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smaidjor · 3 years

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and i pay for my place by the ring (Chapter 1)

Hey guys! Welcome to another angsty fic by yours truly, provider of flower husbands pain.

Some things you should know before you jump into this:

1. This is a companion fic to my fic "i know they're losing". You can understand it without having read the other one, since it's the same story from two different POVs but I think the overall experience is better with both!

2. The overall title of each fic is from the mitski song I bet on losing dogs. Chapter titles are from the Last Goodbye from the Hobbit films.

3. There is a lot of lord of the rings lore in both fics, and I mean a lot. You may be kinda confused if you've never read tolkien's works. It will all be explained eventually, though!

4. With the fact that it's a companion fic and a lot of people came here from Jimmy's POV in mind- this is a lot heavier of a fic. The content warnings are heavier and the angst is more intense. You have been warned.

(Obligatory disclaimer that this is about characters, not ccs, and do not ship real people, as always!)

Chapter Title: to these memories i will hold

Chapter Wordcount: 4000

Content warnings: suicidal thoughts, self-esteem issues, panic attacks, past death, very frank discussion of death. (In general, if suicide or death are triggering topics for you, this is probably not the fic for you. Stay safe and take care of yourself!)

AO3

Actual fic under the cut:

Scott didn’t expect to survive 3rd life. No one did, he thinks, but especially not him. Clever, clever Scott, who knew his fate too well for his own good. He could have chosen his allies carefully, he knows, could have played on their emotions to make them think he was loyal until the moment he turned on them to win. He knew who the strongest factions and warriors were, the most cunning and intelligent participants in this death game they were forced into. Instead, he chose Jimmy. Sweet, dopey Jimmy, who had the personality of a golden retriever and only a handful of braincells at any given time. Jimmy, who was worth more than all the stars in the sky to him. Who made him feel alive . No, Scott didn’t expect to win. Not when it was Jimmy by his side- when it was Jimmy by his side, winning didn’t matter. All that mattered was Jimmy’s blush when Scott pressed a kiss to his cheek, the way his hair looked like gold in the sunlight and his smile lit up Scott’s whole world.

After Jimmy died, Scott stopped wanting to survive 3rd life. What was the point? The stars can shine on without the sun, but all life on Earth would wither and die. The same happened to Scott’s broken, bitter heart, he found. Jimmy was the first person in years to love him truly, wholly, with no strings attached; it was terrifying how quickly Scott fell for the first person to look at him and not expect him to be anything but what he was. Scott’s world, which used to be mountain peaks and endless blue sky, narrowed to warm brown eyes and a grin like sunshine quicker than he could comprehend. Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, it all came back to him. What was Scott without Jimmy? The unwanted twin, the unloved child, the un-elven elf. Because who cared if he was a good shot with a bow or good at organizing teams or building pretty little houses? He would always be second-born, second-best.

It was fitting, really, that when Scott died, he died alone. Some might find it ironic that the man who knew enough people to fill the roster of a championship held by a god every month died without a single person to witness it save his enemies, but in the end, it was always going to be like this, Scott knew. He hadn’t been there to see Jimmy die, he hadn’t been able to hold him in his final moments and soothe the agony of death. Maybe this was his punishment. He wouldn’t be surprised; the gods of this world did not smile on him and never would. Why should they, when he had failed the only person who had ever found him good enough?

When he woke up in Rivendell, he was almost disappointed. Almost. He considered ditching the rest of the elves, up and leaving to somewhere that didn’t make it feel like the noose of immortality was slowly tightening around his neck. If nothing else, Noxite would let him crash at the MCC server for a bit until he found somewhere to go. And yet, in the end, Scott’s stubborn sense of duty won out. The elves needed a ruler. Xornoth had disappeared to god knows where, and though they had been braver, wiser, better in every way, Scott was the one who had stayed. Who was willing to take up the crown that weighed so heavily on its bearers. So Scott, who no one ever expected to rule, took up the burden of leadership.

Now, he tries and fails to get out of bed and wonders what the point of that even was. He’s fading, and worse than that, he’s fading over a human. His ancestors are probably rolling in their graves. Rivendell will be leaderless within a decade, and this time there are no heirs to take control. Not even a ‘spare’ like Scott used to be. What a mess.

There are footsteps on the stairs. They’re unfamiliar, meaning they could be a threat, but he’s too tired to bother sitting up. If he dies, well- it’s inevitable, really, in the same way watching the mortals he loves dies is.

The person comes around the corner, and Scott realizes with no joy that he won’t be dying today after all. Katherine looks both curious and concerned, but her voice tilts towards the latter when she asks “Scott?” and then, more hesitantly “Lord Smajor?”

He blinks at her, exhausted. “Hi, Katherine.”

“I came to talk to you about some empires stuff, but, I mean, if this is a bad time, I can come back later…?” She sounds so thrown off by his state that Scott almost feels bad.

Whatever it is, it must be important if she’s come all the way here, though, so he gestures her to a chair. “No, no, stay. I can muster the energy for a meeting, just don’t ask me to get up.”

Katherine takes the seat. “I came to talk about the corruption on the server, but- are you okay? Are you sick?”

Nothing about the question is funny in any way, but Scott laughs regardless. “In a way, yes.”

“What do you mean?”

“Take my hand.” He offers it out, knowing the unnatural cold is unsettling no matter if you’re elven or not. Katherine does as he asks, the concern on her face only growing as she grips his icy hand.

“Elves don’t get sick like mortals do,” Scott explains. “Nor do we die of old age. But we get...heartsickness, you might call it. We call it fading in our tongue- the cold hands are a symptom of that. Our souls are fragile, and the grief of the mortal plane can be overwhelming. If an elf is too struck by it, they fade away and die.” The words taste bitter on his tongue, a frank reminder of the slow and painful death that awaits him.

Katherine gasps, and Scott knows he’s alarmed her.

He goes on, though. “It usually happens to old elves, world-weary.” Ironic, it’s ironic that he’s saying that as a young elf explaining his own death. “Those who are tired of existence. But any elf who has experienced enough grief is at risk.”

Her face is nothing short of horrified. “You’re- fading? But doesn’t it usually happen to old elves? Wait, are you old?”

“I’m fifty-five.”

“Is that old?”

He has to laugh. “Fifty is the elven equivalent of eighteen for humans, the age of maturity.” Though he feels so much older than that, both in elven terms and in human.

“Oh.”

There’s a moment of silence, then, “How can you be so calm if you’re dying?”

“I’m tired, Katherine. The world tore me away from the people I loved, and..I’m tired of fighting it.” He’s so, so exhausted. So sick of having to claw and scrape and struggle for the barest scraps of happiness.

“Is there a way to reverse fading- to fix it?” Katherine sounds so hopeful that the question seems almost naive even though she’s far more capable of a ruler than he is. Naive in the affairs of elves, maybe, much as she’s intelligent in so many other ways.

Scott tries not to flinch at the innocent inquiry, thinking about the deaths from fading that he’s watched. “Technically, yes. If an elf recovers enough emotionally, it’s reversible. But whatever caused them to fade the first time can- and often does- cause it again.” And again, and again, until there’s nothing to be done but let them die , he finishes in his head.

Katherine nods, a look of determination overtaking the hope. “We’ll just have to reverse it, then.”

“That’s sweet, Katherine, but I’m dying.”

“No. You’re not going to die. Now come on, you can show me your empire while I fill you in on what’s happening on the rest of the continent.” She sounds so firm that he doesn’t dare disobey, though his exhaustion makes a fair effort at convincing him to. Will this really fix anything? Unlikely. But it’s worth it to try, if only to humor Katherine. At least this way she’ll have the comfort of having tried to save him when he inevitably fades away into nothing

Scott takes her hand, though it brings him little warmth, cold from her trek here. “Alright.” He swallows the bitter grief in his throat before it can seep into his words. “We can try.”

He leads Katherine around Rivendell, taking some pride in the way she oohs over the decor. If there’s one thing he can do right, it’s building. While some elven rulers might see it as below themselves to help build houses for their citizens, Scott finds building soothing. It’s one of the few skills he picked up during his time away that people really appreciate; no one wants to live in a shitty house.

As they walk, she also tells Scott about the demon, Xornoth. “The demon’s already visited a lot of people, I think. Gem and Shubble for sure, and Fwhip and Sausage. That’s not even mentioning the corruption that’s been spreading.”

If Scott said that the name Xornoth didn’t make him flinch, he would be lying to himself. It’s not your sibling , he tells himself. It’s just a coincidence .

It’s through the virtue of years of lying that his voice comes out steady. “There’s corruption in Rivendell too. Likely Xornoth’s work. And given that Jimmy still has Vilya-” his heart doesn’t ache when he says Jimmy’s name, it doesn’t- “well, I haven’t been able to do much.”

“Vilya?” Katherine asks.

“A ring of power. My inheritance from the Noldor.”

“Why does Jimmy have it?”

He doesn’t answer. He won’t- can’t talk about Jimmy, not without remembering how he looked with an arrow through his throat, bright smile gone and face frozen in fear. How does he explain how much Jimmy meant to him? How much he’s now giving up, knowing he’ll have to lose it one way or another?

Katherine drops the topic, seemingly sensing that she’s stumbled on something sensitive. When she has to go home, she leaves with a friendly goodbye and a promise to visit, and Scott believes neither. Who would put the effort into visiting him? He’s not a good friend, he’s not a good king, and god knows he’s not a good husband. In fact, he’s actively avoiding his husband. He may have kept the pufferfish Jimmy gave him, but that doesn’t mean anything. He can’t fall in love with Jimmy again. Loving Jimmy will kill him. (Scott ignores the small voice at the back of his head that whispers that he’s still in love with Jimmy and it’s already killing him just as he always knew it would.)

To his surprise, Katherine does come back next week, and the week after that. He’s ashamed to admit it, but there’s some part of him that’s pathetically grateful when she shows up at his doorstep. It’s a chance to not be alone . Much as he dreads the day when she finally gives up on him, it’s nice that someone cares enough to try and save him from himself.

The third week, Katherine doesn’t show up. Instead, the footsteps on the stairs are familiar in a way that makes Scott’s heart twist painfully.

He takes a deep breath. “Hello, Jimmy.”

“How’d you know it was me?” Jimmy asks. Scott can tell he’s startled by the way his voice goes up, almost frightened.

Scott steels himself, taking a deep breath before rolling over to face his ex-husband. “Do you think I could ever forget the sound of your footsteps?” He forces himself to not get distracted staring at Jimmy, instead going on before Jimmy can open his mouth. “What are you doing here?”

“Katherine asked me to visit, I’m not sure why, but...here I am. Say, why is she visiting every week?” Jimmy’s so curious. So naive, as always.

Scott laughs, bitter. “Katherine thinks she can save me.”

“Save you from what?”

Scott hears the concern in Jimmy’s words, and he can’t bring himself to break the news. It’s not as if it matters. It’s not as if Jimmy would care; he came here because of Katherine. Maybe he cared at the start of Empires, but Scott’s been nothing but rude to him since. There’s no reason for him to care. (He cares. Scott’s lying, like always. Jimmy cares and Scott knows it.)

“Save you from what?” Jimmy asks again, more insistently.

He refuses to say it. He needs Jimmy out, out of his room and out of his life before he does something he’ll regret. “You should go.” To prove his point, he tries to stand, finding himself too dizzy to quite pull it off. Jimmy rushes to catch him, and Scott hates himself just a little for how that still gives him a warm feeling.

“Scott, what is going on?”

He brushes Jimmy off, letting go of his arm and hurrying for the stairs. He can’t let Jimmy work his way into his heart again; Scott won’t be strong enough to let him go this time.

“Scott, seriously! Answer me, are you okay? What’s happening?” Jimmy sounds almost angry, but Scott can hear the distress under it and that’s what breaks him.

“I’m fading, alright?” His voice nearly breaks at the concern on Jimmy’s face when he whirls to face him. “I’m dying, now leave me alone!”

Jimmy sputters, seemingly caught off guard. “You- what- but elves don’t die, right?”

“We do. From poison, from swords-” Scott thinks back to third life- “from arrows through the throat, from grief.” The words come out more raw than he intends, leaving him scrambling to recover his composure. He takes a deep breath in and out, forcing his voice to steady again. “Come on. If you’re not going to leave, I might as well show you around.”

“You can’t just drop something like that on a man, you know!” Jimmy calls after him, although Scott can hear his footsteps following as well.

“You did ask, to be fair.” Scott replies. His voice is calm. He’s fine.

“I guess so, but- but still, dude.”

Scott pushes open the side door, holding it for Jimmy. “Here.”

Jimmy nods and slips through the door. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Scott starts towards the bridges, intending to show Jimmy the enchanting tower and then the door. He doesn’t care about how fast he’s walking, Jimmy can keep up. He’s taller than Scott and probably has better balance at the moment too. Scott’s struggling not to fall, honestly, but his pride won’t let him go slower.

Jimmy breaks the awkward silence with the question Scott least wants to hear. “So, uh..are we going to talk about 3rd life?”

“No,” Scott says firmly.

“Why not? We need to talk about it some time-”

“I said no .” He can’t talk about it.

“It’s literally killing you to not talk about it!”

The words strike right at the raw wound of Jimmy’s death, and Scott freezes. Inhales. Exhales. Tries to keep calm.

“Tell me I’m wrong, Scott!” Jimmy cries. He sounds so upset, Scott’s heart aches. “I dare you, tell me I’m wrong! Tell me you never cared about me, tell me you didn’t bother to bury me, tell me it didn’t hurt even a little when I died! Tell me I was just stupid little Jimmy, a toy for an elf who’d live far beyond my lifespan! Tell me whatever, just tell me the truth! ”

Scott takes a deep breath. “Fine. You want to know what happened after you died?” He can’t think straight through the rage clouding his head, the desperate need to prove that Jimmy’s wrong , that Scott loved him so much it’s killing him. “You want to hear about me screaming until my throat went raw? You want to know that I kissed your face and sobbed and begged you to wake up, over and over until I couldn’t speak at all? You want to live with the knowledge that Grian had to physically pull me away from your body? Is that what you want to hear, Jimmy? ” His voice damn near breaks on his husband’s name, and Scott thanks the gods he stopped believing in a long time ago that it doesn’t.

“No,” Jimmy says. His voice is soft, gentle, almost as if Scott is a wounded animal that needs a delicate touch. “That’s not what I want to hear, not at all. I’d rather you be happy than love me.”

The words punch the air from Scott’s lungs, raw and soft and real. Scott is an excellent liar. Jimmy isn’t. Scott knows that Jimmy is telling the truth. What he doesn’t know is how to handle that level of devotion. He wonders again how Jimmy- sweet, genuine Jimmy who wears his heart on his sleeve and is hopelessly devoted to an elf who can’t be fully his- chose Scott of all people. Scott, who’s as bitter as Jimmy is sweet, who’s sarcastic and snarky and hasn’t been good enough for just about anything in his life. He certainly wasn’t good enough to save Jimmy, Scott thinks bitterly.

He shakes off the thought. “I buried you on the hill above our houses. I planted a poppy over your grave.”

“Oh.”

“Grian came over the next day. I didn’t want to see anyone who wasn’t you, but I let him in because I had to. He helped me do the straps on my armor and asked me if he could do anything else to make things easier. I told him to bury me next to you.”

“Did he?”

Scott almost laughs at the innocent question. “How would I know? Grian was honorable enough, though, loyal to his allies. I like to think he did.”

“He was a good guy,” Jimmy agrees. “A little bit bloodthirsty, I guess, but good. I don’t suppose he survived any better than the rest of us, though maybe being bloodthirsty helped.”

“Maybe.”

“Can I- can I ask you why you hate me so much now?” Jimmy’s tone is uncertain, hesitant and it hurts . “I mean, if you mourned me in third life and all.”

Scott looks away from his earnest gaze, but he can’t stop the truth slipping out. “I don’t hate you.”

“You don’t?” Jimmy asks, seemingly bewildered. “But you burned the pufferfish-”

“I didn’t. I kept it.” Scott doesn’t want to think about this, wants to say it even less. “I never hated you. I don’t think I’m capable of it.”

“Then why do you keep avoiding me?”

“I’ve been kind of busy dying,” Scott says wryly, unable to resist a bit of morbid humor at his own expense.

“Scott! That’s not funny!”

“It was a little funny.”

“No!”

Jimmy sounds genuinely distressed, and Scott drops the wry smile. “Jimmy, I’m an elf. I won’t live far beyond you, but only because I’ll fade without you.” It’s a simple statement. The truth, as much as he can give.

“So your solution is to isolate yourself and fade now?” Jimmy’s outrage is justifiable, but Scott just shrugs.

“It does sound stupid when you put it like that, doesn’t it?” It really does. “But I lost you once, and I don’t think I could bear it again.”

A hand lands on Scott’s arm, and he turns, startled. Jimmy doesn’t give him time to react, throwing his arms around Scott and pulling him close. Scott almost lets out a very undignified squeak at the sudden contact, though he slowly relaxes into Jimmy’s hold.

He should pull away. He shouldn’t give Jimmy false hope like this. But Jimmy is so warm , and Scott is so unbearably cold. Every fiber of his being is screaming that this is what’s right; screw Rivendell and obligations and too-heavy crowns, Jimmy is home to him. He’s warm for the first time in months, and the most heartbreaking part is that it can’t last. He can’t do this again.

He pulls away, ignoring the painful hope on Jimmy’s face. “I’m sorry, Jimmy.” For the first time all conversation, his voice well and truly wobbles. “I can’t. Not again.”

“But-”

Scott shakes his head. “Losing you will destroy me. We dared to love, and now all we can do now is lessen the pain when it all comes crashing down.” The words are like glass in his throat, but he forces them out anyways. They have to be said.

Jimmy’s silent, and it hurts more than if Jimmy had yelled at him.

“Goodbye, Jimmy,” Scott manages, turning away before Jimmy can see the way his face twists in pain. He makes his retreat as quickly as possible, stumbling and nearly taking a tumble just before he reaches the door. Unlike before, there’s no helpful ex-husband there to catch him, to make sure he’s alright and ask a million questions until Scott’s forced to admit that he’s not okay and hasn’t been in a long time.

He fumbles with the latch, hands shaking and vision blurring. Finally, it clicks, and Scott stumbles inside and slams the door shut before sliding to the ground. He won’t cry. He won’t . He doesn’t love Jimmy, he can’t love Jimmy anymore. Jimmy was never meant to be his. They might have carved out a few precious moments, stolen them from the universe and giggled like kids with their hands in the cookie jar as they kissed amongst the flowers, but those brief moments were all they were ever going to be allowed. It was always going to end this way, Scott tells himself. There’s no use crying over a mortal who will be dead in the blink of an eye to an elf. What would his parents say? That this was typical of him, probably. Typical Scott, always wanting what he would never be able to have. Typical, predictable Scott, loving a mortal who shouldn’t be worth anything to him.

He’s crying. There are tears spotting his cyan robes, splashing onto the wood floors he worked so hard on. Scott rubs at his eyes furiously, but that only makes it worse, sobs shuddering through him and leaving him hollow and aching. He’s so cold . The ache in his chest has returned tenfold, stealing away his breath, and he curls further into himself, struggling for air.

He’s going to die. He is going to die , alone on the floor of his house because he fell for someone he couldn’t have. For all that he’s spent every minute since Jimmy’s death in 3rd life wishing for some way out of this cruel world, he’s terrified now that it seems inevitable. He’s scared in a way he hasn’t been in forever, breath coming quick and shallow. He's scared, and he is so, so tired of this ache that haunts him, the chill that he can never get rid of.

“Jimmy,” Scott whispers. There’s no way for the human to hear him, but the name brings him some comfort. “ Jimmy .” He wants his husband. He wants someone to hug him. He doesn’t want to fade away freezing and alone, no one there to hold his hand or reassure him that the pain will be over soon. Internally, he begs for someone, anyone who cares to come looking. To find him, even if they’re too late to save him. Someone. Anyone. Please.

No one comes, and Scott lays on his floor until his breathing steadies out again. His head spins when he forces himself to his feet, and he has to lean against the wall for a few moments. There’s no time for dramatics, he tells himself sternly. He has a kingdom to rule. He cannot afford to break over a mortal he never should have fallen for in the first place. He doesn’t love Jimmy anymore, he can’t .

(He’s lying. But Scott has always been an excellent liar, even when it’s to himself.)

#scott smajor #jimmy solidarity #empires smp #i maintag my fic because i dont fear god or scott smajor #my writing

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kbandtrash · 3 years

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SKZ Mafia Bullet Point

~Rachel~

@call-me-horangi thanks for the request!

Masterlist

I. I didn't have to do it like this. What did I create. Anyway next up Megan wanted to do one too so that's the next update

Word Count: 1.6k

I have chosen Chan because I’m baaaasiiiiiiic

But anyway you were both born into the life of organized crime

Your families were friendly with each other so like you were supposed to be bestest friends and fated lovers right??

No.

You haaaaaated each other as kids

He had this reputation of good rule following child but actually? Was just really good at never getting caught

You didn’t like the rules and you were loud about it but did you follow them? Yeah

Did you always get in trouble anyway? Yeah

Did Chan always manage to get you in trouble for things he did? Also yeah

You would try to get people to see that he was a little turd and sometimes they would listen but usually they would be like

Little baby sweetheart Chan???? Noooooo never

After a while you decided that if Chan wanted to be an exception to the rules then he could be an exception to the rules

So you would antagonize him constantly

The amount of times you locked him outside when he shouldn’t have been there in the first place

Or the time you stained his shirt with grape juice right before he was supposed to take pictures

So yeah as kids you were at each other’s necks constantly it was really back and forth

Neither of you was really better than the other

It got better when you were both sent to separate private schools for middle school and you didn’t see each other so much

But if you did have to see each other it was on sight

You never punched him and his stupid little smirk but man oh man did you get close

In high school your parents managed to finesse both of you into the same school

Not only that but the school put you both in the same class

And it would have been a disaster except!

His school friends were amazing!

