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entirely-infinite · 1 year

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༄ Simple Interference ༄

ACT Ⅱ ◦ FAMILIARITY

Act Synopsis: With the involvement of those closest, Ao’nung is left to reflect on the events that had led to his predicament.

Warnings: Family arguments [although brief]. Additional Information: Word count ～ 4.3k , conflict amongst family and friends , self-imposed isolation and exclusion , author’s note is below the ‘Read more’. Na’vi Glossary: olo’eyktan ～ clan leader , tsahìk ～ shamanic matriach , uturu ～ sanctuary , sempul | sa’nok ～ father | mother

return ～ [ACT Ⅰ] previous ～ next [ACT Ⅲ]

Author’s note: I am extremely relieved with how the formatting works in HTML, and I am growing more comfortable with using Tumblr as a place for my writings to be posted. Again, Na’vi is still in use; translations will provided, as always.

“You test my patience, you foolish boy!” Ronal’s voice rang throughout the marui with her son standing in the centre, his return from the ocean being the very reason why the Tsahìk’s voice was raised. His father had his arms crossed, staring down at Ao’nung who kept his head lowered.

It’s late. Ao’nung began tuning out his mother’s voice, bit by bit, the longer she reprimanded him. And yet, they’d rather discipline now instead of tomorrow. He was growing irritated, though he tucked it out of sight as his mother’s scolding came to a close.

The silence did not remain for long, seeing that his father’s voice was coolly inserting himself into the matter. Thankfully, the Metkayinan male was not greeted with more yelling.

“Do you understand, boy?” Tonowari’s firm tone was quick to receive a stiff nod from Ao’nung.

“We wish that—” A hiss escapes his wife’s lips at his passive choice of words, swaying him to change his wording. “We want you to acknowledge the already pressing fact that you are to be the future Olo’eyktan of this Clan. To have you act so carelessly is—” Tonowari faces his wife with an expectant expression, to which she adds onto it with little hesitation.

“—humiliating. You knew the curfew that we had set. And yet, you deliberately disobeyed us. Do you know how worried we were for you? It is taking every fibre of my patience to not punish you right this instant.” With that, Ronal momentarily left the marui to calm herself. Tonowari’s stern posture relaxed slightly, his eyes softening as Ao’nung met his gaze once he lifted his head.

Not much was said between the two despite the unspoken words that filled the air within the marui. And instead, Tonowari turns to end the night altogether.

“Sleep, boy. We will talk about your punishment tomorrow.”

Another nod now, Ao’nung retreated to the safety of slumber, his father leaving the marui to converse with his wife right after.

∙∼∶∽∙

“You are forbidden to hunt with your designated hunting party for the next two weeks. You are expected to assist your sister with her chores during this duration.”

Those were the orders of the Olo’eyktan, and it was final.

With annoyance that matched the commanding tone of Tonowari, his son begrudgingly accepted his punishment. He followed Tsireya once they had finished eating breakfast, Ronal eying his every move until he left the pod.

Well, I can’t say that I didn’t deserve this. Ao’nung huffed under his breath, seating himself at the dock that was near his family’s marui. He began preparing the leaves that they are to use to weave new baskets. He wanted to get a headstart in making them, just from estimating the amount of leaves his sister collected,

It’s only enough to make a few baskets, maybe eight at best.

For any passerby of the Olo’eyktan and Tsahìk’s marui, they could hear their eldest groan in frustration. The chores were boring, menial at best and yet, a further aid to his budding dissatisfaction.

He wanted to go against his father’s words, but he bit back the unnecessary pettiness that bubbled in his stomach. With the additional eyes of his parents, the Metkayinan male recognised that he had to be careful and as you mentioned to him before, lest we wish to worry our parents more.

Well, those words were also useful in this context too. He thought.

“So..” Tsireya spoke all of a sudden. She had seated herself on the dock by the marui, a few feet away from Ao’nung as her tail curled by her side. “Are we going to talk about what you were doing? One moment you were being scolded by sempul and sa’nok for being reckless—the next you were gone. Just what were you doing?”

Ao’nung rolled his eyes at her words, staring at the basket that he was beginning to weave. It took a few minutes and his fingers twisting the leaf before he answered.

“Well, are you going to tell them?” Ao’nung asked plainly, his eyes narrowing at his sister—assuming her sudden prying of the topic was to gather information for mother. Ao’nung relaxes once she shakes her head, looking back at the basket in his hand.

“I met up with someone when I left the marui. They’re…” Ao’nung chooses not to blame you, especially since last night. It felt wrong to do so, strangely enough. “...good company. I lost track of time, returned home and… you know the rest.”

Tsireya perked up at this mention of another individual that was with Ao’nung. She assumed that he was still being selective with the information he will be sharing with her, in fear of getting the other individual in trouble as well.

“So, you and Rotxo went out swimming past Eclipse? Is that it?” She asked, curiosity peeking through those doe eyes.

“I wasn’t with Rotxo.”

She pauses in her own weaving, making direct eye contact with her older brother as soon as the words left his lips.

“You were out with another?” Tsireya asks rhetorically, before gasping out in an incredulous tone as soon as the words had fully sunken in. The silence from the Metkayinan male was deafening, the lack of words filling in for answers that she had in mind. “This—Brother. I’m so happy for you.” She whispers, a gentle smile over her features.

What? He stares back at Tsireya, an incredulous look present on his face. What was she talking about? Was she not angry with him?

“Tell me about them! Are they anybody we know in the clan? Oh, what about…” Thus began the many questions that formed in Tsireya’s mind, Ao’nung mentally preparing himself for more. He decided to answer the first few that she had.

“No, they aren’t. They’re from a different clan, and… we met by coincidence, alright? They’re a hunter-gatherer—” He sees the disbelieving look on Tsireya’s face, her eyes privy for more answers. “—You might ask how I knew that… Well, they were asking me for advice on the best spots to get the most out of a hunt..” Ao’nung was responding to each question, focusing on the basket that he was weaving to pass the time for questioning as quickly as he could, not really wanting to linger on the answers for too long.

“Are you going to introduce them to me? Does Rotxo know about them? How long have you—” Ao’nung felt exasperated, not understanding the point of her knowing so much. He answers promptly, setting down the now finished basket before picking up more leaf—his hands skillfully weaving yet another basket in the process.

He wondered about you once he began ignoring his sister’s questions—she thankfully kept quiet after sensing his uneasiness—as he stared out at the ocean, watching the waves tide over one another; the scene reminding him of last night, of the time when he parted from the island.

From you.

Speaking of you, Ao’nung couldn’t help but form his own set of questions regarding you. Your interference had influenced this curiosity that began to burn in the very pit of his chest, his mind sprouting thoughts as if it were a thriving fruit tree. Many questions came forward, dangling themselves from the branches for his hands to pick and ask.

Were you doing your duties right now, at this moment? What was it like at the Nekehanga Clan? Were you busy with your chores and tasks, just like he was?

Did you get back home safe?

Worry pangs in his chest as he wondered more about you, and this predicament he was in—a clear consequence formed from his own actions.

Did you get punished too, for staying out so late?

Ao’nung couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of guilt for you despite not really knowing why he felt so, as strange as it was.

He couldn’t understand the reason as to why he felt as strongly as he did; you were some Na’vi that was from a neighbouring clan who took it upon themselves to talk with him, crawling into the separate life he had away from his own—one that he had hidden away in place for his current position in the Metkayina Clan.

With you, he had relieved himself of all responsibility and frustration he had accumulated some way or another. By the end of his time there on that island, he found himself a lot more relief in that sense.

Here, he was seen as the eldest son, set to be the next Olo’eyktan once he completed his Iknimaya. The thought was daunting, really. To think that the role of such a high position and calibre would be bestowed upon him, someone who was as mischievous as a teenaged Na’vi could be. The reminder dampened his mood significantly.

Tsireya took notice of her older brother’s change in demeanour. It wasn’t the first time she had seen a look of genuine worry overtake anybody—she had seen it with her own eyes before and comforted those, but not once had she seen such an expression on her brother. He looked… lost, lacking any semblance of that self-assuring confidence he usually had. The sight unnerved her, truly.

“Brother…”

“What is it?” His voice sounded exhausted, an annoyance clawing its way back up his throat and in his voice. What could he do to get Tsireya to back off and stop pestering him with the many questions she had?

She most likely didn’t even care about what he said, maybe she could use this information as leverage. There had to be a fine line where she would stop caring. There was no—

“Are you planning to meet them again?”

What?

“I see it in your eyes. This person was of great help to you, yes?” Tsireya notes, her attention unmoving from the basket she was focusing on. She doesn’t feel like seeing into her brother’s eyes, not wanting to meet those lost eyes with her own. Personally, she did not feel ready to see it again.

Minutes later, a soft grunt sounded. It was all that Tsireya needed to continue her statement.

“I’ll try to work something out for you, brother.” She could feel a piercing stare now, which was unlike anything she had expected from Ao’nung.

A shiver ran down her spine, forcing her to contemplate if she had chosen the wrong set of words to voice her desire to help her brother.

Silence.

It had the Metkayinan girl fidget with her basket nervously, determined to keep her attention on her weaving instead of facing the possible wrath incurred by her older brother.

It was so, so deafening.

Until it wasn’t.

[...Thanks, sister.] “...Irayo, ma tsmuke.”

Tsireya let out a breath of relief, one that she had unknowingly kept holding onto as she waited Ao’nung’s response to her promised solution.

[... , brother] “Anytime, ma tsmukan.”

She felt herself smile, the silence that returned no longer as uncomfortable as it was.

✤

It had been nearly a week since the punishment was put into effect.

Ao’nung was with Rotxo this time around, whittling a piece of wood to form it into the shape of an ilu. Seeing the carved aquatic creature reminded him of his own ilu, enjoying the freedom he had as he rode through the waves.

He set the carving down, picking up another piece as he listened to Rotxo’s recounts of their hunt—providing the other Metkayinan male what he had missed out on.

It should have made him feel envious of the activities that were done without him.

Good on them for improving their skills—ones that he had already learned much earlier than them.

“Ma Ao’nung?” Rotxo called out to his close friend, setting down the ilu sculpture he had finished perfecting. His tail was swaying gently from side to side, ears lowering as he gauged out the expression on Ao’nung’s face.

Good on them, for he does not care.

“Yeah?” A noise of acknowledgement was all Ao’nung gave.

Not one bit.

[Um... Sorry, ... ] “Ìì… Do you have something on your mind? Ngaytxoa, if I annoyed you with the activities you had missed… I know you do not like being left ou—”

Strangely enough, Ao’nung couldn’t find it within himself to care about what Rotxo did with their friends.

[—No.] “—Kehe. I am not bothered by that.” Ao’nung hissed, whittling the wood. His skillful carving began shaping the wood piece into one that resembled a tsurak.

“What is it, then?” Rotxo asks, setting his dagger by his side as he stares at his friend. Ao’nung set his unfinished sculpture beside him. A huff escapes his chest as he exhales, his tail curling around his leg as he takes a few minutes thinking through what he will say next.

And thus, he began unveiling his encounters with you, reliving the memory more, little by little—despite it being as short as they were, save for his most recent meeting—the reason as to why he was enduring punishment.

He didn’t mind it either, seeming to readily accept this consequence—which was uncharacteristic of the chief’s son. Rotxo stared at Ao’nung, his ears slightly lowered as he attempted to peel away the words that had been uttered by his friend. The words he spoke were of the truth—they have been good friends to know when the other is lying, or not—but the truth seemed to be far more peculiar than anticipated.

On one hand, Rotxo was willing to believe his friend and his encounter—accepting it as well. This was great, Ao’nung finding solace in an island and someone where he would express himself freely instead of lashing out on the other Na’vi. He feels glad that Ao’nung has a healthy coping mechanism to battle with the ever growing pressure that has been placed onto his shoulders.

“Was the reason as to why you’ve been punished by the Olo’eyktan because of…” Rotxo’s voice trailed off, finding no need to add more words that what was already known.

…On the other hand, Rotxo couldn’t help but feel that he had been partially set aside by Ao’nung. When there was the other mention of this other Na’vi. ___. How could you reach him as easily as you did? Last he recalled, Ao’nung did not seem to be the type to let others in as easily… This was coming from a supposed exception to that. The same goes for the island that Ao’nung found on his own, without telling Rotxo.

[Yes, Rotxo.] “Sran, ma Rotxo. I came back later than intended that night. I.. guess I lost track of time with them.” Ao’nung responded, his gaze unmoving from focusing on the ocean waves. He lifted up his wooden tsurak, continuing to carve into the sculpture with his dagger, fine tuning the details.

Rotxo stares at Ao’nung, seemingly at a loss for words. He never had an experience that was palatable—or even similar to what Ao’nung had gone through in the past few weeks.

“Wait, you mentioned that you had made an arrangement with them—It’s already been a week.” He pointed out, concern present in his voice. Ao’nung stares at his friend, an unreadable expression present on his face as Rotxo’s words sink in for him.

The routine. You have waited for me before.

Ao’nung’s grip on the tsurak tightened, his expression morphing into one of genuine guilt.

You must be waiting for me right now.

“I’ll go visit them when this punishment is over. Sa’nok and sempul are already quite relaxed with their punishment for me being just this.” He answered, exhaling a sharp breath he had through his nose.

“Hopefully they’re okay with it.” Ao’nung added, his finger on the blade a lot more precise as his initial worry dissipates.

Rotxo nodded at his words, lifting his ilu sculpture once again as he focused on his own carving once more. There weren't any words to be said in mind, nor was there any time for him to think of any particularly new questions with the sound of a horn blaring throughout the island of Awa’atlu.

Both of their ears perk up at the noise, the two setting their sculptures on the rock they had been seated upon. Ao’nung’s eyes focused on the flying beasts that flew overhead, as they landed on the beach shore—the central area for duties by the Metkayinan people.

[Let’s go.] “Kivä ko.” Ao’nung nudges Rotxo, getting off the rock as they both headed toward the direction of where the banshee landed—where they are met with the sight of strangers who stood on their land.

Forest Na’vi, it seems. What are they doing here?

They both neared the gaggle of Na’vi who dismounted from their beasts. Ao’nung moved past the crowd, his gaze judgmental and piercing. His eyes were trained on the two male Na’vi who greeted him silently, Rotxo following behind as he took in the features of the new arrivals.

“Look, what is that?” Ao’nung was elbowed slightly, his attention shifts from staring down at the two males to wherever it was that Rotxo was fixated on.

“Is that supposed to be a tail?” A tease left Rotxo as he pointed out a physical difference between the newcomers. His comment did not go unnoticed as the Metkayina nearby laughed, finding humour in his words. Ao’nung found it amusing as well, smirking to himself as they circled the group until they were a few metres away behind them . Tsireya arrived, and the teasing from Rotxo stopped as she lightly smacked his arm.

He bit back his sharp tongue, keeping quiet as his parents approached the group now; his father first, then his mother right after.

“Why do you come to us, Jake Sully?” He hears Tonowari ask, though the tone in his voice made the question come off similarly to a demand to know, rather than a consensual request.

He stared at the arrivals blankly, standing in his place beside his parents as he blocked out the conversation that formed between the two leaders. Ao’nung figured that they were passing by and needed to stock up on supply.

That was until he heard the words that were uttered from who he supposed was the leader of the group. He hated how his intuition was wrong, with him now learning of the real reason as to why they were here.

To seek uturu. Sanctuary to live amongst the Metkayina, the reef folk, despite being one of forest Na’vi.

“We are reef people. You are forest people. Your skills will mean nothing here.”

“We will learn your ways, right?” Jake Sully turns to the woman beside him that Ao’nung supposed was his mate. She seemed uncomfortable, especially after Ronal lifted her tail to briefly examine it.

Ao’nung personally believed that they were foolish to come to the reefs for solace.

He watched his mother listen to their plea, circling the group slowly as if it were an akula with already wounded prey within the depths of the reef. Ronal began to examine the features of the group, her sharpened gaze unwavering and unmoved despite seeing how the children were intimidated by her.

“Their arms are thin.”

“Their tails are weak.”

“You will be slow in the water.”

Ronal concluded honestly, her gaze now falling upon the girl’s hands. Ao’nung only then saw what his mother saw as she lifted them up, the hands not of the People.

Rather, they belonged to those of the sky demons.

“These children are not even true Na’vi—”

“Yes, we are.” The girl attempted to interject, her hands moving back to grip her woven shawl tightly with her teeth gritted. As Ao’nung expected, his mother ignored her, turning to one of the Na’vi males—the one who attempted to greet his sister—as she, too, lifted his hand for all to see.

Another five. Four fingers and a thumb.

“—They have demon blood!”

The clan erupted in a mixed cacophony of horror and disbelief, many backing away from the group now. Parents tugged their children a little closer to their figure, mothers assuming a protective stance as they watched the group’s leader attempt to reason with the heads of the Metkayina Clan. Ao’nung desired to drown out the conversation, feeling annoyance beginning to singe within the very pit of his stomach, though he kept listening.

“—but we Metkayina, are not at war.”

“We cannot let you bring your war here.” Tonowari responds, facing Jake Sully as he stands his ground, awaiting for the other leader’s response.

“I’m done with war. Okay? I just want to keep my family safe.”

He took note of how his parents looked at each other, the silent words now exchanged between the two. A simple nod was all it took for Tonowari to speak up once more.

“Toruk Makto and his family will stay with us. Treat them as our brothers and sisters.” His father announced, facing the rest of the Metkayina. “But, they do not know the sea. So, they will be like babies—taking their first breath.”

“Teach them our ways, so they do not suffer the shame of being useless.”

Ao’nung’s demeanour remained unchanged, a neutral expression as he stared at the group. He felt like laughing at them, though he pushed aside the intrusive impulse as he watched Jake Sully turn to his family with a small look of bewilderment, a glint of relief in his eyes, it seemed.

Ao’nung felt particularly uneasy of the Na’vi leader, who just so happened to be the Toruk Makto as he learned from the conversation, only realising the reason as to why was due to the fact that he was the father, yet he acted dissimilar to how one would take upon the role.

It appeared to be pushed to the extremes.

“What do we say?”

“...Thank you.” The littlest one exclaims, her tone genuine as she did so.

He is a father and yet, he acts as anything but, if the way he ushered his children into position said anything.

Ao’nung kept staring, his thoughts set aside as he listened to the children thanking them. He did not miss how the other Na’vi girl, the one with her shoulders covered, rolled her eyes and how the two other boys—he supposed they three were siblings—looked at each other with uncertainty.

Perhaps they were troublesome.

“My son, Ao’nung, our daughter, Tsireya will show your children what to do.” Tonowari briefly answered, gesturing to the two Metkayina in question as he did so.

Ao’nung couldn’t help the shock that coursed through him, turning to his father quickly with an upset expression.

“Father, why do—”

“—It has been decided.” His father quickly silenced him, an expectant look over his features as he stared back. To not let any more uncomfortable silence fester between the two, Tsireya inserted herself, an accommodating smile now.

“Come, I will show you our village.”

Ao’nung couldn’t help the irritation that slowly built itself inside of him.

✤

One thing that was for sure was that the Sully children were as troublesome, just as Ao’nung had initially assumed.

They were both horrible at diving and at holding their breaths underwater. Ao’nung could understand to a certain extent, though it didn’t hurt for him to tease them.

He felt a bout of arrogance and pride rising in him, finding entertainment in teaching the Sullys incorrectly, the results of them being thrown off their ilu and struggle became an escape for him to enjoy and to release the irritation and frustration that just so happened to embed itself in his skin—it may as well be heartless, but one cannot expect a Na’vi such as he, to respect those who resemble more of sky demon than the People that they supposedly are.

Why bother treating them as closely as one would as brother and sister?

The irritation ebbed away slowly, though it still lingered within, no matter how much he wanted to rid himself of it.

