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kpophours · 5 years

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Nightbringer

➵ VAV: (hunter) Lou x fem. (witch) reader / one shot, hunter AU, witch AU / fluff, angst

➵ warnings: mentions of death, mentions of blood, mentions of violence, sexual suggestiveness

➵ word count: 4.7k

➵ series: Baron, Ayno, St. Van, Ziu, Lou, Ace

"So you're basically saying that a rogue vampire is stalking the city?", Youngbin's face inside your mirror contorts with worry.

You nod, staring into the scrying glass in front of you, wringing your hands, eyebrows knitting together in worry as well.

"That's definitely not good."

"I know. Can someone from our Coven take a look at this?"

"Mhm, maybe Ayno or Dawon. Their campus is only about an hour away from the rogue.", Youngbin thinks out loud, making you shake your head.

"Not them. You know they have enough stuff to do with their research projects and buddy program. No need to trouble them any further."

The older warlock sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You're right. I'll see what I can do and let you know, okay? Just... don't do anything rash."

You smile angelically at him. "Wouldn't dream of it, Binnie." With that, you lazily wave one hand, his face vanishing from your mirror.

Looking back into your scrying glass, you gnaw on your lip. You know the city that rogue vampire is stalking right now - you know it very well actually.

It's the city your boyfriend lives in.

The probability of the rogue ever meeting him is very slight indeed (probably going towards zero), but nevertheless... an uneasy feeling spreads through your whole body. And being a witch gifted with the power of premonition, you learned to trust to your gut very early on in life.

So you finally stop contemplating, grab your phone and dial Lou's number.

He picks up after a few rings. "Hey babe, what's up?"

You can't help but smile as soon as your hear his deep voice. "Hey. I just wanted to ask if you're planning on coming over to my place this weekend.", you ask, twirling some strands of hair around your finger and continuing to stare into the scrying glass, not wanting to miss anything the rogue vampire is doing right now (not that you could actually intervene if anything should happen, but still... it makes you feel a little bit better).

"Uh no, sorry. There's something urgent I need to take care of before I can come see you again.”

You curse silently, closing your eyes for a few seconds and taking a deep breath. Time to bring out the big guns. "I just... I had a hard week. Police training is stressing me out and..."

You hate manipulating him, but lying to maybe save his life is worth it, right?

"And there's been a death in my family."

Technically, it's not a lie - your Coven just sacrificed one of the older witches for the annual Halloween ritual, but with her being a necromancer it won't take long before she'll be back again.

"What? Oh my God, I'm so sorry. Of course, I'll come as soon as possible. Are you okay? Do you need anything right now?" Lou sounds worried, his voice all soft now.

"No, it's okay. I just need you.", you answer.

"I'm gonna start packing right now. I'll let you know when I'm on my way, okay? Try to get some sleep, if you can. It's getting late."

You smile. "I'll try. See you soon."

With that, you hang up, letting your head fall into your hands.

You hate lying to him like this, but it's for his own safety - he's a mere human being, so he's too vulnerable.

You would do anything to protect him.

"I'll send you everything I've managed to gather so far.", Lou says into the speaker of his phone, picking up his travel bag and shouldering it, "If you need anything else, I'm just a call away, okay?"

"Okay, I'll see what I can do. Where are you going, anyway?", the deep voice on the other end of the line asks.

Lou thinks about this for a second before replying: "There's another case I have to take on."

"The details, I'm stunned." St. Van sounds more than just a little sarcastic, making Lou grin, before he answers: "Keep me updated, okay? We need to eliminate that rogue vampire as quickly as possible."

"I know - and I'll do whatever I can to do just that. Don't worry, okay?"

"Worrying is kind of my job as a hunter."

"I know. But you can trust me."

Lou knows this to be true - he and St. Van met by chance a few years earlier and since then, some kind of weird partnership/friendship has blossomed between the unlikely pair. A hunter and a vampire actually working together? Something unheard of before - but times are changing, the new generation of hunters being more open-minded towards the supernatural world. And Lou actually likes the vampire (even though he'd never admit to that), so he knows he can trust him with this case.

So he simply says "I know.", before hanging up, smugly imagining St. Van's slightly offended look in his mind.

He knows he has a duty as a hunter - therefore he's more than thankful St. Van has agreed to take this case.

Because Lous also has a duty as a boyfriend - and his girlfriend calling him in the middle of the night and asking him over when there's been a death in her family definitely calls for fulfilling his duty.

So he sends the promised files to St. Van, quickly locking his apartment and jogging towards his car. Before starting the motor, he sends you a quick text to let you know he's on his way, before driving off into the night.

You stare at your phone, heart already feeling lighter thanks to Lou's text confirming he's actually on his way.

You sigh, leaning back and stretching your arms above your head, yawning loudly. It's definitely been too many all-nighters for you by now - but being in police training at the moment as well as monitoring rogue creatures are time-consuming jobs, to say the least.

You tiredly rub your eyes, deciding some camomile tea will help with your restlessness. Boiling some water, you stare off into the distance, trying to sense if anything's wrong in your city tonight.

But apparently, the supernatural world is resting as well.

Taking your steaming mug, you sit down on your bed, turning the pages of a new spell book you found recently. Ayno has had a bit of trouble with one of his spells backfiring: he was apparently trying to dye his hair again, but Dawon messed up his concentration and the spell managed to somehow hit a friend of theirs just entering the apartment. Ayno asked for your help to find a counter spell and return his neighbors' hair to its natural state again.

Sipping your tea, you read through some pages before concluding that this, unfortunately, is not the right book. You'll definitely need to look for another one (but a witch can never own too many spell books, right?).

So, you slam it shut and look towards your desk. Your scrying glass is waiting for you, but your eyelids are getting heavier with every second. Maybe you should listen to Lou and try to get at least some sleep tonight.

You shuffle over to your desk and stop the scrying with a simple wave of your hand, before stashing the small silver mirror and your new spell book away, locking the bottom drawer of your desk with a simple spell.

Looking around your small studio apartment, you nod once, pleased with yourself. It definitely does not look like a witch lives inside this apartment, your decor being stylish yet homey, but not like... witch-y. Lou won't find anything weird when he arrives, just how it should be.

You quickly slip into your pj's, before pulling the covers of your bed over your head.

Seconds later, you're already out like a light.

You awake during the early morning hours, when the sky is slowly beginning to turn a pale blue, the mattress dipping beside you.

Groggily, you open one eye, being greeted by your favorite smile in the whole world.

"Hey baby.", Lou murmurs, sliding both arms around you and cradling your body against his.

"You're finally here.", you murmur sleepily, burying your face in his chest and closing your eyes again.

He chuckles. "Finally? It's been only two hours since you called me. I made good time driving here."

"Mhmm.", you just make, already half-asleep again.

"Sleep, baby. I'll still be here when you wake up."

That's the last thing you hear before drifting off once more.

Lou plans to stay for a week, his job as a freelance graphic designer making this possible, and you finally begin to relax again.

The rogue vampire is still on the loose, but your power of premonition tells you he won't be a problem for long anymore, someone - or something - is coming for him.

The next Saturday, Lou tells you he needs to get back home tomorrow. The whole day, you try to come up with a plan to make him stay for even longer - the rogue one is still on the loose after all.

In the evening though, Lou suddenly changes his mind - looking up from his phone, smiling at you. "Is it okay if I stay for a bit longer? Someone wants to meet me and talk about some details for the new website they’re envisioning.”, he asks - and you're obviously over the moon, agreeing immediately. After pressing a soft kiss against his lips, you resume cooking your infamous Curry for dinner, humming contently.

That night, you awake in cold sweat, your whole body trembling and making you feel like you need to throw up. Lou is still soundly asleep beside you, one of his arms lazily thrown over your middle.

You slip out of bed as quietly and carefully as possible, crossing your apartment and hurrying into your small bathroom. You make a complicated gesture with one hand, being greeted by Youngbin's worried face inside your bathroom mirror afterwards.

"It's the middle of the night!", you hiss, "Why did you wake me?"

The man inside your mirror doesn't even look remotely sorry for waking you. "This is urgent, Y/N."

He's using his leader-voice now, letting you know that this is not your friend you're talking to right now, but the leader of your Coven.

You bite your lip, shifting from one foot to the other. "What is going on?", you ask nervously, trying to keep the volume of your voice as low as possible, not wanting to wake your boyfriend.

"Eve is back."

At this, you startle, actually taking a step back. "What? That's not possible. S- she was banned. She wouldn't dare to come back here!", you whisper, suppressing a shiver.

"Well, she did. You need to be careful from now on, okay? We don't know what she's planning. But I'm sensing something big."

Youngbin's gifted with premonition as well, but his power is weaker than yours. Knowing this makes you hesitate. "Why do you sense something and not me, though?"

"My best guess? She's using some demonic power to block you.", Youngbin says, knitting his eyebrows together and staring right through you, his mind beginning to wander, "But I'm not completely sure about it yet. I'll talk to the others, maybe Rowoon can manage to lift the block. I'm thinking about sending Jaeyoon over to you. He will protect you."

But you quickly shake your head at his suggestion. "I don't need protection. I can handle this on my own." You know Jaeyoon is one of the strongest defensive spell casters of your Coven, but you definitely don't need your warlock-ex around your apartment while your current boyfriend's here as well.

"Y/N, this is no joke. Eve wants to kill you."

"Thanks for the reminder, I definitely forgot about that.", you retort bitingly, crossing your arms in front of your chest and scowling at Youngbin, who simply stares back, a dark expression on his face as well.

After a few seconds of silence, he finally sighs: "Okay. You win, no further protection for you. If you die, don't you dare come back and haunt me." With that, he vanishes from your mirror.

A knock on your bathroom door makes you jump. "Babe, who you're talking to?", Lou asks from the other side of the door.

You tousle your hair, silently cursing at Youngbin for waking your boyfriend and open the door. "Me? Oh, I was just... mumbling something to myself. I’m in desperate need of more sleep.", you answer, sliding your arms around Lou's naked torso and pressing a soft kiss against his collarbone.

He grins down at you, raising one eyebrow in a suggestive manner. "Sleep, huh? I think I have a better idea." With that, he picks you up and carries you back towards the bed, making you giggle.

"Is that so? Well... I don’t think I’m opposed to your idea.", you answer when he places you gently back on the mattress, pulling him down to you and kissing him deeply.

Sleep can definitely wait for another time.

Lou gazes at his watch again, impatiently tapping his fingers against the steaming coffee mug in front of him.

Inseong's not late, but he's way too early this morning - all thanks to him wanting to have breakfast with you, before you had to go to your police training.

Just when he wants to order another cappuccino, the door opens and a tall, lean man with blond-dyed hair steps through. His desert fox eyes zone in on Lou, a small smile lighting up the man's face.

"Hey, Lou! How's it going?", Inseong asks, shaking Lou's outstretched hand and clapping him on one shoulder, before sitting down on the other side of the small table.

"Can't complain. How about you?"

"Same, same. So, what brings you to my beautiful city this time?", Inseong asks, propping his chin onto one hand and gazing at the younger man in a slightly critical manner.

"Some personal stuff. But now I'm staying because of a new case. Did the Council contact you as well?"

"Yep, just yesterday. So, the Nightbringer is back, huh?”

Lou nods. "It seems like it. What do you know about her? I just heard some rumors and stories, but..."

Inseong immediately interrupts him: "What's that saying? All the stories are true. And that's the case here as well. Believe me, Nightbringer is the worst kind of witch there is, I haven't seen anything like her in years." He actually sounds a bit impressed. "My parents used to tell me about her, about her thirst for power. At first, she sacrificed a bunch of humans to be granted even greater power by some demon - a Prince of Hell apparently. After that she grew even more power-hungry, almost killing her entire Coven when she tried to drown their powers as well."

Lou shakes his head. He knows a Coven of witches and warlocks is usually like a big family, there's trust and love between them, so a betrayal like this... well, it's unheard of.

"Why did she vanish, though?"

"Well, as far as I know, some of the younger witches and warlocks of said Coven managed to blindside her while she was drowning the powers of the Elders, making her lose some of her own power in the process. She was shunned after that and had to leave the Coven. But apparently she's back now.", Inseong finishes his tale, interlacing his fingers in front of him and gazing at Lou. "And our duty is to make sure she won't sacrifice any more humans to some demon. We have to track her - and end her. With the Council finally managing to get The Colt, we can take her out with just one bullet.”

Lou nods, smiling slightly. "Well, let's do this then - I'm here to assist in any way possible."

Inseong grins. "Sounds good to me."

You try to track Eve with the help of a miniature scrying glass you always carry with you, but apparently Youngbin was right - she's using something to block your power.

Even Rowoon can't figure out what kind of power she's using, just that it's something demonic.

It keeps you on edge the entire week and Lou staying with you isn't helping at all - the opposite, actually. If Eve shows up at your apartment, he will be in grave danger as well.

But he doesn't leave, saying he still has a job to do in your town.

As much as you love his company... it's driving you crazy right now. You just want him to be safe - and with an evil (and crazy) witch out there wanting to kill you... well, he won't be, not while he's staying with you.

As a precaution, you cast some defensive spells around your apartment, which definitely won't stop Eve from entering, but will hopefully manage to slow her down for some time.

What you don't know, is Lou finding these spells, thinking they were put there by Nightbringer herself - he quickly and quietly deactivates them, being paranoid that the evil witch has found you thanks to him.

He definitely doesn’t want to leave your side as long as this case isn’t solved, as long as Nightbringer is still out there, stalking your city and threatening innocent humans like yourself (... if only he knew).

Thanks to your defensive spells being disabled, you don't awake until you feel a silver blade pressing against your neck, drawing blood. Your eyes widen when you see the dark figure hovering above you.

Eve hasn't changed much - she still has the same long hair, the same light green eyes and the same, slightly maniac grin.

You whimper slightly, eyes sliding towards the still sleeping form of your boyfriend beside you.

Not Lou, please not Lou, don't kill Lou, you just think over and over again, your whole body beginning to tremble.

Eve's grin widens. "Hello, daughter.", she hisses, grabbing a fistful of your hair and dragging you out of bed. You groan, suppressing a scream and closing your eyes.

You are prepared to die tonight.

If you’re being honest, you have been kind of waiting for this to happen ever since your mother was shunned and exiled. All thanks to you.

You mean - you betrayed the woman who gave birth to you.

You shunned her.

Thanks to your betrayal, she had to leave her Coven and this city.

You know all this - and would do it again and again, to save your Elders and friends, to save your Coven as well as all the innocent humans your mother wanted to sacrifice in her maniac thirst for power.

Innocent humans like Lou.

"Let's take this outside.", you whisper, "Mother."

She raises one eyebrow. "Oh, because of your human pet?", she says wickedly, "Mhm, no, I don't think so."

With that, she pushes you from her, throwing you against the wall with the help of a spell, your head hitting the concrete with a dumb thud.

You yelp in surprise and pain, not having anticipated her strength - where did she get all that power from? You were sure she lost most of it thanks to her being shunned and exiled by her Coven.

You fling one hand towards her, casting a silent spell, but she deflects it almost lazily.

You feel a small trickle of blood running down your cheek, your head beginning to spin. Almost automatically, your eyes slide towards the bed, tears forming in your eyes.

It will be your fault if Lou dies tonight.

... Neither of you have noticed him waking up - his heart almost stopping when he takes in the scene in front of him.

Why is Nightbringer here? In your apartment? Why is she battling you - not him?

His shock lasts only for a few seconds though, before he jumps out of bed. He sees your eyes widen when they slide towards him, but he lays one finger on his lips, signaling you to keep silent.

"Please.", you whimper, not knowing if it's for him or the witch in front of you.

Thankfully, Lou has stored The Colt, given to him by his father and The Council just a few days ago, underneath your bed. He carefully reaches for it without making a sound, dark eyes trained on Nightbringer. You quickly look away from him and fling both hands out, your hair whipping around your head.

„You were always weak, daughter.“, Eve - Nightbringer - says, lazily waving this spell away as well, „The only good thing about you was your gift of premonition - which you used against me. We could have shared the power I was searching for, Y/N. But you had to betray me.“

Silent tears slide down your cheeks, mixing with the blood from your wound. „I never wanted power, mother. And you betrayed me - us, first. Our Coven. How could you?“, you retort, trying to keep her attention on you so she won’t notice Lou silently loading his weapon.

„Our Coven was weak. There’s so much more for us in this world - why do we hide from humans? Why do we cower in front of vampires and werewolves? The demons can provide us with so much more and all they want is some mere human blood in exchange for unlimited power.“

You choke. „Some mere human blood?! You killed 20 people! They had lives - they had families and jobs and-"

Before you can continue, she waves her hands and your head begins to feel like its splitting in half; pain consumes your whole body.

This time, you can’t suppress the scream.

Then, a shot rings through your apartment.

The pain inside you stops and you fall to the floor, panting, vision blurry with unshed tears.

Suddenly, Lou is beside you, talking to you, but you don’t register any of his words.

You just stare at the woman - no, the body laying in front of you. Your mother’s light green eyes are open, but unable to see anymore. Blood pools around her body - oh God, so much blood.

„Y/N? Please, baby, look at me.“

You finally look up. „Who are you?“, you whisper, whole body trembling.

That couldn’t have been an ordinary colt Lou used - knowing your mother, she had protective spells around her, a normal bullet wouldn’t have been able to pierce her shield.

Lou grimaces. „I could ask you the same.“, he simply retorts.

You gaze at one another, silent for a few seconds.

„You’re a hunter.“, you finally say.

„And you’re a witch. You’re the daughter of Nightbringer.“

You shiver when you hear the name the stories have given your mother - you and your Coven always refused to use that name. Names have power, names spur fear.

„It’s not like I chose to be her daughter.“, you defend yourself immediately and Lou nods.

„I never said you did. I heard what you said to her - I know you’re nothing like her.“

You release a deep sigh at that. „No, I’m definitely not. I was the one who betrayed her, after all.“, you mumble, glancing down at your hands.

Red with the blood of your mother.

There was no love left between you anymore - but still, she was the woman who gave birth to you. Who raised you, who made your favorite cake for birthdays and hung your silly paintings on the fridge. That was before she became crazy and power-hungry, before your father died and took a part of her with him.

But still.

She was your mother.

You wipe away a lone tear running down your cheek, gazing back at Lou.

„What… what now?“, you ask in a small voice.

He raises one hand, gently stroking your hair. „Let’s get you cleaned and stitched up. And then, I guess, we should talk.“

You bite your lip, nodding and closing your eyes for a second. „Sounds good to me.“

Three weeks later, you startle awake in the middle of the night, trembling and feeling sick to the stomach.

This time though, it’s not thanks to Youngbin calling you to him - this time it’s thanks to your constant nightmares, making you relive your last conversation with your mother as well as her gruesome death.

The bed beside you is empty.

Low murmuring can be heard from your bathroom; you quickly tiptoe towards it.

“What do you mean, you won’t be able to leave your apartment? The sun’s not even that strong at the moment.” Lou sounds annoyed and you knit your eyebrows together.

What’s going on? Who is he talking to in the middle of the night?

Your boyfriend sighs. “I’ll try and see what I can do. I’ll get back to you as soon as-" in that second, you open the door.

He turns around, phone still in his hand. He immediately begins to softly smile at you. „Oh, hey babe. Why are you awake? Did I wake you?”

You shake your head. „No… it was a nightmare again.“, you just mumble, hugging yourself tightly and choking on unshed tears.

Lou takes your hand, pressing a soft kiss against your palm. “Go back to bed. I’ll be there in a second.”

You gaze at him critically, before nodding and retreating towards your bed. You snuggle back into your blankets and pillows, waiting for Lou to join you.

Just minutes later, he slips between the covers and pulls you against him, pressing light kisses against your cheeks, nose and finally, lips.

„Sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up.“, he mumbles, warm breath fanning over your face, „But that was St. Van.“

You raise both eyebrows. „He didn’t catch the rogue yet.“, you say and Lou nods.

„I know. He attacked a young woman and St. Van takes care of her now - he doesn’t want to leave her side. So I guess I’ll have text Inseong to take a look at the situation. He seemed to be very interested in the rogue vampire, last time I talked to him.“

You nod. „That sounds like a good idea. Do that, then.“

Lou smiles at you, his eyes forming little crescents.

You pull him closer to you, kissing him softly.

„I’ll use my scrying glass tomorrow and see if I can locate the rogue.“, you say, when you break apart again.

Your boyfriend leans his forehead against yours, eyes closed. „Good idea. By the way... I was thinking about something… Do you think your Coven would be interested in starting some kind of... I don’t know, partnership with us, the hunters?”

You think about this for some seconds, before slowly nodding. „I would say so, yes. We’re a pretty young Coven and more open-minded than some of the older ones. I’ll definitely talk to Youngbin about it.“

Lou seems pleased. „And I’ll talk to The Council, I know he’ll listen to me. This could mark the beginning of a new chapter, you know?“

You smile. „Where the human and supernatural world stand side-by-side against evil forces.“, you say.

He smirks. „That sounds very dramatic. I like it.“

You giggle, kissing him again. „I’m a witch - we have a flair for the dramatics.“

„Oh, I know. That’s why I love you.“

You soften at that, blushing a bit. „Well, I love you, too. You’re actually pretty okay for a hunter.“

Lou huffs playfully. „First of all, I’m not okay, I’m amazing - at everything. And especially at being a hunter!“

You smirk. „Well, you didn’t find out about me being a witch until I was literally casting spells in front of you. I think that says a lot about your skills as a hunter, so-“

Before you can continue, he begins to tickle your sides, making you laugh.

„Say that I’m an amazing hunter!“, he threatens, not letting go of you, even though you’re gasping for breath.

You shake your head.

„Say it!“

„NO! I’ll say that you’re an amazing boyfriend, though.“, you gasp out, finally making him stop his torture of you.

He actually blushes a bit, beginning to grin like an idiot. „Well, I’ll take what I can get.“

With that, he kisses you again.

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omniversalobservations · 4 years

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Scoob and Shag (2014)

The Internet is a place of many fanworks, with fans from around the world taking the established properties they love and paying tribute to them through fanart, fanfiction, and various other creations. Some of these fanworks take on a life of their own, transcending their tributary origins to become something original. One such fanwork is the webcomic Scoob and Shag, created by illustrator Diego Casasola, known by the pseudonym Dingo online.

Scoob and Shag started in 2014 as an inside joke between Casasola and two of his friends, who would imitate the voices of the iconic characters Shaggy Rogers and Scooby-Doo as they joked about Scooby being rude to Shaggy. Eventually, they made a blog on the website Tumblr to share comics relating to the inside joke, which became more popular than they could’ve ever expected. It wasn’t long, however, before the blog died down, as ultimately the comics were always intended as one-off jokes.

However, in 2016, Casasola had an idea to turn Scoob and Shag from a series of unrelated joke comics to one long, continuous story. As he told Tiger Media Network in a 2019 interview, “At some point, I revived Scoob and Shag with some comics here and there, and thought it would be funny if the comics started having a continuity.” And so, the new Scoob and Shag began, soon growing to a magnitude no one expected, not even Casasola himself. What was ultimately still intended as a joke soon became an ambitious, jaw-dropping action adventure.

Vulgar, violent, and unapologetically weird, Scoob and Shag tells the story of Scooby and Shaggy’s most dramatic adventure yet. On the way, they discover their unearthly origins and are thrust into a long-running, epic war between classic cartoon characters such as Buggs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and Popeye.

One of the most interesting features of Scoob and Shag is the power system, inspired by the powers system from the classic anime JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Ballyhoo. Every cartoon character in the comic has their own Ballyhoo, named after various TV-related terms, based on how beloved they are as a character. The more well-known and loved a character is, the stronger their Ballyhoo is. As one of the most iconic characters in western animation, Scooby’s Ballyhoo is one of the most powerful, making him a force to be reckoned with.

At almost 100 updates and still ongoing, Scoob and Shag has become an incredible property all its own, with almost 200,000 subscribers on Webtoon and overwhelmingly positive reviews. The comic’s extensive fanbase has even spawned many fanworks of their own based on it, with fanart and original characters abound. There are also many dubs and fan-animations on YouTube, with the channel Studio Meraki even creating an original musical OST for their dub.

Source: Comics Studies at the University of Mary Washington

Scoob is very aggressive to others, usually resorting to violence as the solution to his issues. He often pulls out a gun when faced with difficult or annoying situations. However, he cares for Shag and puts himself in danger for him.

Scoob looks just like his real-world counterpart Scooby-Doo but with two distinguishing features: his dog tag is the insigna for the pre-war Sixth Fleet, and his eyes are squinted.

