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sassyduckqueen · 3 years

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Miraculous: Rise of Anatis 60

And that's a wrap on my season 3!!! I really hope you guys like this chapter. At the very least, I hope it's better than the actual miracle queen episode. I'm happy that I even got to work in some lore as well :D anyway, I'll be starting on my 'season four' which have a few oc akumas and other season 3 akumas I haven't used yet. It will also explore the guardians and their history and of course, we'll be seeing more of Mila and the Western holders. Speaking of them, two of them are characters in the actual show so feel free to guess who they might be. Will these heroes be returning? Maybe but they might not necessarily be wearing those miraculous again. Also I will be drawing up their designs at some point. Anyway, the next chapter will be one of the OC akumas, Neon Queen. Should be fun to see how that goes.

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Chapter Sixty: Miracle Queen (2/2)

~The Guardian's Temple~

Mila opened her eyes as she looked up at the sky. She was laid on the ground underneath a cherry blossom tree. She sat up and glanced around, making a frown as she did. She could see the entrance to the guardian's temple on her right, making her frown even more as she realized where she was. She hadn't been here in over three hundreds years. She slowly got up and looked at the tree before walking over to it's trunk and placing her hand on it, holding back tears as she did. The last time she had seen it was the day before her beloved was killed. The two of them considered this tree their special place. It was where their love had formed. They spoke underneath it's leaves and spend their nights gazing at the stars in it's branches. Her beloved had even asked her to marry him here. She quickly wiped her tears from her cheeks as she shook her head. No, this wasn't the real tree. That had been buried, along with the temple a century ago. This was a dream but why was she dreaming of it? She hadn't dreamt of this place in decades so why now? What had changed? Her eyes snapped open as she heard the soft sound of someone playing a pipa nearby. She looked over and saw a young man, barely in his twenties. His hair was long and dark in color with a silver ribbon tied to part of it. He wore a blue tang shirt with silver detail and light gray pants. His legs had bandages over them and he wore black shoes while he wore dark blue gloves that were elbow length and fingerless on his hands. He was sat near the tree, gently playing the pipa with his eyes closed. He slowly came to a stop and opened them, revealing they were silver in color as Mila stared in shock. He smiled softly, putting the pipa down and walking over to her as tears filled her eyes.

"T-Tóutāi..." She gasped as he stood in front of her. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she covered her mouth, trying to hold back a sob.

"Don't not cry, my flower," He whispered, cupping her face with his hand. She leaned into it as he wiped her tears away with his thumb.

"This can't be real..." She gasped, looking up at him. "This is just a dream..."

"Maybe," He smiled, making her chuckle. "Or maybe it isn't,"

"Either way, I don't want to wake," She whispered as he gently pressed his forehead against hers. "I have missed you, beloved... but how are you in my dreams? I thought that traitor had permanently killed you,"

"The time for answers will come soon enough, my flower," He whispered back, making her frown but at the same time, she didn't mind. He always was cryptic. She guess it came with been the celestial guardian. "For now, I must relay an important task to you... for you are the only one currently protected by my magic,"

"What is it, my love?" She asked, looking up at him.

"The balance is in danger," He stated, making her blink. "The moth has made a deadly move in the game he plays and without help, the children of creation and destruction will lose themselves to the song of the fox. The time to step from the shadows is now, my flower. Help them,"

"Tóutāi... I don't know if I can..." She gasped, looking down. "I'm not the same woman you fell in love with..."

"Of course you are," He stated, gently pressing his hand over her heart. Mila gasped softly as she felt all the love and hope he felt for her. "You are still the brave and determined woman I fell in love with. They need your help,"

"I'll do what I can," She whispered before pressing her lips to his. He cupped her face as he kissed back before they pulled away. "Goodbye, beloved,"

Tóutāi gave her a sad smile as the scene around them began to fade around them, causing everything to disappear including him.

~Mila's Office, Paris~

Mila opened her eyes as she came around from her dream. She sat up and glanced around, frowning as she heard the sound of a flute playing. She walked over to the window and glanced outside, gasping as she saw everyone around her just stood eerily still. They were staring with glowing orange eyes, making her frown deeply. This must be what Tóutāi had warned her about. However, she wasn't affected by it. Tóutāi had given her a flower necklace on their wedding day as a gift. He had explained that he had enchanted it to protect her from anyone's magic. She had never taken it off, even after his death. She placed her hand around it, mentally thanking him before she turned on her heel. She noticed her phone had a missed call, causing her to pick it up and dial voicemail. She hit play to listen to it.

"Mistress, it's Renée. Um you told me to report in if I ever came across Anatis. Well, I just did. He seemed nic-" The sound of a flute caused her to cut off, causing Mulan to frown before she heard the phone drop and it hung up. Renée and Elise had been at the Grand Paris Hotel for the anniversary of Mr and Mrs Rossi. Their daughter, Lila, had invited them to it and they decided to go since they wanted to kill time before they went to Anatis' medal ceremony in the evening. She was also planning to attend but now she had to deal with this situation. She hung up her phone and walked over to her desk. She sat down and pressed several hidden panels that caused a secret draw to pop open, revealing a circular box with the symbol of the guardians on it. She took it out and opened the lid, revealing a layer inside that was split into sessions. From the out section, she took out the cuff links and the key chain. She placed them in little boxes that resembled the miracle box. She then took all three of the miraculous from the center section, She placed two of them into the small boxes but placed the bracelet on her wrist, causing a kwami to manifest as it changed to a simple gold chain. It was light blue and green in color and resembled an octopus. It opened her eyes and blinked at her before bowing.

"Master Mulan, it is a honor to see you again," She stated, making her bow back.

"It is good to see you again, Kraak but I require your help," She stated as it nodded before she held up her wrist. "Kraak, Unleash!"

Kraak got sucked into her bracelet, transforming it into a bracelet that resembled tentacles. Mila swiped her hand over her face, creating a mask that resembled tentacles and changing her eye color to lilac color before throwing her hands up in the air. A light blue light spread from her fingers, creating her outfit and shoes. She wore a high neck vest with no sleeves that was turquoise blue in color and loose turquoise green pants that were tied at her knees. Armored panels appeared on her shoulders and hips before a blue belt appeared around her waist. She had turquoise blue fingerless gloves on and her vest had a deep blue zipper. Her hair turned into a midnight blue shade and was styled into a bun with strands of hair by the side of her head. A tentacle shaped tiara appeared on her head and a flexible claw appeared on her hip before finally her shoes manifested, completing her transformation. She grabbed the boxes and placed them into her pockets before going into a different draw and grabbing a handful of ear plugs. She shoved them in her pockets as well before going over to the window and jumping out. She took out her weapon and used it to swing through the city. She landed on a building and stopped as she narrowed her eyes. On the street below was Anatis and Lady Noir but they were walking calming and ignoring everyone who was stood staring. She jumped down and landed in front of them before glancing at them. Like the other citizens, their eyes were glowing orange, making her frown. However, they completely ignored her and walked past her. She grabbed Anatis but to her surprise, he grabbed her arm and slammed her into the ground before walking off. She got back up and frowned deeply. If she hadn't been wearing a miraculous, he would have broken her arm. She threw her claw back up and made her way across the rooftops as they continued to walk through the street. She narrowed her eyes as she determined how to neutralize them. However, a shiver went down her spine, causing her to look around. There was no one around but she felt someone nearby. To her surprise, a feeling overtook her, telling her not to attack them but to find others for the miraculous she grabbed to help wake them up. Somehow, she knew that she wouldn't get close enough to use her ability on them on her own. She looked down at the heroes who were still walking through the street before sighing and jumping across to the Grand Paris hotel where Elise and Renée should be. She landed on the roof and walked across before noticing the two girls stood by the pool, staring into space. She rushed out and placed her hands on Renée's shoulders.

"Renée?" She gasped as the girl just stared with the same glowing eyes. She looked over at Elise who was doing the same before taking a deep breathe and placing her hand on Renée's forehead. "Mind break,"

Renée suddenly gasped as the orange in her eyes shattered and disappeared before she stepped back and looked around as Mila moved over to Elise and repeated the ability, waking her up as well.

"Mistress?" She asked as Elise blinked and looked around. "What happened?"

"There's an akuma who's put everyone under some sort of spell," She explained, taking out a couple of ear plugs and giving them to the two girls. "It's the music so wear these,"

"Yes, Mistress," Renée replied as they nodded and took some from her. They placed them in their ears before Mila took out two of the boxes in her pockets. "Mistress?"

"Renée, this is the miraculous of the Wyvern," She stated, giving the box to the girl. "And Elise, this is the miraculous of the Penguin. I need you both to go and distract Lady Noir and Anatis while I go find two others to help us with this mission,"

"Why are we distracting them?" Renée asked as she took the box and put on the jacket earring. A green dragon like kwami manifested, causing her to smile. "Hello, Vernn,"

"Miss Renée! It is my honour to see you again,"

"They have been affected by this akuma and seem to be heading somewhere that I fear will lead to their doom," Mila explained as Elise took the box from her and opening it. A small penguin like kwami manifested as she put the cuff links into her sleeves. "I just need you to distract them but if you are able to restrain them then do so but please be careful. They are been mind controlled,"

"We'll be careful," Elise replied before transforming into her hero look. She looked like a magician, wearing a black tail coat over a white shirt and full length black pants. Her hair turned black with white strips and her iris turned white while her scleras turned black. A half black and half white mask appeared over her eyes and a wand appeared in her hand. She placed it on her back as Renée transformed as well. Her outfit was a one piece suit with a tail coat over it. The tail on the coat resembled a dragon's tail and it was green in color. Her main suit was the same dark green but had a light green section across her stomach and chest. Her hair turned green as well and a scaled mask appeared over her eyes as they became lizard like before her boots and gloves appeared. Finally a sword appeared by her side, completing her transformation.

"Let's go," She declared before jumping off with Elise as Mila went her own way. The two landed on a building near the Louvre Museum. They glanced around at everyone who was just stood eerily still before they noticed Lady Noir and Anatis walking past everyone, completely ignoring them. "There they are,"

Elise nodded and jumped down with Renée. landing in front of the heroes. The two of them stopped and stared at the newcomers with blank expressions but before they could do anything else, Anatis' eyes widen as if surprised before they flickered back to blue. He gripped his head as if he had a headache, making the two girls look at each other as Lady Noir just stared at them. Elise took a step forward.

"Anaits?" She gasped as he gasped before the sound of the flute got louder, making them both frown. It seemed to over take his mind again as his hands dropped from his head before he reopened his eyes. The blue faded back to orange and he took out his yoyo, spinning it. Lady Noir took out her baton as they both got into a fighting stance. Elise held up her hands as Renée held out her sword. "Please, we don't want to fight you,"

Renée pulled her back and blocked Anatis' yoyo with her sword as he tried to hit her with it. Lady Noir charged at Elise, causing her to block her baton with her wand. Anatis grabbed Renée's art and reached for her miraculous but she stomped his foot and knocked him back as Elise dodged Lady Noir's attack. Anatis growled and went to throw up his yoyo.

"Lu-" He went to declare but Renée kicked him, stopping him from summoning his lucky charm before she tried to grab his yoyo. He jumped back and dodged her as she charged at him. Meanwhile, Lady Noir threw Elise into a building. She held out her hand and was about to summon her cataclysm, causing Elise to try and crawl away from her but before she could, a figure jumped down in front of her.

"Fire Phoenix!" He declared, causing his form to become in engulfed in flames that blinded the heroine, causing her to gasp and stumble back as she covered her eyes, hissing. Anatis knocked Renée back and turned to charge at the newcomer but he suddenly gripped his head again as his eyes flickered back to blue, causing the newcomer to gasp. "Anatis!"

Anatis groaned as he stepped back but like the first time, the music increased and his eyes turned back orange. He titled his head to the side and charged at the newcomer, spinning his yoyo. Renée rushed over and helped Elise to her feet before they blocked Lady Noir's attack as she had recovered. She hissed and tried to scratch as the newcomer tried to block Anatis' attack with his fans. He managed to knock back the hero before going in front the attack.

"Guys! Hold your breathe!" A voice shouted, causing the group to look confused as a girl in an outfit that looked like a skunk summoned what appeared to be some sort of grenade. She threw it inbetween Anatis and Lady Noir, causing it go release a pink smoke. Elise, Renée and the other hero covered their mouths as Anatis jumped back, also covering his mouth but Lady Noir moved too late. To their surprise, she slumped to the ground as the smoke cleared. The girl jumped down and gave everyone a sweet smile as they took her in. She was wearing a black and white romper with a slash across her hips that resembled a tail. She had black knee high boots on and black tights with white details. Her hair was short and spiky and she had elbow length gloves on that were half black and half white. It was black with white tips in highlights and her eyes were an aquamarine color. On top of her head were two animal ears and she had a black mask over her eyes. "Hi, I'm Aroma,"

"Phénix rouge," The boy who set himself on fire stated, nodding sternly. Now that they could see him, they saw he was wearing dark red trousers with a matching waistcoat and an orange shirt. On his waist coat, he had a brooch pinned to it and his hair was bright yellow. In fact, it appeared to be glowing. His boots were dark red and knee length and his eyes were orange. Like the others, he had a mask across his eyes. It was orange and yellow, similar to a sunset. He had black fingerless gloves on hands and his fans were hooked onto his hips. He had his arms crossed and looked moody as he glanced around at Elise and Renée. "Who are you two?"

"I'm Dame," Renée replied, getting a nod of everyone.

"And I'm Snowbird!" Elise smiled as Mila jumped down and joined them. "Mistress!"

Mila held up her hand and looked around before turning her attention to the still unconscious Lady Noir. However, Anatis had managed to get away. She frowned to herself before walking over and placing her hand on the heroine's head, closing her own eyes.

"Mind Break," She declared, causing her hand to glow blue again before Lady Noir's eyes snapped open. The orange in them shattered and disappeared, causing them to return to their normal form as Mila let go.

"Annie!" She cried out before she looked around and saw the group. She instantly jumped up and held out her baton. "Who the hell are you guys and where is Anatis?!"

"Lady Noir, my name is Koro," Mila stated, walking forward. "These are my students. Phénix rouge, Dame, Snowbird and Aroma. As for Anatis... he escaped before we could free him,"

"Free him?" Lady Noir asked, blinking as she noticed all expect Koro were wearing earbuds. She then looked around panicked as she realized that she had no idea how she got to the Louvre. They had been in Master Fu's apartment and were just about to leave when they heard a flute then she woke up her. Her eyes widen in fear as she realized that they must have been under the spell of who ever is playing the flute. She put her baton away and turned to leap away but Koro grabbed her shoulder, making her look at her. "I need to to find Anatis! He's-"

"Still under the spell I know," She replied, making Lady Noir frown. "We're coming with you. You're gonna need my ability to free him from the spell and having back up will help. Especially if Hawkmoth makes an appearance. Now here,"

She shoved a pair of ear plugs into her hands, causing Lady Noir to put them in.

"Where were you heading?" She asked, making Lady Noir frown as she tried to remember. She could hear a voice in her head and it said to come to them. Somehow, they knew where she was, making her frown.

"The Trocadéro Gardens," She answered, making them frown. "And you're right. I am gonna need help to save him but this doesn't mean I trust you. Understood?"

"Got it," Koro replied, nodding before turning to her students. "Before we head there, did anything unusual happen while you were fighting?"

"Anatis almost broke out of the mind control," Dame stated, making the two blink. "He saw me and his eyes flickered back to blue and then he gripped his head like he was trying to fight it but the music increased and he went back to been controlled,"

"The same happened when he saw me," Phénix stated, making both Lady Noir and Koro frown. "Is that important?"

"I don't know..." Koro stated, frowning. "Either way, head to the Trocadéro Gardens,"

The group nodded and jumped away, following Koro and Lady Noir.

~Trocadéro Gardens~

Miracle Queen frowned as Anatis landed in front of her and bowed towards her. She was sure she had gotten control over Lady Noir as well so where the hell was her? She growled and walked up to him. She took his yoyo, just in case he wasn't really under her spell. However, he did nothing to stop her, causing her to smirk. Meanwhile, Hawkmoth frowned from his position above Miracle Queen. Her music should have put Lady Noir under the same spell yet only Anatis was here. He opened up the connection between him and Miracle Queen, making her blink.

"Where is Lady Noir?" He asked, causing Miracle Queen sigh and look at her nails with boredom.

"I don't know," She gasped, annoyed. "But I'm sure she'll turn up soon. I'm certain she's under my spell but even if she's not, we have her boyfriend. She'll do anything to ensure that we won't hurt him,"

"Find out where she is!" He snarled, closing the connection as Myura stood next to him. "Lady Noir should be here,"

"Bug boy, where is the mangy cat?!" Miracle Queen demanded, causing him to look up at her but he didn't answer her right away. Instead, he just stood there and said nothing as he stared. "Answer me!"

"Asleep," He stated, making her look at him with annoyance as Hawkmoth rose his eyebrow. She slammed her flute into the side of his face before turning on her heel as he stood there. Mayura frowned as blood dripped down his forehead.

"What the hell do you mean asleep?!"

"We were attacked by other miraculous holders," He stated, causing Hawkmoth and Mayura to gasp as Miracle Queen rolled her eyes. "They used some sort of grenade to put Lady Noir to sleep. I got away..."

"Well, there is no point in taking your miraculous yet then. I want that dumb cat to be around when I take it so I can hers too and then wake you up so you can see my success!" She growled, spinning his yoyo before she turned back to him. "Now! Tell me how amazing I am!"

"You're the most amazing person in the world, Miracle Queen," He stated in a motionless voice. She frowned before she knew he didn't mean it but it was still fun to make him say things. She went to tell him to declare that Marinette was a nasty creature but Hawkmoth jumped down and held up her hand, making her look at him before rolling her eyes and walking away. Anatis continued to stare into space.

"Anatis, who were the other holders?" Hawkmoth asked, smirking. He might be able to get the identities of his allies, which in turn would lead him to gain the other miraculous. "Did you pick them?"

"No, I've never seen them before in my life," He stated, surprising Hawkmoth.

"But your master picked them?"

"No, their miraculous are not part of our box," He stated, making Hawkmoth frown but before he could question him farther, Lady Noir threw her baton at him, causing him to step back and jump up to where Mayura was as Miracle Queen glared at them.

"Miracle Queen, don't let them free Anatis from your control!" Hawkmoth shouted, causing Miracle Queen to growl.

"He's mine! I won't let you take him from me!!" She screamed before playing her flute. She threw up the ball of light, causing an explosion to appear before it cleared, revealing hundreds of copies of her. Koro threw her claw and used it to grab Lady Noir's baton throwing it to her before the six of them charged at the illusions. Miracle Queen grabbed Anatis and pulled him away from the fight, causing Lady Noir to run follow them as the others took down her illusions. Koro went to follow but Hawkmoth landed in front of her, making her narrow her eyes.

"I assume you're the one who gave out these miraculous," He stated as she held out her hand, ready to fight.

"I am Hua Mulan, Guardian of the Western Box and I find you, Hawkmoth, guilty of misuse of the butterfly miraculous," She declared, causing him to smirk before he took out his cane and charged at her.

"Mistress!!" Snowbird gasped, going to run after them but she gasped and fell back as a huge moth sentimonster appeared. It went to charge at him, causing Dame to jump front of her and block it's stinger with her sword. Phénix helped Snowbird to her feet and ran after Lady Noir as Dame and Aroma took on the giant bug.

~Back to Lady Noir and Miracle Queen~

"Let him go!" Lady Noir growled as she charged at Miracle Queen, going to hit her with her baton. Miracle Queen blocked it with her flute and knocked her back, causing Lady Noir to slide back. She smirked and spun her flute, playing the tune on it. She threw it to the sky again, increasing the song playing and causing Anatis to grip his head. "Anatis!"

"Take her miraculous, my servant!" Miracle Queen ordered, causing Lady Noir to gasp as she gave him back his yoyo. He took it and instantly began to attack her relentlessly. She blocked his attack and fought back, causing Miracle Queen to laugh as she watched. It wasn't like how they fought during training. Anatis wasn't holding back and he was using everything he could against her. He slammed his body into her, causing her to fall. He grabbed her leg and threw her into a tree, causing her to groan as she got up. She went to punch him, causing him to grab her hand. He went to take her miraculous but she managed to wrap her legs around him and slam him onto the floor as Snowbird and Phénix appeared, causing Miracle Queen to growl as she played her flute again. "Come my servants and defeat me again these losers!"

To their surprise, a number of civilians turned up and began to trying to fight them as Miracle Queen turned her attention back to Anatis and Lady Noir, who had him pinned down. However, he knocked her back, causing her to backflip as he stood back up. He charged at her, causing her to block his arms and kick him. He countered her counter as they fought.

"Anatis! Fight against her!" She gasped, blocking his fist. He grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder, slamming her into the floor as Miracle Queen smirked evilly.

"Kill her first then take her miraculous off her cold corpse!" She ordered, causing Anatis to wrap his hands around Lady Noir's neck. She gasped and tried to fight him, struggling to get him off her. She kicked out and dug her nails into his hands as he tightened his grip. Her eyes widen as her skin began to turn blue and her grip began to weaken. Phénix slammed one of the civilians into the ground as he rushed over towards them. Lady Noir's eyes were slipping closed as she began to lose consciousness but Miracle Queen jumped and landed in front of him before he could reach them. "I don't think so, birdie!"

She hit him in the stomach with her flute, causing him to gasp and fall to the ground. She smirked and lifted it above her head to hit him with it but Snowbird pulled out of her wand, spinning it.

"Glacier!" She declared, charging it up with a blue glow before tapping the ground with it. Instantly, the ground turned blue, causing Miracle Queen to suddenly fall over. She tried to get up but kept sliding over, allowing Phénix to get up and rush back over to Anatis and Lady Noir. Anatis still had his hands wrapped around her throat, causing Phénix to see red. He went to charge at him but stopped when Lady Noir suddenly gasped for air, coughing as Anatis shook before he gripped his head again. Lady Noir slowly sat up as he groaned and yanked at his hair.

"A-Annie?!" She gasped as he backed away from her.

"N-No!" He gasped, causing Phénix to rush over. He helped Lady Noir to her feet as Anatis stepped back, still gripping his head. "Get out of my head!"

"Annie!" Lady Noir gasped, pulling out of Phénix's grip and rushing over as Anatis fell onto his knees. She went to run over as Phénix grabbed her arm. "Let me go! I have to help him!"

"Noir, stay back!" Phénix called out, trying to pull her away from him. "He's under that akuma's control!"

"I can get through to him!" She called out, pulling out his grip and rushing over to Anatis. She cupped his face as he looked at her. His eyes were flicking between orange and blue as tears rolled down his face. "Annie, it's me. It's Lady Noir. Your best friend... remember? We're best friends!"

"Kill her!" Miracle Queen screamed as she tried to get back up again, causing her to slip over again. Anatis' eyes went to blank and orange again as he went to wrap his hands around Lady Noir's neck.

"Annie, don't listen to her!" She gasped, flinching but he stopped as his eyes flickered blue again. His eyes flickered orange again before he suddenly covered his ears and let out a loud scream, surprising everyone before he slumped against Lady Noir. "Annie?... Annie!?"

~Luka's POV~

Luka screamed once again as he tried to block out the sound of the flute as it played loudly in his head. He was more than aware of what he was doing but despite that, he couldn't stop himself. He had tears rolling down his face as he walked towards the source of the music with Lady Noir. He tried to shout at himself and stop himself when those other miraculous holders turned up and when he began to attack them. He abandoned his friend when they got the upper hand and left her at their mercy. He didn't know if they were trying to help them or not but if they weren't, he had just left her and all because of the music in his head. Music that was drowning him. He wanted to scream and break free but he couldn't stop hearing it. It briefly stopped playing when he saw that girl in the wyvern miraculous. For a second, he had seen a knight stood there instead but then the music came back and he was back under her control. It happened again when he saw the boy with the phoenix miraculous. Like the girl, he had seen someone else stood there but once again, Miracle Queen took control. It made him feel sick. He could feel her inside his head, trying to find out who he was really. Luckily, he had kept her at bay but he didn't know how long that would hold. Right now, he was trying not to listen, hoping that he could break her control before he killed Lady Noir. He didn't want to hurt her. His voice hurt from shouting but he was still strangling her.

"Glacier!" He heard one of the new guys declare, causing Miracle Queen to slip and fall. For a second, the music lessened. However it was enough for him to notice.

"Stop hurting her!" He called out, causing his body to stop strangling Lady Noir. She suddenly gasped for air, coughing as he shook. He gripped his head as the music began to increase again. "No! I won't listen!!".

"A-Annie?!" Her voice echoed, causing his body to back away from her. He was semi in control but it was still hard to break free. He could still hear the music and miracle queen inside his head.

"N-No!" He gasped, still gripping his head. "Get out of my head!"

"Annie!" Lady Noir gasped, her voice echoing. "Let me go! I have to help him!"

"Noir, stay back!" The phoenix boy's voice declared. "He's under that akuma's control!"

"I can get through to him!" She called out. He flinched as he felt her hands on his face. "Annie, it's me. It's Lady Noir. Your best friend... remember? We're best friends!"

"Kill her!" Miracle Queen's voice echoed, causing the music to increase as he tried to stop himself from wrapping his hands around her throat.

"Annie, don't listen to her!"

Luka...

"Annie?"

Luka...

"Annie?!" Lady Noir screamed before it completely turned black...

~Luka's Mind Hut~

Luka gasped as he opened his eyes, finding himself in the hut where Feng lives. He frowned to himself as he looked around. In the distance, he could still hear Miracle Queen's music but it wasn't as loud. He stood up as he sensed someone with him, causing him to turn around as he expected it to be Feng. However, the man sat calmly in front of him wasn't Feng but only resembled him. His hair was long and black. Part of it had a silver ribbon tied to it and he wore a blue tang shirt with silver detail and light gray pants. His legs had bandages over them and he wore black shoes while he wore dark blue gloves that were elbow length and fingerless on his hands. His eyes were closed, causing Luka to frown a little before he opened them and looked at him. Like Feng's, they were silver.

"Hello, Luka," He sat, making Luka blink as for a moment, the man's outfit changed to one that resembled the phoenix miraculous.

".... You used the phoenix miraculous, didn't you?" He asked, causing him to nod before a name came into Luka's mind. "Tóutāi... that's your name?"

"Yes," He replied, making Luka frown as he looked around. "Feng is somewhere else. I know you're more familiar with him but..."

"You can help me?" He asked, causing Tóutāi to nod. "Miracle Queen's song... it's controlling me... how do I stop it? I can't stop hearing it,"

"You're a musical empath right?" He asked, making Luka nod. "So use your music,"

"My... music?" He asked, confused. "But I don't have my guitar,"

"This is your place as much as it's ours," Tóutāi replied, making Luka blink as he held a pipa and began to play it. "So if you want your guitar, you just have to think about it,"

"My... guitar..." Luka muttered, confused but then he felt his acoustic in his hand. He looked down and saw it. He moved his fingers across the board and closed his eyes, beginning to play. At first, it was quiet and he wasn't sure what to play but then he began to play louder and better as he started to play Marinette's song, pouring his emotions into his music and slowly but surely, he felt Miracle Queen's control slipping even more. He closed his eyes as he slipped into the song, feeling the emotions he felt when he wrote it. When he next opened his eyes, he was no longer in his hut but leaning against Lady Noir's chest as she held him, causing his face to heat up as he pulled away.

"Annie?!" She gasped, surprised as he looked around. Miracle Queen saw him and pointed at him.

"Finish them!" She screamed, causing him glare at her before he got up. "What?! Answer your queen!"

"You are not my queen!" He snarled, making everyone gasp in surprise as he glared at her. "Time to end this! Lucky charm!"

He threw his yoyo in the air and caught the teapot before gasping as he worked out what it mean. He hooked it to his belt and picked up Lady Noir, making her blink as he jumped away and across Paris. She held onto him as he did.

"I'm sorry..." He whispered, making her look at him. "I... I nearly killed-"

"Shh," She stated as they reached Master Fu's. "It's ok. You were under her spell but you're free now,"

"I'm still sorry," He muttered as they came through the window. Anatis frowned as his miraculous beeped. He needed to detransform but he wasn't sure if Miracle Queen could see through Master Fu, who was stood staring with orange eyes. He grabbed a blanket and threw it over him as Lady Noir covered her eyes, allowing him to detransform. He caught Tikki and gave her a cookie before he walked over to the phonograph and put in the secret code. He took out the miracle box and opened it, grabbing the dragon miraculous and the snake miraculous before turning to Lady Noir and placed the miraculous in her free hand. "Time to show Hawkmoth and Miracle Queen that they don't get to mess with us or our heads,"

"Sounds like a plan to me," Lady Noir grinned, taking the choker and putting it as he transformed back into Anatis before opening her eyes and greeting Longg. He put the snake miraculous on before closing the box and putting it back in the phonograph as Lady Noir held out her hands. "Plagg, Long. Unify!"