The second week of his punishment had come to an end by the time the Sullys had just touched upon the basics of diving. It meant that he had no real reason to stay in the village and keep teaching. He initially felt apprehensive of letting Tsireya take on all the work of teaching the Sullys, though she was adamant on sticking true with her words from before.

[Sister... are you sure?] “Ma tsmuke… am’ake srak?” Ao’nung asked, his eyes narrowing as he waited for Tsireya to respond.

[Yes, yes, brother.] “Sran, sran, ma tsmukan. You should meet with them again.” She assured, turning her attention to the Sully kids who sat atop the giant boulder. Rotxo was already there, talking casually with them as he waited for Tsireya and Ao’nung to make their way here.

While it was true that Tsireya had arrived at the boulder where the group was, she waved off her brother who quickly mounted onto his ilu. Rotxo tilted his head at the sight, turning towards his sister. He shot his hands up to his chest, confusion taking over his features.

‘Where is he going?’ Rotxo signed.

‘I believe you and I both know where he is headed.’ She replied, her movement was as graceful as it could be. A teasing smile appeared over her features as she added on. One of the Sully children, who Rotxo learned was Lo’ak, seemed to flush slightly in reaction to her smile—in which, ironically—Tsireya failed to notice.

‘And in this case, it is who he is meeting.’ She finishes.

Tsireya watched in delight to see Rotxo quickly understand what she meant by putting her emphasis on ‘who’, a smug grin over his features as he chuckled in amusement. The Omaticayan children stare at the two Metkayina awkwardly, their confusion present as they struggled to understand the ‘finger talk’ that Tsireya and Rotxo were fluently practising in front of them.

“Now that is out of the way, Rotxo and I will be teaching you how to breathe for much longer underwater.” Tsireya announced to the group, repositioning herself into one of a kneeling position, as she took on the role as their instructor for the session.

The Sullys brushed off their behaviour and instead, began intently listening to Tsireya and Rotxo’s instructions.

return ～ [ACT Ⅰ] previous ～ next [ACT Ⅲ]

Reblogs and likes are not at all necessary, but are appreciated if you do so. I hope you enjoyed reading this piece. Take care, my dear readers. Irayo nìtxan for reading.

taglist: @myh3artttt

#༄ Simple Interference ༄#ao'nung x reader #ao'nung x you #avatar twow x reader #avatar twow x you #avatar x reader #avatar x y/n #avatar twow #ao'nung #avatar fanfiction

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libertyreads · 1 year

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Book Review #59 of 2023--

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. Rating: 4 stars.

Read from May 14th to 16th.

I’m trying to think of the best way to discuss this one. This is a Mystery/Thriller for people who are serious fans of the genre(s). At the beginning, the narrator lines out the rules of the Golden Age of detective stories and follows them throughout the novel. As well, the sections are split up into family members (my brother, my sister-in-law, my uncle, my step-father) as we continue down the path of the story. We get some flashbacks (for obvious reasons). The format itself was actually pretty interesting for how the action unfolds. It’s hard to explain. In this one, we follow Ernest as he travels to a snowy winter retreat for a family reunion. While there bodies begin to drop and the winds begin to howl.

There were a few twists that I saw coming, but not in a way that ruined my enjoyment. I think the author does a good job with unveiling the information in a way that feels like “I should have seen this coming” instead of “How could I ever have seen that coming?” I also think the author does a good job with the resort setting and feeling isolated. Because of the storm I would want to call it an isolated closed circle mystery, but at one point we do get a visitor from a different resort thanks to him owning this snowmobile on steroids. So, technically it’s not one. I want to say this book reminds me of knives out because of the different family members and how different they are from each other while also having a history and a background that binds them as a family. But there’s no inheritance, no will, nothing like that. Just a family reunion with a murderous little twist.

I said that the narrator follows the rules for writing Golden Age Detective Fiction, but there are moments where he calls out the fact that technically he followed the rules while still going against them in the spirit of the rule. I didn’t love that because it broke my trust in the narrator a bit. I don’t like having unreliable narrators and that being such a heavily leaned on part of the story. Which is why I got so excited for this one at the beginning. But technically the narrator follows the rules so I can’t be too mad about it I guess. I found that some of the clues and how they pieced together were hard to follow at times. It’s not really until the group is gathered together and the explanation and finger pointing is done that I felt like I understood everything fully. But this was still a lot of fun and great for people who love the genre.

#book review #Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone #Benjamin Stevenson #books read in 2023 #2023 reading challenge #goodreads challenge #goodreads #booklr #bookblr #bookstagram #bookish #books #book #book reviews #mystery #murder mystery

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leone-plumbing · 9 months

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Remodel Bathroom Ideas

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the-obi-collective · 1 year

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Our Origins

so, you may have been wondering, how did this fic come to life? how did five friends decide to write a fic together? what inspired this fic? well, gather 'round, for the time has come to reveal all.

it all started 13.7 billion years ago, with the big bang. as you all know, the universe was created in this "big bang." planets, stars, moons, asteroids, nebulas, everything. the universe began to expand. galaxies were created.

we shall zoom in on one such galaxy: the milky way. it's gorgeous, isn't it? the circle of the arms in the emptiness of space, beautiful blues and purples, clusters of stars, all orbiting a black hole. it really makes you feel tiny. let's alleviate that. zoom in even farther.

4.6 billion years ago, the sun was born at the inner edge of the orion arm of the milky way galaxy. the creation of the sun has generally been regarded as a good thing, because it led to the creation of the earth, and thus, us. yes, us. the mods. hi. (we're not talking about the newspaper called "the sun." that's a bad thing.)

the circumstances of the formation of what we identify as "life" are unique and horribly difficult to replicate in the wild. lightning strikes, energy hits atoms just the right way, and voila! we have the molecular building blocks of life — carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and amino acids.

we're just going to scroll faster, now. bacteria, endosymbiotic theory, blah blah, dinosaurs, meteor, blah blah, ice age, jesus christ may or may not have been born, blah blah, we'll skip the rest of it.

flash forward. july 2022.

i shall tell this to the best of my ability, for it is a complex tale.

i am setting the scene. picture this: it is the 21st of july, 2022. we are all on discord because we're losers and have no life.

mod obi2 has been reading star wars: the clone wars fanfiction, as is their wont. they get off the fanfiction site for a minute to scream into a discord server, as is also their wont. the difference is that this time they have not been using the glorious tagging and filtering system of ao3, instead retreating to fanfiction.net. (horrible move on their part, really.)

"interesting," they say. "i have just discovered an obitine fic in the wild."

mod obi1 jumps in. "that sounds insane," he says. "i like it."

"what," says mod obi2.

"it sounds insane," repeats mod obi1. "i want to analyze it in a lab."

oh, thinks mod obi2. they understand now. "the tine in obitine is not palpatine," they say, calmly, instead of freaking out as would be rational.

"oh," says mod obi1. "never mind."

the conversation ends there. some time later, still on july 21st, 2022, a largely unrelated conversation happens. we are still all on discord because we still have no life.

"what should my next crackfic be about," says mod obi2. "i have many options: mcfic style writing or purple prose."

here we must travel backwards in time for a bit. several months ago, at the tail end of 2021, two of our mods wrote a fic together. it was a strange, surreal fic, and made little sense to anyone looking for seriousness. in this fic, the legend goes, there was a diner. a parody, if you will, but parody implies an intent to critique. the diner was simply an in-universe analog of our universe's mcdonald's. thus, their crackfic gained the nickname "mcfic."

mod obi4 steps in. "mcfic style writing obitine."

(here i find it important to note that prior to us beginning to write pernicious suitor, mod obi4 was not aware of what exactly "mcfic style writing" entailed. they would soon be enlightened.)

mod obi2 sighs. "do you mean. the fandom-accepted meaning of obitine? or..."

mod obi4 gestures to the preceding conversation. "obi-wan kenobi x sheev palpatine, of course."

"ok. i don't think i could write any romantic relationship, much less this romantic relationship," says mod obi2 with remarkable lack of screaming and running away. truly, we should all congratulate them on their impressive amount of self-control.

"i'm not writing anything at this moment. i'll do it," says mod obi4.

mod obi2, inspired by their bravery, resolves to help. "mod obi4," they say, nodding to themself. "i will help you make it worse."

mod obi1 bangs on the (figurative) door. "let me in i have nothing to contribute," he says.

"ok," says mod obi2. "we are decided, then."

and the conversation moves on.

the next day, mods obi1, obi2, obi3, and obi5 are texting. yes, on discord still, because we are still massive losers.

we throw around name suggestions for the in-universe mcdonald's. such suggestions include "mcahsoka's," "mcanakin's," and "mcdex's," but we eventually settle on "mcyoda's."

mod obi2 speaks. "obi1, obi4, and i are going to write a fic in the mcfic style but it's obi wan x palpatine. who wants in."

mod obi3, who is not on the server where yesterday's conversation took place, is taken aback. "OBIWAN X WHO NOW???????" they scream.

"obi-wan x sheev palpatine," replies mod obi2. "should i make a group chat for this?"

"sure," says mod obi5.

and thus, our google doc "done with everything obi wan x himbo palpatine enemies to lovers slowburn speedrun with plot GO:," aka "they would else have been troubled (with such a pernicious suitor)" was born.

and a month later, we are left with a monster of our own creation, forty thousand words and counting of pure, unadulterated crack, featuring a nightmare sequence, god-awful poetry, and a magical girl battle. there are screenplays, seagulls, purple prose, seagulls, audio transcripts, seagulls, philadelphia, pennsylvania, and more seagulls, all within the confines of the pages of the fic.

we hope you enjoy.

(don't let the seagulls out. they bite.)

#the obis speak #mod obi3 #origins of the fic

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dangerousenemies · 2 years

Text

IDEALS. pt. 5 - matter.

Ingo had been torn away from his home not once, but twice. He wanted to return, one day. That was his end goal. His terminus. But he wanted it to be along his own terms. He was certain he would see them all again. That he could not have been so lost within time, that wherever he did end up - there was always going to be a choice. An option. He did not like parting ways. He did not want to live with a foot in two worlds. To forget one in favour of the other.

Ingo has been returned from his unexpected time in Hisui, found by Clay just outside route six by Driftveil city. Sorry, I don’t know how to format fics onto Tumblr!

> 7,123 words. Enjoy !

"How do we feel about coffee?" Skyla asked, her fingers interlaced with Elesa's as the trio walked the Nimbasa riverfront. It was cold out, despite how the Sun shined against the rain soaked pavement. Thankfully not humid, leaving his lungs unburdened by heavy air besides the usual shoddy air quality. That was home.

Coffee … That sounded good. He could go for a warm cup of coffee to rejuvenate himself. His eyes still felt rather heavy, even with the extra few hours of sleep – which to be quite honest, probably just made him sleepier. It was like he had Crustle lying atop him, limbs felt so heavy that he didn't even bring them into the usual pace he would take up, instead allowing him to jot alongside the two leaders. They were on the right street to head just down the road and pop into their preferred coffee shop.

Both Emmet and Elesa caught each other's eyes.

An expression of 'You need it' was sent her way, met in response with a glare of 'Be normal' .

She looked dreadfully exhausted since she got to his apartment, and he had a bit of a tendency to be unpredictable when he got his hands on caffeine. Though it mostly just made him a bit more chatty. There's a snicker from Emmet as he wraps his arm around Elesa's, linking them together as he smiled, pressing the sides of their heads together.

"Sounds great!" He chirps, answering for both of them. Elesa's hand released from Skyla's to press it against his face, smushing his grin. He squawks indignantly, nearly tipping off his feet.

"You are tired!" His voice was bordering on unintelligible as her palm still hadn't retracted from his jaw as he swatted the air by her hand.

"And you're not much better!"

Touché . A finger grazed his lips. Emmet leans forward to bite it. Elesa reels away with a shout of disgust. A snicker bubbled up from his chest, leaving his hands flapping.

"You're actually so gross!" Elesa wipes her hand off on her jacket, making a far quieter faux-disgusted noise. Emmet grins triumphantly, placing his hands on his hips beaming. A hand yanked at his pocket, pulling out a small bottle of hand sanitizer.

"You owe me." She says, pointing it at him before spritzing some on her hands, clicking her tongue. "Ugh."

He rolls his eyes, he hadn't even actually bit her. "You retreated, therefore , I win." He beams. There was another look from her, as if to say 'It wasn't a competition', but let it slip as he continued. " And , I got you to smile. That makes us both winners."

Elesa elbows him. Emmet grunts as it jabs under his gut. "You're such a dork." The smile on her face still didn't falter, which Emmet took as a personal victory.

Something had been bothering her just an hour ago, though he attributed that to a bit of sleep deprivation. The storm had been verrry noisy, which neither of them dealt well with. Maybe he should have invited her over? Then they could have hung out without him having to make a stressful phone call.

He hums, quietly, twisting his fingers together.

Even if her eyes still hung heavy, and her posture wasn't the best, especially for her – a smile was a smile! She was, hopefully, having fun now even if things didn't go exactly to plan. And if she continued to not feel well, Emmet would drag her home and make her get some sleep, yup! He was very good at convincing her to rest because she did the same for him. They looked out for one another, that is what family does! Maybe their four car train had become three, but that did not mean they had to become uncoupled.

Elesa wrapped an arm around both him and Skyla as if reading his mind, squeezing them tight. Emmet smiled wider, and Skyla leaned her head against Elesa's shoulder. "I love you guys."

Emmet practically melted into the affection, but decided on simply patting the spot Elesa held him by.

"Not as much as I love you." Said Skyla, shutting her eyes as Elesa guided them along, hed by the waist.

"You are pretty alright."

" Emmet ." A bubbling laugh escaped him, hands flapping at his sides. "I love you, too! I love you verrry much." He corrects himself, swinging on his feet to walk in front of both of the ladies, walking backwards with practiced motion. "I am Emmet, you know I am teasing." He says, flapping a hand at his chest.

"I do." Elesa says with a fake sigh, running a hand over her clothed cheek. Faux hurt across the part of her face they could see. Skyla giggled. "You wound me. I thought you loved me."

Emmet threw her a smug little smile as he tucked his hands in his pockets. "You thought verrry wrong. I do not love anyone, I am incapable." He taps his forehead, then snickers. Elesa flicks his head, making him dissolve into laughter.

"So the usuals, right?" Skyla asked, "Or should we try something different today?"

"We both know Emmet's just going to get a black coffee, so we might as well do something fun." The Subway Boss sneered at the comment, placing himself back beside Elesa who shot him an equally amused glance. "We could do something with whipped cream?"

Skyla " Ooh'd. " at the suggestion. "Like one of those little lattes with the chocolate shavings and cinnamon?" She asks, shaking her fists excitedly.

"Yeah!" Elesa grins, nodding her head.

Emmet tuned them out, drawing his hand from his pocket to turn his Xtransceiver on, flicking to his emails.

His nose scrunched up in the way it did when he was preoccupied. There were plenty of emails from the weekend conductors and engineers who ran the non-battle lines. Apparently some Drilbur had been causing issues, but they were dispersing them as easily as they could. No lasting damage, thankfully. Little victories!

A few from the depot crew, mostly regarding shift changes or a notice about needing to swap out a teammate for another. One email about a passenger being banned after starting a fight, resulting in a broken nose. Something like that could get messy. He silently hopes a lawsuit doesn't ensue.

Before he can open the most recent email of the bunch, something about energy efficiency, a finger pressed onto his Xtransceiver, pushing his hand down. "We're supposed to be enjoying our off hours, remember?"

Grey eyes meet sky blue, his gaze failing with a nervous smile. Right, right. No work.

Emmet tucks his hand into his pocket against his better judgement, sinking into the collar of his jacket a little ashamed. A hand sweeps over the brim of his cap, drawing it over his eyes. He simply nods, eyes averted to the ground in front of them. " Verrry sorry." He says, kicking at the puddle in front of him, thankful he wasn't in uniform. That would stain horribly. "It is habit."

"No need to be." Emmet didn't agree, but also didn't fight it. There was no point in making a fuss about something he had agreed to.

Instead he fishes out a pen from his pocket, clicking away at it as the trio made their way to the little coffee shop around the corner. Skyla didn't seem to mind the noise, or at least didn't show it, thankfully, as she went back to chattering between her and Elesa.

[ ◇ ]

"Y'know, you'd think out of the two of you that Ingo would be the one to like black coffee." Said Skyla, watching Emmet as he sipped his drink.

He eyes her with a snort, taking a firm sip before placing it onto the table. Hands still cupped around it letting the sides of the drink warm them through his gloves.

"Y'know, cause," She grabs the collar of her own jacket, before letting it drop. "Sorry, that's… That's Insensitive."

"I know what you meant." They tended to be opposites where people did not expect. Though he was certain Skyla had meant because of the incorrectly stern air people thought followed his brother.

"Filling half of the cup with milk does not make it coffee. It makes it milk with a splash of beans." He says, lifting the cup to his lips, but peeking an eye at the pilot.

She snickered, leaning back to peek at Elesa who was still inside, filling her own cup with cream. The trio had opted to sit outside, since the building seemed to be busy. It was much too loud, and the seats got particularly packed in such a small building. Elesa had one of her twin Emolga resting over her shoulder, nibbling away at a baked treat. He smiles.

Emmet sets the cup onto the table, his hand over the lid as he hums. "Besides, it will make me ill." He says, prying off the lid, waving away the steam that poured out. Too hot .

She eyed him, leaning back towards Emmet. Her elbows placed squarely onto the table, leaning forward as she catches her straw, sipping a fruity drink she had bought rather than coffee. Skyla clicked her tongue quietly, placing her head atop her knuckles. "Yet you still eat ice cream?" She tilts her head, amused. "I thought you were lactose intolerant.

"Yes? I do not see the correlation." Emmet makes a face.

Skyla stares at him blankly. "What?" She sighs, shaking her head with a big smile.

"Nothing, nothing." She preoccupies herself with her drink. Never would he understand, it seemed.

Emmet pats at his left pocket, dragging out an ultra ball & a dusk ball. He settles them both on the table with a moment's deliberation. They were both rather large, and Chandelure had a tendency to accidentally scare people. Not sure how, but sure.

It should be fine to release them here . Emmet taps his knuckles against the table, thinking. It isn't a facility that outright bans them, and we're outdoors. We should be fine.

They were well behaved, registered pokemon (with permits!) that could be withdrawn at a moment's notice. There was nothing against it, so he saw no reason not to allow his companions some leg room. Okay, sure. He tosses the ultra ball up on second nature, before he could even realize what he was doing.

"Shit – " Emmet stumbled back to catch the ball as it came back down, clasping it between two hands with a grateful exhale.

Archeops appeared beside him, squawking at his sudden, new surroundings. His winged arms flapped nervously. Claws clacked and splashed against faintly wet pavement, clicking as he stared at Emmet. "Hello, Whistle." He says, hand placed to his chest. "I apologize for the abrupt change in destination. However…"

He nods his head towards Skyla, smiling knowingly.

The flying-leader's eyes were practically heart shaped as she leaned down to press her hands to either side of his head. Archeops squawked and squealed at her attention,

He clambered to seat himself atop the bench next to her, practically crawling into Skyla's lap, met by coos of "Hi handsome, aren't you so pretty?" that Archeops ate up, flapping his wings excitedly, chirping away like his namesake.

"Safety first." Emmet chides, and the bird's wings slowed to a far more reasonable, steady pace. Claws no longer threatening to tear up the poor woman's legs. A low warble escaped the bird, leaning his head over Skyla's shoulder, pressing his full weight against her.

Emmet smiled softly, although not without a roll of his eyes, drawing the dusk ball from the table. It was with far more care he pressed down on the clasp of the ball, watching it erupt into a shower of red and lavender.