History Scoob was the Commander of the Sixth Fleet during the pre-war period. Scoob and Bugs were good friends. Bugs showed Scoob they had achieved communications with Martians first before any other Commander.

After the war, Scoob lost his memories, as had Shag and Kerm, and they seemed to begin to live normal lives.

After getting into a high-speed car chase with the police and crashing the Misterie Masheen into a tree, Scoob and Shag fled into the forest in an effort to lose the cops. Inside the forest, the two met Kerm, and after traveling further into the forest, they come across a house and head inside.

Inside the house, after some spooky stuff and shooting Mario, Scoob and Kerm get separated from Shag, and shortly afterwards meet Mick, whom for some reason Scoob does not shoot. After a while of Mick guiding them around the house, the trio enter a lab and encounter Barney, who immediately transforms into a monster and chases them out of the house, which is actually a gigantic ship, and they were inside the Holo-Chamber.

To fight the monster off, Mick informs Scoob of the power he holds within him and tells him to listen to the voices of everyone counting on him. Scoob then activates his Channel, his Ballyhoo, for the first time since losing his memory, and he quickly blasts the giant monster away with one shot of his Ballyhoo-empowered pistol.

Scoob, Mick and Kerm then head back into the ship and encounter Sam, who captures Scooby after shooting Kerm and pinning Mick down beneath his boot.

While imprisoned, Scoob is taken to what appears to be a trial by Sam with three shadowy figures. They ask him what he has to say for himself after wiping out entire fleets of their people, and after replying by giving them the bird, he's taken back to his cell. Scoob is then called to by Mick from the vents and is informed that a rescue team is coming, and together they make a plan for escape.

Sam brings Scoob to an interrogation room, where he threatens to shoot Scoob until Scoob remembers everything. After Droopy informs Sam that there's intruders, Sam leaves, leaving only Droopy and Scoob. After witnessing Sam's defeat at the hands of Pop, Droopy also must leave the room, only to be killed by Mick, who tells Scoob it's time to escape.

During the rescue team's battle with Bugs, who had already lost Swipes, Scoob stops Bugs before he could take another victim. Pop then tosses Sam's gun to Scoob, and while aiming at bugs, activates Channel.

Abilities Scoob’s Ballyhoo is Channel, first used in Feel and then properly named in Cruel. Channel allows the user to imbue any weapon with pure ballyhoo energy[1]. So far, Scoob has only used Channel with guns, so its effects on other weapons is unknown.

Channel is also a rare hybrid between a physical type and an energy type[2], making it one of a kind.

While using Channel, not only do Scoob's eyes glow and leave a streak like other Ballyhoo users, Scoob's dog tag also turns into a four point star shape.

Source: Scoob and Shag Wiki

(images via Webtoon)

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rapidketous45-blog · 4 years

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littlemisssquiggles · 5 years

Note

How does rooster teeth get the message of criticisms... cause I just really want them to know I was thoroughly disappointed with Oscar’s character this volume... he was on the front of the poster for God’s sakes. Sorry I just needed to rant 😅😇 and hopefully they act on it in volume 7 and make him one of the focal characters next volume.

To be honest I’m not sure anon-chan. The closest thing Icould think of is that the RT CRWBY staffs probably watch all the critique contentfrom RWBY Youtubers on YouTube and browse through fancomments on Twitter and Reddit. I also heard that Miles and Kerry sometimes frequent the RWBY Official Reddit page and then there is the RWBY fan base on the RoosterTeeth website.

I’m not sure about much the CRWBY check out Tumblrthough. I know there is a RoosterTeeth Tumblr page but that hasn’t been updatedin a while, I believe. Regarding Oscar,well I’ve already voiced my piece on that several times over. I will say thisanon. Don’t think of V6 as being a let-down in terms of Oscar’s promiseddevelopment but rather the first legit chapter in his arc.

Despite this volume’s shortcomings, one positive Oscar-worthy thing that I liked about this season is that the CRWBY actually used Oscar a lotmore during V6. We didn’t learn moreabout him as a character or his past at all this season but at least we got tosee Oscarcontribute more to the team.

There wasn’t a single episode of V6 where Oscar didn’t have screen timeor at least one moment where he contributed to the plot in some shape or form. Bruh,that was a welcomed changed compared to his underutilization in V5 where hispresence was constantly interrupted by Ozpin; short of the infamous dojo scenewith Ruby.

While I am disappointed that Oscar is still prettymuch a blankcanvas as he was between V4 and V5with V6 providing nothing new to his character than what was already introducedabout him in previous seasons, nevertheless, I’m hopeful for the Atlas Arc.

I have a feeling that come V7 going more into the full arc trilogy, theCRWBY Writers will start to bring Oscar more to the forefront again.I know Atlas is supposed to focus on Weiss’ side of story. I have no doubtthat Weiss is going to be the frontrunner for the Atlas Arc, particularly V7which I believe will focus on her family affairs and the crimes of the SDC withthe Faunus Abuse.

However I also have a feeling that Atlas will beOscar’s time in the spotlight aswell. I do feel wemay learn more about Oscar going forward in Atlas. At least that’swhat I’m hoping for; fingers crossed. I understand your pain. As a Pinehead,I too have grown a bit weary of the Writers lack of fleshing Oscar out more.

It took them, what…five seasons for us to finally learn more about Ozpin and hispast—well kind of since Jinn’s story didn’t touch on the lifetimes Ozma spentas the Hermit,the King of Vale and lastly Headmaster of Beacon. I’d like to thinkthere was valid reason for omitting these three lives particularly because Ifeel the Hermitand the King of Vale especially helped shape Ozpin into the man hewas.

I feel like we’ll see more of Ozpin’s story andmemories for the Atlas Arc as well which in turn is wrapped up in Oscar’sstory. I’m hopeful for Oscar getting more focus in Atlas since he’s on his own.While Ozpin and Oscar are on good terms since Oz did return to help Oscarmomentarily, Oz is still gone.

Since Oz has locked himself deep inside Oscar’smind, I’m praying this is a sign that at some point Oscar is going to jump into his mind to findOzpin. I’ve always wanted to see a visual representation of Oscar’s mind—howit looks from within since he shares it with Ozpin.

And since it’s Oscar’s mind—this is a way for us asthe audience to live through Oscar’s memories and learn more about him and his pastfrom the cherished childhood memories within his mind. Since we will never goback to Oscar’s home on the farm, physically in the show, the best way now is throughhis memories.

I hope the Writers have something good and concreteplanned for Oscar’s arc down the line. I kind of lost faith in them a bit in V6 C9but…I’m giving them a chance again since they are the ones who made Oscar.

They are the ones who created Oscar and are writinghis story. So I want to believe they have something good planned for him thatthey are slowly taking their good ass time to build up to. That’s the mind-setI’m approaching this with. If the Ozpinheads had towait for their boy to get some development and depth, we Pineheads gotta be patienttoo. Our boy’s time iscoming. We just have to wait out the storm and look out for the bright rainbow onthe other side.

To close off my answer post, I’m going to concludewith a small squigglescript. It’s a small rewrite of theairship scene from the V6 finale from the point where Ruby Rose becamea Pinehead a la five minutes to make the others appreciateOscar.

As much as my Rosegardening Pinehead heart loved thatmoment to bits the first time I saw it…if the Writers really wanted to sell uson the group showing appreciation for Oscar, they shouldn’t have let Ruby pointit out.

I mean I love thatRuby was sweet enough to direct everyone’s attention to Oscar but…when I lookback on that scene, it feels kind of…cheap, for lack of a better word. In the sensethat, before that, everyone genuinely acknowledged Ruby’s greatness (becauseof course, she’s our protagonist who did some recklessly badass shit for thefinale) but needed Ruby to spell out Oscar’s appreciation like “LOOK! LOOK ATHIM! APPRECIATE THE GOOD FARM BOY FOR HE IS GOOD!”

Don’t get me wrong. I still adore that sceneespecially for Oscar’s reaction to Ruby’s over exaggerated attempt to make theothers appreciate him. I mean it works as the perfect relatable meme it is becausethat is literally the epitome of me as a Pinehead havingto explain to other fans why I love Oscar so much, why he’s my favourite RWBYCharacter and why he’s so good as a character in general. However, if the CRWBY’sintention was to make the others appreciate Oscar, it could have been done alittle better.

That being said, I took a crack at rewriting thisscene. Again, this is just my interpretation. This is also NOT me trying to harpon the CRWBY Writers. Just a little what if scene that I wanted to take a shot at depicting. So let’s go:

RWBY SquiggleScript #013: Oscar-worthy Appreciation

Picture it: What if … the airship scenefrom the V6 finale episode was extendedto highlight the whole team acknowledging Oscar and showering him with moreappreciation and love before he spills the beans about Ozpin.

Ruby: *awkwardly*… Hey stop it!

Ren: You petrified aLeviathan after diving down the barrel of a canon!

Ruby: *awkwardly*…Uhh…ha…don’t act like you all haven’t done crazy stuff before. I—Imean… *points atJaune* Jaune! Jaune jumped in front of a giant mechahand to save Nora!

Alleyes fall on Jaune now.

Weiss: *frankly* Thatis true.

Nora: That was pretty crazy.

Ruby: *smirking cockily* Ha!

Jaune: What! Hey! W–Well…thatwas only because…*pointsat Nora* Nora startedfiring missiles at Cordo like a mad woman!

Nora: Well that’s onlybecause Ren…*points in Ren’sdirection* jumped onto Cordo’s backto take out her shields!

Ren: *flatly* Yeah,I did do that. You got me. Well…Blake finallytook down her abusive ex.

Blake: Yeah with Yang’s help and only after she hit him with her motorcycle!

Yang: Rest in pieces my beautifulbike. But…didn’t you guys say that Weiss summoned agiant Wasp?

Weiss: *incredulously* To save your crazy sister who jumped on the face of a giant robot!

Ruby: Heeey!

Alleyes returned to Ruby again and she’s sulks. Qrow chuckles from the passengerseat.

Qrow: *amusedly*Back to you it seems kiddo.

Ruby: Oh don’t you start withme Mr. Disappeared for several hours and ends up passed out in front of Jaune’ssister’s house.

Qrow: Hey I thought we wereswapping crazy things we’ve done stories.

Ruby: That was crazy!

Maria: She’s right. You were amess.

Qrow: Well at least I’m notthe one who annoyed Cordovin by eating cashews and then flew the airshipstraight into her canon.

Mariaopened her mouth to retort but quickly shut it afterwards; resorting toshrugging instead with an amused smirk.

Maria: *admittedly* Well… you got me there!

Mariathen playfully punches Qrow’s arm, chuckling lightly. Her laughter is soonjoined in by everyone else on the ship. Through her giggles, Ruby spots Oscar,whose laughing face locks eyes with her. Her flashes her a small smile and Rubyreturns it with a sudden cheeky grin.

Ruby: Heyyy…aren’t weforgetting someone? *unsubtly nodding in Oscar’s direction*

Fortunately,the others had the same idea.

Jaune: You are right aboutthat.

Noweveryone’s attention was on Oscar and the former farm boy shrinks a bit as he noticedall eyes suddenly on him.

Oscar: *awkwardly*…Wh—Why is everyonelooking at me? *handsflaying* I don’t have any crazy stories?

Ruby: Nope but you do havesome good farmboy stories.

Nora: You forgave Jaune afterhe acted like a total butt which to me shows maturity.

Ren: Way more maturity thanJaune.

Jaune: Hey! Aren’t you supposedto be my friends? *coughs* But…um…they areright. You’ve done great for us, Oscar.

Oscar: *scratches the back of his head awkwardly* … I…didn’t really do much, really.

Ruby: *perkily* Sure you did!

Weiss: You stood up to Dudleyfrom the Argus and warned us about the tunnel.

Yang: You stood up to Ozpinand told us about Jinn.

Blake: We wouldn’t have beenable to make it out of Brunswick Farms alive if you hadn’t fixed the tire forus to get away.

Jaune: And Ruby wouldn’t haveknown to go for the canon if it wasn’t for your brilliant observation about themissile launcher. You got good eyes, kid.

Ruby: *smiling at Oscar* You’ve come a long way, farm boy.

Oscar: *cheeks turning red* Uh…thanks, I think?

Nora: *cooing* Aww are you blushing?

Oscar: *embarrassedly; trying to cover his flushedcheeks with the collar of his jacket*N—NoI’m not!

Yang: He is! *grinningmischievously; pointing a metal finger at Oscar’s reddened face*

Oscar: *defiantly*No I’m not! *looks up at Ruby* Ruby…help .

Ruby: Alright guys, quitteasing him. *clapshand smiling broadly* Besides you’reforgetting the best part.

Ruby: *animatedly* Oscar, made a successful crash landing! He’s a fourteen year oldfarmhand.

Ruby makes the same exaggerated gestures to draw more attention to Oscar as shedid in the episode.

Oscar: *groaning* I said help me.

Ruby: *smirking at Oscar with a small wink* Shut up and let us love you.

Jaune: That was…seriouslyimpressive

Blake: We’d have been strandedwithout you.

Oscar: I…thanks but…I’ve beenmeaning to tell you guys. I didn’t land the ship on my own.

Andthe rest of the scene plays out as it did the canon episode.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #rwby theories #rwby v6 spoilers #rwby v7 theories #squiggles scripts: rwby #Anonymous

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kaialone · 5 years

Text

Yo-kai Watch 4 News

I’m gonna gonna translate and go over the new information that was added to the official Yokai Watch 4 website this month (January 2019).

That includes analyzing the new screenshots in detail.

Head under the cut for more, beware of potential minor spoilers!

The new sections added to the official website this month mostly go over old information, but there’s also some new details, especially in the screenshots.

I’ll first go over and translate the main text, and afterwards I will go over the new screenshots themselves.

First new section:

A Crossover between multiple Worlds!

Kēta (Nate) and the others tremble before the Shadowside Yokai! Even yokai with the same names look totally different and are way scarier!

The one fighting Kēta is actually Shadowside Mitsumata Nozuchi (Slimamander)!

A closer look at this artwork:

Again we see Kēta in his outfit and Watch from YKW1 & 2. And this time around, he actually wears this outfit in the new screenshots, too.

If you recall, previously all in-game footage we’ve seen had him in his YKW3 outfit.

The yokai depicted are all ones we have seen before, except for one.

Among the yokai from Shadowside, we see what seems to be a Yokai Watch take on the “Ushi Oni” aka “Gyūki”, a creature from Japanese mythology that possesses traits of an oni, an ox, and a spider:

Since this is an oni spider, there is a slim chance that this is actually a Shadowside version of Onikumomon (Tarantutor), a boss from OG Yokai Watch, but we can’t know for sure right now.

A bit below they also again tease that there will be a 4th world in this game, but they don’t say anything new about it.

Next new section:

Not all Playable Characters are Humans!

The characters you can control aren't just humans, you can also freely switch to the yokai in your party!

Try to battle in the most effective way depending on the situation, by switching your point of view accordingly!

That’s it for new sections, so now I will go over all the new screenshots in as much detail as possible.

I will also compare parts of them to footage we’ve been shown previously, mostly from the demo that was playable at TGS 2018 (which I also translated).

This is to see how the game’s development has progressed.

First New Screenshot:

This is a simple one.

The text at the top is: “Mitsumata Nozuchi has appeared!”, and the two options at the bottom are “Battle Start” and “Stopwatching”.

This “...has appeared!” line is how battles in Yokai Watch always start in Japanese.

Based on the context, I believe “Stopwatching” is probably an option that will allow you to use an item, etc., before the battle formally begins.

Also, for comparison, here is a similar screenshot from the TGS 2018 Demo:

As you can see, there haven’t been any major changes for this screen.

Second New Screenshot:

This one has a lot more things to see, so I'll try going through them one by one.

Here we have Mitsumata Nozuchi's HP bar:

The look of the bar itself seems unchanged from the TGS 2018 Demo.

But, we can now see that the two "dot" markings below it are appearently "slots" for debuffs (and presumably buffs as well).

Not sure what Mitsumata Nozuchi is afflicted with here. It looks like it could be "stunned", or the like.

Next we have Kēta's moveset:

It's almost entirely the same as Touma's moveset in the TGS 2018 Demo, but I will still go over each command.

For the X-Button we have "Yōki Shot I".

Note that previously this move did not have a number next to it, so maybe there will be different tiers for it with different attack power?

On the R-Button is the familar option to "Switch Skill", which of course allows you to switch between the "skill" moves on that gear-like wheel.

We can see that Kēta has another skill that is presumably a healing move, but it's not selected so we can't see its name.

Moving away from the skill wheel, we have the familiar "Yōki Absorbtion" on the ZR-Button.

Below that on the Y-Button is the also familiar "Yōki-ken".

The final move set to X+A is a move that seems unique to Kēta so far, called "Shadow All (Attack)".

In the TGS 2018 Demo, Touma had his ability to transform into Fudōmyōō in this slot instead, so I presume these moves might be more specialized?

A the very bottom, the ZL-Button is set to let you aim, as we have also seen before.

Also, the little text saying "なかおし", here on the ZR move and the ZL move, mean that these are currently being used.

Related to the above, here's a quick comparison between Kēta's moveset here (top), and Touma's moveset in the TGS 2018 Demo (bottom):

The design of the GUI got some polish, looking "prettier" for the lack of a better term.

The skill wheel now has the look of a gear, and the R-Button to switch between skills isn't shown in the middle anymore, but at the bottom of it.

The option to aim with ZL is also shown at the bottom now, instead of at the top. Also, I want to point out at these moves weren't called "skills" before, they were simply called "moves".

The move set to X+A also has a circle now, likely showing its charging progress.

You might also be able to tell that skills are set to be used with X now, while previously they were set to ZR.

And in turn, the upper non-skill move is now set to X instead.

The "Yōki Absorbtion" and "Yōki-ken" moves have also swapped places.

I don't know any of these last ones are actual changes, or if one will be able to customize the controls.

But if they are actual changes, they were presumably made so controls feel more comfortable?

Alright, next is the HUD showing everyone's stats:

Since all the text on it is just everyone’s names, let’s go straight to the comparison with the TGS 2018 Demo version:

Like before, it got some graphical updates. The circle around everyone's icon is now clearly a charge gauge, too.

There's now a cursor next to the controlled character, showing one's ability to switch between party members to play as, which as absent before.

Tsuchinoko (Noko) also has a little speed buff, which is notably because buffs didn't seem to be marked like this in the demo.

Though I feel all these things were obviously already planned to be added.

I also want to point out real quick that a lot of these changes seen above already were in the screenshots added last month:

But the images were very small, so I couldn't see them well.

In this slightly earlier version, Kēta is wearing his YKW3 outfit, notably doesn't have all his moves, and Tsuchinoko uses different artwork as a portrait.

There's also an "Auto Battle" option set to the Minus-Button, and a "Stopwatching" option set to the Plus-Button.

I am not sure why the latter two are absent in screenshots from this month.

It's possible that they are unlocked a bit later in the game, as Yokai Watch game usually lock some features during it's tutorial phase.

And after that, there's only two small things left for this one:

Here we see Kēta utilizing the "Yōki Absorbtion", which seems the same as in the previous demo.

And here we see Hikikōmori (Hidabat) loafing, showing that his gameplay element is indeed returning.

Third New Screenshot:

Mitsumata Nozuchi has a different debuff here:

I'd presume this one to be lowering of his Spirit stat.

He's using a move called "Petrify Beam", which he also uses in the anime:

The design of the enemy attack notification seems the same as in the TGS 2018 demo.

Since Jibanyan is the one being controlled here, we get a look at his moveset:

On the X-Button he has "Kiai One Shot", which is actually the name of a move he can use in Busters (Blasters), and I believe it's called "All-Out Attack" in English.

He also has a fire-attribute skill that’s not selected.

On the Y-Button he has "Scratch", which he preumably just used, based on the look of the attack.

And for X+A he has "Great Change", which is the same name as the "Great Change" from Busters.

This one also shows us what this slot looks like when it's not fully charged.

And last detail here is this:

I am not sure, but could this be a wisp? If so, I wonder how one would pop it in this battle system.

My best guess would be shooting at it with the "Yōki Shot "?

Fourth New Screenshot:

Right away, note how Mitsumata Nozuchi’s eye has switched locations, so he will probably retain elements of his usual gimmick.

He also uses another move:

It’s called "Namebirooon" ("name" = "licking", "biron" = "blehh").

Since Tsuchinoko is being controlled here, we get to see his moves, too:

On the X-Button he has "Art of Recovery", which is a technique that also exists in previous games, and is called "Restore" in English.

He has another skill that, based on its icon, probably grants a speed buff, so maybe he buffed himself earlier?

On the Y-Button he has "Bite", which is spelled very similar to his biting attack in the previous games, but not exactly.

On X+A is "Great Change", just like with Jibanyan.

And finally, it looks like Kēta got lucky here:

The enemy's attack missed him, indicated with a little "Miss!" message, just like in previous games.

And that’s it for this update.

But note that it seems fairly likely that this particular boss battle, or something similar will be part of a new playable demo soon.

And, if we're lucky, maybe Level-5 will eventually upload footage of that too, like they did with the TGS 2018 Demo.

So keep an eye out for that!

#yokai watch #youkai watch #yo kai watch #yokai watch 4 #yokai watch news #yokai watch translations

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bambyeol · 6 years

Text

This Band (p.8)

B.A.M SEQUEL now updating daily!

pairing/s: band! park jihoon x oc ; band! bae jinyoung x oc ; doctor! hwang minhyun x oc

character/s: park jihoon, park woojin, bae jinyoung, ong seongwoo, kim jaehwan, ha sungwoon, lai guanlin, kang daniel, yoon jisung, hwang minhyun

genre: angst, fluff, music (band)

summary: never date your band mate.

warning : a sequel so I’d appreciate it if you’ll read B.A.M first. though you can always live dangerously and read this immediately.

This Band (p.1) This Band (p.2) This Band (p.3) This Band (p.4) This Band (p.5) This Band (p.6) This Band (p.7) This Band (p.9) This Band (p.10) This Band (p.11) This Band (p.12) This Band (p.13) This Band (p.14) This Band (p15) This Band (final)

B.A.M p1 // B.A.M p2 // B.A.M p3 // B.A.M final

wanna one masterlist

song inspiration: Sick by Got7

Now that you leave me and whatever you do

I hope that you think of me

That your days without me

Are as sad as mine

---

The following week, the chaos over the upcoming reunion was increasing without limit. There were speculations that the previous controversy surrounding the ex-lovers was merely a publicity stunt to put the reunion in the radar of the public’s attention. Although, this accusation was not enough to stifle the thrill over the December event.

Social media was blowing up with fans predicting the exact date and venue, broadcasting stations were promoting the event every chance they got, and old BAM songs have even made their return on radio countdowns. Some have thought up their own dream reunion setlists and boosted BAM songs back up into the charts. Needless to say, it was going to be bigger than they all anticipated.

The Underground housed the rehearsals for the whole month leading up to the big day. Plastered on the walls of the small event space were snapshots of their early days as BAM and the members tirelessly stared at these bits and pieces of memory as they waited for everyone else to arrive for the concert planning process.

Jaehwan bustles into the Underground all disheveled, making his way to the side of the room without looking at the members due to his rush.

“Guys, sorry I’m late, I spent too much time in the shower wondering how I’ll act with Jihoon and Riseul in one room--”

“Hyung, relax.” Jihoon piped up from behind the amplifier, shrugging and pointing to Riseul who arrived way before anyone did.

“You look more tense than we are.” Riseul chimed in to lighten up the mood. She then brushed off Jaehwan’s dumbfounded stare and stood up, signalling the commencement of their first ever production meeting.

“So, the management informed me that all we need to worry about is our setlist and promotions. Everything else from styling to lighting and other equipment would be taken care of.” Sungwoon announced in a rather professional atmosphere, setting the tone of the discussion perfectly.

“What do we have so far?” Seongwoo asked.

“A blank setlist and thousands of excited fans.” Woojin threw his arms up sarcastically and flailed his arms around in mock excitement.

“Well, we better start filling that list up now.” Jisung, the trustworthy leader, clapped multiple times to make sure he’s got everyone’s eyes and ears.

“Already on it. I’m on randomizer.com, now if you could just enumerate all our songs from day one.” Baejin whipped out his phone, beginning to type up song titles to feed into the raffle website.

“Jinyoung, you’re really taking after me.” Grabbing a seat from the nearby table, Seongwoo sat beside Baejin, taking no notice of the disapproving glances of the other members.

“Yah, yah. Guys. You’re telling me that we’re putting our fate in the hands of the internet? I think we’ve done too much of that these days,” Woojin slumped into his seat, showing disagreement.