A red glow covered her outfit as it gave her a red tail with gold detail on her left leg. Her right leg got a thigh boot and her gloves turned red with gold detail. Her ears got red insides with a gold strip while two horns appeared below them,. Her collar turned red with a gold trim and her mask gained red and gold triangles. A red circle appeared on her chest with a water drop, a cloud and a lightning strike in the middle. The ring around it was green and her eyes had turned green with yellow scleras. Finally a sword appeared on her back as Anatis held out his hands.

"Tikki, Sass. Unify!" He declared, causing a green light to engulf him, turning him back into Red Mamba. "Ready to go, Black Dragon?"

"Let's go kick Lila's butt!" She grinned, causing the two heroes to jump out of the window, heading back to the Trocadéro Gardens. It didn't take them long to get there but when they did, Miracle Queen had gotten up and Mayura's moth monster was about to take down the new heroes while Hawkmoth and Koro were equally matched. Miracle Queen laughed as she twirled her flute. Red Mamba narrowed his eyes and flicked his bracelet, activating second chance.

�� "I don't know how you broke out of my control, you dirty beetle but soon, I'll have you back under my control!" She declared before playing her flute and throwing the ball of light up in the air. It burst and amplified the tune already there, causing it to overtake everyone as she laughed before noticing he wasn't affected. She ordered them to attack him, causing him to jump back and flick his bracelet back.

"I don't know how you broke out of my control, you dirty beetle but soon, I'll have you back under my control!" She declared but he threw his yoyo, knocking back her flute. However, she dodged it and managed to get the tune out, controlling everyone again. He flicked his bracelet back again.

"I don't know how you broke out of my control, you dirty beetle but soon, I'll have you back under my control!" She declared but this time he didn't hit her./

"Black Dragon, use water dragon!" He ordered, causing Black Dragon to nod.

"Water Dragon!" She declared, using her sword to create a shield around them as Miracle Queen used her power. However, this time it didn't affect Black Dragon. "Whoa!"

"Water blocks sound," He replied, smirking before he threw up his yoyo. "Lucky charm!"

A violin with appeared out of thin air, causing Red Mamba to grab it as he looked around to work out what to do.

"Get them!" Miracle Queen screeched, pointing to them as Phénix, Dame, Aroma and Snowbird charged at them. "Get me their miraculous!!"

The four heroes dived through the water but as soon as they did, their eyes returned back to their normal colors and they looked around confused as Miracle Queen screamed in annoyance and summoned civilians to try and attack them. Red Mamba saw Phénix and Dame light up before followed by the violin and Black Dragon's wind symbol.

"I have a plan," He stated, making everyone look at him before pointing at Dame. "I need you to use Empower on everyone in this bubble,"

"Um..." She stated, confused as to how he knew that. As far as she knew, he had no idea what her miraculous was but Red Mamba turned to Phénix.

"Once Dame uses her power, you need to activate Ash Phoenix." He stated, making Phénix blink in surprise. "Black Dragon, I'll need you to release the water bubble then use Wind Dragon to direct Phénix at Miracle Queen. Once you're there, you need to grab her fox pendant,"

"Sure thing, danger noodle," She grinned, giving him a salute. He smiled softly at her before Phénix cleared his voice.

"And the mind control?" He asked as Red Mamba smirked and pointed to the violin.

"That's what this is for," He replied, placing it under his chin. "Her song only controls if you can hear it, which is why we need Empower. Not only will it make your powers more powerful but it will amplify my own ability,"

"Alright," Dame declared, holding up her sword before charging it up. "Empower!"

A green glow appeared over the blade, causing her to tap each one with it. Red Mamba began to play the violin but he didn't just play the music, he played the emotions. On a normal level, it was power but been amplified with empower, caused it to be much more powerful then Miracle Queen's song. Phénix took a deep breathe as he felt courage replace his fear.

"Ash Phoenix!" He declared, turning into ash as Black Dragon released the water bubble.

"Wind dragon!" She declared, transforming into the actual wind. When she combined with the ash that is Phénix, they became a small tornado, which knocked Miracle Queen off her feet. Phénix reformed and grabbed her fox pendant before throwing it to Black Dragon as she reformed.

"Give that back!" Miracle Queen screamed as Black Dragon caught it.

"Cataclysm!" She declared, causing it to turn to dust as Miracle Queen screamed out as the akuma escaped. They saw Hawkmoth glare down at the scene before he jumped onto the sentimonster with Mayura and flew away with Koro going after them. Red Mamba stopped playing, causing everyone to fall under her spell again, apart from him. He quickly catch the akuma and released it before throwing his violin into the air.

"Miraculous Ladybugs!" He declared, causing it to burst into the cure and spread through Paris, fixing everything and freeing all from Miracle Queen's control. It came back and wrapped around the heroes, freeing them before disappearing. "Tikki, Sass. Divide,"

Sass manifested as he turned back into Anatis, allowing him to catch him as Black Dragon blinked as the other heroes looked around.

"Wow," Snowbird gasped, looking at Anatis with stars in her eyes. "You did it!!"

"Of course, he did," Black Dragon grinned, making him blush a little. "Anyway... Plagg, Longg, divide,"

She caught Longg as she turned back into Lady Noir, causing Anatis to smile at her before they turned their attention on Miracle Queen, who turned back into Lila. Anatis frowned deeply as he looked at her.

"Lila Rossi, why am I not surprised?" He asked, making her blink and look at him.

"Oh, Anatis! I'm so sorry!" She gasped as fake tears filled her eyes. "I was just so upset about my parents-"

"I get it," He stated, surprising everyone as he put the snake miraculous into the yoyo and walked over. He held out his hand for her, causing her to blink before she took it and he pulled her to her feet. However, his grip tightened and moved his lips close to ear, making her wince in surprise and pain. "I see you've made your choice, Rossi,"

"W-What?" She gasped, genuinely caught off guard.

"You've made it abundantly clear that we are playing on different sides of the board. You've decided to move against me and I know you're somehow working with Hawkmoth," He stated in a calm but chilling voice. It genuinely frightened her. "So let me make this very clear. You and I are at war and I will do everything in my power to ensure that you get what's coming to you, Rossi and do whatever it takes to expose you for the monster you are,"

He pulled away and gave her a smile as a chill went down her spine. He was deadly serious and she knew it.

"I'm sure you'll understand that we can't help you get home," He stated as his miraculous beeped, along with the others. "Let's go,"

The heroes ran off, leaving Lila to shake in fear as Anatis' words haunted her.

~Later that Day~

"I hereby name today Anatis day!" The mayor declared as everyone clapped. Anatis and Lady Noir hadn't turned up but no one was surprised. They had just dealt with a very dangerous akuma and as far as Paris was concerned, they were allowed a moment to themselves. Instead, they had returned to Master Fu's and given back the miraculous before taking him up to meet the other heroes and their leader Koro, which was where they were now. Anatis was leaning against the wall, unsure what to make off the whole situation. Lady Noir was stood next to him, making sure he was ok while Master Fu talked to Koro.

"I thought all the guardians had perished," He stated, making the two heroes look over. Koro looked over at the Paris skyline.

"I left before that," She explained, making them frown. Her heroes had gone home and she had reclaimed their miraculous in private. "I turned my back on the guardians long ago,"

"Why now?" Anatis asked, making her look at him. "How long have you been in Paris and why appear now?!"

"Annie," Lady Noir stated, making her blink as she gently rubbed his arm. He instantly calmed down as if her touch had soothed him. It reminded her of how Tóutāi would calm her down. Her expression softened as she looked at them. She knew young love when she saw it.

"I've been in Paris since Hawkmoth's first attack," She admitted, making them all look at her. "I was just planning to observe as I didn't want to get involved,"

"Then why did you?" Anatis asked, clearly annoyed by her answer.

"Because my beloved asked me to," She stated, placing a hand over her chest as the three of them gave her a confused look. "I am the guardian of the western box but also the wife of the celestial guardian,"

"Su Han?" Master Fu asked but to their surprise, Koro growled.

"Do not mention that traitor's name!" She growled, making them look at her. "He was not the true guardian! My beloved Tóutāi was!"

"Tóutāi?" Anatis asked, making her look at him before she narrowed her eyes.

"You recognize the name, don't you?" She asked, making him glance to the side. "I knew there was something different about you, Anatis. Not many can break free from mind control like you did and I know you knew what the powers of the wyvern and phoenix miraculous were. My students told me... just who... or what are you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" He shoot back, making her glare at him as he pushed off the wall. "I'm going home. Koro, thanks for your help but stay out of my way... since that's what you want,"

"You don't trust me," She declared but she didn't sound hurt.

"It's not like the feeling isn't mutual," He stated, coolly before turning to Lady Noir. "See you later, Kitten,"

With that, he jumped off and swung away. It didn't take him long but soon he landed on the liberty and slipped through the porthole, detransforming as he did. He caught Tikki and gave her a cookie before lying down on his bed and letting out a sigh. Today had been difficult to say the least. He let out a sigh and curled up as Tikki floated over.

"Tikki,"

"Hmm?" She asked as she ate the cookie.

"Who is Tóutāi?" He asked, making her look at him in surprise. "You know him don't you?"

"He was one of the celestial guardians of the miraculous," She stated, making him frown. "There's been six in total. Master Feng was the first but then there was Master Khnurn, Master Alpheus, Master Rene, Master Tóutāi and Master Su Han..."

"Koro called Su Han a traitor,"

"Well... he's the only one who isn't like the others," She stated, looking at her paws. "It's rumored that the Celestial guardians were special. You see they are the reincarnations of Hao Feng,"

"But Su Han isn't... is he?" Luka asked, frowning. Tikki shook her head. "So how did he become the next Celestial guardian and why isn't it the next reincarnation of Feng?"

"I don't know, Luka," She explained, making him frown. "I don't know,"

~Hawkmoth's Lair~

"Are you ok?" Nathalie asked as Gabriel sat, holding his head. She frowned and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I'm sorry that it didn't go the way you wanted..."

"Miracle Queen may have been a failure but we learnt something else today," He stated, opening his eyes. "There is another guardian in Paris. One that even Anatis didn't know about and I want her miraculous but more importantly... there might be other miraculous in the world. Nathalie, I want you to search for them. If there are other then I must obtain them!"

"Of course, Gabriel," She replied, nodding. "Once you have them, Anatis will fall,"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next Chapter: Coming soon

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not-all-dead · 3 years

Text

angstpril day eighteen: children fight their parents wars

CW: death, murder, fire??, burns/burning, swearing

fic under the cut

“Unbelievable,” Lin muttered under her breath, fixing her gaze on the wooden table that the group was seated at.

She, alongside Kya, Tenzin, Bumi, and Su, had been trying to reason with Firelord Izumi for the past hour. This year was the year that marked a hundred and sixty years of war between the Fire Nation and the rest of the world. They all knew it wasn’t their war to fight, it wasn’t even their parents’, and yet Izumi seemed set on keeping up the needless destruction.

“Unbelievable? Well, I’m right here, and so are you, so I don’t see how any of this could be unbelievable,” Izumi smiled at Lin from across the table, folding her hands neatly in front of her.

Lin fought the urge to yell at her right then, instead pushing her chair out and leaving the room. She tended to get the most angry about the war out of their group, her father’s insolence fueling her further with every passing day. She still couldn’t believe he’d come back after all those years, trying to enlist her in the army her mother fought desperately against, simply because he heard that she could firebend.

She stormed down the hall, blood boiling as she walked. Her fists were clenched at her sides as she shoved through the courtyard doors, and she let out a shout of frustration as soon as she was outside. She punched her fist at the sky, a ball of bright white flame shooting upwards and dissipating mid-air. She watched as it streaked across the grey sky, huffing when it disappeared and looking down at the garden she stood in. It seemed too nice for a family so set on hurting people, which only made her angrier.

She wandered down the path lined with cherry blossoms trying to calm herself down. She hated Izumi for all the awful things she’d done to people all over the world, but particularly her family and friends in Gaoling when she’d taken the entire city as a labour camp, stripping titles and stealing everything from her grandparents and every other major family in the city.

Just as she was starting to diffuse her anger, she heard someone come up behind her.

“Your friends are looking for you, troublemaker,” Izumi said in an irritatingly smooth, calm voice.

Lin spun on her heel and glared at Izumi, barely stopping herself from spitting on her.

“You really are the angry one, aren’t you?” Izumi took a step forward and created a tiny flame on the end of her finger, twirling it in small circles.

Lin watched the flame for a second before twitching her finger and putting it out.

“I’m leaving,” She huffed, brushing past Izumi and marching towards the door to get back inside.

“Don’t go,” Izumi called, causing Lin to stop in her tracks.

“Don’t you want to have a little,” She paused and sent a small burst of fire past Lin’s ear.

“Fun?” She finished as Lin turned back to look at her, digging her nails into her palms.

“Are you challenging me to an Agni Kai?” She asked incredulously.

“Only if you think you’re up to it, sugar,” Izumi smiled wickedly at Lin, knowing a taunt like that would piss her off more than anything.

“You’re on,” Lin snarled.

“Wonderful,” Izumi’s smile widened and she sauntered towards Lin, reaching forwards to straighten Lin’s collar.

Lin narrowed her eyes and pulled away from Izumi, clearing the path to the door before following her inside. Izumi led her down several long hallways before they came to another outdoor space, this one with a stone floor and no plant life anywhere. Izumi walked across the empty space, twirling lightly when she was a reasonable distance from Lin. She cocked her head to the side, feigning innocence as Lin stalked a large circle around her.

“How could you,” Lin said in a low voice.

“How could you hurt all those people?!” She shouted, sending a bright flash of lightning at Izumi.

Izumi reached one arm forward and caught the lighting, redirecting it right back at Lin. Lin inhaled sharply and rolled to avoid the strike, swinging her leg out and bending a white flame at Izumi’s leg. Izumi stepped calmly out of the way, a wide grin on her face.

“You still sure you’re up for this?” She teased, dodging two balls of bright flame that Lin punched at her head.

“You hurt my family, my friends,” Lin shouted, continuing her barrage on the Firelord.

“You’ve forced so many people into military service, and countless others into labour camps,” She continued, high-kicking a flame at Izumi’s head.

Izumi ducked the blow and stepped closer to Lin, opening her palm just in front of Lin’s stomach. Lin yelped and jumped back, pressing a hand to her scorched shirt. She growled and launched herself at Izumi again, punching fireball after fireball at her with no relent. Izumi continued to duck and dodge her blows, weaving her way across the open ground and making their fight seem almost like a dance.

Lin was panting when she finally got Izumi with her back to a wall. Izumi put her hands up in mock defeat, smirking at Lin’s dishevelled appearance and heavy breathing.

“Take it easy there, troublemaker,” She hummed, pushing herself off the wall so that she stood mere centimetres from Lin’s face.

Lin let out a feral yell and brought large white flames to her hands, shoving Izumi back against the wall. She was just about ready to make Izumi regret ever challenging her, when she heard a voice from behind her.

“Lin, what are you doing?!” Kya shouted at the top of her lungs.

Lin turned to see Kya standing halfway across the field, her eyes wide in horror. The fire at Lin’s hands dulled, turning back to yellow, then orange. Izumi took her momentary distraction to slip away from the wall, positioning herself to Lin’s right.

“I’m sorry she has to watch this,” She said wickedly, barely giving Lin time to react before creating a fire at Lin’s feet, quickly growing it so there was no way for her to get out. Her screams were muffled by the roar of the fire, but dissolved after only a moment.

Kya let out a loud cry and Izumi looked in her direction, smiling darkly at the waterbender. Izumi stayed where she stood until she was sure there was nothing left of Lin, only then letting the raging fire die. Kya had been frozen in place until their other friends found them there, rushing towards her.

“Where’s Lin?” Izumi heard Bumi ask.

“She just- she-,” Kya stuttered before her shock turned to pure rage.

“That bitch just killed her,” Kya hissed before running full speed at Izumi.

She pulled the water from her waterskin and turned it into a hundred icy daggers, sending them all shooting at Izumi with a raw yell. Izumi created a wall of fire in front of her, melting the daggers before sending a spiral of orange heat towards Kya. Kya was knocked back by the blow, but her companions weren’t far behind her.

Tenzin sent a gust of wind at Izumi, causing her to lose her balance for a split second. It was enough that with Su shifting the ground below her just slightly, she fell backwards. Bumi stepped around a now standing Kya, drawing his sword and extending it towards Izumi, pressing the tip against her throat. Izumi drew in a sharp breath and glared up at the four.

“You’ll only make things worse,” She seethed.

“My father would never forgive you,” She put her hand on the blade, beginning to heat it with her bending.

“The war will never end,” The blade was starting to glow beneath her grasp when Bumi noticed.

He pulled it swiftly back towards him, cutting her hand badly in the process. She grit her teeth against the searing pain in her palm, closing her eyes for a moment.

“You killed her,” Kya said, shoving past her brother to stand over Izumi.

“You. Killed. My. Lin,” Kya stared intently at Izumi as she stretched her hands out in front of her.

Izumi let a cry escape her throat as Kya lifted her off the ground, suspending her in midair. A tear slipped from Kya’s eye as she twisted Izumi’s limbs grotesquely. She felt as it dripped from her chin and rushed through the air towards the cold stone below their feet. As soon as it hit the floor, she clenched her fists to stop Izumi’s heart.

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foxghost · 4 years

Text

Joyful Reunion, Chapter 17

Translator: foxghost @foxghost tumblr/ko-fi1 Beta: meet-me-in-oblivion @meet-me-in-oblivion tumblr Original by 非天夜翔 Fei Tian Ye Xiang Masterpost | Characters, Maps & Other Reference Index

Book 1, Chapter 5 (part 3)

Duan Ling is a bit overly thrilled; when he’s with Li Jianhong, life is entirely unfettered. However big the world is, they’re free to do whatever they like, never having to worry about anything no matter where they go. Li Jianhong will even occasionally let him steer the horse and run wildly all over the plains.

“Wanna ride the horse on your own for a bit?” Li Jianhong asks, sounding genuinely interested.

Duan Ling does somewhat want to try it — he’s never ridden a horse on his own before, but he’s a little afraid if it means Li Jianhong won’t be there to protect him.

“Come on then!” Li Jianhong jumps off the horse and casually smacks it on the hindquarters. The horse immediately whinnies and bolts off like a shot. Duan Ling is so startled he starts yelling at the top of his lungs, turning to call out, “Dad — !”

Li Jianhong waves at him. He whistles loudly, and the warhorse leaps right past a brook, galloping away at top speed. Duan Ling keeps yelling over and over; he finds it rather exciting at first, but by the time he looks back again Li Jianhong is nowhere to be found and now he’s suddenly panicking. He tries to turn the horse around, but the war-horse won’t listen to his commands. Duan Ling yells, terrified, “Stop running! Dad! Where are you, dad?!”

The war-horse charges into a forest and Duan Ling nearly falls off. He wraps his arms tightly over its back and cries out sounding like he’s on the verge of tears.

“Dad —! Where are you?!”

The cadence of the whistling rise, fall, and stop. Li Jianhong appears from behind a tree and looks at him cheerfully.

Duan Ling nearly faint dead away. He gets off the horse at once and throws his arms around Li Jianhong to wrap him in a tight hug.

“Its name is Wanlibenxiao.” Li Jianhong gives the divine steed a pat, and it lowers its head, snorts, nudging Duan Ling with its nose. Duan Ling let out a sigh of relief only then.

“It’s a Wusun horse.” Li Jianhong holds Duan Ling’s hand, and takes the reins with his other hand as he explains, “Your dad saved the King of Wusun beneath Mount Qilin. They gave me this horse as thanks.”

“It runs so fast. It nearly bucked me right off.”

“On my escape from the snowy desert, it was the one who saved my life.”

At midday Li Jianhong and Duan Ling are pushing their way through the forest when Duan Ling spots a lot of fruit he does not recognise. “What is this?”

“Winter cherry.” Li Jianhong gives it a passing glance. “Too sour. Don’t randomly eat wild fruit and mushrooms off the side of the road. The more colourful it is, the more likely it is to be highly toxic.”

“I won’t eat it. And what kind of tree is this?” Duan Ling possesses an extraordinary level of curiosity, and over time he has discovered something rather crucial — no matter what question he asks Li Jianhong he’d be given a convincing answer, and not Lang Junxia’s typical ‘don’t ask, you’ll find out in the future’.

“Desert poplar. The young ones look like willow trees, but once they unfold they’re extremely resistant to drought.”

Li Jianhong is nearly omniscient. Duan Ling thinks to himself, what am I even studying for? If I don’t understanding anything all I have to do is ask dad.

Duan Ling asks, “Are we going to sleep outside tonight?”

“Well that won’t do.” Li Jianhong declares firmly, “In all likelihood, my son ought to be able to get a hot meal in Huaide before sundown.”

“Where’s Huaide?”

“A place in Xinzhou.”

“And where’s Xinzhou?” Duan Ling is practically completely ignorant about the world.

“The founding Liao emperor chose Shangjing as the capital and established the Shangjing Road as one of the nineteen main roads, and southward on Shangjing Road goes to Xinzhou; farther south from Xinzhou and you reach the great wall.”

Duan Ling knows about the great wall. “Past the great wall you’ll get to Yubiguan, and if you keep going south after that you’ll reach Zhili,2 then taking the Hebei road southwards …”

“Precisely.” Li Jianhong dodges a branch. “You’ll reach Shangzi, and Runan. Nowadays that’s all Liao territory.”

“Is the entire Chen empire farther south?”

“Land north and south of the Yangtze went to Chen.” As though ancient memories have been called to the fore, Li Jianhong heaves a sigh. “In Xichuan, Jiangnan, and Jiangzhou.”

“You said before that we’ll return to the Chen empire, right?”

“Do you really want to go back?” Li Jianhong asks.

They’ve exited the forest before they know it. Li Jianhong picks up Duan Ling, helps him onto the horse, and they canter along the stream. On horseback, Duan Ling says, “The headmaster says the south is very beautiful. It’s too bad I’ve never seen it.”

Duan Ling has no idea that imagining a distant paradise of peach blossoms that he’s never seen before is far too strenuous for him.

“Those who travel far are guests, and they all miss home.” Li Jianhong gets on the horse as well. “Those in the south miss the north, those in the north miss the south; all Han have the same idea. It’s true. The south is quite beautiful.”

Little by little, the past five years Duan Ling spent in Shangjing has helped him understand a lot. He has realised that when the iron hoofs of Liao cavalry went south, the Han had to leave their homeland against their will. Each Han living in Shangjing is holding onto this one dying breath hoping from the bottom of their heart to one day return to the south.

“Did our family also die out when the Liao military marched south?” Duan Ling asks.

“What?” This question has interrupted Li Jianhong’s line of thought. Beneath them their horse trots along, not too fast and not too slow. Li Jianhong pats Duan Ling’s head and answers, “Our family is still around, but there aren’t that many of us left.”

“Who else is there?” Duan Ling has never thought that he’d have relatives too, but today he suddenly gets the sense that he’s just like every other person: he has a father, a mother, uncles and aunts and other relatives, such as that ‘fourth uncle’ his father spoke of but that he himself has never met.

“Your fourth uncle and your fifth aunt are both still around. Now, dad’s going to tell you, but just keep it in your heart, my son. You mustn’t tell anyone.”

Duan LIng nods, so Li Jianhong continues, “Your dad comes in third. I had one eldest brother who died before reaching adulthood. Second was an older sister, not a daughter of the principal wife, and she died young too. My younger brother, the fourth, is still in Xichuan. He doesn’t have children yet. Your fifth aunt got married off to Jiangnan.”

“What about your dad?”

“Still around. He likes your fourth uncle, but he doesn’t like me … gup!”

That’s why Li Jianhong’s feelings toward the south is so complicated — Duan Ling gets it now. At the same time what he can also feel is Li Jianhong’s avoidance of the past; so thoughtfully, he does not press him with any further questions.

At spring’s end and the onset of summer, Jiangzhou is paved in snow white viburnum, eight blossoms to the end of each branch full of life, set off against a solitary spring mountain backdrop paired with a clear sky so blue it looks freshly washed. Occasionally there’ll be multicoloured kites rising in the distance, its image reflecting off the mirror-like lake, and when the lines twist and break they fly off after the birds to vanish at the end of the mountain forests.

Dressed in a long azure gown, Lang Junxia leads his horse along the meandering plank-lined path downhill. He passes by the city of Jiangzhou without entering, merely stopping by the shore of the Yangtze River to scoop up a handful of southern water for a drink before boarding a long-distance boat. The boat will go north along the river, enter the Xichuan province beneath Mount Yuheng, making a detour around the difficult Roads to Shu3 as he heads toward the southern Chen capital.

He speaks very little along the way; when the other guests disembark he steps off the boat also, to stand next to the shore, bowing down to drink a handful of water. Three months later, Lang Junxia finally arrives in the city of Xichuan.

The city walls are verdant and lush, coloured with greenery. When autumn comes it will be covered in blooming cotton roses.

Once inside the national capital, Lang Junxia makes his way to a bookshop in the west quadrant. He twists off the rusted lock easily, and the inside is covered in dust. He finds the horse a place to rest first and feeds it some hay, then he unties his travelling cloth bundle from his shoulder before pushing the door open and entering the book shop — then his steps abruptly stop.

There is a masked assassin standing beneath the drab sunlight. It both seems as though he’s waited for Lang Junxia for a long time, and that he just got here.

The assassin is tall and sturdily built, standing over nine feet tall; he will not look less stalwart if standing next to Li Jianhong. With a sword in his hand he’s planted there in the main hall like a mountain range. His eyes, showing above the mask, are staring intently at Lang Junxia.

“Greetings,” the assassin declares the first phrase.

Lang Junxia puts his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist.

“My name is Chang Liujun,” the assassin states the second phrase, and slowly he reaches up at his mask with his fingers, pulling it down to reveal a handsome face.

“I’ve come to kill you,” Chang Liujun finishes with the third phrase.

Lang Juxia doesn’t wait for Chang Liujun to raise his hand before drawing his sword, but Chang Liujun already had his in hand; he was waiting precisely for this moment to make his preemptive strike. Lang Junxia only manages to get his sword half out of its scabbard before Chang Liujun’s Baihongjian rings through the air, a line of sword force suddenly looming right before his eyes.

This moment is the closest to death Lang Junxia has ever been in his entire life.

And yet Chang Liujun, who has had everything perfectly planned, never expected that even with such meticulous design Lang Junxia can still manage to slip away from the one strike that certainly should have ended his life — Lang Junxia raises his left hand and lowers his right, and Qingfengjian, three inches drawn, is abruptly returned to its scabbard. With a resounding boom, his internal qi surges out in a wave and at once locks Chang Liujun’s blade in place.

Lang Junxia pays dearly for this one move. He follows it by gripping the scabbard with his left hand, and with the momentum of turning to avoid their collision, he drags Chang Liujun with him as he turns; the two reverse position and each pushes out a palm at the same time — Lang Junxia with his right and Chang Liujun his left.

The left hand is ultimately weaker than the right hand; as their palms connect, Chang Liujun’s stone-shattering form is received by Lang Junxia at a near touch, then defusing it with a soft force, he redirects it against the wall. With a loud crash the entire wall collapses beneath Chang Liujun’s strength.

Blood sprays from Lang Junxia’s right hand, and crashing through the door he fades into the crowded marketplace, vanishing without a trace.

Chang Liujung takes two steps forward, and bends down to pick up a finger from the floor. He then puts on his bamboo hat. Upon his return to the chancellor’s estate, he throws the little finger for the dog to eat without a second thought, puts away his sword in his room, and returns to the study through the corridor.

Mu Kuangda is currently writing a memorial earnestly beseeching the emperor to abdicate his throne so he may enjoy the rest of his twilight years in peace.

“I failed.” Chang Liujun comes to a stop behind Mu Kuangda.

“If you weren’t always announcing those three phrases before you make your move,” Mu Kuangda calmly observes, “he probably couldn’t have gotten away. Where did you injure him?”

“His right hand is missing its little finger.”

“Then let’s send a letter to the general. I’m sure he’ll be quite happy.”