Chandelure appeared before him, flames dancing in trails as she twirled through the air. Her trills warbled through the air, unable to keep up with her dance.

"It is verrry good to see you, too. We are having coffee." Emmet says, as if she couldn't see that. "I did not get you anything, would you like me to?"

There was a tilt of her little frame. Silence.

It was a bit of a habit to spoil the little ghost when she got out and about with him. She deserves nice things, especially seeing as though she was the only one who seemingly couldn't move on. Ironic, maybe. Material things weren't ever going to cure the aching loneliness he knew she felt, he understood, really. But he supplied in other areas when the situation called, making sure to see that she was healthy despite the sudden detour in her life.

Emmet took her silence as a no, letting her simply float alongside him.

"Just these two for today, huh?" Asked Skyla, gently scritching under Archeops' beak. She loved seeing the raptor, and he loved attention. It was a fair trade.

"Archeops wanted to come along, and Chandelure needs sunlight, yup!" The ghost whistled a broken note at him, evidently annoyed at the comment. He snickers, watching her flames erupt and swirl with more magenta than lavender.

"I am correct." He says, drink brought half way to his lips.

The ghost hovered over his shoulders, drenching his peripherals with a warm glow as she scowled at him.

"Yes, yes. Verrry scary ghost." He leans back, smiling up at her as he places his drink between his hands. Emmet raises a hand to her, cupping the side of her glass. "You do not get out much." He pats the spot he held her by softly. "It is good for you."

"You're one to talk." Emmet felt his ears burn as he heard Elesa sit opposite to him, shooing Archeops playfully to Emmet's side of the table. His head leans forward again, with a smile. Elesa gave him a weary grin, Emolga nestled into her jacket collar.

She settles her drink and a small snack onto the table, protected by only a napkin. His nose wrinkled at the thought of the sanitary concern. "When's the last time you got out in the past two weeks?" Elesa asked, placing the lid of her drink back on.

"All week!" His tone was indignant, placing his hands on the edge of the table. Chandelure whistled a tone that mocked him. Heat burned at his face. She was a known snitch when Emmet was doing his worst, but he wasn't sure where this was coming from. He sends a chipper but cold smile at the ghost trying to sell him out when he did nothing wrong. Archeops' head pops up from between seat & table, and warbles. "I did!"

Elesa takes a long sip of her frou-frou drink, then cocked an eyebrow. " Besides working, or going to the grocery store?"

Emmet shuts his mouth, visibly thinking for a moment. What have I been doing?

There hadn't been much to do besides work or grab food for himself and the team. He didn't really go out to exercise like Drayden and Skyla suggested, but that was never really in his wheelhouse anyways. But he also hadn't found much time to get himself out on any walks like he usually would. There was when he took Klinklang – no that was last week. The only things he really recalled doing was … working.

A sheepish blush rushed across his face. "... Todaaay ?" He confessed, toying with his gloves to avoid their looks of disappointment.

" Emmet… " His face darkened at Skyla's tone, and Elesa groans, kicking one leg over the other as she got comfortable. "You're insufferable."

I am doing my best. Emmet pops the lid of his drink back on, blowing air out his nose as he knew they were both looking at him.

"I am Emmet, I am keeping things on schedule." He says, fidgeting his fingers over the lid of his drink. Falling into a line of dialogue he has practiced time and time again over the past four and a half years. "I am a Subway Boss, but I do not work more than I need to. I am doing my best, despite the change in course —"

Elesa held up a hand.

"I know, Em." Her tone was a little sad. A little somber, as she took a long sip of her drink through a straw to avoid elaborating. After a moment, she leaned into her hands with a distant look, even if her tone evened out. "You don't have to justify yourself to me, sweetie."

Justify? I'm not… He supposed that was what he was doing, but really it was just the first thing that sprung to his mind at the comment. It was easier to run through words he already knew, than try to form something new to fill in the blanks. Why did she look so sad? Why did she sound so sad?

Things had been a little weird since she texted him last night, that much was true.

And he was certain she hadn't slept a wink since. Not even all the make-up in the world, or half-smiles could hide the fact something was hurting her. She was one to talk, pointing out how he hadn't gotten out – It wasn't as bad as lying straight to their faces. It made his chest ache to think Elesa thought she couldn't talk to them. That she had to put on a charade just to make Skyla and him feel better, even if she was hurting.

"You… Are sad." Emmet starts, slowly. Skyla didn't stop him this time, as he looks to her for confirmation. "Not tired. What is wrong?"

Elesa stared at him, and Emmet met her eyes. It held for nearly four seconds, before they both averted them in a draw.

"We can both tell. Why don't you talk about it? Neither of us'll judge." Skyla adds, gently wrapping her arm around her, placing her head against her partner's shoulder. "You know that."

Elesa was silent, biting down on the straw of her drink to avoid talking. Audibly sipping at her drink, eyes downturned towards Archeops who was politely snoozing under the table.

You are never like this. What aren't you telling us? Emmet reaches his hands across the table, gently placing his hands on either side of the cup.

"Don't be me." He chides. She relents, letting him pluck the drink out of her hands, setting it onto the table. "You would be verrry upset if I, or Skyla , avoided the question."

Parading herself as alright when she was clearly not alright was not going to happen under his watch.

"Guys –" She's looking between the two of them. "Why all the fuss?" She asks, looking down at Skyla. Her eyes were wide with worry, which made Elesa's own water. "It's nothing, really ."

"You do not like my stubbornness, and yet?" Elesa shot him a glare, but immediately softened as she felt mascara dripping from her cheek, drenching her left side with an awful stain of black.

"You, Elesa, have not attended to your own wellbeing, but fret over ours." Emmet fishes a napkin out from a little container in the centre of the table, and offers it to her. "You have failed personal safety. You are allowed to be sad. Please talk to us."

There was silence as she pats at her eye, trying her hardest not to smear her makeup more than she had. "I don't… Know how or where to even start." She says, setting aside the napkin in a crumpled heap. "It's been eating away at me all night, and I don't want to hurt you, too."

Skyla sat up, she tilted her head, taking her hand in hers. "If it's hurting you, we wanna know how to help. Y'know? Even if it hurts us, it means you aren't suffering alone."

Emmet hums in agreement. " Verrry well spoken."

"I – Well. I made a promise not to say anything until …" She trailed off, and Skyla squeezed her hand comfortingly. Emolga nuzzled her cheek.

"Till what?" She asked.

"I don't… Want to talk about this anymore." Her voice cracked.

It was at that Emmet scowled. Elesa, who was staring at him, broke. It sounded like something inside her had died as she buried her head in Skyla's shoulder.

He hadn't heard her cry like that since… since. Emmet goes to stand, but Skyla motions for him to sit. "Elesa? I am verrry sorry if I –" Did he… remind her?

His heart shattered upon hearing the hiccup of a sob that escaped Elesa, fingers wringing through the back of Skyla's jacket. Skyla curls her arms around either side of her, shushing her quietly, drawing the two of them into a tight embrace. "It's not your fault." Skyla says, stroking her hair. " Shh… Shh . Breathe with me, okay?"

Elesa bobbed her head slowly, a gasp escaping her. Skyla began, a slow but steady pace, taking the lead with an example. Elesa followed.

Chandelure nudged herself gently against Emmet's side. A slow, haunting tune escaped her. Like a broken little lullaby. "Not now." He murmurs, raising a hand to stroke her glass despite himself.

The ghost nudges herself closer to him, warm against his side. Archeops was watching from his spot under the table, knowing he was better off allowing everything to blow over. His head resting over his claws, blinking up at him sadly. Emmet slowly drew his ball back out from his pocket. Sorry, the rainwater is not good for you . He returned him. Chandelure eyed him. Emmet shook his head. She could stay, unless something came up.

"I can't, not yet." He heard Elesa whisper. "I promised. I promised . I owe him that."

"And you promised me, too. Remember?" Skyla replied, holding her by her arms. "You don't have to go back on it, but…"

"I guess I did." She's rubbing at her eyes now, make-up be damned. Skyla thumbs over her tears, making Elesa laugh, faintly. "I know I sound crazy – but I'm happy. I'm really happy, actually. I promise." Elesa's twisting her hand through her hair, catching herself before she gnawed on it nervously. "I promised both of you – And, and I get it, if neither of you never want to talk to me again… " Her voice broke.

"Pull the brakes." Emmet's voice was quiet, but firm. There were very few things that could pit a wedge between them. "We are best friends. She is your partner. Do not worry for our sake."

"I …" Elesa swallows hard, hands stroking Emolga's cheek who now rested between the two women. " Emmet –"

"Yes?" He tilts his head, crossing his arms with a smile. "Try me. There are verrry few things that can come between us."

"Ingo." She falters.

“No, I am Emmet.” He says, gesturing to himself, as if by second nature. What about Ingo? She took a shaky, deep breath settling her nerves before she continued. "No – Emmet. He's alive. He's... He's in Driftveil. He's alive ."

[ ◇ ]

The gym opened in just thirty or so minutes. It was Saturday, so the later time was nothing out of the ordinary. 7AM to 9PM on weekdays, 11AM to 8PM on weekends.

Iris was lounging on the couch, watching TV with her Hydreigon, munching away on what was left of her lunch. The two were watching some loud replays of a tournament match from over in Sinnoh. Sounded like it was a past play-by-play from the Battle Frontier, if his ears weren't deceiving him. The sounds of a Milotic clued him in to believe it was against Palmer himself, or even the previous champion, though he couldn’t be certain. He peers over from where he was to see a Torterra looking worse for wear, & shook his head slightly. Someone must be on their final pokemon, or mixed up their teammate. That was just a wretched type match up.

An interesting choice in tournaments, Iris didn’t ever seem very interested in any from outside the surrounding regions. Seemed she finally got bored enough to reach out & find new matches to watch. It was always good to see how others do things differently than you might. He supposed Kanto, Johto, Hoenn & Sinnoh matches were the next best option if Iris fully wanted to watch tournaments she could understand.

He hums in recognition, setting aside some silverware he had been drying, noting to put those away all at once.

The Milotic served as a reminder to the back of his mind, the Champion of Sinnoh had recently reappeared after a six month long disappearance. Just a week ago, to the day.

Rowan had called him on Wednesday about the situation, though seemingly just to settle his own nerves. He was frantic, Drayden could tell, even if he tried to come off as collected. Seemed like they were in all sorts of a mess over there. It was good the situation was being sorted. A fifteen year old vanishing into thin air is no joke, they'd better be taking the case seriously.

The Elite Four themselves had put a lot of blame onto themselves for their disappearance. It had cut through the Four for those weeks, as if they failed their obligations to look after the young one.

There had been plenty of public conferences, one of which he recalls one of them leaving early under his own stress. Plenty of social media backlash towards the Four for not trying harder. It was easier to point blame at faces you know the names of, than to the hired security that should have been doing their jobs. Seemed like everyone in the country had been out looking for him, not just in the region.

Drayden had even gone over to lend his aid himself, under the request of Rowan.

Iris had stayed home with her brother, which he was certain enjoyed the company. He was glad the two of them got along, especially after everything. Not to mention Iris was considerably younger than Emmet, which he was worried would drive a wedge between the two, but they seemed to share just about every interest besides trains.

Missing person’s cases seemed to be becoming more, & more prevalent. To hear this one had a happy ending gave him a small glimmer of hope. Six months was different than four years or six years, he reminded himself.

Drayden mentally kicked himself as he picked up a pot from breakfast to wash it.

Their own Champion, prior to Iris that was, hadn't even returned. Left in a rush, & hadn't been heard from since. Deemed a stale case once it was presumed she was in hiding. Her note told that she had left on her own accord, though the question of if she had been put up to writing it was always on the table. He felt a soft pang of familiarity in his heart to the girl's family. It was almost seven years at this point. Hilda would be declared legally dead this year, if she wasn’t found. She would be an adult by now, wouldn't she? He remembers seeing her, bright eyed & ready to challenge him with her own team. A spunky teenager, full of vigor & with an Emboar who sent Haxorus for the hills. He mused with a small smile. That was back when Team Plasma was still running amok… She had left, running after that boy who had shown back up. But no sign of her. Only fourteen, & suddenly gone.

Drayden reeled at the feeling of soap staining his hand, not realizing how much pressure he had been putting against the pot. He pulls his hand back, turning on the tap to rinse his hand of suds.

"Your Kantoan lessons going over that well?" He asked, over his shoulder trying to ignore the thought as turned his attention to spray the pan clean. "I didn't think you watched battles from outside Unova or Galar. Language barrier & all.”

"Yeah! Professor's been really helpful with it, too!" Iris chirped from her spot, eyes not moving from the screen. "I'm not exactly fluent, but I got the gist of what they're saying. Plus, context clues!"

Drayden hums in acknowledgment, eyes returned to spray the pot clean.

Rowan had encouraged her to learn the language after they had learned of her roots in Galar & Sinnoh. It'd been some years ago, Iris had been wanting to learn about her ancestry. Turns out his daughter was the great, great grandchild of some old Professor who helped found Sinnoh itself. First recorded Pokedex in the region, if his memory served him right. It was a good idea to look into her roots, here or there. There was no reason not to which Iris had agreed with, wanting to know more about herself. He smiled in amusement, thinking about Iris as a Professor. That was never, ever going to happen if he knew her.

"Laventon" was the surname they had found to be the connecting link, it was the one Iris had been adopted with. She had asked to take his own last name as she got older, to which he obliged after a small back & forth on whether she was certain. It was a big step, & he didn’t want to impose anything she didn’t want for herself. But she had insisted, stating that no matter what he was her father. That was a good day. Now that she was sixteen, almost seventeen , he thought wearily, she had gotten personally keen on learning about her Galarian & Sinnoan roots. There was really no harm in it, really.

They had already known about her ties to the Champion of the Galar region, & his little brother during a time when they, too were looking for missing relatives in their family tree. Though that seemed to be from a sibling of the famed Professor, rather than his own children. It made them distant cousins.

Drayden sets the now dry pan atop the stove, taking a dry hand towel to dry his hands.

A particularly loud Dragon Pulse rung out across the room from the TV. He turned to satiate his curiosity, watching alongside Iris. She was lying back on the couch, knees to her chest with her plate atop them as she leaned against Hydreigon. The dragon had her main head lying atop Iris'. Her other heads rested on either side of her. Both were focused on the TV, enjoying the match. Seemed like Milotic had managed to knock out the poor Torterra.

Drayden smiles again, nodding his head as he turns to grab his coat. He peers over again. Yes, it certainly was Palmer. He remembers that Rhyperior. It was the Dragonite they had a rivalry over. "Good match?"

"Oh! Yeah!" She looks over at him with a grin, fork still in her mouth. "Palmer's Rhyperior VS a Snorlax!"

"Battle for the ages." He mused, pulling a sleeve over his arm. "Don’t talk with your mouth full.” Iris made a face. Drayden ignored it. She set her fork aside to smile again, leaning back & cupping Hydreigon’s face in her hands. The dragon responded by sticking her tongue out. Drayden smiled back, pulling the coat over his shoulders. “You alright with it just being you & your team here today?"

"Yeah, I'll be OK." She says, looking over. “Do you really gotta work today, though? Come on - It's Saturday!"

Drayden sighs softly, knowing she’d prefer he stay home & spend the day together. Frankly he'd prefer it, too. He tried to take every other Saturday off, since Iris would be home those days. But the gym needed to be run, even as he got perhaps a little too old to keep up with it. He runs a hand through his hair, with a quiet sigh. Alright. He heads back for the kitchen, fetching his keys off the wall with a hum. "It is Saturday. Which means I've got to attend to the gym, you know that. We'll go out for dinner when I get home, does that sound fun?"

"Ooo." Iris thought on that as she offered Hydreigon a scrap of bacon. "OK, sure!"

Drayden smiles. That seemed to be enough to keep her happy, & he certainly wouldn’t be opposed to not cooking tonight. It would be a good bit of father-daughter time, & they didn't go out for dinner as often as they did when she was younger. "We'll make plans when I get home? Figure out what you want before five, I'll be home around eight."

"Will do!"

Drayden waves to Iris softly, the girl quick to wave back, "See you!"

"See you at 8. Lunch is in the fridge."

"Thanks, Dad!"

A buzz on the table reminded him he needed his phone.

"Ah–" He turns, headed back to the table to scoop it up. Curious. Drayden's eyes stared, long & hard with a curiosity he didn't feel often. His phone read Clay's full name, & he had no clue what he could possibly want. He knew better than to call while he was working at the gym - it was his destress time, away from his responsibilities as mayor of Opelucid.

He hadn't left yet, caught in the knick of time, so he supposed this could be fine. He'd talk on his way to the gym, that would be that. It's not everyday Clay, Clay calls someone unless it's important. Reclusive was definitely the right word for him.

So Drayden answers the call, catching it just on its last ring watching Iris' curious glance. "Who's calling?" She asked.

Drayden signed 'Clay' , placing the phone between his jaw & shoulder. Though, more literally, he signed 'Leader Ground' , but it got the point across. She'd gone & learned USL ever since Emmet had become more & more verbally-adverse. He leans against the doorway, pulling his gloves from his pockets.

"Hello? Is something the matter, Clay?" His voice was firm as he traded his keys for his gloves, slipping one on. They weren't close, whatsoever, so for Clay to be calling had to be something out of the ordinary. They knew each other, of course. They had to for their line of work, but it didn't make this any more odd. There was silence for a few moments.

" Hello ? Clay?" He asked, a slight antsiness growing in his tone. A bit annoyed. No, that wasn't right. His patience was wearing thin however. Iris sat her food aside, head tilting to the side at his change in expression. His hand rested on the doorknob, about to twist it open, giving Iris a small wave.

"Howdy, Drayden. I uh," his voice trails away. Weird. "You might wanna sit down."

That caught him off guard. "...I'll be fine." Drayden opts to stay a few minutes longer, turning to place his back to the door. "What's the matter?"

"If yer certain..." Clay paused. He sounded rather nervous, which was odd for him. "I… Found yer nephew."

What? What was that supposed to mean.

"What?"

Ingo.

They found Ingo .

This wasn’t about Emmet – Clay wouldn’t have phrased it like that if it was anything else. Of course Clay would find him. Drayden pressed the back of his trembling hand to his mouth, holding back whatever threatened to come out. Closure. They could have closure.

"Dad?" Iris stood up. He held a single finger out, asking her to wait. Drayden took a long deep breath.

"Where was he?" He drew his shoulders back, trying to keep his composure for her sake. He could hear Clay hesitate on the other end of the receiver. "Please."

"Chargestone Cave.”

Oh . Drayden covered his face, ignoring the rush of emotions that came to him. That wasn’t particularly where he had expected. But it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities. There were a plethora of tunnels that connected the two cavern systems together eventually. He knew that because of his boys – they practically lived in that cave as children. The Subway had to be careful not to build into any connecting caverns, long before either of the twins started the battle half of the subway. They should have looked there first . Why didn't they look there first? Why didn't they look harder? How could they fail him like that?

“What was…?” Left . He began, his voice was small despite himself. He cleared his throat, pulling on his collar. "What did you find?" He needed to be strong.

"Drayden – " Oh, Emmet. Emmet was going to be devastated – he’d been holding onto hope.

He couldn't even look Iris in the eye as she stood next to him, his own eyes welling up with tears. He never cried. Especially in front of her.

He reached his hand out, cupping Iris' face with a tender, if melancholy smile. She placed her hands atop his own with furrowed brows. "Are you okay, Dad?"

He hesitated. Drayden blinked a few times sadly, before simply drawing his daughter into his arms.

"Drayden?"

"Yes?" Tears threatened to stream down his face. Iris didn't move, squeezing him tighter. Drayden let his head lean back, taking a long, deep breath, not allowing himself to crack. He wasn’t the type to cry. It was unbecoming.