In fact the reason you remember your relationship turning around was because they would tease him whenever the two of you started fighting

One day in particular you remembered he was trying to rile you up by getting right up in your face

And one of his boys shouted “KISS”

Even still today, many years later, you wish someone had taken a picture of his face

You didn’t know eyes could become so big and round

Never before or since had you seen ears so bright red

For many months later he was barely able to look you in the eyes

And when he was forced to talk to you he was much more polite

At some point in your last year of school, one of your friends started dating one of his friends

And the friend groups started to mesh together

So you were spending even more time together than normal

Suddenly he was much easier to be around

Maybe because you ignored each other for the most part

Wow I’m spending way more time on this backstory than I should

Anyway

You managed to graduate on a decent note

You don’t remember the pictures being taken, but there’s one graduation photo with both of your friend groups not only with both of you in it

That used to be a struggle when you were younger

But you were both standing next to each other

And not only that!

But there’s another photo of just the two of you

Something that would have been entirely impossible in your younger years

But you had your arm around his shoulder!

He had his hand on your waist!

One might think, looking at the picture, that you were friends at that point

Maybe you were, but you didn’t remember it that way

This is entirely stream of thought guys I’m just writing everything that comes to mind

You weren’t willingly associating yourself with him at least until after college

You were on one side of the country, he was on the other

You saw each other maybe a handful of times over the course of four years

And they say absence makes the heart grow fonder

Very clearly you still remember the first time you saw him after you graduated

You were at the main headquarters for the front for your family business, almost done with training for the work you would be doing for then

And then in walks the handsomest boy you’d ever seen in your life

It took you a second to recognize him

Not because he had changed much physically

Sure, he was dressed quite a bit nicer than you remembered

And his hair was styled differently than he used to like

But his entire countenance was different

The way he carried himself radiated confidence and maturity

He was confident before but now? He had earned his confidence

And his smile

Jisung was easy to recognize walking in with him

They were talking about something as they walked in those doors

And suddenly both started laughing

Had his smile always been that captivating?

Hadn’t you hated it before?

No, this couldn’t be more different than his stupid arrogant smirk

It would have been very embarrassing if you had kept staring at them as they approached you

Luckily the employee that was training you managed to get you back on task before they noticed you

So when Jisung noticed you and called your name, you were at least somewhat prepared and kept your pride

Except then you turned and saw Chan smiling again

At you

And your brain short circuited a little bit

Because he was even prettier smiling like that

At you

What

It was not long after that that you ended up hanging out together just the two of you

On purpose

Also what

Since when would you have ever willingly spent time one on one with Chan?

Never

But there you were hanging out like you were old friends rather than fated rivals

Wham Bam you were dating so fast

It was almost a little shameful how willing you were to throw away a 20+ year feud

But! He had thrown it away too so

The only pride you had to lose was your families teasing you

Every other second at any gathering

“I told you they would end up together”

“I still remember you as ten-year-olds screaming at each other”

Like thanks? How are you supposed to respond to that

“Aren’t you glad you grew out of that?”

Um yeah I’m glad Chan and I both grew up I guess

“Oh finally”

Oh well

It was not long before you earned the reputation of Bonnie and Clyde within your circle

Sticky situations followed you left and right

But through The Power of Love

And perhaps much experience in self-defense classes and firearm training

But mostly through The Power of Love

You managed to get yourselves out of these situations pretty flawlessly every time

And! Thanks to your extensive experience tormenting each other as children

The two of you are excellent at getting information out of people

It usually goes a little something like

“I will tell you what you want to know if you will pLEASE just SHUT UP”

Anyway

Usually since you were technically considered higher-ups due to your parents’ status you wouldn’t really get involved so much in the dirty stuff

But you both got a little more caught up in the diplomatic stuff

Which for some reason when it involves you two

It tends to get kind of messy

Why do they even let you guys do this kind of stuff anymore?

Compromise only recently got added to both of your playbooks

More often than not you always end up sitting together in someone’s kitchen patching each other up

Thankfully you’ve never had any terribly close calls

But that leads me to my next point

Boy proposed in the middle of a shootout

Not because it was now or never or anything like that

Just because he felt like it was the dramatic background he needed

He would have been nervous otherwise but like in the middle of a shootout?

He was a lot more worried about getting shot

Or more like you getting shot I guess

Anyway he was a lot more worried about that than about you saying no

Kinda stupid looking back actually

What if he had distracted you and then you got shot and died

But that didn’t happen so!

Anyone that responded with a patronizing comment about your childhoods was uninvited to the wedding

Except not really because this is not the business to be making enemies for petty reasons

But they definitely earned a spot in whatever secret hit list y’all keep together for little things

Venting conversations usually go a little something like

“Please tell me why my aunt is trying to invite herself on our honeymoon”

“Should I ring up Jeongin?”

“If you don’t want my aunt sleeping on our couch then yeah probably”

“Ew nope yeah Jeongin air shot between the toes I’m texting him now”

“Chan wait--”

How on earth do I wrap this up this is a first for me

This was not extremely mafia heavy BUT

Anyway the wedding has not happened yet but when it does

There will most certainly be a secret afterparty for people who deserve it

And another secret afterparty for your friends

Most days actually that’s like the only thing keeping you going

Weddings are stressful but wow add in the organized crime aspect?

So much more to think about

You and Chan are both pretty stressed these days

But at least at the end of the day you’ve got each other to lean on :)

~fin~

#stray kids #stray kids chan #bang chan #bang chan stray kids #stray kids bang chan #chan stray kids #bang chan x reader #stray kids mafia au #my word what have i done

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oboevallis · 3 years

Note

When are you posting part 5 of 'who is he' ?

right now 🤪, sorry it’s kinda rushed, this is kind of a transition chapter sooooo sorry, i hope everyone’s doing well and staying safe!!!!

who is he pt 5

Link sat in the familiar waiting room with his mother. Suddenly remembering the time he had to break the news to a heartbroken boyfriend, that despite their best efforts, they couldn’t save his girlfriend. All the doctors on the case knew she was a goner when she came in. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, a stowaway jumping out of a plane and onto this poor girl. After the conversation with the broken college kid, he went back to Amelia’s, and that was the first time he confessed how he was starting to fall in love with her. He could almost feel her hands guiding him to the small bump. He shook the memory out of his head and rested his head against his hands, willing himself not to throw up.

“Is there anything I can get for you?” Maureen asked; she didn’t know what was happening, but from what she pieced together, a woman who she assumed was her son's partner was in a car crash. The man shook his head, clueless about what to do. She stood up to make her way to the coffee cart she saw as they came into the hospital. While she stood in line, she listened to a conversation behind her by two surgeons.

“How’s she doing?” Maggie asked as Meredith met up with her at the coffee cart line.

“Not good; how’s Scout?”

“Fast asleep in my office, Winston is with him. Have you called her mom yet?”

“I did. This was the second time I called this woman to tell her that her neurosurgeon child has been in a car crash and getting emergency brain surgery.”

“Well, technically, Derek never had emergency brain surgery.” Maggie tried to joke, as Amelia would in a situation like this, but by the look on Merediths face, she realized it wasn’t a very good joke. “You really don’t think she’s gonna pull through?”

“She’s strong, but her brain has already been through a physical trauma with the brain tumor removal. She’s not a kid, so it was still just CSF fluid where that tumor was and now with the bleed...”

“She’s gonna pull through,” Maggie affirmed; she needed her sister to stay alive. There was still so much Amelia had to do with her life. She needed to see Scout grow up, and they also had to get around to that trip to Paris the two sisters always talked about.

“I don’t think we ever talked about what happens to Scout if something happened to her.” Meredith suddenly realized, how have they not had that conversation?

“He stays with Winston and I.” Maggie confirmed; after he was born, Amelia made sure to have all the papers in order and ready for Maggie to sign. “Everything’s set; she made sure of it, especially being a single parent she didn’t want him to be without.”

“What about Link?”

“He’s not on the paperwork, and I don’t think they’ve told him yet. Speaking of Link, has someone called him?”

“Yeah, I did. I think he’s here somewhere. After I get my coffee, I’m going to check on Amelia’s progress and then find him, let him know what’s going on.”

“Alright, I’m gonna take Scout back home; just try to get him out of here.”

“He’s not gonna want to leave, and you know that.”

“It’s worth a shot. I want to try and give him some normalcy before everything falls apart. Either way, if she lives or doesn’t, it’s going to be hell.”

_______________________________________

Maureen handed a cup of coffee to her son and sat down next to him, trying to process the information she just heard. How could her son not tell her about this? How could he get someone pregnant and not be there for her and his child? Though she had a million questions running through her head, she refrained. The woman from the coffee cart started to approach, and Link eagerly stood up to talk with her.

“How is she?” Link desperately asked.

“Hanging in there, her vitals aren’t great, and Tom is having trouble evacuating the bleed. Her internal injuries have been all patched up, though.” The man quickly wiped his tears and nodded; it wasn’t good or bad news. “How’s Scout?”

“He’s with Maggie and her husband.” link was taken aback, realizing this was probably his son's father figure. “He’s just shaken up and wants Amelia. He’ll be just fine, though. It’ll be a while before she’s out of surgery. It would help if you went home. I’ll call you when she’s out.”

“No, I’ll stay.” Link affirmed, going back to his seat. Meredith nodded and walked away, going back to the gallery to observe.

________________________________________

“I wanna see mommy.” Scout defiantly said as Winston was carrying him, Maggie following behind them.

“We’ll come back, and we’re just gonna get you fed and maybe take a nap,” Winston explained, trying to control the squirming child.

“No!”

“We’ll get donuts.” Maggie tried to bargain.

“No!” Scout said as he wiggled out of the man's grasp.

“Come on, bud.” Maggie grabbed the boy before he could runoff.

“Can we please just stay?” Scout begged as he jumped on one of the lobby’s chairs. “I wanna be here when mommy’s out of surgery.”

“Alright.” Maggie sadly smiled; sitting next to the boy, Winston sat on the other side of him. “We’ll wait.”

Link tentatively watched from the other side of the waiting room, hating he wasn’t the one comforting his son.

“He looks like you.” Maureen gently said as she observed the scene on the other side.

“What?” Link abruptly asked.

“I’ve connected the dots as we’ve been here. That’s your son.” She smiled, taking her son's hand in her own. As much as she wanted to scold her son, she knew this wasn’t the time. “What’s his name?”

“Scout.” He smiled as he watched the boy curl up against Maggie, as the woman’s leg bounced up and down, remembering how Amelia would gently tease Maggie about her anxiety.

“Really?” The woman asked, taken aback, surprised their names came from the same book. She wondered if the boy's mother did that purposefully, always to have a part of her son with the boy.

“Yeah, he’s the best.” He smiled, holding back the tears that threatened to escape. “He’s so so smart, and he’s absolutely obsessed with marine life. He’s planning to be a marine biologist. Also, a big fan of the Mariners; I still have to take him to a proper game. His first one was cut short.” He thought back to that day, the first time he saw his son.

“Seems like a great kid.”

“He is.” Link nodded, trying to suppress all the feelings that were flooding his mind.

“She’ll be okay,” Maureen affirmed, praying it was true. Link suddenly realized Meredith was walking towards Maggie and got up to join them.

“She’s out of surgery; we won’t know much until she wakes up. Which could be a while.”

“Can I see her?” Scout asked, shocking the adults, as they didn’t realize he was awake.

“Not yet.” Meredith sadly smiled, knowing how close the two were.

“When can I see her then?”

“As soon as she’s awake and feeling better.” Maggie comforted, pulling the boy into a hug.

“Do you think she’ll want a donut when she wakes up?”

“Probably not.” Winston chuckled, ruffling the boy's hair. “I’m guessing you want one, though, huh?”

“No, but donuts always make mommy feel better when she’s sad.”

“I’m sure the minute she’s out of here, she’d love a donut.” Link smiled, trying to cheer the boy up but to be met with a glare from Meredith.

“Now Scout, your gonna go home with Maggie and Winston, take a nap and have some lunch, then you can come back, I promise.” Scout looked between the two before hesitantly nodding and allowed Winston to carry him out of the hospital.

“What were you thinking?” Meredith scolded once the boy was out of earshot.

“Huh? You led it on like she’s going to be fine.”

“I said we wouldn’t know before she woke up; it took a while for her to wake up from her tumor removal, so now, I don't really know what to expect.”

#amelia shepherd #amelink #atticus lincoln #greys anatomy #greysanatomy #greys anatomy fanfic #greys fanfic #Maureen Lincoln #maggie pierce #meredith grey #winston ndugu #scout lincoln #scout derek shepherd lincoln

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julyarchives · 3 years

Text

Scintilla (M)

Having to deal with the most handsome and cocky nemesis can be fun when that person is Yanan

→ Pairing: Yanan x Female Reader

→ Genre: Smut

→ Words: 2.6K

→ Contains: Smut; Enemies To Lovers; Mafia AU, Semi-public sex.

→ A/n: This was very fun to write and we may have gotten carried away, hence the word count lol. We truly hope you guys enjoy it, we think there’s too little Yanan on our blog so we decided that the next story will also be an Yanan imagine, although the plot will be completely diferent. Good reading!

Check the sequel HERE

You were born into this, but it wasn't like you are involved against your will. Your father is the head of an organization that runs half of the city through technically not legal ways. People call it mafia, you call it a family. You learned from your father how to be a good leader, how to be tough, and to not let anyone step over you. You were ready to make this organization your legacy and nobody could take that from you.

Except for one person.

The other half of the city is taken by a different organization. An enemy. And just like you, someone else wants to make their legacy. His name is Yanan and he is the prodigy you should keep an eye on, the one who threatens everything you stand for.

Yanan and you have been in war since you can remember always racing to be one step ahead of the other. You two wanted different things, had different visions that clashed and were not possible to execute simultaneously. You were mafia but you had your morals, and what his crew does is not what you want for the city, and that's why things never go well if you two are in the same room. Today is one day that you two have to be in the same room. Your dad is meeting with his, the current leaders, to discuss the limits and business, and you two as heirs will be attending.

Sitting on opposite sides of the table, Yanan simply does not stop staring at you. He has this stupid smirk on his face, like he knows all your secrets, presumptuously assuming he has some kind of upper hand. At some point, you two were excused so they would discuss private aspects reserved for them only.

You stood at the door, and he positioned himself by your side, lazily leaning against the wall.

“You know, y/n” Yanan was the first to break the silence between you “coming to these meetings is always so fun.

You rolled your eyes, already anticipating some snarky remark from him.

“Why is that, Yanan?” you said impatiently

“Because one day it will be us there, and I’m pretty sure I can have you on your knees for me.” His smirk grew wider “figuratively, of course”

He winked and your stomach turned.

“Gross.” You simply answered “And as if. I’ll have you destroyed in no time. Your little business will be nothing once I’m in command”

“Cute” he chuckled.

"You know what's cute?", you smirked at him. He hummed in answer. "You, wasting my time to brag about your defeat".

You walked away, leaving a laughing Yanan behind. You had no idea why the banter between you never ceased, you both sounded like teenagers sometimes and he annoyed you to no end but as you took your place at the driver's seat in your car, you smiled without thinking.

All the Yanan situation was forgotten as you arrived at the nightclub. You were supposed to meet a guy there, a date a friend got you swearing the guy was hot enough to forget about some felonies. In the state you were in, all you wanted was to get laid so you agreed. The club was not packed, it was not a full day but still seemed like fun, the music was loud by the dance floor but the bar and the entrance had music low enough to hear people talking. You spotted some familiar faces from your gang and some others from Yanan's, the club being a very middle term and neutral place in town.

The guy spotted you as you spotted Yanan coming back from the bathroom doors and for a second you were confused. The guy was all smiles at you but your eyes seemed too curious about Yanan's posture, you hated seeing him here, he always managed to look extremely hot at the club. Shaking those thoughts away, you turned to the guy, finally giving him your full attention, not before seeing Yanan wink at you. You took a seat by a couch, with the guy close to you. Your friend was somewhat right, the guy was kinda cute, but didn't quite match your tastes but you swore to give him a chance.

An hour later you regretted even leaving home. The guy was such a bore you couldn't stand, his voice was annoying you in a way you never thought possible. His only subjects were his family history and his adventures. Many ridiculous adventures. Not once he asked you about yourself, just speaking nonstop with the cockiest grin ever. Once he tried to touch your thighs but you shook his hand away and ordered your fourth drink.

"Hi, sorry to interrupt", someone said just as you were praying for the first time in your life for a rescue.

Looking up you scoffed. Of course, God sent you Yanan to rescue, like a mean genie that twisted your wish. The asshole was hotter up close and that annoyed you even more. You realized that you truly needed to get laid, more than ever, to even consider Yanan this attractive.

"Y/N. Urgent call, sweetheart. You know, heir business".

The boring dude asked something about heirs but you got up immediately. Business was business and any chance to leave the guy was a chance. You followed Yanan closely to the back doors and sighed in relief when you get fresh air outside. Yanan leaned against the wall and lit a cigarette lazily, he had a very much shit-eating grin and wiggled his eyebrows at you. It all clicked.

"There's no call, is there?", you asked, already leaning on the opposite wall and taking the cigarette pack and lighter from him. He managed a small "no" between his grin as you lit your own cigarette freshly stolen from him.

"Why were you with that idiot?", he asked seriously after some minutes of silence. The alley was well lit enough but seemed cut off from the rush of the club.

"I honestly don't know. A friend set us up but that was such a stupid idea", you laughed at your own misery. You didn't even know why you were being so honest with him. Maybe it was the drinks, maybe the frustration.

"Do you need to get laid that bad, Y/N?", he scoffed, "that idiot tried to get in with our business once. He was so stupid he got arrested a week later picking pockets at a football game".

That made you crack. You laughed hard, thinking of how lame the guy was, your power situation always being your most proud deed. You finished your cigarette and tried to light another but Yanan snatched it from you, pocketing the items before you managed to get one cigarette out.

"Shut up, Yanan", you said, crossing your arms almost like a stubborn child whose toy got snatched.

"I mean it, is that how desperate you are?", he moved his head to the side, analyzing you. Shit. For a second you wondered if all his endless innuendos with you actually meant something that you never read but dismissed it quickly. No way. Yeah, he was hot but he was a cocky annoying enemy and you were just lonely.

"What kind of question is that, Yanan? Are you that interested in my sex life?"

"Yes", his simple answer shocked you, your mouth agape. He smirked. "I almost never see you with someone and always wondered why. I think you're too hot to be that lonely, you know?"

"I never see you with someone either", was your smart comeback and you wanted to kick yourself.

"Who's interested in who's sex life now, Y/N?"

"Shut up, Yanan", you said with no bite, looking away from him.

"Maybe…", he said it like he was architecting a plan, "maybe I am a bit lonely as well. I mean, I get you perfectly, don't I? We have the same position, same problems…", he got close to you in seconds and you didn't even hear it, soon enough he had a finger running along your neck to your scalp, "same needs".

You'd definitely blame the alcohol tomorrow. And the boring guy. But right now you couldn't care less, he was blatantly teasing you and he did make sense. You both had similar life and of course, you two were lonely, in this line of work and life you can't trust anyone. Or almost anyone. That was your resolution as you grabbed him by his leather jacket and pulled him for a bruising kiss. You decided that if anything were to happen, he would not be in charge.

Yanan seemed to be expecting that, you felt him smirk in the kiss and fist your hair quickly. The kiss was hot and you both moved with your bodies, a full fight for dominance. You knew you had the upper hand when you moved your hips to rub against him and felt his semi-hard already, earning a groan. His free hand grabbed your ass with force, not even hiding his intentions, and lucky you had the same ones, you used his hair to guide the kiss, never letting go of his jacket.

Even as you or he needed to pull back to breathe you'd stop, the kissing was replaced by nibs and sucking, you knew both of you would be marked tomorrow and that made you win this as well, leaving many hickeys on his neck and collarbones. You thanked his unique ability to wear loose thin shirts that allowed you to reach downwards on his neck while he fumbled to reach your bra in your tight fit shirt. Saying fuck it to any last reasonable thought, you pulled back entirely and took your shirt off, quickly pulling his jacket away. Yanan got the hint and took his shirt off, going for your bra seconds later, not wasting time and already teasing and sucking on your nipples.

Of course, his mouth would be heaven, you thought. He never stopped talking and teasing you all his life, his mouth always drove you crazy and now you discovered he could get you crazy with his mouth in some other way. His thigh reached your covered core and you shivered, you automatically riding his thigh with want. Yanan grunted out your name, his hold on your ass coming back to help you move with even more force, his dick rubbing on your jeans pants with the movement. It felt like you stayed that way for a long time, you needed more but it was too good to stop, his mouth doing wonders on your neck and boobs, it was leading to a very strong orgasm, you could feel it.

Suddenly he stopped you, getting his thigh out of reach. He laughed at your involuntary whine and leaned over, hands massaging your breasts.

"You seriously think I'm gonna let you cum with my thighs only?", he nibbled your ear, "what kind of asshole do you think I am?"

The wetness in your panties got even damper with his words, your hands already opening your pants. Yanan followed your lead and soon both pants and underwear were by your ankles. But before anything could happen, you put both hands on his chest, feeling his strong body with more calm.

"Don't make me regret this, Yanan. This better be good", you meant to be serious but his cocky smile made the corners of your mouth move upwards without intending to. He whispered your name and gently held your chin, placing a gentle kiss on your lips that got you both gasping softly.

"Can you turn around, please? With the pants where they are, I think it'll be better this way", he asked, too calm for the situation. You hated to agree with him but moved in silence. You placed both hands on the wall and bent over, looking back only to see him watching you with dark eyes. He was stroking himself and fully moaned when you placed your fingers in your entrance to tease him. It was Yanan that yanked your wrist back and even from behind you saw him suck your fingers next to your head.

"You taste so good, Y/N. Maybe next time".

Next time. Was it even going to have the next time? You didn't even have time to think it over before he pushed his dick inside, slowly but surely. You moaned at the feeling, hands turning into fists from how good that was. You could feel he was no better than you, hips spasming to move already even if he was waiting for you to adjust. When you pushed back he held your waist and wasted no time in moving. He got his member almost completely out only thrust in fast and hard again.

Yanan held that rhythm all along and if you had any coherent thought in your head, you'd praise his physical strength and stamina. But you didn't. He was giving it to you and it felt like magic, he knew how to move and where to move exactly as you needed him to without you having to guide him. He was hitting your g spot dead on and it took all of you to not scream his name over and over in the small alley. His expert fingers moved to your clit and rubbed it deliciously, making you writhe against him.