The northern county of Huaide is hidden deep among the Altyn-Tagh’s ranges, and it is a place one must traverse on one’s way into the mountain forests or while heading towards Shangjing. Its county town encompasses a wide area, its villages and countryside scattered deep in the mountains, with winding, spiderweb-like footpaths connecting them back to the town. Now happens to be the spring season where all is lush and the mountains are bountiful, thus Huaide has become a place where goods are bartered.

This is the first time Duan Ling has ever been anywhere aside from Shangjing and Runan. His eyes are brimming over with curiosity as he looks around him, sitting astride on horseback with Li Jianhong, passing through the marketplace outside a hamlet.

“Hey! Tiger skin and tiger bones, want some?!”

“Where are you from?”

“Want candy?”

Duan Ling daren’t answer. He glances at Li Jianhong.

“What? If you want something, just take it. You don’t have to look at me — of course I’ll pay for it for you.”

“I can’t talk to strangers, can I?”

Li Jianhong starts to laugh. “There’s no such rule. You want to talk, talk. Talk to whomever you like.”

Thereupon Duan Ling comes to an herbal medicine vendor and inquires curiously, “What is this? Is it an ox bezoar?”

The vendor’s spread is full of strange plants and rare herbs gathered in the valleys of the Altyn-tagh, and a piece of ox bezoar the size of a hen’s egg has attracted Duan Ling’s attention. Li Jianhong merely gives it a passing glance before handing over the money to buy it for Duan Ling.

“It’s not that you can’t talk to strangers.” Li Jianhong leads the horse by the reins and walks slowly next to Duan Ling through the marketplace. “It’s that in an unfamiliar environment, you need to know what you should say and what you shouldn’t say in order to fulfil the purpose of protecting yourself.”

Duan Ling makes an affirmative noise — he understands that Li Jianhong is teaching him how to deal with people and conduct himself.

Li Jianhong continues, “Society is made up of all kinds of people. Even if you don’t go around hurting other people, it may well be that other people will try to harm you.”

“Then how am I supposed to know what I should say and what I shouldn’t say?”

“When you don’t have a task to accomplish,” Li Jianhong explains, “you can say anything. But you must observe the person you’re speaking with, and be vigilant in case the other party has bad intentions. Do not speak of wealth to the poor, do not discuss poverty with the rich, do not argue opinions with men, do not grow desires towards women.”

“When you do have a task to accomplish, you can’t let just anyone know who you are. You must be constantly on your guard.” Li Jianhong adds, “When the circumstances demand it, you’ll also have to invent another identity in accordance with the local environment. Places of ill-repute such as inns are a mixed crowd, so when it comes to important things, you must remain tight-lipped. Especially with the innkeeper and the waiters, and random people — you mustn’t let them know what you’ve come for.”

Duan Ling only kind of gets it. He nods.

“When it comes down to it, one must not let greed take root while on a journey. Don’t go around coveting what doesn’t belong to you and you’ll be saved a lot of trouble.”

Li Jianhong brings Duan Ling to an inn for food and lodgings, and tells the waiter that they’ll be staying for the night, handing over his personal identity papers to the innkeeper for inspection. Currently things are complicated in Liao with all the tribes travelling all about each with their own standard for documentation, so the innkeeper can’t see anything odd about the papers either, thus he instructs his workers to get a high quality room ready.

”Dad, are we going to keep travelling tomorrow?" Duan Ling lies in Li Jianhong’s lap, while Li Jianhong leans back against the headboard with his arms around Duan Ling, still lost in thought.

“You don’t want to go?”

Duan Ling replies eh, a bit sleepy, and shakes his head. “Let’s go.”

Li Jianhong kisses Duan Ling, and Duan Ling turns to his side, buries his head in Li Jianhong’s shoulder and nuzzles him this way and that. Li Jianhong airs the thought, “What, not happy?”

Duan Ling doesn’t say anything either, just keeps nuzzling him. Li Jianhong says, “You just want attention, huh.”

Li Jianhong holds Duan Ling down on the daybed and tickles him until he’s laughing aloud and struggling back. When they’re face to face, Li Jianhong stares at Duan Ling’s eyes, then taking his hand he lets it rest on his own cheek. And closing his eyes, he gets lost in his thoughts again.

Bleary-eyed, Daun Ling stares at Li Jianhong’s face groggily. He runs his fingers over Li Jianhong’s profile, his lips, and leaning on Li Jianhong’s shoulder, he gradually falls asleep.

There is commotion outside; when Duan Ling opens his eyes again, it’s already morning. The noise startles him, and thinking it’s people hunting them down he asks, “What is it?”

“Nothing much.” Now that Duan Ling is awake, Li Jianhong gets up to wring out a towel to help him wash up.

Turmoil had descended upon Huaide overnight, with many retreating from the northeast road dragging their entire families with them. They’re all yelling, “The Mongols are coming!”

“Let’s go! Everyone, this way!”

Duan Ling has never seen anything like this before. He anxiously surveys Huaide’s main road outside the inn and finds it densely packed with refugees as far as his eyes can see. Duan Ling and his father are having noodles inside the inn, but Li Jianhong doesn’t seem phased at all by this unusual sight.

“Stay out!” The innkeeper looks rather displeased, making the waiter go outside to drive off the refugees; in times of chaos those without money can barely move an inch. Duan Ling glances outside from time to time, and finds a child about his own age with a much younger child, and looking dirty and dishevelled they make their way inside.

“Want some?” Duan Ling takes a flatbread, giving it to the older child. “Rest for a bit.”

“Outside! The lot of you, outside!” The waiter says.

Li Jianhong shoots the waiter a look. Just a look, and the waiter dares not speak again.

“I’ll take one for my little brother.” The child bows. “Thank you very much. Safe journey to you, sir.”

Duan Ling can’t help feeling a pang in his heart at the scene of them together. The child understands their social position though, and only takes up a little corner to feed his little brother flatbread.

Li Jianhong takes another piece of flatbread, pries it apart, and soaks in a bowl of mutton soup for Duan Ling.

“Where’d you come from?” Li Jianhong asks offhandedly.

“Huchang,” the child answers.

“Oh? Has the city been captured?” Li Jianhong asks.

“It won’t be long now.” The older child says, “The Mongols are coming, and everyone’s worried they’d massacre everyone in the city, so they’re all running to Shangjing. Could you give us some water please, guv’nor?”

Li Jianhong picks up the pot to pour tea, and gives the child a cup of tea. The child takes a few big gulps first before feeding it to his little brother.

“Where’s your mom and dad?” Duan Ling asks.

“We got separated.” The older child says, “If you’re heading north, can you ask around for us …”

“We’re heading east.” Li Jianhong says, “You need not worry. The Mongols haven’t made it here yet. Presumably your parents are okay.”

The older child gives him a nod. “Do be careful on your way east as well. Mongol troops are all over the mountains and the plains.”

“Let’s go.” Li Jianhong settles the bill for their food and lodgings, and leaves the inn with Duan Ling. They get on Wanlibenxiao, then going around the road they tear away from the village.

I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also to note that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎

Zhili was just the old name for Hebei, however that wasn’t its name until the Ming dynasty. Before that it just meant wherever the capital is. ↩︎

The Roads to Shu ran mostly up and down mountains. ↩︎

#相見歡 #fei tian ye xiang #joyful reunion #xiang jian huan #fox translates things

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inkedtae · 4 years

Text

into the meadows ⇾ pjm. [F]

𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 ⇾ faery!jimin x reader (f.)

𝑔𝑒𝓃𝓇𝑒/𝓇𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 ⇾ s2f2l, romance, fluff, studio ghibli inspired, pg

𝓈𝓊𝓂𝓂𝒶𝓇𝓎 ⇾ at seven, you heard a sweet voice lure you into the meadows. the memory is so distant, you’ve always thought it was a dream. twenty years later, you realize how wrong you were.

𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉 ⇾ 2k

𝓌𝒶𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 ⇾ brief implied mention of abuse (not explicit / mentioned in passing), swearing

𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇'𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝑒 ⇾ order up, @dylanxmin! it’s best to take this in lil sips.

◐ beta’d by ⇾ @kitsutaes

◐ le playlist

◖collab. for @bangtan-dreamland’s drinks and drabbles event. find original request here.◗

Nana is not an early riser, nor is she a night owl. You’ve gotten used to her midday naps and early turn-ins since you first began visiting every spring when you were seven. At that time, your mother would stay with you and help Nana around the house. Lately, you’ve been visiting alone and extending your stay to make sure Nana has everything she needs before you return to your college life of stress and finals.

Shuffling about in the kitchen, you combine and mix Nana’s lemon honeysuckle pound cake recipe.You remember having it every morning when you came here as a kid. She’d wake extra early to prepare it for you and place three slices on your plate, despite your mother’s protests. You couldn’t eat all three slices, but always appreciated Nana’s tendency to want to make sure you leave her house ten pounds heavier.

After wiping your flour coated hands on your pink apron, you grab a tiny blue bowl and make your way out through the backdoor. Little Mimi, Nana’s puppy, follows behind you; he’s always scuffling around your ankles, whining for little treats he knows he can’t have too much of. You hear his little collar jaggle as you enter Nana’s garden and begin picking honeysuckle petals. Once you have a good amount for the syrup, you grab a couple of lemons as well.

A familiar melody greets you as you open the garden gate. Mimi’s already on his way inside, hopping through the pet flap at the bottom of the door. Without his collar’s irregular jiggle of metal on metal, you’re left alone with the angelic voice as company. The tune twirls around you, filling your chest with a familiar sense of comfort and warmth.

Placing the lemons into the bowl, you rest the dish on the edge of the wooden gate. Perhaps following a mysteriously familiar voice over the hills and into the meadows is not your sharpest idea, however, you can’t shake this sense of deja vu. The rhythm of the song, the pitch of the voice all sound too familiar to ignore. As you further distance between you and Nana’s house, you wonder if the voice knows you can hear them.

You climb up the last hill, the rising sun bleeds it’s peachy rays into the sky. The sight is entrancing, especially when paired with the enchanting voice. Rushing down the side with a shout and giggling, you almost feel like a seven year old all over again. The voice only continues it’s melody, drawing you into a meadow you’ve only thought you’ve seen in your dreams. The bushes of spirea flowers, and rivers of lavender with little shores of roses and tulips, you can almost definitely pin this moment to a dream you had when you were seven.

It was also the peak of dawn when you entered a meadow exactly as the one before you. A little boy, maybe only a few years older than you, sat on a moss covered tree stump, resting his cheeks in his small hands. Blonde hair, brown eyes, pouty lips, the boy sighed and sang a similar tune to the one you hear now. He looked upset, gazing at his feet but all you could think was where are his shoes?

Exhibiting the innocence of a child, you asked the boy if he was sad because he lost his shoes. His eyes widened when he saw you and he sat up straight in his seat. His lips all but trembled as you tilted your head at him. Thinking he was simply shy, you took off your shoes and placed them in front of him. They were all too small to fit him, but you were adamant that he at least try them one. As he tried to shove his feet into the small red shoes, your mother’s voice cut through the meadow. That’s all you could remember of the dream before waking up on Nana’s couch with your mother muttering under her breath and your Nana approaching you with more slices of honeysuckle cake.

Those red shoes dangle from a cherry blossom branch now, rapturing your heart as the realization that whatever vivid dream you thought you had, might not have been a dream at all. The wind blows through the loose strands of your pinned up hair and the skirt of your white day dress. You take a step closer, but ultimately jump back the moment you hear a quiet hiss. Looking down, you spot a white, glossy snake rolled up in the tall grass of the meadow. It hisses at you before slithering further towards the cherry blossom tree behind that tree stump you found that little boy sitting on all those years ago.

White snakes, scales that glossy, are the omen, signaling the presence of a nearby faery. Nana told you all about faeries when you visited, creating a web of worlds in which faeries and humans once co-existed. Usually each tale ended with two different versions, the one the humans tell themselves is the truth, and what really happened. The human’s tale usually focused on the faeries’ power being too toxic and harmful and thus, safety precautions needed to be taken. They believed the faeries needed to be “exterminated.”

The truth, however, lies in the fact that humans have a fickle tendency to take advantage of faery magic, capturing the innocent people to further their bidding under harsh and inhumane conditions. After a revolution, faeries secured the right to live a life separate from the humans without the threat of being hunted or killed. The magical beings have morphed into a myth now, and if it hadn’t been for Nana’s tales and omens, you would’ve believed it to be as such as well.

The voice, you sudden realize, has ceased. You aren’t sure when or how it stopped, but just that it did. Now, surrounded by the meadow and the swirling breeze of the early spring wind, you notice you’ve been watched this entire time.

Stand atop the tree stump, a man, blonde hair, brown eyes, pouty lips, stares down at you. He cocks a brow as your eyes meet and you need to swallow your scream as his crystal wings flutter when he jumps off the stump.

“Little red,” he says as a means of greeting.

You feel your face with the back of our hand, and noticing that from the heat on your cheeks alone, that you must be a little red.

“No, no,” he chuckles, before pointing to the shoes. “You gave me those, right? They’re little and red.”

A nickname. He has a nickname for you. All notions that whatever happened twenty years ago was a dream have disappeared. The boy, now matured, was- is real. His wings, the sparkle in his eyes, and the entrancing aroma of lilacs and pomegranate all point to the conclusion that he’s not merely a man, but a faery.

“It’s you,” you whisper, taking a step towards him. “You’re the voice?”

“The voice? I give you Little Red and you give me The Voice?”

The smirk on his face lets you know he’s only teasing, but you can’t deny that he does have a point. His name for you is cute and personalized, a detail you greatly appreciate. Fighting off a smile, you mutter an apology and scan his frame for a nickname that encompasses him in your eyes.

“Pretty,” you blurt.

“Huh?”

“Princy,” you quickly correct. When he furrows his brows, you explain, “You just remind me of a prince.”

He smirks, all confusion in his face shifting to an expression of smug grace. “I see,” he hums. Scanning your frame, he raises his brows and says, “oh, did I take you away from a task?”

You shake your head to answer his question, words caught in your throat that the realization that he intentionally sought you out this time. You’re not quite sure what he wants, but the look in his eyes reassures you that it’s nothing to be afraid of. “What’s your name, Princy?”

“Isn’t Princy good enough?”

You pause. “I’m (Y/N),” you smile, ignoring his question.

“Little Red suits you better.”

He makes his way over to you, wings twitching as he nears. You stay still, reflecting that same look of reassurance in your eyes to let him know you’re not a threat. He must believe that you have no intentions to harm him. He did seek you out to begin with, luring you to the same place you met all those years ago.

“You know what I am.” A statement of fact, not a question. He seems surprised by it though, as if he was prepared to explain himself. “Here for magic?”

You furrow your brows. “Here for you.” You know exactly how it sounds. And, though you’re firm on your stance, you can’t help the blush creeping up your neck. “Didn’t you call?”

“Why would you answer-”

“If you’re so suspicious of me, Princy, then why did you call me?”

He gulps. His eyes dance around your frame, as if registering something around it. “I thought your innocence had something to do with age,” he replies. “But, it seems to be your usual sentiment.”

You’re not entirely sure what he means by that but, based on Nana’s tales, you can somewhat make out a meaning. Choosing to ignore his observation, you say, “nice wings.”

“Want them?” You know he’s teasing, but you can’t ignore the dark bitterness behind his humor.

“I’m happy with what I have now.”

“That’s because you don’t know what you’re missing.”

You smirk. “Maybe,” you shrug. “Or maybe I’m not missing anything at all. Maybe you are.”

All hints of cockiness have left his face, only the image of pure grace staring back at you. Both barefoot, you stand within half an arms length reach of each other. Humming his tune back at him, slight off key and beat, you smile up at him.

A little smile plays on his face, right eye twitching as you hit a particularly pitchy note. Placing a hand over your mouth, he whispers, “never again.”

You laugh against his hand before gently nudging it off you. “How will I be able to call you then?”

“What would you need me for?” he chuckles. His usual hints of suspicion and defense do not accompany his question. He asks more out of confusion than doubt.

“Well, what’d you need me for now?”

He shrugs. “Reassurance.”

“Of..?”

“Trust.”

He does not hesitate in his answer, intensely holding your gaze. Your heart murmurs, hitching your breath at the word, the implications that follow it and the way he looks at you.

Swallowing thickly, you ask just above a whisper, “what will I do when I need the same?”

His hands dig into his pocket after a moment of silence. Pulling out a little copper dragonfly pendant, he cups it close to his lips and blows over it. The copper turns to glass, lined with gold. He brings the pendant to your lips, nodding at you to do the same. Blowing over the pendant, the clear glass reflects a rainbow between the gold lines.

“Give it a kiss when you need a friend,” he smiles. Glancing behind you, he sighs. “Nana’s waking; you better get back. See you around, Little Red.” He licks his lips, backpedaling towards the cherry blossom tree before his wings snap into action and he flies out of sight.

Twirling the rainbow dragonfly pendant in your hands, you catch a glimpse of a little Princy flying between through the meadow. You press the glass token to your heart with a little smile and make your way back to Nana’s.

Princy’s quiet tune accompanies you, filling your heart with trust. And as his tune fades, you clutch on the pendant and silently wish for the day you’d get lost with him and the meadows he calls you into.

note; please do not leave hate towards me or any other readers. please do not copy, repost, or translate any of my work without my permission.

#bhqdrabbles #bangtanhq #bangtanfairygarden #bangtanscenery #btsgoldnet #btswritingcafe #fairy jimin #park jimin fluff #jimin fluf #jimin x reader #bts fanfic #bts drabble #bts fluff

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tetsurobunni · 3 years

Text

IDK You Yet

☞ songfic based off of the song IDK You Yet by Alexander 23 // 3.1k words

☼ slight angst, mentions of bullying, just wanting somebody to love (insert queen song here), tsukki being tsukki, akiteru being cute, freckles

☼ pairing : tsukishima kei x yamaguchi tadashi

☞ notes : sigh this song...yea // in this story, tsukki and yamaguchi weren’t childhood friends

this text = song lyrics

italics = flashbacks and inner thoughts

The sun cast a golden haze over the empty park in which Yamaguchi Tadashi sat. Gentle birdsong could be heard in the distance, a slight breeze swayed the branches of trees. A volleyball danced in between the boy's hands absentmindedly as he sat alone on a bench.

Today had been hard, just like any other day. The bullies he faced just seemed to never know when to stop; they continuously poked fun at him and made the poor boy feel like dirt. He had hoped that as he got older his tormentors would cease their attacks, but alas, his hopes never came true.

Yamaguchi had no one to call a friend. He tried to stay as translucent as possible as to not draw any attention to himself. It was the same routine for him every day; the only thing he found happiness in was volleyball.

You can see how that would be a problem, right? Loving a team sport when you have absolutely no friends? What a joke.

He sighed, stilling the movement of the ball between his hands. The sun was setting, the sky now a light pink and purple. 'I should start back home soon,' he thought, closing his eyes. Even though he knew the approaching darkness meant the temperature would drop and dinner would be ready soon, he didn't feel any urge to go home.

After all, there was no one there that understood him, or his pain for that matter.

He leaned his head back against the wooden bench, the lingering smell of cherry blossoms floating through the air.

'It would be so nice to have someone to enjoy this with,'

He couldn't help but imagine sitting in this park with the person he loved, sitting close as they watched the sun set.

How can you miss someone you've never met?

His lips curled upwards at the thought. Some would think that was cringeworthy, or too cookie-cutter; but that didn’t matter to him. Yamaguchi just needed someone to be there.

Because I need you now, but I don’t know you yet.

He had placed love on a pedestal for as long as he could remember. His mother and father’s relationship was nothing less than perfect-the love they had for each other practically radiated throughout any setting.

Seeing his two biggest role models share something so special like that made him want it too. No, not want. Need.

He needed the passion, the validation. He needed to be wanted by somebody. That’s all he could ever dream of. He didn’t care what gender, or if they were taller or shorter, bigger or smaller.

Yamaguchi just needed somebody to love him.

But can you find me soon because I’m in my head

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he was met with was the dark starry sky. He jumped, startled, and checked the time on his watch. ‘My parents are going to kill me!’ He thought, frantically gathering his things off of the bench.

He ran down the sidewalk, taking in heavy breaths as he passed by the homes on his street. Lights shone through curtains, shielding from prying eyes. The sidewalk was dimly lit with street lamps, the lone car passing by every so often.

Straightening out his jacket the best he could, Yamaguchi stepped into the door of his house. A lone light was on in the kitchen. He peered into the living room to find it empty, no noises to be heard. ‘They must have already went to bed,’ he thought, flicking the switch to turn off the light.

Yamaguchi padded up the stairs in sock feet, treading lightly as to not wake his parents. As he passed the door to their shared room, he noticed the door was slightly ajar. Peeking into the small crack, he could see the two cuddled up tightly in each others embrace as they slept. Sighing, he gently shut the door.

‘It would be amazing have someone to do that with’

Yea I need you now, but I don’t know you yet.

As he entered his room, he took a second to scan the blank walls of his room. Spaces where pictures of friends and teammates should be were instead replaced by the pale gray of wallpaper.

He sat down on his bed with a sigh, running his hands through his dark hair. It seemed as though loneliness was a routine for him by this point, just the same empty feeling day after day.

To say he was tired of it was an understatement.

But thats exactly what his tormentors said, right?

“You’re such a loner”

“No wonder no one likes you”

“You couldn’t even pay someone to be friends with you”

“You’ll always be alone.”

And lately its been hard

It seemed that no matter how hard Yamaguchi tried not to recall the words thrown at him, they still came crashing over him in waves, beating him down over and over until he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

They’re selling me for parts

“Please just stop, j-just-stop,” he whispered, voice strained as tears rolled down his cheeks. He dug his palms into his eyes to try and stop the waterfall of emotions, but like every time before, it didn’t work.

He didn’t want to go through this anymore. He really, really didn’t. He wished that he was strong; that he could stand up to those people and tell them that he wasn’t worthless.

And I don’t wanna be modern art

The only thing that kept him sane was the feeling in his heart that there was someone out there for him. There had to be. Someone that could mend his broken parts and dry his eyes when the world got too much. He hoped and wished and dreamed about finding his person

He just hoped that they were okay with being the other half of his wounded heart.

But I’ve only got half a heart, to give, to you.

He hoped that, for once, he would be enough for somebody.

~~~~~ Tsukki’s POV~~~~~

Tsukkishima walked down the bustling street, vendors selling various foods and treats filling the air with delightful smells. It wasn't really his scene, per se, but Akiteru had paid him to get some meat buns from his favorite store. There's no way he'd pass up money and free food.

As he rounded the corner, the familiar little shop his brother had sent him to numerous times came into view. He stepped inside, the warm air and lively chatter washing over him.

He swiveled his head side to side, noticing something strange. At almost every table sat a couple sharing a meal, girls giggling at their boyfriends as they shared conversation.

For the first time since he left the house he took notice of the bright pink and red hearts that decorated the walls and windows.

'Of course, it's Valentine's day. Disgusting.'

He rolled his eyes at his realization. Valentine's Day was just stupid. Why would anyone want to celebrate such an idiotic holiday? He managed to shove past a couple who was standing just a little too close for comfort mumbling a 'tch, you're in public' as he walked past.

Not looking back to see their reactions, he walked up to the counter and quickly ordered 4 meat buns- he knew his brother would want more than two and since it wasn't his money, he decided he'd get one for himself.

Tsukki didn't know if he was jinxed by the shop or what, but as soon as he walked outside all he saw were couples. Couples here, couples there, talking, laughing, hugging, kissing. He'd never admit it, but it made him feel just the tiniest bit lonely.

He had never been one for relationships and romantics- or even feelings at that. He had always despised Valentine's Day ever since he could remember. The girls in lower secondary school would give letters sealed with bright pink and red envelopes to the boys they liked. Tsukki himself had even received a few, but he always turned them down.

No one seemed to ever catch his eye, or grasp his attention. All the girls were plain, boring, and dull. Too energetic, too shy, talked too loud- the list could go on and on.

The door creaked open as he stepped into his house, and Akiteru yelled an 'in here!' from the living room. The latter was practically drooling at the plastic bag in Tsukki's hand, basically begging like a puppy for a treat.

"Here, you nuisance, I got three for you. The other one is mine, don't even think about eating it," he said, tossing the bag to Akiteru, who instantly started digging through it to get his food.

Tsukki sat down cross-legged on the opposite side of the table, opening the package on his meat bun. Suddenly Akiteru got a sly look on his face. "Oh, I forgot to mention that today was Valentines Day, sorry for sending you out in that."

Tsukki narrowed his eyes at his brother, knowing good and well that he didn't tell him on purpose. "Whatever, I'm keeping the change from our order as payment for sending me out in that mess."

Akiteru just laughed, shaking his head slightly. "C'mon Tsukki, do you really hate Valentine's Day that much?"

"Yes."

"Well, okay then," the elder grumbled, taking a bite out of his second meat bun. "But answer this, why do you hate it so much?"

Tsukki faltered for a moment. There were many reasons as to why he hated the holiday, such as the PDA, too much giggling, confessions, all of the god awful pink-

"Is it just because you never found someone you like?"

Tsukki's eyes widened. He had never thought about it. No- there was no way he was pissed because he had never met someone he had feelings for; and he for sure wasn't upset about it.

How can you miss someone you've never seen?

"Ah, hit the nail on the hammer, huh?" Akiteru said, his face showing signs of pity.

"Shutup, will you? I don't care about liking someone, or someone liking me, or being in a relationship, or-"

"Tsukki. You're rambling. You never ramble."

The blonde stopped in his tracks. Why was he rambling? He didn't care, so why did what his brother say have such an impact his mood? He let out a quiet 'tch', moving to get up from the table.

"Tsukki, wait."

The latter faltered from his place at the entrance of the door to his bedroom, waiting for his brother to speak.

"I don't like Valentine's Day all that much either. It makes me feel super lonely, and I get into this sad funk that I can't get out of. But, sometimes, I think about the person that'll love me someday. What they look like, what their personality is, all that; it helps a little. You should try it," Akiteru said, a soft smile on his face.

The blonde responded by opening his door, walking in, and shutting it behind him. Was his brother serious?! There was no way he'd entertain such silly ideas. He'd do what he always did: ignore everyone else and keep to himself. No thoughts, just his music.

After he changed into more comfortable clothes, he slipped his headphones on and laid on his bed, letting the sounds of his music flood into his ears. Without noticing, he started to think about all the couples he saw today at the market.

He remembered seeing a girl with blonde hair and brown eyes, much like himself.

'There's no way I'd be with someone who looked like me- wait, why am I even thinking about this-'

He scolded himself in his head, took his glasses off then proceeded to run a hand down his face. He continued listening to his music... that is until he started thinking again.

He tried everything, listening to god awful rock, cleaning his already clean room, he even tried working out in order to get his brother's words out of his head. No matter how hard he tried, his brother's smiling face saying those words seemed to pop up in his mind.

"Y'know what, fine. Fine! I'll do it!" He whisper-yelled, laying down on his bed yet again. Closing his eyes, he thought back again.

"I think about what they look like."

Okay fine, he could do that.

Tell me are your eyes brown, blue, or green?

Again, he couldn't imagine his...person...having the same light, amber eyes as him.

‘Blue? No, too bright...maybe brown? Hazel? Yea...hazel is nice...’

After he got past the eye color part, he came to a standstill. He didn't really care about hair as long as it wasn't blonde... but what else? Would they have a mole? Freckles? Would they wear glasses, like him?

Suddenly Tsukki brought a pillow to his face and hit himself with it. 'I can't believe I let something that my brother said affect me so much."

Nonetheless, he continued.

"I imagine what their personality is like"

This was tricky. 'They couldn't be too loud. Loud people get on my nerves. They couldn't be too quiet either, I can't stand when someone just looks at me and doesn't say anything.'

He thought a little bit harder. 'Maybe they'd like volleyball? That means Akiteru would love them. I wonder if they would like the same food as me...'

And do you like it with sugar and cream?

'Akiteru makes coffee sometimes, I wonder if they put a lot of stuff in it,' he shriveled up his face in disgust at the thought. He couldn't stand all that sugary stuff in his coffee, preferring the bitter taste instead.

Or do you take it straight, oh just like me?

'Okay, I'm done imagining things that won't happen. This was stupid anyways," he thought, sighing and turning over on his side. For some strange reason, he felt utterly exhausted. It's not like he did a lot of physical activity today, so why did he feel so...tired?

His brain decided to play the images of the couples again in his head, and he realized why he felt the way he did. This was the first time he had actually thought about having a "special someone."

The thought made him want to hit his head against the wall.

He never thought that imagining about the person he might be with one day would make him feel so lonely.

Cause lately it's been hard

For the first time, he noticed the utter and complete lack of important people in his life. Of course there was his brother, that was a given, but he had no one he had ever considered a friend. He never talked to one person for longer than he had to, and even ignored some.

He was completely shut off from the rest of the world...

And it was his own fault.

They're selling me for parts

'It's better this way. You know it is. No getting your hopes up, no disappointment, no keeping up an image. It's better this way. All you need is yourself, not anyone else.’

"But having someone there for me really wouldn't hurt... right?"

And I don't wanna be modern art,

His phone screen lit up with a notification. 'FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL' popped up on his screen, and the blonde groaned once he saw the time.

'Two in the morning? Great. I've wasted my sleep on nothing.’

But deep down, Tsukki knew it wasn't 'nothing'. He just made the pit of loneliness in his stomach larger and harder to ignore.

How could he even imagine the person he would love when he was so pathetic?

"You're so stupid Tsukishima Kei, so, so, so mind-numbingly STUPID!"

But I've only got half a heart, to give, to you.

