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rigelmejo · 3 years

Text

Some September 1st Updates

the READING SPEED difference of a novel at my level! I read the first chapter of 撒野 yesterday and this author is at exactly my reading level right now. I hit 0-2 new words each pleco page, which is usually the sweet spot to either guess the word or if I look it up I can pretty quickly adapt to recognizing it in context. Its also the sweet spot where if I only rely on guessing for new word meanings, on a second pass through I can fairly well guess the meaning quickly.

It was a 32 page chapter in pleco and I read it in 20 minutes. Compared to the 20 pleco page per chapter pingxie fic i just finished (like 124k characters! WOW I read and FINISHED that much!), which was taking 30-40 minutes per chapter (mainly because of number of new vocabulary per chapter being a bit higher). If I’d wanted to speed read saye I could have, I’d have missed some small details but I could have tried if I wanted.

Then I did a second pass later in the day with the audiobook just following along with the text. Realized 1. I knew most words in the audiobook and did not follow as well as i thought - but those first listen throughs without having seen the chapter I did manage to figure out the main character just broke up, just travelled somewhere, ran into a girl and somehow the girls brother showed and the two guys interacted a little and someone was being somewhat helpful, then the main guy met his father trying to ‘pick him up.’ Which is a true but very rough summary of what happens in the first chapter. By reading I could confirm the words I thought were names AS names, figured out WHY the girl was interacting with the main guy and that there were actually two girls in chapter 1, and figure out who helped who and who was the girl’s brother. Also somehow before I looked at the chapter text I never caught that the audiobook mentions a motorcycle despite me knowing that word and it SOUNDING like mota-che/motorche! it sounds like the word and i knew it and didn’t hear it! Then later following the audiobook with the text I realized another issue I had, is I’m not used to listening to soft voices with such faint pronunciations of the final sounds. I’m much more used to deeper crisper pronunciations and being able to rely clearly on initials and finals AS much as tones to recognize the words, whereas this particular audiobook i needed to mainly rely on tones and initials to figure out what word was what - that probably threw me off a bit. It’s probably good for me to get practice listening to such a different voice to what I’m used to. I have definitely learned the deeper the voice, the more I have a far easier time figuring out what’s being said. Also standard accent more like beijing but without a huge amount of ‘er’s just some, and taiwan accent are the easiest for me to hear when i’m not pa

For anyone curious, here is the audiobook for SaYe I’m listening to: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2w27tfjeeaySbMK272NpXwUtsBc-e3YN

Also here’s a chinese audiobook youtube I found: https://www.youtube.com/c/%E6%9C%89%E5%A3%B0%E5%B0%8F%E8%AF%B4%E5%90%AC%E4%B9%A6%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8Cyoushengxiaoshuo/playlists

Which includes The King’s Avatar: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTJaWZoVPdT1ZhIQIKxVci7fVEHr-oX6k

And ErHa: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsxEOGKlBMaFa6CS6Hf5ndy6qTtUL0Au_

Anyway, its a great book right now for reading practice. It’s very much around my level. I will probably stick with this author for a little while and solidify what I know/my base reading level.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I am apparently living proof listening-reading, heavy emphasis on re-listening a TON in the background as you work or type or walk/drive whatever, works for learning new words.

I re-listened to guardian chapter 1 audiobook at least 20-30 times by now, just a tremendous amount. Chapters 1-10 I’ve listened to at least 5 times by now random chapters at random days, and some probably also 20 times.

I have listened to these chapters enough, that I can officially follow so much that I know nearly every freaking word I hear, I know it immediately on hearing in at least 3 different audiobooks, and the few ‘less familiar’ words I recognize a second after hearing (like hearing ‘audacious’ or ‘glum’ in english it just takes me a second to re-remember), and the very few still forgotten words/specific details I learn From those words I can actually pick up from the context of listening.

I hear ‘powei’ and somehow forgot it AGAIN? Oh it means ‘rather’ in this context. ‘anli’ well i always hear ‘anlishuo’ as in ‘people say/generally speaking’ so ‘anli’ in this context must mean ‘generally/generally speaking.’ chuanghu? can’t remember it because i was just typing this JUST now and only hearing a few words from the audiobook in the background - well in context its obviously window, but out of context my brain said window and i just couldn’t remember if it was window or curtain but felt curtain had something more complex than ‘hu’ as the second half - just looked it up and my guess was right, even with no context which i’d have had if i’d been listening better and it had been clear it’s window, it still made me think ‘window’ immediately just hearing the sound. ‘xiang yi ge ren’ sounds like ‘looks like a person’ which is the next phrase i just randomly heard. ‘hua le yao ming’ shouted for their life/in awful terror? or that would be ‘huo’, so maybe ‘streaking toward him to take his life’? would make sense in context of a horror scene - i just looked it up and 划了要命 would be the second one. even IF i heard the wrong line, both of those are pretty close to a good guess in context and hua is the only unknown because without context i can’t place if it was hua or huo. i still confuse the words wu and wo for hold etc, but in context i can tell which one it is (wo is hold a hand, hold a face, etc).

I’m genuinely at a point where I can just completely follow the plot through at least the first 20 chapters from listening. And for most scenes, follow every detail too including stuff like guo changcheng spending half a year not working at home after he graduated, being so afraid of the phone, da qing being fawning to shen wei when they meet and rubbing against his leg, the specific conversation details when da qing runs across zhao yunlan’s car in chapter 2, what zhao yunlan’s room exactly looks like, etc. Its super cool to be able to follow the audiobook so well I can follow the story and details even when I don’t have time to read! It’s so fun! And it was not very hard!

It took 40 minutes of upfront study where you set time aside to focus: 20 minutes to have a program read the chapter aloud while you either see unknown word definitions pop up (like in Pleco) or look them up with some click dictionary as you listen. 20 minutes to go through and listen to the audiobook as you follow along with the text. Then after that, just play the audiobook chapters you’ve done this with whenever you want, either paying attention like when going to bed soon or walking, or in the background like when cleaning or doing busy work or driving. Since background listening can be done easily whenever all you have to do is remember to click play when you want something to listen to.

I’m honestly blown away by how much 3 months of studying mainly like this (which is quite fun and only requires me to carve out a small amount of actual study focused time) has improved my listening skills. I can now also listen to the 2ha audiobook okay and follow along (provided its a chapter I’ve read before so I have at least some prior context to help me out) - at least so far as that’s what I’m listening to right now. Basically, I can tell Guardian has both upped my vocabulary significantly and also improved my automatic recognition of many words I half-knew and learned since.

I recently found a new Guardian audiobook read by a deep voice and its lovely (and utilizes music and echo for effects, its lovely to listen to) I hope the poster keeps updating: https://fm.qq.com/show/rd002ED4aN0mYz2L__

I’ve been listening to it lately.

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Also! Directions for using Pleco Android for screen reader:

1. To get any page bookmarked online:

Open a page in your mobile web browser you want to read. Click the menu, click share, click Pleco Reader (or ‘more’ or ‘...’ then Pleco Reader).

Go to Clipboard Reader. Now when you click text, dictate text megaphone will be an option.

*Since Clipboard Reader is free, you can do this to read in Pleco and have things spoken aloud with no money spent. (Though I find the Reader tool worth the money and add ons).

2. To have any text ‘dictated aloud’:

Go to Pleco’s menu, Settings, Audio, click ‘use TTS if no recording,’ then for Sentence Audio section area System TTS Setting click Speech Services by Google (you can also experiment by clicking other options I am just stating what worked for me, it didn’t work at first I had to make that my default TTS in my Accessibility-Talkback Settings menu on my main phone first and restart my phone before all this).

Then click the area right below to mess with speed and sound of the TTS voice.

(Note, to test if TTS is working you can go to any dictionary entry sentence, click the speaker next to the sentence and see if it plays audio. If it does not, you will get an error message and directions on what to change in your phone settings. That is what initially happened to me: I had to go to phone Settings, Accessibility, Talkback, TTS Engine, TTS Engine voice and settings. Pleco recommended I choose Speech Services by Google, and uninstall then reinstall the Chinese voice. Then restart the phone. That worked for me. An additional note: I have Talkback setting on ‘on’ and just have it in my toolbar to use if desired but am not actively using it. If you turn Talkback setting ‘off’ in the actual Settings area of Accessibility, I am not sure if it will affect Pleco’s ability to dictate).

3. How to put it together:

Now go to Clipboard Reader and read the page from the internet you wanted or text you pasted, or go to Document Reader and open the document you wish to read.

Click a word as a place to start. Now you should see both the loudspeaker (for pronouncing the single word) and the Megaphone next to it to start dictating all text. (If your phone is weird like me, you may need to press the megaphone a couple times before the audio works).

If you wish to change dictation reading speed, simply hold down the megaphone and select the speed desired.

Now that I’ve figured this out I really want to take pictures of my print book, make a pdf, and listen to all the changes.

(Now I just have to fix my weird dictionary in Idiom app and I’m all set on the new phone!)

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All I’ve been doing the past august study wise is just reading pingxie fic and finishing, and listening to audiobooks. It’s been a busy time for me ToT

I do think it proved you can be lazy and still make some improvements though:

1. Reading in Pleco (or click-dictionary tool of your choice): pick something and read a chapter a day (that’s what I did, obviously the easier this is the less time you’ll need, but aim for around 30 minutes a day and reading material closer to your level if you don’t want to read too long)

2. Listening-Reading Method something above your reading level that you enjoy. Should take 40 minutes a couple times a week to several times a week to hours a week, depending on how intense you want to get with it and how much you’re going to alternate/include the reading portion. I did like 1-2 chapters a week so I was only spending 40 minutes to 1.5 hours a week doing this, or 3 hours one week no time another week. This is definitely something where you can do 6-12 hours one month then coast on it for another month just repeating older material’s audio/re-reading sections (which is what I did with guardian, doing 22 chapters then switching to just listening to audio a lot).

Once you’ve done a little L-R steps 2 and 3 (in either order, whatever works for you - and doing step 1 if you want more context prior to steps 2 and 3), then just make time during your days to play the audiobook chapters you’ve studied. You don’t need to be focusing every single time (although focusing on actually trying to follow the audio the first time you listen without text to aid you will probably speed up your comprehension a lot by giving you a lot of basic-context to help you comprehend more later). Aim to listen whenever you’ve got down time! Or time where you’d play music or some background youtube video or podcast - walks, exercise, drives, when cleaning, when browsing the web goofing off, when working if you have times when you’d listen to music with lyrics or a podcast in the background without issues, times when you don’t need to focus 100% on listening just putting it on to hear in the background).

That’s all I’ve done for study since May. It takes me about 30 minutes 5 days a week, plus 1-2 hours listening-reading actively a week. So 2.5 hours plus 2 = 4 hours of active study a week. Sometimes more like 8-10 if I got really into reading something or Listening-reading to several chapters. Then after that (very easy to fit into my life 4-10 hours per week of study) I just play the audiobook whenever I have downtime at work (that’s usually 0.5-4 hours where I just let it play because I forget its on while working on spreadsheets, updates, emails, etc, or play the audiobook while messing around on the internet in my free time at home, sometimes I put on music instead), while walking so 15-30 minutes maybe 3 days a week, while driving far so maybe 20 minutes - 2 hours per week. maybe lets say 2 hours*4 days a week (I don’t remember to listen every day) so 8 hours random listening+1.5 hours walking+1 hour driving per week. That’s 11.5 hours listening in the background or paying attention plus lets say 4 hours of active study a week. So 15.5 ‘study’ hours for chinese per week - an average overall of ~2.21 hours of chinese ‘study’ per day. This isn’t counting when I get into weibo and goof off, get into some chinese show with no english subs and just start watching it (I watched 16 episodes of Humans cdrama in August which is ~10.66 hours for a total of at least (15.5*4 weeks = 62 hours + 10.66 hours -> ~72.66 hours spent ‘with chinese’ in August at minimum. 4 weeks*7 days = 28, so over around 28 days or most of august I did 72.66 total hours/28 days -> or ~2.595 hours of chinese per day as an average. So... my guess that I spend at least 1-2 hours on chinese per day as the average was a decent guess. Looks like I’m usually 2 hours to 2.5 hours daily as an overall average. It’s not that hard to get in that much without a ton of time in the day once you get some listening skills built up ToT Deciding to build up my listening skills has been one of the funnest goals in chinese so far.

Notes on Listening Reading Actively - it also doubles as increasing your exposure to listening to your target language, and the more hours the better even if its passive in the background, just more hours adding up toward your mind getting a better ability to parse the sounds of the language is going to help your overall listening comprehension in general. So even if you don’t pay attention much and can’t follow the whole plot and only catch certain scenes, you will be improving at least comprehension of: hearing words you know, hearing colocations and common phrases and recognizing more automatically which will help with speaking/writing indirectly and reading recognition of those things, overall ability to hear things correctly in different combinations and getting used to the common combinations.

You will be surprised how much more you can pick up of plot and details the 3rd listen compared to the first, the 5th listen, the 10th listen. It’s wild. Like... I’m listening to the 2ha audiobook and even having never read it in chinese, just knowing basic context, the 2nd read through I caught so much more of the plot throughout just because I had forewarning of when scenes change a lot, what audio plays during some parts I recognized in previous listens, and so I have more focus for figuring out the new details I missed. Whereas the first listen, I didn’t always know WHAT the scene context was until I heard a familiar line or description I remembered from the english version of the scene, but on a second listen I now have a better guess at the scene the lines are probably taking place in before and after those lines I recognized in the first listen. And this continues etc each time you re-listen to something. (So yes, that initial context of knowing what you’re listening to with a previous read of its translation or target language transcript will definitely speed up comprehension pick up - but if you just wanna test what your basic listening comprehension to new content is then it works fine just going into new audio with no prior context its just more difficult at first lol until you build an idea of the context from listening).

The original Listening-Reading Method person did like 40+ hours a week, 8 hours most days, no wonder they made fast progress! They often included reading in some form (hence the name) and later translation, so they also were constantly working on listening AND some reading skills AND eventually often some speaking/writing skills. Doing it my way results in mostly listening comprehension of stuff you could already read to a degree, more automaticity in recognition, and for picking up new vocabulary both in listening and reading. I do extra reading on the side with other stuff to get more reading practice in an isolated way (since I’m trying to push my reading speed up above speaking speed). I always try to do it the way the creator originally intended, but I am not able to focus on things for more than 20 minutes at a time, 40 to a couple hours if I take a break every 20 minutes. So doing it 8 hours just doesn’t work out.

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I’m fairly happy!

I am on plan for my main goals that started this style study plan:

1. Improving my reading level to get to start being able to extensively read actual danmei novels - we got there! I am at a reading level appropriate for SaYe at 98% comprehension when I checked, and at a bit above 95% comprehension for Guardian! I’m now continuing with that goal while adding on increasing reading Speed in general.

2. Improving listening skills so I have better automatic recognition of partly-known words from reading (working super well so far - I can tell because ability to watch cdramas in only chinese has improved noticeably and gotten much easier), and so I can start following the main plot and key details of audiobooks of things I’ve read before (working great for guardian, starting to work with other audiobooks provided I listen to the chapters a few times or several times if its brand new material I have no context for, however reading level matters and while things I have prior familiarity with are going very well - brand new materials are still quite challenging in that they require multiple listens for the full plot and several listens before I start picking up most non-plot-critical details).

#rant #september #september progress #august #august progress #listening reading method #pleco #rec list #audiobook #guardian #take all my study advice with heaps of salt #do what feels right for YOU #this is just the study plan that's been working for me recently #for my main goals: increasing base reading level and improve listening comprehension

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alfredosauce50 · 3 years

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would you be down to do 2p china hc’s? im very curious on how you characterize him!

I’m down! I’m guessing you figured I had my own interpretation of the guy after I answered an ask saying I’d write for him. I really like 2p! China as a character, but I have to say, I haven’t properly written for him before. Nevertheless, I’ll give you my thoughts on him as a person!

2p! China Headcanons

Zao’s appearance doesn’t give away much of his personality. He’s got a bit of a baby face, and he has a sociable and pleasant demeanor for the most part. So if you didn’t know him well enough to see past those traits, you would be surprised at how shady he can be.

Appearance

Like his 1p counterpart, his dark brown hair goes past his shoulders and is tied back in a low ponytail. It’s pretty thin too, so it stays flat against his back. But that’s what makes it look so good. He isn’t the tallest guy out there, as he stands around 170cm or 5′7″. Doesn’t mean you can easily take him out in a fight, though. He’s quite slender, but he’s muscular and knows a few martial arts to boot.

He has a lot of tattoos, and he doesn’t try to hide them. He has dragons curling down his arms, as well as Chinese characters etched into his back. Most of the time, he wears traditional clothing, such as a sleeveless Tang suit, so his arms are exposed. It’s almost as if the colors black and red were made for him. And he knows it. So unless he’s having a bad day where he’ll go for a simple T-shirt, he likes to dress to impress. Not that he even needs to try.

He’s devilishly attractive, and the way he talks gets girls flocking to him.

Personality

Zao is very easy-going and open-minded. He’ll talk about anything with anyone. Everything is fascinating in a way, and nothing seems to faze him either. So he’s the type to question the most trivial things in life--or list drugs as casually as you would your favorite candy bars. It’s also difficult to shock him, or anger him. When life deals him a bad hand, or springs up inconveniences, he’ll go with the flow because that’s life. So unless something involves the person he likes, he keeps himself pretty level-headed.

With his willingness to talk about anything, comes his brutal honesty and bluntness. So sometimes, he’ll find himself offending people even if he never meant to. If he does this to women, they’ll slap him before storming off, leaving him in confusion at what he did wrong. But if he does this to men, he’ll have to be quick on his feet to escape a potential fight. Unlike a few other 2ps, he has a good temperament so he avoids violence, but he’ll resort to it if he absolutely has to.

Despite the careers he’s depicted to have, like being a drug-dealer, something in adult entertainment, night-life, or anything illegal, he has strong fraternal instincts. If somebody embodied the “big brother” trope, it would be him. He cares a lot for his younger siblings, and they look up to him as a role model. But he’ll always tell them, “Do as I say, not as I do!” As comfortable as he is in his own skin, his own identity, he wouldn’t want them taking after him.

He’s very flirtatious, and a huge tease. How he shows he likes you is through making you blush, or embarrassed. He’ll call you pet names. Shower you with compliments. Refer to you as if you and him are already an item. If you bumped into him at a grocery store, he’ll help you shop, then say, “So, is that all we need? I can’t wait for dinner tonight.” Zao is also unapologetically dirty-minded. He’s all about dirty jokes, conversations, and gestures. The bigger reaction he gets, the more addicting they are.

He doesn’t have any qualifications, not even a high school diploma, but he’s street-smart to make up for it. That’s how he makes so many connections and hustles his way up to the top in shady businesses. If you need something, anything, legal or illegal, expensive or cheap, you can ask him, and 99% of the time, he’ll say, “I know a guy.” If he likes you, all he wants in return is something perverted. A kiss, maybe. Or maybe your underwear.

Interests

He loves anything cute, and he doesn’t hide it. Sanrio is a must--he keeps a collection of their plushies, most of them being Hello Kitty, but he also likes other characters such as Cinnamoroll and Pompompurin. Sometimes, he can get a bit obsessive over whatever sells fast. So if he has to, he’ll stay up and keep refreshing the page selling whatever he has his eyes on. If he’s infamous for his connections that let him get pretty much anything he wants, surely he can get his hands on the limited-edition Hello Kitty-themed towel, right!? He isn’t against having other kinds of merchandise either, like household items, but he keeps it lowkey for functionality.

In his house, you’ll find a lot of imports from East-Asian countries. Not only is he used to using them when he was back in China, they’re better than what you can find in America. Or at least, in his opinion. This includes cosmetics, snacks, alcohol, and decorations.

Although he doesn’t have a lot of time to, he enjoys watching anime. That’s why he makes sure to get through the most popular and mainstream ones first.

