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dizzymuses · 1 year

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🌦 « han so hee. cis woman. she/her. 30. » was that NARI SHIN walking through the doors of amorelux ? i heard they just moved in to apartment 502 from OTTAWA and work as a/an tattoo artist. they seem daring & adaptable but don’t get on their bad side ! they can be evasive & callous which makes sense since they’re a SAGITTARIUS. you know they’re home when you see a flash of nimble fingers detangling unbrushed hair, books carelessly scattered but never in a bookshelf, a permanently ignored notification for unread messages, memories hung up in frames.

hello, my loves !! i’m daisy, she/her, 25 and from the CET timezones which is sort of sucky most of the time when it comes to rp rip. i just started a full time intership so i’m a little bit busy these days but i should be around in the evenings and weekends for the most part. anyway, finally i can introduce u to my daughter nari, who is a brand new baby and still very much a work in progress but i hope you’ll love her nonetheless ! i would be delighted to plot w y’alls undoubtedly v sexc muses so if you’d like to do this pls react to this w a like !

basics.

name: shin nari.

nicknames: idk u could make smth up ig.

gender: cis woman

pronouns: she/her.

age: 30.

date of birth: december 17th 1991.

place of birth: busan, sk.

hometown: ottawa, canada.

nationality: canadian

ethnicity: korean.

education: high school degree.

occupation: tattoo artist, studio owner.

orientation: bisexual, biromantic.

about. (tw: depression mention)

nari was born the second of what should end up being three shin siblings, in busan. they were what you might call the perfect family, her dad being a pediatric surgeon and her mom a nurse working at the same hospital as he did. they were also a very traditional family, so while nari’s mother would often take care of them and things around the house, her father would usually come home late. he would walk up to her mother’s seat on the table, put his arms around her and kiss her on the cheek before sitting down and asking everybody about their days. in nari’s memory he’d always looked like he was carrying the world on his shoulders, endlessly tired but also truly heroic. her mother would always tell them that dad couldn’t be around much because he was saving other children’s lives and how he was making sure other mom’s wouldn’t have to miss their babies. so truly, how could nari view him as anything but that: a perfect hero.

she often asked him for stories of his work, listening with wide eyes as he’d speak on the different children and their issues. he was good at explaining things, even as a six year old she could understand just about everything. most of all she understood one thing, it’s important to help others, especially those weaker than yourself. and just like that, she became obsessed with taking care of others. while her older sister was technically two years her senior, it would still be nari kicking the boy who had pulled one of her braids hard enough to make her cry. she’d also take care of her little brother, trying to help him with his homework and reading stories to him every night. in many ways she tried her best to be a hero to others, just how she knew her father was.

of course things would have to take a turn for the worse at some point though and for nari that turn came when she was twelve. after scoring a perfect a on one of her maths tests, she was so proud, she wanted to show her father straight away and so she left the bus at the clinic, knowing her father was currently working. however, wandering around the department, she couldn’t find him anywhere and the nurses didn’t know where he went either. disappointed, she was just about to leave, when she saw her father through the creak of an almost fully closed door. walking closer, she took a careful look inside, unsure about the noises escaping the room. when she saw the half-dressed woman with her arms around her dad’s broad shoulders, they suddenly looked a whole lot less like the dependable shoulders of a hero. stepping back, she almost couldn’t believe what she had seen.

not knowing what to do, certain she’d destroy her entire family’s lives if she spoke about this big secret, nari didn’t say anything. she didn’t say anything for another three months, though her mother was wondering why nari suddenly didn’t seem as eager to spend time with her father anymore. but who would want to spend time with someone like him, why had she ever wanted to be like that man. it took those three months until her mother found out herself. a scenario that looking back had always been likely, considering they worked at the same hospita. nari’s mother found out and nari found out when only days later her mother told her and her siblings that they were going to spend some time at their grandparent’s without dad. her grandparents that had moved to canada a long time ago, therefore being little more than strangers to her and her siblings. there were tears in her mother’s eyes, she clearly didn’t want to tell her children about their father’s ill behavior but nari knew and she knew her mom knew now as well.

things were not the same afterwards, not only was their entire family uprooted and relocated into another country, their family wasn’t the same either. their move to canada meant her mother started working in her grandparent’s little korean restaurant, which soon became somewhat of a homebase to nari herself, who would spend most of her afternoon’s there doing homework and drawing endless little doodles into her notes. maybe it was a silent show of support, considering the fact that due to her mother’s relucatance to tell the children, her siblings still didn’t know why they had moved without their dad. with every month that passed, every indicator that their stay was going to be a permanent one, her siblings grew more and more upset with their mother. while nari didn’t understand why her mother would choose to protect her father like this, she kept her mouth shut. she figured her grandparents would have to know about this, figured three adults should be able to make a sensible decision about this.

however, as the years passed, nothing about this solution seemed to work out well. they were struggling. the restaurant clearly wasn’t able to really support the lives of six people but her mother had fallen into depression, making it hard for her to take on any other job. they were making ends meet but very barely and neither nari nor her siblings were used to it. tensions were building at an almost daily level, with her siblings, especially her older sister, raining down their frustrations onto her mother while nari would fight her tooth and nails to defend her. her mother might not be perfect, these days it often felt like she wasn’t even really truly there, but the fault for all their misery clearly was her father’s and his alone. one day, the fighting got so bad she just yelled it out. yelled out that their father was a rotten bastard who had cheated on their mother. silence followed her words and only as she looked up she saw her mother had walked into the kitchen, looking at nari in disbelieve. apparently she still hadn’t put it together. hadn’t known nari was aware of what had happened all along.

following all this, none of them ever got as close again as they had been before. her elder sister resented nari and her mother for not telling them earlier, her mother was a ghost of who she had once been and nari? she distanced herself a lot from her family, realizing the weight this entire situation had put on her ever since she had seen the awful scene. the only one she was still genuinely close to was her younger brother, whom she shared her anger about her father with. now in the second half of her teens, she mostly spent her time with friends from school, hanging around in skater parks or breaking into public pools at night. quickly she realized she liked those things that made her heart beat faster and her mind forget about just about anything else. on the other hand, she spent even more of her time drawing, having long since realized it was the only thing she truly wanted to do. she was doing pretty good at school and maybe, just maybe if her life had been different she could have gone on to become an art student.

instead, fresh out of college she started as an apprentice at a tattoo parlor. this plan had arisen after, in a drunken bout of horrible ideas, nari had once tattooed a couple of her friends and it had come out halfway decent considering her drunken state and the bad equipment. she had liked this, leaving her art on somebody else’s body. one of her friends also had a cousin, who had a friend, who was a tattoo artist and so she started her apprenticeship at the parlor that friend worked at. not too long after she got her license, finally getting to fully move out and get her own apartment. while she felt a bit bad about leaving her struggling mother behind, she knew in the end there was nothing more she could do for her. if her mom was to become better, she’d have to want that herself. not long after she moved out, her younger brother basically moved into her place. it was about the time that he graduated high school, which nari heavily supported him in. she knew he had an interest in studying and so she pushed him to try his best and even ended up paying most of his tuition out of her pocket.

meanwhile, over the years, nari became better and better at what she was doing at her job. she had a decent following on social media as well, admiring her work and soon people would travel across the country to get tattooed by her. alongside that came more artistic freedom, as she started denying certain design requests and instead introducing more of her own ideas to clients. at 28 she had saved enough money to open up her first own parlor, which was a hit right from the start, considering the reputation she had build for herself. by now, she was a household name in the scene, known mostly for her creative designs and shading abilities. now she only tattooed her own designs onto other people’s bodies, taking rough suggestions but mostly demanding her artistic freedom. as an artist, this felt like her final step towards freedom after years and years of tattooing butterflies and inspirational quotes. she could finally do her own thing, finally truly be an artist in her own right. only just now, nari moved to seattle to open her second parlor, this time in the us. she doesn’t quite know why she went here to take care of this herself, but on the other hand she had never been one to turn down an adventure.

tl;dr (bc lord knows this turned out way too long)

nari was born in south korea, she is the middle child of three. her family seemed all perfect and what not until nari caught her dad cheating, followed by her mother finding out as well not too soon after. not wanting to tell her children but determined to leave her husband behind, nari’s mother moved them to their grandparents in canada. after that her mom became somewhat depressed and they were struggling financially as well. her sibling were very mad at their mom, while nari tried to be by her side. one day she tells the others and they all further distance themselves from one another, aside from nari and her little brother. after school nari took on an apprenticeship as a tattoo artist (bc she once drunkenly tattoed her friends and it wasn’t half bad) and now she is a worldwide known name in the field. she is opening her second parlor in seattle now, which is why she moved here.

this got way too long and now i just wanna go sleep but like i’ll try to proof read etc as well as write some wc and whatnot tomorrow or so. ill also put out a plotting call then but u can react to this as well. mwuah !! <3 i hope it is a halfway decent read hskjdf

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zentloper-xmas · 1 year

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Merry Christmas, all!

It’s time for another year’s wrap-up. Already? Already! Let’s start with old news and work forward. Technically, I proposed to Neil November of last year in 2017, but we were on a camping trip in the woods (Pinnacles National Park) all alone in the wilderness, so word has gotten out more or less gradually. Folks keep asking us “When’s the wedding?”; I’ll let you know when we know, haha. Our finances are pretty tied up in future plans, and the wedding is one of them.

To that end, the two of us were quite agreeable to temporarily moving into Neil’s folks’ place in Santa Clara in early May of this year. They recently acquired their new retirement home up in Rohnert Park in anticipation of eventual retirement, and thus have been staying partially there and partially here, and while they’re away we take care of the place. We both really appreciate the lower cost of living and the room to spread out a little. (Julie jokes I own more stuff than they do... and maybe she’s right; I’ve always been a pack rat. Thanks, Dad.)

David and Julie also recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in September with a delightful frolic (they’re big into the Contra dance scene in the Bay), which also gave us the chance to visit with his sister and brother-in-law, Martha and Chase, who came for the occasion. Matt and Val (Neil’s uncle and aunt) visited us for a Thanksgiving banquet with his grandmother Jane, and Ruth (Neil’s other aunt) shortly thereafter for Hanukkah. We also had a nostalgic trip to Wente Scout Reservation with my parents over Labor Day Weekend, enjoying kayaking, sailing, and even stand-up paddle boarding on the lake. So it’s been a good year for seeing family, which is always nice. Another memorable event that allowed us all to gather was my brother’s wedding to his fiancée Shawna in June, at a gorgeous garden venue in San Andreas. Since then they’ve moved up north to Washington state, where some of the rest of my extended family resides. The distance makes me miss them, but technology (texts, apps, and social media) at least keeps us “close.” =)

Speaking of, I convinced Neil to finally get a iPhone. His old one wasn’t cutting it on the job; since he assumed “Acting Manager” at his Schwan’s depot, he’s been handling a lot more calls and general communications among staff. It’s a lot to handle, but I know he’s doing a stellar job and I’m super proud of him. With any luck they’ll give him the promotion he deserves! Meanwhile my ex, Mike, managed to score himself a gig at none other than the mighty Facebook! Wow! He and I like to keep in touch and hang out from time to time, including attending D&D games with our pals. I recently changed jobs myself, I’m now a Student Assistant at the Global Leadership Advancement Center at SJSU. Just part-time administrative/clerical work for while I’m still in grad school. We’re in the midst of finals right now (and I can’t wait to put Finance behind me, lemme tell you!), but then I’ll officially be halfway through the program. I’m set to graduate May 2020.

I’ve also still been indulging my creative side. In April I took a weekend-long pinstriping course— you know, those nifty multi- colored intertwining lines you see on classic cars and hot rods? I bought a lot of brushes and paint to continue practicing at home (you should see the old family van), and I even attended a convention where I got to sell some knick-knacks I’d “striped.” And in November I took a class on Mosaics. If you want to check out some of my work, you can visit this URL: https:// bayareapinstriper.tumblr.com

Sorry, not sorry, for the shameless plug. LOL. Hope everyone is well this holiday season!

-Rick and Neil

#Zentloper #Christmas #Xmas #Letter #2018

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beann-e · 3 years

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Haikyu Characters Reacting To Their S/O Screaming Back At Them

Aoba Johsai

Read Part Two Here

kyotani Kentaro

-everyone knows kyotani for his anger and how he doesn’t suck up to people so when they found out he was dating someone they had to assume this someone had the ability to put him in his place and right now that’s just what they needed

“ mad dog-chan you can’t do this not right now“ oikawas voice rang through in annoyance

“ yeah we need you to go in “ iwazumis voice sounded tired as if he was exhausted by trying to convince the boy for the past 5 minutes during their halftime (long timeout)

kyotani grunted as he turned from both of his teammates looking to the wall as he sat on the bench

“ coach seriously — we need him and he’s just on the bench doing nothing “

“ he said he’s tired of you guys only calling him in for 5 minutes and then sitting him back out like an animal— that you use to show off and then send outside when company’s gone “

“ well he’s our secret weapon “ oikawa screamed “ that’s literally what you do “

kyotani grumbled as he rolled his eyes at oikawa who huffed as he moved to turn to the bleachers “ oh forget this he’s not even listening to iwa-chan “

“ well you know what to do flatty-kawa “

“ duh you see i’m doing it iwa-chan”

oikawas hand came up in a wave as he moved to the referee whispering to them as they spoke on the speaker their voices crisp sending a chill through kyotani’s spine

“ we need a y/n l/n to come down to Aoba Johsais Bench — A y/n L/n to come down to Aoba Johsais bench “

you stood up smiling widely as you jumped your way through the crowd voice heaven sent as you screamed “ that’s me “

moving through people talking sweetly “ oops — sorry — sorry have to go take care of a loose hothead—whoops—you should really watch where you place that drink “

you hopped down the stairs waving at the team and the referee as you came to a stop in front of kyotani who was even more mad than he was initially

“ babe whats up why are they calling me down here again “ you sighed “ it’s only happened five other times and I thought we got past it “

“ they say that like it’s nothing “ kindaichis voice came out small as he rubbed the back of his head

“ kyotani “ you called confused usually he would answer you by now and comply and go play for a little while just to make you happy so you could go sit down on the bench to watch his game closely

“ uh somethings wrong iwa-chan “

“ yeah somethings off he’s not responding to her this time “

“ kyo what— “

“ if anything he looks like he’s gonna snap “

oikawa laughed at his comment “ yeah right y/n ‘ s too nice he’d feel horrible if he snapped at ‘em —they’d probably cry he wouldn’t do it “

oikawas face dropped as he heard the loud voice ring out inside the gym “ GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME“

you shuddered at his voice “ your even more fucking annoying than that dumbass over there “

your mouth dropped “ all you do is come down here and bother me everytime and I only go in for you — i’m not doing it this time i’m gonna stand my ground”

he screamed “ they use me for those 5 minutes and then toss me out i’m not doing it — like I said i’m sitting right here on this bench and standing my fucking ground “

your face went up in shock as you felt your body flinch at his voice kyotani and the rest of his team immediately feeling bad at what the whole gym just witnessed everyone listening closely feeling sorry for you

Oikawa moved to glare at kyotani as he walked over to wrap his arms around you “ aw y/n-chan it’s ok to cr— “

“ YOU SCREAM AT ME ONE MORE TIME LIKE THAT AND IM GONNA KNOCK YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF WITH THE BAT MY DAD WACKS INTRUDERS AT HIS STORE WITH “ your screams came out louder than his as you stared down at the boy in front of you

“ I don’t care if you go out there and wipe the floor down with fucking towels or scrape it clean with a toothbrush but your going out on that court kentaro“

your voice was stern “ you better be glad they even give you 2 seconds on that court you love so much with your shitty attitude —if it was me i’d make you a bench rider the whole season while you watch shittykawa smirk at you everytime he goes up for a set that you won’t get “ your screams catching the whole gym off gaurd

“ so your gonna go out there and stand your fucking ground on that court “ you mocked him hand pointing from him to the court

Kyotani’s body shaking at your tone “ kentaro “ you spoke his name like a curse as he jolted and race to stand in his position on the court head never turning back to look at you again as you continued

“ You will score everytime you go up for that ball — everytime you hit something or come in contact with it— I want a point on that board do you hear me“

“ yes “

“ kentaro “

“ yes ma’am “

you moved to fix your clothes as you stared at everyone in the crowd “ everytime my boyfriends feet leave that ground you better clap your asses off do you hear me “

everyone shook their heads in a yes motion afraid of you and how such a big yell could come from such a small person

You smiled at the team before you took your seat on the bench near the coach who read off all his plans for kyotani that hed never listened to

“ oh trust me we’ll do that plan “ you said as you shook your head ignoring all the whispers from the males around you

“ do they know the game doesn’t start back up again until 5 minutes from now “ mattsukawas voice came out in concern

“ I —uh I don’t think they care “

“ oikawa what’s wrong with you “ iwazumi turned to see oikawas face made up in a frown as he sulked

“ pretty y/n-chan called me your stupid nickname “

oikawa

-oikawa never liked losing especially when it was to someone younger than him someone he didn’t like so you can imagine his anger when he lost to Karasuno

-no one expected the hallway to erupt in his screams so soon

“ tooru what’s wrong “

“ i’m just a little tired y/n i’m ok “

“ no but you — you look angry “

he took a deep breath as he shook his head in annoyance moving to walk off you standing in front of him stopping his exit

“ ok then if I look angry why the fuck would you stand in front of me “

“ because I “

“ because your fucking annoying that’s what it is “

“ tooru”

“ no don’t baby me y/n I don’t need you or anyone else to tell me I played good and I was amazing obviously I wasn’t if your standing here talking to me in a hallway and not in front of me while I celebrate on the court “

“ it’s ok baby — you can still win a volleyball nat— “

he lost his cool as he screamed looking down on you “ WHEN Y/N WHEN HUH “

he screamed harshly “ it’s over — are you fucking stupid there is no next time shitty kageyama took it there’s no next time for me — fuck we’re— we’re third years “

his voice sounded bloody by his screams that sounded throughout the hallway his team coming in to check and see if everything was ok receiving their answer when they turned the corner to you taking over

“ if I knew you were so fucking stupid I wouldn’t have dated you you were probably the bad luck charm that made me lose my shitty gam—“

“ the only thing that made you lose this game was you asshole “

your voice was laced with venom as you shot at him screaming constantly “ you and your shitty need to keep working endlessly maybe if you didn’t have a hurt knee — oh wait howd you get that “

you pretended to think “ oh I know FROM OVERWORKING YOURSELF “

you pushed a finger to his chest “ when I say your gonna make it to a nationals someday your gonna make it to a nationals someday you don’t doubt me is that clear “

his face was in fear as his mouth opened wide in a o form unable to process an answer

“ is that clear tooru oikawa “ you screamed

the team letting out yes’s for him as he moved to look back at them before he turned to you shaking his head like a puppy whod accidentally peed in the house

“ I need words “

“ y-fuck y—yes y/n — baby I mean ma’am — shit I mean yes baby “

you moved to stand straight as you cracked your neck and let a smile play on your face as you turned away from him walking to the entrance of the gym “ ok — babe I meant to tell you i’m gonna go say good game to kageyama- kun you go to the busses and make them wait for me ok “ you waved at him as you opened the door “ love you “

“ they wouldn’t dare leave ‘em “ kyotani’s voice came out in a laugh

“ fuck leaving them — theyd let ‘em drive“ hanamaki joked with mattsukawa who was screaming in laughter

your body entering the gym and walking over to kageyama who straightened up turning to speak to hinata who stood in fear

“ you speak nothing of what we heard to y/n-senpai“

“ y-yes ka-kageyama “

“ kageyama-kun youve grown up so much I love it“ you said holding your arms out to him speaking like he was a baby

“ h-hi y/n-senpai “

“ DID YOU KILL THE GREAT KING “

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lonely-lost-soul · 3 years

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Little Fox

(C!Fundy x Reader)

Request 12: Hey if you're making a request, do you do c!Fundy? If so, can I get a Fundy x half fox shapeshifter!reader where fundy finds an injured full fox!reader, and takes her home to patch her up without knowing that she's a shifter ówò? Context, the reader can shift into three forms: full fox, half and half(fox legs, tail, ears, fangs), and fully human. Thank you have a blessed day!!!

Requested By: Anonymous

Moving away from L’manburg or what was once L’manburg was one of the best decisions Fundy has ever made. Did it get lonely from time to time, sure, but at least he was finally at peace. He was away from his ghost of a father and away from the drama of everyone else fighting and the looming sense of death that lingered over everyone that lived in the once-prosperous nation. It was quiet and he was happy to be left alone, well, mostly alone. There was one exception, a snow-white fox that trotted around his house from time to time, curious (e/c) watching him with intent. He had always felt a connection to foxes considering he was part fox, he hated seeing them hurt or starving or treated with disrespect, so he kept them around. However the white fox didn’t seem to pay him any mind other than silently watching and wandering around his home, he started placing food out for the fox. This went on for a few months until one night something felt off. Fundy kept glancing out the window, almost like he was expecting to see someone but no one popped up until he remembered his little buddy. He didn’t know why it sent him so on edge, it was just a random arctic fox maybe it was the way the food was left untouched or the pull he felt to go the woods, but he grabbed his coat and stepped into the forest.

The first thing he noticed was the small animal prints littering the snow, there seemed to be some sort of scuffle. Worry entered his veins and his ears pressed flat against his head, he journeyed deeper into the forest and noticed little droplets of blood. Fundy adjusted his hat nervously and followed the blood droplets, crumpled on the ground in front of his feet was a blood-stained fox. The once pure white coat of the fox was stained with red splotches a big gash was torn from its side, Fundy felt nauseous. The wind seemed to blow against his exposed ears, almost urging him to pick up the fox and take it home. He reached out and picked the fox up in his arms and held it close, the wind blew again, his eyes widened a little in surprise, the wind seemed to whisper a thank you.

Back at the house he laid the fox down on his couch and began to patch up her wounds. Hopefully, she wouldn’t attack him in the morning, be too freaked out, he wrapped the bandages around the wound stopping the flow of blood. He just prayed his foxy friend would be alive come the morning light. Fundy flicked the lights off and went to sleep in his bedroom, even though all the windows were shut and locked tight he still felt that odd breeze tickle the tufts of his ears. ‘Take good care of her’ it seemed to whisper, his heart thudded in his chest as he snuggled under the covers. The morning sun streamed through his windows, blinding the hybrid slightly, he groaned loudly and sat up in bed. He ran his sharp nails through his hair tussling it a little bit, trying to calm the rat’s nest down. As snapped to consciousness fully when he noticed footsteps coming from his living room, very human-sounding footsteps. Fundy tensed and hopped out of bed storming into the room, a dagger in hand. He let out a startled shriek seeing a beautiful half-naked young woman standing in the middle of the room. However, he couldn’t even focus on that, he was more focused on the snow-white fox ears that sat atop her head, the fluffy tail behind her, and the fox-like legs.

She was like him.

“Fundy right?” She sent him a crooked smile, sharp fangs very visible, making him feel all types of things. “Names, (Y/n) and you saved my life last night.”

“You- Fox?! but- human-” His hands tangled in his orange hair mentally trying to come to terms with the fact that he had probably saved a forest spirit. “No shirt!” he sputtered feeling soft hands take his own, he noticed a smile on her lips, their eyes locked together,

“I’m a shifter. A pleasure to officially meet you.” He felt you squeeze his palms and he swallowed thickly,

“Shifter?”

He watched you nod tail swishing from side to side, you were very happy to be talking to him it seemed, Fundy felt oddly honored. “I have three forms! Full fox, half fox, and fully human,” You explained holding up three fingers on your hand. “Usually full fox is easier but as you can see,” You motioned to the bandages covering your chest, “it’s not without risks.”

