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clouds-of-yunmeng · 5 years

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Promise

Modern AU where Lan Zhan is a teacher at his family’s Music Academy, and one of his new pupils happens to bring him back in touch with one certain person...

(There’s an Illu at the end~ )

Lan Zhan wasn’t happy. He wasn’t miserable, but not happy either. He liked his job well enough, he lived in a good home, he wasn’t alone and he was safe. He was content, one could say.

He combs his hair as he does every morning, allowing only a few strands to fall forward to frame his face and goes to put on his clothes for the day. He wears a 3-part suit as always and tucks a pair of glasses into the breast pocket of his jacket.

It was his father’s.

Lan Zhan calmly pours himself a cup of tea and sets a bowl of oatmeal on the table in front of himself. He put some fresh fruits in the oatmeal, to ensure that he got the vitamins he needed.

He ate first, then drank his green tea and brought the dishes to the sink. He cleaned them quickly and checked the time. All perfect.

Seeing as he had everything prepared for now, he went into the living room and knelt in front of the cage that housed his rabbits. It took up almost half of the living room, but Lan Zhan wanted his rabbits to have enough room to hop about, even when he couldn’t take them out into the garden. He made sure they had their food and water, and picked up one of the rabbits to pet it.

Today was going to be the first day of school. Many new students would come in for the first time.

“Good morning, father,” said a soft voice from the doorway. Lan Yuan, Lan Zhan’s adoptive son.

“Good morning,” Lan Zhan replied and set down the rabbit again. He closed the cage again and turned his attention to his son, who had gone to the kitchen to prepare his breakfast.

The boy was very independent, rising without needing Lan Zhan to wake him up, and making his own breakfast without needing Lan Zhan’s help at all.

Sometimes Lan Zhan wished the boy relied more on him. The memories of a clingy child are still vivid in his mind, and it makes his heart ache a bit.

But it’s better this way. Independence in all aspects of life paves the way for a good path towards the future.

“Did you sleep well?” Lan Zhan asked and poured a cup of tea for his son before the boy could do it. Lan Yuan smiled.

“I did. Did you?” he replied after he thanked his father for the tea.

“I am glad,” Lan Zhan said softly and threw a glance at the clock. “I did as well after meditating for thirty minutes,” he added.

Lan Yuan’s smile got a bit wider.

“Are you excited to get new students?” he asked, knowing the answer already.

“We discover promising talents every year,” Lan Zhan said mildly. Lan Yuan knew this was an enthusiastic ‘Yes’. He started eating contently.

The kitchen was silent except for the soft clatter of Lan Yuan’s spoon and bowl.

As they do every morning Lan Zhan and Lan Yuan walk to school. It gives them some time to greet the day, get some fresh air and get some good exercise.

It took them about forty minutes to arrive at the Lan An Music Academy. One of, if not the most prestigious school for ambitious musical prodigies.

Over twenty years ago Lan Zhan had learned here under the guidance of his uncle. Now that his uncle had retired, Lan Zhan taught in his place. Lan Huan, Lan Zhan’s elder brother had taken over as the school’s chairman.

Needless to say that the Lan An Music Academy was a family-business.

One day, most were certain, Lan Yuan or Lan Jingyi - the son of a relative - would take over after Lan Zhan and Lan Huan.

That was all in a distant future though, as today both juniors were mere students at the academy. It was actually Lan Jingyi’s first day today.

The boy was finally old enough to attend at the academy. He was actually two years younger than Lan Yuan. The two boys were good friends though and always got along nicely.

Finally it was time for Lan Zhan to meet and greet his new students. Many young teenagers piled into his classroom, chatting and talking as they settled in their seats. It was the usual and Lan Zhan used the time before class started to write his name on the blackboard for everyone to see.

8 am. The bell rang.

“Good morning class,” Lan Zhan said, bowing his head. “You will stand from your seats when you greet me. I am your teacher, Lan Zhan. You may address me as Teacher Zhan,” he explained calmly.

On cue the whole class rose to their feet and greeted him.

“Good morning Teacher Zhan!”

Lan Zhan nodded. “Very well, you may sit,” he said and picked up the list of students in his class.

“I will go through all of your names now. Please stand up when you hear your name and tell us al little about yourself and why you came here,” Lan Zhan said and started at the top of the list.

He made it down to Lan Jingyi, and the boy eagerly introduced himself.

“I am Lan Jingyi, 14 years old! I am here because I’m a Lan. And because my best friend is here too, and I want to be as good as him!” he said, a tad too loud, bouncing on his heels as he spoke. “I don’t play an instrument though. I sing!” he added quickly before he forgot.

Lan Zhan found himself smiling at the youth’s enthusiasm.

“Very well,” he said and gestured for Lan Jingyi to sit down again. “Now, Mo Xuanyu,” he read from his list.

A young man, who was obviously a good bit older than the others stood up. Lan Zhan thought his heart would stop for a moment.

“I... am Mo Xuanyu,” he said hesitantly. “I am 24 years old.”

If he hadn’t heard the young man’s name just now, and if he didn’t hear his voice, Lan Zhan would have mistaken him for somebody else. The fact that the young man wore a t-shirt that was painfully familiar to the teacher didn’t make it easier.

He would recognize that shirt anywhere. That hand-dyed shirt that had once been purple with a white lotus was now black with a red lotus. He recognized the slight patches of purple that showed through the washed out black dye, and the blotchy red that colored the lotus. This was the same shirt as the one he had worn back then...

A moment passed in silence until Lan Zhan realized that Mo Xuanyu hadn’t said anything else.

“Tell us about yourself,” Lan Zhan encouraged. Mo Xuanyu jumped as though he had been struck.

“I’m... W-Wei... I mean...” he broke off and dug his fingers into his shirt as though it was the only thing adhering him to the earth.

“Do not push yourself,” Lan Zhan said and gestured for Mo Xuanyu to sit down again, not wanting him to get even more anxious.

In truth, he himself wasn’t sure if he could have maintained his cool facade if the young man had continued talking. Through his stuttering Lan Zhan couldn’t be certain, but he could have sworn he heard him say ‘Wei’.

Wei Ying, his heart whispered.

Lan Zhan didn’t allow himself to listen to that whisper, turning his attention back to the class instead, where multiple youngsters were pointing and laughing at Mo Xuanyu the stutterer.

“Silence!” Lan Zhan commanded. “Harassment of your fellow classmates will not be tolerated!” he pointed out and glared into the room.

Nobody dared to even breathe, as the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees.

The rest of the day went by mostly uneventful.

All students were given their copy of the rule book, everyone was assigned to their specific courses and everything went well for the most part. Well, that was if you looked past the fact that Mo Xuanyu had barely spoken since that first introduction, preferring to answer questions through gestures if at all.

Lan Zhan at least found out that the youth played the Dizi - his heart gave another painful stutter at that - and that he hadn’t played it for a long time yet.

It was hard to talk to the young man though, with the rest of the class still present, so Lan Zhan asked Mo Xuanyu to stay behind with him so they could talk in a quieter setting.

He noticed how the youth’s cheeks flushed a deep red color for a second, before his face turned ghostly pale. His anxiety was tangible.

Still, Lan Zhan needed to find out how he could help his student and he was going to find a way.

When class was over everyone left, except for Mo Xuanyu. Lan Zhan had half expected him to run away so he wouldn’t have to face him, but apparently the young man knew to follow rules that his teachers set up.

Lan Zhan sat down on an empty seat near Mo Xuanyu and gave him a moment to calm down.

“Mo Xuanyu,” he said then, “I would like to assure you that you are not in trouble, alright?”

The young man gasped, then nodded, then bowed.

Lan Zhan wanted to assure him that such a thing wasn’t necessary, but he saw the young man’s back moving slower now, his breathing less erratic and panicked, and he thought maybe this helped him calm himself?

“I can see that you are not comfortable with a large group of people, so I want to find out how I can help you feel more comfortable,” Lan Zhan explained slowly.

Mo Xuanyu raised his head a little and looked up at Lan Zhan.

He smiled widely and reached out to grasp Lan Zhan’s hands in both of his.

“Thank you!” he said quickly, then released his hands and recoiled. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry...!”

This emotional whiplash was surprising to say the least, but Lan Zhan was determined not to let it get to him. This young man likely had gone through some difficult things and he wouldn’t shun or discriminate against him for that reason.

He had just managed to gather his thoughts again when he heard his voice.

“A-Yu! A-Yu...!”

Mo Xuanyu perked up and without another word, without even gathering his belongings rushed out.

“Wei-Ge!” he called.

Lan Zhan rose to his feet and turned towards the door where he saw... him.

Wei Ying.

Mo Xuanyu had attached himself to Wei Ying’s arm, smiling widely. Standing side by side like this one could almost mistake them for siblings.

“Where’s your stuff, A-Yu? How was your day, hm?” Wei Ying spoke softly to his... ward?

Mo Xuanyu sheepishly turned around and pointed to his seat. Wei Ying smiled and looked in the direction that Mo Xuanyu pointed... and met Lan Zhan’s eyes.

For a moment the two of them just stared in silence, neither able to find the words to say.

Then, after Mo Xuanyu tugged on Wei Ying’s arm, he broke the silence.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying acknowledged.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan responded and curled his hands into fists to keep himself grounded. “I... am glad you are well,” he managed to add. Even to somebody who didn’t know him his voice must have sounded tense and nervous.

A grin spread on Wei Ying’s face and it was easy to see that Mo Xuanyu’s smile was almost a perfect copy of that grin.

“I am well indeed!” Wei Ying said and slung his arm around Mo Xuanyu’s shoulders, “My, isn’t A-Yu lucky to be taught by none other than Lan-Er-Gege~?”

Lan Zhan’s ears burned.

Mo Yuanyu looked between them a few times, then turned towards Wei Ying.

“Wei-Ge knows Teacher Zhan?”

Wei Ying didn’t get a chance to reply when a quiet knock on the door frame could be heard.

“Father?”

Wei Ying and Mo Xuanyu turned around to see a teenager standing in the doorway.

“Oh? Lan Zhan, your son?” Wei Ying asked and stepped aside with Mo Xuanyu to let the teen pass.

Lan Yuan gave the two a quick bow.

“Actually... I am adopted,” he said, ever the proper young gentleman, “My name is Lan Yuan.”

Now it was Wei Ying’s turn to fall into shock.

There was no way, right? This was just a silly coincidence... it had to be. Not every child by the name of Yuan had to be his A-Yuan, right? Right?

A-Yu’s cousin was called A-Yuan too after all, so what were the odds?

But this boy... no... it couldn’t be.

“Wei-Ge?” A-Yu tugged on Wei Ying’s sleeve.

“Is... Lan Zhan... is he...?”

“Yes.”

As the two adults stared at each other, seemingly screaming at each other in utter silence the two youths nervously exchanged glances.

Something was going on, and neither of them knew what.

Finally Wei Ying looked down at Lan Yuan.

“A-Yuan?” he whispered, his voice heavy with emotion.

Lan Yuan didn’t know who this man was. Why he looked at him like a mother at her child, why his voice trembled so much. And he didn’t know why his own heart clenched when he heard the sound of his name like this.

Seeing that Lan Yuan didn’t recognize him at all Wei Ying pulled back and laughed.

“Ah, you must have been too young to remember me... ahahaha...” he laughed, trying to act like he didn’t want to cry for hours.

A-Yu noticed though. He knew the sound of Wei-Ge’s tears; he knew they sounded like laughter.

Lan Zhan knew it too.

He hadn’t understood it 13 years ago, but now he did.

“Wei Ying,” he said softly, catching the man’s attention again. “I would like to talk to you and your...” he interrupted himself, realizing that he still didn’t know what kind of relationship Mo Xuanyu and Wei Ying actually had.

“Child,” Wei Ying said with a bubbling laughter. “A-Yu is my child. Not as in... I’m his parent, but he’s my child,” he added as though that explained anything. He rubbed his neck then bit his lip.

“Ah... I’d love to, Lan Zhan,” he said and nudged Mo Xuanyu to gather his things. “I need to run some errands today, but how about tomorrow after class is over?” he offered.

Lan Zhan nodded without thinking. He would have time for Wei Ying, he promised himself.

Wei Ying smiled.

“Great! Please be kind to my child tomorrow!” he said and grabbed Mo Xuanyu’s hand once the youth came to his side with his bag.

And with that they were gone.

If not for Lan Yuan’s confused looks and the warmth in his heart Lan Zhan would have thought he’d dreamed up the whole thing.

But Mo Xuanyu’s name was still on his list and as he went to gather his things from the desk he heard that laughter all the way from the gate of the academy. He glanced out the window and his heart skipped a beat when he saw Wei Ying waving up at him from the gate.

Looking at him like this it was almost as though 13 years hadn’t gone by.

He could easily superimpose the memory of Wei Ying’s younger appearance over his current self. The same smile, the same exuberant energy. For that brief moment at least he could pretend like he didn’t see the shadow.

He waved back ever so slightly and earned a grin that made his heart melt.

“Father?” Lan Yuan asked softly and stood by his father’s desk.

Lan Zhan turned towards him. “Yes?”

“Who is that man?” Lan Yuan asked hesitantly. Lan Zhan smiled faintly.

“He... is the one who cared for you before I adopted you,” he said finally after mulling over his words for a moment.

Lan Yuan’s eyes widened. “He... is he... my actual father...?” he whispered. Lan Zhan’s smile softened a bit and he placed his hand on Lan Yuan’s shoulder.

“No. But he loves you no less,” Lan Zhan said with a sigh.

“May I come along, tomorrow?” Lan Yuan asked nervously.

“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind,” Lan Zhan assured.

And so, on the next day, after class had ended the four of them went to the nearby park.

Lan Yuan watched the way Wei Ying supported Mo Xuanyu, who had once again attached himself to Wei Ying’s arm.

There seemed to be something in the gleam of Wei Ying’s eyes, the way he smiled fondly at his ‘child’, that brought warm feelings to Lan Yuan’s heart, that he couldn’t quite place.

Wei Ying noticed the nervous glances the teenager threw in his direction and smiled at him.

Before long the four of them had reached a free bench and sat down.

“A-Yuan, what instrument do you play?” Wei Ying asked without preamble. His question surprised Lan Yuan, who would have expected the man to address his father first instead of himself.

“I... play the Guqin,” he replied and held back a little gasp when the look in Wei Ying’s eyes grew so tender it made him feel humble and undeserving.

“Like your father, I see?” he said and glanced at Mo Xuanyu. “A-Yu plays the Dizi, like me,” he said and gave his ‘child’ a nudge.

“Why don’t you two talk some? Maybe you find some songs you both like?” he offered when neither one of the two moved.

A-Yu, as Wei Ying called him, rose to his feet and held out his hand to Lan Yuan.

“I... can show you W-Wei-Ge’s favorite song,” he said when the the teen hesitated.

“Go ahead,” Lan Zhan encouraged when Lan Yuan threw him an uncertain glance. “We will be here,” he added.

Assured by his father Lan Yuan allowed this strange young man to tug him along to one of the flower beds, where he picked a few flowers. Lan Yuan wanted to stop him, but before he could Mo Xuanyu had already tucked the flowers into Lan Yuan’s hair.

Wei Ying watched, chuckling softly.

Lan Zhan watched him.

“Wei Ying,” he said.

“Yes,” Wei Ying said and leaned back on the bench. “A-Yu was abused at home. I met him this year at the clinic, and somehow I just couldn’t leave him be.”

There he went. Jumping straight into the heart of the issue. His boldness though allowed him to bypass the little shards in his heart that truly hurt.

“I helped him express himself through music, and I thought the Academy would be a good place for him, because he’s got talent,” Wei Ying continued. A quiet melody mingled with his voice as he spoke.

Lan Zhan had to take a deep breath before he said anything.

“I understand.”

“How did you adopt A-Yuan?”

Lan Zhan hadn’t been ready for those silver eyes staring into his own. Years upon years of that cheerful voice calling for him to look at him echoed in his mind, ignored and avoided time and time again because these eyes made him weak.

“Paramedics found him. Brought him to the same hospital as the one where I was...” Lan Zhan admitted, “Met him by chance and... couldn’t leave him be.”

Wei Ying’s eyes widened a bit, and a grin spread on his lips.

“When did you gain a sense of humor, huh? Quoting my words back at me like that?” He laughed and gave Lan Zhan’s shoulder a friendly nudge.

“When I raised A-Yuan,” Lan Zhan said fondly and looked over at the two youngsters.

“Wei-Ge told me a secret,” Mo Xuanyu whispered at Lan Yuan. The younger boy raised an eyebrow.

Mo Xuanyu nodded and grinned.

“He said you should be my little brother!”

Lan Yuan was silent.

Mo Xuanyu didn’t seem to mind and tucked another flower behind Lan Yuan’s ear.

“I want a little brother like A-Yuan,” Mo Xuanyu sighed.

“But you don’t even know what I’m like...” Lan Yuan murmured. Mo Xuanyu smiled widely.

“But I’ll find out if you are my brother. Also, Wei-Ge told me things,” he added giggling.

That giggle sounded suspicious to Lan Yuan and he leaned in to inquire quietly, “What things?”

“Cute things,” Mo Xuanyu replied, still giggling. “About a little baby that liked to cling to people’s legs and call Wei-Ge Mama one time,” he whispered.

For some reason, even though Lan Yuan had absolutely no memory of ever doing such things, he felt his cheeks grow hot.

Wei Ying wondered what the kids were talking about when he saw A-Yuan’s cheeks turn red. Maybe that unruly child of his had told him the secret he had told him? Admittedly, he had told A-Yu so he could tease A-Yuan about it.

Lan Zhan threw him a glance.

“Wei Ying,” he started and waited for the other to look at him. “I want to be considerate of Mo Xuanyu’s situation,” he explained.

“You want to know how to do it?” Wei Ying guessed easily.

Lan Zhan nodded.

Wei Ying laughed and shook out his hair.

“Ah... ah, well... Give him time, I guess,” he said and when Lan Zhan looked at him in a way that told him he wasn’t convinced, Wei Ying shrugged.

“What? I’m not a psychologist,” he pointed out.

Lan Zhan shook his head, “No, but he likes you.” Wei Ying chuckled.

“Do you want him to like you?”

“I want him to not be afraid of me at least.”

Wei Ying sighed.

“Give him time,” he repeated. “I got close to him because... well, I was that uncle who kept pestering until he learned that I mean no harm,” he added when Lan Zhan looked at him again.

“Oh don’t look at me like that, I just talked to him when I saw him in the cafeteria or in the hallways. I didn’t actually pester him, what kind of person do you think I am?!”

Lan Zhan smiled faintly.

After a moment Wei Ying called A-Yu over to their side again. A-Yuan followed at a slight distance and Wei Ying couldn’t help but notice that the teen’s cheeks were still tinted pink.

“A-Yu,” Wei Ying said and pulled the younger male onto the bench so he sat between him and Lan Zhan. “I talked to Lan-Er-Gege,” he started, grinning when he saw Lan Zhan’s ears reddening. “And I asked him to be patient with you, okay?”

Mo Xuanyu squirmed a bit, sitting as close as physically possible to Wei Ying.

“I... don’t want to be afraid...” he whispered into Wei Ying’s shoulder.

“I know, A-Yu,” Wei Ying assured patiently.

Mo Xuanyu turned to face Lan Zhan, but he couldn’t look at him for more than a moment before hiding his face against Wei Ying’s shoulder again.

Lan Yuan stood in front of Mo Xuanyu.

“You don’t need to be afraid of him,” he said.

Wei Ying wanted to say something, but stopped himself. A-Yu knew that he didn’t need to fear adults, but he couldn’t help himself. But maybe if someone whom he considered closer to his age told him not to be afraid... maybe it’d work?

For a while the two looked at each other, Lan Yuan smiling softly, while Mo Xuanyu slowly managed to let go of Wei Ying’s arm.

“W-what does... he do when he’s... angry at you...?” he whispered so quietly that Lan Yuan had to lean in closer to understand him.

“Nothing,” he said and shrugged. “Well, he may be a bit stern and if I do something really bad he’ll make me copy the rule book... but otherwise nothing.”

Wei Ying put on a smile.

“Lan-Er-Gege would never hurt you,” he assured, before Lan Zhan himself could say anything. “And if he does, I’ll beat him up,” he added jokingly.

A part of Lan Zhan felt that he meant it though. If he ever laid a hand on Wei Ying’s ‘child’ he would bleed for it.

“I am your teacher, Mo Xuanyu,” Lan Zhan said, “it is my job to teach you, to help you evolve your abilities and gain knowledge; to guide you ahead,” he explained. “None of these involve pain or violence.”

They spent some more time walking and chatting that day before parting ways. They left each other with the promise to meet up again.

They kept that promise.

#mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #modern au #wangxian #lan zhan #lan wangji #lan yuan #lan sizhui #wei wuxian #wei ying #mo xuanyu #mo xuanyu's mental state #wei ying cares #lan zhan cares too #lan yuan is cute #illustrated!

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marshmallow-phd · 5 years

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Sins of the Father

Genre: Mafia Au

Pairing: Junmyeon x Reader

Summary: Soon after your second birthday, your parents were killed and you were adopted by your father’s best friend, taken away to their home country where you lived your life in peaceful ignorance. As far a as you knew, your parents simply left you large fortune to be released to you once you reached your twenty-third birthday. At least, that’s all you thought you were inheriting. When a famously ruthless mafia boss discovers your existence, you are left at his mercy. While under his roof, you learn more about your father than you ever wished you had, including the part of your inheritance that made you the most valuable person in the underworld. Hidden in a bank in New York City were files that held the darkest secrets of the mafia families and everyone in their pocket. With another terrifying leader’s eyes trained on you, you’ll learn to watch your back… and guard your heart, before your father’s past becomes your doom.

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11 I 12 I 13 I 14 I 15 I 16 I Final

You were starting to realize that you had no real stubborn streak to speak of. No matter how much you wanted to just stay in that bedroom and stare at the ceiling or the wall, avoiding all contact with the inhabitants of this penthouse for the rest of the evening, you had to admit, you were getting bored. And thirsty.

Just as your resolve had broken, a knock came from your door.

“Who is it?” you called out.

“It’s Chanyeol. We have your stuff.”

Practically running to the door, you gladly yanked it open with excitement. Sure enough, there was the giant with several cardboard boxes beside him. Chen and Kai popped up behind him and the three of them started carrying the boxes inside your four walls. While it may seem a little trivial, having your things that belonged solely to you made you feel less isolated. This place would never be home, but at least you could be surrounded by familiarity.

“We grabbed most of your clothes,” Chanyeol grunted, putting the box in his hands down next to your bed, “but I think your sister took a few pieces, claiming them as hers.”

You shrugged. “It’s whatever.”

Chen dropped the two smaller boxes he was carrying into your closet and started opening them up to take out the clothes stored inside.

“You don’t have to do that,” you exclaimed, scrambling to try and stop him. Seeing as they all wore expensive suits, you didn’t want them judging your frugal style. You didn’t believe in spending a lot of money on clothes when you could enjoy what you wore for cheaper prices.

“In all honesty, I will unpack everything for you,” Chen volunteered. “The longer this takes, the longer we can stay away from Junmyeon.”

To not take too much advantage of his help, you started slipping shirts onto the empty hangers. “Is he that mad?”

“I’ve seen Junmyeon yell at underlings and shove things,” Chen admitted. “But this is new. He’s obviously pissed, but he’s forcing himself to hold it in. I think he took what you said to heart and doesn’t want to take it out on Baekhyun. Usually, Baekhyun is livelier, but he talked back to Junmyeon about bringing you here and then got forced to pick you up as a consequence. So, if it’s possible, don’t be mad at him, he was just doing his job.”

Your hands froze on the heavy sweater you were currently wrestling onto a white plastic hanger. Baekhyun had a puppy-like face that didn’t match the scowl he’d worn around you, making it easy to believe Chen about his usually more peppy personality. “I’m not mad at him. I just can’t figure out how I even got into all this.” Staring at the clothes that now occupied the once empty bars, you sat down on the floor. “I had plans, you know. I wanted to travel, see the world. Maybe find out where I came from. Discovering my father’s shady past and then being handed over to a mafia boss for a fake marriage wasn’t exactly on the outline I made.”

“You never know,” Chen offered sympathetically. “You could still do that someday.”

You laughed humorlessly. “Yeah, right. I’m stuck in this jail cell.”

“Junmyeon likes to travel.” Chanyeol popped into the closet, his hands in his pockets. “He likes the anonymity of it. I’m sure he’d take you along.”

For a moment, you contemplated Chanyeol’s suggestion. But then the thought of how you’d most likely have to share a hotel room with Junmyeon to keep the appearance as his “wife” and the image just grated on your nerves.

“If that’s my only choice, then I’ll just stay here,” you concluded. “That’s not real freedom.”

Chanyeol shook his head at your willfulness. Behind him, Kai rolled his eyes with sigh.

