thanks @aimeebaesthetics

(Very glad i didn’t cry like some of my friends reported!)

On to the ‘gritty stuff’ though, the stuff that you probably want to know, many people have asked me about but which unfortunately is very complicated and mixed up in my brain.

The ‘short’ version:

Chemo starts (probably) on 15th June - a Saturday!?!

I am having some more scans and a portocath fitted in advance, so LOTS more hospital visits.

I will have chemo every week for 12 weeks, a mix of Paclitaxol and Carboplatin (which is supposed to be THE treatment) for Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC). Apparently its unlikely i’ll be able to tolerate a full 12 weeks at full dose (although my onc obviously doesn’t realise that i now see that as a challenge!) and i might be allowed a week off at some point for a break away, which i hope to do to have something to look forwards to.

When you start to ask . . . and then what, it gets complicated, and uncertain.

If you can be bothered, here’s the ‘long’ version. I have had to speak to Breast Cancer Care this morning to better understand this myself as its all quite confusing.

My cancer is (typical!) non-standard in that it can’t be clearly boxed ‘primary’ or ‘secondary’.

The fact that it is outside of the original site means that it is a regionally advanced, and not strictly primary anymore. A few years ago this would be considered as metastatic, stage 4 incurable, but treatable,

Drugs, research and just numbers of people they study going through this, means that now, they tend to consider it treatable, however I am at a higher risk of it happening again.

The nurse described it more like a chronic illness than a one off disease, i.e. i might have recurrences again and they will be treatable again. I am just hoping that 1) they scan me more often so we can identify the recurrences sooner and 2) someone hurries up and finds a drug that gets rid of it forever, so i don’t have this regular life-interrupting situation.

Partly due to this complication, the oncologist seemed unsure of what would be my best course of action and whether i should pay for some private molecular breakdowns of my tumour, some genetic testing using my saliva and chemotherapy profiling on the node in my neck if i could pay to get it taken out - but then he said that would be costly. He seemed to talk himself out of most of this, so i left feeling like i’d been in a washing machine with everything spinning round in circles but ultimately coming out the same!

I need some more scans to get a more detailed view and check theres not some smaller tumours in nodes not picked up by CT, and to see whats ‘moving around’ before he starts chemo and, i think, to use as benchmarks to see if treatment is working.

I will need ‘something’ else after chemo but again, he doesn’t seem to have decided whether it should be surgery (if chemo works it might be hard to work out what nodes need removing) or radiotherapy, and also maybe an old chemo drug that they don’t use any more but which TNBC reacts well to apparently.

I think thats probably all the formal ‘news’.

I now need to work out what to do about my hair, get a voucher to get a new wig and my old one mended if possible, find out what other support is around and work out how on earth I plan life, work, fun around a weekly drug! (with a blood test appt a few days before).

Fun Fun Fun!!!

(Wierdly though - i still feel pretty normal and positive, waiting for a crash - i am sure it will happen at some point!)

#microblading #tnbc #fucancer #phibrows #youngbreastcancer #ybcn

0 notes

sweetlifetownsville · 5 years

Text

The Massive Difference Between 'Buy Local' And 'Local Buy' ... How Mayor Mullet Has Played The Townsville Business Community For Mugs.

Jenny Hill has traded on a trick of language to fool Townsville into thinking she is a champion for local workers and business, when the exact opposite is the case. It all revolves around the Local Government Association of Queenslands business arm called Local Buy and it is a deliberate play on words to line the coffers of the LGAQ. As The Pie reports, this one looks murky indeed. Also, the Townsville Bulletin goes beyond beyond parody, with one of their biggest side-splitting bungles yet and overall, it was a week you couldnt make up unless of course, youre the Bulletin. And is rebel councillor Paul The Angry Ant Jacob shaping up to take on The Mullet well, he may well have delusions of popularity and adequacy for a tilt in 2020 but there will be one powerful group that will try to block him. Also, the funniest comment on a news story this week comes from the most unlikely place and by popular demand, our regular pictorial gallery from Trumpistan. But first The shared thought-fart of the week belongs to One Notions P Hanson and the Katteronics R Katter. No sooner had Hanson quavered tremulously over the radio that people on the dole should be put to work catching cane toads at ten cents a pop, than Katter jumped on this creaky bandwagon and and upped the ante.

Bob Katter (right). Columnist James Jeffrey once wrote the Bob uses words like a cliff in Norway uses lemmings, and during the week, the member for Kennedy obliged with proof when he gurgled, giggled, sneered and croaked out his proposal that kids should catch the toads for 40 cents a time and be armed with air rifles to get the job done. It all makes one think that both Hanson and Katter are still smarting from their latest rejection letters from The Mensa Society, but the ever-practical Bentley thinks no matter how the creatures are caught, there might be a bit of a flaw in the idea.