~~~~~Both POV~~~~~~

Yamaguchi tugged the straps of his backpack tighter as he walked towards the staff room. Students shuffled in the halls, chatter and laughter filled the air. Of course, the green haired boy kept to himself. He had already dodged one of his bullies this morning, so he was on high alert.

As if the first day wasn't nerve racking enough, for some awful reason he decided he was going to join the volleyball club.

'This was such a stupid decision you should just turn around right now,' he thought to himself, slightly panicking as he saw the sign that said 'staff room' on the door in front of him.

He just stood there, staring, unmoving, at the door handle. His heart was racing in his chest, all the air seeming to exit his lungs.

"Oi, are you just gonna stand there?"

Yamaguchi jumped from the sudden voice that came from behind him. He jerked his head, meeting amber eyes behind black frames. He tripped on his words, becoming a blubbering mess, finally spitting out a 'Gomen!'

Tsukki raised a brow at the slightly shorter boy, wondering why he was just staring at the door.

"Tch, why were you just staring at the door like a weirdo?" Yamaguchi bowed his head in apology, contemplating whether to tell this complete stranger the truth, but he finally decided he would.

"Um, I was...uh...going to... to join the volleyball club," he stammered, not meeting the taller boy's eyes. He felt highly embarrassed for some reason, like him wanting to join was humorous. Honestly, he half expected the guy to laugh at him.

"Hm, I am too."

Tsukki moved past the green haired boy and opened the door, walking in a little ways before he realized the latter was still standing there.

"Oi, c'mon. Unless you're not actually going to join..."

Yamaguchi's ears perked up at that. He decided, that for once, he was going to do something he wanted.

"Gomen, I'm coming."

Even though it wasn't visible, Tsukki slightly smiled. He wasn't actually coming to the staff room to join the volleyball club, but when he heard that this boy was going to be joining, he decided that maybe he would.

The shorter boy suddenly turned around, hands flailing.

"Oh! I'm sorry for being rude, I'm Tadashi Yamaguchi!" he said, a bright smile presented onto his freckled face.

'Hm, freckles...'

"Tsukishima Kei."

And I hope it's enough.

#tsukkiyama #tsukishima x yamaguchi #yamaguchi tadashi #tsukishima kei #slight angst #songfic #idk you yet

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moonandstars · 4 years

Text

Tainted Sorrow

Plot : You work in the mafia and Taeyong is the boss.You both suck at feelings.

words : 5.8k

warning : violence, mentions of death and blood, nothing graphic just mafia related stuff

details : inspired by Bungou Stray Dogs but this is stand alone and independent. knowing BSD is not required to read this.

A/N : just boss era Taeyong. Thats all.

"I swear boss, it wasn't me. I would never betray you." The man said lying on floor, covered and drowned in his own blood, bruises covering his face and his body barely able to move.

You watch as Taeyong leans down and lands a punch of the man's face, sending him flying few steps back. Taeyong looks invincible as he walks ahead and stops, there's a red light glowing around his form, a thin red border covering his whole body as he stares at the man on the ground.

Taeyong leans down again and places his leg on the man's head.

"If you want an end to your misery, I suggest you speak while you still can." Taeyong spoke calmly.

"I am sorry boss-" You are not even startled by listening to the sounds that come, having witness it countless time. The red glow of Taeyong swallow the man and his body forced downwards towards the ground, almost buried inside. Taeyong takes out his gun and shoots him three time in the chest. The man lies lifeless on the floor and Taeyong is walking back towards you.

There's no words exchanged as you both walk outside the building and get into the car while everyone bows . This is the life in the mafia and this is the life of the city, where a few powerful organisations with people with gifted ability runs the city. The people who are gifted with an ability are few, but still their existence is known. There's no telling who out there might posses what kind of ability. One of those organisation happened to be the Mafia, run and controlled by the Mafia Boss, Lee Taeyong, a manipulator of gravity; an ability that allows him to manipulate the gravity of him and his surrounding; one of the most powerful ability to exist.

"These shitty pawns are nothing but headache when lured." Taeyong mutters. And it's all good. The traitor is gone and an example is set for the others and they had the enemy's information.

"You should wait out your violence until I am able to choke out all the information from them, I thought we were clear on that." You said as the car started.

"And I did."

"By a few seconds-"

"You can't seriously expect me to wait killing him after he betrayed me."

"You just use violence and your power every time-"

"And you are just too damn smart for your own good. I appreciate your intelligence but sometimes tearing apart their limbs is more important." Taeyong said with a tone that implied that end of conversation.

"Sure, whatever the boss says after all." You said with a sneer. It was a very common banter between you both, too common. It has been like that since you fought each other as mere kids, kids who were not normal, kids who have had far more blood on their hands than they could give account for. Ever since the day you both met, it has been countless bickering, competitions and the hunt for more successful missions, for you both combined were the mafia's most powerful weapon after all. But beneath those countless fights, lies a trust that neither of you will admit ; a trust that you place in each other that even in the most gruesome of situations, even at the cost of your own lives, you will save each other.

You harbored more feelings for him than just that. It took a long while to admit those to yourselves. After all what even could you call those? Love? Love is for kids who exchange shy notes between classes, for normal people who look for company, for the youth that walks under the cherry blossoms with a smile on their lips and glitter in their eyes not for monster like you or Taeyong. You were kids who learned to use a knife before learning to write; who don't look for company but for blood; mafia leaders that have sin on their lips and death in their eyes.

It was around midnight when you were done making a few important calls for the next mission. You were waiting for Taeyong in his office, which was just adjacent to yours on the highest floor of the mafia's long glass building that stood in the center of the city; also the tallest building in the city. Midnight was when the mafia works, everyone in the city was aware that the nights were run by the mafia and even the government could not interfere.There was a limited truce.

You sighed and looked at glass window which covered the entire floor, the moon was bright and big, staring strongly back at you; asking you; pitying you. You were not strong enough to stare back so you looked at your reflection in the glass; a black jeans with black boots hugging your legs, a white shirt with a black bolo tie, sleeves rolled to your elbow, a black belt choker sitting on your neck; a gift from Taeyong; "It looks so beautiful on your neck." He had whispered in the night, words that only bloom under the moon, forgotten and left in the morning while both walk forward.

Love is not for sinners.

A series of strong footsteps draws your attention towards the big wooden doors, behind those Taeyong appears, walking powerfully as he always does. He can fly as high as he can, defying the very nature of physics but when he walks; he makes his presence as loud as he can; strong.

"It's so the world knows my existence, my power; so that I know I exist."

The black tiles crumble beneath him as he gracefully walks towards his grand table. His usual black attire, black pants and white shirt; a black blazer with a long black overcoat hanging on his shoulders, flowing behind him. His hands in black gloves. A black onyx bolo tie sitting proudly underneath his collar; a gift from you. "This compliments your aura." His hair bright crimson, matching the blood on his face, that's definitely not his.

"Admiring the beautiful moon tonight,__?" Taeyong spoke wiping the blood off his face.

"At least there's something worth admiring here." Taunts flowing from you like a second nature, something that only Taeyong brings out.

"Admire away then, amusing to see your laziness doesn't stops you from that."

You smile, hidden from him, what actually amusing is how riled Taeyong gets from small taunts, all the more reason to annoy him.

"Well shitty Boss, my lazy strategy plans saves your ass multiple times."

"Well fucker my ass can be saved just fine without your shitty plans." It's a lie, he knows it but nobody points it out.

There's a knock at the door before before you can say something. Taeyong presses a button and the door opens, giving a sight of Yuta. He bows and makes his way inside, standing in front of Taeyong's desk. He gives a small bow again and looks up. He looks up ragged up, as if just came here from a fight, which he probably did. But still no signs of any injury, his purple hair a little disheveled but his black jeans and shirt still in place.

"Thirty six total deaths. Five of our own." Yuta says and Taeyong lets out a soft sigh and a pained expression crosses his eyes, gone as soon as it came, at the mention of the death of our own. Deaths of mafia's men has always pained Taeyong more than he shows, as if even after sacrificing his humanity he is still the most human inside.

"What is the result of their lives, Yuta san?" Taeyong asked.

"__'s predictions were right. The special ops department are planning to disrupt the deal tomorrow and most possibly launch an attack. The lead you told me to follow lead into their group today, they also have few gifted ones with them. They possibly have few spies in the company that's arriving tomorrow for the deal." Yuta breathed.

"Then the answer is clear. If they dare to interfere, the mafia will retaliate." Taeyong said lazily, but his eyes spoke sheer danger and revenge.

"The Black Lizard won't let you down." Yuta said, voice dancing with excitement, as if he wanted someone to dare just so he could get the chance to kill. Nakamoto Yuta, the commander of Black Lizard, a special unit under the Mafia which exist only for one reason, to annihilate the enemy. His gifted ability was what made his ways of killing even special, an ability to create illusions on his target, playing with their minds, allowing himself to dissociate them from their reality and kill them within their madness. For such a skilled assassin Yuta is, he can do the job just fine even without using his ability, but you wonder that he just likes to see his victim in pain and confusion while he toys with them.

"I won't expect anything less." Taeyong spoke with a dismissive tone.

Yuta sighed and looked up you and then at Taeyong. "Boss I am deeply sorry for the lives of our subordinates that were lost under my command." Yuta spoke, his eyes deep in grieve.

A small smile ghosted over Taeyong lips as if he was expecting, waiting for Yuta's apology.

"Yuta san, as long their deaths gives us a meaning, all is forgiven."

Yuta nodded and turned around walking towards the door from where he came, his shoulders a little less tense than they were before.

"Yuta san." You voiced out. "Patch yourself up before the fight. It will be more uglier then."

"I wish I could but my boss is very ruthless and demanding employee." Yuta said amusingly.

"That I cannot deny." You spoke looking over to Taeyong, a small smile in your eyes.

"Give yourself a rest after the black caskets are out. We need all the power for tomorrow." Taeyong said annoyingly with affection.

"Sometimes I forget you're such a nice person Taeyong!!" Yuta said teasingly and walked out.

It is all good because it is Yuta, a member of mafia, a men of your own, a friend from the forgotten but longing years of childhood, a small kid who bumped into you and Taeyong and has always been here since then. If it was anyone else, any other mafia member, they would have knelt in front of Taeyong before even daring to look up; If it was anyone else, they would have shaken with fear, kept their eyes down; If it was not Yuta, even an informal breath would have resulted in something cruel and tragic.

III

You were still standing there, admiring the moon. Taeyong standing besides you, his presence bringing a familiar warmth towards you. An intimate silence broken by Taeyong.

"The moon is beautiful tonight, isn't it?" He breathed, looking at you. An honest expression, at least as honest as he could muster, spread over his face. You smiled, treasuring this moment with all your heart.

Moments like this which only existed in the darkness, in the quiet of night where the moonlight gave your vulnerable being a protection, a shelter which covered your soul and made it more honest. A few more moments passed like this until you spoke again.

"Do you wanna hear a plan?"

"I was waiting for that." He smiled.

"All the reports that you showed me, I am definite there will be a full attack on us." You started. " And they will bring out the ability users, although I am quite doubtful there will be more than two. The best moment of attack for them would be-"

"In the middle of the deal." He completed.

"They have the intel that the mafia boss would be there, probably from the traitor you killed before."

"They are still no match for the mafia. We will proceed according your the plan." He said and sat on the table looking over the city while stood to his right, like always.

You observed his face, eyes shimmering from the reflection, lashes casting a shadow on his cheeks; the moonlight shining on his face. You were busy in staring, forgetting he was looking back.

"Now who's worth admiring?" He asked.

"Well still not you fucker." A weak jab.

"Stop thinking about tomorrow." He said, rubbing a thumb over your forehead.

"Can't help it."

"None of their armed men compares to ours and as far as the ability users are concerned, we have you." He spoke.

He was right. Ability users had no effect on you due to your own ability. Your gift was a disabling ability, an ability that allows you to nullify any other ability with just a simple touch on their skin. Some say it's a useless ability, Taeyong says it's the mafia's ace. You already knew who to believe.

"You're an ability user too. I could disable your power and get rid of you too."

"You could and you should. But you won't." Taeyong mused.

Your ability takes away the ability of others, makes them vulnerable, takes away a part of themselves that makes them special. It's easy to defeat them because they are so dependent on their abilities, they don't know what else to do. Taeyong is not a slave to his ability. His ability does not define him. Even if it is taken away from him, he's still Lee Taeyong. The man who rules the mafia, the man who kills his enemies mercilessly; the man who makes you feel human in the most inhuman ways.

As you watch him leaning against your shoulder, you can't help but think about what is he to you. You don't often, because it is so tiring to think about the same thing again and again and yet not being able to reach a conclusion. A friend, you both have never used that word, too busy bickering and silly fighting with each other to use the word friends. A lover, that word always stung too deep within you. A word too pure, too beautiful, too normal for someone like you. Lovers cannot define the complex relationship you had with Taeyong. Countless nights of sex, tangled with each other, whispering softly all the things in the night that vanish in the daylight, small gifts hidden somewhere, birthdays celebrated in the company of each other, a silent respect, a strong trust and a hard and sharp instinct of protecting each other at any cost. It was clear that you both were exclusive to each other but nobody ever said that it was a relationship. And love was never on either of yours tongue ever.

Love is for humans. What are you?

You discarded the idea of love a long time ago. You don't know when you fell in love with Taeyong, at fifteen perhaps when you both met or at sixteen when you both became mafia's strongest weapon or maybe at seventeen when you both secretly bought a safe house together, or might be at eighteen when you both were mafia's youngest executives. You don't know. You didn't need to know. A partner, that has always been more intimate to you than anything else. You both were partners as soon as you joined the mafia, a string of successful missions beside your names. You could jump in front of bullets knowing Taeyong would stop them. Maybe a partner was the best word to describe what he was to you.

"You know it's like I can still hear his voices in this office." Taeyong whispered. You tensed, you knew exactly who he meant. A ghost of the past that still haunts you.

"It's like he's angry that I am in his office, in his place." Taeyong continues.

"Taeyong." You tried.

"He just looks at me like he always did with those fucked up eyes and his ugly smile-"

"Taeyong, there's no one here."

"And he keeps asking why I stabbed him that night but he knows, right, he knows why."

"Taeyong" You said lifting his head. "He's not here. He's dead. You're the boss now."

"He keeps whispering in my ear that how am I monster, like he told me-"

"Taeyong! You're not a monster. The old boss is dead, for good. He's gone forever." You said sternly, holding his face.

No matter how many people Taeyong has killed, the only soul that has bothered him was of the mafia's previous boss. A crafty man of great power, who brought you all into the mafia world, who taught you how to perfectly slit a throat, how to manipulate someone to the core; he taught, made you into a perfect weapon, a tool. The hatred for that man runs deep in your skin, even deeper for Taeyong since he was always the target of boss's puzzles. This will make you even more stronger, He used to say, while watching you get tortured by enemies in return for obtaining information. Until one day he went too far, that day he died by the hands of Taeyong, while you stood and watched serving as a witness as his position for the next mafia boss.

"He told me he saw himself in me. What does that says about me? "

"Taeyong. We are not going to believe his words." You spoke taking his hand. "You want to go home?"

"Always."

A place to live for you both was the pent house in the mafia's building, just a floor below the office, provided with every luxury that a man could imagine. Home was an apartment in the city, a place that used to serve a secret safe house for you both, but now it's where the peace resided and where the words come out and bloom and where you feel a little human with Taeyong.

You stepped out of the car with Taeyong at the extraction point, a few steps far away from where the dealing was supposed to take place at a warehouse. You were waiting for the latest information before proceeding any further. You watched as Taeyong in his usual mafia attire, dragged a puff from his cigarette looking up the sky, a cloudy night with no moon or stars in sight. He throws the half smoked cigarette down and crushes it, turning towards you.

"The moon looks beautiful tonight."

"It's a foggy night Taeyong, we can't even see the moon."

"I can."

"Taeyong-"

"BOSS!" Yuta comes walking from the shadows of trees, looking around quickly and bowing to Taeyong.

"What's the news?" Taeyong spoke calmly.

"They will launch an attack. It's given." Taeyong looked at you while he listened to Yuta. "They have men around the warehouse at a distance. Of course, our men have them covered. There are two gifted, we have eyes on one, his ability is related to controlling the wind around him. I will be able to take him down."

"And the other?" You asked, looking at Yuta's expression darkened.

"We don't know. He controls his size. That's all I could gather. How much threat he holds is still questionable."

"He must be an ace considering how secretly his power has been kept." You thought.

"For the special ops to be so brave with launching an open attack like this on us. I just pity for their lives." Taeyong said.

"Boss I don't think we should underestimate them."

"Are you doubting your skills Yuta san?" Taeyong said darkly.

"You know that's not what I meant Taeyong." Yuta spoke quietly. The driver of the car looked at Yuta in horror, wondering how the death will come to Yuta. It was probably his first time watching someone talk to Taeyong like that besides you.

"This is why you were told to patch yourself up. Don't let these morons get to you. This is nothing for the mafia." Taeyong spoke with a commanding voice, but you could hear the underlying softness, a little consolation, a little advise.

Yuta nodded and gave out the position details before disappearing in the shadows again.

"He was not wrong. It's never safe to walk into an unknown enemy, an ability user for that." You spoke as you and Taeyong walked towards the warehouse.

"I know." Taeyong said simply.

It was in the middle of deal, just after exchanging the goods, you heard a loud noise outside. Just as you expected. A message from yuta ten minutes said that he had the first gifted under his control and the second one was heading your way.

"What was that?" The other businessman said.

"Absolutely nothing of your concern. Our deal has been done and the official papers will be send to you." Taeyong said getting up.

"But what-"

"Also If I were you, I would pay more attention to what my subordinates are up to." Taeyong spoke with a glint in his eyes, a warm and powerful desire, an excitement of some action awaiting him.

Outside you saw at least fifty men, all of them armed, in front of the warehouse. A tall man stood in the middle leading the rest. It was just you and Taeyong against them.

"Well partner, let's just get on with it." Taeyong said, activating his ability, a bright red hue glowing around him. You take out your gun. Even though your ability was not an attack one, you were the best fighter in the mafia. It was lasted probably twenty minutes when all of them were in the ground. A few grunts were heard from the ground, a few ones who were just minutes away from their dead. You thought about shooting them again, and again until you could end their painful suffering soon and for once. It would be better to just accept death rather than lying in the cold mud, drowning in their blood. You were about to about pick up your gun again when you saw an unusual movement from the middle of the ground.

"Taeyong!" You shouted, while pointing the gun and shooting at the person of movement but it was useless. The movement continued and as you squinted, you saw the form getting bigger and bigger, like a giant.

"__, what the hell is that?" Taeyong said beside you.

"The ability user." You spoke as you saw the enemy grow as tall as trees surrounding you, various roots covering him, as if he was using them to grow his form. You had to get close to him and touch him, to nullify his ability and return to his normal form, otherwise he could keep causing destruction for you.

"Step back,__."

"Huh, Taeyong?"

"It's not safe to go close." He said looking at the enemy, fist clenched

."We have to try it." You said going towards the growing structure, but every time you got too close he could try to kick or stomp really hard, and that flow would throw you backwards with a force. His defense was not allowing you to go close to him, let alone touch him. You tried one more time and this time too, you were thrown back.

"__." Taeyong called running towards you. "You okay?"

"He knows our abilities." You said standing up again. "That's why he laid back when you were attacking, that's why he won't let me come close."

"That traitor snitched everything, but we have to stop him anyhow."

"There's only one way left, but it's your choice Taeyong." You sighed.

"Every time you say that, it's not like I have a choice anyways." Taeyong said, walking ahead a little, and started pulling his gloves out; a finger at a time until both the gloves were thrown aside.

"If I am late to touch you, you know what will happen right?"

"But you won't be." He said, looking back at you, eyes intense. "Or I'll kick your ass."

Taeyong walked ahead towards the enemy, a red glow, brighter than ever before started surrounding him. Red marks started decorating his skin, his hands, his face; his coat flew aside. You could feel the gravity shifting around the whole area, the center being Taeyong. He was activating his corruption. Simply controlling objects through their gravity was only the front of Taeyong's ability, that he could use in his full control. Corruption was something else though, something more uncontrollable and devastating to the city, to Taeyong himself. Activating corruption allowed Taeyong to control gravity of a larger area and create black holes with his power that swallows everything that comes it's way and destroys it. He could control gravity to a particle level. After all, he is called the manipulator of gravity. This part of his abilitywas only known to a handful of mafia members and you're the only one who has ever witnessed it. The downside of it was that, Taeyong could activate his corruption at his own will but once it was activated, his mind goes blank and he is not in control anymore. He becomes a destructing machine and keeps destroying every thing that comes his way, until he runs out of his energy and dies.

The only was to stop this was your ability, to touch Taeyong and nullify corruption as soon as he defeats the enemy. You watched as corruption took over Taeyong and he annihilated the the giant enemy in the span of few minutes. You ran over to him before he could any more damage to the surrounding, to himself. You grabbed his hand and watched as his ability became null, the red glow leaving his posture, the red marks disappearing from his skin, as if they never existed in the first place. He fell down on his knees and coughed blood, a normal occurrence after using corruption. You held him. A wave of relief passes over you seeing that Taeyong is safe. It has always been your fear, that you'll be late, that you will break the trust; that you will lose Taeyong.

"Take rest Taeyong, the enemy is defeated."

"You stopped me right after?" He asked, coughing.

"I was about to, but you looked such a red dork like that."

"Fuck, you better take me home right--" He said while coughing and falling onto you.

Thankfully grabbed him at the right time."Rest now."

"__."

"Taeyong-"

"__, the moon--"

"I know. I know. The moons looks beautiful tonight right?" You spoke as you looked up to the sky, the clouds were cleared away; countless stars scattered, dancing across the black canvas but the moon still was shying away somewhere. You could never understood what Taeyong talked about sometimes, you did not needed to anyways.

You lay on the bed next to Taeyong, bodies tired from the fight before. All the fresh wounds covered in bandages. You were a little better than Taeyong, using corruption leaves him tired for a lot of hours. But a fight was won and the boss could use a little rest. You heard some noise as you watched Taeyong turn around in the sheets and settled on his back.

"You should rest properly shitty boss." You spoke.

"Aww is that concern __?"

"No that's a headache because I am the one that has to take your tantrums."

"Well that's--" Taeyong hissed clutching his side. You rose up quickly and helped him sit.

"See, that's why I told you to rest. How's the pain?" You asked, checking the ribs.

"Nothing much. It's the usual one."

"Are you lying to me?"

"Come on partner, don't you trust me?" He asked, a smirk plastered over his face. You just huff and sit beside him on the bed, in front of the large window that looks over the sky and city underneath it. A calm and comfortable silence follows over both of you. You look over at Taeyong. He looks pretty healthy, apart from corruption side effects, there's not any major physical injury. Even the violence in your life has become a second nature, it still does not sit well with you that every fight you go into, could potentially be yours or Taeyong's last fight. You hoped it was yours because you did not knew what to do without the man next you. It could be your years long partnership that makes you so co dependent, nothing else and not certainly love. Love is for people with a heart, not for you who just killed hundreds of men without blinking not just few hours ago.

"What thoughts are interesting enough to keep you invested?" Taeyong asked, still looking ahead.

"I just forgot how beautiful and calm the moonlight feels." You whispered.

"I think we spend too much time looking at the darkness instead."

"We are the mafia Taeyong, even the blood is black. Darkness is where the mafia exist." You spoke looking at your hands, little cuts and scraps littered across.

"No."

"You don't agree?"

"More like, we exist in the stars, in the air, among the wind, under the moonlight. I believe that's where you and I exist together."

"Since when did you started thinking like that? But I understand, you always had more human thoughts than me. "

"I don't know. It just swiped by, I- don't mind, corruption really tires me a lot." He spoke smiling softly.

"Come on now, you never talk to me about this."

"It's not like I need to speak for you to understand." And it's true. He does not need to tell you about his fears. But still when it came to corruption, you had your own fears; or just single fear, that is losing Taeyong. You bear the burden of saving him and not being able to do so, was the single most terrifying thing for you. You always wondered how Taeyong felt during that time. But he refused to talk about all of this, specially since he killed the boss. Its ironic, before the death of boss you were the one who was closed off and reserved but now that you want to get close, it's Taeyong who seems lost. It's like the burden is too much, even for someone as invisible as me.

"Easy there, might sound like we actually like each other." You tried to joke around, tried to change the heaviness in the only way you knew but it did not had any affect on Taeyong. He was still looking at you with a soft smile; a smile that made you believe in your humanity, a smile that made you dead heart shake, a smile that made you fall in love.

"I think you do, otherwise you won't run to save me every time."

"I don't want to burden myself with being a boss, that's why."

"You would be a better option than me." Taeyong spoke, so many emotions swinging in his eyes. You could pick each and every one of them apart, but then again, that's what you always did. Sometimes you wished Taeyong would tell you, explain to you rather than just leaving you with these unspoken feelings.

"I-it's- I would not be. You know that. Besides that's not the point."

"Then what is the point?"

"It's just that you don't have to be so closed off you know. We're partners after all." You said, still trying to maintain the conversation because this is your safe space, a place you and Taeyong call home, if there's any solace in existence, it's right here at this very place.

"I just said you will make a better boss. Someone who can lead an organisation."

"I am not someone who can sacrifice myself for the mafia like you. I don't need an end like that."

"It's not sacrificing myself if I know you will save me in time. I know I am not going to die."

"You can't be sure of that." You said letting the words hang in the air between you two.

"Is that your fear?" Taeyong spoke after a while, voice little shaky. Not used to honest conversations.

"I-Taeyong it's pointless to fear death in the mafia. Either yours or mine. I came to peace with that a long time ago. I believe that death is not opposite of living, it's merely a component in our process of lives."

"Then?"

"If you die some other way, there's always an explanation for that. But if you die using corruption, it's me, that I was too late. I will be the one with your blood on my hands. Your death will be my fault, it'll be on my conscience. I know I won't be able to live with that, I can't survive knowing that I was the reason for you death, that I-" You took a deep breath "that I broke our trust."

"Even if that happens, I am sure there will a reason for you being unable to save me."

"Is it not your fear? You're the one who'll be dying."

"Like you said, a mafia blood should not fear death. Besides I don't think there's any such time when one should chicken out, specially a boss." Taeyong said in a low tone, he was looking ahead in the sky but his eyes seems so blurry and lost. You sighed, the conversation looked like it was over, until Taeyong spoke again.

"The fear, if that word can dare to come close to what I feel, is not simply dying. It's a possibility that every time I use corruption, it might be the last time I see you. Even when I have lost control, mind black and body in red, I know in my heart that you will come. But if something happens to you while I am out, I won't be able to do anything." Taeyong smiled, a sorrowful one, the same smile that laced his face when he came back after killing the boss. But the mourning was not for the one who died. "That is my fear."

The fear of losing you, the fear of not protecting you.

You knew he has always been protective of you, an instinct that came as soon as you met. Something blossomed inside your heart, like a flower that was showing it's petals, so soft and sweet. The fear that was unspoken till now, was something you both shared. The fear of losing each other, the fear of not being able to protect each other; a feeling of not being able to survive without each other. Maybe you both were not human, and maybe love was not for you but that is not what you needed anymore. Love was not beautiful enough to define what you both felt for each other, and there was no need to define those unspoken feelings. As long as I have you here, right with me, I could survive anything. He was not your lover, but he was your partner. Love was not for you, but Taeyong was. And somehow, that was enough.