“Our supporters are already creating their own dream setlists so we can look at those to get an idea of what they want to hear most.” Jaehwan sat on the floor and opened his laptop, redirecting to an online music chart and some blog posts written by their listeners.

“I know it’s a reunion concert but I think the audience would really be psyched to hear a new song or two. If that doesn’t make things too hectic.” Riseul proposed, scanning the members faces to see if they approve with the extra work.

Sungwoon, Jaehwan and Jisung were almost immediately won over by this idea but the others took turns and expressed their concerns over the time frame and the composition process itself.

Riseul notices Jihoon nodding along as she further explains her request, visibly weighing the pluses of coming back with new music at the end of the year.

“I think that’s a great idea. After all, it’ll be touching to write a song solely about reuniting. That boosts the emotional impact on the fans.” The convincing tinge in Jihoon’s voice along with that bit about making much more of a mark on the fans made the others nod as well.

“It might be possible. I mean, unlike before we have more hands and minds now.” Riseul’s response seemed to do the last push.

“It’s settled then? We’ll make a bomb setlist before we go home today and start working on the new songs starting tomorrow. Overnight is enough to get our thoughts in order?” Jisung finalized the plan to conclude the informal voting.

“Yep!” They said in unison and gathered closer to get into today’s business. Growing up has indeed made them more systematic and professional in their dealings. They knew in that moment that going beyond the expectations of the audience was what would make this reunion as explosive as it has been made out to be.

They all sat in a circle, each holding either their own instrument or their phones, all set to create.

Riseul sat between Jaehwan and Guanlin, directly in front of Jihoon to whom she smiled to for supporting her stand on adding to the setlist. He smiled back and turned to his phone with his cheeks frozen to the same stretch.

As a tease to Jaehwan’s grand entrance a few minutes ago, Riseul leaned to her side and whispered, “See, this isn’t so tense isn’t it?”

Jaehwan blocked his ears. “Don’t rub it in.” ---

“Yah. It really feels like I’m back in time.” Woojin stretched his arms after settling in his seat. It was 1am and with proddings from the youngest Baejin, the whole band was now sitting around a long table at a barbecue restaurant, throats still strained from rehearsal yet ready for a long night of drinking. Tonight they were back to being a simple group of friends in their youth; not a famous band nor individuals who were separated for several years.

It took some time to ease the tension between all of them when rehearsals for their reunion concert started. Apparently, not only Jaehwan felt a tinge of awkwardness brought by the two. But a few sets later, they were all reminiscing about their first ever gigs, the contests won and the countless songs composed, all of them apparently adhering to a silent agreement not to mention anything about the recent controversies nor the past relationships.

“The difference is that we can all drink now.” Baejin pumped his fists in the air and looked up, followed by cheers from the rest of the band.

“But you still act like a child, Baejin-ah.” Seongwoo pushed the younger man’s arm down and tapped him on the top of his head.

“Yah, say that to me when I have to drag your drunk ass back home.”

“Okay, okay. Everything’s on me. Order up!” Sungwoon announced as he stood up to wave over the server.

More cheers erupted from the group as everyone picked a dish and a drink of their choice. At the corner of the table Jihoon and Riseul sat facing each other.

Throughout their rehearsals, Jihoon and Riseul felt more and more at ease. The warmth was coming back, or it was there temporarily anyway. They’ve shared some glances and some smiles, although reluctantly, scolding themselves afterwards. But they end up repeating the actions anyway. They glance up as familiar lyrics come up, one-liners they remembered they thought up together. They glance up as difficult notes were hit, their eyes expressing a tap on the shoulder.

“Beer for you?” Jihoon asked, earning a nod from Riseul.

“And soju for you?” he smiled at the mimicked response, tone and all, and nodded back.

“Soju for everyone!” Jaehwan, seated near the ex-lovers, tapped the shot glasses with his chopsticks and got everyone’s attention before they noticed the exchange at the corner of the table. In a while, alcohol will take over their systems and the mindless teasing will inevitably start. Where that will lead, it’s probably best not to know.

The orders arrived as the conversations continued. The two wordlessly predicting and subtly observing what dish will end up on each other’s plates. It surprised both of them how much they remember about each other’s tastes.

He eats everything but he can’t handle too much spice.

She loves garlic. Maybe a little too much.

“Riseul-ah, you love this, right?” Jihoon got a little too over-excited at the sight of the steaming tofu stew placed in front of them. Without thinking twice, he grabbed Riseul’s empty bowl and started ladling some of the stew onto it.. “Here, while it’s still hot.” He said, eagerly looking at her and gesturing for her to try it out.

“Huh--Oh, yeah. Thanks…”

“Jihoon-ah, last time I checked Riseul had hands of her own…” Seongwoo nudged him multiple times with the sole purpose of annoying him.

“You’re already drunk? You’re the weakest, hyung.” The eagerness gone from his eyes in a split second, he pushed Seongwoo aside jokingly and went back to eating. He sees a meat jeon that was not on his plate before.

“It’s your favorite.” Riseul mutters without looking at him directly and took a swig from her mug.

Maybe it’s the atmosphere or maybe it was the alcohol slowly getting into their systems that’s making them take such bold steps like this. Or maybe it was their inner consciousness, in all its genuineness, trying to make its way out. It felt good somehow, pretending nothing was ever wrong between them. It felt good to have that fluttering feeling again; the feeling that someone was looking at you admiringly from your peripheral view. It felt secure. It felt familiar.

“I see your tolerance is still as high as ever.”

“Uh-huh. Sad to say, yours is still at an all-time low.” Riseul proudly jutted out her chin and stuck out her tongue at Jihoon.

It was already a couple of hours past midnight and most of them were already out of it. Jaehwan and Sungwoon can be heard singing their hearts out at the coin-powered karaoke machines, while the younger members were in the middle of a pointless contest of who could consume the most soju with chopsticks.

“It became a habit I guess?” Jihoon shrugged.

“Being a weak-ass became a habit?”

“No, not that!” Jihoon just shook his head at how silly she was acting. Nonetheless, he finished getting his point across. “Drinking little became a habit. Because I always had to take care of you back then.”

“For the record, I never black out when I drink. All I become is a bit tipsy and nothing more. Totally self-aware. So you really didn’t need to worry that much.”

“Ey. I was just doing my job as--”

“Hyung, noona, we’re playing never have I ever, want to join?” a flush-faced Baejin called out, cutting Jihoon off mid-sentence, and pulled his chair nearer the pair. “You know how it works right?”

“Just put a finger down when you’ve done what the other person tells you. We’ll go clockwise.”

“Person with the most fingers down by the end of the game should give us a consequence.”

Guanlin and Seongwoo took turns explaining and eventually everyone around the table except for Jaehwan and Sungwoon, who were still at it straining their throats, had their fingers up, either forced or willing to participate in the supposedly lighthearted drinking game.

“First! Seongwoo-hyung, never have I ever had to flirt with a lady to get my drums repaired for free.”

“That’s strangely specific! Yah!”

“Riseul-ah, never have I ever been friends with someone who has pink hair.”

“Seriously?! Remember when you had pink hair?”

“Guanlin-ah, never have I ever been to America.”

“That’s really lame, hyung.” Guanlin put a finger down followed by a roll of his eyes.

And as more fingers went down, the players started decreasing as well. The restaurant was filled with their laughter and banter mostly from Seongwoo who was the first to be eliminated.

“You better not give me a consequence that involves public humiliation.”

“But isn’t that the point of it all?” Riseul shrugged and put on her pretend thinking face to tease the losing player.

“Ah! I won! In your face, Baejin-hyung!”

“Yah, I’m still older than you!”

Guanlin and Baejin, who were the last players, noisily settled their childish conflict and ended up teaming together to give Seongwoo “the worst possible consequence in the history of consequences.”

Their night ended as each of them tapped out, deciding too late that it was probably best not to stay out until the sun begins to rise again. Their game was long over and Seongwoo has done his dare (with much delight from his tipsy younger members).

But a particular boy was not yet done asking for answers.

Before all of them could file out of the restaurant, Jihoon gently held both of Riseul’s wrists, pulling them to make her palms face him. With Riseul’s fingers now outstretched in front of him, he mirrored her, their palms almost touching.

The question Jihoon was about to ask has been stuck on the back of his mind ever since he first saw her again. It was wishful thinking, selfish even; he’s been hoping that she never had eyes for anyone after their separation. He thought knowing this would once and for all ease a fraction of his insecurities. Or worsen them if it goes the other way.

It certainly has crossed his mind that Riseul deserves someone better than him after all. Someone who did not hold her back. But he didn’t have the guts to concede and admit this to himself. Deep inside he believed that their story was meant to continue.

“Never have I ever….dated anyone after you.”

All of Jihoon’s fingers stayed upright. He looked straight into Riseul’s eyes, with a soft and expectant expression. There was a long pause in which none of them spoke and even their breaths seemed like they were on hold. But just as Jihoon’s hopes were skyrocketing...She’s not putting any fingers down...Riseul finally let go of the heavy breath and slowly folded her thumb in.

“I have.”

“I see…” Jihoon looked down and coughed as if doing this would brush away the warmth slowly creeping up his face.

Riseul nudged Jihoon’s hands with her own and eyed his still outstretched fingers, nodding to signal him to continue. She, too, was waiting for a response: a simple movement from his fingers or the lack of it.

“I haven’t.”

“Ah. Is that so…” With her hands now back to her sides, she decided to try and probe further. Despite her already knowing what he was about to utter. “Why not?”

“Because I couldn’t...I still can’t.”

Riseul started to say something but closed her mouth just as soon as she opened it, stopping to think twice about letting this conversation flow on. But Jihoon took care of that for her, leaving his words hanging vaguely in the air around both of them and saying his goodbyes without any further explanations.

“Go home safely. See you in rehearsals.”

“See you. Be safe.”

They asked questions and it left them with more.

---

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veryangryhedgehog · 6 years

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“Good, Old-Fashioned Snooping,” an Ede Valley story by Hedgehog.

Mike’s first few weeks at St. Adelaide’s had been a little hectic, to say the least. First, there was the fact that he had to abruptly adjust to an entirely different lifestyle. Then there were the classes, which were much more difficult than their public school equivalents; he’d just coasted through those with solid Bs. But most taxing of all were the numerous mysteries of the school.

At first, he’d just done some casual research, looked some stuff up on the internet, asked teachers for info, that kinda thing. But as he learned more, more and more questions began to appear in the inner folds of his brain. So then he’d moved to “real research”. He’d actually convinced Jilli to go to the library with him, survived an encounter with Abigail “four-eyes” Hodge, and gathered several old, dusty tomes to peruse.

He’d learned a lot of interesting things from those books. St. Adelaide’s had been a mental ward back in the 1800s, before finally being shut down for good in the ‘40s, he’d known that much already. The official story was that it had been abandoned for years afterward, but Mike had found several sources—only one of which had been a shitty site that hadn’t been updated since 2002—that pointed to the buildings being used as a government research facility of some kind in the ‘50s, presumably to combat the Soviets. He read some crazy ramblings by a conspiracy theorist about creating “Paragons of the Future,” but that seemed way too farfetched, whatever it even meant.

Regardless, the land was finally reopened as a school for Gifted Youth in the ‘70s, and had remained so to this day. Unfortunately, every source he’d found had failed to mention the founder of the school beyond a few off-handed references, which wouldn’t have seemed odd except that every article, website, and book avoided the subject like clockwork. Searching for the Director directly did nothing either, and this only made his thirst for knowledge worse.

And then, one afternoon, Doug stumbled into the room without warning practically carrying Jilli. Something was clearly wrong. She looked just like Doug did when he returned from his sessions. But of course Doug didn’t tell him anything, just shut them both in his room and locked the door. Though Mike couldn’t hear any specifics, he couldn’t miss the sound of sobs that reached his ear through the thin wall.

Mike had known for a while that he had no shot at Jilli. That had been made abundantly clear the morning he opened his door to use the sink only to see Jilli brushing her hair with only a striped bra to cover her thin waist. And she certainly hadn’t spent the night in his room. He was pretty sure he would have noticed. But still, he cared about her, as a friend, as a person. And so he worried.

That worry quickly turned into obsession. There was something going on at this school, and now it had been made personal. It wasn’t just about solving a mystery now, it was about saving his friend. Correction: friends. Doug was neck-deep in it too, whatever it was, and Mike was the only one who could save them. He was the only one that they didn’t expect.

Doug later confirmed that Jilli had indeed been subjected to a session, but he refused to say more. “It doesn’t matter, Mike.”

“But it does!” he argued. “We can help her!”

“I said, it doesn’t matter!” Doug nearly shook with anger, or was it fear? “I hate it just as much as you, but there’s nothing we can do, okay? Nothing unless you want to end up dead, or worse.”

But Mike found himself increasingly undisturbed by that idea. He hardly slept, staring at his computer screen until the wee hours of the morning as he ventured into increasingly sketchy parts of the internet to find anything at all that could help him. It was difficult work. Many sites were just mad ramblings by unstable individuals, or conspiracies about Atlantis and the lizardmen who had taken over the government. But gradually, a bigger picture began to emerge.

The more he looked, the more plausible it seemed that St. Adelaide’s had in fact, actually been a government facility all those years ago, at the height of the Cold War. Info on what really went on in there was thin, most of the recovered documents had been highly redacted. The facility had been dedicated to something called “Project Paragon”. There had been many experiments, but it seemed as if only one had been successful: a singular flower, a Buttercup, and had received the codename “Paragon Alpha”. Why they were experimenting on flowers of all things, Mike had no idea.

He thought that maybe he’d understand more if he had any knowledge about the Cold War. So he wandered out of Dunsany and down to the library, which he was surprised to find was locked. The problem was that Mike was so distracted by his thoughts that he didn’t actually realize this fact until about two minutes of pulling at it.

Just when he was about to turn around and go back to the dorm, the handle turned and the door creaked open. Abigail peeked her head out, and blinked at him, glasses eschew.

“Mike?” she asked. “What are you doing here? It’s two o’clock in the morning.”

Mike blinked. He hadn’t even realized it was dark out. “Is it?”

Abigail nodded hesitantly. “Are you alright? You... don’t look so good.”

Running a hand through his tangled hair, Mike couldn’t answer. He had no idea how alright he was on a scale of alrightness. The world seemed like a big confusing box with a bunch of colored squares. What in the world were they called? “I... I’m fine,” he answered instead. “I need-n-need a book.”

“A book?” she raised an eyebrow. “At this time of night?”

Rubix cube! That’s what it was. Wait, no, Mike, focus. “Wait,” he realized a second later. “What are you doing here at this ti—“ but he was cut off as she opened the door.

Victor was standing in front of Abigail’s desk, cheeks flushed, hair disheveled, tie undone. “Oh,” he said. “Hello, Mike.”

Though he opened his mouth to question this whole situation, Mike decided that he didn’t really want to know the answer. “Hi.”

“Now, you’ll forgive me for getting you on your way as quickly as possible,” she sighed, before turning from Mike to Victor and then winking. “Duty calls. What sort of book are you looking for?”

Mike had to force himself to not just keep looking back and forth between the two like a bobblehead. Man, was he the only one who wasn’t getting any? No, focus, whoa he was tired. “Uh... the Cold War,” he finally got out. “Scientific advances during the Cold War.”

Thinking for a moment, Abigail nodded. A strange look crossed her face for a moment, but was gone before Mike even knew if it had actually been there at all. “Yes, that’ll be in the history section, over here.” She began leading him by the arm to the back side of one of the looming shelves. “That’s a very specific topic, you know.”

“It’s for class,” he said, a little too quickly. “It’s due tomorrow.”

“Hence the all-nighter,” Abigail nodded. “Well, let me know when you find what you’re looking—”

Again, she was interrupted by a pounding at the door. “Goodness gracious, it’s like no one ever sleeps around here. Please forgive me.”

She meandered off through the shelves, and Mike began to skim the titles of the books, trying to find something that might help him, something that wasn’t written by a conspiracy theorist nutcase. No, he didn’t want communist or capitalist propaganda either. A vein in his temple was beginning to pulse from lack of sleep, but sleep would just get in his way.

“Jilli?” Abigail’s voice reached him. “What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you about something.”

Mike froze. What was Jilli doing here? She should be asleep. He peeked around the corner of the bookshelf, and there she was in the doorway, her multi-colored hair was unmistakable. Oddly enough, she looked fine, composed even, even though she had just undergone a session less than forty-eight hours ago. He thought he saw her head turning towards him, and Mike skittered back behind the bookcase. If she saw him like this she’d ask a lot of questions.

“I need your help,” she continued. “Yours and Vic—oh that’s convenient.”

“Hello,” said Victor sheepishly.

Jilli looked back and forth across the cluttered room. “We’re alone, right?”

His heart clenched, Mike didn’t breathe.

“Well—” Victor began before Abigail quickly cut him off.

“Yep. It is 2 AM, after all.”

Mike relaxed, though now he was confused. Why would Abigail lie about that? She had no motive for doing so, unless she... wanted him to hear this?

"Alright,” Jilli began, breathing deeply. “This is going to sound crazy, but bear with me.”

The silence in the room was almost palpable.

“I’m going to overthrow the Director.”

No one spoke for a moment, and Mike had to stop himself from interjecting. Finally, Victor did it for him. “What?” he asked. “What do you mean ‘Overthrow the Director?’ She’s not a dictator, she’s a principle!”

“You of all people know that this isn’t a simple school,” Jilli scoffed. “Why do you keep that project of yours under a sheet? Because she and her lackeys are always watching you. We’re constantly overworked with classes and made to maintain a strict regimen so we can’t stop to think, and we all know someone who’d gotten fucked up by one of her psychotic sessions. We all live in fear that we might be next. This is the very definition of a fascist dictatorship.”

“But... but this is a school,” Victor replied weakly. “We chose to be here.”

Again, the room was quiet, and the others looked at each other warily. “I didn’t choose to be here.” Jilli broke the silence. “My agent forced me on a plane here and I haven’t heard a word since. Did you?”

“My parents found my projects and almost sent me to a mental ward before St. Adelaide’s contacted them,” Victor admitted.

“It’s the same for me,” Abigail whispered.

Jilli nodded. “So none of us are here of our own freewill, but we just assumed everyone else was.” She turned to Victor. “Still convinced this is just a school?”

“I...” he began, before hanging his head. “No.”

“We’ve been abandoned, but we don’t need to continue living in this hell.” Jilli gritted her teeth. “Se we’ve gotta fight back. But I can’t do it alone. I need your help, both of you. Are you with me?”

“This is insane.” Victor shook his head. “But alright.”

“I’m with you too,” Abigail smiled. “Oh, this will be fun. I’ve never been part of a revolution before.”

Behind the bookshelf, Mike was near panicking. What had the Director done to Jilli? This wasn’t like her at all! This plan was absolutely ludicrous! It could never work. But most of all: what would convince her to even try?”

But one question sat the heaviest in his mind: what was he going to do about it?

~~ o ~~

In the cold night air, just beyond the boundary of St. Adelaide’s, someone else was watching. Or rather, two someones, on the back of a flying motorbike.

“You know,” Lilith said, frowning as she watched Buttercup’s intense stare, “this is the fourth night we’ve done this. What exactly are you looking for?”

“I’m not looking,” Buttercup replied simply. “I’m waiting.”

“Okay, what are you waiting for, then?” And if you say Christmas, I swear to god...”

“I’m waiting for her to make a move.”

Lilith sighed. “I’m tired of waiting. Why don’t we just go trash the place now?”

“Because our goal isn’t just to ‘trash the place’,” Buttercup rolled her eyes. “We have a very specific target. And besides, the utter destruction of a school without provocation would draw unnecessary attention to us. And there’s a lot of kids in there. I’d rather not waste life unless I have to. You must admit, the school is the perfect cover.”

Once again, the small, pigtailed child juxtaposed with her grim war general speech momentarily weirded Lilith the fuck out, and she wondered for the umpteenth time just what this kid could have gone through to make her like this. The Talons, much to her chagrin, had been kept on a strictly need-to-know basis.

She hadn’t ever been told why exactly they had been undertaking these “reconnaissance” missions for the last four nights.

“She’s going to do it soon,” Buttercup muttered. “She’ll use a distraction to disappear, complete the experiment. She’s so close, I can feel it.”

“And that’s when we strike!”

“No, then we keep waiting.”

The motorbike dropped a centimeter in Lilith’s confusion. “What? Why?’

“Because that’s when our allies will emerge.”

“But we don’t need allies. Let’s just go destroy the place now.”

“No.” Buttercup put her foot down. Metaphorically. Because they were in the air. “The three of you couldn’t beat me. You won’t stand a chance against what’s in there. And it’s not all about strength. So we wait.”

“But waiting’s boooorrring.”

“I know, my friend.” Buttercup nodded. “I know.”

#Ede Valley #Mike Miller #Jilli Nakajima #Abigail Hodge #Buttercup #Victor West #Lilith #Doug Bailey #writing

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jakerileyphotodiary · 5 years

Text

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried?

We looked at Composition I have fully understood the differences of F/Stops What makes a bad image (We’ve been looking at camera skills) What needs to be in a photograph to make it good Case’s where the stereotypes in photographs were judged for racism, such as the OJ Simpson case years ago, where “TIME” Magazine had OJ looking Darker then normal

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why?

Yes I’m able to give an good estimate to what F stop an image has I now know from the notes I’ve taken how to avoid taking bad images I’m also proud of a few more composition images I took I’m able to identify what’s needed in an image to make it better, Meaning, pleasing to the eye, message, and being unique I was happy with all of the lessons, everything has been noted down in lessons

This image is a good example, is a good example of ; Street, View Point, Rule Of Thirds and making an image slightly underexposed is also a techniques, I’m happy with my ability to add multiple techniques in one image. This evidence of not only my shooting ability, but my mental Knowledge.0

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem Nothing major, we had a few problems finding what to take photos of, find good places, and we had a bit of a slip up with the Mug-Shots, but to overcome the problems we became more aware of the places around us, and using that to our advantage. Which helped us over all become better photographers.

We also learnt what the stereotypes can been in images so we a problem we had was taking an image without those stereotypes

4. What do you need to organize for next week? Research / Materials/ Equipment / Homework I will need to bring my notes from these lessons for next week Finish Homework’s given out ( Like this Diary)

PERSONAL NOTE: Keep phone recharged for if I need to research something while I’m out

Date 3rd week Assignment: Level 3 Photography

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? We learned about formal elements, and thigs they mean like what does colour do/mean And we went out to try taking photos of this information We also learned about context and narrative and why it’s important We learned about the importance of colours, and how imagery can show a message We learned about what its like to be taking photos without seeing the image afterwards The time line of important photos Photos that have relations to slavery, war and mankind accomplishments

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why? I had great success on the photos as I proved to myself that I am capable of taking good quality images in different lights, and I know how to take images of comporstion

With the context I was successful in finding out how to find a photo, and to identify what an image was with in the 5 W’s When Who What Where Why

Had a little bit of difficulty understanding the meaning of the image “The rape of Africa” but I got there in the end Had a bit of trouble with the blind images as group got distracted, but with a bit of motivation I managed to get people back on track Taking photos without being able to review them and see if you need to change settings is hard

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem We had a little bit of trouble in the Narrative as we struggled getting photos for a few, but in my own time I’m going to be taking my own photos to finish the work

Had a little bit of difficulty understanding the meaning of the image “The rape of Africa” but I got there in the end

The fact that I couldn’t work alone

4th week

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? We learned about what its like to be taking photos without seeing the image afterwards The time line of important photos Photos that have relations to slavery, war and mankind accomplishments

Narrative

1. Narrative photography is the idea that photographs can be used to tell a story. Allen Feldman stated that “the event is not what happens. The event is that which can be narrated”.