Zao likes to keep connected with his culture. He doesn’t care to assimilate, and being ‘different’ doesn’t bother him at all--he thinks it’s what gives him a unique personality and background. Since he doesn’t have a lot of friends to speak Mandarin with, he’ll look for his neighbors who can, and strike up a conversation every now and then. As well as that, he’ll give his siblings red pockets for Chinese New Year so they can spend it on food, videogames or whatever they want.

He can’t cook for shit. Even then, he has strong opinions on food, especially Chinese. While he enjoys westernised take out like Panda express, he wishes people would stop assuming Chinese cuisine is just dumplings, fried rice, noodles and yum cha. They’re B-tier at best. For a country with that rich and long a history, there’s so much more to indulge in. Too bad he can’t make anything if he tried.

Psychology + romance

Zao is used to being a second choice. His cheerfulness and bluntness make other people think he’s creepy or weird, so he can’t quite wrap his head around somebody liking him to that degree--or getting particularly close to him. At least, emotionally. There are a lot of girls who want him for one-night stands. But this doesn’t stop him from flirting with someone he genuinely likes, even if he doesn’t expect anything in return. It’s fun because they get flustered, after all. But when they start returning the same energy, get persistent, or even make him suspect that they like him back, he will get nervous. He’s used to being the chaser, not the other way around. So if the tables turn and things start getting real, he will back away.

As confident as he is with his image, it’s difficult for him to get intimate with somebody romantically. He’s open, but can’t be vulnerable. He’d rather keep things casual, so when he really falls for someone, he’ll be conflicted between keeping things the way they are, or pursuing them.

Eventually, these feelings will deepen to the point being just friends becomes suffocating. That’s when Zao loses his cool and gets frustrated. It could happen due to a build-up of his emotions, or an event that makes him explode from jealousy. He’ll get desperate after so long of not doing anything and make it very clear he wants you. “Just date me already!”

When he finally gets together with you, prepare to be coddled. He’ll want to help you with anything the best way he can, and go to extreme lengths to do so. Nothing seems extreme when it’s for somebody he cares so much about. While he never holds it against you--how much he does for you--he may or may not guilt trip you into giving him more affection. But only subtly. Instead of him kissing you, he'll loiter around your presence until you kiss him. And when you do, he’ll smile like an idiot.

He never makes it explicit when he wants to take you out on a date. Zao will just ask you if you’re free, and take you out for the night. He doesn’t see a point in labelling it as a ‘date’, because he doesn’t just see quality time with you through a romantic and sexual lens. He values the friendship aspect of it as well, and you really appreciate him for it.

Zao loves to cuddle. He doesn’t hug you much throughout the day, but when you’re at home and about to sleep, he will hug you, a lot. He won’t let go while he talks to you, and will only loosen his coils when you fall asleep.

Acknowledgements

I was mainly inspired by the 2p! China in the story, “Dragon District”, written by xYourHero. So props to them. The fandom’s perception of him has definitely deepened because of it, and it’s great seeing underrated 2ps finally getting the attention they deserve! I’m one of the people who’s had my characterization of Zao take after hers, so I’ll also be crediting her for my headcanons.

You can find the story on DeviantArt, Archive of our own and Wattpad. I adored that fic back in the day. Such good memories. I wasn’t even writing back when I was reading it. Any who, let’s get right into it. I’ve divided the headcanons into subcategories, appearance, personality, interests, and psychology + romance.

(Look at this fanart is by Amphany on DeviantArt. It was drawn for xYourHero. I’m gonna put it here for reference. https://www.deviantart.com/amphany/art/Dragon-smoke-548426383)

#hetalia #hetalia headcanons #2ptalia #2p!china #2p china #2p china headcanons #2ptalia x reader #2pchina x reader #axis powers hetalia #Axis powers ヘタリア #hetalia fanfiction #hetalia fanfic #alfredosauce50 #ask

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nanachingu · 3 years

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Drama Review: In Family We Trust (2018) (Thai Drama)

My first Thai drama review is coming from In Family We Trust (2018). First, let me tell you how I found this drama and decided to binge-watching it. I often see this title when I scroll Netflix but never trying to watch it till someone attach me. My whole reason to start this drama is Thanapob Lee or we can called him Tor. He’s one of the main actor in this drama and I love him in his next drama Hua Jai Sila (2019). I think his acting in that drama is really good, he’s perfect potraying his character so I want to find out his another project. To be honest, before this drama I already see him in several movie like Ghost Lab and May Who? and shockingly he’s cameo in the end of The Stranded (Netflix series) but I don’t have any idea that it’s him all this time. Really Hua Jai Sila make me open my eyes and make me found this worth-watching drama.

So here I am ready to review this family drama with a touch of mystery and plot twist story that you can find it in Netflix. When I see the title, I already familiar with that name like I think I see this a lot when I scroll Netflix and just need like 3 days to finish this!!! This is one of my favorite genre, I’m weak with family drama and really love with plot twist story. Because this is a family drama, of course there are so many character in this drama. They’re of course a big family, Jiraanan family. Grandpa or called A-goong and Grandma we called A-ma have 5 children (but we only see 4 children in this drama) and of course their children have their family too.

So in the beginning of the story, we’ll be seen that each of Jiranaan family are get along with each other well and prepared to celebrate their A-goong birthday. A-goong and A-ma eldest son is Prasoet, followed by another son called Mate, and they have a daughter called Phatson, and the youngest son is Konkan. I think they have another child that already passed away because we can see one grandson that live together with A-goong and A-ma. Of course their sons and daughter have child too, so the family become much bigger. Let’s see the family tree first so we didn’t confused.

From the left, the son is Prasoet (Songsit Rungnopakunsi) and right beside him are his wifes. The one in the right is Cris (Sopitnapa Chumpanee) and their son is Pete (JAYLERR). This is the family that he brought into Jiraanan family.

Little does his family know, he had another son with another women who claimed to be his girlfriend in college. His another wife is Nipha (Apasiri Nitiphon) and his son Chi (Ice Paris). From the picture below, we can see Prasoet really love his second family eventhough they’re not officially Jiraanan’s family. This drama will revolve around Prasoet so finally in the end all know that Prasoet has another family beside his family with Cris and Pete.

Next, is Mate( Saksit Tangthong) and his daughter Meimei (Sawanya Paisarnpayak). Mate always pick up Meimei at school. This is quite a little family, but Mate really love his daughter and vice versa. The only daughter left in Jiraanan family is Phatson (Kathaleeya McIntosh). Phatson married with a police and automatically her last name changed into Suriyapairoj. They have 4 sons, the eldest is Yi (Thanapob Lee), 2nd is Ern (Captain Chonlathorn), 3rd is Tao (Third Lapat) , and youngest is Toei (Jackie Jackrin) who in the same age with Meimei. To be honest I love this family the most. So lucky that Phatson has 4 son that love and protect her. Next, they didn’t introduce the parents but A-goong and A-ma has grandson that live together with them called Kuaitiao (Porsche). Last, youngest son is Konkan (Lift Supoj). If we can choose which one is the most chill family, we could say that Konkan family is very chill~ They have 2 son, Vegas (JamyJames) and Macao (Ryu Vachirawich). (The parents like casino very much🤣).

So enough with the introduction, and I will tell a little bit of the story before doing an overall review.

This suspense drama revolves around the Jiraanans, a wealthy Thai-Chinese family that operates its own hotels in Bangkok and Pattaya. The drama follows the members of the family, which seem to enjoy a strong and unbreakable bond. But things are not what they seem. One day, the eldest member from the second generation mysteriously turns up dead in the family estate. His nephew Yi, the oldest son of the victim’s sister and the prime suspect in the case, desperately tries to find out the truth. Source: MyDramaList

Before an incident happen in Jiraanan’s family, all of them just celebrate A-goong birthday together. It is so warm to see a big family gather together, it must be a happy day for A-goong and A-ma that they live till now to see their son and daughter with their little family and have a handsome and beautiful grandchilds. We also can see that the grandchilds really love their A-goong and A-ma. It’s like their family are in happiest moment. Even they took a family picture together.

But who knows, that it’ll be A-goong last birthday. A few days after they gather together, A-goong passed away. This is the real beginning of the story about dark secret that Jiraanan’s family have but no one knows anything about it even the family itself. After A-goong death, it just going worse because of the tradition and old generation believe about differences between son and daughter in the family and honestly A-goong make it worse with his last will that shocking all the family because only his daughter that didn’t accept anything related to their business eventhough she work hard build their family business from scratch. All she got only his father savings; money. Instead, the eldest grandson from eldest son got 1/4 share of the family business. All of it, ended up we’ll see Prasoet the eldest son lying still on the floor.

Yes, the eldest son of Jiraanan family was shot dead. He was found first by his sister Phatson who came over to his house talking about their father’s will and end up screaming when saw his brother was dead. Another family at that time in their house hear someone screaming and rush to get out to see Phatson panicked and said that Prasoet was shot in his home so they ran and as we can see in the picture A-ma, Kuaitiao, and Meimei saw that Prasoet lying still on the floor in his bedroom. After that this murder case became the talk of the town, get into the news, so police tried to find the motive why the murderer killed him. Honestly, this event create a most damage for Phatson family. As people know, Prasoet rarely confront someone and had enemy but the last thing he argue with someone, it’s Phatson. But I said in this drama, it’s not over till it’s over. We can’t be sure that the killer is his sister itself because as we go through this we could see that Prasoet had a few secret that we didn’t knew before and it could be a motive to someone done a murder. We just need to see it clearly and evaluate it carefully. I’m not gonna give a spoiler in this review, but I think you guys will guess it right like I am.

My first thought about this drama is I like how the story always give us a new plot twist in almost every near-end episode and make us wanna watch the next episode as soon as possible. This is one way to make us never bored by the story and they can wrap it successfully. Although honestly I can guess the biggest plot twist of this story but still it’s interesting because this drama get some details that we can’t get pass and that’s also give us some plot twist. You can’t guess it throughly, like you can guess this overall plot but still you’ll miss the little part of plot twist that make this story much better. Because it’s a story related to family, it’s really deep even when we already know the real murderer and all we need to see is just see the person in trial, in another drama we usually feel relieved and happy finally the killer is captured. But I think this drama makes me feel more sad and broken?? When we all see the truth, I think the circumstances are not getting better. The story really revolves only between Jiraanan family and the story behind it give us more pain than the murder itself. It’s not easy left by people who we loved especially it is a family, but it is more painful when we know that the one who doing it also our family. But I can say that all of this happens because of karma from their all bad action that happened in the past. When we know literally all the truth we finally realized why all of this happen to them, because every each of them are deserved it. But it’s all in the past, so eventually we must move on. In the end, life goes on. They’re still our family. We just need to let go of the past, and open a new chapter because only family is the place that we can lean on again. I can really feel it how every character in this drama just doing everything that they could to save their family. They’re not bad people, they’re just doing everything to protect their family. Lesson learned from this drama;

Family is the most important thing in our life because in the end it’s only family that we can go back into, and only family that will stay on our side and tried the best to support, protect, and defend if we get into problems. They’ll do anything. But without us knowing, the closest person that standing with us that can hurt us the most, is family too. But in the end, because the name of ‘family’ that will lead us back together and family is the only place that we can still lean on. Mistake happens all the time.

For each family, if I have to choose whose family I love and attached the most, I would say that I really like Phatson family. I can feel their warm family and all of their sons are really get along well. They always root for each other, trying to protect the only woman in the house, their mother Phatson, and the eldest son Yi will do anything to protect and support his family.

One of my favorite scene is when Tao the 3rd son is a celebrity and when he feel he can’t hold back anymore he burst out to his brothers because only them that can give him comfort and feel protected. It’s also my best scene when they give us this brother scene gather together in one room and talking about anything and end up sleeping together on the floor. I can see from that scene, how they think that family is everything and they’ll never let them down because they have each other.

For the character, I have a few character that I like and attached my attention:

My favorite character; I got 2 character that I love, but first the character that I love the most is (of course) Yi. Despite in this drama his character more leaning to the bold action, like doing anything in a rush, bluntly, and doing a few illegal action but I think he did his best for his family. I don’t understand why he must critized by society in the drama because of his action? I think what he did was right because he already doing everything right and ask everyone that connected but no one helping him instead they just block him away. We can see that he never intented to hurt anyone else too so I’m pro to Yi side. I love his scene with his youngest brother, Toei. If I’m Toei, I’ll cherish Yi all of my life till I die. Because when everything is too hard for him, only Yi that confidently always stand on his side. (okay enough it’s a little spoiler). From this drama, I think I know why Thanapob Lee finally got casted in Hua Jai Sila. I noticed him because his acting in that drama was really really good, I can feel all his emotions there. It turned out here we could see him potray Yi perfectly, and it’ll really help him to get his next drama. He’s not only smart and catch the little detail in his family, but his action is always on point eventhough not all of that is always a right thing. But sometimes to get what you want, you need to do a little more dramatic so the thing you want will show up.

My favorite character; The next character that I like is Pete. Unexpectedly, for sure. To be honest I don’t think that his personality is thaaat nice. It’s about his first impression. When I his first scene with his mother, my first impression of him is he’s a boy who like to spent their parents money for fun and study abroad so he can get away from his parents to have fun🤣🤣 in my opinion; he loves money. TURNS OUT I’m 100% wrong. Pete is the most responsible person in this drama. His responsibility and his fair judgement is the best. He didn’t judge people by his relationship, if he know that this person is wrong then it’s wrong. I love how his attitude to his father’s another family. I just thought he’ll upset and didn’t accept them, turns out he accept them, and he cares them just like his father would do if he’s alive. You deserve happiness, Pete!

Ice Pariss as Chi. He doesn’t have much screentime but still his character ini this drama really shocked me. Kinda same with Pete. Look the picture above. Both of them looks like they have a personality that have anger issue but actually not. I watched his drama and movie like Bad Genius The Series and Ghost Lab, and I didn’t like his character but I admit that his face suited the most for that kind of personality. Being a jerk, brave action without thinking, not a literally bad person but not really a good personality too. So I thought he’ll become a jerk too since his dad didn’t bring their family to Jiraanan family and only went to their house 1 time/week. So what did he expect? But he has good attitude even to his step brother, he’s really polite and when he know that his family didn’t get single penny from his father’s will he accept it. He didn’t get mad eventhough in the end of his dad ‘s life, his mother was the legal wife. HE ACCEPT IT WHOLEHEARTEDLY. Okay, respect Chi!

From Pete and Chi, I learned that Prasoet maybe not the best brother, best son, best husband, and best father. But he did really well raising both of his sons to the point that his sons really have a good attitude and personality. I adore their personality so much!

(This is one of the difference between this drama and another drama. It is usually the first son didn’t accept that father has another family and another son demand his part from father’s will and clashed BAM!)

My appreciate for Jackie Jackrin for his acting as Toei. I just know him from this drama ( I think) and he’s potraying Toei really good. I can’t tell too much since it’ll become a spoiler but he can pour his soul and heart so well in this drama. I can see how much he adore his brother Yi so much and wanna say that you did it, you made it to survive with your consistency. You didn’t loose yourself just to make you free when your mother told you to do something. I think Yi had a big part that made Toei become a better person and learn from his mistakes.

The most disappointing character of this drama is *give an applause to* Vegas!!! This is the opposite of Pete. I put a lot of hope for him in this drama that he’ll become one of the rightest people but turns out a big nope. At the very beginning he shows us that he’s honest, fair, doesn’t like act wrong and even brave to tell his father lies. He’s the right person. But as the drama continues, we reach a point that Vegas just an ordinary boy who still has heart. His love is bigger than his principle. The only thing that I hope will be released in this drama, turns out it’ll hidden forever till end because of him. It’s the only proof that clearly helping this case but he choose to hide it forever. Another lesson learned I took from Vegas;

Sometimes we just know that human is not perfect. A person who always doing the right thing, eventually will become a bad person if someone we really love and cherish got a problem. They can ruin their life principle as long they can save their loved one. And often happens that the loved ones is Family.

In this family drama we learned that culture and tradition are taking a big part in our family. When a son and a daughter have a big gap in it, when a daughter didn’t considered as part of family just because she married a man and took his last name. Like having a daughter didn’t as good as if having a son. But actually if I think about it, the one who give birth to is a woman????? Why then a son is more valuable descent. They also differentiate their grandson status into a primary grandchild (son and daughter of the son’s family) and secondary grandchild (son and daughter from daughter’s family). But still we couldn’t get rid of the culture and tradition entirely. We just need to adapt well to the good culture and sort the not-so-good culture better.

Overall, I’m really happy that I found this Thai drama. I watch several dramas from Thailand but never found this kind of genre. A family drama that really warms heart but with a touch of mystery and dark secrets in it. But not like another drama that compete for power and will doing everything evil things between family and make things chaos and ruin their relationship as a family because their greedy and selfish will. In this drama we’ll have a dark secret but it’s not always about money, and I still feel their deep kinship, how this problems solved legally but a touch of their kinship because of their dark past. They need to let it go and open the new chapter because life still goes on for the living one.

Since I really love this drama, I’ll give 4.5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨. Thank you Tor for making me found this drama!

“Family is not always about getting along well everytime, but for sure Family is the place that we can always go back in the end no matter what happen.”

17 notes · View notes

icecreamkink · 3 years

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watched all of the untamed / cql in two weeks after my friend 1 told me abt mdzs a hundred years ago and my friends 2 and 3 tried to get me into cql for like two whole years and there are.

feelings.

very first scene is a very dramatic death in the middle of nightmare battle on sith planet land . i will forget abt it in the next tenish episodes and then will be very surprised when it becomes Extremely Painful

anyway magic flying gays and possession and human sacrifice! we are off to a great start

in retrospect, chaos goblin wei wuxian must have had a blast pretending to be so cRaZy and be as disruptive as he could as mo xuanyu lbr

listen. why is fire always evil coded. cant a magic clan wear red, black and orange and have flame motif while being wholesome?

For Legal Reasons These Are Not Zombies

i wish the politics of the sect were a bit clearer, especially at the beggining when the wen clan had sm power, was wen ruohan the chief cultivator? is that why they were so slow in responding to the attacks? im v confused by the pre yiling patriarch politics

fighting in the roof by the moonlight as way of flirtiiiiiiing. as i understand this is a wuxia/xianxia trope and honestly...... thank u for ur service

slight bullying and being a nuisance in general, as a way of flirting we love to see it

wwx: if i drink on the rooftop, thats not inside the cloud recesses! hmmm check and mate :D lwj: i will fuck u up so help me god wwx: :0

i lov them

through hell or high water (quite literally) wei wuxian rem ains a trashfire gremlin till the end and i love him with my whole heart

in the pt subs wei wuxian calls jiang cheng a stubborn duck and i dearly wish that had come back

my opinions on almost every character goes from love to hate u - Hmm Me Like U - BABY. ILY. and i am Very Pleased w that. its been a while since i loved such a complete cast so much i think

no really. i WONT go into a detailed rant abt what i love about each of these characters and each of their relationships to each other. but i COULD.

some lan disciples in the loudest whisper ever: YEAH THATS THE JIN BASTARD MENG YAO HEARD THE GOT SUPER HUMILIATED BY HIS DAD LOL SURE HOPE HE DOESNT TAKE SLIGHTS TO HIS CHARACTER TO HEART

lan xichen, immediately: i must Love him

being into problematic ppl is in the Lan genetics, we come to realize

wen qing deserves so many awards for so many things but not snapping and just stabbing wen chao is at the top

that scene at lan qirens class where wwx talks about using resentful energy to fight a violent spirit. exquisite.