He turned his eyes away from window and looked at you. Sorrowfulness replaced with softness, Eyes crinkled and small smile dancing on his face, red hair falling unevenly, the stars in the sky, the smell of rain, the sound of his breath when he spoke.

"The moon is beautiful tonight, isn't it?"

----

The moon is beautiful tonight, isn’t is? = I love you. By Natsume Soeseki

At the time, Japanese people were more reserved than they are at present day. They hesitated to express feelings of love directly. I, for one, like this expression 月が綺麗ですね | tsuki ga kirei desune (the moon is beautiful, isn’t is?) -- it sounds literary and intelligent.

This phrase was used by Natsume Soseki as a form of saying “I love you”. For the writer, two people with deep feelings for each other do not need to use those three words to effectively convey their feelings. Sometimes, even the simplest phrases contain more emotion than direct ones.

----

if you guys don’t know about bungou stray dogs idk what is up with you. it’s one of best anime’s out there, like i still don’t have feels for anything else like i did for this. Please watch it & you’ll love it even more if you like literature because every character is based on real life author. Just watch it pls :))

anyways y’all if you watched/read Bungou stray dogs you probably realized that taeyong= chuuya & you = dazai ( bc daichuu <3).

ALSO PLS SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS IF U HATE IT, DISLIKE IT, LIKE IT, LOVE IT, JUST PLS SEND IN ASK OR TEXTS OR COMMENTS. IT’S A SIDE BLOG SO I CAN;T REPLY PERSONALLY BUT PLS GIVE ME FEEDBACK.

EDIT : ALSO WHAT DO YOU GUYS SAY ABOUT A PREQUEL WHERE I TELL YOU HOW THEY MEET AND THE BOSS’S DEATH AND TY BECOMES THE BOSS?

#taeyong #lee taeyong #taeyong scenarios #taeyong imagines #nct scenarios #nct fanfic #nct imagines #nct taeyong #nct x reader #taeyong x reader #Yuta #nakamoto yuta #kpop scenarios #nct yuta #bungou stray dogs #inspired #kpop imagines #imagines #kpop fanfiction

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amayamiyaki · 4 years

Text

I recently got into writing angst. It's different than what I usually write but its always good to branch out of your comfort zone and learn try something new! So here's an angsty Shisui/Sakura oneshot!

If you're interested in sending me a prompt, please feel free to, along with the Sakur-pairing of your choice!

Title: Izana

Characters/Pairings: Shisui/Sakura

Rating: General

Prompt(s): meeting, hollow, binding

Izana

He's late.

Ironic for a man who’s compared to wind and lighting, but Shisui brushes aside the frustration that nips at the side of his neck. War waits for no one, after all—not even him.

Sliding off his mount, Shisui hands the reins of his steed to the attendant by the door and toes the sandals from his feet all in one movement, before slipping inside the teahouse. He hurries through the corridors, mindful of his swords as he passes the workers, smiling and tilting his head, searching, until the thundering laughter of his uncle catches his ear. A smile, true and soft, settles on his features, and he follows the voices until he reaches a set of doors manned by the wait staff. They bow to him, murmuring their welcomes but he can hardly hear them over the excited beating of his heartbeat. And when the doors part, it takes more control than he’d ever care to admit, to keep from rushing inside.

"Ah, there he is!” His uncle bellows, hand gesturing to him. Shisui bows lowly to his clan head, trying to keep his gaze from wandering to the women whispering to his side.

"My apologies, Uncle," Shisui began. "The meeting with Uzumaki-san went on longer than anticipated."

"It is of no concern," Madara replied with the wave of his hand. He appears unbothered—happy, even. "Sit. No more talks of war with women around."

Shisui straightens from his bow and makes his way towards his cousins, falling into the seat beside Itachi with a relieved sigh. Itachi pushes a choko towards him worth the side of his hand, observing him with a look of knowing.

"Uchiha Shisui, late,” He teases. “I never thought I'd see the day."

Shisui grasps the porcelain with a huff. "You know how the Uzumaki can get. They get lost in their thoughts more often than not."

Itachi hums but doesn't comment further, busying himself with the sake against his lips. However, that doesn't stop Sasuke. "Those fools enjoy the sound of their own voices."

"Sasuke." Itachi's voice is soft, but the scold is clear.

The two brothers share a bicker, their conversation veering towards swords and training and other things he can't find himself caring about; because how can he when his uncles share a laugh over the blush of the beautiful woman positioned between them?

She’s draped in scarlet silk and spirals of plum blossoms, her skin painted an ethereal white with brushes of pink and her rosy hair drawn up with glittering kanzashi. Her collar is red, the kind of crimson that makes Shisui think of war and death and fire—all things that he can’t even bear to imagine associating with her because she’s too beautiful for anything less than Amaterasu’s gardens.

Her Oneesan calls her Sakura.

She says her name with so much pride, smiles without restriction and tilts her glass encouragingly at the young girl who smiles back. Looking at her makes something within him burn—something wild and dangerous and wonderful.

"Won't you dance for us?" He hears Izuna ask. "You know Madara's heart only warms when you do."

The tease is innocent, Shisui knows, watching with a tight chest as the pretty Maiko beside him sets a gentle hand atop Madara's shoulder. But it still doesn't mean much to his heart.

"Izuna-san," She reprimands, though not unkindly. "Madara-san's heart is always warm. Can't you tell from the blush on his face?"

Madara turns away, but the corner of his lips curl with a hint of mirth "It's the sake, I assure you."

Sharing a sly look with the rosette and her Oneesan, Izuna’s hand comes down hard on Madara’s shoulder, making the elder of the two jerk forward. “Yes, yes. The pretty women on your arms have nothing to do with it.”

Perhaps it’s jealousy that makes Shisui’s knuckles whiten. He always was prone to jealousy. All Uchiha were. It’s in their blood, after all.

Sakura waves her hands and tilts her head, hiding her giggle behind her hand as Izuna teases his older brother, and it kills him, because those smiles are his. He owned them the moment he laid eyes on her—back when she was a fresh Maiko, dancing to the melancholy thrum of a koto and the hum of cherry blossoms in Spring skies.

He brings the sake to his lips, hoping to wash away the taste his uncles’ affection leaves in his mouth, when their eyes meet—pine and evergreen against wintry steel—and suddenly his chest feels less hollow.

The smile she wears now is his. He knows it. He feels it as deeply as his bones because that’s the smile she gifts him when he holds her in his arms, hidden in the shadows behind her okiya. It’s the same smile she gives him when he folds her hair behind her ear and kisses her brow.

It’s his and only his.

So his eyes soften and the jealousy resides, folding neatly into a little box at the base of his stomach. Shisui watches as Sakura finally acquiesces to their playful demands. Although her name is rooted in earth, she stands with the fluidity of water, walking in that way that makes the train of her kimono sway like a rippled pond. Then she stands at the front of the room, exactly where she’s meant to be.

Rawbone fingers pluck at a shamisen, the koto purrs; and Sakura dips her head to expose the unmarked skin at the back of her neck. It makes his breath stutter and his fingers twitch, and one glance at his younger cousins prove he isn’t the only one pleased with the sight. His uncles hum around their tobacco pipes, hands waving at the smoke that flitters into their faces, greedily taking in the graceful bow of their pretty dancer while his cousins shift in place. But it isn’t until she lifts her gaze to him once more, revealing something beautiful in those beryl eyes, that Shisui finds his chest truly bound.

She clutches the sleeve of her furisode, tugging it back to reveal a sliver of her pale wrist and the glitter of her fan. She rolls onto her toes, turning so her shoulder faces them, peers at them from the corner of her eye; then she gently waves her fan in a way that upturns her wrist.

She tells him a story—a story about a fleeting beauty that imprints his heart.

Her fan, spread wide, flutters and sways, traveling downwards. Then she taps it, creating the thunderous sounds of rainfall. She demurely hides her face with it, stepping towards the left, then again to the right. Then she lifts the fan above her head, shielding her petal locks from the showering rain. She lowers the fan to face the front of her, folding it inwards from both sides before reaching into the air with greedy fingers.

She draws the sunlight with her fingers, painting a vision of blooms and wind—the beginnings of Spring. He holds her fan tightly now, flat and with both hands, similar to how he holds his blade in its sheath, then pulls her hands apart to reveal a blade; she poses with it crossed over her shoulder.

The scene is different, he realizes. He recognizes the way she unravels her fan, tilting it as if she’s pouring sake, how she spreads it open like the petals of her namesake, before presenting it as a tray. He recognizes it, because it’s their story.

Her dance speaks of their romance, the lyrics her Oneesan sings purring of the way he had charmed her. She loves him, but never says it—she never does, even when their fingers intertwine beneath burning candles.

And it makes his chest hurt because he wants and wants and wants to hear her say it. No one knows. No one understands. Because to them, it’s a dance but to him, it’s a confession.

With the flick of her wrist, a second fan appears with an abrupt snap. The curves of her fan point inwards and she makes them flutter, like the wings of a butterfly. She lowers to her knees then, her smile more prominent than before. Her movements become more confident, more powerful if that’s possible. She connects her fans, creating one large one that makes him think of the insignia emblazoned across his back, rocking it back and forth above her head and spinning as she rises.

It makes him breathless.

The scene changes again, the music dropping into something quieter, more ominous while her expression hardens. Her fingers loosen from her left fan, making it dangle like a bud on a branch, then she twirls it, slowly turning on her heel with her right fan drawing the sunrise. She leans back, almost in a curtsey with her right fan poised above her head and the left in front of her, transiently similar to the way he wields his swords.

A battle comes in the morning.

Something creeps along the nape of Shisui’s neck, nuzzling him uncomfortably as he watches Sakura’s dance. Beside him, Itachi’s fingers tighten into his hakama and Sasuke’s chest is still. He chances a glance at his uncles to find all three leaning forward, so entranced in the Maiko’s romance that they don’t notice the emptiness of their glasses or the falling ashes of their tobacco.

She tucks her fans into her obi; hides her knuckles in her sleeves and pulls them to cover her body, tilting her head from side to side before lifting her hands in offering. She turns again as bells chime, revealing the spider lilies embroidered along the hem of her elaborate obi and the mountain painted into her neck. She stomps on the tatami, hands smoothly rolling to the side like swaying branches, then turns to the side, peering at them over her shoulder with the faintest upcurve of her scarlet lips.

And then her movements are frantic.

She moves to the left, then to the right, jolting forward before reeling back as if surrounded. Her expression is harrowed, brows knit tight as she faces enemies only she can see. Her shoulders become limp, her posture withdrawn; her arms sway from front to back almost lifelessly.

And then she draws the curls of raging waves with her fans.

Shisui sucks in a breath as he watches her left fan drop. She clutches the one fan between both hands now, slowly unraveling it like the petals of a flower.

Sakura turns back the way she came until she faces them again. She closes the fan again, her head canting side to side and expression somber. She looks lost. Hollow. And then she holds the fan like a knife, points it towards her belly as she slowly peers up at the heavens, and Shisui swears real tears glitter in her eyes in those seconds before they close.

And so the blossoms fall, so thickly they form clouds.

The music fades to an end and she comes to a stop with her head bowed and her fan poised. Shisui finds himself so entranced, that all he can do is stare—remembering himself only when the other men in the room applaud and coo.

“She’s wonderful,” Madara praises, clapping. And it stuns him, because Madara had never cared for geisha before. “Your Imouto’s dances get more and more intricate with every day, Tsunade.”

The blonde woman laughs as she refills his glass, eyes flickering towards her prodigy, who is already smoothing out her kimono. “Thank you, Uchiha-sama. Sakura is a special girl.”

“A special girl indeed,” Fugaku speaks up. “With a gift of storytelling.”

“One would think her tears were real,” Kagami agrees.

“You both must come to our compound,” Izuna insists. “Celebrate with us tomorrow night, after we’ve finally taken reign of Danzo’s castle.”

The young Maiko floats when she walks, and it’s with a displeased wilt that Shisui realizes that even though she sits beside him, it isn’t him that she sits with, but his youngest cousin. She doesn’t look at him, but Shisui can see the tremble in her fingers as she pours Sasuke’s sake. She acts as if there’s nothing between them, yet presses the side of her thigh into his.

It’s subtle, so fleeting that Shisui could convince himself it was a trick of his imagination. But then she does it again, and he knows.

So even though it isn’t him that she pours her sake for, or him that she charms with coy looks and her sharp tongue, he knows her heart belongs to him. He’ll tell her tomorrow—how much he loves her—after he storms Himura castle and takes the head of the man who killed his father.

He’ll tell her he loves her, and buy her freedom with his spoils. He'll spend the rest of his life traipsing through gardens of her favorite flowers, braiding the hair of the daughters she'll gift him. He'll give her every thing she so desires.

A shame he tells her with his dying breath.

#shisui x sakura #shisaku #shisui uchiha #sakura haruno #angst #naruto fanfiction #writing prompt #geisha sakura #uchiha family #star crossed lovers

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ga-yuu · 3 years

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Ikemen Genjiden~ “Cherry Blossom colored love” Part 2~ Yoichi Route

One day, when the bitter cold had gradually abated and the flower buds were beginning to swell.

Yoichi: “At this rate, it won’t be long before the cherry blossoms bloom.”

Yuno: “Mm cherry blossoms, I’m really looking forward for that.”

Me and Yoichi-san are on a date.

Yoichi: “That’s right. When it gets warmer, its more easy fall asleep. I can use the flowers as an excuse to see you again.”

(ah....)

The smile on is face makes my heart bounce. I really wish this moment could go on forever.

(But this day is almost over.)

When I think about the near future, a dark shadow falls over my heart. Tomorrow, Yoichi-san will be leaving Hiraizumi and going to the battlefield.

(I’m worried, but Yoichi-san is the one who is going to have the hardest time.)

Yuno: “.........”

Yoichi: “Yuno?”

Yuno: “Ah No nothing. I just felt little lonely.”

I tried not to let my anxiety and loneliness show on my face.

Yoichi: “....Thank you for worrying about me.”

(Mm)

It seems like Yoichi-san knew exactly how I felt.

Yuno: “You already knew, didn’t you?”

Yoichi: “Don’t blame me for that.”

Yoichi-san’s hand gently cupped my cheeks.

Yoichi: “I’ll be back, when the cherry blossoms fully bloom.”

When I raised my face, I felt a soft kiss on my lips.

Yoichi: “While you’re waiting, how about you fantasize things you want to do with me and let me know when I get back.”

Yuno: “...Um.”

That gentle promise was enough to fill my heart with warmth.

(It’s amazing how Yoichi-san can make me feel safe with just a few words.)

Yuno: “Thank you, Yoichi-san. I feel a little better now.”

Yoichi: “I’m glad.”

We joined our foreheads together and smiled at each other at a close range.

Yoichi: “And while you are at it, why don’t you share a little more....of your warmth with me?”

Yoichi-san’s eyes shone mischievously----

Yoichi: “Yuno.”

(Ah.)

While I was admiring his eyes, he bites my lips.

(No. We’re in public....!)

While embracing me from the front, he lifted the edge of his lips happily.

Yoichi: “Aww you’re so nervous. How cute.”

Yoichi-san’s hand gently starts to stroke my back.

(Ah....)

A feeling of embarrassment welled up in me, as his stroking hands remined me of our moments in bed.

Yuno: “Yo-Yoichi-san.”

Yoichi: “I know. You’re not used to being touched like this public.”

(You knew....!)

When I tried to pull away, he hugs me tightly.

Yoichi: “But can’t you just let it go today?”

When his sweet voice goes directly into my ears, my heart starts to shake with anticipation.

(Well..... starting tomorrow I won’t be seeing you for a while.)

(I’m embarrassed to say it, but I want to feel Yoichi-san all over me today, too.)

With that in mind, I put my arm around Yoichi-san’s back.

Yoichi:(smiling bashfully) “.....Yuno.”

Yuno: “Yoichi-san....”

Our faces comes closer and our lips meet as if it was a natural thing to happen.

The happiness within me surpasses the feeling of embarrassment---

And I took in the warmth of my beloved’s body in mine with all my being. (PRO TIP: PLSSS don’t do this in public....PLS!!)

After that---(some days later...!)

Yuno: “....Ah.”

Cherry blossoms.

As I go out into the garden to sweep, I see cherry blossom petals falling in front of me.

Yuno: “Looks like the cherry blossoms is fully bloomed.”

Its been more than ten days since Yoichi-san left for war.

(Yoshitsune-sama did say that the war is going to be dragged on.)

---FLASHBACK----

Yoichi: “I’ll be back, when the cherry blossoms fully bloom. While you’re waiting, how about you fantasize things you want to do with me and let me know when I get back.”

---FLASHBACK ENDS---

(Yoichi-san...)

Looking up at the cherry blossom petals, I think about the last meeting with Yoichi-san.

(I don’t give a damn about our promise. I just hope that Yoichi-san is safe, that’s all---)

........

*War zone in the background* (Yoichi POV)

When Yuno was staring at the cherry blossoms, at the same time---

Yoichi: “........”

Yoichi, who stands on the battlefield, was also looking up at the cherry blossom petals. A strong wind blew the ashen petals away from the war torn area---

Yoichi: “......I broke our promise.”

His voice blends in with the strong wind that was blowing.

(I have to apologize to Yuno and comfort her properly.)

(I’m sure I’m worrying you.)

While thinking of Yuno, I exhaled. And at that time---

Soldier: “It’s an enemy attack!”

Yoichi: “....Finally.”

The soldier’s shout brought me back to reality.

Yoichi: “Don’t be pressured okay? Just do what you always do.”

Soldiers: “YES!”

Yoichi: “Hmmm Good....Let’s go.”

While facing his enemy forces, Yoichi readied his bow.

The strength of both the armies were equal. The battle was chaotic---

(If we don’t do something, the war situation will only get worse....)

Just when I was gnashing my teeth over my inability to get things done...I saw some of my men were cornered in the enemy line.

Soldier: “Damn, so far.....”

Yoichi: “Move!”

He quickly draws his arrow and backs up his men, who are about to be killed.

Soldier: “Yoichi-sama, Thank you so much.”

Yoichi: “Don’t mention it.”

After making sure his men were safe, he waved his hand. But immediately after that----

Soldier: “Yoichi-sama! watch out----”

One of the ally soldiers points at Yoichi’s head with a pale expression.

Yoichi: “.....Agh”

A rain of arrows were poured over Yoichi’s head---

.......

*Yuno’s room in Hiraizumi background* (Yuno POV)

Yuno: “----Hm?”

A certain crisp sound startles me. When I looked towards the sound, I noticed that the branch of the cherry blossom tree which was growing outside the mansion was broken.

(Somehow, I have a bad feeling.)

I remembered Yoichi-san standing on the battlefield. The battle raged on and we were told that there was no further communication from Yoichi-san’s unit.

(If I stay inside my room, I’ll keep thinking of dark things.)

When I was about to get up and get some fresh air---

Benkei: “YUNO!”

Benkei came rushing into my room covered in blood.

Yuno: “Benkei, What on earth...?”

I was trying to calm down Benkei, who was looked unsettled.

Benkei: “Yoichi is...”

Yuno: “Eh.”

Benkei: “Yoichi’s unit is back!”

(Yoichi-san!)

The moment I heard Yoichi-san’s name, I rushed out of my room.

.....

*Main entrance of Hiraizumi background*

(Where is Yoichi-san?)

The moment I heard Yoichi-san’s name, I rushed out of my room.

(I’ve never felt this anxious before.)

(Something bad must have happened....)

When I think about it, my heart beats faster due to all the tension.

Yuno: “Yoichi-san.....”

Yoichi: “What’s wrong?”

(Eh!?)

I looked back and saw Yoichi-san, surrounded by his soldiers waving at me.

Yuno: “Yoichi-san! I was worried when I didn’t hear from you.”

Yoichi: “Yeah, that’s right.”

Yoichi-san walks up to me, smiles and opens his mouth.

Yoichi: “Sorry. I did sent a notice about my return. But it seems that it didn’t reach you.”

(If so, I’m glad.....)

I was relieved to see Yoichi-san smiling as always.

Yoichi: “Sorry, I’m late.”

Yuno: “That’s fine.”

(Yoichi-san returned to me safely. That’s all that matters.)

I looked into his eyes as I said this.

Yuno: “Welcome back.”

Yoichi: “....Aah, I’m back.”

Those words made me happy more than anything else.

That night---

*Yoichi’s Bedroom Background*

Yoichi: “Hey Yuno----”

Yoichi-san who was quietly listening to me, suddenly calls my name. Then he bowed deeply when we sat face to face with each other.

Yoichi: “I’m sorry to bother you right after I came home but I’ll be out for a bit tomorrow.”

Yuno: “Yo-Yoichi-san! Please raise your head.”

Being surprised when I saw him bowing at me suddenly, I placed my hand on his shoulder.

Yuno: “If you have something to do, I won’t say no.”

Yoichi: “.....Yuno.”

Yoichi-san finally raised his head after hearing my words.

Yuno: “But, can I ask what you’re going to do?”

Yoichi: “Well...”

It’s so rare to see Yoichi-san responding so crisply.

(You’re being strangely formal...What’s wrong?)

No matter what, I quietly waited for his reply.

Yoichi: “......”

Yoichi: “I want to deliver one of my dead soldier’s hair and suicide note to his mother.”

His serious eyes looked straight at me.

Yoichi: “The night before he died, he entrusted me with his letter. He said, if anything happens to him, he wants his mother to know about his whereabouts...”

Yuno: “I see...”

(That person trusts Yoichi-san.)

Otherwise no one would entrust a suicide note to anyone.

Yoichi: “And he said....”

Yoichi-san’s voice was mixed with a feint hint of regret.

Yoichi: “ His mother tends to get sick often when he comes back from war, and he always stays by his mother’s side----and...I want to make his wish come true even though it turned out this way.”

Yuno: “Yoichi-san....”

His desperate voice pierces through my heart.

(Yoichi-san is a person who overcomes everything by his smile.)

That’s why I could feel Yoichi-san’s pain so vividly.

(I don’t want to leave him alone.)

Yuno: “Yoichi-san, may I come with you?”

When I thought about it, the words naturally came out of my mouth.

Yoichi: “....I don’t get it. This is none of your business, right?”

Yuno: “Yes, but...Isn’t she sick? As a pharmacist, maybe I could be of any help? Beside I also want to help Yoichi-san in delivering his subordinate’s wishes.”

Yoichi: “Yuno....”

(Please Yoichi-san)

I stared at Yoichi-san, hoping to convey even a little bit of my feelings.

Yoichi: “........”

After a brief silence....

Yoichi: “Okay, Yuno if you don’t have any other work, will you?”

Yoichi-san asked and at the same time bowed.

Next morning---

We both headed towards north, where the soldier’s house was located.

..........

Yoichi: “...I made his mother cry.”

Yuno: “Yeah.”

After delivering the hair and the suicide note to the soldier’s parents we were on our way back.

Yuno: “She was, but she was also grateful to Yoichi-san.”

Yoichi: “I was just a delivery man.”

While directing the horse, Yoichi-san shrugged lightly.

Yoichi: “If that person is grateful, then its all because of you. You diagnosed her illness and reported to their local pharmacist.”

Yuno: “I wish I could take care of her until the end but the distance from where we live is a problem.”

(Still, I’m happy that I was able to help.)

I looked up at the sky with a refreshing feeling.

Then---

Yuno: “Ah”

A strong wind blew and pink petals came to my sight.

Yoichi: “Cherry blossoms....?”

.......

*Cherry blossom tree in the background*

Yuno: “The cherry blossoms in Hiraizumi have already fallen, but these ones look like they’ve just come into full bloom.”

Yoichi: “This area is the north of Hiraizumi, so the flowering must have been late.”

We tied our horse to a cherry blossom tree and sat side by side at its base. Looking up at the falling petals, Yoichi-san slowly whispers--

Yoichi: “I just want to give you a life of beauty, you know?”

(Eh.....?)

When I was surprised and turned my head towards Yoichi-san, he smiles at me bitterly.

Yoichi: “At least these cherry blossoms in full bloom will makes you smile. ...Or that’s what I thought. It’s arrogant.”

Those words reminded me of Yoichi-san I saw last night.

(maybe.)

Yuno: “Is that why you were so reluctant to talk about the dead soldier?”

Yoichi: “Hmmm, yeah. At least that’s what I thought.”

He exaggeratedly sighed and shook his head.

Yoichi: “----But.”

He turned his gaze towards me and squinted as if he saw something dazzling.

Yoichi: “But I was wrong....Yuno is much stronger than I thought. I was hesitant about something trivial and you volunteered to come along with me. If its not for you being there, I wouldn’t know how to heal that mother’s broken heart.”

(Ah.....)

Then a soft light dwells in Yoichi-san’s eyes---

Yuno: “I was able to get close that mother’s heart is because of you.”

I too want to convey my heart to you.

Yuno: “Also I came all this way because I want to be close to your heart.”

Yoichi: “My heart?”

I gently touch Yoichi-san’s hand as he looks at me curiously.

Yuno: “You’re a grown-up, who always accepts the bitter reality while smiling.”

Yoichi: “That’s....”

Yoichi-san tries to look away. Then I squeezed his hand that was about to leave.

Yuno: “I love Yoichi-san who is kind and matured but I also love him just as much when he’s not.”

(Because I want to be with you no matter what....)

Yuno: “I may not be able to help you much, but I want you to include me in the bitter reality of your life.”

Yoichi: “Yuno... Thank you.”

With a small whisper, he holds my hand back. Then we silently stared at the cherry blossom tree in front of us.

Yoichi: “Do you remember the promise we made before the war?”

(Promise.....)

Yuno: “You mean my fantasies of what to do with Yoichi-san when he comes back?”

Yoichi: “That’s right. Tell me what were you thinking.”

Yuno: “hmm...”

I can sense Yoichi-san’s happy gaze on me.

Yuno: “I did have so much in mind. But when you came back, it all went away.”

Yoichi: “Are you sure? You can be greedy.”

While laughing happily, Yoichi-san gently touches my cheek.

(.....ah)

Yoichi: “But I’ve always wanted to kiss you.”

Like that Yoichi-san’s face slowly approaches---

Premium End // Epilogue

#ikemen series #ikemen genjiden #ikemen genjiden yoichi #ikemen series story event #ikemen series spoilers

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elizabethemerald · 4 years

Text

Family Janus and Dame Lake

@im-the-king-of-the-ocean and anon. Your requests for Barbmura have been combined. Body guard AU and historical AU. I hope you enjoy!!

I noticed that you were taking Barbmura prompts, so how about some sort of historical AU?

if you're game for barbmura prompts, how about them in some kind of royalty/bodyguard au (I've been on a kick for those lately)? I'll happily pass the torch on to you too :D I don't want to be done with the barbmura ship forever, but I just need to do something different for a while

The year is 1926. Prohibition is in full effect. In attempt to curb national debauchery the consumption, sale and importing of alcohol has been banned. But the common people still want to enjoy their vices. So the crime families have risen to power, by supplying alcohol. Some of the families are new, some are old, and some...are very old.

Doctor Barbara Lake walks home from a long day of working to help the sick and the poor. Her work is exhausting, but satisfying. There are few things in the world, other than her son, that she loves more than helping those in need. Its why she became a doctor. And it’s why when she finds a man outside her house, grievously injured she calls her son out to help her drag him into the house.

His wounds are severe, and she can tell at a glance that they are related to the city’s criminal underbelly. He has multiple gunshots and a stab wound. Even though she knows he must be with the mafia, she still fulfills her oath and cares for him.

Her son, Jim, helps her stitch the man’s injuries, carefully angling the light so she can see what she’s doing. When there is a knock at the door she leaves him to watch over the man. At the door are more men from the mafia. A rival family. She bars them entrance to their home and when they try to force their way past her, she rebuffs them with her uncle’s rifle. She will not have her hard work on healing this man undone.

It is shortly after they depart that there is another knock at her door. This time she grabs the rifle first. It’s only the tired, pained voice of the man on her table that stops her. He recognizes the voices at the door.

Barbara opens the door to find a short and stout man with a heavy accent. And a tall woman, with black hair cut into a bob, she’s Japanese if Barbara would guess. Together the two of them help the injured man into their car. As they leave she hears one of them address the hawk nosed man, with gray hair coming in at his temples as Don, and she realizes how serious this is.

The next day an attempt is made on Barbara’s life. The same mobsters who had tried to force their way into her home the previous night return. They aim to finish their attempt on the Don’s life, and if they can’t find him, kill anyone who helped him. The rifle is too long to bring up quick and is knocked out of her hands.