2. We ask questions like Who, What, Where, Why, When

3.these bring more of a meaning to it by letting the viewer create their own meaning to it

We learned more about context

Context

Formal Elements Colour Lines Texture Contrast Tone Pattern Composition

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why? Yes I fully understood the meanings of Narrative and Contexts through the work of “David Levinthal” and “Mariel Clayton”

Images like these I now understand there meaning of what they can represent Images like these are good as they let the viewer have their own representation of an image

I was very happy with the images I took as they show I’m improving as a photographer I’m happy with all my progress in the course so far but I know I will do 100x better if I was by myself, working in groups doesn’t help me, the more we work in groups the worse I do, I’m happy that I’m working better in groups, though I still don’t like them

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem I had problems with Understanding the differences between “Context” and “Narrative”, I found myself confusing the two, after doing home research I am better at identifying the two I didn’t really have many troubles

4. What do you need to organize for next week? Research / Materials/ Equipment / Homework I want to take more photos of formal elements Notes for the next lesson as they always help

Date: week 1 ( I KNOW IT’S MIXED UP )

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? We learned about different shutter speeds (Shutter Priority and its different speeds) This involves how long the shutter is open on a camera, this comes with many things to keep in mind like how much light is going into the camera and with the shutter what movement will be in the image, this also taught us the three key things in photography expositors / Shutter speed, F/Stop and ISO \ I also learned how to make a GIF There’s a website for it

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why? Yes, I took a few photographs that I was really prod of as I had never taken images before using a long shutter speed

These image were an second attempt of the photography task, I traveled to Nottingham at 5am to take new photos and these are SOME of what I got

With the GIF I posted that to my Tumblr as that works out too

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem I had difficulty taking the 1st batch of shutter speed images so I fixed that by taking them again the next day. I was by myself when I took the re-dues so I was able to work SO MUCH BETTER

Date: week 5

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? This week was a progress/review week The main things I learned this week were what I need to complete I learned that I have got better at writing about my work In Johns lesson we did about still life, and learned about “memento mori”

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why? I was able to transfer all homework what I had completed onto Tumblr I was able to make my own works of still life and understand what memento mori is

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem None really I found it all easy

4. What do you need to organize for next week? Research / Materials/ Equipment / Homework Create a new Gif and a Mug Shot

Date: week 6

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? Studio work in lighting, in High Key, Low Key, Rembrandt, Split, Butterfly/paramount, loop and broad And I learned a little bit about still life And a bit about Adobe Bridge

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why? I had many successes in my work as felt confident in all my work an produced some good work as well

I was able to organize my files and have everything In check

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem

I didn’t really have any problems, I got lost at one point organizing but I caught up

4. What do you need to organize for next week? Research / Materials/ Equipment / Homework

Date: week 7

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? John with John we learned the basics of editing images with a mountain a flower We learned about how we can evaluate images And we started doing research to our next project

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why? Yes I found two artist that I like, and it was good too update myself on photoshop

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem I didn’t have any problams as it was an easy week

4. What do you need to organize for next week? Research / Materials/ Equipment / Homework

Date: week 1

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? Liam told us what we will be doing for our independent task. It will be based on the theme identity We leaned about the photography magazine i-D and made our own version We learned about what a pinhole was

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why? Yes I was very happy with my i-D work and started to research what I want to do for identity

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem

4. What do you need to organize for next week? Research / Materials/ Equipment / Homework Sketchbook

Date: week 2

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? I went out and took photos for my independent work We learned about film photography

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why? Yes I was able to photograph people and talk to them about music interests which will lead up to my final in photography infinity

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem Had a bit of trouble actually having people talk to me because people suck

4. What do you need to organize for next week? Research / Materials/ Equipment / Homework

Date: week 3

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? We painted with lights using a fast shutter speed We made our cameras

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why?

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem

4. What do you need to organize for next week? Research / Materials/ Equipment / Homework

Date: week 4

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? We made contact sheets in the darkroom

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why? The contact sheets came out fine

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem There were no problems, everything was fine

4. What do you need to organize for next week? Research / Materials/ Equipment / Homework

Date: week 5

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? That I don’t like the pinhole camera

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why? the pinhole camera didn’t turn out well, as expected I hated it because it was something I was interested in and I didn’t really get any images out of it

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem I came out with no photos from the pinhole, ill be edit them so at least one of them will look good, since I actually like editing

4. What do you need to organize for next week? Research / Materials/ Equipment / Homework

Date: week 6

1.What have you learned this week? What new things have you tried? We enlarged photos off our film

2. Did you have any successes? What were you happy with? why? Yeah the images came off fine no problems

3. What problems did you encounter? How did/could you have overcome the problem The images were a little un focused but its not a problam

4. What do you need to organize for next week? Research / Materials/ Equipment / Homework

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magicalsalamander · 6 years

Text

The Firefly that Guards the Fox III

Pairing: BTS Taehyung ⇆ Reader

Words: 6.9K

Warnings: Overall story rated mature; Explicit themes, action/ violence, bloodshed, death of minor characters.

Summary: His mother and father weren’t supposed to fall in love. They weren’t supposed to find a mate in one another.

They weren’t supposed to.

After losing his father years ago, Taehyung vows to find and avenge the injustice his family has gone through. You were childhood friends with Taehyung. The four of you Taehyung, Hoseok, your older brother and you were inseparable. You were torn apart from Taehyung, your fox who’ve you’ve always vowed to protect and be with, without a warning. He called you Firefly, you called him Tae-Tae the fox. Was your fate supposed to end there in the past with your childhood?

A/N: Orig post date: 01|17|18; Updated intro 12|12|19. Part of the KLF Universe.

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Before the elevator doors could open to the ground floor you stood up, but the haze in your eyes didn’t clear. You walked out of the elevator and out the glass entrance door weaving yourself into the sea of passing people. The crowd took no mercy on you, the masses were on autopilot. Standing in the midst of the crowd shoulders knocked against yours repeatedly; your purse was pulled to the ground on accident when a business man on the phone carelessly ran into you. Still, you remained indifferent to everything. He kept going not bothering to apologize. Everyone kept moving, except you. You were frozen.

He was alive! However, meeting him again and finding out that he’s a well-known lawyer, your potential boss, was not the way you pictured the reunion. How could he be in such plain sight? It clicked so you rushed to pick up your purse and pulled out your cell phone. It was one of the first generations of smart phones, but it still worked and it didn’t have any scratches on it. You open a web browser and searched “Kim Taehyung Hybrid Welfare Legal Law Group, LLC,” and instantly over 10,000 results came up. The first article was of him walking from a courthouse with the title “Kim puts the notorious serial, hybrid killer behind bars”, another was “Lawyer Kim Taehyung gives statement on bringing the CEO of CJT Corps, who abused his hybrids, to light.” You were stunned, he’s been in plain sight this whole time. It was the twenty first century, why didn’t you use the internet? You already knew the answer to that though, you were just too busy and didn’t have any social media.

You kept scrolling and opened the company’s website moving past the other lawyer’s bios until you found his. This is why you should’ve done your research. You stopped when a photo of him working came into frame. They must’ve taken his picture without him knowing from the candid shot. He was looking down at some paperwork with his head propped at a 45-degree angle resting in his hand at his desk. It was weird seeing him grown up and so--manly looking, his deep voice rang in your head picturing him in the exact same way minutes ago. You shook yourself out of staring at the photo and read his short bio, “Kim Taehyung has been a brilliant lawyer for Hybrid Welfare Legal Law Group, LLC, since 2014. Kim graduated early from the national University at the age of twenty, opting to take honor and advance placement classes. He graduated with a degree in Linguistics and a minor in Philosophy. Kim entered the University’s Law program the following semester after graduation and left three years later ranking in the top 10% percentile of the Bar Exam takers. He’s worked for Free Will Legal Office, LLC, and Liberation Legal Advocacy Corporation, LLC, throughout Law school and interned afterwards. He started working for us at the age of twenty-four and worked his way up to being one of the four main lawyers of our office. A quote from Kim, ‘I will work hard until I can put an end to hybrid abuse and put those who abuse hybrids behind bars.’ We believe Kim Taehyung is the future in hybrid rights.”

Your jaw fell agape, you couldn’t believe this was the same Tae. The Tae you knew was a clumsy, happy-go lucky, carefree kit. Time has really changed things. You crossed your purse over your chest and put your phone back in its slot. You tucked your blazer closer to you when a breeze blew by and walked towards the nearest bus stop. You felt so ashamed of yourself, you wanted to see him again, but he didn’t even remember you. Were you that forgetful? Did your friendship mean nothing to him? You kept walking to the bus station and sat on the cracked, plastic bench and almost missed your bus when you were lost in thought. You ran after the bus, almost slipping on mud, smacking the side of the bus until it captured the driver’s attention and he stopped for you. Even on the ride on the bus you couldn’t stop thinking about him. The rest of the day was spent in this weird smog as if you were walking through a valley of smoke.

You walked up the steep hill to your apartment late at night after your closing shift. You deviated from your path and stopped at the living room converted into a convenient store tucked in one of the houses along the road and perused the short isles. You picked up a few beers from the fridge and chips on a stand. The auntie who sat on a loveseat watching old soap operas just asked for the money with an outheld hand without even paying you any mind. You’ve been here enough to know eachother by first name, “Thanks Lola.” She waved you off with her enclosed hand, you were interrupting the dialogue of her show. You walked up to your rooftop apartment and sat down on the low platform outside your apartment. You sat the crinkling plastic bag next to you along with your purse and just sighed. You dug inside and pulled out any one of the two beers. You pulled back the aluminum tab that released a satisfying hiss. You hoped that this little thing would release some of your pressure too. No, you weren’t a drinker only having drank a total of two times before; both times with your brother when you graduated college, then law school. You just wanted to indulge in this one time.

You took the can and cheered it to the sky before taking a hefty gulp of the stout and breathed a sigh of relief afterwards. You really didn’t understand why people like the taste of alcohol or the flavor of beer at this point, it tasted awful. However, you spent five dollars on all this you weren’t going to let it go to waste. You kept sipping with furrowed brows trying to catch a buzz to sleep better tonight. You laid back on your elbows supporting you looking up at the starry sky. Its been so long since you’ve looked up and taken in the world around you. The stars were so beautiful they twinkled and glimmered as if they were communicating with one another. You picked up your beer and took small sips. This reminded you of the old days when the four of you were laying on the same type of platform doing the same thing. You were starting to feel tipsy, maybe because you never drank or maybe the alcohol hit your system fast because you haven’t eaten in a while. Maybe. You took a deep inhale and then yelled out, “Yah! Taehyung! You’re alive! You’re-- really alive and doing well! I’m so… proud of you! Wow, I saw you today and you didn’t—you didn’t even recognize me! Did I really change that much? Huh?” You had to catch your breath you were so worked up and somewhere along the line you started crying. “How could you—how could you do that to me?” You don’t know when but as some point exhaustion took over from crying so hard and yelling. You fell deep asleep on the platform.

A half hour later your brother walked up the side stairs, his black combat boots clinking against the metal staircase leading to the apartment. He hummed and blew a puff of smoke in the air from his hot breath hitting the icy air. He rubbed his gloved hands together and shoved them in his pocket for any warmth and dug for his keys. The yellow-green flood light dulled against the cement floor, but it caught his attention when it reflected against the plastic bag on the platform. He stepped closer to see exactly what was there only to find you sprawled out sleeping. Tired from his long day as well, he came up to you and smacked your cheek, “hey, hey wake up.” You just groaned and turned to your side landing on top of the plastic bag and knocking over your half full beer. “Hey!” Your brother went to grab the sticky drink before it leaked any further onto the wood and shook his hand in frustration when it coated his hands. He really took in your appearance redden nose, dirty clothes and sneakers haphazardly thrown. You had your “suit uniform” spilling out of your purse as if it was shoved in angrily. He hated seeing you work endlessly and keep going to job interviews tirelessly. He wanted to make your life easier, but he didn’t have a direct way fix that. He sat you up and slung you over his back and then hung your purse over his neck. The plastic bag was in his hand while the other held the house keys, “Yah, you feel too light. You’ve lost too much weight. Why aren’t you eating stupid?” He knew you couldn’t hear any of his complaints, but he still complained none the less. He flopped you onto your twin size bed and pulled the comforter over you. He sat next to you and flattened your wild hair down, it was the least he could do for you after all the things you do for him. Somewhere down the line the roles have changed, and you started taking care of him. He kissed your forehead and turned off the lights closing your bedroom door.

The next morning at seven thirty you woke up to your phone alarm blaring that repetitive noise and a fat headache. You were in pain, but you still had to turn off your insistent alarm. You looked at yourself and wondered how you got inside, it must’ve been your great instincts. You blindly made your way to the bathroom and took a shower. The hot water was so comforting easing the headache to a dull pain. You made it back to your bedroom to change into your day uniform, but were stopped by a surprising figure in the kitchen.

With eyebrows raise you looked at your brother who was diligently mixing something over the counter. He had something on his cheek when he turned around, “Morning sunshine, you look great!” You furrowed your brows and grumbled to him, “shut up.” He laughed, “be out soon to eat before you leave. You don’t have much time before you have to go.” Not about to argue with his comeback you went to change and ready your purse. You packed your only other set of skinny jeans and the same black t-shirt into your bag replacing your suit uniform. You made your way out of the room with light makeup on since it was more appropriate for your day job. You took a peek over your brother’s shoulder on your tippy toes and made a face pulling the sides of your lips down impressed with his makeshift breakfast sandwich. He smacked your creeping hand trying to grab extra pieces of packaged ham and said take some aspirins. “Yes, mom. Love you, mom!” He laughed at your annoyance and you followed through really needing it to carry on today. He let you slip your shoes on before handing you paper bag with a ham sandwich and a breakfast sandwich to carry tucked into a napkin. You were so touched your brother never did stuff like this. You looked at him suspiciously, “did you do something wrong?” He played up an expression of upset with a hand over his chest, “can’t a brother do something nice for a change?” You smiled not willing to have your sandwich revoked and hugged him tight, “thank you for everything.” You snatched the sandwich and placed it in your mouth as you ran out the door waving him goodbye.

You made your way into the diner and grabbed your apron from of your locker. You greeted the older auntie who ran the shop and your coworkers, it was back to the basics. You were working non-stop until you had a fifteen-minute break around noon. You went to your locker in the breakroom and pulled out your phone. There was a missed call from Mrs. Lee. You were panicking internally. What if it was something important? Why was she calling back so soon? For sure only early call backs were rejections, how could he decide overnight? With a shaky finger you hovered over the call button but pressed it and brought it up to your ear. You sat in a chair shaking your leg impatiently while chewing on your thumb in anticipation. There was no voicemail, so it was up in the air to what she needed. She picked up after the seventh ring, “Hello Mrs. Lee this is Y/N Y/L/N. I’m sorry I missed your call I wasn’t able to answer the call while on shift.” She waved it off bidding everything fine, “I understand. I wanted to call you with the results of the interview.” Your heart was racing and begging her to put you down gently. “Mr. Kim has decided that he wants to hire you. We would love it if you could start as soon as possible.”

You were frozen. You were hired! You were hired? “I’m sorry Mrs. Lee, can you please repeat that please?” She laughed at your confused state, “You’re hired Ms. Y/L/N. When can you start?” It took a few seconds, but you were smiling like and idiot and bowing in thanks even though she couldn’t see. “Are you sure Mr. Kim relayed the message right Mrs. Lee? I don’t mean to guess your work, I just can’t believe it,” you spoke at her rapidly and in disbelief. “I’m positive Ms. Y/L/N.” You promised that you would be able to start in the next few days since you had to let your current jobs know you would be resigning. She congratulated you and hung up. You were so excited with the news you stood up and danced, you absolutely couldn’t hold in your excitement. You stopped mid jig and the news really set in. You were going to be working with Taehyung. Would you tell him who you were? So many thoughts were running through your mind, but first things first you had to quite these part time jobs!

You spoke to all your employers who were happy for you, but they asked for a few days more until they could find a replacement. Your bosses from both places were more like long time friends now and they wished you luck and to keep the door open to use you for legal help. As soon as all things were set you called Mrs. Lee to let her know you could make it exactly in three days. She was glad to hear that you worked it all out and would see you very soon at eight a.m. sharp. You were so excited that that night you went home and told your brother you finally got the job! You even made a video call with your brother to your parents telling them the news. They couldn’t be happier for you, and it felt like things were finally working out. You spent that night sitting in bed scrolling again through the company’s website on Taehyung’s bio page. You reread the information over and over again. This was too important to pass up and if Taehyung didn’t recognize you, that was fine. You were going to start fresh again now anyways, so if he didn’t remember you it wouldn’t be the end of the world. You wondered if he still spoke to Hoseok. You wondered a million and one things, but it still didn’t change how hurt your heart felt. You plugged your phone in to your charger and set it on your bed side table. You stared out your window and thanked the stars for watching over you.

You adjusted the same blazer, button up and slacks you wore on your interview. The same flats were adorning your feet, ready for work. You pulled your hair up in a pony tail in the elevator. The smooth, long locks flicked side to side as you looped it in the hair tie. The elevator doors opened to the receptionist lobby. The receptionist, who now asked you to refer to her as Mrs. Smith, congratulated you on your employment. She looked left and right subtly then curled her index finger to beckon you in whispering distance. “Mr. Kim can be a bit…rude. He’s not the kindest, but he works very hard. You’re the only interviewee that made it out of the 150 that applied just this month. I don’t even…” Mrs. Lee came into the receptionist office and cleared her throat. You jumped back and bowed to greet her. She smiled politely at you and raised a brow to Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Smith began humming and went back to work like nothing happened. Mrs. Lee signaled for you to follow her down the hall. You trailed behind her into the open work space.

“This last row of desks in this open space in the far back is where we will be working. The other three rows are meant for the other lawyers.” She pointed along with her words as she lead you down the rows of already busy workers, some gave you a glance while other worked diligently. You were shown to the first desk at the beginning of the row where it was empty, “this is your spot. You can decorate it as much as you like.” You thanked her setting down your purse and she lead you to the other employees under Mr. Kim. The first employee she introduced you to a man who went by casually by the name Key, but his actual name was Kim Kibum. He was a paralegal and was Taehyung’s right-hand man. He looked you up and down, but welcomed you politely. Key carried this sassy carefree air about him that seemed to lack for a lawyer. The next employee was female employee younger than you who was there as a legal assistant. She was still in law school and working her way to becoming a lawyer. She was cold towards you and didn’t care to respond, but Mrs. Lee let you know her name was Jung Krystal. She was pretty, but her attitude made you want to take that statement back. That was the whole team. You could see why they needed you on the team. There weren’t enough members on the team, you wondered how they’ve won so many cases so far with so little people.

Mrs. Lee lead you to Mr. Kim’s office knocking getting the typical non-lingual response. She motioned for you to enter and followed behind closing the door. Your heart was racing seeing him again, in fact it’s been racing as you entered the ground level lobby. He was in a navy-blue suit that really brought out his orange fur on his ears. You tried to calm yourself knowing hybrids can sense your heart rate and anxiety levels. He was in the same position as the other day, but instead he had a cup of coffee in his hands taking sips of his black coffee delicately. You gulped and after Mrs. Lee called to you, you turned to him and reintroduced yourself with your self still bent in a bow thanked him for hiring you. You slowly raised yourself to standing position, but didn’t bring your eyes up immediately. You raised your eyes slowly and as if the world slowed his eyes locked on yours holding them in amusement. He held his gaze on yours silently with a raised brow. He was sizing you up, so you continued, “I will work hard under your team as a lawyer.” He laughed a little, “No, you won’t be working under me as a lawyer. At least not yet.” You looked at him wide eyes, but he continued, “You will be working alongside Ms. Jung, until you prove you can hold your own.” He took another sip of coffee looking for you to challenge him. You were going to have to start from the bottom, the literal bottom of the food chain. You were ready for the challenge though, you lived for the challenge. You smiled politely at him, “I’m willing to show you that I’m a worthy member of this team Mr. Kim.” He was curt and just hummed waving you both off to leave. You understood Mrs. Smith now.

Mrs. Lee escorted you back to your desk and Krystal and Key came over to your desk to drop four boxes full of paperwork that needed sorting and to be categorized by case. You sighed internally at the amount of work, but rolled up your sleeves went to work. Mrs. Lee patted your shoulder and wished you luck. Before you knew it the hands on the clocked turned and it was noon, you were barely a quarter of the way through with one box. Mrs. Lee tapped your shoulder interrupting your concentration, “Mr. Kim is calling for you in his office.” You got up dusting yourself off and made your way over to his office. You knocked lightly and wiped your dusty hands on your slacks and got the approval grunt. You stepped in and was only greeted by an outstretched sticky note in which you took in both hands. “What is this Mr. Kim?” You couldn’t make out the coding of what FR, OC and BrB meant. He looked up at you with a glare as if you’ve just insulted his mother. “My lunch, now go pick it up for me,” he looked at his watch, “and I want it by 1 p.m. Now hurry.” You looked at the clock on the wall and it read 12:15 p.m. How were you supposed to make it back to the office in 45 minutes?

You were going to prove him wrong for underestimating you, “Of course, Mr. Kim.” You stepped out of his office and power walked back to the open space, but was stopped by more sticky notes by your team; even the intern who should be doing all this. You were a little upset by the intern’s rudeness, but you weren’t going to let this shake you. You took them and asked them to decode Mr. Kim’s note first. “Its fried rice, orange chicken and broccoli beef from Panda Express.” Not caring to waste any more time you ran out of the office like lightening. You had to pick up coffees from Starbucks, sandwiches from Subway on top of Mr. Kim’s order. You were walking so fast with three bags swinging on your arms and four coffees in a carboard cup holder. You were adjusting a bag on your arm trying to reach the sticky notes your blazer pocket one last time when someone ran directly into you. The coffees in your hand down poured onto you soaking your white button up. A mix of hot and cold pungent liquid all over your white button up. You liked coffee, but not to this extent. You weren’t concerned about your shirt though, you were about the coffee. You checked the time and ran back to the coffee shop a few stores back. The man who was trying to apologize to you was left standing there in confusion.

You made it back to the office panting at 12:59 p.m. and set everything down on the round conference table of your section. The members at their desk all looked at you concerned with the blatant brown stain on your shirt, but you were in a rush. You only had a minute left! You grabbed his tray, fork and napkins along with his venti coffee. You knocked on his door with your elbow and got the grunt. You made your way into his office and set the food down on the cleared portion of his desk. You stepped back waiting for his response. He set his pen down and took his Ray-Ban Clubmaster glasses off. He looked at you judgingly and then took in the brown stain poured down your front. He chooses to not comment but went to grab the tray. He popped open the container and hummed, not in approval or disapproval just a throaty noise. You were sweating for more reason than one. He finally said something, “you’re late by two minutes Ms. Y/L/N. How do you expect me to depend on you with that kind of timing?” You were shocked you made it late but bit your tongue, “I’m sorry Sir, it won’t happen ever again.” He raised a brow, “better not Y/L/N.” You were surprised that he addressed you by your first name. It felt weird hearing it again. He grabbed at the plastic fork but tossed it in his small trash bin, “I don’t eat my Chinese food with a fork, go get me chopsticks.” You were panicking you didn’t grab any, so you tried to think of anything besides having to go all the way back. You remembered you had your own chopsticks for your lunch. You asked him for a second and ran to your desk and rummaged your purse until you found your chopsticks at the bottom of your lunch bag. The metal chopsticks would work perfectly. You knocked again and handed him the utensil with both hands. He took them from you and commented, “I prefer wooden ones, but I’ll settle.” You were holding your comeback in, you were glad you weren’t a dragon hybrid at this moment. You asked him if that was all he needed, and he waved you off again. You made it back to your desk where everyone was now eating and working at their own. Mrs. Lee and Kibum thanked you, but Krystal just ate quietly. She’s yet to say a word to you.

You got back to work and ate your food with an extra plastic fork left in one of the bags. Again, time has passed by quickly and before you knew it the rest of your team was leaving for the night and biding you good night. Mrs. Lee told you to, “go home soon, there’s always tomorrow.” You smiled and said you would, but in by the looks of your desk you knew it was going to be a long night. Your desk lamp was the last one on in the office and you were working on the last four case files from the third box. You sat up cracking your back then heard a voice next to you, “I’m not paying you for overtime.” Jolting at the sound you banged your knee on the desk but stood up with a click of your knees and replied, “Mr. Kim! I know, but I want to finish before I leave.” He looked over your shoulder to see the stack of different sorted casefiles. He looked back at you stoically with his tail swishing casually and just walked off. You called after him, “Good night Mr. Kim” and you whispered, “Good night Tae Tae” when he was around the corner while rubbing your knee.

Taehyung came home to an empty apartment. His roommates Hoseok, Jimin and Jungkook were still out. Jimin and Hoseok was out practicing choreography for an upcoming tour for a famous artist. Jungkook was probably working a late shift at the station. They’ve all made it into fields they’ve dreamt of. Taehyung pulled out a bottle of wine from the wine rack and popped open the cork. He used his better sense of smell and took in the fruity flavor of the vintage wine. He poured himself a glass and pulled out some ingredients from the fridge and went to prepare himself dinner. A few minutes later he heard the keycode being punched in and the scuffing of boots at the entrance. The heavy timberlands hit the floor with a thud near the shoe rack and a Bunny still in his police uniform set his phone on the island counter along with his badges and plopped himself in a bar stool across the stove. He greeted Taehyung, “Hyung, I’m home! You won’t believe the day I had!”