Xiumin, the eldest of the members, stepped into the walk-in and cleared his throat. “Boss wants to see us all.”

You got a few apologetic looks thrown your way as they all filed out of the closet. Left to finish off the unpacking on your own, you checked the items off the list you had made the previous night to make sure everything was present. One of the boys being kind enough to leave it on the bed before they slipped out.

There wasn’t much you had to call your own or that you really wanted to be brought over here. Most were just essentials so you could shower and not walk around naked. Only two picture frames, gently folded between your blanket and a few jackets, were important enough keepsakes to remind you of your old life.

One was the only evidence you had of your birth parents’ existence. The three of you were on a picnic blanket in a green park filled with trees and a blue sky painted the backdrop, smiling at the camera like an average family that knew nothing but happiness. Like there wasn’t a dark secret hidden behind the façade. The picture was obviously professionally done, with the lighting and colors adjusted just right to complete the look. In a fit of anger, you shoved the photo in the nightstand drawer, slamming it closed with more force than necessary.

The other picture was the one you preferred.

Taken on your third birthday, the first one you’d spent with your new family – your real family – it meant more to you than any expensive portrait. It wasn’t as nicely put together as the other, but that’s what made it special.

Minah was crying because she couldn’t have the first bite of the cake while Mingyu was absorbed in his video game. The pointed hat on your head off kilter and you had a spot of sauce on your shirt. But none of it mattered. Even now, you smiled down at the picture, your own goofy, toothy grin shining brightly. Taegun and Hyunmin were hovering over you, smiling at the camera as well. Little did Hyunmin know that just a second after the camera flashed, her nose would be covered in frosting and Taegun would be running away to the bathroom to hide.

Missing them terribly, you placed the frame on the nightstand where you could say good night to them before you went to sleep.

The last box was filled with little knick-knacks that you’d collected over the years: a jewelry box no bigger than your palm decorated with white roses, a beauty and the beast snow globe you’d bought when the family went to see the musical, among other odds and ends. They weren’t terrible important. You’d mostly put them on the list out of spite. After putting them in their places on the desk, you turned back to look for the more important items from your list.

However, there were only about four or five books thrown into the bottom of the box. Apparently underlining the word hadn’t been enough of a clue to whoever packed your things. Not only that, but your album was nowhere to be found either.

Seething, you snatched up the list and marched down the hall to Junmyeon’s office. Letting the anger drive your bravery, you pounded on his door with your fist.

“Come in.”

You stomped inside, pushing past the see of grown men to Junmyeon’s desk.

“What do you need, (y/n)?” Junmyeon asked with a very uninterested voice. He didn’t even bother to look up from the papers in his hand.

You slammed down the list on the desk, forcing him look up. “I wrote down the things I wanted brought here and most of them are here. But some were left behind and I don’t appreciate that.”

Sighing, Junmyeon set the papers down, staring up at you as he folded his hands in front of him. “And what was left behind?”

“When I asked for my books, I meant I wanted all of them, not just four.” You tried to keep your voice even and reasonable. Junmyeon was a leader and therefore used to negotiations. Being a hot head while he was still mad from this afternoon’s encounter was not the answer. “Also, the photo album isn’t here either. I even wrote down that’s under my bed so it’d be easy to find.”

Junmyeon glanced at the boys behind you. Following his gaze over your shoulder, you found Chanyeol looking guilty while Baekhyun just seemed annoyed.

“How many books do you have left?” Baekhyun’s voice had a layer of reluctance in it. If he was smart, he knew to just give in to keep the peace. You’d go along with most situations to make it easier for everyone, but this was not something you would compromise on.

“Enough to fill a whole bookshelf,” you replied.

Xiumin, who was standing behind Junmyeon, sneered. “We’re not delivery boys. You can live with–”

Junmyeon threw up a hand to stop him. “That is an awful amount of books for my men to carry up here.”

“Fine. They can leave the bottom two shelves there,” you compromised. The bottom was where you kept the books you didn’t read anymore as they were well below your interest and reading level. You’d kept them around simply for nostalgia’s sake. “But I also want the album.”

That seemed to satisfy him a little. “Agreed. In a few days, we’ll go back–”

“Actually, boss,” Chen chimed in. “I can go tonight. I’ve got all my work done for the…,” he flashed a concerned look at me before continuing, “for the thing you’re setting up. I’ve got the time.”

“I’ll go with him,” Chanyeol volunteered.

“Same here,” Kai added.

You gave each of them a small smile, appreciating their effort into making you more comfortable.

Junmyeon ran a hand through his hair. “Fine, just go.”

Feeling a small victory, you walked out of the office with your head held high. You stopped by the kitchen and reheated the food Kyungsoo had made for you earlier, your appetite at an all-time high since breakfast was your last real meal. Being in a slightly better mood, you were able to enjoy the food with more enthusiasm this time around. It was better than any restaurant.

“Barely here a day and you’ve already got most of them wrapped around your finger.”

Baekhyun sauntered into the kitchen, slinking down across from you at the island. You continued to eat, trying to put on the air that he didn’t intimidate you. It was a lie as you still remembered your introduction to him, but Chen had asked you not to go too harsh on him. Besides, you believed what you had told Junmyeon. You blamed the feared leader more than anyone.

“I think they’re just trying to make up for the fact that I’m here against my will,” you corrected. You chewed over a mouthful of rice before adding, “I’ll admit I wasn’t the nicest yesterday either, so I think we should just let yesterday slide and start over. Let bygones be bygones between the two of us.”

He narrowed his eyes as if he was studying your expression. There was a moment of silence. Ignoring it, you just continued to eat, letting him answer when he decided to do so.

Letting out a long breath, he extended his hand out towards you. “I’m Baekhyun, pick-pocket and conman extraordinaire.”

The giggle couldn’t be helped at his introduction. Taking his hand, you grinned, “Nice to meet you, Baekhyun. I’m (y/n).” You pulled on his hand, causing him to lean forward over the counter. Trying – and most likely failing – to be menacing, you lowered your voice. “If any of my stuff goes missing, I’ll stab you.”

He chuckled, sitting back and letting go of your hand. “You’re not exactly frightening, but don’t worry. There’s no fun in taking from you. Not to mention Junmyeon’s already on my ass.” He slapped the table, getting up from the stool. “Well, I have to get going. Don’t eat too much.”

Baekhyun was practically skipping out of the kitchen as he left you alone.

Three weeks went by and you slowly became accustomed to the new surroundings. While you thought you would go crazy being locked up in the penthouse, you sanity was kept at bay by the revolving door of babysitters. They hardly left you alone, unless you kicked up too much of a fuss about your privacy.

To pass the time, each one taught you about their role in the group, save Xiumin who was never around. Apparently, he was Junmyeon’s second-in-command so he went with him to all the meetings and work related events that the others didn’t have to attend.

You already knew Yixing as the on-call doctor, but that was about all you had really learned about him. He’d only helped watch you twice during the beginning and both times he’d been called away to patch someone up. After that, it was decided it was just better for him to come check up on everyone occasionally.

A slight sadness came over you every time he had to leave, but you didn’t protest. Not verbally, at least. His gentleness and child-like sweetness drew you to him. Even though you enjoyed everyone’s company, you hoped the others didn’t notice your special attachment to the doctor. His demeanor gave you a sense that this world you had been drawn into wasn’t all darkness and that it wouldn’t change you like you feared.

Chen, as the vanguard, was the one you were especially worried about picking up on your change of attitude when Yixing was around. He was highly observant and a master at extracting information without the subject even knowing it. If he was detecting anything about you, though, he never brought it up.

Kai was probably your second favorite out of the boys, although there was nothing romantic behind your enjoyment of his company. He was kind and charming, making you laugh easily. Kyungsoo warned you of his womanizing ways, but then backtracked, insisting that you were in no danger as the fiancé of their leader. You had no interest anyway, simply enjoying Kai when he was around. The boy practically lit up when you agreed to let him teach me how to count cards. He was the gambler of the group, able to swindle money out of even the most professional players. It was incredible the memory he had and his ability to calculate the math within seconds.

Kyungsoo didn’t approve of teaching you the tricks of the trade, but, it seemed, he didn’t approve much of anything that involved letting you know too much about their illegal business. He was a loner - something you identified with - preferring to stay away from the action behind his computer screen, hacking away.

What surprised you the most was Chanyeol’s position. He was the muscle and the surveillance. Security was his top priority, which would explain why he was your most frequent guard. He was so lively and laughed so much, it was hard to wrap your mind around the picture of him as the first to throw a punch despite his size.

The biggest mystery, however, was the youngest of the group. With just one look, Sehun could name the make, model, and year of any gun and take it apart before putting back together again perfectly. He had connections all over this side of the world to get the arms they needed for any job. But he was quiet. He often kept his distance, only occasionally joining in on whatever antics the boys were up to in order to keep you entertained.

Junmyeon was the one who was around the least. He was usually gone by the time you rolled out of bed and made it home around dinner time or a few hours after. Personally, you preferred the latter. Meal times with just the boys were animated, including the occasional sporadic food fight. When that happened, you would immediately hide under the table until the coast was clear.

In the times that Junmyeon joined the dinner table, the boys were more subdued. They still joked around, but their interactions with you were limited. At the head of the table, Junmyeon stayed silent. He didn’t allow business talk while eating, but every once in a while you would catch the smallest hint of a smile whenever Chanyeol did something clumsy or Sehun made a snarky comment. If eye contact was made with you during his rare smiles, it would quickly fade and his eyes would drop back down to his food.

This particular night, he was smiling more than usual and they lingered far longer than you’d seen before. His eyes soften when they met yours instead of going hard and indifferent like they usually did. You couldn’t understand where this change was coming from. It was making you uneasy.

When everyone was finished, you helped Kyungsoo clean up the kitchen. It made you feel not so useless since whenever he was around you weren’t allowed to even touch a frying pan to feed yourself. The noise from the dining room died down as everyone filed out to their own apartments scattered around the area.

Eventually you were left alone with Junmyeon retreating to his office. Though the sun was beginning to disappear under the city skyline, you were restless and not ready to turn in for the night.

Wandering the halls, your album that you had made such a fuss over popped into your head. Typically, you only went through its pages when you had something to add to it, but now you felt the need to leaf through it just for a sense of comfort, even if it was imaginary.

Taking it from its hiding space under your mattress, you made yourself a cup of tea and settled on the couch in the living room, your legs wrapped up in a blanket. You flipped through the pages at a moderate pace, stopping every once in a while to smooth out a picture or read a description you had scribbled down as to why you wanted to visit that particular museum or monument. Some places held legends or stories while others so imposing and fascinating that you needed to experience them for real.

You only made it halfway through the album before your eyelids began to droop. Around Greece, they were becoming too heavy to fight. By the time you made it to Sienna, they were closed completely.

The sun had set when Junmyeon finished reading through the security papers Chanyeol had put together for the event tomorrow. His back was aching from being erect so long and his head was pounding, demanding rest. Locking the papers up in the side drawer, Junmyeon sat his elbows on the desk, massaging his temples with his finger tips.

If he was honest, he was actually surprised at your behavior since you came here. The first twenty-four hours had been rough, but after that, things quieted down. You never tried to escape, you didn’t act out or trash the place. In fact, you seemed settled in and got along with his men. That was the only thing that bothered him.

You seemed to get along and genuinely enjoy the presence of everyone else, but would clam up the moment he walked into the room. Jongdae and Chanyeol were constantly telling stories about your sense of humor and how, though you were a decent blackjack player when following the rules, you couldn’t count cards or keep a straight face during poker to save your life.

“You know,” Jongdae had clicked is tongue, staring out the window during their driver earlier in the day, “you could actually try to get to know her yourself. Since you’re set on keeping her around to get the files, you could spend some time with her. Sure, she’s not like the other girls you dated in the past, but maybe that’s a good thing. Hell, maybe this could work out for real, you know?”

Junmyeon had to suppress a groan. “You talk too much, Jongdae. Besides, you heard her, she doesn’t like gangsters.”

“Yup,” he nodded, “I did hear her. She said she likes gentlemen. I’ve seen you in action, hyung. You can practically be Prince Charming when you want to be.”

Prince Charming. Junmyeon almost laughed. Since when did Charming run one of the largest underworld operations in Seoul?

“She’s not my type,” he insisted.

“She’s beautiful,” Jongdae pointed out. “In our world, that makes her everyone’s type.”

Back in the present, Junmyeon stood up out of the chair, rubbing his hands down his face. Part of him wondered if just breaking into the vault in New York would be easier. He could send Jongdae over first to dig up information to find out which bank the Closer had used to house his findings and then take it from there.

No, not possible.

Junmyeon already had targets on his back in his own country. No need to take it international.

Exiting his office, Junmyeon took two steps towards his bedroom before noticing the living room light was still on. Slightly irritated, he huffed his way over to turn them off. Though he could afford it, he tried to preserve energy when he could.

Just as he put his hand on the switch, he noticed you fast asleep on the couch. Carelessly lying on the floor was the album you’d thrown a fit about. Junmyeon picked it up, expecting baby pictures and documentation of your growth through the years. What awaited as he opened to the first page was something much more.

The first page was just covered with handwritten quotes about traveling and seeing the world. Each new sheet in the album was filled with pictures and brochures and little notes about different places you wanted to see. From what Junmyeon could make out, most of the places were related to your favorite books. You wanted to go to visit your favorite classical author’s birthplace. Some retelling of Romeo and Juliet had taken place in Sienna and, according to the print out folded beneath a photo of a two story building, you could stay in the same hotel that the main character did in the novel.

Junmyeon stared in disbelief at the woman sleeping on the couch when he came to the last decorated page. You weren’t as timid or simple minded as he’d thought. Part of him hated himself for what he had done. This was a girl with dreams, with expectations of where your life would go, and he’d taken them away just to fulfill his own.

Perhaps, when this was all over, he could allow you to go to one of these places. Not alone, of course. He had too many enemies for that. But maybe you wouldn’t mind if he tagged along, just to keep you safe. Even if he didn’t have enemies, it was dangerous for a young woman to travel the world alone.

Tucking the album under his arm, Junmyeon carefully lifted you off the couch, constantly checking to see if he’d woken you up. But you stayed fast asleep as he carried you to your room and laid you down on the bed. He pulled the covers up to your chin and placed the album on the nightstand. After brushing the tips of his fingers against your face, Junmyeon walked out of the room, praying that you wouldn’t hate him after tomorrow.

#exo #exo fanfiction #exo fanfic #exo mafia au #exo mafia!au #junmyeon x reader #kim junmyeon #suho #exo gang au #exo gang!au #exo series #Sins of the Father

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shadowmooxn · 5 years

Text

Zuri x Angeal

“Are you certain that we're going the right way?” Zuri question after having to half ran in order to keep up with Angeal's long strides, where she have looked around for any sign where the two were headed in the right direction. “We're in the middle of no where.”

A tiny, but just a barely noticeable grin resting on his lips, when the male nodded. “It's the right way, trust me.” he claim on fully knowing the direction to their destination like the back of his hand's

“I do. I just didn't expect it to be so far out. There's nothing but open fields and these trees for as far as the eye can see.” Zuri comment when she isn't to sure how long they been walking, but it felt like forever. Though it wasn't like she was tired from the walk, but the lack of landmarks made it difficult to gauge time. And while the sprawling hillsides were beautiful, they were also a bit redundant. The occasional family of ducks or rabbits livened things up, but only for a moment or two. Sighing quietly to herself before looking up at Angeal as a gentle smile warmed her face. “You really are a country boy, aren't you?”

“I am, and I did warned you a head of time before we ever left that it was going to be a long trip.” He informed only now realizing how much faster he was walking than her, that the taller male have started to slowed down slightly to make it easier for her to keep up. “Do you need a break?”

“No, I'm okay.” A break would have been nice, but Zuri knew that if she stopped moving then she wouldn't want to start walking again. Especially when they had been carrying the terribly small amount of luggage the two had thought to bring, plus, as per usual, Angeal had his sword strapped to his back. "I wouldn't want to take any much time in this travel then needed"

“It's not too much farther, I promise.” Taking her hand in his, Angeal gave it a reassuring little squeeze. “I think you'll make it.”

“Let's hope you're right.” she muttered on being glad that he'd slowed down, so that she could finally able to match her steps with his. Though not to far in the distance, the trees, which had once grown straight and tall, seemed to be curving over the path, creating a sort of canopy. Bringing little pops of color to the trees, were shiny, purple fruits. Though she had never actually seen this fruit in person, but she is aware on what it was. “Wait, are these those dumbapples you told me about?”

A slight air of pride surrounding the male after hearing it, when Angeal gave a small nod to confirm it. “They are.”

“They're such a weird color.” she murmured before stopping at one of the lower hanging fruits, where she goes to reached up and tried to pluck it from it's place. but she isn't quite tall enough to reach it, when she needed only to glance at Angeal for him to know what she wanted.

Reaching the apple with ease, he pulled it from the branch and handed it to her. “Thanks.” but she couldn't help herself to be taken off by the color, that Zuri weren't sure if it was even ready to be eaten or not. “Is it ripe?”

Having already resumed walking, Angeal looked back at her from over his shoulder and gave an ambiguous reply. “Take a bite and find out.”

Had his usually serious expression not been tainted with a slight look of mischief, she would have already done just that. “I don't know if I trust you enough for that.”

“Suit yourself.” Acting as if he really didn't care one way or another, Angeal gave a half shrug as he continued walking ahead.

“Hmm...” After a few seconds of thought, Zuri gave the skin of the apple a little rub with her sleeve and readied to take a bite. As soon as she sunk her teeth into the apple, a sweetness very similar to honey filled her senses. The flavor, while not overpowering, had many layers to it, making it much more complex than a regular apple. Hurrying after Angeal, as he was far, far ahead of her at this point, where she had continued happily munching away until there was nothing left.

Surprised that she managed to devour it so quickly, Angeal's brows shot up as his eyes went wide. “Good, isn't it?”

Now wishing she hadn't eaten it so quickly, Zuri could do little more than nod. “It was delicious, and it's already gone.”

Chuckling under his breath, Angeal winked playfully. “Now you know why I used to steal them.”

“Oh?” Approaching a small, quaint town that had been obscured by the trees only a moment ago, she took Angeal's hand once more. “Are you sure that wasn't just because you're cheap?”

“Well, that might have had something to do with it too.” The closer the two are on going to the town, the slower Zuri walked. Quickly picking up on this fact, and curious as to why this would be the case, Angeal stopped just outside the gated entrance. “Is everything okay?”

“Honestly, I'm really, really nervous about this.” Feeling both flushed, and cold at the same time, Zuri did tried to calm her nerves by taking a deep breath in. Unfortunately, it did little, if anything to help. “What if I say something weird, or do something I shouldn't do?” Working herself up even more by vocalizing her fears, she had subconsciously grabbed the front of Angeal's shirt and had started to shake him. “What if I don't say or do anything weird at all, and she still doesn't like me?”

Laughing at her worries as if there was no chance at all of them actually coming to pass, Angeal placed his large hand on the top of her head and ruffled her hair. “Trust me, she's going to like you.” With his arm around her shoulders, he quickly ushered the female into Banora before she could make any more excuses for herself. “Now come on, it's getting dark.” From the entrance of the town, to the front door of the cottage style home where the two were now standing in front of, was all of a few dozen steps, meaning that her nerves had been given no time at all to calm down. His hand already on the old, worn doorknob, Angeal turned his eyes to her. “If you keep holding your breath like that, you're going to pass out.” Releasing the doorknob, he placed both of his hands on her cheeks and smiled. “Breathe.”

“R-right.” Placing her hands ontop his and she nodded. “I'll remember that.”

Before Angeal had a chance to say, or do anything else, the door creaked open, revealing a kindly looking, elderly woman. Even without being told who she was, her resemblance to Angeal was too strong for Zuri on not knowing that this must be his mother. Her face lightning up the moment she saw her son, she happily welcomed them into her home.

“What are you two doing out here? Your dinner's going to get cold. Come in, come in.” All the worries Zuri had been feeling a moment ago vanished at her kindness. The female had only just met her, but she was already treating her as part of the family. “Please, sit down. You two must be hungry.” Taking a seat at a small, wooden table, she folded her hands over her lap and somewhat impatiently waited for Zuri and Angeal to join her.

Obviously glad to be back home, Angeal placed his sword, and the luggage by the door. After helping Zuri into her seat, he sat down beside her. “Even if we weren't, I doubt you wouldn't let us go without eating.”

“Shh, Angeal.” Swatting at his hand, Gillian hushed him then turned her attention to the other female. “Aren't you going to introduce us?”

“Ah...” Though it was incredibly rare for him, Angeal looked genuinely flustered by his mother's request. Seeing as he had certainly written her about the female next to him before bringing Zuri to meet her, though she had a feeling Gillian's request had been made for this reason alone. “Right.” Clearing his throat as his mother filled her plates with food, Angeal gave an awkward, bumbling introduction.

Satisfied with the hasty pleasantries, though Angeal had done little more than give his mother her name, Gillian smiled with her eyes. “My Angeal has told me quite a lot about you over the years.” Her smile spreading to her lips, she could have sworn she saw a glimmer of pride in her eyes. “It's nice to finally meet the young lady he's so taken with.”

“O-oh, thank you.” Zuri wasn't sure what Angeal had told her, but just knowing that he mentioned her, and apparently quite a lot, brought the color to her cheeks. “It's really nice to meet you too.”

“My. You two really couldn't be any more different, could you?” After looking back and forth between the two several times, Gillian gave a gentle nod of approval. “I supposed it's true what they say though. Opposites do attract.”

Angeal was trying to regain his composure, but around his mother, this seemed to be nearly impossible for him. Even though he had been too busy eating to say much of anything, she could still tell that he was just ever so slightly uncomfortable. As the three has shared their dinner, Gillian kept a pleasant conversation going. At first, the topics were things such as how Zuri and Angeal met, their first outing together, and the like. The closer dinner came to a close, however, the more embarrassing her topics became. When she finally started eluding to things like marriage and grand children, Angeal forced himself to stop her before things got anymore intimate. Clearing his throat loudly, he changed the subject to the first thing that popped into his mind. "Anyway, we won't be bothering you long. We'll be staying at the inn for a few nights though, since I'd like to see how the town has changed, so we'll be close by."

"The inn?" Looking almost offended, Gillian shook her head. "Nonsense. I've already gotten your old room ready for you. Besides, the inn has paper thin walls and rickety old beds." Sure she didn't need to say any more on the subject, Gillian began clearing off her portion of the table. Immediately standing up to help her, Angeal finished what his mother had started. “Now, you know where your room is, so I'll leave you to it.” Though it was only around eight in the evening, the elderly woman was already tired from the events of the day and ready to head to bed for the night. So, after giving both Zuri, and Angeal a motherly hug, she retired to her room.

Breathing a sigh of relief, as the uncomfortable atmosphere had quickly vanished, Angeal, with her help, finished tidying up the dining room. “Still worried about her not liking you?”

“No. Not at all.” Now that Zuri had actually met her, she couldn't imagine Gillian not liking anyone. “I expected her to be much more serious, like someone else I know.”

“She can be, sometimes.” Chuckling quietly, as if remembering something, Angeal placed the last dish in its place before turning to Zuri. Brushing the back of his fingertips against her cheek, a smile cracked his otherwise stoic expression. “But I knew she'd like you, otherwise I wouldn't have brought you all the way here to meet her.” Lifting her into his arms without warning, causing a tiny gasp to escape her throat, Angeal carried Zuri to a small room in the very back of the house. “Well, here we are.” Glancing around the room with a certain fondness, a crease suddenly formed between his brows. “Hmm. It's much smaller than I remember it being.”

In the center of the little room, was an even smaller bed with old, yet beautiful hand quilted blankets. “Are we both going to fit?” Lazily draping an arm over Angeal's broad shoulders, she had re-thought her earlier question. “Will you even fit?”

“I'm sure we'll think of something.” Still holding her in his arms, Angeal stepped farther inside and shut the door. With each step he took, the bed seemed to shrink in size. By the time he was standing next to it, it almost looked laughably small.

Giggling at his baffled expression Zuri placed her hand over her mouth to stifle a bit of the sound. “Just how young were you when you left home?”

“Younger than I remember apparently, and much, much smaller.” Though the inn would have certainly had larger beds, Angeal was determined to make this work. Sitting on the edge of the bed, causing the entire mattress to sink he slowly laid down with you on top of him. When he did this, his body covered the entire mattress. From shoulder to shoulder, and head to toes, there was just barely enough room. Somehow believing that this would work, he gave confident nod. “As long as neither of us moves around too much, this should be fine.”

Zuri wasn't sure if he was this determined because he was simply tired from the trip and didn't want to walk to the inn, or if he didn't want to risk upsetting his mother. Either way, she isn't going to argue, as now that she was laying down, where she had no desire whatsoever to get back up. Snuggling herself against his chest, she let her head rest on his shoulder as she spoke. “One of us is going to end up on the floor, I guarantee it.”

