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restlessmaknae · 3 years

Text

breaking: we’re dating!

All it took was one party, one conversation, and you were already allegedly dating the rising model, Lee Jaehyun - also known as Hyunjae.

♥ Characters: model!Hyunjae x actress!reader/you

♥ Genre: showbiz au, fake dating au, enemies to lovers, fluff, comedy

♥ Words: 8.3k

♥ A/N: Merry Christmas to the absolute best sister in the world, my better half, the one who always teases me and knows when I’m falling for a certain idol even before I would admit it; @dat-town 💖 It’s been such an eventful year, and no matter where we were, we stayed in contact, and I can’t be thankful enough for your daily messages, selfies and random videos! I’m so glad you were able to make your dreams come true even despite the difficulties, I’m so proud of you! I love you so much, words can’t explain that, never ever forget that! 💖Here’s to many more roleplay couples, watching dramas together, sending fanmade videos to each other, being scandalized over our biases being rude and so much laughter and joy and smiles. 💖

♥ Click here to be added to the TAGLIST and to let me know about your fic preferences. 💖

“I don’t think it’s true, but let me ask you nevertheless… are you dating Lee Jaehyun?”

You were gobsmacked. Dumbfounded. Confused. Hella confused. And hella tired as well, so your best friend’s call waking you up at the break of dawn didn’t stop your grumpy self from giving a less fervent reaction than this:

“What? What nonsense are you talking about, Changmin? It’s 4 in the morning, go to sleep!” You mumbled into your pillow, your eyes heavy and ready to close. It had been only a few hours since you had left that posh KBS after-party, you really didn’t want to be dealing with this after having slept for like two hours.

“Dispatch seems to think otherwise. You might want to check the news before a bigger surprise in the morning,” Changmin explained all too patiently and all too kindly, and if it had been for someone else, you might have ditched their warning and hang up on them, but Changmin knew you better than anyone, and he was also the loveliest best friend you could have asked for, aaand he was also working in showbiz as a back-up dancer for Kim Chungha, so he knew what having Dispatch around meant and what rumours could a rising actress like you be dealing with.

Your eyes widened in even bigger surprise when you checked the breaking news, one of them being about you and the new heartthrob model - Lee Jaehyun, also known as Hyunjae - allegedly dating after having been seen at the above mentioned KBS after-party together.

While it’s true that you had talked the night before, and it’s also true that he had left you with his suit for a while but it was all because someone had spilled wine onto his shirt and as cocky as he was, he had left his suit with you without asking for your permission and left to clean his shirt in the bathroom. You had literally thrown the suit onto him when he had come back, but Dispatch might have already gotten what it had come for, and hadn’t caught that part.

It had all been his fault, thinking that he could have just gotten his way as he had pleased, leaving you with his suit and striking a conversation with you afterwards as if nothing had happened when all you had wanted was to have some fresh air out on the balcony and be left alone. Instead, you had been left confused when this guy had just come, gave you his suit, left to clean his shirt, and then came back, ignoring your eyerolls and remarks about the fact that it hadn’t been very gentleman-like of him to do such a thing. He had just shrugged, smirked and asked about your upcoming drama.

“Gosh, this is not good…” You sighed heavily, your eyebrows furrowing without you knowing. You were developing a mild headache just by thinking about all the consequences of this one single scandal.

“Just wanted to check on you since it’s your first dating rumour, and I didn’t want you to be surprised by someone telling you this before me. Your agency will probably contact you soon,” Changmin explained gently, and even though you knew he was probably right about your boss and manager contacting you, you really didn’t want to face anyone right now. Or for a few more hours. Especially not about something that could have happened but definitely hadn’t happened. Screw Dispatch and its paparazzis!

“Yeah, I guess. Thanks though. You really are the best,” you remarked with a bittersweet smile playing along the edges of your lips. You didn’t even want to think about how the news could impact your new drama that would air in two weeks’ time. You were too tired to get properly angry though.

“Try to sleep a bit more, alright? I'll be in reach if you need me,” he promised as he always did, and so you bid your goodbye, staring at your phone’s screen a bit more, analyzing the pictures that had been taken of you and that cocky model, and wondering how they could have mistaken your situation so badly. Or rather, why they would have been looking for you two especially, and why they had needed to ruin your day already. And probably your week.

Or your life.

Predictable as it was, you were called in for a so-called emergency meeting at your agency , and judged by your manager’s voice on the phone, things weren’t looking up. Okay, maybe your manager was usually very overdramatic and panicky, but you were sure that any other manager would have reacted in a similar way, so you couldn’t be mad at her.

You were ready to face her anger and maybe even a few remarks about how you should have just stayed at home instead of going to that party before your drama promotions (even though she had been the one to suggest going in the first place), but what you weren’t ready for was seeing THE Lee Jaehyun sitting right in front of your manager in the meeting room.

You were so shocked to see him there alongside a young man on his left whom you couldn’t recognize that you literally froze by the doorstep, unable to move any further. All eyes were on you, and even though Jaehyun was wearing a mask that hid his face, you could see from the wrinkles around his eyes that he was smiling. God damnit, how could he be smiling in such a situation?

“Hey! Come in! Don’t worry about them, we’ve spoken before and decided on a meeting with both parties, so it’s all good,” your manager explained, seeing your shocked state. Maybe she should have mentioned this on the phone, and you wouldn’t have been that taken aback, but knowing her, you shouldn’t have been that surprised. Sometimes, your manager seemed to have been even more forgetful than you were.

“Alright,” you mumbled under your nose, closing the door behind you. Given that it was an emergency meeting and you hadn’t slept a lot the night before, you looked like a total mess, and you couldn’t even be bothered to put on anything nice, just mere sweatpants and an oversized hoodie, your mask hiding the majority of your face and the state of your skin anyways. Not that you should have dressed up for Lee Jaehyun, but it bugged you that he saw you in such a state while he was looking as chic as always.

He didn’t even need special lightning or heavy make-up, he had handsome features anyway, and no matter how much you wanted to deny that, you couldn’t. He was drop dead gorgeous, his chestnut-brown locks sitting messily atop of his head yet he still managed to pull off a collected look. His sky-blue shirt and black jeans were simple yet elegant, hugging his waistline perfectly well. It seemed like everything was perfectly tailored for his ethereal features, tall build and broad shoulders.

“Nice to meet you again,” Jaehyun remarked, his voice coming out hoarse. Maybe he hadn’t slept a lot last night either, but you couldn’t tell whether it was because he had stayed longer at the after-party or because he had seen the news in time.

“Well, I don’t consider this a nice way to meet someone again,” you retorted harshly, your manager immediately giving you a pointed look. Jaehyun didn’t seem to mind though, he merely pulled down his mask, so that you could see his full-blown smirk. Gosh, this prick! Smirking in such a situation!

“I’m Jaehyun’s manager, Lee Sangyeon,” the young man on the boy’s left introduced himself, reaching his hand out to you. You took it gently, introducing yourself despite the fact that he knew perfectly well who you were. You just wanted to be polite. “I’m sincerely sorry about coming here so abruptly, but we’ve thought that it would be best if we discuss the matter in person,” he added kindly, your rage from earlier dissolving a bit. He had a very calm way of speaking, and it reassured you a bit.

You nodded, indicating that you understood the situation you were in, and looked at your manager expectantly, purposefully avoiding Jaehyun’s eyes. Why was he staring at you like that anyways? After this, you would never even want to see his face again!

“So uhm…” Your manager started very much uncollected, running a hand through her hair a few times before continuing. “Look! We know how Dispatch is like... You two are young, both of you are rising stars in your own fields, and even if nothing happened between you two last night, the pictures make it seem like you’re pretty close, we can’t disagree with that.”

“I wonder who needed to leave me with his suit out of the blue,” you pointed it out with a snicker, Jaehyun’s lips twitching a bit but his smile didn’t waver as you would have wanted to. Jesus christ, he was so annoying!

“Well, I did what I did.” He shrugged casually, and you were about to throw a few unwanted words at him, but your manager continued.

“Actually, despite our predictions, the dating rumour seems to be in your favour because as Mr. Lee has informed me-”

“Sangyeon, please,” Jaehyun’s manager chirped in and earned a very much coy reaction from your manager. Gosh, what was going on? Was the boy’s manager flirting with your manager right in front of your eyes while you were in the middle of a freaking dating scandal? The world must have gone crazy. Or at least everyone around you because this… This was not normal.

“So Sangyeon said that they’ve already been contacted if you would want to do a couple commercial, and the shares of our agency have actually gone up, so it seems to be having a positive impact on both of your careers. Some news sites are already labelling you as the rising couple of the year.”

“Yeah, just because they don’t know that we aren’t even dating,” you huffed, totally frustrated. Even though it seemed like that the dating scandal had a positive effect on your career, why was everyone talking about it so lightly? This was a lie! A big fat lie.

“Well, we could be,” Jaehyun mentioned casually, earning an even more annoyed snicker from you. He didn’t know when not to speak up, did he? Maybe those pictures really made it seem like you were close, but you weren’t!

There was a moment of silence in the air, heavy with the tension that oozed out of you, and heavy under the weight of the questions and answers you had not yet received from the two managers. Why were you in a meeting in the first place if they were acting like this?

“Based on the reactions and the fact that you are about to start your drama promotions, and we wouldn’t want anything to affect it negatively, we’ve thought that we could give a statement saying that you two are just in the beginning phase of your relationship, and go with that until your drama ends. Then, we can just say that you two were too busy to keep this relationship alive,” your manager set out the plan, and your jaw literally dropped, so you were glad that your mask was hiding your face.

However, based on Jaehyun’s expression, he had already been prepared for this scenario, and if anything, he seemed less bothered by it than before. You, on the other hand, couldn’t have been more shocked. So you were supposed to be lying to everyone? What would be next? Were you supposed to go on a date?

“I can’t do this.” You shook your head, thinking of that cocky smirk of the boy’s, and how you already despised him. Maybe not as a model but as a person, certainly. If it had been for somebody else, maybe you would have been able to put on a show, but with him? No way! Maybe you had met him only once before this meeting, but that time had been more than enough!

“Just until the end of your drama. You’re an actress anyway, and we wouldn’t even be asking you to do those couple commercials or deals if you don’t want to. Just maybe a few appearances at each other’s shootings or stuff,” your manager explained in her sweetest tone, but you wished to punch a wall nevertheless. How could they be acting so casually? Were you really the only one who was against it?

“Just maybe a few?”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Jaehyun responded with a smirk, and gosh, if you could, you would swipe that off his face right then and there.

You took in a deep breath, trying to pacify your heartbeat. Okay… Maybe it was a good thing that the dating rumour had been taken lightly by the public (and probably your fans and the boy’s fans, too). At least, that wasn’t a burden. Plus, maybe it would really be more sensible to go along with this whole fake dating thing than saying that nothing was going on which would then negatively impact both you and Jaehyun. No matter how much you despised him, you wouldn’t wish ill of him. But still… how could you do this?

“I need a bit more time to decide,” you concluded after a minute of thinking, and Sangyeon, your manager and Jaehyun were all nodding in approval.

“Sure, take your time!” Sangyeon smiled at you kindly, and you couldn’t understand how the model could have such an angel-like manager when he himself was such a prick. These two seemed even more of an odd pair than you and your manager.

“We’ll be in touch then, I guess?” Your manager looked expectantly at the duo, and you couldn’t miss the way she was trying to hide a shy smile as she looked at Sangyeon who looked totally enthusiastic to keep in touch with her.

Meanwhile, you gave Jaehyun a pointed look, trying to squeeze every single ounce of frustration into that stare, so that he would know that you weren’t impressed by him. He kept the eye-contact though, and you were sure that he would be keeping it even longer if he wasn’t stopped by his manager who prompted him to leave.

You were sure that no matter your decision, this had already been one hell of a ride.

You needed help. You knew you needed it, so you asked the first person who came to your mind after that hell of a meeting.

“Look, I need your help,” you stated frankly, walking up and down in your apartment, chewing on your lower lip.

Your brother, Juyeon, let out a bit of a laughter at the other end of the phone.

“You don’t usually use that tone of yours, so this must be serious,” he remarked lightheartedly, but he was dead right. Usually, you were the type of person who made your own decisions, and knew what to do, weighing the pros and cons, and being mature enough to take responsibility for your actions if something went wrong. However, there were times when you needed to turn to someone, and it was usually Juyeon or Changmin whom you contacted in such situations.

“Is it about your dating rumour?” Your brother inquired first things first, and even though he couldn’t see it, you nodded.

“Yeah. My agency wants to set us up, so that we could go along with this couple thing because it has actually led to the rise of the stock prices of the agency, and Hyunjae’s manager has already been contacted if we want to do a couple commercial, so his agency also wants to push through with it. Until my drama ends, at least,” you broke it down to the boy who listened to you attentively without interrupting you.

Your blood was still boiling just by thinking about the smug face of the model, and you balled your left fist by your side, holding the phone a bit more fervently in your right hand. You were still so frustrated because you just couldn’t believe that you ended up here. Because of whom? Of course, it was all Lee Jaehyun’s fault! If he hadn’t been that big of a prick to leave you with his suit, maybe Dispatch wouldn’t have misunderstood that freaking conversation between you two.

There was a moment of silence in the air, you chewing on your lower lip even harder.

“Seems like what agencies would do in such a situation,” Juyeon hummed after a while, and you let out a dumbfounded sigh in return.

“Shouldn’t you be saying things like no, never, I would break his leg if he dares to touch you?”

“You know how the industry works,” Juyeon pointed it out, and you knew it, you knew it all too well. Juyeon was a reporter, and since you were in showbiz, he was even more determined to get to the end of all kinds of news and reveal the truth instead of disgusting rumours or white lies. He knew just as much as you that sometimes you had to sacrifice more than just sleep to live your life in the spotlight.

“I know! But still…” You huffed like a child, hopping down onto your couch. “And you don’t know this Hyunjae guy. He's so smug, gosh! I want to punch him!” You complained as the main source of your frustration came to your mind, and you got goosebumps just by thinking about him. He was so inexplicably getting on your nerves! You didn’t even know that anyone could get to this point, but Lee Jaehyun managed to do so with just two encounters!

“And you know him? Wasn’t this time the first you’ve met him?” Juyeon asked a bit confused, and no matter how much you wanted to deny his words, you really didn’t know the model. You didn’t even want to though.

“Well yeah, but it was more than enough.”

“Then what are we talking about? Just say no if you don’t want to do it,” he pointed it out casually, making you sigh yet again. As if everything was so easy!