"Yer not listening to me." It was true. He wasn't. He wasn't listening, even as Clay talked in his ear. He had been talking the whole time, probably explaining some awful truth he didn’t want to hear.

"He's alive , Drayden."

Iris looked up at him gawking. She was close enough to hear the other end. "Who… are you talking about? Alive? Dad?"

Drayden placed the back of his hand over his mouth, taking a long deep breath. Alive. The word felt like it was practically buzzing inside his skull. "Alive." He breathes. It felt like a breath of fresh air.

"... Is it Ingo?" Iris asked. Drayden slowly nodded his head. Iris stared up at him, tears welling in her eyes. Drayden opened his arms again, letting the young girl hide her face in his side. He rubs the top of her head knowingly, whispering a quiet apology.

"We'll talk after this call, okay?" He whispers, pressing a gentle kiss atop her head. Iris nodded her head, wiping her eyes as she stepped back. Iris took a few steps away, and buried her face in Hydreigon's side. The dragon snorts, lying her main head atop hers.

"...Where – What happened to him? How is he? Is he okay?" Why didn't you start with that?

"He's gotten some rest, he needed it long before he went makin any calls. He's got some nasty lookin' bruises."

"I do not… Believe I broke anything, however." Ingo. That was Ingo. Drayden felt the smile that broke across his face as he sat himself down at the kitchen table. Clay hums in agreement, taking a deep breath. "We got some bad news, though. Do y'wunna break it to 'em or me?"

Ingo was silent. Drayden despised that. It sounded like a silent deliberation went on between the two, before Clay spoke again.

"I can take it." Drayden says. Anything was better than dead.

"Drayden, yer boy…" Clay sounded hesitant.

"Yes?"

"He… Does not remember much of anythin' from before he went missin'. Family, friends. It's all gone, nothin' but the last four years."

Drayden went silent. It felt like his voice had dropped out of his throat. His gaze cast to Iris who was hidden under Hydreigon's wings, seemingly tapping away on her phone. He really hoped she wasn't telling Emmet too preemptively.

"He has amnesia?" He whispers, placing a hand by his mouth, so the teen wouldn't hear.

"That he does. An … Plenty of stories t' tell…" Clay trailed off into silence. "I found him last night. It was damn near two in the mornin'. He's been tryna get comfortable enough t' call. Practically collapsed before we could do anythin' to get ahold of y’all.” Ingo had been found hours ago. He doesn't remember anything. Ingo is alive . He should be grateful for that, instead of tying himself up on the details. "Let me talk to him. If he’s okay with that.”

"Ingo? You uh – y'ready?" There was a voice from Clay's side. It sounded like an affirmative yes. Drayden could hear the phone be passed between the two. His breathing held still, waiting to hear his nephew's voice clearly on the other end.

"...Hello?" That sounded like his Ingo. Loud, & clear. But not excited, or panicked. Just Ingo. Just as he should be. "Clay tells me you are my Uncle. That you are Drayden. And that I am your nephew. I never knew I had a family." His voice went quiet. "Not until today, that is."

Was he lost in the caves for all these years? Hit his head & got himself lost? No, there was no way. He wouldn't have left Chandelure behind if it was that easy. She would have followed him to the ends of the Earth if it meant she never left his side. Drayden took a deep breath to recuperate himself.

"Hello, Ingo." I've missed you, so, so much. It's so good to hear your voice. Drayden looked back at Iris, watching her staring from under Hydreigon's wings. "We've been looking for you for quite a long time. It's good to hear your voice again." Drayden was not about to cry. Maybe he was. Just a little. "How're you feeling?

"...I see." He clears his throat. "A little lost. I have been very disoriented since my arrival here. I did not intend to depart without making my loved ones aware. But it seems… I have found my way back. And that is what is important.”

"Arrival?" Found his way back?

Ingo was silent. Drayden hated that. Ingo was always the talkative type, even when he was stressed. In fact, he talked more when he was under stress. "Ingo? What do you mean by arrival?"

"I am sorry, sir - I did not know how to… form the words.” Sir? Drayden’s heart sank at the feeling that any familiarity he had with him had been lost. How was he going to even begin to explain to Emmet? Iris… He cast a meek smile to her, but it quickly fell flat as the girl watched from under her three headed sentinel timidly.

“Ingo, would you rather I come to Clay’s home to speak with you? I would like to see you again.” And he knew how much Ingo hated phone calls, now that he thought about it. That might explain the quietness. Calls stressed him out, he was unable to read the other person by their gestures & expressions that he relied on unlike his brother. "Your sister would like to see you, too."

“Would that be… possible?” He sounded as if he was asking Clay. “Drayden would like to know if he could join us. Here. Okay. Clay says that will do. I will explain my untimely detour when you arrive then, it seems."

Drayden needed to wake up Flygon.

#enemiesfic #idealsfic #pokemon #subway boss emmet #gym leader elesa #gym leader skyla #gym leader clay #gym leader drayden #champion iris #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon black and white

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bamboowrites · 2 years

Text

SAGAO AU work 2

Tw: yandere, cult, punishment, a bit of crack

You attempt to discipline your cult with various methods. “A very peculiar experience.” Albedo notes. (Gen z humour and vine references are included ehe.)

“RiSe AnD sHiNe, my lieges!” You stroll out to the front of your residence, and shout with a megaphone. You were lucky enough to have learnt a bit of craftsmanship recently, and you stayed up to make the device, with the scraps of ascension materials which your cult members had left behind. Now that you live together, you expect disciplined ‘disciples’. If you’re gonna have a cult, it’s gonna be a girlboss cult. If you have to hear Kaeya say you’re slacking off again, you’ll be snapping off a head soon. Figuratively. Maybe.

‘I sure hope they relish in my mercy now, before the sweetness passes. Some of them couldn’t even pick up their leftovers.’ you think.

The more sensible adults came as quickly as they could. As appreciation for their eagerness to do as you decree, you produce in-game skins, as in costumes, to change them from their pajamas/half-changed attires into. You revel in their surprise, and hope it’s pleasant for them.

“Good morning, Jean, Diluc, Ningguang, Zhongli. Albedo, Amber. Could you please get the rest of them? I’d rather see how wiling you all ’d be to obey me, rather than using my powers. Thank you.”

You smile warmly. As soon as they’ve fully processed what you’d asked of them (with their waking-up brains), they went back inside immediately.

While most of them respond with solemn responses, Amber returns the warmness with an enthusiastic “Yes ma’am/sir/lord!”.

The kids followed them out soon. The four kids (who were living with the rest of the members because they need caretakers) had decided to be good, so you might let them have extra treats afterwards. Also because you have been a nice elder sibling of sorts to them, albeit also being omnipotent. You let them sit nearby. As for Noelle and her peers, they were frantically dressing in their normal clothing. At least they’re trying!

The rest of them were either ignoring you, or legitimately fast asleep. Annoyed, you shout again. This time with the strength and with the annoyance you have had as someone who has been working with unruly bastards. Perhaps you’d been too lenient.

Once the team have wrung all of them away from their bedsheets, you decide to make them stand in the ‘military formation’, whatever that is. You’re not sure if your memory is rusty. It’s been a while. You finally announce your ‘evil plot’.

“Dearly detested mothertruckers, wakey wakey, it’s time fo skool!” You said in a semi-mocking tone as you look at the less obedient ones. You’d be lying if you said you weren’t pissed about the disrespect, especially after you’ve been super nice to them for the whole week. Heck, you started to make their breakfasts in the early mornings. Not today though. Time for retribution.

“You have 15 seconds to arrange yourselves in proper lines and formation in a rectangle. I ain’t got no sleep because of y’all, and if you don’t cooperate, y’all ain’t gon’ get no sleep because of me! Go!”

Kaeya, clearly messing with you, stubbornly stood there. “What are you going to do, Lord y/n?” He teased.

‘Icebridge dude’s getting cocky from his customised breakfast from yesterday.’ You caught on. ‘I’d make him go to Inazuma on a depressed Italian pizza instead of a boat if I could.’

You notice Zhongli about to get his spear out, and silently shook your head to him. He retreats his hand. Best geo archon indeed. You turn your gaze back to the peacock personified. He looks exactly like the smug blue parrot from Rio.

“Kaeya. I can control everything in this world, including your fellow cult members. If you don’t want to catch their hands,” ‘or deez nuts-’ “do as I say.” You glare at Kaeya. Before Kaeya can rebuke, Rosaria kicks him and he shuts up. For the moment anyway. You continue your speech.

“I’ll give you all 20 more seconds, in return for revoking Kaeya’s handmade breakfast privileges and afternoon sleep privileges for the week.” Kaeya suddenly falls to his knees, to everyone else’s surprise. ‘Oh? Are you falling for me?’ You know it’s not, and you know the exact reasons. Primarily from your adjustion of his in-game gravity. Partly because he has to mine and skip the resting time. ‘Good’, you muse. This isn’t the first time they’ve seen your powers, and it won’t be the last either.

“Since you have decided to creep me out with your recent stalking, unconsented pounces and lack of respecting boundaries, all of you have to choose one of these tasks to complete, after standing for 10 minutes. Popsicles and water/enslaved moisture are allowed, but no more. On to the tasks.

One, write fan fictions of yourselves. You have to do presentations like how I had to, when you all went crazy and tried to beat the living spirit out of me, when I first arrived. Yes I hold grudges because you haven’t completed your redemption arc properly yet.” You shoot a death stare at Raiden Shogun. The electro archon electrocuted you the hardest. “Xingqiu should understand what I mean. Ask Kokomi or Albedo if you have to. I will bonk you with Itto’s club if I have to.

Two, mine every ore nearby, and shout out the song I’ve taught Venti two days ago, as you mine. The almighty rickroll. Or you could wear a maid dress instead as you mine. No hiding under cloaks like Diluc’s. You will be mining with swords instead of claymores.

Third, apologise, to each other, to me, to the kids. Promise to never do anything without proper consent, unless you’re going to the bathroom. Swear on my name to follow my rules. If you fail, you’ll have to memorise all the trauma/lore I had to go through because of you all. You’ll have to recite it and identify the correct memes I will have shown you as I check your work. One mistake and you’ll have to fight a boss.

Every time I catch you do creepy stuff onwards, you’ll have to fight Dvalin, Andrius, and me at 10% power within 5 hours. You’re all getting passes this time because I still have silvers of hope for you all. Do you understand?”

You don’t wait for their replies because the kids are hungry and you’re gonna bringing them to have breakfast. It’s good that you let them go back to sleep just before making the adults responsible. If the punished have death wishes, they could come and challenge you. Your powers as their god/goddess has been fully rushed back within these few weeks, and you have no tolerance left. They will repent to their lord if they wish to be in your presence. Anyways, you should go get fresh a va ca dò s, croissants and other food items. As well as the snacks you mentally took notes to promise the kids with.

You decide that the first few more obedient ones get to slack off a bit in their tasks. Just because you feel bad. You’ll tell them in private later.

It’s tough being their god/goddess, huh.

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damn-stark · 3 years

Text

Ch.10: I Hear a Symphony

Chapter 10 of Cherry

A/N: I really hope you all enjoyed the chapter, I loved how it came out. *cue in song Bundle of Joy from Inside Out*

Warning- ANGST, LONG CHAPTER!, Talks of injury and loss and grief, violence, FLUFF!!, swearing, SLOWBURN ;)

Pairing- Jean Kirstein x reader,

Episodes- 2x36-2x37

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

————

Good and bad memories tried to surface and distract your mind from the dooming thoughts that plagued your mind, but you were persistent in pushing both away. It was too painful to relish in either. Instead you basked in the feeling of the setting sunlight beams kissing your skin ever so gently, whilst the chilly evening breeze flew past your body and howled in your ear.

The sound of Titans, cries of other soldiers echoed everywhere, but you tried your best to drown it all out as you thought you were going to fall into your death. You hated the darkness, but you welcomed its deafening sound in your ears. Because at least hearing nothing was better than hearing the chaos that surrounded you. And you didn’t know why you were so willing to embrace death. Maybe because it was better than trying to get your hopes up with fake scenarios where you lived, when you knew there was nothing you could do. Or maybe because dying would make the heartbreaking pain stop.

But nevertheless, you were too hopeful, or too hopeless. Because as the smell of a Titans breath rushed in your nose and their drool splashed on your face, suddenly wire wrapped around you and reeled you out of the Titans hot mouth, pulling you instead into the secure and the warmth of someone’s tight embrace—Jeans tight embrace.

After your bodies crash into one another, suddenly time didn’t move as slow as you felt it did seconds ago, this time it moved too fast. Now every feeling you pushed back returned, while the chaos that the day had turned into welcomed you back. Pain also returned to your body, it was a persistent factor as the quick speed that Jean had moved in got out of control and made him crash onto the earth with you still secured in his arms. You both rolled on the grass until you both finally came to a stop.

Time after you finally stopped moved at its normal speed, unlike your pounding heart. You finally peeled your eyes open one by one and felt relief wash over you as you saw the grass and dirt in a much closer perspective. You couldn’t rejoice in the fact that you were safe, because that wasn’t true, you were still surrounded by mindless Titans. What you did do though was stay in Jean’s embrace a bit longer, just like he kept his arms around you, finding that the both of you were actually embracing the fact that you were alive, that he got to save you in time.

You stayed that way for a minute longer, it felt like longer, but it was only a minute, or even a few seconds longer. After that you quickly pulled away and met his shocked gaze, noticing his cheeks were a very soft shade of pink as he noticed you were on top of him. Jean didn’t say anything, he actually felt like his words ceased to exist from his head until you slid off him. He could find his composure after that and was quick to drop the…weird tension and instead slap his hands on your shoulders to begin pestering you. “Y/N, are you okay? Did that asshole hurt you?”

You shake your head and offer him a faint but assuring smile. “No he didn’t. I’m just a little bruised, but I’m fine.” You scan his body as he sits up, and let out a relieved breath when you find no injuries on his body. “What about you?” You ask as you lean towards him with your eyebrows deeply furrowed in concern. “Are you okay?”

Jean doesn’t hesitate to nod to assure your worry, pushing himself to his feet and helping you on your own. “Come on, let's get on a horse,” he said as his fingers slid off your wrist. “And stay close.” He turns his head to shoot you a warning glare, his once softened brown eyes, now as intense as usual. “I’m serious, don't pull anything reckless. Need I remind you that you don’t have your gear on.”

“I know,” you scoff with a pointed glare. “I’m not some suicidal maniac.”

Jean looks to you and the corner of his lips twitch before he eventually shoots you another warning look and then focuses back on your surroundings to make sure no Titans get close. But even when you finally got on a horse, safety was still not a guaranteed thing with chaos in every perimeter. When you look over your shoulder you see that Reiner was still surrounded by mindless Titans all trying to tear him apart. And even if you had the instinct to still worry about him, you couldn’t focus on that feeling and instead you fully focused on who he still had in captivity.

“What about Eren?” You ask Jean from the top of your horse. “We—”

“No,” Jean cuts you off instantly, “we nothing. You have no gear. And there's too many Titans surrounding Reiner, for everyone to be over there,” he sighs as he follows your line of vision. “But I think—” Jean suddenly cuts himself off and pushes his horse to step forward a bit as he catches something he quickly points out. “Look! Damn, Commander Erwin really is a devil.”

You make the horse move beside Jean and you catch only the final act of the scene Jean had seen. Through the chaos you see Erwin falling down to his horse with his blade in one hand, while the other arm you noticed was missing. It was an unbelievable sight, but it was true and not some hallucination from your exhaustion. “How the hell,” you mutter as you watch Erwin land on his horse, seconds before drifting your eyes to the sky after noticing Eren in Mikasa’s grasp. That sight also left you incredibly awestruck because she was injured but still fighting. “Incredible.”

And after Mikasa finally had Eren with her on her horse, without hesitation Erwin rode forward with his balde raised over his head to yell out a reassuring command, “All soldiers, retreat!”

Doing as he said, you and what was left of the Scouts rode forward to return home, and you didn’t dare look behind you anymore, you couldn’t handle it. All you wanted now was to get home, eat and sleep, you didn’t want to think of what happened or the change that had happened in a single day. You didn’t want to think about him, or what he did…even if you knew that once you lay on your bed and were surrounded by silence, that what he did would come to mind, even if you wanted to avoid it, every single memory and every ounce of pain would plague your mind and make you cry to your pillows. And maybe it was better to let go of it, feel everything once you were under your sheets.

But that time couldn’t come quicker because before anyone could get far a Titan was hurled your way, landing just a few feet away from the squad, disrupting the formation and causing you all to come to an abrupt stop as to not fall, or crash into someone else through the screen of smoke that came from the dead Titan. You tried to look behind you to see what sort of trouble was caused because of the Titan, but you couldn’t see anything through the smoke, not even Jean who had been riding beside you—once part of the smoke, and dirt had cleared from your phearial view, all you caught was Reiner throwing Titans like some mad man. Your worry after that heightened. Not only for you, but for Mikasa who had been injured with weaponless Eren riding with her. You worried for Erwin who was now missing an arm, for Jean, Sasha, Connie, Armin and the rest of the Scouts.

However you could do nothing to help any of them—“shit,” you grumble. You move further, but stop soon thereafter as you see Mikasa and Eren in the distance, both off the horse they had been on and a Titan heading directly towards them. “Shit.” You repeat again, clenching your reins and signaling your horse to move towards them.

“Y/N!” You hear Jean shout. “What the hell did I tell you!” Both him and Armin fall at your sides and catch what you had seen, all three of you noticing the same man from earlier that day, Hannes, with them too. “Stay close, y/n.” Jean repeats as you all continue to ride forward the trio ahead, catching the old man swinging around the Titan that had been heading their way. “Give the old man backup!”

Right as the three of you sped up however a loud whooshing sound catches your attention. You look over your shoulder and see that Reiner had hurled yet more Titans your way, you then have to stop as to not fall from the impact—“Reiner?” Armin gasped as you both looked over at him in the distance. “What’s he doing?! Does he not care if Eren is eaten?!”

“He does,” you answer him, “he just doesn’t want us to get away.”

“Don’t get in our way, you big sack of shit!” Jean bellows angrily before the three of you continue towards Eren and the other two. But before you could reach who you’re running towards, you’re unaware of the Titan hurling your way until it’s too late. Armin and you catch it once it flies over your heads, but when you try to warn Jean about it, the Titan crashes too close in front of him and causes him to fall out of his horse. Jean crashes onto the ground with the back of his head smacking the ground first, the harsh impact makes him go limb, and causes your own heart to clench as your eyes widen out of fear of the worst.

“Jean!” You bellow as you jump off your horse without thinking, not caring for what could be lurking around, or what could crash nearby. Armin called out for you, he wanted you to be careful since you were defenseless, but all you cared about was Jean. Knowing if he was alright was your priority, it took over everything else and made it all less significant. It was selfish, you knew, but you were afraid to lose him like you lost Marco. “Jean!”

Come on please be alright.

You fell beside him and quickly cradled him in your arms, not fretting to lift him up to bring his chest close to your ear so you could try to hear his heartbeat—come on, come on, not you too, please not you too—you kept thinking as you pressed your ear against his chest, and held in your breath so that sound wouldn't get in the way of what you were trying to hear.

“Y/N—”

You raise your finger in front of Armin's face to cut him off as you anxiously wait, finding yourself closing your eyes while you wait for what feels like an eternity. You longed to hear what you craved so anxiously that once the sound of his heart beating echoed in your ears, it felt like music to your ears. You were filled with overwhelming relief and happiness that a soft whimper escaped your lips as you released that breath of air you had trapped in your lungs, feeling a smile tug on your lips as well. “He’s alright,” you assure Armin. “He’s alive.”