Feeling that she is probably right, he nodded. “Since you're on top, I'd wager that it's going to be you.” Tightly wrapping his arms around her, as if that would somehow keep her from falling once he fell asleep, Angeal held her in place.

“Tch. That's not fair at all" Zuri scoffed at that comment. “If I go down, I'm taking you with me.”

Cocking a brow at her threat, Angeal went completely silent for several seconds before rolling over so that he was on top of her. Considering the size of the bed, this was not an easy task. “There, now there's no chance that you'll fall.” Grinning at her shocked, embarrassed expression, Angeal didn't even try to hide the fact that he was teasing her. “Better?”

“N-no. No it's not better at all. I changed my mind.” Even though Zuri knew he wasn't putting all of his weight on her, but she still finding it difficult to breathe. Beating on his chest, she gasped to take in any air at all. “I'd rather be able to breathe and risk falling.”

“I thought so.” Picking himself up just enough to remove the pressure from her chest, Angeal pressed his lips to her and kissed the female with the gentleness of a whisper.

Surprised by his kiss Zuri hadn't even realized he'd rolled over and returned her to his chest until it came to an end. Cheeks burning, she scolded him for his actions. “First you try to suffocate me, and then you kiss me.” Hiding her blush from him, she buried her face in his shoulder and sighed. “What's gotten into you?”

“I'm not sure.” Slowly running his fingers through her hair, Angeal closed his eyes and relaxed into the bed once more. His voice now terribly quiet, as if he was more talking to himself than he was her, he continued. “Maybe I missed being back home more than I realized.”

Something about his words tugged at her heart. Though he was still the same strong, serious Angeal, she had always known, there was something almost boyish about the way he looked right now. It was as if being back in his childhood home, in his old bed had transported him to a simpler time. This must have been the case, because never once in all her years of knowing him had Angeal ever looked so completely at peace. The harsh lines on his face that had come from worrying too much, and too often had also faded away slightly. Angeal had only been back home a couple of hours, and already he looked like a massive weight had lifted from his shoulders. Her lids growing heavy, as she promised herself that she would have to find a way to make him stay home longer than planned once she woke up. The slow, rhythmic rising and falling of his chest slowing as he drifted to sleep, she nuzzled herself against his body and whispered sweetly as she allowed sleep to claim her.

“Welcome home Angeal.”

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danyka-fendyr · 5 years

Text

As the Raven Flies: Part 8

Should I really stop writing these things early in the morning only hours before they’re supposed to be released? Well...yes. But alas, I probably won’t. As long as you guys are still reading, I’ll keep making insane life choices. Insane love to everyone who has ever left a single note on any of my posts.

Taglist:@dreamwritesimagines @rhabakoli @disengagefrmreality @superwolfchild-fan

Wordcount: 1988

Chapter 8: In which, you wouldn’t like Frank when he’s angry.

Eventually, Vivien finished crying, wiping away her tears in shame. James either didn’t notice or didn’t care that she was foolishly trying to hide the fact that she had cried, letting her clean up in silence.

“How do you feel?” He asked, voice quiet in the car.

“I’m okay.”

“You going to be honest with me or not?”

“Cold. But like...cold inside.”

James nodded.

“I just...” she sighed. “I just want to go home.”

“Okay. We’re close to my house anyway,” James said, climbing back over into the driver’s seat.

She shook her head. That wasn’t what she’d meant, but she’d been emotionally vulnerable enough for the day, and she’d almost been blown up. She didn’t owe James any explanation about the hole in her chest or about how home meant one year ago or about how home meant anywhere but here and now and her. Home meant an entirely different person, and she wouldn’t be going home any time soon.

The rest of the drive was quiet, except for her occasional sniffles, but when they stopped outside of James’ house Vivien stiffened. There was a black car outside of his house, just a little farther down. She didn’t like that. She didn’t like that at all.

“James,” she said quietly. “Take another lap around the block.”

He raised his eyebrows, but followed her instructions anyway. The black car started up, beginning to follow them. That, James noticed, putting the pieces together.

“They’re following us,” he said.

“The question is, are they here for me, or you?”

“Why don’t we ask?” James pulled over, the black car copying him from a few feet away. “You ready for a fight.”

Vivien rolled her eyes. “Sure. Why not?”

They both got out of the car, and James slammed his fist into the dark window of the driver’s side. “Hey, jerk! Why are you following me and my girlfriend around? What, you think just because you’re her ex you can pull creepy crap like that?”

Vivien just stared at him. What on earth was he doing?

The window rolled down, and revealed...Frank?

“Last time I checked, you just wished you were dating her, punk, just like you’re going to wish you were dead when I’m done with you.”

He opened the door into James’ ribs, throwing him off his balance before Frank punched him in the face.

“Frank!” Vivien rushed forward, blocking his next punch, which was considerably easier to do when you weren’t lying on the ground with a bruised chest and potentially a broken jaw.

Frank stopped, scowling at her. “You should have been back 30 minutes ago, and I want to know what he did to you!”

Had she really cried that long? She hadn’t exactly been keeping track.

“He didn’t do anything, Frank! I suggested we stop,” she lied. “I was in shock and I needed to get some sugar in my system. It wasn’t James’ fault at all. Leave him alone.”

Frank relaxed slightly, glaring at James, who was standing now, an impressive feat given the damage he had taken.

“I wouldn’t hurt her. She’s my friend,” was all James said.

Frank huffed. “Not five minutes ago you were telling me she was a little more than that.”

Vivien blushed, surprised to feel anything warmer than the cold that had been sitting on her chest.

“That’s-I-” she stammered, unsure why she was trying to defend herself.

James was blushing also, speaking up. “We thought you were someone following us. I figured we should have a cover story in case you were just a normal person. And even if you weren’t, better to mislead you.”

Frank seemed skeptical, but also a little bit respectful, and Vivien was baffled as to how he managed to be both at the same time.

He turned to her. “Karen is already at my place. We should go now.”

She nodded. “Just give me a minute. I want to make sure James takes care of that bruise somebody gave him.”

Frank rolled his eyes theatrically at her judgment but waved her on. She followed James inside, into a large, empty house that looked like it had come straight out of a Better Homes & Gardens magazine.

“This is where you live?” she asked before she could stop herself.

“Yeah. My Dad died a couple years ago, so my Mom does all the decorating now. Or, I guess, she pays someone to do it.”

So that was why he had seemed to understand so well. “Do you miss him?”

She skipped past all the formalities. All the sorry’s, all the saccharine “that must be so hard” comments.

“All the time. Usually when I go watch baseball games. We used to do that together, but now...”

“Now you go alone and then you go home and you cry.” It didn’t sound mean. Just jaded.

“Yeah. Yeah, I do,” he said quietly.

“Where is your kitchen?” she turned to face him in the color palette of a foyer. “We need to put some ice on that.”

“This way,” he said, leading her back to a kitchen that was just as cookie cutter as the hallway.

He reached into the freezer, grabbing an ice pack, but before he could put it on his face Vivien grabbed it from him. She opened a few drawers before she found the towel one (close to the sink, like she’d figured) and pulled out a thin one, wrapping it around the ice pack.

“There. That will help with the cold,” she said softly, pressing the ice pack to his cheek as he leaned back against the counter. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay,” he said. “He was just worried.”

“And angry and probably mentally unwell.” She was only a little bit joking.

“Well we can’t really talk, can we?”

She sobered, smile falling slowly off her lips. “No. No, we can’t.”

“Neither of us can,” he reminded her. He grabbed the wrist of her free hand, tugging her closer. “You’re not alone Vivien.”

She caught her breath. His eyes were really blue. How had she never noticed that before? How had she never noticed the soul-sucking, ocean deep, sky wide, awestriking blueness of his eyes?

She swallowed. The way he was looking at her made her feel strange, made her heartbeat pick up faster than it should. That shouldn’t be pleasant.

“Thank you,” she whispered, feeling the deep need to break the silence. “For today. For not letting me blow up. For letting me cry.”

His hand that wasn’t holding her wrist came up to rest over the one still on the ice pack on his cheek. “You don’t have to hide it, you know? If you have to cry, you cry. Around me, anyway.”

She nodded slowly, not looking away from his eyes. It felt like she would be breaking something sacred if she did.

“Don’t hide from me, okay Vivien?”

“Okay.”

She waited another moment, savoring whatever this feeling was before she slipped out of his grasp. “I should go.”

He blinked, that look in his eyes disappearing like she had known it would. “Yeah. Umm..thank you. For taking care of me.”

“Yeah. Any time.”

She headed out the door, hands in her pockets. She felt the urge to both jump up and down and skip around the block and also bury her face into her bed and scream. Whatever that was.

“Ready to go?” Frank asked, leaning up against the car.

“Yeah. Why do you have multiple cars?”

“One is for getting shot at. The other is not,” he said.

“Enough said.”

She got into the car, the earlier weight that had been on her chest curiously lifted. Where it had sat, there was now just an empty hole. It was not good, but it was something. An improvement. It felt...light. Airy.

She smiled. She felt okay.

Frank gave her the lecture of her life on the way back. On being reckless, on how she should have messaged Karen (she did have 8 missed calls), about how she was on a great path to lose dessert for the rest of her life. No really. He actually, literally said that. Vivien almost couldn’t believe her own ears.

“You can’t take dessert away from me!” She protested.

“My house. My rules.”

“Karen would never let you take dessert away from me.”

“Don’t try to use Karen against me.”

“This is ridiculous! All because I saw a boy you don’t like.”

“I don’t like him because he’s probably an enemy spy and set a bomb trying to kill you,” Frank said, adjusting his grip on the wheel.

“Well, you know what, if he did I guess I’d have to forgive him, wouldn’t I? Because he’s the only friend I’ve got.”

Frank quieted. No one ever had a witty retort for reminders of tragedy. It was difficult to laugh in the face of grief, especially when it haunted you as well.

“You’re still not getting dessert tonight.”

“Fine.”

Karen embraced her as soon as she walked through the door of Frank’s apartment. “I was so worried about you!”

“I’m fine. We just had to make a quick stop.”

“What she means by that is that lover boy had to make goo-goo eyes at her,” Frank said.

“That’s not-We didn’t-”

Karen looked entirely too delighted. “Suuuurrreee you didn’t.”

“I don’t have to listen to this.” Vivien marched off to find her room.

Frank’s place was small, but roomy enough to hold all of them. She suspected that he probably had multiple safehouses like this, and this one was obviously equipped to hold multiple people. She wondered how long he’d had it.

Still, it was small, and it didn’t take her long to find the room with all of her things in it. She made quick work of putting what little had been brought away before flopping down onto the bed. Karen had made sure to bring her comforter, remembering that it had been her parent’s before, maybe.

Vivien closed her eyes, wishing she could just go to sleep. After this day, all she wanted to do was sleep. However, there was still the matter of dinner. Karen and Frank would want her to eat with them after all the worrying they’d been doing. Sure enough, Frank knocked on her doorframe, standing where she had left the door ajar.

“Dinner is ready whenever you’re hungry. Just some lame TV stuff, but you know. Food is food even if it isn’t Karen’s cooking.”

“Which is, of course, the only reason you frequent our place for dinner.” She sat up as she teased him, getting out of bed.

“I’d be careful if I were you. Two can play at that game,” he warned.

She thought about James and how close she had been to him earlier today and decided that perhaps it was better to keep her mouth shut.

They headed out into what passed for a living room or common space where there were three TV dinners, just like Frank had said. Karen was sitting on the couch waiting for them, and Vivien joined her, sitting down.

“So, Frank told me James said he was your boyfriend?” Of course that was the conversation starter Karen chose.

“He’s not. And don’t we have bigger problems right now? Any theories as to who might want to blow us up?”

“Well that’s the main problem,” Frank said, sitting down with them. “There were four of us in that room. Any of us could have been the target, potentially, which doesn’t make tracking down a suspect easy at all.”

Vivien nodded. “We’ve all certainly made our fair share of enemies, haven’t we?”

“More than that,” Karen mumbled, a hint of bitterness flavoring her words.

“Which is why first we need to figure out who they were attacking, and then we can figure out why.”

Vivien stabbed her fork into her food. “Alright. When do we start?”

#as the raven flies #as the raven flies part 8 #frank castle #punisher #oc #frank castle fic #punisher fic #karen page #kastle #fanfic #fanfiction #imagine

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boyslaughplus · 5 years

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Devlog #34 - Status Update, Character Design, and UI

Hello! It's time for another update on the development status of Brassica. It’s also our first actual devlog purely about Brassica!

After working on separate projects for a while, we are now in the process of getting back on track working on the same game again. Because of that we're happy to announce that the rest of Brassica's Act 2 will be released in March!

It grew a bit in size from what we originally planned but that just means more game for you~

The exact date will be announced when we can more clearly estimate how long the remaining tasks will take but we're in the process of finishing everything up so it shouldn't be too long.

As for Act 3, our current plan is to release it in April. From now on development should be a lot faster but because we mainly worked on it on the side until now, that is still only a rough estimate. We'll definitely keep you updated on any developments regarding the release dates though!

Well, and that's about it for the status update. Because it's been a while since our devlogs actually described much of our development process (and we haven't shared much about our thought processes behind Brassica), we decided to bring that back with today's devlog.

PECTIN will tell you a bit about Saffron and his design while eZombo describes the development of the UI. So without further ado, here we go:

Art - PECTIN

Saffron is the curious prince the player takes control of in Brassica. Before I began concepting him Felix and I defined his character. At this point we already knew he would be one of the princes Sappho tricks into going on the journey. (And would then fall in love with another prince because YaoiJam'18). We soon agreed on naming him Saffron. So I already associated the colours of the spice "saffron" with him here. We also wanted to make him a protagonist with his own personality. Thinking of the player who role-plays him we thought it would be cool to have his character split into three separate personalities he could have: - the cunning and a bit wild prince - the typical goody two-shoes type of hero - and the soft boi who's overwhelmed by the whole predicament and really needs a hug Another external influence was, my intention to try and fuse traditional things with modern sportswear. Brassica is a fairytale but it's told in a contemporary voice. That's where the idea came from. ...Okay. So I had his name, colours I could associate with him, the three archetypes and my goal to fuse sportswear with traditional clothing. Having all of these "pointers" I began looking for reference pictures. I browsed through online stores of popular sports brands to find things that would fit the character. Due to Saffron's character ranging from cute to rather untamed (in the sense that he would climb a tree without hesitation) I thought that wearing shorts would be most suitable and comfy. But for the top and the overall outfit I wanted to let myself get inspired by traditional elements. The name "Saffron" reminded me of the spice and then its use in Indian culture. I never designed a character with Indian influences before and thought researching into that would be interesting. I found a lot of stuff I could translate into the design. Even the leggings Saffron wears were intially inspired by my findings about Indian culture. Here's a visual breakdown of what inspired what (excuse my srawly handwriting >-<):

During the process of drawing out his design, as I always do, I thought about how each component of the outfit would "flow". There're lot's of lines and intersections in his outfit that guide the eyes along the his body:

And here is our boy again as a sprite. Not much different right? Here I put one of his hands in his shorts' pocket, because I think it would suit someone who is either unsure and does that or feels liking hiding something.

That's it about Saffron! I could go on about his colours but I'll save that for when I explain the general artstyle of Brassica! :3

UI - eZombo

Because Brassica was planned as an entry for Yaoi Jam 2018, we thought about ways to keep the scope small. One idea we came up with was to reduce the size of the screen that shows backgrounds and characters so producing the art is a bit faster than filling a full HD 16:9 canvas. One inspiration for that was Sticky Zeitgeist by Porpentine & Rook but something like the Undertale console version where the graphics at the border of the screen change based on the in-game location was also something we considered.

When it came to actually planning the screen, Undertale's influence came through again, because the main area of the screen actually has an aspect ratio of 4:3. This obviously leaves a lot of unused screen space but one thing we knew we could definitely use to fill this was the text box. Having it separate from the main screen also made sure that it didn't overlap with the characters or backgrounds so the space that was reserved for that could be used to its full potential.

With two elements already on the screen, we still had the sides to fill with content. Just using graphics as borders definitely was an option but because Brassica's story plays out a bit like a road movie, we thought having a map of the game world would definitely add to the feeling of that. And to make the UI visually more balanced again, the last bit of free space was then filled with some information on the time of day and how many days were left for the quest of the princes which basically added all the important context for what is going on in the center of the screen.

A first mock-up of the UI featuring a familiar face and St. Bernard...

Around that time, we also developed the idea of presenting the whole game screen like a paper or puppet theater. This seemed like a good way to bring all these different elements together while still supporting the colorful fantasy-ish look of the game art.

I did a quick sketch of how this could look, which turned the mock-up into this:

Aside from adding some more purely graphical elements, I adjusted the text box and the flag that showed the name of the character that is currently speaking. The map was graphical now instead of just a list (which would have given away future locations) and I was overall fairly happy with the direction the UI was going in. A few of the border elements overlapped with the main screen now but I tried to make sure it only happens in areas where we wouldn't put any focus.

After getting some feedback from PECTIN I then went on to work on the final lineart while also trying to simplify all the shapes. By then, the characters were also being concepted so instead of Luke I could put Ode into the mock-up (along with a reference for a possible background style).

As you can see, some unnecessary lines, elements, and text were removed to simplify the look of the UI and make sure that the important elements aren't overshadowed by anything else. Overall I tried to keep the lines clean without making them look overly sterile, so any round shapes are generally drawn freehand instead of using any vector shapes. Except for the compass, moon, and their enclosing arcs. Those just looked sloppy when they weren't exact. Not using fixed line widths was another way to make the lines more organic even when they were perfectly straight. The idea to use different colored flags for each character also came into play now, although Ode's color here is actually used by Hans now…

Colors were next on the agenda. First a basic pass, followed by some adjustments and line colors to make the lines fade more into the background. Having the concepts for the three princes was very helpful for this step because it was important that the UI colors fit into the overall color scheme while keeping the focus on the actual game art. That's why red is only used close to the center and for important UI elements (the current location on the map is also marked in red). The rest of the colors are rather muted and monochrome on purpose with only a little bit of gold to break it up.

Throughout the whole process my main references were old paper theaters but especially during the coloring process I deviated from these references in favor of using colors that would match with most backgrounds.

Once we were happy with the colors, I did a relatively quick shading pass, just adding shadows with a fairly abstract light source to keep most shadows parallel to the lines. I also added some subtle noise to make everything look a bit more organic.

For the most part it still looked too clean though, so PECTIN suggested overlaying the UI with some watercolor textures.

Which lead to this final mock-up and not only solved the problem but also gave the UI a more painterly look that didn't interfere as much with the general artstyle.

Well, but as always, there are still a few things that changed on the way into the engine.

The map was obviously added (which could probably fill a devlog by itself), the text on the side was changed to better reflect the current quest of the princes (although the other sign may or may not return in future acts...), I added a CTC icon and updated the quick menu (although I can't remember why "Load" was removed so maybe that will return again), but most importantly: The text box was reduced from three to two lines of text. This wasn't as much an active decision as it was caused by the fact that small line spacing in Ren'Py cuts of parts of some letters until all lines of text are displayed. There are some games that still do this but personally I don't really like how it looks while the text appears. Increasing the textbox would have caused a lot of work because I would have had to shift around more elements of the UI to keep a balanced layout so it was simply easier to remove a line of text and increase the line spacing.

This had a pretty strong effect on the writing because sentences have to be fairly short now or if that doesn't work, broken up into multiple lines. Even if it wasn't exactly planned, it still influenced the writing style of Brassica and further distinguished it from our other games (although there's more to say on that one) and in hindsight, only two lines of text also look a lot cleaner in this layout.

I could go on about the actual implementation of the UI but this has already been a pretty lengthy post so maybe I'll save it for another devlog.

But that's it for now! We'll be back in two weeks with some more development insights and our current status. We also plan to start posting these devlogs regularly again, so stay tuned for that! As always, thank you so much for reading and we hope you could find a few things of interest in this devlog.

#brassica #fairytale #devlog #gamedev #game #development #otome game #romance #tutorial #visual novel #indiedev #indie #okay

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prodigal-ezreal · 6 years

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Nach Little Box of Hopes And Fears: Ezreal rework edition.

Let’s open this Pandora box, okay?

So, The Ezreal rework is probably hitting live somewhere at the end of the year after Worlds and the PBE during them, which gives us two months to sit, twiddle our thumbs and think. And Oh Boi! Have I thought! More under the cut because this Got Long.

This is all VERY subjective. Please take it with a grain of sea salt.

Let’s start from the beginning, as all organized matters should: What has Riot been doing with their reworks and Lore updates lately?

In my opinion, is give everyone and everything a place in the world, connecting characters and things that might have not been connected previously and retconning a few things along the way— With various degrees of success. The Darkin in Shurima are probably one of the biggest offenders here. While it gave them a place in Runaterra other than ‘Maybe aliens from another dimension/Old As Hell Demons’, Aatrox’s rework, Varus’s music video and Rhaast’s release never tied their designs or origins to anything Shuriman, from there the whiplash I got at least.

But that’s beside the point I’m trying to make. What’s Ezreal’s current state in the Lore?

Well, Ezreal has always been kind of in a weird spot post-institute, he’s from Piltover but has never had any strong affiliations or associations with the City State other than the place in which he spent his childhood, and now with the Piltover/Zaun and his own lore update, he has little ties in design as well! Back in the day, belts were all the rage in Piltover, now it’s more of an Art Deco thing —which I love— but Mr ‘I could probably go a week eating only the leather in my outfit’s belts and I still wouldn’t go hungry’ doesn’t fit anymore aesthetically. Shurima is still important to his character, since that’s where he got his gauntlet from, but as we can see from Elixir of Uloa, he’s not limited to exploring the desert, and to be honest? he never was.

Talking about design, it’s not that his design is horrendously bad, even if a bit ridiculous for his job (leather is not a breathable fabric), it just grew old. And it could have grown older! But the disparity between League’s current aesthetic/lore direction and Ezreal’s would have grown way too large for a champion so played. That’s why I reason they chose him, and not fiddlesticks or Udyr, for a VU/VO right now.

And here is where the box gets opened: let’s go first through the fears to have hope be sitting nice and pretty still inside at the end, okay?

I think everyone that follows me knows that, while I eat up any and all canon Ezreal content, I really don’t like the most recent approach Riot has had with his art: That Cutesy, Pixie Boy aesthetic that gets in my nerves and is present both in Star Guardian and the most recent World Championship skins. (Not to mention, they have gotten really lazy painting/modeling his face? I’d argue Ace of Spades has a prettier face than SG/SSG). Were his rework to take that direction for the sake of the good old ‘Ez is a girl’ joke, I’m going to be really sad about it. And Mad. Smad.

Not because I have a probelm with Ezreal not being your traditional hypermasculine fantasy male character, I quite enjoy that he isn’t, and if they were to tilt the scales in that direction to overfix the same joke, I’d still feel weird about it.

I think its easy to understand the fear of my favorite character being changed into the joke that has plagued him for years because of the homophobic fanbase that birthed it. My beef of course isn’t with male aligned people who don’t fit into the expectations of the gender, and it’s not my intention to imply that if you like the joke/ship, that you are contributing to your own oppression by reclaiming something they named as shameful— of course not. My beef is with the fact they claimed it shameful and that Riot is Not Woke Enough to pretend like it was their intention all along and they aren’t playing into the vices and prejuices of its fanbase. Let me explain.

Tar/ez or Eztar!c exists only because of the powerduo they used to be all the way back in Season 2, and persisted as an intracommunity joke because people just loved making fun of characters that didn’t quite fit with the usual Male Archetype(tm), Ezreal with his assumed ‘pretty boy’ looks (assumed because tbh no one was pretty back then) and lithe physique, and Taric with his ‘affeminate’ liking of gems. This joke, rooted in homophobia, turned both of their characters into jokes that Riot despite its best efforts because I mostly liked Taric’s rework, shut up, still l can’t completely overcome to this day, when the usage of ‘lol that’s so gay’ is not as negative as the beggining of the decade. It’s not like I think that it’s going to go away, I just fear it’s gonna get worse.

Not to mention! The wildly original, very alive horse that is the ‘Ez is a girl’ joke, comes from people forcing heterosexual roles into same gender relationships which, ew! That and his “Pretty anime boy” archetype, since those are also popular in yao! media (double ew). AND from the misogony that any male aligned person, or in less serious cases like this one, character, that doesn’t fall into line with the expectative of its gender, it’s marked as lesser. You might see this issues and think ‘I barely see that anymore’, which, fair. It has been in decline in the general Internet Population since the second half of the decade, but all of these problems stem from early 2010’s gamer culture so— Yeah. That’s another can of worms I am NOT opening.

TLDR: I feel like the the recent art direction comes from toxic places and I’m fearful Riot is gonna play into that instead of ignoring it.

It may be something else behind those decisions, but this is what my confirmation bias looks like.

Enough of unfounded fears I have now struck into your hearts because if I’m going to hell worrying about this, I’m gonna bring you all with me. Let’s think about hope.