At home Taehyung could let loose and be himself, he didn’t have to put up a hard exterior that he did at the office. “Tell me about it then, Kookie.” He went on to say about a few weeks ago a drunk uncle was abusing his young hybrid but a heroine stepped in and saved the hybrid. She was a lawyer too! She beat the man into submission and pinned him to the floor. She went with the hybrid to the hospital and he found out she knows Jin too! He took the hybrid into his shelter according to the report and getting a phone call from the bear himself. “Anyways, she was really pretty hyung, and I wanted to ask her on a coffee date, you can’t let a cool woman like that just walk by. But that’s not the point, the point is the drunk man is suing the station for taking away his hybrid when he was in an inebriated state.” Taehyung turned to him to him with raised brows and tail swishing in interest, “did you ask her out?” The bunny’s ears went down in sadness, “No, she got into the ambulance before I could even say anything.” Taehyung and Jungkook always told eachother stories going on in their work since they both often shared cases.

More noise came from the front door and in came the last two roommates. Hoseok came into the kitchen first doing some gliding moves but Jimin kneed him in the butt to move out the way. Jimin greeted the two and did the secret handshake that only they would know. Hoseok came next to Taehyung at the stove, “Tae Tae, what are you making? Is there enough for all of us?” He didn’t plan on making enough for everyone, but wordlessly he was throwing more portions onto the skillet. Hoseok thanked Taehyung and the three sat down on the island next to Jungkook who retold his story of his day. Hoseok listened intently then said, “Hey, Tae, doesn’t that girl remind you of the girl from the country side where we used to live? She would do the same for us when we were kids. Her and her brother would always stand up for us!” Taehyung smiled remembering the face of that girl, she had choppy hair and rags for shoes, but she was always happy. He couldn’t remember her name and her facial features were blurry to him now, but he knew the person. He answered honestly, “I do Hobi, it’s was so long ago. Her face is blurry to me now, but I remember that choppy bowl cut flying squirrel.” They all laughed at him calling you a squirrel. Jimin turned to Hoseok, “is she that girl in that photo at Tae mom’s house?” Hoseok lit up remembering the photo,” Yeah! That exact girl!” They carried on chatting and joking. They ended the night with some video games. Taehyung was about to get into bed when he pulled out his phone and in the gallery, he took a picture of that photo in his mom’s house. There was water damage on the photo, so all the faces were blurry. He zoomed in on your face and smiled fondly, “Hey Firefly, it’s been a while. I hope you’re doing well. I hope your still kicking butt and saving foxes like you used to.” He stared at the photo a bit more then set it to charge for the night, “Good night Firefly.”

The next morning you came to the office with the same outfit. You didn’t have enough money to buy any new clothing, your last paycheck to pay utilities and rent. The coffee stain came out of your button up after soaking it in a concoction of home remedy stain remover. You were the first of your team in the office. You finished all the filing last night at 2:30 a.m. A few moments later Mrs. Lee made her way over to your row, “good morning Y/N!” You greeted her back, but she rushed to drop her bag off at her desk to go back to the receptionist area. You sat down at your desk and waited for her to return. Mr. Kim came around the corner with his briefcase adjusting his glasses. You stood up to greet him, but he stopped in his tracks, “You’re still here?” You raised your brows in question, “you hired me correct?” He nodded and carried on to his office closing the door behind him. You saw Mrs. Lee escorting the same family you saw the day you submitted your resume. This time the young man had bruises and a black eye. You looked worriedly at Mrs. Lee, but she just mouthed “later” to you. She sat them at the conference table and told them to wait for her. She came over to you asking for you to get some files for her to present to them. You nodded following her instruction.

When you returned with the case files she asked for, you to sit with her and the family. She introduced you to the woman, Mrs. Miller, and her son David. You shook their hands introducing yourself. She spoke to them about the new revisions and terms that were set by the recent lawyer meeting. You listened intently picking up that she was going through a lawsuit where the other party is suing for assault and defamation. It was hard to believe with David looking as if danger was waiting around the corner for him. Mrs. Lee directed them towards Mr. Kim’s office to discuss things further and Mrs. Lee returned to you. “Mrs. Miller and her son are in a civil lawsuit. A few rich kids at the private school assaulted him, and their parents are trying to turn it around on them. Claiming that David inflected the injuries on himself and are trying to ruin their image. They don’t want to settle out of court. With all evidence we have so far, it points towards hybrid discrimination.” You nodded silently, longingly looking at the office down the hall. Mrs. Lee went to get up but you stopped her before she went on to give you work, “what did Mr. Kim mean when he said ‘you’re still here’?” She looked at you with raised brows sitting down beside you again, “We’ve hired people before you to join the team, but they never stayed after the first day. We’ve gone through 15 people leaving after the first day. They complain that they don’t want to do bottom work with a lawyer’s license, they want to practice already. He always lets them leave. He purposely is a bit overbearing in the beginning to really see if people are made out to work here.” You slowly nodded finally understanding his words. You smiled at her and said, “please give me more work to do!” She laughed at your eagerness, but then went to hand you more boxes. You honestly were more motivated to work harder, this was your dream even if it was starting at the bottom. Nothing good is every handed out, it’s earned.

You went back and forth around the office and brought all cases up to date on filing. The next few weeks you worked endlessly proving yourself. You stayed late often re-doing reports and checking and rechecking paperwork. Taehyung would stop by your desk nightly before he left seeing you were the last one, but never said anything. He just stared at you then walked off, but you always wished him a good night and that he worked hard today. When he stepped away you always called him Tae Tae. It was hard to control your beating heart around the handsome fox.

Taehyung was impressed by your hard work, but he would never tell you. He was impressed the first day when you offered up your chopsticks. He knew he was being difficult, but he needed you to be flexible and adaptable. The things he’s been putting you through were test, not just miniscule task. You still had a long way to go before he trusted you to work on a major case.

But the day came, a month in working at the office. He finally asked you to do something else besides paper work and running small errands. You knocked on his door and stepped into his office. He asked you to sit down in the chair in front of his desk. You were slightly worried thinking you were in trouble, but he interrupted your thoughts, “I want you to go out tomorrow morning with Mr. Kim to David Miller’s private school to get a testimonial from the school and any evidence. We need some papers signed by their principal.” You were relieved you weren’t in trouble and the anxiety turned into happiness. You tried to hide your smile but failed miserably when your lips twitched and settled into a smile. “Thank you, Mr. Kim, I’ll do my best.” He just looked at you dully, “this is work Mrs. Y/L/N not something to thank me for.” You bowed and asked him if he needed anything else before you returned to your desk. He breathed in deeply looking you once over then tilted his head to the side, “is that the only clothes you have? That “uniform” of yours should be put away for a new one, don’t you think? Wear something else for tomorrow’s visit.” He looked down to his paperwork again and waved you off. You were excited with the given task, finally he trusted you enough to do actual work. However, his comment on your clothes sucked a bit off happiness out of it. You knew very well that you shouldn’t wear the same clothes every day, but it was the only thing you had. You bowed and left with a smile still on your face. You ran into Mrs. Lee who was about to knock on the door, you excused yourself and walked down the hall. Mrs. Lee was still staring at you walking down the hall, she overheard and was surprised you didn’t look phased. You were a strong woman indeed.

There was something about you to him. The sense of familiarity only got worse over time. Something in his gut was pulling him to you, maybe it was your pretty face? Maybe it was your persistent personality? Every time he looked at you he just felt like something was missing, but he didn’t know what it was. A mysterious nostalgia. He smiled to himself when you left the room and laughed quietly at your cute behavior. It was hard holding back and keeping a stone face when you were here. He felt comfortable with you. Every night when he passed by your desk he always wants to speak to you, to chat casually, but he doesn’t want to cross professional boundaries. In the end he just walks away leaving you to work. When Mrs. Lee walked in he corrects himself immediately, coughing and clearing his throat to cover his laugh.

The next morning you came in to work, again being the first of your team. You still had your “uniform” on, but you had no choice. None of your friends, even your ex-coworker, had any professional clothing they could lend you. You sat at your desk turning on your computer to get to work until Key came into the office. Mrs. Lee came into the work space humming and swinging three, large, unfamiliar bags. You didn’t pay any mind to her after you greeted her normally. She came up behind you and tapped on your shoulder. You turned to her holding up three bags in front of you blocking your vision. “What is this Mrs. Lee?” She lowered the bags and said, “I was going through my closet yesterday cleaning it out any of the pieces I had that were still in good condition, but I never used. I was wondering if you would want them? It’d be a shame to throw out such good pieces.” You looked at the bags and then back at her, “Oh, I can’t take something so nice.” She stopped you, “No, I won’t be using them anymore! We seem to wear the same size so please, take them. It’s my gift to you.” You reluctantly took the bag and then pulled out some gorgeous blouses, slacks and pencil skirts. The last bag had two pairs of heels, one was classic black, thin heel pump and an ankle strap, nude heel. You turned to her amazed at the beautiful clothing, “this is so expensive. I—!” She stopped you again, “Hush, take it and don’t let them go to waste on an old woman like me.” You pulled out a white, bell sleeve blouse, a black, knee length, tight fitting pencil skirt, and the black heels. You went into the women’s restroom and changed into your new outfit. It fit perfectly, even the shoes! You were a bit unstable at first but got used to it quickly. You looked in the mirror at yourself, you looked like a real professional. I guess fair feathers make a fair bird. You pulled your hair out of the ponytail and it cascaded down into romantic, tousled waves. You didn’t get a chance to dry it after showering last night tying it up wet. You smiled at the new you, ready to take on your mission today! You folded your old clothes and walked back to the work room. You got some stares from the other lanes as you walked by, but you kept going avoiding their gaze. You made it to your desk and stuffed your old “uniform” into one of the bags. You pushed them under your desk until your shift would end. Mrs. Lee came up to you and simply said, “wow, you clean up really well Y/N. These clothes were meant for you! You look great!” You were blushing folding your hands in front of you not sure how to receive compliments. Krystal even raised her eyebrows at you and nodded, but quickly returned to her work.

“Mrs. Lee, do we have a guest?” You heard Taehyung ask Mrs. Lee from behind you. You turned around to look at Mr. Kim, who was wide eyed when he realized it was you standing there. “Oh, Y/N. It’s you.” He was thrown off by the woman standing in front of him, it was you, but different. The way the pencil skirt hugged your hips and your collar bones showed through your blouse was captivating. You were a fresh Spring day, the warmth of the sun that came along with the season and freshness. Your scent filled him to the brim. The biggest note of yours was lavender, it calmed him the more he inhaled. It was like a crisp breeze came through him as he took in your scent. It was heavenly and soul soothing. He had to shake himself out of his spell realizing he was staring, and just casually said good morning. He walked to his office leave all three of you just staring at his disappearing figure. You shared a look with Mrs. Lee raising your eyebrows at his strange morning greeting. You never got those.

Key made it to the office ready to leave to visit David’s school for a statement. You walked down to the parking garage of the establishment and got in his Mercedes. The twenty-minute journey to the middle school was anything but boring. You found out more things about Key, he’s quite chatty and funny. You shared things about yourselves even obscure things. You were having too much for this to be professional. You arrived at the front of the school stepping outside the parked car. Key and you made your way to the front office and sat down waiting in the reception. Key went over with you that he would do a majority of the consultation, she can be a stick in the mud. The woman stood up at the secretarial desk and instructed you to follow her into an office. The woman in the office looked like a true private school principal. The gaudy jewelry, the stuffy suit, and botched plastic surgery showed off her wealth. You both sat down in front of her desk after introductions and she immediately began to defend herself. “I’m sorry Mr. Kim, we will not provide any assistance in that regard. The offenses happened off campus and it was not under school hours. This is a private personal matter.”

She was obviously using any legal loophole she could find to take the responsibility off the school. Key informed you on the way here that this school had records before of hybrid students being assaulted or discriminated. You were genuinely upset that the system that was supposed to be protecting all kids equally failed them. You tried interjecting, “Ma’am, we still need –,” but she held up her hand stopping you. Key and you exchanged a look knowing there wasn’t going to be any way to get her signature. You shook her hand and left with Kibum. He stopped you once you left the building and with a cat-like grin asked, “You know we should go find David. You know… observe the environment to get a feel for it.” He knew that this was probably crossing the line, but he was always up for gathering evidence. “This way we can find out and study if there are any other discriminations going on.” You nodded agreeing with your fist held up to his in a fist bump. You walked down the halls trying to observe the private school for any abnormalities. You kept walking until you made it to the gym area near the back of the school when you heard it. You heard the huffs and grunts of someone, and a gaggle of laughs. You and Kibum crept around the corner of the building peering over the edge of the gymnasium. David was on the floor surrounded by five, tall built boys who were obviously older than him. Two of the kids were smoking cigarettes passing it between them. The one who just kicked flicked the still lit stick onto the young bunny. Anger boiled within you and you made a step towards them when Key stopped you and hushed you. He brought out his phone and began recording the situation. You needed evidence.

“Little Bunny, who’s going to save you now, huh?” They continued to kick him in his fetal position, but when they got tired of it they pulled on his ears. He let out a large yelp in protest. They continued their ministrations, but you’ve had enough! You didn’t even spare a look back at Key who was whisper yelling at you. Your heels clicked as you paced over to the group of men surrounding David. You yelled out, “Hey, leave the kid alone!” You stood a few feet away with a hand on your hip the other pointing at them when the group of five stopped what they were doing and turned towards you. They raised an eyebrow at you, “who are you lady?” David was clearly scared, but limped behind you when he recognized you. He tugged on your shirt, “Mrs. Y/L/N, please, save me!” You bent down to his level and petted his ears, “It’s okay David. Go to Mr. Kim over there, okay? He’ll protect you. Don’t come out until I say so, okay?” He nodded and ran over to Key who was still recording.

You were going to handle this as rationally as possible, but the boy standing in the center just lit up another cigarette taking a drag. You supposed all of them were around seventeen years old, maybe seniors here. The leader, you assumed, approached you taking a few steps out of his group, “Look lady, do you know who I am? My dad could-.” You laughed, “Look kid, I don’t care who your dad is. I’m going to call the authorities to handle this okay?” You went to turn around, but the kid grabbed your wrist roughly. “No, were not lady. This is going to be kept quiet.” You’ve had enough turning halfway around to look at his firm grip on your wrist. You asked him calmly to release your arm. He refused to release it, but you asked once more, “let my wrist go, please.” He laughed and looked at his friends who were egging him on. “Fine,” he suddenly yanked of your wrist causing you to stumble onto the ground. Your knees scrapped against the hot, black asphalt and one heel fell off. You stabilized yourself on your aching wrist from breaking your fall. You noticed your one heel still on had broken! You just got them! His friends were laughing hysterically and so was he, he dropped his fag in front of you and stepped on it twisted his foot tauntingly. The laughing stopped when you flipped the switch on them. You stood up and tied your hair into a pony tail kicking your broken shoe off. It was game on.

You caught the leader’s hand, who was attempting to grab you in an outstretch reach, into your right hand and with your left on the boy’s collar of his button up shirt. Using the momentum of his weight charging towards you, you flipped him to the ground. These boys towered over you, but they didn’t have the same life experience as you. The boy was groaning on the ground and when realization struck his comrades they came rushing to you. They all began circling around you stepping back and forth trying to scare you. One of them even brought out a pocket knife and started waving it at you with a smirk. You were thanking the heavens that your brother taught you things in his free time.

Two boys came at you at once, but you ducked avoiding his right hook. You stood back up avoid his second attempt. You round house kicked the guy in the neck. He stumbled bent over and you took advantage of it bringing your knee to his face. The other guy came at you while you were distracted and grabbed your pony tail pulling you back. The one with the knife attempted to stab you while you were being restrained but avoided it losing the bell sleeve to the grazing. You wiggled yourself free of the pony tail grabber and pushed him away. The knife wielder came back at you, but you grabbed his wrist before he could do anything and twisted it past its normal extension. He wasn’t a knife wielder, it must be for show since he was coming at you sloppily. You heard his wrist pop and the knife clang to the floor. He backed away holding his wrist screaming, “She broke my wrist!” These boys looked stronger than they were. The last two stood there watching their friends and decided they should make a run for it. They were stopped though when two police officers intercepted them.

Key was running over to you, “Y/N! Are you alright?” You retightened your pony tail, “Yeah, that was nothing.” You dusted your hands off in a satisfied manner and key spoke again, “Your shoes--!” Before Key could finish authorities along with the principal came around the corner. The principal was yelling, “No, not these boys! They would’ve never done anything wrong! That Miller kid must’ve provoked them!” You were in complete shock, despite the clear evidence she still chooses to side with these kids. The police officers rounded the boys up and took the one with the broken hand to the ambulance. A familiar face came up to you, “M. Y/L/N, we meet again, in another unfortunate situation.” You look around squinting at his uniform and caught his name and it clicked, the same bunny hybrid officer from that night! “Officer Jeon,” you shake his hand, “Our lawyer, Mr. Kim, sent us here to get a testimony, but we caught our defense under attack by the same boys who are holding a lawsuit against him.” He wrote down your notes and testimony. He turned to Key and asked for his story, who basically repeated after you. Key whispered to you, “Y/N, I think you’re going to have to with them to the station. You’re a badass, but legally beating up minors doesn’t work out.” He was right, but you weren’t going to stand by watching someone get beat up. Another officer came up to Jeon and discussed things you couldn’t hear. He turned to you with an apologetic look, “I’m sorry Ms. Y/L/N, but we’re going to have to take you down to the station for further questions.” You weren’t surprised, the chances of you scathing by this with rich kid’s parents protecting them was unlikely. You told Key to go back to the office and report everything without you. You held your wrist out towards Officer Jeon with no words and he silently cuffed you walking you to his patrol car.

Key was impressed with you, he felt like he was watching a live super hero film the way you jumped in saved the kid and beat up those guys! He had to snap himself out of his giddy atmosphere and let reality sink in. He had to let Taehyung know and get you out! He had to get you out! He picked up your broken heels raced to his car slipping into the driver seat and peeled out of the parking lot. He made it back to the office in record breaking time, parking haphazardly in his spot in the parking garage of the office. He snatched the heels in the passenger seat and ran to the elevator. He pressed the up button of the elevator repeatedly as if his life depended on it. The door opened, and he stepped inside pressing the fifth floor and mashing the close door button. He was sweating at this point, it was supposed to be a simple task, but it escalated into something major fast. The elevator doors opened, and he zoomed past Mrs. Smith who called after him. He speed pass the work room not paying attention to his team who was eyeing him in wonder. He repeatedly knocked on Mr. Kim’s door not waiting for a come in, and he closing the door behind him. Mr. Kim was on the phone which gave Key time to catch his breath. He was tapping his foot impatiently on the floor. Mr. Kim finished his call and turned to his team member, “What is--?” Key interrupted holding up the shoes, “Taehyung, Y/N! Y/N, she was taken by the authorities—you know what just watch this!” He pulled out his phone and came around the desk and showed him the video of earlier. It began with the kids bullying David, but then you came in the picture. Everything was fine until the kid laid a hand on you. You were tossing the kid around and even dodge a knife. He was worried when he saw the shoes, but it got worse when he saw the video. When the video finished he turned to Key, “where is she?” Key looked down at the floor, “The police took her. They want to question her further.” Taehyung got up from his desk, “Fuck!” and without any other words put on his coat and took his keys and made his way out the office with Key behind him.

The longer it took them to get to the downtown station the angrier he got. How could you carelessly attack? You didn’t think ahead at all! They made it to the station and walked into the entrance. The phones were ringing, officers were running around, some hanging around at their desk. He recognized a familiar face who was standing next to his partner, Kim Yugyeom who was a friend of his as well. Wordlessly he walked up to Jungkook and grabbed his arm, “Where is she?” Jungkook was surprised to see Taehyung here, it wasn’t common he ever came down to the station. “Who hyung?” Taehyung looked around the office not seeing you anywhere. “Y/N. Y/N Y/L/N.” Jungkook eyes lit up, “Oh! She’s in a holding cell. Do you know her hyung?” He didn’t care to respond to him, but carried on, “Take me to her, I need to see her.” He was seething at this point; his tail was flicking, and his ears were down turned. Jungkook picked up on his anger with his ears standing straight up, he wondered what did Tae have anything to do with you? Jungkook tapped his partners arms then lead him and Key to the back hallway where the holding cells were. He unlocked the metal cage door revealing rows of cells along the hallway. He let them enter and directed them to the second to last cell on the right side. Taehyung came up to the cell, but held his tongue when he saw you curled up in the corner. Your knees have crusted blood dripping down your leg and your shirt was torn. He turned around running his hand through his hair calming himself down.

You looked up to the noise slowly and noticed the three of them staring at you. You went to sit back on your heels despite the pain and leaned forward in a bow, “I’m sorry Mr. Kim.” You stayed in that position even as he responded, “I can’t believe you. On your first errand…How--.” He walked back to the station’s main room with Jungkook following him. Key remained crouching down, “Y/N, get up. He’s gone.” You rose with a stoic face, you felt so guilty that may you had ruined the case. You wanted to bring justice to David, but you were just complicating things. In your heart you did the right thing, you stopped violence and the innocent from getting hurt. “It’s going to be okay Y/N. Taehyung may be upset right now, but he’ll get you out. He’s not one of the four famous lawyers at our firm for nothing,” Key explained. It made you feel a bit better and you offered him a small smile. He left you but offered his blazer to keep warm and you took it from him reluctantly.

Jungkook came up behind Taehyung who was staring at the Miller family situated at one of the desk. The mother was rocking her son back in forth in comfort. She had tears in her eyes and her bunny ears were flopped down in sadness. This hurt his heart. It reminded him of his own mother when she comforted him those nights realizing his father wouldn’t come back. He wasn’t going to let these kids get away with their bullying. Jungkook spoke up, “Who is Y/N to you hyung?” Taehyung turned to him, “she’s my newest employee.” Jungkook’s mouth formed the perfect “O” in realization. Jungkook lead Taehyung to the family and they discussed what actions would be taken further. Their discussion was interrupted by a few women coming in yelling at the top of their lungs. “My son is innocent! Where is the bitch that ruined his wrist!” the fancily dressed woman shouted into the room. Jungkook stood up addressing the women, “Ma’am, please sit down,” directly the woman to sit at the desk. “No, I want to see that women who beat up my son and his friends!” Taehyung stood up as well attempting to mediate the situation. Mrs. Miller was holding her son closer, protecting him in the best way she could. The woman struggled in Jungkook’s hold but everyone stopped when a tall man, with overly gelled back hair walked into the room. He has a uniform that was littered with badges on his left chest. The man spoke loudly, “Ma’am, we need to ask you to calm down and take a seat.” The woman turned in Jungkook’s hold, “and who are you to order me around?” Jungkook bowed to his senior, “Chief.” The man waved him off and took charge of the situation directing the woman to sit down at one of the conference tables.

Taehyung and the woman’s lawyer went at eachother for a while back and forth trying to come to a resolution, but they were stubborn. Taehyung was off in the corner trying to come up with a new statement when the lawyer asked for a break. Jungkook came up to him with a coffee in a Styrofoam cup which Taehyung took thanking him. Jungkook sat next to him, “Hyung, remember how I told you about that heroine?” Taehyung nodded after taking a sip of his dark coffee. “That’s her. Y/N is her.” Taehyung raised his brows not expecting the wonder woman of Jungkook’s story to be you. He laughed though, you were full of surprises today. Jungkook patted Tae’s back returning to his desk. Taehyung finished his coffee tossing it into the trash. Mrs. Miller, the rich wives were already gone, and Key went back to the office it was only him left. He sighed with a heavy heart and made his way back to the dimly lit cells. He walked slowly to your cell to find you in the same position as earlier. He crouched down to your level and called to you, “Hey, hey!” You looked up at him with sad eyes that he had to turn away. “You’re going to have to stay here for the night. There seems to be progress with the families, but this isn’t a simple lawsuit anymore.” You nodded knowing that there was no way going the easy route. He got up to walk away from the cell wordlessly like always. You spoke softly in whisper as always, “Good night Tae Tae.” The footsteps once moving down the hall stopped, turning around to you even faster. Taehyung grabbed the bars knocking on the cell door with a rattle looking at you with wide eyes, ears at attention, “What did you just say?”

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acrimsonphoenix · 6 years

Text

Conditioning After

This story is based on a prompt by a lovely anon:

"Karen is forced to fake her own death while recovering from an injury all because of Wilson Fisk, she doesn't know Frank actually believes she's dead. He goes batshit insane and he's set on getting himself killed and destroy Fisk. Foggy, or JJ or even Matt (redemption arc! he can go back to being a decent friend) are somehow able to get him the message. Him and Karen move in the middle of nowhere and rescue pits together."