"Keep that up and I'll come too soon, I'm so close", you said, already clenching at how he was touching you.

"I'm close, Y/N. Shit, come with me", he breathed it out against your ear.

You'd deny it forever but his pleading voice did the trick. You came with a cry you couldn't hold back. Vaguely you heard Yanan curse at how you clenched around him and you felt him release. You two moved until both came back from the high, now the silence was coming back but you were too tired to care.

He stepped out and got his clothes back on first and followed, tired hands retrieving pieces of clothing from the ground. You heard him chuckle, looking at nothing specifically and you somewhat understood. You laughed quietly and you exchanged a look.

"So, Y/N, any regrets?", there he went. The same old annoying bastard.

"Shut up, Yanan", you laughed, throwing his jacket at him.

"I will start to collect streets from your domain every time you tell me to shut up, by the end of a year you'll have no more power, Y/N", you both laughed out loud and you shook your head.

"What do you wanna do now?", you said, reaching for his cigarettes in his pocket.

He only raised an eyebrow at you and extended his hand to collect his items after you used them. With both cigarettes lit and smoke clouding the air a little, he huffed.

"I'd invite you over to my place for more and just for tonight, I'd pretend we're allies and not enemies. I truly think we are similar, Y/N", Yanan was not looking at you.

"Alright. Lead the way, Mr. I'm-just-like-you", you mocked him with a very bad imitation of chis voice and you laughed at both your joke and his shocked face.

"May I hold your hand, m'lady?", it was his turn to mock your voice, a quick recovery from his shock.

"Don't push your luck, sweetheart". You used the same nickname he used with you earlier and he laughed, walking back into the club without saying a word and without looking back.

You threw your cigarette butt on the ground and stepped on it, shaking your head. Tomorrow you'd deal with all the consequences but tonight you were willing to let this good sparkle inside your belly make decisions for you. Just tonight.

#ksmutclub #pentagon smut #yanan #yanan smut #yanan x reader #yanan x female reader #pentagon yanan #pentagon #kpop pentagon #pentagon imagine #pentagon fanfic #pentagon scenario #kpop imagine #kpop scenario #kpop fanfic #mafia au #enemies to lovers #yanan enemies to lovers #yanan mafia au

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kyoupann · 3 years

Note

Please do more of the writing head canons. It’s really interesting to see other people’s ideas on the topic, so if you can be bothered, I would highly appreciate more, thanks bye <3

Y’all don’t know how happy I am to talk about these headcanons, they are my babies and I love them so much :’) thanks for asking g <3

Handwriting Headcanons

Same dynamic as before, try to guess whose handwriting it is before reading and tell me how many you got right! <3

You can find the first post here (no need to check it tho)

Quick disclaimer: halfway through making my initial notes, I remembered I had one (1) single lesson of graphology in my applied linguistics class, but that was a year ago and some information might be off. I just thought it was neat to include.

Another quick disclaimer: I don’t know much about Hylian, but I like to think it has a similar stroke system to Japanese, so the pressure and accuracy of your strokes play a major role in your handwriting (among other things, ofc.) so there are some parts where I focus more on that

(First Row, from left to right)

Sky

Our first boy is mother hen! Believe it or not, he has the prettiest handwriting out of all of them! Sky: probably has nice, even elegant handwriting because Sun forced him to practice when they were little. In the end, that paid off because his handwriting is the prettiest one. There’s no pressure, but he is confident in what he writes that his lines aren’t thin. Mistakes? what is that? this boy has impeccable grammar and spelling. No mechanic errors to be found in his letters! I’d like to think that many of Hyrule’s classic/staple poems were originally written by the firt king aka sky child. Like, imagine, after a retiring from being a Person of Power (as the first ruler), Sky finds comfort in the arts: revisits his old woodcarvings and starts writing poetry about the world he still doesn’t fully understand. wowie. tldr: sky writes poetry and you can pry it from my cold dead hands.

This is what one of his letters would look like:

Next one is the one and only, our Hero of Time

2. Time

I’ll die on the “Time didn’t know how to read and write” hill. His handwriting is simple, not pretty but not messy. It has some grammar and spelling mistakes here and there. Can become unreadable if writing in a hurry, he sorts of forgets spaces between words are a thing/letters have different sizes and lowercase letters end up the same size as capital letters. I’m not saying he sometimes forgets to write articles: he just doesn’t want to. Honestly, he just has this dad-neat handwriting. He is a gentle dad and writes like a dad, if he puts too much pressure onto the paper, his handwriting become too sharp/angle-ish and ends up looking ugly. And as much as he would like to not care about it, in the end he does (:

Malon taught him how to write and it was quite the experience. At first he didn’t want to because he was ‘too old’ to learn and it was torture at first, but now look at him devouring his cowboy novels.

A chunk of his handwriting:

*sniff* such a dad quote.

3. my mansss, your 4x1 deal at Target: Four

Look, my boy is patient! He could do some nice and fancy lettering if he wanted to. He was taught that handwriting and spelling said a whole lot about him as a person, you know, like a first impression kinda thing; so he always proof reads more than twice before sending a letter. Super rare grammar mistakes.

The faster he writes, the more slant his writing becomes. Under stress/ when not sure how to write things down, run-on sentences are everywhere and his handwriting is inconsistent in general (I don’t headcanon each part of him having completely different handwriting because handwriting becomes muscle memory over time. It’s just slightly different variations of the same, like idk Vio’s handwriting is neater than Green’s and Red writes hearts instead of any dot/circle and no, I do not take constructive criticism on that, jk i do.) Adding on to each of the colours’ handwriting, I’d think Red and Green write with words slanted to the right( inclined), Vio is a mix of the opposite, so reclined and straight, and my mans blue a true neutral writes straight (kinda like Time’s).

The logic behind this is that inclined writing supposedly means honesty and need for giving (and getting) affection; reclined means, as you can probably imagine, defensiveness and repression of true feelings, but also shows great concentration; straight handwriting means self-control, observation and reflection as well as distrust and indifference. But as complete being (tm), Four just writes as in the image example which is not too straight and not too inclined, and I believe that’s a good middle for him

HOWEVER, if I’m feeling in the mood for crack, I totally accept this boy to have the ugliest, chicken scratches-looking handwriting! :’D It’s just funny to think that someone like him, who has to be precise and careful in his work, can't write neatly to save his life.

One of his letters would look like this:

Also I just LOVE how his hero titles look in this font ksksks

and that’s

(Middle row, from left to right)

4.- Mister Bunny Boy - Legend

His uncle taught him how to write. I’d call his handwriting pretty and neat at a first glance, but he presses too hard on the paper, most of the time staining the back or the following page. Sometimes will retrace some words if he doesn’t like how it looks (which only makes it messier). According to my notes, a thick or strong handwriting represents determination/commitment.

As I also headcanon him to know many languages, mechanical errors are more present than grammar ones; that is, weird capitalisation of words. Punctuation is somewhere in between; uses too many commas when he should just cut the sentence. he mixes punctuation from two languages or more in writing when too distracted (or too focused, because, well, pressure.); when he writes for himself, he has almost no problem following said language’s punctuation rules. Also, this is just polyglot culture, and I’m projecting a bit, but when he forgets a word in the language he’s writing, he just replaces it with its equivalent in another language because we don’t care about fluency, but rather functionality. in this household (more on that in my language hc, ksksks).

An example of his writing:

so powerful

4.- Mr. Wolfman, howl me a song - Twilight

I don’t have much for him because 1) I don’t think he writes a lot and 2) he is a hands-on/visual learner, I’ll die by that. He only learnt how to write because Ulli insisted it was important and he was not about to disrespect his momma; he IS That Guy, but doesn’t really write enough to have neat handwriting.

Many people seem to overlook the fact that his house is filled with books and write him as completely illiterate (which if not explored properly, ends up feeling a bit disrespectful and full of prejudice, but go off I guess; and that’s on my core Headcanons for Twi); however, he sticks to simple sentences. Knowing how to read and understanding a text is different from knowing how to write them. Like, when we would see a semicolon and understand its position in the text, but didn’t understand the nature of it. Is this clear? idk i’m sorry. So yeah, boy reads a lot, writes very little.

As for his Actual Handwriting, as opposed to Legend, his handwriting is thiccc but not because he presses into the paper; he is just that messy, he has no sense of ink-flow-control, he does what he can with what he has. To the untrained eye, his handwriting illegible letters like v, n, u are very similar; when he makes notes for himself he does it in the form of doodles or small ‘icons’. But! He reads a lot, so he rarely makes spelling mistakes (: he is your go-to guy when you don’t know how to write a word.

An example of his writing:

He keeps a journal, sue me.

3. My first born- Warrior

Okay, first off... I accept this is completely biased. I saw the idea and said “That’s True”. If you haven’t, please read Effective Communication; or The Lack of Thereof by htruona, a fic where the boys reflect on the language barriers between them. It’s incredibly funny and probably what made me start making these silly notes. So, if you’ve read that fic, you know where I’m going.

My man, Warrior, can’t fucking write. I mean, he physically can, but it’s very bad. Here’s the reason for it, tho, and it’s not his fault: Technically, he knew how to write alright but he joined the military and whatever note he had to write had to be concise or in the worst case coded. He mixes capital and lowercase letters. If we consider that he joined the military at around 15, his handwriting and grammar had yet to continue developing. Just think about how after summer break, your handwriting was always slightly worse than before because you didn’t write for an entire month. Now think what 2 years can do to that. Hmm, not cool, dude. He makes quick notes, when writing he’s all gotta go fast. he is the lighting mcqueen of writing; good for emergency messages, not ideal for love letters. His punctuation also suffered a lot, he only know full stops and commas and hardly uses them. A sentence for him is either one word or fifty without a single comma, no inbetween.

His hero title and an example of his writing.

(Bottom row, or what I like to call “fuck cursive” row)

7.- Magic man - Hyrule

I’m basic and I do agree with the popular headcanon of he not knowing how to write because well, y’all know his Hyrule. He only knows how to write his name because that’s important, same with numbers. I don’t see why would he write/read except checking the roadsigns. (he can even use this as an excuse for getting lost frequently; he thought it said something different.) But I do think that because his habitual reading consists of roadsigns, his ‘punctuation’ is weird af and places full stops/points/periods at the same level of his words and his commas/question/exclamation marks below them. Yk, creative license. Sadly, I don’t have much about my magic hands man so here’s what his writing would look like if he actually wrote a paragraph:

Man, I love Hyrule.

8.- Man, I don’t understand this boy - Wild

Cursive? ain’t nobody have the time for that. He woke up and had to save the world in his underwear while not knowing how to read nor write. He learnt during his journey and was taught by multiple people from different regions, that explains his inconsistent spelling of things and names for them. So Wild knows language variations for many items and uses them interchangeably (even if they aren’t exactly the same). Another headcanon related to writing/language skills that I’ve been thinking about is that if the shrine was able to cause amnesia, I’m sure there were other areas in the brain affected which leads us to language disorders such as agraphia and aphasia. But that’s a story for another day ksksksk

An example of his writing (after relearning)

9.- The best of sons - Wind

I don’t have much for him and that makes me sad. Look, he’s a kid, doing kid things like stabbing dudes on the head. This boy was taught cursive by his grandma, but could never do it and no one needs it anyway. His handwriting is good enough for his pirate life, Tetra is the one to handle Official stuff, he just gotta sign. Spelling and grammar mistakes abound. He is still relatively young and can correct his handwriting if he desires. But same as Wild, with how many times he’s been thrown out and hit his head, I’m starting to consider some language disorder for him as well.

An example of his writing:

aaand that’s it.

Thanks, y’all for showing interest in this silly thing uwu it was fun to finally talk about this. If you ever want to discuss ideas/headcanons(especially if they are related to language and culture), I’m your person (: I’m always happy to hear new headcanons. Feel free to add anything to this post either in a reply or in a reblog, I’d love to hear from y’all <3<3

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keanureevesisbae · 4 years

Text

Mister Cavill, your dog is kinda fat - Chapter 13

Summary: Veterinarian Olivia Tran has zero time for bullshit. After becoming a mom at age twenty three, the one thing she wants is a good life for her daughter Vanessa. Her ex didn’t want anything to do with her nor the baby and she decided that man are officially banned out of her life. But then she meets Henry Cavill at her clinic and her ban slowly starts to crumble apart. Henry on the other hand is looking for one thing: a family. And when he meets Olivia Tran, he finds just that.

Henry Cavill x Olivia Tran (ofc)

Warnings: Some smutty thoughts of Olivia, but that’s about it.

Wordcount: 5k

Masterlist // Previous chapter // Next chapter

I think I should thank the universe that my daughter is here, because otherwise I would’ve murdered Wesley right now, after throwing my hot chocolate in his face. After seven plus years of not seeing him and resisting the urge of not going online to check what he is up to nowadays, looking at him in real life sure brings back a whole lot of emotions. He is basically the same, only he lost a bit of weight, especially around his face.

I don’t think he looks necessarily good and maybe it’s his conscious eating him alive inside.

Just as he deserves. Motherfucker.

I see him looking at my daughter and Vanessa has no problem staring back at him. She has a frown between her brows and I know she is thinking about all the questions she can ask the man that left her before she was even born. The man that didn’t want her, before he even got to know her.

I stand up from the table and grab his arm, dragging him away from the table. Dragging him away from my family. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

‘She looks an awful lot like you,’ he notes. ‘What’s her name?’

‘What the fuck is that suppose to mean?’ I ask him. He wants to look over his shoulder again, right at my daughter but my mom reflexes and mom voice are no joke. ‘Wesley, don’t you dare look at her. Look at me.’

He does what I ask him to do. ‘Who is that man?’

It’s beyond me where Wesley has got the nerves to answer my questions with his own questions, but after having Vanessa, I’m able to play along just fine. ‘What are you doing here?’ I ask him. ‘Why do you all of the sudden care about her? You certainly didn’t give a shit when I was pregnant with her.’

‘I’m a changed man, Livi.’

That nickname brings me back to a time where I was so in love with him. A time where I knew I would marry this man, but after spending a few months with Henry, I realized that it was a blessing that he broke up with me. He treated me okay, but never in the way Henry does.

‘It’s Olivia for you,’ I tell him, ‘and you honestly want me to believe that you are a changed man?’ I can’t help but laugh out of pity. ‘Well, you are quite something, Wesley, I have to give you that.’

‘I’m serious,’ he says and he actually looks like he means it. He gestures to his right, my left and when I follow where he is pointing towards, I see a woman sitting, who stares at me with daggers. She places her hand protectively on her pregnant belly and right next to her, I see a young boy sitting, who actually looks pretty cute. ‘That’s Ria,’ he says, ‘and our son Kevin.’

Our son Kevin? I don’t see Wesley for the type of saint that would adopt someone else’s kid (I mean, he is no Henry and no matter what kind of changed man he is, he’ll never reach that level of maturity), so I clear my throat, before I ask: ‘How old is Kevin?’

‘He is six.’

Wesley could’ve stabbed me in my stomach and that wouldn’t have hurt or shocked me, as I am now. ‘He is six?’ I ask him, trying so hard not to raise my voice. ‘You knocked someone up right after you left me?’

Wesley doesn’t say a word.

‘Oh my God,’ I say in utter disbelieve, running my fingers through my hair. ‘You are un-fucking-believable. You left me, let me figure this whole parenting thing out all on my own, while you start a family? Wesley, what the fuck is wrong with you? I can’t believe this. You leave me, my whole family leaves me, because I got pregnant. Have you any idea in what kind of fucking situation you put me through?’

‘I want to get to know her.’

It’s admirable that Wesley has some guts, I have to give him that. ‘No,’ I chuckle. ‘You fucking can’t. You walked out of both of our lives when I gave you the chance to be a dad. You can’t just barge in, because you saw us sitting there. You and your precious new family stay out of our lives and I’ll gladly stay out of yours.’

I want to walk past him, right back to my table, but he grabs my arm. ‘Wait,’ he says and for some weird reason I do wait. ‘Here is my number.’ He hands me a card and I can’t help but stare at this.

‘Since when are you the type of person that has a card?’ I ask, grabbing it out of his hand. ‘Oh look at that. You somehow finished college and you’re a real estate agent now. I’ll be damned.’ I almost want to rip the card apart, but I know that my daughter is looking at me, so I can’t act stupid now.

‘Please, if you change your mind, let me know. I want to make up for the years I wasn’t there for you two.’

I don’t even look at him, I can’t even look at him, so I walk back to my table. ‘We’re leaving,’ I say to Vanessa and Henry. Vanessa wants to look at Wesley, but I block her view. ‘Don’t look at him,’ I tell her and nearly drag her with me outside. Vanessa doesn’t say anything, nor does Henry.

I help her in her carseat and the first five minutes of our drive go by in complete silence. ‘Mommy,’ Vanessa finally says and I admire her for having the balls to open her mouth. ‘Was that my real dad?’

‘He is your biological dad, yes.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘When two people make a baby, you have a bit of both in you. So, Henry and all his brothers have a bit of both Marianne and Colin in them.’

Vanessa mhms. ‘Why were you mad at him?’

‘Because he wants to be part of your life.’

‘Oh.’

It’s quiet for a few seconds, before I finally snap again. ‘That idiot honestly thought that he could just barge right back into my life, after everything he didn’t do for me?’ I ask myself out loud. ‘That bastard had the guts, the guts, to hand me over his card, so I could call him if we change our minds about it. Did you know he has a new lady, who is pregnant and already gave birth to a kid of him? That kid is six. Six! While I’m struggling with my job, with my new baby all by myself, he is out there, impregnating this other woman…’

‘Mommy, what is impregnating?’

‘… having kids with her and being a loyal loving family man. What the hell is wrong with him? Now I finally, finally have the life that I wanted for both myself and Vanessa and he has the nerves to just walk into my life again? Thinking he can do that? Why are men such big fat pigs? Who has the audacity to look around in a restaurant, see his ex girlfriend with her daughter and obviously her new boyfriend and just walk up to them to ask: ‘Is this her?’. Like he knows Vanessa. Like he was there for her when she was just born!’

I let out a frustrated breath, as I cross my arms and stare out of the window. Henry gently places his hand on my thigh and lean my head back against the head rest of the seat.

‘Mommy, his new kid,’ Vanessa says, ‘does he have a part of that man in him?’

‘Yes, he does, so technically he is your half brother and the child inside the belly of the other woman is your half sister or another half brother.’ I look at Henry and say softly: ‘If that woman didn’t stray of course.’

Henry doesn’t say anything and the rest of the car ride continues in silence. This is crazy, I think to myself. That Wesley left my subconscious a long time ago and now he is all my entire family can think about.

When we’re back inside our house, I keep pacing around the living room, while Henry and Vanessa plop on the couch, carefully watching my moves.

‘Mom, can I meet him?’

I nearly collapse. ‘Excuse me, what?’ I ask, in a lot harsher tone than I usually talk to her, even when I’m angry with her. ‘Why on earth would you want to meet him?’

‘Olivia,’ Henry says, shaking his head, telling me non verbally that I need to tone it down a notch.

‘Because… I want to get to know him.’

I sigh deeply. ‘Sweetheart, he left you, before you were born. I think that is all you need to know about him. Besides, you have a great dad now.’

She nods. ‘I know, but I want to ask him something.’

‘What do you wanna ask him?’

‘Why he left.’

Oh my God, I’m going to cry and never stop. She wants to ask him that question, that is too pure and too sweet and it makes me want to kill Wesley even more. She looks so vulnerable.

‘Oh,’ I say. Who am I to stop her from doing this? Whether I like it or not, that man, that lousy piece of shit, is still her biological father. If she wants to see him, to get to know him, why should I stop her? Simply because I have personal vendetta against him, hate his guts and wouldn’t cry a single moment if he accidentally got under a bus? ‘On one condition,’ I tell her. ‘I am there every single second.’

Vanessa nods. ‘I want Henry there too.’ She looks up at him and says: ‘But only if you want to, of course.’

My daughter is so considerate and I love her for that. God, I did such a good job with raising her by myself. Where is the standing ovation I deserve?

‘I want to,’ Henry says. ‘For you I’d do anything. Maybe you should hug your mom. She looks like she needs it.’

Vanessa jumps off the couch and walks up to me. ‘I love you, mommy,’ she says.

‘Oh, sweetheart, I love you too. I’m sorry I was so hard on you.’

She shakes her head. ‘I get it, you are really angry. You really don’t like what he did, because you never got this mad at me.’

I chuckle. ‘No, that’s true. I’ll send him a text.’

≫≫≪≪

So tomorrow we are going to meet up with Wesley at a cafe. I chose a public place, because otherwise I’m tempted to kill him if we are somewhere more private. After I called Belle and vented for a good half an hour before I let her speak, she told me I was doing the right and mature thing. She also told me that after we met up, we should hang out, so we can talk about this, because it would probably be better for my blood pressure to immediately talk about the meeting.

And all of the sudden I’m in desperate need for some motherly advice, but counting on my own mother is out of the window. So with Vanessa and Henry we go to the Cavill residence and thankfully Charlie is there, so he and Colin can take Vanessa with them, to play some stupid games, walk around the house, while I can have a heart to heart talk with Marianne, Henry close by.

I haven’t spoken to him really since Vanessa asked me to see her biological father. The only thing he did was giving me tight hugs so I would stop pacing, give me a kiss every now and then and simply whisper that I was doing the right thing.

Sitting at the kitchen table, Henry right next to me and Marianne across from me, is weirdly calming. ‘You are doing the right thing,’ Marianne also says. ‘So, your friend Belle and Henry are right.’

I place my elbows on the hard surface, before I bury my face in my hands. ‘It was my grand idea to have some hot chocolate afterwards,’ I mumble. ‘Hadn’t I done that, we wouldn’t have run into him.’

‘Maybe we were suppose to run into him,’ Henry says, placing his arm around my shoulders. ‘Sweetheart, whether you like it or not, he is Vanessa’s real dad. She deserves to get to know him.’

‘But what if she likes him more?’ I ask and I realize that was my fear all along. ‘I tried so hard for her and what if she meets him and thinks: oh, that man, I like him a lot more than I like my mom and the entire family she gave me.’

‘No, no, no,’ Henry says, ‘you know that is not going to happen. Because of your honesty to her all these previous years, she is well aware of what he did to both you and her. It’s always her biggest fear that I’m leaving after she did something that she shouldn’t do. I think she just wants some answers, so she can think about it.’