Gosh, kids could be recruited under the banner of The Toady Army oh, hang on, maybe not, Townsville City councillors might sue for copyright. Is The LGAQs Nice Little Earner LOCAL BUY Costing Townsville A Motza? Some well credentialed business folks around town at increasingly frustrated with the little-understood Queensland Local Government Associations business arm Buy Local. And on the face of what two well-placed identities have told The Pie, the whole set-up looks ripe for rorts of all sorts, even progressing to very serious corruption unless proper transparency is in place. First this landed in the Nests inbox from a respected and successful Townsville businessman. Just wanted to highlighta program that shows that Mayor Mullet cannot only stuff Townsville as Mayor, she is also doing it as a Director of LGAQ against local businesses who payrent/rates and employ people.Townsville City Council is among those Queensland Local Councils using LGAQ Local Buy to avoid going to tender locally, allowing them toappoint out of town contractors with the LGAQ taking a cut (understood to be 10% of any contract, which of course is just added on to what the cost would otherwise be). Townsville businesses who were previously and successfully supplying services to Council have lost out under this scheme with many being forced to the business and had to put off staff. Any complaints about the dire situation made to Richard The Screaming Midget Beckett (no longer with the council met with threats that they would be locked out of any Council tenders in the future all under the culture from the Impailer and Mayor Mullet . To be an approved Local buy supplier you have to apply and I think pay an amount to be approved and there is a period of 5 years in which other similar other local businesses cant even apply. Momentum for change must be building as this excerpt from a letter from Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchcliffe indicates, after he received a petition complaining about the situation.

Also, has anyone questioned the $400k yearly service agreement between T.C.C . and the LGAQ and does the Mullet disclose her Directors fees from LGAQ ? As a LGAQ director, Jenny Hill, pops into her purse $31,000 p.a ta very muchly. Under the circumstances, that could be seen as blood money, since she must know the hardship this state-wide legalised rort is costing Townsvilles well-being. The Nest has received a number of complaints about Local Buy, but until this week, The Pie didnt have a coherent idea of what was happening so to get an independent assessment, The Magpie asked a business professional well versed in both business and LG matters to give this over-view. Given the current climate of spite and uncertainty, the person asked to remain anonymous. Local Buy is flawed in many aspects, even if one were to concede that its creation was well intentioned.Lets give them the benefit of the doubt to start with procurement can be complex and costly. Good procurement practice (eg. due diligence, evaluation requiring technical expertise etc) could be provided as a shared service, so that smaller organisations can in effect benefit from the capabilities of a larger organisation able to hire the appropriately skilled personnel. Theres also the prospect of negotiating better aggregate rates on the basis of aggregated volume. Thats the theory. The reality is that it is nowhere near this. Im not sure about the 5-year protection racket claim, but I do know that getting on the list involves not much more than paying some fees and ticking some boxes. This means a local council is more or less free to then pick and choose from the list, subject to the requirements of the LG Act. Magpie note: This means that the TCC can choose from a list based solely on price, which often means true locals cannot compete. This raises a moral question of whether it is more desirable to pay perhaps a bit more locally and materially contribute to a more vibrant local economy than to simply save some money because outside organisations that make no real contributions to our city. And it is this part of the system that is clearly open to corrupt influences. The Pie knows of none, but its an open invitation to it. Local Buy of course takes a Commission, from memory 10%, from registered suppliers when they win work, so in the end the potential benefits of savings arent materialised. Suppliers actually add the commission in. Theres also real doubt as to whether the Local Buy organisation actually has any real procurement capability. As a result, the tendency is for increasingly standardised or vanilla offerings, because thats the nature of generalised procedures run by people with limited specialisation and knowledge of local requirements or specialist areas eg, technology. Local Buy is a misnomer, of course. It neither compels nor guarantees procurement by a local authority from suppliers located within this authoritys area. Having said that, what goes to constituting local is never actually an easy question to answer, which makes a mockery of the entire buy local trope. One other thing on the Local Buy (and council procurement in general): theres a category called standing offer arrangement. This is basically a set of approved rates for services / products that a council can basically go back to time after time, without going out to tender. In theory, not a bad thing for pencils, paper clips and such like but as is always the case in procurement easily abused or at the very least, mis-used. The Magpie thanks the author for that succinct summary. It would certainly appear that we are being dudded one way or the other, but two things raise the Magpies curiosity: what do we get for our $400k annual contribution to the LGAQ? And noted in hindsight, just as this Local Buy system was being introduced, Mayor Mullet started dropping in the odd buy local slogan the timing appears to havde been there to fool people when they started hearing about local buy. Low level chicanery at its worst, spread about at the very time it now appears the council Jenny Hill heads was doing exactly the opposite. For Jenny Hill to trumpet the buy local cry is the height of hypocrisy, anyway. One of the very first acts she did when first elected mayor was to buy her new mayoral car (a top of the line Holden at around $70-$80,000) IN BRISBANE AND STIFFED THE RATEPAYERS TO HAVE IT SHIPPED HERE. And why was this? Because she had had a previous fight with Tony Ireland of TI Holden about repairs her previous vehicle, which she had mildly pranged into a gutter _ Ireland point blank refused her request to illegally mark it down as an accident insurance claim, which it clearly wasnt. Even although the Ireland company agreed to match the Brisbane price, Jenny Hill went ahead with the Brisbane deal anyway. Shes a sweet piece of work sometimes.

So if youre ever thinking if its true that local business people are fearful of spiteful retribution if they disagree with this civic leader, just keep that in mind. And Heres An Interesting Thought Wonder if Local Buy had anything to do with the controversial choice of pipe for the new Burdekin line, and did Local Buytb have anything to do with the pipeline jobs that went to Adelaide in stead of the promised boon to Townsville? Just askin. ya know. Yes The Astonisher Has Gone Beyond Parody The satirists lot is not a happy one lately. I mean, how do you make fun of something like the Bulletin that is so unintentionally crazy-funny to start with? Is this a secret plot to spike The Magpies guns? Last Tuesday, this appeared on page 16 as the editorial page of the Townsville Bulletin.