Her life is saved by the timely arrival of the lady who helped her patient to the car. She comes bearing a generous donation to the clinic Barbara works in. A sign of gratitude from the Don for saving his live. Of course like any good member of the Family she’s always armed. Her Thompson makes quick work of the two assailants. Barbara is horrified by the two men killed at her door, but the raven haired woman pulls her away, makes a call to her cleaner, and then volunteers for the doctor’s protection detail.

Barbara is happy that by the time Jim is home from school there is no trace of the blood shed. She is less happy about the two mafios now hanging around her house.

“My name is Ms. Nomura.” The woman who had saved her introduces herself. “We’ll be here to protect you no matter what.”

“My name is Mr. Nuñez, but you can call NotE.” Her companion says. He looks young, like he could almost be younger than Jim, but he drinks and smokes and swears like a sailor already.

“Mr. Naughty?” Barbara asks, trying to wrap her head around what’s happening.

“Sure. Until Gunmar’s goons decide to leave well enough alone, we’ll be here to keep you and ya boy safe.” He says.

Barbara tries to argue, but Ms. Nomura explains.

“The Janus Family takes things like this very seriously. You saved the Don’s life. Now the family owes you a debt. We’re here to ensure that debt is paid.”

“Fine.” Barbara huffs. “But don’t think that you are going to keep me cooped up in here. There are people at my clinic that need help. And I didn’t become a doctor to become embroiled in a mafia war!”

Barbara is slowly getting used to her new daily normal. Ms. Nomura shadows her to work then stays nearby keeping an eye out. Then they return to her home together. She still doesn’t like her son and his friend Toby spending so much time around NotE, nor does she like Otto, the Family’s “fixer.” But she finds Ms. Nomura’s company to be pleasant enough.

Despite her ties to the Janus Family, Ms. Nomura is an avid art enthusiast. She seems to know every bit of history about every piece in the local art museum. Barbara strongly considers showing the other woman her own paintings.

Before she gets a chance to do so, the Darklands Family makes its second attempt. Barbara and Nomura are walking home from the clinic when a car pulls up besides them. Nomura pulls Barbara behind her drawing her Tommy from her jacket. After a short hail of bullets, returned by Nomura, the car speeds away.

Nomura drags Barbara off the streets, not pausing until they are safe in her home. Jim jumps up from the book he’s reading to help them inside. Barbara has a small graze on her arm and Nomura one on her leg. Nomura also had a much series wound in her abdomen.

NotE calls for back up while Jim and Barbara see to Nomura’s injuries. It’s not long before Otto Scaarbach and Gladys Groe arrive with a small troop. Walter Strickler, Don of the Janus Family comes with them. His fury is something to see. Not only was someone under the Family’s protection injured, but a member of the Family itself is laying on the kitchen table her blood soaking into the hardwood. The only person angrier than Walter is Jim, seeing his mom hurt boils the boy’s blood.

The Janus Family prepares to hit the mattresses. This is a call for war. The Family cannot rest until revenge is had, blood for blood.

Barbara can’t pay attention to them. All she has eyes for is her patient. She knew she would be dead if it weren’t for the woman in front of her. Her blue eyes shine in the light as Barbara stitches her up.

“So what do you think?” Barbara asks.

“It’s beautiful.” Ms. Nomura’s green eyes are wide as she takes in the painting. “Ms. Lake, you have quite the eye for colors!”

The painting isn’t her best work, but it fills her heart with joy to hear Nomura likes it. It captures a scene she has seen only in a book, the cherry blossoms of Japan. From the look on the other woman’s face, Barbara can tell this is the exact taste of home that she needs.

Ms. Nomura turns away for a moment, wincing as she twists her stomach. She’s healing quickly, but she still has some small twinges of pain, now weeks after her injury. She pulls a small package out from her bag.

“Ms. Lake, I got something for you as well.” She handed over the package. “In thanks for your caring touch.”

Barbara opens the package and gasps. The small urn, brilliantly painted, perfectly matches her eyes. She reaches out and intwines her fingers with the other woman’s.

“Ms. Nomura… I-”

“Please, Ms. Lake, call me Zelda.”

Barbara giggled a little.

“In that case you need to call me Barbara.”

They look at each other for a moment, each staring deeply into the other’s eyes.

“Ok, Zelda.” Barbara whispers breathily.

“I can’t believe you dragged my son into your fight!” Barbara screams.

“I didn’t drag him anywhe-” Zelda’s sentence is cut off as she ducks a plate that is hurled at her head. “Please Barbara listen to me!”

Barbara ignores her plea in favour grabbing for another plate.

“I’ve done nothing but help your precious family! And in thanks I’ve been shot at! My home’s been invaded. And now my son is kidnapped! He’s been taken by the Darklands! Zelda, how did you expect me to react to this information?”

“Barbara, please!”

“GET OUT!” Barbara screams. “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! And don’t you ever think of coming back!”

Nomura ducks under another plate and bolts for the door. She turns back just in time to see Barbara grab the blue urn, the present she had given her, and pull her arm back to throw it. Nomura quickly steps outside and closes the door. After a few seconds the sound of something shattering within echoes the shattering of Zelda’s heart. She leans against the door for a second, slow tears falling down her face. Inside she can hear Barbara sobbing against the other side of the door.

Zelda straightens and pulls away from the door. She steels her spine there can be only one course of action now.

Walter had called Gunmar’s attack against her personal and had ordered a full out war with the rival family. But he doesn’t know the meaning of the word personal. Zelda snarls as she strides away. She is going to rain an ungodly hell on the Darklands.

The heavy rain fall pours down. The puddles run red with blood. Barbara Lake, doctor and mother of one, does her best to staunch the bleeding. Her tears blend with rain running down her face. The Thompson, its barrel still smoking from the fire fight, lays discarded to the side.

“Please stay with me Zelda!” Barbara cries.

Zelda struggles to stay awake. The world seems to be fuzzy at the edges. All she can see are the blue eyes, filled with tears, looking down on her. The war was over. Gunmar dead. Strickler gone. Jim safe. Maybe it was time for the soldiers to go as well. Zelda always considered herself a soldier.

“Zelda, I can’t lose you! Not again.” Barbara begs. She fumbles with her purse one handed, while she tries to maintain pressure with her other. Nomura assumes she is reaching for bandages, but instead she pulls out a small blue urn she recognizes.

“You fixed it?” She asks softly.

“I never broke it.” Barbara laughs wetly past her crying. “I couldn’t stand to lose it. It means so much to me.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you Zelda!” Barbara does the only thing she can think of, the only thing she’s wanted to do for far too long. She kisses her. Zelda can feel Barbara’s warm lips against her own, and the rain falling down around her as the world fades to black.

Barbara stands alone next to the simple stone wall. In the yard before her, head stones stretch out as far as she can see. The graveyard always fills her with a sense of wistful sadness. Maybe she will create a painting. Try to capture the feeling inside her. She breaths deeply, trying to commit every detail to memory, so she can recreate them later.

“What’s taking so long back there?”

Barbara turns at the voice and smiles.

“I just had an idea for a painting and needed time to visualize it in my head.”

She hurries forward and catches up with her companion who waits for her at the corner.

“Ms. Lake, we are out for a lovely stroll and here you are admiring graveyards!”

“Zelda, how many times do I have to remind you to call me Barbara?”

“A few more times won’t hurt.” Zelda smiles and leans in for a kiss. “I don’t have many opportunities left. Soon I will have to call you Mrs. Nomura!”

“It’s Lake-Nomura. I’m going to use both of our names.”

“That works for me.”

Barbara grabs Zelda’s face and kisses her deeply. “Here’s to us, forever.”

In time their strolls brings them back to the small house they own. Their kissing continues on the couch. On the wall is a painting of cherry blossoms and on the table under neath it, a bright blue urn.

#zelda nomura #Barbara Lake #barbmura #mafia au #jim lake junior #walter strickler #Trollhunters #tales of arcadia #Listen I am but a simple gay #I love two women #and the way they love each other #I hope you enjoy!

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rlkalahari17 · 4 years

Text

Spring

Psycho Pass Fanfiction

Pairing : Kougami Shinya/ Tsunemori Akane

Rating : T

The narrative took place in post canon world of Psycho Pass, while the story took place in post canon plot of Psycho Pass First Inspector, please enjoy if you have time to read.

Chapter 1: Stay

Spring, as far as I could remember, the season itself became an important time for my mother; every single of her story begins on the fateful rainy day she met him, my father. Times pasts along with a row of mountainous challenges, she told me, every time by his side, she had never known fear, she only knows the perfect place to restore her puzzles, and his scent was a perfect balance and her calming treatment.

But it was also Spring, when my mother told me, that it was the time his letter reached her, and he was gone, she’s sure she’ll never see or nuzzle in his aroma again as her cases continues on and on like an endless walk of race. The Long Walk, at that she understands why that book became his favorite, no his life. She walked on the same path, before she knew it, and many people saw her eyes full of nothing but determination, something that my uncle noticed there was another mix there. But she knew her feelings very well, than others, she isn’t mourning, instead she’s becoming what her admired man always told, a strong and mesmerizing detective.

Then another Spring came, as she fled to an unknown part of the world, her words were shaky as she draws the story with her narration, the outside world is in pain, and she couldn’t bear to watch, telling me she’s a monster who’s not frustrated at the limb of a killed mother in her windows with her dying child in her hands. And those who barely eats, and corpses at the side of the street like it was common trashes which spreads everywhere, she couldn’t make out any faces of happiness, like she always curved every time her meals served in her favorite café. I gave my mouth to tell her, but then she started earlier, as she said that her admired man had never said she was a monster, instead she always has a determination to help, but it wasn’t mean as a hero, she did it in her own way, and that man was also attracted to that. He’s convinced even more, when more double strikes on him, as well as her courage to go against everything that doesn’t go according to the law, and she believed in it, it’s not idealistic, but it’s a faith.

Endless of Spring Rain, and her knees fell to the ground, she didn’t feel anything at all, at that time she had come to an understanding, she didn’t regret what she had done, and her hands holding to her chest, as she filled every inch of her heart, stronger than any feels she had ever experienced in her whole life. At that time, she finally found something, precious even more than her life, as she believes she could save so many people, she could save her friends, she could save her family, and she could save him. What she found was a track of the true society’s crime, and it lies beneath the ground, a place which become a giant cerebral network, and which the one itself that the society relies the law on, the System. And on that same beautiful day, she was untitled, as if she was just another folder of files long forgotten but kept in secret inside of a bunker, to shut itself, before being read by others, bars which kept her inside and far, but close on each of their eyes. She told me, only one thing that they didn’t know, that he believes in her, as he ran outside, in exchange of her place to resolve everything, until one day she could be proud sentencing it one day on her own feet.

When Sakura fell alone in another year of blooming Spring, she didn’t know what had urged her to take her steps quicker than usual, she wasn’t running, but it’s like a tap rhythm, quick enough, as if it was a gravitational pull, it’s not like she’s very relieved she was dismissed from her prison, instead she thought of facing them, but her sincerity to serve the law to people, and demonstrates justice is still strong. The doors felt like opening in a very slow pace, as if her birthday present wrapped in ribbon, at that time she had just remembered that was her birthday, she became grey as she thought it’ll be a lonely party, until she took a step outside, and gaze her head up, that was another feeling she had never expected to ever come in her life, telling me that she could cry any moment that day, but standing there, with his whole frame, his close presence, and she believed in her words once more when she had her last time call, he’s a very ordinary person, and all ever she could think when she saw him again. It is pulling her, but all she ever wanted to express whenever she saw him near, it was, “Welcome Home”.

That day was indeed April 1st and still having to confirm it, she thought he was a holo, as if he was a Fool’s Prank. He chuckled, and she was really annoyed with that, telling me, he’s the worst person to ever read her like a book. Never been telling me, but they did visit a nice small shop, at the boundaries of the city, she remembers her favorite aroma, telling me that she still orders or visits there often, a cheap restaurant, with varieties of Beef Meals, they weren’t fancy like any other restaurants, but the man did think the best place to serve her bored prison tongue. Telling her favorite toppings of each stray of the noodle, the warm and spicy miso had a nice curry taste on it, the best ramen she had ever devoured, telling me taking three bowls until it made the man felt broke. I gave her my laughter, she smiled, as she recalled his appetite was gone so he could only order one snap of big beef burger and request on eggs topping because he had his salary just yet that month.

Her gaze falling outside as she sipped her blend of fresh tropical, it’s like she follows the falling spring cherry blossoms. She sat at the table, as he organized the bill, paying on every single of their bites with his dimes. She said his words slipped when he suddenly put a paper on their table, those were another case’s files which were analyzed by the SAD at that time, even he told her in a cold tone as he sipped his own coke with an expressionless gaze, but his relaxed sharp features told her that he’s taking his time and having no worries on anything. Letting her know that these cases might be useful for her to warm up her detective instincts, of course she wouldn’t decline, and it’s her job. All the past cases, the Bifrost, Foxes, and Congressmen, it was all written there, she had known and take it easy to play the latter’s game. He laughed at all the unbelievable guesses she quickly gave, they didn’t really point directly to the culprits, just the greatest motives of each cases. It was all flowing easily, until she fell on the last piece of paper.

It’s written just today, the first fall of cherry blossoms in spring, it’s a free form of Enforcer’s living pavement, and she almost forgot to write down her confirmations once she received the file in her computer and printed it in her correction cell. Telling me that auntie is going to nag like rapping music in her head, and it did happen, but it was because of a different thing. The reason is when a slipping of a special instruction given to her, when the latter slipped it to her, another piece of important paper. To be honest, she’s actually confused why did she had to write it on paper, while she could just sent it digitally, then that other paper became the answer.

It has a nice aroma of mint and cherry blossom, a cold spring she thought, by the mixing scent she opened the enveloped message, reading to her heart’s content once she hold it with her two palms. Her eyes were enough of all the explanation, that’s what my mom told me, she’s still holding it, she didn’t know how it felt, but indeed it was an injustice. She get all of these rights, ordered to be free, and live all her life she wanted, when other people didn’t, when the man in front of her didn’t. His gaze was darken of course, she wasn’t the only one who’s furious, but it wasn’t about his psycho pass or anything about his hidden statutory, but she was pressured by these people, that he had yet known for sure.

She held her hands down on her thighs; they played her at best, gripping her brown trousers, as if clawing it suppressing her anger. His gaze at her was enough to make my mother noticed, then she held her head high up, and sentenced these words to him, “I didn’t need special arrangement of rights, trying to swept me away in an easy going life, I’m just going to live a life of a responsible had always been, believe in the law.” After that, she told me, when she looked at him, his gaze was sharp, telling me as if she was trapped there, telling me his eyes are steady blue, sky is the reflection of his, and she had the feeling of uneasiness, but she didn’t want to escape, instead she wanted to face him in a way closer. Then he cracked his voice open, made her jump a little from the silent moment between them.

“Be proud of every choice you make, your path has always been right,” she told me, that was his warmest or the correct adjective is the most sincere curve on his face she had ever took attention to, it only curled up another inside of her, she eventually replied his with hers, or even her best one after so long. Those letter words were not farewell, but another welcome, and she will be very glad and obliged if he allowed her to say those words that day.

“Then take a look at this before I prepared the car, wait here, I’ll pick you up,” He stood as he went away taking steps further to the parking lot, she told me that the view really dirtied her mind a lot ever since she got to finally had time focusing in his build for every millisecond of time, I told her not to tell any further than that. But then one thing she ever liked from his features were his eyes, they were most honest and easily to be read, and he had yet to realize that. Because she read them, as he walked away as well, something about him was being unsteady or alerted, something obviously annoyed him at the time. Knowing this my mom told me that she opened the file he gave to her and opened each pages of it, as she rested her chin on her palms. Confused and thinking if this’ll be a great mission she’ll face in the future as an enforcer, but with this collaboration.

She was surprised by the sound of a wheel screeching on the street, the black metallic plates reflected the sun lights, giving her a blind spot, as he opened a door for her, and she stood, walking pasts some dinner tables and accepting his help to take her seat in the car. He closed the door, telling me if he’s surprisingly a gentleman that day, but she shrugs it off as if it was a normal routine he had done, it’s his nature, when I obviously doubted it, it was a very sincere feeling instead. The road was a difficult silent, as she took a long time to think, she had scanned the whole documents as if getting big pieces, which leads to a very dangerous end of destination. Anything about it was enough, but she knows for sure, it was the chasing down of Peacebreaker, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs SAD was proposing a collaboration of Investigation Works with Ministry of Welfare and Health PSB, and hardly to believe the one who approves the proposal in the name of PSB was Homura Shizuka, the person who she had known to work with once she was in prison, a dangerous man she had talk to once, and she didn’t want to tell anything to the latter who sat on his driving seat at the time.

“This is going to be my first long case once becoming an enforcer.” She throws it as a joke, even though the latter didn’t glance at all, as he stiffens his shoulders at the time, she described that, his fingers kind of wrinkled on the steering wheel, this made him itching, and she knew what was that, as she gazes back to the city and the concrete streets, and keeping her curving amused smile on her face.

“You can smoke, it’s okay, I’d love to scent it after a long time,” He couldn’t help but gave a defeated sigh, as a pull of his side lips went up, as he stroked his jacket’s pouch and he grabbed his favorite brand, as well my mom’s taking a happy scent to, the Spinel gave a warm nostalgic feeling, she relaxed on her seat, another part of him that finally came in complete whenever he’s close to her.

“You took a breath on it a lot, just trying not to give you any further damage of health,” being considerate had always been the latter’s character, she’s obviously embarrassed at the thought he had known her bad habits, but she kept a defeated face, because just like him, she couldn’t help but to grab a stick out of it. She mutters her gratitude, enough to make him not to worry, it was burnt for a long time, and both of them didn’t mutter any single words, as anything of the silence was enough of a comfort to save how lost they were. She’s enjoying each second, but it wasn’t wasted, it’s a gift, memorizing each of what they do that day, but another itching curiousity crept her in as she still stared down at the piled up important future matters paper on her lap.

“Have you thought another troublesome problem than that?” his questions cracked the silence, her gaze stared at him blankly, winking of one and two, as if a questioned look and confusion, but she did feel that she had just forgotten something, she told me that she squealed almost giving a hilarious little jump of the man once she remembered her forgotten task, the new living quarter’s location and personal home territorial data. She then started to look around for the paper everywhere, but then she was a little panicked in her voice and still keeping her straight serious gaze, then she made lots of noises and muttering “Where is it?”, when she finally said those words, he suddenly gave her the paper in front of her face, he put down his hands as he switched the wheel into auto-drive, at that time she had just skipped a heartbeat and telling me the worst she had ever felt in her whole life.

“Have you decided where to stay?” That was what he asked, a question she’ll never forgotten in her whole entire life until now. She then gave herself a gaze back down, as if she tried to imagine the dorms of enforcer there, and starts to think she would like to stay in the latter’s former quarter, and having a nice memory of their early days there.

“I don’t know but I think I’m going to stay at yo—“

“Stay in my flat, I have spare of futon and blankets,” it was a silent or a shocking one, none of them were barely moving or even breathing any words. It was all kept inside, and my mom could only look at him in all confusion, frustration, questions but most of all uneasiness. And she couldn’t help but opened her words.

“How am I doing that?” he’s giving a hard look when he gazes down, and his gaze is low but still sharp, realizing she chose the wrong choice of words, as if questioning his boundaries on her, she never meant that, hoping he didn’t get it wrong, she’s just very confused, until he broke and intrude her thoughts.

“Didn’t you read? It was written there, in this corporation, any enforcers could be supervises and ordered by both Investigation Department of each Ministries, cooperating hand in hand to keep each other from any equivalent of fatal dangers, enforcers may work or stayed on different ministries for more effective accesses in future investigations, some enforcers might be moved or kept in some positions of each ministries according to what had the superiors and supervisors of ministries’ decisions, this regulation system was applied as long as the case of Peacebreaker’s Remnants are investigated.”

My mom stared at him, her face is still straight but her brown orbs were glimmering and shaky, her face is still straight and unwavering, but these words were enough to shock her, as she knew the boundaries of enforcers very well, it was like the feeling when suddenly you received an expand of rights, even though the society had cast you out. But of course those reasons were only to distract her, when the right stung in her heart was his undirected words at her. And yet she had the urge of wanting to hear it more from him.

“I’m your superior, and I ask you to stay with me, you know now, I’m the one who’s equal to an inspector status here.” He gazed at her, another sincere smile on his face, she didn’t tell me about her reaction, but I believe it was a complicated mixture of expressions she made, but one thing for sure, I can see that she couldn’t help but to smile every content of her heart and returning it.

And that day, in the most unbelievable Spring and Birthday in her whole life, my mother finally reunites and since then she continues their unfinished chapter together, and she was even more happy to finally utter these words in her chest, “You’ll never walk alone,” to my father.

A/N : It’s my first time writing, and I hope I got lots of advice from fellow readers, thank you so much for reading this in your spare time, I’m so excited :), and I’m working on the last chapter of this fic, so there are 6 chapters that will be updated soon, thank you for reading this in your spare time!

#shinkane #kougami shinya #akane tsunemori #kouaka #psycho pass #fanfiction #akane x kougami #psycho pass 3 #pairing #otp #my otp for life

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flatlineforest · 4 years

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Sakura - chapter 1. [Shimadacest ABO]

This was one of the first fics I wrote for the ship. It started off as a one shot and grew in chapters as a result of requests.

Warnings: A/B/O, Omega Hanzo, Alpha Genji, heat fic, manipulation, mildly dubious consent, sibling incest. In later chapters: Father/ child incest, threesome, somnophilia ish.

Wordcount, chapter 1 - 1,659

Read all chapters on AO3 here. Originally posted on: 12/05/2017.

Genji wakes up unusually early one summer morning to the overwhelming scent of sakura blossoms. It is a curious smell, sweet and floral but undeniably strong. It seems to permeate the air of his bedroom, and perhaps even is seeping through the walls. It doesn’t make a lick of sense; the blossoms only occur in the spring and even if there was a particularly late tree it shouldn’t smell so strongly all this distance from the courtyard.

He sniffs at it lazily, normally reluctant to get out of bed early after being out all night but today he is willing to make an exception in order to feed his curiosity. The smell pulls a sense of urgency from him - he isn’t quite sure why but he is certain that finding the source can’t wait. He pulls on a pair of sweatpants and pads out of his bedroom to begin his hunt.

The smell is so strong, it seems to even draw the attention of the beta housemaids who flit about the private quarters of the Shimada estate. They murmur about it and sniff as discreetly as they can but they do not currently hold his interest.

As he approaches the eastern wing of the quarters, the scent takes on a new spiciness - a punch to it that runs down from his nose to his dick as he prowls the halls. He follows that spiciness as his dick chubs up, and wonders if perhaps one of the servants had gone into heat while they were cleaning. It seemed like a logical explanation - and perhaps Genji could be so kind as to offer his services should he come across some hapless omega in need.

…

The last thing Genji expects is to find the epicenter of that scent at the entrance of his big brother’s room.

It didn’t make any sense. He had registered the scent as omega heat scent but it wasn’t supposed to be coming from his brother’s room. His older brother wasn’t an omega - he hadn’t even presented but Shimada men had presented as alphas for as far back as ten generations!

Maybe Hanzo had come across an omega in heat and brought her back to his room? Maybe he was going to help her - or! Or keep her all to himself since his brother did have a thing for cherry blossoms. Genji bared his teeth at the thought- his instincts offended at the thought of his brother keeping such an amazing smelling omega away from him.

He burst open the door, growling loudly as he looked around for the omega within his brother’s bedroom.

Laying in the center of the bed, writhing with widespread legs covered in slick was none other than Hanzo himself. The man seemed to be mostly out of it, one hand fisted in the sheets while the other was shoving two fingers into his cute, pink, virgin hole.

Genji’s mouth was watering. He couldn’t tear his eyes from where Hanzo was desperately fingering himself, as his dick fully chubbed up in his pants. “Anija,” he breathes out, his body on autopilot as he approaches the bed. He is kneeling down on it soon, bringing him so tantalizingly close to Hanzo’s gorgeous, sweet smelling hole. He notes how his brother’s legs are completely covered in that tantalizing slick.

He can’t help it - he starts lapping at the slick on Hanzo’s thighs, eyes on that hole as Hanzo thrusts his fingers in faster - seemingly frantic as this heat eats at him. Hanzo’s slick tastes like ambrosia, and he cannot stop. He cleans the slick from Hanzo’s thighs completely, making his way closer to Hanzo’s ass with each passing lick. Soon, he’s panting and drooling, kneeling between Hanzo’s thighs as his breath hits Hanzo’s sensitive, delicate hole.

“Genji,” Hanzo rasps out above him - and Genji’s cock jerks. He sounds as if he’s moaned himself hoarse and Genji wonders when exactly did his brother’s heat start? And what as his brother going to say- ask him to stop? Genji couldn’t even think of stopping - of not being able to taste that wonderful slick directly from the source, or not being able to give his brother the sweet relief he needs.

“Genji, please,” Hanzo whines and god, if it weren’t for all the pheromones in Genji’s system telling him he has to breed his brother, he probably would have came in his pants. He reaches out, pulling on Hanzo’s hand and assisting the other in easing out his slick covered fingers.

“I’ve got you, anija,” Genji breathed out, and pressed forward those last couple of inches and pressed an open mouthed kiss against Hanzo’s asshole. He moans at the taste, fresh slick infinitely better than the older liquid coating Hanzo’s thighs. He seems to dive into Hanzo’s ass, his mind short-circuiting as he tastes his older brother properly.

Hanzo’s hand is in his hair, pulling on the green locks as he is overwhelmed with the sudden pleasure. His heat had obviously been eating at him for hours - and there had been no chance for relief until his wonderful, amazing, baby brother had come finally come over to assist him. He could only think linearly - didn’t even think of any of the moral or physical consequences of eaten out by his baby brother and instead focused on the feeling of one of Genji’s long, pianist fingers pressing into him. He cried out and tightened his grip, thighs clamping around his brother’s head.

“Shh, anija, I am going to take care of you,” Genji sighed. He peaked up at Hanzo, the other barely catching a glimpse of his dilated eyes before the other was diving head first once more and doubling his efforts.

----

Genji could have spent hours eating his older brother out. The sweet and spicy taste of Hanzo’s slick was nothing less than addictive and Genji wished he could bottle it to drink later. However, Hanzo’s heat was getting unbearable and he demanded that Genji do something about it.

As if Genji wouldn’t willingly stick his dick in that warm, wet place he had been eating out for no less than twenty minutes. He doesn’t even bother to push his sweatpants all the way off, tucking the waistband behind his balls and taking his dick in hand. He rubs his dick across Hanzo’s hole and along his crack, lubing his cock in a combination of his own spit and Hanzo’s slick. He pressed the head right against his twitching hole, looking down at Hanzo’s blissed out face and his cute, omegan cock. “I’m gonna breed you up, Hanzo,” he breathed out. “I’m gonna knot you and give you lots of cream for your needy little hole. Aren’t you excited, anija?”

Hanzo moaned beneath him, hands reaching up to grasp Genji’s shoulders and pull him down face level. “Genji, I have been in heat at least four hours...If you do not fuck me, I might just have to kill you.” The statement is supposed to sound like a threat, but it really only draws a quiet ‘awwh’ from Genji.

He did take pity on his older brother, pressing his hips forward steadily and slowly until the tip of his cock popped in. He let out a moan of his own, feeling his brother’s hole clench tight and wet around his just the tip of his dick. “God, look at you. A perfect little omega whore already,” Genji groaned. He wasn’t able to hold back, starting to fuck the rest of his cock forward into that welcoming hole.

Normally, when he had an omega beneath him, he really went all out to be good to them but god, just this once he wanted to be selfish. His hips humped forward, fucking in and out just a couple of inches.

“Gonna breed you up, anija,” he grunted, leaning over Hanzo to sniff at his scent glands as he fucked. “Nobody can touch you, you’ll be all mine to have all of our little Shimada pups,” he added, licking at those sensitive scent glands and relishing in the wash of pheromones through him. He wasn’t brave - or rude - enough to bite down on them without Hanzo’s true consent but fuck, if it wasn’t tempting.

Hanzo’s cheeks were bright red - the way Genji had only ever seen when Hanzo was half a bottle of sake deep- as his cock jerked between them, covering them in a few, thin ropes of cum.

“Good boy,” Genji breathed out. He gathered Hanzo’s cum on his fingers and popped one into his mouth. He fucked his hips forward at the taste, the head of his dick pressing in as deep as he could manage as his own orgasm washed over him. His knot swelled rapidly, locking him inside of that wonderful hole.