“But…” You objected, yet your brother cut you off.

“But if you don’t want to let the agency down or whatever, just put on your best act and be the best girlfriend in the world,” he suggested kindly, and truth to be told, that was what you had been thinking of, so even if you wanted him to say something else (you wanted it so desperately), maybe you were really better off if you just put on an act until the end of your drama promotions. Just two months. That wasn’t unbearable.

“I knew I needed to call you,” you said with a bittersweet laughter, and you knew that Juyeon knew by your words what you meant by them. It was also proven by the fact that he laughed along with you, saying that he could help you anytime if it was just about you asking for his opinion.

“You can call me even when it’s not about a dating scandal, you know,” he added in the end, his tone light and playful, so you played along with him.

“Hey! I call you almost every day!”

“And who said that’s enough?” He asked cheekily, and gosh, Juyeon was really the best brother you could have asked for. He could make you laugh and smile even on your worst days or even when it seemed like the waves were crashing above your head.

So the least you could do was to ask about his day, his voice and stories from the day making you forget a bit about the whole ruckus in your life.

Well, at least until you knew it was time to call the agency regarding your decision.

Needless to say, your manager was over the Moon when she heard about your approval, and the sad thing was that you couldn’t decide whether it was because she might be able to keep in touch with Jaehyun’s manager this way or because you went along with her plan.

No matter what, the announcement was made on both agencies’ part, and so the whole hype could die down a little, letting you focus on your press conference and interviews and photoshoots without your social media sites being bombarded with questions regarding your relationship with Jaehyun. As the days went by, came more rumours about some new couples, and it seemed like you weren’t the ones anymore people wanted to chew on.

On the other hand, your managers didn’t want to let the whole thing lose its spark as they suggested that you two should go on a date, so that you could take some pictures and Jaehyun could show his support for your drama. Maybe it wasn’t the worst thing that they could suggest since you had previously turned down the couple commercial, saying that you were too busy when in fact you just wanted to avoid being on some relationship-focused magazine’s cover. Now that would definitely be too much.

It didn’t mean that you didn’t need some convincing and a few words from your manager, but eventually, you decided to order something at your agency’s café with Jaehyun, taking some pictures and talking, nothing more. You realized pretty quickly that you didn’t like this whole setting with Jaehyun in his most boyfriend material outfit (beige fluffy cardigan, a plain white shirt underneath, sky blue jeans, loose Converse shoes and messy hair), him smiling at you as if it was real. Even when the waitress wanted to take photos with him and then with the two of you, he was acting all charming.

“Gosh, this is so fake! It’s making me sick,” you mumbled as the girl left, and it wasn’t really her fault that you felt this way, but you already started regretting this whole fake date thingy.

“But I’m here to sweeten your day.” Jaehyun grinned at you with that annoying proud grin of his, and you had to hold yourself back from rolling your eyes at the boy. Even if you were fuming inside, you had to keep it in. At least today.

Seeing your reaction, the boy burst into laughter and pointed at the slice of cake in front of you:

“Eat up, it’s on me.”

“I can pay for my own order,” you said sulkily, having one more reason to be hesitant about taking a bite from the cake. You definitely didn’t want him to make you the damsel in distress who couldn’t pay for her own food.

“I’ve said it’s on me,” he repeated a bit more seriously this time, and it didn’t help that his hazel eyes seemed to be shining genuinely. “I’m not trying to put you down by paying for your drink and cake. It’s just an act of kindness on my part,” he added kindly, no sign of playfulness this time. Considering the fact that you had never seen him so serious before, it surprised you, but at the same time, you were still very much furious.

“But I don’t need anything from you,” you objected before digging into the sponge cake, and letting the sweetness fill you up a bit. Jaehyun was a very persistent person, you noted, as he didn’t let the topic die down. Instead, he kept on going. And so did you.

“You’ve still said yes to us dating.”

“Fake dating,” you corrected him with a forced smile, reminding him yet again that it wasn’t real. No matter how much he seemed to be giving his all with all the door holdings and sweet words and offers to pay for your food, you didn’t want him to be so boyfriend material just so that he could feel like he was a better person.

“Whatever.” He shook his head as if he was shaking off the truth, and went on to suggest casually. “You can pay for my food next time if you feel edgy,” he offered with a shrug before he took a bite from his blueberry muffin.

You stopped in your actions when you heard his words, and looked at him with another eyeroll.

“I’m not edgy, and I don’t feel like sitting with you like this again,” you let him know, but he just furrowed his eyebrows.

“We haven’t even started anything!”

“Exactly.”

It was your turn to shrug your shoulders, and even though you basically told him that you didn’t want to see him, his lips curled annoyingly upwards. You had to admit that you knew why girls were head over heels for him; it wasn’t just his features, but his actions as well. The way his thin lips curled upwards by the edge ever so slowly, the way the wrinkles around his hazel eyes deepened whenever he was laughing, the way he looked at you challengingly from the other side of the table, and the way he was seemingly aware of the effect he had on girls on top of everything. There was something very captivating and luring about him as a person, but you weren’t one to give in easily.

Yet, it seemed like Jaehyun wasn’t one to give up easily either, as he continued on with the conversation as casually as if you hadn’t said anything to him, and kept on asking you questions as if the walls you had built around yourself didn’t mean a thing to him. No wonder you were even more perplexed to see an invitation card in his hands when you finished with your cakes.

“Come if you have the time and would like to see me on the catwalk. Maybe in a bit more revealing clothes than today,” Jaehyun said cheekily as he slid the card in front of you. Your eyes grew wider at the sight, and it was only thanks to your acting skills that you could keep it together. He basically invited his fake girlfriend to the Seoul Fashion Week!

“You know I have to dress up for it too, right?” You raised an eyebrow in question, but he didn’t take that as a challenge. He never did.

“Well then, you have a reason to dress up.” He shrugged oh so innocently, but boy, he was wrong if he thought that he could get you to do anything with that attitude and those lines. You hated males who thought that women had to do anything for them just to please them, so you weren’t even quiet about your feelings.

“I’m not dressing up for boys!” You told him harshly, and he immediately raised his hands into the air as if he was trying to justify himself.

“You shouldn’t even do so. Dress up for yourself! I’m just giving you a chance to do so,” he explained, and you couldn’t decide whether he was serious or not, but you didn’t even give him the pleasure of answering.

No matter how much he tried to inquire until the end of your fake date if you were going to be there, you kept him on the edge by telling him that he will know when the time comes, until then, he should focus on his job. He merely winked at you in return, and reassured you that he was always very much focusing on his job.

You left him with one of your trademark eyerolls and a wave of your hand before you headed to your apartment, not giving him the chance to walk you home or do anything of the sort.

Due to the fact that your manager was ever so eager to stay in contact with Jaehyun’s manager (Sangyeon, yes, you’ve already remembered his name well because he was mentioned so many times), your KKT ID was also given to the model and vice versa even though you didn’t even ask for it. On the other hand, your manager was of the opinion that if you were really going to attend the Seoul Fashion Week and maybe even congratulate the boy on his work, then you would need to know how to contact each other.

As cheeky as he was, Jaehyun took the plunge first and sent you a few selfies, indicating that he was willing to talk to you not only in person but also through Kakaotalk. You kept up your walls high enough for the boy to feel that you weren’t charmed by his pretty features (no matter how pretty he actually was). He needed to know that he couldn’t get his way with everything, especially not when it came to the matters of the heart, especially not when it came to you.

However, since you had already given in to this whole fake dating thing, you decided that another fake encounter wouldn’t hurt. Your number one reason for it was that showing your support to your alleged boyfriend might probably make you appear in a better light as well, and that would be good given your aspirations of making it big. Yes, you wanted to make it through acting, but weren’t you acting these days as well? Playing someone’s fake girlfriend wasn’t you being you, it was you playing yet another role.

That’s how you found yourself at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, smiling for the cameras and taking a seat in the VIP section thanks to your special invitation card once you had done your fair share of photos and the guests were called to take their seats before the show would start.

Truth to be told, you had never been at such a fashion event because you weren’t that famous, hence you had never been invited. It felt odd to be there now, to know that you were there because of Jaehyun, but you tried not to concentrate on this tiny little fact too much.

You tried to keep on a neutral face while you were watching as the models were walking the catwalk in more and more extravagant clothes. Fashion was never your territory, you liked to leave it to your stylists, and you usually opted for comfy clothes, so seeing some outfits definitely tried your patience at keeping a straight face. Not to mention some performers who were called as special guests. This all seemed like a different world to the one you knew.

Then came Jaehyun, of course. Or Hyunjae as they knew him here. He was radiating the same kind of confidence he always did, but he looked even more ethereal, even more handsome, and a few questionable outfits couldn’t destroy that image of his either. It seemed like everything was made for him no matter how plain, colourful, ugly or revealing the clothes were. He could wear an oversized jumper and make it look good just as well as a black and burgundy low-cut shirt. It was seriously crazy and annoying at the same time. Like how? How could he make it all possible?

Nevertheless, you decided not to pay attention to the odd beating of your heart. Beauty shouldn’t have such an impact on people, especially after knowing the person behind those handsome features. Yes, you had to admit that Jaehyun looked handsome (annoyingly so), but he was also cocky, talkative and persistent - personality traits that you weren’t necessarily fond of.

Keeping that in mind, you couldn’t wait for the show to end for this particular day because it got boring for you after a while (no, not because Jaehyun’s appearances were over), and you had agreed on meeting the boy backstage after he was over. Since he had also promised to visit you once after your working hours, you felt that it was only fair if you did drop him a few lines before leaving today. You hated nothing more than to feel indebted to others.

Yet, you regretted visiting the boy almost immediately because the first thing he asked with that cocky smile of his and a raise of his eyebrow was:

“How did I do?” He inquired, crouching down to be at eye-level with you and leaning closer to you. From up close, you could see the darkest pits of his hazel eyes, the elegant arch of his eyebrows, the slight bumps along his skin that the make-up tried to cover up and a bit of his natural skin colour. It was definitely not an unpleasant sight (to be able to see him in a more humane light), but you didn’t like it either.

You cleared your throat, averting your eyes to your surroundings instead of the boy’s face that was oh so close.

“You did well,” you admitted with a sigh, and as if it was what he had been waiting for, the boy leaned backwards, clapping his hands.

“Then, you can buy me food.”

“Why would I do that?” You furrowed your eyebrows in question, looking back at him. You weren’t here to do charity, and you didn’t want to spend more time with him than it was absolutely necessary. “I’m glad if I can leave,” you added firmly, lacing your arms in front of your chest.

“You were the one who had a problem with me paying last time. You can repay me, and then, we’ll be equal,” he pointed out oh so innocently, a smug smirk hiding in the corner of his lips. He knew he won, and you didn’t even have to display any kind of facial expression for that, he already knew that, and that stare of his was killing you. Gosh, this boy...

“Alright.” You sighed yet again, rolling your eyes once before asking him what he wanted to eat and how much time he would need to pack his stuff because obviously, you couldn’t stay in his changing room, and you didn’t even want to. You didn’t know whether it was because he was eager or because he was usually quick to pull himself back together, but he was done in no time, and so you headed to a sushi restaurant that he was fond of.

You were led to a table at the back of the restaurant, and thankfully, it was a more chill place with not too many people around, so you probably didn’t have to deal with unnecessarily clingy fans or anything of the sort. Needless to say, you got some of those online anyways and at fan signing events; people who wanted to know everything about you and Jaehyun. It would have been uncomfortable to tell them anything anyways because of how personal it would have been, but since it was fake, it was even more awkward.

After ordering, there was a certain kind of silence hovering over the both of you, and you could see that Jaehyun was weary after the show since he was quieter now. It was him though who broke the silence.

“Why have you really given in if you hate it so much?” He asked abruptly, the serious edge to his words surprising you. When you looked at him, you didn’t even see any kind of mischief or playfulness in his eyes, so you decided to tell him the truth without trying to be overly defensive.

“Because things have finally seemed to be going well for my agency, and your fans also seemed to take the news well, so I’ve thought that I can put up with it for both of our sake,” you explained genuinely, finding it difficult to not feel weird since this was basically the first time you could feel his sincerity, and it scared you. You didn’t know why. Maybe you were just afraid that he was really not as bad of a person as you tried to make him out to be.

“I didn’t think you would consider my position,” he remarked with a tilt of his head, and examined you with his hazel eyes, keeping the eye-contact as if his life depended on it. Maybe you were just as much of a mystery to him as he was to you. A beautiful mystery.

“I’m not a bad person, I wouldn’t wish anything bad for you,” you mumbled quietly because you didn’t really care what he thought of you as long as you knew why you did what you did.

On the other hand, Jaehyun looked back at you totally seriously, keeping the eye-contact, his gaze searing your skin, dressing your arms in goosebumps. You couldn’t put your finger on the reason behind the way he was looking at you, but it was as if there was some kind of fire in his eyes - a challenge, a reward and maybe a bit of a cat and mouse game.

“I know. You’re just hard to crack,” Jaehyun reasoned and let his lips curl upwards when he continued. “But I like challenges.”

There was it; your answer. You didn’t know how to feel about the fact that he looked at you as a challenge, and that he wished to get to know you even more so because of your high walls, but you weren’t one to give in so easily. Not with anyone, not with him.

Nonetheless, even you had to admit that the model could actually talk about more serious topics and he wasn’t just a handsome prick. He actually had good things to say and views about life that you could resonate with him, but he was still acting so smug and flirty sometimes that you really wished you could just swipe that smirk off his face. Your lecturings and eye rolls didn’t help either, it was as if he didn’t pay attention to either of them.

But oh well... You had to realize that was just who he was, and even though you didn’t intend to get to know the real Lee Jaehyun behind the magazine cover poses and cheeky remarks, he wasn’t that bad, but you knew that you were still far from really knowing him.

You had no idea when had your manager decided to share your schedule with Jaehyun, but it had gotten all too suspicious after a while that he had seemed to know where you had been and what you had been doing, thus he had sometimes surprised you by visiting you on the set of the last few episodes’ shootings or dropped by at the agency when you had been practicing your lines and giving interviews. You had guessed that one of the reasons for your manager’s gesture had been having her being all heart eyes for Jaehyun’s manager.

No matter how much you would have tried to deny, Jaehyun was actually not that bad of a guy, you had to admit that as days went by. He was still very much flirty and cocky and all that, but he had displayed his more serious sides a few times, and you had found yourself telling him about why you had chosen acting, how you had met your best friend and even what your brother had told you when you had asked for his opinion regarding this whole dating rumour. You had talked about your dreams, aspirations, families and bits and bobs that had naturally come up.