It establishes Good Student lan wangji, wei wuxian as curious and questioning and not afraid of taboo, lwj sees that wwx is not, in fact, a dumb ass hes just a Dumbass, shows us the audience (esp. a western audience) how shocking the idea of disrupting the dead/dying and controlling resentful energy actually is, the theoretical foreshadow arguing, everyone else like ‘shUT UP’, “and how could you ensure that the resentful energy would obey you and not hurt other?” “well i havent thought that far” and of course, lan qiren just straight up lobbing a hard object at wwx head,. chefs kiss

fellas is it gay to bother the hot rule obessessed nerd from ur school and make drawings of him with flowers in his hair and then hide gay porn in his book to antagonize him and ask him to hold ur hand and be ur friend and talk to him all the time and get him drunk and give him bunnies bc you know he likes them and give him a lantern and always want his attention and dedicate yourself to getting him to smile-

and after all of that wwx rly said oh i Admire him, aksd like yeah we all were there in high school buddy

i have Learned. caves = gay.

accidental marriage +beint physically tied together with the sacred married ribbon+ gay panic+foreshadowing+bunnies! in the cave (1)

the story abt lan yi and baoshan sanren tho. i would like to see it

early days wen bros pull my heart strings like a guqin

EVERYTHING about the lantern scene; disaster hets jiang yanli and jin zixuan; how wwx made lwj a bunny lantern. how soft and touched lwj was. wwx gleefully pointing out he was smiling and lwj IMMEDIATELY PULLING HIW SWORD ON HIM LMAO. tragically foreshadowy promises to do right by pepople, living without regrets. lwjs 'oh no do i love him??' face. just. all of it.

i have it on good acc that in the novel lwj is explicitly Repressed Gay Panicked Big Horny which is delightful and rly Adds to the performance

baby lwj is really just conceal dont feel dont let them know u have EMOTIONS (derogatory)

jiang cheng rly went "why dont.u go play with HIM if u like him so much"

jc and wwx have big BIG annoying sibling energy dont think too hard abt it or youll cry

lotus pier is soo pretty :((((((((((((((((

up until episode 13 you could think this could be a magical ancient chinese gays pride n prejudice w swords and shenanigans ................youre just not prepared for the game of thrones of it all

seriously ha ha ha i cried so much w this show my eyes genuinely swelled up . like. physically. fun timez fun timez

that being said, its hilarious that wen xu goes to cloud recesses like 'come out or ill kill all these hostages' and then DOESNT WAIT FOR AN ASWER AND KILLS THEM ALL IMMEDIATELY. do u know how blackmail works sir

would like to make it recorded that from day one i was like 'CALL A GODDAMN CULTIVATION G20 THIS ASSHOLE SECT IS LITERALLY MASSACRING YALL!!' and it took them like 3 or 4 massacres to do anything and they STILL sent their heirs into their territory LIKE

when wwx cites the gusu lan rules to wen chao tho. that rebel/attention whore/cutie pie 'look lan zhan i DID memorize the rules after all' ‘also a big fuck you to the wen sect :D :D’ sweet spot that scene achieves . delicious

all the cultivator young masters being petty af even though they are practically prisoners at the cave is hilarious and i love them

hurt and comfort + gay mistunderstandings + watsonian gay declaration music + accidental evil acquisition! at the cave (2)

its like where do i start? the fact theyre both trapped and kind of heavily injured inside an isolated cave with a murder turtle? wwx gay panicking lwj into coughing up bad blood? lwj being jealous as wwx babbles abt mianmian? telling him he shouldnt play with people and wwx saying he never played him? wwx going Oh. I See what is happening. YOU like mianmian, and lwj absolute done face ??? (iconic) wwx touching the sacred married ribbon Again? the telepathic communication? the sword? WEI WUXIAN ASKING LAN WANGJI TO SING TO HIM AS HE IS PASSING OUT AND LWJ SINGING HIM. THE SONG. HE WROTE. FOR WWX. AND THAT HE CALLED. THEIR SHIP NAME????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

they are SO insufferable pleeeeease

in the words of my friend 1 : “CQL is so gay we were all amazed how it got past the censors Ofc unfortunately it can't be novel level gay But they did their best And we love them for it”

in the theme of songs THIS OST. WUJI HAS BEEN LIVING IN MY MIND RENT FREE SINCE I FIRST HEARD IT the whole ost is so so sO beautiful.

the costuming in this is also soooo exquisite. the embroidery? the fabrics? the details? how every sect and clan has a distinct style and architecture? (also ik they based each off of dif periods in chinese history which is REALLY fucking cool) just chefs kiss

the direction too!. i enjoy the unusual camera movements and i think they give it that Vibe, also their composition is PARTICULARLY good when it comes to telling the subtext through position of camera/position of character (like nhs off to the side in scenes he at first glance doesnt need to be/ how lwj is often centered when hes Jealous Yearning at wwx being affectionate w other ppl, wwx return from burial mounds etc)

ik madam yu is like Badass Milf Check and shes not getting any mom of the year awards but im delighted at how messy she is. IMAGINE that woman on tiktok

you better have enjoyed gay cave (2) bc its Just Pain from here on out!

jiang fengmian and madame yu win the Most Dramatic Way to show they do care about each other, actually ..... ever :)

i thought jiang yanli jiang cheng and wei wuxian forcing themselves to escape yunmeng barely holding on after their parents are killed was going to be the height of pain in this show. ha.

the family dynamics in general on this showwwww, both blood/ adopted/ found families, brotherly bonds and lifelong friendships just. rly. truly. fucked me up. theyre all so important and complicated and well rounded and beautiful and tragic

and beyond being a Win For the Gays im so glad the relationships w wwx and jiang yanli/ wen qing were NOT changed from platonic bc they are so much better like that imo. like maybe if we didnt Live In A Society it wouldnt be so, but the fact wwx and others can love and value them so much and theres nothing romantic or sexual abt it is like. so refreshing. especially @ jyl, with the way he and jc are overprotective of her and shes such a nurturing/care taker figure for them, it would just not vibe as well if they made it romantic

i love that this is a story abt Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Patriarch aka Actual Satan/Boogey Man/Village With/Public Enemy Number One , my dude is literally a necromancer who only dresses in black and has evil smokey black tendrils wafting out of him, but the really edgy one is still jiang cheng, pastel purple fashion icon

and speaking of best/worst siblings wei wuxian and jiang cheng *immediately starts crying*

The Golden Core Transfer i just. no thots only tears

wen qing and wen ning putting themselves in so much danger just.... to help them. wn saving jc from wen chao. wq finding a way to get wwx to transfer his core. like thinking about the monumental work these two did to help wwx and jyl and jc... jyl trying so fucking hard to be strong and keep on moving and giver her little brothers comfort after losing everything... jiang cheng. losing his parents and his home and his ability to do anything abt it and his complete desperation and lack of self worth and turning on them with agression when he didnt realize all that they did for him ... hhhhhhhhhhhhh

me, pointing at the whole cast “i just LOVE them mom!!!”

its sad tho, that BARELY ANY of the women have like.... actual important conversations let alone relationships with each other at all in the story. and like wq and jyl have stayed at the same place for extended periods of time, where wq actively took care of her TWICE, and still! not one measly convo, nothing! ................ .𝓌ₕᵧ

everyone in this show need a good sip of Self Worth and Stop Sacrificing Yourself juice

ngl the sword flying looks very dumb

“a-cheng, please bring a-xian back.” “i will, i promise.” ;-;

the whole calling each other by the More Intimate Version of the name, first as teasing and later as true intimacy. mmmhmmm yes

untamed where everythings the same but wwx evil flute song is eoeo

related that scene when wwx comes back from the burial mounds for the first time w demonic cultivation and he acts all formal and calls lwj hanguang-jun and keeps being evasive and distant and mean and soooooo................. facetious

and how hes kind of desperately trying to keep intense lwj at bay (A FIRST) and avoiding actually talking to either of them and its all tension ughhh and then he MOCKS his and lwjs relationship, he jokes w him in this like... mean echo of their usual ~banter~ oof

and like!!! uncertain but so relieved jc who just HUGS him w no reservations for once and its not like he isnt just as worried as lwj abt wwx and what hes doing, but he chooses in that moment to enjoy getting him back first and mmhmMMMmMm yes (maybe my favorite scene in the whole show? MAYBE SO. )

highkey hurt me but also. i might be into mean wwx. i will take no criticism.

lan zhans sad eyes tho :(((((((((

on one hand i wish we could have seen what happened at the burial mounds but on the other the timeskip adds so much flair to his return so im hnnn

also i love that hes been missing for 3 months reappears kinda melancholic and bloodthirsty and knowing malign tricks and jc is like 'so. are u sad bc of lan wangji'

when ur bae survived the war but he thinks ur evil/ might be evil so you cant kiss :///

hmmm talking at the rooftop under the moonlight not mentioning everything that stands between usssss

they are the two jades of lan and we’ll be the two heroes of yunmeng is the type of line u dont even need to know whats gonna happen to know thats gonna be sad

when they fight wen ruoshan at the nightless city i thought that was the battle we see at the first ep and its not and its so easy and theyre all like ‘yayy we won go wwx!’ i was just. SCREAMS WHAT is gonna HAPPEN

so like. post burial mounds/sunshot campaign pre yiling patriarch wwx is like. ultra arrogant, ultra mocking, peak lil shit and it gave me e v e r y t h i n g i wanted

even tho having the wen prisoners at the targets at phoenix mountain and still having wwx and jzx shooting the arrows was???? so.... tone deaf

wwx: fucking w demonic energy jyl: he has never done anything wrong in his life, ever <3 <3 (mood)

the parallels between meng yao/wei wuxian (and even xue yang a bit?) are Seen and they are Valid

wwx post burial mounds: can yall SHUT UP abt the goddamn sword (suibian left the chat)

LIKE truly, we talk abt the angst and yearning with wangxian. but what abt wwx and suibian. xianbian / xianqing angst and comfort 100k

take a shot everytime someone coughs up blood

zidian is simply the coolest spiritual weapon rip to suibian and chenqing and bichen and sendou and baixa........ but tis the truth

cons: everyones families died in a nightmare war! everyones homes burned to the ground! everyone is traumatized! pros: everyone gets cooler clothes and weapons!!

wen ning and a-yuan and yanli bestest babes squad dont touch me rn

everyone: brooding and fighting wq and jyl: why dont you try some acupunture/drinking some soup and calm down huh? how abt that bitch??

showing the battle/massacre at the nightless city first was genius actually bc then everytime we have a cute scene w yunmeng bros and theyre like 'we'll be together forever! uwu' youre like oh. oh no. oh no no no.

justice vs lawfulness vs means and ends 👁

jc: stay in the right path and practice the art of the sword wx: yeah thats not gonna happen chief

my reaction to wwx renouncing to the sect politics to help the wens was just that elmo burning gif in succession

the dramatic rain. wen qing desperately calling out to wen ning. the ghosts/puppets killing the guards. how terrifying wn actually was while wwx was controlling him :( lwj goeing after him to try and stop him and then he just; he Sees him and understands him even if he cant actually do anything about it other than let them go.

“there must be somewhere in this earth we can go to :(((((((((”

"IF I HAVE TO FIGHT THEM, I'D RATHER IT BE YOU. DYING BY YOUR HANDS WOULD AT LEAST BE WORTH IT." oh my god oh my god oh my goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooddddddd

also lwjs umbrella is white w black smoke.. . . nice

yiling patriarch / demonic farming burial mounds settlement is like one of my favorite concepts. they an "EVIL" FARMING COMMUNITY LED BY THE VILLAGE WITCH COME ON

they planted TURNIPS and LOTUS FLOWERS and ONE (1) baby and made lanterns and a common hall :(((((((

wen qing and wei wuxian, baddest bitches and genius science best friends i absolutely LOVED to see it. they rly went ‘is anyone gonna sibling/project partner that’ and didnt wait for an answer

both wwx and jyl getting lotus ponds at the burial mounds and in lanling bc they miss lotus pier ;;;;;;;w

;;;;; wish jyl had actually gone into the burial mounds. we were robbed of jyl and wq meeting again and jyl meeting a-yuan and seeing the settlement and the homes and all ;w; at least jc did go, stab wounds and broken arms and all

wwx like... having thrown his whole life away to help the wens (yeah the sect leaders and jin guangshan in particular wanting his stygian tiger amulet was an Element but still) and not.... necessarily regretting it, but grappling with all of the consequences of it... becoming moody and drepressed at times, missing his family and lotus pier and his friends and probably simply missing being around people and causing trouble, extrovert that he is, lashing out at the wens and at a-yuan, just in general the whole messiness of that experience

the way the resentful energy does affect his temperament is rly nice bc its not too in your face,(i mean outside of the Shaky Hands of Rage) but like he clearly has a much lesser control on his anger and impulsivity (tall order) than both before bm and after hes ressurected

on that note A-YUAN BABIEST BABY BOY BEST BOY

lan zhan being like oh hey there wei ying fancy meeting u and our son here. just passing by u know how it is hmmmmMm and then PLOT TWIST having defied orders to go see him and being punished for it. oof;;

they habent seen each other in like? a year? and now theyre tgt 10 seconds and are already parenting a child together

also lwj rly kneels down in the snow way too much to be healthy

wwx: calm down guyssss i wont lose control of demonic cultivation omgggg . spoiler alert: he loses control of demonic cultivation

did u enjoy cute children? good bc now the Real Pain Begins

jiang yanli and jin zixuan rly out there APROPRIATING both disaster gays AND bury ur gays huh ;w;

i KNEW jin lings birthday was gonna fuck something up but the GASP that left my body when wwx lost control of wn and killed jin zixuan .. . .

im sorry and thank you aaaaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaAAAAaAAAAA

when wen ning and wen qing were telling wwx their plan i was saying NO NO NO NO NO NO out loud in despair

also can we talk abt how wq is definetely talking about only the both of them surrending themselves but then? everyone else just surrenders w them? IT MAKES NO SENSE LIKE WHY WOULD THEY what would be the Point

sometimes there are some pretty gaping jumps in logic and continuity that are just like ? ?

wwx: oh so when you try to murder me its justified but when i survive through dark magic and murder all of you its a "war crime"

unsurprisingly, his most feral, most spiraling moment talking to the sect leaders on the roof and attacking them and even fighting lan zhan is among my favorite scenes... its like, so painful to watch but also so thrilling (and maybe my wen bbs dying arose some resentful energy in me what can i say)

and its JUST, all they ever wanted was to do good but then... war. and trauma. and hubris.

jiang cheng on the ground clearly thorn between what to do and feel is a Mood, lets just say

i was already crying when jyl showed up, but if i wasnt-

i suffered SO MUCH through this series trying to figure out WHY jc would kill wwx. and when i understood. its somehow not as bad as i thought and also MUCH MUCH WORSE

a look into my group chat during the last flashback episodes:

SO ANYWAY. after the BLOOD BATH and RIPPING YOUR HEART OUT and FEEDING IT TO YOU the untamed goes ‘ayy back to the present!! tu du dud ud du’

literally it ends a quarter into an episode and then KEEPS GOING i had to pause and stare blankly at the ceiling for an hour

babie cultivators and detective soulmates . i do need some cute after All of That

(not that the pain is over LOL)

lwj is significantly less emotionally repressed in the present and its delightful. hes just ALL IN with wwx. and not just in the ‘i would and have killed various men and risked my reputation for you’ but also ‘ur tired here have a drink i brought it up cause i know u like it and it want you to be happy, always’

“when everyone praised me and wanted my power, you were the only one that challenged me. now that everyone hates me and wants me dead, youre the only one that stands by my side.” hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

and just filling in the blanks how lan zhan searched for him. for all of those 16 years he searched for him and was punished for it and raised a-yuan, the only survivor of the burial mounds settlement, as his own in gusu......

and jiang cheng. being the tough love uncle . having raised the yunmeng jiang clan from the rubble all alone, his whole family dead, some of it on the blame of his own brother, his siblings, his closest friends gone.......and only jin ling there needing his guidance.

THE PARALLEL BETWEEN JIN LING BEING A LIFELINE FOR JIANG CHENG AND A-YUAN FOR LAN WANGJI AFTER THE BATTLE AT THE NIGHTLESS CITY

great now i made myself sad

and like . the fact! that lwj and jc dislike each other!!. jc projects blame onto him for wwx both “leaving” him and indirectly causing their families deaths and when hes so consumed by it he makes wwx an enemy, lwj is there now? trying to protect him?? and lwj, who can never understand the pain that wwx , indirectly or not put jc through, but who was right there when jc tried to kill him and will never allow him to hurt wwx again. and how they like. in a way project blame of their tragedies onto each other while dealing with some type of survivor guilt and in their own way still loving wwx through it all??? amd in way its kind of fundamentally selfish but also tragically understandable? and like when u put it against the fact that after he disappears during the sunshot campaign they were looking for him together and fought together??

JUST. THE CHARACTERS. AND THE RELATIONSHIPS IN THIS. MAN. UGH. GOD.

and like i think thats what makes it so good? its such a sad and painful and violent story, edgy even, but its compelling bc at the center of it there are all of these relationships and different types of love and hope and. :( i love it

enough crying lets talk abt wwx sleeping at the jingshi with lwj and wearing his under garment for a minute 🙏

jin ling just has that Was Raised by JC energy tho lmao i love him

babie cultivator squad is the perfect ammount of cute and comedic relief while still bearing the weight? of the narrative in a way, both from sizhui and jin lings existences, and also. like. how do i put this. they feel hopeful? they were born after a war, they came of age at a time of relative peace, they dont hold on so closely to the resentments of their parents/father figures, they are specifically shown as more accepting and open minded. and its like.... Hope for the future

one of the ?? things i love the most is the fact that the main cast are often in situations where theyre hunted/running but they like. never wear disguises... just going around in their gorgeous expensive clan clothes and hair ornaments and distinctive spiritual weapons.... maybe w a straw hat on, just for kicks

wwx teacher 🥺🥺🥺

so this is why its called Yi City Misery huh

a-qing is such. an icon. im so sad. my girl even knew to leave xys dumb self rotting by the road but no one listens to her thats why theyre all dead or sad

her and xue yang measuring each other up was so entertaining lmao

its the funniest thing when hes like. HERES MY SAD STORY. FOR WHY IM A SADISTIC MURDERER. I BROKE MY HAND ONCE.

like ok someone broke his hand in a horrible way, and like Poverty, i get it but also like.......... that lost the brunt of a proper sob story like, 50 sadistic murders ago bby

and i love that xingchen does not entertain that for a second hes like ‘not ?????? good enough???’ and the best thing is he wasnt even like 'u hadto be the bigger person' or sth but ' well then break that dudes hand back, rip his arm off for i care, what do the rest of us have to do w anything???”

anjo sensato :(

xue yang is like..... the sexy sadistic evil version of a himbo..... a meanbo...

the fucked upness of xy’s feelings for xxc/ xxc and sl feelings for each other... like my dude literally gave his bf HIS EYES. and xy getting so attached to xxc .... the fucked up fake domesticity.... having him hurt sl..... then desperately trying to bring him back ...................... oof

song lan........... literally had his eyes AND tongue removed, his bfs eyes put in place, was almost killed, turned into a puppet by his bf unknowingly, manipulated by xy, sees his bf killing himself in despair.... and STILL finds the strenght to get up from there, and keep on traveling and helping people and attempting to fix xxcs soul.......... like, my man. damn.

wangxian looking at songxiao and seeing an Actually more painful parallel for themselves. ft. that Color Coding.