“Hold the phone you’re telling me the fox I’ve been feeding-”

“Yup! That was me!” You giggled as his cheeks went red, “I appreciated it.”

“I gave you dog food! I’m so sorry, oh my god!” He sputtered out completely mortified by the situation. You let out a roaring laugh, it was very reminiscent of that of a fox but he supposed that, that made sense. He watched you dip your head and nuzzle underneath his chin, once again he felt his entire face burn red, your ears were so soft, the fur tickling his chin.

“It’s okay, I didn’t eat any of that. Just pretended.” You reassured lifting your head to once again meet his eyes. “Soooo...you gonna tell me your name? Or should I just call you handsome?” He felt the blush spread down onto his neck,

Oh no, she was so cute.

“Fundy! I’m Fundy.” He nodded more stiffly than he wanted too suddenly very aware of how close the both of them were to one another. You blinked after a few minutes peaking around his shoulder, oh shit was his tail wagging? A bright smile spread across your cheeks “Laugh it up okay! Not every day I get to have a cute fox girl nuzzle against me alright!” Your ears fell flat against your head, he watched pink spread across your cheeks, score.

“Cute?” You meekly whispered you pulled away a little to grab at your tail shyly, “Thank you.”

He was going to die, you were going to be the death of him.

After that first encounter, you, the real you, had become a staple of his life. You had moved with him a few days after showing your more human form to the hybrid. You knew how to cook which made him swoon, it tasted divine, he was tired of being alone. You made him feel like he still had hope, you were his family now even after only knowing you for such a short amount of time. There was an odd sort of bond the two of you had, he was happy to have someone understand him, on a level that no one has ever been able to before, especially not his father. Days rolled into weeks and weeks turned into months, it was about eight months in when Fundy finally confessed to you.

You’d spent the day away from home, in your full fox form, saying you needed to stretch your legs and Fundy let you go. That didn’t mean he wasn’t a mess all day worrying about your well-being all day, he barely could get anything done, so when he saw your white fur streak through the trees that night he knew you were home. He ran out onto the stones of the path and called out your name, he watched your ears twitch and turned towards him. He felt his tail begin wagging ecstatically and he could see yours begin to do the same, you charged headfirst towards him shifting as you run, as you arrived he held out his arms and you jumped right on in them. He felt your arms wrap around his neck as he lifted you into the air. He spun you around as he laughed,

“I missed you, Dee!” You purred out happily leaning back a little bit in his arms, he still held you above the ground.

“I missed you too Dearheart,” Fundy whispered looking up at your sparkling eyes it was then, with your white fur shining in the moonlight that he realized he was in love with you. “(Y/n)?”

“Hm?”

“Can I kiss you?”

“Please.” You breathed out softly, cheeks pink, ears twitching, “I’d like that very much.”

So, he did.

Two years being together of being together was finally when Wilbur- or ghostbur- decided to visit his son. You were outside in the garden, tending to some of Fundy’s vegetables deadset on using some of the fresh ones to make soup for tonight. You were in your human form so you didn’t get your white fur covered in dirt, so you didn’t hear the ghost coming close to the house until he was leaning over your shoulder.

“Hello!”

You screamed like a little kit throwing your basket through the ghost who shivered at the foreign feeling.

“Sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!” The ghost apologized adjusting the round glasses on his face. “I heard my son Fundy lives around here but I must be mistaken!”

“Are you...you’re Wilbur aren’t you?”

“Oh! You’ve heard of me! Was it my music, please say yes!” The ghost’s eyes seemed to sparkle with hope, he shrunk a little as he watched you shake your head, “oh…”

“I’m-”

“(Y/n)! I heard you scream, you alright?” Fundy peeked his head out the door eyes going big seeing his dead father standing beside you. Wilbur looked between the both of you before a tiny smirk spread across his face,

“Ohhhhhh, I see now.” Wilbur nodded watching his son’s face go red, “My little champion is all grown up! With a beautiful human to mind you!”

“Er...not exactly.” You mumbled, allowing your ears and tail to pop up from your head, Wilbur’s jaw dropped in shock and awe.

“She’s like you!” Wilbur gaped reaching up to touch your ears, you flinched a little, and Fundy snarled at his father. “Sorry, sorry,” He pulled his hand back with a sheepish smile Fundy finally walked over to the both of you, pushing you behind him only slightly.

“What’re you doing here dad?” His voice was gruffer than you’ve ever heard it, his tail was puffed up in a way you’ve never seen before from your boyfriend.

He was on edge.

Wilbur shuffled a little fumbling with a piece of something blue in his hands. “I just wanted to check up on my son. No one’s heard from you for a while we’re all getting a little worried. I love you so-”

“Dad.” He groaned pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose pinching it, “look. I appreciate you’re all worried but I’m happier here.”

“But you’re all alone out here! It’s not good for anyone’s health, especially not a young fox!”

“Excuse you?” Your eyes narrowed in offense, “I lived out here all my life.” You bristled in frustration, “I turned out fine.” Wilbur eyed you warily and Fundy squeezed your palm tightly, “I did!”

“I didn’t mean any offense. I’m just looking out for my son.”

“No offense but I think he can look after himself just fine.” You shot right back and Fundy covered up a surprised laugh, “So far so good. Plus he’s not alone, I’m with him.” You squeezed Fundy’s hand rather tightly, as Wilbur glanced at your intertwined hands.

“What she said.” Fundy nodded his head, “we have each other and that’s all we need. At least for right now. So try not to worry too much.” He waved his dad off, “Now if you don’t mind we have dinner to cook.” Wilbur gave a hesitant nod before turning back to look into your eyes,

“Don’t hurt him.”

“I don’t plan on it," You assured nodded your head you both had a brief staring contest before Wilbur said his official goodbyes and headed on his way. “I’m sorry,” Fundy watched your ears fall flat against your head.

“What for?” Fundy’s brows furrowed in concern, “He was being an ass, you had every right to defend yourself. Plus I hate him so.” He shrugged unbothered, “I love you though.” He pecked your cheek and you smiled shyly.

“I love you too Dee.” You spoke softly, pulling him close by his jacket, his tail began to wag enthusiastically.

“Kiss?”

“Kiss.” You nodded standing on your tiptoes to give him a long kiss, he purred tangling his fingers through your hair. You pulled away much too soon for his liking and let out a low whine, you giggled happily and peppered his face in light kisses. “Fundy?”

“Hm?”

“Let’s get married.”