My highest hopes for the update is that Riot plays into Ezreal’s lack of strong links— Not only do I think that it makes sense for a explorer to never truly belong in one place, it’s just easier and doesn’t force anything too alien to his character. I’d really like if they went for a ‘citizen of the world’ kind of deal. Make his design something based on Piltover but obviously worn and foreign, pepper his language with words from Shurima, Freljord, Ionia! Hell, with how big Noxus is, he’d have to learn to speak the language if he wanted to cross through it. I feel like he’s a wonderful opportunity to represent how diverse, yet interconnected Runnaterra is. I also feel like it plays into his fantasy of being a dashing —pun intended—young man who gets in and out of trouble, from adventure to adventure a la Indana Jones.

But going back to Riot’s Lore direction, we still need to tie him with somewhere, or at the very least, something.

Enter the world rune.

‘But Nach’ I hear you wail as I use either 50’s sellsman tactics or early 2000’s fanfic writer interrumptions to catch your attention, ‘World Runes are Ryze’s thing!’

Which, Fair. They are. I’m not saying Ezreal is gonna ‘prove himself to be able to let go of a World Rune’ since that is Ryze’s exclusive thing (even if the thought of that happening and Ez outright rejecting it cos Adventure sounds very appealing to me) I just want him to be tied to the missing World Rune because it makes sense for League’s token explorer to accidentaly stumble into the World Magic Battery.

Also because of the promo, but who knows. Maybe he wasn’t in the Ryze short precisely for that, maybe because since it had been so many years on the making, Ez wasn’t even in the Update Radar then and they just didn’t include him/made reference to him. It doesn’t matter, we don’t know. Time will tell.

Plus, him being tied to the World Rune would make Zoe’s fixation —as creepy as it is— make a bit more sense. If the Aspect Of Change that damned The Darkin is the same one we have today, It’d make her have more secretive, ulterior motives and connect her happy go lucky and childish personality to that mischeveous, manipulative persona we got to see in the Darkin story. If it turns out they are different, it still makes sense with Zoe’s Color story and IG characterization since she can’t seem to get serious about/remember what precisely she was supposed to omen.

TLDR Hopes: Just tie him to the world rune, it’d be cool. Also make him a fucking tutti fruti of cultures.

To tie it all up, I know there’s not much I can do but wait, since I am not active in the forums or the reddit community�� but If I could feel in my heart Zoe was gonna have a crush on Ezreal when we got her ig teaser, then I do dare hope.

#i am SO sorry if this rant isnt cut by mobile #long post #ooc #meta #meta? meta

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tywriteskpop · 6 years

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Transparent (Park Jinyoung)-Chapter 2

Genre: Fluff, Angst, Comedy

It seemed to take an eternity for his words to register in your mind. Questions clouded your head, and you found it difficult to properly form a sentence out loud. You found yourself stuttering.

“You’re the...I mean I...How is he-“ Your gaze was moving rapidly between the brothers. When you realized you couldn’t say what you wanted, you huffed and drooped your shoulders. “I give up.”

Jinyoung chuckled at your frantic behavior. “Y/N, this is my younger brother. I’m sure you recognize him.” He motioned to the younger boy and you nodded numbly.

Youngjae bowed politely in greeting. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Y/N.”

You stuttered before you properly bowed back, wary of what you should do in their presence. You’ve never met anyone from the royal family before this moment. And now you were faced with the faceless prince and his presumed dead brother.

“I assume you have a lot of questions,” Jinyoung continued. “Care for a walk? I’ll explain everything to you.”

Before you could accept, Youngjae strutted to his brother’s side. “Are you sure that’s a wise idea, Jinyoung?” He whispered. “We don’t know this girl well enough.”

Jinyoung nodded shortly before whispering back, “I’ve been observing her. She is genuine. You’ll be the first to know if I feel as if I made a mistake.” He turned back to you and smiled. “Come. We have much to discuss.”

You walked beside him as he led you through a large garden behind the mansion. The lawn was a vibrant, lush green, cut neatly and evenly. The tiled path you walked on was smooth, a soft peach color that made you feel warm. Finely trimmed hedges lined the path for you, the occasional archway opening a new section of the garden to you every few yards. Small garden statues littered across the lawn with bigger ones posing as landmarks for each section of the garden.

When you came to the center of the garden, you were greeted by a large fountain. The statue decorating the fountain made you want to laugh, but you also had a deep appreciation for how glorious it looked.

“You made your dog into a fountain?” you asked, your voice cracking at the strain from trying not to laugh.

Jinyoung shrugged, a light pink dusting his cheeks at the slight embarrassment he felt. “It was my friend’s idea.” As he spoke, Kenai ran around the two of you towards the fountain. Disregarding the steady stream of water pouring down, the dog ducked under it as he splashed through the bowl-like base. “Besides, Kenai here loves it.”

As if he understood the conversation being held, the dog turned and sat down, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. He shook his hair out, leaving parts of it ragged and messy. Kenai sat there, staring at you both, an exact likeness to his statue counterpart.

“You must have had him pose for this,” you joked.

The boy chuckled at your exasperated tone. The normality of his boyish expression made you momentarily forget that he was regal, and you quickly clammed up. He must have noticed your apprehension, so Jinyoung cleared his throat and motioned for you to continue your stroll.

“There is no need for you to be anxious around me, I assure you,” he said. “You are not in any trouble.”

“No offense, but that doesn’t exactly make me feel like I’m not teetering on the edge of insanity,” you huffed. “I mean, put yourself in my shoes. How would you feel if suddenly you were met by the royal princes, one of which is a mystery and the other who is supposed to be dead?”

Jinyoung pondered your words for a moment, his lower lip jutting out in thought. He nodded his head slowly as his eyes raked across the garden hedges. “Alright, I’ll put myself in your shoes. I’d feel confused, and probably have a lot of questions. Maybe a bit panicked because I wouldn’t know how to act or speak around them, not knowing how to ask the questions that are burning inside of my head.” He brought his gaze back to you and smirked when he saw you pouting. “Am I close enough?”

You sighed and dropped your shoulders. “Dead on. You’re a smarty pants, aren’t you?”

His smirk grew and he shrugged his shoulders. “Perhaps I should just tell you our story. Save you some questions.”

“Please and thank you.”

Thus, the prince began telling you the story that answered all of your questions.

“The time I was born, my parents received a terrifying threat. It posed a danger to my life, so I was hidden away. I spent my entire life living here, away from my parents.”

You felt a slight tug at your heart. “That had to be hard.”

He only nodded before continuing his story. “Two years later, my brother was born. No threats came, so my parents deemed him safe. They were foolish. They assumed I was the only target. But whoever threatened us is after the throne.”

“Which means you’re all targets,” you realized.

“Correct.” Jinyoung turned to look you in the eye. As he spoke, you could see the turmoil clouding his emotions. “My relationship with Youngjae was strained, almost nonexistent, because of our separation. We hardly saw each other, barely knew each other. I never truly knew how it felt to be an older brother, until five years ago.”

Five years ago. That year was a tragic time for everyone. A royal convoy escorting the king and his second son was attacked. An unknown assailant had planted a bomb inside the car. When the convoy reached the center square of the city, the assailant activated the explosive, creating massive damage. Many people were injured simply from being in the bomb’s proximity. The king was killed, and supposedly the prince died during surgery.

“I’m sorry,” you said quietly.

The two of you stopped in front of a statue. When you looked up, you immediately recognized the figure that the statue portrayed. The late king stood gloriously in front of you, albeit made of polished stone. Still, the sculpture grasped the dignifying authority and regality that the king had possessed.

“I never really knew him that well,” Jinyoung admitted. “The bond between my parents and I was as fragile as it was with my brother. But when I learned what had happened, I fell into a panic. I had lost my father, and I didn’t know if Youngjae would survive.”

You hesitated for a moment before asking, “How did he survive?”

The prince released a humorless laugh. “By some miracle, perhaps. After his surgery, he was teetering between life and death. My mother used the opportunity to fake his death without knowing if he’d live or not. She told the public he died on the table.

“Thankfully he pulled through, and my mother had him moved here in secret. We live here alone with Kenai and our guards. Very few know we’re here. Only those we trust the most are aware of our location.”

You furrowed your brows in confusion, giving him a suspicious stare. “So why tell me?” you asked. “You don’t know me. How do you know I won’t go telling everyone?”

Jinyoung turned to face you fully, pulling his hands behind his back. He looked so full of authority right then, you almost regret challenging his decision. You couldn’t read his expression, but nevertheless you stood your ground.

“I pray it doesn’t come to that,” he said. “I’ve seen how you are. You have an unwavering caring heart. You run the center, you take care of people less fortunate.”

You wanted to tell him that you only did it for your grandmother. That you didn’t want the responsibility. But you knew you’d be lying to yourself. You could have let the center shut down. But your grandmother raised you to help those in need, because you could easily be one of them. Everyone needs help.

And looking into Jinyoung’s eyes told you what he wouldn’t say out loud. He wanted your help. But for what, you didn’t know. You sighed and nodded in agreement, not knowing exactly what you were getting into. But you’ve come too far to back away.

“Okay,” you relented. “You obviously want me to do something.”

“Perceptive. I have a proposition for you.”

“And that would be?”

“Move into the manor.”

You nearly choked on your own saliva, hastily clearing your throat. He must have found amusement at the sight, his smirk returning to his lips.

“You think this is funny, don’t you?” you snapped, your eyes wide.

He nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I do, actually.”

“Do you take pleasure in making people trip over themselves?”

A small pout graced his lips as he looked away in thought, humming to himself. “No, you just make it easy.”

You scoffed, rolling your eyes at him. “Gee, thanks for the mental face plant, your highness. But seriously, why do you want me to move in with you? It’s one thing to tell me your darkest secrets that could ultimately get you killed, but letting me live under the same roof? I could be an assassin in disguise, you know.”

Jinyoung shot you a disbelieving look, one eyebrow raised as his gaze traveled over your form. “I find that hard to believe, truly. You’re not exactly killer material.”

“I’m not sure if I should be insulted or flattered.”

“Take it as you will,” he said. “Regardless, I’d like to offer you a job as a caretaker here. It would be easiest if you moved in.”

“A caretaker?” You thought for a moment. You had been ready to go find a job before finding Kenai, and here a job was dangling before you. But you were skeptical about the conditions that came with it. “What exactly would I be doing?”

Jinyoung smirked, a hint of surprise in his eyes. “Are you actually considering it?”

You folded your arms and gave him an exhausted look. “Would you rather me walk out of here right now?”

The prince scoffed lightly. “How grateful.”

“You have two seconds,” you warned.

Clearing his throat, he continued. “Exactly as it sounds. We do a well enough job taking care of the upkeep around here. But it would be easier if we had another. Not to mention we can’t exactly show ourselves to the public, so any outside errands are tricky to get done.”

The job didn’t sound hard. In fact it sounded like your everyday life. Preparing food and fresh clothes is what you did every day for the volunteer center. And the extra money you earned with this job would allow you to provide further resources to keep your center running. The only downside to the whole thing would be moving out of your apartment. Not to mention you’d be keeping your second life a secret from other people to keep the princes safe from the public. But you could get around that, right?

“Deal,” you said. “Doesn’t sound hard.”

“Excellent!” Jinyoung said. “You’ll relocate here as soon as you can. I’ll expect you to accompany me on some occasions.”

With that being said, the prince walked away, heading back towards the manor.

“What occasions?” you asked. When he didn’t answer, you jogged to catch up with him. “Hey!”

You rubbed your aching head as you opened the side door to the center. It’s only been 24 hours since you made the deal with the hidden prince, and already your anxiety about packing up your apartment has given you a headache. Walking over the threshold, you were surprised to find your volunteer workers strewn about the big room, talking excitedly amongst each other.

“What’s going on?” you mumbled.

BamBam strolled up to you and grabbed your arm hurriedly. “What happened yesterday after I left you?” He whispered, guiding you to your office.

“What are you talking about?”

“Why are two of the most prominent sons in the country sitting in your office waiting to talk to you?” he asked again. You were so confused that you just stared blankly at him. The boy rolled his eyes. “Mark Tuan and Im Jaebum.”

“What?!” you practically shouted.

You brushed past your best friend and turned the corner to your office. Sure enough, the two young men were seated patiently at your desk. You couldn’t think of any reason that they would be here. Nonetheless, you took a breath and walked into the room proudly, taking your seat calmly.

“Call if you need,” BamBam said, closing the door.

The two young men looked at you expectantly as you leaned back in your chair. “So what do I owe this pleasure? Not every day I get two members of prominent families in my center.”

Mark’s lips turned up into an amused grin. “She meets the prince for one day and she thinks she’s so confident.”

You faltered, your eyes going wide and you glanced to the door to make sure it was closed completely. “He sent you here?” you asked, dumbfounded. “Is he insane?”

“Is that any way to talk about your prince behind his back?” Jaebum joked.

You turned to him and huffed. “After yesterday, yes. Now are you here to tease me or expose him?”

“Neither,” Mark answered. He pulled an envelope out of his jacket pocket and handed it to you across the desk. “He asked us to give this to you. See, with it being difficult to show himself in public, the two of us do a lot of his outside business in secret.”

“We’ll leave you our contact information for just in case purposes,” Jaebum continued. “But you’ll see us at the manor more often than not.”

Your gaze drifted from the envelope in your hand to the two men in front of you. “What exactly have I gotten myself into?” you whined.

“We’re not that bad,” Mark said. “Besides, I think you’ll think differently when you open up that envelope.”

With a skeptical sigh, you opened the slip and pulled out the contents. Your breath caught your throat as you read the numbers on the written check in your hand.

“Is he serious?” you croaked out.

Jaebum nodded. “Part of the deal that he didn’t disclose with you yesterday is that you allow him to keep this center up and running. So he’ll be providing any funds you’ll need to operate.”

“He really is insane.”

Mark nodded in agreement. “To a degree. We’ll be around if you need any extra help. Just give us a call.”

After leaving you their numbers, the two of them left. BamBam walked into your office a few minutes later to see you quietly staring at the check. You hadn’t even realized he was there, being too lost in your thoughts to notice him. He walked to your desk and picked up the check, knocking you out of your reverie.

The boy nearly choked on air when he saw how much the check was worth. “Is this for real? This could keep the center running for months!”

A note was folded inside the envelope with the check. You held it in your hand, lightly crumpling it before sighing and opening it.

”I hope you don’t mind, but Mark takes care of all of my funding, so my money is under his name. Consider this as a token of my gratitude, and my faith in you. I’ll be seeing you soon, Y/N.

-Faceless”

“Who is Faceless?” BamBam read the note over your shoulder. The check was still in his hand, but you clearly saw the name Mark Tuan written on the check. Now you know how Jinyoung got around his financial stupor while in hiding.

“It’s a long story.”

“So you’re telling me, you got a new job after finding a lost dog, and your employer is a secret?”

You sighed at BamBam’s disbelieving tone. “That’s the simplified version, I guess.”

“Sorry, but the whole thing sounds crazy,” your best friend said. “I mean, seriously, Y/N. How do you know you can trust this mystery employer?”

“Look, Bam, I met the guy face to face. I just can’t tell you who he is. He likes his privacy.” Lying to your best, albeit only, friend hurt you, but you couldn’t tell him anything. If watching dramas on television taught you anything, it was that the more you knew, the more danger you were in. If someone was still after Jinyoung’s life to take the throne, then you had to keep BamBam from getting involved. It was the only way you could think of to keep him safe.

“And you sure he’s a decent guy? How old is he anyway?”

You leaned your chin on your hand, giving him a dead stare. “I highly doubt his age matters, dude. Look, the point is, he checks out. And his check checks out. This could keep our center running, and I’m not about to lose that opportunity.” You grimaced as you remembered the last detail you forgot to mention. “Oh yeah, I kind of have to move.”

His jawed dropped, looking at you in disbelief. “You’re moving into his place?”

“Nothing’s going to happen!” you defended. “You know that big mansion with the large plot of land?”

“You’re kidding. That’s your employer? You’re going to overwork yourself taking care of that castle!”

You waved your hand to dismiss him. “Hardly. Between him and his brother, that place is practically spotless. I’m just added to the clean up crew.”

BamBam leaned forward and sighed, rubbing his face in an attempt to reduce his anxiety over the situation. “If you’re sure about this, I’ll leave it alone. But don’t hesitate to tell me the moment something goes wrong. You can move in with me if something happens.”

Your shoulders slumped in relief. “Wow, being your best friend has its perks.”

He scoffed. “And being yours is a pain in the ass.”

You crumpled up some stray paper into a ball and threw it at his face. “Don’t be a jerk,” you laughed. “Thanks, though. Seriously, I’m freaking out about the whole thing too. But I feel like it’ll work out.”

“Yeah, sure.” BamBam hummed and leaned back in his chair. “So what’s this guy like? In ten words or less?”

You thought for a moment, running the entire day before through your mind. You tapped your pen on the desk as you settled on the perfect description of the young prince.

“A royal pain in the ass.”

#park jinyoung #got7 jinyoung #transparent #got7 scenarios #kpop fanfiction #fanfic #got7 fluff #got7 mark #got7 jb #got7 bambam #got7 youngjae #got7 yugyeom #got7 jackson

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fangirlinganditswonders · 6 years

Text

Let it burn (Steve Harrington imagine)

► “Summary”: This is an imagine based on the song “Let it burn” by RED

(You can find more of my stories on my MASTERLIST)

► Pair: Steve Harrington x reader

► Warnings: Swearing, toxic relationships, hinted cheating

► Word count: 4,283

► Author’s notes: Well, I must say I’m pretty excited about this story. FIrst of all it’s my first song fic and the song I used is my absolute favorite and also I wanted to talk about toxic relationships from my point of view, I’ve been in one and it’s not easy at all but there’s always a way out of the well, ALWAYS, and if you need anything don’t doubt on sending me a message, for anything. English is not my first language so excuse me if there’s any grammar or spelling mistake.

► Permanent Taglist (Open): @ssweet-empowerment @averyamyers

Feel free to contact me HERE or send me a message with anything you need!

Constructive criticism is always welcomed.

I watch the city burn These dreams like ashes float away Your voice I never heard Only silence

Steve couldn’t help himself but to stare while you and your boyfriend Mat laughed and kissed on the hallways of the school. He knew Mat was no good, and it was not that his jealousy was talking for him, he was completely sure that Mat was not the one for you, but he also knew you were too blinded by love to see that.

Steve and you met many, many years ago, on primary school. It was a rainy day and during the break you all had to stay inside the classroom, which always meant boredom. After a few hours in class what every kid wants is to go outside and run, play… Just get away from the classrooms but rain were not letting you do so on that day. You were sitting on your desk playing with some of your color pencils, making a tower out of them with your best friend’s help when Tommy H, who you already thought was a pain in the ass at that age kicked one of your table’s leg making the tower fall and all the pencils spread on the floor. He started to laugh while collecting them with his friends before you and your friend could do a thing about it. It wasn’t until Steve Harrington appeared and told Tommy and company to leave you and your friend alone and of course, give your pencils back that they stopped.

That was the first day you actually spoke to him and the day your friendship started, getting both of you closer with the pass of the years. When you both got to high school the differences between you two were obvious, but even though you didn’t spend as much time together you still conserved a pretty good and healthy relationship. It was also on high school where you met Mat and instantly fell for him. He was everything you always wanted, or at least that’s how he wanted you to see him as. He showed himself as a polite, funny and respectful boy who loved you and cared for you, and you believed it gladly. It took four months for you to start dating him and that was the moment Steve realized something; he liked you as something else than a friend, but he always kept telling himself that it was not love, that you were just an amazing friend for him but the feelings he went through every time he saw you with Mat or just think about the two of you together left no room for doubt and he hated the fact that you had to be with someone else to realize. He also hated the fact that you were so inside the web of lies Mat had created you were not able to see how he truly was.

Where were you when the hearts were bleeding? Where were you when it all crushed down? Never thought that you’d deceive me Where are you now?

Steve was helping his mom cleaning the dishes after dinner when the ring echoed from the front door to the rest of the house. No one was expecting a visit; her mom’s hands were wet and full of bubbles and his dad was upstairs probably reading so he was the one who had to open the door. You felt relieved when it was him who opened the door to you.

“Y/N what ha…” he started to ask when he saw your face, mostly your eyes; totally red and swollen, tears still on them. Before he could finish his question you threw your arms around his waist and hid your face on his chest to start crying again. Steve just put his arms around you and kissed your head before tug you inside the house. He lead you to the couch where you two sat, his arms still surrounding you while you started to fiddle with your fingers. “I’m sorry… For showing up out of nowhere…” You said, your voice a small and almost inaudible thread. “You know this house’s doors are always open for you” He said wiping a tear out of your cheek. “What happened?” “They’re getting divorced Steve” You looked at him biting your lip in order to not start crying again. He just sighed and pushed you into him again. None of you were surprised. Your parents had been having a very stormy relationship during the last months. You didn’t know why since a lot of things were being kept as secrets for you. The only thing they told you was that it was not the same, that they couldn’t keep living on this lie, that they were no longer happy together and it was easier and better this way. “I understand them, or at least I try but… I can’t avoid feeling like this, I can’t help it, it hurts…” You sobbed with your head placed on his chest. “Of course it does” He said putting his chin on your head and caressing your arm with his thumbs at the point his hands were meeting. “No one is saying you shouldn’t be like this. It’s a hard situation and it affects you, it’s normal Y/N” “And then, after spending almost an hour crying on my room like a fool I tried to call Mat but he was not answering, he wasn’t at home either. I needed him and… I don’t know where he is.” He was hating him so much more now but at the same time he found himself feeling good because his arms were the ones surrounding you, he was the one hearing your feelings and trying to consol you just as he wished he could be the one holding your hand, kissing you as much as he wanted or receiving the stares you gave him. Oh, how bad he wanted his spot.

How long can you stand the pain? How long will you hide your face? How long will you be afraid? Are you afraid?

People on the hallway were staring at Mat and you while you were having one of your every time most usual arguments. At first you just grabbed his hand and walked towards a place where you two could talk without being interrupted or witnessed but even you could see he didn’t really care about arguing with you. At first he would answer with his point of view and his arguments but when the point where he got bored of the conversation arrived he would just say yes to everything you said, making you feel like a fool, to just end the argument soon. The vision he had blurred was starting to get back to normal and you were starting to realize how the person you were dating truly was. Mat quickly made the people who had gathered around you ready for a good show spread away himself leaving after, leaving you alone next to his locker. You sighed trying to hold your tears back. People around you, the ones who hadn’t moved or were looking for something on their lockers, or just pretending they were, were whispering, obviously talking about you and your argument with Mat. When you both started dating you were the top couple, the one everyone talked about and envied but know everything was either mocking comments or pity stares towards you, and it made you feel small. You had made two steps when your eyes met Steve’s ones. It was easy to know that he had witnessed the fight two because he also that that pity on his face. His body was leaning forward, ready to start walking to you but you didn’t want to. He was probably going to hug you and that would only release the tears you were fighting so strong to hold back. The only thing you could do was send him a small and fake smile he returned with a sympathetic one, his hands going into fists on his sides wanting nothing more than to get even on the douche of boyfriend you had.

How long will you play this game? Will you fight or will you walk away? How long will you let it burn? Let it burn Let it burn

Tina was throwing one of her famous parties taking advantage of the fact that her parents were out of town for the weekend. Steve was there and so were you, but your situations were pretty different. He had been having fun, talking with people and even dancing a little bit but when his eyes saw you sitting all alone on the sofa while Mat was obviously flirting with another girl just a few feet away from you, his blood started to boil as he approached you.

“Y/N!” He said with a loud tone of voice that made you jump and look at him startled. He grabbed your hand and made you stand up from the couch to spin your body after so you could see Mat and the girl he was with. Steve was expecting a reaction from you, he knew you had the fire and the temperament to snap at him and that’s exactly the reason his stomach twitched in pain when he saw that the only thing you were going to do was low your head. “I know…” He almost couldn’t hear you due to the loud music on the background and your low tone of voice. “You’re doing nothing about it?” He wasn’t mad at you, he couldn’t be, but he also couldn’t believe your response. You looked at him with plea on your eyes. “Steve please… Drop it” You didn’t know why, but despite that Mat was flirting with another girl in the very front of your eyes, that he didn’t talk to you sweetly anymore, that he did no longer seem to care, he still managed it to made you feel the most important person for him when you thought about leaving him. Steve could saw that. Every time you told him about breaking up with Mat, you two would appear the next day holding hands, or his arm surrounding your waist as if nothing wrong was happening. Mat was manipulating you to have you on the spot he wanted you to, and even though Steve wanted you to open your eyes, that he had told you several times the reality you didn’t seem to see, it was on you. You needed to make that step yourself and it was killing him to see the way Mat treated you. “What are you doing with my girl Harrington?” Mat appeared to grab you from your waist and pull you next to him before kissing your temple. “Was he bothering you love?” Steve only scoffed at his words. “It’s okay Mat, we were just talking” “You better” He said before sending Steve another dirty glare, but he was also smirking, knowing that you were by his side and not Steve’s one. Knowing that he could have you on the palm of his hand just by sweet words and a bouquet of flowers every time he saw you were thinking on leaving him.