I made a few changes; for one, I couldn't really see Karen faking her own death without letting Frank know immediately, and I also decided not to bring in Matt or Foggy, but the gist remains the same. :) I’m sorry it took so long to post but it kind of turned out much longer than I’d originally planned...

Read it here on AO3.

David was just re-joining Sarah in the kitchen after bringing Frank a coffee in the garage where he was fixing their electric door opener.

“… and we’re back! You’re listening to Trish Talk,” the radio was announcing in the background while Sarah was tidying up the kitchen. “I’m shocked and saddened at some breaking news that we have just received. This morning, at 10.32 am, Bulletin-reporter Karen Page was gunned down outside the Bulletin offices by an unknown assailant. Even though a nearby witness immediately called 911, Miss Page was pronounced dead at the scene.” Trish’s voice was somber and she paused for a second. Sarah’s head whipped around to David, who stared at the radio with wide eyes. “I cannot put into words what a big loss Miss Page’s death is to our profession. I had the opportunity to meet her during one of the most serious and tense events our city faced in recent years. She was a fearless, dedicated reporter whose work has uncovered some of the greatest crimes in Hell’s Kitchen, and she will be missed by many, both professionally and personally. We will update you as soon as we know more about this tragic event.”

David brought up his hands to pull at his hair.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” he said, his eyes finding Sarah’s. “He can’t do this again. He just can’t.”

Sarah’s face was anguished as she came over to him.

“We’ll have to tell him,” she said hauntingly. “We’re the only ones who know about her and him. No one else will contact him.”

David closed his eyes and shook his head.

“David.” Sarah grabbed his arm and forced him to look at her. “There is no other choice. We have to tell him now.”

“Wait,” David said. He pulled his phone from his pocket and pulled up a few major news websites. They were full of reports about the shooting, many with pictures to match. Two blurry ones showed Karen’s body on the floor behind a police car.

David swore and hit the palm of his hand on the kitchen island in front of him. Sarah squeezed his arm compassionately.

David closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded. Then he turned off the radio that was playing a slow song by now, and walked back to the garage with Sarah right behind him.

Frank was just testing the remote connection and the door was opening wide, giving way to the view of Frank’s van parked on the street outside.

“Good as new,” Frank said with a satisfied smile.

“Hey, Frank, uh,” David wiped his forehead. Sarah hovered a few steps behind him. Frank turned to face him.

“Hm?” he asked as he wiped his hands on a towel.

David swallowed. How was he supposed to say this?

“We just heard something on the radio… ah … There was a shooting this morning, in front of the Bulletin offices.” Frank’s face turned hard, and David swallowed again. “Karen, uh, she … she died,” he said with a shaky voice.

Disbelief spread across Frank’s features.

“’s not possible. She wasn’t even working on anything dangerous,” Frank said, his voice rough.

David winced, and Sarah’s eyes filled with tears.

“No, it’s true. We googled it. There were pictures and reports everywhere,” he said with gritted teeth. “Frank, we’re so sorry.”

Frank’s face seemed dazed, and his eyes darted about wildly.

“Frank, maybe you should come in and sit down,” Sarah asked carefully as she came closer.

Frank shook his head.

“Nah, I gotta, I gotta…” he broke off and suddenly stalked past them towards his van. David and Sarah scrambled after him.

“Frank! Frank, wait! You really shouldn’t drive now, buddy, I mean it. Frank! Frank, stop,” David called as he ran after him.

Frank ignored, him, however, and was seated in his van in two seconds.

“Frank, stop!” David yelled out again, but Frank was already racing down the street.

Her head felt like it was about to explode.

“Hey, hey, don’t move,” she heard someone say next to her. A woman. The voice sounded familiar somehow, but she couldn’t quite place it.

“Stay still, you hit your head real bad. And you got shot, but that was just a graze, lucky for you,” the voice said again, and someone stroked her upper arm soothingly.

Karen tried to force her eyes open, but her eyelids were far too heavy, and a few seconds later, she was out again.

“Is that Pete’s van?” Leo asked as she was loading the dishwasher later that night. She pointed through the kitchen window. David quickly followed the line of her finger.

“Yeah, yeah it is. Uh, you two, could you please go upstairs? There’s something I need to talk to Pete about in private.”

Leo and Zach just looked at each other but then made their way upstairs without a word. David walked over to the front door and watched them disappear on the upper landing before he pulled it open. He startled when he found himself face-to-face with Frank. He didn’t look good. His long hair and beard were gone once more, and he was dressed in black cargo pants and a black Henley. There was a wild but determined expression on his face that David had last seen just before Thanksgiving ten months prior.

“How are you? We were really worried about you,” David said as he stepped aside to let Frank in, who ignored his question.

“You need to get me the police reports,” he said grimly, fixing David with an angry stare.

“Ah, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” David replied anxiously. “What do you want with them?”

Frank just stared at him.

David rolled his head slightly.

“Come on, Frank, please, don’t go back to that. Karen wouldn’t want that for you,” he pleaded.

“Karen’s dead,” Frank replied in a rough and unforgiving tone. “And I’ma kill every son of a bitch that had anythin’ to do with that.”

“Frank – “

“She’s dead, Lieberman, ok? She’s dead!” Frank suddenly exploded. His eyes were glassy, and his expression was almost helpless.

“Please.” His voice broke. “I need to … I need to…” He broke off in a huff.

David stared at him intently and then nodded slowly.

“Ok,” he whispered. He walked over to his laptop on the dining room table and sat down in front of it. Frank pulled up a chair next to him.

In less than five minutes, David had hacked into the police’s computer system and found the report. They scanned it together.

“According to witness statements, a yellow taxi (company and license plate unidentified) pulled up next to Ms Karen Page at 10.32 am on October 10th 2018 as she was leaving the Bulletin office building to conduct an interview at the mayor’s office scheduled for 11.15 am. Three shots were fired in rapid succession at Ms. Page’s head from the window of the left back-seat of the taxi. Witness statements disagree as to whether there were two or three persons in the car, but unanimously report that the driver and the shooter were wearing black ski masks and black outfits. After the third shot, the taxi immediately drove off in the direction of 42nd street but could not be tracked afterwards due to the high number of yellow taxis on that street.

Mr. Jonathan McGuire witnessed the incident from his hot dog stand next to the Bulletin building and immediately called emergency services at 911. An ambulance arrived at 10.37 am and pronounced Ms Page dead on arrival. Officers Michael Ellis and Liane Webster arrived at the scene at 10.36 am. They secured the crime scene and notified Homicide and Forensics. Detectives Brett Mahoney and Jezebel Cole arrived at 10.43 am. Detective Mahoney authorized the delivery of the body to NYC Mortuary at 10.58 am.”

“So, what are you going to do with that? Not even the police seem to have an idea who it was,” David asked carefully.

“Someone always knows something,” Frank replied and stood. He walked a few steps towards the front door and then stopped but didn’t turn around. His hands were clenching at his side.

“Thank you,” he said coarsely. “For – everything. ‘m glad you got your family again. Tell Leo and Zach…” He paused. “I’m done, Lieberman. ‘m done.”

“Frank, wait, Frank –“ David shouted, but just like this morning, Frank was too fast for him.

David cursed and put his hands on his hips.

“Dad?” Leo appeared on the top of the stairs.

David tried to smooth over his face. “Yes, honey?”

“Is Pete alright?” Leo asked timidly.

David sighed.

“No, he’s not,” he replied as he walked towards the stairs. “He’s very sad and upset because someone he loved died.”

Leo’s face fell. “I wish we could help him,” she said compassionately.

“Me too, honey, me too,” David said.

David stared up at the stone and glass building that was the NYC Mortuary. He didn’t actually know what he was doing here. All he knew was that he had to help Frank somehow.

Once he was inside, the receptionist greeted him politely.

“Hi, ah, I’m here to … a friend of mine, she died and the police told me that she was brought here. I’m supposed to identify her.” David adjusted the strap of his laptop bag and prayed that his excuse for being there didn’t sound too far off.

“Ok, could you please tell me your name? And could you please give me your ID? I’m assuming the officers are meeting you here?” David nodded and reached for his wallet in the laptop bag.

“Her name is Karen Page,” he said as he was trying to think of a way to get past her without the officers she’d asked about.

“Page as in P-a-g-e?” the receptionist asked. David nodded.

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have anyone by that name here,” she said. “Maybe you’re in the wrong place? Where did your friend die? Maybe the officers brought her to the mortuary in Brooklyn?”

David stilled.

“No, I’m pretty sure they said here… Maybe she’s not listed under her name but as Jane Doe or something, given that I still have to identify her?” he asked slowly.

The receptionist typed something on her keyboard.

“No, we don’t have any unidentified bodies here at the moment, actually,” she said with a confused look. “Maybe you can check with the officers again?”

“Yeah, sure,” David murmured as he made his way back outside.

This was weird. He’d seen the autopsy report last night when he’d hacked into their system. It had said that Karen died from a shot through the head and that there were no further injuries. Maybe her body had been moved already? But where to? He couldn’t imagine that anyone would have been able to put together a funeral in less than 24 hours.

So when he was back in his car, he called Frank.

“What do you want, Lieberman?” Frank asked curtly when he picked up on the tenth ring.

David rolled his eyes.

“To help you,” he responded sarcastically. “You know, like friends do?”

There was a pause.

“Should’ve stuck to what I said back then,” Frank finally said. “I don’t do partners.”

David sighed.

“Do we really have to go there again?”

“Yeah we do! You’re blind if you don’t see it. I get people killed! My family, Karen … don’t want you and your family next on the list.”

David knew that there wasn’t any point arguing with Frank about that.

“We won’t be.” He really hoped he was right. “Besides, I’m already in the middle of some very interesting things!”

“What? Fuck, Lieberman, you listen to me –“ Frank bellowed angrily I his ear.

“No, you listen for once,” David interrupted him. “I just went to the morgue. Karen’s not there.”

Frank was silent for a moment. “What you mean?” he asked.

“She’s not there, nor is any other Jane Doe or whatever type of unidentified body. There is an autopsy report in the system though, and it says she died from a head wound. But why would anyone pick her up already? And most of all, who?”

Frank just huffed.

“Did you find anything out?” David asked impatiently. He wasn’t in the mood for pulling teeth.

“Yeah,” Frank said. “It was Fisk. Got out of prison about a week ago, but it was kept on the down-low. Put a hit out on her yesterday. Nobody knows why. Got the shooter talking.”

David really didn’t want to know how Frank had found the shooter, nor how he’d gotten him to talk.

“So, what now?” he asked.

Frank huffed angrily. “What you think’s going to happen? I’ma kill Fisk.”

David blinked. “You realize that that’s going to put a giant target on your back, right? Assuming you make it out of wherever you chose to put him down alive, every single criminal in this town is going to go after you.”

“That’s the plan,” Frank confirmed, his voice void of all emotion. “What, to get yourself killed? Frank – “

“Lieberman, again, thanks for all your help. But this is it, ok? I gotta do this. I’m done. Better for everyone.”

“No, wait, Frank –“ David tried to reason with him, but Frank had already hung up the phone. David cursed, pulled his laptop out of his bag, and used his phone as a mobile hotspot to locate Frank’s sim card, but without use. Knowing Frank, he’d probably crushed it right after their call.

Suddenly there was a knock on the window of his car.

David’s head whipped around and was faced with a dark-haired, light-skinned woman in a leather jacket and jeans who had bent down to look into his car.

“Are you David Lieberman?” she said loudly.

“Who’s asking?” David replied, closing his laptop nervously.

The woman just rolled her eyes, and suddenly jumped over his car and landed next to his passenger door. She opened it, grabbed his laptop bag, and dug through it. When she found his wallet, she pulled out his ID, looked at it with an expression that said “see!”, threw everything back into the bag and flopped down on the passenger seat.

“Hey! Who are you? What do you want?” David asked, part annoyed, part scared as he pulled the bag from her grasp on to his lap.

“My name is Jessica Jones. I’m a private investigator. I’m looking for Frank Castle. Karen said you’d know where he is,” she said with a bored expression.

David sniffed and grimaced. The woman – Jessica – smelled like she’d been drinking for five days straight. Then his brain caught up with that she’d just said.

“Karen?” he asked.

“Yeah, Karen Page? Blonde, blue eyes, journalist?” Jessica replied, clearly annoyed that their conversation was drawing out this long.

“When did you talk to her? Because you’re a bit late. Both of them are dead,” David said, still trying to make sense of the woman in front of him and determined not to give her any information she shouldn’t have.

Jessica sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Cut the bullshit. Frank Castle, Pete Castiglione, whatever. I know that he’s not dead. The thing is, Karen isn’t dead either, and she really wants Frank to know that cos she thinks that he might do something very stupid otherwise. Said we can trust you,” she said. “So, where is he?”

David was just staring at her. Jessica raised her eyebrows.

David took a deep breath.

“Karen died. Yesterday. I saw the pictures online, I read the police report, and the autopsy report. She was shot in the head yesterday morning in front of her office,” he said slowly, whether to convince her or him, he wasn’t quite sure.

“Yeah, I know what it says in the reports, and we’re happy to keep it that way. But the truth is that the bullet just grazed her and the other two were nowhere near her head. Fisk promised 2 million dollars to anyone who’d kill her. Attracted not just the professionals but the amateurs, too. Lucky for her. Mahoney had been tipped off on the hit and saw that she’d survived but just hit her head really hard. Had her transported to the mortuary and called in a favor asking me to get her as soon as she was brought in. All the reports in the system are fake. She’s in my apartment. As soon as she woke up, she was asking about Frank Castle. She’s worried he’s going to kill half the town. Looking at his track record, that seems like a fair assumption, so I’m trying to track him down. Karen’s stuff is with the police, so she doesn’t have his number and told me to find you. It’d be great if you could tell me ‘cos I have better things to do than to track down some girl’s melodramatic boyfriend.”

“How do I know you’re telling the truth? You have to admit, this all sounds completely crazy,” he said, ignoring the annoyance that was rising in him at Jessica’s description of Frank as melodramatic.

Jessica looked at him with an expression that said “seriously, dude?” but pulled her phone out of her pocket. She video-called someone named Claire, and after a few seconds, a black woman’s face with energetic eyes and a no-nonsense expression filled the screen.

“Could you pass the phone to Karen? I found Lieberman but he doesn’t believe me that Karen’s alive,” Jessica said with a suffering tone.

“Hello to you too Jessica,” Claire replied with exaggerated friendliness. Then her voice dropped to its normal level. “Sure, one sec.” The video got blurry for a few seconds, and then focused on what was unmistakably Karen’s face. She was wearing a bandage around her head, and she was pale with large shadows under her eyes.

Jessica angled the phone so that the camera caught David.

“Karen, Christ, are you alright?” he asked, still not quite believing what he was seeing.

“David, yes, I’m fine, really,” she said with a wet laugh. “I’m sorry that you had to find out this way. But Brett is sure that Fisk’s hit on me means that people are going to continue to come after me. Can’t kill someone who’s dead already.”

David nodded.

“David, can you please tell Frank what’s going on? I’m really worried that he’s going to do something stupid,” she said.

David raised his eyebrows and tilted his head.

“Oh no, what? What has he done?” Karen asked worriedly.

“Uh, so, the guys who took a shot at you will no longer be able to collect their prize money,” he said evasively. Karen bit her lip and looked to the side.

“And?” she asked with a small sigh.

“And he has decided that he is going to kill Fisk and that it’s ok if he dies trying,” David continued slowly.

Karen’s eyes shot back to him.

“No! David, you have to stop him! Call him, right now!” she pleaded urgently.

“I promise I will do everything I can to find him. But he’s destroyed his SIM card and I have no means of contacting him right now,” he said calmly. Jessica sighed deeply, but more out of annoyance than compassion, and dropped her head against the headrest. Karen moaned agitatedly.

“Please, David,” she begged.

“I will do whatever I can, I promise,” he reassured her. Then he had an idea. “Do one thing for me though. Send a picture of you right now to my phone and Jessica’s, ok? Jessica will text you my number in a few minutes. We’ll probably need proof to convince Frank.”

Karen nodded and set her jaw.

“We’ll keep you updated,” David said, and Jessica turned the phone back to her to end the call.

David blinked, crossed his hands on the steering wheel, and rested his head on top of it. He recited his number and Jessica typed it into her phone.

“Is there any way that you can find him?” she asked.

“I can try gait recognition, but he outsmarted that last time,” he said muffled by his arm.

Jessica dropped the phone in her lap and fixed him with an admonishing stare. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go!”

Half an hour later the two of them were in an abandoned office building that David had turned into his new base of operations as Micro.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about your little spot,” Jessica had said mockingly when he’d looked at her meaningfully as he let the two of them in.

David ran the gait recognition software and turned on the police scanner for good measure. He also ran a software searching for Frank’s van on traffic cameras.

They waited for several hours but nothing happened. Jessica had gone out shortly and returned with a bottle of whiskey and a bag of chips.

Now, they were just staring at the screens in front of them.

At around 11 pm, they heard something over the police scanner.

“Calling all units to 555 10th Avenue. Severe firefights reported on floors 55 and 56. I repeat. Calling all units to 555 10th Avenue. Severe firefights reported on floors 55 and 56.”

“Sounds like that’s the place to be!” Jessica said. She and David got into his car and quickly weaved to the traffic.

“So, what’s the plan?” David asked nervously.

“No idea,” Jessica replied. “Usually, I just wing it.”

David’s head whipped around to face her.

“What? We can’t do that here! The building’s going to be full of Fisk’s men and the police! Plus, it’s huge! They’ve probably blocked the elevators and the staircase is going to be swarming with people!”

“Eyes on the road!” Jessica pushed his head forwards again and sighed. “Look, I’m going to jump up the 56th floor, find Frank, take him back down with me, you’ll be there waiting with the car, and we’ll drive off.”

“What does that mean you’ll jump?” David asked.

“It means what I said,” Jessica replied. They were nearing 555 10th Avenue and she directed him into a small alleyway next to the building. The red and blue lights of the police cars were flashing around the corner, but where they were standing, it was difficult to spot their car.

Jessica got out and leant back down before she closed the door.

“Keep the engine running and be ready to go any time,” she instructed him. David nodded.

Jessica turned around, bent her knees and suddenly, she was gone.

David opened his eyes wide and leant forward to look up along the skyscraper from underneath the windshield, but it was impossible to see anything up there in the dark.

Jessica landed next to the pool on the terrace of the 56th floor and grimaced. The room behind the floor-length windows looked like a slaughterhouse. There was blood all over the white and silver surfaces, there were bullet holes in the walls and in the windows, and dead bodies everywhere. Jessica swayed for a second and closed her eyes. The place reminded her too much of the apartment in which she had found Kilgrave’s father.

“Main Street. Birch Street. Higgins Drive. Cobalt Lane,” she quietly recited to herself before opening her eyes again and stepping determinedly towards the terrace door. She yanked it open and was immediately met with the ferric smell of blood.

She scrunched her nose and slowly walked into the apartment.

“What’d you do that for, huh? Puttin’ out that kinda money on’er head? She was just a paralegal. Murdock was the one who did you in,” she heard a gruff voice talking over another man’s quiet moans.

“She deserved it,” the other voice replied spitefully and then screamed in pain. Jessica carefully walked around a wall in the center of the room and found herself faced with Fisk’s huge body on the floor, half-leaning against a wall, and the Punisher standing over him in a black jacket bearing a white skull and cargo pants. There was a huge wound on Fisk’s left shoulder, and Frank was pressing down on it with the barrel of a large gun he was holding in his left hand. He also had a hand gun in his right, and from the looks of it, he had already shot both of Fisk’s knees.

Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door and a muffled voice yelled “Police! Open the door! We’ve blocked all exits. Give up now!”

Frank paid them no attention and just pressed the gun deeper into Fisk’s wound, drawing a strangled sound from him.

“Why?” Frank repeated his question coldly.

Fisk looked up at him defiantly.

“She killed Wesley,” he yelled suddenly. “He was my friend and she killed him.”

Frank set his jaw.

“Yeah, well, I’m sure she had a good reason for it.”

He raised his right hand with the hand gun and aimed it at Fisk’s head. “Don’t worry, you’ll see your friend again real soon.”

“Oi,” Jessica yelled and Frank turned his head and the hand gun towards her sharply. His eyes were wild and there was blood all over his face. It was difficult to tell whether it was his or someone else’s.

Jessica raised her hands defensively.

“No need to shoot me, I’m here to help,” she said sternly, but Frank didn’t move.

Jessica sighed.

“You can put that thing away,” she said pointing at the gun Frank was still aiming at her. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“You going to stop me?” he asked with a rough voice.

Jessica nodded. “I’ll try,” she said warily.

Frank wrinkled his nose, and then he returned his handgun to its original aim and shot Fisk point-blank in the head. Jessica flinched.

“Too late,” Frank said as Fisk’s head fell forward on to his chest, his dead eyes staring straight ahead. Frank turned to her, his weapons lowered at his sides. “Take me in, shoot me, don’t care.”

Jessica openly rolled her eyes at him. She reached into the pocket of her leather jacket, pulled out her phone, and pulled up Karen’s photo.

“She’s not dead,” she said matter-of-factly. “A bit banged up from hitting her head on the floor after the bullet grazed her, but definitely not dead.”

Frank disbelievingly stared at the photo in her hand. In the background, Jessica could hear the police working on the door to the apartment.

“You’re lying,” Frank murmured. “‘s impossible. She’s dead. Got transferred to the morgue.”

“No, she wasn’t,” Jessica reiterated with a fake smile. “And those police men are going to come in any minute and shoot you. Are you coming with me or not?”

“Let’em come,” he mumbled to himself, turning away from her. “It’ll finally be over.”

Jessica raised an eyebrow, let out a big sigh, and punched him square in the face. She caught him before he fell to the floor, and kicked his weapons to opposite corners of the room when they fell from his hands. Then she lifted him over her shoulder and walked back out on to the terrace.

David startled when Jessica suddenly appeared next to the car again with a loud “thud”.

“Oh my God,” David moaned when he saw the state of him. “Is he –“

“No, just had to knock him out,” Jessica said impatiently. David let out a sigh of relief.

Jessica slid into the passenger seat and took a huge sip from a bottle of whiskey she’d swiped from the apartment. “Alright then, let’s go.”

Karen was sure she was going to go insane.

Her head was still pounding slightly, but with the painkillers, it wasn’t too bad. Her worry for Frank, however, was only growing with each passing minute. It didn’t help that there wasn’t actually anything to distract her from her thoughts in Jessica’s apartment; it was absolutely bare, safe for some empty whiskey bottles, a landline phone, and furniture. The only personal effects that Karen had were the clothes on her back – everything else had been taken by the police as evidence – and she wasn’t supposed to go near the windows, either.

By now, it was late evening already. Claire had left about six hours ago for her shift at Metro-General, and Karen was left alone with her thoughts.

When she’d woken up late this morning, it had taken her a few moments and some fillers from Jessica and Claire to help her remember what happened. As soon as she did, however, there was only one thought on her mind.

Frank.

If it had already been 24 hours since someone tried to kill her, and given that the attempt had happened in broad daylight and the police was acting as if it had been successful, it must have been all over the news already. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what Frank must be thinking, and how he’d react to the news. She wanted to call him right away, but without her phone, she had no means of contacting him. So she’d pleaded with Jessica to contact David, and Jessica had finally, grudgingly agreed. Unfortunately, talking to David had only confirmed her fears and now she was trying to stop herself from spiraling into worse and worse images of Frank’s current physical and emotional state.

A bit after midnight there was a noise at the door and Jessica walked in carrying Frank over her shoulder, David hot on her tail.

Karen pressed her hand against her mouth when she saw the state Frank was in. Jessica carried him into the bathroom and placed him in the tub.

“We’ve got to get all that blood off him. I’m not really sure what of it is his,” she said.

“Thank you,” Karen said earnestly, her eyes moist. Jessica paused shortly and nodded.

“I need a drink, what about you?” she asked David, who followed her back into the living room after he’d thrown one more look at Frank’s unconscious form.

Karen wetted a towel and carefully began to wipe the blood off Frank’s face. Luckily, most of it didn’t seem to be his, save for a few scratches and cuts. There were also a few bruises that were starting to turn a nasty color, but all in all, Frank seemed to be in a much better state than she’d seen him at times in in the past. His expression was peaceful, and Karen’s heart reached out of him at the thought of the pain he must have been in the last 36 hours.

When her gaze wandered to Frank’s chest, Karen paused and furrowed her brow underneath her bandage. She reached out with her hand and touched the flimsy jacket on which he had sprayed the skull. David had not been wrong earlier, Frank really had not planned on surviving the night. Suddenly, Karen got incredibly angry at Frank, and whacked on his vest-less chest with the palm of her hand. At that, Frank suddenly woke up with a strangled noise. He tried to sit up as he looked around disorientedly.