This is a stupendous blunder in a Townsville publication, that through their typical technical ineptness, the hard copy paper had published THE CAIRNS POST EDITORIAL PAGE the community voice (supposedly) of any newspaper. The editorial was of bugger all interest here, as well as being pretty stupid, anyway. It even had the Cairns deputy iditor signing it under the Townsville Bulletin masthead.

There was a time when this bit of prize fuckwittery wouldve caused an uproar, given the sensitive feelings between the two cities, but it appears weve been bludgeoned into not caring about the Bulletin anyway. Honestly, if it were not for the circle-jerk leadership of this city, the mayor and the head of Townsville Enterprise would be so incensed by this particular A community without a responsible newspaper is like a beautiful woman with only one eye (apologies to Brillat-Savarin). But still the harmless laughs kept coming. There was this story

which included this quote from one of the ladies of the night about southern blow-in blow-job competition on the streets: Theres false advertising, they send out a photo of a really hot looking chick and when they get there its some frumpy number. The girls have had a gutful of it This has been brewing for ages. Yknow, Thd Magpie thinks the lady might have a point. What sort of deceptive, conniving, immoral low-life would stoop to such trickery. Bet it would never happen in the Townsville Bulletin, would it? Huh, what? oh, oops.

But even when credibility-destroying cock-ups are right before their eyes, they still get into the paper. One should feel sorry for a decent old-time journo like Tony Raggatt, having his pic plastered between these clearly conflicting claims (the list clearly being nothing to with him).

But The Astonisher makes it easy to err take the piss.

This reeks of wreaking havoc on the language. Is The Angry Ant About To Up The Ante?

Paul Jacob Paul Jacob knows a cushy number when he sees one he is after all a Townsville City councillor. But it would seem our man is a tad more ambitious. The Ant broke ranks against Mayor Mullets Adani airstrip rort, conveniently just before he made an abortive run for state as a Labor-aligned but not endorsed candidate. Ever since, he has been regarded as a rebel ever since among the council sheeple and certainly by head shepherd Jennifer. So when he was front-paged in todays Astonisher

calling for an easing of water restrictions, many a pundit including The Pie, immediately assumed this was the signal for a Jacob joust for the top office in Walker Street. And that will be tricky. Unless Mayor Mullet abdicates and retires to malta, or runs on a Labor senate ticket her dearest wish but said not be shared by those who could make it so Clr Jacob will come under some intense pressure and even be flattered with promises of future glory by the Labor Party. Because despite her simpering shy denials of being a Labor mayor, Jenny Hill is, and is seen as, just that, and mainly by Labor itself. The party back room boys reckon mayor is as far as shes going, so they wouldnt rock what they see as a returnable vote boat in local government in March 2020. They know poor old Dolan Hayes will need Ashley and Martin soon with all the hair-tearing last thing the already beleaguered mayor needs is a Labor split ticket. But trust the Bulletin to come galumphing on to this particular scene with a few editorial bromides, but the best being this hilarious piece of total unselfawareness in an iditorial, which clearly is not Astonisher editorial policy.

Take your own advice, dearie. But Does The Pie Detect A Sly Dissension In The Senior Ranks At The Paper? Although The Pie doubts the feeling is mutual, he has great respect for the old-style work and values of John Ando Anderson he offers a very readable weekly service to the valuable rural readership of the paper, which clearly involves actual field work, and not just a few phone calls or, heaven forbid, lazy Facebook trolling. Now, Ando is nothing if not a steadfastly loyal News Ltd man; he has reason to be, the company spared no expense successfully defending him against spurious charge brought by the DPP over a jail interview almost 20 years ago. But The Pie couldnt help wonder if he wasnt trying to get a subtle message into the editors ear when writing today about Townsvilles landscape of words, waffle and impossible dreams.

Gotta love that line Pep talks are good for morale, but in the end, they start to sound like the boy crying wolf. And that, Ando, described PRECISELY the Bulletin editorial policy. very funny. Clever too, if The Pie is right. Pop in and have a chat to , will you? For all of us. Ghosts Of Iditors Past:Theres A Reason Hes Called Typo Gleeson

Typo Gleeson leaving an unsuccessful job interview as editor of Tailor & Cutter magazine. If you believe Sky Newss squeak fest hosted by Peter Typo Gleeson (sorry, only kidding) you might think David Crisafulli is returning to town for a special job and the head of TEL has changed her name.During the week, ww were treated too a hindenberg of hot air when Lil Patty OCallaghan and state opposition pollie Kid Crisafulli fielded a number of Dorothy Dixers from Typo. But one would think it was Typo in charge of the on-screen titling.

And when they got around to realising their mistake, in typical Typo fashion, they got that wrong too.

And Another Thing .. Best comment of the week goes to the bloke who replied to a totally embarrassing piece of nonesense in the paper about whether we are a friendly city. He suggested that of course we are we even wave to you from the roof of the Cleveland Detention Centre as you drive in from the airport. Luv it! Just what such a space-waste story deserved. Finally Its Been Another week of Wall-To-Wall umm .. Wall And we start with Mexico announcing the obvious

A Final Dad Joke (Well, Worked As A Granddad Joke)

Oh dear sorry. .. Thats it for another week, were off and running for 2019, its promising to be a cracker. There are a wider variety of folks taking to comments of late, keep it up, some are thoughtful, some hilarious, so entertain and be entertained. And if you have anything left over from the festive season, a donation to support The Magpies Nest will be of great assistance, the how to donate button is below. http://www.townsvillemagpie.com.au/the-massive-difference-between-buy-local-and-local-buy-how-mayor-mullet-has-played-the-townsville-business-community-for-mugs/

0 notes

burgermiester · 7 years

Text

Grinding Renown Made Fun!*

*Grinding for Renown in Fire Emblem Awakening is never really fun. Its tedious, and if you want to max it out it will take many, many hours. This guide is just to show you how I made it as fun as I could while still keeping it relatively fast and efficient. Maybe you will want to try it for yourself or make a variation based on what you like.