He was an attentive listener, someone who would let you talk as long as you wanted when it was about something serious, but he liked to drop some remarks here and there when you were just casually talking for which you usually gave him a stare or rolled your eyes. You could do all sorts of disapproving gestures, it seemed futile nevertheless, but that was just who he was, and truth to be told, he made your days a whole lot more eventful and extraordinary with his random selfies in random places and those ‘what are you doing?’ texts at random times during the day.

So you shouldn’t have been surprised when the boy visited you at the agency with a bag of food in his hands, and you invited him to the rooftop where you could eat in peace and quiet, enjoying the light breeze of this fine spring night.

“This is how you want us to meet again and again? You buying me food, so that I would feel indebted to you?” You quirked an eyebrow in question, a smile hiding in the corner of your lips.

“Maybe? Is that so bad?” Jaehyun joked around with a childish laughter, and you tried to hide your lips curling upwards by shoving some fried chicken pieces into your mouth. He was confident anyways, you didn’t have to give him more reason to wiggle his eyebrows at you. “No, really. I want to congratulate you on your drama. I’ve been really enjoying it,” he added on a more serious note, reaching out for some chicken drumsticks with his chopsticks. This comment coming from someone who was usually open about his opinion, you couldn’t help but ask back if he was really following your drama.

“Are you really watching it?”

You could imagine him talking oh so sweetly instead of being straightforward, so that he would get on your good side. No matter what, he was still a bit unpredictable to you, and sometimes you couldn’t decide whether he was being serious or not, it being one of those times.

“Yeah. As best as I can.” He nodded casually, earning a genuine smile from you. He looked really cute with his oversized hoodie over his head and messy hair underneath, the blondish locks losing their shade day by day, cheeks full of food. He looked like an innocent high schooler, but you knew he was far from it, so the thought itself was already quite amusing.

You kept eating in silence, the silence hovering over you occasionally interrupted by a few hums either on your side or Jaehyun’s, approving the taste of food. This particular night was quite fine, a few stars already dotting the night sky, but sadly, you couldn’t see them properly because of the lit-up state of the rooftop. The weather was also just right, not giving you chills and not prompting you to take off your fluffy cardigan, and you were rather thankful for this time being a bit chillier than last time when it had been all sunny and humid, and Jaehyun had taken off his hoodie without warning, and by the time you had turned back to him, he was in already in a low-cut shirt. The sight had rendered you pretty speechless.

Finishing your food, you dropped your chopsticks into the now empty plastic bowl, and leaned back, putting your palms onto the wooden surface behind you.

“What was your favourite scene so far?” You turned your head to look at Jaehyun, and you should have known that he was up to no good when his lips curled upwards. Instead of giving you a detailed answer, he swiftly closed the distance between you two, hovering over you, his hot breath fanning over your skin.

“This one,” he breathed out as he kept the eye-contact with you, and he didn’t need to tell you exactly what he was talking about, you knew it like the back of your hand. You also knew what was to come, so you decided to ask further.

“Why?”

“Because I wondered what it would be like to be so close to you and feel what the main lead did,” he explained quietly, the world rolling off his tongue like a secret, hidden and sealed away like a present that you were about to open later on. It wasn’t his closeness that made your heart go wild, it was the fact that you could see him from up-close with all the fading scars from his popped out pimples, all the rougher edges of his skin, all the shades of brown and black in his eyes, and all the unsaid questions lingering in the air between you two like a dance at midnight.

You found it more and more difficult to find your voice and speak up, but you didn’t want to show it, so instead you asked:

“That affection and tension?”

“Yeah.” Jaehyun nodded firmly, his eyes not leaving yours. You had to realize that you had never kept eye-contact with him for so long, and it was both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. Thrilling because you could feel that thread of yearning that stretched between you two, but terrifying because you still didn’t know him enough to know how he was really feeling.

“You know what’s next?” The question that left your lips was no more than a whisper, getting lost in the cacophony of the night sounds around you - the honks of the cars in the distance, the buzzing of the interactive billboards in the area, the chattering of people and some singing from a nearby karaoke bar.

You were almost sure that the boy would say yes, but still, the moments he spent delaying his answer were making you doubt if you had really seen through him.

“I know, and I know you know that, too, but you are still not backing away,” he pointed out with a teasing smile, and gosh, you wished he wasn’t so right about that!

“I’m a good actress, you know. I can make you believe you can have your way until you make your move,” you replied wittily, earning a bit of a laugh from him. It was somewhere between a caught off but not at all surprised one. His eyes were still capturing yours, inviting your heart to a series of heavy throbbing.

“Well, I might as well give it a try, so that I wouldn’t have regrets,” he remarked before leaning extremely close to you, his lips slightly grazing yours but still not going for the kiss. You could feel that he was waiting for any kind of resistance on your part, but you stayed in one place, looking straight into his hazel eyes, and waited for him to finish what he had started.

When more seconds passed by, and he was still just looking at you, the thought crossed your mind that maybe he was just messing with you, but as you were about to open your mouth, he sealed your lips tight.

As opposed to the build-up, he didn’t take his time with the kiss, it was needy and yearning and passionate. You let him tell you how he was feeling without words, and he told you so many stories while his lips were discovering yours. It was nothing like the kisses you had had for dramas, it was filled with the memories of your previous encounters, unsaid confessions and so much tension that had been building up between you two.

When you two came up for air, you could immediately catch sight of the smile in the corner of Jaehyun’s lips, and when you asked what it was for, he merely said:

“You aren’t that good of an actress then. I could see that you were falling for me.”

“Oh shut up!” You punched his shoulder playfully, but when you wanted to retreat your arm, he reached for it and pulled you into his embrace instead. It was a warm and loving embrace, something you hadn’t realized you had needed.

“You’re not going to get rid of me after this. I can finally come without food, too,” Jaehyun mentioned childishly, and you laughed into his hoodie, letting the spring night swirl the sound of your laughter in the air and carry it on for the seasons to come.

Your managers weren’t that surprised upon finding out that you two had warmed up to each other. In fact, since your manager had shared your schedule with Jaehyun’s manager, and Sangyeon had helped him to choose your favourite dishes when he had ordered food thanks to your manager’s words yet again, it shouldn’t have been that shocking that they had tried to set you two up while they had been meeting as well.

Thinking of how much you had despised the model in the past and how you had thought about coming clear about your non-existent relationship seemed so hilarious now. You were actually pretty grateful that you had gone along with this plan, thus when you actually got together with Jaehyun, you didn’t need to post statements or wait until some gossip magazine would cover your story. In the end, everything seemed to work out, every step seemed to make sense, and despite your brother’s teasing about how things had turned out completely differently from how you had told him in the beginning and bearing your best friend’s knowing glances whenever your phone’s screen lit up with a message from Jaehyun, you wouldn’t have changed anything for the world.

Jaehyun might have been cocky and confident and childish, but his heart was in the right place, and he was attentive and caring as well, and he always tried his best to remember everything from your birthday to your favourite flavour of bubble tea. You got into fights as expected, and you sometimes gave him silent treatment, but eventually, there was no argument you couldn’t have overcome, and with that, it seemed like the gossip magazines were right from the very beginning: you two were indeed a rising couple, and it had all started with that one party, one conversation and one misunderstanding.

#the boyz #hyunjae #the boyz scenarios #hyunjae scenarios #the boyz imagines #the boyz fluff #hyunjae fluff #the boyz fanfic #the boyz ff #hyunjae fanfic #hyunjae ff #model!hyunjae #the boyz x reader #the boyz x you #hyunjae x reader #hyunjae x you #restlessmaknae

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sevenkittensinatrenchcoat · 3 years

Text

Scribbled Screenshots: Rum Tum Tugger Part 1

Tugger’s taking a long time to work through because too many characters do too many funny things. I also got sidetracked by the Macavity Family AU and IRL Stuff. But, since it’s getting too damn long, here’s the stuff I got done a few days ago:

CW: It’s Tugger. There will be sex jokes.

Responsible Adults: shit.

Bomba: Oh!

Tugger: hey boy

Pouncival: omfgtugger!!!

Rumpleteazer: omfgtugger!!!

Mungojerrie: I can’t be in this number I still owe him a bag of catnip

Jemima: George wishes he could :D this hard

Tugger: You are fucking adorable.

Asparagus: I say!

Tugger: Check out this sexy kick!

Munkustrap: How am I related to you?

Misto: Fuck!

Skimble: So rude!

Tugger: Blame Plato.

Misto: You’re gonna die tonight!

Jemima: dat ass!

Tantomile: damn...

Etcetera: Tugger i luv u

Plato: We should have a threesome!

Tugger: Ready?

Plato: Fuck yeah!

Etcetera: *keysmash*

Misto: I’m plotting my revenge

Skimble: Have some pets

Etcetera: *keysmash*

Plato: I know right?

Skimble: This is obscene!

Munkustrap: Are you guys okay?

Tugger: Whatever’s in my hand probably isn’t edible.

Etcetera: Neither is your ass but I’d eat it

Asparagus: wtf?

Etcetera: Mmm! Tugger-flavored!

Tugger: lol

Plato: Lucky...and you’ve got a good ass too

Asparagus: Misto what are you doing?

Misto: My time has come

Munk and Misto: Point!

Skimble: There oughta be a law!

Tantomile: I’m so sneaky!

Cassandra: me too lol

Skimble: Dad conference! Pls stop him

Munkustrap: I hate this shit, but he’s not hurting anyone

Misto: brb

Skimble: nooooooo!

Electra: Why’s Cettie over with the boys?

Etcetera: I like playing with boys!

Skimble: This madness must be stopped before Misto’s innocence is corrupted!

Munkustrap: Are you talking about his virginity? He’s had seven kittens!

Misto: Bitch please

Tugger: Jemima, you have competition

Misto: You boring lol *maximum eyeroll*

Tugger: That’s hot

Misto: I’ll have to use my special technique! *full-body eyeroll*

Tugger: You are way too cute to upset me

Plato: that happened.

Etcetera: whatev

Jemima: dat ass!

Tantomile: I know, right?

Tugger: I’ve just been reminded that I haven’t been playing with the boys nearly enough

Pouncival: Please play gently!

Plato: whoa!

Etcetera: wee!

Tumblebrutus: Dude, there’s a butt on your butt

Pouncival: My ass is worthy of Tugger...

Tugger: Someone’s gonna fuck you tonight, but it’s not gonna be me.

Pouncival: Damn it!

Tumble: He’s only one cat on your wish list.

Asparagus: My son is injured!

Munkustrap: I can assure you that he is not.

Tugger: Someone had better be looking at my dick!

Plato: Once we’re done looking at your ass!

Misto: don’tlookathisbuttdon’tlookathisbutt...

Plato: My body is ready!

Tantomile: I can’t see Tugger’s ass from here, so I’ll check out Cassandra’s instead.

Pouncival/Tumble: Check out our cool moves!

Skimble: Don’t go down there.

George: How else am I supposed to get laid?

Etcetera: Plato’s got a boyfriend!

Tantomile: Lucky bastard

Cassandra: My boyfriend’s probably having a stroke from jealousy right about now.

Jemima: I want!

Plato: I have.

Tugger: I don’t even

Misto: I am neither bored nor horny I swear

Jenny: Why hasn’t Munk stopped him?

Jelly: idk let’s just wait it out

Bomba: The party don’t start til I walk in

Plato: Oh sweet it’s that foot thing that Cettie got!

Tumble: Babe alert!

Bomba: comin through

Pouncival: Bomba/Tugger/Me ot3!

George: I’m going in

Skimble: Not you too!

Misto: Hey I didn’t actually join!

Bomba: y’all are amateurs that man is mine

Tugger: Alright babe, go play with your friends

Jemima: <3

George: I want in on this!

Skimble: RIP George’s Virtue

Teazer: omfgbomba!

Tumble: Time to do the thing!

Pouncival: This is gonna be so cool!

George: Do I even know this thing?

(Meanwhile, Plato is thinking with his dick and it cannot be put into words)

George: I did it!

Pouncival: Notice us, Tugger!

Tumble: Yo!

Tumble: Did you guys see that?

George: resist urge to :D

Pouncival: Am I the only one taking this seriously?

Plato: Seriously, all I’m aware of is 8=D

Tugger: I’m ignoring all of them lol

George: fuck it. :D

Pouncival: Tugger look...

Tumble: Why am I less funny than my friends?

Plato: You’re Misto’s stunt double lol

Bomba: Bitch I’m flawless

Teazer: lemme talk to girls dad

Skimble: Don’t even think about it

Tumble: wait r u lifting me?

Plato: gotta practice

Pouncival: practice sexy dancing!

Plato: This is the Kiss My Paw move

Tumble: okay...

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dredshirtroberts · 3 years

Text

Constellations

on AO3!

Rating: M / Lime Pair: Eskel/Geralt Summary: Eskel loves Geralt but their soulmarks don't match - he'd know. They're witchers, and scars are their business. As he joins Geralt in retirement, Eskel figures whatever he can get with the other witcher will be enough. He might get a little bit more than he thought he was bargaining for, but Eskel's never passed up a good deal.

My entry into the @eskelbigbang. Trying something new for posting fic so bear with me. Check out the awesome art by @dat-carovieh on their tumblr and twitter @ LupisLionstooth!

Eskel growled a little as he stumbled off the path, clutching the wound on his side. The scar on his face creased with his snarl as he collapsed into a tree. He hated being wounded. The blood loss was greater than normal and his vision swam as he tried to push forward. The horse beside him whickered softly at him as he tripped. A loose stone, probably—or at least he hoped. If there were nothing in the path that would be worse. That would mean he was worse off than he’d thought.

He needed to keep going. He had an appointment to make.

"You should meet me in Novigrad,” Geralt had said over cards last winter. They were several glasses of his horrible wine in (it wasn’t horrible, Eskel loved it, but he loved picking on Geralt more—loved making his nose wrinkle with irritation, and Eskel did prefer ale over wine but the wine made at Corvo Bianco was alright and, best of all, free) and having a quiet evening.

Most of their evenings together were quiet these days. How long had they lived now? How many of their friends were lost to the passage of time?

Lambert never stayed, preferring the road. They both dreaded his never returning but after the loss of his soulmate—the Cat Witcher that Geralt had helped avenge—he’d never been quite the same.