‘You raised a smart and intelligent girl, Olivia,’ Marianne says. ‘So I have an idea. Tomorrow the three of you go straight to us, you bring your friend Belle along too and we can have a nice long talk, to process this. It’s scary, my dear, I know that, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. You are a whole lot tougher than you think you are.’

I let out a sigh. ‘Yeah, you are right.’

Marianne asks me if I want some more tea and I think I want to. While she walks off to the kitchen, Henry presses a kiss on my temple. ‘How are you, love?’ he asks.

‘When we’re home, I think I’m going to take a long hot shower. You mind?’

‘Of course not,’ he says. ‘Vanessa and I can start on dinner, how about that?’ Henry has a smile on his face when he sees me nod. ‘I am proud of you.’ He leans in and gives me a long kiss. ‘I’m so happy that I can get to call you my girlfriend.’

‘You’re not scared?’

He nods. ‘I am, very much so, but I also have a lot of faith in your daughter.’

‘Our daughter,’ I correct him.

Henry blushes a bit and I pull him into a hug. I bury my face in his neck and let out a content sigh, for the first time in a few hours. ‘I love you,’ he whispers.

‘I love you too, Henry,’ I say. ‘And I trust our daughter too. Just promise me that if I have to go to the clinic, or to the bathroom, you keep an eye on them. Don’t leave him with her for a single second, okay?’

‘I was going to ask you the same thing too,’ he chuckles. ‘We’ll be alright, darling. I guarantee.’

≫≫≪≪

I’m surprised Wesley is early. He was always late when we dated. Maybe he did change, a little bit. Before we walk into the cafe, I stop Vanessa in her tracks and I say: ‘You can ask him anything you want. If there is something he says that you don’t like, you can tell him that. If you want to leave, you can just ask me or Henry and we’ll leave right away. Remember, you don’t owe him anything.’

Vanessa nods. ‘I know, mommy, you told five times already this morning.’

‘Don’t be a smart ass now,’ I say to her.

Henry places his heavy hands on her shoulders and says: ‘You have to cut your mom some slack, she doesn’t mean it like that. She is just still a bit mad.’

Vanessa chuckles. ‘I know. Mommy, it will all be fine. You are here, daddy is here.’

‘I’m sorry, you’re right.’ I give her a big kiss and say: ‘You are a good kid.’

The three of us walk into the cafe and Wesley stands up from his spot. Vanessa walks over to him and holds out her hand. ‘Hello,’ she says, ‘my name is Vanessa.’

Wesley takes her hand in his, while he keeps standing up. I don’t want to compare (but I’m still gonna), but all the insanely tall Cavills crouch down when they talk to her. ‘Hi Vanessa, I’m Wesley.’

‘I know who you are, my mommy told me all about you.’

You go, girl. I’m so proud of her already and I can’t believe that my daughter is handling this situation a whole lot better than I am.

Wesley nods and looks at Henry. ‘Aren’t you the actor?’ he asks. ‘Henry Cavill?’

‘I certainly am,’ Henry says, shaking my ex boyfriends hand.

We all sit down, order something to drink. While I am in the desperate mood for some vodka, I decide to go with a cappuccino, just to be safe. I ordered Henry not to break the silence, because Wesley wanted to meet Vanessa so badly, so he should keep up the conversation.

Vanessa takes a sip of her apple juice and looks at Wesley. ‘Can I ask you a question?’

I think Wesley is grateful that she decided to break the silence, because he nods. ‘Of course.’

‘Why did you leave my mommy?’

‘Because I was scared,’ he says. ‘I thought I wasn’t ready to be a dad yet.’

There is so much I want to say to him. You think I was ready to become a mother? You think I wasn’t scared?

Vanessa sighs and I see her bottom lip tremble. God, this is too much for me to handle and I want to jump up, hoist her up in my arms and while I walk out of this cafe, punch Wesley right in the nose. ‘Why didn’t you want to love me?’

I look at Henry, who places a comforting hand on my leg. It might be uncomfortable now, but I know that this will be good for Vanessa and for me for that matter.

Wesley doesn’t know what to say.

‘Am I that unloveable?’ she continues to ask.

Now I can’t keep my mouth shut, because now she is doubting herself and as a mother I can’t let that happen. ‘No,’ I say to her. ‘You are not unloveable, don’t you ever think like that again.’

Vanessa frowns. ‘But he didn’t love me.’

‘He didn’t even want to love you. He didn’t even try,’ I say, not caring he is there and can totally hear this. ‘Remember sweetheart, he walked out on you and me, not the other way around.’

‘I was scared,’ Wesley tells me.

‘Don’t you think I was?’ I ask him, absolutely dumbfounded. I turn to Vanessa again and ask her: ‘Remember what I always tell you? About fear?’

She nods. ‘That you are allowed to be scared, but that it should never stop you in life.’

‘That’s right. But sweetheart, you were talking to Wesley, I’m sorry I interrupted.’

Vanessa shakes her head. ‘That’s okay, mommy. You can always interrupt me.’

Suck that up, Wesley, I think to myself. My daughter is fucking polite and I did that all by myself.

‘You know,’ Vanessa continues, ‘I always wondered why I didn’t have a dad. Kids in my class have one and I wanted one too.’

‘I understand,’ Wesley says, though he grows more uncomfortable with the second. I bet he underestimated my daughter and her communication skills and now he should deal with the consequences of that easy thinking of his.

‘And then my mommy met Henry,’ she says with a beaming smile. ‘He is a real daddy, you know. He bought me my first bike, my first Christmas tree and he took my out on a Valentines date two days ago.’

Yes, honey, please rub it in.

Wesley takes a sip of his coffee and he actually is trying to leave, I can totally see it in his body language. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Henry asks, picking up on those signs as well. ‘You sit down now. Vanessa is talking to you and you better listen to it.’

This isn’t the moment to think about hot and passionate sex with Henry, but tomorrow I’m off work a little bit earlier than usual and you bet your ass I’m going to spoil him in a whole lot of nasty ways before we have to pick Vanessa up.

‘Please, Vanessa, continue,’ Henry says to her with a loving smile.

Vanessa nods. ‘He is going to adopt me soon,’ she continues, eyes shining bright with excitement. ‘And then we are officially a family.’

‘Right.’

‘My mommy cried a lot because of you. She didn’t know I saw her, but usually at night she would cry on the couch. I heard her talking to my auntie Belle about you and that I don’t have a daddy. That’s your fault.’

Henry and I exchange glances and he seems to be impressed by our daughter.

‘Vanessa,’ Wesley says, ‘I don’t want to have this conversation with you.’

She seems a bit shocked. ‘Why not?’ she asks.

‘Yeah, Wesley, why not?’ I ask him, crossing my arms in front of my chest. ‘Tell her why not.’

‘This is a grown up conversation.’

‘No, it’s not,’ I retort. ‘It’s about her, so she should have a conversation with you and if you are intimidated by a seven year old, then you are really even less of a man than I figured you were.’

Henry clears his throat. ‘You keep your ass on that chair and if you don’t do that, I have no problems at all forcing you onto that seat. You listen to Vanessa and you have a conversation with her. Right here and right now.’

Wesley is getting more and more frustrated right now, but I’m not cutting him slack. No, he wanted this. He ruined my perfect day by forcing himself basically into our lives.

‘So, you have a son and almost a new baby, right?’ Vanessa asks.

‘Mhm.’

‘Do you love them?’

‘I do,’ Wesley says.

She thinks about her next move long and hard. ‘Cool.’ Vanessa simply stares at him and even tilts her head. ‘I don’t like you.’

My mouth falls open and I can’t help but feel so proud of her.

‘Excuse me, what?’ Wesley asks.

‘I don’t like you,’ she repeats, rolling her eyes and I can almost hear her thinking: Are you deaf? ‘You made me sad, because you walked out before I was born. You made my mommy sad and very angry yesterday and I don’t like it when that happens. I am happy that I saw you, because now I know that you… Mommy, can I say this?’

‘Go for it.’

‘Now I know that you really are an idiot.’ She looks at Henry. ‘Right, daddy?’

Henry nods. ‘You’re totally right, sunshine.’

‘You allow this?’ Wesley asks me. ‘You allow this kind of talk?’

‘I didn’t know you had the right to give an opinion about my parenting skills,’ I say to him.

‘I wanted a second chance, but with what you are telling her about me…’

‘Is the truth, buddy,’ Henry says. ‘What did you think would happen? That they waited seven years for you to come back? Of course not. You left them and Olivia made the brave choice of raising her daughter with the upmost honesty and respect, something that you obviously lack.’

‘And you think you can just barge into their lives and be the savior?’ Wesley retorts.

‘Excuse me?’ Henry asks. ‘I’ve been acting more like a dad to Vanessa in one day than you have been your entire life. I think you should be grateful that I swooped in and give her the dad she deserves to have.’

‘Wesley,’ Vanessa says and he looks at her. ‘I hope you love your new kids, because they deserve a dad.’

That’s more maturity than I could ever have. Did I raise this girl?

‘I have to go,’ Wesley says.

‘No, you’re not. I didn’t hear Vanessa was finished,’ Henry says, clearly getting more and more frustrated with Wesley. ‘Sunshine, you finished?’

‘Almost.’

‘Listen to the young lady,’ Henry says, his eyes not leaving Wesley once.

Vanessa clears her throat and says: ‘I don’t want to see you ever again.’

‘Well, make two of that, sweetheart,’ I say.

‘Three,’ Henry mumbles.

‘Now you can go. I finished my apple juice.’

Wesley looks at me, jaw clenched and ready to murder me. Honestly, I don’t even blame him. If I were a coward and in his shoes, I’d kill me too.

‘You know, sweetheart, we’ll go instead,’ I say to her. I get up from the chair and say to Wesley: ‘I bet you wished you didn’t walk up to us now, didn’t you?’

I grab Vanessa’s hand and with Henry we walk outside of the cafe. The second we are outside, I lift her up in my arms. ‘I am so proud of you, baby.’ I press tons of kisses on her faces, causing her to squeal. ‘You are the biggest bad ass I’ve ever met in my entire life!’

Vanessa hugs me tightly. ‘I’m happy he left you, mommy.’

‘That was the biggest blessing ever.’

Henry gives Vanessa a kiss on her cheek and says: ‘I’m so proud of you, sunshine. He is indeed a big idiot.’

The door of the cafe opens. ‘What the fuck was that?’ Wesley fumes.

‘Language,’ I tell him sternly, like it’s going to work. The word ‘fuck’ slipped my lips multiple times and thankfully Vanessa understands she can never repeat that word.

For now, at least. When she is a teenager, I sure hope she starts to use it then.

‘You totally set this kid up,’ he continues. ‘Talking bad about me behind my back.’

‘Well, I would’ve talked bad about you right in your face, but you walked out of my life, remember?’

I feel like Wesley is about to attack me, but Henry steps in between us. ‘I would suggest you leave. Vanessa told you she doesn’t want to see you anymore and I think you should respect that. We have your number and will call you if she changes her mind.’

‘And you,’ he spits, ‘you honestly think you can waltz into their lives?’

‘I do, actually and I did waltz into their lives. Turned out to be amazing. Honestly, Wesley, you don’t know what you’re missing. Vanessa is such a bright and intelligent and well spoken girl and Olivia is fascinating on her own and an amazing mother.’

Wesley doesn’t have any control over himself anymore, because he launches forward, planning on hitting Henry, who doesn’t seem impressed one single second. Henry grabs my lousy ex boyfriend by his collar and pushes him against the wall. ‘What was that?’ he asks unbothered.

God, he is sexy and this is totally doing things to my panties right now.

‘Let go of me.’

‘Only if you promise us you stay out of our lives and we never see you again, unless we had some sort of aneurism and weirdly enough want to see you.’

‘Fuck you.’

‘Language,’ Vanessa and I yell at the same time.

Henry chuckles. ‘It’s very simple. Just say you promise and I’ll let you go.’

Wesley clenches his jaw. ‘I promise.’

‘Easy, wasn’t it?’ I could’ve known that Henry wasn’t going to just let him go. He throws Wesley to the ground and says: ‘You big piece of shit.’

‘Mister Cavill,’ I say with a smile when he walks up to us again. ‘That was quite something.’

He gives me a long kiss and despite the desperation I can feel, he is holding himself in not to slip his tongue inside my mouth. ‘I love you, darling,’ he mumbles against my mouth. ‘And I sure hope that we never see this idiot ever again.’

‘I think you took care of that.’ I look at Wesley, who pushes himself up and walks away, without looking over his shoulder once.

‘You are truly Superman, daddy,’ Vanessa says with a smile. ‘We are really tough, aren’t we?’

‘We are, sunshine.’ He presses a kiss on her cheek. ‘We promised grandma Marianne we would go to her after meeting Wesley. How about we bring something sweet to her place?’

‘Like what?’ Vanessa asks.

‘I was thinking some cake, you agree?’

‘Yes, I agree!’

≫≫≪≪

The Cavill and Tran family groupchat

Piers: I already told you guys, but I am proud that you told that idiot off and please tell me what Vanessa wants. I want to buy her a present for being such a total bad ass.

Charlie: I swear, if I ever run into him, I’m going to throw him accidentally in front of the bus. What a fucking idiot.

Mom: Charlie!

Charlie: What? You said the exact same thing!

Mom: But with you, I never know if you mean it. I don’t want any of my kids in jail, even if I agree with your actions.

Dad: I’ll do it then. I’m old anyways. I have nothing to lose.

Mom: Colin!

Niki: Yeah, you go dad. You go throw that fucking moron in front of the bus.

Henry: I support you, dad.

Olivia: Not to be that kind of person, but I’d rather you spend time with Vanessa than in jail. Please leave the idiot alone.

Mom: Finally some common sense in this group chat. I’m glad we added you, Olivia, because it can be hard being a woman alone with these guys.

Dad: So I can’t throw him in front of the bus?

Olivia: No, I’m sorry. I can tell you this though: resisting the urge to kill him, will get easier over time.

Henry: I hope you are right, love.

Simon: Not to be that guy, but Olivia, can you give me Belle’s number?

#henry cavill #henry cavill x ofc #henry cavill x oc #mister cavill your dog is kinda fat #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill x Olivia Tran

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despressolattes · 3 years

Text

It All Started With Him | Neji Hyūga; Sasuke Uchiha

Characters: (Main) Neji Hyūga, Sasuke Uchiha. (Side characters) the rest of Konoha 12(I know it’s technically Konoha 11 because Sasuke isn’t included in it, but imma still refer to them as konoha 12), Tsunade, and the senseis.

Warnings: heartache; angst; death

Summary: The slow progression of a relationship between two unlikely shinobi, one reserved and one who wore her heart upon her sleeve; the aftermath of having to grieve and move on after one is gone, the heart upon her sleeve frosting over; denying finding a safe space within another troubled soul. A story of things coming full circle, for it all started with him.

Words: 9425 (i went overboard with this one and i still wanna make it longer/into an actual book instead of an imagine)

was originally going to make it a reader insert, but instead i gave the girl a name. Feel free to read it as a reader insert??

In this story, the konoha 12 is the konoha 15 as the girl is a shinobi and has her own squad.

*AUTHOR’S NOTE: I may have gone overboard with this one?? Kinda wanna write an expanded version of it, as an actual series with in depth descriptions instead of just flashes of moments*

REQUESTS ARE OPEN

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

She had fallen in love once in her life with a beautiful boy with a troubled past and a soft soul. She had fallen in love with someone who had struggled with the light and dark aspects of himself since his birth—where he was born with a destiny. He was fated to protect the main branch of his family.

Oh, how he had hated that as a child and into his early pre-teen years. But as life as a Leaf shinobi continued, he made friends, he crossed paths with worthy rivals, and had his frozen heart thawed out by those around him.

Maybe it was the way she seemed to always be glowing, or the way her smile was warming. Maybe it was the way Naruto spoke to him with such passion. Even Neji Hyūga, full of distrust and resentment for his uncle and his cousins, was able to move past it.

The once angry child prodigy—the top genin of his class—was able to become a sweet, responsible, and serene teenage boy. He stayed reserved, an affectionate side to him scarce to many. Even his teammates and sensei rarely saw a compassionate Neji, though he was softer with Tenten out of the four of them. She was basically his best friend.

But there was something about Minori that went past the way Naruto had gotten through to him. It was an unlikely pair. Where Neji was calm and observant, she could be energetic and oblivious. Where he was reserved, she often wore her heart on her sleeve.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

Minori was a kunoichi from their village the same year as Naruto, and a year younger than Neji and his team. She was the only girl who had set out with the Sasuke Recovery Team when they were all still pre-teens, when the Uchiha boy left the village to seek out Orochimaru. She stayed by to fight Kidomaru with Neji. Despite the fact that they had won their battle, the two of them had sustained too many injuries to regroup with the rest of the recovery team.

Back in the village after being unsuccessful in retrieving Sasuke before he made it to Otokagure, the Sasuke Recovery Team had gone back to their own teams and their own lives while Naruto went off training with Jiraya.

It was in those three years that Naruto was gone that Minori and Neji became closer. Where they once would cross paths and not acknowledge one another, their shared fight built the mutual respect the two had for the other. Occasion nods in the other’s direction in an attempt to greet one another gradually turned into stopping for small talk.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

ONE YEAR AFTER THE SASUKE RECOVERY MISSION & NARUTO’S DEPARTURE FOR TRAINING

There were footsteps that could be heard rushing down the pathway behind her. Minori turned around in curiosity, wondering who it was who was rushing through Konoha so fast. In her hands were groceries, but a moment later, they were on the floor alongside her.

“Ouch,” she groaned, sitting up slowly and rubbing her head, looking up at her assailant.

Through the rough glare of the sun blocking most of her eyesight, she was able to make out the shadow of a green jumpsuit and round, black hair.

“Ah! Minori-san!” a worried Lee called out, a sweat breaking on the side of his forehead as he realized he had just bulldozed into her. He bowed his head in the overly exaggerated way he did, his arms stiff at his side. “My apologies for running you over, Minori-san!”

“It’s okay, Lee,” she said with a small giggle. “No harm, no foul.”

He glanced down at her groceries, a few tomatoes that had fallen out of her bag.

“Allow me to buy you new groceries!” he offered.

“No need,” she said, waving her hands in front of her in defense, staying on the floor as she reached over to collect her things.

“Lee!” someone called out from behind him.

The boy turned around while Minori just looked up, pausing to grab her groceries from the floor. Light lavender, almost white, eyes stopped on the girl on the floor, blinking a few times in surprise.

“Minori-san?” he questioned, looking down at the girl on the floor. His eyes trailed down to her groceries, walking swiftly over and squatting down. He grabbed one of the bags from the floor, grabbing the remaining tomatoes on the floor.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Minori told him as she got to her feet, dusting them off.

Brief small talk turned into the occasional meal or walk through the village together during their down time from missions—normally with other members of Konoha 15. They had grown comfortable with one another. Their mutual friends would like to credit their shared time in the hospital after a shared battle for the unique bond they had since the Sasuke Recovery Mission.

“Again, so sorry, Minori-san!” Lee exclaimed, bowing to her one last time before beginning to run again.

She turned around as he passed.

“Why is he running through the village like that?” Minori questioned, looking over her shoulder at the long haired Hyuuga boy.

“He’s training,” Neji said with a strained sigh, a slight smile on his face. Despite Lee’s antics, you couldn’t help but love him.

“Ah,” she nodded.

“Are you heading home?” Neji questioned, and she nodded. “I’ll walk you?”

She was surprised with the suggestion. Despite growing close to one another over the years and countless times spent hanging out together, it wasn’t like Neji offered to walk her to her next destination unless they were assigned a mission together.

“S-sure,” she nodded, a slight tint on her cheeks that anyone would miss if they weren’t looking at her closely.

He had kept one of the bags in his arms, allowing her to carry her other one. It was bright outside that day, the afternoon sun high in the sky.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

“So, Minori-chan,” Ino started, dragging the words out as Minori looked at the flowers in the Yamanaka flower shop. She was manning the register, leaning her head against her palm, her arm supported by her elbow. “Are you getting flowers for Neji?”

On his last mission, he had to be admitted into the Konoha Hospital due to a few of his injuries.

She gave Ino a playful yet warning expression. Over the past few weeks, the members of Konoha 15 grew a habit of teasing Minori over Neji’s new-found hobby of spending more time with her than before—and alone. It was out of character for the Hyuuga, who remained reserved with all others and formerly used to be frequently found on missions, training with Tenten, not alongside the young Kunoichi.

The interesting part of it all was that they all teased Minori as opposed to Neji, who was the one always initiating their time alone together.

“Yes, Ino-chan,” Minori said, her voice breathy as if the entire sentence was a sigh. “I am getting flowers for Neji-san.”

“Neji-san? Minori-san? You two are too formal with each other,” Ino muttered, walking out from behind the counter towards Minori, eyeing the flower selection that Minori was standing by.

“Yellow Acacia,” Ino stated, pointing at a flower. “I can put it into an arrangement with some white daisies for you.”

“Daisies mean ‘get well soon,’ right?” questioned Minori. “I remember you telling me that before.”

Ino nodded, a small smile at the comment that Minori listened to her when she told her meanings of flowers.

“And the Yellow Acacia?” wondered Minori. “What does that mean.”

“It’s perfect to explain you and Neji,” Ino stated, earning yet another playful, warning glare from Minori, who didn’t want Ino to continue to tease her about him. “Oh, calm down, Minori-chan. It just signifies the value of true friendship! You and Neji have had that since your battle to try to save Sasuke.”

Minori relaxed at the explanation, glad that Ino was taking this more seriously. Then, the blonde leaned in closer to her.

“But it can also mean hidden love,” she whispered.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

THE DAY NARUTO COMES BACK FROM HIS TRAINING

Minori laid on her bed, weeks later. She stared up at the ceiling. Naruto had just come back from his training with Jirarya, and his first question to her and Neji when he saw them was, “I didn’t see this coming, but you guys have my support! Believe it!”

They were merely walking outside of the Yakiniku Q together. Perhaps something about it was a bit odd—Neji was laughing at something Minori was saying.