“Okay,” Armin nods, letting out a relieved breath of his own before his hands wrap around your arm to help you to your feet as you had Jean unconscious in your arms. “We—” Armin cuts himself off as he catches the Titan coming your way over his shoulder. He’s then filled with dread and worry since he sees that none of your horses were nearby. You were all left defenseless and in more danger than before. “Come on,” he urges you as he pulls you away from the open field and stops under a tree.

Armin let’s go of your arm and steps in front of you to try his best at protecting Jean and you from the Titan who posed a threat before you. You wanted to try anything, you wanted to help Armin as he waved his blade at the Titan, but all you could do was hear the chaos that was happening around, feel the thumps of the Titans stomps as they rattled the earth below you; but all you did was watch soldiers die by Titans, notice the old man they called Hannes get torn apart by the Titan he had tried to kill. You caught Mikasa and Eren on the ground, seeming to share a moment they probably thought was their last as that same Titan reached for them too.

All that came to mind again was if this was the end? After all the trouble Reiner had gone through to take you with him, to keep you safe, now you were closer to death again all because of his doings, not only you but every single one of your friends—his friends once upon a time too.

Death seemed certain again, and even if the beautiful painted evening sky brought you comfort in this close brink to death. Death was still something you didn’t want. That no one wanted. But what could you do but face it?

Nothing.

You were weaponless, injured, exhausted and stuck with Jean unconscious in your arms and Armin trying to protect the both of you with a hand grabbing yours while with the other he waved his sword at the mindless Titan. It wouldn't do anything, he knew that, but he was trying to keep you safe because he was afraid that if he left, if even for a second, that another Titan would grab Jean and you while he was too far to do something about it. You’d do the same you did admit, so you didn’t urge him to do something else. You held onto his hand and found comfort in that too.

But nevertheless, as death was just around the corner, suddenly everything went silent, every chaotic movement came to an abrupt stop and something in the air seemed to shift. The eyes of the Titan that had been in front of you shifted and looked directly past you, it’s body freezing for a split second before it stood up and it, and every other Titan that surrounded the area went running past you. The sudden change left you with your mouth agape and when you looked at what they were suddenly focusing on, the sight of them pouncing on the Titan that had once threatened Eren, and Mikasa only surprised you furthermore.

“What the,” you gasp, unable to finish your sentence from your disbelief.

“I think Eren did that,” Armin mused whilst he stood up with his hand still around yours.

You stood up too and couldn’t tear your eyes from the gory scene. “What exactly did he do?”

“I don’t know,” Armin shrugged, “but whatever it was, it has the Titans distracted,” he paused and tugged you with him. “Let’s go before they finish their meal.”

Not hesitating to listen to what Armin instructed, you hurried and climbed onto approaching horses and secured Jean behind you so he wouldn't fall. Seconds after though, there was another shift, this time instead of eating the Titan, their attention changed to Reiner and Bertholdt, and they began chasing them away, leaving the Scouts goal to once again come into play—“Full retreat!” Commander Erwin shouted at the top of his lungs once he saw Eren secured on a horse.

Again you tried your best not to look behind you as you continued your path back home, but it was impossible to keep yourself from at least stealing a last glance back. Doing so as expected hurt every fiber of your body and broke your heart more. You once would’ve been worried and panicked to help Reiner, but now, as your eyes fell on his Titan all you saw was a traitor and an enemy. As heartbreaking as it was to urge that thought in your mind, it was true and you couldn’t shake it off. The one thing you did feel pity for was seeing Ymir return towards the struggling pair, you didn’t know why she did so considering Historia was riding with all of you, but she did, and unknowingly it was the last time any of you would see her.

——

“Cherry!”

You pull your eyes away from Commander Erwin being taken away by the medical staff, to see Levi hastily approaching you.

The sight of his face brings a small tired smile to your face, but the exhaustion doesn’t keep you from meeting him halfway and throwing your arms around his neck to pull him in for a much needed embrace. Levi is as always surprised by the gesture, but he, as always, returns the embrace. “How are ya, kid?” He whispers as he moves a hand to the back of your neck to keep you close. “What the hell happened? You had me worried.”

Your bottom lip trembles at his questions, but you fight every nerve in your body to keep yourself from breaking down in front him. Instead you hold onto him tighter and bury your head in the crook of his neck, proceeding to mumble out your response against his shoulder. “I’m okay. I’m,” you pause to draw out a shaky breath. “okay.” You pull away, and offer him an assuring smile that he couldn’t tell was forced and hiding your real emotions behind it because it was well hidden by the darkness that the night brought. For once you were grateful for that.

“Actually,” Hange interjected out of nowhere. “Y/N, might’ve suffered a mild concussion considering that she hit the back of her head after Reiner, and Bertholdt transformed.”

Levi’s eyes snap towards Hange, and the grip he had around your arms tightened as they continued. “She also might have gotten a cut, or a small bump.”

“Hange,” you hiss as you pull away from Levi, and shoot them an intimidating and burning glare.

Said person just shrugs and excuses their reason for saying the truth to Levi. “I’m sorry, but I had to, I knew you wouldn't have said anything Cherry. You would’ve had me worried.”

You cross your arms over your chest and huff out, “tsk. I’m okay.” You begin to walk away from the pair and avert Levi’s scolding glare. “I’m going to go check on Jean now. Okay? Goodnight.”

“Hey, brat where you are going.” Levi protests after you, preparing to tackle you down if the need arises. “Come back here.”

You wave at them both and quicken your pace to run from their overbearing worry, but Hange is quick to grab your arm and drag you away with them both. “Come on,” they say, “let’s get you bandaged, fed and put to bed.”

“Huh? I’m not a child,” you sneer through gritted teeth.

“No,” Hange agrees, parting their lips to continue with a lighthearted comment but getting interrupted by Levi beforehand.

“But you are acting like one.” He scoffs. “And if you don’t want to be treated like one, cooperate.”

Hange leans their head towards you to bring their lips close to your ear to whisper something Levi wouldn't hear. “You know what I think?” They smile softly, “I think he loves treating you like a little girl. He misses it.”

You glance down at their hand around your arm and then meet their gaze, raising a quizzical brow to silently question their own actions with a simple look they understood by proceeding to just drop your arm with a nervous giggle. “Why don’t we hurry on up before you collapse on us, yeah?”

You sigh, and hide your threatening smile. “Whatever.”

——

“Fuck.” He groans softly, “what a fucking headache.” He rubs his forehead with the pad of his fingers and let’s out another soft groan while he groggily sits up in his bed. “Fuck.” He lowers his hands and rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands, dropping them to his sides seconds after and letting out a deep sigh as he stretched out every sore limb he could. His eyesight slowly cleared and he fully took in the small room that wasn’t his, but was forced to stay in for an injury he thought irrelevant. He thought of laying back down for a minute longer, but as he dropped his hands to the mattress a sound he suddenly picked up on in the room made him freeze. He was afraid to turn and identify what it was he heard, but he gives himself a quick confidence boost and slowly turns his head to see…you.

At first he thought this was some dream, like a very weird dream, but after he rubs his eyes again and his vision clears, he still sees you asleep on a chair. Regardless, he still didn’t believe you were here, so he closed his eyes again to see if it would clear things up. But no, everything was undeniably clear, you were balled up on a chair with drool running down your chin, and a hand hanging down from said chair. His eyes followed what your fingers hovered over and he wasn’t surprised to see a book you had dropped after he assumed you passed out.

But, why? Why were you here?

He was surprised to say the least, he was also beginning to feel something else he couldn’t describe, but he didn’t try to investigate that further when his question still remained unanswered. But he also didn’t try to wake you up to ask you directly, he saw you too peacefully sleeping in the uncomfortable wooden chair to try. Instead he quietly swung his legs over the bed to slide off the edge and slide his feet into some slippers.

However once he was on his feet, that's when he faced a small predicament. He didn’t know what to do, he’s never had someone asleep in his room; he knew he didn’t want to leave you alone in the room, that’d be rude, but he was truly lost. His eyes scanned the room to try and find what to do, finding no solution until they landed on your book on the floor. He then thought of picking it off the floor, carefully making sure to tiptoe backwards to throw said object on his bed, it was then that he finally noticed a small box on the bedside table.

He caught himself staring at it for a moment out of curiosity, seeing a small note attached to the box with his name elegantly written on the parchment. He walked towards it to reach for it, but before his fingers could touch the box, from the corner of his eyes he caught you waking up almost as if someone had scared you awake. He turns to face you and shortly thereafter it doesn’t take you long at all to sit up and face him too.

“Oh, Jean you’re awake, finally.” You greet him with a faint smile. “I’ve been waiting for some time now. You had me worried.”

Jean scoffs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Oh I’m sure you were very worried,” he remarks as he points to the drool dribbling down your chin. Your face burns and you’re quick to take out your cloth from your cardigans pocket to wipe it all off.

“Not like you can speak,” you retort and point at his bed head

Jean quickly brushes his fingers through his hair and does the best he can to fix it before he gives up and just ends up looking at you again. “Whatever,” he sighs out, “it doesn’t matter. What are you doing here?”

You stretch out your arms and let out a long yawn before you stand on your feet and stretch the rest of your limbs, hearing bones crack after that uncomfortable nap. “Well after waking up from some sleep, I came to make sure you’d wake up.” You explain as you walk past Jean, feeling his eyes follow your figure as you stop by his bedside table.

“Why?” He couldn’t help but ask.

You pick the box off the table and slowly turn to meet his gaze and give him an answer with a small smile on your features. “Because I was worried.”

Jean's eyes narrowed on you and he lets out a lighthearted scoff as if he had heard the most absurd thing ever.

“What?” You question with the box in your hands.

“So what?” Jean huffs out, “you waited for me to wake up to check if I was fine?” He leans towards you, showing that weird face he makes when he's mocking someone, before also letting out a breathless laugh. “You’re joking.”

“No,” you roll out slowly in confusion to his behavior. “Why would I be? I was worried for you Jean.” You tilt your head and your smile widens. “Is your head okay? Or are you suffering some sort of mild confusion after hitting your head?”

“No,” Jean scoffs out, whilst his eyes study your face to see if you’d crack and just laugh and say you were joking, to wait for the mocking remark, but when he noticed you weren’t joking, that your smile didn’t fall and the genuine look in your eyes didn’t didn’t change, he was the one that changed. The amusement slowly fell from his face, and his eyes flickered away the intensity they usually carried to slowly widen and show the hundreds of different emotions racing in his mind. He couldn't believe what he heard. He knew you cared to some degree, because after all you were best friends, but he didn’t know you cared so much as to wait for him to wake up after getting hurt.

Jean just couldn’t believe that he actually had someone who cared for him like that. He had seen this gesture once not so long ago (like days ago), and he was upset—jealous, because he wanted that specific person to care for him like that, but once he saw that she never even batted an eye his way he got slightly upset. Yet, now he was slowly coming to realize, as you stood in front of him with the small box in your hands, and a sweet smile on your face, that he was always looking the wrong way, that he hadn’t noticed that the person who cared that much for him was right in front of him. You.

Jean saw you now.

He noticed your eyes seeming to gleam brighter by the sun's beams peeking through the window and his heart did this weird flip inside his chest, and your smile made his stomach…flutter. For the first time it seemed that he actually opened his eyes, it even seemed that every color that surrounded him grew brighter, more beautiful, he even swore he could hear a sweet and nice melody in his head, something he hadn’t felt before. No. It felt different before, not as exciting or heart racing. The only problem was that he didn’t know what it was that he was beginning to feel. He didn’t want the feelings to go away, but he couldn’t necessarily identify them yet. Could you?

“You-you w-were worried?” Jean stammered out. Not at all making it any obvious of what he felt—way to go Jean.

“Obviously,” you scoff as you squint your gaze on his stunned face. “Why wouldn't I be? Hey are you sure you’re okay, maybe you hit your head a little harder than expected.”

Jean snapped from his stupor, blinking to drop his gaze while he took a step back and assured your concern. “I’m fine.” Instead he chose to focus on the box in your hands. “What is that?”

“Oh, right,” you glance down at the box and push it towards him, lifting your gaze to meet his. “I made this for you. I know you hate getting pampered, but I wanted to make you a small care package.” You smile sweetly. “To thank you for saving me, and because you’re hurt.” You want to fiddle with your fingers due to how flustered you felt, but the box in your hands made it impossible. “There's some soup I made for the headache,” you smile wider and notice that not once has he pulled his gaze away. You only wondered what was going through his head. “Trust me it works, Hange would make it for me all the time. And there's also stuff for the pain and tea packets. Just don’t tell the others, okay? I didn’t make the rest any.”

“Oh,” Jean says while he took the box from your hands and lowered his head to hide the blush that crept on his cheeks. “Thank you. Shouldn’t you be getting one of these too? Considering.”

You scoff and walk past him to grab your book and silently judge his unmade bed. “I’ve been pampered enough. Levi wouldn't leave my side since I got back, and he also lectured me.” You stroke your chin and continue, “It’s good he doesn’t know why Reiner kidnapped me.”

“Why did he take you?” Jean probed.

You drop your hand to your side, and look at Jean over your shoulder and don’t answer with the full truth. “Cause he said they could use me in his hometown,” you shrug, “whatever that means.”

“Or was it because he’s obsessed?” Jean snapped bitterly.

You slowly turn on your heels to face him, but avoid his stare. “It doesn’t matter,” you deadpan. “He’s gone and he didn’t get what he wanted. None of that matters anymore.” You draw in a deep breath and feel your exhale tremble with emotions the subject quickly brought up, but you made sure to hide it all before Jean could pick up on it. You hadn’t let yourself think much of it. You knew it wasn’t ideal, you knew you were going to crack eventually and feel it all at once, but you didn’t want to face those feelings yet. You were just letting the pressure build. Unfortunately so.

“And how are you feeling about that?” Jean asks what you knew he’s been dying to know.

You shrug and clench onto your book. “I’m over it.” You offer him an assuring smile he doesn’t believe. “I’m fine—”

“Y/N,” he cuts you off, sounding a bit more demanding, “tell me.”

“Jean, I’m fine.” You insist and tug your smile wider. “Really. Now let’s go get breakfast, or what’s leftover.”

Jean stands in the middle of the room as he watches you walk to the door. He wants to press on the matter, but he also doesn't know how to really ask you of your feelings. So he lets it go. Even if he regrets it.

“Also,” you continue with a genuine grin as you wait for him to join you outside of the room. “Can we talk about how impressive it was when you swooped in to save Mikasa? I mean wow, you should be proud! I mean, I am.” You smirk and nudge his elbow once he falls beside you. “This might be the moment where she finally talks to you.”

“Heh,” he feigns a laugh. “Sure.” His eyes drift to your face and he can’t help but smile as he catches yours.

*1 WEEK LATER*

“In the past I've done things. Bad things that are irredeemable. Things that I’m ashamed of.”—“I guess I wanted to know,” he exhales deeply, “if you’d hate me if I told you what I’ve done. If you’d forgive me?”

It all made sense now. You understood the meaning behind Reiners words that played on a constant loop in your head, your own naiveness in that moment made you nauseous now. The memory of kissing him, of feeling butterflies every time he was close, or walked into a room made you feel disgusted. Not in him, but in yourself.

You wanted to forget, tear the memory of him from your brain and poison every happy piece of memory with the truth of what he was, but one week wasn't going to do that. Perhaps no measure of time was going to cure all the dreadful feelings that plagued your heart and mind. Keeping yourself from crying wasn’t as hard as trying to forget, but it was still a chore, you’ve managed to stop crying every time you were alone, but you still did so at night under your covers, and sometimes when the feelings got too heavy for you to carry, you had to escape to your own space. Like now.

The night was chilly, the skies were clear and showing off the beauty of the shining stars, but bitter and annoying wind gusted past your balled up body on top of the castle's walls. The tears that rolled down the curve of your cheeks were swept away by the gusts of wind that broke through the material of your sweater's hood to howl in your ears. You could also hear other sounds that accompanied the nighttime besides the wind, like crickets chirping on the ground, and leaves from the trees flapping about while everything else fell asleep to wait for the break of dawn. The only sound that stood out and you picked up on was the creak of the door as someone pushed it open.

You debated looking back, you didn’t want to talk to anyone right now, but your curiosity got the best of you and you carefully peeked your eyes over your shoulder to spot that Jean had been the culprit of breaking the silence of the night. He didn’t say anything, he stepped past the door and let it close behind him. You could see his eyes try to find your face under your hood, but you turned your head before he could see your tears and puffy red eyes. And since he didn’t say a word, you broke his silence. “I saw him ride in, I’ll talk to him later.”

The sound of Jean’s lips parting sounded in your ears, but he still couldn’t find words. He just knew right away that the usual chirpy demeanor you carried wasn’t present; you didn’t greet him with a smile, a witty joke, or a stupid nickname. He even noticed how you were sitting, it was something that would pass by him before, but now as he saw you hugging your knees and resting your chin on your kneecaps, it clicked that you did this when you were upset. Seeing you like you were, made him want to speak up, but he couldn’t figure out what exactly to say. Or really he didn’t know what to say. All he thought of doing was joining you on top of the castle wall.

Albeit once you heard him sit beside you, you turned your head and looked the other way to hide your eyes. “Do you need something?” You mutter.

“I noticed you missed dinner,” he finally managed to speak as he handed you an apple.

You take the apple off his hands before you shrug and clear your throat. “I wasn't hungry.” You sigh and try to push him away to be alone again. “I’ll be inside in a minute.”

Jean glances at the ground below, noticing it was a far distance from where you both were. He couldn’t help but wonder how you found sitting up here so comforting, with one look down he already felt his stomach churn. Yet he didn’t move to walk away like you wanted, he scooted closer to you and continued to pester you. “What are you doing up here all alone?”

“Looking at the stars,” you mumble, your eyes definitely not even getting a glimpse of the sky.

“Oh? Well you know the stars are in the sky, right? Not on the wall.” Jean said, mustering an airy laugh that made you turn your head to look ahead instead.

And with your hood on Jean couldn’t tell if your eyes were lifted, but it did give him the chance to lean in and grab your chin to turn your head so you would be facing him instead. That’s when he took note of what you wanted to hide. He saw the tear streaks on your face, your red gleaming eyes and the sad frown on your lips. Knowing he noticed made you want to cry more—stupid—you thought whilst you shoved his hand away and looked away again.

“What’s wrong?” He instantly asked in a more firm voice.

“Nothing,” your voice quivers. You put the apple away in your hoodie pocket to rest your chin on your knees, whilst you bite the inside of your cheeks for a brief moment to fight the need to cry at the simple yet meaningful question. You had to close your eyes, but that just made the tears roll down. “I’ll be in a minute.” You insist. But he doesn’t move, he stays quiet. And even if his stubbornness made you angry, you were glad he didn’t listen. It lets you open your eyes and finally lift your head after a couple of quiet minutes to ask a question. Or at least the beginnings of one. “Jean, you said you’d be honest with me right?” You sniffle and let your eyes drag to the corner to see him already looking at you.

He nods, “right.”

“Well,” you swallow thickly, “then please be honest. Do you think I’m strong?”

Jean blinks and his eyebrows furrow to express confusion and concern to the vulnerability in your voice and face. It made him answer with a stupid answer instead of with the truth that he already had in his head. “What?”

You hook your fingers together and look away from him to clarify what you thought was clear. “Do you honestly think I’m strong? I asked Levi, y’know, but well of course he’s going to answer with what I want to hear, he raised me. So please be honest with me.” You draw out a shaky breath before looking at him again to finish your sentence. “Don’t lie.”

Jean nods and parts his lips to assure you with the truth in a tone of voice that was soft at first. It sounded weird to hear him speak like that….yet you couldn’t help but like it. “Of course. I mean,” his eyes widened with excitement. “You’re just like Captain Levi and Mikasa. Somehow. So yeah I think you are strong.” He wanted to add a lighthearted and joking comment but he saved it for later instead.