Ciri had grown up, grown into herself. She’d had a longer than average lifespan from her Elven blood, but she stayed with Yennefer more often than not, and had become a strong woman and mage in her own right. Yennefer, for her part, came and visited infrequently, lost often in her own research and pursuits.

Geralt’s bard, Dandelion, had retired from traveling, had owned a bar, had been a professor at Oxenfurt, and then, eventually, had passed in time from an old life lived long and lived well. Their other friends were either distant or dead.

So, things were quiet.

“Why would I meet you in Novigrad? I’m here?” Eskel had asked.

Geralt had rolled his eyes, “I mean when you’re not here. Back on the Path. We should meet in Novigrad. It’s a mid-point between here and your normal territory. And the biggest bookshop on the Continent.”

It was a tempting offer. And it wasn’t really like Eskel was going to refuse. They’d just never planned to meet before. Geralt had retired from the Path years ago, staying at his winery or traveling to meet his friends but never hunting monsters. Not that there were many monsters to find these days as it was. Eskel’s coin purse had been light for years, the only saving grace was Geralt’s hospitality during the winters, and his generosity with the funds that came in from the winery.

“Alright. Why?”

“Because I miss you when you’re out, dumbass,” Geralt groused with another eyeroll, the bite in his words sour and reminiscent of their younger brother-in-all-but-blood. The quick twitch of the corner of his mouth down and the tightness near his eyes belied the sincerity behind the words, however.

“Aww, I miss you too,” Eskel batted his eyes at Geralt sweetly, teasing, “Alright sure. I’ll meet you in Novigrad. When?”

Eskel was supposed to have been there days ago. But the contract he had been on was not only longer than anticipated but a larger beast as well. A more vicious one. And now he was injured and trying to make his way to Novigrad to meet Geralt.

He needed to meet Geralt there. He missed the man, his closest friend for the past century and a half, his only family. The closest thing Eskel would get to having his soulmate.

They didn’t talk about their marks. They used to. Before the Trials. Before everything had changed.

They were very young, the first time it had been brought up among their year group. Ten boys huddled around comparing the discolored skin that showed the closest their mate would ever come to death and recover from. They were in nothing but their smallclothes, sitting in a circle in one of the dorm rooms of Kaer Morhen and lit by only the fire in the hearth that kept the room warm in the cold nights.

Eskel’s mark was a series of dots on his arm, black-purple like bruises, peppered in regular intervals, dark lines running deep into his skin, touching the veins that brought blood to his hands, peppered in at the crook of his elbow. It was remarked by one that they were like stars—a description Eskel held onto for many years, even onto the Path itself, the constellations of Destiny drawing him to the match to his soul. Some boys had dark red patches on their chests, deep shadows of wounds-that-weren’t-yet slicing through their legs, their arms, their stomachs. One boy, Gweld, had a pale line running right across his throat.

Geralt’s was the biggest. A swath of pink skin from hips to shoulders, like he was flayed open and a new patch was sewn on in a slightly wrong color. Eskel’s heart hurt to see it. He liked Geralt best of the other boys, he wasn’t too loud when Eskel wanted to read, exchanged stories of knights and chivalry and wanting to be a hero with Eskel. And they of course got up to much mischief together, which Eskel always appreciated. To see him marked like that, to know that whoever Geralt’s soul was promised to would have to survive something that bad, was painful.

Eskel and the other boys knew Geralt’s soulmate was a Witcher. It was obvious. No one else would survive an injury that large, that deep.

Vesemir had caught them that night, scowling and barking to get back into their beds, that they’d all have kitchen duty in the morning and for the next week after for being out of bed so late. The boys had complained, whining as they got into their bunks.

The outline of Geralt’s soulmark was etched into Eskel’s mind for a long while after. Forever, really.

They’d discussed their respective marks privately at other times. Osbert had caught them out once, poking and prodding at one another, wondering what the cause of their marks would be, speculating on when they’d meet their soulmates. Would it be before they’d gotten the scars that would be representative of the marks on their bodies? Would it be after? What scars would they acquire and how would they show up on their soulmates?

Osbert had seen their marks. Saw Geralt’s and nodded, his eyes sad but knowing. Then he’d seen Eskel’s. The look on his face was one that Eskel wasn’t able to parse at the time, but as he looked back on the memory in later years, he realized it was devastated.

Eskel didn’t know what caused him to feel that way until he was strapped to the table during the Trials, mages and Witchers alike hovering over him. One of the mages had seen his arm, had nudged another beside him and said, “Look, this one already has where the needles go on his arm. Nearly labeled and everything.”

The laughter that had passed between the two mages frightened Eskel, but not more than the knowledge that his mate, the soul that matched his soul, the one that Destiny herself had picked for him, would go through the Trials, and that would be the worst thing they would survive. Would they die? On the table? He knew it was a possibility but…

Would he die before meeting his soulmate? That hurt worse, the thought of leaving his soulmate to the world without knowing what happened to Eskel. His brain raced through all the injuries he knew he’d acquired since coming to Kaer Morhen—which one was the worst one? Which one brought him closest to death? Which would be the mark on his mate’s body if he died on the table, chemicals and reagents and mutagens pouring into his bloodstream, changing his body?

For the first time in his life, he wondered if his soulmate would fear him after he became a Witcher, if he survived. And as the needles pierced his skin, their caustic, toxic mixtures seeping into him and altering him irrevocably, he cried.

Eskel, of course, had survived the Trials.

Geralt had, as well. Not easily, though. He’d been chosen for additional mutagens, extra tests, further Trials. Once-auburn hair that shone blood-red in the sunshine was snow-white. His skin was death-pale, and shadows seemed perpetually under his eyes. He had been unconscious when they’d brought him back up to the dorms, and Eskel had sat by his bed as often as he could, watching, waiting for his friend to wake up.

If he’d checked Geralt’s arms for the marks that still lay purple-bruised on his own, darker now with the pinpricks of the needles that had actually entered his arm, well… They weren’t there. His arms were as clear as the sky on a summer day. It was as if the Trials had not happened to him. Eskel knew that Witchers healed quickly, that the marks on his arm—the one’s he’d acquired, not the ones he’d been born with—would disappear shortly. But to see Geralt who had gone through more with nothing had…

Had…

Eskel hadn’t realized until that moment how much he desperately wanted Geralt to be his soulmate, until he had been so devastated by the undeniable truth that he wasn’t.

Eskel collapsed on the ground, the world shifting on its axis as he blinked foggy blurriness from his eyes. The horse behind him had stopped obediently. Geralt had trained him well, of course. Eskel didn’t expect otherwise from a man who had trained every single horse he had ever ridden—even if he did end up calling them all Roach.

He wasn’t going to make it to Novigrad.

It was the last coherent thought he had before he slumped to the ground, the world going dark around him.

Eskel had many wounds in his lifetime. Wounds that had brought him to the brink of death and he was saved only by the timeliest of Swallows, of magical healers, of mages. It was the fate of a Witcher. Their Destiny to be covered in marks from their profession. Some wore their scars proudly, some hid them away. Eskel didn’t really mind either which way. Not until Diedre.

The deep, horrible mark on his face certainly made him feel as though he were better off dead. It wrapped around the side of his face, tore part of his lip away leaving him with a constant snarl, reaching to his ear. He knew, in that moment, that whoever his soulmate was, had to hate him for giving them this…this…

This thing on their face.

It was also when he lost all hope that Geralt could still be his soulmate. That his best friend would ever become more. Geralt had always had a rather romantic idea of how soulmates worked. He would take his pleasure where he could get it in the meantime—as most Witchers did, but he would wait to have a romance with someone until their marks matched scars.

And Eskel, the fool, loved him for that. Loved him for his hopeless, idealistic view on soulmates, when in reality a soulmate was just a person, as flawed and horrible as every other person on the Continent. There were soulmate couples who hated one another. Those who never met. Those who hurt their mates, were the ones to give them their scars.

As soon as Eskel knew he was not Geralt’s he worried. He worried for Geralt because the man, despite everything was still soft on the inside, was still the boy with bright eyes who waxed poetic about becoming a Knightly Witcher, who would save the world, not just from monsters but from everything he could. The man who had wanted to name himself Geralt Eric Roger du Haute-Bellegarde entirely earnestly. The man who loved every horse he ever met and named them each after the same kind of fish.

Eskel worried because he could not protect Geralt if his soulmate hurt him, because Eskel was not his soulmate.

Eskel traced the constellations on his arm, the little stars that marked where his soulmate went through the Trials. That marked where he went through the Trials. Absently, late at night he wondered if they were someone he had already met.

After the pogroms and the attack of Kaer Morhen he no longer needed to wonder. If he hadn’t met them yet, they had probably already died.

It was years before he let himself consider that they had died even earlier than that. Likely the first year on the Path. He tried not to think about if they were from the Wolf school or another.

Sometimes he would run his fingers over the shape of the scar on his face, wonder if his soulmate could feel it��could have felt it, he sometimes reminded himself, they weren’t alive anymore, likely. He would think about what it would be to run his fingers lovingly over the mark that tied them together, let them touch his mark—the memories of the Trials were painful, traumatic for all who went through them, but maybe with the fact that it connected them together in so many ways it would be… better.

Eventually he stopped letting himself think about it at all. It hurt too much. It wasn’t Geralt, it would never be Geralt, and he would never know his soulmate.

And maybe, if he were really and truly honest with himself, he didn’t want to know his soulmate.

Eskel woke in a bed.

This was mostly jarring because he had the distinct memory of passing out in the middle of the road, but he’d woken up in worse places than a bed before. At least this time there were no succubi.

That had been interesting.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Geralt’s voice was gravelly as always, and coming from Eskel’s left hand side.

Eskel grunted as he turned his head to look at the white-haired man beside him. The ever-present dark circles under his eyes seemed darker than usual, the pallor of his skin waxier and wanner than Eskel remembered from the last time they’d seen one another.

(Geralt had been looking healthier since he’d retired, well-fed, relaxed. This looked like Geralt on the Path—something Eskel hadn’t seen in years, decades even.)

“You look like shit,” Eskel said, pulling his face into a rough approximation of a smirk. His body felt heavy and he could feel the familiar tug of stitches in his side. At least he wasn’t actively bleeding out anymore.

“Yeah, well,” Geralt started like he was going to retort, but his voice fell flat as his expression did something Eskel wasn’t sure he’d ever seen on the man before, “You’re lucky I caught your scent while I was out hunting or you’d have died laying in the road.”

“Business as usual, then,” Eskel grunted, attempting to sit up a little. Geralt moved quickly, faster than Eskel was anticipating, and a hand was on his chest, pushing him back down into the bed. If Eskel really wanted to, he probably could have ignored the hand but…

Geralt’s long fingers were cold and felt nice on his heated skin and it had been so long since their last hug in Toussaint before Eskel had left on the Path again. Maybe this year he’d actually talk to Geralt about retiring with him, about setting up in the winery with Geralt, becoming even-older-old men together. It wasn’t like the monsters were getting any more populous. He could take up a trade, maybe, and pretend he wasn’t made into a monster himself by mutagens and actions and scars. Maybe he could pretend they were soulmates again, that this was enough.

He suddenly remembered why he hadn’t chosen to retire with Geralt yet. Why he might not ever.

“Stay down, idiot. You’ll pull your stitches.”

“Doubt I need them much longer,” Eskel grumbled.

“The fact that I could see your intestines before I got you fixed up begs to differ.” Geralt’s eyes were narrowed, the slits of his pupils dark in the wheat-gold of his eyes.

“Eh, they needed a bit of fresh air,” Eskel’s joking tone didn’t quite hit, and Geralt’s jaw clenched as he swallowed thickly. Eskel winced, turning away, “That was dumb of me to say, I’m sorry.”

“No you’re…you’re right. It’s part of the job,” Geralt was leaning back, taking his hand with him and Eskel gritted his teeth together to avoid begging him to keep touching Eskel, to never let go.

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck,” Eskel shrugged.

They sat in silence for a bit, Eskel’s eyes feeling heavy again.

“You give me something for it?” He asked, his brow creasing in confusion.

“What?”

“For the…” He gestured to his side, “Did you give me something?”

“Nah, why?”

“Tired,” Eskel mumbles, feeling his eyes drift shut again. Though, perhaps the exhaustion is more from having pushed himself on the Path for days on end before his last contract, and then further while injured, from having little to no food because he couldn’t afford it and the hunting was scarce close to the griffin.

Perhaps it was being in a bed for the first time since he’d left Geralt’s side in early spring, or maybe just the safety and comfort of having Geralt by his side again, listening to the man’s steady, Witcher-slow heartbeat and the soft sound of his breathing.

“So sleep,” Geralt’s voice is fond in Eskel’s ears and he thinks it’s probably just his mind making things up as it slows from waking to meditation to sleep, drifting from consciousness to dreams with little to no effort.

Eskel thinks he could get used to it, and fears what that means.

Eskel wakes again and it’s morning. Sun is shining through the window in the corner and birds are chirping outside.

Geralt is asleep, leaned forward on the bed, head resting on Eskel’s lap, and hands clasped around Eskel’s own. Previously cold fingers are warmed by the heat of Eskel’s palms and something in Eskel’s chest clenches in a way he is all too familiar with.

Geralt’s hair is loose, unbound and a tangled mess around his shoulders. Several strands have fallen across his face, a lock of it draped over his eyes, closed in sleep with pale lashes fanned out over dark circles. Soft breaths huff between parted lips that move slightly with the dreams that he sees behind his eyelids—Eskel can see the shape of his eyes darting back and forth beneath the thin skin.

He brings his other hand up, the one unclaimed by Geralt’s grasping fingers, and gently pushes the hair out of the other man’s face.

Geralt is beautiful. And Eskel loves him. He loves him so much.

Golden eyes drift open slowly, pupils sliding from wide circles to rounded slits with the light as Geralt blinks, taking a moment to wake up.

“Hey,” Eskel murmurs, a smile sliding over his face—easy, this time, and he is sure his emotions are plastered all over his face but he can’t really find it in himself to care. Geralt is here. Geralt was worried for him. Geralt slept at his bed rather than in one of his own, holding his hand.

“Hey,” Geralt’s already rough voice is moreso from the sleep as Eskel brings his hand away from the white hair that slides through his fingers like water made semi-solid. “You actually awake this time?”

“Probably,” Eskel chuckles, resting back against the pillow to stare up at the ceiling. “Been a tough season so far.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He wants to explain, but also he doesn’t. He doesn’t want Geralt to worry about him more. He didn’t really want Geralt to worry about him injured, either, but that wasn’t his fault.