(also note that my method uses a lot of the DLC so if you dont have at least Lost Bloodlines 2 and Smash Brethren 2 for Dread Fighter and Bride then it probably wont work very well, but maybe you can modify it, I am not sure. It also would probably be nice to have Lost Bloodlines 3 for Paragon and I liked having all stats +2 from Champions of Yore 3 but those 2 arent necessary)

For starters I want to be very clear that everyone knows this isnt technically the fastest way to grind renown. The fastest way to grind renown is exactly what it says on the wiki: make a ton of money on golden gaffe then summon a weak/cheap character, pay to recruit them, then dismiss them, repeat 2000 times. I tried doing this on a file where I was at endgame and I found it terribly boring, which in turn meant it was not the fastest way for me to grind renown since it would take me forever to find the energy to do it.

So when deciding how I wanted to grind renown for myself I had a few objectives: fight the spotpass characters, not buy them, and make fighting them as quick as possible; minimize the number of spaces that a spotpass character could spawn when I summon them to cut down on walking around the world map; minimize the number of times that I go into the wireless menu to make it easier to multitask (basically it was harder to watch movies or tv in the background using the fastest method since its so menu heavy, so I wanted to cut that time spent down); if possible, completely eliminate the need to manage items on my units. I solved all these issues and these are the steps of my method (the Miester Method?):

Step 0: Grind supports before you even start grinding renown. Grinding out supports is much more interesting than grinding renown. You get new dialogue after most fights and a lot of it is interesting. Just make sure you are grinding on spotpass characters instead of risen since spotpass fights/purchases give the most renown, that way you are maximizing your gains for when you run out of supports to grind and are ready to move onto proper renown grinding.

Step 0.1: Pray your past self really loved playing Awakening. Just having played the game a lot normally will put you in a nice starting position. By the time I finished support grinding gen 1 and moved on to renown grinding I was at nearly 45,000 renown, close to half of the 99,999 max. I cant recall how much of that was support grinding on spotpass characters and how much was there from just playing a ton of Awakening, I forgot to check, but both helped.

OK, now on to the actual steps for renown grinding.

Step 1: Start a new game. You arent challenging yourself here so just go normal casual.

Step 2: Play the game up until Chapter 8 (but dont play chapter 8.) Also beat Paralogues 1 and 3 but not 2. This should have your world map looking like this:

The reason you want to do this is because it leaves your world map with exactly 10 empty spaces in which to summon spotpass characters. As 10 is the maximum number of spotpass units you can summon at once, having 10 spots on the map lets you spend the least amount of time in the wireless menu. Its also good to not allow more than 10 free spots because every extra square you add means more time wasted walking across the map. This is why its not a good idea to do this grinding at endgame: you could be on Donnel’s island and summon a bunch of spotpass units in Valm and vice versa.

Now, as for why I picked prologue-chapter 7 and paralogue 1 and 3 over other choices for my 10 map spots, it mostly came down to map layout. They are all small early game chapters that take only 2-3 turns to beat on auto battle most of the time. Paralogue 2 was much too big and would take more turns to beat and Chapter 8 is full of turn adding desert. Remember, youll be fighting MANY battles in these maps, an extra turn or two each time translates to hundreds of extra turns in the long run. That being said, I want to emphasize that if you havent gotten lucky getting second seals from the random shop annas, you should play chapter 8. Chapter 8 gives you Gregor and another second seal, Gregor is especially important because hes got armsthrift without using a second seal (more on that in a bit). I had already gotten 1 other second seal from Anna by the time I got to chapter 7 so I chose to not play chapter 8, whether or not you do is up to you. If you choose to play chapter 8 then you need to cut either paralogue 1 or 3. Paralogue 1 is a smaller map so will be more likely to give you a 2 turn clear over paralogue 3′s 2-3 turn clear, but paralogue 3 gives you a store with access to javelins and hand axes, two weapons that are very nice to have.

Step 3: Build an Army. Trust Armsthrift. Now its time to prepare your team. The maximum number of units youll need to field in any of these battles is 9. If you go under 9 youll need to waste time in battle prep deselecting units, and we dont want that, so getting to 9 units is important. To eventually get to a point where you never need to buy items for your units youll want armsthrift on your whole team. Unfortunately theres a few hurdles to jump to make this happen since we only are at chapter 7/8. First, we dont have our full team to pull from and second we cant buy second seals. Naturally we will need to get as many spotpass units with armsthrift as we can, but only 5 come with armsthrift: Malice, Linus, Ike, Roy, and Ogma. This means youll need 4 second seals to get a full armsthrift team. Robin, Cordelia, Donnel, and spotpass characters can reclass to mercenary this way. You will have one second seal from renown rewards meaning you need 3 more from anna shops (or only one if you choose to do chapter 8 and get Gregor and another second seal.) Chrom is a good temporary member while you train up your team since he has an unbreakable weapon, but sadly its only 1-range which is not going to cut it since enemies will always attack him at 2 range making battles last at least 1 turn longer than they would otherwise. As for the actual training, do Yore 3 over and over to collect all skills plus 2 for everyone and gain levels to be better prepared for Bloodlines 2 and 3 which are a bit tougher but also get better rewards (and youll be doing Bloodlines 2 a hell of a lot to get all the dread scrolls youll need to reset levels until everyone has max luck.) Bear in mind you will need limit break to go over 50 luck, but just capping it normally or even just pushing it into the 40s then giving all your dread fighters and brides a full inventory of hand axes or javelins will make it so that your stops at the armory are few and very far between.