Nonetheless you still scoff and look away from him. So maybe he should’ve added the joke—“if I was like them, I would’ve done what was right, I would’ve known that Reiner and Bertholdt were our enemies all along.” You began to rant with anger seeping through your voice the more you continued. “We could’ve avoided all those deaths. Erwin wouldn’t have lost his arm if I was strong. But I’m not. Because even if I’m physically strong, I’m actually weak. I’ve always been. I mean,” you huff out with frustration. “I couldn’t even fathom the thought that they were traitors even if that’s what I was sent to do. And I should've known,” you scoff. “I mean…” you pause and shake your head. “I was close to Reiner. He said stuff that should’ve stood out. But it didn’t because I trusted him.”

“So what?” Jean quieres after, “you’re weak because you trusted people?”

You turn your head and meet his gaze to answer, but before you could agree he continued. “You’re weak because you’re kind?” Jean doesn’t let you answer, he exhales deeply and holds your gaze, his own voice expressing frustration and a hint of sadness. “They were our friends, and you liked Reiner as more than…one. I don’t think that makes you weak. Caring doesn’t make you weak. I,” he pauses and swallows thickly. Through the light of the stars above, you saw his cheeks turn pink, you didn’t know why, but they did. And instead of continuing with that comment, he flickered his eyes away and smoothly changed the subject. “If you think that makes you weak, then we all are because we all trusted them. But you’re not weak, I mean,” he smiles and slides his eyes over to meet yours, “you risked your own life to help me when I was unconscious.”

Your lips tug into a faint smile and you shake your head to add onto his comment. “I think that qualifies me as brave.”

“Stupid actually,” he scoffs lightheartedly, his smile tugging wider. “You’re strong because after all the people you’ve lost, you keep fighting. After all that’s happened in the past couple of months, you’ve remained yourself, you still have a smile on your face…” he pauses again and once more changes the subject as smoothly as possible. Hiding what he really wanted to say. “You’re strong. And I don’t say that about everyone, so cherish it.”

You giggle, and share a lingering gaze and a sweet smile, before you let go of your knees and let your legs slide down to let them hang them over the edge. You leaned in towards him and caused him to blush harder because of how close you were. You were oblivious to it, but he definitely noticed how close your face was to his. He even grew rigid and nervous. But again you didn’t notice. Instead you proceeded to make him more so with your question. “Jean, can I hug you?”

Said guy nods without hesitance, his blush blazing brighter but luckily not pointed out as you wrapped your arms around his neck, and he slowly peeled his arms away from his side to wrap one arm under your arms, and the other one around your shoulders.

It took a couple of seconds for either of you to find the embrace comfortable, it was just such a weird gesture from either of you. Yes, you were best friends, but physical comfort never went this far, if you ever needed comfort like this, you always had Marco. Plus Jean was a bit prideful so he never accepted comfort, or actually showed his emotions to anyone. Sure he got frustrated, but he never let people see him be down, not until the funeral pyres, even then you both comforted each other with half hugs. And it was fine, neither of you minded it, but that was the reason why it felt so weird being so close to one another, so stiff.

At first of course. Because as strange as it felt for the first few seconds, now it felt…nice. So nice. It felt amazing, like you could be in his arms for hours. His body radiated a warmth that engulfed your entire body as he pressed you closer. It felt so comforting, and safe; the way an arm wrapped under your arms with his hand gently balling the material of your shirt, while the other arm stayed wrapped around your shoulders and his hand slowly slid to the back of your neck and the pad of his thumb gently caressed the skin.

His hands also felt soft and not rough and dry. He also smelled nice. Being in his hold made you wonder why you’ve never done this before, sure Marco gave good hugs, but they didn’t compare to this one. It felt as if you both were in much need of each other’s comfort because you even felt him relax into your embrace. He was hesitant at first, you felt that by the way he had felt so stiff at first, but after a few seconds you felt his whole body just completely give in, you even heard him sigh out as if all the weight had been lifted from his body.

Neither of you wanted to let go.

“Thank you,” you broke the comfortable silence. “For saving me and for being honest with me.”

“Thank you for helping me,” he interjected softly, “I didn’t tell you before, but thank you.”

“Always.” You grin, “I’ll always help you. I can’t lose you too.”

Jean’s breath hitches and his hold around you tightens. There's a slight tension that you did feel, so you were quick to break it before it got thicker. “Also, your hands are very soft.”

He huffs out, “thanks?”

You smirk. “It almost feels as if you haven’t worked a day in your life.”

At that comment Jean instantly pulls away from the hug, placing his hands on your shoulders and pulling his head back as he scoffs out offended and bewildered. “Excuse me?! What did you just say nerd?”

You shrug innocently. “That your hands are soft?”

“What about your hands?” He argues as his eyes narrow on you.

Your grin proudly and you pull out your hands in front of the both of you to slowly turn them so he could see both sides. “Egg yolks, oatmeal and raw honey work. I use them all the time.”

Jean drops his hands from your shoulders and a smug grin of his own grows on his face. “Well I,” he points to his chest, “unlike other guys, I actually know what self care is.”

“Is that so?” You snicker while you swing your legs over the wall and slide down to the land on the stone floor.

“Obviously,” Jean puffs his chest out, “it’s what makes me a great guy.”

You look at him over your shoulder and express a teasing laugh as you watch him also land on the floor behind you. He falls by your side and just rolls his eyes at your teasing laugh. And before he could add a remark, your laugh dies down and your grin falls to a faint smile as you bring up something you had in mind to tell him. “I wanted to ask if you wanted to come with me tomorrow to where Marco and I would hangout. I just made him something, and it’s going to be our last day here tomorrow and I don’t know when we’ll return so I just want to do something small.”

“Oh,” Jean’s own smile falls. “Yeah,” he nods in agreement. “I’ll go with you.”

“Good,” you smile softly, “I've been meaning to go for sometime, but I couldn’t muster the courage until now.” You turn to walk back inside, but before you do something else comes up. “Oh and bring extra clothes, we’re doing something after.”

“What?” He inquired curiously.

“It’s a surprise.” You finally continue with your path back inside, but before you could open the door Eren does so first.

“Y/N, Captain Levi is,” Eren pauses and his eyes narrow on your face, making his comment change. “Are you crying?” He snaps his eyes to Jean and his gaze turns to a raging glare. “What did you do to her, Jean?!”

Jean scoffs, “nothing! Why would you assume that?!”

You walk past Eren and leave both boys to talk amongst themselves with a soft and happy smile on your face.

——

“When you said we were coming here, I thought it was just going to be the two of us.” Jean whispers in your ear as he glares at all of your closests friends following behind you.

Your eyebrows pinch together while you turn to look at Jean with your lips pursed together. “They were all Marco's friends too Jean.” You smile and look at Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Connie, Sasha, and at Historia slowly lagging behind the group. “He would’ve loved the company.” You shift your eyes back to Jean and narrow your gaze on him as he rolls his head to look back ahead in annoyance. “You’ve been acting weird lately, Jean. Are you sure you’re okay?” You point out, noticing that the question made his shoulders stiff and his eyes wide.

Said guy doesn’t meet your gaze and just nods before looking away and asking you a question that the breeze carried out. “We almost there?”

You look ahead and spot the big green tree that poked out of the tall green grass that you were walking through, you had spotted it for a mile now and the farther you got, the more you knew you were close; you could hear the running lake that the tree was rooted by, and the familiar sound made you want to run forward like you had done many times before. But you waited and just picked up your pace, having to look over your shoulder as Armin nervously spoke up.

“Y/N, you asked for permission to come out here, right?”

Your lips tug to a smirk and you throw a thumbs up that doesn’t reassure the boy whatsoever. “Of course,” you continue to assure him. “I wouldn't leave without permission.”

“Then why did we leave so early?” Mikasa quiered.

“Because,” you smile sweetly, “we need to enjoy the full day before we have to go into hiding. Trust me I saw the to-do list on Levi’s desk, we’re going to need this.”

“To-do list?” Sasha probed with concern.

Eren looked back at her and said what you were going to respond with. “Welcome to the Levi squad, besides fighting Titans we’re also a cleaning unit. You’ll have fun.”

“Loads of it,” you snicker as you look back ahead and notice that you were now out of the grass field and seeing the big tree, and blue gleaming lake for the first time in three years. The sight of something so meaningful to you made your smile fall to a frown, and brought tears to your eyes. You stopped in your tracks not seconds after your eyes fell on the scene ahead, and everyone else stopped behind you. Nobody pushed you to move forward, they let you reminisce on the memories that began to surface in your head.

They were all so sweet and nostalgic now. They were heartbreaking knowing that the boy you had met here would no longer be able to come back again like he said he would. You would no longer hear his laugh that echoed quietly with the memories that played in your head, you would no longer see his smile every time he came here to enjoy the sun, or the refreshing lake on a hot summer day. Marco was gone and he would no longer be able to draw out what you both found in your field journals, he wouldn’t be here to talk to you anymore. He was gone and all you had were memories of him. Old memories that wouldn’t be replaced by new ones.

“Come on,” you say to everyone as you walk towards the tree, stopping just in front of its trunk to smile softly at the names that were carved on the bark. Tears wanted to break through, but you held them back while you felt the carving of Marcos name under your fingertips as you gently ran your hand over it. Your name was carved out besides his and you couldn’t help but notice that they seemed to be carved a lot lower than you remembered.

“Marco, you came!” The memory of your voice played.

“Of course!” You remembered him smile as he saw you hang down from the tree branch. “I’ll always come.”

Your smile wobbled at the playing memory, but before you could let yourself cry you slid the bag strap off your shoulder, and opened the flap to pull out a small headstone. You followed by kneeling down on the grass, and placing the headstone on the ground beside you to begin digging a small crater on the ground; not caring that your pants or your hands were going to get dirty. And at first you were doing the task alone, but soon thereafter Eren knelt down beside you and helped you as Jean’s concentration got lost on the carving of Marcos name.

Digging the hole didn’t take long since it wasn’t deep, the hardest part was finally placing the small headstone down and tucking it in its place. The hardest part of this was reading the words you had struggled to carve on the small headstone that read; “May you always Rest In Peace Marco Bodt. A beloved Son, Brother, Friend and Soldier.”—however, even then you refused to cry. Instead you smiled softly as you placed down a partially bloomed yellow rose that was surrounded by white lilies.

Before you stood up to let the others place what they had brought, you kiss the tip of your fingers and gently press them on the headstone and linger on the ground a bit longer. “You’ll always be special to me my beloved friend,” you whisper before you push yourself to your feet, feeling Jean’s hand fall on your shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze. You looked at him and smiled, lifting your own hand to cup his before you shifted your gaze to watch the rest of your friends place flowers, or personal items that they brought to place on Marcos grave. The only person that was left to place something down was Jean, you didn’t expect him to, if he wanted to, or if he didn’t, then it was his choice, he was here that's all that mattered.

What he did end up doing however, was walk towards it and crouch down to carefully stroke his hand over the headstone, he stayed like that for a couple of minutes before he stood back up and fell by your side again. After that a long silence was shared for Marco, where all there was to hear was the running lake beside the tree, the birds singing in the distance and the gentle breeze swirling in the sky. The silence lasted for a while after, before you quietly broke it. “Thank you all for coming,” you smile sadly as you step back to face them all. “I appreciate it and I know he would too.” Your sad smile turns to a small grin and you take another step back. “Now there are some things we still have to do before we have to head back, so let’s go!” You walk past the group and the tree to trudge on ahead towards your last destination.

“Where exactly are we going?” Connie asks for the rest of the group. “You’ve been cagey about it. And I know I joke around with you, but it’s all lighthearted fun, okay? So please don’t hurt me.”

You look at him over your shoulder and shoot him a pointed gaze before you look back ahead and finally announce where you were taking them. “We’re going to a waterhole close by. It’s a place where I and some of the veteran Scouts like Miche, Hange, Moblit, Nanaba and others would come on their days off. It’s very fun.”

The walk lasted a bit longer since your destination wasn’t far from where the tree was, and instead of walking in silence this time, small conversations were had behind you, you could hear your friends laugh and joke around as they followed you, even Historia as quiet as she had been was heard speaking to Mikasa. Even Jean and Eren were having a civil talk amongst themselves for once. All while you walked in a peaceful silence, and with a small smile on your face as you enjoyed the warm beams of sun hitting your skin, and heard birds chirping on the trees that you saw coming ahead.

When you walked through the small patch of woods that had the waterhole at the end of its treeline, you saw a fallen down tree and you jumped on the log and walked on it, stretching out your hands at your sides to better balance yourself on top as you looked overhead to see more birds singing up on the trees all around you. You would have kept distracted at the sight of the birds, but the sound of Sasha shouting out help, and Eren and Jean silently arguing pulled your attention to the scene happening behind you. And as expected it was a disaster, Sasha and Connie were holding each other to try and not to fall, whilst Armin took Mikasa down to the ground with him, as expected Eren and Jean were trying to race each other and trying to push each other off, but they both ended up falling, and the only one who made it across and landed perfectly by your side was Historia.

You smacked your lips and turned your head to share a teasing look with Historia before you both shared a smile and turned to walk off without them. “It’s just down this path,” you told her as you guided her, and the rest of the group catching up behind you, down a marked path. And once you finally reached the end of the treeline there it was, a beautiful blue waterhole; it wasn’t that big nor deep which made it perfect to swim in. Which also reminded you, “you guys know how to swim right?” You ask as you turn to look at the group.

They all nod and Jean steps forward to interrogate you. “Do you know how to swim?”

“Of course,” you scoff as you flash him a smug grin before you turn to walk to a poorly made shed just feet away from a man-made ramp, built down the slope that led to the water. “Hange taught me.” You finish sharing with him whilst you enter the shed and come back out with four wooden boards. “There aren't enough boards for everyone so we have to pair up.” You throw them all except for one down on the ground, proceeding to throw your bag to the side to begin kicking off your shoes, and pull your socks off before you take off your clothes and strip to the swimsuit you had underneath. When you return your gaze to the group you see them do the same, and catch Jean tearing his eyes away from you before you caught him. Luckily for him.

And with partners in mind, you consider Eren just because you knew how competitive he could be, but as you step towards him Jean blocks your path. “We can go down together.”

“Ah,” you smile nervously as your eyes fall on his toned abs and chest for a second—that’s impressive…wow. I've never seen him without a shirt on. Wow—you catch yourself thinking to yourself before you quickly blink to meet his gaze, “I was going to,” you pause and look beside him to catch Armin had beat you to Eren, your eyes shift Mikasa for better speed down the ramp, but Historia got to her first, so you had no choice. “Fine,” you breathe out as you pull the board closer to you and walk towards the top of the ramp. “I would come here with Marco and the rest of the veteran Scouts on the hot days to race down the ramps, or simply have fun.” You grin as you reminisce about the memories and turn to face your friends who were listening behind you. “It was fun just like mud sledding.”

“Mud sledding?” Armin quieres.

“Hmm,” you nod, “in the rainy season we would go to this hill not far from the grounds and slide down them.” You scratch the back of your head and sigh as you remember the worst part. “Albeit having to wash outside wasn’t fun, but Levi would get mad otherwise.”

“Let’s do it sometime!” Eren beams.

Your grin widens and you nod excitedly before you continue by placing the board on top of the ramp, and holding it in place with your foot. “Who wants to go first?” You ask, but see no volunteers, instead they urge you to go first after they take a step back. “Fine,” you groan—it’s not like we’re going to die—you look at Jean over your shoulder and smirk. “You trust me right?”

Said guy narrows his eyes on you and lingers in silence for a moment before he sighs out and nods. “Do I have a choice?”

“Nope.” You beam as you sit down on the board and then catch Jean standing still beside you. “What?” You question as you look up to him.

“I want to be in front,” he complains.

Your face twists into an annoyed expression and you scoff before you rebuttal his comment. “Have you done this before?” You don’t let him answer and do so for him. “No, so stop being a man about it and sit behind me.”

“Fine,” Jean grumbles as he hides his blush and does as you say, being hesitant as he wraps his hands around your waist.

“Okay, ready?” You ask happily.

Jean exhales deeply, looking at the water over your shoulder and noticing now how high the ramp was from water, how poorly it was built and how long it all seemed. He doubted this activity after he let his worry surface, but he trusted you so he nodded in agreement. After all, if you said Marco did this, then he could too. “I guess so.” He agreed.

“Okay then!” You beam happily as you tighten your hold on the board and take one last look at Jean. “Hold on!” And before he could back down, you use your legs to push yourselves down, feeling Jean’s hold tighten and your heart race as the adrenaline kicks through your blood. To gain more momentum as you slide down the ramp, you run your feet on the ramp and only throw them out forward once the ramp flies off into the air.

“You’re crazy!” Jean bellows after the board shoots off into the air.

You look behind you and smirk. “That’s exactly what Marco said the first time!” You look back ahead and in that second of time that you were in the middle of the air, just above the water, time seemed to slow down. When you roamed your eyes over the scenery around you, everything seemed much more beautiful, the sky seemed more blue, the sun shone a brighter and a more fierce yellow, and the waterhole appeared to shine like a blue crystal. The wind that rushed past your face while you were out in the middle of the air felt refreshing and freeing. For that slowed down second all the bad things that had happened in the past disappeared, and you were filled with overwhelming joy.

Through all the rush there in the sky, beside you, you caught sight of a beautiful blue butterfly flying overhead. The sight of its flapping wings brought a bigger and brighter smile to your features. You tried to reach for it, but before you could touch it, gravity pulled the board down and the rushing feeling returned time back to normal. And before you could hit the water you let out a happy scream before you pushed yourself off the board to cannonball in the water.

A couple seconds after your dive, you opened your eyes under the water to take in the sight of the deep blue water that surrounded you, catching Jean still under with his eyes squeezed closed, his cheeks blown out like a chipmunks holding in their nuts, and his fingers pinching his nose to hold in his breath while the other hand flapped around. It was a funny sight that made you huff out an admiring smile before you swam towards him and carefully grabbed his face, the feeling of your hands on his cheeks making him peel his eyes open but remain stiff as he stayed under. You shot him a wider and assuring smile and his brown eyes only widened as he held your gaze. You couldn't tell what emotions ran through him, but you did notice that he faintly mirrored your smile before he grabbed your arms and pulled you up to the surface.

“See,” you breathe out as you pull your hands away and run them down your face to wipe the water off your face and eyes. “Not bad.”

He wipes the water off his face before meeting your gaze and nodding. “No you’re right. Terrifying.” He says sarcastically.

You laugh and shake your head before you turn to look up and notice that your friends had been watching and waiting for both Jean and you to resurface. After they got their confirmation their figures disappeared and not seconds later Sasha and Connie came rushing down, both screaming at the top of their lungs and sloppily splashing into the water. After them followed Historia who switched partners and was now with Armin, and as expected she was in the front with a big happy grin on her face before she dove into the water and resurfaced with the same child-like grin; because she just like you forgot the pain from the week before, it might just be for the day, but she let herself enjoy the moment with you and her friends.

“That was so much fun!” She shouted as she threw her arms up in the air and splashed water at Armin and Sasha beside her. “I want to do it again!”

Lastly Eren and Mikasa rushed down the ramp, and even if Mikasa shouldn’t be doing this because of her injury, she tightly held onto Eren as he sat in front. And as much of a brave and strong person as she was in the field, here, as she and Eren rushed down, her eyes were closed, and she pressed her face on his back and had her arms wrapped around his neck. They both had smiles on their faces, with Eren having the bigger grin before they splashed into the water and resurfaced with her.

No matter what had happened before, no matter the pain you all were going through, today, spending time with each other in the water, took away from that and brought an overwhelming happiness to everyone. Everyone was making new memories that would stay with them forever.

“Having fun?”

You look to your side and notice Jean walking up beside you. You nod whilst you rub your hands together to try and get them warmer as the cold water on your body makes you tremble. “Yeah I am, are you?”