(Their trainers might have disagreed, might have said of course it was Eskel’s fault he had been injured on the Path, but they weren’t there now, were they?)

“What got you?” Fingers trace the line of the wound, healed already, the stitches already out, having been removed while Eskel slept. Eskel shivers.

“Griffin. Villagers weren’t exaggerating the size, after all.” Eskel pulls himself up to sitting, his muscles protesting after so long relaxed in sleep. “Got here in the end, though.”

Geralt snorts, “Barely.”

“Eh, I knew either you’d come find me or it was my time to go,” Eskel half-jokes. A mirror of their earlier conversation. A conversation they’d had about various wounds and injuries accrued over their extra long lifespans. Geralt’s face is impassive, neutral and shows nothing. Which means he’s very upset by this comment.

“Come back to Toussaint with me,” Geralt says, and his voice is soft enough that if Eskel wanted to he could pretend he didn’t hear it.

Eskel isn’t sure what he wants.

“Why?”

Geralt’s jaw works as his mouth stays shut. There are words, Eskel knows, caught behind teeth and tongue and throat that will not come out because Geralt’s mind won’t let them. Ever since Blaviken, he’d been like this. Their hands are still tangled together and Eskel squeezes Geralt’s fingers to his palm gently.

“Why do you want me to come to Toussaint with you in the middle of the season, Geralt?” He asks again. Sometimes saying it again, saying *more* helps. Sometimes it makes it worse. He desperately hopes this makes it better.

“I don’t want…” Geralt starts. Stops. Squeezes Eskel’s fingers back. Then he pulls away. “You’re probably hungry. I’ll get food.”

Eskel drops it. Geralt will come to him in his own time. Eskel will decide what he wants to do in the meantime. A few days rest as planned here in Novigrad will be enough for now.

Geralt comes back with food for them both, and Eskel’s body remembers that it is starving. They don’t speak much during the meal, and when it’s over they talk about everything other than Geralt’s invitation.

Geralt doesn’t bring it back up that day, or the day after. Or the day after that.

They spend a week together in Novigrad. Eskel raids the bookstore—it was very impressive, filled with tomes on tomes of books with knowledge and poetry and stories and everything and anything. Geralt came with him, though he only picked at the plays and atlases, but he purchased several books that Eskel looked at longingly, tucking them in his bags to travel, saying they will be waiting in the library for Eskel when he comes back.

Eskel decided that meant they were not going to talk about the invitation to Toussaint again unless he brings it back up.

The thing is, Eskel doesn’t want to leave Novigrad. He doesn’t want to leave Geralt. He doesn’t want to go back on the Path where he will be lonely and cold, where there is little food and fewer friendly faces. Back to monsters and fighting and nursing himself back to health, to glares and fearful children, to long stretches of time with no contact with anyone other than the horse and his reflection in the water.

He doesn’t want to risk not being able to get back to Geralt.

That night, he begins the conversation.

“We’ve been here a week,” Eskel observed, taking a bite of a soft, buttery roll. He was not sure what kind of money Geralt was paying the innkeep here but they have eaten well since Eskel arrived.

Geralt freezes momentarily. Had Eskel not been watching, he would have missed it.

“Yep.”

“Been trying to think about where to go next. Not many monsters up north anymore,” Eskel keeps his commentary light, his tone gentle and observational only. Nothing to indicate that he’s leading the conversation anywhere.

“Eskel.”

“Geralt.”

Ah, he has been found out. Figures it wouldn’t work on the man who has known him the longest of anyone alive in the world right now.

“I- I can’t-…” Geralt pushes back from the table a little, tension clear in his body and shoulders, “I won’t-”

“I was thinking I could head south. Maybe travel with you. Head to Toussaint. I know they were having vampire problems decades back. You think there are still any hiding out? I bet there’s an infestation in your library. I should really check that out, you know. Since you’re all out of practice and all.”

Geralt glares at him but there is a relief etched in his bones that Eskel can feel as he grins unrepentantly, feeling his stiff scar tissue crinkle the skin on his cheek as he does.

“You’re an ass.”

“Hmm, but you’re friends with an ass so I think that says more about you than me.” Eskel teases and Geralt rolls his eyes.

“Ass-kel.”

“Come now, Geralt. We’ve surely grown past the insults you thought up when we were twelve.”

“Not if you still act like you did back then.” Geralt points out and Eskel laughs. The tension breaks, and the two of them end up nearly giggling over their dinner.

It is good to hear Geralt laugh again. Eskel wonders when the last time he heard it was and realizes it’s been much longer than a season on the Path.

Travelling with Geralt is easy. It is also the hardest thing Eskel has ever done.

They camp on the road. It’s economical, and reminds them both of earlier times, times before the world changed and left them behind. It also leaves them with little to no privacy between them and Eskel has never wanted a wank more in his life than when he has to wake up and watch Geralt still asleep in his bedroll, or bathing in the stream. But trying to get off with another Witcher around is even more difficult than it had been to try and get off in a keep full of them—especially when he doesn’t want Geralt to know.

Because Eskel is sure Geralt would figure out exactly what was causing Eskel’s need as soon as he was caught.

Geralt’s back is nearly unmarred by scars, leaving his mark clear as the day Eskel first saw it. The mark Eskel has seen in his mind's eye for decades. Nearly a hundred years of thinking of that shape, the line of it. The pink is the same shade as it was before but seems so much darker, starker with the contrast to Geralt’s death-pale skin. The shock of color interrupted by fine scars from smaller wounds, and from the bright white hair trailing between Geralt’s shoulder blades. Eskel wants to run his hands over it, claim it, mark it up with bites and scratches and make it his because that mark ties Geralt’s soul to another and Eskel wants what he cannot have.

He turns away, usually, and does not watch as Geralt bathes. Does not imagine what he is doing, does not follow the sounds of the water moving as it is sloughed over skin, hands chafing at dirt to scrub it off, dripping, dribbling sounds as it is squeezed from the long locks of hair.

The trip to Toussaint from Novigrad is the longest it has ever been and Eskel is glad when they arrive at Corvo Bianco, greeted by the man Geralt has hired to run things in his stead. The rooms Eskel normally uses are clean and available for him and he realizes he has actually agreed to do this. He will be staying in Toussaint. He won’t be finishing the season on the Path. He will be with Geralt.

He doesn’t know if he’s made the right decision.

Geralt is far more relaxed in Toussaint than he ever was anywhere else. He allows himself to be open with his affections—something he lost when he went off on the Path, and gained back in fits and spurts after rearing Ciri. Hugs to his brothers for no reason, gentle touches to shoulders and arms and hands, leaning on them when sitting together, especially when drinking.

Lambert always scoffs and complains, shoving the man off and griping about how he’s become sentimental in his dotage. Geralt always grins and laughs, making a joke of it, teasing the youngest of their remaining family and ramping up the gestures to absurdity for his benefit.

With Eskel it is quieter, softer. Eskel always returns the touch, reveling in the chance to hold the man he cannot have. Arms around Geralt for the hug, squeezing him tight. A returned pat to the shoulder or back (where his mark is, don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t–), a squeeze of fingers when their hands touch. His arm wrapping around Geralt’s shoulders when it’s late at night and they’re leaning on one another, deep into their cups and watching the stars and the lights of the town below the vineyards as the night drifts on around them.

If he adds a few touches of his own here and there, well, it’s just to show Geralt that it’s okay to share these moments. And a kiss to the top of the head during those late nights is entirely innocent enough.

(Wishing it was more, wanting desperately for more, more, more, is just something Eskel has gotten used to after all this time. Wanting and wishing is one thing, acting on those is another and he won’t do that to Geralt, he won’t.)

So it is that they find themselves late into the night, out on Geralt’s balcony, several bottles of wine in, and Geralt resting his head on Eskel’s shoulder, Eskel’s arm not around his shoulders but further down his back, settling on his ribs. His fingers are absently tracing patterns through the fabric of Geralt’s shirt—if he’s tracing the line of the mark on Geralt’s skin, well…It’s on his back, Geralt probably doesn’t put that together.

Geralt sighs softly, a happy, content sort of sound, and turns his head into Eskel’s shoulder, headbutting it gently with his forehead.

“You good?” Eskel asks, his voice barely above a whisper. For some reason talking louder feels like it might break some sort of spell between them. Something that would cause them to have to part.

“Yeah,” Geralt hums, a smile visible from what little of his face Eskel can spy looking down at him, “Yeah, I’m… I’m good.”

“Good,” Eskel pulls him in closer, abandoning his tracing of Geralt’s soulmark through his clothes to lay his hand steadily on Geralt’s side.

“You?”

“Yeah. Me.” Eskel teases laughing a little, “I’m good.”

“Good.”

And it is. Good, that is. They’re happy. It’s warm, the last of summer fading into autumn, a breeze blowing and rustling the leaves of the vines in the vineyard below. They can hear music from the town—probably none of the human inhabitants of the land Geralt owns can, but the two Witchers are able to. It’s faint, what with the distance, but it’s audible and sets a nice background tone for their evening. There are bugs making chirping noises and night birds calling in the trees and it’s peaceful and everything Eskel never knew he wanted alongside everything he always wanted.

“Esk?”

“Hm?” He glances down again at Geralt, having been staring out at the lamplight across the valley in a daze, feeling Geralt’s body heat against his own and his thumb absently stroking against the ribbones he can no longer feel so starkly under Geralt’s skin.

Geralt’s face is… much closer than Eskel thought it had been the last time he’d looked down at him and now it’s moving even closer and–

“Ger?” He whispers when Geralt stops, a hairsbreadth from their lips touching.

“I–” Geralt stops again, pulling back a little.

“I didn’t say stop,” Eskel breathes, leaning in and connecting them together in a way they haven’t before.

Geralt is on him like a starving man on a feast, hands gripping at Eskel’s shirt, pulling him in closer, closer, closer. And Eskel goes willingly, opening his mouth to Geralt’s assault, letting him do the leading, finding out where Geralt wants this to go because wherever it is, however far, Eskel will follow.

His hands bracket Geralt’s sides, palms resting above hip bones and thumbs pressing gently into the softer flesh under his ribs. Eskel slides them up and down slowly, just a fraction of an inch in either direction, and Geralt makes a noise that Eskel has never heard him make before and suddenly Eskel is the starving man and Geralt is the feast.

They break for air when even their lung capacity is at its limit. Gasping and panting, Geralt leans into Eskel’s neck, biting kisses into the flesh there, bared because this is home, he is safe and needs no armor, no barrier between his vulnerable parts and Geralt because he can trust this man like he trusts no other on this earth.

“Fuck, Geralt. Geralt, I–” Eskel groans, tilting his head to the side to give Geralt more room, “How long?”

“Forever,” Geralt breathes and Eskel’s hands grip his hips, yanking him closer, closer still, burying his face into Geralt’s neck for his own marks to be made on the pale, pale skin.

“I’m sorry,” Eskel’s teeth bite at Geralt’s jaw, “I wish I’d known.”

“Please,” Geralt asks, “Please come to bed with me. I– I can’t. I can’t wait for you anymore.”

Eskel answers by grabbing underneath Geralt’s ass and hauling him up. Geralt inhales sharply—whether in surprise or arousal is hard to tell—his legs wrapping around Eskel’s waist as his arms drape over his shoulders. And then there’s more kissing, which honestly Eskel doesn’t know how he’s gone so long without because it’s perfect.

Geralt doesn’t have a mark on his face, and doesn’t have scars on his arm, but Eskel thinks that this has to be better than kissing your soulmate.

He carries Geralt through the door between the balcony and Geralt’s bedroom, carefully making his way over dirtied clothes and stray shoes and half-read books to reach the bed. His knees bump the edge of the mattress and he grins wickedly into the kisses Geralt is plundering his mouth with before releasing his hold on Geralt suddenly.

Geralt clearly did not realize just how much of his weight Eskel was holding, falling to the mattress with a shocked yelp of surprise before Eskel was on him again, leaning over him, pressing him back into the bed.

“Still good?” Eskel asks between kisses to Geralt’s shoulders and neck.

“Yeah. Yeah,” Geralt is nodding and his breathy words are half-whined, “Still good, fuck Eskel. Eskel I’m– I’ve–”

“I know. I know, I’m sorry.” The kisses he is giving to Geralt get gentler, softer, sweeter, “I’m sorry, me too.”

“You’re an idiot,” Geralt breathes, fondly, “The fuck did I do falling in love with a dumbass like you?”

Eskel’s heart is fit to burst at this and he looms over Geralt suddenly, “Say it again.”

Geralt is blinking with wide, dark pupils encompassing almost the whole of his golden irises, his hair is fanned out around his head like a snowy halo and Eskel wants more than he has wanted ever before and he didn’t even know that was possible but here he is. Geralt is with him, wants him, and he can have him and it’s so much more and so much better than he thought it would be.

Why the fuck did they wait so long?

“Fuck, Eskel. Eskel I love you,” Geralt’s hands rest on Eskel’s arms, but they’re sliding up to cup Eskel’s face, thumb tracing the scar from lip to cheek and back again, “I have always loved you, you stupid idiot. How the fuck have you not known?”

“When the fuck was I supposed to know?” Eskel asks, frowning, “You never said!”

“I thought you did! I thought you were waiting for your soulmate or whatever but maybe you’d settle for me eventually.” Geralt scoffs, “Seriously? You had no idea? I’ve been so obvious that Yen said something about it ages ago.”

Eskel wants to comment on the fact that Geralt thought Eskel was waiting for his soulmate when the whole time Eskel thought Geralt was waiting for his soulmate. He wants to say something about how low Geralt’s self esteem is that he thinks Eskel would have to settle for him, like Geralt isn’t the only thing in the world Eskel can’t put a price on if he absolutely had to. He wants to make mention of the fact that Geralt thought he was being obvious about it, that Yen somehow figured it out.

Instead he just grins down at Geralt.

“I love you too, you son of a bitch.”

It’s good, what they have. It’s pretty much the same as it was, but Geralt is even more physically affectionate and now Eskel can kiss him and hold him and Geralt kisses and holds him back. Geralt is very good at kissing and Eskel tries to be as appreciative of it as possible every time he is gifted with the opportunity.

They have not gone farther than rutting against one another through their clothes and Eskel can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not.