I watch the city burn These passions slowly smoldering A lesson never learned Only violence

Steve was leaving the lockers room after his basketball training and his plan was to go home to do the annoying chemistry homework when he found you leaning against the wall, one of your feet also on the wall as you were reading a book. You felt his stare on you and raised your head so your eyes met. He stood still until you gave him a small smile, but a different one than the ones he had been seeing these last months. He finally approached you as you closed your book and put it on your bag.

“What is it due to have you here?” “I broke up with him” His eyes widened and he couldn’t help the smile on his face. “What?” “I… uhm… What if we go for a coffee and I tell you everything?” He just smiled in response.

Both of you ended up at the diner close to your house. The waitress left your coffee mugs in front of you and you sighed before start to explain him how it went.

“Last night he came home with a box of chocolates because of the argument we had the day before… And…” You were not looking at him but at your mug, twirling it. His eyes were focused on your face. “Well, it went as it always went but later, when I was laying on bed I started to think and… You were right” You said finally looking at him. “I realized that he… He doesn’t love me or care about me. I don’t know why he wanted to keep me by his side but… Even though I though it felt good when he displayed a little bit of caring or supposed love for me, those were all lies. And indeed, it felt good. I liked it when I thought that what we had was something real and good but… It was not healthy at all right?” You shrugged, not needing his answer. “It still hurts anyway. He appeared and made everything seem so perfect and nice. And every time I was down he just needed to say a few words and I liked to make myself think that it was what I needed or wanted to be. And then my parents’ divorce came and even though he wasn’t there that night he told me how sorry he was and that he was going to be there, that he would make the pain go away but the only thing he was doing was making it bigger but I couldn’t see it. I know I made myself a fool but, do you understand what I mean Steve? Those brief moments of caring and love… Those moments made the bad ones go away, they made me think I needed him. I know I’ve been stupid but I felt so lost and alone and I know I was not but…” Steve put one of his hands on top of one of yours, making them lay on the table. You had started to cry without realizing it. “Hey, this has just been a period on your life. Not a nice or easy one, but it’s over” He said caressing your hand with his thumb. You were too busy on his hand on top of yours and wiping the tears out that you didn’t realize that Steve’s eyes were filled with the love and caring you had been looking for in Mat.

Is your world just a broken promise? Is your love just a drop of the rain? Will we all just burn like fire? Are you still there?

Mat was certainly a grade one asshole. Since you broke up with him he was willing to make your life a living hell just because you were the one who broke the relationship and not him. His macho ego was hurt. He would throw you dead glares on the hallways, laugh obnoxiously when one of his friends make a nasty or mean comment towards you while you were just feet away from them and of course spreading all types of rumors.

“Don’t let it affect you” Steve said during lunch time as you were on the same table with Nancy and Jonathan, both of them agreeing with Steve. “Why don’t you tell the principal?” Jonathan asked. “I don’t know if he would do a thing about it” You sighed. Steve’s arm was surrounding your waist in a support touch and while you were focused on your food he was looking at Mat and if looks could kill, that douche bag would be six feet under the floor already.

How long can you stand the pain? How long will you hide your face? How long will you be afraid? Are you afraid? How long will you play this game? Will you fight or will you walk away? How long will you let it burn? Let it burn Let it burn

It all started at the end of the third period. Steve was waiting for you outside of your classroom when he heard that familiar voice he hate so much, and of course he was talking about you and how you were on the intimacy of the bedroom. He didn’t want to listen more, he didn’t care which lies he was saying, he only wanted to make him know that his shit wouldn’t have the free pass anymore. He pushed Mat’s friends out of his way and when he was in front of him, a smug smirk on your ex’s face he just throw a punch to his nose, making him stumble and fall against the lockers behind him. That’s how the fight started. Even though Mat tried to fight back, especially when he saw that his friend were doing nothing to help him, Steve had so much inside him and all that rage came out with his fists. Someone called a teacher and the fight was over, Mat ending up in such a worse way than Steve, who had just received two punches on his face, but his anger made him not feel them at all. They both ended up grounded but there was a good side on it; when Steve explained the reason he started to beat Mat up, all those humiliating comments and actions towards you the teacher who had stopped the fight seemed to be interest and not happy about them, at all, and she said she was going to take care of Mat and his nasty and hateful behavior.

When you found out about it the first thing you did was clearly going to look for Steve. You didn’t know exactly what you were feeling. On one side you were pissed at him for getting into a fight with Mat and on the other one you knew why he had done so, probably Mat was just talking shit and you knew how Steve could be, actually you were surprised he hadn’t snapped at him before, but to be honest, why would he?

“Steve!” You called him out when you finally found him out of the principal’s office. “What…?” You started to ask but you found yourself lacking of words, what were you supposed to say? Thank you or maybe what an asshole you are, why did you do that?. Before you could say a word Mat got out of the office, sending both of you a glare in which pain, hate and fear was combined. He walked with his friends towards the nurse’s office. “Did you do that to him?” You asked without thinking when you saw the state Mat’s face was in. You turned to look at Steve who just shrugged, clearly embarrassed. “I didn’t think, I just… Lost it. I don’t want you to imagine what he was saying but… Even I’m sick and tired of hearing his nonsense and then I thought how you must feel and…” He ended his sentence with a groan. “I don’t know if I should punch or kiss you right now” You breathed out, making his eyes go wide but your eyes were still stuck to the point Mat had been to. Steve clearly knew which option he preferred.

Will you wait until it all burns down? Will you hide until it all burns down? Will it hurt until it all burns down? Will you fight when it all burns down?

“How can you be so dumb?” You asked laughing loudly. “Don’t laugh at me” Steve said playing the offended. “I just don’t get it!” “I can see that” You laughed sitting on your bed next to him to explain how the chemistry exercise must be done properly but he didn’t pay attention, again. A small smile appeared on his lips while his eyes were looking at every single detail of your face. How you furrowed when you were concentrated, the way you bit your lower lip, how the strands of hair were falling from your messy ponytail. To him, there was no person who could be as beautiful as you. He also found himself thinking how you were finally smiling again, genuine and truly smiles that made his heart melt. “Did you get it?” “Uh?” “Steve Harrington, were you listening to me?” “What? Yes! Of course!” He lied “If you fail this test I’m going to kick your ass, just for your information” “It’s just difficult” “And you’re just not paying attention, what are you thinking about?” You raised your eyebrows when his cheeks turned into a pinky tone. Just if you knew…

After a hard but also full of laughs study session you both decided to spend the evening together. When you went downstairs to get some drinks he found himself wandering around your room. Once he got to the board next to your shelves he smiled when he saw some of the pictures. One of them was one Jonathan took not many months ago, it was on Halloween and you went to trick or treating with Nancy, Jonathan, Steve and the party. On the picture you were walking with him, both of you paying attention to something Dustin was saying. He kept looking at the pictures and found one that made his smile drop; one of Mat and you, why were you keeping a picture with him? But there was also a picture that he loved to find there, one of you two. You were fixing his hair, something Steve didn’t let anyone do, but you.

“Find anything interesting?” You asked entering the room again. “Why do you keep this?” He asked without having time to think about it. You approached him and handed him a can of soda as you looked at the picture of you and Mat. “As a reminder” He looked at you frowning “It may sound silly but… I don’t want to get rid of the memories with him. Right now they hurt but as you said… It was a period of my life and I think I can learn about it so… It’s a reminder.” “And this one?” He asked pointing at the one of you two. “I just love that picture” you giggled “I like it as well” He said looking at you and you smiled, finding yourself blushing without knowing why. “Thank you Steve” You said hugging him, his heart starting to race. “For everything.” For being that exactly what I needed. Those words echoed on your head and you suddenly realized it but you didn’t say anything, you just hugged him tighter.

Let it burn Let it burn Let it burn

“Can I ask you something?” You stopped the movie you and Steve were watching when the need of releasing the words on your head was unbearable. A month had happened since the fight between Steve and Mat and with Nancy’s help you had started to realize things that were not visible to you not so much ago. “Sure…” He said but not very convinced. “What happens?” “I… uhm…” The words were crystal clear on your head but you stumbled on them when saying them out loud. “What do you feel towards me?” The question caught Steve totally off guard. His body tensed on the couch as he started to look at everywhere but you. “Steve…” You bit your lower lip grabbing his hand and he finally looked at you and sighed. “Am I that obvious?” He asked defeated. “Not for me apparently… Nancy helped” “I, well, yes, maybe, perhaps I like you… as… well, I like you” You were trying to suppress your smile at the sight of Steve being so nervous. He felt relieved after finally saying it. “Why…” “Didn’t I tell you?” You nodded. “Because I didn’t realized it until you started dating Mat and… Well, I was not going to interfere on your relationship.” “Now many things start to make sense” You said with your lip still captured between your teeth. “And… Maybe I’m pushing and if I’m doing so please tell me but, I want to know, how do you… How do you feel about me?” He sat properly again, being closer to you. “Honestly?” He nodded, fearing you would reject him. “I don’t really know. I thought we were friends but… I may have started to realize that some things between as are not… friend-like and I’m confused.” He smiled sweetly heading one of his hands to your cheek. He understood that feeling cause he had been there as well. “Can I try something?” Steve’s eyes drifted between your eyes and your lips, making you know what he wanted to try and to be honest, you were willing to try as well. You nodded and he positioned himself again his hand not leaving your cheek before adding his second hand to your other cheek. Both of you started to approach each other until your lips melted in a sweet kiss. Steve felt fireworks on his stomach and smiled on the kiss while you smiled because you were feeling the caring and love you felt sometimes on his eyes on your lips and all over you. “Did it help at all?” He asked caressing your bottom lip with his thumb and staring at it while your cheeks blushed. “It did” You said both of you with huge smiles on your faces before kissing each other again as softly as before, both of you feeling that fire on your chests you wouldn’t mind get used to.

#stranger things #stranger things season 2 #Stranger things imagine #Stranger things imagines #Stranger things reader insert #steve harrington #Steve harrington imagine #Steve Harrington imagines #Steve Harrington x reader #Steve Harrington one shot #Joe Keery #Joe Keery imagine #Joe Keery imagines #Reader insert #Hawkins

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angeltriestoblog · 6 years

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Welcome to my first blog post as an 18 year-old! And yes, I am well aware that I can legally drink and could be sent to jail, thank you very much. (Not that I have any plans to, though.)

I reached this milestone in my life last July 5th. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I decided to not go the traditional route and instead, opted for a trip to Korea last April and a week’s worth of festivities with family and friends.

I kicked off the celebration with lunch at a Korean barbecue place with my parents, then had a feast with my extended family (mother’s side) in Italianni’s.

I even got my cousin, Miguel, to go on with me on the ferris wheel nearby where I tried my best to admire the beautiful view of Manila Bay before us while screaming my head off.

For my actual birthday, I treated my closest friends from high school at yet another K-BBQ place for lunch, and then went to my favorite buffet place with my family for dinner. My friends Junelle, Danna and I also finally pushed through with our months-old plan of dropping by the karaoke bar relatively near to us, which served as a great release for pent-up emotions and a showcase of our non-existent vocal abilities.

This year, I also decided to go out on a limb and hold a project of my own. I was originally planning on giving away some of the old books I had piled up in my room to nearby orphanages, but with the time constraints I had, I couldn’t really afford to execute something so grand. So, with the help of my mom, I decided that it would be best to start small. We bought these tumblers from the nearby grocery and filled them to the brim with candies and chocolate bars, then gave them to the kids selling sampaguita at our church. I was really iffy about writing this part, because I know it’s easy to misconstrue my intentions for doing so: some people will probably just dismiss this as some put-on act of charity posted for clout. But, the experience was just so rewarding for me I had to. The children were all so appreciative, beaming at me, expressing their gratitude through belated birthday greetings and musings of how they could use my little gift for school – it kind of made me feel like my heart was on fire, but in the best way possible.

Anyway, now on to the standard realizations I make sure to include in nine out of ten posts.

This birthday in particular was a big deal for me, for obvious reasons. I had always regarded 18 as the age of independence and freedom: I equated it to having the liberty to do whatever I wanted, go anywhere I pleased with anyone at all, make the big decisions and know the answers to all the questions I’ve been asking my elders since I was a kid. I guess I forgot that I’m not the protagonist of the coming-of-age films I grew up indulging in, but a sheltered kid who has had most things done for her and thus has yet to acquire the basic life skills needed to survive The Real World. My parents said that I’m this way because they wanted to give me a life of convenience, and thus did anything that required me going out of my comfort zone, for me. All these years, I never found myself complaining about it or demanding that something be changed but for some reason, this stage of supposed adulthood has pressured me into thinking that there’s something terribly wrong with this because now, I have so much growing up to do.

Obviously, the biggest life change that I’ll have to deal with would be college: having to balance academics, extracurricular activities and different people in an entirely foreign environment sounded so terrifying for me. People would always tell me that grades have and could never be an issue for me: I was born the Smart Kid™ with a lot of potential, remember? I was generally a star student in all the schools I had attended, and everyone knew about it: I didn’t have to exert any effort to prove myself to those around me, because my grades did the talking. But, suddenly I’m about to enter this prestigious university with a rigorous screening process that takes in the Smart Kids™ from institutions all around the country. How am I expected to stand out in a place like that and get the Latin honors I can’t help but aim for?

Extracurriculars also have a huge bearing and apparently are an essential part of the whole college experience, which is weird to me since I’ve never really committed to a specific club all throughout my grade school and high school life. It seemed like more of a requirement to me than anything else, so deciding which one to join was like playing pin the tail on the donkey with my friends.

And, while I’m on that note: what about making new friends? I do appear to be outgoing and loud—especially if you’ve heard my piercing shrieks in my old Grade 12 classroom—but I’m only like that around those I’m truly comfortable with, and even that number has dwindled over the years. It’s hard to find people with the same interests as I do, and I’m growing more and more unsure of the fact that there are Ateneans who like K-Pop boy groups and laugh at the jeje memes I have in my camera roll. (I will cry if I don’t find anyone who can watch Japer Sniper videos with me.) I haven’t had to introduce myself to a new person in two years both IRL and online and I let them lead the conversation for a long while before I can think of warming up to them.

I also have to learn how to drive, which can come off as a surprise to anyone who’s known me for a while. I’ve always been the type to let go of the steering wheel and cover my eyes when the situation got out of control at the bumper cars. But, once I found out that ADMU isn’t actually the most commuter-friendly of schools, I didn’t really have a choice. On my first day of lessons, I was scared to my very core: my mind couldn’t stop bombarding me with stories of vehicular accidents and picture slideshows of cats that got run over. Although I did pass all four days and am now eligible to have my own license, I still have much work to do before I can take our Civic for a spin along Katipunan: please pray I learn how to parallel park without crashing into anything. I guess it would also be a bonus if I learned how to commute to and from places. I love going out, and I wish I always knew how to get to where I wanted to go and what mode of transportation to take instead of always relying on trikes and taxis all the time.

Since I’m of legal age, I’m also qualified to register to vote. I’ve started immersing myself in current events and politics a few years back, and I witnessed several people my age get shot down by adults when they did so much as express their opinions. “Masyado kang bata,” they’d argue. “Di nga kayo botante eh, wag na kayong makialam!” (But, the indifference of the youth would still be met with biting remarks like, “Wala na ba kayong ibang gagawin kundi mag-Internet? Magkaroon naman kayo ng pakialam sa nangyayari sa paligid!”) So now, I feel a certain kind of satisfaction in finally getting a say in who runs my country. But, at the same time, there’s also an intense kind of pressure since I am expected to discern which candidate serves the people’s best interests and hopefully lead us out of the downward spiral we’re currently making our way through.

It was only very recently—towards the start of the final month of my vacation—that I realized how stagnant I still was a person. Must be surprising for some of you. I feel like I somewhat project this image of being constantly put together. Very rarely do I let myself be vulnerable around other people. This is probably why every time I turn to someone to talk about my problems, I’m always met with reassurance: I, of all people, would have it under control, they say. I have absolutely nothing to worry about.

But, that’s the thing: when we’re on social media, we have this tendency to present only our best selves, turning our accounts into heavily filtered highlight reels. This is not only pretentious but toxic behavior, because of its failure to put things into perspective and show that everyone has their own fair share of both good and bad days. My Instagram feed may be its busy and color-coordinated self at the moment, but it doesn’t show the many nights I’ve spent crying because of how overwhelmed I was by this sudden surge in responsibilities and my inability to handle all of them. I mean, things can seem way beyond your control when your brain refuses to shut up and calm down.

I guess my failure to prepare for everything could be traced back to the beginning of this summer. In hindsight, the goals I had set for my four-month break were all very short-term and not exactly centered on self-improvement. I looked through the bullet journal I was keeping at the time, and found items like “clean my room”, “delete Facebook friends and Twitter followers I don’t interact with” and “buy a new study table” – one word for April 2018 Angel: why? I easily could have used the time to learn a new language or pledge to write 10 posts, maybe even pick up an instrument so I could have started a career as a Soundcloud artist and gotten myself a record deal instead of going to college (Mom, Dad, I’m kidding.) But for some reason, I didn’t even think of setting my standards that high. I spent a lot of time lying on my back, scrolling through the same old timelines several times a day as if the constant refreshing would bring anything of substance in my life.

It's much easier to let the regret paralyze me, to beat myself up for all the mistakes I’ve made and wonder why I didn’t do better. But, we all know that won’t help me get anywhere. As of now, I’m trying my best to be more vocal about my problems with other people so they don’t build up inside of me until I spontaneously combust. I admit I’m also quite the emotional person, so I really want to work on having a rational approach to whatever I’m going through.

I found this thread of healthy coping mechanisms and emergency plans to use during times of distress floating around. In case you guys are too lazy to click on the link, it basically says that you should first identify the trigger thought or whatever is sparking the negative emotions, identify the unhelpful thinking style that you are subscribing to and counter them through coping thoughts and actions to bring your mood back to the center. Twitter user thecolor_teal also says that one important thing to note is that you should never believe in your thoughts without critiquing them.

I’ve been doubling down on the worrying and channeling all that energy on pursuing other interests and planning my life out. I’m on my fifth book in the span of two weeks (I have a post coming up on this, so watch out!) and I just hit the 2k word mark on this post, so I can pretty much say I’m on a roll. I also came up with three main goals that I want to prioritize as I venture into this new chapter of my life. I read somewhere that publicizing whatever you want to work on, jinxes them in a way but since there’s no scientific evidence to back it up, I’m taking the risk. It could serve as a constant reminder of what I have to do, or pressure me into following through because I’ve put it up here to everyone to see: either way, I win, I guess.

1. Be more involved – maintain a firm stance of my own in issues concerning the country, give back to my community, continue to take genuine interest in the lives of those around me and do whatever I can to help them

2. Be more sociable – judge people less; get to know and interact with people from as many different social circles as possible; learn how to make the first move, engage in small talk (!!!) and not end the conversation with an awkward laugh

3. Be more street smart – be confident when on my own in public places, distinguish when I’m being fooled by people, learn how to get out of sticky situations without having to ask for help

I don’t exactly have everything down pat yet but at this point, it’s become somewhat comforting for me to think that I’m not expected to, and that no one my age knows exactly what they’re doing. We’re all clueless kids with no idea what the future holds and if we’re truly capable of handling it – we’re all hanging on to our empty attempts at reassuring ourselves. Anyone who denies this is probably just trying to make themselves feel better and I’d like you lot to know that we see through you! Despite the sheer hopelessness of our situations, I hope you all make amends with your right to not know whatever the heck you’re doing with your life right now and learn to trust the process. You’ve probably been through worse in the past, but here you are: beaten and bruised and still dusting yourself off from the last time life let you down but still alive and valid and fighting and that’s all that matters. We got this, fellow adult-er. And that is not to be mistaken for adulterer, by the way. That’s not something we should strive to be.

#personal #very very VERY personal #adulting #angeltriestoblog #eighteenth birthday #it's 1am i have no idea what these tags are sorr

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cupidkihyun · 7 years

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Bad Decisions pt 2 [Jaehyun]

Genre: Angst

Scenario: Your long term friend Jaehyun is in love with your best friend. You want nothing but the best for them but silently dealing with your break up from BTS singer Jeon Jungkook has been weighing on you. One drunken night and one bad decision leads to risks taken and mistakes made.

Characters: Jaehyun; Reader (You); Your Friend (Y/F/N); Mark; small mention of other members

Word Count: 2007

Notes: Thank you so much for your feedback with part 1, reading your nice comments really made my day! Here’s part 2 I hope you guys enjoy it as well.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5.5

“Alright.”

He gave you a slow nod, his eyes telling you ‘its what’s for the best Y/N’, and he released his grip on your knee. You couldn’t necessarily poke any holes in his logic. It’s true that he and Y/F/N weren’t dating but they might as well have been. She was so in love with him and up until now you would have said he felt the exact same way about her.

As you sat with your thoughts he collected his discarded shirt off the floor and rolled it up into a ball in his fist. You watched him tug the wrinkled black material onto his body. He popped his head through the hole and shook his dark hair. You walked over to your bag, checking your phone one more time before slinging the strap across your shoulder.

“It’s almost 4am, you should just spend the night.” Jaehyun called after you.

“No I’m just gonna go.”

“Looking like that?” He gestured to your body. The deep marks his mouth left on your skin starting to turn a dull purple, “Just stay over Y/N. You can sleep in my room. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“It’s different now. We can’t do that kind of thing anymore.”

“I didn’t want things to be different.”

“Well they are!”

Mark’s awkward cough caught your attention and you both turned to look at him, “You can sleep in my bed, Y/N. I can sleep on the floor.”

“Mark how long were you standing there.”

“I just came back; you guys are being hella loud. I’m surprised Haechan hasn’t scrambled out here at the first sign of drama.”

The next day you woke up to a sleeping Mark softly snoring on the floor beside you. You were lax for a moment seemingly in a limbo, until you remembered what you had done last night. Y/F/N had told you she liked Jaehyun many times over, always telling you about the little conversations they had and the compliments he would send her way. Guilty was not a strong enough word of how you felt.

You got up out of bed twisting your stiff limbs until you heard them crack and roll back into place. You quietly shuffled out of the room, entering the small kitchen and living area to find Haechan already awake munching on a muffin.

“Noona, are you alright? You have marks on your neck,” he said worried trying to get a better look at your neck.

“Uh yeah Haechan I’m fine”, you said hurriedly covering your neck with your hand and moving past him to get out the door and down to your car, waving half-heartedly at him as you left.

You had texted Y/F/N last night saying you had got carried away with the Uno game and didn’t realize the time had flown by. You hoped that didn’t sound too fake over text, usually you were more careful about sleeping over, being an idol you couldn’t ruin your image with something as little as staying over at a boy’s dorm.

She had texted you back not one second later telling you it was okay and that you had dance practice tomorrow and to be back early to get a shower, change, and eat before you both left.

You couldn’t help but let a few tears slip as you sat in your car looking at your messages. She was always so kind to you, especially after your break up with Jungkook. She won’t even yell at you for staying over, which she should, instead she’ll have breakfast ready and nothing but a smile on her face.

You drove back to your dorm, it was about 20 minutes away, giving you time to compose yourself before you met your members.

You walked into the dorm to find it empty, there was no music on, no one starting a food fight in the kitchen. You placed your bag down on the couch, going into the room you shared with Y/F/N and walked straight into her.

“Oh, hey there you are. I didn’t hear you come in”, she said as you backed up a little, your head hitting the back of the door.

“Are you okay? You look tired….”, she said as she peered at your face. It must still be puffy from you crying this morning.

“Uh, yeah. Fine, fine. Um why is no one else awake?”, you said diverting the question.

“They have the day off, because we’re practicing with Mark and Jae today for our sub-group. Are you sure you’re okay? You didn’t drink anything did you?”

“Yeah, yeah I am. I just didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, sorry. I’m gonna go take a shower before we have to leave”

“Alright, I’ll make breakfast. Bacon and eggs sound good?”, she said as she made her way out of the bedroom.

“Uh yeah that’s fine”, you said as you grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt from your closet and rushed to the bathroom. Keeping this from her was harder than you expected.

Once you were done with your shower you did minimal make-up, being an idol you never got a day off to be “normal”. You stared at yourself in the mirror. The hickeys Jaehyun gave you still shone on your skin a deep plum color, making your thoughts drift back to last night. His lips on your skin felt so… right. But you couldn’t deny the amount of guilt you felt over it, it was slowly suffocating you like a flower wilting in the sun.

You covered up the marks he left on you as best you could, and made your way to the kitchen. The savory smell of bacon hit your nose as you rounded the corner, seeing Y/F/N bent over the stove cooking.