“What?”

~~~

Next Up: Immortality and Nymphs Part II

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bubbleteaimagines · 3 years

Text

Dugout

Eren Jaeger Oneshot

Summary: After a team win, Eren thanks his good luck charm by fucking her in the Dugout

Parings: Baseball Player!Eren x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Smut, lots of praise, public sex

Authors Note: I know NOTHING! zero, zip, nada, ABOUT BASEBALL! I am sorry but Dogout and homerun are the only words I know

A final cheer left your lips as Eren hit a homerun, placing the team at 3-2 and bringing home the win.

You could tell that your boyfriend was pumped as he ran around the field, sliding just in time and then yelling out as the empire called it in.

From beside you, Zeke, Grisha, Carla, Armin and Mikasa were all cheering, but Eren only had his focus on you as you hopped around in the stands.

“Baby! I knew you could do it!” You jumped into his arms and gave him a kiss as soon as he was allowed the walk off the field. When you pulled away, he was immediately swooped into Zeke’s arms as he laughed and congratulated his little brother.

“You might just be better than me when I was your age,” Zeke commented, and you could tell the comment meant a lot to Eren, especially because Zeke was already on his way to the pros.

“Well would you look at that-” Eren beamed as his dad pulled him into hug. “Looks like I’ve got two talented ball players as my sons. Nationals- can you believe that honey?”

“Oh, I’m so proud!” Carla leaned down to kiss Eren’s cheek and you giggled at his flustered expression.

“Mom...” He moved away from her, embarrassed, and then zeroed in on Grisha.

“I can’t believe you made it, dad! I thought you had a shift at the hospital!” Eren wondered.

Grisha smiled. “I did. But after hearing how far you’ve come Y/N here showed up and convinced me to come watch. You have her to thank,” The older male said, nodding at you.

Turning towards you, Eren engulfed you in a huge hug and you squealed as he lifted you off the ground.

“You did that? For me?” He questioned, his eyes shining.

“Well...” You rubbed the back of your neck, “I just knew how much it’d mean to you if he did. So I worked some magic and...”

“You’re amazing!” Eren cut you off and kissed you again, causing Zeke to make gagging noise behind you.

“Gross,” He commented, causing Carla to playfully smack his arm.

“Come on. Let’s give him some alone time with Y/N and his friends,” She said softly, guiding Zeke and Grisha away just as Mikasa and Armin came running up.

“Eren!”

“Umph-!” Eren grunted as the two tackled him into a hug and grabbed the nearby fence to steady himself.

“Eren that was amazing!” Armin shouted out once they pulled away, Mikasa nodding.

“You scored two out of three points, Eren! You’re definitely going to get drafted some day,” Mikasa said, causing Eren to beam.

“Y-You think?” He mumbled, his cheeks red. You smiled softly and grabbed his hand.

“We know so,” You reassured him. “Zeke was right- you’re a star, more than he was. And I can’t to see you on the big screen one day.”

“Me too!” Armin said, “But first- we better get to the after party! Jean texted and said that Connie and Sasha are gonna eat everything before we can show up!”

“After party?” Eren tilted his in confusion.

“Well,” You smiled shyly. “I just knew you were gonna win so I went ahead and organized it. Everyone’s there- everyone wants to congratulate you.”

Eren was once again stunned and amazed by your support. Was there anything you didn’t do for him?

“Wow. You’re my good luck charm and my biggest supporter. How did I get so lucky?” Eren pulled you into his arms and kissed the top of your head. You smiled.

“I think I should be asking you that,” You tell him, “But come on. Armin’s right- we’d better hurry unless we wanna be starving.”

“You guys can ride with me and my parents,” Mikasa said. “I know it’s a bit weird seeing as we’re all seniors but-”

“That sounds great actually,” Eren smiled, but his grip on your hand tightened. “I’d love that, but actually I think there’s something I left in the dugout. Y/N, you wanna come with me?”

“Oh yeah,” You were oblivious to the look he was giving you, eyes filled with love admiration. Instead you turned to Mikasa and told her you guys would meet her at the car and then you walked off with Eren.

“Baby? What’d you forget? Was it your gloves again?” You wondered, but you were quickly cut off as Eren grabbed you suddenly and pulled you into a deep kiss.

You couldn’t deny- this was the last thing you were expecting but you quickly pushed away your shock and kissed him back, hands going into hair automatically as he situated his on your waist.

“Woah, baby,” You pulled away as you felt him getting a little too frisky, grinding his hips against yours. “What are you doing? We’re in public,” You reminded him, glancing around worriedly.

“But Y/N,” Eren whined, pulling your attention back to him again. “Baby you were so good to me today. Cheering me on, getting my dad to come, throwing me a party! I wanna give you a reward before we’re surrounded by people for the rest of the night,” He told you.

You furrowed your eyebrows. “A reward?” You asked him, “You mean like-”

“I wanna make you feel good, baby,” He clarified. “I wanna take care of you like you’ve been taking care of me.”

“But we- Eren we’re in the middle of the dogout!” You told him. “Anybody could walk by at any moment. Mikasa-”

He smirked. “Guess we’ll have to be quick then, won’t we?” He asked. You could tell that he was anxious to get his hands on you, and you couldn’t even lie- you were anxious to let him.

It had been a while, since Eren was so busy with baseball, and that was ultimately what ended up making you agree, nodding your head.

“Okay.”

Eren smiled in satisfaction at your answer, and then he was leaning once more to capture your lips. You felt the passion as you always did, but this was a bit more needy as he slowly backed you up against the fence.

“Can you take this off pretty girl?” He asks, pulling away to tug at the jersey he had loaned you. Nodding, you quickly shed the material and shivered as the air kissed your exposed torso. Smiling, Eren did the same with his shirt and the warmth from his musclar body made it a bit more bareable.

“Eren,” You whined as he leaned in and started sucking on your neck, going immediately for your sweet spot. He had you weak in the knees and he hadn’t even touched your dampening core, instead opting to leave pretty hickey and then pulling away.

“Yes baby?” He looked into your eyes and smiled as you grabbed him and pulled him close. “I need these off,” You pouted and motioned to your shorts, your legs already grinding together.

Understanding what you wanted, Eren quickly got to his knees and yanked the material down, exposing your cute little panties which Eren eventually took off, too.

“You want me to make you cum baby? Right here?” He asks you, looking up at you with those beautiful turquoise eyes.

Your core was throbbing and aching for him as you leaned against the fence to steady yourself.

“Y-Yes,” You nodded eagerly, causing Eren to smile, “Yes baby, please.”

“Okay.”

Eren wasted no time in complying with your demands, bringing his calloused fingers to rub over your clit, causing you to let out a moan.

“Fuck- Eren, I-I need-”

His pretty lips were already attached to your pussy before you could even say more, devouring you just like you wanted.

You moaned as his tongue lapped at your velvet walls, hands snaking down to grip his brown hair. Eren help your hips with one hand and then threw your leg over his shoulder to give you more balance.

He then took a break from your pussy in order to slip a finger in, enjoying how you clenched around him.

“You like that pretty girl?” He asks as he curls them deep, adding another finger.

“Y-Yes,” Your fingers are wrapped in his hair and through the gaps of the fence as Eren begins to finger fuck you, stretching you perfectly.

He watches you with admiration as pretty moan escape your lips, your head thrown back and your nipples hard from the cool air.

“Eren-!”

You gasp as he curls in finger in that one spot, knowing exactly how to get you off. Eren is steady with his pace, making sure to pay attention to you but to also abuse your sweet spot over and over again with his fingers, wanting you to cum.

“Yes pretty girl?” He glanced up at you and raises his eyebrows are your expression. “What do you want? You want me to make you cum all over my fingers?” He asks, and you nod frantically.

“Yes! Yes please, baby I-” The coil in your stomach behind unravel as Eren uses his mouth again. He’s lapping at your walls, teasing your clit and hitting your g-spot all the same time. He’s mastered your body, and soon it doesn’t take much to have you cumming all over his face, Eren lapping up all of your juices.

“Good girl,” He smirks as you moan and let out shaky breaths, your eyes firmly squeezed shut. The grip on his hair looses as you slowly come down from your high, and Eren is able to stand up and pull you close to him to support your shaking legs.

“You taste so good baby,” He whispers, his swollen lips catching yours and pulling you back into a kiss.

The hand that was clutching his hair finds it’s way back and Eren moans, grinding against your bare pussy, rock hard in his uniform.

“Gotta get these off,” He mutters, pulling away to grab messily at his pants. You can tell he’s eager- Erens always eager to by inside of you. But there’s just something about him today that makes him extra needy, and you love it. You love the look for absolute admiration in his eyes as he slips his pants off and pulls down his boxers.

You how soft he is when he intertwines your hands, leaning in whisper sweet praises in your ear before wrapping your legs around him and sinking his thick cock into you.

Both you and Eren as he pushes past your tight walls, burying himself into the crook of your neck and then balancing you on his cock as he bottoms out.

He’s holding you up, fucking into you as his hips moved and then he’s kissing you again right as he sets a pace.

You can feel his love for you in every thrust, whimpering as he makes you feel so good and so full. On top of that, Erens praising you like never before, pounding into your pussy while also telling you what a good girl you were.

“No one else,” Eren grunts, his hips snapping into yours at a bruising pace, your pussy squelching due to how wet you were. “No one else can make me feel like this, you hear me? It’s you. It’s you baby- you make me feel so good.”

“Eren,” You whine his name like a prayer as your lips drop open, your eyes hazy. You can feel him deep inside of your womb, fucking you oh so good and you’re not sure how much longer either of you can last as you clench around him.

“That’s it,” Eren smiles as you cry out again, holding onto him for dear life as he hits that spot again. “Your sweet little pussy is milking me- baby I’m gonna-”

“Fuck!”

You both cried out as your orgasm hit up, causing Eren to shutter to a stop and you to cry, clawing at his back.

You could feel his warm seed painting your walls, spilling himself deep inside of your womb. Likewise, Eren was relishing in the feeling of your clamping down on him, your pretty little mewls causing him to cum until you were too dizzy to make anymore noise.

“Babygirl,” You whimpered as you looked at Eren, your foreheads pressed together. Your body was shaking, you knew that, but somehow he was still holding you up, still deep inside of you as gripped the fence.

“Eren, that was-” You panted out, your chest rising and falling heavily due to orgasming twice. “Baby, that was-”

“That was for always being my good luck charm,” Eren told you firmly. “You...you’re always there for me. Every game- every practice. I couldn’t ask for someone better, Y/N.”

And he meant it. You knew he did, and you smiled softly as you nodded and nuzzled your head into his neck.

It was rare to ever have Eren so vulnerable like this, so open with his feelings. You knew he sometimes had a hard time opening up, which only made this moment even more special to you.

“I love you,” You whispered to him as Eren pulled out of you and helped you clean up. Thank god you guys were outside- Eren had made a mess between your thighs but the feeling of his seed still inside of you was like nothing you had ever experienced before.

“I love you too,” Eren reassured you before taking your hand and gently guiding your shaking body back to where you were supposed to be.

“God, I hope Mikasa hasn’t taken off yet. I can’t walk home like this,” You grimaced, barely even able to stand up now.

Eren laughed. “Don’t worry. I don’t think we took that long but even if we did- I’d be sure to carry you all the way home.”

#attack on titan #attack on titan imagine #attack on titan x reader #shingeki no kyojin #shingeki no kyoujin fanfiction #shingeki no kyoujin imagine #shingeki no kyoujin x reader #attack on titan smut #eren jaeger x reader #eren jaeger x you #eren jaeger smut #eren jaeger imagines #eren yeager smut #eren yeager imagines #eren yeager x reader #eren yeager #eren jaeger #spicytea.txt

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miracleonice87 · 3 years

Text

Secret

a Mathew Barzal one shot

a/n: and here it is! the recent news-inspired secret baby fic. Huge thanks to all who reached out and encouraged me to write it and to those who gave me ideas and advice. completely fictitious timeline and hockey-related events here, and we’re pretending the pandemic is not a thing in this one.

summary: Mat Barzal and his longtime girlfriend welcome their first baby after keeping her pregnancy well-hidden from the public eye.

warnings: morning sickness and childbirth (nothing graphic or detailed). dad Barzy, which deserves a warning. swearing. super fluff.

_____

Never in your life did you imagine that you would be attempting to conceal your first pregnancy — or any pregnancy — from members of the media.

Then again, you never could have predicted that you would end up being the long-term girlfriend of one of the most recognizable figures in the National Hockey League, and, more specifically, on the New York City sports scene. But if there’s one thing you had learned over the course of your more than four-year relationship, it was that life is full of the unexpected.

Currently, that aforementioned figure was whipping his car as quickly as possible into a private parking area at New York Presbyterian, glancing at you every ten seconds as you breathed through the early stages of labor with your firstborn baby, your water having broken just as you and Mat were settling in for sleep around midnight.

Only a small, select group of people knew that you and Mat were expecting, and as you checked in to the maternity ward just before one o’clock in the morning, you were grateful that there were very few people around you. You were hurried to your private room, Mat faithfully carrying your bags and nearly stepping on the heels of the poor nurse pushing your wheelchair, refusing to let you out of his sight for even a second.

Only once you were settled into bed, changed into a most unflattering hospital gown, hooked up to several monitors, and examined, did you allow yourself to look up at Mat and announce your practically inevitable victory.

“As long as that nurse doesn’t moonlight as a reporter, I think we did it,” you ventured with an incredulous chuckle. Mat shook his head in disbelief as he stood next to your bed, holding one of your hands in both of his.

“Don’t wanna speak too soon, but yeah, I think we did,” he agreed. “I can’t believe we managed to keep this a secret.”

_____

Six weeks

It certainly wasn’t the first time you’d ever had your head hanging above a toilet bowl on New Year’s Day.

But it sure as hell was the first time it had ever happened when you had no hangover to speak of.

In fact, you’d only had two sips of champagne the previous night before you felt weirdly dizzy and passed out in bed watching the Isles battle the Bruins.

The next thing you knew, you were being gently roused from deep sleep by your boyfriend, whose brow was creased with concern as he leaned over you.

“Sweetheart?” Mat spoke softly when you finally opened your eyes, his fingers smoothing your hair against your heavy head. “You okay?”

You inhaled deeply, feeling completely off. “Yeah... yeah,” you insisted softly. “What time is it?” you asked, discombobulated.

“It’s almost midnight,” Mat answered. “How long have you been sleeping?”

You slowly pushed yourself up on your elbows in bed. “Uh... I don’t know,” you admitted. “I watched the first period... I think.”

That wasn’t like you, and Mat knew it. A lifelong hockey fan, you kept close tabs on not only Mat and the Islanders, but the scores from around the entire league each night. Coming from a hockey-loving family, watching highlights on NHL Network was your late night routine. On top of that, you looked flushed to him, and dark circles hung around your eyes, a rarity for you except when you were ill.

“Baby... are you sick?” Mat shrugged off his suit jacket, tossing it on the end of the bed and quickly taking a seat next to you on the edge of the mattress. He put the back of his hand to your forehead and studied you carefully. “You don’t feel fevered.”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just a cold,” you replied, remembering the strange feeling that had overcome you when you sipped your champagne earlier. “I do feel kinda dizzy... nauseous.”

Mat nodded, eyes still full of worry. “Maybe you’re getting the flu,” he suggested. “That’s been going around lately.” You nodded too, yawning.

“Well, listen,” Mat continued, motioning for you to lie back as he pulled the covers over you again. “Go back to sleep, and tomorrow if you still aren’t feeling well, I’ll run to the pharmacy and get you some medicine and stuff. Okay?”

You nodded again, overcome once more by exhaustion as you settled back into your bed. “Okay,” you whispered. “Thanks, babe. Hey, did you win?”

Mat smiled. “Yeah, baby, we won. Now get some rest. I love you, sweet girl,” he said, pressing a warm kiss to your temple.

“I love you, Maty,” you breathed. “Happy New Year.”

“Happy New Year, my love,” he whispered, his thumb tracing your bottom lip slowly as you immediately drifted back to sleep.

And now here you were, seven hours later, heaving into the toilet as Mat dropped to his knees behind you on the tile, gathering your long hair into his hands as quickly as possible.

“Oh, honey,” he groaned, rubbing your back. “You poor thing.”

After flushing the toilet several times to get rid of the contents, you finally sat upright, cautiously, slowly.

“God, I feel like shit,” you whispered, pressing a hand to your forehead as Mat ran his hands back and forth down your legs, trying to soothe you.

“I can tell,” he said sadly, standing. You looked up at him helplessly as he said, “I’m gonna go get you flu meds from the pharmacy. Let me just get dressed.”

You nodded once, feeling too lightheaded to move your head any more than that. You didn’t budge from your place on the floor as Mat took his robe from the hook on the door and wrapped it around your shoulders, kissing the crown of your head before exiting the bathroom. You heard him shuffling around in his drawers as you closed your eyes, willing the queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach to cease.

Moments later, Mat called out to you from the bedroom.

“Do you need anything else from the drugstore while I’m there, baby?”

You opened your eyes to glance around the bathroom, trying to keep your head as still as possible. You saw toothpaste, Tylenol, and... did you have enough tampons?

You reached next to you to open the drawer that held your monthly supplies, and you were surprised to find two boxes of tampons, not even opened, along with a plethora of pads and liners.

Finally, it hit you like a crashing wave. Suddenly, your world started spinning, and it wasn’t because of the nausea.

“Holy fuck,” you whispered, slamming the drawer shut.

“Maty...” you called out hoarsely, causing him to rush back toward the bathroom. Your heart was racing.

“What’s wrong?” he asked anxiously as he appeared in the doorway, ready to take up residence on the floor with you again if necessary.

You bit your bottom lip and inhaled a shaky breath before answering, sounding much more calm than you felt.

“I need you to buy me a test,” you said matter-of-factly.

At first, Mat wore a blank expression. “What kinda te— wait…” he said as you watched the wheels turning in his head. You couldn’t help but allow a small smile to spread across your lips as the realization hit him, too. He froze, mouth slightly agape, wide eyes searching yours to try and determine whether you were serious. Reading him, you nodded, which caused his eyes to widen even further.

“A pregnancy test,” you confirmed in a shaky voice.

“Holy fuck,” he whispered familiarly, his own smile beginning to play on his lips.

_____

“That was Liana,” Mat said, sliding his phone back into the pocket of his sweats after ending the brief call. “She’s catching a flight in the morning.”

You nodded gratefully as Mat returned to your side, dutifully grabbing your hand and running his other over your rounded stomach.

“She said to tell you she loves you, and baby, too,” he added with a warm grin. “And that she—“

Mat stopped short the second he heard you groan softly, the smile you’d worn upon hearing Liana’s name having morphed quickly into a wince.

“Another contraction?” Mat asked, hastily pulling the stool by the bed closer and taking a seat.

“Mhm,” you confirmed tightly, rolling on your side to look into his eyes, seeking a diversion. The pain in your face absolutely shattered Mat’s heart. He despised how helpless he felt watching you.

“Just look at me. Breathe, baby,” Mat coached before breathing in and out just as your Lamaze instructor had taught you both, nodding his head to urge you to mimic him. You did your best, squeezing his big hand hard enough that Mat saw his fingertips turning white, though he was too smart and too concerned with your labor pains to point that out.

“Good girl. Breathe, sweetheart. Good girl,” Mat encouraged. “That’s my girl,” he added softly, lightly dragging his fingernails along your scalp, combing his hand through your hair, in an attempt to comfort you.

“I seriously hate you right now,” you spat between pants and gasps. “You did this to me.”

Though he tried to hold back, a breathy laugh passed through Mat’s nose. “Yeah, my mom warned me you might say that,” he told you. “I’d hate me right now, too,” he added, running his fingers along your forearm lightly as you grimaced in agony.

Finally, your muscles relaxed as the contraction passed. Your face softened and your eyes fluttered open to see Mat staring at you intently, concern etched into his gorgeous features. You reached out your hand to run a thumb over his strong jaw.

“I’m okay,” you whispered, giving him your best smile as you caught your breath.

Mat nodded. “I just hate seeing you hurting,” he whispered back. You gave him an understanding look and then grinned brightly.

“But it’s gonna be worth it,” you assured, making Mat’s eyes light up. He kissed your palm and you asked, “Now what else did Liana say? Distract me.”

With a smile, Mat said, “That she can’t wait to meet this little one.” He leaned his head forward to kiss your belly sweetly as you smiled softly, leaning back against the mattress to rest up momentarily before the next wave, as the memory of telling Liana the news months ago came to mind.

_____

Twelve weeks

Your phone buzzed on the dining room table, vibrating against the glass top. Normally, you would never answer a call during a Valentine’s Day dinner with Mat, even at home, but these particular circumstances allowed for an exception.

“It’s Liana,” you smirked, swiping to answer the FaceTime call as Mat muttered, “Nice of her to call you and not her own brother.”

You ignored his complaint and smiled at the woman who was basically your sister-in-law.

“Hi, Li,” you said happily. “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

Liana didn’t even let you finish your greeting before she asked hurriedly, “What the fuck is going on?”

Mat leaned closer into you in order to be included in the camera’s view. “That’s rude,” he chirped, trying to sound angry, but being betrayed by the smirk twitching at his pink lips.

“No, seriously, you guys,” Liana continued, sounding anxious. “What does this mean?” She lifted the card from the full bouquet of blush pink roses before her. “‘Happy Valentine’s Day, Li,’” she read. “‘We’re so excited to give you another member of the family to love this August.’ And it’s signed from you guys and ‘Baby B...’”

Liana’s eyes flicked back up to your own and she couldn’t stand still, pacing her kitchen. “It’s not funny to joke about this,” she insisted, sounding confused and slightly offended.

“It isn’t a joke, dude,” Mat giggled. “We’re having a baby.”

Liana started screaming after “having.”

Laughter racked your body as you watched her jump up and down, tears streaming down her face as she squealed and asked a dozen times whether you were serious. You nodded each time until her hysteria finally subsided.

“Do Mom and Dad know?” Liana asked with a quaking voice, wiping the dampness from her cheeks.

“Yeah, they know,” you confirmed, swiping at a couple of your own fallen tears. Damn hormones.

“But listen, Liana,” Mat interjected, putting on his most serious tone. “They know, and her family knows, but past that, we haven’t told a soul. We honestly might not tell anyone else, depending on how soon she starts to show. We don’t want crazy fans or, God forbid, the media to get ahold of it and just be intrusive. We’ve seen how that goes. We just want this to be as private as possible. So you can’t post anything, can’t tell any of your friends. Okay?”

Liana nodded, sniffling throughout her brother’s command. “Yeah, totally,” she immediately concurred. “I get it. I think you guys are smart for doing it this way. This is like Kylie Jenner shit.”

You and Mat both snickered at that comparison for multiple reasons, then Liana began truly processing the news.

“Wait... so,” she began. “How far along are you?”

“Twelve weeks,” you replied. “So barring anything out of the ordinary, that kind of means we’re in the clear, risk-wise.”

“And you’re okay? Everything is okay?” Liana asked nervously.

Mat nodded, appreciating his little sister’s obvious concern for you and the baby. “She’s okay, Liana,” he assured as you smiled at him. “She’s perfect,” he added, picking up your hand to press a kiss to your fingers, causing Liana to tear up once again.

“You better take such good fucking care of her, Mat. You hear me? She doesn’t have her mom or any of us nearby, so she needs you,” Liana said firmly to her brother. You warmed at her display of womanly solidarity, ever thankful to have an ally in her.

Mat rolled his eyes. “Yes, Liana, I’ve been taking care of her for years,” he said, unamused.

“Yeah, well, it’s different now,” Liana pointed out. “Now she’s carrying my niece or nephew!”

You and Mat grinned at each other once more, Mat rubbing his hand slowly across your lower belly, which was mostly still flat, save for a slight, bloated curve.

“Yeah, she is,” Mat said airily, gazing into your blue eyes deeply as his sister resumed her squealing in the background.

_____

“Can I please have more ice chips?” you asked as you came down from yet another contraction, sounding whinier than you meant to and slightly hating yourself for it.

Mat smiled warmly down at you, pushing some of your hair back from your forehead and tenderly placing a kiss to your temple.

“Yes. You get all the ice chips you want, sweet girl,” Mat cooed, nuzzling his nose in your hair before stepping back and winking at you, grabbing the ice bucket from the bedside table. If there was one thing you had enjoyed most about the experience of pregnancy and labor, it was the way Mat spoiled you, ever attentive to your needs and wants. “I’ll be right back. Don’t have that baby while I’m gone,” he instructed, pointing at you.

Despite the discomfort you felt, you still breathed a laugh and rolled your eyes at him, Mat positively beaming at you as he walked backwards out of your suite, then turned down the hall.

As you rested your hands against your belly and your head back on the pillow, spotting the big bouquet of flowers Tito had sent for you, another memory from the past several months flashed in your mind.

_____

Twenty weeks

“I’m sorry,” Tito choked out once he stopped coughing on the Easter ham you’d made for a small group of the Isles boys, who had just begun playoffs and therefore weren’t traveling for the holiday, and their significant others. “You’re what?!”

You and Mat giggled, Mat squeezing your thigh under the table reassuringly. Sydney, late in her own pregnancy, jumped from her seat, tears springing to her eyes, and squealed as she ran to you, throwing her arms around your shoulders as you sat grinning at the others — Tito, Marty, Anders, Grace, Josh, and Meg — whose mouths hung open as they tried to process your announcement.

You turned back to Mat, the same broad smile seemingly permanently plastered on his handsome features the past few months stretching across his face once again.

“You wanna show them?” he asked softly, the tone in his voice telling you the decision was yours completely. You nodded, grasping the fabric of your knit sweater, the same casually chic, baggy style that you’d stocked up on to hide your growing stomach.

Sydney let go of you, allowing you to stand from your chair, as she nearly shouted, “What do you mean, show us?! How pregnant are you?!”

You bit your bottom lip, still smiling from ear to ear, and turned sideways, lifting your sweater to reveal your noticeable, ever-rounding bump beneath your high-waisted leggings.

A collective gasp sucked the oxygen from the room, Mat smirking at your friends, as you quietly admitted, “I’m twenty weeks...”

Tito pounded a fist to the table in disbelief and let out a holler. Anders raised his own fists over his head so fast that he knocked off the black baseball cap he wore. Josh and Marty couldn’t stop yelling, “No!” and “No fucking way,” respectively. Meg and Grace immediately leapt to their feet, too. “You’re halfway?!” they shouted in unison.

All Mat could do was beam proudly at you, bringing your waist close as he pressed a reverent, chaste kiss to your stomach over your sweater.

“Surprise!” you sang softly to the onlookers, your voice watery as a couple of happy tears escaped your eyes. The girls all embraced you, taking turns rubbing your belly, as the guys uttered boyish praises to Mat, joking that they didn’t know he had it in him.

Besides your and Mat’s parents and siblings, you still hadn’t told any friends of your pregnancy — making this sacred time that much more special for you and Mat.

But it was time to tell this circle. It had gotten more and more difficult and complicated to refuse drinks when the wives and girlfriends met for brunch, and even Mat was struggling to come up with excuses for why he wanted to rush home from the arena when the rest of the guys his age wanted to go to the bar to celebrate big wins. This close-knit group knowing the truth would help combat that.

You certainly didn’t plan to tell the whole team — quite frankly, there were some recently-added guys you just didn’t know well enough yet, along with some newer girlfriends who seemed a little suspect when it came to keeping team matters close to the vest. You and Mat agreed that you’d tell your close group of Isles friends and leave it at that. And that group, this group, these friends who had become much more like family — these felt like the right people to let in on the secret.

_____

“I’m scared,” you whimpered. “I don’t know if I can do it.” The pain was excruciating now, the pressure was building, and your doctor had just informed you that it was time to push. You felt like crying, but you were so paralyzed by the fear that gripped your chest that no tears were flowing.