On the one hand, he very much wants to fuck Geralt. It’s something he’s been thinking of doing for nearly a hundred years, and now that he gets to be so close to it, it’s almost painful that he can’t. On the other hand, seeing Geralt’s soulmark while they’re intending on doing something intimate together, despite how many times Eskel has fantasized about marking it up, making it his, making Geralt his, he’s not sure he would actually be able to follow through with anything if he saw it in the moment.

Geralt, too, seems to be reluctant and that’s probably the main reason Eskel hasn’t made any motions to go further with it. They share a bed at night for sleeping, they wake tangled in one another, they eat together, they drink together, they hold and touch and kiss and say “I love you” to one another like it’ll be the last time they ever get to say it, like it’s the first time they’ve ever said it before, and it’s good. It’s so good. It’s more than Eskel ever thought he’d get, and it’s enough.

Eskel has taken to helping out in the fields for something to do during the day. It’s harvest season and they need all the hands they can get out there, so he joins in and assists. It’s warm in Toussaint, in the early autumn, and he is sweating and dirty when he comes in for the afternoon.

Geralt is sitting outside, drinking and reading his legs crossed as he reclines a little in the chair he’s sat in, reaching blindly for the glass of wine on the table beside him to avoid looking up from his book. Eskel smiles but does not interrupt, instead shucking his shirt off with a roll of his shoulders and taking the bucket of water beside the patio and upending it over his head.

The sluice of water is chilly enough despite the bucket’s position in the sun, and while bracing, it is also refreshing and feels good on his sweaty and overheated skin. He shakes his head out like a dog—or a wolf, he thinks to himself with a smile—his medallion clinking gently on his chest as he stretches out. Not quite as rigorous as a training session with Vesemir, but close enough. He might even be sore later if he’s lucky.

There’s a startled gasp from behind him and the clattering of a glass on wood, followed by a curse. Eskel turns around to see that Geralt has knocked his wine over and is desperately trying to clean it up while also not setting his book down in it. His movements are flustered and Eskel wonders what startled him so.

“Good book?” He asks, a laugh at the edge of his voice, amused by Geralt’s movements.

“What? Oh, uh. Yes. Yes very… very… um,” Geralt struggles to come up with a word. “When did you get that big scar on your back?”

“What?” Eskel blinks at the non sequitur.

“The big scar on your back. That’s– it’s– it looks old but I don’t think I’ve seen it before?” Geralt is affecting a tone that says he’s trying very hard to appear nonchalant, which means he’s failing miserably at it. Eskel crinkles his brow with a confused smile.

“I have lots of scars on my back, Geralt. You will have to be more specific.”

“It’s…” Geralt stands, still acting flustered, and turns Eskel around, laying a hand on the top of Eskel’s shoulder and dragging it down in a rough diagonal before tracing the edge of it—it spans the whole of Eskel’s back, and he thinks he remembers which one it was.

“Uh… Leshen, I think. About… twenty years on the Path? It’s been a while, Geralt, why?”

Geralt spins him around and takes his arm, pulling it forward and stretching his elbow flat. The network of dots on his elbow are visible to the sun for the first time in, gods, half a century at least—he’s tried to keep them covered as much as he can because looking at them was too much. A pale finger traces over them, slightly cool as usual. Eskel wants to take those fingers and chafe them between his palms to warm them up but he knows that would only work a little. Plus he kind of likes that Geralt’s hands are cool to the touch.

“Yeah, uh… that’s where they put the needles for the-”

“The Trials. Yeah. I remember.” Geralt whispers, his finger tracing a connecting line between the star-shaped marks, “Had it done twice.”

“Don’t remind me,” Eskel scowls, remembering the fierce terror at waking up and not knowing where Geralt was, learning that he was having more torture forced on him, then the recovery period where he had sat sentinel at Geralt’s bedside.

“Worst thing I ever lived through,” Geralt murmurs, glancing up at Eskel through white lashes and oh.

Oh.

“Oh.”

Eskel feels numb. And dumb. And like he’s been struck by lightning. Or a griffin. Or a Leshen.

Oh.

“So… we’re idiots, right?” Eskel asks after a moment.

Geralt laughs leaning forward to drop his head onto Eskel’s shoulder. Eskel’s arms come up automatically to hold him, threading fingers through his hair, loose and long and gorgeous. He finger-combs the locks as Geralt shakes, not answering him. Eskel doesn’t worry, it happens sometimes, that Geralt won’t have words.

He does worry a little when he catches the scent of tears, “Geralt?”

“Yeah,” He finally says, “Yeah, we’re idiots.”

“But you’re my idiot,” Eskel says and it’s the strangest, greatest feeling in the world that it’s unequivocally true.

“And you’re mine,” Geralt leans back, tilting his head to the side, and taking Eskel’s mouth with a fierce—but somehow sweeter than even their chastest—kiss.

They knock their foreheads together lightly, eyes closed for just a moment as Geralt’s hands reach up and cup Eskel’s neck and face.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

#the witcher #eskel big bang #ebb2021 #eskel/geralt #my fic #my writing #the captain writes #soulmate identifying marks #mutual pining #idiots in love #soulmates #making out #fade to black #happy ending

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popsiclemania · 3 years

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My 2020 in K dramas (+1 J drama)

I began watching k-dramas in 2018 but I’ve never watched as many shows, Korean or otherwise, as I have in this one. 2020 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I think what helps me really enjoy this over Bollywood+Malayalam+ American pop culture I grew up with is that a smirk on the wrong character’s face doesn’t make me seethe with rage and want to burn everything down. It’s not like growing up with SRK on screen and then having SRK wannabes leave you with lifelong trauma in reality. I can just move on. It’s removed enough from my everyday life but still familiar in a generic Asian family way. Does that make sense? It’s not perfect and it’s not free of its own harmful stereotypes and narratives, but there’s enough of the good stuff to make you stick around. This year I fell in love with Nana, Kim Hye Soo, Han Yeri, Park Eun bin, Ahn Eun jin, Kim Bum, Kim Yong ji, Flower Boy’s Go Dok Mi and Search:WWW’s Bae Tami. Cancelled Ji Chang wook (bye). Desperately missed Kim Jae Wook. Had thoughts on Hwang In Yeop, which were mostly heart eyes. Discovered J dramas and fell in love with Cherry Magic’s Adachi.

My year-in-review below:

LOVED

Into The Ring - I am so glad I saved this for a rainy day because it’s exactly the kind of upright citizen shenanigans my unemployed ass needed at the end of the year.

Goo Se Ra thinks the govt should work for the people but that doesn’t mean her own moral compass always points north. Her purpose is to make steady money, and I love seeing her go hard to survive and cobble together what she needs. The thing that really works for me is that she wants to be good, but she isn’t always. And you get to see her be disappointed, upset, embarrassed and hurt from being publicly kicked in the gut as she navigates a job where she appears, on the surface, to be a supremely confident, self-serving, accidental politician. What you see as her naiveté is mostly just her being a regular person in an environment dictated by backhand deals and rich people politics. She gets hit again and again, and you see what it does to her sense of worth to get back up again, how she grapples with her self. And through all this the show is funny?! Se Ra is what writers of manic pixie characters think they are doing and not doing at all. Love her friends, and Jang Hye-jin is *chef’s kiss*!

Hyena - Kim Hye Soo’s Jung Geum Ja is perhaps Se Ra’s older and darker contemporary. Geum Ja is a survivor and will get what she wants and where she wants to, however many hells she has to cross. She’s single-minded about her success, ruthless and has no qualms about bending morals to get the outcome she needs. She’ll never compromise on who she is or justify how she lives, can build people up and also tear them down, but she also knows care and kindness.

I turned to Signal for more Kim Hye Soo but was disappointed in how the first few episodes seemed to shortchange her. May try again in 2021.

(Highly recommend @saltr0se’s fic series which just GETS Geum Ja so well. Fic writers are the best)

Search: WWW (Finished in 2020) - It took me half a year to finish this. I started watching Search in Oct 2019 and raced through the first 6 episodes because I couldn’t take my eyes off the rollercoaster of Bae Tami’s life. And then I had to take a break because it was a little too close to the frenetic pace of my own industry. As @drivingsideways wrote, a lot of Search is premised around ‘patriarchy? who dat?’, which is why watching its politics play out is so fascinating. It’s also deliciously turmoil-y to watch a very clear-sighted, weathered Tami put on rose-tinted glasses for her romance and then frequently peer over them to evaluate whether it could actually meld into her life.

Catch The Ghost - Kim Seonho oozes charm and perhaps Startup was a showcase of how effectively he can be a typical male lead. But Catch is exactly not that. Go Jiseok and Yoo Ryeong have moulded their lives around to meet their most desperate wishes in life and in the process also left parts of themselves untended. There is guilt, pain and need. Now guess who will tend to whose wounds? Their dynamic is electric even when the central mystery flags towards the last few episodes of the show. I really hope Moon Geun Young is doing well and gets more amazing roles soon. She is so good here.

(Highly recommend @melonatures‘s fic for putting that sizzling on-screen chemistry into words. HOW?!) Cherry Magic - Stories about painfully awkward people are my jam and Eiji Akaso gets Adachi’s shy, nervy energy so right. Cherry Magic is straight up just 12 hours of 🥺🥺🥺.

Stranger/Secret Forest - I’ve been devouring the entirety of Agatha Christie’s work this year after Stranger reminded me how comforting murder mysteries can be. I love Bae Doona. I also love characters who don’t get social norms, not always because they are out to flout them but because that’s just not how their mind/brain works. (have to watch S2)

Flower Boy Next Door - Honestly, the opening scene introducing Park Shin Hye’s character Go Deok Mi sold me on this immediately. An introverted, penny pinching copy editor living alone and working from home thanks to extreme social anxiety? Love. All the side characters are a lot of fun and I’ve never loved Kim Seulgi and Go Kyung Pyo more. It’s a warm show, slowly rounding off the sharp edges of every character.

JUST FUN

The Spies Who Loved Me - It’s been a year of disappointing rom-coms and Spies kind of quietly turned it around for me. I want to be the fly on Yoo In Na’s wall as she figures how to play her characters. I’ve only seen her in 3 roles but somehow she always manages to be in character arcs that don’t short change her. Spies could’ve been and sometimes is the regular heterosexual fare, but In Na ups the ante over and over again, coming out on top as the smartest person in the room.

ENJOYED WITH *RESERVATIONS*

I have to watch A Piece Of Your Mind again because I don’t understand how Jung Hae In and Chae Soo bin built SO MUCH warmth and crackling chemistry with barely a kiss. I was iffy about how the whole AI thing started off and the tortured musician plotline (angsty male artists will forever be an eyeroll for me).

Park Min Young is a queen who never disappoints and When The Weather Is Nice is everything you want in a winter romance. My reservation was in how they explore so much of domestic abuse and the complex ways its traumatised the women in this family. I’m ok with the characters having imperfect ways of processing and understanding the violence, I welcome it. I’m not ok with the show dancing around whether the pivotal crime was justified/ self defence (it was).

A lot of dramas did this. I loved Han Yeri and Choo Ja Hyun in My Unfamiliar Family, I didn’t like the free pass the show gave their dad’s abusive character.

Hwang Jung Eum’s comedy style is generally not my thing but she was pretty great in Mystic Pop-UP Bar. But I’m side-eyeing the sanctity surrounding motherhood. Maybe I should read more about babies and Korean folklore.

Hospital Playlist was my comfort watch through June and July. I think its wholesomeness and non-plot writing came at a good time for me. But I noticed then that the throughline for all main characters was moral superiority and hence what I then saw as *wholesomeness*. It’s kind of what makes it a grating rewatch in parts. Plus the real life of misogyny of Yoo Yeon Seok makes me want to push his angelic catholic character off a cliff. (For context, i was raised catholic). I want to continue loving Chae Song Hwa, and for that the showrunners need to stop cornering her with overbearing romantic interests (let that woman breathe! she literally ran away to another city!)

Hospital is good at creating moments of comfort, so much so that I went to watch Reply 1988 after it, but had to drop it coz I couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’ll come back to it next year.

Once Again is what I call joint family propaganda. What it does well is lay bare the mechanics of living in a society that prizes the heterosexual family structure, the loops you have to jump through to hide when you break its rules and what happens when you are found out. I love the characters, their fights, their frustrations. I just don’t love the validation of joint families. (context: i grew up in an oppressive joint family lol). In my au, Nahee and Gyujin don’t get married again or immediately have children, but take the long route to figuring out how to love the person the other is. Gahee is openly dating Hyo shin and her parents have to figure out how to process her success and her romance. Young dal and Ok boon have to learn to stop dictating their children’s lives. Joon sun runs his company from home, so his wife Hyun kyung can work on what she wants. Choyeon, Joori and Ga-yeon go back to being flamboyant AF and the market learns to not judge. Gyujin and Jaesok have to actually work on the relationship with their mother and what sent her into depression. Just a lot of learning involved.

Just Between Lovers was a nice watch, i just don’t get how Kang doo and Ha Moon So’s relationship will survive his constantly simmering anger.

Crash Landing on You was so much fun until the main romance turned angsty, but it gave us North Korean soldier shenanigans and the epic romance of Seo Dan and Alberto Gu that we needed more of.

Tale of The Nine Tailed is probably what Goblin wished it was. I, however, will never be over Lee Rang. (Also, when can gods stop meeting their love interests as babies? Asking for my sanity)

I literally ignored everything in Oh My Ghost except Park Bo Young and Kim Seulgi and it was amazing.

NOPE

Goblin, Dinner Mate, Oh My Baby and My Secret Romance were a whole lot of NO, NAHI, ILLAAA.

I loved hate-watching The King:Eternal Monarch with the rest of k drama tumblr but someone please take away Kim Eun-sook’s access to gigantic budgets and all-star casts.

It was painful to watch Do You Like Brahms squander away its potential but I’m glad to be introduced to Park Eun bin. Age of Youth is next on watchlist.

More than Friends to me is only Ahn Eun jin. Someone give her amazing lead roles asap.

Why did Record of Youth do that to Park So Dam and her clothes? Just why

WANTED TO WATCH, BUT COULDN’T BECAUSE *INTENSE*

World Of The Married, It’s Okay Not To Be Okay, Sweet Home, Extracurricular, Penthouse, Flower of Evil, Lie After Lie

WILL WATCH NEXT YEAR

SF8, Stove League, Birth Care Centre but I’ll start the new year with School Nurse Files coz it looks very good.

#long post #kdramas #review #2020 #A DECADE #Goo Sera’s and Yoo Ryeong’s are the kinds of stories I wish I’d watched through my late teens/early 20s #Jung Geum Ja and Bae Tami are who I’m taking into my thirties.