(optional step: if you have golden gaffe then once your units are decently strong run it 5-10 times and then never think about money again)

Step 4: Setting up the grind. By now you are ready to fire up a couple of rounds of proper spotpass grinding. You might want to wait until you have a full team of limit broken armsthrifters but I recommend waiting a bit, I will explain why in a sec. So I will now give the rundown on the actual grinding that will probably become auto-pilot like for you before too long. Open the wireless menu, go to bonus box and bonus teams and summon 10. If your team isnt maxed out then I say pull the first 5 from one game and the first 5 from another, just to be sure you wont run into anything that kills you. You are on casual, so its not normally a big deal if a unit dies in this process, but if its Chrom or Robin its a game over, and even if its not thats stopping for a text box which slows you down. I recommend the shadow dragon and binding blade teams because there are no cleric/troubadour team leaders who slow things down by not killing themselves on your units and theres no armor knight leaders (and few armor knight other units) who sometimes add turns by not making it to your units as quickly in the bigger maps. Dont save after every battle, it adds like 3 seconds each time, just do it after every cycle (10 battles). If your units are over the 50 luck line give them their best weapons and let them go to town. If they are under 50 then give them a full set of hand axes for dread fighters and javelins for brides and they will last dozens of cycles before you need to restock their inventory. If you are still using Chrom and/or another non armsthrift unit then make sure they are at the 9th slot on your team so they dont go into most fights. Then just turn off and skip all animations and phases and set auto battle to blitz and auto battle every turn, forever.

Step 5:

Step 6: Break up the Monotony. This is the crux of the Miester Method. Summoning a full set of 10 spotpass units and killing them with a very strong team will take ~8 minutes and net you 500 renown. From 0 renown thats closing in on 24 hours of still very repetitive grinding (now you see why I recommend you grind supports first, if you can get close to 50k renown before beginning actual renown grinding youve cut that time in half). Some people might not find level grinding to be a sufficient break in the monotony but for me leveling up in awakening, especially if your units have Paragon, is very fast and fun and rewarding. I might even go so far as to say that building super units is the most fun part of Awakening’s gameplay. So what I recommend is every 15 minutes or so (2 cycles of 10 spotbass battles roughly) head back to dlc land and power up somebody. Get another dread scroll to reset the level of someone with a lot more stats to cap then run them through Bloodlines 3 solo to gain like 20 levels in 5 minutes. Then pop back to the world map and do another cycle of spotpass renown grinding. When enough of your units are close to max stats try and start taking on Rogues and Redeemers 3 to get limit break for everyone and start getting luck to 50. Once they are at 50 luck you can throw your ultimate bonus box weapons like book of naga and mjolnir on them and they will never break and you wont need to mess with their inventory ever again. Try to be going back and forth this whole time too: do a few spotpass cycles, then grab a limit break skill, back and forth. Once everyone has limit break on them go for capping every single stat on every unit. This will take a while because some of them really dont want to get points of magic and/or resistance. So back and forth now between cycles of spotpass and getting more dread scrolls and resetting levels to try to get that res. Everytime one of my units maxed all stats I gave them a forged weapon to celebrate. I ran out of characters to cap before I finished renown grinding so I then broke up my cycles running Infinite Regalia to try and get a ragnell for Ike and a second Gradivus for my second Bride. By the time that was done, I had less than 20k renown to go, and so I was ready to buckle down and sprint to the finish line. That last 20k wasnt even all that bad because I felt like only now was I really in a total grind, breaking up the monotony for the majority of the experience really helped make it more fun for me. Hopefully it makes it easier for you too!

Step 7: !!!VERY IMPORTANT!!! Once you finish Renown grinding you need to beat the game on that save file or it wont carry over on new files!!!! So do that. It will be....very easy.

I dont expect it will take more than an hour.

Once its over, congratulations! You are now W o r l d R e n o w n!

#fire emblem #renown #fire emblem gameplay #awakening #guide #long post

30 notes · View notes

mysticmysterywrites-blog · 5 years

Text

Prompt #3

Your character finds a box full of old videos and photos, objects and letters, and the more they get into them the... weirder it gets. The photos in itself are harmless enough, if not some being a bit risque or ah, bordering pornographic. They're obviously meant to be private photos. Polaroid photos, with dates written in falling back to the fifties, and even some from a little before them. However, theres a catch. The three that are cropping up in these photos? They're the same age. They all look to be in their mid to late twenties, and remain in their mid to late twenties throughout the span of the photos. And the dates just keep going back farther and farther.

The letters span from a time before photography. Dates ranging back to 1870, written in languages from Japanese, to English, to Spanish fill the box. Again, when translated, it shows the letters are all from the same small group.

However, the weirdest ones have to be the videos, that show perhaps more then your character was meant to know of or see.

While, admittedly, this is slightly an excuse to write... ship materials of my own characters, Its also practice for me to write more scene based shit, and practice writing on a wider DM scale. I would like for this to inevitably lead to your characters tracking them down. Maybe they become enamored with the people they're seeing in the videos?? Maybe what they find in the photos intrigues them. These people obviously aren't human, so.. what are they? is this fake?