“Hey…” Mat began softly, gently taking your face in both of his hands and angling it to look up at him, his eyes radiating confidence and pride. “Listen to me, okay? You’ve been so strong throughout this whole pregnancy. I know better than to believe that that’s gonna end now. You can do this, my love. I know you can,” he encouraged. “And I’ll be right here the whole time.”

You nodded, still feeling completely unprepared but somehow strengthened by Mat’s faith in you. As the doctor approached, gowned and gloved, she looked at you with anticipation.

“You ready, sweetie?” she asked. With one last look up at Mat, who nodded and kissed your knuckles, you turned back to her with a nod of your own. She patted your knee and said, “Okay, let’s have a baby. On the count of three, I want you to push, just the way we talked about. Daddy, you hold this knee. Ready? One… two… three… push.”

_____

Twenty-three weeks

The Isles had lost in the second round of the playoffs. Mat was obviously disappointed, but he was also more excited for this offseason than he’d ever been for a summer before, which certainly softened the blow. You were having his baby in just three more months, and he absolutely could not wait. Mat was ready to commence full dad mode — getting the nursery ready, reading the books, and most importantly, keeping a close eye on you every moment that he could.

On the same day the guys were cleaning out their lockers and giving final interviews following the end of the playoff series loss, Mat had scheduled a meeting with the coaching staff and team public relations executives to inform them of your pregnancy. He wanted them to be aware of the situation in case the news got out before the birth, especially as your baby bump was getting harder to hide. Since the two of you had decided to stay in New York for the summer instead of returning to British Columbia, to avoid travel late in your pregnancy, he knew that the chances of someone spotting your round stomach and starting to talk about it was higher on Long Island than in Coquitlam. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if the news got out, but if you and Mat could help it, you’d much prefer that it didn’t. He wanted this experience to be peaceful for you and as enjoyable as possible.

The meeting had gone well, which was unsurprising. The staff was thrilled for the two of you and promised to keep a tight lid on the information until you were ready to share it publicly after the baby had been born — they also agreed to evade any questions that their office might encounter on the topic during the summer.

Mat had thanked them profusely and said his goodbyes before leaving the building, heaving his heavy equipment bags into his trunk, and heading back home to you. A few minutes later, his phone dinged with a text from you and he glanced down at it at the next stoplight. It was a photo of the two of you in front of Big Ben on a rare sunny day in England, Mat hugging you close to his chest.

“This just popped up in my memories. Four years ago today we were in London and you told me you loved me for the first time. Look at us now. 💋”

Mat grinned at the message before returning the phone to his cupholder, his mind traveling back in time to that first big vacation the two of you had taken together. He knew your affinity for English culture — the fashion, the history, and, of course, the royal family, so he decided to take you on a trip across the pond a couple of months after you started dating.

It was one of the best decisions he’d ever made, as it brought the two of you much closer in those early days of your relationship — so close, in fact, that he found himself professing his love for you over a candlelight dinner on your last night in London. You had frozen, just for a moment, before a broad smile lit up your face, your eyes sparkling.

“I love you, too, Maty,” you’d said softly, allowing Mat to finally exhale as he basked in the knowledge that you felt the same way as he.

London was a landmark in your love story. Mat blinked a few times at that thought, an idea suddenly coming over him.

London…

_____

London Riley Barzal, named for the city where you fell in love and given your current last name as a middle name, was born August 15 at 8:13 p.m., after twenty hours of labor.

You and Mat had never known a love like the one you found the moment your baby girl was laid on your chest, and he had never been more fiercely in love with you than he was as he watched you snuggle her close.

“God, she’s so beautiful,” Mat breathed, voice quivering as he realized that this tiny girl belonged to him — to both of you.

“She’s perfect. Just perfect,” you agreed as her strong cries suddenly quieted into small whimpers.

Immediately, Mat looked you in the eye. “She knows your voice,” he said in astonishment.

As your baby blinked and squinted before opening her eyes for the very first time, she seemed to look directly up at her daddy. You smiled knowingly at Mat, who was frozen in place as he locked eyes with his baby daughter for the first time.

“I think she knows yours, too,” you suggested, the two of you smoothing your fingertips over her tiny face and hands in wonder.

You spent several minutes soaking it all in as a brand new family of three, both talking to London softly and placing kisses on her tiny head, before the nurse took her from your arms to take her vitals and give her a brief exam.

As you watched your healthy, gorgeous baby being fawned over by the medical team, you breathed a deep sigh of relief and a silent prayer of gratitude before opening your eyes again to see the love of your life staring down at you in absolute amazement.

“You did so good, baby,” Mat said through tears of pure joy. He pressed his lips to your damp forehead, cupping your cheek in his hand. “You did so good. You’re unbelievable, you know that? I’m so goddamn proud of you,” he praised.

“We have a baby, Maty,” you said with an awestruck, tearful chuckle. “I just had our baby.”

Mat nodded, grinning. “We have a daughter, my love,” he said. “Our little London.”

_____

One week later…

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preemshots · 3 years

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johnny + the nomads lore

alright, i know this is a screenshots blog but i'm going to go ahead and start dropping some juicy lore tidbits as i dig them up. part of what i'm doing outside of just photo diarying is shard hunting, and BOY is there a lot the game likes to hide in those little shards for idiots like me who like to read so we can write unnecessarily accurate fanfiction!

full disclosure, i know jack shit about the TTRPG/cyberpunk 2020 rulebook except what i read in the wikis.

so here’s my lore roundup so far of everything i know about johnny joining the nomads

we know johnny likes to narrate v’s quest objectives. here’s the first mention where he says it himself:

during the voodoo boys quest "transmission" there's a shard in the maglev tunnels beside the ice bath, presumably from brigitte's research into johnny in the first place:

okay, so the timeline is this: johnny joins the nomads after trying and failing to rescue alt. johnny hides out in the badlands for some years. then he and rogue come back to night city and nuke arasaka tower help alt escape the arasaka subnet by uploading liberator to their network once and for all.

this ultimately makes sense. in alt’s flashback, we meet santiago, who is a nomad/connected to nomads, joins rogue and johnny when they're trying to get alt back, and eventually becomes the leader of the aldecaldos.

part of santiago’s TTRPG lore is that he, johnny, and rogue have to lay low in the badlands with nomads after they storm arasaka headquarters (i am aware the game takes many liberties with the original lore so who knows the full accuracy of anything from the original rulebooks)

ENDING spoilers: in the rogue+johnny storming AHQ ending, it's revealed that rogue has a son while they're prepping for the job. if you eavesdrop on her calling him while you're at the afterlife, you hear her tell her son to (paraphrasing here) "pull over and look at the stars", which immediately made my brain go to: nomad, badlands, santiago = dad? maybe. (santiago also canonically has a son according to the TTRPG lore)

this immediately reminded me of another interesting shard that i believe you can find in multiple locations around night city: “"what REALLY happened in arasaka tower?“

i love this dang shard. at first i thought it was just a cute conspiracy with some juicy gossip (and i love how 99% of the shards that mention johnny in this game are reminding us that he's not a real rebel, he's a poser) but it brings some interesting shit together

one: it tells us where johnny got his hands on the nukes! he and the nomads jumped a militech convoy and jacked some bombs!

which is never directly explained, even as saburo arasaka is interrogating him shortly before using soulkiller. very nice of johnny to protect his homies like that.

...or maybe he didn’t. saburo emphasizes that the dead don’t lie like the living do, and we don’t know what exactly arasaka did to johnny’s construct in mikoshi.

it also explains why the obvious media narrative is that militech nuked arasaka, a nice neat political bow to the end of the fourth corpo wars, which is an entire section of the TTRPG lore that makes my eyes cross when i read it.

it also makes the star/nomads ending extremely interesting, because i originally believed it was the ending where V’s journey deviates the most from rewalking johnny’s path... which also has weird implications if the johnny’s nomad era is being kept from v.

(this also leads into my belief that the star ending/the devil ending are narratively two sides of the same coin, but that’s a WHOLE ANOTHER POST for another day.)

TWO, just straight up the fact that they turned the raid where they actually obtained the nukes into an action flick BD that pretty much ANYONE could watch. who the hell was doing that??

well, who else other than the guy who johnny (optionally) punched the shit out of for filming alt's death: thompson, media guy, and according to rogue, “bad luck”. because you know, recording your crimes is straight up evidence that can be used against you.

during the alt flashback we meet thompson, and just after that in cyberspace before meeting alt, johnny tells v that he has no idea what happened to him and that they never worked together again.

oh, johnny, you lying bastard man

this is blatantly untrue, and if V even had two braincells and better memory than a goldfish they'd know this--in the first flashback sequence where johnny and rogue nuke arasaka tower, thompson is on the comms as they ride the AV towards AHQ, questioning their plans and use of violence.

which leaves me with some questions, like where the fuck is thompson, why does johnny keep lying about this, why doesn't johnny say almost anything about how you interact with the aldecaldo clan nonstop throughout the game when he himself may have been a member of the family for some time?? is he continuing to protect the nomad clan that saved his ass? we know that a lot of his flashbacks are unreliable at best, that johnny changes shit up as desired when presenting V with his memories.

in 2077, you can also find that there’s a remake of “badlands raid” in the shard “new release braindances” that is pretty much everywhere. that shard doesn’t add much, but does mention something along the lines of “many people don’t know the ending of the original” which probably means johnny punched thompson out for filming again, or something.

my running theories: rogue ditched santiago and the aldecaldos with johnny and thompson to nuke arasaka tower, and when johnny died she was stuck looking for (heavily implied by johnny here:) corpo sellout ways to survive.

adam smasher obviously has something to do with this since johnny/rogue's vendetta against the guy isn't entirely clear beyond the smokescreen of "he killed johnny and he sucks". i have done 0 research into this though i'm tired of typing okay

i obviously cannot be certain i have found everything related to this in the game as i’m not even done with this playthrough where i’m trying to pay attention, but i hope this is fun for someone else to dig into.

enjoy, fellow silverhand freaks

EDIT: additional findings

ALRIGHT I HAVE DONE MORE DIGGING AND I AM BACK WITH MORE NOMAD/JOHNNY FINDINGS. these ones are kind of a bummer but VERY interesting.

there’s a shard called “excerpts from a history of the nomads by bb pires” that goes into detail about how nomads came to be

there’s an interesting quote in it: It's hard to imagine a group less inclined to wandering than farmers, but in fact they were the ones who sparked the age of nomads. Natural catastrophes, crops ravaged by bioplagues, armed conflicts and martial law allowing corporations to speculate and privatize land - all this forced them into a life on the road.

when you ask johnny why he wants to take down arasaka, he begins by referencing this himself!!

it’s a little awkward to imagine a nomad V doesn’t also know what he’s referencing, but hey, V is the fool because we are as players and that’s only one life path... so sure.

johnny also has unique dialogue during this scene about a nomad origin V, telling them that he’s been trying to understand how V thinks, and came to the conclusion that “their family was a crutch” and essentially made them stupid because they always had a safety net (lmao johnny calling v privileged basically)

BUT this also may reference why johnny would find it confusing as hell that V doesn’t immediately share the views he does when nomads, in terms of values, seem to be more aligned with johnny than V is. but once again V is the fool for a reason and this is all my own speculation so YOU KNOW.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, at the end of chippin’ in, when you ask johnny what he meant by letting down his friends... santiago is named directly

i thought this was interesting since the only glimpse of their relationship that we get is seeing johnny meeting santiago via the alt flashback for the first time.

so now it’s obvious that while johnny and rogue were with the nomads their friendship developed, and johnny went on to disappoint santiago in some way by being his normal dickhead self

but HOW? how did he disappoint santiago? is santiago even still alive?? did smasher kill santiago and is this why rogue mentions during chippin’ in that she wants smasher to “settle a score” moreso than avenge johnny??

the only additional hints i have are from this shard, which you can find at the aldecaldos camp: “nomads at ground zero”

i’m just gonna transcribe here and bold for emphasis:

It was no secret that Night Corp offered generous pay and, in some cases, free cyberware and biomonitor upgrades to anyone willing to help clean up the crater of radioactive rubble at AHQ ground zero. Some firsthand accounts recall the incessant ticking of Geiger counters, like the loud buzz of cicadas in summer. In retrospect, we can only guess how many "crater cleaners" lost their lives to radiation sickness shortly thereafter. Both the city government and Night Corp have claimed casualties were kept to a minimum, while providing no official statistics to substantiate the claim. That being said, they have never been under pressure to release such figures. After all, most rescue, engineering, and rubble cleanup teams were not local Night Citizens, but nomads. Surprised you didn't know? Don't be. It is a fact many history courses tend to overlook. The city employed hundreds of nomad mercenaries, primarily from clans in Aldecaldo nation. These nomads were hungry for gainful work and the city needed experts who were not only experienced but brave enough to knowingly put their lives on the line - all so Arasaka could one day erect another tower in its place. But history is not without its sense of irony. These nomads, who so deliberately live outside our so-called "system," came to its very rescue. Not for the first time. And not for the last.

a main theme we find in this game is the idea that the system of corps and exploitation cannot be stopped by grandiose rebellious gestures--no amount of samurai songs, assassinating mayors, or even planting nukes in towers will change things. yet johnny, his friends and mercs at atlantis in the 2020s, including rogue, chose to rebel any way they could, thinking it better than not. johnny criticizes her lack of rebellious spirit CONSTANTLY in 2077.

but ultimately, johnny, trapped in mikoshi, didn’t get to see the outcome of what detonating the AHQ nukes did to night city’s fragile ecosystem. rogue, however, did--and likely watched their former allies, the aldecaldos, be forced to take dangerous work at AHQ’s ground zero (from lack of other opportunities as detailed in this shard), then die from radiation sickness throughout the following decades, all as a result of what she and johnny did to try and fight the system. and she also watched all the former mercenaries of atlantis be hunted down by arasaka.

so rogue sees firsthand what the cost of rebellion is and johnny doesn’t. and nomads, considered the most free of any of the factions we encounter in the game, are the cost.

#lore post #johnny silverhand #cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk2077 #cp2077 #cyberpunk lore

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cosmiclatte28 · 3 years

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Amnesia (Jaehyun x reader)

tw : amnesia, crazy parents, drunk driver accident, failed attempt to write an angst

a/n : hello, so I read this work I left since December 2020 but yeah I read this and turns out I want to know if this is interesting enough to have another chapter to finish the story or not. If not then it's okay I'll just leave it here, but if you're curious I can try work it out.

tagging @charmingyong @neopalette .. @yutahoes and @swagmonsterofficial who can probably help me with the writer's block . you too readers. help me finish this story :))) thxxx

The thing you fear the most in this life is the day where you lost your memories. Memories of everything important in your life. You've been so afraid of not remembering things, mostly because the doctrine of your parents planted inside your brain.

"Look at your brother, Doyoung, he aces all of his tests, have time to do sports, sings well, proper manners, and always practicing doing his best. You too should think of being like him."

For sixteen years you're always compared to him. For sixteen years you worked your brain off to memorize extended classes you were forced to take. For sixteen years you faked your identity in order to look smart. For sixteen years you pray with all your might nothing bad will happen to you that involves a reset button to your brain.

That day happened, on your last year of high school where you've prepared yourself for the national entrance test. You've forced your brain to memorize everything, maximizes all you know since young age, and even pushed your other desires aside (not that it is new, you never put your desire first)

You start preparing it one year prior

"Don't go too hard (y/n)... I know you can do this," your boyfriend (secret boyfriend) calls you when he checks on you.

"Oh Jaehyun-ah, as much as I want to slack off there is no way I'll live in peace if I score lower than Doyoung's." You reply him as you flip through some sets of questions.

Jaehyun sighs from the other end of the call "And your brother scored perfect?"

You hum "Actually yes he did."

"Did your parents really love you? Why are they torturing you this way... I remember playing when I was younger and yet I made it to this stage." The young future psychologist boasted.

Jaehyun is actually the same age as your brother, he is Doyoung's friend and he knew you from visiting Doyoung back then in high school. He secretly learns about your name and even your number, since then he's been calling you and giving you all the love, you could never get from your family.

"I study psychology and what they're doing is not good." Jaehyun lays down on his bed. As much as he questions himself why he wanted to date you he can't answer it.

His friends had been telling him to break up with you because you're just going to make his life hard since your parents went too hard on you. But his heart screams that he needs to help this little girl he secretly feels bad. Jaehyun saw you sitting on your room sticking your nose to a book he thought was a middle school's book... when you were just graduating elementary. He was pretty sure you're not happy and even Doyoung secretly spills the hidden feeling that he doesn't like seeing his sister treated that way.

He remembers the conversation he had with his bestfriend on that summer vacation

"Make it stop then Doyoung..." jaehyun said as he played with a soccer ball inside the big room.

Doyoung sighed "I tried Jae, but mom and dad didn't seem to listen. They just told me they wanted the best for (y/n) and that by pushing her she'll find her way to be successful."

Jaehyun snorted "Gosh I'm glad my parents are not like yours."

Doyoung massaged his nose bridge "I even tried messing up my scores, but I earned myself detention and she was told to never be like me. Look I tried rebelling, but they're not fazed."

Jaehyun rolled his eyes "Want to escape to my house? Take (y/n) too maybe..."

Doyoung buried his face on his hands "Oh I wish Jae! I am also hating this, but I'll be dead and if this involves (y/n) I'm double dead because," Doyoung fixed his posture and mimicked his parents "Doyoung you're the brother here, a gentleman will always protect a lady and (y/n) is your sister and she's a girl."

"Damn it. Jae, I need that scholarship!" Doyoung groaned.

Jaehyun nodded "The one offering a seat in USA? Go for it. I didn't see why you hesitated... with that brain you didn't need to study and still get perfect."

Doyoung went silent for a minute "But won't I just make her life harder? Who will help her if I am not here?"

Jaehyun snickered "As if you have been helping her at all... take that chance. I'll look after (y/n) she's already like my little sister."

Doyoung couldn't thank Jaehyun enough when he hugged his friend before leaving to the states.

Doyoung hugged you too and secretly whispered "Jae is my substitute, please please promise me you will be honest with him and tell him whatever you're feeling. I'll see you in the states! Girl this is your chance to leave the dark alley." Doyoung wiped your tear that left your eyes. Well Your brother has been secretly sneaking from his room to teach you things you still cannot understand when you're younger. He kept on apologizing for the situation you both live in... but you can't totally blame him too. In this life if someone asked you who were the most important person, you'll say it's Doyoung then Jaehyun.

In the meantime

"Look Jae, I need that scholarship... Doyoung is waiting for me. He's been telling me life is not that gloomy." You sound so hopeful and Jaehyun doesn't want to spoil your small happiness.

He sighs "Fine, you've learned enough! Please a good rest is also important."

"Yeah yeah say that to my parents and see if you got slapped." You giggled and Jaehyun noted that. Well he had been noting your behaviour too and planned to make you his first journal subject.

"Look I love you okay, don't tire yourself too much. Drink water, stay healthy and sleep." He bids you goodbye and little did you know that was probably the last night you could sit in your room and absorbed new materials inside your brain.

For the next day when you got home from school, you never made it back home. You did not remember anything, only a loud horn and your body hitting the asphalt. Your ear rang and your eyes went dark.

Your parents were crying when they heard the news of you getting hit by a car and it was a drunk driving accident. Jaehyun left his class when Doyoung texted him about you. Well Doyoung was called in the middle of the night and he was more than broken hearted to hear this.

Jaehyun was shocked when he heard the news, but he was more shocked when he sees your parents are there weeping like how parents love their children so much and super afraid of losing them.

He wonders why they would treat you so strict if they love you this much. Well some people say that is their way of showing love, but for rational people Jaehyun disagree how hard your parents were on you and your brother.

Your mother recognized Jaehyun and explained everything that happened.

Jaehyun's heart broke when the paramedics informed them on the next day that you got the amnesia.

Your parents cried maybe because it is the natural way to act, but Jaehyun's world collapsed when he remembered you telling him the worst thing you fear is waking up with a blank brain.

It took you some days to wake up from your coma, considering that you also had some broken bones and some operations are done on your body, Jaehyun's glad you woke up four days after the accident.

He saw it the first time you open your eyes and you squinted all around he saw the slight tremble you had in your eyes.

Though he's not sure if you have amnesia you could remember fearing this to happen, but he believed your heart remembered this fear and showed how scared you are.

The doctor ran the first test and you happened to know basic things like your name and at least your parents. You know their faces but not their names and Jaehyun, it took you some time but the glint of hope in your eyes was enough to let Jaehyun feels not left out.

"Jae" you whisper, and the doctors were delighted when you could mention his name.

Your parents were crying, feeling super sad that their daughter had to go through this but once you got a time alone with Jaehyun you couldn't cry nor can you laugh.

"Jae," that is all you can think of.

You move your hands and find them fascinating. Jaehyun wanted to cry, it's as if you're a baby discovering new things you can do again. This is the same girl who understand chemistry even when she's just eleven! The girl who speaks five languages fluently, the same girl who can play the hardest piano piece, the same girl who was forced to be perfect and she did it she was perfect but she lost everything she worked super hard for.... within one blink of an eye. For the first time after several years, Jaehyun cried his heart out in silence alone in his bedroom.

For two months you were on a therapy session to regain your memories and some of them are coming back. Jaehyun took a break on his school, saying he is doing a research (well he didn't lie) but mostly because he needs to and wants to take care of you. He didn't want your parents to ruin this golden chance of him fixing you (he wishes)

"Name?" Jaehyun asks every time he visited you. You could answer that easily "(y/n)"

"Siblings?" You could also answer that "Doyoung."

It took you sessions to find a trigger word that could bring more memories back.

"Books?" The doctor once asked and you blanked out. Your body shakes and the traumatic experience of being forced to read from a young age came into you.

"Books?" The therapist asks again when you kept quiet. Jaehyun sits next to you, holding your hand and he frowns when your grip tightens.

"Hell." Was all you say before clenching your fist and holding your head from throbbing so much.

You woke up on your private room already Jaehyun happens to be writing down the notes from today's session.

"I saw some memories Jae. What month is this?" You asked out of the blue

"No don't ask me questions. Rest (y/n)" Jaehyun tried to divert your attention.

"Month Jae!" You scream and right on time a nurse came in she heard your question and easily answered “November?"

You count and stared in horror "The test... 8 months left Jae! How can I memorize what I've learnt since baby to now?!"

The nurse was surprised maybe by your burst of words or just surprised by your sentence and Jaehyun shot her a dead glare.

She quickly changed your IV and left after seeing your panic stage.

You were shaking, nerves suddenly transmitting traumatic memories and you cried when you tried to remember everything you've worked super hard on... gone with one accident.

"(Y/n) calm down. Forget that! forget that test! You need to heal yourself first." Jaehyun holds you back from your panic attack.

Your parents saw you frantically shake on your bed with Jaehyun trying his best to calm you down. They ran to your side and when they heard what you said, their heart broke and for the first time your parents realized they've been doing the wrong thing to you.

"Mother is sorry, please (y/n).. honey" she cried... if your mind is right, you'll choke up for she never calls you sweet names, but you have no recollection of that, "honey please forget that test. Forgive me and dad for being too hard on you. Please my one and only precious daughter... just heal yourself first. You don't have to take the test now. Calm down."

Actually, Jaehyun finally talked to your parents, he talked politely about the way your parents raised both you and Doyoung in a wrong way. No, he didn't blame your parents for wanting the best, he just told them they shouldn't be comparing child and shouldn't put too much force on something one doesn't like. He explained the effect you had growing up like that and your mom was crying when she heard Jaehyun's easy explanation.

"We're sorry... now how do we fix this?" Your mother asked to the young man across him.

"If you let me, this is a new blank page. Like a reset button, though (y/n) might get fragments of the dark memories, but we can at least rewrite the pages and put in more love and joy into her life."

Your parents both agreed and let Jaehyun does his best to fix their mistakes.

So here you are, sitting on your bed for the third month already, mind still somehow fuzzy and you always stare at your room with blank face. You noticed the plain walls and when you arrived at your home, the grand piano greeted you, but you were confused of the big thing.

"Hey (y/n)," Jaehyun greets you when he comes into your room, "Hungry?" He asks first thing first after you wake up.

You nod your head and notice the lack of food on his hand.

"No breakfast?" Your face shows confusion.

Yes you were eating breakfast on bed for one month, mostly because your doctor also told you to not use your legs too much, but Jae saw it is quite the time you learn to walk and eat properly.

"There is, but not here. Come, we will eat properly." Jaehyun helps you stand, and he walks you to the dining table.

There you sit down, eyes empty as you scan the room, still unable to remember where and what is this place.

Your maid comes with a plate of your favorite breakfast. You look at Jaehyun with expecting eyes, he usually sits on the side of your table and feeds you. All you have to do is wait for the food to come into your mouth!

"Jae?" You question him when he picks up his own knife and fork then he digs into his own plate.

You watch him and he speaks up "Copy me."

You pick up the fork and knife, take the detail and switch the position when Jaehyun shows the right way.

He sees you struggle with your knife still and chooses to cut it for you. He returns the plate with small chunks of eggs and sausages then pushes it back to you.

"Now, eat." He continues doing his activity and with trembling hand (because everything is like you learning from basic) and slow but steady you can eat by yourself.

Jaehyun smiles with adoration, he couldn't deny you're actually smart like gifted smart... he thought there was no way someone could live like you and Doyoung if they do not have a bright basic.

"Delicious?" Jaehyun asks after you finish your plate.

You nod "Thank you" and both your eyes and his open wide.

"Did I just say thank you?" You also sound surprised.

Jaehyun nods "I mean i haven't remind you about table manners, but as expected that big brain is not completely blank, I guess."

The day continues with Jaehyun teaching you some more basic knowledge, you sit down on the sofa and your eyes bore into the big grand piano. Jaehyun noticed ever since you came home you seemed super curious about it. He is not the best pianist, but he can play some songs.