“Hey, I’m almost done, give me a minute”, she said smiling softly at you.

You took a seat at the breakfast bar, waiting patiently as she finished. Your phone vibrated on the counter, startling you. It was Jaehyun.

Jaehyun: “Remember what we agreed to last night. We can’t tell her”

Y/N: “The guilt is eating me alive Jae, I don’t know if I can be this fake to her and her not notice something is off with me. It’s only a matter of time”

Jaehyun: “Y/N you know we can’t tell. We’re just gonna have to forget about it”

Y/N: “Easier said than done”

“Here, I hope you like it!”, Y/F/N said as she placed a heaping plate of food in front of you.

“I always like it, you’re the best”

“Haha thanks. I’m looking forward to today, I think it’s going to be really fun and our song is really good! I hope the fans like it, there’s been a lot of hype around it. And I think Jaehyun likes me Y/N, like likes me likes me. He’s really cute, right? Do you think he’ll ask me out? I hope he does”

You swallowed thickly, “I mean he’s alright…and yeah I’m 100 percent sure he likes you”, You said trying to keep up with the conversation as best you could without sounding too “off”.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re acting… strange this morning”

“Y/F/N I SAID I WAS FINE” you snapped as you eyed the girl beside you.

She looked taken aback, her hair falling in perfect waves down her face, framing it in a soft halo. Her eyes told you she knew something was up, but you were unwilling to tell.

“Y/N, I was just trying to help. Something is obviously eating away at you”, she said as she stood up, her chair scraping along the floor as she did. She washed her plate, and put it in the dishwasher then turned back to you.

“We leave in 10 minutes, I’ll drive”, she said as she left the kitchen with a solemn expression.

Now you really fucked up. She knew something was up, why you thought you could hide it was beyond you.

You both sat in the car, not talking. “Singing in the Rain” by JinSoul was softly playing in the background, as rain drops started to lightly hit the roof of the car. You guys were usually singing and dancing to whatever song was playing and you had been vlogging your trips in the car, but Y/F/N turned off the camera as soon as you got in the car telling fans you would be back later and shut off the V-live. The camera turned itself on automatically when the car started, giving fans an inside look at what happened when you guys drove.

“Great,” you heard Y/F/N mutter as she put on the wipers as the rain started to pick up, thunder booming in the distance.

She pulled into the underground garage at your company and into the space closest to the elevator and shut off the engine.

“Hey I’m sorry about this morning, you don’t need to tell me everything and I’m sorry for prying into your business” she said as she broke the silence.

“It’s okay. I was being a bitch about it,” you muttered as you glanced at her.

“I mean kind of….” she said a smile on her face, “Okay we good? Let’s go!”, she said as she hopped out of the car.

You couldn’t help but admire how she handled situations, you guessed it came with being the leader of a popular K-pop group and the constant pressure.

You followed her to the elevator, pushing the button for the 6th floor. You almost forgot about what transpired the other night until the doors opened to reveal Mark and Jaehyun waiting outside the practice room.

“Oh guys I’m sorry, I forgot it was locked,” Y/F/N said as she came in front of them to unlock the doors. “No one is usually here this early”.

As Y/F/N was occupied with the doors and Mark’s comments about how “Noona’s shouldn’t forget such meaningful things” Jaehyun gave you a pointed look that clearly said “Don’t say anything” and slipped inside the practice room.

After about 4 hours of getting the dance moves wrong and “Noona that’s too sexy for my eyes” you guys had finally taken a break. You made your way over to where your bag was and fished out your water bottle you knew Y/F/N had packed for you.

“Hey”, you heard a deep voice say right behind you.

“Fuck Jaehyun, you scared me. And I don’t want to talk to you right now,” you said as you tried to get back to Y/F/N and Mark, who were currently playing “rock, paper, scissors” for who had to buy the food for lunch.

“You haven’t said anything to her right?”

“No, I haven’t,” you scowled at him.

“Okay, well I just asked her if I could take her out after practice and she agreed”

“Great, now move”, you said.

Suddenly you hear Mark’s voice boom through the practice room. “Yo I wouldn’t leave those two together for too long after what happened last night” he hollered and you immediately knew you were going to kill Mark.

“What happened last night?” Y/F/N asked as she counted out money for lunch absentmindedly on the floor.

“Nothing” you and Jaehyun said at the same time.

“You guys didn’t tell her?”

“Mark shut the fuck up”, you snarled.

“Oh just that they were all on each other last night.” Mark laughed/

Y/F/N turned to look at the both of you, raising an eyebrow in suspicion. “Jaehyun what is he talking about?”

“Y/F/N it wasn’t like that.” Jaehyun blurted out quickly.

Mark rolled his eyes, “Oh please, I could hear you guys with my door shut. And the way you guys were clinging to each other, oh my god, it was like you two were ‘bout to merge souls or something. I’m actually gonna have night terrors for the rest of my life.”

You couldn’t be more horrified. The look on her face was of utter disbelief, which turned to anger, then sadness all in a mere second.

-admin unnie & punpun

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lytahalifax · 7 years

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XI Questions Tag

(I don’t know why I did that in Roman numerals, I’m obviously in a weird mood :)

I was tagged by @byjillianmaria for this. Rules: always post the rules, answer the questions given to you, write 11 questions of your own, tag 11 people. I don’t think I really know 11 people here, or can come up with 11 questions, so I promise NOTHING with regards to following rules. Because I am an iconoclast*, baby! (makes air guitar gestures and noises) *iconoclast (n) = a fancy way to say “lazy”.

Questions:

1.) What’s a line of dialogue that you’re most proud of? Holy cripes, that’s kind of a tough one to answer, having written a bunch, and forgotten even more, in the past four years. I would say it’s easier for me to talk about chapters of things I’m proud of, and in that, I’m particularly proud of a chapter I wrote in my Mass Effect series “Once More Unto The Breach” called “We Who Are About Die”. It’s essentially about the people who initially designed and floated the specs for The Catalyst, and how they came together as one race and expended all their efforts, not in self-preservation, but in giving the galaxy a fighting chance against the Reapers. They knew it might take millions and millions of years for their goal to be achieved, if ever, but they were committed, almost as one, to the notion, choosing to die not screaming and in fear, but as an almost indomitable force that would not be denied, no matter how long it too for their plan to bear fruit. However, there was a line my editor particularly adored that spun off from that whole thread, about “the weight of a billions years of justice, no longer denied”. My Shepard also had some really nice comedic bits throughout that whole series. OMUTB, as my first real “child”, is the series I made absolutely the most mistakes with, but also am the proudest of to this day. “Near Wild Heaven” from “Black Swan” is another personal favorite, a chapter I was having so much fun writing, I had to force myself to stop.

2.) Which of your characters would you most like to hang out with? Camilla Davies from Black Swan. I suspect she would understand me and my life experiences the best out of anyone on the planet, would be able to give me savagely effective life advice, and possibly transfer my brain into a cloned female body. In fact, I think I’d probably really enjoy hanging out with her, Reese and Alanna; I always felt they were kind of the Three Musketteers of SOAP. Bledoc Caitor, a one off OC I wrote for Once More Unto The Breach as a shoutout to a longtime reader, would be a distant second because he would probably make me the galaxy’s best bowl of ramen, and I really, really love ramen. 3.) Do you have any goals for the rest of 2017? Survive the oncoming storm of massive life and career changes coming up in the final quarter of 2017, and essentially prepare for some major life retooling I hope to achieve in 2018. Unfortunately, this probably means taking a sabbatical or otherwise semi-retiring from writing, at least for a while.

4.) What season inspires you the most? It’s a toss up between Spring and Autumn. Probably Spring; March/April is usually about the time I come out of my winter doldrums and do a lot of my writing again. 5.) If you could rewrite one part of an already-published work, what would it be? The first 20 chapters of Once More Unto the Breach. Well..maybe not ALL of them, but holy crap, there are some massive technical errors and embarrassing gaffs and continuity glitches I made there. I very nearly gave up on the entire endeavor were it not for the fact that I started working with a real top notch editor who essentially trained me how to be a better ,more effective writer, and it’s clear the final 20 chapters are SO much better as a result. I might also redo “To Bask In Your Starshine”. But maybe not. 6.) Do any of your characters have pets? What kind? Shepard kept coming back to the Normandy, even when she didn’t command it anymore, to collect Space Hamsters from the lower decks. Her oldest daughter has a pet kakliosaur. I imagine Camilla has a couple of cats, because they were the only animals she could really relate to: one of them is a tortie Maine Coon, which she adopted because she liked the coloration, not realizing how diva-esque torties are in their behavior. Reese probably has a fancy tropical fish tank setup he poured way too much time and money into. Nicole has a dog, like a golden retriever or a bulldog or something. A mutt for sure.

7.) What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re feeling uninspired? This is the answer - or at least part of it - that will make people gasp in shock and go, “Lyta! You can’t say things like that!” I have two techniques: one I would recommend, and one I would not. It should be obvious which is which. First, I smoke weed. Not often, not all the time, I’m actually on a bit of a six month break from it. I don’t smoke specifically going in to look for inspiration, I just do it to relax, but I would be lying if I said there weren’t times when inspiration didn’t come and come HARD when I was stoned. At least two of my stories, Old Soul and How Can I Sleep?, are the result of me breaking through serious blocks after toking up. Seriously, I could not figure out how to do Old Soul and almost gave up until I got baked and started watching old 1970s tv commercials, and then it came to me. I’m pretty damn sure that good chunks of the final three chapters of Black Swan came to me while I was toked up as well. Second, and much more often, I go for a lot of walks. Like a lot a lot of walks. I try to walk about 12,000 steps a day at a minimum now, which is probably why I’ve lost 20 pounds since April. But for years, I’ve done this when I can, because I find it can get me into a good “zen headspace”, almost like a walking meditation, where ideas flow easier from out of the great miasma of notions inside my brain. Large chunks of Black Swan chapters 5 through 12 were “flashes of inspiration” that came to me when I got “into the zone” during walking, and made sure to write quick emails to myself on my cell phone, so I wouldn’t forget. I’m pretty sure the same goes for Grande Dame, and definitely so for Bearing Witness to Time. If it weren’t for my walks, I wouldn’t have most of my writing ideas. Indeed, it’s gotten so that if I go down a path I haven’t traveled in a long time, my brain starts to play back memories of writing a particular story, as if the brainstorming somehow became encoded in the local metalayer of that location, and walking through it is like replaying a tape in my mind.

8.) Do you have a go-to writing snack/drink? Beef jerky. Usually of the spicy variety It’s high in protein, tasty, and a provides a viscerally satisfying experience in the eating of. Grrr! Chomp! Chew chew chew.

There is an awesome jerky shop at Container Park in Las Vegas that I love to stock up at whenever I’m there...unfortunately my supply never lasts. I should probably find out if they do mail order.

9.) Do you have any self-indulgent stories/characters that you’d never publish (or even write down)? Hah! Oh boy.....yeeeeeah. There was this one crack fic I came up with called “The Yurizoku Formula, or GAYBIES!” It was a weird story, in the vein of “Chloe Price’s Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny (which I recently took down for personal reasons) or “Today’s Fish is Trout ala Creme” from OMUTB. If I remember correctly, the long and short of it is Warren accidentally infecting Brooke with a virus that makes her incredibly irresistible to all the women on campus, and she has to deal with their unwanted affections as she tries to get through her day, growing increasingly exasperated and flustered, sorta in the vein of Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. I remember it being much funnier and more clever back then than it obviously is. Sometimes I get ideas and my own personal kinks bleed through a little too much...as an example, the end of “The Domina Effect” in Black Swan was originally written to be a faiiiir bit more “sexy” between Rachel and Victoria, but NQW correctly convinced me to drop it. (As an example of my “kinks”, my first complete work ever written was a lesbian erotica sci-fi mind control story which I called Love is the Drug, which sadly I lost the files to before I could submit it to an appropriate archive. There are actually strong echos of this story in A Power Greater Than My Own...the bit where Victoria, as the domme, finds herself feeling helpless in the face of her so-called submissive at the end, because of how hard she’s fallen in love with her. I) I was also thinking about writing an AU fic in the ME universe called Domination: A Love Story, where the Asari are much more in the mold of Frank Herbert’s “Honored Matres” from the later Dune novels, and a 19 year old Shepard is helpless to watch as her colony ship is essentially taken over by an Asari “diplomatic expedition” who are slowly but inexorably brainwashing everyone over to their way of thinking. Not every Asari agrees with this method of behavior however, prompting a young(er) Liara T’Soni to try and help Shepard get through the horror of that particular situation; in the end, she’s forced to temporarily brainwash Shepard, in order to keep up appearances around the Asari Inquisitors, but eventually “releases” Shepard, so the two of them can run off and join a resistance cell. Huh...I might actually come back to that one someday... Usually, when I get ideas that are terribly self-indulgent, they tend to not hang around, and then get swept out by whatever part of my brain reclaims needed storage space for better things. I’m sure there are whole stories that I’ve completely forgotten about. 10.) What works inspire you to be a better writer? Oh gleesh. Believe it or not, one of the reasons I tend to avoid reading other peoples work in general, with some exceptions, is that I find it very intimidating and daunting. Like “OMG! This person is so good, how could you even think that you are on the same level with them, you absolute hack? What could you possibly have to offer up to the great Singularity of Human Artistic Expression that someone hasn’t already done, and done WAY WAY better than you? For instance, I’ve specifically avoided watching TransParent on Amazon, because I still have an idea for a TV show about a “transhumanist transwoman” which I call “Swing Out Sister”. I probably will never do it, but I’m afraid that if I watch Jeffrey Tambor’s no doubt AMAZING work, I will give it up forever and ever. That said, the things I am watching right now that just blow me away with their style and panache are Rick and Morty and especially BoJack Horseman; I’m most of the way through BoJack season 4 and holy holy holy shit. Obviously, I am a fan of dark, almost cynical takes on the nature of suffering and the human condition. 11.) Say something nice about your writing! (Not a question, don’t care). What?! No! You can’t make me, you’re not my supervisor! Oh, okay. I will say this: people tell me that I am really good at writing dialogue, and this is the only thing I have ever agreed with. I write good dialogue. Sometimes, I even write great dialogue. Once, I wrote superb dialogue - I suspect. Dialogue and snappy patter is my forte, along with weird, high level ideas that I can never properly fill the details in. I’m good at A to C plotting, but figuring out “B” is where I still need a lot of work. Okay, well, I enjoyed this a lot but I am going to be a Naughty Lyta, and not pass it forward. At least, not for now, but I reserve the right to pick it back up and move it forward at a later date.

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kxmberlyhart · 7 years

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Trimberly Prompt: How about one where like Trini meets Kim's parents for the first time since they've been dating and smfn comes up about the Power Rangers and one of Kim's parents makes a comment about the Pink and Yellow Rangers being close and like winks at the two of them coz they both know that Kim and Trini are Rangers. And then when they're leaving one of them says something like say hi to the other 3 or some shit like that and Trimberly are both like ????how tf did they know???

“How tf do they know?”

Rating: G i guess

Tags: Uh… mention of homophobia. Some language… that’s it i guess.

Read @ Ao3

Notes: I feel like I didn’t really do this prompt that much justice since the parents part is like less than half the story. But enjoy it, nonetheless… I hope asfgfdhgfjhgkjhlkj;lk sorry if you’re disappointed anon.

Yellow beanie. Pink rings. Yellow shoes. Pink skirts. Yellow shirt. Pink bracelet. Yellow necklace. Trini and Kim just had to wear something that identifies with their ranger color. Why? It represents who they are.

The boys wear their colors too. Of course, it was much easier to wear black, blue, and red and coordinate it with other clothing but pink and yellow are a bit more out there.

Of course, after the power rangers bitch slapped Rita outer space, they laid low for a little while, knowing everyone will be looking for a group of five, three boys and two girls. That didn’t stop them from wearing their colors, in fact, half the two was showing their support for the Rangers by wearing one of the colors, or all.

This gave the two girls some alone time by themselves and eventually built a romantic relationship out of it.

Pink and yellow made it to each other’s wardrobes. The two girls just had to wear something of their color and their significant other’s color.

Zack noticed first. He waved it off when he saw Trini wear pink and Kim wear yellow. He thought it was some weird coincidence. Then it became a frequent occurrence. Zack watched them closely, they were definitely closer than before. He saw them by Trini’s rock, kissing and he yelled at the two of them “I SUPPORT YOU GUYS!” He yelled from his train car, waving one arm high up in the air and the other holding binoculars.

So the next time they see Jason and Billy, Zack wrapped an arm around their shoulders, “Look, our two girls are dating” he told his teammates in an inexplicable joy. The two girls looked at each other with a heavy blush then held each other’s hand then smiled at their teammates at the acceptance.

—

Two months into the relationship, they continue to fight together as Rangers whenever putties would continue to attack, as aftermath of Rita’s attack. The relationship is still going strong and they are happier than ever.

Kim had pitched the idea that Trini should meet her parents.

“They’re both off this Sunday, it’s rare to have them both have the same day off because of their demanding jobs.” Kim starts off, wrapping an arm around Trini who stopped reading her biology book. Trini turned around and faced Kim, half lying down, half sitting up position, an arm wrapped around her sitting form on the bed. “If you don’t want to that’s completely fine.”

“Okay…” Trini speaks softly, nervousness ran through her entire body but having Kim’s protective arm around her gave her confidence to say yes. Trini doesn’t trust parents, not hers at least, but Kim speaks of her parents at smart and liberated, accepting Kim for who she is. Kim is in fact, not a perfect daughter, but her parents had showered her with as much love as they can, despite their busy schedule.

“Great!” Kim sits up then plants a kiss on Trini’s cheek from behind.

“As long as you give us time to meet mine… or be prepared to not meet mine at all” Trini takes hold of Kim’s hand, “Cause you know… They’re… Uhm…” Trini closed her eyes trying to find the words but struggles and fails

“It’s okay, baby. I get it”

—

Kim had told her parents to cook a special meal for Sunday. They agreed on cooking Maddy’s special curry, which Maddy had to drive two hours to get ingredient for. Ted cooked his famous fall off the bone ribs with a bunch of indian spices.

Kim and Trini sat inside Kim’s white (with a pink strip) Mercedes. Kim held Trini’s hand to help her get rid of the nervousness, comforting Trini that everything will be fine and that Kim’s parents will love her.

“I’m home” Kim announces as they get through the door, holding Trini’s small dainty hand. The aroma of indian spices runs through their noses and follows where it’s coming from.

The two walk in the dining area and sees Kim’s parents setting the food down in the middle. Trini noticed the giant table with four plates, one especially reserved for her.

“Mom… Dad…” Kim starts, looks down at Trini, smiles, then back up to meet her parent’s eyes, “This is Trini Gomez, she’s my girlfriend” Kim releases Trini’s hand and meets the small of her back, pushing her a little to meet her parents.

“P-pleasure to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Hart” Trini takes small steps until she meets Maddy and Ted and shakes their hand.

“Aww, aren’t you a cutie-pie” Maddy drops her hand from the handshake and then pulls Trini into a hug.

—

Halfway through dinner, Trini felt comfortable with dining with Kim and her parents to the point where she would actually speak up when she has something relevant to say regarding whatever topic it was. Right now, the topic of interest are the Power Rangers

“Oh man… When the gold thing attacked, I was on call 24/7. I constantly worried about Kim, she wouldn’t answer her phone, I finally got a chance to take a break and head home to check on my daughter… She’s fast asleep… Like she missed the entire thing” Maddy pointed out about her daughter.

“I told you, mom, I didn’t even know what happened” Kim took a bite out of her food then sending a small glance to Trini.

“So, who is your favorite Power Rangers?” Ted had asked both girls, they take a small look towards each other.

“Pink” Trini started.

“Yellow” Kim mentioned at the same time. They glanced at each other then blushed.

“You know, ever since the Power Rangers came, I’ve been seeing you wear a lot of pink, Kimmy” Ted pointed his fork towards Kim. “For all I know you could be the pink ranger” Trini almost chokes but Kim immediately grabbed the water for her.

“I mean…” Kim started, avoiding her parent’s gaze, “it’s just a color, dad”

“That’s true… What about the matching pink and yellow attires? You and Trini seem to have some right now” Maddy pointed out this time. Out of the corner of Kim’s eye, she sees her dad staring, she looks up at him and sees him give a small wink at the pink and yellow reference which confused the hell out of Kim.

Right on time, Kim and Trini felt their phone vibrate, both taking them out.

“Putties at 5th and Shell st. Get here as soon as you can.” A message from Jason came to the group chat.

“Uhm…” Kim starts

“I have a curfew… I have to go soon. Thank you for the dinner, it’s fantastic” Trini had said in a rush, standing up from her seat. “I hope this isn’t a bad impression or anything…” Trini continues to ramble on until Maddy gets up from her seat.

“It’s okay, sweetheart” Maddy walks towards Trini and gives her a hug, “We’d love to have you back again for dinner, okay?”

Trini smiles widely. “Of course!”

“Pink and Yellow are kind of needed now, you two should get out of here” Ted had gotten up from his seat and pats his belly, filled with food.

“What are you talking about, dad?” Kim places a hand on the small of Trini’s back, grabbing her keys placed right next to her.

“Nothing… Just say hi to the other three for me” Ted exits out the dining room and into the living room.

“We should go…” Kim starts leading Trini towards the front of the house.

“Stay safe out there!” Maddy called out, watching the two girls walk out the door from the living room with her husband.

The house becomes silent when the two girls leave.

“They’re obviously the Rangers” Maddy says, sitting down next to her husband.

“Should we question them?”

“No, knowing Kim she will tell us if we ever need to know”

—

Kim and Trini enters Kim’s car with the look of confusion on both of their faces.

“That was some weird shit that just went on”

#trimberly #trimberly fic #pink lemonade #my fic #prompt request

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monoguk · 7 years

Text

hippogriffs

You’ve always questioned why you had been sorted into the dauntless house of Gryffindor, even more so when you meet a boy from another house who is braver than you’ll ever be during your care of magical creatures class.

FEATURING - kim taehyung CATEGORY - romance WORD COUNT- 7000+

Those brave at heart, set apart by their daring nerves and chivalry, living in the highest tower in the castle because they are fearless by birth, with adventure calling for them, and they willingly face them with determined goals and pumping adrenaline. Vying for the top, but does so through a clean fight.

Whoever possesses any of these traits, the Sorting Hat immediately announces the House proudly. Apparently, you were one of them.

“Gryffindor!” Your eyes widened as you slowly step down the stool and ears become deafened by the loud cheers from a mahogany table filled with students wearing robes the colors of maroon and yellow. Everyone cheered and celebrated, welcoming the pack of freshmen sorted and divided to the 4 Houses that built up Hogwarts.

However, you’ve never really considered yourself brave; always doubted why you were sorted into such a daring house. Every night, you swallowed a whimper down your throat, eyes closed tightly at the sight the window beside your four-poster bed beheld. Every time, you peeked a view of the world outside the glass, you’d bite back a cry. How were you even a Gryffindor when you were so afraid of heights?

Still, you were very much surprised you’ve survived the first two years of schooling at Hogwarts. Sometimes, you still weren’t used to the Ghost of Sir Nicholas living up to his nickname of Nearly Headless-Nick by nonchalantly pulling out his head from his neck. Sometimes, you cried yourself to sleep at the thought of being so high up the ground. It was a wonder that you even managed to find loyal friends despite your fear of strangers. Nonetheless, your survival wouldn’t have been made possible if it weren’t for the dedicated studying you have shown for the past two years. Secretly, you thought of these habit as a sort of distraction for the fears creeping up your spine.

Starting up a new school year, your parents allowed you to go to Diagon Alley by yourself to shop for your school requirements. At first, you were scared at the prospect of travelling alone, but minutes later you receive an owl letter from one of your friends informing you of their arrival alone in the lively alley and inviting you to join them. Because of them, you were had not been fearful that day.

At the end of your enjoyable day out with friends while shopping for requirements, you eventually eyed the letters from Hogwarts and warily checked your new schedule. Then, your eyes darted down to the peculiar tied-up book under your medium stack of new subject books. You would have sworn the book was snarling at you, but before further fear ate up at you, you had shoved thoughts away and began to pack your things for another academic year at Hogwarts.

As expected, you saw familiar subjects occupy spaces in your timetable, while two other mandatory subjects fill up the once-empty slots. You’ve decided that you’d be taking up the Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmacy as your electives for this year.

You’ve thought that your subjects decision was a great one. Apparently, you thought wrong.

You wish you would have taken up Divination instead, but it had the same time schedule as Arithmacy - a subject you particularly liked despite it being the first week of classes.

You thought you should have taken other elective subjects, because you realized you absolutely hated Care of Magical Creatures class.

To clear things up, you were particularly fond with pets as you had your own dog, your sister’s pet tabby cat, your family’s snow owl, and your own brown owl companion you brought to Hogwarts.

You, during the end of your second year, had taken up the elective for magical creatures without actually expecting the peculiarity of the subject. Of course, it was your fault for expecting that your humongous professor would be teaching and showing you about unicorns or pegasus or tamed seahorses and the like of adorable creatures.