THE A-YUAN/SIZHUI REVEAL PUNCHED ME IN THE HEART but in a good way for a change

should have know that he would be the Best Boy the cute one w all the braincells

the butterfly AND the bunny lantern. i see how it is

u know is very convenient that no one can see the stark black veins on wen nings neck, ever

BAT WEN NING

wns face when lwj comes into wwx room like ‘:0 omg did u two finally get your shit together? good for you master wei good for u’

(they didnt) (yet)

DISASTER DRUNK LWJ. JUST. THRUST SOME CHICKENS TO SHOW UR RESSURECTED BAE THAT U LOVE THEM.

i have absolutely no idea WHY they gave lwj the same punishment for fighting his own sect/allies to protect the burial mounds as when they got drunk on cloud recess class days.... like? its such a ... emotional continuity error again

also is lwj gonna get an actual friend besides wwx , ever

mianmian marrying and having a family and a cute life after saying FUCK U AND UR SYSTEM TOO in a much less unhinged and dramatic way than wwx......... fills me w joy

also lol the idea that like. her husband not knowing that shes friends w satan/the boogey man/the village witch is hilarious

i love nie mingjue bc hes the resident Though Guy but also the most dramatic bitch in this show and thats Saying Something

jin ling cant have one uneventful relative can he

the fact that everyone present already knew “mo xuanyu” was wwx at the stairs is so funny, their faces are like ‘oh............ wow. that. sure is a development. shock”

in the tradition of extremely loud whispers wwx tells lwj with twelve guards standing like one meter away from them: HEY PSH LAN ZHAN PRETEND IM FORCING YOU TO STAY W ME DO IT

oh my god oh my god

the absolute Yearning on his face when he leaves wwx and a-yuan at the burial mounds and refuses to stay for dinner was already Enough but the fact?? they brought it back?? to this declaration of love?? their expressions??????? strike me dead right now just go ahead

lFor Legal Reasons We Cant Kiss but we will have a very sappy declaration of love and trust and look at each other in way that is the actualization of 💞💘💗💖💓💘💞💗💖💘💗💖💕💞

also icb all the sect leaders and guards are standing there watching them say they like like each other with a dozen swords pointing at their neck

i enjoyed the depiction of the fickle public perception and how easily it can be used to scapegoat people. when the sect leaders turn on jgy and wwx knows thats its more for convenience than anything else...

poor lxc is literally like 'oh so when YOUR problematic boyfriend gets called evil its a misunderstanding but when its MY problematic bf-'

ok like i cant get over nmj let jgy play a song that messed with his temperament at all, like maN u KNEW he might be shady wth

wwx: “hey dont say anything bad abt lan zhan hes not an arrogant dick, thats just his face.

ME ON THE OTHER HAND"

the cultivators as wwx is poking holes in their narrative is literally *nazaré meme*

"wei wuxian-!" "what did i break your leg, too?" not to be problematic but i laughed so hard

not as hard as "you dont have the rank to talk to me " tho

i Enjoy that, over the course of story, wwx sees that... theres nothing truly to Do, but move on. he saw how his arrogance and his mistakes hurt others, and hes trying to fix what he can, but he already did die for his mistakes and there are things he cant fix and that's. just how it is. even towards jgy, the narrative doesn't go gleefully and completely with "lets make THEM pay bc theyre the big bad" bc its not that simple, and it wouldn't lead anywhere but more pain...

re him and jiang cheng and the wens and kinda. isnt that what nhs did? scheming to displace jgy out of revenge more than any justice and doing so in the most painful way?

idk if that actually makes sense im truly just babbling

i thought the scene at the lotus pond would be CUTE but the context was PAIN again

jiang cheng finding out about his golden core and his conflict with wwx at the guanyin temple .... destroyed me but in a nice way kinda.... same way it destroys him look at his face oh god

and. the fact??? he sacrificed himself for wwx?? first?? and he'll probably never tell anyone much less wwx???? keeps me up at night

i havent decided if the neckbreak transition between jgy does sth super Evil or does he he does OR Does He yes he does O R does heeeee is sth i dislike or not

jin guangyao and wei wuxians most interesting parallel is that... theyve both seen 'hmm hey this system is fucked up' and wwx went 'so fuck it all i will renounce it and challenge it' and jgy went 'so fuck it i will use all of it to my advantage and manipulate it to my goals and whims'

the fact jgys mom was actually great and he loved her and his whole issue w it was more than simply being ashamed of being a bastard kinda got me ngl

never trust a dude with a fan.

nhs and jgy: the first rule to a convoluted and decades spanning violent revenge plot is to have fun and be yourself!

when a-yuan finally FINALLY remembers ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; wen ning has someone in his family back and a-yuan has someone to talk abt his wen family and wwx has him back bc he survived and lwj raised him anD HES THEIR SON. THEYRE MARRIED AND HAVE A SON. UGH.

and theyre allowed to heal. everyone is allowed to try and recover and be happy

netflix put all of the 3 endings on top of each other and it looks kinda weird actually BUT I DONT EVEN MIND :’’’’’’’’’)

the gasp that left me when lwj says ‘wei ying’ and wwx turns.........

there was also a screen with ‘thank you mxtx for creating these characters, we hope their wishes come true’ and i might. have cried then too. maybe.

that was . a ride. as is proven by this behemot of a ramble clearly i just really needed and Outlet. i am currently trying to convince dumb monkey brain to not consume the other medias of mdzs immediately bc i REALLY need to like. live. a life. and take care of real responsibilities. *longest oh boi ever*

#m.#ANYWAY #ENOUGH TALKING #THIS IS SO LONG #LOL #but whatever this is MY performative journaling i do what i want #rambling impressions abt what i watch is a thing i do now? apparently??#cql #untamed #the untamed #fun fact that chat is named 'k keeps on babbling abt the untamed' and it STILL wasnt enough #also it took me 15 episodes to realize lwj was yibo #IT WAS V SHOCKING #i did not recognize him at a l l #but in retrospect he WAS the perfect choice

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headcanonsandmore · 3 years

Text

“Letters to Charlie”

Summary: A selection of letters from Ron to his brother Charlie, throughout Ron's first four years at Hogwarts. Includes some mild Romione mentions.