"Come, I think you're interested in this." Jaehyun sits you on a chair beside the piano and he takes his seat.

"Okay I am not as good as you, but let's try this. maybe music can bring back my (y/n)." Jaehyun plays some keys to warm up his fingers and he didn't see the sudden surprise you have in your eyes.

Jaehyun plays a simple piece of your favorite sad song, Clair de Lune. He said he wasn't a great player, but here he is confidently playing one song from the master part.

You clap your hands astonished when he finishes half of the song and surprise him with what you say next.

"That is beautiful. Why did you stop?"

Jaehyun wants to scream, music brings you back? Did your brain forget everything else that is painful to you, but not music because it's the only thing you do with love?

"Want to try?" Jaehyun stands up and helps you get comfortable.

Your eyebrow knits together when you first eye the black and white keys and then after placing two hands over them and closing your eyes, as if it's muscle memories your finger expertly play the same piece Jaehyun showed you, but this time you finished the whole song.

Jaehyun has this recorded and if he knew this earlier, he would've made you sit here and play more music. He notes how your eyes glimmer when your fingers still remember the song and for once Jaehyun saw a willing to live in your eyes.

to be continued... (or not if this is not interesting to read :D)

tell me should I continue or not? and make this happy end or sad end?

#jaehyun x you #jaehyun x reader #jaehyun x y/n #jaehyun angst #jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun oneshot #nct angst #jaehyun fanfic #jaehyun imagines

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kozumekenza · 3 years

Text

on my mind :: eight

:: suna rintarou x f!reader :: playlist :: masterlist ::

:: taglist: open :: wc: 1.6k ::

After a drunken one-night stand with your ex, you thought you could get him out of your life for good. Unfortunately, the two of you can’t seem to keep away from each other. Why can’t you leave each other alone? And more importantly, why is he still on your mind?

tw: profanity, mentions of sex

author’s note: this is it, the final chapter. i have bonus scenes that i’m planning to write in the future, but this is it for the main story! thank you so much to everyone who has read this and supported it, i appreciate you all so much <3

Team Japan was performing the best they ever had. With Hinata and Kageyama’s freak quick attack, Sakusa’s angled spikes, MSBY’s teamwork, Aran’s powerful serves, and Suna’s intimidating blocks, Japan easily made it past the first few rounds and into the gold match game.

You and the team were lucky; there were no substantial injuries, and even after countless games against some of the best in the world, everyone was still upbeat and energetic. Morale was high, and everyone was excited for the next game: the final gold medal match against Argentina.

You had met Iwaizumi’s fiance, Oikawa Tooru, and immediately understood what Iwaizumi meant. There was, in fact, an “Iwa-chan, I can’t believe you! Rival against your own fiance!” All in all, you thought Oikawa was a good match for Iwaizumi’s impassive nature, and you were happy for both of them. You just hoped Iwaizumi would survive the final game.

Jerseys were put on, water bottles were filled, medical bags were prepared, and soon enough, you were standing next to the bench and watching the National Team practice for their most important match. You couldn’t keep your eyes off of Suna, who was donning the jersey you had stolen months ago. You had already expressed your love for Suna in a National Team uniform, jumping him almost immediately after they won their first game.

Practice finished, and both teams were given a short break before the match would start. The arena had a few family members; you could see Osamu and Kita, along with Bokuto’s husband and Hinata’s sister and mom. Once again, you were thrilled that you were able to stand next to the court during the game and not in the bleachers.

Suna approached you where you were next to the bench, and you stood up to give him a good luck kiss.

“I know you’ll do great, Rintarou. I’m so proud of you. Good luck, and make sure to beat Argentina and give Oikawa hell!”

Iwaizumi laughed next to you, earning a glare from Oikawa who was talking to him. You gave Suna a final hug and kiss, then turned away to redo a wrap on Aran’s knee.

You missed Suna handing a tiny black box to Iwaizumi, and Iwaizumi subsequently hiding the box in one of his bags.

---

Japan took the first set, a service ace from Kageyama ending it. Argentina took the next, thanks to a surprising setter dump from Oikawa. Sakusa’s final spike gave the third set to Japan, and Oikawa’s service ace gave the fourth to Argentina. With the tie, everyone was nervous approaching the final set. You redid a few wraps, gave encouraging words, and wordlessly threw an ice pack at Hinata, who was acting like he didn’t receive a ball with his face in the fourth set. Oikawa was happily taunting Iwaizumi, who was threatening Oikawa with a pair of tape scissors in hand.

The whistle blew, and the players made their way back onto the court. You watched with bated breath as the set flew by, long rallies and quick movements making your head spin. You were exhausted just watching; the game had been long and hard, but this set was full of back and forth points with neither team getting a clear lead.

Finally, Japan had a break and was in the lead at match point. You could barely breathe, and everything felt like it was in slow motion. You watched as Oikawa served, Komori received, Sakusa spiked, and Argentina’s libero sent the ball towards Oikawa, who set it towards a spiker. The spiker jumped, Suna jumping right in front of him. The ball was hit, and it felt like an eternity as you watched Suna send it back down to the other side, guaranteeing Japan’s victory as the ball hit the floor. A whistle blew, signaling the end of the match and solidifying the final score.

You were shouting, Iwaizumi was shouting, the coach was shouting, everyone was rushing towards the court and Suna. You ran as fast as you could into his arms, laughing as you took his face between your hands and showered him with kisses as he spun you around. Both of you were crying, his teammates circling around you, hugging him (and by proxy, you) and patting him on the back. He finally set you down, grabbing something from Iwaizumi before he was pulled away by a jealous Oikawa.

You watched in awe as Suna Rintarou got down on one knee right after scoring the winning point for Japan’s Olympic gold medal.

“Y/n, I know we’ve been back together for only a few weeks, but in my heart, it’s been over eight years. I’ve loved you since then, and I’ll love you until the day I die. You’re the only one I can picture beside me in the future, and you’re the only one I want to spend the rest of my life with. I could go on and on for hours, but I also have a medal to get for you. Will you marry me?”

The tears streaming down your face prevented you from properly speaking, but your enthusiastic nod said it all. You threw your arms around Suna, letting him pick you up and spin you around again as everyone in the arena cheered and the cameras picked up the proposal on live television.

“Of course, I’ll marry you, Rintarou.” Your voice was breaking, and you could see tears on Suna’s face as well. “I love you so much and I’m so proud of you. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

---

When Suna crept into your room that night, you welcomed him with open arms, grinning as he placed the gold medal over your naked chest, the cold of the metal seeping into your skin as the bed broke beneath you, again.

---

Los Angeles, August 2028

“We’re gonna be fucking late, Rintarou.”

“No we won’t, calm down.” He tossed you your team jacket, watching as you zipped it fully to cover the bruises blooming on your neck.

You glanced down at your phone. “Fuck, Rin, it’s almost time. Get out.” You pushed him out of the empty training room, grimacing at the clock on the wall. “I’ll see you out there.”

You snatched your bag off of the floor just as your phone began to ring.

“Hey, Osamu, I’m kinda busy right now.”

“Busy banging Sunarin?”

“Shut the fuck up. Are you guys here?”

“Yeah, right behind the bench. She’s asking for you.”

“Be there in a sec.”

You hung up with a click, pushing open the door and walking down the hall to the court. The rest of the team was already there, and you glared at Atsumu as he shot you a smirk. Just like Osamu said, he was seated in the bleachers behind the bench. You dropped your bag down, walking over to him and Suna.

“Hi, baby. Are you being good for uncle ‘Samu?” You cooed at your daughter, who was currently latched onto Suna’s neck.

“Yes, momma.”

“Good girl.” You grabbed her from Suna, bouncing her on your hip as the whistle blew for practice to begin. “Tell your daddy good luck.”

“Good luck!” she giggled, hands reaching out for Suna as he leaned down to hug and kiss you both.

“Make sure you watch me close, baby girl. Not uncle ‘Tsumu.”

Your daughter grinned at her dad, nodding her head and promising him all her attention (which was pretty minimal, for a three year old).

You handed her back up to Osamu, who bounced her on his knee as she waved at you and Suna.

Practice came and went, and another gold medal match for Japan started. Japan had won again at Paris in 2024, and everyone was hoping for another one. You waved to Iwaizumi, who was arguing with Oikawa on the Argentinian side. The two of you stayed in contact after he moved, with him frequently telling you about the most recent stupid things Oikawa had done and you keeping him updated on your life with Suna and EJP.

The game began, and it was close, just as the last two between Japan and Argentina had been. Before the fifth and final set, they were yet again tied, with the previous sets being close as well. The whistle blew, and the final set began.

It was back and forth, as was usual for Japan and Argentina, but a break at the end put Japan at match point, just like the game in Tokyo. With bated breath, you watched Atsumu serve, Argentina receive and spike, and Komori receive. Atsumu set, and time slowed down as the ball flew in an arc, right into Suna’s waiting palm. The ball was slammed down, the echo carrying throughout the silent arena. The final whistle blew, and the gym went up in cheers.

You ran towards Suna, just as you had done at the Tokyo Games, leaping into his arms and showering him with kisses. Osamu approached, handing your daughter off to Suna, as the three of you celebrated in your own little world. A third Olympic gold, an amazing daughter, an incredible husband; everything was perfect.

The next day, you received what was quite possibly the best picture you had ever seen. You, Suna, and your daughter, tears on all of your faces, huddled close together in a tight hug, smiles bright and wide, taken by Osamu.

You had everything you could ever ask for in your family, your friends, and even your job. Still, Suna Rintarou was always on your mind.

taglist: @sunasexual @call-me-lulu @ntimacy @circleglasses @porcolie @keikotaro @rintarovibes @kenmaslov3r

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pinoyrella · 3 years

Text

“A Love So Beautiful” Chapter 6

Chapter 6: “It’s Not A Big Deal”

FT: Tsukishima Kei, Yamaguchi Tadashi, Hinata Shoyo, Kageyama Tobio, Yachi Hitoka, Ono-Sensei, Y/N’s Parents + Manami Aoki.

TW: Mild Language

Genre: Fluff, Comedy, Angst, Coming of Age + Slow Burn

- This chapter contains mostly drama, and fluff thanks to Kageyama.

- This chapter is also slight Kageyama x Y/N

WORD COUNT: 4,800+

“A LOVE SO BEAUTIFUL” Masterlist 🌸

A/N: BA BOOM! Hi everyone, I hope I didn’t leave you guys hanging too long with that cliff hanger??? Anyways, I hope you enjoy! Thank you so much for the endless support, LUB YOU ALL!!💖

The sound of an alarm brings you to consciousness. Keeping yourself under your covers, you turn to glance at the clock, ‘07:00a.m’. It’s been two days since Karasuno had defeated Shiratorizawa. It’s been two days since you’ve gone outside. It’s been two days since you last saw him.

Groaning as you slip the warmth weight of your blanket off, you step out of bed feeling the cold tile of your bedroom floor chill you. Making your way to the bathroom, you stop by the sink, staring at your reflection.

Throughout the weekend, you have cried yourself to bed. For the past three nights in a row, waking up tired, red and sore eyes every morning. You have barely left anywhere but your room, only making occasional trips to the bathroom, and to the kitchen.

Being stuck in your room left you with no motivation to do anything at all. You were already behind in all of your studies, but you couldn’t find it in you to move from your bed.

You’ve barely talked to anyone at all, not your friends, not your parents, you’ve isolated yourself to everyone and everything. Is this what heartbreak is like? Is this even considered heart break? What is this?

You barely notice the presence that passes by the bathroom, your dad about to question why you’re just standing in front of the mirror, before his wife pulls him away into the kitchen down the hall.

“Wh- Hun?” “Whatever you’re thinking of doing, don’t do it” “What?” Your dad questions your mom as she lets out a sigh. “Am I not allowed to ask our daughter why she’s been in such a depressing mood for the past weekend?”

Your mom gives your dad a sincere look of worry, looking towards your direction before back at him. “She’s a growing teenager, she’s going through adolescents. I’m sure she’s fine.” She reassures, your dad giving a sigh of frustration. “You don’t know that, what if somethings wrong? She only came out of her room to grab snacks and use the restroom.”

“Akiteru-kun called me the other night.” “What?” “He told me Kei-kun and Y/n got into some sort of fight-” “WHAT?!” Your dad is about to storm out to teach the younger Tsukishima a lesson for hurting his precious baby, before his wife stops him yet again. “She’s going to be alright, this is her aftermath from their argument. She fought with one of her best friends, this is a normal reaction. She needs time to herself, you need to be patient until she’s back to normal.” Your mom explains, your dad pausing as he processes the information.

The sound of footsteps approaching the kitchen causes the two to turn their heads to you, as you make your way to the fridge to grab a carton of strawberry milk, not even making eye contact with them before strutting out, getting ready to exit the house for school.

Your parents share a look with each other before letting out another sigh.

“I’m heading off” You say out loud as you slip your shoes on.

You poke the straw into the milk carton as you make your way out your front gate, looking up to realize Tsukishima parked out front on his bike, waiting for you.

Your eyes widen in shock, looking both ways before booking it down the opposite side of the street. The sound of your shoes hitting the ground causes Tsukishima to turn, watching as you run off the opposite way to school.

He lets out a sigh, memories of the past Friday flashing back. He feels the same awful and heavy guilt that’s deep in the pit of his stomach, deciding its best to leave you alone for now, giving you the space you needed, before riding off to school.

You barely make it to class in time, the moment you step in through the door frame, the bell ringing exactly, as the class turns to look at you.

You quickly take a seat, pulling out your notebook and pencils as Ono-sensei makes her way in.

“Good morning class!” She says as the class greets back. “Before we start of the day, let’s take the time to congratulate the four boys in our class, for helping their team make it to Nationals last Friday.”

The class erupts enthusiastically, turning to congratulate the four boys on the volleyball team once again.

You sink your head down, the cheerful attitude making it feel like you were suffocating.

Kageyama’s the first to notice, about to lean forward to tap your shoulder before Ono-sensei resumes her announcement.

“Now that’s over with” She reveals a stack of documents from her podium, dropping it harshly. “I’m sure you are all aware, midterms are approaching.” The class groans in anguish before she continues. “I know, I know. This is the last exam before your finals, the finals that will determine your placement next year.” She glances around the class, her eyes falling on you. “I need you all to start taking this seriously.”

You gulp in your seat as she calls for Manami to pass out the study packets.

“I have assigned you all into study groups of three, you are to complete this packet by the end of next week with your group. Afterwards, we are to take the midterm, understood?”

“Yes” The class replies in sync as she begins reading off her list of groups.

Your brain is spiraling, hoping you’re not placed in the same group as you know who, hoping at least she will spare you from having to work with that stingy bean pole, or at least have one of your close friends with you, for comfort purposes.

“Yachi-chan, Hinata-kun and Kageyama-kun.” You sink as she had just announced that 3 out of the 4 friends you were hoping to be paired up with are called. You are praying to every deity out there, that you will be in a group with Yamaguchi. Better yet, you rather be paired with that she-devil Manami Aoki than Tsukishima.

Just as you thought your prayers were answered- “Y/n-chan, Yamaguchi-kun-” ‘YES!’ You thank the Gods, your mind feeling the content it had deserved all weekend. “and Tsukishima-kun.”

You drop your head to your desk, causing the attention of the class to be drawn to you.

You groan into your arms as Yachi tries to help you emotionally. “Y/n?” “Hey” You look up to make eye contact with Manami. “Ono-sensei is calling for you” She says before taking her seat.

You wave to Yachi before making your way out to her office.

“Ono-sensei?” You peak your head in, and she notices you by the door. Getting up from her seat, she greets you, offering for you to sit on the sofa just across her desk. “Y/n-chan, please come in!” You make your way to sit before she shuts the door.

“Manami-chan said you c-called?” You nervously ask, wondering why you were called up into your homeroom teacher’s office.

“Y/n” Her voice, stern as ever. “Your grades, what’s going on?” She questions as she looks directly into your soul.

You gulp yet again as she slips a paper over the desk from her side to yours. You lean closer, seeing the paper adorned with D’s and F’s, scores below 30, and ‘FAIL’ written on the page.

You look up to her, shaken and she’s aware of it. She sighs before her demeanor softens. “You know I didn’t bring you in here just to interrogate you, but I’m concerned. Your grades have been slipping since the beginning of the semester, you used to be in the average zone, now look.” She points to a bar at the end of the transcript. “You are very below average, you are in a very dangerous zone. If you don’t pass this midterm, you won’t qualify to even take the finals. You will have to repeat this semester.” She explains.

You look up to her, eyes watering trying to explain something. She gives you the look of remorse before taking the transcript back to her end, looking at it before looking back to you. “I know this is a very stressful and difficult situation, but you need to know that as your homeroom teacher, I’m here to help and assist you in every way.”

You whimper a quiet “thank you” before she smiles, then continuing. “I am aware of your close relations to Yamaguchi-kun and Tsukishima-kun.” The names of your two closest friends causes you to glance up to her. “That’s why I paired you up with them for the study group. They’re two of the top students in our class.” She explains as you nod to her.

“They’re also your friend, I can trust them to help you.” You sigh, “Will you be telling my parents?” She adjusts her seating position before gazing back to you. “I already have.” She says before you give her an understanding nod.

“I know at your age, it’s very stressful with so many events going on. You’re growing and understanding more about yourself, but you also need to grow and understand more of your academics.” You give her another quiet nod, before she lets out a final sigh.

“That’s all I wanted to inform you” She stands from her seat, making her way to the door opening it, before making her way to you, kneeling and placing a hand to your shoulder. “I believe you can do it.” You give her a hug and your thanks before heading out.

Walking down the hall, you wipe your eyes with the sleeve of your cardigan before bumping into someone. “S-sorry!” You squeak before looking up.

“Boss?” Kageyama looks down and notices the red swelling in your eyes. “What happened?” He asks, taking a step closer, using his blazer to wipe off your tear stained cheeks. You sniff before looking up to him and smiling. “It’s not a big deal, come on let's get back to the class!” You grab his wrist, dragging him with you.

As you sit, you watch as Yamaguchi notices you, giving a sweet smile before making his way over. “When do you want to start studying?” He asks you. “I’m alright whenever” You reply. “Tsukki- Um, we’re going to head to my house after school to study, will you be coming?” Your mind takes you back to what Ono-sensei had warned you, this midterm is very important. “Yes, I’ll be there Yams!” He gives your head a pat before going back to his seat.

Just as school ends, you make your way home first, informing Yamaguchi you were going to change into something more comfortable, and pick up some of the notebooks you left.

Back at home, you make your way in until your parents call out to you. ‘Shit, I forgot Ono-sensei told them about my grades.’ You curse to yourself before making your way to the dining table, sitting as your parents turn to you.

“Y/n” You watch your mom slap your dad’s shoulder. “Baby, we’re not mad” She starts. ‘No, but dad is’ You turn up to glance at your dad, he looks insane trying to conceal the fume burning through his ears. “But-” And so you were scolded by your parents for the next half hour, before finally changing, retrieving your notebooks and heading to Yamaguchi’s.

“Y/n!” The cheerful greeting coming from the freckled boy as he lets you in. You walk with him side by side to his room, as you walk in you make eye contact with the boy you were hoping to not see for the next 10 years of your existence. You sit down opposite to him on Yamaguchi’s kotatsu, before preparing your notebook.

“We’re going to go over what Ono-sensei taught during math” Yamaguchi says, and you give a nod, still avoiding the blonde in front of you.

The tension in the room is absolutely crazy, Yamaguchi thinks of grabbing some snacks for the three of you, but doesn’t think of leaving you two alone in the same room. He stills with his head down to his notebook, thinking of how he can help with the tension in the room.

The sound of scribbling against the poor notebook paper, and the amount of eraser marks left around causes Tsukishima to glance up to your paper, watching as you were way off path from solving the problem.

Just as Yamaguchi had thought of an idea, Tsukishima speaks up.

“The auxiliary line’s wrong.” He states bluntly before bringing his hand closer to grab your notebook. You snap back immediately, pulling your notebook away from his grasp. “There’s answers in the back. I can read it.” You state before taking the math textbook from Yamaguchi, flipping it to the end, finding the question.

You scan the page, finally finding the question before seeing that it doesn’t give you an exact answer. Tsukishima is aware of that, he knows the textbook like the back of his hand. He watches as you struggle and stare at the page before speaking up again. “Let me show you” he lightly grabs the end of your notebook, bringing it closer to him before you quickly snatch it back, not making eye contact with him. “I’ll do it myself.” You bark.

Yamaguchi sits in the middle, his soul already gone from his earthly body, watching the situation unfold. He has no idea what the fuck to do.

“You only know the word ‘answer’, everything in your notebook is wrong.” “But that’s what I wrote myself. It’s none of your business.” Yamaguchi glances over to Tsukishima, oh no.

“I don’t want to help you at all, but I have to because it’s required in case your grade humiliates the whole class.”

You freeze, the word ‘humiliate’ that left his mouth taking you back to last Friday in the infirmary.

Yamaguchi notices your triggered state before turning to Tsukishima, pissed. “Tsukki, don’t say that-” The sound of your notebook shutting aggressively startles the two as it cuts Yamaguchi off. You begin to shove your belongings into your backpack before looking up at Tsukishima, the first time all day. “Since our good boy Tsukishima Kei says so, I won’t put shame on your great class 4.” You turn to Yamaguchi, before turning back to Tsukishima. “I’m leaving” As you head towards Yamaguchi’s bedroom door, you hear Tsukishima scoff. “Leave? Whatever you like.” “FINE!” You yell before storming out.

It’s been another four days since that incident at Yamaguchi’s, you’ve been ignoring both boys. A bit guilty for Yamaguchi, but you didn’t want to drag him down with your ‘humiliating’ grades, you thought to leave him alone so he can focus on his priorities, studying.

You sat at the desk in your room. Your notebooks, stationary, textbooks and study guide sprawled out, but yet you still can’t concentrate. Even worse; your desk faces right outside your bedroom window, with a perfect view to Tsukishima’s. You look up to notice as Tsukishima’s bedroom door opens, watching him walk in before you immediately jump to shut your blinds.

You huff as you sit and stare at the blank page of your notebook for what felt like another hour, before grabbing your hoodie, making your way downstairs and out the front door.

You thought, if you can’t concentrate, you ought to take a stroll to maybe help clear your mind. You feel your throat become hoarse, dried out from the walking before you notice a vending machine. You make your way over, about to purchase a carton of strawberry milk before you realize, you hadn’t brought your wallet with you. Just as you began walking to continue your stroll, you nearly bump into someone.

Immediately apologizing, cursing your mind for being elsewhere rather than the road, you look up to meet the shock expression of a familiar blueberry eyed boy. “Y/n?”

And this is where you found yourself, sat outside of Ukai’s shop, besides Kageyama as you play with the straw that is poking out from the milk carton. Kageyama notices your behavior, thus asking why you were walking around almost past the sunset.

You explain to him how you couldn’t concentrate on studying for the past week, before asking him why he was out.

“I’m just on my daily jog.” He says before looking back out into the sky.

The two of you sat in silence before the growl of your stomach caught the boy’s attention. You blush in embarrassment before he gets up, going back into Ukai’s, only to come out with two kare pans in hand. He takes your hand, pulling you up before handing it to you. The two of you walk, before stopping by a nearby park.

Taking a seat on the swing, you thank Kageyama again before biting into the kare pan.

There is this comfortable silence before your whimpers causes his head to turn to you.

You sit, swaying on the swing as you continue to eat the kare pan in hand. Kageyama, having no idea what to do, reaches out to tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear. “What’s wrong?” He asks worried. You look to him as tears continue to stream down your face.

You drop your hand holding the kare pan to your lap, before bringing the sleeve of your hoodie to wipe your eyes.

“Ono-sensei says, if I fail this midterm, I would have to repeat the semester.” Kageyama nods as you continue, listening to the pent up emotions you kept to yourself this past week. “It’s just, it’s not that. It would be pretty stupid to cry over something so small, it’s not a big deal anyways” You admit before he states. “Don’t say that!” You look to him, giving a soft smile before continuing.

“In all honesty, I have no idea what I’m doing.” Your gaze falling back down. “I feel silly to chase after something I know I have no chance with, that I’m not good enough for, better yet, it’s not something meant for me.” You play with the wrapper of the kare pan as Kageyama listens. “Maybe this outcome was inevitable, I mean, I guess it was never meant to be. I’m just not it.” You admit, another tear streaming down. “I had my priorities all wrong.”

Kageyama gives you a look of confusion as he processes your thoughts, then coming with an idea of what you were talking about.

He watches as you bring the kare pan back to your mouth, taking a bite, your cheerful mood returning after expressing your emotions.

Kageyama can’t help but stare and smile as your face turns into a look of delicious satisfaction from the tasty treat in your hands. You feel his gaze, turning to look back to him, he immediately turns his to the sunset from afar.

“Boss, look” He points as you watch the sun begin to set.

As the sunset catches your eyes, you catch Kageyama’s.

How beautiful the golden hour glow cascades onto your facial features, the way your eyes reflect onto the warm sun, and the smile slowly creeping across your face.

You couldn’t think of anything else but how beautiful the sunset looked, and Kageyama, he couldn’t think of anything else but how beautiful you looked.

The sun finally sets, and you two finish the kare pans in hand. You, actually finishing Kageyama’s too, before the two of you head off.

“I don’t want to go home yet” Kageyama turns his head to you, as you walk slowly.

“Can I show you something?”

“Are you sure it’s okay for me to be here? I don’t want to intrude, Tobio!” You whisper to him as he holds the door to his house open for you.

You see as he rolls his eyes with a smile, before grabbing your hand and bringing you in.

He shuts the door behind you and asks for you to follow him, taking you to his backyard.

“Whoa-” You take a step out, as he shuts the sliding door behind you.

“Your backyard is huge! Is that an entire volleyball court?” You point to the volleyball net that spreads across his yard. “Did you invite me over just to show off your big backyard? I’ll have you know, my backyard may not be as big but-” You joke before he butts in. “No, come on I want to show you something.”

He walks closer to the volleyball net, you follow after him.

You bring your hand up to the net, grazing your touch over, feeling how worn out and used it has been. You turn to notice Kageyama bending over to pick up an object from the ground before turning to you.

You look and notice a volleyball, just as worn out and old as the net.

Your face contorts into one of confusion as he leans against the net, spinning the ball in hand.

“I used to practice with my grandfather everyday here.” He begins. “He was the one who had introduced me to volleyball, he had taught me everything I needed to know” You hear him sigh, standing from the net, looking up into the sky. “Both in volleyball, and in life.” Your eyes water, as your friend opens up to you. His gaze turns to you, “before he passed, he told me something” he walks closer to you, staring into your eyes, before lightly handing the old volleyball into your palms, his hands cupping the bottom of yours as you held the ball together. “If you get really good... I promise you... somebody who's even better will come along and find you.”

He lets go of your hands, leaving you with the ball as he looks back up to the sky.

“Though, I’m sure he was referring to volleyball with that.” He turns back to you. “I think, you can apply that saying to real life”