“Okay class, today I will be showing you a hippogriff. Did anybody read in advance about this creature?”

You looked around, satisfied that it wasn’t just you who weren’t able to open up the book. Luckily, your parents were around when you decided to check the specific book and apparently it was literally monstrous as it tried to bite at you. As students your year murmured around, soft thuds were heard from the distance until your teacher appeared with a humongous creature in a leash.

You would have sworn your soul left your body, rejoining the ghosts haunting Hogwarts’s castle, and you were thankful you weren’t the only third year scared out of their wits.

The creature had a peculiar body structure: the lower half that of a horse with his hind hooves and coarse-looking tail, while its upper body resembled an eagle with the two front feet that of deadly talons and the sides containing large majestic wings. It’s eyes were like any other animal’s, except it had this menacing stare that gave off a intimidating vibe to anyone who crosses its path. Its bucked beak opened up, releasing a spine-chilling screech, which apparently meant it wanted food (and, obviously the teacher fed it raw ferret meat).

“In this lesson, we will not discuss about physical characteristics of a Hippogriff as I believe you have perfectly functioning eyes and a very descriptive book. No, we will firstly discuss about proper etiquette around a hippogriff before caring for them. It is crucial to know that hippogriffs are proud creatures, and will not tolerate arrogant people approaching it. You third years must know that there had been past cases where students got injured because of improper approach.”

Students around you murmured, but you focused on not fainting whenever the hippogriff took small steps closer. The teacher asked the class if anyone knew how to get closer to a hippogriff without inflicting injuries. You would have aimed to answer first for the House points, but your fear had let you get beaten by a Ravenclaw boy.

“You have to show humbleness when approaching it. Slow steps and a deep bow is the safest way. Then, you wait until it comes to you willingly and calmly.”

When said like that, it seemed easy enough. You would have compared it to a stray cat, waiting for it to approach you instead of abruptly lunging for it and eventually causing cat scratches. However, how would you even dare visualize a dainty small cat as a large half-horse, half-eagle, carnivore creature?

“Five points to Ravenclaw. Now, it would be easier to teach you how to approach it through a demonstration. So, I would like a volunteer from the class. Come on, don’t be shy.”

It wasn’t that anybody was shy. It was obvious more than half of the class was mortified of getting closer the prideful creature. Even the arrogant Slytherins slithered at the back of the class to avoid being called. The Hufflepuffs were unabashed when they stepped back while the Ravenclaws buried their books deeper the scary monster book. Meanwhile, the Gryffindors were having second thoughts in taking up the daring challenge while you were there hiding your petrification.

There was a moment of awkward silence, your fellow third year classmates just murmuring among themselves and pointing at whoever to get the demonstration over with.

Seeing the inactiveness of the students, the teacher was about to randomly call a student’s name when one brave soul raised their hand.

“I’ll take the risk.” His voice - booming, low, and suave - rang deafeningly along the silence of the class outdoor. His eyes - was that a pair of silver contact lenses you see? - were wide, fearful but daring. His robes - stiff yet disheveled at the same time - were of a color you were not expecting. For this boy was the Ravenclaw who recited earlier.

You remembered being classmates with him since first year, and recalled that his name was Kim Taehyung. You knew little about him except that he had the deepest voice among your peers and that he had the weirdest personalities. Apparently, you knew something new about him: he was braver than you’ll ever be.

“Oh, wonderful. Step up a bit, Mr. Kim, but not too much.”

Taehyung stepped up, small strides that of confidence that beat your most confident strut. Everyone watched, probably noticing how his eyes stared blankly at the curios creature and how his lips pursed into a thin line before his tongue darted out to wet the pink flesh.

Tentatively, his upper lithe body bent forward to a bow while he eyed the hippogriff’s reaction with caution. The teacher was brandishing a wand and a dead ferret, ready to take over the situation on one side if ever things went out of hand unexpectedly.

But, judging by the third year Ravenclaw wizard bowing so low, it seemed that things would be going smoothly.

With batted breaths, you watched in fear and amazement as the hippogriff bowed back. The whole class let out a huge sigh of relief, while the boy upfront looked back at his peers to flash them a wide smile; one that instantly calmed your tense nerves.

“Very good, now why don’t you try and touch it’s fur, Taehyung?” The teacher tossed the dead ferret which was probably a good-boy treat for the creature.

Letting out a huge breath, Taehyung bit his lips as his feet slowly lead him closer the calm creature with his hand cautiously outstretched. An inch away from touching it’s beak, Taehyung stopped at the teacher’s command while everyone watched in awe as the creature willingly tilted its head towards Taehyung’s welcoming palm.

You heard a few girls behind you gush about the sight in front, and you would have joined them - because Taehyung was looking softly into the hippogriff’s eyes with such affection that beat that of a lovey-dovey couple - but what happened next had your heart bursting out in fear for the humongous teacher had effortlessly carried Kim Taehyung up on the hippogriff’s back.

Gasps erupted among you, noticing the surprise in the brave volunteer’s face before it was replaced with determined excitement. Then, with a soft warning, the teacher slapped the hippogriff, coaxing the creature to spread it’s glorious wings before it propelled graciously into the air.

Taehyung’s excited shouts and amused chuckles reached your ears although all of you were looking up the sky to look for the hippogriff with a Ravenclaw boy riding it. Agonizing minutes later, a gush of wind surrounded your class and in a flash the hippogriff was back on the ground with a bright-smiling Taehyung still perched on its back.

Your classmates cheered from afar as Kim Taehyung unmounted the seemingly-happy creature, but that was the last thing you saw before black consumed your vision with the thought of I’m probably going to ride that thing too, oh great looping in your thudding mind.

You came to next with the warm rays of afternoon sun kissing your skin. Your eyes opened, blurry figures of red and mustard blocking your vision of what you assumed to be the familiar cream ceiling of the Hospital wing.

When your vision came to, your close Gryffindor witch acquaintances had blocked the rest of your vision, their worried questions dizzying you further with you just having woken up. “Wait, give me a moment to breath.”

Thankfully they did, quietly supporting you to sit up on the rickety bed.

“What happened?” One of them asked with her two hands holding onto yours tightly.

“I-”

“She fainted during Care of Magical Creatures. But, I don’t blame her, that Hippogriff was intimidating.”

You never recalled having a voice as deep as a male’s until you realized you weren’t even the one who spoke. You and your friends looked back and tilted your head to the side respectively to look at the boy who had spoken. To your surprise - though you should have seen it coming by the timbre of the voice alone -, there stood a particular Ravenclaw boy with his uniform loosened and his gray contacts removed to give way to his natural umber eyes leaning up against the footboard of the bed across the one you were occupying.

“Taehyung?”

From the corner of your eyes, as you remained staring at the boy out of respect, you saw your friends gazing at each other; brains formulating presumptions that you were sure you were going to have a hard time explaining to them.

“Hey,” he greeted, bouncing away from the metal board before taking a few steps closer to where you were. “Professor needed someone from the class to check your condition, and I, er, volunteered.”

Kim Taehyung was notorious for always being up to the challenge; always volunteering whenever needed as long as he was sure he wasn’t breaking rules or endangering his life. However, despite this known fact, you were still surprised he’d volunteer at such a laid-back errand.

“Uhm, thanks, I guess.” You mumbled, suddenly flustered with the amount of dialogue you were unexpectedly sharing with Taehyung.

The giggles heard from your close friends worsened your shyness, expecting that they were going to come up with some excuse (made-up or true but awfully exaggerated) just to leave you and Taehyung alone. You hoped your assumptions were wrong, but what you thought were what your friends exactly did. They left simultaneously, spewing up excuses like studying for an Astronomy recitation or going to the bathroom or stalking their headboy prefect crushes or hanging out with their boyfriends, until you were left alone with the Ravenclaw boy in the empty Hospital wing.

“Uhm,” you swiveled your head back after the last friend left through the door though your flushing face didn’t dare look up to meet his. “I’ll be alright now. You can, uhm, go.”

“I waited for three hours, and you just shoo me away? I never pegged you as a rude person.” You knew he was only kidding, with his amused grin and breathy chuckle, but you, nonetheless, stumbled with your apology that eventually caused him to come nearer and chuckle longer.

“Can’t you take a - what do muggles call it? - ah! a joke?” Taehyung asked, now sitting on the side of your bed while you scooted subtly to give enough space between the both of you.

“Uhm, sorry, I’m not very good with new acquaintances.” You sheepishly admitted, secretly hinting of your fear of strangers. What were you two anyway? Mere acquaintances or just strangers?

Taehyung looked off in the distance, a look of understanding as he nodded, “Well, I’m guessing you’re not really good with pets too?”

“No, uhm, I actually love pets. Just not, er, big giant creatures.” You mumbled out the last parts, now feeling a little bit brave with stealing brief glances towards the boy. From time to time, you met his gaze but you were thankful he noticed and didn’t comment on your anxiousness.

“I see.” Taehyung comments softly, eyes looking off into the world outside the ceiling-to-floor windows of the room. You had noticed the orange rays dimming into darkness gradually as the shadows moved across the floor in accommodation with the setting sun’s orientation. The silence that ensued were neither natural nor awkward, with just the rustling of your blankets as you fidgeted with it breaking through the soundlessness.

When Taehyung spoke again, the sun was on the edge of disappearing from the horizon and staying in this hemisphere of the world. The lamps in the Hospital wing has automatically yet gradually lit up, the flames flickering cautiously until it was safe enough to dance hazardously in its confines. “I’m scared of cats and kittens, actually, if that makes you feel better for fainting because of the Hippogriff.”

You watched as his head tilted to face you, watched as his widened eyes met yours with sheepish innocence. It was when Taehyung’s lips quirked up did you realize you were gaping at him.

“You? Afraid of…cats?” It had been an unexpected surprise. Who would have thought that this daring Ravenclaw third year wizard would be petrified of a tiny kitten?

“Yeah, explains why I try to stay out of trouble, actually. Trouble means Mr. Filch, and Mr. Filch means Mrs. Norris.”

Unexpectedly, you giggled not to make fun of him but just as a reaction to such a random and unexpected fact about Kim Taehyung. I guess, you thought, Taehyung really is as random as I hear people say he is.

Eventually, Taehyung giggled with you; your differently-pitched laughter echoing along the empty room. The air about you two became warmer despite knowing that evenings at Hogwarts were mostly chilly.

When you’ve both calmed down, it was Taehyung who spoke again. “You know, you’re gonna have to ride the Hippogriff sooner or later. I sense that our Care of Magical Creatures Professor would be a practical test type.”

“You don’t say?” You bravely says in a sarcastic tone, and you u consciously went back to your timid self through a sigh, “I might as well get a failing mark for this elective, and maybe get wounded along the way. I should have taken some other Elective instead.”

“Hey,” you looked up, nervously noticing how his fingers were brushing along the side of your knee caps as his hand was laying near your blanketed legs. “I’m not letting a classmate fail if I can help them. You’re actually a very smart classmate, so I know this subject wouldn’t have been difficult if you only had a little bit of courage.”

“But, that’s the problem. Sometimes, I even wonder why I’m a Gryffindor.”

“Well, courage won’t come to you if you don’t face your fears. What do you say? Can I lend you a hand?”

Apparently, you weren’t as smart and witty as people pose you to be. But then again, how could you outsmart a Ravenclaw with obvious fake excuses?

“I, uhm, I was expecting a letter from my parents. Hansung would want a treat after flying all those miles away.” You reasoned, your footsteps subtly trying to pin yourself to one spot. But, the ground was too slippery and Taehyung was too strong as he was intelligent.

“That’s the sixtieth excuse you’ve said, you’re not backing out of our deal, right?”

In your defense, you had no choice as you had to pass a subject to sate your grade-conscious self. But the terms did not state about sneaking out past curfew to go to the hippogriff’s den without a professor’s consent.

The deal was - was it even a deal? - that Kim Taehyung would teach you how to approach the creatures introduced in the Care of Magical Creatures subject, starting with this intimidating hippogriff. As repayment, you had to get high grades to ease his helpful nature.

“This is mental, seriously, Taehyung. Why would you chose extra lessons at such an ungodly hour? Nonetheless it’s gonna cost us a lot of points take from our houses.”

“Live a little,” he chuckled, also noticing how you scurried behind him so as not to lose sight of him in the darkness as his strides widened. “Besides, if you said you were scared of everything, wouldn’t it, like, kill, uhm, four birds with one stone?”

“Four?” You squeaked as your forehead bumped into Taehyung’s back in hurry to catch up with him.

“Heights, Magical and Humongous creatures like Buckbeak the Hippogriff (you couldn’t understand why the creature even had a name and sooner you wondered when had your teacher ever mentioned it’s name then you figured it was after you passed out during class), Darkness, and Fear of Getting Caught.” Taehyung replied, slowing down until he was behind you and had a hand clamped on your shoulder to guide you to the stables where the hippogriff was at - though you wonder how this Ravenclaw boy even knew where the creature’s stable was - and to reassure you that you had a companion.

You guessed he had a point just as the same time you slightly calmed down from your anxiousness with the subtle physical contact ensued between the two of you.

A familiar foul smell invaded your nostrils, notifying your senses that Buckbeak was near. Though your steps lightened up just a few moments ago, it became heavy once again with fear and apprehension running down your spine as well as your whole body.

Noticing the regaining stiffness in your muscles and stance, Taehyung bravely walked beside you so that he had his arm around your nervous shoulders. He expected the reflexive flinch you made as response to his friendly-intimate action, but one soothing caress of his hand only at the joint connector your shoulder and your arm had slightly calmed you down. “Hey, it’s alright. We’ll be okay. Buckbeak’s warmed up to me, and I’m pretty sure he’s gonna comply to you what with your fear feeding his ego.”

“How are you even sure it’s a he? For all we know, Buckbeak might be a name of a she.” You retorted shakily, but the slight snarly comment had caused a chuckle to bubble from Taehyung’s lips which you eventually copied.

“Okay,” he stopped randomly, and so did you. His hand slide from your shoulder until you noticed he was moving away. In your panic, you reached out for him only to accidentaly and unconsciously grasp tightly at his hands as some of your fingers tangled with uncomplimentary ones of his. “I’m just going to get Bucky. Here, take my wand. Lumos.”

With two wands held by either hand, you nervously stood stiff in the same spot. Your eyes watched as Taehyung went further, stopping only until he was but a spec in your vision. Then you heard the hippogriff’s familiar sound, followed by his - its - loud thudding footsteps while Taehyung’s illuminated wand tip gave enough light to recognize Taehyung approaching you with him holding and chaffing softly at Buckbeak’s leash while the tamed creature followed.

Taehyung stopped a few feet. You assumed you and Buckbeak had the same distance between you two as when the Raveclaw boy had first approached the intimidating creature.

Taehyung tossed one dead ferret up in the air while the hippogriff flawlessly caught it straight in its mouth. He gave it one last pat before approaching a frozen you. Upon reaching your side, he watched as your head tilted to face him with your face paler than Rowena Ravenclaw’s ghost complexion. He then tossed you an encouraging and apathetic smile before gently taking yours and his wands. “You just have to do exactly as I did. We’ll go slowly. You bow. Wait until he bows. Approach him slowly. Wait until he closes the distance. Caress it fur or feathers or skin. Then fly. Sound good?”

“No.” You gulped, giving out deep sighs and exhales. “But, I have no choice, do I?”

Taehyung shook his head as a silent reply before stepping back to illuminate the rest of the ground you and Buckbeak were occupying. “Now, that’s the spirit, Gryffindor lass.”

You took in a couple more breathing exercises, feeling your dinner of gravy pork steak and buttered mashed potatoes going up your throat but you swallowed it in and began to bend your upper body.

Shakily, you subtly lift your head up to see if the hippogriff had reciprocated your act of humility and you waited until the creature did bow it’s head down towards you. It’s right talon was bent back while other was bent forward, almost as if it was a human bent on one knee.

You gasped, slowly mirroring the way the hippogriff stood up straight once again. There had been a moment of silence until you noticed the light flicker and suddenly you were heaving loud exhales of relief while quiet chuckles escaped in between. With one hand clutching your pounding chest, you turned to face the Ravenclaw boy just as he had during lessons, with your mouth upturned in the widest smile you could ever conjure. With the darkness surrounding the two of you, you could not decipher the awestruck expression in his blank face, because suddenly your ecstatic expression was brighter than the patronus he conjured after learning it from one of his seniors.

“U-uhm, that was brilliant! So, er, next step is, approaching.”

Your eyes widened, though you’ve already expected that it was bound to happen anyways, feeling your temperature drop abruptly. Sure,Taehyung’s presence was reassuring and Buckbeak’s reciprocation was relieving, but you weren’t two-hundred percent - for safety measures - sure you would have the same results as Taehyung had previously during Hippogriff lessons on Care of Magical Creatures class.

Taehyung, meanwhile, noticed your hesitance and eventually brought another smile onto his face. He took two steps closer, causing you to look up from your inner turmoil. “I won’t let Buckbeak hurt you. You have to try.”

Pursing your lips and exhaling another shaky breath, you gave a hesitant nod before facing the silent creature again. When you and Buckbeak met gazes, the hippogriff tilted its head and you admitted that looked a tad bit adorable.

Seeing this, you gained a little bit of courage to take a few steps forward. When Buckbeak remained where he was, you took a few more steps closer until you gradually reach the point where he was an arm’s length away from you.

From the corner of your eye, you saw Taehyung come closer with the same distance you ensued between you and Buckbeak. Your eyes, shaking and excited, met his with questions swirling in your irises. He gestured with his head towards Buckbeak, a silent answer to your predictable question.

You nodded once back, turning to look back at Buckbeak whose gaze wandered between you and Taehyung. With Taehyung close by and his wand still performing the Lumos charm, you marveled at the discovery that the hippogriff’s intimidating eyes were actually a large alluring painting of swirling marmalade. It looked at you with such innocence and curiosity that it naturally jinxed you to hold out your right arm.

You gnawed at your lip, shaky fingers still extended out and nervously waiting for the creature’s body to approach it. You distracted yourself by observing the contrast of its orange eyes with the snowy white-cloudy gray body; it’s body shimmered under the faint light from Taehyung’s wand, and you never expected you’d be so mesmerized by the subtle glint.

In your own reverie, you didn’t notice the hippogriff leaning closer until its head nudged your hand.

A gasp left your lips, surprised because of both fear and amazement. Surpassing your trepidation, you gushed at the live discovery that the hippogriff didn’t have a shimmering body for no reason; for its magical epidermis has alternating fur and feathers for skin. Looking closer, you compared the process to be like swaying grass on a wide meadow: its coat filled with fur as it leaned towards the front of its body, while it’s all soft feathers when it sways the opposite direction. The process was too smooth, too fast, that no one would have noticed it if they didn’t touch it or read about it.

A soft quack left Buckbeak’s mouth, enforcing a giggle out of you as you carefully caressed further down the creatures’s neck; a gesture you instinctively do when you handle your domestic pets.

Getting a little braver, you experimentally squabbled your finger as you scratched one side of the hippogriff’s long neck. To your surprise and amusement, Buckbeak went to lean his head closer to your body as its crown softly met the curve of your throat. The shifting of its skin tickled you, eliciting more giggles from you until the creature pulled away.

You smiled at it, giving it one last gentle pat, before taking your hand back to yourself.

The clearing was quiet, save for the rustle of leaves on the muddy ground and the loud but soft breathing patterns of the calm hippogriff, all until you gave out a shaky breath resembling a subtle chuckle. With pursed lips tilted to a tight-lipped smile, your eyes peeked from under your lashes to face your calming mentor who apparently was staring back at you and Buckbeak with a pride in his eyes.

“Are you ready for the last lesson?” Taehyung softly asks, handing you back your wand for it won’t agitate the creature as it had trusted you already, while closing the space between you two with a safe distance left.

Your gaze wavered, fear creeping up every fiber in your irises, but you were confident it wasn’t as bad as before you bowed down to the majestic hippogriff. Pocketing your wand and stepping a little bit away from Buckbeak, you stared at the Ravenclaw wizard with hesitant eyes before you dejectedly nodded; you had to do this if you want to finish this elective subject.

A full blown smile served as a reaction to your hesitant agreeing. You figured it was almost tomorrow, with the air growing chillier and the sky a bit lighter than when you sneaked out a while ago late at night.

Kim Taehyung had been famous amongst everyone since first year, deemed as one of the few chosen attractive people in Hogwarts at such an early age. As time went on, he became known for many things: the boy who didn’t accept being in the Ravenclaw quidditch team after performing perfectly during try-outs because he said he was satisfied with just being able to catch the Golden Snitch; the boy who had this distinct clangorous laugh when in the hallways but had the most unexpected poker face during class hours; the boy who is among the brightest wizards and witches, but us a completely dung-head when around his circle of equally attractive friends; the boy who dared to take up any challenge he was confident he can do; the boy who was sorted into the house of books and knowledge and is braver than you who was sorted into the house of courage and reckless ventures. A few other notable things people gossiped about this Ravenclaw wizard was his infamous tongue, and his incredible ability to effortlessly be adorable in one second and seductive in the next.

You were yet to find out what the witches were fangirling on about, but you did completely agree upon remembering these squealing girls talking about Kim Taehyung having the brightest smile.

If it were at the time of sunrise, you would have thought Taehyung’s genuine grin was brighter than the center of the Solar System, but for now you would settle with his smile beating the moon’s motherly luster.

“Come on,” he said, pulling you out of your reverie as you saw him walk to reach Buckbeak’s side. Though you knew you were just a little bit braver than a while ago, you understood why your legs failed to move forward.

Sure, you kind-of surpassed your fear of the hippogriff and maybe a little bit of the horror in being caught by the Hogwarts professor sneaking out at night as well as fear of the dark with Taehyung’s luminous wand and the gradual appearance of morning from the horizon, but heights had been on top of your fears list and you’re not sure if you could overcome it. Not even with Taehyung looking over at you softly like right now, absolutely not (maybe just a little bit).

“Come on, I’ll be right behind you.” He held out his long limb while you stared at his envious fingers. The hippogriff spared you one glance before it kneeled down on four legs as invitation for you two to mount it easily.

You indulged in your inner turmoil, balancing your emotions in your frantic mind. In one side, you were shaking with horror just like you did whenever you were up in your dorm room. On another, you were guilty for Taehyung and for the hippogriff because they were making an effort to lessen your nervousness while you were doing nothing but do the opposite if what they wanted. On the other hand, you were exhilarated - as surprising as that sounds - because when would you even be able to ride a creature like Buckbeak with the thrill of the possibility of being caught off-grounds after-hours?

If it were any other day, you would have not been in this position. You would not have even agreed to it in the first place. And all you could think of as an excuse was that Taehyung was a Ravenclaw who knew which words to pull to convince others into his side, though you found no wring in that thought.

Instinctively, you took another small step away while keeping your gaze locked with Taehyung’s expectant ones.

He was supposed to be the logical Ravenclaw; he was supposed to be scolding you for sneaking out, for borrowing a magical creature without a professor’s consent, for asking him to ride the hippogriff with you. You were supposed to be the daring Gryffindor; you were supposed to be the one who drag him hurriedly yet stealthily along the hallways of the castle; you were supposed to be the one who had tricks up your sleeves in sneaking into another House’s dormitories; you were supposed ti be the one confident for approaching a level one hippogriff; you were supposed to ‘live a little’ and grin recklessly. But the tables were turned, and you were everything Taehyung should be.

Deep within you, a surge of courage overwhelmed you. Whispering a mantra into your objective mind: take the risk. fly over the clouds. seize the moment. live a little.

“What do you say?” Taehyung called out your name softly; an almost inaudible sound mingling with your muddled thoughts.

Maybe it was the evident hope in his voice that coaxed your body to move closer. Or maybe he had mentally conjured the imperius incantation while his mouth said your name instead. Or maybe it was just his reflective eyes, his lighted wand emphasizing the closing in of his irises, as they connected with yours. Either ways, the next thing you knew was that you were beside Taehyung again while he was mounted on the creature and you were not. You were sure he wasn’t using a curse on you, because you felt you came nearer on your own will.

His hand was still outstretched while the other caressed the feathers in Buckbeak’s wings.

All these emotions were boggling your mind, and in the end, you just blew up with your head tilted back and your lips into a tight smile.

Seeing this, Taehyung grinned wider, glad that you were making an effort in overcoming your fears. He stretched his hand further, fingertips almost touching the skin of your arm. From afar, he heard the crow of a rooster and he brightened up even more at the sight to be beheld once riding on the hippogriff.

“I must be mental.”

“I got you,” Then warmth surged your whole body, your hand being held platonically by the one and only Kim Taehyung, your back pressed against his so none of you would fall off the curve of Buckbeak’s back, your legs straddling the creature’s back, and your front hugging the hippogriff’s neck once it lifted itself off the ground.