Read on FFN. Read on AO3.

~~~~~~~~~

[1st October 1991]

Dear Charlie,

How are things at the reserve? You said in your last letter that you’ve been getting a lot more burns than normal; have you asked mum for her recipe on salves?

Anyway, I’m settling in okay at Hogwarts. Really glad I was in Gryffindor; my friend Harry was really worried about it, I think. He’s doing fine, but I wish everyone would stop gawking at him all the time. He’s a good bloke; bit quiet but, considering what his aunt and uncle seem to be like, that’s not surprising.

Also, there’s this girl in our class who’s pretty annoying. She treats everyone like they’re idiots and she’s such a teacher’s pet! Her name’s Hermione Granger, and she’s always butting in whenever me and Harry are chatting. She’s not all bad, but I wish she wouldn’t be so uptight about everything. You’d think that someone with hair that bushy would be a bit more fun-loving, but she’s very straightlaced. But I saw her laughing the other day at a joke I made, so maybe she’s not so serious all the time? She has a cute nice laugh.

Don’t tell the twins I said that, or they’ll never stop going on about it.

Anyway, hope you’re okay and that everyone at the reserve is doing fine,

Love,

Ron

[12th November 1991]

Dear Charlie,

Glad to hear that that the Common Welsh Green pair are doing okay. Things have gotten pretty weird at Hogwarts; someone (probably Peeves) let a troll into the castle at Halloween! Me and Harry had to rescue Hermione Granger from the troll; she covered for us, so we didn’t get punished. McGonagall even gave us some points for Gryffindor!

Hermione’s alright, I think. Bit intense, but she’s not as stuffy as I thought. I mean, it was kind-of my fault that she ended up getting caught by the troll, so I’m glad she didn’t hold a grudge about it. She’s always asking me about stuff, probably because she’s never grown up in a magical family. You wouldn’t think it if you saw her in class, though; she gets so many questions right and she’s apparently memorised the textbooks! Barmy, I know, but she’s alright.

Speaking of dragons, do you know if there’s any way of getting a baby one out of the country? Hagrid has a baby Norwegian Ridgeback in his house, but it’s dangerous for the baby to stay here.

Love,

Ron

[16th August 1992]

Dear Charlie,

We managed to rescue Harry from the Dursleys! Mum went mad when we got back, but no harm done. Harry’s aunt and uncle had bars put on his window! I told mum we had to get him out quick; good thing I noticed he wasn’t responding to my letters. Apparently, a house-elf was trying to stop him going back to Hogwarts; weird, right?

Hermione’s saying that she’s hoping to meet up with us in Diagon Alley; I hope so. It’ll be nice to see her again. Apparently, she’s already done all her homework, but that’s what she’s like. What do you think I should get her for her birthday? I asked Harry, but he suggested one of the textbooks (the poor bloke’s never had to buy any presents for anyone ever). I was thinking maybe some of her favourite long-lasting quills, but I’m not sure. Do you reckon I should get her something more… girly? Her best mates are two blokes, so maybe she’d like something to make it clear that I we don’t just see her as another boy? What do you think?

I’m looking forward to Hogwarts this year; hopefully, it should be a bit quieter than last year. How’s your summer been going? You mentioned about the Chinese Fireball having fang rot; has that been fixed yet, or is she still having troubles?

Hope all’s good with you,

Love,

Ron

[6th January 1993]

Dear Charlie,

You’ve probably heard the news already about the attacks happening at Hogwarts. The teachers don’t seem to know who’s doing it. Me, Harry, and Hermione have been trying to figure things out, but we haven’t got any leads lately. We thought it might have been Malfoy, but turns out he’s not doing it (still too happy about the attacks, though, the little git!).

I’m really worried about Hermione, to be honest. The attacks are always against muggle-borns and I’m scared she’s gonna be attacked. Do you know if there’s any creature that can petrify someone? I would ask the defence teacher, but Lockhart can barely tell one end of his wand from the other. Can’t see why Hermione likes him so much; can’t she see how much of a stupid twerp he is?

Like I said before, I’m really sorry about breaking your old wand. I know you said you don’t mind and you’re just glad I was okay, but still. It keeps making weird bubbles whenever I try and cast any spells. My own fault for breaking it, I guess.

Hope you’re well,

Love,

Ron

[8th May 1993]

Dear Charlie,

Hermione got attacked. She’s been stuck in the hospital wing ever since.

I’m scared. Harry’s managing to keep his head screwed on straight, but I can’t concentrate in lessons. I keep expecting Hermione to be sat next to me, and whenever I turn to look at her, I remember where she is. All pale and cold, like she’d dead or something.

What do I do, Charlie? How do I help her?

Love,

Ron

[1st June 1993]

Dear Charlie,

Hermione’s okay! The mandrake stuff finally got given to her, and she’s back to normal! I haven’t smiled this much in months! She gave me and Harry a massive hug each when she turned up in the great hall; me and her couldn’t quite look each-other in the eye afterwards, but I think we both got a bit overwhelmed, you know?

Turns out, this was also because Lucius Malfoy was trying to stop dad’s muggle protection law being passed; people could have died!

Confused as to why none of the teachers bothered to ask Myrtle, since she was a witness to the last time the chamber has been opened, but I guess we’ll never know. Were the teachers like this when you were here?

Anyway, got to go; I insisted that Hermione play some chess with me, since our exams have been cancelled (can you guess which Gryffindor was upset about that?).

Love,

Ron

[3rd September 1993]

Dear Charlie,

We’re all settling back in at Hogwarts; I’m still using those quills you got me in Egypt (thanks again, by the way). Everyone’s talking about Sirius Black, and Malfoy won’t stop being smug about how he knows something we don’t (arrogant little twerp as always).

Hermione’s cat is a bloody nightmare; he’s spent every evening trying to get at Scabbers, but Hermione won’t hear a word against him! Honestly, I don’t get why she can’t just keep the cat away when I ask her to. But she’s always had this thing about being right about everything, so it’s not unsurprising. I just wish she’d stop acting like it’s normal; Hedwig’s been around for three years, and she’s never attacked Scabbers!

Having said that, the first Hogsmeade visit is something to look forward to. It’s gonna be a bit different because Harry can’t go (his aunt and uncle refused to sign his form), but me and Hermione are going to make sure we take back lots of stuff for him so he doesn’t feel left out.

I am a little nervous about going, though; me and Hermione spend loads of time together, so why would this be any different? Probably nothing. Maybe it’s just because we’re bickering more because of our pets? Yeah, that sounds about right. I’ve already got her birthday present, so hopefully she’s not too angry at me and won’t mind me giving her a present.

Let me know how the Chinese Fireball baby is doing,

Love,

Ron

[4th January 1994]

Dear Charlie,

Hermione just can’t keep her nose out of things! She reported Harry’s firebolt to McGonagall, and now it’s been confiscated! She says it’s because it could have been sent by Sirius Black. I know that’s a possibility, but she didn’t need to go behind Harry’s back about it!

I swear, this girl is driving me nuts!

Love,

Ron

[13th February 1994]

Dear Charlie,

Me and Hermione have made things up; she even apologised about Scabbers. She must have been really upset, because she started crying and hugged me! Is it normal to get all flustered when a girl hugs you? Cause it didn’t the same as it did when she hugged me at the end of second year.

You’ve probably heard from Hagrid about Buckbeak being executed. We’re trying to get an appeal plea sorted; it’s mostly me and Hermione doing it, since Harry’s got other stuff to worry about. It’s nice being friends with Hermione again; I hated it when we weren’t speaking. It’s still a bit awkward (we both can’t quite look each other in the eye at times), but that’s probably normal, given what’s happened.

Remember to put that salve mum made on your new scars,

Love,

Ron

[14th July 1994]

Dear Charlie,

Hope you’re enjoying the summer so far; it’ll be great to see you again, mum’s organising the room situation, so I think you’re sharing with Bill. Can’t wait for the world cup! Do you think Ireland will win against Bulgaria? I’ve been saving my pocket money all summer for it, so I can buy some souvenirs! Are you gonna bring some stories about the dragons when you get here?

Mum’s said I can invite Harry and Hermione over, and they’ll be coming to the world cup with us! It’ll be brilliant to see them again; Harry deserves a break from those horrible people he lives with, and Hermione could do with a break from work in general (she’s already finished all her summer homework, but that’s what she’s like).

It’ll be great to have both of them here for the summer; I hope Hermione doesn’t mind sharing with Ginny, since Gin’s more of a Quidditch-head than Hermione is. Mum keeps on at me to tidy my room before Hermione arrives, but it’s not as if she’s staying in my room, is it?

I did clean up my room a bit, though. Hermione’s a bit funny about mess, and I don’t want her to think I’m a slob.

See you soon,

Love,

Ron

[30th October 1994]

Dear Charlie,

I’m still angry at mum, dad, and Bill for keeping us in the dark about the Triwizard Tournament; half the other kids from wizarding families knew! Speaking of the Tournament, the students from the other schools have arrived. You won’t believe it but Viktor Krum’s a student at Durmstrang! He’s a bit grouchy looking, but I guess he gets sick of people treating him different all the time. I didn’t know he was eighteen; he looks way older. The Slytherins are trying to cosy up to him, but he’s knows exactly what they’re doing; I saw him telling a few of them off for being unpleasant to the muggle-born first years. So I guess he’s alright.

The students from Beauxbatons are all nice enough but one of the girls has some sort of Veela charm thing. Hermione keeps glaring at me whenever I get caught in it, but it’s hardly my fault, is it? Harry gets affected too, but does she yell at him? No, of course she doesn’t. I swear, Hermione’s been weird ever since the term started; the other week I caught her staring at my hands for no reason. She got all flustered when she saw I’d noticed, and yelled at me to concentrate on my work. I’m worried about her. Did that ever happen between you and your friends at school? Is this something that happens around our age? I know that mum said things start to change after you get into your teenage years.

Speaking of change, I hope I can get some new dress robes before I ever have to wear these ones. Do you think Bill has any old ones he can let me borrow? I don’t get why mum didn’t just remove the lace and change the colour. I was going to ask Hermione to do it, but I don’t want her to think I’m whining. I just wish I could have some decent robes like all the other boys have. I know money’s tight at the moment, but even the twins have got alright-looking robes to wear I’d feel a lot better if I wasn’t stuck wearing rubbishy clothes for once.

Apparently, the tournaments due to start tomorrow evening. Me and Harry did have a think about entering, but it’s probably too high security. Fred and George said they’re gonna enter, because they turn seventeen in April, so they won’t need to use much aging potion. Should be interesting to see whether they succeed. I just hope we get a decent Hogwarts champion; Cedric Diggory’s alright, but half the girls get giggly over him and it’s bloody annoying. Hermione says it’s because he’s a prefect, but she’s a bit funny like that. If I ever end up a prefect, I bet I wouldn’t have girls giggling and getting flustered about me.

Got to go now; Hermione said she wants to go over our Transfiguration homework in the common room.

Love,

Ron

[25th November 1994]

Dear Charlie,

You should have told me you’d be here for the first task! I know it was secret, but it would have been nice to catch up! Glad the trip over was safe and that the dragons are all okay. That Hungarian Horntail was a nasty piece of work; Harry almost got hit by it!

Speaking of which, me and Harry are best mates again. I’m glad; it was miserable when we weren’t speaking. Funnily enough, he said he didn’t even need an apology; just told me to forget about it. Weird bloke, but it’s great to be friends with him again. Hermione got all teary and told us we were being stupid, but she’s never really understood things like this, so there you go.

Love,

Ron

[17th December 1994]

Dear Charlie,

Glad to hear the dragons got safely back to Romania with no issues. I almost wish I was there instead; ever since this ball thing got announced, half the school’s gone mad about it. Everyone’s asking everyone to it, and I don’t get it. Why can’t we all just go as friends and have fun? But the boys keep going on about dates, so I said I best go with someone good-looking. Yes, I know it’s dumb, but how else will I get everyone to not laugh at my robes? I even asked McGonagall if I could go in my school ones, but she insisted that I use my official dress robes (although she did look sympathetic while she said it, so I guess she understood where I was coming from).

Flitwick’s doing alterations to people’s robes, but he was so swamped with requests that there isn’t any room for me to get mine changed. I swear, I can’t wait until the ball is done and I won’t have to worry about this stuff anymore.

I’d happily stay behind in Gryffindor Tower with the first, second and third years, but I can’t leave Harry in the lurch. He’s got to be there to open the ball, and it wouldn’t be fair to leave him on his own; the poor bloke isn’t good with crowds, especially since half of the school still gawks at his scar every day.

Hermione doesn’t seem to take much interest in the ball, so maybe she’s also planning on staying behind. She got angry at me when I mentioned about going with a pretty girl, which is understandable (it was a dumb thing to say). Hopefully, she’ll have forgiven me by the time Christmas swings around, and we can just go and have fun at the ball. Just as friends, obviously. Maybe if we’re having a laugh, I won’t have to think about my robes looking so awful.

Love,

Ron

[27th December 1994]

Dear Charlie,

I swear, if I ever have to go to another ball again, it’ll be too soon! Hermione’s still angry at me about it; which makes sense, since I was a bit of an arse. But, well, she went with Krum! Seriously, he’s eighteen and she’s barely fifteen! Why didn’t any of the teachers think that was creepy? Why was I the only person who got irritated by it? Is it really so bad that I don’t want my friend being pursued by some creepy eighteen-year-old git? I know what the twins are saying about it, but it’s alright for them, isn’t it? They had decent robes and could actually ask a girl without the girl glaring at them like they’d only just realised the girl was a girl! Gits. They don’t get it.

Ginny had a nice time with Neville, at the very least. Neville’s a good bloke, and I’m glad he treated her well. Apparently, she borrowed a dress off a friend for the ball. I wish I was shorter so I could have just borrowed something off Harry; that would have at least made things a bit easier. Then I wouldn’t have already been a bad mood before we even got to the ball.

Seriously, I’m never wearing those robes again. I don’t care what mum says, I’d rather go in my normal school ones that those frilly disasters.

Me and Hermione are being more polite to each other than normal, which is probably for the best. I hate the fact that I got so angry at her, but I’ve learnt now to not act like that again. I mean, considering she got Krum, I don’t think she’ll need to worry about me acting like that again. It wasn’t as if she even said she wanted to go with me, either; how was I supposed to know? I’m not a mind-reader!

Hope your Christmas is going better than mine, and thank you for the burn-proof socks; they’ll come in handy against the Skrewts.

Love,

Ron

[27th February 1995]

Dear Charlie,

It was nice getting some of the limelight for a while; everyone was asking me about what it was like during the second task. I even had Padma Patil hanging on to my every word about it; I even managed to apologise to her properly for being such a berk at the ball (she was my dance partner, but we didn’t do any dancing). She seemed pretty okay with it.

Fleur Delacour (you remember, the champion who used the calming charm on her dragon in the first task) is being very nice lately; I think she got the impression me and Harry helped saved her sister in the second task. She even gave me a kiss on the cheek after we were all out of the lake! It’s nice to get attention from girls for a change.

Funnily enough, Hermione get glaring at me for the rest of the day. Funny how it’s fine for her to get attention from boys (that creep Krum had her as the person he’d miss the most; they’ve only been to the Yule ball together, the pervy git!), but I can’t do so much as talk to other girls without getting the cold treatment from her. Barmy as ever, but that’s what she’s like.

I think Harry’s really happy about the tournament just having one task left; at this point, I just hope he gets through it with no injuries or anything. Poor bloke’s had another rough year, and I hope he can take it easy after this is all over.

I wonder what I’ll get for my birthday this year. You think Hermione will get me anything? She’s so irritable lately that I wouldn’t be surprised if she just gets me a card and some chocolate frogs. Given what’s happened between us lately, that sounds about as much as I can hope for.

At least we’re still friends, though. I’m not that much of an idiot that I’d stop talking to her over this. I almost lost one friend this year; I don’t want the same thing happening with Hermione.

Love,

Ron

[29th June 1995]

Dear Charlie,

Harry left the hospital wing a few days ago. Me and Hermione are trying to help him as best we can, but the poor bloke still’s struggling. I’m not surprised, considering what he went through.

Dumbledore’s said that things are already changing. I just hope he knows what to do. But he’s still saying that Harry needs to go back to the Dursleys this summer. I hope we can pick him up as soon as possible; Harry’s relatives are bloody horrible.

After the third task, me and Hermione stayed up in the common room. We’ve both said we’re gonna help Harry with whatever happens in future. She also hugged me before she went to bed. It was different this time. It seemed like neither of us wanted to let go.

Stay safe,

Love,

Ron

~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for reading, everyone! Hope you enjoyed it!

#harry potter fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic #ron weasley #charlie weasley #tw: food mention #tw: insecurities #tw: mental health #character study #pre-romione #romione #ronmione

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all1e23 · 4 years

Text

Powdered Sugar

Pairings: Sugar Daddy!Bucky x Reader

Summary: Boston didn’t come without repercussions.

Warnings: A bit angsty, but Bucky is all love sick if that helps.

A/N: It’s a shorter chapter but it’s still important and it sets up where our slightly dumb couple is headed. I tried to grab everyone who asked for a tag recently if I missed you please let me know and I’ll add you. This is the fourth part of my series Sugary Sweet. Make sure you catch up!

***My fics are not to be saved or posted on any other sites without my written permission. Reblogs are my jam, though! Thanks!***

It felt good to be home. Every time Bucky’s left New York and came back, it made him realize how much this city really was home. Now you were part of that. You were home. It had been five days since you left Bucky to fend for himself in Boston. On the morning of your flight, he got up before the sun was and drove you to the airport. He kissed you for fifteen minutes in front of the airport security check-in and nearly made you late for your flight; he couldn't help it. He hated being away from you, and knowing it would be days before he could hold you again, he might have gone a little overboard — Bucky wanted to make sure you wouldn’t forget about him before he made it back to Brooklyn and to you.

Steve handed over three folded bills to the cashier behind the counter and took two paper cups of coffee, passing one to Bucky. It was their first day back in the office since closing the deal with Carol, and Bucky was having trouble focusing on his job for the first time in his life. He desperately wanted to ditch work and spend the rest of the day in bed with you, but he had a company to run, and he had to be a grown-up.

As Steve reminded him, all damn day.

“So, what’s going on with you and Y/n? You both were... different in Boston.”

“I don’t know Stevie. That last night…” Bucky shook his head and stared at the white plastic lid over his coffee, he couldn’t explain it — there were no words to describe how he felt about you and what happened this past week only made things more confusing.

“It was different. She said I was her stupid, and things were just different from how they usually are. The way we were with each other... I dunno, man.”

Steve was quiet for a long beat before he looked at Bucky with a small grimace he asked, “You’re excited because she called you stupid? I call you stupid all the time.”

“No, it wasn’t like that—”

“Sam constantly calls you dumb. All the time. I have to separate you two—”

“Steve!’ Bucky groaned and shoved Steve away from him. He was not in the mood. He was already grumpy because he wouldn't get to see you until the Stark Gala, and now Steve was pissing him off with the dumb questions.

“She said my stupid. It’s the ‘my’ part I was talkin’ about, dumbass. She called me hers, and it wasn’t the first time, either.”

“What else did she say?” Steve urged with a wide grin.

Bucky felt his cheeks pink, and his ears were burning. He cleared his throat and grumbled through a forced cough. “Uh, she called me her… fella.”

Steve chuckled and bumped Bucky’s shoulder with his. If Sam were there, he probably would have teased him over the pet name, but Steve didn’t. He liked seeing Bucky this happy, and Steve knew it was all thanks to you. He wasn’t about to cheapen Bucky’s feelings by teasing him over a silly name.

“You’re in deep, aren’t you?” Steve asked, already knowing the answer, and Bucky grinned and told him honestly, “Yeah, I think I am, Stevie.”

Bucky fished his phone out of his pocket, with all this talk, and he realized he hadn’t heard from you yet today. This was a sign. Boston was the push he needed. He needed to stop this nonsense, and tell you what he wanted, tell you where he wanted your relationship to go. He was going to tell you what’s on his heart at the Stark Gala — he was done playing around. You had to know he was all in, but if you wanted to keep things the way they were, he could be okay with that. He will stick around for as long as you’ll have him because he was already in love with you.

It was going to hurt when you leave him no matter what, you should at least know how he felt when you do walk away.

You arrived home nearly six days ago, and from the moment you stepped through the door, you refused to talk about the trip or Bucky. There wasn’t a moment of that trip you wanted to relive — even the good parts, it would only make the bad parts more painful. Pretending as if the terrible, awful, wonderful week never happened was the only way you could clean up the mess you made of your heart.

Of course, it would be easier to forget if your roommate minded her own business, and she wouldn’t let it go.

Every time Natasha asked you a question about Boston or Bucky, you evaded. You would change the subject back to her or offer to buy dinner, and Clint would change the topic for you — the pizza or Chinese debate always bought you an hour. Natasha would only put up with that for so long, though. There was no way you could keep that up forever, and you knew that, but you couldn’t get the words out even if you wanted to.

It hurt. You needed distance between you and the damage that was done — if you were going to find a way to repair it.

This morning, you sat at the counter spoon hanging loosely from your hand, spinning your cereal as you stared at your phone in your other hand. You had been like this since you opened Instagram, sitting and gawking at your phone. You couldn’t eat. All you could do was stare. Not after you saw what Sam posted. Most of his additions were of the boys and usually picking on Bucky, but the latest picture was what caught your attention. It looked like it was their last night in Boston, and Carol was smushed between the men.

Against your better judgment, your thumb took on a life of its own and clicked her profile. Carol had reposted Sam’s original image, but there was another photo that made a green monster stir in your chest. The look of their attire said it was towards the end of the night, jackets had been shed, and hair was let down— it was only her and Bucky this time.

Bucky had been caught mid-laugh, glowing smirk and little eye crinkles in captured in Mayfair or whatever the hell filter she deemed was best to highlight your boyfriend— Bucky. He was not your boyfriend. Carol's arm was linked in Bucky's, and she was gazing at him adoringly, but it was the caption that had your hackles raised.

Can you believe no one has snatched this man up? He’s more than just a pretty face, let me tell you. Sweet like you wouldn’t believe and knows how to negotiate. Can’t wait to start working with this stud.

“Why don’t you snatch him up?”

You jumped at the sound of Natasha’s voice coming from over your shoulder and dropped your phone to the counter, narrowly missing your bowl of milk. You hated it when she did that.

“Seriously?” You whined loudly. “I told you not sneak up on me!”

“Sorry. I said your name three times, but you were busy staring at your phone like it was going to turn into something. So, did you snatch him up?”

You shook your head, letting her know you didn’t want to talk about it, but you had to say something. It had been days since it all went down, and she would find out eventually. It was better she found out now before Bucky tired of you and found someone else. You slid off the stool to drop your bowl in the sink. Your cheerios were soggy anyway.

“No, I didn’t, and no, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Y/n, what happened--”

“He doesn’t want to be snatched up, okay? Least of all by me.”

Natasha watched you dump your breakfast in the trash and pour your glass of orange juice down the sink. You avoided her eyes, but she could still see the hurt filling them, as you explained everything that happened in Boston and everything you heard that night. None of it made any sense. Bucky told her how he felt, the whole truth, and no one lies to Natasha.