Jean wraps a towel around your shoulders before he sits beside you on the log. He nods and follows your line of vision to watch Eren, trying to pull Connie down into the water from their partners shoulders as they play their water game Sasha suggested—“I have to admit, you know how to turn a day fun. At first I thought this was going to be a disaster.”

“Ahaha!” Connie laughs evilly after Eren loses and splashes in the water.

You side eye Jean and express a feigned laugh. “Haha. Always so kind Kirstein.” You return your gaze to the group in the water and hug the towel tighter around your body. “Even if my nose is always in my books, I can be fun, okay? It’s just another one of my good traits.” You look at him and flash him a mocking smile whilst you touch your chest. “It’s what makes me such a great girl.”

Jean's eyes fall on you, and he rolls them as he shakes his head and lightly pushes you to the side, and making you genuinely laugh. After a couple of minutes it dies down and you sit closer beside him to once again look out at your friends in the water with a happy smile on your face.

“Marco would’ve loved this,” Jean muses.

“Yeah,” you assure him in a whisper. “He would’ve.”

Jean's eyes flicker away from your friends and he steals a longing glance at you. He thinks you would be too busy watching Sasha wrestle with Historia that you wouldn't notice, after all he’s never had it happen, but this time it was different, you didn’t catch him staring because he was swift to look away, but you did turn to steal a glance at him. And knowing that, noticing your eyes on him made him smile because you did look back at him. He didn’t know if you knew of his feelings that he’s failed to keep discreet, but he was happy that you looked back at him. It made his heart flutter, and fill with hope that he wasn’t filled with before.

Maybe this time he would get the girl, maybe this time it would be different. And he knew you needed time after what happened with Reiner, but that didn’t bother him, he’d be patient for you. He’d wait. He just hoped that none of the upcoming tragedy, that all these problems you all were going to face wasn’t going to get in the way of that.

Hopefully not.

A/N- let’s hope our jean-boy gets what he wants and gets the girl this time 🤞🏽 let’s hope.

Tagged- @expectoscamander , @greenygreenland , @that-soft-lesbian-friend , @dai-tsukki-desu , @usernamehere91 , @avocadopoosae , @romancried , @victor-criss-bish @moo-moo-meadow

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writertitan · 3 years

Text

Unrequited

pairing: levi x reader

word count: 2671

themes: unrequited love, lots of pining, canonverse plot

requested by anon

Hushed whispers sound throughout the crowd as the Scouting Regiment treks towards the wall. You ignore everything that’s said, even if it’s praise, even if it’s libel. As you elbow your way towards the front, all you care about is getting a good view of the Scouts.

Ever since you were a child, you’d made it your mission to see the Scouts off and then welcome them back, no matter what. Even if it means you have to drop everything you’re doing, like now.

Today, you know it’s just a general scouting mission to map out some new terrain. In theory, there shouldn’t be too many casualties. So today, you have high hopes that you’ll see most of the stoic faces passing you by again.

You’ve tried your best to learn names, but so far you can only memorize faces. It soothes you, to know that there are enough Scouts that you can’t name them all.

You ignore the whispers as your eyes scan over every face, silently wishing them a safe journey outside the walls. People always have something to say. It’s long since stopped bothering you to the point of vocalizing your own opinions, but it’s still annoying to hear the mix of disdain and pure awe threading along the throngs of civilians. Why can’t they just have some respect?

There’s a small commotion in the Scouts’ formation that grabs your attention. Immediately, you notice Commander Erwin, one of the names you know well, obviously. But today, there are new faces riding alongside Erwin. A blond man, a red-haired girl, and a raven-haired man. None of these are Scouts you’ve seen before, but they appear close with each other.

New recruits, you conclude.

The way your gaze falls back to the raven-haired man time and time again has you confused. There’s a small part of you that just feels pulled to him, as if by gravity, but you don’t know why. You end up keeping your eyes on him as he passes you by, with him never once glancing at you, and you don’t look away even when you’re just watching the back of his head.

With a start, you realize you didn’t wish the rest of the Scouts a safe journey. You’d been so busy staring at the strange, new man that you had forgotten your little ritual. It makes you panic a little, which is silly. It’s just a ritual that you’ve imposed on yourself. Everyone will be fine, whether you wish them luck and safety or not.

But you forget about how silly you felt earlier when you’re gathered outside to welcome the Scouts back later on, with a huge chunk of them gone, or carried in wagons.

The relief you feel when you see a head of black hair is short-lived for a multitude of reasons. He looks haunted upon closer inspection. The blond man and red-haired girl are nowhere to be found. And you feel sick at the thought you would even feel relief that he’s okay, when so many of his comrades are not okay at all.

When he’s passing you by, so close and yet so far, you hear Commander Erwin address him as “Levi,” and your brain sears the name into your memory.

“Levi,” you whisper to yourself, tasting the name on your tongue. You want to tell him you’re glad he’s safe, that you’re sorry about his comrades, but you don’t. Instead, as he disappears from your sight, you walk back to your little shop and get back to work.

The next send-off feels different than all the rest. This time around, you feel almost fluttery, and there’s a ball of anticipation weighing in your stomach as you push your way to the front of the crowd for a good view. You tell yourself that you don’t know why you’ve been looking forward to seeing the Scouts. A fleeting memory of black hair is one you push to the back of your mind.

When the first of them come into view, you crane your neck for a good view, eyes making sure to land on every face and wish them a safe journey.

The whispers start up instantly and you grit your teeth. You could have sworn you were used to it by now. So, you tune it out, and you wait. You wait until Commander Erwin comes into view. And then, when you realize you’ve correctly guessed there would be a dark-haired man by his side, that fluttery feeling you’ve had inside of you all day erupts and you actually feel physically shaky now as they come closer and closer.

“Have you heard those rumors about Levi?”

Suddenly, you’re interested in the whispers.

“Yeah, I heard he’s a hard criminal. This is how they’re making him pay for his sins. It was either join the Scouts or get the death penalty.”

There’s a snort, and then a cruel, “Kinda the same thing.”

You ball your hands into fists and stuff them into your apron so you don’t get carried away.

As Erwin and Levi pass by on their horses, you gaze up at them in awe, but again your eyes go to Levi.

And then you feel it again. The gravity. The sight of Levi pulls you in and your gaze feels anchored to him only.

But you’ve learned your lesson and this time, you tear your gaze away to look at every other face that passes you by, so you can wish them luck and safety outside the walls.

When you go back to work, you let yourself reminisce on Levi’s profile, the straightness of his nose, the jut of his chin, the delicate curve of his cheek. He somehow looks more stoic than Commander Erwin, which you didn’t think was possible.

Your eyes flutter to the window of your shop and you sigh dreamily, whispering out what you can’t say to Levi directly.

“Be safe, please.”

It goes from just Levi to Captain Levi very quickly and you feel a surge of pride course through you when those whispers make their way into your ears. From what you’ve heard, Levi - Captain Levi - is supremely gifted at being a fighter, a soldier, and has steadily been racking up his number of titan kills. He’s impressive and people are recognizing that he’s impressive. It makes you grin from ear to ear until the recognition reaches Anya and Lumie, the two girls who work in the tavern just around the corner. It’s their whispering that you listen to as you wait for the Scouts to return from their latest expedition. It’s not really whispering, since they’re a few people down and you can still hear everything.

“He’s strong and he’s a captain now, and very handsome,” you hear Lumie say.

“And the best part? He’s a bachelor!” Anya responds excitedly. “Who cares if he’s short?”

You bristle at the backhanded compliment.

Anya and Lumie are at the front of the crowd as well, but just a few people away from you, and they use it to their advantage as Captain Levi comes into view.

He’s as neutral-faced as ever, but he seems to snap out of it as Anya and Lumie call out to him.

“Hi, Captain Levi!”

“Welcome back, Captain Levi!”

They both giggle and wave and you can’t help but notice how supremely beautiful they look today under the late afternoon sun, with their shiny hair and rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes.

When Captain Levi catches sight of them and nods to them in acknowledgment, your heart thrums in some panicked way.

You so badly want to speak to him. You want to suddenly have the courage to raise up your hand and wave to him and call out his name and say hello, and say thank you.

You don’t do any of that. You’re very aware that, under this late afternoon sun, you’re sweaty and frazzled.

Captain Levi turns his gaze straight ahead as he passes you by. He doesn’t see you at all, you don’t catch his eye, but the gravity is full force for you and you gaze longingly at his retreating form even as people start dispersing.

You’re late to get back to work.

When the day comes that you don’t see Captain Levi riding back inside the walls on his horse, bile starts to rise in your throat at what that could mean. Humanity’s Strongest couldn’t have been hurt...or worse...right?

You see Commander Erwin, his face blank, and your bottom lip trembles when your eyes don’t catch sight of the familiar head of black hair.

“Where are you?” you whisper to yourself, willing the wind to carry your words to the Scouts, as if someone could hear and answer your question somehow.

The civilians are whispering again (what else is new?), but the whispers are as panicked and curious as you feel inside.

You grow more and more frantic when Levi doesn’t turn up, and you really do contemplate it. You contemplate stepping forward and grabbing a scout by the shoulders and shaking them and demanding to know where Captain Levi is.

The scenario plays in your head clearly and is enough to make you take a step forward, a hand outstretched to grab the attention of a scout. But then the whispers melt into disbelief, and then back into that disdain you’ve grown familiar with.

“...so-called Humanity’s Strongest,” you hear the end of a whisper.

“He’s in that wagon there. Apparently got hurt,” another voice says.

Your eyes lock on the wagon that’s pointed out by a stranger, and your breath catches in your throat when you see the black hair you’ve been seeking out.

Levi is draped in his green cloak and it’s smattered with blood. He’s bandaged up. His head is held high, but his eyes are as haunted as they were when he had come back that fateful day without the blond and redhead.

As the wagon nears you, you’re about to send that silent relief that you’re glad he’s okay, but an unexpected thing happens.

The man next to you decides to act on a moment of boldness. He cups his hands around his mouth and says something that makes you snap.

“Not so strong now, are ya, Captain Levi?”

And just like that, Levi’s eyes snap towards your general direction and you freeze for a split second. The moment you’ve only dreamt of up until now is about to happen, and for all the wrong reasons. What if Levi looks at you and thinks you associate with this asshole who says cruel things?

You don’t know what takes over your body when you shove the man, hard, and then raise your hand to slap him across his stupid face.

“Shut up!” you seethe, hand flying down to finally land that slap to his face.

But someone from behind you snatches your wrist before your palm can make excruciating contact with the man’s cheek.

You don’t fight it. Instead, your gaze goes back to where it always goes. Your heart stops.

Levi is looking at you, at you, and his expression is unreadable. Any thought in your mind whooshes right out and you feel as if you’re floating, but it’s sort of an uncomfortable feeling, like you won’t be able to come down to earth.

Your mouth gapes for a moment as you try to say something, anything, while Levi’s attention is on you, but all you can register in your mind is that this is the first time you’ve noticed the color of Levi’s eyes. They’re a dazzling and unusual grey. You wouldn’t have ever known that if he had never looked at you.

“Thank you,” you call out to him without thinking. You must look like quite the sight, with frenzied eyes and being held back from smacking the lights out of a stranger. You try not to think about how you look, and think about what you’ve just said.

You know how he’ll take it. He’ll think you’re thanking him for his service, for his bravery, for his efforts to save humanity.

You are the only one who knows that you’re thanking him for finally noticing you, and for allowing you to find out that he has the most beautiful eyes.

Maybe you just imagine it, but you swear that there’s a small flash of gratitude in his eyes, and that alone makes the scene you’ve caused all worth it.

The next time the Scouts are due to leave for an expedition, you almost don’t go out to silently wish them all well.

You fight with yourself about it all night. You don’t want to be there, watching, for one big reason.

You are hopelessly in love with Captain Levi of the Scouting Regiment.

You had just come to the realization recently, right after that altercation that made him finally look at you. It feels ridiculous to call it love. How can you love someone who doesn’t know you? Someone who has only looked at you once? Someone who has never spoken to you, and has only heard you speak two words to them?

And yet it is love. Undeniably, it is love.

How else can you describe the gravity?

You’ve been pulled to him since the first time you saw him.

You love Captain Levi and he will never love you, and you don’t know if you can keep going out and looking at him and pining for him and wishing for his safety and dreading that your wish doesn’t come true.

“I won’t go today,” you say to yourself, in your empty little shop, your tone not nearly as determined as you want it to be. “It won’t matter if I stay in here. Nothing will happen.”

The prickle of superstition prods at your spine, memories flooding your head of that fateful day of first seeing Levi with his friends, and then without his friends, and how you had failed to properly give all of the scouts your attention.

“Just a silly superstition,” you try to convince yourself, rubbing a rag into an empty mug. You try to concentrate on your work tasks, willing yourself to just stay put, but the itch to go out overwhelms you and you end up groaning loudly in defeat as you sulk towards the door of your shop.

You stop there, hand on the doorknob, and you try to get yourself to stay. One final attempt.

“If you go out there,” you whisper to yourself, “you’ll be going out there knowing that you will only ever know unrequited love. Can you handle that?”

Your head screams that you can’t handle that. There’s no way. You should just go back to work.

But your heart.

Your goddamn heart.

It tells you to go out there and make sure that you make the wish you always make. Because if you really love him, and you know you do, you’re going to be brave about it and make sure he’s safe.

You make a compromise with your head and your heart. As you step outside and into the crowd, you don’t make it to the very front with the good view. You settle for a spot in the middle, where you can still see the Scouts and be able to do what you always do.

That head of dark hair comes into view next to Erwin and you smile sadly to yourself. He’s not staring straight ahead for once. He’s actually conversing with Erwin about something and Erwin is listening intently. You stare at them both with determination, the determination you’d wished you’d had in your shop earlier, and wish for them to return back to you safely.

As your eyes move on dutifully to the next group of scouts, you don’t catch Levi moving his gaze from Erwin to sweep across the crowd, and you don’t feel his eyes land on you.

He looks away just as quickly, and gazes straight ahead as Erwin speaks to him.

#levi x reader #levi ackerman oneshot #levi ackerman x you #levi ackerman x reader #levi one shot #levi ackerman fic #levi ackerman fanfiction #levi ackerman #levi fanfiction #levi fic #levi #aot fanfiction #aot oneshots #aot #snk fanfiction #snk

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yostresswritinggirl · 3 years

Note

hi! ik sojourner's already ended but i have an(other?) idea in case u ever pick it up since i love ur albedo 😳😳 ok so

what abt a reader who is rlly excited abt alchemy, but they avoid talking abt it bc they start rambling and stuttering and stumbling over their words bc they're so excited? they get assigned/asked to go w/ albedo bc they're rlly good at alchemy too, but they end up fidgeting a lot, muttering and stopping just a few words in before their volume rises and giving short answers when w/ him bc they're afraid of rambling (since they do it to think better when alone, sometimes insulting and arguing w the objects when they don't get the expected result) & being seen as annoying or unprofessional?? i'd like to see how he reacts to these and what he'd think!! and how or when he discovers the reason reader is acting like that

it's kinda (a lot, rlly skowkskdk i always have ideas but never write them) specific, but i rlly like the idea!! i'd love to see what u do w/ it if u ever pick it up in the future :D hope you're staying hydrated and well🥺🥰 -🌌

What do you mean Sojourner's already ended, Sojourner is eternal, Sojourner is forever-

Kidding aside, this is too cute to pass up, even if it's quite a lot! Cute Albedo brainrot moments always please. It might be too much sometimes but I hope you enjoy my interpretation of it! Scenarios format! Starry night, oh I'm always hydrated, thank you and I hope you're well!

For the Record

Albedo working with a Reader that's highly enthusiastic about alchemy but insecure about rambling... (masterlist)

You dealt with Alchemy a year before the Kreideprinz entered Mondstadt, your attunement to the mystic arts baffling and intriguing you every time. During that period, you're not really sure of what art you're doing but in the end, you kept doing great that the people had acknowledged your talents.

Through your own effort and self-study even if unnamed, you managed to put your talent into this art of Alchemy and created discoveries regarding powders and mineral-focused ingredients. It was a shame there was no one to share it to, and when you talk to scholars/practitioners alike, you end up rambling so much to the point that on their end you barely make sense. Whether this was caused by your eaten words or lax and personalized vocabulary over the matter, you're not sure.

Their confused and judgmental stare haunts you, leaving you alone with your raging thoughts and overworking mind when you just want to learn and expand your discoveries to other people without driving them away. Your enthusiasm is great and all, but it's not enough to make others understand.

So when the Chalk Prince entered Mondstadt, blessing the city with his scholarly knowledge and boundless creations, he easily made a name for himself and in extension the city itself.

Before Sucrose and Timaeus, you were called upon by the Grand Master Varka to accompany Albedo and be his temporary assistant seeing as his field in the division is still quite new and you were the only other 'Alchemist' in town besides him. You're both giddy and nervous, like really, really nervous.

You've heard of Albedo and maybe a caught a glimpse or two, but you've never actually interacted enough to know exactly what he looks like or how he is as a person. All you know is that he's a very, very attractive person overall.

"Good-looking, carries this aura of wisdom around him, he's just really charming," were the words that rang through your mind as you pointedly watched your steps, following the carpets leading to Ordo Favonius' laboratory while Lisa's words rang through your head.

Is he really that kind of person? You've heard that he's quite stoic too, but if he's really that distracting, you're scared that it would be harder for you to focus and help out. Honestly how would you even deal with him when your fields of Alchemy are so different from each other?

You have no idea how long you've been thinking, standing in contemplation in front of the set of double doors that leads to the workshop with nothing but doubt in your mind. But upon realizing the teal gaze of another person silently waiting instead of wooden doors, you figured it was far too long.

"Ah, I'm sorry! I was in my head, I wasn't expecting you to-!" You flailed your hands around comically before abruptly stopping, noticing the now confused stare of Albedo of which are distracted by your hands. Clearing your throat, you extended a hand towards him to shake, trying to stare anywhere but his face. "I'm (Y/N), I'll be your assistant until you're well settled in the city. It's nice to meet you, Ma-"

His hand finds yours in a firm grip, a firm shake so sudden you bit your tongue back, "Albedo, Kreideprinz of the Art of Kemia, but just Albedo is fine, I'll be under your care."

Albedo finds it intriguing and surprisingly not that distracting whenever you talk to yourself or to the ingredients whenever you so much as feel the slightest frustration. "Ugh, this Zinc powder is so stubborn, clingy," you angrily mumbled under your breath as you washed off the blue powder that spilled at your hand, "So, so clingy." Since you're facing the sink, you couldn't see the way he was holding himself from laughing audibly at your amusing antics.

You seemed lively and open, is what Albedo thought when he first met you. But this observation soon shattered when he kept getting hanged upon your abrupt stops when delving into your field, something he was really irked about the first few times. Your art of Alchemy is much different from his and he's wishing that you'd clarify and expound all your learnings to him, but in the end, you somehow step back everytime your words became lengthy.

Are you hiding something? Did you not want him to learn the same arts as yours? If those were the case, he couldn't bring himself to ask a simple question such ad why. Every time it crosses his mind, it brings a purse of a pout to his lips and furrowed eyebrows.

Every response you gave always hints even tiny bits of trivias and tips he's never heard, Albedo always takes note of your spills that always cuts before reaching its climax. "-sorry, yes, this is activated charcoal Geo and Pyro slimes reaction." He lets out an audible sigh upon your retreat, your frustrated mind too occupied to notice.

"Please," his desperation drips in his word when he looks at you with eyes filled with raw emotion you'd never know he'd be able to pull off. Your tightly locked lips only pressed on further at his puppy eyes, "Please continue, I wish to know more about your Alchemy, if you would be so kind."