Her cheeks were heating up at the memory of the embarrassment. For almost a year, she had been teased endlessly about Neji by their friends in private, none of them ballsy enough to bring it up in Neji’s presence. Well, other than Sai, but Neji was too focused on Tenten being aggressive over something Lee had said to hear Sai’s comment.

She remembered turning as red as a tomato when Naruto gawked at them, immediately thinking they were a couple. She refused to even look at Neji, biting her lip and looking down in embarrassment at Naruto’s misinterpreted impression. After the blonde left, the two comrades merely walked in silence, until splitting up to go home.

Even Naruto? wondered Minori. And he hasn’t even been with us like the rest of them. AND he’s the slowest one of us all, and even he thinks it?

She couldn’t comprehend why everything thought she and Neji were together. I mean, it wasn’t like she tended to giggle at most of the things coming out of his mouth, or how he actually let out a laugh or two around her as well. It wasn’t like she looked forward to bumping into him around Konoha in between missions because she knew they’d stop to catch up together. It wasn’t like she got extra excited whenever one of their friends invited her to hang out and told her that Neji would be amongst the people going.

It wasn’t as if she liked him, right?

She turned onto her side, looking out her window. On her windowsill was wilted flowers, one that Neji had gotten her ages ago when she was in the hospital, before she got him those Yellow Acacias. She could never bring herself to throw them away, so they just sat there in the vase, brown and turned down.

“Crap,” she muttered to herself, pulling her blanket over her shoulders. “I like Neji.”

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

She reported to the Hokage’s office, getting a notice that Tsunade wanted to see her for a mission. As the two years that Naruto had been training had gone by, a lot of important changes for their little friend group had happened. Last time Naruto had shown up, the final part of the Chunin exam had been halted due to the Konoha Crush mission from the sand village. However, most of the Konoha 15, excluding Naruto, were able to retake the test the next time it came around. As for Neji and Minori, they were also able to progress to the ranks of Jounin.

The newfound ranking gave them both a wider range of missions to take on. Despite still taking on missions in their own three man squads, they were also able to take on missions with greater responsibilities outside of their squads.

Though, they had yet to be assigned a high class mission together.

Minori knew all of that was going to change when she walked into Tsunade’s office and saw Neji already standing there. Minori tried not to panic about it, especially after her self realization the previous night about her feelings for Neji.

Minori was the last person to be able to hide how she felt from people once she realized it. She wore her heart upon her sleeve, as her teammates would call it. When they were just starting out as genin, she had developed a bit of a crush for Kiba Inuzuka, having been intrigued by his loud and bold personality. It never went beyond a silly little crush, nothing of importance, especially since it only lasted two weeks. However, in those two weeks, Minori didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was always trying to be around Kiba outside of missions, listening intently to the things he said. Even Kiba, as oblivious as he was, was able to catch on to the girl’s obvious infatuation with him.

They were kinda like how her and Neji were, without forcing the interactions, Minori noted to herself.

“Ah, good, you’re here,” smiled Tsunade. “I have a mission for you two.”

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

A mission alone with Neji?! she panicked on her way home.

It was a simple escort mission, but the woman had specifically asked for Jounin and had enough money for the request. She was a member of a known clan within her own village. When she had been traveling to Konoha, she was robbed. Instead of believing it was a simple mugging, she thought that perhaps her family’s enemies were targeting her, and wanted someone to guard over her during her passage home.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

The client, an elderly woman named Lady Bianca, was in her late50s perhaps. She walked alongside Minori. Neji was a few feet away from them, guiding them through the woods as the sun began to set, his byakugan activated.

Minori had to remind herself not to wear her heart upon her sleeve—not with Neji. However, that didn’t stop her from beginning to admire him in secret. His long hair that she once used to bombard him with questions about, wondering how he managed to keep it so healthy, was now shining in the evening sun. She had the strong urge to play with it—or even to just braid it.

No, Minori, she scolded herself, shaking her head vigorously.

“You Leaf shinobi are weird,” Lady Bianca commented from beside Minori, sending her judging eyes, catching Minori shaking her head for no reason.

Minori’s cheeks heated. Neji turned around curiously to see if Minori was already because of Lady Bianca’s random statement. The concern on his face over Minori merely made her cheeks head up more, even if he looked a little bit intimidated with his byakugan activated.

It’s a good thing those couldn’t see what people were feeling, Minori said to herself.

Neji slowed down after that, allowing for the two behind him to catch up to his spot. His byakugan was no longer activated, seeing no threat for miles, and they were going to stop to set up camp soon anyways. He walked alongside Minori, glancing down at the quiet kunoichi next to him.

Since when was Minori this quiet? He asked himself, but kept his questions to himself. He looked to the woman that they were guarding, his eyes narrowing on her. Had she said something that made Minori upset?

His eyes widened. Had he?

“Do you not like him or something?” Bianca asked, directing the question at Minori, had causing Neji’s face to contort with confusion.

“What brings you to that conclusion?” Minori asked, appalled.

“Your awkward tension can be sensed even at my age.”

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

They made camp in a small cave, a small fire in the middle to keep them warm. Lady Bianca laid burritoed in her sleeping bag across from where Minori and Neji sat, facing at the wall.

Minori, who had forgotten her blanket, sat next to Neji awkwardly as the Hyūga boy took out his own belongings. A blanket came spread across her, over her legs, and bundled at her waist. She looked up in surprise, quirking up an eyebrow at Neji.

“What’re you doing?”

“You’re cold,” he shrugged.

“But Neji-san, you’ll get cold. This is yours,” she said, taking the blanket and putting it back on him.

“And I want you to wear it.” He put it back on her.

“No—”

“Both of you wear it!” interrupted Lady Bianca, turning around to look at them. “I see now that the awkwardness is not dislike, but quite the opposite.”

Minori’s cheeks heated up yet again, and Neji’s eyes widened before he looked away.

“Now, lovebirds, just share the damn blanket and let an old lady get her beauty sleep,” Lady Bianca practically scolded them.

No one spoke as Neji draped the blanket over both himself and Minori, not commenting on anything their client had asid.

“I’ll take first watch,” Minori said, knowing she’d be unable to sleep anyways. “I’ll wake you up if I get tired.”

Neji didn’t protest her statement and nodded in silence. He moved around a bit in his seat, attempting to get comfortable. To Minori’s surprise, his head ended up on her shoulder. Neji closed his eyes, and Minori stared at hte top of his head.

“Lovebirds, eh?” he mumbled.

Something churned inside of her stomach with how Neji was at such close proximity to her, saying things like that.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

The trip was uneventful. Minori was unsure if she was disappointed or not. On one hand, she nad Neji didn’t have to risk their lives or fight to protect Lady Bianca. On the other hand, the wealthy woman had spent money on two Jounin that she didn’t actually need. Then, there was a also the realization that Minori would be having to travel back to Konoha alone with Neji.

And only one blanket.

Her cheeks turned red at the mere thought of it.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

“Minori! Please come out of your room!”

She laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling once more, her mother knocking on her door.

“I’m not hungry, Mom!” she called back out.

She hadn’t really been in the mood to talk to people much ever since she admitted to herself that she liked Neji. There was no way for her to stomach her feelings. They just wanted to come out. She wanted to tell anyone and everyone, but she wanted absolutely no one to know. Her friends already suspected something, but their teasing would become more serious once they actually realized there was some weight to their words. Minori actually liked Neji.

“There’s someone here for you,” her mom said from the other side of the door. “That nice boy who you hang out with a lot.”

“Please be more specific,” Minori said, opening the door.

She looked up, stopping abruptly when she saw Neji standing behind her mother. She was clad in casual clothing, sleeping shorts and a tank top, her hair up in a messy bun. Instead of her cheeks, her entire face went red. Even Neji had a slightly flushed face from seeing her in such a casual state.

“Ah!” she yelped, closing the door on them. “I, uh, sorry! Let me compose myself.”

She scrambled to make herself look decent, which just included putting on decent pants and a sweater over her tank top. She opened the door again, opting to leave her hair in the bun. Neji was now standing out there, leaning against the wall across from her room, her mother out of sight.

“Neji-san,” she greeted, walking out of her room and closing the door. “What brings you here?”

She brought the two of them out onto the back balcony where there was patio furniture, sitting across from him.

“Sorry for not giving you a warning,” Neji apologized. “I was just worried about you.”

“Worried about me?”

“Well, last time we really saw each other was a few weeks ago when we escorted Lady Bianca,” he explained. “You haven’t come out to any of the outings, and you were acting a bit odd during the mission, as well. I was just wondering if you were all right.”

“Ah,” she nodded, moving some stray hair behind her ear. “Yes, Neji-san. I am okay. I guess I just needed some time for myself, to figure out some things.”

Neji looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. “Like what?” he asked.

She wasn’t too sure how to respond.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

“Ah, Minori-chan!” someone called out.

She turned around to see Tenten across the street from her, standing at the Yamanaka flower shop. She was waving her hand at her, trying to wave her down.

“Hi, Tenten-chan,” Minori greeted, walking across the way towards her.

“I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages,” Tenten commented. “I’d usually find you with Neji.”

Minori made a face. Ever since she realized her feelings, she did everything she could to put some distance between her and Neji. And now everyone was noticing.

“Did something bad happen between you two?” Tenten asked, analyzing her face.

“W-what? No! Of course not!”

“Did something romantic happen between you two?” she asked next.

“Definitely not!”

“Oh,” Tenten acknowledged. “I guess it’s just weird not seeing you two together. I was so sure for a second there that you two were going to end up admitting you liked each other, or something. I’ve never seen Neji act like he does with you with anyone else. I guess I was wrong, then.”

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

A FEW WEEKS LATER

“I knew it!” Ino exclaimed.

Neji gritted his teeth annoyingly, wishing that he had gone to the Yamanaka flower shop when Ino wasn’t the one watching it.

“Knew what, Ino?” he asked, his eyes closed as he turned around to face her.

“You’re all dressed up, looking for flowers to buy, you have a date,” Ino teased, glancing up and down at Neji.

“And so what if I did?” he asked. He didn’t have one, but he wanted to know what it was that Ino believed she knew.

“I’m sure I know who it is,” Ino giggled.

“Doubt it.”

“Minori-chan, who else,” she stated with a shrug, as if it was the most obvious thing.

Minori-san? Neji wondered. Wait, do these people think Minori-san and I have romantic feelings for one another?

Ino’s face dropped when she saw the confusion on Neji’s face, and he furrowed his eyebrows at the blonde.

“It’s… not Minori-chan?” Ino asked, a sad expression on her face. “You’re going on a date with someone else?”

“What?! No!” Neji denied. “I never said I was going on a date!”

“You never said you weren’t!” Ino argued. “Then why do you look like that?”

He looked down awkwardly, a tint on his cheeks.

“Minori-san and I don’t see each other like that,” he muttered to her. “But I am going to dinner at her house. Her mother invited me.”

Ino’s smirk was back.

“But it’s not a date?”

“No, why? Has Minori-san told you she thinks I’ll ask her on a date?” Neji wondered, wanting to know where Ino was coming from.

“Nope,” Ino said honestly. “Minori-chan is almost as good as you are at hiding her feelings for you. But I know two people in love when I see them.”

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

So, maybe all of Konoha was right. Minori liked Neji, and Neji liked Minori. They just had a slow progression, full of oblivion and then attempts at repressing feelings.

Neji Hyūga had become the first boy Minori had ever fallen in love with. A beautiful boy with a troubled past and a soft soul. She had fallen in love with him and watched as he struggled with certain aspects of himself, life and dark; destiny and chosen path. She fell in love with the man who vowed to protect his baby cousins with everything he could, just as he was fated to at his birth.

It was surprising because of how they were the unlikely pair. Their personalities as children wouldn’t have been compatible. Neji, the prodigy who had little space in his heart for love, and Minori, the small kunoichi who was socially awkward and wore her heart on her sleeve, everything she did was full of love and compassion.

As they both rose to the rank of Jounin, they both mellowed out. Neji began to think more lovingly about life, and Minori had began to think more rationally. The two of them were calm and collected, and for a while, oblivious to the whimsical romance brewing between the two of them.

Neji loved how she always seemed to be glowing, and she loved the way he looked at her.

They loved each other. It took them a while to admit it, but once they did, it was as if everything was starting to make sense. Not much really changed in their lives after the confessions—Neji having confessed first. They were always softer with one another than everyone else, they were always in one another’s presence. Minori wasn’t so scared to wear her heart upon her sleeve anymore. Not with Neji.

Despite not being the type to indulge in public displays of affection, Neji had a tendency to be okay simple touches. He wasn’t opposed to holding hands around their friends or walking around the village or for Minori to lean up against him—he was the one to lean against her first, before they even started dating, in that cave with Lady Bianca. He didn’t mind simple forehead kisses. In private, he was more touchy with her. His head always found itself in her lap as they did something as simple as reading, and she’d play with his hair.

She even got it braided once, and Neji wore it around her house that day. Her mother had gushed about how much she liked it, and Neji had turned red, unaware that her mother had been home.

Minori’s love language was touch, and despite never saying it, Neji knew.

Ah, young love, Guy-sensei had said when he saw Neji kiss his girlfriend’s forehead before Team Guy left on one of their missions. Oh, to be sixteen and in love.

But love was a rare thing to those who chose the path of the Shinobi. The world of Shinobi was full of hardships, heartbreak, death, war, and devastation. It was also full of friendship and passion, but life wasn’t a guaranteed thing when you vow to protect your village.

The Fourth Great Ninja war caused massive destruction all over—friendships broken, people loss, family’s hurting. But Minori hadn’t expected to come out of the war with a cold heart upon her sleeve.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

First, she had to watch as her two squadmates perished. The two people she might’ve considered her best friends, the ones she had spent countless time training with, eating with, going on missions with. The faces she had seen more than her family’s faces in the three years since they were assigned to their squads as mere genin. Two people she loved more than life itself that she would never get to see become Jounin, never get to see get married and have kids, tell stories about with and reminisce. Two people whose names she now stared at on the Memorial Stone.

The part of the war that may have broken her more than the deaths of her squadmates was watching the love of her life die. She had stopped on the battlefield where she was fighting alongside Neji, anger and tears in her eyes from the deaths of her comrades just days earlier. Neji had got her through it, holding her hand when she found out the news. She was with Sakura at the back end of the war at the time, helping with healing the injured, and Neji had rushed back to be with her.

She had watched as Neji separated from her, her world going in slow motion from there. It was an out of body experience, one she never wanted to go through.

Naruto’s voice calling for a medic rang through her ears, Hinata’s face as Naruto held his body. Minori just stared in shock, her body unable to move even when she yelled at it to do so.

She heard Neji whisper something to Naruto, unable to make out what he was saying from where she was.

She seemed to have spaced out, because all of a sudden Lee and Tenten were there, Lee holding her boyfriend’s body.

Naruto marched over to Minori, his head down as he made his way to her. Tears were flowing down her face rapidly as she looked at his body, unable to stop herself from shaking. Naruto grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into himself.

“I’m sorry, Minori-chan,” he said, struggling to keep his voice stable. “He told me to tell you that he’s sorry he had to leave your side so early, but protecting the ones he loved was the path he would always choose. And he said that even if you didn’t say it, he knows the answer to the question he asked you earlier. And he’s glad to know it was yes.””

Minori began to audibly sob at this point, all of their comrades stopping to listen to her heartbroken cries. Naruto supported her weight when her knees gave in, Tenten looking away from her teammates body and his girlfriend’s broken hysteria. Lee cried alongside with her, silently, holding onto Neji.

Naruto guided her over to the body, and she kneeled down on the floor. Lee allowed for her to take Neji into her arms, and she held him close and dear.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

They had won the war, but Minori was changed in ways the Konoha 15, now Konoha 12, had no idea how to fix. At nineteen years old, Minori’s heart upon her sleeve was frozen. Where many of her friends were getting married or becoming a couple, she had been unable to move past her first love, the only boy she believed she might ever be able to love. She wasn’t even sure what she would give to be able to feel the warmth that was that love again.

The funerals they held for those who died in combat was the hardest string of days and funerals for her. Her sensei, who had survived the war with her, stood with her hand on the girl’s shoulder as she sobbed, watching her squadmates' names be etched on the Memorial Stone. She stood with Team Guy during Neji’s funeral, and when his name was placed onto the stone as well. Lee and Guy let tears river down their faces while Tenten and Minori stared sorrowfully, arms linked with one another.

Tenten hadn’t cried in public over Neji’s death. She had kept a strong stance, despite the fact that her heart was breaking. Minori didn’t have it in her to cry at his funeral, having spent the days since the war sobbing endlessly in her bedroom. Tears involuntarily fell down her face at the end of the service though, the girl collapsing from exhaustion. Team Guy and Hinata stayed with her, the five of them there in silence.

Sasuke Uchiha was back in the village, and it was all that anyone could talk about. She was with the girls at the Yakiniku Q, sitting next to Tenten and Hinata—who she had grown the closest to in the time after the war, and Sakura, Ino, Karui, and Temari were also with them. The only three that hadn’t started to date any of the boys from Konoha 12 were Tenten, Sakura, and Minori herself.

Though, Minori liked to believe that she was still Neji’s girlfriend, no matter what life took from her.

“So, Sakura-chan, now that Sasuke-kun’s back in town, are you going to try with him again?” Ino asked, placing barbecue down onto the grill.

“No,” Sakura shook her head, earning confused glances from her friends. Even Temari and Karui, who hadn’t grown up with Sakura, were surprised. “I’m pretty much over Sasuke-kun,” she admitted. “It’s nice to have my old teammate back, but those feelings are a thing of the past.”

“What about you, Tenten?” Ino asked, turning her. “Are you interested in Sasuke-kun?”

“No,” Tenten shook her head. “I've come to the conclusion that I’m not too sure I ever want to get married.”

“So, that means Sasuke-kun’s asked out,” Ino sighed. “All the other girls worth his time are all taken.”

She didn’t even dare ask Minori if she was perhaps interested in going for Sasuke. While Minori was able to go out on occasion with her friends and attempt to have a good time, the topic of her dating was still a sore subject. Plus, she refused every single guy that had asked her out, and sometimes, she could be a bit emotionless. She wasn’t entirely changed from the old her, her bubbly personality still existed. She just had her days when the grief was a bit too much.

She refused to let her heart be warmed again.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

“Minori-chan?”

A soft voice was behind her as she walked through the village late at night, flowers in her hand.

When she turned around, she saw Hinata.

“Hina-chan,” Minori said with a warm smile, gripping onto the flowers tighter. “What are you doing out so late?”

“I was going to Neji nii-san’s grave,” she said, her lavender eyes, the same as Neji’s, on the flowers. “Are you, too?”

“Hm,” she nodded.

Hinata walked forward so that she was now next to Minori. Minori’s face was a little hot as she gripped onto the flowers, a tad bit disappointed that she had run into Hinata. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her, but she just preferred to be at Neji’s grave alone. She no longer liked to be so open about her pain in front of other people, even if it was her loved one’s family.

She had grown closer to Hinata and Tenten since the war, finding it easy to connect with each other through their mutual loss of Neji. Though all of Konoha 15, now Konoha 12, felt Neji’s death personally, but those three girls were the ones who were able to get the closest to him, other than perhaps Naruto, who had changed Neji’s perspective on life.

Those three girls; his cousin, his best friend, and his girlfriend.

They had just gotten to the cemetery when they heard a familiar and energetic voice calling out to them.

“Oi! Hina-chan! Mino-chan!”

There was Naruto. Hinata’s cheeks flushed at the sound of her boyfriend, turning around to see him walking. Beside him, contrasting his orange with black, was the infamous Sasuke Uchiha. His expressionless face looked in front of him at the two girls, walking side-by-side with Naruto.

“Naruto-kun!” smiled Hinata as the two girls waited for the boys to catch up.

“Visiting Neji?” asked Naruto.

“Hai,” nodded Minori.

She wished she could leave and go to the grave already, but she knew it would be rude to just leave. As Naruto and Hinata spoke to one another, she glanced at the Uchiha. She had only seen him from afar at the war, where he was legendary. All of the Three Sannin’s disciples were legendary during the war. When he had come back to the village, she hadn’t the chance to see him up close and personal before he embarked on his path to redemption.

He was taller than she remembered him to be. The brat of a genin he had now seemed disconnected. As kids, though he might have had a superiority complex, he also had a personality. He was competitive and full of himself—information she had learned from Naruto, compassionate for his teammates, protective and secretly very loving—information she had heard from Sakura. Even she used to see the amusement in his eyes over his rivalry with Naruto.

And now it seemed like the previous light in his eyes were gone.

But he could say the same about her.

The group of four began to walk towards Neji’s grave together. Minori was sure the awkwardness she felt wasn’t solely her. While Naruto and Hinata were likely not experiencing it, she was certain Sasuke had to be. But she couldn’t read the stoic expression on his face.

At the grave, Hinata began to clean the headstone while Minori arranged her flowers where she wanted them, taking the old, wilted ones she had left there before off.

Wilted flowers… she thought. I still have the ones he gave me…

She had moved them into a shadow box, preserving the flowers themselves without the stems. They now hung in a shadow box in her bedroom.

Naruto’s energetic energy quieted down once they got to the grave, now staring at it with a sorrowful expression. He knew to be respectful at one's grave, but there was also a look of guilt on his face.

Minori looked away.

They were all silent for a while. Minori was clenching the fabric of her pants tight in her hands, her knuckles turning red. Hinata got up to leave, Minori stayed put.

“Minori-chan? Are you going to be staying longer?” Hinata asked softly, bending forward. “Do you want me to stay so we can walk you home?”

It was then that Hinata realized the state Minori was in. The lavender girl’s eyes widened and then softened, tearing away from looking at her with sad eyes. Minori, clenching onto her pants as if she would break if she let go, was looking down with silent tears flowing out of her eyes, biting down on her lip to prevent her from making a noise.

Hinata looked at Naruto, who merely just nodded, and Hinata linked her arm through his. The two of them began to walk away from her, allowing her the time she needed at the grave. Sasuke looked at the situation with a raised eyebrow, not understanding why Naruto and Hinata of all people were leaving the girl at the grave in the state she was in.

Especially at night.

When they got far enough away, Sasuke broke his silence, looking to Naruto as he spoke.

“Is it wise to leave her there?” Sasuke asked.

Naruto and Hinata shared a look, nodding.