“Merlin’s beard- whoa!” You squealed, when suddenly Buckbeak propelled off the ground and the next thing you knew you were flying through the hippogriff.

Your eyes instinctively closed tight, fingers gripping onto the hippogriff’s shifting body coat, whimpers of apprehension and excitement bubbling out of your throat. Your hair blew softly everywhere while your face slightly froze at the cold breeze kissing every pore. Eventually, you buried your cheek further into the hippogriff, regaining the warmth you’ve lost.

It wasn’t until you heard a series of soft chuckles and felt a rumbling vibration on your back did you dare peek an eye open. It didn’t take long until you snapped your eyes wide open, mouth forming an ‘o’ as it emitted a strangled gasp.

There was no ground beneath you, though Buckbeak was obviously flying low. The sky was like a smudge of bluish periwinkle and gray as faint light peeked from the horizon seen in the distance. On your other side were the majestic forest known by Hogwarts as the Forbidden Forest - blurry swirly of gooey green so dark it was almost black. From below you, it was a rippling sight: colors in the gray palette swirling flowingly in a particular squiggly shape. Looking closely, you realized what was beneath you was the clear lake beside Hogwarts, reflecting your and Buckbeak’s and Taehyung’s figures despite the lack of light from the darkness of dawn.

Tentatively loosening your grip on Buckbeak’s neck, you breathlessly reached down until your hand was submerged in cool water, creating a straight ripple as you were moving with the hippogriff’s forward flight.

In your little bubble of delight, you forgot about the fact that you were riding a hippogriff; did not even notice the way Taehyung’s hand had softly and unconsciously found perfect residence on your hips. You never realized how your tight-lipped smile turned into a full-blown grin, growing wider until your teeth parted to emit soft giggles.

However, Taehyung did. He felt you bent down as you stretched your hand down, and he smiled at the faint memory of him doing the same thing when he first flew on Buckbeak. After that, everything else faltered: his breath caught in his throat, his heart skipping a lone beat, his affectionate smile fading into that of awe, his fingers twitching with the dilemma of holding tighter or letting go.

He’s noticed you just as much as you did, even before the situation you were both in. In a small class of first years, it was hard not to memorize who your classmates will be during mandatory subjects until seventh year at Hogwarts.

You were somewhere between a wallflower and an art center piece; known by a lot, though not as extravagantly as he. Your classmates knew you as this bright Gryffindor girl, who rarely talks and when you do it was almost a whisper. For Taehyung, secretly, you were more than that. He could faintly recall how surprised and fearful you were when you were sorted into Gryffindor just because you had the most distinct reaction out of all. He could not understand how someone could be so afraid of being into a house almost everybody wants to be sorted in. He was one of them, begged to the Sorting Hat for it, but in the end, he was placed in Ravenclaw.

Not that he was complaining, he loved his house nonetheless. It’s just that something about being in the house of Gryffindor brought a sense of satisfaction with his compulsiveness for adventure.

That aside, classes were always enjoyable to him; or rather, sneaking trouble in during classes alongside his variety of friends were. He often gets in trouble as much as he escapes punishment. Besides, he and his friends knew when it was time to get serious with their studies.

But, most of the time, he was among the mood makers, bringing cheery grins upon their classmates faces. Taehyung could say you were no exception, because he notices the prevented large grin and suspects that when you cover your mouth it’s emitting these soft giggles only your Gryffindor friends had the privilege to hear.

Tonight was just extraordinary and overwhelming, for the both of you; because you’d never thought the terrifying hippogriff was just as gentle as a pygmy puff and he’d never thought he’d be one of the selected few who’d witness this hidden side of yours.

Taehyung’s gaze stays mesmerized at you as your head tilted back to watch the trail of disturbed water you’ve made with your fingers dipped in the lake. Seeing the huge grin still etched on your lips, the faint rays of dawn highlighting shadowing perfectly on your figure, he grins as well, bravely letting go of your waist and raising his arms up above an air with a booming 'woo-hoo!’ escaping his lips.

The noise pulls you back to reality; the warm sensation gone from your hips startled and made you fluster. You look back at Taehyung, seeming to have the time of his life with his arms up in the air and the light breeze ruffling his hair in crazy directions. Your terror comes back when Buckbeak flies a bit higher and when you realized that the Ravenclaw wizard was no longer supporting you upright.

“Taehyung! What are you doing?”

“Taking a risk! Come on, try it! It’s amazing!” Taehyung hoots again, and Buckbeak takes it as a sign to raise higher from the surface.

You whimpered, realizing that the impending sunrise was illuminating the scenery before you. And no matter how breathtaking it was at that moment, all you could think about was “BLOODY HELL, BUCKBEAK’S FLYING HIGHER, STOP IT!”

You were shrieking at that point, urging the hippogriff to reach at least two feet off the lake’s surface. Taehyung’s chuckles were no longer helping you to calm down, and why the hell was he even laughing at your own misery?

“I think Bucky here wants you to be a bit braver. Please? Before he goes back to the stables and before we go back to Professor Bin’s class?”

You weren’t sure how he managed to stop your screams; how he was crumbling your resolve to dust particles; how your chest was actually enjoying the obvious pounding and hammering of your heart, the thrill of all of this.

You calculated that Buckbeak was about four feet higher now and was accelerating its flying speed. Taehyung’s excited laughter rang in your ears, despite the loud brush of air ceasing your sense of hearing. The pressure of the wind caused you to squint your eyes, with your legs feeling the joints of the hippogriff’s wings move. Your hand held tighter, loosened a little bit, before gripping tighter again.

Then, the creature set an angle to the direction of its course, and the suddenly tilt had you leaning away from the hippogriff’s neck. You briefly remembered Taehyung, but when you looked back he was still laughing manically.

Biting your lip, you guessed there was no harm in trying, seeing that Taehyung was still intact in Buckbeak’s back and that you’ve already done so much daring things for the past few hours so what harm would one more do?

Tentatively, you raised your arms until it was perpendicular to your head. It surprised you when you leaned back, causing a sense if falling to pass through you. Your fear was short lived when your back met a sturdy body, knowing that it would be no one else but Taehyung.

When you looked back, his arms were raised like your shaking arms were. The pressure of the atmosphere as Buckbeak went higher tightened your chest, but you believe your breathlessness was because of the close proximity between you and this attractive Ravenclaw boy and because of his glimmering grin, so boyish and so daring.

His eyes were random swirls of chocolate, now that the sun was peeking its edges into the horizon and that Taehyung wasn’t wearing any contact lenses. But, no, you weren’t mesmerized, drowning in the valley of each strand in his irises. Rather, you felt something akin to how you would soften when your cat would brush their body all over your feet, or when your dog would slip in under your arm just to have any form of physical contact with you, or when Buckbeak tilted its head to the side to cutely urge you to not be afraid of him - her, it, whatever.

Your chest tightened and your breath stuttered while your hair flew haphazardly into the air, until everything came at a standstill and all you could see were clouds, reflecting hues of blush pink and arctic blue and peach.

There was a moment of serene silence, just admiring the raw beauty of the sky at its first bloom in the morning. The flap of the hippogriff’s wings calmed you down, subtly lulling you to sleep and remind you that you can’t sleep a wink a few hours ago, but you thought it was all worth it.

Suddenly, you gasped, feeling warmth penetrate through the thick material of your sweater and a sturdy chin nestling its place safely on the curve near the joint connecting your shoulder and your arm. You didn’t dare look to the side, afraid of the sensations to fill you up with an up-close view of thus developing boy. You blamed all of these with the uncontrollable and mandatory hormones overflow as you gulped down your nervousness and remained quiet.

“Pop quiz: how to sneak in Hogwarts, without getting in detention, in broad daylight?”

#belle writes #taehyung fluff #kim v scenario #bangtan bwi

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julian-nieva · 7 years

Text

Slumped in the back corner on the main floor of East Room, a members-only communal office space in Toronto’s Riverdale neighborhood, La Mar Taylor is glued to his phone. Taylor, who now lives in L.A., had planned on only visiting family and friends while he was in town. But right now, the creative director for Grammy award-winner The Weeknd is planning several projects for artists under the singer’s XO record label. “It always comes together in the last minute,” says Taylor.

The 26-year-old, who’s dressed in a black Puma tracksuit and matching sneakers, met The Weeknd (“Abel,” to him) the first day of their freshman year of high school in Scarborough, a suburban district of Toronto. “We had the same business class and I remember it vividly,” he says, laughing. “I was wearing a pink polo and he had a baby blue du-rag on. We were just cracking jokes at each other.” Taylor and The Weeknd shared interests in music and creative photography, and quickly formed a bond.

At 18, he and The Weeknd dropped out of high school together, and moved into a one-bedroom apartment in downtown Toronto with their friend Hyghly Alleyne. At that point, The Weeknd was already dabbling in music and Taylor was developing his skills in photography. Taylor had planned on becoming a nurse, and he admits he was hesitant to drop out at first. But he eventually surrendered to The Weeknd’s persuasion. “We wanted to live the lifestyle 24/7,” he says. “No ifs, ands, or buts. It just got to the point where we were like, ‘We can’t fucking hop on the train at 1:30a.m. trying to catch the last one to go back home [to Scarborough] and then do the same thing all over the next day. If we really wanted to live our dreams, we felt like we had to live the lifestyle non-stop.”

The independence was difficult at first. “We were all living off welfare checks at the time,” Taylor says. But Taylor, The Weeknd, and Alleyne saw it as an opportunity to network and shape their careers. (Alleyne is now a director for XO projects.) “That experience really shaped us, inspired us, and gave us everything we needed to start working on our first project, which wound up becoming [The Weeknd’s 2011 debut mixtape] House of Balloons.”

Since then, Taylor has photographed the covers for The Weeknd’s mixtapes Thursday, and Echoes of Silence, as well as the three-disc mixtape Balloons Trilogy. He also handled all branding, marketing, and creative directed the Canadian singer’s live shows. “Early on, we literally had no budget,” he remembers. “I was pulling favors, using ex-girlfriends, current girlfriends, just whoever was around.” In 2011, he directed the video for Drake’s “Marvin’s Room,” and later “Headlines” and shot the Take Care album cover.

Fresh off the European leg of The Weeknd’s The Legend of the Fall tour, we sat down with Taylor, who was recently recognized by Forbes in its prestigious 30 Under 30 list, for his first-ever interview. Taylor discuss the early influences that shaped his work for The Weeknd, what it was like working with Drake, and the importance of fostering the next generation of Toronto creatives.

How did you become The Weeknd’s creative director? There wasn’t a role like that back then, you know? Abel was more just like, “We’re about to drop this mixtape and I need a cover.” I knew how to take photos, so I just brought my ex-girlfriend at the time to my mom’s house, put in her in the bath tub, naked, blew up a bunch of balloons and tossed them in there, and shot the cover.

I remember Abel was at the studio [in downtown Toronto] and I was taking screenshots on my phone of the selects and sending them to him like, “What do you think?” I think the first image I showed him ended up being the House of Balloons cover. As soon as he saw that image he was like, “This is it.” Man, that cover just made everything sound so much better.

"I COULDN'T BELIEVE WE WERE SHOOTING A MUSIC VIDEO FOR DRAKE."

What was the inspiration behind the covers for Thursday and Echoes of Silence? For the trilogy mixtapes the whole reference was the the feeling of having the best high. Thursday was the peak, hence the overexposed bright color palette we used compared to the other two covers.

For Echoes of Silence the cover represented the aftermath of the party being over, the come down from the high. We went with a dark, eerie approach with the visuals to reflect that feeling.

Did you look to any artists for inspiration? Not really. I was looking at a lot of fashion editorials and that’s what was really inspiring me during that time.

Where did you go to find references for your projects then? I remember being hooked on Tumblr as a kid. That was a gateway to the world for me. Being a kid from Scarborough who really hadn’t left the city at all, I just didn’t know much about anything. Tumblr opened my mind to the world and what it had to offer in terms of design, fashion, music, culture, and everything else. I was on that 24/7. I was consumed by it. So obviously a lot of my inspiration came from there.

You’ve also worked with Drake. How did that relationship come about? [Drake’s manager and OVO founder] Oliver [Khatib] discovered Abel’s music and showed Drake. They reached out to us and said they loved the whole creative direction. They asked us how we felt about helping him out with some creative. From there, they started giving us projects.

What was your inspiration for the “Marvin’s Room” music video? At that time Drake really wanted to put on for the city. I mean, it’s something he’s always wanted to do, but he wanted to capture that visually in both the “Marvin’s Room” and “Headlines” videos. The setting for both videos were based on showing his personal day-to-day life in Toronto for the world to see. At that time, Toronto didn’t have a great presentation. Nobody really knew what was happening up here. All the locations we shot at is where we’d be 24/7. “Marvin’s Room” took place at Goodnight Bar. We also used Harbour Sixty Steakhouse. It was about representing the lifestyle for everyone to see.

“Marvin’s Room” was a big learning experience for us. Drake is still is the biggest artist right now, but at that time he was huge. I couldn’t believe we were shooting a music video for Drake. And it was the first music video I ever directed. I made a lot of mistakes with that but I definitely have no regrets.

What was it like working with him? Working with Drake was an amazing experience. It’s always easier and more fun to work with people that you came up with and you have a personal relationship with.

How have you seen the creative scene in Toronto change over the years? I remember when we were first coming up, we were one of the only few collectives in the city. Now, when I come back to the city, I’m seeing more and more creative collectives—Kid Studio, the DSTRY boys, Derek Wise and his crew. It’s very inspiring to see these guys coming together, putting their forces into one project, and seeing what can come out of that. It reminds me of us, when we were just starting. We were this creative gang of photographers, designers, and musicians, who were just putting everything in one pot and pulling resources to create the best product possible.

After Kiss Land, The Weeknd went from being a mysterious singer people didn’t know much about to a pop star. He even cut his hair last September. How instrumental were you in those decisions? Obviously Abel’s the captain of the ship and we go off his vibe. If he says he wants to cut off his hair today we’re just like, “Okay, this is how we are going to present it and ensure it’s the biggest and best way possible.”

It’s does become more challenging because the bigger Abel gets the more eyes he has on him. So that gives us—I don’t want to say pressure—but there are a lot of eyes and attention on the projects as well. We know people are watching his every move, so we’ve got to go real big with every project and ensure there are no fuck-ups. We were doing everything in-house back in the day but we realized that if we were going to bring it to this next level, we were going to have to work with the best. That changed everything for the better. We started working with our idols, people we admired, and I love that. I feel like relocating to L.A. was also vital to that. We wouldn’t be where we are at now if we didn’t move to L.A.

Beauty Behind the Madness was a hugely successful album. What was the decision to change the direction for his projects when Starboy was released? We don’t like repeating anything we do. We’ll kill the Starboy aesthetic and then it’ll be onto the next on. We’re not really too concerned about other people copying our moves; we’re already four moves ahead.

It’s all just vibes, to be honest. Thankfully, I’ve known Abel my whole life, so we have that chemistry where we know each other’s taste levels and that makes it a lot easier to work together. When we’re going into a new project everything starts with the music. We listen to the lyrics, vibe out, start throwing around ideas and pull movie references. We strategize what we can do differently from the previous projects and build the excitement around that. Our whole approach to marketing is generating excitement around the project. I feel like you don’t see that in music anymore. People now just drop albums, get the first week numbers, and move onto the next. It’s not like a movie rollout. But we want to make sure it’s a moment, people are excited and inspired, and looking forward to the project.

How involved are you in creative direction for other XO artists, like Derek Wise, NAV, or Belly? How do you approach working with these individual artists? I pretty much handle everything for Belly and work very closely with Cash, who discovered our newest artist NAV, on his creative presentation. Derek has his own internal team that I work closely with and mentor in areas I can help with. It’s just relationships. You have to really know that person, talk and go back and forth on ideas, and trust each other’s vision.

Do you have any plans to work as a creative director outside of music? Yes, definitely. I’m in the process right now of creating my own creative facility in Toronto for the youth coming up. I remember working on the design layout for House of Balloons with my creative partner and one half of the team Drop, we’d come down from Scarborough to [Toronto arts college] OCAD and hack into their computer system so we could use all the tools on there. We didn’t have access to anything else. We had no money at the time to download Adobe or Final Cut Pro. In my head, I’m just thinking, how many more creatives in the city are in the same position? They don’t have the tools to execute their vision, so that’s what I’m trying to build for them in the next two to three years.

You’re big on helping young, up-and-coming talent from Toronto. I’m in the position right now to help all my friends and peers. I always try to plug them into my outlets any way I can. If we’re shooting a music video or doing a cover, I’ll always try to hit up somebody from Toronto. I feel it’s my job as a creative to provide opportunities for other people.

I remember working with [Toronto-based design studio] Kid Studio in the beginning. We were looking to do a video for “King Of the Fall” and Abel wanted to do a viral video. I told him we had to work with these guys like, “Let’s do something simple in Toronto with the homies posted up and capture all that.” I remember going to the studio and seeing the playback and the final cut and being blown away.

I saw a photo of you, Cash, Future, and The Weeknd on the set of a music video. What’s up with that? I can’t say what it’s for yet, but yeah, we were working on a video together. It was super nostalgic. Seeing Abel and Future together on the TTC [Toronto Transit Commission] subway put everything into perspective for me. We really came from the mud and went global. It’s crazy to think that the day that photo was shot was the sixth anniversary for House of Balloons. I don’t know if that’s just a coincidence or a sign from the universe.

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things-we-used-tc-share · 5 years

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Manifestor // 16

Plot: Set in a world where Witchcraft is real, and the government hunts down those who practice magic, Thomas must flee to an underground safehouse after being discovered. Now fighting a war against Witches who seek the end of non-magic people, Thomas must learn to control and harvest his powers, as well as the manifestation of his sides to bring about peace and unity in the Human and Witch world. (Nanowrimo 2018)

Training with Dan is a lot different from training with Jack, Dan has a very fluid form of movement, and he controls water like an extension of his entire body. Jack was and is a very strong fighter, he works off of his anger and it gives him the best control over his emotions, but his fighting technique is always to do first and think later.

The British boy, whose fingertips carve water from the Earth, has a deep respect for his craft. He doesn’t see water as a pet needing to be tamed, but as a part of his soul, an equal. Most Water specialists are the same in this respect; they’re very mellow, firm people with great control over what they do once they’ve trained. When you’ve got something as harsh and wild as fire at your fingertips, it’s a little harder to see the fire as more than an angry beast emerging from the darkest parts of your fury.

Dan brings water to his hands in a fluid motion; he turns it at his fingertips, shapes it into little creations and lets it float around his body. It hadn’t quite sunk in to Thomas just yet that this man had murdered more than one person, and it’s hard to see that watching him cross-legged with his eyes shut and a mirage of water creatures swimming around him. It’s one of the reasons the American really truly thinks that whoever those people were must have really pushed Dan past a breaking point of no return.

Then his eyes dart open and glow a mellow blue for a second, the water darts outwards like he had landed in a pool, thrashing outwards against the walls so hard a resounding crash echoed through the wall. If that had been a person, they would have been unlikely to have lived to tell the tale. The water turns to ice ad shatters on the ground, before dissolving.

Thomas is, to say the least, very impressed as Dan stands and braces his hands “Ready?” Thomas nods, preparing himself, he knows that the other won’t actively kill him, but his reflexes were certainly tuning in for the moment, heart thumping in his chest as Anxiety raises; thanks Virgil. The water pours towards him and the feeling of hot pressure worms immediately through his system, traveling along his bloodstream and then unleashing through the palms of his hands.

The water meets a solid gale force, blowing back towards Dan, who tries to not to flinch as he is bathed head to toe in cold water. Thomas releases the wind force with a slightly amused expression and despite everything, Dan dissolves into laughter, pulling his damp curls from his eyes as Thomas apologizes. The American’s defenses down, he flicks his wrists and soaks the other playfully resulting in the two of them burst into laughter.

It had been a while since either of them had ever really laughed at all, but they did now, soaked in cold water and shivering ever so slightly. Thomas can’t breathe but for the first time in a few days it’s not out of pain or anger or Anxiety, he fills his body bubble with laughter over the simplest relief he’s had since he first left this place.

A blow of warm air following the opening of a door startles them, red-faced from laughter to face the amused faces of Phil and Jack, who are looking between them and shaking their head. Phil’s hands' ripple as the air around them distorts, producing warm air to dry them both out. “Honestly can’t leave you alone for a minute,” He chuckles, with a fond look in his eyes as he meet’s Dan’s gaze, who looks bashful.

Jack is smiling, it’s the first time Thomas has seen him really smile in a while, through a very tired expression albeit, but a smile nonetheless. He shakes his head and walks closer, “Honestly you two, I didn’t think a water fight would be on the to-do list,” But he’s not upset, there’s relief written in the code of his tone, he’s happy to see the two of them relax despite the entire situation. “Dodie’s made us some dinner, me and Phil have just finished piling all of our stuff into Thomas’ room, it’ll make it easier to access our things and it’s probably best we stay together as much as we can,”

The four of them trudge out of the room with various noises of agreement in regards to Jack’s statement. Heading towards the hall they remain quiet, falling back into a sober routine as the realization they were hunted people now, they were prey to the deadliest predator this Earth could offer. It was hard to smile now as reality set in.

They sat down at a table; Jack was balancing a fireball over his fingers as he eats, restless and jittery. Dan poured himself a glass of ice water from the palm of his hand, whilst Phil and Thomas simply look between them and eat as if they hadn’t tasted food in days. Thomas can’t actually recall when he’d last eaten, if it had been a day or two ago, a night or two ago. His stomach lurched halfway through his plate however and he rested the fork down to allow his body to adjust to its newfound nourishment.

Dodie is trying to smile, she had changed and showered somewhere between her own training and offering to make dinner whilst the boys had changed, Dan could barely stand the feeling of water on his wounds, and Phil had been too busy to entertain the thought, flicking through rooms to gather anything that could be helpful to them.

Dodie places a hand on Jack’s shoulder to try and ease up his shaking nerves and cease the clatter of his bouncing leg against the table. “So you two are both Manifestors right?” Dan finally asks, placing his fork back on his plate and taking a sip of his water “That must be loud,” Thomas chuckles in response and nods.

“They’re even arguing right now,” He supplies with a tired smirk, and he’s not lying. He can hear Logan and Roman shouting at each other through a string of curse words, he can’t hear Virgil but he can feel him in every blood vessel and nerve ending in his body, he can also hear Patton trying to subdue them, trying to calm them down, until it suddenly goes very quiet. “Patton?” He calls out and the other rises, hair a slight mess and face very flushed, with glasses askew and cardigan missing from around his shoulders. “What happened?”

“Oh I shut them up,” The moral side beams “I gave Virgil a fidget cube, Logan a Rubix cube and Roman a coloring book with crayons, just to calm them down for now, would you like to see them?” Thomas blinks slightly, more than impressed that his side had actually come up with a contingency plan for when the other three got out of hand.

“No, it’s okay, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay,” Patton nods in response, indicating that everything was in fact okay “Thank you, Patton, you can go now,” his morality sinks down out view and Thomas turns back to the others. “He’s my morality, or my heart if you like, everything went quiet and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay and they hadn’t actually managed to kill each other, but turns out Patton has actually figured out ways to shut them up,”

Dan chuckles and Jack sighs, distracted, “I wish Chase had the brains to think of something like that, I think he finds it funny when they all start bickering, he especially enjoys laughing at…” He trails off “Never mind, it doesn’t matter,” He shovels a forkful of food into his mouth and Thomas recognizes the expression on his face, he was talking about Anti, but as Dan and Phil had never had the wondrous blessing off dealing with the egocentric and bloodthirsty glitch, he obviously did not want to discuss it in front of them.

“I think if I had sides, I’d constantly be giving my depression a lecture,” Dan chuckles, but it’s sad in the way the sound twists almost like a choked version of happiness for a moment. Thomas made a very brief note about using humor as a coping mechanism, and that he should probably ask Dan if he’s okay every now and then. A smile wasn’t always happiness and a joke in this context is very often a veil or mask for the truth.

“I’d be asking my Logic where he is,” Phil chuckles around a mouthful of food, trying not to laugh and choke as he’s eating his food. “Like excuse me, can you clog up those impulsive thoughts for me, I really don’t need to eat paper right now,” Thomas snorts and picks up his fork to try and eat some more food, his stomach seems to feel like it’s less under attack as he chews and swallows in a slow ritual.

“Believe me, having a Logical side does not prevent that,” Jack chimes in with a smile, Thomas exhales with relief through his nose, glad to see his friend now had something to take his mind off the worst of things. “The number of times Chase has been like ‘please don’t do that’ and I’ve just gone and done it anyway, it’s a surprise he doesn’t quit his job really,”

Dodie smiles at the four quietly, she wasn’t much of a talker, which was interesting given that her previous job had been counseling. Instead, she listens to them talk and feels her spirits lift just a little as the pieces of the men she’d known before travesty had struck started to come back, piece by piece, like a puzzle.

Ko-fi

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