(if you want to know what their deal is before your characters, feel free to ask on connection. Though, if you don't, I will tell you now its mythological in nature. Thats all I'm giving : >>>)

Also... if you have two characters of your own you want to write for that are together, please feel free to throw them in here as well. Like I said, I want to DM the world around them, and what they're going through as they find these people in their photos! And more importantly, give them things to react to, at the start.

The box is tucked away under an attic floorboard, one that had become carefully loosened by time. In fact, a simple step onto it breaks the floorboard, revealing the funny thing to any prying eyes. It is, perhaps, not surprising that the floor breaks when it does. The house is an old victorian model. Once forgotten by time, its more a surprised that nature hadn't taken its course and taken the wood back to the earth. The woods around it were privately owned for decades, though now bought by a new owner hopefully aiming to give it more love then the old supposedly did.

Its a funny place for a house. In recent years, as society grew and flourished, it crept closer and closer to its domain. However, for decades, it seemed as though it was forgotten by even the makers. Though it shows signs of once being loved (A few markings on the wall here, a hand print that had been left behind there, even a large dogs paw that stained the floor in ink in one of the bedrooms.) It was now nothing more then a mystery. Who would want to live so far out that they'd not even have a town near by?

Though, the land was admittedly quite beautiful. Even as the winter came, animal life seemed to flourish throughout it. There was a lake that, while quite a ways walk away, was within view of the top floor. And though frozen now, a broken and rotting dock hinted that maybe it would make a nice swim spot in the summer months.

Still. Even with a town a good hours drive away, the house is all but in the middle of nowhere. While a large victorian house, its slow decay is obvious to anyone with eyes. No, no. The price tag is not for the house itself, but for the land it comes with. And while the company had made sure to at least attempt to put in new plumming and electricity, theres an air of disconnectivity that comes with being so far out.

The box though.

The box is beautiful.

While it's collected dust with its age, its rosewood is still polished, and what seems to be gold has filled the engravings. It seems like, once upon a time something had been painted in on it. But it had been done sloppily, on top of the design, and the only signs of it are the stains that damage the wood underneath. It's wide enough that taking it from the floorboards means removing, if not damaging quite a few of the panels. But its heavy enough to make it a worthy find, and the contents inside are only damaged by the natural flow of time.

The first photo on top tells a tale all on its own. The woman is beautiful. All three in the photo are, admittedly, quite an attractive bunch. But her smile is frozen in time, and hair falls into her eyes to hide part of her face. Freckles coat her cheeks, and a small scar cuts into the upper edge of her cheekbone. She has in what looks to be ear plugs, though its hard to tell at the angle of the photo. Simply peaks in just enough that, if you gazed at the photo long enough, you might catch it. She's in little more then a black bra, though the strap is falling on her left, and a hand is climbing up to grab the cloth from the right. If you looked close enough at the photo, you might be able to see hints of piercings from under the cloth. The detail is hard to manage, but the cloth is thin.

The edges of her figure blur together, caught in the movement of her laughter. The man on her right in pale in comparison to her tanned skin, his long black hair pushed sloppily back as though an attempt to keep it out of his eyes. It reveals that he bares piercings of his own. A stud in his right ear, some loops against the upper ears. His right arm hooks around her own, the hand just into view to show off a few rings. His left reaches across her in an attempt to grab something from outside the others reach.

It goes far past the other man, a dark skinned man with scars across his face that holds the camera steady in his grasp. His own face is pressed into her hair, and though his eyes are closed and her hair hides a lot of his features, a smile shines through the strands. His own hair is fluffy, and the woman's hand seems to reach from under him to help pull it back a little more. A few scars crawl up his cheek from his jaw, but the lines are faint. At some point, the wound might have been bad, but at the time of the photo they're simply an untold story.

Between the two, lipstick marks scatter on their skin, some like a stamp, others smeared thick. Like the woman, they're shirtless. The wall behind them seems to imply that the photo was taken somewhere from inside the house.

Theres a bit of exposure damage to it in the left corner, the type that comes with accidentally placing it in too much light. But the photo still seemed to mean something to someone, as on the exposure an old lipstick mark lingers. The color is the same shade of lipstick the woman is wearing, though seemingly some more had been applied before it was kissed. It seems like enough a brush to it will flake off the ends, and On the bottom, the words "With love, in 1995" is printed in ink.

No names are given, but no names needed to be. Here, it feels like a voyeuristic shot, meant for no eyes outside of the subjects of the photo.

The photos seem to make up the weight of the box. They ones nearest to the corners are stacked, but the ones farther in back are sprawled out. Perhaps moving the box had shuffled them together? They look the oldest as well, black and white, and even what looked to be some cabinet cards. Though what they contained was a mystery beyond their age, they seemed to be well loved and cared for. Just a little ways under them, yellowed envelopes peak out from the photos. The paper looks as though, if handled the wrong way, it will crumble in a moments notice.

The photographs and letters, however, only take up half the box. Carefully, a line of cassettes are stacked in such a way as to create a boarder. They're small, the type that could easily plug into a camera and accidentally record over. A disc that looks like a small record, labeled with a pastel green "Voice-O-Graph!" on it barely fits into the box. If pulled out the wrong way, it looks like it would snap. It already looks well used, and worn down. As though one more use will destroy it for good.

Almost as though misplaced, theres a smaller box in the bottom left corner of the box. When picked up, it rattles, and when opened, reveals necklace and ring on earrings and bracelets. Some of them look as though they're made of plastic, though others are heavy, made of metal and gemstone.