You bring a hand up to your mouth, trying to cancel the sob trying to escape. Kageyama immediately notices and comes to your aid. “I-I’m sorry- I’m not really good with this kind of stuff but-” He gets cut off with your sudden hug, as you sob into his chest.

“Thank you Tobio” You mumble, before pulling away. “I really needed that.” He gives you a sincere smile before the sound of the sliding door opens.

“Tobi- Oh? Is this the infamous Y/n-chan?” “Nee-san.” Kageyama calls out before she makes her way to you two.

“I’m Miwa, this loser’s older sister. Also known as, The Superior Kageyama.” She ruffles the top of Kageyama’s head before holding a hand for you to shake. You accept it, and introduce yourself.

“Wow, she’s even cuter in real life-” “Nee-san.” Kageyama gives his sister a glare before she laughs. “Are you guys hungry? I made pork curry.” You and Kageyama share a look of excitement, before the three of you making it back inside from the cold night weather.

“Thank you so much for having me, Miwa-san” You bow as Kageyama holds the door open, waiting for you. “You are welcome anytime Y/n-chan” She waves as the two of you make your way out.

You two walk in silence as the cold breeze tickles your ears.

You make it just outside before you turn to thank Kageyama for walking you home, and for the sentimental night.

“Thank you for keeping me company tonight Tobio” You ruffle the top of his head, copying his older sister’s actions. “I hope I was able to help, you m-mean... a lot to me, I hate to see you upset” You turn to open your gate, missing the second half of his confession. “Yeah, you did.” You look to him. “I really needed that Tobio, thank you so much again!” You wave before heading in, he watches as you make it inside safely before making his way home.

“Y/n? Where have you been it’s late!” Your mom runs to you, worried for your safety. You explain to her and your dad that you needed to take a stroll to clear your mind off things. Your much cheerful behavior startling them, before you make your way up to your room to focus back on your work.

The following Monday, Tsukishima had gone to school without waiting outside your gate. He feels as this week has gone by so slowly, it feels so weird not having you around like usual. And now he has two things to be sorry for.

As his mind is in another place, he is startled by a voice calling to him. “Tsukishima-san” He looks up only to meet eyes with you, taken back by your formality, not used to you calling him that.

‘Can you please help me with this problem?” You ask, he nods before replying. “Library later?” You nod, giving a smile before heading back to your seat.

You two find yourselves alone in the library after school. Yamaguchi not being able to attend this study session, having to deal with volleyball stuff with Ennoshita and Daichi.

Tsukishima stares, watching as you seem very focused onto your studies, thinking of what happened, wondering how you are able to talk to him all of a sudden. Have you had enough space? Were the two of you okay now? Can he apologize?

“Y/n” He calls to you. “Yes?” You answer, bringing your attention back up to him. The two of you share a brief moment of gazing into each others eyes, before he breaks away, looking down to your notebook. “You got the answer wrong, let me help.” You agree, sliding the notebook over.

He takes the notebook, and begins erasing. You watch him until he asks suddenly, “What made you want to talk to me again?” “What?” He turns the notebook facing you, explaining the problem and what you got wrong. You nod, understanding before taking your notebook, and solving it again. There’s another moment of silence, before you slide the notebook back to Tsukishima for him to check the answer.

“I guess you can say, I have come to realize my priorities” “Priorities? What do you mean?” He asks, his eyes still on your notebook as he checks your answers. “I want to be in the top 15 students.” He brings his gaze up to that statement, looking at the burning determination in your eyes, until you blink, leaning on your arm. “Then I’ll find time to be mad at you.” You give a cheeky smile, missing the one he gives you due to your smart comment.

You take your notebook back after he informs you that it is indeed correct. You feel excitement bubble in you, “Can you help me with this problem too?” The two of you continue to study, each passing day as the week goes by. Meeting everyday after school, reviewing each term, and every lesson.

Before you realized, it was the day of the exam.

Just as you were about to grab a pencil from your case, you open it to find a letter stuck inside.

“Good luck pipsqueak” it reads. You smile, closing your case as you take a deep breath. ‘Let’s do this!’

A month has passed and the exam results are out.

You rush your way past the students crowding the scoreboard, finally managing to squeeze your way to the front, you immediately went on a search for your name. Your eyes scan the board, before you find your name, placed right next to the number 13. You have reached #13 in the top of your class.

In excitement, you turn around, hoping to find Tsukishima to tell him the good news. You turn only to find him in the crowd, looking towards you with a smile before walking away.

You smile back as you watch his figure walk off into the hall.

After school, the six of you find yourselves outside of Coach Ukai’s shop.

Hinata walking out of the store with Kageyama, a plastic bag filled with a pack of strawberry milk.

Your group finds their way to the nearby park, sitting before Hinata starts ripping the plastic from the pack, before handing each individual a carton.

“Today, we celebrate Y/n’s entry into the top 15! We will have strawberry milk instead of champagne! Cheers!” You laugh as you bring your milk carton up towards your friends, as the six of you clink the milk boxes together.

Just as you bring the straw to your lip, you catch the gaze of Tsukishima giving a sly smile, immediately turning away when your eyes meet his.

You split ways with your friends, making your way home with Tsukishima.

“Let’s go, quickly.” He says before he begins walking off. “If you want to go home so quickly, then carry me.” You bite back jokingly. “No” “Why not?” He takes a moment to think, letting out an audible hum. “Too tired.” You roll your eyes before catching up to him.

Staying quiet, the silence throughout the walk in much more calming than the existing tension before. But, it’s still not the same as it used to be.

As you see your houses approaching, Tsukishima calls out to you.

“Y/n.”

You turn, only to find him leaned down as he eyes you. You blink confused, before he stands back up.

“Good job.” He gives you a genuine smile. “I’m proud of you.” What? You try fighting the blush running along your face. “Come again?” “No.” Just as he was about to turn into his house, you grab onto the ends of his shirt. It’s been a while since you last did that, and he missed it so much.

“Thanks Tsukki” You look up to him, giving him that smile he missed so much.

He brings his hand from his pocket up to your head, before ruffling your hair.

“Yeah, whatever.” You let go, waving to him before making your way inside your house.

He watches as you enter, letting out a soft smile.

Running up to your room, you strip your school uniform before hopping into your pajamas, immediately flying into your bed, clutching a pillow close to your chest as you look out your window, staring into his before turning to your back.

Your eyes glued to the ceiling before you drift off to sleep, the last thing on your mind;

“I think I still like you.”

TAGLIST: @cvlliesstuff , @strawberries-en-cream , @beanst0ck , @kimiiiiiiiiii, @lucyheartfilias-wife , @lanatheawesome , @owlnymph

PLEASE LEMME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS (OR IN ASKS) IF YOU’D LIKE TO BE ADDED TO THE TAGLIST!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! 🌸

A/N 2: I really do wanna thank you all so much for reading! You guys are all so sweet and kind and I just ksdhjncsdjk it makes me happy knowing someone is reading my, very cliche, sappy, bad english writing. Thank you to the ends of the Earth and back! You are just so, so incredible, so very incredible 💖

“A LOVE SO BEAUTIFUL” Masterlist 🌸

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sparklyaxolotlstudent · 3 years

Text

I reincarnated into the villainess of Miraculous Ladybug!

Part 2

WARNING

kind of Max Salt

It had been only a day since Chloe became her new self, and things had been… interesting.

She had made amends with Sabrina, giving her a brooch as an apology for her behavior, even if she recognized that something material wasn’t enough to balance her bad attitude. Sabrina had just stared at Chloe, as did everyone else, even Miss Bustier when they heard Chloe, of all people, apologize and recognize she was in the wrong. Even Alya had stopped calling her “Antibug” after that.

With the help of Sabrina, her butler and the Ladyblog… and very little from her own memories, she had managed to create a timeline of the akumas that had already attacked. Her excuse was that now that they had been akumatized too, they had to become more concious of how it was happening.

And because she now knew who was behind the mask. Of course, she couldn’t tell this to them, but she was afraid that if she was akumatized again (was that even possible?) she could spill the beans about Marinette and Adrien and then all would be lost.

As she learned,s he had already been the cause of most of her classmates akumatizations, which hit her hard, especially Juleka’s as she always thought that had been one of Chloe’s cruelest actions… one of her cruelest actions, because she was Chloe, just with a new perspective of things.

And… well… Kim’s… because she always found him cute on the show. Nathaniel too. Well, all guys were kind of cute.

She didn’t know the specific dates of the rest of the classmates, but she knew Max’s had something to do with a game tournament, so she would have to be on the lookout for that, Mylene would be when they make a movie and Rose’s would be when Prince Ali visited.

…

At least Max’s was NOT her fault, even if basically everyone else was. She couldn’t believe how dumb she was. “A supervillain that can make people into murderous rage machines is on the loose and you make people hate you, you’re a genius Chloe. Might as well tattoo a bull’s eye on my forehead.”

“Please don’t do that Mademoiselle”

Chloe turned red. She had not realized Jean Phillipe had entered. He immediately started apologizing, thinking she was mad at him.

“I’m only joking!... Maybe. Anyway, could you find that person?”

“There are several Asian old guys that give massages on Paris, it will take some more time to locate the specific one you want”

“That’s ok, thank you for your efforts”

“I… you’re welcome”

The butler scurried after that. Chloe could tell he was still a bit freaked out about her shift in personality. At least he had already gotten her the Ultimate Mecha Strike III game so she could participate on the tournament.

She was bad.

It’s not that she wasn’t familiar with games (She could totally kick some ass in Smash Bros before) but the controls didn’t make much sense, and the EXP and winning items meant that beginners had a clear disadvantage over more veteran players. Still, she could become a bit better about it.

She also couldn’t wait for Prince Ali’s visit! Of course, she was going to give him Rose’s letter, maybe introduce them if his bodyguard… assistant? That lady that accompanied him allowed it, but besides all of that… she would get to hold Tikki! The anthropomorphic representation of the concept of Creation would pretend to be a little toy. But hey, that was better than nothing.

The next day, Sabrina, loyal as ever, had told her about the Ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament, which would happen that same friday… but there was still no word of it at her own school.

Then she remembers that in the series, Alya and Marinette learned it last minute, and only people of Miss Bustier class participated… and with how the principal was portrayed in the show, and her own experience in her old life… well.

“MR DAMOCLES!” She yelled in the most respecting way she could. After being given permission to enter his office, of course. Sabrina was with her holding some posters and leaflets

“Miss Bourgeois, what is the meaning of this?” He said, trying to assert his authority. Chloe and Sabrina could tell that was not working. “You can’t just barge in my office and expect…”

“I asked permission to enter, and you gave it.” Chloe reminded the principal. “ANYWAY” she took a seat, and Sabrina took the other. Both of them put the posters and leaflets on Mr. Damocles desk. “The reason of this meeting is that it came to my attention the fact that the UMS company is making a national tournament in which any school can send two representatives, the best they have that can play Ultimate Mecha Strike III, the current Ultima Mecha Strike and…”

“… Isn’t that a videogame?” asked Damocles, equally confused at Chloe apparently liking video games and how polite she was speaking about it.

“… yes. I know my good friend Adrien Agreste likes it and…” Chloe could see how both Damocles and Sabrina made a ‘there it is’ face, but decided to ignore it. “And I thought it could be beneficial to the school to participate. So I took the liberty to commission these posters and leaflets so the gaming community in school can participate.”

“I don’t think the school has the budget to participate in…”

“I already spoke with my father, and he will gladly sponsor our school.”

“…”

“Well then, what do you need, Miss Bourgeois?”

Chloe talked about the applications Mr. Damocles would need to send to the game company and how they would need to make their own tournament to chose their representatives, and it should be the next day at the latest, or they wouldn’t be able to enter Friday. Mr. Damocles thought they had more time, but decided to not comment and humour Chloe, even if only she participated.

Satisfied, Chloe and Sabrina went to put the posters and to give leaflets to anyone who could be interested (She was amazed at how many of the people at school looked like each other).

“I did not know you liked video games” Said Alya sarcastically after lunch break was over and they were returning to their class room. Chloe made sure to give a leaflet to Marinette

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me” Chloe said with a smile, which freaked out Alya a little. Marinette looked at her very confused.

The class started and Chloe asked Miss Bustier to give the announcement of the tournament, which took her by surprise. Chloe liking videogames AND politely asking to give an announcement instead of just starting talking… maybe Marinette’s good example was finally working.

“As you might have noticed, I have been putting some posters about a tournament. Unfortunately, the city-wide tournament will be this Friday… and today is Wednesday, so we don’t have time. I managed to convince Mr. Damocles to held a school wide tournament tomorrow to choose two representatives of our school”

“You like video games?” blurted out Alix. Everyone was thinking the same.

“… To be completely honest, I only started playing after I was akumatized and was told I needed to relax and let out my aggression in a less harmful way. And I know Adrien likes the game, so I decided to give it a chance. Sabrina noticed there’s a tournament of that same game… apparently it happens annually and we just didn’t know, which I think is a shame, because I bet there are people at this school that must be amazing at the game. Maybe in this very classroom too!”

Everyone was speechless. Marinette wondered if she had somehow brainwashed Chloe when she used the Miraculous cure on her (Tikki later assured her that that was not possible).

“THAT’S AWESOME!” Kim finally broke the awkward silence. Chloe smiled at him, but he gave her a look that meant he was not over her rejection. He turned to Max. “That’s your game, isn’t it? You will surely win!”

“Yeah, I have been training on the game for months! I actually knew of that tournament, but never thought our school would participate, thanks Chloe!” Max’s eyes opened wide and looked at Kim whispering a “sorry”. Chloe pretended not to notice.

“No biggie, if I hadn’t liked the game, I wouldn’t have done this, so if you think about it, I’m as self-centered as ever”

“… what”

“Anyway, remember that this is a tournament, so even if you have been training, other people have probably done the same, so there is no guarantee that you will win”

Marinette could swear Chloe had looked at her on purpose when she said that. She didn’t remember talking about playing with her dad before. Had she? Wait, Chloe also mentioned that Adrien liked the game too, so she was probably looking at him. Typical Chloe.

The next day, the tournament was a success! Well, at least more successful than what Chloe remembered from the episode, where she only remembered Kim, Nino, Adrien and Max participating before Marinette joining them. It was sad, really. But now there were lots of people (most people she didn’t recognize). With herself and Marinette there were exactly 32 people for the tournament. The way the game worked, elimination matches would not be viable, but rather, they would pair up for the first round, and the people with the better scores would go to the next round, even if they lost their match, and this way they would guarantee that only the best got to represent the school.

Marinette had of course arrived last minute, and thankfully no one had accused her of trying to enter the tournament because her crush on Adrien, or given her grief over “taking Max spot” … yet… but Chloe was 100% sure she would rip anyone who dared imply that a new one. She had long decided she could keep being an asshole if she used those powers for good.

And of course, her first match was against Max. She wondered if she still had to respond to some kind of writer god or if the irony was just a natural part of this world. Either way, she hated it, specially when Max kicked her ass without barely breaking a sweat.

Everyone was expecting for her to throw a tantrum, demand a rematch, or something equally bratty, but she just turned to Max and extended her hand.

“Good match Max, you totally destroy… what’s that in your glasses?”

“Uh?”

A judge from the company, someone who hasn’t been present in the original timeline but had been hired by the Mayor, along with other arrangements asked Max for his glasses and saw that the boy had somehow connected them to the console. And it was deemed as an unauthorized aid in the tournament, disqualifying Max immediately, erasing his score.

Chloe went pale.

Max left the building, with everyone from their class giving the stink eye to Chloe, accusing her of doing Max dirty and buying the judge, which made him request for their removal too. Luckily, Adrien and Marinette hadn’t made those kind of comments (they were in their own matches and hadn’t noticed the whole thing).

“You’re the worst Chloe!” She could hear Kim claiming before being escorted out by security. (Another one of her dad’s arrangements)

“Fuck!” thought Chloe. “Is everything conspiring against me?”

The announcement was made about who would pass to the next round. Of course Chloe wasn’t chosen, and neither was Max.

“Hey Chloe! You did good for being your third day of playing” Greeted Adrien after the results had been posted. Both him and Marinette had placed second and first place respectively.

“… I somehow managed to be 40st place out of 32 participants.”

“…”

“It could have been worse. Anyway, have you seen Max? And the others? Kim kept saying that Max had trained all year, but I didn’t see his name anywhere”

“Yeh… there was a bit of a problem and…”

“CHLOE!” Marinette appeared and she did not look happy. “Did you got Max disqualified from the tournament just because you lost?”

Marinette was taken aback when Chloe looked… ashamed? She was not expecting that.

“If I had that kind of power, I would have given myself a much better place than 40, you know”

“Is that true? Max was disqualified?”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know his modified glasses technically counted as cheating”

Ok, now Marinette AND Adrien were a bit freaked out. They had NEVER heard Chloe said sorry before, and they found it a bit jarring.

Chloe sighed. “I’m like 99% sure that now Max will be akumatized and will target me. At least it’s not Marinette this time.”

Marinette and Adrien blinked in surprise and confusion.

“What”

“I mean… uh… your score is WAY higher than what his was, even with those glasses… HEY, I bet that’s where the akuma would be, I’ll make myself scarce and tell Ladybug that when she appears to save my butt again. ANYWAY, maybe I’m wrong and he will not be akumatized, either way I’ll go just in case so he doesn’t target the school. OH! Hey, if you both win you will be partners, how cool is that? Good Luck on your games guys!”

And she was gone before they could really react. After Marinette rage and confusion ended, she realized she was “alone” with Adrien. She ran to the bathroom to freak out properly. There, Tikki convinced her that Chloe was probably wrong and she should keep at the tournament, especially since her parents had been so happy for her participation. It would be less than an hour anyway.

Meanwhile, Chloe was outside her hotel, and of course, she had sent Sabrina inside for some refreshments, and had changed into comfortable clothes for running.

And lo and behold, the giant robot from the game was coming for her.

“OH, COME ON!” yelled Chloe, after the Gamer had tried his laser on her, and she had been pushed by Sabrina to safety.

“Chloe! Hahaha Do you still think I’m a cheater??” said the gamer in a deranged voice.

Chloe stood up. Dusted herself and looked the weird pyramid thing directly at the eye.

“You are attacking defenseless civilians that did absolutely nothing to you, while piloting a high-tech robot, giving you all the advantage, OF COURSE YOU’RE A FUCKING CHEATER YOU CHEATING CHEAT”

“what” The Gamer was expecting Chloe to be terrified, not to get sassy.

Chloe had not expected her own reaction either. But since it had stunned the Gamer, she decided to go for it.

“Your grudge is against me, isn’t it? And yet you transformed Sabrina into easy EXP for your unauthorized aid” she had chosen her words carefully. The same ones as his glasses had been described.

“That was meant for you and you know it! Sabrina was collateral damage because of you!” Another ray, which Chloe miraculously (heh) managed to dodge, thanks to her own athletism.

She made a mental note to thank her dad for the dance and gymnastic classes later.

“And all the other people? Uh? Besides, like in the game, it would be way too easy to defeat me with that thing… or is that the only way you can win against the Great and Powerful Chloe Bourgeois?”

The Gamer was about to get out of his robot, when it suddenly broke. Chat Noir had broken it with a Cataclysm.

“Quick, grab his stupid glassed before he cheats AGAIN!” yelled Chloe to the pair of heroes, hoping to also distract the Gamer. Ladybug seemed to have learn her lesson from last time and quickly threw her yoyo to the glasses, breaking them.

“No more evil doing for you!” yelled Ladybug, catching the butterfly and releasing it. “Bye-bye little butterfly! Mirac…” She looked awkwardly. She hadn’t called a Lucky Charm yet.

“Huh… Lucky Charm” she said in a deadpan. A Spray Can paint. She shrugged. “Miraculous Ladybug!”

Sabrina and the rest of the population are restored, as is Max.

Chloe almost regrets ending the fight so quickly, as she would have loved to see the giant mecha fights. But she guessed traumatizing people for her amusement shouldn’t happen.

“I’m sorry, it was not my intention to get you disqualified. I also don’t think you were cheating. Not on purpose, anyway.” she apologized to Max, offering a hand so he could get up. He seemed confused, and still a bit annoyed at her, but accepted the hand. “I’ll vouch for you; you might need to fight again for a score and…”

“No, it was my mistake in the first place. I have been using these glasses for so long I completely forgot about them. I will use normal glasses for play and maybe next year I can be one of the contestants. I hope you get better for a rematch too.”

“I’m pretty sure you’ll kick my arse glasses or not, but I accept the rematch.”

“Well, it seemed they’re keeping a clean score!” Chat Noir tried to pun. Ladybug rolled her eyes.

Now that she wasn’t in mortal peril, she looked at them. REALLY looked at them.

She knew those two were Marinette and Adrien but… they kind of looked like them, but at the same time, they didn’t? Like when you kind of recognize someone, but can’t place where do you remember them from? It was weird, the more she tried to recognize Adrien’s features on Chat Noir, the more different they looked. Same with Ladybug. It was giving her a headache, so she stopped trying.

The heroes said their good-byes, and Chloe, Sabrina and Max decided to return to school to see the rest of the tournament. Chloe noticed Sabrina was a bit weirded out, and decided to later ask her dad for therapist for her and anyone else that might need it from this attack… and all the others… it was probably not the first time someone had been… killed? Erased? attacked In an akuma attack.

She also remembered reading somewhere that Adrien and Marinette hadn’t been akumatized not because their Miraculous, but Marinette for having such a positive outlook in life, and Adrien for being a pessimist, so that might be worth looking for too.

Like she had thought, Adrien and Marinette ended up winning the school tournament, and were chosen to represent the school.

They had been a bit freaked out when Chloe acted all giddy about them having to train all afternoon together.

They did end up winning for the school.

Chloe and Max had played together a couple of times in friendly matches after that. Max won every time.

Yeah, I'm reading some popular timelines, I don't know if I'll write all the ones "missing", but at least the ones with the classmates will be done.

And yes, she ships the Love Square.

#Reincarnated ML AU #ML AU #Chloe Bourgeois #kinda salty

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bloomyn · 4 years

Text

gold gradients

pairing: ushijima wakatoshi x reader

summary: your midlife crisis happens rather quickly, and its not midlife, you’re twenty three with a baby whose daddy just left with your best friend. peachy.

part of: pink peonies

green polka dots x gold gradients x next

you came back to practice the next day and the day after that, and then it was like seeing you at practice was normal. akio skipping in front of you volleyball plush in tow, you sitting with misaki in the stands. then after practice, you’d hang around for a bit, letting akio run off with kageyama who (surprisingly) had taken a liking to the young striving setter, but ushijima thought that it was mostly because akio reminded him of someone else.

and sometimes, your eyes would meet his and sometimes hirugami would invite him over to your group of three and sometimes you’d talk about your students and how you can’t wait until they open the lab again and your eyes would crinkle and he thought it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. or when akio would climb up his leg and you’d apologize but to him it was fine. it was akio, the next super setter who loved to watch ushijima play, and he was your son, of course, it was fine.

but he didn’t have feelings for you, of course he didn’t.

he felt something towards you, but they weren't feelings. he knew how feelings worked, there was maemi very briefly in high school and rini two years ago. he was pretty sure there were feelings back then, and they didn’t feel like the ones he had now.

yeah, they definitely weren’t the same.

misaki screeched.

“no. way. seriously, come on you can’t miss the first game of the season.” she whined, “the lab will be there on monday you can wait! think of akio, how heartbroken--.”

you held your hand up.

“first off, we don’t have tickets as it is. and akio already knows i’m busy this weekend and that he’s going to be at daycare.”

misaki scrunched her face at your words, “obviously you wouldn’t need tickets, and does akio even know any of the kids from saturdays daycare?”

“well, no.” you sighed, “but we’ve already talked about this.”

“then let me and fukuro take care of him! we can take him to the game and drop him off after! you know he’d love it.”

it wasn’t like you didn’t trust misaki. but you’d never let anyone really take him out. would it be so bad though? he already got accustomed to calling the hirugami’s auntie and uncle.

in front of you misaki cheered.

“oh my god i haven’t even made a decision yet.”

she grinned, “no but you made the exact same face when you let the kids do extra credit on the midterm.”

ushijima had never seen you like this before.

“--and you stay with auntie okay? you never let go of her hand you go with her everywhere, promise?”

akio nodded and stuck his pinky out, “promise.”

your eyebrows were furrowed and he could see you biting the inside of your lip as you son took misakis hand and entered the gym.

“[l/n]” he heard himself saying, “akio will be okay with us. even when the game starts he’ll be sitting near us. i, we’ll take care of him.”

you stared blankly at his face.

oh, had he said something wrong? was it weird to say,

“thank you ushijima-san.” you responded, blushing a little. “i know you will.”

there really shouldn’t have a bolt of lightning zipping through his heart.

over the course of the next couple hours misaki had sent you photos of them during warmup. one of akio staring intently at the court, another of him smiling at the camera, and oh. the last one, made you laugh a little. it wasn’t a photo, but a video of akio talking to ushijima, his arms spread out wide accentuating his words and then like it was the easiest thing in the world the man had scooped him up into his chest and it had sent akio keeling in laughter.

and then underneath the video, “hmmmm akio and the super built amazing sexy ushijima wakatoshi are getting along quite well.”

you scoffed, ignoring the message (but saving the video). pulling the goggles off of your face you stepped back from your workspace, almost admiring the view that would let anyone know that someone was doing very, very important work here. you stepped out of the lab, taking a seat on the bench outside and kicking off your shoes, letting your mind wander.

did akio want a dad? he had never asked about it before, why there were only two of you. was he scared to ask? you groaned out loud, the birds near by flitting off in surprise. but was it too late for you? to love someone meant ripping open year old traumas, and the last time you’d done that…your lover had eloped with your best friend and left you 19 and pregnant. had it really been four years since, nope nope, you didn’t need to unpack all that yet.

feelings could wait.

physical attraction however...there was no lying. ushijima was objectively handsome, hot even. you had seen the ads for the japan national team, it wasn’t your fault the uniform was so tightly fitted to his broad chest.

you were 23! these thoughts were probably fine, healthy even. its not like they were emotional.

or so you thought.

when you arrive at the gym the crowds have mostly dispersed. adler fans flaunting the “easy” win, and whatever the other team was leaving in a disappointing loss. but other than a few fans the gym is mostly empty.

“mommy!”

you whipped around, smile spreading as your son sprints towards you. kneeling down you physically prepare yourself for the ball of straight energy coming at you. wrapping your arms around him you plant a kiss on his forehead. but when you look up, it isn’t misaki who’s taken your son out to greet you.

“u-ushijima - san.”

the figure of pure muscle in front of you nods slightly, “hirugami-san is waiting for the captain in the locker room but akio saw you walking into the gym and insisted on saying hello.”

you open your mouth to respond but akio beats you to it.