“I guess you never got the chance to get to know Mino-chan, huh, Teme?” Naruto pondered. “She’s a strong girl, Sasuke. She prefers it when no one can see her cry.”

“Hn,” he nodded at Naruto’s response, but halted in his steps, turning his body around to face Minori.

Naruto and Hinata stopped abruptly, unsure what it was that Sasuke was doing.

“I’ll stay until she leaves,” he informs them. “Just to make sure nothing happens to her at night, in such a vulnerable state.”

This takes his best friend and his best friend’s girlfriend off guard. Sasuke wanting to watch over Minori? What was all of that about?

Minori had been there for what felt like ages, but it must’ve only been about an hour and a half. Sasuke couldn’t make out her words from where he was, but it sounded as if she was speaking in between the occasional sniffle or sob, and he watched the countless times she brought the sleeve of her sweater up to wipe her face.

She finally got up, and proclaimed words loud enough for even Sasuke to hear, “And I’m still mad at you for leaving me!” She had clenched her fits at her sides as she said this, screaming it into what she thought was an empty cemetery.

Sasuke felt guilty for staying and overhearing that statement. He was unable to understand the severity of her grief. He had never been in love himself, and he had never seen the epic romance that Naruto claimed was Neji and Minori. In the years that he still knew the two of them, Neji was someone he saw as a rival from a grade older than them, meeting him as two prodigy brats back in the Chunin exams. Minori had gone to the academy with them, and seemed to be the only girl other than Hinata who wasn’t constantly trying to tug on Sasuke’s sleeve. Before he left, Neji and Minori weren’t even within the same friend group as one another, let alone lovers.

He missed out on watching them, which according to Naruto, was pretty heartwarming to watch.

“You could really tell how much they loved each other,” Naruto told Sasuke. He had been giving him a massive update on everyone in their friend group, how their lives were while Sasuke was gone. “Even though Neji wasn’t big on PDA or anything like that, you could just tell. When they were around… man, what am I saying? I sound like a hopeless romantic right now. I’m starving, wanna go to Ichiraku’s?”

Minori turned around from the grave, stopping abruptly in her tracks when she saw that the Uchiha had lingered. Her eyes were bloodshot and her nose was red. She felt embarrassed that he was seeing her in such a state.

“Sasuke-san…” she trailed off, walking towards him. She was a big lightheaded from all the crying, but she made it to him safely. Her eyes were also drooping with exhaustion. “Why did you stay?”

“It’s late,” he merely responded.

Minori quirked up an eyebrow at him. Sasuke Uchiha wasn’t one to show he cared about people, let alone about a girl he hardly ever talked to. The only connection Minori really had to Sasuke was that they shared the same precious loved ones.

Sasuke ended up walking her home. The silence was uncomfortable, but they both bared it. Minori was too exhausted to fight him on it, and she had a feeling that once he made a decision, he’d be stubborn about it. It just felt so weird and out of character for her to have him there with her.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

As time passed, all of the remaining members of their friend group began to notice Sasuke and Minori. At group events, he’d sit by her even if Naruto was further from him, and they began to be able to make small talk with one another. Yet another unlikely friendship was beginning to blossom the same way Minori’s one and only relationship had, but this time, no one said anything about it.

Where they had all teased her relentlessly about Neji, they kept their mouths shut and only watched when it came to Sasuke. Was it that she was finding herself in the same situation yet again, just with a different boy?

“Sasuke fits her type,” Tenten said softly, her and Lee watching as Minori left Ichiraku’s, Sasuke trailing behind her. “Almost always emotionless, born of a high prestige clan, was a brat when we were kids,” she listed off the similarities between Neji and Sasuke. “With a troubled past and a soul who had to be saved by Naruto? That describes both him and Neji, right Lee?”

Lee was staring intently as Sasuke walked with Minori. Then, he said—with his normal ferocity, “That wonderfully broken girl seems as if she has found a safe place in someone who may or may not remind her of Neji.”

Tenten looked at him with a cringe on her face, the boy seeming as if fire could be in his eyes. She looked over at Minori, who was now vanishing from view with Sasuke. Would she finally allow herself to move on?

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

The relationships in Konoha began to get serious despite most of them being barely eighteen. The first one of the group to tie the knot was Naruto and Hinata. Their celebration was beautiful, and Konohamaru went around trying to get a video log of all the different teams congratulating them on their marriage.

Minori didn’t have a team. She was surprised when Team Guy asked her to do the congratulation video with them. She’d never tell them, but she cried later on. She felt embarrassed about it; crying like that when it was supposed to be a happy occasion for Naruto and Hinata. She felt selfish for feeling so alone and sad when she should have been overjoyed for her friends. A part of her was envious of the love they had.

But it warmed her heart seeing the two people Neji laid his life on the line for made it out okay in the end. At least Neji could rest in peace knowing that.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

At the wedding reception, when everyone was mingling and chatting, she found herself standing alone. She was dressed up—even had lipstick on. A small smile was on her face from the liveliness of the event. Naruto and Hinata’s love was beautiful.

She heard footsteps approaching. When she turned around, she saw Sasuke standing there. Her eyes widened, for she thought he had been away on a mission. But she wasn’t too surprised. Of course he’d come back home for his best friend’s wedding.

“Hello, Sasuke-san,” she greeted him, bowing.

Tenten nudged Lee, and the two of them looked over at Minori and Sasuke. Tenten merely nodded in approval while Lee looked analytical of the two of them. They glanced around the party, Tenten making eye contact with Ino, who was standing by Sai. They both were looking at Minori as well, and before long, Tenten realized all of their friends’ attention had moved to them for a moment, before resuming their focus on the newlyweds.

Still, none of their friends said anything.

Hanabi had run up to Minori, a photo of Neji in her arms as she absentmindedly and excitedly talked to the kunoichi. Sasuke watched as Minori’s eyes softened slightly with sorrow when she saw the photo, but covered it with a fake smile at the little Hyūga.

When she had left, Minori’s smile finally dropped. She looked up at Sasuke, and he just wore an everlasting frown in the first place. But she smiled when she looked at him, but the smile was accompanied with furrowed eyebrows, as if she was just remembering a pleasant memory.

He quirked up an eyebrow at her, silently asking her “What is it?” without having to use words.

“I forgot to thank you for leaving the village,” she said bluntly, earning a shocked response from the Uchiha. She waved her hands in front of her, shaking his head. “I don’t mean it like that.” She looked up at the sky, a smile still on her face. “But it was you leaving that brought me and Neji on the mission to rescue you. And it was that mission that brought me and him closer. So, without you, I may have never experienced such a love before. So, thank you. It all started with you.”

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

The breaking point to the silence over the possible connection between Minori and Sasuke was when Minori had ended up in the hospital, and Sasuke, far away from the village on a mission, had rushed back home after hearing about what had happened through messenger birds. He acted calm as he entered the hospital room, but everyone could feel the worry seething off of him.

It wasn’t like he rushed back home whenever any of their other friends got injured on missions. He rarely rushed home when he himself was injured on missions.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

Tenten and Hinata were with Minori at Ichiraku’s.

“So, Minori,” Tenten started out, playing with the noodles in her bowl as she began to beat around the bush. “Anyone peak your interest?”

Minori snorted, slurping away on noodles as she shook her head.

Tenten and Hinata shared a look.

“Not even Sasuke?” Tenten asked boldly, earning a light nudge from Hinata.

All of their friends had agreed to go easy on Minori, but Tenten, who now considered herself Minori’s best friend, wasn’t going to baby her any longer. Not when the only reason she was holding herself back from being in a happy relationship was because she felt guilty about being happy when Neji was dead.

“No!” denied Minori quickly, her cheeks turning a ruby red, and she bent her head over her bowl more, trying to hide herself.

“Neji wouldn’t have wanted this for you,” Tenten said boldly, a sigh in her voice as she made the statement that made the hairs on Minori’s arms stand up.

She looked up abruptly, biting down on her noodles and letting them splash back into her bowl.

“Wanted what?” snapped Minori.

“A life alone.”

“You’ve also decided to be alone.”

“But I’m content with it,” Tenten snapped back.

The two kunoichi stared at each other intently. Their words to each other were sharp and a bit harsh, like they were packing a punch with every pause.

“Tenten-chan…” Hinata said softly, a warning hint in her delicate voice.

Clenching her fists around the fabric of her pants, Minori looked away from Tenten’s eyes into her bowl of soup, seeing her reflection in the broth. “He asked me to marry him.”

Her words were so soft and low, it was almost as if she had never said it. But the other two had caught it, their heads snapping up just a bit, alert and clouded with shock.

“W-what?” Hinata asked.

Minori sucked in and let out a shaky breath.

“Neji,” she said, her voice cracking. She paused, trying to find her voice. “During the war started…” she kept losing her breath as she spoke, something getting choked up in her voice.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

FLASHBACK TO DURING THE WAR

“I want to marry you,” Neji had said to her, the two of them in a medical tent together.

She had gotten injured, but nothing major. Neji was standing by her after the medics left, telling her she was able to get back onto the battlefield.

“Oh, shut up,” she laughed at his proclamation, thinking he was just joking, and she fumbled with the bandages on her arm..

“I’m serious,” he insisted.

“W-what?” she breathed out, looking up from her arm. On his beautiful face, there was no sigh of it being a joke.

“When the war is over, let’s get married,” he said. “I know you’re only seventeen, and I’m eighteen, but by the time we plan the ceremony, we’ll be eighteen and nineteen. That’s normal for people to get married.”

“What’re you saying?” she asked, even though she could tell he had put a lot of thought into what he had been asking her.

“That I want to be your husband.”

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

“Why didn’t you tell any of us?!” Tenten asked her. Why didn’t Neji tell her?

“Because of what I said to him.”

“What did you say?” Hinata asked, curious about this proposal her cousin had given Minori.

“I told him I’d answer him when the war was over,” she said, guilt written all over her face. “And that is why I cannot date Sasuke,” she said, standing up. She looked over her shoulder at her friends and said, “Because if Neji was alive, then I’d…”

She shook her head, unable to finish her sentence as she turned to walk away. “I’m sorry, I have to go.”

She took off running despite Tenten and Hinata’s calls for her to come back. It was raining outside, and despite it, she kept on running.

She ended up at Neji’s grave, hunched over with her hands on bent knees, trying to catch her breath.

Staring at the grave, she balled her fists and yelled, “Yes!” A sob stopped her halfway, so she paused before yelling again. “The answer was yes! Yes! I would marry you!” She was screaming so loud, letting the words she had never spoken out loud before. She allowed herself to collapse into the muddied floor, sobbing. “Yes, I want you to be my husband,” she whispered. “But you already knew that.”

She remembered the words Naruto relayed to her in Neji’s final breaths, the words he had told Naruto to tell her. “And he said that even if you didn’t say it, he knows the answer to the question he asked you earlier. And he’s glad to know it was yes.”

Before she knew it, the rain stopped falling over her and a shadow blocked whatever light she had in the first place. She looked up only to see darkness. In the wind, she could hear the flapping of a cape, and the familiar cologne of the Uchiha boy whom her friends wondered if she could end up loving next. The one who she had been spending lots of time with.

The one whom her first love had started because of.

“Sasuke-san?” she questioned, and the cape came off from above her head, and instead, Sasuke took his off, and wrapped it around her.

In his button up that he wore under, one of the sleeves moved with the wind. He stared at her, not saying much. He was not a man of many words. He offered her a hand, and she took it, letting him pull her up.

“I’m sorry,” he said to her, his words genuine.

“It’s not your fault,” she said.

“I’m still sorry that you’re in pain.”

He kept his hand clamped in hers, pulling her behind him as they walked away from the cemetery. She blushed as she wiped her swollen face, tugging his cape closer to her body to keep warm. Tears began to fall again, but this time in appreciation for Sasuke. And perhaps in the slight guilt that she couldn’t deny that she liked being by his side, and it felt like she was disrespecting Neji in doing so.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

TWO YEAR LATER

The night before Minori’s wedding—which was later than most of her friends’ due to the fact that she and her future husband still had their own demons they had to figure out while they were just boyfriend and girlfriend—she had a dream.

Everyone was light and warm, and she felt no pain.

She saw the back of someone, their long and shiny hair. Her heart felt like it would burst, and she went running.

“Neji-kun!” she yelled out.

The boy turned around, revealing a beautiful face she hadn’t seen forever. She paused right in front of him, scared if she touched him that he’d break. Tears flowed down her face. He reached a hand out, wiping them away.

“Hello, beautiful,” he said with his loving smile. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

She couldn’t break right there, over the sound of his voice—one she always felt guilty for forgetting from time to time. Looking into his lavender eyes was comforting.

“I miss you so much,” she sobbed, grabbing his hand that was on her face in her own, letting her head tilt into his touch. “You had no idea.”

“I know you do,” he said. “And I miss you, too. But I can wait to see you again.”

“How long will that be?” she wondered.

“As long as it takes for you to start a family, and live a beautiful life full of love,” he responded. “Because that is your destiny, darling.”

“You had a nephew now!” she exclaimed. “He looks exactly like Naruto.”

“Hai,” he said. “Boruto. I check in on them from time to time.”

She hesitated on what to say next, but did it anyway. “I’m getting married tomorrow,” she said, wiping her own tears.

“Hai,” Neji said with a nod and closing his eyes, allowing himself to give her a sorrowful smile. “I know.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “It was supposed to be to you.”

“It’s quite alright, darling,” he said. “My destiny was different from yours, but I was lucky to know love before I left. And I know you feel guilty, but don’t. I’m happy for you. I hope you know, I envy Uchiha-san. Though, I don’t hate him.”

“Really?” she asked, wanting to know if he was telling her the truth.

“It’s hard not to envy him, when he gets to be the one by your side. But I came to terms with where my life ended when I did what I did. I’m glad it’s Uchiha-san. It’s hard to hate the man who I have to thank for being able to fall in love with you in the first place.”

Her eyes widened, remembering when she made the same connection during Naruto and Hinata’s wedding.

“It all started with him,” Neji said, and he placed a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll be here waiting, but don’t you dare rush to see me again.”

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

Minori woke up with a jolt, panting from her dream. She looked over at her fiance sleeping next to her, and her heart calmed down a little. She laid on her side, her elbow popping her head up. She played with Sasuke’s hair, shorter than Neji’s, and then cupped his face in her hands. She smiled at the man beside her, knowing she was lucky to have ended up with him.

She kissed his forehead, muttering, “It also ends with you,” before laying herself back down, and drifting off to sleep.

•─────────°❋❀°─────────•

*AUTHOR’S NOTE: Sooo, if you guys think I should make an expanded version that goes more in depth about these events in the form of chapters, lmk!! I loved writing this one, though I definitely got carried away and made it longer than I originally intended for it to be. I’m definitely down to turn this into a full blown series where all the gaps are filled in, so send me an ask if that’s what you want! Especially since the sasuke parts are a bit rushed just bc length.

Also yes, I made it so that Sasuke was at the NaruHina wedding. So what?

❋❀TAGS (send me an ask if you wanna be addedto (or taken off) my taglist!*

@jjouterbanks @spilledtee @sortagaysortahigh @p0tat0-es

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stxvercgersslut · 4 years

Text

Why today?

Request: @teller258316 hi! can i request a jake jensen x reader where she goes into labor when hes on a mission?

A/n: I kinda took so long writing this because I didn’t wanna ruin such a brilliant request. Thank you so much for requesting this.

Warning: Language, lots of fluff

Temporary tag list: @jtargaryen18 @et-lesailes @chuckbass-love @t-stark35

Description: Jensen prayed he wouldn’t miss the birth of his baby, but when he’s on the other side Of the world to where you were, that seemed like a pretty possible outcome.

3 months. 3 whole damn months away from his one and only. To make it worse you were pregnant. Not only were you pregnant but by now you were 9 months pregnant. Which unfortunately meant that you were just days or may less from going into labour. Making it even more difficult to be so far away from the one that he well and truly loved. His heart aching every time he even so much as thought about you or even how your unborn little baby girl was doing. Picturing you all alone in your small shitty shared apartment just seemed to make his stomach twist uncomfortably. He never would have even agreed to go on this damn undercover mission with the guys if he’d of known it was going to rip him away from you for 3 months of your pregnancy. Then again if he hadn’t of been there to help with the technical side to the job then there most certainly wouldn’t have been a job to do in the first place. Not that that would have been a bad thing of course. The ‘nerd’ wanted nothing more then to be home holding you in his arms with his hand cradling your large baby bump as your little unborn baby girl occasionally kicked directly on his hand, letting him know that everything was going to be okay. Moments like those always seemed to sooth him. Which was why, during those traumatic 3 months, he had missed you like crazy. No amount of text messages, phone calls, photos or occasional FaceTimes would make up for any of this. At least you had contact with him. Thank god he was good with technology. He would have lost his mind if it wasn’t for the fact that he was at least able to check that you and the baby were okay.

When the two of you had first found out about your pregnancy of course there were some understandable concerned about how exactly the paid or you would even be able to raise a baby together. With Jensen always leaving for missions with the other ‘losers’ it would most likely be insanely difficult for the baby to even grow up knowing the father. Oh but the added worry was the fact that unfortunately poor Jensen always seemed to get himself into dangerous situations that could have safely been avoided (it’s safe to say that you weren’t at all thrilled to see him when he came back home one night to inform you that he had in fact gotten shot and was almost murdered.) Maybe being the girlfriend to Jake Jensen wasn’t the smartest of decisions but you adored him. This man really was the love of your life. The way he was so protective over you seemed to fuel your burning desire to be with him. You were both so different yet so perfect for each other at the exact same time and you’d be dammed if you were going to let this gorgeous nerd leave you. Like you’re mamma always used to say “keep that boy on a tight leash or you’ll lose him”

After several weeks (6 to be exact) of carefully considering all of your options the pair of you finally decided that you were in fact going to have this baby. Jake, being the one more excited then you, couldn’t wait to tell his friends the brilliant news. However, not everyone seemed totally thrilled for you guys. In fact only Pooch and Couger seemed to be happy for you. Not that you really expected anything different to be totally honest you understood that it wasn’t the greatest it timings or settings to bring a baby into the world that wasn’t at all safe. Not that that seemed to deter either of you. Clay most certainly protested against the pregnancy, believing that it would just mess with Jensen’s mind. If Jensen wasn’t fully set on the task at hand then that could have extremely dear consequences.

However, no one (not even Clay himself) could break Jensen’s excitement for this baby. And believe me, he really was unbelievably ecstatic to know that you were carrying his baby. For the first time in forever Jensen finally felt like he had found where he belonged, years on his own ‘travelling’ with Clay, Pooche and Couger had always been what he had decided to settle for. But now? Now that he had found you, the girl of his dreams, whom of which he as little engaged to, well he finally found his home. The life that he wanted was staring him right in the damn face and he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to grab it with both hands and hold it as close as physically possible.

Currently you were sitting alone in your 3rd floor 2 bedroom apartment in New York that Jensen had been paying rent for for the last 3 , laying in yours and Jensen’s shared bed with one hand on your stomach as you calmly continued to sleep. Even though it was a whole lot harder to sleep now that you were 9 months pregnant and could literally pop at any second, you felt calmer knowing that you’d soon be back in the arms of your fiancé. Thankfully today just so happened to be the day that he was travelling home from the mission. After 3 torturous months without him, he was finally coming home. But due to the fact that he was literally on the other side of the world he would most likely be home for a few more days. Even if that were true, at least you could feel happier and at comfort knowing that the man of your dreams was on his way back to you and that soon the two of you could cuddle back up in bed together like you always did. Due to the fact that you were I fact quite a light sleeper however, you were awoken to the sound of your phone buzzing 3 times in a row signaling that you had finally gotten messages from your beloved.

Jensen: morning baby ❤️ or maybe it’s afternoon for you? Xx

Jensen: How’s little baby girl Jensen doing? Is she still kicking a lot? Xx

Jensen: We’ve just gotten to the jet so we should be on our way back in an hour. Until then please keep me updated on how you and our baby are doing? I can’t help but worry Xx

Those three texts messages sent in a row, hardly giving you a second to respond to each one as they all can through, seemed to melt your heart. Of course they did. More so since you found worried and caring Jake Jensen to be the most adorable version of your fiancé that you could ever see. It was just so cute to see him all flustered and worried for you, making you realise just how special your man really was. Oh he was a definite keeper. As you wrote out your reply to his several questions you couldn’t help but laugh as the three little bubbles appeared at the bottom of the pile of messages, indicating that Jensen was once again typing. Yeah it could get annoying sometimes when he began to spam you in order to get a repsonse, but most of the time he was doing so out of love. Which made your heart swell even more then you ever thought that it could. This man really did love you and it showed.

Jensen: Baby are you awake? I’m sorry for pestering. I just need to know you’re okay Xx

You: Yeah I’m awake Jensen and our baby is fine. She’s been happy to spend some more bonding time with mama whilst you were gone. But now we really do miss you. Can’t wait to see you again. Xx

Jensen: I miss you too ❤️ Not long now baby girl and we can cuddle again. Xx

You: Can’t wait to see you! Xx

Jensen: Neither can I. Look I’ve gotta go since we’re bording soon. I’ll see you later baby Xx

You: Okay be safe! Love you Xx

Jensen: Love you too angel Xx

Those last little words that showed up on the screen seemed to bring a extremely bright smile to your face, well...that smile didn’t last long Since after a couple of seconds you felt a very uncomfortable wetness fall on to the bed. Unfortunately that just so happened to be your waters breaking. “Seriously? You couldn’t have just waited two more days for daddy to get home?” You asked of course fully knowing that the baby couldn’t hear you and you definitely couldn’t control this. But it was still awful timing for this little baby girl.

It was a struggle, but after around 10 minutes you’d managed to call your mother who of course got you to the hospital in record time. Which was why you were currently sitting in a very surprisingly comfortable private hospital bed with your phone pressed to your ear as you continued to try and get in contact with your beloved fiancé. But unfortunately, no matter how hard you tried he just wasn’t answering. “I’m not doing this without Jake! I’m not doing this” you spoke breathlessly as you pathetically attempted to stop yourself from pushing, too afraid of your fiancé missing the moment that he’d been waiting for this entire pregnancy. But unfortunately it was too late you were already pushing and your heart was thumping way too fast in your chest. Was Jake really about to miss the birth of his very first child? The answer to that was uncertain. Well that was until: “You don’t have a choice Y/n this ba-“ your mother began before being interrupted by a very familiar males voice echoing through the room “Rosie....her name is Rosie... our...baby’s name is Rosie Jensen” it was none other then Jake. He was finally here.