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sunflowershouyou · 4 years

Text

🎃 Haikyuu!! Halloween Couple Costumes series (part 1)

Nishinoya Yuu ÷ Kuroo Tetsurou ÷ Oikawa Tooru

🦇 Nishinoya Yuu

- you both were very excited for the upcoming Halloween party so you couldn't wait to show each other the costumes you made

- you decided to go with Princess & the frog

- you made your costumes by yourself and you didn't even show them to each other because you wanted it to be a surprise

- you spent many hours sewing a dress and glueing jewels on your crown and you couldn't wait to show everything to Noya

- hours before the party you got a call from your boyfriend 'Hey y/n can't wait for tonight!!! It's going to be AWESOME!!! I made the best costume ever and you're gonna love it!! I made a few changes and it's EPIC!!'

- you started wondering what was so unique about Noya's costume

- *Is he going to be in a suit with a frog head??? or a frog onesie?? or OH MY GOD is he going to show up as Kermit the frog????*

- it was time for you to get going and you heard a knock on the door

- it was Noya who came to pick you up

- you opened the door and you were speechless👁️👄👁️

- Nishinoya was dressed as DAT BOI riding unicycle and singing ~Here come dat boi o shit waddup watch him rollin watch him go he be rollin down the street he be rollin to the BEAT~

- your head couldn't comprehend what just happened but your insane boyfriend was so happy since he came up with this idea and made the costume all by himself so you decided to roll with it (just like dat boi lol)

- everyone at the party was laughing like crazy at your 'couple costumes' and you all had so much fun

- this was probably your best Halloween ever

🦇 Kuroo Tetsurou

- you and Kuroo decided to dress up as comics superheroes

- Kuroo told you he was going to be dressed as Batman since he claims they both give off the same vibe and are very good looking (you made the biggest eyeroll)

- 'Y/n did you decide what are you going to wear?? You know it has to show that we're a couple right??'

'Yeah yeah Kuroo I know..'

'.. but did you decide???'

'Yes, you don't have to worry'

'Sooo what is it going to be??'

'It's a surprise. I'm not telling you.'

'That's not fair! What if I wanted to surprise you?? Your costume better be good!'

- since you refused to tell him he started wondering *Is she going to wear a Wonder Woman costume.. or Starfire? But that doesn't go that well with Batman.. hmmm WHAT IS IT*

- the night of the party came and he was waiting in your living room for you to change into your costume

- Kuroo was so in love with his Batman costume that he couldn't stop looking at himself in the mirror

- 'Hey Kuroo I'm ready.. I'm coming out' Kuroo, still looking at the mirror, 'Ok, you should see me kitten, I look really cool'

- you came out of your room and your Catwoman costume left him with an open mouth and eyes full of admiration

- 'Do you like it..? I'm not really sure if it looks good but it's the most suitable one for Batman I guess..'

- 'OH MY GOD Y/N YOU ARE GORGEOUS!!!' he couldn't take his eyes off you because not gonna lie you were pretty hot in that leather black costume

- 'Thank you sweetie!! Let's go or we'll be late'

- he grabbed your wrist and said 'Wait y/n'

'Huh? Is anything wrong?'

'No.. I just wanna know.. where did you get that costume'

'Oh.. I made it myself. Why?'

'No.. nothing.. I just wanted to know if you have to return it somewhere because I want you to wear it tonight.. you know.. after the party'

🦇 Oikawa Tooru

- we can all agree that Oikawa is a huge nerd so he probably came up with the idea of both of your dressing up as Star Trek or Star Wars characters

- you decided to go with Star Wars since you knew slightly more about it

- you went to a store and Oikawa chose your costume to be Princess Leia but the one with the gold bikini 'Tooru what the hell?? Are you for real?? Isn't that too revealing??'

'Don't worry sweetie you can put shorts under it.. besides I'm gonna be your Han Solo and I'll protect you no matter what!'

- little did he know that the only one Star Wars costume left besides Leia's was Jabba's

- 'Come on Tooru.. come out I won't laugh at you'

'You promise?'

'Yes dear.. come out'

'BUT I LOOK HIDEOUS'

'NO YOU DO NOT DON'T BE SUCH A BABY'

'Okay I'm coming out' you barely holt your laughter because Oikawa wearing a Jabba costume was one of the best and most hilarious views ever

- 'I don't wanna wear it y/n.. I wanted to look good now I look like this'

'I agreed to wear Princess Leia's revealing costume so you should swallow your pride as well.'

'But I don't want to'

'Tooru.. sweetheart.. this is the last shop in town.. just do it please.. besides everything looks good on you so I don't think you should be concerned about it'

- it was the night of the party and you showed up as Princess Leia and Jabba

- Makki and Mattsun couldn't stop laughing since they first saw Oikawa (who was about to cry)

- luckily there was a costume contest and you and your boyfriend took part in it and recreated the iconic scene where Princess Leia was captured by Jabba

- and you WON!!! despite all the whining (and tears) Oikawa still claims that this is the best Halloween ever and no one could possibly top him as Jabba

thank you for reading!

(part 2)

-sunflowershouyou 🌻

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios #nishinoya x reader #kuroo x reader #oikawa x reader #nishinoya headcanons #kuroo headcanons #oikawa headcanons #haikyuu!! halloween #nishinoya yuu #kuroo tetsurou #oikawa tooru #sunflowershouyou

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scribbleb-red · 5 years

Text

Camisado (Your Emo Andreil AU)

[This started as a Morning AU on Twitter, warning: we're going very 00s]

Andrew and Neil meet in a chat room age 13.

Andrew's handle is @/phantom!attheopera

Neil's is @/isayshotgun

Andrew initially hangs around because he finds it hilarious how Neil roasts people he likes and trolls people he doesn't.

They also both have things in common - starting with but limited to their love of PATD and pretty much all emo music they can get their barely-teenage hands on. Andrew likes it a little heavier than Neil - but they both rave about Brendan Urie, Gerard Way and the Maddens.

They strike up a penpal style relationship - moving first from the chatroom to private messages, then the msn and email.

They confide in each other. Neil moves around a lot because 'my dad's a bad man, he's after me and my mom'.

Andrew tells him about Cass and Drake.

isayshotgun: he shdnt do dat 2 u

phantom!attheopera: i know

isayshotgun: id get u out

phantom!attheopera: how

isayshotgun: im gd w/ knives

phantom!attheopera: maybe you can teach me.

phantom!attheopera: and I'll teach you to spell, honestly.

isayshotgun: *eyeroll*

Neil doesn't come to get Andrew because Aaron happens first.

And then Andrew's in juvie and playing exy and the only way he can stay in touch with Neil is email. He shouldn't even be allowed email, but he's willing to get on his knees to have computer access, access to Neil.

Something about email makes their friendship even deeper.

Actually, Andrew's fairly certain that he's half way in love and that if they were different people they'd have already talked about this. Still, it's because of email that he notices something is wrong with Neil.

His emails, which were long and rambling, have suddenly become short - no less full of feeling and affection, but syntactically different.

He tries to ask about it.

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun

Subject: what's wrong with you?

Neil is cagey at first but Andrew gets it out of him in the end.

From: isayshotgun

To: phantom!attheopera

Re:Re:Re:Re:Subject: what's wrong with you?

Being shot really sucks. That's all. N

All Andrew wants to do then is cross the country, gather Neil close and keep him safe. They're fifteen now and he'll be leaving juvie next month.

"Can you keep safe until then?" Andrew types.

"U cant save me. We talked about this." Neil's reply is not what he wants to read.

Andrew's released to Tilda. He finds out his brother is hooked on painkillers and his birth mother is an abuser.

phantom!attheopera: she hits him. I need to stop her.

isayshotgun: ... ...

phantom!attheopera: what?

isayshotgun: is that weird? for moms 2 hit u?

phantom!attheopera: your mom hits you too?

isayshotgun: 2 teach me not 2 be stupid.

isayshotgun: keepin me alive

phantom!attheopera: that's not how it works, no one hits you for your own good. that's...

phantom!attheopera: my therapist calls it emotional abuse and controlling behaviours.

Neil ends up sharing a lot more than he was probably initially intending - about the one time a girl kissed him and he couldn't walk properly for a week; about the way his mom pinched him and made him recite their rules back; about how he wasn't allowed to be sick, ever.

phantom!attheopera: one of these days I'll find you and we'll run away together. We'll go anywhere you want. Settle somewhere safe.

isayshotgun: do u think ud like me irl?

phantom!attheopera: well I can't see your spelling if you're talking

isayshotgun: rofl lmao

Andrew tells Neil about Aaron.

phantom!attheopera: he's a total prick

isayshotgun: hv u tried talkin 2 him about smthing easy? like exy?

phantom!attheopera: just because you like stickball

isayshotgun: no i mean maybe u need a bridge 2 talk. common grnd.

phantom!attheopera: ...maybe

Neil is the one who gives him the idea about crashing the car with Tilda in it too. He sends Andrew all the instructions on a floppy disk that he posts to Andrew's therapist. On the front of the disk, Neil has scrawled their usernames. Andrew smiles.

Their relationship is a strange one - they are always there on the other end of the computer to each other, but they've never swapped photos and never heard each other's voices.

When Andrew gets a phone, he asks Neil if he has one and Neil says no, only his mom has a burner.

Still Andrew gives Neil his number and on his birthday, November 4th, he gets a call from a Seattle phonebox.

"Hey," Neil says. Andrew can hear him shivering, the chatter in his teeth.

"Happy Birthday, Drew."

They talk and talk. It's the best birthday Andrew's ever had.

Right up until the gunfire.

Neil vanishes.

There's no emails. No MSN messages. No highly irritating nudges. He's not in any of their usual chatrooms.

Andrew doesn't get another phone call.

Weeks go by. First one then another then another.

Andrew leaves messages. He sends emails. He really really hopes Neil isn't dead.

Aaron and Andrew go to live with Nicky.

They're approached by The Ravens. Andrew turns down the infamous Riko Moriyama and his absurdly pretty Number 2, Kevin Day.

David Wymack shows up. The deal extends to Aaron and Nicky if he wants it. Andrew says yes.

Sometimes Andrew thinks about Neil and tries to make an effort with Aaron, but Aaron is angry and a recovering addict and nothing Andrew says or does is ever enough. He still tries.

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun

Subject: 9 ways I'm trying to befriend my twin

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun

Re: Subject: make that 11 ways

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun

Re:Re:Re: Subject: none of these are working

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun

Re:Re:Re:Re:Re: Subject: you'd hate him too

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun

Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re: Subject: ok fine, I don't hate him

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun

Subject: Happy New Year

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun

Re: Subject: And Happy Birthday I guess

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun

Subject: I miss you

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun

Re: Subject: I still miss you

From: phantom!attheopera

To: isayshotgun

Subject: Panic! are play in Columbia next month !!!

From: isayshotgun

To: phantom!attheopera

Re: Subject: Panic! are play in Columbia next month !!!

got u a ticket c u there @ 7pm

Andrew blinks. He stares at his inbox. The 1 new message. Neil's username. Neil is alive. Neil is coming to Columbia. Neil is coming to a Panic! At The Disco gig. He bashes out a hasty message.

phantom!attheopera: Are you serious?

isayshotgun: yeh

The month vanishes under Andrew's feet. He's nervous. He's excited. Nicky is exuberant.

"My cousin has a date!"

"Not a date, Nicky."

Nicky just slides a knowing look his way and when Andrew takes the car keys, tells him to drive safe and stay out of fights. Andrew scoffs.

They haven't been talking much, Neil and Andrew.

But Neil promised that Andrew wouldn't be able to miss him.

Neil was telling the truth. He's standing there, a too-skinny teenager with badly cut hair flopping into his eyes, with a giant sign saying "phantom!attheopera".

Approaching, Andrew sees that Neil is gaunt, there's shadows under his eyes, which are blue as the sky on a clear, cold day.

"You ready to scream your crooked heart out?" Andrew asks.

Neil looks up with a slow smile. It wobbles as if his face is out of practice.

"Hey."

"Hi."

They will - in fact - scream their crooked hearts out that night. They will hold each other upright and throw themselves through the mosh pit, feeling the press of elation and anger and frustration and hope. Neil will trip a stranger who gets too close for Andrew's comfort. Andrew will deliberately spill a drink over a girl who won't stop eyeballing Neil with hearts in her eyes.

"My hero," Neil laughs. His laugh is rusty too.

Andrew wants to hear it again and again. He wants to hear it every fucking day for the rest of his stupid emo life.

When the music fades and the crowds disperse, Andrew and Neil are left in the carpark, sitting on the bonnet of Andrew's car.

He asks Neil where he's going tonight.

Neil shrugs.

He asks Neil if his mom is nearby but he already knows the answer. Mary Hatford is dead.

They don't leave for hours. Neil explains everything that night - who his dad is, what he's running from. Andrew doesn't care.

When they're both cold, they sit in the car and turn the heating up. Andrew offers his hand to Neil and Neil curls their fingers together.

Neil is tired. Neil is so so so tired.

"Come home with me." Andrew says. "Stay."

Neil slumps against the seats, his head tilted so Andrew can see every sharp angle of his face. There's no fight, no bargaining.

Just a sweet, fluttering feeling neither of them know to call hope.

The end.

#morning AU #Andreil #emo #emokids #00s aesthetic #andrew minyard #neil josten #aftg #panic!#at the disco

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trixcuomo · 4 years

Text

I’m crashing in so u betta get this party started

((Another campy, Warcraft-infused iteration worthy of the genre...))

Next on Trixany and the Kaja-Cola Flava Girls...

youtube

Trixy's my name, after me Kaja-Cola was never the same! Trixany's my name!

T R I X A N Y !

One sunny afternoon at the Kaja-Cola Dream House, high up in the Stonetalon Mountains...

[Guild] [Meghan]: Mu’usha above! Trixany, what happened to you??

[Guild] [Trixany]: *stumbles in, with baby blue ripped Kaja-Cola costume and white knee-high boots with a broken heel* Arghh.... I had a run-in with Phuur in Dalaran. I tried to handle it once and for all in a civil fashion, and with honor. The way a true warrior would--

[Guild] [Dahlia]: *gravelly Forsaken voice* You mean with D20 rolls? You should have just stabbed her in the shin.

[Guild] [Shuga]: Dahli! Will you cut that out--do you want this girl band guild to get shitposted and banned? Geez, if one more leader of the Frostwolf Clan unfriends me at this point...