“ushijima-san scored the most points today! he said i was good luck.”

you cant help the full fledged grin on your face when you look up to see japans cannon blushing because of a four-year-olds words.

“is that right?” you tease, “guess that means we’ll have to keep coming back huh?”

akio nods furiously, “and then ushijima-san will win everytime!

out the corner of your eye you can see ushijima turning away, tips of his ears reddening quickly.

standing up, you take akios hand in your own. “tell me more in the car okay?”

and in a moment of courage? is that what its called. you turn toward the man who’s been plaguing your mind all day,

“thank you ushijima-san. i cant wait to hear what happened during the game.”

for the first time in four year you can feel your face lighting itself on fire.

“[l/n], will you be at practice on monday?”

you turn, nodding your head.

“is it okay if i give you something?”

your heart drops down to your stomach, and not finding the words to say “you could give anything to me.” you nod.

“then have a good night.”

“yeah you too.”

you look down at your son who looks just as confused as you are.

“mommy lets go eat.”

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pianjeong · 4 years

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congressional debate zukka au

this is inspired by @owlsantuary‘s post i was a congressional debater in hs so here u go

sokka is captain of his school's debate team; he joined as a freshman bc he was like "a club that lets me expound on my opinions for five minutes straight? yes plz" and was good enough that he made captain as a sophomore when the previous one graduated

- the idea of "politicking" is really important in congressional bc it's how you get people to support your bills if you wrote them, or if you have a really good argument and want that bill to be higher on the docket (bc sometimes you run out of time)

- sokka absolutely OWNS at this bc he's that guy that everyone wants to be friends with and half the people he talks to don't even realize that he has an agenda

- he also makes actual friends with the people from rival schools bc that's just what he's like

- his assertiveness sometimes gets him into sticky situations bc ppl get offended by him cutting them off during question time, but it's usually bc theyre trying to run out the clock and he is NOT having that

- i always led tongue twister exercises at the start of every competition to get our voices warmed up and im imagining sokka and his team SHOUTING the "betty bought a bit of butter" one in the middle of the hallway and getting weird looks (if you haven't heard of it look it up it's HARD)

- he always gets full points for pathos (yes that's a real thing) bc he'll tell jokes abt his teacher dads or his sister but then he'll turn around and make his dumb joke into a big-picture argument about the value of education or something; sometimes it backfires though bc he makes a joke at the wrong time

- i think he’d struggle with arguing for opinions he doesn’t agree with…bc he has CONVICTIONS and is basically physically incapable of arguing against like. a climate change bill or something

- this means that he sometimes scores low bc he only argues what he agrees with

- zuko is research captain for his team, which happens to be no. 1 rivals with sokka's school

- he is the master of the rebuttal bc he loves nothing more than tearing holes in people's arguments

- he isn't the best at being adaptible if the debate takes a turn away from what he predicted/researched for, and he does have problems with looking down at his notes WAY too much (youre allowed notes but youre meant to make as much eye contact as possible), but he always shows up with exorbitant numbers of sources and flattens people with FACTS

- when he's not speaking he is the most awkward of the awkwards and he despises politicking bc it makes him feel self-conscious; this means that he honestly doesn't have v many friends besides his own team but at the same time everyone Knows Of him and the "oh SHIT zuko sozin is in my debate room im so screwed" whispers are real

- he's better at arguing whichever side of the debate is available instead of only sticking with his own beliefs, which allows him to rack up a ridiculous amount of points bc he's speaking every ten minutes

- he's also at least co-author, if not singular author, of like 80% of the bills his school submits for debate (which also contributes to everyone knowing his name)

- sokka and zuko had definitely heard of each other before they actually meet; sokka bc of zuko's Reputation (tm) and zuko bc ofc he'd know of the captain of their biggest rival

- also bc they're always getting called up at the awards ceremonies for best speaker awards (and best bill for zuko)

- they do NOT understand what's so great about the other...but also are Looking Respectfully bc debate requires formal wear and ofc zuko shows up in a tailored three-piece suit and sokka's probably wearing his dad's old suit but makes it look good anyway

- this changes the first time they're assigned to the same room and sokka bounds up to zuko to introduce himself and immediately stutters bc o god cute boy cuter up close and zuko thinks this is precious but also has no idea what to say and blurts out something dumb and then they both sit down and look Determinedly Away

- zuko is very surprised when he finds sokka is actually kinda funny and even tho he thinks that him only arguing one side is disadvantageous he's also v impressed by the strength of it (and oh my god a good family relationship what???)

- sokka is floored by zuko bc his speeches literally sound like poetry with sources (insert that line from rwrb that's like "'see attached bibliography' is the single sexiest thing youve said to me")

- and THEN...they both get to go to the captains' lunches which is where they really sit and talk for the first time over pizza and sodas and maybe exchange numbers :0

- there is definitely "fraternization with the enemy" talk from their teams mostly joking but also sokka youre CAPTAIN you cant do that hes ZUKO SOZIN PLS STOP (spoiler: he doesnt care)

- it takes ages and ages for them to progress past being friends but they always sit together at captains' lunches and sometimes their teams....sit close at awards...and they trash talk and flirt across the bleacher dividers......

- it all comes to a head at the state competition which both teams make it to and they're both REAL nervous the night before and run into each other in the hotel lobby and it turns into them sitting up half the night talking and theyre both exhausted on competition day but it's ok bc coffee is a thing

- and then oh shit....sokka qualifies for nationals and zuko doesn't but someone else on his team does......and everyone expects zuko to be mad about it and sure he's disappointed but also hes just so happy for sokka that it kinda overshadows it

- they sneak away from the celebration dinner that both teams just Happened to be at the same restaurant for (actually, the sponsor squad aka iroh, hakoda, and piandao definitely planned this) and make out outside and tell their friends to fuck off when they come looking for them; they've both been dancing around this forever they deserve it

#:')#so much reminiscing gods #zukka #debate au #*#text

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sunshine-luca · 2 years

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The Popstar and the Pilot

In the last year, Luca Moreno scored five Grammys, went multiplatinum seven times, completed a yearlong world tour, became an uncle, got engaged and got married.

Then, he turned 22.

Article by Zoie Burgaw

Before I ever meet Luca Moreno, I feel like I know him. I have already watched him piggy back on his oldest brother along the soppy edge of a Scottish loche, get his sprained ankle wrapped, devour a tin full of traditional buttery shortbread, blow a slobbery raspberry against his twin sister’s cheek, mimic his father’s stern warning, expound on the seriousness of music verses life and love, snort ice cold water out of one nostril on a dare and serenaded his new husband with an impromptu love song as storms gather on the darkened highland horizons. I know what a Luca Moreno burp sounds like, and also a sneeze. Here, in the luxurious and incredibly secure surrounds of a Scottish castle, Luca is free and happy and surrounded by the love that helped to propel him to stardom yet keep his feet firmly on the ground.

Luca’s talent is unmistakable. I have listened to him perform at the Democratic National Convention, the Academy Awards, the Grammys (where his debut album, Show Me The Stars, racked up a total of 11 wins), Coachella, Big Day Out, Melodifestivalen, NPR’s Tiny Desk, Ellen, The Tonight Show, and in a car with James Corden.

The muchness of Luca’s online presence is overwhelming and kaleidoscopic, his own posts and performances spawning fan accounts and compilation videos. There is the Baader-Meinhof effect too; once you are aware of Luca, he really is everywhere. He’s trending on Twitter, his emotive face shows up in a group text, his beautiful voice Dopplers out of a passing car. In the four short years since he signed with Berlin SSV Records as part of a boyband started in the music rooms of his local high school, he has risen to mind-boggling stardom: His just completed worldwide 49-show arena tour sold out days after tickets went on sale but if you were to ask him his greatest achievement, he grins into the face of the newborn tucked against his chest as a wedding band flashes on his finger, he tells you it’s being able to keep his family close, and add to it. “After all,” he quips, laughing as his twin, the beautiful and elegant Olivia Cerrillo Morrisini, takes the baby from his arms, “If it hadn’t been for my tour, they wouldn’t even have met and I wouldn’t have found my true calling as only the most awesome uncle ever.”

There’s good natured laughter around the room, and his sister kisses his cheek before joining her husband Enzo – Luca’s choreographer and backup dancer of his latest tour. Spending time with the group lends you to believe the pairing would have been as inevitable as the sun rising but it’s not just his sister that Luca smiles for. Despite their tender ages of barely twenty two, both twins haven’t hesitated to tie the knot – moves fully supported by Luca’s father and his husband of twenty two years.

“It was the loudest thing people talked about,” Luca comments when I query him. There’s one noticeable absence in the room, that of the man who wears the matching band to Luca’s but Luca assures me he’ll be along soon enough. “It was all they could see, all they could talk about. Too young, too old. Age is just a number, it doesn’t really mean much when you take in the kind of life you live.”

“And your family knows that better than most.”

Luca seems surprised that I would agree with him. “Yeah,” he half laughs, glancing back at his father. It’s hard to miss. Luca’s father, not even forty and already grandparent smiles back. There had been controversy there too, but closely guarded circumstances no one in the family would choose to talk about. “Why?” Luca had shrugged when I’d asked. “It doesn’t matter now. We can’t change the past. My mom is gone. I don’t want to dishonour her memory with speculation and neither do my family. My dad didn’t even know about us until she died. It’s strange to think about how different my life would have been. Sorta sad. I wish she could see where we all are today, and I like to think she’s watching over us.”

It came to light only recently of Luca’s other surprise and closely guarded family connection through his father. Luca and his twin Olivia, grandchildren of the famed, internationally renowned Spanish singer Mara Cerrillo.

“I wanted to see if I could make it without piggybacking of my abuela’s success,” Luca said shyly when I asked why he never chose to mention it until a few months ago. He’s a contraction to know him. In photoshoots and music videos he pouts, sulks, struts and preens but away from the cameras and in the arms of his family, he’s easy going and casual, the delightful, slightly annoying little brother to his siblings, a playful jokester that can’t sit still. His smile is forever present, and his laugh and dancing eyes are impossible to look away from as he flitters like a butterfly from subject to subject. “So I was really pleased when she came out to congratulate me after I got my awards.”

“That caused quite a stir,” I smile and Luca laughs, almost like he’s embarrassed. It’s endearing and sweet and reminds us he’s still young and yet to discover so much of the world despite seemingly have already conquered it.

“Yeah, well, there was a lot going on,” he says and he gestures with his left hand, pointing to the band on his finger. “And this was by far the best of it.”

It brings us back to why we’re meeting today. Luca hasn’t exactly been shy about his private life – it’s been hard to do when he’s posting to Instagram daily and filming behind the scenes videos for his fans. There are rare places he keeps to himself, the estate in Scotland belonging to his new husband’s family being one of them – but the announcement of his engagement and subsequent marriage had most fans sobbing into their pillow or raising eyebrows the world over.

“Your marriage,” I confirm and once again glance around the room. Luca catches my eye and grins.

“He’s coming, just finishing off some paperwork with his sister,” Luca explains and I nod as we sit back to wait.

It’s not long before the doors open and a man walks in that has Luca bounding up and sweeping into his arms. There had long been speculation about Luca and the older private pilot – blurry videos and photos showing them entwined in various locations around the world - coupled with an ancient brooch Luca was rarely seen without and a distinct change in the songs Luca released, there was plenty to feed the rumour mill.

And then, an abrupt, impromptu acoustic performance of a love song off script at one of his major concerts had everyone wondering if the starlet had indeed found love.

Luca tugs him over, settling next to him on the couch as we exchange pleasantries. Blake O’Riain, or Ryan as he’s known to his friends, is sixteen years Luca’s senior, the same age as Luca’s father and a man that cares little about what the world at large thinks of him. With a successful fleet of planes at his back, a proud Scottish heritage that spans back generations, pale hands inked with wild, artistic designs and eyes that could rival a summer sky, Ryan might seem like an odd match for the exuberant popstar… until you see them together.

The bond been them is undeniable. What was cool before turns molten in Luca’s presence and Luca’s frenetic, wild energy settles when Ryan takes his hand. They spare a moment to bend heads together on the couch, speaking quietly before they turn to me. Ryan’s soft reassurance seems to rally Luca, and he turns to me with a smile just as bright but more collected in the presence of his husband.

Ryan, in turn, is seemingly content to sit back and let Luca have the limelight, offering support when Luca needs it in the form of a gentle touch or a smile.

“So what would you say to those doubters out there?” I ask after the pleasantries are out of the way. They’d called me here to set the record straight and address the rumours that Luca was being taken advantage of, that Ryan was after his fortune despite having a fortune of his own.

“It doesn’t really matter what they say,” Luca’s frustration is evident in his tone. “This is how it is, this is what we are. And it’s entirely separate from my music.”

“Most of your new album has been inspired by this man,” I say, nodding at the pilot. It surprises me when he chuckles, his face is lined and serious in a way that tells me he would protect Luca from even so much as a sneeze if he could. Luca squeezes his hand and lifts it up to kiss his knuckles. There they go again, the quiet moments that tell me this isn’t a passing phase or a tabloid ploy for attention. There’s genuine affection there, love and a bond that’s clearly Luca’s tether to the things that are most important in his life. “So how can you really say that?”

“It is,” Luca concedes. “A lot of my new album is a love letter, I’ll admit that. But that should only prove how real this is. People are too hung up on numbers, on their ideas of the way things should be… of how, I should be. And for a long time I worried. But one thing my abuela, my father, and Ryan have always taught me is to live my truth. And my truth for a long time was my music. But now it’s my family, my love and… and it’s them that help me fly.”

TBC

#just had to put this here #idk wanted to try something different lol ignore this

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matrixaffiliate · 3 years

Text

Choreograph

New Story! FFN and AO3

Lily does not dance. She has no desire to be on national television. But when she's surprisingly selected as a contestant for Dancing With the Stars and she finds out how much money there is to fund her research on carbon capture, she becomes a reluctant contestant for the latest season. She just didn't count on being placed with the favorite dancer to win this year, James Potter.

This little story is for the wonderful @constancezin! (And if you go to her Tumblr you can see some amazing Harry Potter artwork!) She brought up the idea of a Dancing With the Stars (American) Jily AU and I volunteered to write a version of it for her. Thank you for sharing your ideas, @constancezin! I hope you love this little story!

Choreograph

"No, Mary," Lily shook her head and made another note in her notebook.

"Lily, you didn't even think about it!" Mary pouted.

"I didn't need to, Mary."

"But Lily," Mary whined.

"No, Mary." Lily closed the window in her computer and stood up. "I've never even been able to sit through an entire episode. I won't do it."

"Lily, think of the kind of publicity this would give you, and the companies that are looking to fund your research, and the public that would hail you!" Mary blocked the way out of her office.

"Mary," Lily sighed. "I don't dance."

"None of the contestants do," Marry shook her head. "That's the whole point! You get partnered with an accomplished ballroom performer, and they teach you how to do each week's dance, you perform it on national television, and the judges give you scores, but the viewing public keep you on the show by voting for you!"

Mary's explanation had grown progressively more and more animated as she went on. But Lily was not having it.

"Mary, no, I don't dance, I certainly don't dance in public, and I'd honestly rather have a go with a giant squid than dance on national television with some man that's more concerned with what his hair looks like than I am about mine."

"Lily, wait!" Mary cried as Lily pushed past her.

Lily turned in a huff. "What?"

"If you sign on and agree to perform for the first two weeks it's 125 thousand dollars."

Lily gawked.

"And," Mary smiled seeing that the money had caught Lily's attention, "you get more money for every week you stay on the show. The winner ends up with like 300 thousand dollars. Lily, just the 125 thousand would pay for the next iteration of the project. Imagine if you made it further? Think of what we could accomplish with the grand prize!"

Lily bit her lip, all of her resolve that she was not going to do this silly television show cracking.

"How did they even get my name, Mary?"

"I don't know but they contacted the company this morning and they want your answer by tomorrow."

Lily sighed and leaned against the wall. "Mary…"

"Lily, come on, the benefits are huge, think of everything we'd be able to do and how it could change our work on carbon capture!"

"You're sure I only need to stay on for the first two weeks to get the 125 thousand?"

"Yes, that's what they said."

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Lily shook her head.

But really, she could. In exchange for two weeks of humiliation, she would get more money to put towards her research than two weeks' worth of grant filing would give her - it even came with equal levels of frustration.

"Oh my gosh! Are you going to do it?"

Lily rolled her eyes but nodded. "Yes, Mary, I'm probably going insane but you're right, the money is too much to walk away from."

Mary screamed and threw her arms around Lily. "This is going to be amazing! Oh, I hope you get James Potter or Sirius Black, they're so good! And really hot too! I wonder if we can put in a request for your first pick. Or at least tell them not to pair you with Albus Dumbledore, he and his partner are always one of the first voted off."

"Then let's hope I end up with him," Lily moved back towards her office. "Do you have the number I'm supposed to call?"

"Right here," Mary texted the number to her and Lily sat down before hitting dial.

Mary had raved about how great it was that she was doing the show, and kept going on about how amazing it would be for Lily to be paired with James Potter, who'd finished top five the last three years he'd been on the show, or Sirius Black, who'd won last season. Lily adamantly refused Mary's plea to spend an evening watching complications of greatest moments of James Potter and Sirius Black on YouTube.

A few days after she called and confirmed, Lily received a time and place to be at for paper signing and the promise of finding out who her partner was. Lily didn't care for the time out of her workday it would require, but she reminded herself this was the same sort of sacrifice of time that she would have to make applying for grants, but this came with a guarantee of funds whereas the grants were always anyone's guess as to whether or not the group would get the money. Besides, this money could be what gave her the breakthrough to a patented, marketable item in order to fund her bigger research ideas.

And the next day, Lily walked in the door of the office. But of course, the receptionist wasn't there to tell her what to do next. She let out an audible groan.

"Everything alright?"

The man addressing her was tall, with dark hair that was messy and stood on end. His square rimmed glasses framed warm hazel eyes that reminded her of her dad's favorite imported maple syrup; her mom always bought it for him for Christmas every year without fail.

James Potter looked good on camera, but he was blinding in person.

"Oh, yes, just, um, I'm not sure what to do next."

"I'm happy to point you where you need to be," he held out his hand, "I'm James by the way."

"It's nice to meet you," Lily took his hand and gave herself a firm mental shake to stop ogling him. "I'm the contestant that's going home the moment I have to rely on votes to stay in."

James laughed. "Is that so?"

"I'm no one special, there's no fan base to keep me on the show." Lily shrugged and tried to push down the part of her that suddenly wanted James Potter to be her assigned dance partner.

"No fan base, huh?"

"Just my best friend, no one else is around to vote for me." Lily looked down at her phone and looked back around for the receptionist.

"I can show you where to go to get your paperwork signed and completed?"

She looked back up at him to see his hand shoved in his hair.

"Oh, yes, thank you," Lily nodded, feeling incredibly awkward at how scattered she must seem.

James grinned and started moving down one of the hallways. "So, what is your claim to have been invited to be a contestant on the show?"

Lily scoffed. "I have no idea. I'm a scientist, and I had a breakthrough on carbon capture last year that managed to make a brief mention on the four o'clock local news broadcast and most of the science journals. I've not done anything the general viewership is going to care about."

"Really? What's your name? If you don't mind my asking."

"Lily Evans," she smirked at him. "See you've never heard of me."

James looked sheepish, "Well, no, I haven't, but I mean the most important people are usually people that have no media presence in my opinion."

Lily laughed, "That's nice of you to say."

"So, you just really wanted to learn how to dance?" He leaned up against an open door jam.

Lily gave a nervous laugh. "Just hope you don't get paired with me. I don't dance, and I'm really only in this because the money from the first two weeks might be able to get me to a point where I can fund the research I want to do."

"A famous innovator like yourself needs the money?" James laughed at her. "You mean the grants aren't just spilling in?"

Lily scoffed, "Yeah I'm rolling in the dough right now. The Bentley out front is mine."

"Which one?"

Lily laughed, "The white '95 Corolla."

"Ah, a great year for Bentley Corollas," James laughed with her. The conversation went silent in an almost awkward way. James took a deep breath and gestured to the room they were standing outside of. "So, um, this is it. I guess I'll see you around then."

"Yeah, thank you, and good luck this season. I'm sure you'll do great."

"You too," his hand jumped back to his hair.

Lily nodded and stood awkwardly at the door a moment before remembering how to human.

"Well, I'll see you around."

"Yeah," James pushed off the wall, "See you."

Lily ducked into the office and was able to get her contract signed and all the particulars determined.

At the end of it all, the man that had been helping her clicked a few things on his computer.

"Alright, I've just sent the email with all your instructions and your partner for the show. You get eight tickets per show-"

"I'll only need one," Lily interrupted him as she opened the email on her phone.

"Boyfriend?" He smiled at her.

Lily's eyes went wide as she looked at the name of her partner.

"Um, no, but this says my partner is James Potter."

"Yep, producers assigned you two together on Monday."

"I, um, is that a good idea. I mean you saw all my paperwork; I'm probably going to be the first one voted off, and James is one of your best."

"I'm sure it will be fine, but if you'd like you can talk to the producers about it." He handed her a business card. "Here's all of Marlene's information, and I'm sure she can help you feel better about it. I wouldn't worry, though. James is good at what he does and that's what will really get you to through the show."

"Thanks," Lily nodded and moved to the door, already dialing Marlene's number.

"This is Marlene," she answered as Lily climbed in her car.

"Hi Marlene, this is Lily Evans, I'm one of your contestants this season."

"Yes, Lily! I just got the scan of all your paperwork. We're excited to have you. What can I do for you?"

"I know this is probably going to sound silly, but I need you to resign me. I know James is one of the favorites to win this year, and I have absolutely no coordination. I don't want to be the reason he doesn't make it to the top five. I'm sure you've got an athlete or something that can switch with me."

Marlene laughed. "Lily, I'm sure James would appreciate the sentiment, but we put a lot of thought into this and tried to make it fair for everyone. Besides, if you know then James just got his email. Don't worry, James is a good teacher and he'll make sure you can do your best out there."

"Marlene, really," Lily gripped her phone a little tighter, "I once had to perform in front of a middle school crowd and completely forgot the words to the song I'd signed on to sing. There's a real possibility that I'll get up there for the first dance and freeze and get sent home the first week."

"That's really sweet of you to be so concerned, Lily, but don't forget that it's the votes that keep you in, not necessarily your skill as a dancer or your points from the judges."

"And I'm a nobody scientist that has a fan base of zero."

Marlene laughed, "Just trust us. We've been doing this for years now. Stranger people than you have advanced to the top five."

Lily huffed, "Well, I guess I'll tell James I tried."

"Don't worry about James," Marlene dismissed. "He'll be just fine."

Lily tried to believe those words on the day she drove to the gym or whatever you'd call a building with rooms for them to practice in. These were the things that made Lily feel like she couldn't do this.

The camera crew was waiting for her and went through a whole bunch of things that Lily fully planned on ignoring before letting her finally go inside to meet James.

She opened the door and tried to smile. Then her eyes landed on James and she felt a little less nervous. The smile he directed her way made her heart stutter.

"No way!" He looked at the camera on him. "This woman's going to save the planet!"

Lily gave a nervous chuckle as she walked up to shake his hand. "I don't know about saving the planet."

James moved her proffered handshake into a dance position, bringing his hand to her back and spinning her around.

"The great Lily Evans is brilliant and humble, ladies and gentlemen."

Lily pulled out of his embrace and fidgeted with her hair.

"Well, I'm sure there will be plenty of time for you to reform that opinion. But I'm looking forward to working with you, James. I hope I can live up to your previous seasons. I'm sorry to say I'm a very inexperienced dancer."

"You never had me for a teacher." James waved off her concerns. "You'll see, we'll have you dancing like you've been doing it all your life in no time."

"Cut!"

Lily jumped. She had forgotten about the crew around them.

"Great work you two, we'll be back to film you again on Friday."

"Sounds good, see you then." James saluted as the crew cleared up and moved out of the dance studio.

"So, are you disappointed to not be assigned to me?" James chuckled once the door had been closed for a moment.

Lily bit her lip, "I would think you would be upset more than me. I even asked one of the producers to switch me to someone else so you could have a chance at winning this season."

"Yeah, Marlene told me about it." James chuckled. "But I'm the dancer, so let me worry about the dancing and you worry about climate science."

"I'm really not going to save the world," Lily sat down on one of the chairs against the wall. "I might ask the producers to cut that out."

"You can ask, but since we only did one take, they would need to have us film that whole first meeting over again. Don't worry about it. All it does is create interest in you which could gain us more votes."

Lily wanted to protest, but James put his hands on her shoulders and pulled back on them.

"What?"

"We have to fix your posture. I need you to be able to stand up straight all the time so we can get you into practice."

Lily frowned at it as she tried to sit up straighter.

"Here," James pulled her to stand up "Like this."

His hands pulled her shoulders back, but then smoothed down her spine, almost caressingly, to her hips where he brought them inline. Lily felt her mouth go dry.

"I bet all your past partners called you an awful taskmaster." She tried for humor to distance herself from the way her heart was pounding in her ears.

"My experience says that by the end of today you're going to call me all sorts of unpleasant names for what we're going to do."

Lily forced a laugh and suggested they get on with it. Their first dance was the foxtrot which seemed like a nice way to ease into this experience. But despite Lily's hopes, by the time seven o'clock rolled around she was sure she'd never make it through the next week of practices.

"You can go ahead and call me whatever you want," James sat down next to her as she collapsed in her chair.

"No," she panted, "I mean, I signed on for this, right? I can only be upset with myself. I'm just sorry I'm so bad at it."

"You're not bad at it," James shook his head and sat down next to her.

"James, there are mirrors on every wall, and I have eyes. I'm not good at this."

"You're too wrapped up in believing you're bad at this. Look, if I told you that there was no hope for climate science to make any real difference so why try, would you bite my head off?"

Lily laughed, "Yes, I probably wouldn't try to eat you, but I'd say you were wrong."