“You feel that Hanzo? You better keep my cum in you even after the knot goes down. You want it don’t you? You want to have my pups, right, anija?” Genji asked, all the more excited as his cum started to paint Hanzo’s insides. If he had a tail, it would be wagging furiously with his excitement.

Hanzo looked up at him, mouth ajar as he panted. He seemed content - a cat who got the cream as Genji’s knot left him warm and full.

Genji had never seen him so happy.

---

It was not until later in the day that Lord Shimada returned to the estate. He was met at the front gate by an advisor.

“Sir, your eldest son presented as an omega. He is in heat,” the man reported, eyes downcast as he waited for the Lord’s reaction.

“Ah...Does he have any company to assist him through this? I’d hate for my son to have to suffer through this alone…”

“About that, sir...Genji has been in his room all day. He will not let anyone enter.”

#shimadacest #old fic #a/b/o #dubious consent #forest writes

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shadowedgamer · 5 years

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I can see you. Now, what did YOU see? @brokenbymymaster

The piercing wail of the bell blasted all throughout the halls of the school building, loudly announcing in an unbearable high-pitch that final period had come to a conclusion at long last. All around, ordinary school children shuffled and packed up their bags to head home for the day. A lone boy watched on and waited; he wasn’t like anybody else in his classroom, this school, or this entire city, most likely. More than he saw the faces of the people around him, how they looked or what they wore, the boy could hear their hearts.

There’s more to people than their face, for there is only so much the external features can portray. The face can hide; people can cover up. The heart, however, tells no lies.

Public places like these were so noisy. Hearts would whisper in a jumbled mixture of words and phrases all around him, a thousand voices all at once some would claim were only in his head — but if so, why were they were so vivid and loud and why wouldn’t they just shut up already?

His mother had worked very hard to receive specific permission from the principal for him to have a music player and a pair of headphones during class, so to play background music and distract away from the rowdy ambience. He’d learned to read lips so that it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Of course, Ms. Chono highly disapproved and was always singling him out, harassing him under the pretense of ❛ensuring that he was paying attention.❜ A stickler for the rules and a control freak, she was none too pleased to have to accommodate his faculty approved ❛condition.❜

He has always hated this teacher, Ms. Chono. The majority of the male student body were absolutely enamored with her, but as for him, he simply couldn’t concede. In his eyes, she was ugly as a troll. For to his ears, her heart was ugly, filled with hatred, pride, and vanity. He could not wait to get away from this place and its loathsome proximity.

Heaving a sigh, the petite teen boy dove down beside his desk to collect his bag up from off the tiled ground. He slipped the straps over his shoulders and began making his way towards the door, now that the way had been mostly cleared. Despite the afternoon hour, the halls were sunny and bright. It was a lovely spring day, and the cherry blossom trees that scattered the school grounds were in full bloom. It might be nice to wander around aimlessly for a little while, as he was stuck here waiting on his mother to come pick him up.

He had turned up the volume on his music to drown out the background noise, admiring the pink petals through the windows as he walked through the halls absent-mindedly. He’d been completely caught off guard when he bumped face-first into someone, snapping his eyes away from the exterior view of the building and forward, towards a fellow student that was now looking towards him.

❝M’sorry,❞ He said fleetingly, rounding around the other and moving to proceed down the hall. There was a muffled sound that might’ve been the other boy responding, but he couldn’t decipher it through the blaring of his music in his ears. No matter. One ❛watch where you’re going, underclassman punk,❜ wasn’t that big of a deal to miss out on. He’d heard it a thousand times before.

He reached for the handle to the exit doors when a hand grabbed his arm and halted him, hard. Yami glanced over his shoulder and discovered himself to be surrounded by a small group of four including the student he’d stumbled into earlier, except they weren’t some crowd of miffed upperclassmen. They were boys from his class, he realized belatedly.

❝HEY DOWN THERE. Where are you going, Yuugi? I asked you a question, now answer it, ❞ The boy barked so loudly, Yami could almost hear him through his headphones. Yami watched the other’s lips, deciphering his words, then gently wiggled his arm and tried to wrestle it free from the other’s grasp. The other boy only grabbed tighter the more he struggled, though, and Yami’s stomach was starting to feel sick.

The stomachache... it was kicking in, just like it always did.

There were some dark chuckles as one of the four boys threw a remark, but Yami didn’t catch it, he hadn’t been fast enough to look to his lips. He was being forcefully turned now, and before Yami knew what hit him, his classmate and captor had walked forward and kicked him in his gut.

Yami doubled forwards, choking a breath as the student moved his hand to grab a fistful of Yami’s jacket. He used it as leverage to pull Yami along, dragging him out through the doors and back towards the now emptied courtyard. The place was empty as the buses had come and left, and the students with them; and teachers were tucked away in their offices bent over ungraded test papers by now with pen in hand. Yami felt it just as strongly as he knew it to be true, that he was in trouble, and these guys meant trouble.

❝Let me go,❞ Yami practically hisses, wriggling in the student’s grasp, when he’s thrown face-forward into a brick wall. His face collides with a slap and his headphones are knocked askew, while his cheek, brow, and chin get all scuffed up against the rough surface. He blinks back tears of pain-induced agony, clenching his fists feebly against the wall and trying to push off, but the boy has an iron tight grasp on the back of his hair. With his headphones no longer covering his ears, the whispering assaulted his senses with ten times the force and brutality than the other’s hands did.

❛Dumb pretty boy. What do the girls see in this dumb kid? I can’t believe she turned me down because she’s got a crush on THIS bastard... he’s gonna get it now, I’m gonna wreck his face so bad, she’ll never look his way again without up chucking. It’s what he deserves for taking what’s mine.❜

Yami screams out when his face is brutally dragged along the expanse of the brick wall, tearing pale flesh and drawing blood all along the front of his face. Tears slip free from beneath screwed-shut violet eyes. The stomach ache gets worse. Their whispers all around him are getting louder. They’re all getting off on this, sick with the sadistic glee of ganging together and brandishing a helpless person’s face beyond the reach of any adult who might put them to a stop, protest, or punish them. Yami’s stomach is lurching with that ache, and he knows it won’t be much longer now.

❝Get away from me! ❞ He pleas, but they only laugh. They just don’t get it. That time, he was begging for their sake, not his.The hand belonging to his current aggressor that holds him firmly by his fire burst colored hair tightens its grip on him, the cronies sticking it out on the sidelines shouting words of encouragement as he forces Yami down onto his knees.

❝You’re going to get exactly what you deserve. ❞

The crude whisper in his ear was the last straw. His stomach was grumbling in protest now, and he couldn’t hold it back. The whispers were too much, the dark cloud all around him was suffocating and fighting it away was a losing battle. Blood loss had made him dizzy and he blinked once, twice, his violet eyes burning a fiery crimson. His teeth gnashed together like a feral animal’s as he growled, low and guttural, earning a couple chuckles from his aggressors. With a surge of strength he didn’t believe his arms to posses, his arm bolted upward, taking hold of his captor’s wrist and twisting it. The blood-curdling scream in his ear told him he’d either fractured or broken it.

Panic broke out the second the scream did, and the boys were backing away from him now. His backpack fell to the ground as he turned, wiping his lips of blood and glaring at the boys all around him with this churning hatred he couldn’t pinpoint the origin of.

❝RUN. ❞

The three that were still on their feet scrambled away, leaving the leader of their troupe behind them, doubled over in pain and clutching his injured arm in his opposite hand, bemoaning his miseries. Yami looked down at him, and despite his bloodied face, he smiled brightly.

❝ Hey down there. Let’s play a game, why don’t we? I’ve got some time to kill. Have you ever heard of Jenga? Why don’t we play that.. with this brick wall. C’mon, it’ll be fun! ❞

He didn’t give the student much of a choice. He could feel something surging inside him, manipulating his surroundings and making the bricks pliable enough to pull free from the wall. They played, each boy taking a turn pulling a brick from the wall. In the end, the boy ended up completely crushed under the collapsed wall, as he’d plucked the wrong piece, just as he’d picked on the wrong person. Guilty, Yami decreed, not feeling a smidgen of remorse for what he’d done. In the end, it was the other boy that was the one that got exactly what he deserved.

Yami fled the scene of the crime, shoving his hands deep in his pockets and scampering away. Suddenly, his senses picked up on another presence, and he looked up, catching sight of a pair of steely blues watching him through a nearby wire fence. His own, now having returned to their original violet hue, narrowed.

❝ You. ❞ He sprinted forward and pressed up against the wire fence, staring darkly up into the face of the other student. ❝ What did you see? ❞

All at once, the whispers were in his ears again. Fucking hell, Yami thought, he’d forgotten to pull his headphones back up over his ears. Who knew what horrible arrange of atrocities what should be no more than an innocent teenage boy was about to confess... Yami wasn’t in the mood.

But suddenly it was blue. Those eyes, they sucked him in. And then there was weeping. It wasn’t loud or obnoxious like the other whispers were; it was quiet and soft, like it was trying to shrivel away from prying ears and conceal itself, unlike any other heart he’d ever heard before. Hearts don’t hide. Yet this boy’s heart was cowering, shaking with trepidation and crying so breathlessly. Yami had never heard a more melancholy sound. This... was this what heart break sounded like? Yami felt himself staring into those blue eyes, so clear, so precise, positively lost in them.

The words flew free from Yami’s lips unchecked.

❝ Who... who are you?❞

#{ starters }#brokenbymymaster #;;pastverse #tw: assault #tw: payback assault

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01rosette-blog · 5 years

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cursed blood, chapter one

CURSED BLOOD, 1. “A GOLDEN MOON”

Let us say it began like this:

The air was impregnated by the intriguing scent of Mother Earths saltwater tongue, the cold of the midnight embedded not only in the heavens but in the odor that hung in the sky; for Laurent, a thing as familiar as an old friend ( and of those, he possessed many: whom would not have made a couple of hundreds after a thousand years spent on the grounds of earth? ). The moon was hiding from sight in the darkest of the sky and the stars seemed to seek refuge in the length of the petroleum rays the lover ( the array of light in the midst of blackness ) produced so generously. Laurent's skin was pale, and not because he found it a hard thing to kill - it did not make his lips sprout in a smile, nor did it make him draw purple rain tears, because for him Laurent, death was something he knew like the back of his hand - and at the same time, not at all.

The first time he fed off someone of course Laurent - still blooming in boyhood - had felt his ribs bloom with blushing sensation he had not known before: guilt. He felt as though he had crushed one's bone and marrow with the lustful crimson splattering across his cold flesh to create a masterpiece, had stood wordless over the corrupted mess of glowing limbs and cracking bones with the idea he was a soul given to the angel of death and with the sole purpose of breaking everything that came in sight.

But he was a man now, and no more. Greedy, and haughty, He breathed slow, spitting on the moon that cried lavender tears, and his form was painted in a small head like a photograph; lips parted like flowers blossoming and blood red, his beauty melting them in a puddle of envy. The sound of the hopeless last breath of the woman - who was beautiful and a mystic aura of the Nile albeit stick-thin from what he supposed poor nutrition - pierced his ears, his crimson dripping fangs embedded so deep inside of her honey flavored flesh that there was no escape for her - not even if god meant well for her, could she survive.

Laurent had seen the woman before - 'till henceforth out at night and in alleyways amongst men made of vice and filth, her body on a golden platter for the one willing to pay the highest price. As she lay limp the young vampire ( young - a few hundreds of years was quite fresh to men and women his kind ) reckoned she was so delicately shaped Rembrandt himself ( whom Laurent had met few years before ) would want to sink his finest brush in a pot of her beauty and smear it across his canvas, carve a universe of the gentle dip of her cupid's bow and the freckles that were scattered like stars over her cheeks.

And that was when he heard it. To the ears of a mere mortal it was intelligible, a hymn of the night in its simplicity, but Laurent had not been alive in many long years - he was dead, dead like corpses afloat in the River Styx.

THUMP.

The zephyr breathing of the moon swept across his skin, but in no manner could it distract him of what could be heard below - the faint pound of a heartbeat. Juices from overripe pomegranates dripped from his lips when he looked around himself, and when he caught sight of the answer he had been searching like redemption it tasted like venomous strawberries plucked by children's hands - constellations of red on the tip of his tongue, but the blood he had a moment prior reveled on, now tasted bitter and filthy.

THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP!

She, moonlike - like the weather, her face seemed to vary from blushing flower fields to pale moonlight and intoxicating fog. Barefoot, with rose petals in her hair.

A little girl - no older than four, Laurent guessed - stood with her head tilted, rose silk dress adorning her body and the left strap fallen off a dainty shoulder that was colored a blushing coalesce of olive and rose. Laurent's mind bursted into a cacophony of warm peaches and wild cherries. It was guilt, that strange feeling, a foreigner in his land of a constant cold, that overtook him, and immediately, he wondered what business a mere human child so young and ingénue had put on the streets long after the sun had wept for her to hide under her silken bedsheets. He could not help himself: guilt, guilt, guilt. She had seen something that would scar her forever, and it was his fault. And most of all, Laurent feared that she would turn and run as far as her dainty feet would take her, seek for the first individual she was fortunate enough to come across and tell him or her that she had seen with her own eyes how a creature of the night had devoured someone. Would they believe her if she did? Would he have to kill her before she could?

The sight of the girl was soft like honey but at the same time so sharp it cut open his chest and made of his organs a slowly decaying painting of morose. "What's your name, girl?" The little doll rubbed her eyes, her soft wisps of black hair - blue in the moonlight - framing her heart shaped face.

"A-Annette," came a shaky response, her voice lavender fingertips in pulpous grass with honeysuckle nectar, and Laurent shivered, for he knew she was no creature of monstrosity like he had been. He could not hurt her - not even if he wanted to. Not, certainly, when she parted her pink petal lips again and fixated her big constellations of brown on the lifeless residue of an individual, "W-What are you doing?"

"Is there anyone inside? Your mommy? Your daddy, perhaps?" Laurent questioned the child, his words soft and calm though his eyes were screaming of rainstorms beneath skin and broken, haunted marrow. The man knew he had messed up enough - he knew not how he would explain to his brothers, how he had been so amateurishly careless. He could afford no more foolishness - he was no Orlando Furioso one, he had not lost his mind to the moon, and he himself - not nature, not fate, not any of his brothers or sisters - had to solve the havoc he had caused. The little girl shook her head, curls of hair bouncing and one of her little hands opened the door further she peered behind as if to prove she had been telling him the truth. The moonlight had left tears down her cheeks, blotches of olive flesh, in its wake.

"Don't cry, don't cry," and abruptly Laurent considered draining her of the life in her; reminding himself again of how truly foul he was to the very rotten core of him ( so foul he never did mind grime, adrenaline, nicotine, everything filthy in between; no, he liked that, he liked that, he liked that. ) Factual was that he had yet to dispose of the woman's body and possessed no time to consolidate a little child. She was little and innocuous in youthful nature and would not fight back. How could it be any different from thriving off the mortality grown human? He marveled in having them bleed out on the tip of his tongue, so why not chew up and spit out the saccharine crimson of that young one?

"I'm sorry - I'm sorry," the child spoke again, ingénue incarnate with baby fat sewn delicately over her pearl bones and a soft pout that could melt the ice enveloping the most terrifying man. She looked a bit like revolution melted in the palms of his hands and holy, with milky way pale flesh and melancholy on her wild forest of long lashes.

Laurent sighed deeply.

The vampire could not kill her. Not even if he wanted desperately to.

"No, no, it is alright," Laurent attempted his best to comfort her, her whose skin had gone from fields of blushing flowers to pale like melancholy, shimmering under the moonlight, "wait outside for me, yes? I will be back in a moment. Do you understand that?" The tear that ran down her cheek as she nodded meekly was a permanent reminder inked like calligraphy in his cold flesh; he was breathing it in and swore solemnly so to the fiery depths of hell he had risen from that it felt like he was going to leave the earth from the toxicity ( and that was barely possible ).

Yet he knew what was left for him to do.

And so, as the little girl waited obediently by the front door, her thumping heartbeat - steady, restless - prominent like a prayer or psalm in his perched ears, Laurent brought the woman inside of the little girls' home and laid her body carefully in the sofa that stood in what the young vampire surmised to be the living room. He noted that the house reeked entirely of liquor - on par with the filthy scent that was impregnated in the woman's flesh, every crack of the decrepit building smelled of cheap whiskey ( and blasphemy ). Laurent took one last look at the woman, features intricate and lips almost blue, with his dark eyes - those burning eyes that cut effortlessly through ingenuous hearts and rotting veins - and after releasing a sigh from his claret and swollen lips, he slit her throat.

He sighed again when he stepped outside, reeking that the air was saturated with a scent of copper even after the vampire closed the door behind him. He furrowed his brows when he noted that the little girl no longer stood on her dainty feet, that he heard her heartbeat no longer like a melody in his ears. But the world cracked and bloomed as Laurent looked down and found the girl - Annette - sitting not desperate or scared like a pretty daisy clustered to the wall but with her eyes shut, a beautiful sight of lightning hitting the right places and hues of blacks and pinks. She was small and innocent and carved in silk, and Laurent wondered. ( How could she sleep after having seen someone mercilessly taken of life? How was she not weeping, sobbing, wailing, and endlessly frightened of him? How was she more tired than she was traumatized? ) His mind was a catastrophe, his brain gnawed at like a dogs bone. Laurent stared. Laurent frowned.

Laurent was going to regret this.

And the young vampire could sense that the maids watched with a look in their eyes as though they had witnessed such calamity, such scandal, as he made his way through the vast walls ( but when his eyes crossed with theirs, they were rapid to avert their gazes; oh, they were well aware that a look too foul or a word hushed too loud could entice him to devour them with the merest brush of a fingertip ). Laurent knew that their eyes were not particularly drawn to him - though he oozed blasphemy and sin inch by inch, and was so so beautiful, so delicately sinful - but rather to . . . The dainty figure that latched like a virtue to his finger: soft, sweet.

His hands like teeth bit the soft silk of her attire, and the curious individuals watched from every shadow the mansion possessed, their beady eyes trained on the scene unfolding. Misty-eyed maids hidden behind vast walls and whispering in hushed tones - by Gods, he wanted to scold them - tell them in stainless blood-coated letters that tasted like moonlight in the midst of the night that they much better would mind their business and return to work, but instead gripped tighter on the raw rosied skin in his hands, supple and innocent, pliant, and furthered his way toward one of the many study rooms the castle possessed of.

Laurent walked through the door in what appeared confident strides yet faltered when he was met by not only Katherina - whom he was primarily seeking for - but Leonardo and Maximilien, as well. The two men - and Valentin - were the three youngest vampires, whilst Katherina and Laurent were a little - a hundred years, more or less - older than them, and Laurent knew them as his brothers and sisters, despite the fact that they did not truly share the same roots ( because they did the same fondness for wicked pleasures; for those of Laurent's kind, that sufficed to be seen as one and the same ). The quintessence of perfection fore his eyes was gathered around the wooden table - save for Louis, the eldest vampire and perhaps handling more important matters, and Valentin ( whom was according to him a defect but that of course was merely Laurent's interpretation of the slightly younger vampires sadistic ways ).

"We're he– What is that?" Each fiber of Katherina's being appeared to be wavering as she furrowed her eyebrows - not out of fear but austere rage, her green and malice-intended eyes gazing upon the child. Her fingers began to fiddle with the rock-hard jewelry that like vines posed to kill curled around her throat - jewelry one could undoubtedly break their teeth upon - and it was then the others, too, noted the curious presence of the human. A whole world anew it was to the vampires in the room, the overwhelming scent of vanilla and sight of ignited glow of the human flesh. Leonardo's jaw, it slacked, and Maximilien's eyes were wide.

Unsuspectingly, the little girl looked around herself as Laurent bit the inside of his cheeks - aftertaste of enraged crimson on his tongue aside from resolve, because he had not a single idea of how he would explain that he'd brought a child to their home, risking so much - risking that the outside world would be brought aware of the existence of their kind ( and which would unsurprisingly lead to their anticipated downfall ). Otherwise persuasive with his demonic tactics, Laurent now solely pursed his lips in a thin line.

"I believe I went wrong." He hummed, eyes stoic on the child whom stared back with eyes like those of a little deer at Leonardo, Maximilien and Katherina. They were sizing her up, for such thing they'd never seen before - of course, they had seen human children, but oh no, never from this close. They had never before seen how youthful softness could radiate from a creature as silken glitters and golden skin, contrasting against the tendrils of heaven that brushed caramel cheeks. She was flushed and looked a bit like a fresh born kitten ( almost, did Maximilien chuckle at how intently she stood out from what surrounded her; her, her cheeks, blotches of soft reds and pinks, her pearly eyes and dainty attire that made her appear only an ounce of ichor from an angel, in a chamber with vice and sin embodied ).

Katherina scoffed, her lips painted in lust bound to spew venom, but it was Leonardo whom was the first to react, calm, "What happened?"

As Laurent walked further into the chamber, he began to explain to his family what had happened, his otherwise saccharine voice low and rough, fire blossoming amidst every letter. It felt to the little girl as if angels had sunk down from the lavender impregnated sky to carve open her head with softest fingertips and had slurped the matter all up like their best meal, because she did not understand a thing of what was being said - let alone what had happened. By the end of his manner of sharing the truth, Laurent was content to see that the vermillion fire - Dante's Inferno - in Katherina's eyes had more or less faded away ( though of course there endlessly remained a bit of that blazing glow in them - in her).

Unsurprisingly, Leonardo had risen from his velvet plush stool to inform Louis - whom had the upper hand always - and Valentin, and Maximilien had straightened up, too, but instead to, like a panthers, approach the child standing cluelessly in the doorframe.

Girl Diaphanous as Maximilien had thought of calling her - minding he did not know how she had truly been named by birth and did not really care to know - melted into soft caramel as the vampire, this one of longer and shaggy black hair and a jaw that could cut open her little body, tearing 'till her body would be nothing but a residue of what once had been a painting, bent over to take a closer look at her. She thought he looked a bit like a wolf, carnal and hungry, a king ( but of course had no idea he - they - was the uppermost opposite ) with his green eyes and black locks that only partly shielded his obvious curiosity.

"You're painfully warm. Painfully alive," Maximilien spoke gently, sweetly, with bloodshot red eyes and hair glimmering like the jewels around Katherina's pale neck, "and kind of cute. Do you think that Louis would let us keep her? If we begged?" He questioned toward Laurent and Katherina as he picked Girl Diaphanous up in his arms and placed the little thing next to him once having taken a seat on the velvet couch. Katherina instantly rolled her eyes.

"Humans are not pets, fool," The fabric of Katherina's blouse shimmered in the illumination of the study and rippled with small waves as she heaved a hand to her face, feigning headache upon the foolishness that oozed from every murky crevice of her brother's being, "and Louis would probably have you–"

The devil discussed waltzed in then - grand and imposing, though not abnormally tall as Maximilien had been. He would always wear a brooch in golden - emblem surprisingly feminine; an eternal flower that never faded, just like him. Louis was the most mature and organized amongst all his brothers and sisters - whilst they during some nights squandered their wealth and coalesced food with wicked pleasures, the portrayal of 'aloof' and 'regal' stuck with him: he prioritized studying, breathing Gods alive with a mere parting of the lips.

He was a bit like a God in the manner Laurent could almost feel the ground boiling under his feet. He was the eldest of all, and though that did not mean that the younger ones - Maximilien, Katherina and Laurent - held no day in anything whatsoever, it was clear the fresher vampires harbored great respect for Louis ( Leonardo from time to time bickered with him, but all was well as they were lovers - as much as love was a tangible thing with vampires ). Laurent saw from the corner of his eye that the child was trembling ever so slightly when Louis looked down upon her. The viciousness the man had etched in his bones had bred with her ears, drawn the air from her blushing lungs and left fear in its wake.

The silence - that sounded a bit like an angel entangling her ankles with the addictive beat of a succulent melody - like a brush of wind went as rapidly as it had entered the chamber - when the eldest seemed to refrain from wasting any time and scolded Laurent, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose, "Come on now, pretty boy, how could you be so careless? Those born during the fire hour do not make such foolish mistakes . . . Or are you a fledgling having just spread your wings? Do you need to be fed inside, too?" Louis spewed words like venom. The elder was referring to how Maximilien and Valentin – especially the latter – had to be given their meals amidst the vast walls of the castle because they were too reckless, too much fixated on their own insatiable hunger, to hunt outside - and thus would be a danger to their species. Laurent swallowed thickly. "If the Devil comes to know, he'll be looking for you. He'll be calling your name."

"It does not matter, now," Leonardo interfered as Maximilien's face only further twisted into stupification, clicking his tongue and sweeping his eyes over the inarticulate liveliness of the child, seeking to unravel the roots of her and every fact there was to know, "all that does it that the human cannot stay here. She mustn't."

The sound of Katherina's hums of agreement went hand in hand with the sound of the door of the study opening and closing - and in walked Valentin, whom looked like he owned the ground he walked over, as though he was all that mattered despite the fact that he was one of the younger vampires. His eyes were feline and pernicious above his plump lips and sought for the ones belonging to Girl Diaphanous. He grinned as he sat down on one of the plush crimson cushions next to the child - who was fast asleep, as though by wonder ( and he also sat next to Maximilien, but Laurent knew good and well that Valentin harbored no interest in the other vampire ).

"Hello, you sweet, fragile little thing. I could break you in seconds." Valentin murmured at the child - so pretty and warm, she was, unlike him, whom was as dead as his mother ( and as dead as the night he had murdered her ). Laurent watched with dismay sprouting in his eyes when the creature rolled up the sleeves of her nightgown - behind the older vampires' eyelids something of a dragon in his eyes, clicking the sharpest of his tongue and awaking uncontrollable flames. Valentin bared his fangs, but before Laurent could stop him, he stopped himself.

"She has bruises," he remarked, tracing his fingertips along the blue and purple hues tainting her warm skin, "Was it hard getting her to come with you? Did she put up a fight?" The older of dark brown, glimmering curls furrowed his eyebrows as Valentin asked of him, immediately catching on to what he was suggesting.

He clenched his jaw bitterly, "No. She is surprisingly obedient for a child - certainly, for a human child. No whining, no nothing. She merely came with me - just like that."

"Pity. I like when they resist." Valentin murmured, letting her arm fall disinterestedly and standing up, sitting sideways atop Louis' desk.

"Let us discuss things that matter, please. One option is leaving her behind somewhere in nature," suggested Katherina suddenly whilst her eyes like the sun fixated on Annette. "In that way we would allow fate to decide what is best for her."

Laurent instantly knew that to be a horrible idea: nature was a pulchritudinous thing, with its starburst kisses, seeds of want that bloomed flowers of purity, wild pears plump and juicy, ready to be plucked, but he reckoned it to be most lethal, as well. Nature at night was deadly nightshade, poison through the eyes of the animals that curiously would lurk and thrive off the skin of the young thing that would bleed sweet nectar. And with their grandest rivals - creatures of bruising claws and fangs thrice Laurents' - out in the wild, lurking from behind primroses and bluebells that seemed so innocuous, he knew that doing such thing would mean her inevitable demise.

"Do so and she will not make it past one night. Especially not in this weather - she will freeze to death. Or get eaten alive, with that new pack of wolves around."

"He has a point. We don't want to feed those dogs, do we?" Louis rubbed his chin, "we could use her as 'till she has no more blood. Feed off her until she's dead, to put it an easier manner."

"Not for all the fortune in the world would I feed off a child - let alone 'till it dies. Children are too sweet - they make my appetite vanquish." Maximilien shook his head, enticing hums of agreement from Laurent. "I agree. I would not, either." Laurent shook her head as Katherina shared she was of the same opinion, and this, Maximilien cocked his head in surprise at. He found it peculiar that she whom could tear anyone to shreds with the slightest of a breath refused to feed off children due to mere morals.

"I would." Valentin called cheerfully - and oh, Laurent found it so filthy. Foul, too, he thought it was, how Louis approached the child ( whom had awoken by now, sat pretty whilst Maximilien twirled her curls of black around his lithe fingers like a serpent ). The girl who was kissed by the Gods but under the devils' wing, the angelic wildflower amongst sinned flesh and doomed bone and marrow, gazed up at him - he the predator and she the innocuous prey. Her hair fell in unkempt curls and covered her precious stones of wildfire only a little, whilst his own eyes of greed tiptoed not by far featherlight across her dainty features as if attempting to make sense of her and then abruptly - so abruptly even Laurent flinched slightly - he hissed at her, baring his fangs.

And Girl Diaphanous began crying - weeping, sobbing.