Theres a thing of lipstick wrapped in some gloves. What looks like a once pressed flower, fallen apart with time. Old spanish train tickets, and an antique key. An old leather journal, curved with the angle it had been sitting in the box for so many years. A small bag filled with nothing, a hole ripped into the bottom.

On the underside of the lid of the box, words are written in marker. The writing is curly, and flows on the wood.

[It's funny, how the world stays the same. These people grow and change, but the land around them thrives. Be careful with this, it took me a while to find some of these.

I'll miss you two. Stay safe, I'll be back soon.

Love you.]

The period is thick, and stains the wood as though it had been held there for a long bit of time. Like the writer hadn't wanted to pull back. Wanted to write more.

But they didn't.

#Cherubplay #Laelia/okami/floant prompt #This one was experimental

0 notes

astralsecrets · 5 years

Text

Ice Bergs Ahead

Dream 4:21 a.m. 12/30/2018 I see a woman, younger than me. about 5'4" oval face, dark long hair with a hint of light brown or red in it. Big hazel eyes with dark large round glasses. I do not know her in real life, but in the dream I seem to have some sort of bond with her. Like I am in love with her or fancy her, or just know her extremely well. Does not seem to be in a sexual way, just more "love" or "familiar person to me" feeling. She has a little brother in the dream, about 4-5 years old, smart (like the kid on "Jerry Maguire", intuitive) he's only in the dream as a meet and greet and I do not see him the rest of the dream. the boy also had dark hair, short bowl cut style, very rounded face.. could sense a bit of highly charged energy from him, like his cerebral ability of thinking was very strong. but for some reason did not bother me in the dream. She also has a crazy ex (boyfriend or husband, not sure which) he keeps coming after her, but never succeeds in what he has planned or does.. it's like he keeps coming and then (poofs or phases out) at the last second. She also has a roommate (kind of a jerk, but understandable why) but not really concerned over it. I seem to understand why he is this way and I can see him. about 30-35 years of age, dirty dishwater hair, cut short (bottom of neck, but looks wavy like a surfer cut) I look at him and I seem to notice his crows feet at a young age and the stress lines on his face and I can almost sense that hes been though not just hell and back, but the man never gets a break, something is always going on and hes always in the middle of it, either willfully or not.. (a feeling like) a problem, you don't know is a problem, until you realize it is a problem but then realize your in the middle of it and dunno how you got there, yet somehow you have to fight your way through it. The man seems angry and hurt, but understandably so. (and I seem not to be concerned about it) The girl who has "no name" seems to also feel or sense like I do here in the dream, or at least same feelings. I really strong sense we know each-other or were in love with each-other (really not sure how to describe that feeling) Every time we went somewhere we ended up were ice was and it seemed almost totally random, but it was always different. a different car, a different spot. we were driving along and the "ex" is behind us, feeling like we are being chased. our car falls into the water and we survive. then we are just driving down the road and were on an iceberg like landscape and the top layer of ice breaks and cracks. I get out of the car and make my way to the front middle of the windshield. as i reach for her hand. the car suddenly falls into the water and you hear her scream in panic.. somehow I get her out. then were sitting there having dinner and then finish dinner and we get into another car and the car slides backwards, and I step on the gas and it just keeps sliding. then the roadway cracks and splits up and we angle into something like a "sinkhole" filled with water. this repeats in different scenes and ways at least 30+ times in my head or at least to last knowable count of the event we end up in a ice cavern and theres a ice tunnel cut from one of the tunnel boring machines. we follow it and we see an entrance to a ice city. so we walk towards it and she said to me "You seem to be full of surprises at your age" Then I wake up and sit up in bed with a feeling, that this was a test of some kind. I dunno if it was a pass or fail, but for some reason, I felt like it was a test of endurance or inner strength or simple a test of humanitarian ability in crisis. either way the feeling was a bit odd. ================================================== ==================================== in real life: I am 46 years old married and 6 children all but one out of the house and married 16 years. recently moved about 6 months ago into a smaller home. I had a dream, that I do not remember, but I woke up and said allowed "no more" and not really sure why at the time. The day continued on as normal. after about 2 weeks, I woke up one morning and literally started cleaning "my emotional house" and my "physical one" old memories and pains and lost things and the should of would of could of things. I woke up and went to walmart and bought a paper shredder scanned a few pictures onto my computer from a large chest of pictures and scanned in important things like birth certificates and that sort of thing. spent almost a solid week, shredding pictures and documents until I shredded everything. documents, medical, social security, family, kids. just things that only I ever would really care about and in the end I felt relieved in a way. It seems like ever since I moved into this particular house. It's been a constant state of change and cleaning both physically and emotionally. Not sure why after all these years and it was a conscious choice, until that one morning. I bought a photo album and only kept maybe 4 pictures that I felt were important. I threw and shredded every other picture you could imagine, graduations, events, memorabilia, I threw away old jerseys and clothes that I kept for keepsakes. quite literally, just threw it all away and shredded it all. I went through all my boxes of things I had take with me in 16 years of marriage and I convinced my wife to start cleaning out everything we owned and to my surprise, she was okay with the idea. we spent almost a month going through ever box, nick nack. we threw away anything that was no longer needed. my wife didn't throw away much, just consolidated her stuff. Myself, well 46 years of things and now it all fits in a shoe-box and maybe only 5-6 things I kept out of all things *keep in mind nothing was "junk" it all had meaning and value. I have been here in this new place of residence since June of this year to present. It's amazing just how much crap you can store up in your head and heart and forget about as the years pass and then realize, that you never really dealt with it. Simply life moved on and things just got put away or tucked away and slowly forgotten about over time. Like many others I have had more then my fair share of hardships. Since moving here, I have had not even a single one. It's oddly quiet and peaceful now and I have more time then I know what to do with... in a bizarre weird-ish way it seems as foreign to me as the word "vacation" hahaaa not sure if the dream will coincide.. to a point in real life. Not really sure. In all honesty, this is the first time in all of my 46 years where I have even had time to deal with past things, to stop long enough to even have any retrospection or introspection or insight into my own life, was once I moved into this place. I get the feeling that the dream is a sense or in essence a part of this process. I would like to get as many possibilities and input on it from others, to see if someone else gets a similar feel for it or even an off the wall interpretation too. all thoughts are welcome here.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8297989 https://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/pixelator/ice-bergs-ahead-85981/