But you were far from impressed right now as you didn’t even bother speaking, you just held out your hand for him. Pulling him closer when he finally took a hold of your hand trying his hardest to sooth you. Well, he tried but nothing was working. So instead he just stood there, squeezing your hand as you pushed with all your might. And after 3 more minutes your little baby Rosie Jensen was born. Well it was safe to say Jensen had made it just in time.

#jake jensen #jake jensen x reader #jake jensen x you #jake jensen x y/n #jake jensen x female reader #jake jensen x female! reader #Jake Jensen x Pregnant! Reader #chris evans x reader #chris evans x you #jensen x wife! reader #jake jensen x wife! reader #Husband! Jake Jensen x Wife! Reader #chris evans x y/n #chris evans x pregnant!reader

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violinsandchains · 3 years

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Headcanons about Magnus, Magnus’ family, and some Swain because this is all I’m going to talk about for the next month or so

Cut because it’s long (but bulletpointed. in no particular order though)

Heads up/PSA: Magnus is FtM. I do deadname him and use female pronouns for him when talking about him pre-transition through the perspective of another character who WOULD use that name/pronouns for him at that time period.

Swain was always the calm and composed one at least outwardly while Magnus, especially younger Magnus (childhood through young adulthood) was absolutely balls to the wall rabid

Magnus experiences heats/a state similar to a heat and his PMS is horrible. Swain has the basic cis male understanding of periods probably from being an educated kid and from, well, having an AFAB best friend who told him all about it in gruesome detail as it was happening, but Magnus’ hormones had him literally feral with turbulent emotions and urges while Swain kinda just sat there like “maybe killing your parents over the tone of their voice is a little bit dramatic? would you like a glass of water to calm down sis?”

Swain: says something insensitive once probably without even meaning it or thinkinf much of it. Magnus, leaning into his face, eyes wide: i will bleed all over your mothers expensive white linens and blame y o u

After acquiring Raum swain can sense/smell magnus’ heats and the first time this happened after they reunited it assaulted swain’s senses like a ton of bricks because he didn’t know he can Do That Now That He’s Part Demonic. He never closely associated with any vastaya besides magnus and his family so post-Raum he never got to be NEAR one even, because magnus was MIA and marden is, well, male. Needless to say Swain is bewildered and whenever Magnus is in heat Swain, via raum, gets thrown into an almost primal headspace. You can imagine what he wants to do.

Dextera is a full shapeshifter vastaya while marden is very visibly part animal, with dextera being able to shift forms from wolf to human at will and control her feral behavior to perfection, and marden having his wolf ears and tail constantly out in the open unless he conceals them with glamour potions and generally not understanding or connecting well with humans. Magnus genetically leans towards marden’s feralness, so his animal parts are also always out, but he’s got dextera’s playfulness and charm mixed in with marden’s eccentricity making him sociable but EXTREMELY out of touch with how a human should act and behave, despite dextera’s best efforts to teach him how to blend into a crowd

Dextera would be the type to act perfectly happy and comfortable while mingling with aristocratic humans and Marden would be all awkward, quiet and stiff because he’s just a nerd alchemist with wolf DNA who would very much like Not to be there but gritted his teeth through it for reputation’s sake

Magnus would like to run around on all fours, nuzzled/licked people he liked or inappropriately hugged them/touched them, growled and snarled at people he hated, would DEFINITELY use piss to spite people and was generally considered an absolute weirdo and was picked on despite belonging to a technically esteemed family

Dextera would be sad her kid cant seem to fit in, while marden would be upset and even ashamed magnus was acting like that, torn between being mad at magnus for being an embarrassing child to being mad at humans for being racist. Marden probably proposed moving to ionia out of sheer desperation but both parents were too loyal to noxus to leave, With dextera being literally born there and refusing to just throw away all her effort to rise up in power and marden being too stubborn to leave after spitting on demacia and deciding consciously to ally himself with noxus.

i dont know how magnus met swain yet Theyre around the same age and i imagine it happened when they were relatively small kids Maybe house swain commissioned dextera for a painting, maybe even an enchanted one so marden had to be involved as well and they took baby magnus with them eventually (dexteras idea. She saw house swain had a child around the same age as magnus and suggested they let the kids play while she and marden worked. Marden was absolutely horrified because wow magnus will do something weird and its house SWAIN and theyre INFLUENCIAL but dextera was like "dw honey its ok let it happen theyre nice clients. ^^")

Magnus inevitably does every weird possible thing much to mardens dismay but baby jericho is kind of intrigued rather than scared or disgusted, and his parents think magnus is cute and jericho doesnt have friends either bc hes a stuck up loner ruvik case and dextera is DELIGHTED her baby made a friend while marden is sweating bullets like "this WILL go wrong" but nope House swain and house kracht sort of become close through the parents' business affairs and the fact their weird, lonely kids bonded

#HEADCANONS; Magnus #nsfw-ish #a little #mentions of abo #yeah it's messy im sorry i just needed to dump all of this somewhere #there's more coming #i made magnus poly #i am so invested in this oc you have no idea

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thewritingof-therose · 3 years

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Hi! Last week, with the publishing of the 20th chapter of Hasard, I reached the 100 kudos on the fic, so to celebrate it, here’s some kind of bonus chapter where I talk a little about the conception of the story, along with comments about each chapters.

Enjoy!

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So… 20 chapters and 100 kudos already. To be honest, by the time I started imagining this story, I wasn’t really expecting to be able to celebrate that milestone of kudo on a single fic and even if I already celebrated the 2000 kudos in general this year, if we make a quick calcul based on the numbers of kudos and all the fics I’ve published, at the time I’m writing those words, it’s the same that if each one of my fic had only 20 kudos… So yeah, finally reaching the hundred on a single one makes me so happy \o/

Anyway, here’s some trivia and fun facts about Hasard and the first twenty chapters of the story.

First of all, some history:

I had the idea for Hasard in May 2018 as I was watching the tv show Lucifer (I am not up to date with it, please don’t try to spoil me this show ^^’) and I imagined one scene that just… shaped the entire story and it took me less than a few hours to know that I would write it. Even if I wasn’t sure how long it would be and that there had been some changes. And no, I won’t tell what scene kickstarted it all because she still has to come and it could be quite a huge spoiler.

Following it, my brain quickly went into developing the full story and a few things changed. On the top of my head, I can say that Maiev was meant to be more on her own, almost a complete independent Hunter that would have also been resented by the other Hunters, along with a way more black and white view of the demons. She was meant to be more aggressive against all demons and really thinking that they all deserved to die, but I softened that side of her as I shifted the world building with the presence of hybrids.

At first, the hybrids were meant to be a really rare kind and I wanted to keep that status for a few select characters because it could have brought some really good story for them. Then, as I kept working on the worldbuilding, I came to the idea that actually, hybrids were extremely common, but at the same time, the demon’s presence was still a secret from most of the world because most hybrids started centuries ago and their blood and physical attributions were weakening the more they were reproducing. So, about 80% of the world is made of hybrids of all kinds of generation (who is my way of scaling the demonic influence on their life) and the 20% left is shared with the full demons and full humans.

Full demons are simply people who don't have a single drop of human blood in them. Usually, they are born from two other full demon parents or they just appeared like that (that’s the mytho). They are extremely powerful and good magic users, but now, they are rare. It was easier to be a full demon millenia ago when they ruled over the world and the few that are left in the current world of Hasard, survived either by hiding really well, manipulating their way to stay alive, or simply because they accepted to work with the humans and they went on.

My best example of a full demon is Velen.

The full humans, are the humans who either had never gotten a single drop of demon’s blood in their bloodlines, either they purged the bloodline after making sure that there had been at least 10 generations since the last time a hybrid was born (technically, every child following it would be considered as an hybrid, but the other parent would be a full human to weaken the demon’s blood which each new generation). Full humans are rarer than full demons and they tend to be bad news as almost all of them are associated with the Priesthood (who’ll get some more explanation later.)

I haven’t presented yet one of them to give an example, but one is ready to show up in the Second arc of the story. Won’t say who to not spoil the surprise x)

As for hybrids, there are two kinds. The one born from a demon and a human, and or hybrids (two hybrids will keep creating hybrids and technically, as long as one of the parents has human blood, the bloodline will stay a hybrid one). And the second one hadn’t been introduced yet. We have characters that are that kind, but it’s some worldbuilding elements that will show up later and so, I'll keep it to myself for now. Feel free to theorize though! And usually, most hybrids will simply call themselves demons instead of showing signs of weaknesses by not being a full one.

For the title of the story, it had been extremely hard for me to find one. Ever since I started preparing everything, it had a codename and it was “Modern AU” and it stayed like that until the very minute of the publishing of the first chapter. I was already going towards “Le Hasard Fait Bien Les Choses” but I was bothered because it was French, and no matter what, I couldn’t find a good English idiom that would have all the nuances of the French one. The only thing that comes close to it would be “Fate is a funny thing” and yet, I’m not entirely satisfied with it. So, after a long debate with myself and help from other people, I came to the conclusion that I had to keep the French title if I wanted to be happy with it.

It might not help much to get people interested, and I’m considering adding “Fate is a Funny Thing” after it but I’m debating it.

I think that's already a lot, so let's move to the trivia per chapters:

A Muffled Shout In The Night

Oh boy, first chapter! I was so excited to finally start the story but I was also really stressed. I tried to give away a quick summary of how the universe was working, along with my two main characters + showing up the first supportive characters towards Maiev. Trying to present all the cast (so adding Illidari and more about Illidan) right in that chapter wouldn't have really worked so, instead, I went to show that a more "Legion-y" timeline could be expected thanks to Khadgar and Velen's presence in the chapter.

I kinda hope that I succeeded to already show Maiev's obsession towards the Betrayer through her first lines.

Though I will be one hundred percent honest with you. The end of the chapter with Illidan running away, don't expect much from that interaction. I kind of always forget about it unless I'm reading back the chapter… I only needed a reason for them to stop fighting and the chapter to carry on.

But who knows, maybe I'll tie it to something one day.

Two Black Coffees And A Meeting, Please

When writing it, I always knew that Drelanim was on the other side of the call (or at least another Hunter) but as I read the moment a few times, I realized that I could have gone for a completely different way. One that would have probably surprised everyone.

But yeah, in another universe, it's Illidan who calls Maiev because he's in front of her place as they decided to meet for breakfast there. It would have been quite nice and unexpected for the story, especially that Illidan would have gotten right away the reveal that Maiev was actually the Warden as she would have complained about the wounds of the night.

In the end, I went on with my first idea and made them meet for good in the chapter.

And, like with the first chapter… the "current problem" that he talks about to Kor'vas went nowhere… I'll more than probably get him to acknowledge some uninteresting side story for it at some point.

Memories Of A Rainy Day That Will Never Be Forgotten

For that one, one word: Ouch.

By the time I started to write this chapter, I was also preparing the Advent Calendar of 2019 and I had decided on telling Naisha's story, and I had to realize that I still had to foreshadow some elements from it to make it work. Of course, the title is fully referencing the day she died and the demon that Maiev killed right at the beginning of the chapter was similar to Naisha, putting Maiev in a stabbing mood. And it led us to another necessary addition for the Calendar's chapter: Malfurion.

(I'm also wondering how many people guessed right away that Malfurion was the one Illidan was calling…)

Brother, My Brother, Tell Me What We're Fighting For?

Even if Malfurion had more of a cameo than anything in the Calendar's story, I felt the need to introduce him to put the bases of the twins' relationship. I always knew that he was a doctor and that he was mostly helping Illidan when he was getting in trouble, and as their backstory is different from WoW and that they are both demons, I didn't want to go on the canon path for them.

I cannot tell much about it because we'll get fast to their backstory (Second arc) but here, Illidan and Malfurion mostly grew up in a world where it was them against the rest of the world. They were born during the glorious days when demons ruled the world and they saw it change through the millennia that followed. After everything, they would be devastated to lose the other and suddenly be the only one left. This is why they are way closer than they could ever be in canon (and also Tyrande isn't part of their backstory so it helped them keep a good relationship). Sometimes, they part ways for a few decades. Malfurion goes back to medical school somewhere and makes sure that he's up to date for it, or Illidan just moves with his clan to experience new things. But they stay in contact and always come back in proximity of one another.

The end of the chapter was my obligatory "shock reveal/cliffhangers" before a break. But well, I wanted to keep the Legion's existence in my sleeve for a little longer, but I realized that it would allow me to make them into a concrete threat as the story will progress + allowing Illidan and, mostly, the Illidari to be a little more presents into the story.

Actually, the chapter's name comes from a song from the occidental version of the first Pokemon movie. It's a line from the song that plays when the Pokemon and their clone fights, and i used it mostly for the brother's mentions and because it would totally be a thing said by one of the twins in their past…

A Flower Arrangement Made With Your Face In Mind

At that time, I wanted to make a chapter to develop a little more the supporting characters of the cast, and as I was taking back the writing of the fic after a four or five months break, I thought it would be nice.

So, we got a little side dish of Illidari for it and that’s pretty much the only chapter (until now) where Illidan or Maiev barely appears in it. Yet, I threw some worldbuilding and foreshadowing in it and I still like it, so it isn’t really a filler.

I’ll probably do more chapters like that in the future, but I’ll see with the pacing of the story.

Willingly Accepting Your Death Isn't As Easy As I Thought

I don’t have much to say about this chapter. I still really like it and especially Maiev and Velen’s interaction.

Along with showing that we were far from a potential romantic relationship, at least on Maiev’s side x)

A Laugh That Will Echo Through The Ages

Oh my God, that chapter! I could probably talk about it for hours but we would quickly reach the spoiler territory so I’ll see what I can tell without shooting myself in the foot.

I loved giving Khadgar some more identity and I like his relationship with Maiev. In the story, they are around 10 years apart, with Khadgar being the youngest. He’s like an honorary younger brother to every Hunter and even if Maiev won’t admit it, she’s kinda thinking the same.

If he had been in the spotlight for this chapter, it was actually because I was thinking of writing his backstory for the Calendar of 2020 but in the end, I scrapped the idea and wrote something else. But It’ll happen at some point.

You Were In My Dream Last Night, And I Found You That Morning

A simple and nice chapter to calm down from the action heavy that was the precedent. I do throw some crumbs of foreshadowing and backstory, mostly for Maiev, but we will have to wait quite some time for the full one. Even if to be honest, before I release it fully, there will probably be some people that will stitch everything from my crumbs.

Illidan’s dreams are meant to be a plot point all through the story, and I decided to start them with this chapter. And of course, we can see that it’s the first chapter where Illidan, even if he isn’t conscious of it, starts to like Maiev more than he should have at that point.

A Red Dress And Heels To Hide The Knife In Plainsight

I loved writing that one. Showing that Maiev had more hobbies than hunting demons, along with showing how you had to act to get her to do things that she would refuse to do otherwise. Most of the time, if Sira gently asks if she wants to go do some shopping, Maiev always has something else to do. Not that she hates shopping, just that she thinks there’s better things to do.

I could probably go more about Worgens and their existence, but it would spoil some part of the story :/

And honestly, I had an alternate version of this chapter where Illidan saw Maiev and Sira hurrying in the streets, followed them and he would have eavesdropped on the conversation about him. It was obviously bad because it was confirming that Maiev was at least a Hunter (which he won’t know until a while by that time) and it would have been totally an excuse for smut x)

A Warning Falling In Deaf Ears

With this chapter, I’ve been working on mixing the idea of chapters 5 (to concentrate on rest of the cast) with more of the main story. Like that, I show that there’s more than Illidan and Maiev in this universe, but at the same time, I’m still progressing their story by sharing the chapter between the two. I really liked writing Kayn like that and I think that one of my favorite things to write in this story, it’s Illidan and Malfurion interacting.

A Touch So Familiar, Yet So Strangely Threatening

I remember writing that chapter and suddenly realizing that it was going to be longer than the precedent, and i thought for a moment that I had to cut it in half, but I couldn’t find a satisfying way to do it, and it would have fucked up my outline, so I just carried on with it until I had told everything that I had to.

With that chapter, I’m trying to show that Maiev can be really crazy when it comes to the Betrayer and his followers, but I can assure that she wouldn’t wound any of the Hunters, even if they cannot really be sure about it. And the little dialogue with the B-word made me laugh and yes, Maiev already called the Betrayer a bitch to his face. In 13 years, it would have been weird that she didn’t think of it at least once.

For the rest of the chapter, I just wanted to show that Maiev and Illidan were becoming comfortable with each other + setting up a reason for her to be worried about Illidan to show him her good side.

Screaming Under The Full Moon Won't Change Your Fate

The one thing I keep from this chapter, is that I can’t wait to dive more into Velen and Maiev's relationship.

Otherwise, yeah, if Illidan were to go into a fight only wanting to use magic, he could kill Maiev without breaking a sweat. But he likes the challenge and feels like it wouldn’t be satisfying to annihilate her with just a spell, so he’s fighting blade against blades, unless Maiev is really close to kill him.

A Fateful Call That Only You Can Be Blamed For

I have nothing much to say about it. It was one chapter that I really wanted to write and publish, because it’s the one where Illidan just let his guard down around Maiev for good, and now that he won’t try to trap her into admitting that she is the Warden, it allows him to see Maiev in another light.

That anyone can guess what it is.

Oh yeah, just that I threw some good crumbs of the fact that Illidan is a self-loathing addict in my fics and that it’s one of the reasons he falls so hard for Maiev after this chapter. But it’ll be a good talk for either another chapter, or later.

Going Separate Ways For A Night But Not The Life

Nothing to say, it was a transitional chapter to show that Illidan really believes that Maiev isn’t the Warden, and that there’s more than the fight to them.

Stab Me Once, Shame On You. Stab Me More Than Twice...

A fun little chapter. Velen is more modern than most people can believe and once again, I like writing about the interactions between Illidan and Malfurion. Of course, if you go back to read this one after chapter 20, you might see that I already knew how it was going to happen from this chapter, as the 20th got his title in this one.

I just hope that people read the story from the Advent Calendar 2020 to know what happened in the middle of it.

And From There, Fate Laughed At Them

I could talk for hours about Cordana in my AU. I just love what I’m going to do with her characters and I hope that my readers will like it too.

But to give some crumbs, Maiev and Cordana have been best friends since high school and she’s the first long-time friend that Maiev had made in her life and thanks to Cordana, she met with Sira and the group, but most importantly Velen. Cordana is a hybrid of sixth generation, so her demonic attributes are almost non-existent, but she kept some supernatural ability from her legacy. She knew from a very young age that she wanted to hunt demons and protect people, and met with Velen early to prepare her future job. Once she discovered that Maiev had some natural abilities to hunt demons, she saw them as the future “Best Best Friend and Hunters” and convinced Maiev to give a go to the hunt. She was forced to move out in another city but she kept contact with Maiev and the rest of the group. In terms of strength, abilities and hunting score, she is right behind Maiev.

Otherwise, I will add that I had a lot of fun writing the conversation between them about Illidan and how he would be better than the Betrayer *winkwink*.

I didn’t make it clear in that chapter and it won’t be important, but Khadgar has a crush on Cordana.

Cordana meant well with the message, and even if in real life, I would condone such action, here, I needed it to move things around because yes, neither Illidan nor Maiev would make the first step if it wasn’t for Cordana.

During the fight, at the beginning of the scene, Illidan totally complimented the Warden on her abilities but don’t try to make him admit it.

Last thing: my nickname is Fate. I’m the one laughing.

Games, Games, All Is Games

I don’t really have anything to say about this chapter.

Sometimes, Cowardice Allows The Survival Of The Smartest

To be perfectly honest, I regret how I handled Cordana’s week in the story because I’ve barely done anything with her but I can explain where the problem is. I knew that I wanted Illidan to discover the warden’s identity on chapter 20, and I planned all my updates around that one fact, but when it came to the outline, I wasn’t sure what to tell between the chapter 13 and 20 to reach that point and thanks to the Calendar, I moved things around that one and I ended up having the idea of making Cordana appears (She should have come in person in the story much, much later). And as I needed chapters 18 and 19 to build up to the reveal, I ended up completely stuck and making her appearance too fast and if it wasn’t for the message, she would have been useless to the story. But I realized it too late and I couldn’t rework my outline in time.

But well, i’ll give her a better mini-arc in the second arc of the story to atone for it.

Otherwise, I hope that the feel of the countdown to the reveal starting by the end of the chapter had been caught by some people x) It’s obvious to me, but well, i’m the writer.

Step By Step, Tick Tock Said The Clock

Just a build up chapter for the 20th. Even if I really like it and that I’m preparing the ground for future plotlines but I’ll let you guess which one it could be x)

I know I haven’t make it clear in the chapter, but Malfurion knew that Illidan was lying when he pretended that his problem was the Warden “may-be-may-be-not-a-hybrid/demon” but as he also know that his brother is a “stubborn motherfucker” he let it slid.

And yes, somewhere in my mind, there’s an alternate universe where Maiev accepted Illidan’s invitation and that they would spend the evening at her place. Without a reveal first.

Any Last Wish?

I don’t really have something to add to this chapter. I succeeded to write it just as I wanted.

I just had a long debate with myself as to how I wanted it to end, as I had the choice between cutting it right as Illidan is saved by the Warden (maybe not revealing her identity before the next chapter, or it would have been the last line) or just as I did, by them reaching her place first. I chose the latter because I want Chapter 21 to start with a really specific scene and I thought that it was better than a cheap cliffhanger.

The last thing I'll add, is that for the story to go well, I had to make Illidan be the first to be aware of the identity of the other, mostly because he can be the one to change his mind more easily about wanting to kill the Warden. If it had been Maiev discovering that Illidan was the Betrayer at this moment of the story, he would have died.

And now, because I'm not done yet, here’s some info about the bonus chapters that were published independently from the main story!

AC Day 8: A Morning

First calendar, in 2018, and I already knew that I was going to write Hasard. It had no name by this time, but I had written that small scene to try out a few things and see how it’ll work.

There’s a really high chance that I end up rewriting it for the main story, but I think that a few elements will change. We’ll see.