James looked dubious but continued. "Alright, I'm the dance expert in this room, and I say that you're not bad at this. You have a ton of the routine memorized now as far as where we're moving around the room on the floor and that's huge." He bumped her shoulder with his own. "Now say it with me, 'I can dance'."

Lily shook her head but chuckled, "I can dance."

"No one would believe that," James laughed. "Come on, again, like you mean it now."

Lily took a deep breath, "I can dance."

"Is that all you've got, Evans?" James goaded her.

"I CAN DANCE!" She yelled at him and laughed when he jumped up from his seat.

"Then dance, Lily!" He held out his hand to her and Lily pushed up to step into their routine again, James counting the steps as he led her around and around the room, her feet only stepping on his every third step this time, rather than every step they took together.

The days leading up to their first performance seemed to go both in slow motion and warp speed simultaneously. But soon it was Sunday and she and James were running through the routine for the last time before they'd do the dress rehearsal the next day.

"I'm still not getting it, James." Lily sat down on the floor and hung her head as she rested her arms on her legs.

"You're doing just fine," he sat down next to her.

"Don't lie to me."

James was silent for a long moment before he held out his hand to her.

"We're a team, Evans, and I would never lie to a teammate. Come on, let's try it again."

Lily sighed before taking his hand and letting him pull her up from the floor to run through the routine again.

She wished all of these hours she was putting in were paying off, but all it seemed to do was make her exhausted. She was in the office from seven till nearly eleven, then she would eat something while she drove to the dance studio and dance with James until seven or eight, and then drive home, sometimes to remember to eat something, before finally passing out cold until her alarm went off to start it all over again.

Dress rehearsal Monday morning seemed to only cement in her brain how much she didn't belong in this world. All the other contestants were so much more coordinated than her, and they seemed to be more at ease in the environment than she was.

Lily's nerves were overpowering and she botched their first run through. She couldn't manage to keep her dress from getting caught around her legs and her feet kept misstepping and James kept rubbing the part of her back that he used to signal her she was slouching. It was a disaster.

"James," one of the dancers approached them as Lily tried to get through the steps again.

James let her hand drop and stepped away. "Just sec, let me see what Sirius needs."

Lily turned and watched the two men talk quietly. James' hand pushed into his hair as he talked but he didn't look her way. She felt horrible about it all. James wasn't going to make it past the first elimination because he'd ended up with her and she was only doing these two weeks for the money. She had been assuaging her pride with the assurance that she just needed the 125 thousand dollars and then she could go back to her work and not worry about dancing ever again. But seeing how hard James was trying, and how patient and supportive he was with her as she floundered through the steps and routine, she didn't think she could walk away and leave him without a second thought. She cared too much to do that now.

As a friend, of course, she reminded herself.

James gave Sirius an attempt at a smile before moving back to Lily.

"Let's try it again," Lily squared her shoulders and smiled. "I think I can do it."

"Alright," James' smile didn't reach his eyes, but he stepped up to her and pulled her hand into his.

It wasn't perfect by any stretch but Lily could feel it was better, surer maybe. And she could tell that James felt it too as the weariness on his face slowly faded.

"You're getting it!" He laughed as they finished the routine. "See! You can dance!"

Lily grinned as she tried to catch her breath. "I just need to improve ten times more before tonight."

"We'll be fine," he nodded as the stagehand told them their time was up. "Let's see if they can pull up the hem of your dress another two or three inches and take out one of the panels before tonight. I think that will make a huge difference for you." He took her hand and Lily felt her breath catch at the feeling of his hand holding hers. "That was what Sirius pulled me aside for. He saw that the dress was too long and too full."

"That was nice of him," Lily tried to convince herself that the catch in her breath was just her being out of breath from the dance.

"Sirius is a good guy; we've been looking out for each other for a long time now." James grinned over at him as Sirius talked with Marlene.

He let go of her hand then and Lily tried to convince herself that the falling feeling she had when he released her hand was completely due to her exhaustion and had nothing to do with her wanting him to keep holding her hand.

James talked to the costume coordinator and Lily stood still as they went over the skirt of her dress until James felt sure it would be perfect for that evening's opening night, and the costume coordinator sent them to get out of their performance clothes. Then she was whisked away by the television crew to have her hair and makeup done with the other stars and dancers. In a whirlwind, it was suddenly their turn to dance.

Before the music started for their live performance, the stage lights were dim; a ticking sound started to give the countdown to start. Lily thought it sounded a lot like a time bomb.

"We've got this," James whispered.

And then the lights flashed on and the music started and Lily threw herself into the routine she'd been trying desperately to learn. There were a few stumbles, but James caught her through all of them, and in what felt both like an eternity and the blink of an eye, the music ended and people were applauding. Lily turned to the audience and found Mary jumping up and down and screaming through the noise. She waved as James pulled her over to the part of this competition Lily was dreading most of all, the judging.

They had, of course, seen her stumbles, but they were impressed with other things, McGonagall mentioned her excellent posture twice. Flitwick wasn't pleased with how they'd kept more or less to the steps with a couple of spins. But Slughorn kept telling them how wonderful it was that she had managed to learn the steps so well in such a short time.

"You're a natural!" He'd beamed at her.

James kept his arm around her middle as the judges gave their final scores, a five from both McGonagall and Slughorn, and a four from Flitwick.

"You were amazing," James spoke next to her ear as they moved backstage.

"Those scores say differently," Lily swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Hey," James pulled her to a far corner. "Those are good scores for week one. And no one is going home this week. You did an amazing job, believe me."

Lily nodded and tried to swallow again, "Ok."

She didn't particularly believe him, but she wasn't going to argue with him when there were cameras everywhere that could paint it as something awful.

They ended up finishing in the bottom five that night. And while Mary wanted to come over and stay up late talking about everything that had happened, Lily told her it would have to wait. She still needed to be at her desk by six the next morning.

When she managed to make it to the studio the next morning, James was already set to go.

"We've got the cha-cha this week." He motioned for her to come stand next to him. "We'll start just like we did with the foxtrot. I'll show you how to do the steps on your own and then we'll move to doing them together."

His smile was encouraging, and though the morning had already been full of work, Lily wanted to smile back at him. She wanted to be here with him. She didn't want to let James down.

Because they were friends, of course.

"Let's do this."

"Great," James reached into his bag and pulled out a Jenga set. "We start with this."

"With a game?" Lily watched perplexed as James set up the Jenga tower on one of the chairs, gesturing for her to sit opposite him and the game.

"There's a lot to be learned from Jenga."

"About dancing?"

"There's a dancing metaphor in almost anything, Evans. Now," he gestured to the tower, "Ladies first."

Lily pulled an easy block from the tower.

"That's a lame move," James smirked at her before pulling a block out that nearly toppled the tower down.

*I don't like to take enormous risks," Lily stuck her tongue out at him and found another easy block.

"That doesn't sound true at all. If it were, I don't think you would have agreed to this whole stunt."

"I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I only agreed to it because of the money."

James pulled a difficult block and half-heartedly tossed it at her. "And what is all this money going towards?"

Lily smiled; it was easy to talk about work. "I want to make carbon capture something that can be done in anyone's backyard. Think about it, what if every home in every suburb had a carbon capture system set up, but cheaper and easier than solar. If I can make this work, this could buy us more than just a few years, it could be buying us decades of time to find better ways of creating power than burning coal."

James stared at her silently, his eyes intense and dark as he looked directly into her own eyes.

"Sorry, I guess that was a little much." Lily pulled another easy block from the tower.

"No," James' smirk finally found its way back to his face, but he continued to stare at her. "No, I personally think it was inspiring."

Lily pulled another easy block to avoid his stare and then held her breath as James pulled one that nearly toppled the whole tower over.

"James," Lily kept her gaze on the game as she spoke, "Can you honestly tell me that I'm a good dancer?" She knew it was a silly question to ask, but if she was a good dancer, then why not be dancing right now instead of playing Jenga?

"Yes," he answered immediately, but Lily scoffed.

"Lily, listen, for having never danced in your life, you're doing really well! Don't try to compare yourself to Julianne Hough. We have a real chance here, and I've done this long enough to know."

Lily wanted to believe him, but she didn't, and it must have shown on her face.

"Lily, what if you believed me? What if you were to take the risk?" He pointed to a block in the Jenga tower that was wedged tightly between the surrounding blocks. "Take a risk, pull this block here."

"That could make the whole tower fall," Lily objected.

"But it might not, it might give you the advantage in the game. Just try, and accept that the tower is going to wobble a little bit; if it falls, we'll rebuild it again."

Lily eyed the block before cautiously pulling on it. The tower wobbled dangerously.

"It's going to fall," she pulled her hand back.

"Then let it fall," James shrugged.

"And if it does, I'll lose the game!"

"No," James grinned at her, "We're a team, remember, we win and lose together."

"Fine, then we lose the game if I make the tower fall."

"Not if we build the tower up again." He leaned forward. "Change your perspective, Evans. There's no losing, just new starting points. Now, pull that block out."

Lily looked into his warm hazel eyes and something about how he was looking at her made her feel like she could try.

"Fine, but don't get upset if I make this whole tower come crashing down around us."

James just laughed and nodded her on.

Lily pulled carefully on the block, drawing in a sharp breath when it started to pull the tower with it. But as she turned the block around and moved it small bits at a time, the block slowly pulled free of the tower.

"I did it!" She held the block above her head like a trophy and James' smile was so proud that Lily felt certain that she could look at that smile forever and never tire of it.

"You did it!" He cheered. Then he stood and held out his hand. "Now take a chance, and let's teach you how to cha-cha-cha."

Lily laughed and took his hand. By the end of the day, she felt like she had a better grip on not just the cha-cha, but dancing as well. A week in and her body already was in better shape and she wasn't as exhausted when she finally made it home that evening. The routine ended up much like their foxtrot, with little flair but with Lily's ability to do the steps well being their focus. She was also grateful that no one put her in something that looked more like a swimsuit than a costume for the cha-cha. She already had to pointedly ignore the quiet part of her mind that would react to James holding her as close as he had to for the dance, she didn't need to also be half-naked. Lily needed every barrier between her and James she could procure.

Their scores that week were better, though Flitwick still wanted to see more excitement in their routines. Still, he gave them a five, and McGonagall and Slughorn both gave them a six. Lily was just happy it kept her out of the bottom two. She was certain the moment she ended up there, it would be over, and James wouldn't get any further.

Their third week went well too. They danced the quickstep, which wasn't so different from the foxtrot in that she picked it up quickly, enough so that they were able to work some more complex moves into the dance as well. That was the performance that finally got Flitwick on her side, and they were safe from the bottom two again with three scores of six.

Lily walked into week four feeling like maybe she could do this. She felt fit and she was starting to feel budding confidence that she at least could learn to dance.

But she was back on her guard when she walked into the dance studio and James handed her a blindfold.

"No."

He laughed at her.

"Potter, there can't possibly be a good reason for me to wear a blindfold."

"Actually, Evans, you've pointed out the reason for this blindfold more times than I can count." He smirked at her.

"Oh, really? Explain then, why am I supposed to wear a blindfold?"

"Because, there are mirrors on every wall of this room," he gestured around them. "And I need you to do something before I get started on teaching you our dance this week."

"What dance do we have?" Lily fidgeted with the blindfold he'd pressed into her hands.

"I'll tell you after we do this little exercise."

"James, this better not be anything stupid."

"I promise, it isn't anything stupid. I need you to trust me."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I do trust you."

"No, I need you to fully trust me."

"You promise, this isn't going to be something weird?"

"Dancer's honor," James put his hand over his heart.

Lily examined the blindfold carefully before looking back at James.

"Okay, but remember, you promised."

"I promise." James nodded her on.

Lily took a deep breath and tied the blindfold over her eyes. She let her hands fall to her side and tried to not let the disoriented feeling that hit overcome her.

James' hand took hers, and it was so familiar now that Lily wondered briefly at how when this was over, she'd never feel it again. The thought left a small ache in her chest.

"Walk with me," he spoke quietly.

Lily took cautious steps forward, feeling awkward and anxious that she would trip and fall on her face.

James stopped her and let go of her hand and Lily immediately felt lost.

"Now," James' voice was suddenly behind her, "When I tell you to, I want you to put out your arms, and fall backward, trusting that I will catch you."

"You're kidding!" Lily almost pulled her blindfold off, but James put his hands gently on her shoulders, causing Lily's frantic heartbeat to spike.

"No, I told you, I need you to really trust me. This next dance needs you to trust me completely."

Lily bit her lip and reached back for James. He grabbed her hand.

"Take a risk, Lily." He gave her hand a squeeze before letting go.

"Are you ready?" He sounded like he was on the other side of the room.

"You promise you'll catch me?"

"I promise." He sounded farther away this time.

Lily clenched her fists and held her arms out to the sides.

"Fall," James' voice was calm, in stark contrast to the way Lily's heart was beating so fast she was certain she might faint.

It happened quickly, but a part of Lily felt like it was in slow motion. She locked her legs and shifted her weight backward over her heels, then past them. Her body shifted and she began falling. The fall kept her from breathing, but as James' arms caught her, she gasped in a deep breath.

"Take off your blindfold," James' smile was evident in his voice.

Lily pulled the blindfold off and smiled as she looked up at James.

"Hi."

James chuckled, "Do you trust me?"

Lily nodded.

"Look in the mirror."

She turned her head and watched her smile fall off her face. She was no more than five inches from the ground.

"You let me fall that far?!"

James pushed her back up on her feet. "A little less than that far, notice you didn't hit your head on the floor. But there was a purpose behind it."

Lily glared at him, "Alright, relate this to dancing, oh wise teacher."

"We're dancing the paso doble this week, and that's going to come with me pushing you outside of your comfort zone in a lot of ways this week. I need you to trust me."

Lily pursed her lips. "I do trust you, but let's get all of this out in the open, no more surprises."

James motioned for her to sit with him and they walked to the chairs as he explained.

"The paso doble is going to require you to act. I'm the bullfighter and you're my cape. I need you to cling to me. I need you to let me throw you and flip you and I need you to fall and know that I'm going to catch you. I need you to trust me."

Lily took a deep breath and kept her arms folded across her chest.

"So, we're done with the easy platonic dances?"

James grinned, "Don't worry, those will come back. But this dance is better when we act the part."

Lily tried to keep her emotions in check. She'd seen Mary's favorite paso doble dances from past seasons, and she knew what James was getting at. Lily had put conscious effort into not letting her mind linger on how close she and James had to be in many of these dances. She wouldn't let her thoughts pull up those moments where James would keep his hand on the small of her back. She ignored everything that suggested she might be attracted to James; because she was very attracted to James.

"Ok," Lily nodded slowly. "I think I can act the part."

"We're going to be raising the bar for ourselves with this dance," James rested his arms on his legs and moved closer to her. "Are you game, Evans?"

Lily wasn't sure if she really was game for this. She'd been doing a fine job pretending that she wasn't attracted to him, and it showed in her dancing, she never got too close, never stayed too long in his embrace, never thought about his hands on her, never thought about how his eyes would watch her like she was captivating to him.

"I, yeah, yeah I'm game."

James jumped up and held out his hand. "Then let's dance!"

It was too easy. James commented on how well she was picking up on her part, but really Lily just had to let some slack out on her very tightly controlled emotions. Clinging to James wasn't unnatural, having him throw her into a spin before pulling her back flush against him was an action that felt innate within her, and when James flipped her around his arm, she had no problem moving in sync with his actions. It was all what she naturally wanted to do.

"This is going to be amazing!" James grinned at her. "You've been holding back on me, Evans. We've got a real shot at winning if you keep this up."

Lily forced a chuckle to keep herself from admitting how much she was still holding back. James' magnetic pull was strong, and she'd been building stone around her to keep from falling into it. But she felt like that stone was crumbling under this need to "act the part" as James had put it.

There was very little acting involved for Lily.

And as the week went on, the more she let those stone walls crumble the more James praised her, the happier he looked, and the more excited he was.

When the dress rehearsal came, Lily found that she wasn't nearly as nervous as she had been in the weeks prior. She felt like she could do this, like she could dance, and she tried to ignore the part of herself that realized it was all because she'd let those walls she had built up break and crumble around her heart and give in to the magnetic pull that was James Potter.

Their live performance was stunning. Even Lily could tell when they finished that it was amazing. The judges gave her a standing ovation. Flitwick cheered her for her daring and willingness to push herself. They earned a ten from Slughorn and a nine from McGonagall and Flitwick. They finished first.

It was the start of a new phase for Lily. She went from being certain that she would have no fan base when she ended up in the bottom two to being a minor star. Talk shows wanted to have her and James on with them. Her dormant Twitter account was suddenly awash with followers. But they still needed to keep the momentum up. James pushed them harder and harder every week, and Lily felt like she had to give him everything she could because James deserved to win. They consistently finished in the top three for the next five weeks, even when Lily had to start learning two dances a week.

Everything was moving in fast forward, and Lily tried to keep it that way. Because if she was exhausted, then she would be too tired to dream about having James' hand run up her neck to cup her face, or his forehead pressed against hers as his breath came in heavy gasps, or his arms wrapped around her middle, or the way he watched her like he was holding himself back.

It was all an act, it was all for the dance, but the deepest darkest part of Lily's heart hated that it was an act, and wanted desperately for it all to end so that she could start trying to forget how hard she was falling for one James Potter.

"What's this?" James asked as she walked into the studio and handed him a gift bag.

"A congratulations gift," Lily tried to make it feel nonchalant even as her emotions ran at top speed through her. "I happen to know this is the first time you've made it to the last two weeks."

James' smile made her chest hurt. "That has everything to do with you though."

"You're the teacher," Lily shook her head.

"And you are my best student," James' gaze had shifted to the one he used when they were acting the part and Lily found it hard to breathe. She needed something, anything to get him to stop looking at her like that off the dance floor.

"Lily-"

"James-"

"You first," James gave a chuckle and shoved his hand in his hair.

"Aren't you going to open the present?"

James combed his hand through his hair and reached into the gift bag. He laughed when he pulled out a miniature replica of the show's trophy.

"In case we don't win, you'll have a trophy, and," Lily picked at a hair on her shirt, "And, I wanted you to know that all of this has meant so much to me, and I'm so glad I met you. Even if we don't win, this has been amazing."

James grinned at the little trophy and turned it around his fingers.

"Thanks, Lils, I'm glad we got to be friends."

Lily blocked off the part of her heart that died at James' use of the word friends. That's all they were supposed to be - friends.

"Me too."

They finished second that week. Slughorn said he'd never seen a tango he enjoyed more on the show. McGonagall praised their contemporary dance and everything they managed to work into it. Flitwick told her he couldn't believe how far she'd come.

But what had made the entire night was James holding her flush against him for most of the night. Lily told herself that it didn't mean anything to him, that this was how dancers were. But her heart wanted it to be real, and she indulged in pretending it was real.

"We're in the finals!" James spun her around after the broadcast had finished.

"We're in the finals!" Lily laughed and spun back into him.

James pulled her closer, "Hey, Lily-"

"James!" One of the stagehands came running over. "You left this in the dressing rooms." He handed him the little trophy that Lily had given James.

James thanked him but Lily had taken advantage of the moment to step out of his embrace.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow morning," she slung her bag higher on her shoulder and tried to not let the ache in her chest manifest itself through her face.

James looked momentarily torn. "Yeah, yeah, I'll see you tomorrow morning."

Lily nodded and nearly ran to her car.

The last week of the competition was torture, and Lily was a glutton for punishment. James was constantly touching her, even if they weren't dancing: his arm was around her shoulders or his hand on her back, him smiling with his warm hazel eyes always watching her.

Lily had never been so torn in her entire life.

Finally, the finale came and Lily threw everything she had into the performances. She owed James that much. This was his career and since he'd helped her to get nearly 300 thousand dollars to pour into her research. She wanted to give James the real trophy, she wanted him to be able to say he won, that he was the best, because she honestly believed he was.

Their final dance was the contemporary, and when they finished, Lily was surprised when James pulled her into him, wrapping his arm around her neck and holding head against his own.

"You're perfect," he murmured into her ear, "Absolutely perfect."

"I think you are too," Lily clung to him through the cheers of the crowd.

"Lils-"

"Come on over you two!" The host interrupted him, and James sighed as he pulled back to lead them over to the judging, keeping her flush against him.

They scored first, and while Lily was ecstatic, a part of her wondered what James had meant to say before they had been interrupted. But as the night wore on, she never found out. There wasn't a quiet moment for the rest of the night, and especially not when they won the trophy.

Lily had felt like the air was sucked out of her when they announced she and James had won. And then she thought she might faint when James pulled her into him for how tightly he held her. It seemed like whatever spark she might have felt when they finished their final dance ended with the dance as well. She went home feeling a little empty after it all.

"Where are you going to put it?" Mary was holding the trophy in Lily's office as Lily tried to catch up on some of the things she had missed in the three months she'd spent competing.

"I don't know," Lily laughed at the mammoth thing. She'd spent that morning doing interviews with James and was only now making it into her lab after lunch. The interviews had been weird, not because she and James were the winners, but because James had been almost shy around her. He managed to turn it off for the cameras, but he seemed much less confident and sure of himself when it was just the two of them.

"I wonder where James is going to put his," Mary tried to carefully set Lily's trophy down on her desk. "Why did you bring yours here?"

"I was asked to have it with me for the interview." Lily frowned at one of the emails and flagged it so she could come back to it.

"What if you kept it here?" Mary teased her.

"Very funny," Lily laughed, "don't you have work to do?"

"Actually, now that you've brought in all this research money, I do." Mary blew her a kiss before sliding out the door.

Lily sighed as she looked at the trophy now on her desk. She picked it up and set it in a drawer in her desk and flinched at the clanging noise it made. The interviews had been weird, but it had also been hard. It had been hard to see James and not touch him. It had been hard to see James and not fall into the rhythm that they'd set for themselves during the competition. But it was for the best. She needed to get these feelings out of her system; they may have been why she was able to win the competition with him, but now she had to stop; those feelings were not reciprocated, but they were also wildly inappropriate.

At least she had her research to throw herself into. She could hide in her research until her heart put itself back together.

"So, this is where you save the planet?"

Lily looked up to see James leaning against her door frame.

"Hi!" She jumped up with a smile but then paused, not sure what to do next. "Um, yeah, I, this is my office."

James shoved his hand in his hair. "Hope it's alright I looked you up."

"Of course, I," Lily struggled to think of what to do or what to say. Her office suddenly felt fifty yards across. "What's up?"

James gripped his hair. "I know this could be out of line, and you can totally throw me out, but um, would you want to grab dinner with me sometime?"

Lily could feel her heartbeat in her ears. "Like, like a date?"

James looked at her with that same stare he'd used when they were performing, the one that had made Lily wish he wasn't acting because it looked like he wanted her. "Yeah, a date."

Lily felt her smile break wide across her face. "I'd really like to get dinner with you."

James' whole face lit up like the stage lights when their dances would start, "Tonight? Can I pick you up here at 5?"

"Yeah," Lily laughed, feeling like all the awkwardness from that morning was fading away.

"Great," James pushed off the door frame, "I'll see you in four hours."

Lily watched him walk away and it felt like he pulled the air out of her with it.

That was it? She had been so wrapped up in crossing a line, in doing something wrong, that she had never let herself even consider what life with James might look like. But she knew James, and she knew that he was anything but status quo; he was nothing like the stagnant air that surrounded her. James took risks.

And he once told her she could too.

Lily bolted from her office.

"James!" She watched him turn the corner at the end of the hall and went running after him. "James!"

Lily nearly fell as she rounded the corner, but James jumped for her, his arm keeping her from hitting the floor.

"Alright there, Evans?" James looked down at her with apprehension.

"Yeah, just," Lily swallowed, "um, I." Lily summoned all her courage and stepped up to him, pushing forward to lightly press her lips to his. James stiffened and Lily immediately pulled away. "Ok, I, um, I'll see you in a few hours."

She moved to step back but James grabbed her arm and pulled her back into him, his arms wrapped around her back, his hands pressing against her spine and holding her close to his chest. His lips captured hers and Lily sighed as she fisted her hands in his t-shirt.

"I've wanted to do that for weeks," James rested his forehead against hers and smiled down at her.

"Me too," Lily laughed as she smiled back up at him. "And now I'm not going to get anything done today."

"Want to take off? Start our date early?" James moved closer to speak against her lips.

A part of Lily within her brain immediately responded with no, that she had work to do. But the part that had James' lips ghosting over hers overruled all objections. After all, she could take risks.

"I need to grab my purse," Lily pressed forward to kiss him again.

James moved his hand to take hers and then began dancing them down the hall to her office.

"Let's get out of here."

Lily laughed and once they'd made it to her office, she shut down her computer before grabbing her purse. She took James' proffered hand and leaned over to kiss him.

"Lily, did you get…" Mary trailed off. Her shocked face quickly turned to an excited smile as Lily pulled her lips from James'. "Never mind, never mind, I saw nothing, my lips are sealed, and I want a ticket for next season as my Christmas present this year!" She gave an excited squeal and then retreated out of Lily's office.

"Think you can get her a ticket?" Lily laughed up at James.

"Probably," he shrugged, "but I'll look into that later." He kissed her. "Now, I want to find a place to be with you that doesn't involve anything to do with either of our jobs."

"That's an idea I can get behind." Lily kissed him before letting James lead her out of her office and on to their date.

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