“Shhh, shh, Frank, it’s ok, you’re safe, I’m safe,” Karen tried to soothe him. Frank rapidly blinking eyes found hers, and he fell back ever so slightly. She reached out and intertwined one of his hands with hers.

“Wha’ happened?” he said grunted.

Karen kneaded his hand with hers.

“You almost got yourself killed because of me. Why aren’t you wearing your vest?” she asked a bit harsher than intended, but despite the relief of seeing him awake, she was still so very angry with him.

Frank looked down at himself with a frown and seemed to collect his thoughts. Then his head whipped up to her.

“You ‘ere dead,” he said with a rough voice, staring at her and still blinking in quick succession. “Shot in the head by some greedy son-of-a-bitch.” His gaze fell to their intertwined hands as if he were seeing them for the first time.

Karen dropped her forehead to his.

“No, I’m safe, I’m here,” she whispered and reached out with her other hand to caress the back of his head. She pressed a passionate kiss to his lips.

Frank closed his eyes and breathed heavily. When he opened them again, he looked utterly lost and scared.

“Thought I’d lost you,” he murmured and his hands cradled her face. “’was just done. Couldn’t do it again. Just couldn’t,” he said, imploring her to understand.

Karen’s eyes filled with tears. “I understand,” she said fervently and pressed a firm kiss to his forehead. “I do.”

When Frank was finally cleaned up and his wounds treated, Karen and he joined David and Jessica in the living room. Jessica was lounging on an old sofa while David was sitting in a dilapidated arm chair with his elbows on his knees and his forehead leant on his fists. Both looked up when Frank and Karen entered.

“Thanks for getting me outta there,” Frank said to Jessica, his voice still rough. She just saluted with two fingers and took another sip from the bottle of whiskey she was holding. Frank turned to David.

“Thanks,” he said. David just nodded.

Frank and Karen sat down on two foldable chairs that were standing around.

“What are you going to do now?” David asked. “Karen’s officially dead and you’re the most wanted man in town, again. I really don’t think Homeland will be happy about your little shooting spree, either, after they gave you the makings for a fresh start.”

Frank scowled. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ma gonna go away. Leave town, start over.”

“You going, too?” Jessica asked looking at Karen.

“Yes,” Karen said at the same time that Frank said “no.”

The two of them looked at each other.

“You’re not leaving me here. I’m going with you,” Karen said determinedly.

“I’m gonna be a man on the run. You really want that for your life? Bet ya that Mahoney can easily resurrect you from the dead. You can stay here, continue with your life,” Frank shot back.

“No. Not without you. I’m coming with you,” Karen insisted. Jessica rolled her eyes and dropped her head back against the sofa.

Frank was about to reply something when Karen cut him off.

“No, Frank. End of discussion. We’re in this together,” she said firmly.

Frank leant forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “Ok,” he conceded.

“Awesome, we’ve got a plan,” Jessica said with a fake smile. “How’re you going to get out of town, though? Your face is all over the news once more. Also, you’re gonna need money.”

“I can drive you out of state,” David suggested.

Frank shook his head. “Just across the river’s enough. Got a storage unit there. Has everything we’ll need,” he said.

Jessica raised her eyebrows. “Everything, huh?”

Frank just nodded but gave no further explanation.

“What about Karen’s stuff? Wouldn’t there be things you want to take with you?” David asked.

Before Karen could reply, Frank said “Yeah, we can drop by her place on the way there and get what’s important.”

Jessica sighed. “That’s too dangerous. The whole town’s looking for you. I’ll take her. We go in and out through the fire escape.”

Karen inclined her head.

“That’d be great,” she said.

A few seconds later, there was a knock on the door. “It’s me, open up,” sounded Brett’s voice.

Karen and Frank looked at each other. Jessica dragged herself to the door and pointed him towards the living room.

Brett stalked straight towards Frank and Karen, Karen’s purse in hand.

“This is what I get for saving her life? Another Punisher episode?” he said through gritted teeth.

Frank had the decency to look sheepish. Karen reached out to Brett.

“Brett, I’m so sorry, really. It was a huge misunderstanding. I’m so grateful that you kept me safe, really,” she said apologetically.

Brett angrily gripped the bunched-up purse in his hand.

“I guess I should have known what’d happen when you’d get shot. You made it very clear that he’d been looking out for you back in the incident in the hotel last November,” he said, still fuming.

“Look, man, I’m really sorry. You saved Karen’s life, I owe you for that. If you wanna take me in, I’m ok with that,” Frank said looking up at him. Karen’s head whipped around to him.

“No, Frank!” she hissed.

Brett pinched the bridge of his nose with two of his fingers.

“You made my precinct’s job a hell of a lot easier with your … activities the last two days. That’s why I’m giving you 12 hours to get out of this city before my guys are going to track you down.” Karen breathed a sigh of relief. “But if I ever see either of you again, or if I hear about you stepping outside of the law anywhere in this country I’m going to tell the FBI everything I know.”

Karen and Frank nodded.

“Thank you, Brett,” Karen said earnestly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Brett huffed and threw her purse at her. Then he turned around, curtly nodded at Jessica, and left.

Karen dug through her purse.

“I should probably destroy that,” she said as she pulled out her phone.

“Yep,” Jessica said. She took the phone from Karen’s and crushed it with her bare hand.

Karen raised her eyebrows.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Leave the purse in your apartment. When you go there, take only what you need. No toiletries and shit. It can’t look like you left,” Frank instructed her.

“Ok, let’s go then. We’ll be back in 20 minutes. You two can figure out where you’re going in the meantime,” Jessica said.

A few minutes later, Karen couldn’t quite believe what was happening. Jessica had wrapped an arm around Karen’s middle and was jumping with her from roof to roof until they finally reached Karen’s building. They climbed down the fire escape into Karen’s apartment.

“You got 3 minutes,” Jessica said as she looked around.

Karen dropped her hand bag in its usual spot and hastily walked into her bedroom. She stuffed a few essentials into a reusable shopping bag from a local supermarket – underwear, a set of pajamas, a pair of jeans, two t-shirts, two plain pullovers and a baseball cap. She then quickly shrugged out of her clothes that she’d been wearing for almost two days now, and put on jeans, t-shirt, a sports jacket, and sneakers. There weren’t many sentimental items she wanted to bring; there was that photo of her, Matt and Foggy, but it was an easy way to figure out who she was, so she left it behind. Kevin’s photo did go into the bag, though, but without the frame.

When she came back into the living area, Jessica was already waiting by the window. She was holding a bottle of whiskey that Karen was sure had previously been in her kitchen cupboard.

“Ready?” Jessica asked.

Karen nodded and let her gaze sweep around the apartment one last time.

“If you want any of the stuff in here, help yourself,” Karen said as she turned back to Jessica.

Jessica just nodded and gestured to the window. In a few steps, the two of them were back on the roof and on their way to Jessica’s place.

It was around 4.30 am when they arrived at a storage unit in New Jersey. When Frank opened the number lock, it revealed a grey SUV with tinted windows. Frank walked around the back of the vehicle, opened the trunk, and lifted a partition hidden underneath the carpet. It held four different bags.

“Cash, clothes, necessities, guns,” he listed as he pointed at them. He opened the first bag and it was filled to the rim with money.

David stared at it disbelievingly.

“How much is that?” he asked.

“Enough,” Frank just responded. He took a few bills out of the bag, handed some of them to Karen and stuffed the rest in his pockets. Then he zipped the bag back up and opened the third bag.

“Necessities, huh?” Karen laughed as she saw its contents. There were wigs, glasses, a bag with several IDs, along with some tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant, two towels, and several bottles of water. Frank flipped through the IDs and handed one to Karen, whose eyes grew wide as she stared at it. The driver’s license bore her picture but the name Anna Saley. She looked up to Frank, and her insides constricted with affection. She touched his upper arm.

“Looks like you’ve been planning this for a long time,” she said half-jokingly, half-seriously.

Frank didn’t look at her.

“Thought it might come in handy. Didn’t know what was gonna happen with Billy, and with you constantly calling out New York’s greatest scum…” he said as he pulled another license out of the bag for himself, took two bottles of water from the bag, and closed it again.

“You need a jacket?” he asked as his hand hovered over the second bag.

Karen shook her head.

“’k,” Frank said. “We also got blankets in the back seat.”

He still opened the bag, though, pulled out some clothes for himself, and quickly changed on the spot. Then he put the bloody clothes he’d been wearing into a trash bag he produced from somewhere underneath the duffels.

Finally, he opened the bag containing the guns. He took out a .380 and handed it to Karen, and then tugged another gun in the back of his trousers.

“Right,” he said as he closed the trunk. Both of them turned to David who was looking at them with an inscrutable expression, and then passed Karen a piece of paper with an e-mail address.

“Message that when you’re somewhere safe. Can’t be tracked,” he said. Karen nodded and put the paper in the back pocket of her pants. She hugged him tightly.

“Thank you for everything,” she said. David ran his hand across his nose and ducked his head. Then he turned to Frank.

The two of them looked at each other silently for a few beats before Frank pulled David into an embrace and patted his back several times.

“Thanks,” he said. David smiled sadly.

“You saved my family, I’m saving yours,” he said.

Six months later Karen and Frank were strolling over a Farmer’s market in a tiny town somewhere in Wyoming. They’d found a small house near a lake just outside the town, had bought it, and were now fixing it up. Frank was earning some money working as a handyman, while Karen had a job at the local library.

It was a beautiful day, still quite cold but the sun was out. They were buying some food for dinner and Frank was just paying for some carrots when Karen heard a soft bark.

She followed the sound a few stalls further down and was faced with several fenced areas containing different pets. A sign on one of the fences indicated that the animals were from a local shelter.

Suddenly, she saw them out of the corner of her eye. A grey pit bull and a golden retriever, about the same age, and probably no older than five months, were playing together in one of the kennels. She walked over to them and watched them with a smile.

“Hi there, I’m Tina. I work with the local animal shelter. Have our two buddies caught your eye?” A girl in her late teens appeared next to Karen.

“Yeah,” Karen breathed. “Are they up for adoption?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the girl replied. “We got them when Mr. Maitzen died last month. You know, he’d been breeding a lot of dogs, but most of them stuck to their own kind when they were brought in. But those two’ve been all over each other ever since they first arrived. If you are thinking about adopting, you should know that we advise that those two be adopted together.”

“Thanks,” Karen said, and the girl wandered off to a family looking at some bunnies.

She could feel Frank appearing at her right side, the bag of groceries in his right hand.

“Found something you like?” he asked with an amused voice.

Karen tilted her head to the side and looked at him from underneath her eyelashes with a mischievous smile.

“Tina over there says that the two are best buddies and really shouldn’t be separated,” she said.

Frank huffed. “Does she now?” he asked with a smirk on his lips.

Karen swayed a bit and touched his shoulder with hers.

“You know that look doesn’t work with me,” Frank replied while he was still looking at the two dogs playing in front of him.

Karen intertwined both of her hands with his left as she pressed her body against his and just looked at him from the side.

“Karen, two dogs is crazy. They’re like kids. Need attention all the time,” Frank said as he kept looking straight ahead.

Karen squeezed his hand.

“Please?” she asked quietly.

Frank huffed.

“Ok, fine.”

“I can’t believe no-one is planning a single memorial for Karen,” Trish said with an irked voice. “She’s done a lot for this city.”

“The Bulletin had a small gathering at their office for all the staff,” Jess replied as she was researching her latest target online.

“Yes, but there should have been something for the public. I understand that her family wants to bury her in Vermont but this city owes her big time. She deserved better,” Trish said heatedly as gestured with her tablet. Then she paused. “Maybe I should organize something,” she added.

Jess’ head snapped up. “What? No. You really shouldn’t invest any time in that,” she said.

“No, I actually feel like I really should do this. This is what’s wrong with this world. There are people out there who put their life on the line every day to find the truth and then we just ignore it when they suffer the consequences,” Trish argued. She tapped on her tablet. “We need to find a good location. I’m going to put this out on twitter, those 2.3 million followers must be useful for something.”

Jessica looked up to the ceiling and sat up.

“Trish, put that away,” she said forcefully. Trish looked up.

“Why? Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to come, I know better than that,” she said.

Jessica let out a long sigh and hung her head.

“Promise you won’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you,” she said, fixing Trish with a resigned look.

Trish frowned. “I promise. Why?”

Jessica took a deep breath.

“Karen is not dead. It was just a ruse to stop people coming after her cos Fisk had offered a reward of 2 million to anyone who killed her,” she said with an impassive voice. “She only got a graze in the shooting outside her office.”

“What? Where is she now?” Trish asked in confusion.

“She left New York with her … boyfriend, I guess. No idea where they are now,” Jessica replied.

Trish leant her head on one side.

“Why don’t you tell me everything from the start?”

About ten minutes later Jessica had told Trish the story from start to finish.

Trish raised her eyebrows.

“Well, I guess we should be happy for them? Though I’m not really sure how I feel about Frank Castle,” she offered.

Jessica shrugged, and Trish suddenly fixed her with an impenetrable gaze.

“Why’d you help them?” she asked. “This all sounds like straight from a movie. You hate that kind of sentimental stuff. Why’d you help them?”

Jessica didn’t look at her and didn’t say anything either, but Trish just waited patiently. Finally, Jessica caved and crossed her arms.

“She reminded me of you,” she said as she finally met Trish’s gaze.

“What, blonde and blue-eyed?” Trish asked, half-jokingly.

“A bit. But mostly just, you know. Obsessed with making a difference with her reporting, far too determined for her own good, sticks by the people she loves no matter how much they mess up,” she explained reluctantly.

Trish’s face softened and she wrapped Jessica into a firm hug.

“Yeah, sounds like a couple worth saving,” she said with a smile.

#Kastle #kastle fic #karen x frank #frank x karen #frank castle #karen page #the punisher #tp #daredevil #david lieberman #weekend reading

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yokecanada3 · 4 years

Text

One of a kind Young Adult's Perspective of Our Social Applications

I read technology articles regularly and realize a good amount of writers make an effort to express or identify the teenage target audience, especially in regards to social applications. Nevertheless, I've yet to see a teen contribute their voice to this conversation. I am extremely enthusiastic about social media's function in our society as well mainly because how it is presently changing. Therefore, the viewpoints originate from observation of not only my own behaviors but my peers' behaviors as well. I do believe the correct way to address this will be to divide by social network and the findings and views I have compiled over the years. Facebook In short, Facebook is ancient news for the majority of teenagers. Facebook is an app we all got in school since it was great but now, is seen while a clumsy family social gathering we can't actually leave. It's odd and may even be frustrating to have Facebook at times. That being said, unless you have Facebook, that's a lot more odd and infuriating. Weird because of the sociable pressure and frustrating because you'll have to response that to just about everybody in classes you fulfill who makes an effort to be your friend or discover you on there. Facebook is quite often utilized by us mainly because of its group features. I know plenty of classmates who just continue Facebook to check the groups they may be part of and promptly log off. In this component Facebook shines-groups don't have the same difficult rules in it that the news feed does. It's very easy to just see the brand-new information posted over the group and never have to sift through a great deal of articles and advertising you don't really value. Messaging on Facebook is also extremely popular among our age group, generally because they offer the means to speak with those people who you were not really comfortable with requesting their quantity but relaxed enough to send out them a pal request. Facebook is often the jumping-off point for many individuals to attempt to get you online, simply because everyone around us offers it. If perhaps I met you one time at some sort of party, I'm not really going to make an effort to check Twitter or Instagram to find out who you are. Instead, many choose the simple Facebook and the powerful search feature that gives you results of people who you truly have a potential for knowing (unlike Instagram, whose search efficiency, though it improved slightly within the last update, leaves much to become desired). Snapchat Snapchat is in a short time starting to become the most used social websites application, specifically with the arrival of merging your Snaps to a history feed. If perhaps I can breakdown a party for you personally in social networking terms, here is how it could pan out: You post yourself preparing for the party, heading to the special event, having fun in the special event, leaving at the end of the special event, and getting up in the morning following the party on Snapchat. In Facebook you write about the lovely, posed photos you took with your close friends at the party (definitely zero alcoholic beverages in these pics). On Instagram you select the prettiest one of the collection to share to your account. Snapchat is where we are able to really end up being ourselves while being mounted on our social identification. Without the constant interpersonal pressure of a follower count or Facebook close friends, I am not constantly having these random people shoved in front of me. Rather, Snapchat can be a somewhat close network of friends who I don't treatment if they discover me at a party having fun. No other social apps (besides Twitter probably) it really is appropriate post a bored photo besides Snapchat. Generally there aren't likes you have to be concerned about or responses, it's almost all taken away. Snapchat includes a great deal less social pressure attached to it compared to almost every other popular social networking network out there. This is what makes it so addictive and liberating. If I do not get any likes on my Instagram picture or Facebook post within a quarter-hour, I am going to eliminate it. Snapchat isn't like that in any way and really focuses on creating the Story of a day time in your life, not some filter, modified, handpicked focus on. It is the true you. One more quick aside about Snapchat, We only know a handful of customers (me included) that think Snapchat will get rid of your photographs. Almost everyone else I know thinks that Snapchat has some top secret data source somewhere with all of your photos in it. Even though I will save that controversy for a later date, it is safe to say that whenever photos are leaked or every time there's controversy about security in the application, we honestly usually do not really worry. We are not sending photos of our store cards here; we are sending selfies and photographs with us having 5 chins. Twitter In all honesty, a lot of us merely don't realize the point of Twitter. There is always a core clique at every single school that utilize it very religiously to tweet and one more group that make use of it to merely watch or retweet, but besides that lots of avoid it. It also isn't incredibly no problem finding friends on the webpage and many just utilize it to complain about college in a environment where their parents or family (not necessarily managers) are likely not to find it. Twitter is a location to check out or be followed by a couple of random visitors, but still have your identity be attached to it, this distinction will be crucial later on on. Your tweets are also very easily searchable on Twitter which is good but not good if you wish to be yourself rather than have it follow you around when you're trying to land a job. Thus, to others Twitter is used like Facebook, most people post using the assumption that your employer will find it at some point. You will find after that 3 main sets of Twitter users: the ones who use it to nitpick and go to town, the types who tweet using the assumption that the possible interviewer will ultimately see anything they say, and those who merely look at other Tweets and do the occasional retweet. Instagram Instagram is the most used social website app outlet for young adults. Please be aware the verbiage there, it's the most used social website app venue. Meaning that, however the many people are on Facebook, we actually post stuff on Instagram. It is often thrilling if you ask me to visit a friend with hundreds of close friends on Facebook only get 24 likes on an image nevertheless on Instagram (where she gets 800 fans) she acquires 274. I now have a handful of ideas as to why this may show up. I am not afraid everytime I love something on Instagram that it'll show up in someone's newsfeed and they're going to either screenshot which i liked it or research it afterwards. And the same applies to participating. I am much less pressured to check out anyone back in Instagram, that means my news are normally made up of content I actually want to check out. That said, I will return and slide through an app which has content I take joy in rather than those where I need to uncover the sporadic precious stone in wait. This kind of articles on Instagram is most likely of superior value.

Users take the time to change their shots with filters, employ varied lighting and contrast configurations (it is even one of the techniques to publishing a photo), etcetera., to make the images appear the very best they are able to. That suggests that the content material published on Instagram is generally a lot better (photo-wise), therefore i am much more likely to go back to the application form. Instagram hasn't been inundated with the older era yet (not many people owns an Instagram) which implies its hip and sweet to the younger group. However, it is popular enough that when you have a phone it's nearly unheard of to suit your needs not to have Instagram, if not to take images, though to at least label users in photos. One additional point: tagging. I don't have to continuously examine Instagram to make sure I wasn’t tagged in virtually any cumbersome or poor photos. That is simply because you can't quickly find any of them inside your newsfeed, designing the total experience seem to be much more personal. Am I looking weird in a photo you submitted? So what?. I may just eliminate the tag if I actually am that upset about it without fear that my friends from another online group (who do not follow you) will get to it initially. I understand Facebook has the power to enable you to check each and every image tagged of you before it shows up on your own profile, nevertheless many people I understand don't have that enabled or understand it actually exists. Users mostly do not post 10000 times per day on Instagram. Most are much more courteous about posting, sometimes doing daily, a few times a week, etc. This means that there isn't a constant supply of content being jammed down my throat each and every time I open up the app, which is possible to become caught up with my Instagram newsfeed. There are no links on Instagram, this means I am not really being constantly spammed with the same advertisement, horrific gossip articles, or news posting about the "28 Ingenious Accessories for Your Family Pet You Had No Idea You Wanted". All those are several reasons why plenty of people my age are likely to use Instagram a lot more than they do Facebook. All the stuff about the software makes it much less commercialized and more devoted to this content, meaning more teenagers tend to check it out. The moment we can check out the software, it is a much more welcoming experience therefore we are more predisposed to Like and interact with the posts more. This boosts our relationship with the software, meaning we use it more. Facebook keeps every single one of the shots we shot, the good one, and the terrible one, whilst Instagram just gets one that actually sums up the happening we visited. It is a lot more selective, and in all honesty users spend more time within the captions to create them relevant or entertaining. On Facebook we simply throw up almost everything we got so people can label each other and display our friends that we are still functioning. Many of those younger than me (10-17 years of age) who I've talked to about this subject don't have even a Facebook account. Instagram is all that they need. The Ok Ones Outlined below are other social media that some teens employ nonetheless that don't really require a full length discussion. LinkedIn: We should grab it, so we have it. Many wait around until college to get this (because they most likely should, it is not for this target market anyhow). Pinterest: It's largely women-centric and is for those who have an artistic type or folksy concentrate. Not too many persons talk about it. Kik: It is a messaging app that is primarily utilized for talking with people on Twitter, I suppose? I have no idea anyone who needs it. WhatsApp: A lot of people download it when you go overseas, you use it there for a bit before going back again to Fb Messenger or iMessage, you then delete it. I understand plenty of people who utilize it to communicate with close friends they had overseas, but I feel like Messenger can be beginning to surpass it. For international college students, however, WhatsApp is a pivotal tool that I've heard is honestly invaluable. GroupMe: The most used group messaging software in university. Everyone seems to have one, would make use of it and loves it. GIF support, the ability to like others messages, even unimportant points such as having the ability to replace your identity between group chats all make this both a useful and delightful program. GroupMe also functions for actually any telephone or device such as a laptop, iPhone, Android, and could very well function over text as well for those who may not have got a smart phone.

#tech

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archuve · 7 years

Text

Closing the distance

Dianakko week day 7 Free Day

@dianakko-week

A/N This one shot is a nice shout out to all the long distance relationships that happened thanks to the fandom and lwa cause I know several people got together thanks to this lovely show. Speaking of which, this one shot is dedicated to my lovely gal pal @oceankasko who I met thanks to lwa <3

Summary: After 2 years of a long distance relationship, Akko and Diana finally meet.

“I can’t believe this!” Amanda howled with laughter, her hands clutching her sides as she bends over laughing with tears skimming the corners of her eyes. Diana look could already feel the heat of embarrassment brush over her cheeks as she stares at the times on the board. “We came here 2 hours earlier than we needed to because Diana is too gay!”

“Amanda!” Lotte chided as people started to stare at the girls as they walk past them with disapproval, whether it was because Amanda was laughing too much and caused a slight scene or because Diana is an open gay, Lotte didn’t care and didn’t really want to know.

“It’s true though!” Amanda reasoned, her laughter dying down as she wiped away the few tears that were near her eyes. She stands up, one arm on her hip as she points to Diana who is facepalming near them, red cheeks just peeking from her hand. “Look she’s not even denying it!”

“That doesn’t mean you need to tell the whole airport about it though!” Diana scolded as she looked up and to the side to meet Amanda’s eyes but all that did was trigger another wave of cackles and laughs for Diana didn’t look all too intimidating with a tomato flustered face. “This is brilliant,” Amanda laughed as she picked up her rucksack and moved to a seating area, the other two following behind her. “Like this is gold, 24-carat cavendish gold,” she snickered as she sat down on an empty seat.

“For the 88th time Amanda, my house does not have gold hidden in some hidden basement or room,” Diana hissed as she sat next to her.

“Ah but that’s what you want me to think,” Amanda said with a smirk.

“I personally showed you the blueprints of the house,” Diana said quickly in hopes she would stop. Amanda did not.

Amanda shrugged, “Blueprints can lie-

“They were the original copies!” Diana exclaimed as she faced Amanda fully, as far as she was aware no one made any changes par the general repairs and refurbishment.