“Y/n, I know that’s not true.” Natasha pointed to where you were standing and told you what happened that morning he invited you to Boston. “He stood right there, looked me in the eye, and said you meant something to him. He said he was going to tell you in Boston how much you meant to him and that he wanted more than this game you two are playing."

"Well, he lied!” You shouted, falling back against the counter from the blowback of the admission. “Of course, he lied. You’re my best friend. You probably would have killed him and hid the body before I got out of the shower. He’s not going to tell you the truth because he knew you would tell me.”

“And why do you think he told them the truth?”

“Steve is his best friend and his business partner. They all served together, Steve, Sam, and Bucky. They are brothers, and he’s known Sharon for over a decade before she ever married Steve. There is no way he lied to them, and even if he did lie to them, it doesn’t make him any better. It only means he’s embarrassed to with me, so he lied to the people closest to him.”

Natasha wanted to argue, but she couldn’t. He lied to someone, and no matter who caught the lie and who heard the truth, none of it was good.

“You need to talk to him. Tell him what you heard and let him explain himself. Maybe it’s all a misunderstanding. If it turns out he is a total dick, you can use the moves I taught you freshmen year and give him a broken arm as a parting gift.”

A single kiss dropped to your cheek, and she left you alone to find your way through the tangled web of dark thoughts spinning around your head. Natasha was right — like always. You needed to talk to him about the trip, but first… You grabbed your phone from where it fell on the counter and pulled up your messages. Your stupid fingers were at it again. A quick screenshot of Carol’s post, you dropped into the textbox and typed furiously before your brain could gain control over your fingers.

You: Looks like you had fun. Did you finally get snatched up?

That sounded awful and jealous and childish. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want to be with you, your phone mocks.

You watched three bubbles pop up right away as if he was already sending you something or at the very least, had his phone in his hand, and guilt swam up your throat, choking you. He was probably working, and you were sending him childish messages fueled by jealousy.

Fella❤: I had more fun when you were with me. I got snatched up months ago. Sorry to say. A sweet girl stole me away. Made me her fella, didn't you hear?

You hated how he could say things that meant so much to you and mean so little to him, and you really hated how much you didn’t hate it at all.

You: Did she? Really?

Fella ❤: Really and truly. She did. I was hoping she would be my date to the Stark Modern Art Charity Gala this weekend. I was about to ask her when I got your message. I haven't seen her in days, and I'm itchin' to have her on my arm again.

Of course, on his arm for show and nothing more.

You: That can be arranged. I don't have a dress, though. I don’t want to embarrass you.

Fella ❤: You could wear a garbage bag and be beautiful, and you could never embarrass me. BUT if you insist on getting dressed up. I think I have something in mind. I'll send it over.

Fella ❤: What has you thinking I could ever be embarrassed by you?

You ignored the question and hoped your answer would keep him distracted so you could have that conversation in person.

You: Okay, I’ll be your girl for the night.

Fella ❤: I hope after the gala it will be more than just one night, sweet girl.

Ordinarily, Bucky’s flirting and little sexual innuendos would make your toes curl, and those stupid butterflies in your stomach flutter — maybe even laugh if it was silly enough, but it didn’t. It left you feeling empty and… wanting. Which only made your choice easier. Of course, you were going to go wherever he wanted you to go because truthfully, five days was far too long without him. You missed him. You missed so much your chest ached, and the only thing that could ease the hurt was seeing him.

If being Bucky’s sugar baby was the only way you could have him, then you were going to take what he could give until he was done with you because you were not ready to lose him just yet.

#sugar daddy!bucky #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #Bucky x you #bucky x reader #bucky x y/n #sugar daddy AU #alternate universe #sugary sweet series #james buchanan barnes #bucky barnes

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kittypurritto · 5 years

Note

Helllu! I see you've been watching lots of chinese/korean dramas. Can you rec your favs?

Hello!! Of course I can n.n (sorry it took so long to answer, I kept making changes to this aha). I’ve decided to list my current top 3 favourites, because apparently I’ve watched a lot.

Okay guys, here goes.

Chinese dramas:

So lately the past year or so of my life has been consumed by cdrams (and recently kdramas by extension), but here are some of my faves that I’ve watched.

The Untamed

Anyone who follows my blog knows my crazy obsession with this amazing show. It’s based off of a novel called the Grandmaster of demonic cultivation (has an anime with the same name– s2 is slowly being released right now). The story takes place in a world ruled by the evil Wen Sect. Wei Ying and Lan Zhan cross paths and become good friends (hardcore bromance). Wei Ying tries to save innocent Wen from death, and in the end, he lost almost everything. After going missing for 16 years, the pair find each other again and try to find the real villain.

It’s full of action, mystery, adventure, heart ache, supernatural ghouls, longing, whumping, and an amazingly attractive cast that should honestly be illegal. If you’re looking for a show with lots of emotional pain that will swallow you whole, then you’re in the right place.

P/s. the 2 mains sing their love song which makes it that much more beautiful/painful.

Ps/s. IT ALSO JUST GOT PUT ONTO NETFLIX GUYS. No excuses not to binge it, and when you do, dm me so we can fangirl together.

Guardian

Another drama based off of a novel, with gay bros, longing, and adventure. Shen Wei is an immortal (kind of), and currently a university professor that has been waiting centuries for his lover/friend (Yunlan) to repay him for what he gave Shen Wei and will do anything for him. Zhao Yunlan is the head of the SID, a department that solves mysteries and crimes with supernatural origins. Together they help save others, solve mysteries, and save the world from Shen Wei’s evil twin brother.

All I can say about this one is that if you haven’t seen it, you’re seriously missing out (but warning, the cgi is horrible lmao). It was also super amazing seeing Zhu Yilong in a main role like this. The king of micro-expression seriously doesn’t let us down.

Legend of Fuyao

This show had consumed my soul for about a full month and a half until I finished it. When I finished watching, it left me sad that it was over. Got to be honest, the ending is still a bit confusing, but is still worth the watch. This is an epic love story about Fuyao, an orphan looking for adventure, but gets caught in a fight between kingdoms and destiny. Along the way, she meets the Crown Prince and they fall in love, but destiny has their fates already decided. They are on the opposite sides of good and evil and need to decide whether one lives and the other dies. It’s got amazing fight scenes and a really attractive male lead (his first lead in a show I believe). Super amazing acting, because let’s be real, any show with Yang Mi is an automatically good show. She’s just too amazing.

Other honourable mentions: Granting you a dreamlike life, Eternal Love, Untouchable Lovers, the Rise of Phoenixes, Detective L– were amazing shows I could rewatch until I die.

Side note: I am super excited for Xiao Zhan’s Jade Dynasty. So hopefully that movie will be available to us soon.

Korean Dramas:

All right guys. I’ve only recently started watching korean shows about half a year ago or so, so I haven’t seen too many, but the ones I have seen I’ve fallen into a deep love with that keeps me going lol.

My Country: The New Age (ongoing)

This show only has 8 episodes so far and I can’t tell you all how amazing this show is. Words can literally not even describe how much it’s consuming every waking second of my life right now. I think the main reason is Seon ho, who started off as someone you respect, but is constantly doing bad shit. He tries to salvage good things from the wrecks he keeps making, but who knows how long that will last. He is ambiguous and slowly turning into a villain. He is slowly turning into the things he wants to destroy and it’s heartbreaking. My heart aches for him and Hwi all the damn time. I just want them to be bff again and stop fighting, but of course this won’t happen. This show has political turmoil and a country at war with a royal family and council who just wants to watch the world burn. Of course, this means manipulating everyone to get what they want, but both Hwi and SH are trying to play their own game, accidentally putting themselves against each other constantly. Watch for heart break, friendship (sometimes), and very attractive male leads aha.

Also, the music is 1000000 thumbs up. All I can say is PLEASE WATCH IT AND FREAK OUT WITH ME.

It’s on netflix, so guys, no excuse lol (DM me to fangirl with me

Black

I don’t want to spoil too much about this show because it’s honestly an experience. It’s about a girl who can see when people are going to die because of the shadows that follow them. She meets a childhood friend, who has a secret, and he asks her to help him solve crimes and protect people from dying, but of course he has his own plans. Get ready for a funny and badass female lead guys.

It’s the first korean drama I watched and will always be one of my faves. It’s an incredible murder-mystery story with more layers than a damn onion. It’ll keep you on your toes and the ending makes me cri evry tiem.

Arthdal Chronicles

At first I thought this show was kind of weird, but an episode in and I was hooked. This show is difficult to explain, but it starts with a war between Arth and the Neanthal. 2 legendary babies get separated and live in opposite parts of the country. This show is hard to describe but it follows the 3 mains, Eunsom, Tanya, and Saya (and Tagon/ Taelha lol) and their fight through tragedy, and sometimes hell on Arth (lol – like hell on earth – am I funny yet). It’s all about a fight for power and revenge among the tribes. Every single character in this show has a different reason, but they all want power to get revenge, basically.

The fantasy aspect of this show and the different ‘species’ are incredible. It does get very political, but the fun of it is all the plotting, and how the characters fix their plans that don’t work out. Half way through I kept screaming at my TV for the mains (Tanya/Saya specifically) to just fkking talk to each other ughhh. Also, Saya will be my favourite unstable boy forever.

It has 18 episodes on netflix so far, but just signed up for 2 more seasons (thank god because if they stopped at 18 eps I’d pull a Rosa Diaz and kill everyone and then myself -.-”). I can’t wait for it to come back. GIVE ME MORE CONTENT.

Other honourable mentions: Hwarang, Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung (not finished it yet, which is why it’s not up in my top 3), Missing 9, W Two worlds, Warrior Baek Dong Soo.

Thanks for reading and requesting!

I am always looking for new shows to watch, so send me recs too. I find my favourite ones are the historical dramas. But let me knoww!

#the untamed #cql #mzds #guardian #guardian cdrama #legend of fuyao #cdrama #kdrama #my country the new age #black korean drama #black #arthdal chronicles #my country a new age #chinese drama #korean drama #rec list

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meltingheartsandcores · 3 years

Text

This is a wangxian Yoi au, or it was going to be, I wrote the first chapter. Then realized I don’t know how to write skating, I don’t know anything about figure skating, and I feel like I should not be flying blind in this. Also, creativity got fried. Which sucks.

But, I figured you might enjoy reading the first chapter, and idk if it's because i wrote it but I find it's fine to read on it's own.

Story under the cut, I do hope you enjoy.

“Huaisang, why are you calling me at midnight?”

“Excuse you, it’s one am. And you didn’t respond to my text. Check your messages and watch the link I sent you.”

“Fuck no.” Despite Wei Wuxian’s words, he grabs his computer off his bedside table and sits up, “What’s the video called?” Wei Wuxian asks as he pulls up youtube.

”Uhhh,” there was some tapping, ”okay, english is Lan Wangji attempts Wei Wuxian’s Confusion.”

The name made Wei Wuxian perk up as he quickly types and searchs for the video. “Why didn’t you just tell me it was Lan Zhan?” He wouldn’t have grumbled.

”Just watch!” Wei Wuxian rolls his eyes at Nie Huaisang’s excitement but plays the video, muted because Jiang Cheng will kill him for waking him up at midnight. Wei Wei Wuxian was pleasantly surprised throughout the whole video, and also curious as to when Lan Zhan learnt it so completely. It had been his freestyle at Worlds two nights before, the one that earned him gold, again. He had changed it to work with his current condition and still earn him gold, but that just meant it was more complicated stepping he had perfected and a bunch of quads- not nearly as much as he normally did but, enough. Lan Zhan had changed his quads to triples.

Wei Wuxian could only point out one mistake. He rewatches it to see if there are any others. They’re aren’t.

“He fucked up one of the salchows.” Wei Wuxian states, watching the video for a third time. That was generous, he wobbled a bit too much on the landing. Madam Yu would’ve called it a complete fuckup and made him redo the entire program. For a practice it wasn’t bad, especially since Lan Zhan seemed distracted still.

Nie Huaisang groans on the phone, ”That’s all you have to say?”

“Hey. He’s the one who didn’t call me.”

”And now he’s dancing your stupid love letter!”

“It was not-“ Wei Wuxian is stopped by a pillow hitting his face, falling back onto his bed. “I have to go, I woke Jiang Cheng.”

Nie Huaisang giggles and hangs up with a singsong, “Good Luck!”

Wei Wuxian sits back up, chucking the pillow back onto Jiang Cheng’s bed. The lump that is his brother doesn’t move. Just an angry grumbled, “Get the fuck out of the room if you’re going to be awake.”

Wei Wuxian could go back to sleep, but he’s more interested in Lan Zhan right now. So he shuts his laptop, pulls on a jacket, and leaves the room with his phone in his pocket and his laptop under his arm in his fluffy bunny slippers. He goes down to the airport and sits at his gate, opening hs laptop back up to watch the video again. They were flying out to Italy in five hours. Well. wei Wuxian and Uncle Jiang were, Jiejie and Jiang Cheng were flying back to Canada in ten. Jiang Cheng had made their room decisions because if Wei Wuxian and Uncle Jiang shared they would’ve left without saying goodbye. In Wei Wuxian’s opinion, it’d be better to say goodbye before they went to sleep instead of waking everyone up at six in the morning, but he was promptly told to shut up.

Wei Wuxian calls Nie Huaisang back as the video plays, it’s impressive. And Wei Wuxian has always loved Lan Zhan’s skating. It made the Grand Prix all the more odd.

”It’s a love letter.” Nie Huaisang says in lieu of a greeting.

“It was not a love letter.” Nie Huaisang made a doubtful sound. “It was a letter of why the fuck did you never call me? I gave you my personal number and whitelisted you. Why did you never contact me?”

“So… an unrequited loveletter.”

“Why am I friends with you?”

”Because I helped you shave off Lan Qiren’s awful goatee.”

Wei Wuxian chuckles at the memory, Teacher Lan had been so pissed. “Hey… do you think he has any relation to Lan Zhan?”

”I do blackmail, not familial relations. If I did, you wouldn’t have spent five years calling Xiao Xingchen Jiujiu as a joke only to find out it was very appropriate.”

Ah, yes, the most awkward celebratory dinner in Wei Wuxian’s life with his uncle and grandmother.

“You and I both know I called him Jiujiu because I forgot his name and it was the first thing that came to mind.” Nie Huaisang cackles, fully aware that when Wei Wuxian forgot peoples names, if he didn’t hate them, he immediately went to familial relations.

It’s how Nie Huaisang’s older brother is forever Da-ge to Wei Wuxian. And how half his competitors are variations of cousin and uncle. Those that don’t speak chinese are typically confused but assume it’s a nickname until someone (Jiang Cheng typically) tells them they are now the son of Wei Wuxian’s father’s brother. Or something of the like. Those that speak chinese typically return the favour. For example, Xingchen called him Wai Sheng as often as Wei Wuxian would call him Jiujiu.

”Yup. And then you finally met your grandmother. Hands down, best World Champions I’ve ever been to.”

“Oh fuck you. Are you going to Italy?”

”Already here. I convinced Da Ge to fly me out right after the World Champs. I have been shopping for days. I love Italy.”

“You love that you can logic your way into drinking wine with every meal.”

”Mmhmm. You don’t normally participate in the Egna Spring Trophy. Why are you coming this year?”

“I like to shock people.” ’I don’t want my season to be over just yet. I don’t want to stop skating.’ “Can you keep a secret?”

”Of course. Did you put shaving cream in Jiang Cheng’s suitcase again?”

“No. He doesn’t let me anywhere near it anymore. I…”Wei Wuxian chickens out. He can’t say it. Not now. “Actually it might be better to say in person. Do you think the video’s a message?”

”What? Oh! Lan Wangji’s? Maybe? What message might he be sending?”

“That he still wants me to coach him next season?”

”You can’t coach someone and participate.” Nie Huaisang remarks. Wei Wuxian stays silent, normally his response would be ‘watch me’, but he can��t. Nie Huaisang gasps at Wei Wuxian’s extended silence. ”You can’t”.

“I’ll talk to you about it in Italy.”

”Have you told Coach Jiang?”

“No. Not Jiang Cheng or Shijie either. Don’t say anything. I’m still…”

”Yup. Got it. Lips are sealed.” Wei Wuxian sighs in relief, he’s not sure what he was worried about, but he’s grateful Nie Huaisang isn’t telling anyone. Not until Wei Wuxian says it himself. ”And, I guess the video could be a message. Maybe he lost your number? And it’s not like you told him you whitelisted him. Maybe he thought you were joking and didn’t want to risk rejection? I’ve asked Da ge but he told me to shut up and not bother him so…”

Oh right. Wei Wuxian forgot Da Ge was friends with Lan Zhan’s brother. “Meanie. But you know where he is right?”

“Yup. But Da Ge told me not to tell you. Didn’t want you bothering the Lan brothers or something.”

Wei Wuxian hums, “What a shame.” Nie Huaisang couldn’t tell him where Lan Zhan was. But, he could tell Wei Wuxian about Lan Zhan’s home.

”Mmhmm. There’s a wonderful hot spring in Gusu. As well as a cold spring that’s supposed to promote healing. I always find that afterwards, I’m too busy warming up to really care about any injuries.”

Wei Wuxian chuckles, Gusu huh? “Never heard of it.”

“No? It’s a rather small city. Not very well known. The hot spring I go to is called Hanshi.”

“...Frost Room?” Odd name for a hot spring.

”Mmhmm. I think it’s ironic or something? You know, a hot spring frost room? Who knows? We both know I didn’t ask.”

Wei Wuxian nods, “Mm. Maybe after Triglav I’ll pop over.”

”Making this season count I see.”

“I just want as many gold medals as possible. I’ll let you get some sleep. I am going to get started on coaching notes.”

”I’ll send you whatever videos I have of Lan Wangji. See you soon.”

“Mm.” Wei Wuxian hangs up and pulls up his note-app to start taking notes as he watches Lan Zhan’s video again. Noting places where Lan Zhan could do with improvement. There weren’t many, but Lan Zhan hadn’t focused his training in the same areas Wei Wuxian did. In some areas he was actually better at Wei Wuxian’s program than he was. Particularly with the stepping. More precise and fine-tuned than Wei Wuxian’s own. If Wei Wuxian had given Confusion to Lan Zhan he probably would’ve netted a higher score than Wei Wuxian. If he could land the quads at least.

_-3 weeks later-_

“Gusu is so nice. So warm. So not Canada.” Wuxan says to Nie Huaisang over the phone as he waits for the cab he arranged to pick him up from the airport.

Nie Huaisang’s laugh titters over the phone, “You’re not in Gusu yet. Gusu is a mountain city.”

“Ah, so the temperature will be back to normal. Good.”

”Tell Xichen-ge hi. I did not warn them you were coming, so, have a fun surprise!”

Wei Wuxian laughs, “I will. How’s Da ge?”

”Very annoyed that I told you where they live. And not accepting the fact that I didn’t tell you where they lived. I told you of a wonderful hot spring in Gusu and upon research you found it was owned by Lan Wangji’s brother. How can I be blamed?” Nie Huaisang actually seemed offended.

Wei Wuxian laughs at his friend. “Well, at least he’s not making you do hockey.” Nie Huaisang screeches, making Wei Wuxian laugh harder.

”He would never.”

“Didn’t he initially put you in hockey? Who’s to say he won’t put you back in?” It’s a joke, but Nie Huaisang is silent on the other end. And then Wei Wuxian can hear him running through his house.

”DAGE!” Wei Wuxian pulls his phone away at the yell, but puts it back once the yell is over to hear whatever else Nie Huaisang says. There’s some muttering that Wei Wuxian assumes belongs to Da ge.”You wouldn’t put me in hockey, right? Even if I fail Ice Dance?” There’s complete silence on the other end. But Da ge must’ve said something, or made a certain expression because Nie Huaisang screeches, offended and scared, “Da Ge!” Wei Wuxian laughs at his friends' misery and offence. He always feels a little bad for Da ge at events since he’s typically the only hockey player there and very few figure skaters bother to hide their dislike of hockey players. Typically it’s vice versa too, but when Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang go to Da ge’s games they tend to keep away from that subject. As much as possible. Except that one year one of Da ge’s teammates called Figure Skater’s prissy princesses and Wei Wuxian attacked him and had to be pulled off by Da ge.

He was fourteen. Nie Huaisang took a video.

Wei Wuxian stops laughing enough to notice his cab and met the driver, putting his phone in his pocket to drown out Nie Huaisang’s crying. After a quick chat, his luggage was put in the trunk and got in. He pulls out his phone and puts it back to his ear just as Nie Huaisang starts calling Da ge mean.

”How could you scare me like that?” Da ge was laughing in the background.

“Older brothers. It’s what we do best.”

”Meanie.” Was hissed at Wei Wuxian. More mumbling Wei Wuxian couldn’t make heads or tails of before Nie Huaisang speaks again, ” Da Ge wants to talk to you.”

“He’s not putting me in hockey is he?”

”Uhhh, da ge? Are you putting Wei-xiong in hockey?”

Da Ge was close enough to the phone Wei Wuxian could hear his reply, “Can I? He’d do damn good.”

“Don’t joke! I’m too fragile for hockey!” Wei Wuxian protests with a pout. “What did Da ge want to talk about?”

”Don’t harass Xichen and Wangji. If they tell you to go. Go. I don’t care what Wangji said at the Prix banquet, leave him alone if he wants to be left alone.” Da ge orders.

“Roger roger.”

“Wuxian.”

“I got it. I won’t bother them if they don’t want to be bothered. If he says no I’ll book a flight tomorrow and head home. Or to your place. Or to Xingchen’s. Bottom line I’ll leave if they want me to.” He won’t overstay his welcome.

”Good. Good luck.” With that, Da ge hangs up.

_-Gusu-_

“How was lessons?” Lan Xichen asks as Lan Wangji returns from the rink with Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi in tow. The five year olds loved skating. So when Lan Wangji returned from his complete failure at the Grand Prix, he had taken over their skating lessons at Cloud Recess at their insistence.

“They improved. How was business?” Lan Wangji asks as both kids run upstairs.

“Adequate. We have one guest currently. Actually, he asked for you by name.”

Oh. Great. “Did he say why?”

Lan Xichen shakes his head, he probably didn’t ask. “Just said to tell you. He also said if you don’t want to talk to him he’ll leave.”

Lan Wangji shakes his head, “No. I’ll talk to him.” He hopes it’s not a fan. Or one of Coach Zhong’s students come to ask him back in place of Coach. Lan Wangji just wanted to take care of his rabbits and ignore the world until his failure is forgotten. Lan Xichen smiles, probably remembering that just last month Lan Wangji told him he didn’t want to talk to anyone.

“Good. I’m going to make sure the tykes are not causing havoc upstairs, watch the front for me?” Lan Wangji nods at Lan Xichen’s request, allowing his brother to rush up the stairs.

Lan Wangji had just sat down at one of the tables, intent to get some work done. He was working with the library in Cloud Recess with translations, it didn’t pay well, but he enjoyed it and could do it in between helping Lan Xichen out at the Hanshi.

But before he could pull his laptop out, a guest came into the main room. Lan Wangji looks up to greet them but the words die on his tongue, eyes widening a fraction as he took in Wei Wuxian, half naked, with his hair in a towel. Well, he had a jacket on that wasn’t shut, so he wasn’t technically breaking the rule about being undressed outside the springs, but his incredibly toned chest was still on full display. Lan Wangji could feel his ears burning, and was very thankful he rarely blushes on his face.

A smile split across Wei Wuxian’s lips, “Lan Zhan.” ’What?’ “I wanted to talk to you.” Wei Wuxian falls to his knees on the opposite side of the table than Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji nods, although he was still stuck on ’Why is Wei Wuxian calling me by my given name? How does he even know it?’ Somehow Wei Wuxian’s smile got brighter. Which Lan Wangji felt was just unfair and rude. He’s trying not to panic here. “I want to coach you for next season.”

What.

Fuck trying not to panic.

What?

“Why?”

“I saw your video. Your stepping is very impressive. But you need to work on your jumps. Although you seem to learn quickly since you were able to learn Confusion in just a few days.” Lan Wangji would like this conversation to stop and rewind. What video?! He only danced Confusion once! And- oh fuck. Lan Jingyi is corrupting his perfect child. Wei Wuxian was still talking. Lan Wangji missed a portion. “-so I figured I’d come down to offer my services as coach.”

“Are you not competing next season?”