The vampires were all a bit ( read: tremendously ) taken aback by that. Laurent had already turned to comfort the frightened child, but instead, was left - as were the other vampires - standing stock-still and with wide eyes as the little one squirmed off the sofa. Vast lands afar, men and women of honeysuckle dreams of luxury and golden pleasantries, once again bloomed as Annette stepped clumsily from couch and like on the legs of a freshly birthed deer over to Valentin and succulently wrapped her little arms around his leg. She refused to let go, clinging on to the man's limb as if her life depended on it, and Maximilien could not help but release a hearty chuckle that sounded like the waves of the ocean: uncontrollable, soft, yet so violent.

"How wonderful! It seems the little doll has imprinted and everything." Maximilien uttered, his face covered by his hair like Jesus Christ's halo and lips etched in a large grin. Laurent most certainly did not find the situation mirthful as his brother did. He was quick to bend over to the little thing, staring into her big, harmless eyes, soft as peach and silk, to persuade her to let go of the younger man - yet only when Valentin looked her way, much to Laurent's discontentment, did the child listen. He scooped the child up in his arms.

"Mortals do not imprint, Maximilien. Humans choose their partner - partners - without facing any physical consequences. If they are away from the other, they do not grow ill the manner we do. They even tend to go through multiple of them - only few bind themselves to one and one only throughout their lifetime," Laurent corrected - sharing proudly so the knowledge he had found in jewel-encrusted tomes in the deepest pits of the mansion.

"Alright, enough of this," Louis, the man of paintings of hues of black like the opaque shade of his suits, rolled his eyes before clicking his tongue, bitterly in the manner he looked upon the child, "there are more important matters to discuss than if or if not foolish humans imprint. The girl. We must get rid of her - somehow."

The Botticelli angel and the vampires all looked up when a voice chimed in, individual to whom it belonged flushed and writhing and whispering prayers and psalms inside of her head.

There stood Mina, one of the maids whom had offered enslavement in retribution for her family's permanent safety from attacks. She had more or less worked her way up and had cheeks a pretty shade of red in - almost an orchid herself, like the one in the gardens of the mansion she cherished like her blood-own children. She almost whispered with her head bowed down, "If I may–"

"Unless you have something very, very important to say, I suggest, for your sake, that you know your place and only speak when spoken to," Louis cocked his head, scowled, his voice low - reigned and wreaked havoc in the manner he was cold as ice ( literally and figuratively ). Mina flinched visibly and it made Laurent feel as though he only awoke by mornings to rot onto decaying silken bedsheets, made him reek a robust odor that was not real.

"My apologies, M-Master - I was merely overhearing your conversation," Spoke the maid hastily as if it had been of inferno and blazing thunderstorms, with her eyes wide and her cheeks, for once, drained of hues of beautiful rose, "and I believe that I know what to do with the little one. My only intention is to help."

Katherina, peculiarly kind, arose one of her thinly plucked brows upon this, "Please, Mina, do continue."

Mina flushed constellations of red and Katherina in return gave her a little smile, "Well, I am thinking it would be a good idea for me to raise her. I will teach her all there is to learn - coat her into a better version of me. I will teach her how to cook, how to clean, everything. I will not live forever, you see - I am not like you, as you all are aware. When my time comes, she can take my place."

The room fell silent and all eyes were on Louis - whom stared back but solely at the little girl, tooth aching from meeting her big brown eyes, that was how sweet a creature could be.

"Okay." Was the decision made after a few moments, and Laurent almost sighed with relief - contented that the little girl would not be killed but instead living. "She is yours - as much as a maid can have her own possessions. Take good care of her." The child Maximilien watched the scene unfold as his fingers fiddled with his brooch; white - meaning dignity, feminine sweetness and purity. Oh, the paradox this man was.

Laurent softly, gently, set the child down, whom was brushing featherlight fingers through her hair to tuck it behind her dainty ear, adjusting the stray wisps that had escaped, "Listen to me, very carefully, Annette." She gave him a small hum, her voice sounding only slightly afraid.

"Do you see that woman? With the black hair and the white gown?" Laurent pressed, took her hand in his tenderly. The child turned a little to glance upon the dame Laurent spoke of. "You will live with her as of now." The vampire felt butterflies in his stomach - not the romantic kind - as he awaited her response. He was wavering every so slightly, for if the child resisted, her only option would be ineluctable death - serving as food for six insatiable creatures like them would to her only mean demise. And he did not want a child's death to be at his grace.

"A-And you? Where will you be?" The little one croaked out, the necklace around her neck glistening, its spine finding heart and home against her flesh. "I will be where you are - you will live here, and so will I." Was all Laurent whispered back.

Mina then proffered the child her slender hand and Laurent for a moment faltered - it looked like she was going to protest with a furrow of her brows above cheeks that impossibly had turned rosier, matching the shade of red that earlier sept from his fangs like honey. Bright, dazzling red. But then, a tiny kittenish smile appeared.

"O-Okay."

And with that, the child took Mina's hand, before walking out of the study with her.

footnote.

word count: 5k.

a bit of background: none of the vamps are related by blood except for maximilien and katherina - they are actual siblings. laurent on the other hand merely views the others as his brothers and sisters because they have lived in the same mansion for as long as he can remember and spend all their time together as well. furthermore, leonardo and louis are an actual romantic couple.

anyways, i hope you enjoyed this. this should probably be called the prologue as the next chapter will be fourteen years later - but oh well. i hope you enjoyed, let me know what you think about the story, the characters, whatever you like. i'm very excited to hear your opinions because this story is sort of the apple of my eye ( after lg of course, because pearl is and will endlessly remain my absolute baby. )

thanks for reading!

#writing #book #novel #vampire #vamp #vampire novel

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mrsjihyunkim · 6 years

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🌹Flowers & Ink🌹Ch 1

Ok so this was inspired by @v-dcc of V as a tattoo artist. Like I’m so in love with this that I made it my desktop. Any way here is the first chapter and I hope I do this art justice. Definitely going to be more to come of this story! Also this is pretty long so I put a cut in it and the story tag is going to be F&I

The sun shined in the window and spilled onto V's face. He groaned and threw and extra pillow at the window. This only knocked down the blinds and V put his head under the last pillow. If there was one thing he disdained more than women it was mornings. He was at the shop until like three in the morning working on a cherry blossom piece. The girl had done nothing but flirt with him the entire time so by the end of it he was in a sour mood. Now that he was up it was pointless to try and sleep. So after getting dressed and grabbing his coffee, he headed to his shop. As he was unlocking the door to the shop he noticed that people were moving stuff into the shop next to his. It peaked his curiosity but he'd see it eventually so he just went about business as usual. He only had four appointments today but that's usually how it was. V liked to get to know the person he was working so he could make sure they got the best tattoo. He went to the back and saw his apprentice struggling to make coffee. "Do you still not know how to use the coffee machine Yoosung?" The blonde boy put down the pot and threw his hands up.

"It's not my fault you have such a stupid fancy coffee maker! Like I don't even get why you have it cause you never use it." V handed him thermos of coffee and Yoosung snatched it. "Why accept the gift if you're not going to use it?" Yoosung drunk the coffee and sighed.

"I accepted it because it was the only way to get that woman to leave me alone." Yoosung shrugged.

"Yeah she was persistent. I still don't understand why you just didn't go out with her." V shot him a look and Yoosung dropped it.

"Anyway, did you sleep here last night?" Yoosung was still wearing his clothes from yesterday and he blushed a little.

"Yeah but only because that session lasted so long. I would of just had to come back here by the time I got home, so I slept in the back." V rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Well go on and head home, and shower. The first appointment isn't until noon so I don't need you right now. And you know you don't have to be here every morning before me right?" Yoosung nodded at him and smiled.

"Yeah but I like to cause I can get some practice in before you take over." Yoosung was beaming with pride and it made V smile. Yoosung’s energy was sometimes annoying but he was hard working and that’s all that mattered to V.

"Whatever. Just go home and get cleaned up. This maybe a tattoo shop but we still have an imagine to maintain." As Yoosung was leaving he saw Vanderwood coming in.

"Careful Vandy he's a bit cranky." Yoosung passed by Vanderwood and out the door before he could be asked anything. So Vanderwood walked in and treaded carefully. V had on his glasses and was nose deep in a notebook when Vanderwood found him.

"Why is Yoosung leaving? Are you not opening the shop today?" V barely looked up from his notebook.

"He slept here last night so I sent him home to get cleaned up. Why are you here?"

"Damn dude. You really are a sour puss today." Vanderwood set a white paper bag on the table. "I brought you some breakfast. Maybe that will put you in a better mood." V glared at him but sighed. He set down the notebook and took his glasses off. They clattered against his dog tag necklace as he grabbed the bag. "So what's got you in a sour mood granny?"

"I told you not to call me that, and I'm not in a bad mood. I'm just tired." V took the doughnut out of the bag and Vanderwood just shrugged.

"Could of fooled me. And if you don’t want to be called that then don’t wear a granny chain." Vanderwood had known V since he opened the shop. Not only was Vanderwood the one who sold it to him but owned the car garage at the end of the block. So he knew when V was in a grumpy mood. "Let me guess. Someone flirted with you and all you did was get annoyed." V shot him a look and Vanderwood felt a chill go down his spine. "That's a yes. Excuse me for not giving you an sympathy. Most guys would love being such a chick magnet." V tossed the rest of his doughnut in the trash and got up. Vanderwood sighed and decided to drop the subject.

"Don't you have your own shop to open? I'll walk you out." V headed for the front and Vanderwood followed. He knew better to fight V when he was in a mood. When they got outside the shop V noticed a car full of flowers parked next door. While Vanderwood continued to babble V looked at the car and noticed how the light reflected inside the car and he could see the depth of it. Without even thinking he walked over to the car and peered inside. Every seat except for the driver was covered in flowers. There were daffodils, roses, lilies, even succulents and cacti. There were probably more but he couldn't tell. He was so busy looking at the flowers that he didn't notice the brown haired woman standing behind him tapping her foot.

"Excuse me but do you mind? I need to get in there." V turned around and saw a woman in khaki pants and black tank top standing behind him. He moved out of her way and she opened the car door. She grabbed an arm full of flowers and V could see her struggling. Normally V avoided getting into other people's business but the flowers had him curious.

"Do you need any help?" The woman stared at him and raised an eyebrow. To V she almost seemed suspicious and he regretted ever asking. "Or not. Just thought you had a lot in there and would want some help." He shrugged and put a hand through his hair.

"Oh thanks but it's ok. I have a cart to use inside but these already cut and need to be in some water. Putting them on the cart would only smash them." She turned on her heel and headed back into her shop. V for better lack of words was stunned. She didn't try to hit on him or anything, and she just flat out refused him. He walked back to his shop and just completely ignored the smile on Vanderwood's face. When he got back inside he grabbed his notebook and went to sit outside. His brain was just telling him to stop but he really wanted to draw the flowers. So he watched and drew as his new neighbor set up flowers and paid him no mind. At least that's what V thought but MC was very much aware. In fact she was so aware that she was arranging the flowers in the best way for him to draw. She was a little creeped out by it at first but didn't mind when she realized that he was drawing the flowers. Time flew by as V did sketch after sketch of the different arrangements and before he knew it he saw his first client coming up to the shop. MC watched as her new neighbor greeted a tall slender guy with long grey hair. They went back into the shop and MC sighed in relief. She was turning around when she ran smack into a younger blonde boy. They both crashed to the ground and MC's watering can spilled all over her.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! I'm running late and you turned around so fast that I couldn't get out of the way. Are you ok?" MC looked at the blonde boy and really wanted to cuss him out but she could he was just a kid, and he looked like he was about to cry. She let out a sigh and stood up.

"It's alright. Spilling water comes with the job." She smiled at him and that only made Yoosung feel worse.

"My name's Yoosung Kim. I work at the tattoo shop next door. You've probably already met my boss V. He's the guy with the blue hair" Yoosung seemed so proud of the fact that he knew him. It made MC curious though because V seemed like a giant ass but Yoosung seemed like an innocent little kid. Maybe she had misjudged V.

"I'm MC. I just opened my flower shop here." She gestured to the building beside her and Yoosung smiled. He was about to say something when V's voice called out his name.

"Shit. Gotta go. Nice to meet you MC!" Yoosung called as he ran to the tattoo shop. V watched as Yoosung ran over this way and noticed that the girl was soaking wet. Once they were inside Yoosung began to talk really fast. "Sorry I'm late V. I accidently knocked down MC and she got soaked." V pretended not to care but he was a little happy to know her name now.

"You're still late and Hyun's already here." When they got to the back the man with long silver hair was sitting at a table looking through some sketches. He looked up and smiled at the two.

"Hey Yoosung! What's up?" Yoosung gave him a high five and started getting V's equipment out.

"Hey Zen. Not much really. I did get to meet the cute florist next door so that was exciting." Zen's eyes looked up from the sketches in surprise.

"Really now? Did you get her number?" Yoosung blushed and shook his head. "You're killing me man! You know I gotta live vicariously through others. I'd do it through V but he treats women like the plague." V rolled his eyes pulled his hair into a messy ponytail.

"Did you decide which design you want Hyun?" Frowning at V's lack of a reaction Zen nodded.

"Yeah I want this one. It has the romantic feel I'm going for." He handed V a sketch and it was one he had done of MC's roses earlier. As V transferred it to the stencil he couldn't help but smile. As V worked Zen turned his attention back to Yoosung. "So why didn't you get her number Yoosung?" He just shrugged as he got the rubbing alcohol and began to prep where Zen wanted the tattoo.

"Well for one I completely knocked her on her ass and she spilled water all over her. I didn't think that would be the best time to hit on her. Plus she seems like one of those people who is nice but also scary. Like when I crashed into her I thought she was going to cuss the shit out of me. Even though she smiled I could tell that she was pissed." V was listening to Yoosung's every word despite telling himself that he didn't care. There was something about MC that bugged him but he couldn't figure it out. She definitely wasn't like women that he was used to but that really didn't mean anything to him, or did it. Either way right now he needed to focus and do his job.

"Alright Hyun. You ready?" Zen nodded and V began his work. He worked for almost three hours before feeling satisfied to stop for the day. He had done the basic outline of the piece and some shading. V cleaned off the tattoo and smiled at Zen. "What do you think?" Zen hopped off the table and went over to the mirror. He twisted so that he could see the roses and vines on his ribcage. There was a mirror, microphone, and a stack of paper all inbedded in the vines.

"It's awesome V! This just might be my favorite one now." V rolled his eyes but smiled.

"You say that every time." V took his gloves off and threw them in the trash.

"Well that's cause you do fucking kick ass work!" He slapped V's hand they slid into a fist bump. "Alright I'm gonna home and take some new selfies. Take care guys!" He left just as V's next client was coming in. After Zen V's appointments seemed to go by pretty fast and before he knew it he was on the last one. It was a smaller piece. The woman had wanted a cancer ribbon and a few flowers in honor of her mother who just passed away. When it was done she cried and V felt his heart lift at her joy. Once she was gone V sat down and sighed. He was so beat that he might sleep here tonight.

"Hey Yoosung." The blondes head popped in the door way. He almost reminded V of a puppy. "Go ahead and go home. I'll clean up tonight. Also make sure you practice tonight. You've got an appointment tomorrow." Yoosung eyes lit up like fireworks and he was barely stopping himself from bouncing up and down.

"Are you for real? I actually get to work on someone tomorrow?" V nodded and Yoosung squealed. "I won't let you down boss!" V waved his hand toward him and Yoosung took off. Once V heard the jingle of the doorbell he got up and started cleaning. He changed all the trash and wiped down all the tables. Just as he was about to start cleaning his tattoo gun he heard the doorbell.

"Sorry we're closed now." He said as he made his way to the front. When he got there he found MC standing there. She looked tired and V wondered what she was still doing here so late. "I hope you don't want a tattoo cause we're closed." She seemed dazed but her eyes snapped open when he was done talking.

"Oh no. I figured you were closed but I was hoping that you had a first aid kit." V looked closer now and noticed that she had a towel wrapped around her hand. She also had red smears on her smock.

"Yeah just a second. Try not to bleed on the floor ok." V turned his back to her and she just frowned. He sounded like an asshole but MC wasn't surprised. Most men were assholes, especially when they were that good looking. V came back and handed her a first aid kit. "So what happened?" V's question surprised her because he didn't really seem to care about anything.

"Oh. I tripped over a box and fell down with a bunch of vases. Talk about an omen." She let out a small laugh but V could tell that she was upset. "Anyway, thanks for the first aid kit. I'll bring it back over tomorrow." She smiled and turned around to leave and V saw some red seeping through the side of her shirt. Before he could stop himself he was reaching out for her and grabbing her shoulder. MC stopped and looked back at him, clearly shocked.

"I'll come with you. I'd feel guilty if you got clumsy again and bled out." He pushed her out of the shop and locked his door.

"It's ok really. I mostly got it cleaned up. I just needed some bandages." She tried her best to convince him but it seemed like he wasn't even listening. They got to her shop and she sighed. V looked around the shop once he was inside and it honestly looked like an indoor garden. "I fell down over there." She pointed over toward a fridge with a glass door. V grabbed a broom that was next to the counter.

"Alright just sit down and take care of those cuts." MC nodded and V walked over to the fridge. He noticed that she had in fact moved all of the glass into a pile. Using the broom he swept the glass into an empty box and carried it up to the front. MC seemed completely spaced out and seemed a little pale. V looked at the towel she had wrapped her hand in. There was a lot more blood than he expected and wondered if she was ok. He was honestly surprised by his concern and didn't really know what to do. "Hey are you sure you're ok? Is there someone that you need me to call or anything?" MC had been feeling a bit dizzy but V's voice helped her snap out of it.

"Oh no I texted my roommate and their on their way over. She just had to finish work so she should be here soon. Thank you for your help though. I hope it wasn't a bother." V just shrugged and MC went to hand him back the first aid kit.

"Keep it. We have more at the shop. Plus you obviously need it more than I do." She huffed out a breath and V just turned around a left. Something about that girl made him act weird and he didn't like it. The last thing he needed was more complicated feelings. MC watched him leave and she was still angry at his implications. This guy was definitely an asshole and nothing could change her mind.

#mystic messenger #jihyun kim #my writiting #f&i #flowers & ink #v x mc #yoosung kim #vanderwood #tattoo au #mrsjihyunkim #v-dcc #inspired by fanart #i seriously swoon at the art

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shannaraisles · 6 years

Text

In Marcher Fields - Chapter 18

Poppy Hawke was never the daughter her mother wanted, the sister her twin preferred, the hero Kirkwall desired. They do not see the woman who stands between them and the chaos that threatens. No one takes the time to look, until she crosses the path of a certain Knight-Captain with demons of his own to battle …

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9:41 Dragon, Firstfall

"You're doing it again."

Poppy blinked, dragging her gaze from the table across the hall to stare at her brother, mildly uncomprehending. Alex was smirking at her over a forkful of Antivan cherry pie.

"Doing what?" she asked innocently.

"Come to bed eyes at your dreamy commander," he teased, and yelped as her foot made contact sharply with his ankle. He laughed, reaching down to rub it. "All right, all right. Just try not to lay him out on a table in public, would you? I love you, but not that much."

Poppy smirked back at him, ignoring the snickering rising from Varric on her other side to let her gaze return whence it had come. Cullen was apparently deep in discussion with the Inquisitor on the far table, his own dessert hardly touched. Xena was animatedly talking about something that was clearly important to her, and the sheer force of his attention was endearing to see. It was good to know that he had learned to make friends of his colleagues in these past years, that he wasn't as alone as he could so easily have been. As she watched, his eyes flickered toward her, meeting her gaze with a warmth that blossomed deep inside, in her heart and in her belly, casting her face into a gentle glow of a smile that made her brother snort with laughter again.

"Oh, shut up," she managed, rolling her eyes away from Cullen as warmth grew in her cheeks. "This is all your doing, you can't complain about it."

"Am I complaining?" Alex defended himself. "I thought I'd earned the right to be smug."

"Not until it's a done deal," Varric interjected across Poppy. "Half an hour of grabby kisses does not mean they're back for good."

"Gosh, aren't you the little ray of sunshine?" Poppy drawled to her friend, unable to keep her smile in check as he guffawed with laughter. "Easy there, short-arse. You're already halfway to the done deal with Xena, you know."

Varric's laughter abruptly stopped, and Poppy had the privilege of seeing her friend look totally disconcerted. He glanced across at the Inquisitor's table himself, his own gaze lingering as Xena let out a raucous laugh of her own. She knew that look - she'd seen it in Cullen's eyes too many times not to know it - but Varric seemed hell-bent on not admitting his heart was already lost.

"Not gonna happen, Hawke," he told her quietly, dragging his eyes away.

"Bianca?" she murmured, concerned when he blanched and nodded. "One of these days, you're going to have to tell me this story."

"When it's over, maybe." He sighed, shaking his head. "But enough about me. Can I write your epic love story now?"

Poppy let out a burst of cackling laughter, quick to quiet herself when noble heads turned toward her, burning with curiosity.

"When the adventurous part is over, maybe," she allowed, knowing it had to be killing Varric to be sitting on romance he wouldn't have to make up to get it written down. "I'll tell you when that is."

"I'm going to be an old man before you say yes to that, aren't I?"

"It's a distinct possibility, yes."

Varric sighed exaggeratedly, throwing a grin her way as he poured more ale into his tankard. With a quiet giggle to herself, Poppy made a valiant attempt to finish her pie, but her eyes rose yet again to the opposite table.

To Cullen, gazing back at her with a fiendishly secretive smile glimmering in his gaze, raising one eyebrow at the turn of her blush. All she could do was smile in return, her mind's eye lingering on the kisses they had shared not so very long again, on the newfound certainty that he still loved her. Work and duty had got in the way of a proper reunion ... but now the night had come, and the meal was over. Varric had said Cullen worked long into the night, every night, but she didn't think that would be the case tonight. She hoped it wouldn't be. There was still so much that hadn't been said, so much they needed to renew together. One night would not be enough. A lifetime ... well, that might be time enough.

"Just go to bed, would you?" she heard Alex sigh exaggeratedly. "This is getting nauseating."

She kicked him again for good measure, laughing as he whimpered just for her benefit, and finally rose from her seat, locking eyes with Cullen once more. He nodded to her, slowly rising from his own seat as she turned away to head for the door into the walled garden, ignoring the hopeful attempts by various nobles to get her attention as she passed them by. She had no time for them anymore, and certainly not tonight.

The sound of the gathering in the hall faded as the door swung shut behind her. Poppy breathed in the fragrant air of the little garden, smiling faintly as she recognized the scents of elfroot, embrium, Crystal Grace, even the dank tang of deep mushroom. Xena's little herb garden was coming along very well, it seemed. She stepped across the cloister, resting her temple against the cool stone of the uprights, one arm wrapped about the narrow column. Nerves flickered in her belly - would she be all he remembered? Was she good enough? Would he even bother to follow her out here?

The noise from the hall swelled for a moment at her back - she started to turn - and Cullen was there, arms reaching for her, mouth hungry for more of the kisses they had been denied for far too long. She couldn't help giggling into the first of those kisses, feeling his lips curve in an answering smile lost in the heady rush of knowing that this was what she had been missing all these years. The safety, the warmth, the love that Cullen could envelop her in with just a kiss filled a hole in her heart she had been nursing since the last time he had been able to touch her.

Bare hands skimmed her sides, kneading, holding, one smoothing down over her hip to pull her ever closer, the other diving into the fall of her hair, cradling her head in his palm as her hands passed restlessly up and down his back. No armor tonight, for either of them - simple jerkin and shirt for the Commander of the Inquisition, never before seen without his plate and mantle by the eager nobles until this night. But he wasn't the Commander of the Inquisition, not here, not now. He was Cullen, her Cullen, and the woman in his arms wasn't Lady Hawke, wasn't the Champion, wasn't even the consultant helping the Inquisition with the Warden problem - she was Poppy. For the first time in a very long time, she was simply Poppy.

Stone pressed against her back as he surged forward, pinning her there quite literally between rock and a hard place, filling her mouth with his soft groan at the gentle rake of her nails through his hair. She was vaguely aware of the rise in sound behind him, and an embarrassed female voice stuttering out an apology for interrupting as he drew back from her in frustration. She caught a glimpse of Chantry robes disappearing back into the Great Hall, unable to keep herself from snorting with laughter at being interrupted again.

Cullen's frown smoothed away as he looked at her, slowly relaxing into a smile of his own as they leaned into each other in the moonslight.

"I think it's time we found a little privacy, don't you?" she murmured, tracing a fingertip along the stubbled line of his jaw.

"Maker, yes," was his fervent reply, drawing another laugh from her as she pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

She pushed him back, claimed his hand in her own, guiding him quickly away from that access way toward a door set into the outer wall of the castle. Skyhold was enormous, there was no doubting that - plenty of space for visitors and inhabitants alike - but she had been given a room beneath the Inquisitor's rooms in the tower, with a wide window that overlooked the bailey of the keep. It was a great honor, of course, to be quartered all but with the Inquisitor, but right now, Poppy was more frustrated with the sheer number of stairs required to reach the appropriate level. It was very difficult to force herself to keep going with Cullen walking close to her back, the hand she hadn't claimed brushing hungrily over her side and hip as though he couldn't bear to stop touching.

In the darkness of the hallway, she fumbled with the door handle, loosing a breathless whimper as his lips found her throat, seeking out the sensitive dip behind her jaw that he knew would turn her to water in his grasp. The door came open, and she stumbled forward, released from his arms to turn back and watch as he closed and locked the door, turning to her with predatory tenderness in his gaze. And she didn't care. For the first time in a long time, she was glad to be the prey, glad to be caught and kissed and touched, reminded all over again that this was where she should be, this was where she should have stayed. She loved him.

It could have been hours later, it could have been moments, but the moons soon shone through the window on rumpled sheets and bare skin, on limbs tangled together without any wish to separate. Poppy lay on her side, facing Cullen, her fingertip teasing gently up and down a new scar on his chest; his fingers pushing through her hair to trail down her back as he brushed kiss after soft kiss to her lips.

"You look good," she murmured to him in the darkness. "Not so haggard. Not so driven. Apart from this -"

Her hand rose, gently touching the pad of her thumb to the groove between his brows, proof that a frown lived there more often than not. He, predictably enough, frowned at the touch, eyes tilting upward for a brief moment before returning to her own.

"I have headaches," he admitted quietly.

"I thought you had good supply lines here," Poppy queried in a soft voice. "Surely you're not low on lyrium?"

Cullen grimaced, a flicker of that old awkwardness touching his expression as he sighed. His hand covered her, drawing her palm to his mouth to press a hot kiss there.

"No, Poppy, I ... we have good supplies," he promised her. "I simply ... I haven't taken lyrium for over a year now, not since I left Kirkwall."

Horror flashed through her for a long moment - memories of Samson's hungry addiction, of Cullen's own descriptions of the templars in the infirmary at the Gallows when their reliance on lyrium had become too much. But no ... he wasn't raving. He wasn't haggard or grasping for something he couldn't have. He had made the decision himself. And she couldn't deny that it had done him so much good already. His flesh was warmer, pinker; his eyes, brighter; his mind just as sharp as it had been. He had not lost anything through this decision of his. Perhaps he could teach others to do the same, and finally break the Chantry's leash entirely.

"I wish I had been there to help you," she whispered tenderly, drawing her fingers along his cheek as his hand returned to her back, encircling her in his embrace once again. "I'm so proud of the man you've become, Cullen."

He shook his head, a deprecating smile touching his lips - lopsided, thanks to the scar Alex had branded him with years ago.

"You made me the man I am, Poppy," he murmured back to her. "Even without you there to hold me to account, I have spent years wondering what you would do. I have tried to live my life the way you would want me to. I turned a blind eye to too much in Kirkwall; I allowed too many abuses, too much misery, to fester and bloom under my hand, just because I refused to let go of my own anger. I'm still angry, Poppy. But I won't let it blind me again."

She smiled sadly, knowing he had been through too much to ever let some of it go, shifting closer to touch her lips to his brow as his hands tightened on her once more, gathering his cheek to her breast, lowering her head, curling to wrap him close and stroke his hair, letting him listen to the beat of her heart as he had done so many times before.

"I will never leave you again," she whispered into the darkness. "Let the world find another Champion. I've found where I belong."

#in marcher fields #poppy hawke #cullen rutherford #cullen x female hawke #alex hawke #varric tethras #friendship #friendship and teasing #reunion #prelude to smut #i failed to actually write the smut #but it's all romantic right?#anyway #fluff #majorly fluffy #in a good way!

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