“Then they aren’t worth anything because they are wayyyy outdated,” Amanda said as she put her hands behind her head. Diana was about to lose it there and then, the red on her face that was once embarrassment shifted to anger and it clashed with the pale blue shirt that had a nice ocean crest in the middle that she was wearing. She was really really tempted to hit Amanda with her handbag that was in her skinny jeans.

“Amanda, would you please stop antagonising Diana? You're supposed to here to support her meeting her girlfriend Akko.” Lotte said as she sat on the other side of Diana. She was wearing a pretty yellow summer dress with various flowers at the end. In her hands was a book of her favourite series Nightfall, and it was already opened with the pages flicking every now and then.

At the mention of her girlfriend, the bright red face of anger turned to a darker scarlet, the angry snarl of her lips transformed into a shy smile and the cold blue flames in her eyes flickered to the warmth of a fire that came from a fireplace and slowly the warmth spread all over her body as her mind is swarmed with her presence: of small recollections of late night messages, of her beautiful face and smile, of the human angel that is Akko Kagari.

In all honesty, she has no clue why or how she managed to meet and fall for the girl, and online on a hellish social media website in a fandom of all places. If someone told her that this was how she would meet the greatest person in the world when she was younger, she would’ve taken them to the nurse’s room to see if the person was ill and probably stay away from them. She just couldn’t see how this was even possible! Even now there are some days where Diana would wake up and ask herself how is Akko real? How are they real? Then she looks at her phone and her heart would flutter when she sees Akko’s adorable smiling face on her home screen and she becomes glad that they are real and now today it would be even more real when she hugs her for the first time.

Her daydream mind talks end there as Amanda talks once more, “Actually Lotte, you’re here to support her, I’m here because I made these two idiots get together so I need to see it happen again in real life.”

“You’re here because you have the only decent video camera to record our first meeting.” Diana corrected. “Also with the promise that you make our meeting look one of a kind.” Diana also included when Amanda opened her mouth to argue before shutting up at the promise she made late at night playing a game with all of them. Diana gave her a small smirk as she looked away to the distance, one thought replayed throughout her mind; she didn’t deny the fact that they did meet through and got together through Amanda.

When they first meet… it wasn’t the greatest first impression.

In a short summary, Amanda was close friends with Akko, a new cosplayer who dabbles in fanart and dabbles even less in fanfics. Diana was this highly acclaimed fanfic writer and theorist of the fandom and was just only a frenemy of Amanda. One day Amanda vented at Akko about Diana which caused Akko who is protective of her friends to slide into her DM to yell at Diana. Of course, no matter how Amanda tried to quell the flames of anger, the private fight between Akko and Diana of squabbles and disagreements continued on until one day Amanda told Akko to leave Diana alone a bit from the arguments.

Curious on why, Akko did not leave Diana alone and asked what was wrong and in the heat of the moment Diana confessed that she is being pestered by a person who claimed that she is stealing her work and ideas and no matter how much she tries to explain and argue her points the person refused to listen. It made things, even more, worse when Diana refuses to bring this to light to the fandom community for she does not wish her followers to send death threats to such a simple but long-winded misunderstanding.

What Akko did next not only surprised Diana but everyone else that knew about Akko. Akko in public confronted the person and with every newly added statement made, Akko seemed to turn the information to her favour, coming up with ideas and ways to tackle the problem that Diana never saw before. After a long fight of a week of drama, the person admitted that they caused this to only make Diana look bad due to extreme jealousy that their fic is getting pushed away by Diana’s and was quickly thrown out of the fandom.

When Diana confronted Akko days afterwards when everything on both their ends died down, Akko confessed that the same thing happened to her but through cosplays in a different fandom and no one wanted to believe her so she left and vowed never to let anyone go through the same things because she wanted everyone to be happy. After that Diana and Akko quickly became friends and instead of arguing for hours they talked for hours and hours and before they knew it they were crushing on each other.

Diana fell first, she touched by Akko’s passion and kindness and protectiveness and determined nature. Then she admired her laughs and funny jokes and memes. Without realising Diana fell for her and she fell hard. She only realised it when she hasn't seen Akko’s cosplays and for the first time in her life, in her writing hobby, Diana was found lost for words. Her eyes could never leave the screen. They just kept staring and looking at Akko, they were lost in Akko’s beautiful red eyes, she was entranced. Then when she looked down and saw her smile… Diana’s heart jumped. It jumped more and more as Diana stalked her cosplay photos and general selfies she posted and by the time she reached the end Diana’s heart sunk that there wasn’t anymore.

That was the moment where Diana realised she had it bad.

Naturally, of course, she went to Amanda about it who didn’t believe her until Diana posted a gay poem about her ship but with lines that also doubled as confessions and her feelings for Akko. The hints were too obvious that she was talking about someone else and that was when Amanda decided to play the wing woman.

Akko fell as soon as Diana did, or at least she recognised it as a crush. Akko had a lingering feeling that Diana was special hence why she stayed around so much and it’s only when they became closer, Akko saw why. Diana just amazing, she could write so much and update so frequently that it was insane, every compliment given was received with grace and modesty and every public fight made Diana seem so much nicer and smarter to Akko. She helps people with writing tips, helps them get more exposure for their fics and even if someone told her that she was ill, Diana would give them good solid instructions to make them feel better and they worked.

Then Akko was invited into Diana’s group by Amanda who was also there and Akko swears that when Diana talked it was the sound of angels. She was so dumbfounded that she shouted in surprise because she was so lost in thought of Diana and decided to spill the information on Amanda. Long story short, Amanda was fed up with them dancing around each other and shoved them in a private 3 way call where they confessed after a lot of talking and they became girlfriends which lead them to now, where Diana is waiting for Akko to arrive in the Heathrow airport.

/-/

“So…,” Amanda said as she fiddled with her video camera, her eyes lost of its usual thunder and spark for teasing and annoying Diana. She sighed, turning off the camera when she had no reply from her friends. She turned to the left of her, to see what Lotte and Diana were doing. Lotte was once again her her nose deep in another Nightfall book, though it surprised Amanda when she leant forward a bit more to see and saw that between Diana and her there was a small pile of books she already read or will read through when they wait.

Amanda blinked, accepting the fact that Lotte came with maybe 5 or more books to the airport and right under their nose. She turned her attention to Diana, rolling her eyes as Diana’s eyes are staring into the distance. Amanda knew what she was thinking of, anyone would with that sincere dopey smile, of that obvious lovestruck grin that stretched across her face. She was thinking of her darling Akko, the girl who they were waiting to meet.

Amanda’s mind fell back into the topic of Akko. She leant back into her chair, leaning more on her palm as her elbow was resting on the back of her chair as her eyes drifted upwards. She won’t lie to herself that the fact that Diana fell for Akko was a huge shock. Sure before when Diana was venting to them in the discord about how annoying Akko was and they teased her about liking the girl since boy she talked a lot about Akko yet she never expected them to actually get together.

Also, she didn’t expect them to stay together for this long, not that she would ever tell them of course. She just thought considering how much they fought before they might fight again and break up but Amanda didn’t mind being proven wrong, one easily tell that they were good for each other. Not to mention Diana being flustered over Akko and vice versa was the best thing to mess around with.

They, especially Diana had the best reactions. Amanda remembered the time she hosted a video call and it was the gay losers’ first time seeing each other through a screen. Diana couldn’t stop staring at Akko and her mouth was open like a big fish and a tomato face. Whilst Akko talked in Japanese for 15 minutes because she couldn’t think straight. Then again, Akko never thought straight to begin with.

Amanda looked at Diana once more with a small smile on her face, hidden laughter conveyed in her smile before exhaling a long breath as she looked around, waiting for anything to get her bored attention. She shifted in her seat, keeping her ears open for any noise that may be used to her. There was the constant shuffle of movement and wheels squeaking as they roll on the tiled floor. The muffles of small talk, the soft thuds of when luggage hit the ground or when bodies briefly collided when passing.

As Amanda thought, there was nothing for her to pass the time, how long will it take for Akko to arrive anyways? They’ve been sitting down for a while now.

As if it was an answer to her thoughts, the generic beat of airport music was cut short, replaced by the shriek of a 3 beat alert, the signal of an important message delivered through a muffled robotic voice. “This is an announcement to say that the 13:30 flight from Japan has landed-” Amanda didn’t have a chance to hear the end of the message because she was instantly shouting in Diana’s ears.

“Diana, Diana, Diana” She repeated, shaking Diana out of her reverie with every name pronounced.

“What!?” Diana snapped back to Amanda with a glare. Amanda just smirked at her as she turned on her camera and faced it at Diana, looking through the lenses. She was not going to miss Diana’s reaction to this great news.

“I repeat: The 13:30 flight from Japan has landed…. ”

The sudden switch from anger to pure happiness and excitement was everything Amanda was hoping for.

Amanda was so glad that she recorded that moment. The way Diana’s narrowed glare of her blue eyes started to widen, the fire of annoyance that burnt in her irises expelled into this spark, this flare of happiness. Her smile that was so full and reached the corners of her cheeks erupted from the lined lips of annoyance. Amanda could see the star’s glint in her eyes, the rainbow’s happiness in her smile. It reminded her of her childhood photos she saw of Diana when she was younger, of that young, pure, innocent sense of happiness before her mother died.

“However due to an accident in the landing strip, the arrivals from the 13:30 plane from Japan will come through Arrival Area D oppose to Arrival Area A.”

If Amanda wasn’t so happy to see Diana’s face when she found out that her girlfriend will arrive sooner than expected, Amanda might laugh at the shattered shocked smile. The sudden startle in her eyes, the way her mouth hung open like a dead fish. Of course not out of malice, but because of the suddenness of it all and the fact that Amanda has a tendency to laugh at many things.

They all stayed there, suspended in an air of shock and surprise, even when the third and final notification replayed ended and the generic beat of the airport music played once more. Amanda was the first to snap out of the trance or realise that they were standing there for 7 going 8 minutes thanks to the runtime showing on her video camera. “Hey, Diana…” She said with a nervous laugh, she had no clue on what would happen next.

At the mention of her name, Diana snapped awake in a heartbeat. For a split second, Amanda’s eyes reached Diana’s and Amanda knew what she was going to do. She could just see it in her desperate eyes. She saw it in the reflections when she’s been caught sneaking around. The girl was going to bounce. Something Diana would never do was it not for Akko’s intervention of some sort and for some reason, Amanda was not okay with that.

Before she knew it, Diana fled from her eyes.

“Diana!” She shouted, waking Lotte from her small trance as well. Diana ignored her shout as she came around the end of seats. Amanda didn’t hesitate to heave her backpack on her arm, one hand still holding the camera, mouth a quick apology to Lotte before she races after Diana.

She should be excited about this, this was an interesting meeting that only Diana and Akko can pull and if she wasn’t worried about them being kicked out for causing trouble for running she might be. “Amanda slow down, they still need to get through security, we still have time to meet them!” Lotte called behind her. Amanda paused, her breath slows to deep intakes and long exhales as she looked at Lotte who smiled at her as she caught up. “Now why don’t you tell Diana that so that she won’t get into trouble.”

If Amanda was a better friend then maybe she would. Instead, she laughs as she shakes her head, “I would but where was the fun in that?” She adjusted her bag over her shoulders, “Come on maybe we could get Diana treat us to lunch for running, especially if it looked like we chased after her.” Amanda grinned before chasing after the runaway gay. “Diana!” She called, “Slow down a bit!”

/-/

Diana internally laughed at herself, she came early out of excitement and so that she can have her arms open and Akko would jump in her arms and she would spin her around, hugging her as they laugh together before she sets her down and kisses her. That was her ideal plan, this: running across one gigantic airport and let Akko meet her all breathless with messy hair was not.

But this current scenario is reality and so Diana needs to adapt. It’s a good thing she didn’t bring the violet and yellow lilies as a bouquet for her or else there would be a trail following her as she runs. Maybe if she gets there quickly she could have time to calm down and fix her hair but she knows that idea is against the clock. She wasted precious time already watching her ideas and dreams of her perfect way for them to meet shatter and crumble in her head.

Quite frankly, if Amanda didn’t call out her name she might’ve stayed there forever. She can hear Amanda from the distance actually, calling her name and telling her to slow down. Diana did not; nor did she look behind her in case she would collide with someone.

Before she knew it, she was in the right arrival area and with a few minutes to spare. Diana quickly became familiar with the seats as she collapsed on them to heave oxygen back into her lungs. Even then that still didn’t help the rapid pace in her chest, the ball of excitement that surges in her, bubbling and brewing like a volcano ready to explode. She is so excited, the thrilling sparks of anticipation are just electricity dancing between the nerves and the bones of her being.

Finally, she can be with Akko.

After so long, after so much waiting and dreaming for this day to come.

“You are either the dumbest, the most useless lesbian I have ever met or the most desperate lesbian I have ever met,” Amanda said through fast pace breaths of air. One hand leaning on a nearby chair, the other clutching the video camera tightly, the lens pointing at Diana.

Diana jumped from her seat, totally caught off guard from what Amanda said. “You would be like this if you are just seconds away from meeting your girlfriend for 2 years for the first time,” Diana argued, her eyes narrowing, her chest still rising and falling in the final attempts to normalise her heart rate.

“Yeah,” Amanda conceded her voice getting a bit louder, “But I wouldn’t run here like a madman!”

“We are just minutes away from meeting each other!” Diana reasoned, crossing her arms. Her eyes looked up at lingered on the clock. She wished she can speed up time, this wait seemed unbearingly long.

“Actually Diana, we still got 30 minutes left at least, They need to get their baggage and passports checked out and make it past security,” Lotte said to her with an apologetic smile as she walked to them with, she wasn’t tired at all. Unlike the other two she walked instead of running and chasing but how can anyone run with those heavy sets of books.

There was a long pregnant pause between the three of them. Lotte glanced between the two, Diana’s eyes were wide with surprise whilst Amanda gave her a small frown that didn’t quite match the smug amusement in her green eye. It didn’t take long for Lotte to see why Amanda was still filming this entire thing. “So are you telling me I didn’t need to run?” Diana asked, her eyes wide, cheeks flushing a warm pink from embarrassment.

“Well, if you wanted to you could and you did but…” Lotte reasoned as she put her bag next to Diana’s chair. “You really didn’t need to.”

“My apologies,” Diana muttered as she covered her face in an attempt to hide her face. “Clearly I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Amanda snorted as she moves closer, the lens focusing on Diana’s bashful and embarrassed expression, “You never been thinking straight to begin with Diana.” Amanda laughed, moving back as Diana leaned forward to grab the camera. “Hey come on Diana, you wanted me to catch a 'one of the kind' meeting between you and Akko,” She reasoned as Diana left her chair to cover the lens of the camera. “Besides it’s not every day your perfect hair is a mess.”

“Amanda!”

/-/

“Would you stop bouncing, it makes you look like an idiot.” Sucy chided as she nudged Akko at her side. They were waiting for their bags to come and Akko couldn’t stop bouncing. The Japanese girl grinned widely at her, her eyes being fireworks, an extravagant display of the sparks and flames of anticipation.

“But Sucyyyy, she’s here!” Akko squealed as she clasped her hands and brought it close to her chest, her squeal hidden within her intertwined hands.

“Oh boy…” Sucy muttered with a roll of her eyes, she could just tell what the girl was going to talk about next. Anyone with within a 10 feet radius could see what Akko would ramble on about.

“Diana is here!” Akko giggled as she twirled around, her steps were giddy and elaborate as she danced around Sucy who grumbled under her breath. “Diana is here and I’m meeting her~” Akko sang as her eyes closed and the world disappeared around her. She waited for this day to arrive, this day where they meet. The dream that powered her to work hard in her classes, get the grades needed to go to England with her parent’s permission.

No longer did she need to dream of holding Diana in her arms, the dream of kissing her till they are both out of breath, those dreams can become realities. They have been together for two years but to Akko, it was more than two years. Time sped up for them when they talked but it also slowed down and paused like it was the only two of them in the world but that was always something that happened.

Diana always found a way to make her feel special, to make her be something she isn’t. She won’t deny it, Akko knows she is a clown, a clutz who always mess up despite trying so hard. She understands why people laugh at her when she proclaimed that she was going to England to study. She could see why teachers would try to talk her out of it, why her own parents were hesitant about letting her stay hours after school to study for an exam they thought she could never pass. She even saw it in herself, she would look at herself and laugh and joke that even if she didn’t pass she would be content on going down as the biggest laughing stock of the year.

Yet Diana… Diana never believed that. Diana wholeheartedly believed her, she knew that she could pass the exams and come to England to study in the Luna Nova University. Diana would look at her say that she sees a queen, a queen who despite her flaws, bad habits and quirks were the best thing that ever came in her life.

Diana could make her smile with a simple message, with a picture her heart would race and her voice… Diana would always deny it with a cute fluster but Akko swears on her chariot cards that it was the sound of an angel. Now just meeting her, being in her embrace would make her be the happiest person to ever exist and she just hopes for the rest of the time they were together she would return the favour.

“Hey lovesick, what does Diana look like again?,” Sucy said as she nudged Akko once again, snapping her out of her daydream over Diana. They were walking for a while, their bags already collected and they were just heading to the arrival area, Akko’s suitcase was decorated with rainbows and the iconic image of a 4 pointed star that belonged to Shiny Chariot.

Akko’s serene smile broke to an excited grin, “Diana looks beautiful, she has this long and wavy blond hair that always look so fluffy and soft,”

“Okay,” Sucy said pausing for a bit, her eyes looking in the distance not that Akko noticed. “What is the colour of her eyes again?”

“Blue!!!!!” Akko squealed as she shut her eyes once more, the enchanting image of her eyes. “They are the greatest shade of blue, like its sooooo pretty and beautiful and I could just get so lost in them.”

“I see…” Sucy mused as her smile widens a bit more as she tugs on her shirt. “Hey, Akko I think I found her.”

Akko forgot to breathe.

Her head turned so quickly to Sucy’s direction, her heart jumped into her throat as her voice hitched. She can see her.

She can see her clearly despite the many people walking between them. Her eyes linger on her hair as it moves, her heart flips as she flipped it. Her images, the pixel faces she saw her through phone lied. Her eyes, those beautiful ocean blue eyes she can never stop staring at on her phone were stunning and were more beautiful than anything she ever saw.

She can feel her heart skip beats, she can hear the buzz of anticipation flow through her vein, the rush of fire that spread to her cheeks. This was a sensation she can never truly describe. She couldn’t think at all, lost for words and mind. Seeing Diana made Akko, the girl who couldn’t stop moving become still, the sight of her rendering her useless. So it’s a good thing she fell back on instincts, on her impulsive nature.

Her hands fall from the grip of her suitcase as she ran forward. It fell to the floor, the same time she shouted with all the love she had.

“Diana!”

/-/

Diana heard her name and her eyes grew wide. She recognised that voice anywhere. Every time she says her name, the cute unique way she says it, her heart thunders like a stormy ocean night, where wave after wave of overwhelming emotions drowns the oxygen in her lungs and swept it away.

She turns around, the world going deaf around her apart from one thing. The sound of running, of her name being said again and again like a song on repeat, the song her heart dances. Her eyes break into small tears, small happy tears as she sees who is running to her. A thief, a beautiful dorky thief in a shiny chariot shirt and ripped jeans and converse shoes that stole her heart and breath away.

“Akko,” she breathed before she runs to her. “Akko!” She shouts again, the thrill and happiness blooming from her voice.

“Diana!” Akko answers with a wide smile that mirrors Diana’s.

They meet halfway in a clash of arms that wrap around tight around the others. Akko’s arms were hugging tight around her waist and Diana’s arms clung to her shoulders as she pulled Akko closer and bury her head on her shoulder. “Akko,” Diana cried as her hands roam around her back and one moves across to the top of her hair and runs through it.

This is real. This moment is real. This was actually happening. All of that longing and waiting, of sleeping giddy in an attempt to push away the emotion of loneliness that Akko was not cuddling her right now was worth this moment. Where time froze and it was just her and Akko.

Diana can feel her weight on her body, she can smell the shampoo in Akko’s hair as she buried her face in it. Her cheeks hurt from smiling too much, so much as she held her closer, tighter in a way that screams that she won’t ever let her go.

When they pull away after the longest time hugged, Diana, can’t help but laugh at the height difference between them, even if it was just a couple of inches, “You are so small,” She laughed as she placed both of her hands on Akko’s cheek, her thumbs rubbing away the happy tears that stain them. Akko chuckles, a sound that makes Diana’s heart melt, her knees go weak as Akko turns her head slightly, placing one hand over hers and kisses the inside of her palm. If Diana wasn’t aware of the burning sensation on her cheeks, she could sense it now as it burns through her entire body.

“And you are so beautiful in person,” Akko murmurs to her palm before she turns her head again to face her.

Diana doesn’t know how to react, her mouth opens and closes like a fish. She doesn’t know how to react to this, usually, she is the one talking smoothly to make Akko blush that adorable shade of red but now she is caught off guard and is just a blushing fool in love. Akko giggled again as she put her other hand out and wiped away Diana’s own set of happy tears, smiling softly as she does so. “Lost for words again Diana?” She teased.

Diana smiled at the tease, removing her other hand to hold Akko’s and without losing eye contact with her, intertwined their hands together, their fingers fitting together like two pieces of a jigsaw. Her smile turned into a smug as the soft pink around Akko’s cheeks deepened in colour, her mouth slowly squirming in a bashful smile as Diana brought Akko’s hand and hovered her lips above it. She isn’t going to kiss it, not yet.

“Of course,” Diana admits with a chuckle, laughing even more when she can hear Akko’s gulp, her eyes not leaving Diana’s except only to glance at her lips or her her hand that is so close to it. Diana knows exactly what she wants and as a great girlfriend, she will give it to her. “Your angelic presence always made me speechless my darling Akko.” She whispered in soft sincerity before she kisses her hand.

Her lips lingered there, her eyes closed before she opened them, pride swelling inside her as she saw her darling Akko all red in the face and looking adorable as ever. “You did that just to one-up me didn’t you?” Akko accused as Diana removed her lips from Akko’s hand. Diana laughed at the words Akko said, she recognised those words. She saw it before in a text form when she sent Akko a photo of herself all too quickly to make the gal be flustered. She can see where this conversation was going and her heart raced even more at the thought.

“Maybe I did? Maybe I didn’t?” Diana mused as she made the distance between them became smaller. She let go of Akko’s hand and cupped her other cheek with it. “The question is Akko,” she smirked, her eyes glancing at Akko’s lips, a quick signal that she wanted this too and the way Akko’s hand tighten as Diana cups her cheek shows that she wanted this as well. She leaned closer, inches of a distance between, the stage was set and it was now the great finale of the show. Diana ignored the pounding of excitement in her chest, the sparks of electricity across her nervous system, of how her legs and knees are trembling as she stared at Akko.

“What are you going to do about it?”

Akko did the same thing she replied with to her text that night, many many months ago.

Akko kissed her.

Diana expected this, she knew there was a likely chance for them to kiss when they first meet, but she wasn’t prepared for this. She was on fire, heat burnt through her skin, red spread from her face to the tips of her ears and knuckles as her thumb rubbed circles on Akko’s cheek as she pressed deeper into the kiss. The other hand moved to her waist to pull their bodies closer as Diana relaxed to the Akko’s fingers threading her tresses of blonde, of how her other arm wrapped around Diana’s neck anchored her to reality. Her eyes stay quiet, closed as her mind tried to capture the moment she longed for and desired for so many months. Whatever she dreamt of, when Akko consumed her ever waking thoughts, it was nothing compared to what she feels now.

There was nothing that she could describe, Diana for all her writing glory was lost for words. Nothing would ever justify how right it felt having Akko’s lips move against hers, how intoxicated she was from it all, how despite her breath slowly being seeped away, she wanted more. This was the thrill that came from a Chariot show, the familiar comfort of writing, it was the fireworks that left her in awe, it was the autumn breeze on a sunny day. It was everything she ever loved all placed in a melting pot and served straight to her lips.

After was seemed like an eternity, they broke apart. Their eyes fixated on each other, giving Diana more chances to admire the beautiful unique colour of her iris before Akko placed her forward against hers. “Why must you be so good at everything Diana?”

Diana laughed at the question but that only prompted Akko to continue. “You are such a great girlfriend, writer, friend and now a great kisser.”

“I could teach you if you like?”

“If you’re going to teach her to do you mind giving a private lesson,” Amanda said, breaking the mood entirely. Akko smiled sheepishly as she buried her head into Diana again and Diana flushed red as the others smiled at them. Amanda however, laughed at the response, her eyes flip to the camera, still recording them and closed it. This part of the story is documented, it was up to them to document the rest.

#lwa #dianakko week #dianakko #diakko #diana cavendish #akko kagari #my writing #dianakko fanfic

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