Wei Wuxian looks surprised, “Ah, I guess you don’t get much news out here.” Lan Wangji has been avoiding most skating news. He only watched the Worlds because Lan Jingyi and Lan Sizhui demanded it. “I’m taking a break. I’m twenty-three and have won every single competition I’ve been in for five years, got bored. And then I saw your video and decided I wanted to help you win the Grand Prix.”

What.

“What’s your current work out regime? I have some ideas but I don’t want to overwork you. Also, where’s the rink and can we schedule private time to practice?”

“Wei Wuxian-“

He cuts Lan Wangji off, waving his hand, “Call me Wei Ying.”

Okay.

“Wei Ying. You cannot take a break just to coach me.”

“Yes I can. But I didn’t. I was going to be taking a break this season anyways. If I hadn’t seen your video I might’ve let Da ge talk me into hockey.” Wei Ying shudders theatrically, “I’m too delicate for hockey.” Lan Wangji would disagree. Lan Xichen showed him the video of Wei Ying beating up a hockey player nearly twice his size. “If you don’t want me to coach you, I’ll leave. But if you do… I already have plans for your programs. And areas to improve.”

It was tempting. To accept the offer. Last year's Grand Prix had been Lan Wangji’s first venture into international competitions. He was used to national and local competitions. But after the complete failure of last years Grand Prix he wasn’t sure about returning to the international stage. However, Wei Ying had a lot of experience in the international stage. He’d been competing in International Competitions since he was thirteen. An entire decade.

Lan Wangji nods, “I accept.”

Wei Ying’s smile gets impossible bright. “Perfect.”

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msjr0119 · 4 years

Text

The Unexpected Roommate

Introduction

This idea has been in my head for a few days now. It was originally going to a one shot, but more ideas came into my head so decided it would be a mini series.

What happens when your roommate of many years falls in love and moves out unexpectedly? Drake Walker was in this situation, until his friends fiancée suggested that her friend moved in to replace her fiancé. The new roommate is causing tension already. Will they be able to survive living together? What’s the worse that could happen?

*All characters belong to Pixelberry*

Pairings: Drake x Riley, Leo x Olivia

Warnings: Swearing, tension.

Tags- using combined tag list for this introduction, as always if you want to be removed please do let me know. I won’t be offended.

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******

Drake exited his room, walking through to the lounge he noticed his roommate Leo sat on the couch with his head in his hands. Usually Leo would still be in bed recovering from a hangover until late hours the following day.

“Good morning. Usually I’d say good afternoon on a weekend. What’s up?” Leo sighed as he looked towards his friend with sorrow in his eyes. Drake’s infamous cocky smirk soon turned upside down- his eyes providing concern, as he sat next to Leo.

“It’s about me and Liv...” Drake rolled his eyes back- he wasn’t exactly ‘best friends’ with his friends fiancée. If anything they were arch-enemies. Always insulting each other. At every possible moment. Hate is a strong word. But they hated each other. Simple as. When Leo proposed, Drake provided a fake smile- he knew his friend was head over heels for her so accepted their relationship.

“I have to move out Drake. I’ve been putting it off for such a long time. But Liv is my future.” Deep down, Drake knew this day was coming. He would miss the old times they had spent together before Olivia came onto the scene.

“When are you moving out?” Questioning his friend, the look on Leo’s face explained that it was sooner rather than later.

“Tomorrow.” Drake didn’t know how to react, his first thought was wondering about how he was going to afford the upkeep of the apartment without a roomie. Then reality hit and he had realised that this was the end of an era.

“I’ll still pay my way though as I’m leaving you in the shit. Although there is another option?” Drake quirked his eyebrow, wondering what on earth the other option could be.

****

The following day, Olivia made her way to the men’s apartment. Hearing her strut through the door, natural instinct for Drake was to go and hide in his hovel of a bedroom.

“Walker. Don’t cry. I’m helping you.” Scowling towards her, he showed no emotion. So was confused as to why she would attempt to cause trouble.

“I’m not crying! Care to explain how you are helping me?”

“Well I got you a new room mate didn’t I?”

“Yeah. I’m sure you and Leo could show him around before you go awol.” Giving Leo a bromance hug, he wished him luck. Not with beginning his new chapter, but luck with the devil wearing red stood in front of them.

“Him?” Olivia cackled, as Leo’s complexion turned white as a sheet.

“Yeah, Leo said Riley.”

“She will be here later. Riley is a unisex name you moron.” Leo nervously smiled at him, he didn’t have the heart to tell him that his new roomie was a girl- once Drake assumed it was man. “She’s a laugh, unlike you Walker. Maybe a bit of her personality could rub off on to you?”

“Leo! How could you do this to me?” Leo of all people knew Drake wasn’t exactly the type of person to get along with women. He just didn’t seem to show any interest. There was rumours that Drake could have been a closet gay due to this. Unlike Leo and his brother Liam, he didn’t have the natural charm with the women like they did. Or maybe he did? But he never attempted to try it. If he wanted a one night stand, it was easy enough to flirt his way to get this. However he never went out intentionally to find someone to settle down with.

“If you hate her, just stay in your room. You don’t have to talk or socialise. As long as you both pay the bills I don’t see the issue. See you at my bachelor party next weekend!” Drake grit his teeth, maybe I should move back to Texas? He thought to himself- annoyed that he didn’t beat Leo to being the first one to leave.

****

A few hours later, Drake was pacing the room wondering what his new room mate was going to look like. Would she be blonde? Brunette? A red head like Olivia? Would she be tall? Or small? Nice tits or nice arse? Would she be like Mr Blobby? Drake shook his head, he didn’t care what she was like as long as she paid her way and didn’t disturb him. Hearing a knock at the door, he refilled his tumbler - knowing he would need a drink. Carrying it with him, he opened the door.

“Hi, I’m Riley....” Drake stared at her, not knowing how long for- he wasn’t interested in relationships. He was more of a one night stand type of man, he kept reminding himself. But the woman stood in front of him was beautiful. She was hypnotising.

“Drake, you are a super star! You knew just exactly what I needed. My boxes are outside...” Hearing her speak again, he was brought out of his thoughts. Snatching the whiskey out of his hands she gulped it in one go before placing it back into his hand. Forcing her way through to the apartment - she jumped over the couch and sprawled out across it. Much to Drake’s disgust.

“Okay. So first rule. Don’t ever do that again.”

“Do what?” Questioning him innocently, she honestly didn’t know what his issue was. There stood in front of her was an middle aged man trapped in a twenty something year old body.

“One, steal my whiskey. Two, jump over the couch. It’s not a fucking playground.” Jeeze. What a kill joy! He’s joking surely?

“Sorry dad!” Biting her lip, she couldn’t prevent the snort that escaped.

“Three don’t call me that. We are not friends. We are unfortunately roommates. Stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours. No visitors unless the other person agrees to it. We will allocate times to use the bathroom, and I’ll do a rota for the chores.”

“Babe, these nails aren’t for doing chores. I’ll hoover my room and keep it tidy. I promise.” Smirking, she believed that if she fluttered her eyelashes towards him that he would give in and allow her to get away with it.

“Princess...” Emphasising the word in a sarcastic manner- he believed that Leo was a poor roommate, until he met her. She was already pissing him off with her attitude after only ten minutes. “We both live here. It’s 50/50 chores. I don’t give a shit about your manicure. Don’t like it? Move out! Next time carry your own damn boxes in!”

****

The next morning, Drake wanted to stay in bed- if he didn’t have a job to get to he would have done. Wanting to avoid her, he was debating if he hated her more than Olivia. The only difference between them was that Riley at least was beautiful. Walking through to the kitchen area, she was stood next to the stove wearing gym clothing whilst cooking.

“Do you want a coffee grumpy? Or some breakfast?” Feeling his presence behind her, Olivia had warned her that he was a jerk- but the majority of people were with her- so therefore she didn’t want to believe her words. How wrong was she?

“No. I’ve got work. However I do want you to replace all of MY food that you have used...” Seeing his name labelled on the food, she didn’t believe he would react this way. He was acting like a child.

“Don’t worry I fucking will. I’ll even wrap your food up with a ribbon.” She snapped, wishing that she never moved in in the first place. She wasn’t that desperate for a place to live, there was other options but this seemed like the easy short term one.

“Make sure you put a gold bow on it too!”

“Then I’ll shove it up your arse... oops did I say that out loud?”

“You’re fucking annoying. I mean it Riley, stay out of my fucking way.”

“I intend to! Don’t you worry! Jerk.”

****

Drake finished work, all through his meetings his mind lingered on Riley. Feeling awful for the way he had treat her, and even with his sarcastic attitude he would find a way to apologise to her. Even if she did deserve it in some way. Making his way back to the apartment, he slowly opened the door- not ready for another debate. The aroma of Zoflora flooded his senses- the strong scent was almost suffocating him. Scrutinising the apartment, she had done a spring clean- believing he was hallucinating, he wondered who she had hired to do the chores. Instead he saw her on the living area floor doing yoga and exercises, surrounded by cleaning materials. Fuck, she’s hot. Gulping, he needed to make his presence known- make it look like he hadn’t been gawking at her for what seemed like an eternity.

“Hi.” Turning her head to face him, she smiled before slowly standing up.

“Hi. I replaced your food. I did a shop for my food. There’s left over Chinese in the fridge if you want it. My eyes were too big for my belly. I’m going to use the bathroom, if I’m allowed? Unless you want to use it first?”

“No you can use it.” Riley nodded, and made her way to the bathroom brushing past him. Making his way to the fridge- she had indeed refilled it, she had even put golden bows and ribbons on his newly labelled food. He wasn’t sure if he should laugh or not- he was only joking when he suggested it in a rage of anger. Retrieving the left over chinese, he noticed that she had written ‘Drake’ on it. Again, not knowing if she was purposely taking the piss. Luckily, she had the same taste in the take out as he did. Maybe we could get along? Make it a weekly thing having a chinese together? Hearing her come into the kitchen, his eyes widened seeing her naked with just a skimpy towel wrapped around her- barely covering her assets up. His trousers tightened slightly, shovelling around trying to remove the situation- he thought about something else. Leo. Thinking about how fucking annoying he was- worked a treat.

“Sorry, I left my phone charger.” Shrugging his shoulders, he acted as if he was oblivious that she was there.

“Thanks for the chinese..”

“No worries. I’m going to go to my room. Stay out of your way as you requested.” Not that she wanted to, they had began this adventure off on a rocky start. If anything she wanted to clear the air - get to know him so they could live together civilly.

“Good riddance.”” Riley nodded - holding the forming tears back as well as anger. Feeling like a prisoner in her own home, she had never known anyone as horrible as he was. Once she entered her room, she retrieved her phone sending a quick text.

Can I see you? I hate it here. My roomie is a complete arsehole. Are you up for some fun?

Smirking at the response, she decided to stop being the nice guy- blasting the music on full belt, she quickly got dressed into a form fitting dress- it barely covered her breasts. Hearing the banging on the door, she ignored it for as long as she could- knowing Drake was becoming more frustrated.

“Open the fucking goddamn door now!” Opening it, she bit her lip trying not to laugh.

“What’s up Drake? You can’t beat a bit of Queen. I’m under pressure getting ready to break free for the night. Am I allowed to leave?” Seeing him grit his teeth and the anger in his eyes frightened her slightly now realising that she had crossed the line.

“Can anybody find you somebody to love? Get you out of my bastard hair?”

“Tonight, I'm gonna have myself a real good time. I feel alive and the world I'll turn it inside out, yeah. And floating around in ecstasy. So don't stop me now don't stop me. Cause I'm having a good time, having a good time... see ya later, roomie.”

Unable to think of a clever response back to her, she had left him speechless. She was irritating, especially with that smirk she had provided him ever since she had arrived. Grabbing her wrist, their eyes locked for the first time - both of them remained silent for a short while, not insulting each other.

“I’m going to be late. Please let go of my wrist. Your grip is tight. You are slightly hurting me.”

“Oh sorry. I didn’t realise that you was a pot doll, too delicate. Don’t be late back. Another rule, I lock the door at 3am. If you’re not back, you get locked out.”

“You need to get laid or something! Get out of my way Drake. No man gives me a curfew. So looks like I’m sleeping elsewhere tonight.”

“At least I’ll get a bit of peace and quiet. Enjoy your night, Riley.” Raising his whiskey into the air, he blew a kiss towards her before turning around. Sitting on the sofa, he acted smug with himself knowing that she was still there.

“Fuck you. Dad!” Empathising the nickname, she knew it would frustrate him. Before he could react she stormed through the door, not looking back. Not regretting any actions. The atmosphere surrounding the apartment, was as if he was at a funeral- mute.

Why am I such a jerk? She hates me. I hate her though. Or do I? She’s so infuriating. Why did Leo have to meet Olivia? Why did Olivia have to know her? Why am I so confused about my feelings towards her? It’s just you and me Jack. Sighing to himself- he felt more lonely now than ever. Sipping the whiskey, he didn’t have anything better to do. After a while, he searched frantically for a pen and paper. Not knowing why his drunk mind was informing him to do this.

Riley, I’m sorry for the way I have acted with you. I was wondering if you wanted to go out tomorrow night? My treat. An apology. You’re stuck with me. I’m stuck with you. We need to work this out before we kill each other. I’m sorry.

#trr #trr fanfic #drake x mc #drake x riley #drake walker #riley brooks #leo x olivia #leo rhys #olivia nevrakis #trr au the unexpected roommate

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bebepac · 4 years

Text

Falling Apart

This is chapter 5 of The Life of Riley. If you need to catch up , please click

HERE

All characters in this chapter are my own characters.

I also used @god-save-the-keen prompt list: Joey Tribbiani # 50 “I am pretty wisdomous” will appear in bold

Word count: 1793

Summary: Jason and Ren find out heart wrenching news that they have lost their son in utero.

Warnings: Miscarriage, pregnancy loss due to fall sadness , depression, angst, light profanity.

Always forgive any typos.

If you enjoy my storytelling please feel free to like and reblog :) and if you would like to be on or off my tag list holla :)

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Jason’s boss drove him to Ren’s hospital as fast as he could with the weather.

“Rain is just melted snow and people are losing their minds, Lawson, I mean what the hell!!!”

“You said it brother.”

Please let them be okay Jason thought in his head the whole way over to the hospital.

He walked into the room finding Ren sitting there in the bed in tears.

“Ren what happened?”

“I got nauseated and dizzy and fell down the stairs. I should have just waited for the elevator, and I didn’t.”

Jason pulled Ren to him hugging her. “And i haven’t felt the baby kick since I fell, and i’m so scared.”

“Hey we’re fighters so is our baby. We’re gonna all be just fine,” he said confidently. He prayed for his sake he was right.

“Dr. Abernathy is on her way right now, I’m her tech Julie. She wanted to see if I could get some images of the baby in the meantime. Does that sound ok?”

Lauren and Jason nodded. Ren lifted her scrub top to reveal her stomach.

“Those weren’t the ones you left the house in.”

“Ugh don’t even ask. A kid puked on me, I almost puked on the kid, it was an ordeal.”

The tech turned on the machine, she looked at the monitor. They all did with bated breath.

“Is he ok?” Jason asked.

She moved the wand around.

“There he is!” the tech said proudly. Typing a few things on the screen. But what happened next wasn’t what they expected.

They expected the whooshing sound of the baby’s heartbeat that always filled the room. There was nothing but silence.

“Is it on?” Jason was starting to get worried. He looked at Ren. Her eyes were tightly clenched shut.

The tech turned off the monitor, “Maybe it’s best we just wait for Dr. Abernathy to get here.”

She touched Ren’s hand, “She’ll be here shortly.”

When she closed the door behind her, Ren finally let out the sob she was holding in.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s going to be ok. She was just a tech. She had no clue what she was doing. Dr. Abernathy will be here soon, and everything will be ok.”

She never wished so hard that she could believe something Jason said as much as she could at this moment. But the truth was… it wasn’t ok.

Dr. Abernathy came in a few minutes later with Ren’s chart and a somber look on her face.

“Ren?”

She opened her eyes to look at Dr. Abernathy.

You understand what’s going on?”

Tears welled in her eyes as she nodded. “Yes I understand.”

“I need to check you to confirm.”

“What’s happening?” Jason whispered. Deep down he knew, but he didn’t want to admit. Admitting his worst fear in this situation would be making it real.

Dr. Abernathy turned on the ultrasound machine. She grabbed Jason’s hand.

She gently placed the wand on her stomach and began to move it around. Immediately she had an image of the baby.

Jason gave her hand a soft squeeze back in reassurance. There’s our baby boy. Jason thought. It still wasn’t right. The look that passed between Dr. Abernathy and Ren.

She turned off the ultrasound machine. Ren’s grip on Jason’s hand turned painfully tight.

“Jason, Ren, my tech was able to get an image of the baby, as have I, but i’m sorry to tell you this, neither of us can detect a fetal heartbeat. The baby did not survive the fall. I’m so sorry.”

Lauren let out a wailing scream, that the only thing Jason knew to do was to hold Lauren while she sobbed hysterically in his arms. Tears pooled in his eyes. He had to be the strong one for her, though he felt like his heart had been broken in two. He flinched every time Lauren screamed. He closed his eyes, and kept whispering to her. “I’m here. We’ll be ok Lauren, I promise. We’ll get through this.”

A nurse came in with a syringe. Lauren saw her coming and knew sweet relief was coming from this nightmare for a few hours. It was almost immediately after the injection Lauren fell into a calming sleep. Her facial expressions that had been so tense the past few hours had finally relaxed.

Jason exhaled a shaky breath.

“Is there anything you need?” Dr. Abernathy asked him.

“I need…….. I need a minute to process what just happened…. How long will she sleep?”

“A few hours.”

He walked down the hallways feeling numb. One minute they were celebrating, the next minute they had lost their son. They were just too happy. For people like Jason and Ren, being too happy in life always seemed like it invited disaster.

As he walked by the waiting room he noticed officers from his precinct. He wondered what had happened. Lawson, who had driven him to the hospital so many hours earlier, stood up.

“Seeing Jason’s confusion, he said, “We’re here for you brother.”

The others stood as well.

“How’s Ren?”

“She’s sedated.”

“How’s your son……?”

“He didn’t…….he…. He…. “ Jason finally began to cry. Lawson hugged him.

“I’m so very sorry.”

Looking around the room at all the officers that had come and gathered in solidarity for the two of them was the most somber, yet supportive thing Jason had experienced in his life.

“Thank you for supporting us. I know Ren would appreciate it.”

Jason was at Ren’s side when she finally woke up.

His eyes were red, and slowly she remembered the events of the past few hours. Lauren’s eyes teared up again. “I’m right here," Jason’s voice was strong and secure, soothing Ren.

“I want to name him,” she whispered. “ I want to name him so he knows, he had a family here who loved him even though………. he never got the chance to meet us.”

Over the next few minutes they decided on the name Jaiden Anthony Brooks.

Dr. Abernathy came back into the room a little bit later and explained the next procedure that would take place, to end the pregnancy.

“Is there anything else you need before we discharge you for the night?”

“Can we get a last picture of him…. Of Jaiden before tomorrow’s procedure, before he’s truly gone?”

“Of course,” Dr. Abernathy obliged turning on the ultrasound machine again. Finally Jason broke down in front of Ren. She had never heard him cry before.

“Why did this have to happen to us, Dr. Abernathy? We’re good people. We work hard. We wanted this, we wanted Jaiden so much. We tried two years for him. Just to lose him. It’s not fair. And the people who are terrible parents keep having truckloads of kids, and the people who would do right by their child… “

Ren hugged her husband as they cried for the loss of their son together.

“Sometimes, some things are not for us on this side to understand,” Dr. Abernathy said softly.

“I’ll go get your car. Do you remember where you parked?”

“The staff parking lot Jason.” Lauren snapped at him.

“I’ll find it.”

“I’ll show you where the staff parking lot is,” and besides I'll show you the shortcut, that only staff members can use.”

“Thanks Dr. Abernathy.”

“Don’t take her snapping at you to heart. She doesn’t mean it.”

“I know.”

“Well the good news is we’re here… I just don’t know what level she parked on.”

“No it’s good, I see her. This one’s her’s, she’s just gonna lose her shit, that i have to adjust everything to drive it, which is why we don’t drive each other’s cars.”

“You sound exactly like my husband. he knows.” Dr. Abernathy chuckled.

“Thank you for being there for us today.”

“You’re very welcome, and I’m so sorry this time didn’t work out for you two. Don’t give up okay? You two would make very loving parents someday.”

“Thank you.”

He pulled out front waiting for Lauren.

“Are you hungry? I could stop for takeout. It’s too late to try to get dinner started.”

Silence from Ren.

“Maybe Chinese? You think from the place you like?”

Ren still said nothing. Staring blankly ahead at the road.

“Ren did you hear me?”

“I heard you. Whatever. Get it, don’t get it I don’t care.” She snapped at him.

“You need to eat Ren. You have to be hungry by now.”

“Why does it matter so much? It’s only me now.”

“Because you matter to me. I love and care about you, and because I can’t lose you too Ren.”

She whispered something.. That he couldn’t hear.

“What?”

“You blame me.”

“WHAT?!?!?!? REN?!!?!?! GOD!!! NOOOO!!!!” Jason jerked the wheel slamming on the breaks pulling Ren’s small SUV over in the highway median.

“This was an accident Ren. A horrible terrible accident that I don't blame you for.”

“You have to blame me.”

“Why are you so sure of this?”

“I BLAME ME!!! THIS IS ALL MY FAULT!!! I KILLED OUR BABY. I SHOULD HAVE JUST WAITED FOR THE ELEVATOR.”

He wasn’t getting through to her, at all. If he said what he was thinking, it could blow up in his face, but he was out of options. So he decided to do it.

“You know what, you’re right Ren.”

“What?” he could hear the confusion in her voice.

“Yeah, you go up and down stairs at our house every day, multiple times of the day, and i let you think that was okay. I should have been carrying you up and down those stairs every time, to protect our baby.”

“But how would you know, something like that would happen?”

BINGO…

“That’s right Ren, how would you know something like that would happen?”

Ren was stunned into silence.

“I don’t want to hear you ever say that again Lauren, I mean it. Any of that. This was not your fault. It was a horrible horrible accident Okay?”

Ren nodded. “Decent use of reverse psychology by the way.”

Jason looked at her smiling, and she knew right in that second why she had fallen in love with him. He was trying so hard to hold up a brave front for her, even though she could still see the sadness in his eyes too.

" I am pretty wisdomous.”

A small smile emerged on Ren’s lips. Albeit small, but visible. Jason saw it as a tiny victory considering the day from hell they had. And tomorrow would be just as bad he was sure.

“Can we go get food now?

If he wanted food that’s what she was going to do. He always fought for her, ever since the moment they met.

“Yes let’s grab some Chinese on the way home.”

#trr #trr fanfic #trr fandom #trr riley #trr mc #riley parents #before trr #cordonia #new york #riley b #play choices #the royal romance

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alexkamiya2 · 3 years

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About my MC [I found some questions on Twitter and decided to answer them with my MC]

Name: Alex [Originally there name is *Inserts my irl name* and *More stuff about this and that* And yep!] ~Basically Alex is A nickname since others can’t actually say her name correctly sometimes~

Age: 27

Birthday: November 29th

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Straight ~She likes someone who is nice and cute (looks don’t matter) and funny maybe kinda awkward sometimes but can be sweet at times.

Race: She’s human ~Asian and a quarter German~

Before coming too the Devildorm. She was a detective and a supernatural detective. [Studying supernatural and seeing if there real or not mostly demons or any other creature]

Height: 5’10

Body type: She’s pretty skinny [Not like her older brother who looks like kinda a tall stick figure...]

Alex’s love interest is Mammon. She’s basically obsessed with him. She thinks he’s funny and cute, Kinda nice and kinda awkward just like her sort of but still she loves him a Whole Lot.