AC19 Day 24: Hasard: Naisha

Probably the worst (in terms of feels) chapter of the story yet.

Naisha is probably the character who had a story and fate the closest to canon and I wanted to keep it like that, as it allowed to shape even more the hate between the Warden and the Betrayer. Honestly, she wasn’t deserving of a death like that, especially that if the Betrayer hadn’t intervened that day by trying to kill Maiev, Naisha would have survived.

Actually, in any other universes/storylines possible, she would have survived. Unfortunately for her, she fell right into the feud and became a victim of it.

At this point of the story, Illidan isn’t even completely aware of what happened that day, and he has no idea who Naisha was. All that he knows is that he thought to have killed the Warden, only to find her, even more angry in the following week. He just knows that he had killed the wrong person, but he had no idea who. Maiev herself doesn’t know for sure that it was the Betrayer the culprit, as she couldn’t see clearly in the rain.

Of course, it’ll end up being brought up in the story :)

AC20 Day 8: Hasard: Malfurion’s Hellish Day

It should have been Khadgar's backstory actually for that Calendar. But even if I have a good idea about it, I realized that I wasn’t completely inspired and that I was missing a few details to be able to write it. So, in the end, I went desperately after another idea and thanks to Melowen, I think, she got me on the idea of writing about Malfurion.

In the end, this chapter, meant to be a funny one with Illidan and Maiev forced to be in the same place for the same job, with Malfurion, aware that it would be a catastrophe to let them discover the truth, ended up shaping the last chapters currently published.

And if you are wondering, no, Illidan wasn’t trying to trick his brother in giving him the secret identity of Maiev. He was just trying to get his brother approbation about the woman he was starting to crush on.

The line: ‘“Yeah, everyone tells me that I look like a famous actor,” Malfurion faked a chuckle, glancing at the woman.’ is a reference to my Bodyguard AU where Illidan is an actor.

Alright, that’s all for the trivia! Thanks for reading this bonus chapter, and the main story until now, and I hope you’ll keep enjoying reading Hasard!

Rose

#world of warcraft #illidan x maiev #long text

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elkian · 3 years

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I was gonna do a “missing the point”-style meme but I’m honestly not sure that would even work tho so:

Harry Potter and My Hero Academia/Boku no Hero Academia have similar issues with introducing and then immediately ignoring ENORMOUS issues re: ableism.

I think these two series in specific come to mind bc it’s ableism within a specific empowered community, and in both cases the series are pretty well-known and the community (Wix/Heroes) are immediately identifiable to many audiences.

[WARNING: Discussions of ableism, child harm, and abuse on multiple levels.]

What’s the problem?

SQUIBS.

[This post got stupid huge SO here is a tl,dr for all you lovely people who understandably have no time for this.

TL, DR: Both Harry Potter and Boku No Hero have a bad tendency to implement or imply a level of disability regarding unempowered people in empowered societies. They then continue on to completely disregard important conclusions to these implications, such as how heavily it is implied that these unempowered people (Squibs) are so ‘worthless’ to those societies that their very deaths are merely a byline rather than an actual tragedy.

This is especially troubling in MHA/BNHA when so many other political and worldbuilding considerations HAVE been planned out, and seems to be less-discussed in the fandom as a whole, so that’s a much larger chunk of this post.]

That’s your tl, dr!

Here’s the Harry Potter angle:

HP has a bit that I’ve seen people discussing already: Neville’s magic was discovered when his uncle dropped a literal child a potenial lethal distance.

Neville activating his power and surviving is celebrated, and then JKR immediately glosses over the glaring issue this has introduced: the heavy implication that a Squib dying from this incident would have not have been mourned or even really commented on.

The few adult Squibs (and isn’t that a whole new slice of wonderful /j) are generally disliked and ridiculed for some reason or other. Now, while obviously there are plenty of places where the Venn diagram of “disabled” and “asshole” intersect irl, when your ONLY presentation of a disabled character or group is, every time, an asshole or a fool or both, boy! That’s bad!

Neville (who is generally presented as magically, physically, and mentally weak and often treated as comic relief) is a bit better via the POV Character constantly having positive interactions with him, but this is still a mess. Yes, Neville canonically is not a Squib, but it’s not subtle that he’s on the cusp OF being a Squib, and that is a key element of ridiculing him in many situations (also the whole trauma thing multiple times, like if I really get into it I could do a whole double-size post of how Neville was done dirty or nearly dirty by JK all the time but this isn’t that post).

This isn’t even the point of this post. Let’s move to MHA/BNHA

Hero Academia has differing but honestly even worse issues. And I’m aware that different countries handle ableism and accessibility in different ways, but if you think too hard about it this is an absolute clusterfuck.

What is the problem now?

Squibs! Or rather, the main character of the series, Midoriya Izuku.

Deku (a nickname meaning “useless”! Imparted after his disability is recognized! hilarity!!) is also born without powers. Even worse in some ways, he is born without powers in a world where the overwhelming majority of the global population has some kind of empowerment. I can’t recall if it’s outright stated or only implied that someone with a functionally useless (and hoo boy, usefullness to society is its own post nope not today i do not have that much energy) Quirk is still more of a person than a Quirkless human.

That sink in? Okay, let’s move on.

In a narratively not-uncommon turn of events, Deku gains power. This is partially a product of, and directly tied to, his own work and determination, as well as his willingness to help even when physically outmatched.

To an American audience (NOT the intended audience though I wouldn’t doubt it if Horikoshi meant to have international appeal more or less from the start), this is a deeply satisfying narrative. Who doesn’t love an underdog story? And we even learn that the strongest hero of all time (til this point, anyways) was ALSO born Quirkless!

However, from here, things take a nosedive.

The key problem is a combination of story progression and overall thought put into worldbuilding. Horikoshi’s efforts may not be the MOST thorough, but he has put a great deal of work and thought into his creation (he at least understands the concept of implications and sometimes plans accordingly, looking at you JKR). However, that tied with story progression and personal repercussions actually works to the detriment of the matter.

Especially given recent turns of events.

[BIG MEGA SPOILERS FOR FAIRLY RECENT PLOT

STOP HERE IF YOU’RE NOT CAUGHT UP

SERIOUSLY]

What I mean by this is the current state of events re: two particular recent/recent-ish plot arcs.

First, Quirk Removal, and second, Endeavor’s comeuppance.

Quirk Removal/Loss was the start of my realization to what the narrative was doing regarding Izuku’s Quirklessness and the state of being overall.

This arc was a perfect time to bring up Midoriya’s past! A lot of Western works certainly would have done so! And yes, it may be bordering on done-to-death, but many elements of Hero Academia put new twists on common themes and cliches; it wasn’t unreasonable to hope that he might do it again.

Instead, little to NOTHING is discussed during this time! In fact, iirc I’d go so far as to say Midoriya straight-up never considers his past at any point during this arc!? If I’m wrong then it obviously made little impact.

NOW, not every disabled character needs to incorporate their disability and/or skills gleaned from living with it in every narrative. In fact, it would get tedious and questionable if they did (note: this does NOT mean ignoring/forgetting the character is even disabled when convenient. Like, I’d like to think that’s the obvious point of this post but... *gestures at tumblr*).

But the complete lack of it here feels really weird. Like, almost hollow. I think Midoriya makes some kind of suggestion to Mirio of his former Quirklessness at the end of the arc, but nothing that made any kind of impact.

Let’s move on.

Endeavor.

Now, the problem with Endeavor’s arc is not the arc itself. Or, rather, it’s the fact that Endeavor’s Comeuppance is pretty good.

This is a problem because someone else should be getting this exact same arc, yet the issue is never even RECOGNIZED, let alone addressed.

Endeavor’s abuse of his wife and children, all in the name of creating a Heroic legacy, is publicized and tanks his popularity. The general public is now aware of what he’s done to the people closest to him, which aside from giving him a more correct reputation, means they can’t trust him to protect them if they can’t trust him to protect his own family.

This isn’t the goal of this post and I’m no expert regardless, but up to this point (around chapter 290) this was handled in an interesting way. Endeavor is humanized and often shown interacting with people in a way that, while often domineering, isn’t always aggressive or abusive. He runs a Hero Agency for crying out loud! But abuse in the real world often isn’t constant, nor happening to everyone in contact with the abuser. So this is a surprisingly good lead up to the reveal, where you can understand how most people never realized this was an issue.

But here’s my main point. Let’s examine some traits and actions that come up:

physically abusive to a child (often dangerously so) to the point of permanent trauma and severe scarring in some cases

target of abuse was weaker (physically and/or regarding Quirk power)

often abused victim emotionally/psychologically, bringing this weakness up again and again

own immense power led to rising in the world of Heroics

comrades, fellow Heroes, UA teachers etc. not aware of prior abuse issues

Who does this sound like?

Endeavor, who has a whole fucking arc dedicated to this reveal and repercussions?

Or Bakugou?

Reminder: This isn’t a hate post. This isn’t a character post, or even an abuse post. This is about ableism.

Bakugou exhibits many, many traits and actions that Endeavor was literally just punished for. So why does the treatment of these characters in-universe differ so drastically?

Two primary reasons I can think of, which feed into each other:

1) Bakugou was a child (still technically is a minor, remember! Still a first-year high schooler!) when this started. This doesn’t mean he’s strictly innocent, but it’s an important point, because it leads us to

2) Bakugou Katsuki’s abuse of Midoriya Izuku is socially accepted.

Reminder of the audience’s first encounter with Katsuki. The very first page with him is him and his grade-school posse picking on a kid that Izuku is trying to protect. His posse is showing off their Quirk powers and mocking Izuku’s lack thereof.

Then we flash forward to late-middle school versions of the kids. Bakugou, in front of a fucking teacher and entire class, is verbally, physically, etc. abusive to Izuku. He trashes his stuff, threatens him, tells him to kill himself (which, as Izuku notes later, is a fucking felony in Japan too).

No one stops him.

No one criticizes him.

We don’t even get a shot of like, some more ‘regular’ students being like “man Bakugou’s kinda fucked up but we’re too scared to do anything about it” NO. NO. Everyone more or less either backs Katsuki up or straight up doesn’t care.

Remember that this started when Katsuki and Izuku were four. Remember that Katsuki’s power is absurdly dangerous, ie. LITERAL. GODDAMN. EXPLOSIONS.

Izuku has scars. He probably has hearing loss! He may have gotten at least one concussion which can cause serious neurological issues and open him up to further risk!

He could have died.

And?

NO ONE. DOES. ANYTHING.

THIS is the point of the post. THIS is the value placed on Quirkless people in this society.

And yet. Despite Endeavor’s comeuppance. Despite All Might and Izuku’s blatant ‘value’ to society through Heroics. Despite so many other political implications and quandaries address in the Hero Academia series.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing about this is addressed. The nearly-lethal ableism towards Quirkless people in this society is never ONCE brought up properly once Izuku receives One For All.

There is so much potential here! There is so much worth talking about! And yet we’ve moved into what feels very much like the Final Battle without it being addessed, despite numerous, numerous opportunities for a meaningful conversation about it along the way.

Mirio losing his power! Hell, Mirio’s powers’ drawbacks (and pretty much every Quirk’s drawback! if acknowledged properly!) border on a disability-analogue, and even more when Yuga’s laser comes up, and yet again and again we fail to truly engage with the matter in a meaningful way.

At this point, even if it comes up in the finale, I’m going to be disappointed in this particular aspect of the series due to the complete and total shut-down it’s been given so far.

What the FUCK, Horikoshi?

#elk text #24th #February #2021 #February 24th 2021 #I hope the bold helps with reading #long post warn #elk has thoughts #sorry for the ramble #Ableism #other shit comes up but plz keep in mind that that is the PRIMARY POINT OF THIS #also:#child abuse warn #abuse warn #harry potter spoilers warn #boku no hero spoilers #like REAL BIG spoilers for later Hero Academia stuff!#this is not a character hate post and i will block judiciously #elk has feelings

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repmet · 4 years

Text

Fic: Iris

For FowlFest2020: Obscure Character Appreciation Day. Iris is actually an OC, but her family is mentioned so... that counts right? Shoutout to @ms-nothingspecial for betaing and listening to me stress about word choice for far too long.

The fairy shuttle port at Tara was an impressive operation. Ten thousand cubic metres of terminal concealed beneath an overgrown hillock in the middle of the McGraney farm. For centuries, the McGraneys had respected the fairy fort's boundaries and, for centuries, they had enjoyed exceptional good luck.

- Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident

Iris McGraney is born at midnight on a full moon, which for a McGraney is the very best of luck.

The birth goes smoothly and without complications, and Iris is born quietly, wailing briefly to let the world know she’s arrived, before settling on her mother’s chest, quietly basking in the comfort of her family around her.

Iris McGraney is born lucky. Then again, her family always has been.

When Iris is 7 she gets sick, as children do.

Plans are made to see the doctor in the morning, but McGraneys have a certain way of treating illnesses first that most others don’t.

Iris is well enough to listen to her Dad tell her to keep the bedroom window open all night, even as he bundles her up in blankets and turns the heater on.

He puts a note on the sill along with a single gold nugget, just in case.

“We’ve invited them in before, but it’s better safe than sorry, isn’t it? And you should never ask without offering something in return. It’s rare they take it but it’s only polite.”

The McGraney’s were always digging up gold, especially near the fairy fort. Iris knew it was a secret though, or else everyone would want to come dig on their farm which would make the cows sad.

“Now, go to sleep,” her Dad tells her, tucking her in tight. “You’ll feel better in the morning.”

Iris doesn’t wake all night, and in the morning, the note is gone, the small piece of gold now sitting on her night stand.

Iris picks it up and runs to the kitchen.

“It moved, Daddy!” she announces proudly, the picture of a healthy child. “They didn’t take it but it moved.”

Her father laughs and hugs her.

“That’s how they let us know they were here.”

When Iris is 14 a severe looking boy in a suit sits down across from her at a cafe she’s in, and puts a phone on the table.

Iris recognises the model, it’s seven months away from being released and the hype is already intense.

“For a moment of your time.”

Iris stares at him.

“My parents are gonna think I fucking stole this.”

The boy sets a letter down on the table as well. Iris has a brother so she ignores the letter at first and continues staring at the boy, hoping to unnerve him. He seems unbothered, maybe he has siblings too. She picks up the paper and reads a very official looking letter from the phone manufacturer congratulating her on being selected to test an early release prototype.

It’s fake of course. Iris isn’t an idiot, she is however a teenager in a tiny village with not much going for it. In short, she’s bored and whatever the hell this is, it’s interesting. Also her parents don’t know shit about technology or how major releases work.

She shoves the phone in her backpack.

“What do you want?”

“The fairy fort on your property, I want to know about it.”

Iris raises her eyebrows, that’s hardly top-secret information.

“I don’t know, man, it’s been there for ages. We take care of it, respect the boundaries, and we get lucky.”

“In just the past fifty years your family has uncovered a lost work of Holbein the Younger, a sword owned by Íriel Fáid and seven seperate stores of gold. You’ve also never lost an animal to bovine spongiform encephalopathy in all the history I could find of your farm.”

Well it was more gold than that at last count but they’d stopped being so vocal about it and also-

“Yeah... what’s that last one?”

The kid gives her a disdainful and patronising look. “Mad cow disease.”

“Right.” This dude is a dick. “Like I said. Lucky.”

“It seems a bit more than lucky.”

Iris shrugs. “Look man, you don’t need to believe in the People if you don’t want but you’re in the wrong town. We eat that shit up here, the Hill of Tara borders our farm, there’s three fairy-dedicated gift shops in this village alone.”

He looks interested now though, leaning forward in his seat.

“The People?”

His eyes are weirdly intense, Iris can’t wait to tell her friends about this. Orla is super into vampires right now, she’s going to love it.

“Fairies, the fae, the fair folk, aos sí, whatever you want to call them. Maybe it is just luck, I’ve never seen one-” She frowns, a memory bubbling up then she shakes her head, brushing off a dream of a small winged figure on her windowsill one night. “The People is what my grandparents called them though. Capital P.”

“What else did your grandparents tell you about them? Did they have any superstitions specific to your family?”

Iris doesn't even need to think on that one.

“Grandpa Rob had this thing where he would make everyone wash their hands after we came back from church. Said it was not to harm the People with the holy water, but no one else I know does that, even the Creideamh Sí families.That means -”

“The Fairy Faith,” he interrupts. “Yes, I’m aware. I’ll need to know anything else your family knows about them.”

He pulls a laptop out of his bag which looks like nothing Iris has ever seen and her family is pretty well-off (selling lost works or art tends to help).

“This is getting to be more than a moment, dude.”

“I can take the phone back.”

Iris laughs, he’s not wrong that the phone is worth more than a short conversation, but the threat is just plain funny coming from a pre-teen who looks like he’d never seen the sun in his life and a stiff breeze would knock him over.

The man standing behind him, who Iris initially assumed was his dad but now isn’t so sure, clears his throat and there’s something in the way he does it, or maybe the way he glances down at her, that makes it very clear this tiny undertaker looking child would be leaving with either his answers, or the phone.

If Iris were older or wiser, she would be suitably unsettled but today she just waves a hand at the mountain of a man.

“Chill, I don’t mind, just weird to be honest.”

“You’re welcome to whatever opinion you please so long as you answer all of my questions with as much detail as possible. Now, tell me more about the holy water.”

This phone better be worth it. (It is.)

When Iris is 19 the world ends.

Kinda.

Her PlayStation is ruined at least which is annoying as shit.

More importantly, the fairy fort is gone and there’s an actual fucking fort there.

“I always thought it would be a bit less… concrete.”

She’s not sure who she’s talking to, her brother’s moved to London and her parents are out at lunch with friends. But it’s rather the sort of day where Iris thinks she might not believe anything at all if she keeps it just in her head.

The door gives a loud bang and Iris yells and leaps backwards. The banging continues and she realises there’s someone on the other side.

“Are you okay?’ she calls, trying to keep the sudden nervousness in her chest from coming through the words.

“There’s a fire in here, and the suppression systems aren’t working.”

Iris takes several long breaths, processing several things. One, her family is not mad, fairies do exist. Two, they do in fact have a fort on their farm. Three, she might be about to meet them for real. Four, it’s kinda ugly and dull, she expected a bit more… magical?

She looks up to try and centre herself and catches sight of a plane, trailing smoke and flying disturbingly low before it disappears over a hill. In the distance there’s the sound of thunder.

Right, the world is possibly ending, perhaps that should be higher on the list. That part is plain not registering in her head.

She tells herself she imagined the plane, there’s no room in her head to process the alternative right now.

“Who are you anyway?”

Iris’ head snaps back up at the question. Right, fairies trapped in a burning building. Focus.

“Iris McGraney! Stand back, I’ll kick the door in.”

“This door is built to withstand more than you, human.”

Iris frowns, annoyed. “You prefer to suffocate?”

There’s a long pause then, from what sounds like a distance, the voice calls back, “Alright, give it a go.”

Iris is a farmgirl through and through. She’s been stacking hay and climbing fences and eating well her entire life, she wouldn’t be carrying the Dinnie Stones any time soon but she could best all the local boys in an arm wrestle and carry a small calf several fields if she had too.

Her first kick connects with a satisfying crack. The second gives more of a crunch and on the third the door snaps and slams inwards. It’s a pretty cool moment, Iris wishes the day wasn’t so surreal so she could bask in it more.

Smoke starts to billow out as soon as it meets the outside air and there’s a lot of yelling and organised panic as thirty-odd fairies of differing colours and various sizes of small come pouring out, most coughing.

One, in an official looking uniform, makes a line for Iris.

“You’re a fairy,” she tells him.

“Yes, a gnome if we’re getting technical.” He pulls out a handkerchief and starts dabbing at his forehead. “Thanks for that, by the way, Frond only knows what’s going on. One moment we’re getting the call that Haven’s locking down the next the electronics start sparking and melting off the walls.”

“The same thing happened in the house.” Iris tells him, rapidly compartmentalising, there was far too much to take in today. Fairies sure, but gnomes? She pushes it in a box for later. “My phone melted, and the TV almost started a fire.”

The gnome shakes his head worriedly. “This is not good, not good. No contact with Haven and all our tech going bust. I bet it’s that Koboi pixie somehow, right crazy one she is.”

Iris nods for a moment, then shakes her head. “No, I don’t know what that means.”

“Not good, is what it means.”

Iris looks across the fields to several columns of smoke rising in the distance, the further she looks in every direction the more there are.

Not good at all.

When Iris is 32 her parents die.

It’s sudden and so plain, after a life of quiet magic and unrelenting luck. Her mother took a turn too fast and hit a patch of ice.

They didn’t suffer at least.

She blames the People at first, but even as the anger bubbles inside her she knows it’s only grief behind it. She’s learnt over the years they’re just people themselves, no capital letter. They can do extraordinary things but miracles are miracles for a reason.

After the wake is passed and the friends gone home, her brother reluctantly back across the channel, promising to call that same night, Iris is at a loss.

She had expected to be but still.

The knocks at the door are so frequent she doesn’t even startle when another comes. She’s not sure she’s in a mood for more well-wishers but she’s not doing well alone either so- she sighs and goes to open the door.

On the other side is a black-haired man in a three-piece suit, still pale but Iris felt less concern now that he might combust if the sun ever does manage to find him.

“Artemis Fowl, I didn’t expect us to meet again.”

“You remember me.” He doesn’t seem surprised.

“Being interrogated by a ten year old tends to stick in a girl’s mind.”

He smiles. “I was 12.”

Iris invites him in and makes tea.

It’s a welcome distraction right now because you have to be living under rock in Ireland not to know how just very extraordinary Artemis Fowl the Second is. Three doctorates, Time Man of the Year at 22, already one Nobel Prize and smart money’s on a second soon.

If anyone could have done it at 12… well.

For a moment she almost hesitates, but Artemis gives her a real smile, as if he already knows what’s on her mind.

(In the years ahead she will come to know him well enough to realise that’s exactly the case.)

She hands him a cup and sits down.

“Tell me, Dr. Fowl, did you ever find the People?”

#artemis fowl #fowlfest2020 #artemis fowl fanfic #prompt: suggests named characters #me: but what if that one family briefly mentioned just that one time and never referred to again #fanfic #fanfiction #do you know how long it's been since i posted a fic #like damn

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