"It's not really- I'm not really the best at explaining it..." You're almost fidgeting, cheeks aching from tensing and warmth. But he regarded you with a blank stare, forcing you to fill the silence, "If I- If I start, my ramblings may not uhm they're not easy to comprehend... or something."

Albedo had been watching more than he'd like to admit, and he's come to relieved (yet still confused) realization that your treatment with him wasn't his alone. You always step back before things get lengthy, words then cutting short and concise with a steeled expression. Lips caught between teeth.

"I digress," his hand motions to yourself to emphasize his next clause. "As your field and sole practitioner of this art, like my own condition, your word of mouth is the best ground of knowledge."

If he was irritated, he's doing a very good job in hiding it. And even with the respectable yet close distance in between you still felt cornered. This is still your master and it's not professional to refuse a scholarly talk, "The electro crystals when charged... ionized? create sparks, while also producing the same result when smacking- mining!"

The scribbles of his pen against his clipboard as he nods in attention urges you on, realizing his focus and sincere interest on the topic, "So when you put the little tidbits or even powdered version in a beaker thingy, depending on the material, they interact with the spark. Honestly, I'm unsure yet how lethal it is but if you put the sparks under fire too, they make like those makeshift gunpowder as well as additional reactions such as-!"

The lilt and proceeding high pitch in your voice usually signifies the approach of your insecurity as well as the climax of your enthusiasm. At this point, you pull your hand up to shut your mouth forcefully, and when Albedo really detests the abrupt end of the conversation his hand would shoot forward to grasp your own.

He'd intertwine your fingers to distract, before urging you to continue with a challenging stare, as if daring you to use your other hand to pull that off again. This whole scene felt oddly scandalous, but oh boy does it send your mind into a bambling, overloaded mess. A heated head forces your lips open even if they sometimes come out in a jumbled string, he learns to decipher them.

The more you get used to or feel more comfortable, Albedo uses that fondness skillfully whenever he wants. "Can you tell me more about the scarlet chunks from Dragonspine?" He throws it so casually in the silence as you two work back to back in your stations, without a beat as your mind is partially preoccupied, you answered into a narrative of trivia. It almost feels like you're talking to the flames of the bunsen while you wait, but Albedo smiles at the now filled silence as he listens with divided attention.

He really likes your voice, and the word of wonders you bring along with you.

"For the record, I don't mind it at all," his breath hovers on your lips, cold and prickly, "Whatever comes out of these lips, I want to hear it all."

That last part eheh

Woah, this went long. Like reader babbling hahaha. I said I'm gonna speedrun, not freaking write this long smh

@zelos-simp @legionqueensav @snackgod @rxsalinee @cala-ran @wind-wheel @lilydewi22 @yellowflowre @traveler-lumine @nonniechan @creation-magician @hanniejji @gojos-baby @just-some-stars @volleybloop @tartuu @moaa @dandelion-dreams @witchsungie @lehra @albaedhoe @xiaophilia @heisenwurst @childe-simp-exe

#genshin impact x reader #Albedo x Reader #exile.goblet #exile.flower #sojourner special #genshin impact #imagines #gender neutral #fluff #anon 🌌

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folkloreguk · 3 years

Text

🍒Cherry Ice Cream🍒

A/N: Happy July! I planned this almost a year ago and finally got around to writing it...I hope you like it! As always, I appreaciate feedback a lot! Hope everyone has a lovely day <3

pairing: optional bias (male) x reader (gn)

words: ~ 3.7 k

genre: fluff, comedy, lifeguard!bias, reader is the most awkward and chaotic person ever (are we at the public pool or the circus?? seriously I’m so second hand embarrassed for her lmao), bias is the hottest man in existence, the universe has something against the reader apparently (rip)

PART 2 (nsfw, both parts can be read independently)

You approached the front entrance of the public swimming pool. Everything was still going by plan. Ever since the weather had gotten warmer, you’d had swimming on your mind. And every single person in your life had been made aware of it. Despite the friendly asking and the occasional begging, you still hadn’t found anyone to accompany you to the public swimming pool. You had heard all the reasons: Work, already planned vacations, a sick pet, a hatred of water, a hatred of people, you name it. After all the searching you had come to the conclusion that you were tired of waiting. Nothing could possibly rob you of your excitement about swimming pools. You’d go alone and have a wonderful time. It would be a relaxing day with loads of time just for you. So you had told yourself. But let’s face it, nothing could have prepared you for the utter chaos you were about to walk into.

It began before you had even set both feet into the facility. Your steps were light, and you beamed, ready to enter after you had paid. The strap of your sports bag had caught in the turnstile in the entrance area. Stubborn as you were, you yanked on it, instead of turning around and manually freeing the fabric from the steel contraption. You had put your entire weight on the line, tugging and pulling, when the strap finally came loose from the turnstile. As expected from such antics, you tripped and struggled in your flip-flops, blundering into the compound like a baby giraffe walking for the first time. By the time you tried to compose yourself to look cool and relaxed after such a mistake, you noticed him.

He, who looked like a Greek god blessing you with a visit on earth. He was all tan skin, red life-guard swim trunks, perfectly sculped shoulders, pushed back hair, a smile that put the sun to shame and sunglasses sitting on top of his head. Instantly you thanked yourself for not seriously injuring yourself. The young godman crossed the lawn, presumably to take his seat by the pool, watching out for the visitors. Only he made it look like he was strutting on a runway at Paris fashion week. All you could do was pray that he hadn’t seen you entering his workplace headfirst like some impatient six-year-old.

As people passed you, you realized you were standing in the same spot where you had almost fallen a minute ago. Manifesting that this was just the silly beginning to a perfect day, you paraded into the shaded grassy area to find a spot to set up your things. Countless groups of friends, families, and lone visitors like yourself had already settled down, but you managed to find a fine spot. It was the superb balance between sunny and shady and not too far from the swimming pools and water slides. In seconds you had shed off your clothes to reveal your swimsuit underneath. Although you could barely keep yourself waiting, you decided it was best to stay there a short while before you threw yourself into the waves. Just until the sunscreen had absorbed into your skin. Meanwhile, you would unpack the catchy book you had recently begun to read.

Now and then you raised your head and peeked at the cute lifeguard. You seriously had no intentions of coming across like a creep, but you couldn’t stop yourself. The way he patrolled the side of the large pool had more coolness than the prettiest shot of a hot movie star in a film. You allowed yourself a few seconds, then you’d go back to your novel. The sounds of summer floated through the air – children laughing, water splashing, birds chirping above you – and the scent of the sunscreen catapulted you straight on cloud 9. It felt like your own small piece of paradise. Little did you know, the universe had so much more in store for you.

You hadn’t been buried in your book for even 10 minutes when a group of kids ran by. They were passing a water ball from one to the other and giggling uncontrollably. You saw it coming in your peripheral vision but had no time to react. As they had reached your level, one of them punched the ball especially hard. And instead of catching it, the dark blue ball bounced off one child’s hands and straight into the side of your face. It knocked your sunglasses off the bridge of your nose, but more importantly gave you the fright of your life. You dropped your book while the children’s mother scolded them from the side. After the initial surprise you couldn’t accept their apologies quickly enough. Anything if it could spare you from even more attention from random guests around you. Impulsively, your eyes searched for the cute lifeguard. But he was looking into the opposite direction. At least fate had saved you from embarrassing you in front of him. The last thing you wanted was to look like more of a clown than you had when entering the facility earlier. But against your expectations, the train of unfortunate events was only beginning.

Surely things would be more peaceful in the water, you had thought. When you finally entered the cool pool, it felt like heaven on earth. Fearing a case of recurrence, you avoided the shallower areas, where the children crowded and went straight for the deeper waters. Finally experiencing some form of relaxation, you swam and dived a few laps around the pool. Now and then you caught a glimpse of the lifeguard on the far end of the pool. Just to make sure he was still there. Just to make sure he’s still as handsome as when you first spotted him. And you weren’t disappointed. Gesturing kindly, he helped an elderly woman find directions to the restaurant on the far end of the site. From up closer, his smile and his jaw were even prettier – even though it had seemed impossible for him to become even more perfect.

After a while, your limbs became tired and you retracted into less busy waters, close to the exit and entrance area of the swimming pool. As you paddled your way through bodies, a bug startled you. It had by all appearances chosen you as its victim, as it took direct flight into your face. Even when you swat it away and turned around to change directions, it kept chasing you and only you. Like some crazy, obsessed stalker, it followed you to the edge of the pool. Eventually, you became tired of running and turned to it. If some random flying beetle wanted to fight you, so be it. To the untrained eye, you might have appeared like a lunatic, fanning the air, and squinting against the bright sunlight. But it was war, and you would square up against the most annoying of bugs. After a while, you realized that you were waving off the air – no more bug in sight. Only then you noted the little girl laughing in your direction from the poolside. You were way too mortified to turn into his direction at first, but when you found the lifeguard, he was conversing with one of his co-workers. Once again, you were safe.

Your next approach at a good time was the colorful waterslide close by. Certainly, these heights would not include micro-aggressive bugs. Instead, they included something far more unsettling. Considering there were toddlers going down the waterslide, you deemed it safe and fun. Your mind changed in the first sharp turn, when you tumbled over and hit your elbow from the sudden change of direction. Maybe you should have just stayed in the ring with the bug instead of choosing this more than violent escape. But it was too late. Once on the slide, you had to make it through to the finish line – more or less in one piece. Your grand finale composed of a semi-somersault off the edge of the waterslide into the pool. Although it wasn’t intentional, you still hoped it looked somewhat graceful to the audience at the bottom. Hint: No, it didn’t. You looked like a baby monkey that had been sent down a self-constructed-waterslide in someone’s backyard. It was a disaster.

Feeling over-heated and exhausted from the sun and your embarrassing antics, you found a drinking fountain by the showers to refresh yourself. Patiently, you waited in the short line until it was your turn. As fate wanted it, the next messy incident wasn’t long in the coming. In fact, it only took four sips of water before you accidentally inhaled some of it. You stepped back, choking, coughing, and gasping for air all at once. A helpful woman showed mercy with you and your awkward behavior and softly pat your back. “Are you okay, dear?” she asked. Unable to speak just yet, you smiled and nodded gratefully. Great. Maybe you should add “clown” onto your previous professions in your CT. By now, half the visitors probably knew who you were – a walking safety hazard to yourself.

After retreating to your bath towel set-up in the shade for a while, you had almost found new hope that the universe wasn’t against you that day. You managed to lie there, for a whole hour, without any issues. But then, slowly, another idea crept up on you. After all, what was summer without ice cream? By chance, you happened to know the little ice cream truck next to the yellow waterslide sold your favorite brand of ice lolly. So off you went, money in hands and wild determination in your head. The visual of the handsome lifeguard lingered in your mind even after you had passed the chair he was sitting on by the poolside. You acquired your ice lolly successfully and ripped the wrapper right away. It tasted like summer in food format, and you reveled in the cold treat for a while, as you strolled back in the direction of your bath towel.

Fully aware that you would have to walk by the insanely cute lifeguard again, you tried your best to look cool, next to the large pool. In your imagination, you were glowing in the sun, hair slightly flowing in the warm breeze and steps bouncing happily. You were the personification of summer bloom and radiating everything good about the season. For a moment, you closed your eyes and actually indulged in the warmth on your face. That was when the next mishap struck.

You didn’t even understand what was happening at first. Someone accidentally bumped into you – or did you bump into them? Upon the impact, you opened your eyes. Your ice-cream had vanished from your hands. Turns out, you had dropped it and it had landed only two feet from you. Out of balance, you stumbled ahead even after the impact. And of course, only a second later your foot stepped directly onto the ice lolly. Inevitably, you skidded and struggled to stay on your feet by means of flinging and waving your arms in the air. As if you were some stranger, trying to attract the attention of an aircraft whilst stranded on a desert island. One thing was for sure, you had everyone’s observance tied to you. With an involuntary but comedic performance of theatrical extent, you fell and hit the water surface.

The cool hit you so suddenly, you had swallowed a gulp of water before your instincts had time to set in. Quickly, your limbs began paddling to get you back to the surface. At that instant, a pair of arms suddenly linked under your armpits and swooped you up from underwater. Your brain processed what was going on. Without a doubt, someone had jumped after you and was pulling you out of the water. Stubbornly, you tried to avoid the idea of the cute lifeguard helping you out. Christ, that would really be the peak of all your embarrassing moments. No, it was probably the person you had run into, or someone who had already been in the water.

When you were placed by the poolside and blinked against the blending sun, your worst concerns came to pass. There he was, so close you could have touched his face. His worried expression changed when you opened your eyes, and he smiled, relieved. “Is everything alright?” he asked. You’d think this would make you into the most shamefaced person on the planet. And yet, all you could wonder was how two people’s genes could combine so flawlessly, so beautifully, to create such a man. When he got no answer from your moonstruck figure, he furrowed his eyebrows in alarm.

“Oh my- my god,” you stammered. “Yes! I’m fine, I’m sorry!”

You weren’t sure why you were apologizing. For worrying him? For inconveniencing him? For causing another scene? Either way, he grinned, and you felt your cheeks heat up terribly. You had to get away from there before something cringy came out of your mouth. Although you weren’t sure there was any way you could have made this more awkward than it already was.

“Make sure you have no injuries, okay?” he asked, helping you up. “If you need any medical assistance, just let me or one of the other lifeguards know.”

“Um…okay,” you said. Wow. That was no way to flirt with the most attractive person you had ever met. With all this drama you had gone through on that day, the universe could have at least blessed you with a romantic, your-life-savior-realizes-he-just-met-the-love-of-his-life moment. But no. The movies really were one massive hoax.

“It’s probably best you take a little break from the surprise, before you go back into the water,” he advised you. “And don’t hesitate to ask, if you need any more help.”

If only he knew how many times you had already tried to take a break from the surprise after everything on that day. You stood on your feet safely but felt like a cat that had fallen into the bathtub. At last, you managed a smile in the lifeguard’s direction. “Thank you.”

Funny enough, the stares people gave you bothered you only slightly as you walked back to your spot under the trees. Maybe you had used up all your embarrassment for the day. Nothing could intimidate you anymore. That meant, whatever happened from now on, it couldn’t get worse. Somehow after the pinnacle of chaos, you finally felt some inner tranquility. You went back to your novel, now and then keeping an eye out for potential water balls coming your way. But everything was calm. As time went on, you lost yourself completely in the story line and forgot about everything around you. Maybe this was all meant to happen. Perhaps it was a message, that you should have waited for your family to have a free day, or for your friend to come back from vacation. Would the same things have happened? There was no way to tell. Just as you reached a specifically exciting scene in the novel, a figure suddenly appeared in front of you. You couldn’t believe your eyes.

“Hey,” the handsome lifeguard stood there, smiling kindly. Wide-eyed, you straightened up and greeted him shyly.

“I couldn’t help but notice how happy you were about that ice cream earlier,” he said. “But then you…lost your ice cream.”

“What an interesting way of saying I stomped on it and made an absolute fool of myself,” you smirked. He chuckled.

“However you want to put it, I thought maybe you could use some cheering up,” he went on. “So I got you a new one.”

He pulled two ice-lollies from behind his back. “One for you, one for me.”

You couldn’t believe your ears. “You bought me this? I don’t want to sound rude… but aren’t you supposed to be looking out for the next victim to repeat my foolery?”

“I’m on my break,” he laughed. His eyes crinkled up cutely when he smiled, and it only made your stomach flutter more. “If you want me to leave, I will. I’m not trying to be weird or obtruding. Just making sure you’re okay, because I noticed you’re here alone.”

“Oh. No! Feel free to stay here for as long as you want!” you said, and now maybe you were the one sounding obtrusive. You scooted over and let him take a spot on your bathmat. You thanked him for the ice cream and gleefully unwrapped it. “My friends and family weren’t available today. But I really, really wanted to come here today. Maybe not my brightest idea.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve seen way worse plunges than yours. You were lucky, really. You got away with a small shock and nothing more. It was pretty impressive, actually.”

“I’m glad I have entertaining qualities, at least.”

“I’m just messing with you,” he laughed. “I’m glad you’re fine. This place gets a little wild during the afternoon, especially on weekends.”

“You don’t say,” you chuckled.

“I recommend coming here in the mornings or late evenings, if you want a little more peace and quiet.”

“Thanks, I’ll probably consider it. Do you work here full time?” you asked.

“No, this is just a summer job,” he said. “It’s great. I get to swim for free and be outside a lot. Not to mention this is one of my favorite places in town.”

“You love swimming too?” you asked and regretted it right away. A lifeguard who hated swimming made no sense, after all. But he didn’t seem to think your words were silly.

“I do! I come here a lot to swim, when it’s not as busy and I don’t have to work,” he said. The thought of seeing him again when you came back in a few days – which you already knew you would – made you feel some sort of way. You had been embarrassed, but his sweet words had appeased you. You could definitely get used to seeing his face all summer long. The two of you talked for some time, while you both finished your ice cream. You learned his name, which was just as beautiful as its owner, and that he thought you had actually looked pretty cute (!) when you fell into the pool. You swore he wasn’t even real. Perhaps he was merely a hallucination, a product of your imagination, to cheer yourself up after your messy day. Either way, your head was up in the clouds as long as he was sitting there, next to you, with his perfect shoulders and charming voice. Soon, he had to excuse himself, though. His break was over and as he had put it, he needed to prevent any more ice cream-murders from happening.

After your conversation, the universe had apparently shifted in your favor. You spent the entire rest of your day without any more misfortunes. Like you had talked to a lucky charm who had done miracles for you, you had a fantastic time. You were even brave enough to face a few more go’s down the ever-so-threatening waterslide. As it got later, more people went home, and just as he had predicted, things calmed down. And you were convinced you would stay until the bitter end. Only when a female voice announced over the speakers that the swimming pool would close in 30 minutes, you slowly started to pack up your things.

As you approached the exit, you scanned the area for your favorite lifeguard. But he was nowhere to be found. You assumed he had already finished his shift and gone home. But as luck would have it, as you neared the bicycle stands to retrieve your bike, you saw him already there. His eyes beamed when he noticed you.

“Wow, you held out a long time,” he said. “Had fun?”

“I did,” you said. You could only be grateful your ice-cream massacre was the sole of your antics he had witnessed that afternoon. Who knew how he would look at you if he had experienced your full chaotic capacity? “Thank you again, for making sure I was fine. And for the ice cream.”

“It was no big deal,” he said. “It’s what I’m here for.”

“To buy random girls ice cream?” you teased.

“No, only the special ones get the ice cream.”

“Define special.”

“To be honest? I was genuinely concerned you would feel down. I’ve seen you almost trip over when you first came in, you got hit in the face by a ball, I’ve witnessed your little quarrel with that bug and your somersault from the waterslide looked pretty rough. After all that you choked on water and then ended up falling into the pool and losing your ice cream. I supposed you could need some serious cheering up.”

Oh my god. If only you could have opened a portal straight to hell, you would have taken the chance on the spot. All this time he had been watching you? It couldn’t get more mortifying than this.

“Sorry, I sound like some creepy stalker,” he said. “I didn’t mean to stare. It’s just you-“

“I looked like a clown in a neon suit?”

“You’re really pretty,” he said. Your cheeks warmed up and you could have yelled out loud.

“But you have to admit, at least the clown part is true.”

“Maybe,” he joked. “Don’t be embarrassed. I thought you were – are – adorable.”

“Thank you,” you managed to say. What the hell were you doing? The most handsome guy was complimenting you. You had to take your chance. “Maybe sometime I could buy you some ice cream too? If you feel like it-“

“I’d love that,” he smiled. It was only the beginning of summer, but it was a glorious one. You already knew it could only get better. Instead of cursing the universe, you had to say your thank you’s now. Without your string of bad luck, things would have never led this way. Perhaps fortune was on your side, after all.

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