0 notes

therealestatesparkblog · 6 years

Text

3 Ways to Make a Stellar Real Estate Deal Out of an Average One

Early on in my real estate investing career, one of my goals was to buy one rental property a year. I used to dream about having them all paid off, free and clear, by retirement. Keep in mind that this was at age 29, just after I passed my real estate exam and bought my first investment property. My theory was that since real estate agents dont usually have much of a retirement plan, I could either cash flow off 20 houses or even sell one each year in retirement. Then my goals quickly morphed. One year, I bought seven rental properties, followed by nine more properties the next year. At 40, I was well on my way to having over 100 units like many of my investor friends. But then my dream changed again. I realized that by using creative financing to increase cash flow and by incorporating some tax and note strategies, I might not need to have that many units to have the lifestyle I wanted. Instead, I could improve the real estate deals I already owned, bringing them from good to great, while also adding new alternative investments to my portfolio. Related: 4 Actionable Ways to Find Real Estate Deals, Even in a Red Hot Market Whats an Average Deal? When it comes to real estate investing, every deal is unique, but the average real estate deal varies based on your market. For my friends and me living outside of Philly, the average deal was a 2 to 3-bedroom twin or row home that could rent for $750-$1,000 a month, and it usually cost well under $100k. I know some of you are probably thinking, theres nothing like that around where I live,but just hang in here with me.

Id pick up a 3-bedroom house for $40k-$45k, and after repairs and closing costs, Id be all in at approximately $65k, with an ARV (after repair value) of about $100K. If I sold that house for $100k, less real estate agent fees and transfers taxes, I would be at $93k, netting approximately $28k before taxes. Since its usually less than a year from start to finish, I might net approximately $19,600. If I couldnt sell it or didnt want to, Id go to the bank, and theyd give me a 20-30% down, 30-year mortgage, and Id probably be glad to cash flow $300 a month (or maybe a little less on a 2-bedroom). Deals like this one were common amongst real estate investors in my area. We also purposely didnt keep big properties due to increased maintenance costs, and we preferred those that were easy to rent. 3 Ways to Improve Your Real Estate Deal Youre probably wondering how you can take an average deal and tweak it to make it better. Its easy. Try to save money on taxes wherever possible, find the highest and best use of that property at that time, and utilize the best financing available, either through terms or the proper use of equity to increase cash flow. Now, I know, I just said a lot. Lets break it down. 1. Save on taxes whenever possible. For real estate investors, the biggest hit usually comes in the form of a capital gains tax when selling a property. One of the simplest strategies to avoid the more expensive, short-term capital gain tax is to wait a year and a day before selling. At that point, it would be considered a long-term capital gain, which is usually subject to a lower tax rate. There are three other strategies that come to mind, all of which may help to reduce the amount of taxable gains from the sale. One is a strategy my friend, Mark Halpern, uses all the time, and thats selling on a lease-option.The second strategy for those of us with sizable portfolios is to keep the recently acquired property thats just been renovated and sell an older property from your portfolio, maybe one with a bigger gain and less depreciation deductions left. Theres no harm in juggling your inventory every once in a while.My third strategy is to possibly sell with owner financing (and with a nice down payment), and then maybe sell a partial of the note to try to recoup the rest of your capital. Related: This Simple Advice From Warren Buffet Guides Me to Deals No One Else is Finding 2. Pursue your propertys highest and best use. Pursuing the highest and best use of a property could mean a range of things. Personally, Ive done everything from adding two bedrooms in the third-floor attic to putting a new kitchen in the old dining room and adding a first-floor bedroom where the smaller obsolete kitchen used to be. Ive rented the garage in the alley to a third party, and Ive even built more garages to increase property value and cash flow. What can you do with the property to get the most bang for your buck?

3. Think outside-the-box with financing. Another way to improve the profitability of your deal is to get creative with financing. This can be anything from taking out a longer-term loan (i.e. 10-year fixed, interest-only mortgage to jack up cash flow) to utilizing the equity in your property through a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) to lend as private money to another rehabber. The latter is a form of arbitrage, which would allow you to make additional money on the spread. Another strategy would be to accelerate the pay-down of debt. Personally, I love when my returns from investing pay down my debts for me. Were republishing this article to help out our newer readers.

So, what are your favorite strategies to maximize your real estate deals? Do you use any tax strategies or finance hacks? Please share below! https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/great-deal-out-of-a-good-deal

0 notes

Last Seen Blogs

thejamessmith01-blog

Untitled

bluemoontarot

I Just Wanna Make Stuff

astrodiy

AstroDIY

bluemoontarot

I Just Wanna Make Stuff

rorydr

Untitled