[Guild] [Trixany]: ... I rolled a 19. But then that witch Phuur just... stabbed me with her pink crystal dagger, right in the... shin! *groans, collapses on the bright yellow and pink Kaja-Cola Dream House couch*

[Guild] [Dahlia]: See! That’s how you’re supposed to handle things in Dalaran. Steet! Jaina banned people, Madam Goya breaks thumbs... actually, that place can get pretty ghetto come to think of it.

Caption: Dalaran, where pretty magical fireworks happen and lead singers of girl bands getting stabbed in their shins also happens.

[Guild] [Shuga]: Grrr... Enough is enough. Something has to be done here. I’m a Burning Blade Orc by birth, and I’ll be socially dead if one more Orc shitposts about me on Reddit...

[Guild][Trixany]: Wait, Shug--I thought you said you were Frostwolf Clan by birth?

[Guild][Dhalia]: No, she’s a Mag’har Orc now. Shug kept losing followers.

[Guild][Shuga]: That was the week before last. Anyway, those Ally’s Angels have gone too far. We may be a girl band put together mainly for softdrink promotional purposes and not our actual musical talent, but we’re still Horde! *loud wolfwhistle* Mojo Jojo! Arcana Mama! Start up the Kaja-Car. *glints, sinister Orcish snarl* We’ve got some real hard core PvP on our hands.

[Guild] [Coco]: Meanwhile, the intelligent Goblin goil of the guild is gonna stay clean out of it and call our lawyers in about an hour, in anticipation of a fantastic blow-out that can only result in harmin’ business long-term. But have fun, ladies! *crosses ankles on the sofa next to her dying step sister Trixany. Turns magazine page*

[Guild] [Trixany]: *still groggy, as the pretty Nightborne Arcana tries to revive Trixany with Kaja-Cola brand smelling salts in a bright orange vial* Wait, who’s the DM for this again? And do I need a summon?

[Guild] [Shuga]: NO MORE D20! This is real killing, okay?!

Later, at the Ally’s Angels concert in Cathedral Square, Stormwind...

[Phuur]: Aaah, yes, King Anduin. *curtseys* We have seats vight up vront here for you and your date.

[Anduin]: Thank you very much. But no, this is just Wrathion. He’s here on diplomatic matters, of course.

[Phuur]: I’m sure he is. *she makes scare quotes with her blue claws* “Diplomatic.”

[Anduin]: Honestly, I’ve always loved Gnomeade since I was a kid, and we’re both huge fans of Ally’s Angels. Wrathion’s spoken of nothing else since I punched him right in the face with my excellent right hook that one time.

Caption: Young Prince Anduin, with a Gnomeade commercial stuck in his head, “I feel like Gnomeade tonight, like Gnomeade tonight!”

[Wrathion]: *sighs, crosses arms in his embroidered jacket* Must we... keep mentioning that, Anduin dear?

[Phuur]: Enjoy ze show, boys. *winks at them both and gently sashays on her Draenei hooves back to the stage set up in front of the Cathedral stairs* Ladies? Is everyzing set to go?

[Gelica]: *The Human priestess looks up as she finishes tuning her golden electric guitar* The Gnomeade Gnomes have handled everything beautifully as usual. They even brushed Roary all over even though she’s not... really that kind of Worgen.

[Phuur]: *winces* Uh-oh. Roary? You okay with zat? I know you prefer to perform in your Human form at a big event like zhis?

[Roary]: *still making a purring noise and wagging her bushy gray tail* Aaall... over. So nice.

[Phuur]: Oh? Oookay, zhen. *she is handed a blue and gold Gnomish microphone as the Gnomeade Gnomes pick up their equipment and smoothly depart. Phuur then takes her spot center-stage. The sapphire blue curtains haven’t raised yet, but all three Alliance performers smile when they hear the Cathedral Square crowd begin to cheer and chant*

Ally! Ally! Ally! Ally!

[Phuur]: Time to finally show zhe vorld of Azeroth we are ze best peformers, and ze greatest softdrink beverage company! *mutters* Take zhat, Trixany!

[Roary]: Wolf-howls, and laughs mischeviously. *the curtains raise, Gelica sends the first golden guitar riff sailing. Phuur and Roary spin side by side, then drop to their knees in a dramatic synchronized dance move. Then, holding onto each other with real emotion, Phuur curls over her microphone and begins to sing in harmony.*

I looove... what I looove, Roary...

And I love, what you love, Phuur...

What do yoooooou love, Gelica?

We all love... we looooove the Alliance...

Caption: Gnomeade’s premier girl band, Ally’s Angels. Gelica (Human), Phuur (Draenei), Roary (Worgen)

But then, a heavy shadow passes over Cathedral Square and all are compelled to look up, even the highly trained Gnomeade Ally’s Angels performers.

A giant green zeppelin with the bright orange Kaja-Cola logo on the side is sailing dead-aimed at stage.

[Phuur]: *looks up, wide-eyed* They wouldn’t dare... All because I--

[Gelica]: *lowers her guitar, annoyed* Phuur, did you go Eredar on us again? Something clearly provoked this. Roary, did you know about this?

[Roary]: Why, I must say... *then stops looking so concerned* That’s an unusually apt deduction for a Human, Gelica. *eyeroll*

Blood Elf “Fiesta Lime” Trixany is at the helm in her bright blue and green Kaja-captain’s hat, looking very ill and leaning on crutches. The fearsome Orc known as “Shuga Slam” is wearing an Admiral’s hat and red, studded shoulderguards. She’s bracing Trixany up from the other side. Shuga then raises her Goblin megaphone device.

[Shuga][Yells]: Lok’tar! All this pure, white, colorless stone... This place is SO bland, isn’t it, Flava-Girls?

[All Flava-Girls]: Wooooooo! Yeah!

[Jojo]: Light up dat sucka!! For da Horde!

[Shuga][Yells]: Yeeeeaaaah!! I say... LET’S FLAVA-BLAST IT!!! !!! 1!

*BWOOOSH!!! fWOOOOM!*

The gaseous, fiery explosion could be heard from all the way to Booty Bay.

#jem and the holograms #warcraft roleplay #kaja-cola #kaja-cola-flava-girls

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goddamnwebcomics · 4 years

Text

Legacy of Dominic Deegan: Part 2

See my original first impression here.

Last time, our hero, Snout, rudely picked up some weed from a giant animal thingy. Turns out it’s one of the many ingredients he needs, as he also takes a giant leaf, steals web from a spider, and with that he gives himself a shirt. You would think that in Deegan world, people would actually herd sheep more to get wool, unless Mookie believes PETA propaganda. Of course he does.

Turns out Snout is looking for a new home, and he finds a cave, as well as a talking...piece of paper? Pagefinder, or essentially, medieval Siri. Cool. Wait, what happened to the orc frenspeak? I guess Mookie realized it was kind of stupid so he just returned to making orcs write like humans again. Pagefinder is a spell that finds lost pages, and even he gets edgy, but at least his edginess is played for laughs. Speaking of playing edginess for laughs, Snout has to go to the Blood Horror Canyon to get the first lost page. I suppose it’s a bit funny, but if Mookie unironically creates another Chosen Superform in this comic then it’s just gonna be dumber in hindsight. Another joke that i find kind of funny occurs with the signs. Turns out Snout is being followed by...evil demon cthulhu thing, but he accidentally stabs him in the eye with a falling spire.

An exciting battle occurs with the weirdo thingy, and Snout tries using Pagefinder as a shield, and as a result we get the first F bomb in Dominic Deegan, if Mookie didn’t include dicks earlier i’d congratulate him on graduating from middle school. Turns out Pagefinder’s ink just killed the beast. Huh, i’m amazed, you CAN kill something in this universe without turning into a superform! Anyways, Snout finds the first lost page but it has a hole in the middle of it, rendering it mostly incomprehensible. Wah wah. Eyeroll face occurs, which is...i suppose the traditional version of the punchline face? Snout asks Pagefinder for help but he can’t, and he messes up Snout’s face again in his self-pity. I mean, even if it’s a repeated punchline i still think it’s way better than butt-less chaps and Spark’s alliterations.

Snout goes back to the weird eye thing’s library. I suppose the frenspeak earlier was actually the way the owner of the library, Bort, types. We’re shown a twist that Pagefinders actually can’t communicate in other languages so WHO REALLY IS THIS PAGEFINDER?? Pagefinder says he explains everything once Snout has found the last two missing pages. I have a theory, Pagefinder is Trapped Deegan. Of course, it’s a Mookie’s signature SHOCK TWIST that you totally can’t expect. The biggest evidence against it however is that Pagefinder is actually a likable character. No wait, turns out Snout’s theory is that Ink Witch is communicating with him through pagefinder. He needs to find a gruesome, evil tree and we get another eyeroll face. Fuck it, i’m just gonna call it the Modern Punchline Face (MPF) as opposed to Classic Punchline Face (CPF) because i know that’s gonna be common now.

We get another recycled gag with the signs which reveals Skori Trees can shoot branches. Snout makes it into Skori territory and is bombarded with branch bullets yet avoids every single one??? What is he using? Magic? He manages to make it out of Skori’s grasp without a single scratch. Okay so far that’s the first really dumb thing in this comic, because Snout apparently is either using dodging magic or extremely athletic. He tells Pagefinder he hopes to get the berries Ink Witch may have used instead.

Pagefinder gets a piece of dat berry, and suddenly a giant arrow pops up and she drags Snout to the next page...which is Skori Tree. MPF Number 3 occurs. Snout tries to make friends with the tree, but Skori wants nothing to fucking do with the orc. I wonder if Siggy hung that orc family from a Skori tree, just to bury him some more? So Snout’s next plan is to fly to the tree by using the Pagefinder. He makes it but Skori begins to make his plan impossible. Skori gives him the finger but Snout gives him one back. Then...the tree just gives up? Snout gets the missing piece, and we find out the ol’ Dullminic went to Asinoteph, where dreams become visions, and apparently he tried to see the future, but instead he saw...oh boy, next page will unveil the twist. Did he see the past? the present? the winter of his discontent? the apocalypse? the Chosen? Whatever it is, it’s probably dumb.

Snout gets ready to sleep, and even Pagefinders need to sleep. We don’t get reprise of the orc dick this time. No wait, we do, as we see Snout in a dream, where an ink vortex...happens. What? No blood? No gore? No horror? Hmm, maybe Dominic saw THE INK? Snout makes his dream diary, and presents his questions about the last page, that basically ask readers to think about these questions too. I actually like this. It makes our hero look more huma...er, orc, and being used to Gene Catlow mystery exposition it also helps recapping the ongoing mysteries of the comic without pretentious third person pronouning and vague vagueness.

Snout goes to last missing page, which is held by an orc with a beard. Is that a male crone? Old Stoneraper? How come Snout does not have tusks? Honestly, i like him way more without the damn tusks. The old bastard smiles kindly when he sees Snout and gives him the page. Holy shit? An orc being nice to another orc? That’s like...a fucking fever dream. The orc then commits magic disappearance thing. Yup, i’m sure it was Old Stoneraper. Turns out, Deegan did actually see the end of all prophecy, and beginning of his legacy. Um, what? So does this mean that the visions are now gone forever? Thank fucking god, because it got so fucking confusing in the original comic. But wait, if he’s looking for his legacy, is he talking about Snout? Or is he like, looking for someone with good legacy in a talent show? I dunno, lay your theories on me Snout. But before that, the old orc comes. But the Pagefinder warns him that he is in a TERRIBLE DANGER. Oh boy, never mind orcs being nice. All orcs are still assholes to eachother, thanks Siggy.

Snout tells the old orc he was one of the few who didn’t hurt him, if he only kneeeew. Snout asks Old Orc what happened to him, and he falls to...visionscape, sigh. He runs towards a strange ink cube before returning to reality. Turns out Old Orc took all the pages. Oh hey, our protagonist does mistakes, and he actually suffers from them. That’s the first time EVER i’ve seen that in this blog, and then...Pagefinder dismantles. Not gonna lie, it is competing with Sleeve in terms of saddest inanimate object death in a webcomic. Snout wonders what is he gonna do, when he remembers his strange dream. Turns out Dominic Deegan recorded a song called “The Day i Dreamed Again”? No wait, a poem. Turns out Dominic learned to see visions again, and wrote a book about lucid dreams. Bort does not have it, so he has to go into another library. We reach the page i saw in my last Webcomic Check, where poor ol’ Snout is afraid of leaving his new home, and even makes a full list of pros and cons of leaving his home. Not gonna lie, Mookie does actually explore a lot of things he can do with a deaf mute protagonist, as opposed to having a deaf mute protagonist for the sake of having a deaf mute protagonist.

Snout begins his quest the next day, believing he might lose so much if he stays in his homeplace, and the mysteries on his mind keep him up at night. He sees...a lot of things, but thankfully does not bump into any werewolves, dragons or four armed naga things. He finally finds a place called...Mongreltown, but is immediately followed by something. That something is the spaceship that destroyed his home. Mongreltown can wait as he sees the spaceship has crashed. Out of it comes...the Ink Witch, who looks way more adult than any other character Mookie has drawn. Ink Witch is happy to see Snout but remembers he is deaf so she talks in form of ink, and that’s where we leave our story.

So far, i really really like this. The only problems i had were the increased usage of cheap punchline pages and MPF, as well as the rather cheap ways the spaceship arc and the battle with Skori Tree were resolved, but on the contrast there was a LOT of stuff i enjoyed, and i can’t believe i’m saying that about a Mookie comic. Snout is actually a very likable character, and his design has grown on me, his unique status as a deaf mute protagonist was explored, without turning him into a stupid exposition machine, as he only writes when it’s necessary. Pagefinder (RIP) was a very likable character and Mookie seems to be mocking himself with some of the jokes in the comic. The mystery of Dominic Deegan’s fate didn’t really get me invested yet as it’s still an actual mystery that’s important and not just a side thing that’s resolved through third person pronouns and “unseen” reveals. Also we’re shown so many new creatures and species on this comic, none of which are hideous furrybait. It really helps upgrading this setting to an actual fantastic setting and not just “modern setting with fantasy textures applied” that the original comic’s Dominion was. Also, the comedy was actually kind of funny even with the occasional repetition and the MPF.

It’s not the best comic i’ve read ever, but it is the best comic i’ve ever read on this blog. There is a little bit of dread in me though that this comic might go downhill sooner or later. This is still Mookie writing this.

#legacy of Dominic Deegan #Dominic Deegan #somewhat good

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