Alex was born with a hole in her heart. Two major surgeries when she was a baby and had to go back to the hospital at four and stayed there for a good solid 2 weeks. (True facts I was born with a hole in my heart ;-;) She’s fine now she just can’t push herself so much. Alex has Bi-polar and anxiety along with depression and PTSD. (A little bit of Anorexia and insomnia) Alex overcomes insomnia by just heating up milk and drinking it. She can’t really handle the others but if she really needs too she will talk to someone about it. (Surprisingly she’s getting a bit better slowly)

Alex’s voice is happy and positive (tries to be at least) Its kinda in the middle of high and low. (Normal lol)

Alex does have a tattoo on her right side of her side and it’s a rose tattoo. She wants too get a tattoo on her back but she can’t decide what tattoo to get in her back. She also has a tattle on her right shoulder and it’s a skull

Alex normally just wears T-shirts and shorts or comfy pants when she isn’t going out doing her job or some errands she’s running, If she is going out she wears her normal black jacket. Dark grayish shirt and black shorts with her boots.

Since Alex doesn’t like dresses she wears shirts with her rad uniform and doesn’t pull her sleeves down (she has her sleeves up)

Alex’s parents are divorced so she lives with her dad. Alex’s dad is also a detective he’s very skilled and taught Alex how to be strong and everything. Alex’s dad is very serious but he’s mostly kind, caring and very happy [My old man is basically a weirdo] Alex’s relationship is good! Her mom and her have kinda a awkward relationship. Alex’s older sister used to be best friends when they were younger but not anymore, they don’t talk a lot but they trust each other a lot. Alex’s older brother is the reason why she has PTSD. Her brother is toxic, she tries to stay away from her brother as much as possible because she doesn’t like being yelled at or called names. She’s afraid that maybe he’ll hit her like he did one time.

Alex doesn’t speak a lot of languages she speaks a little bit of Spanish/Mexican (idk I’m sorry don’t punch me ;-;) and a bit of Japanese (very little).

Alex and Lucifer HATE each other so much they want to kill each other at some point. Alex doesn’t like the way he treats his brothers especially. She is also kinda afraid of Lucifer because he reminds her of her older brother but she would never say it.

Mammon and Alex awkward just awkward because there both two awkward idiots that fell in love with each other but hide it (Alex is pretty good at hiding her feelings for someone more than a friend. Not mammon lol. Not unless Alex is just a clueless moron) but they get along oh just so much chaos

Alex and Levi get along so well! They both like anime and would talk about it so much. But Alex doesnt okay video games (she’s so bad...at them...)

Satan and Alex get along pretty well too they both hate Lucifer so much they pull pranks on him but they both like cats (Alex likes a lot of anmikals tbh) and books too!

Asmo and Alex They kinda and kinda not get along. Alex doesn’t like going to parties [unless she feels like it, it would be pretty rare for her to go too a party] and Alex doesn’t like dresses or makeup. Tho she likes cute things (will she admit it? Yes yes she would admit she likes cute things)

Beel and Alex get along pretty well as well. They both eat a lot and love food (mostly deserts and burgers) There both are too nice and innocent (Alex can be innocent sometimes)

Belphie and Alex yeah they get along they like sleeping so they sleep a lot so haha.

Alex gets along pretty well with diavolo and barbatos. She likes cooking so she would bake with barbatos and Luke and treat Luke as if he was her younger sibling or something. Alex and Simeon get along pretty well too they enjoy talking to each other since he would advise her on things too do and what not to do. Alex probably wouldn’t get along with Solomon because he’s a shady wizard that always wants to try out new spells and she’s a victim.

Alex’s hobbies are mostly drawing and learning the brother’s demon forms and powers. What can they do? How do they do it? (She takes notes)

Alex does have a pact with all the bros she mostly summons beel or mammon and Levi. She would summons them because she’s either cornered by some demons or trying to save other people’s lives from a demon who’s being a bad dog >:(

Alex’s favorite place in the Devildorm 👆🏻

What sin fits the most...Er that’s a hard one I think Gluttony and sloth mostly. Mostly gluttony because Alex is mostly always hungry (even if Anorexia isn’t kicking in)

Alex is weird and awkward at first but when she warms up too you she is either still quiet and calm or chaotic as heck. She tries to help others and be a positive person.

Alex has a Chinese dragon dog bracelet given by her dad and she holds onto it mostly. She also wears a star necklace given by Alexis when she met Alexis in her dream.

Alex - Best friends: Levi,Beel,Belphie,Satan,Diavolo,Luke,Simeon

A song that would fit Alex

youtube

What is in Alex’s bag let’s see textbooks,pencils and notebooks. Some snacks and maybe some handcuffs 😌

Alex has blackish brownish hair. Dark grayish shirt. Black jacket. Black shorts and boots (brown boots of course that are long) also her Chinese dog dragon bracket that her dad gave her on her right wrist. Also the star shaped necklace Alexis gave her in her dreams.

Alex’s greatest fear is being judged and hated by everyone and thinking they will betray her and leave her all alone (basically losing everyone she cares about) Also she is afraid of dying

When Alex figured out she was lilith’s descendant she was shocked and Confused.

Does Alex have a pet. Yes she has two dogs in the human world but I’m Devildorm she has mammon and the other demon brothers!

Alex’s grades in Devildorm. She is in the middle in Math Kinda good and kinda not good sometimes she gets A’s and doesn’t get A’s in math. Social studies and science Tho she has A’s. PE she has A’s (somehow...) Music she also has A’s. English language and arts F’s

Alex other friends are zack and Yuki (Yuki is a OC of one of my friends OC irl) (Zack is one of my OCS)

Alex’s favorite food: pasta,noodles,cheesecake,cookies,strawberries,friend shrimp and rice, rice and eggs, and many others

Alex’s Talent is fighting (I’m not actually good at fighting irl) and playing the violin

When Alex is feeling down she rely on Simeon,beel or Levi and Belphie too. Or satan and asmo

Alex’s room is a bit messy, some papers and files here and there on her desk and kinda on the floor. Drinks on her desk as well and in the garbage and snacks too. A computer on her desk with her textbooks and pencils. Notebooks too. She has a shelf for all her books and some plushies on her bed and a stuffed obey me brothers Zack made and gave her.

Alex is a heavy sleeper and sometimes laughs or talks in her sleep. She talks medicine before she goes too sleep (she doesn’t want too end up throwing up blood or feeling sick too her stomach like when she was younger)

Alex’s Devilgram Username: DetectiveCrazy

Alex does have a part time job while doing her “other” human job (detective) Her part-time job is Hell’s Kitchen (cook)

Alex’s friends and family members do know that she goes too the devildorm they do miss her and pretty worries about her.

When leaving the Devildorm because Alex will miss them too much (She literally cries she’s sensitive-) But she did return because of the shady wizard and she’s so happy she gets too see them all again heck she even hugs Lucifer and too everyone else’s surprise Lucifer hugs back.

Alex’s D.D.D is Black and her wallpaper is a chibi photo of mammon on her lock screen then her homsecreen is chibi mammon in the corner of her phone bottom left.

Alex likes praising all the brothers because she thinks it’s cute. She also likes being praised by them as well. (Mostly mammon) Alex doesn’t like criticism and would try to stand up for the person being criticized.

Alex’s goal is to figure out more about Alexis and Lilith. Also marrying mammon!!

Alex does play the violin and kinda play the piano. She is still trying to play the guitar.

Alex doesn’t think positive about herself At All. She thinks she’s ugly or not talented enough. She wants others too think of her as a good person and as a friend and not a enemy, Too not be nervous about telling there problems too her and too trust her.

When Alex was a child she was mostly bullied and had a lot of fake friends. But she mostly cared about her family and her dogs, also the future because she would probably meet good people eventually.

For living in the devildorm forever or staying in the human world forever is a hard decision for Alex

Alex did go to the celestial realm and she thought it was more than beautiful and amazing. She did wish she could meet Michael and talk to him about the brothers and how they were back then (maybe next time!)

The pact marks only appear on Alex’s skin when she is summoning one of the demon brothers. The pact marks only appear on her hand (depending on which demon brother it is) also when summoning one of the demon brothers the pact mark glows into there sin color (example: Pact color - Purple - Belphie)

Oof that’s all- that was a lot of typing but oddly my fingers don’t hurt because of typing that much

#obey me shall we date?#obey me mc #my mc #obey me Alex #text #*More about my MC*

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mediaeval-muse · 4 years

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Book Review

Butterfly Swords. By Jeannie Lin. Toronto and New York: Harlequin, 2010.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Genre: historical romance

Part of a Series? Yes, Tang Dynasty #1

Summary: During China's infamous Tang Dynasty, a time awash with luxury yet littered with deadly intrigues and fallen royalty, betrayed Princess Ai Li flees before her wedding. Miles from home, with only her delicate butterfly swords for defense, she enlists the reluctant protection of a blue-eyed warrior. Battle-scarred, embittered Ryam has always held his own life at cheap value. Ai Li's innocent trust in him and honorable, stubborn nature make him desperate to protect her which means not seducing the first woman he has ever truly wanted.

***Full review under the cut.***

Content Warnings: violence, sexual content

**DISCLAIMER: I’m not an expert on Chinese history or the Tang Dynasty, so I can’t speak to the book’s historical accuracy. If you’ve read this and have any thoughts, feel free to reach out! I’d love to learn!***

Overview: I decided to give this book a try after seeing praise for the author on Courtney Milan’s website. I’m always in the mood for some non-European historical fiction, and the romance aspect just made this book even more appealing. While there were some things I liked about Butterfly Swords, there were also some things that irritated me, such as the protagonists’ relationship and the focus on traveling. As a result, this book was a middling read for me, but I would be interesting in seeing if (and how) the author improves, as this is, to my understanding, a debut novel.

Writing: Lin’s prose is somewhat matter-of-fact, relating events and emotions in a plain, straight-forward style. At first, I thought the prose rather sparse, but as I progressed through the novel, it became more descriptive, especially once our two protagonists finally admitted (to themselves?) that they had feelings for one another and wanted to engage in a relationship. Because this book takes place in what Lin calls a “sensuous” era (as she discusses in her author’s note), I do wish more of that sensuality came through in her writing style. Because the Tang Dynasty is so temporally removed from our current time, it would have been fun to bring the setting to life more vividly. I would have loved more lush descriptions of what the world and culture was like, and since this book is only 282 pages long, I think there was definitely some room to add more detail.

Plot: The majority of the plot involves Ai Li, our heroine, fleeing from her marriage to a warlord who has betrayed her family. She chances upon Ryam, our hero and lone wandering “barbarian,” and convinces him to act as a kind of bodyguard and escort her back to her father. This premise lasts for maybe half the book, switching to focus on what to do once Ai Li has a falling out with her family (for lack of a better term, without spoiling anything) and how she and Ryam can be together. I found the first half of the book to be a little rocky; the lack of detail about the politics driving this situation made for some confusion, and the looming threat of the warlord’s forces was less suspenseful and more convenient.

The majority of the plot also revolves around Ai Li and Ryam traveling, and personally, I think these kinds of narratives are difficult to do well. Traveling or journeys provide an easy narrative structure, but they lack suspense. Events don’t really build on one another as much as they just happen - characters encounter this village where this event happens, then they continue to this part of the forest, where this happens, and so on. This isn’t necessarily Lin’s fault - it’s a problem I see throughout fiction that structures narrative this way. The threat of the being detected isn’t really felt or, if it is, it can feel repetitive.

I much preferred the moments when Ai Li interacts with her family. Family and honor are priorities for her, and the politics of the book were woven in well with Ai Li’s personal stakes. Ai Li risks losing her family in multiple ways: by bringing shame to them through her disobedience, by refusing to marry her fiance and creating peace in the empire, by disapproving of her father’s plans regarding her mother, etc. It created interesting tension at both micro and macro levels, and I was pleased that the personal-political conflicts neither framed family and honor as “old fashioned” or necessarily repressive, nor did the story as whole advocate for a complete break from values and traditions. Instead, it explored the delicate balance of obligation vs selfishness, considering the value of honor in a world devoid of it.

Characters: Ai Li, our heroine, is a sword-wielding princess who flees an arranged marriage to a traitorous warlord. She’s impulsive and reckless without being irritating - she acts without thinking mainly when it comes to her desires, and while it does sometimes get her in trouble, I don’t think there were any moments when she did something genuinely stupid to make plot happen. I also liked that she valued honor and her family but not to the extent that she would tolerate immorality from those closest to her. She is somewhat naive in that she had never been in an actual fight and doesn’t quite know how to survive on her own - her disguise is obvious, she can’t concoct convincing lies, and she trusts a bit too easily (hence the need for Ryam), but she’s unafraid to trek out on her own, if she has to.

Ryam, our hero, is a “foreigner” who roams throughout the empire after a disastrous military encounter leaves him on his own. His self-loathing through repeated references to how he was a “barbarian” and not a good person got a little repetitive after a while, and aside from his ability to fight, he didn’t have much going for him. He doesn’t seem to have clear goals or motivations, which made it hard to see why Ai Li was drawn to him until the author tells us that he listens to her and considers what she wants. I wish some more effort was made to make him more interesting, not just a gruff warrior who makes excuses about not being good enough for his love interest.

Supporting characters were more or less fine, playing the role they are meant to play. I really liked the kindness of Ai Li’s grandmother, Ryam’s commander (Adrian), and the former princess Miya. All of them seemed to genuinely care about the people around them, and it was wonderful to see them interact with and offer guidance to the protagonists, who were struggling with sorting out what they wanted.

I didn’t much care for our antagonist, a warlord named Li Tao. He’s somewhat of a boogeyman in that he doesn’t show up in person until the end of the book, making his looming threat somewhat toothless.

Other: I personally found the romance between Ai Li and Ryam to be up and down. While I did like that Ai Li felt that Ryam valued her voice and desires more than anyone else in her life (which Lin definitely should have leaned into more), I ultimately thought the foundation of their relationship was a little weak. From their first meeting, Ai Li and Ryam are physically attracted to one another, which is fine, but Ryam’s constant thinking of how he had to keep his masculine impulses in check was annoying. In addition to Ai Li deciding to trust a man she’s only just met (which seems foolish to me), the two kiss after knowing each other for one day, and only as a reward for Ryam winning a sparring contest. It felt too physical and because their relationship starts out this way, I had a hard time seeing what each character saw and wanted in the other, other than physical attraction. When they started to open up to one another, things got a little better, but the entire book takes place over something like a month, making their eventual union and declaration of love feel rushed. Moreover, even after things got a little more emotional, I still wanted more exploration of how the two enriched each other’s lives. There was a great foundation in that Ryam listened to Ai Li and took her desires (romantic or otherwise) seriously, but Ai Li’s role in making Ryam less self-loathing and more honorable wasn’t quite as interesting or empowering.

The repetitive nature of their budding relationship also made their romance hard to get excited about until the middle/end, when things got more complex. Ryam would constantly work on suppressing his sexual feelings, while Ai Li would talk about her family and her brothers. Then, the two would kiss or do something somewhat sexual, then back off while making excuses about how they could’t be together. Their interactions cycled through this script a few times, which ensured that their relationship didn’t progress as much as it followed a predictable pattern.

Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in historical romance, the Tang Dynasty, political conflict, sword-wielding heroines, and romances not set in Europe.

#book reviews

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saiilorstars · 4 years

Text

Next Stop Everywhere

Chapter 17: A Goodbye Theory

Fandom: Doctor Who

Pairing: Female OC x 10th Doctor

(Minerva’s face claim: Victoria Camacho)

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Chapter summary: Before Minerva is dropped off, the Doctor takes her to one more place in hopes of convincing her to stay aboard. At the same time, as a last resort, Martha urges Minerva to really think about her feelings for the Doctor, but Minerva is sure that there is NOTHING at all...

// Story Masterlist //

"My, you two look lovely," Yue, our newest friend, admired Martha and I as she backed away from us, "China's best fabric! You're definitely ready for the Lantern Festival."

Martha and I looked at each other, both pleased with our outfits. Martha wore a lavender, short cheongasm with a flower pattern. It reached just above her knees and had a Yeshu Mandarin styled-collar. She wore simple, purple heels so her dress would not be overshadowed. Her hair was tied up with a bejeweled, dark, purple pin on top.

I on the other hand, was a bit more shy with these short dresses. I wore a bright red cheongasm that also reached mere inches above my knees. However, I wore black leggings underneath, thus adding comfort. The cheongasm was also in a Yeshu Mandarin styled-collar and had a black outlines running around the hemlines of the dress and sleeves. I wore comfortable black flats and left my hair down to its natural, long length with only a simple red clip building a little hair bump on top.

"Now, if you want to go outside to see some entertainment, you're more than welcome to," Yue said, leading us towards the doors, "But Mother said you could visit the other rooms of the house to see what you like."

"I heard there was a painting room," Martha said, glancing at me with a smile as we stepped out into the hallway of Yue's house, "I'm sure Minerva would want to visit that."

"I would," I admitted, shrugging, "But I also heard you have a practice room with swords..."

Yue laughed softly, nodding her head, "You heard right. You're more than welcome to check it out and have a practice."

"She's gonna poke someone's eye out," Martha shook her head, "It's best not to."

"I think I will," I strolled ahead of her, "I never handled one of them so it should be fun. Can we squeeze it in before we go outside?"

"I don't think the Doctor's gonna like that," she gave me a sharp look, coming beside me and swinging an arm around my shoulders, "Weapons and him don't exactly mix."

"Yeah well that's what I say about cats and me. Yet I've been summoned to be around them twice. Therefore, I have the right to grab a sword for fun."

"You two are quite strange," Yue chuckled as she caught up again, "But most fun!"

We laughed together as we continued to walk out, going for that practice room that I desperately wanted to see.

~0~

I stood in the center of the room, Martha and Yue to the sides as Yue's brother, Jing, was helping me keep a still grasp of the long, silver sword I held.

"Now, take a deep breath," Jing instructed, moving my arm slightly up, "And just remember, keep the pointy end away from you."

We laughed and I lowered the sword, "Thanks, I'll remember to keep that in mind."

"She's pretty clever," Martha started walking towards us, "I'm sure she can manage remembering that."

"I can too," I re-held the sword, aiming it at her as she approached, "Care for a match, Miss Jones?"

She raised her hands and shook her head, moving around us, "No thanks, Souza. I'm good."

"Alright, no one wants to go against me..." I sighed, pretending to pout, "I guess it's because I'm just that good."

Now that one made everyone laugh, and this time I really did pout. Martha set her hands on my shoulders and turned me for the doors, "The Doctor is outside and is probably wondering where we are. We should go."

I frowned as Jing took my sword, and I looked at Martha, "I'm sure he's found someone to entertain him..." I started frowning, "Yue's sister seemed to be the right entertainer."

She raised an eyebrow, "Is that...bothering you?"

"No, not at all," I muttered, "Why do you ask?"

"You have the look of murder on your face," she pointed, now smirking wide.

"Do not," I turned away from her and headed for the door.

"You're jealous!"

"Martha, I don't have time for this."

"Why is it so hard to admit it?" she crossed her arms, "Just say it, Minerva," she walked closer and spoke in a hushed tone, Yue and Jing putting away the other weapons we had used, "You like the alien, and you're jealous."

I looked at her with a good serious face that would convince her otherwise, "I do not," she sighed, "And I am not jealous. The Doctor can spend time with whatever woman he chooses, even if she's a prune and has nothing going for her except that clearly fake tan and chest."

Martha blinked and started laughing a moment later, "Honestly, if that doesn't spell jealous I don't know what does!"

I rolled my eyes and looked over to Yue and Jing, the pair finally finished and walking towards us, "Who is jealous?" Jing asked, curious.

"No one," I replied at the same time Martha said, "Minerva!"

"Martha!" I turned to her with exasperation.

"Who are you jealous of?" Yue questioned.

"No one," I tried to keep my mouth shut but it seemed like it had a mind of its own, "Certainly not your sister who's probably the biggest flirt I've ever seen! I mean seriously!? She just met the Doctor and she's all," and I started imitating the woman, "Oh Doctor, you're so kind, you're so funny, you're so unique, I've never met anyone like you! I love your clothes! And your hair, it's so...wow!' OH, and let's not forget the excess twirling of her hair and...why are you looking at me like that?" I stared at Jing who now wore that look of murder Martha had talked about earlier.

"Mei is about to be my wife!"

I blinked, "Oh...oops. Jing, I'm so sorry!"

Martha 'coughed' and out came, "Jealous!" I glared at her with real intentions of actually strangling the woman.

"Jing," Yue began, sensing the oncoming tension, "I'm sure Mei was just showing him around. They don't know much of this place...and plus, with the Lantern Festival happening today, there's a lot to show!"

Jing didn't seem so convinced and so he opened the door, nearly flinging it I should say, and rushed out. Martha and I looked back at Yue, she looking with a soft smile.

"Oh Mei, always getting men fighting over her," she shook her head and gestured for us to go out, "I tell you, I think she does it on purpose."

"You don't say? I hadn't noticed," I crossed my arms, rolling my eyes with irritation, "She was practically all over the Doctor..."

"Jealous!" Martha 'coughed' again.

"Do you have a cold or something!?" I demanded.

"Sorry, just a cold," she cleared her throat, smirking again, "Actually, it's more of a phobia, you see. I have a phobia where I can't stand people who can't admit what they're feeling," she shrugged casually, "Common phobia."

"Well get it under control because there's nothing to feel," I snapped and walked out into the hallways.

"Honestly, Minervaaa!" she drew out my name as she and Yue followed behind.

"Stop it!" I ordered, waving her off.

"I have theory a you know."

"Oh, and here we go again!"

"What is the theory?" Yue asked, confused yet still making an effort to catch up.

"There is no theory!" I quickly said but Martha covered my mouth.

"My theory is, Minerva does not wan to admit her feelings because she's scared."

I made a face and pushed her hand down, "I am not afraid!"

"Yeah you are," she scoffed, "Of what the Doctor could say."

"That's not it..." I mumbled, "...at least not all."

"You two are so odd," Yue remarked, "Where are you from, again?"

"I'm from London," Martha answered first, eyeing me with concern at my sudden quietness. Usually when we're on this topic, I'd shout and refuse everything. To answer with something besides 'no' or 'shush' was big,"And she's from America."

"And the Doctor?"

"London," I answered.

"And you two are..."

"NO," I gritted my teeth, glaring at Martha for getting the woman to believe that as well, "Just friends."

"Well then, why are you jealous?"

"Ah! I'm not jealous!" I cried.

"See, they're in that phase where neither wants to admit anything, though I haven't spoken to the Doctor about what he thinks," Martha paused as she considered it.

"Martha, don't you dare!" I warned, pointing a violent finger at her.

"What? I could get the real thoughts from him then tell you!"

"Why is so hard to just LET. THIS. GO?"

"Minerva," she stepped up, very calm and serious, "We're here. In China. That's my case."

And she and Yue walked off, Martha walking in triumph.

I was supposed to go back to London where I would remain indefinitely. But, the Doctor had surprised me with this location; China. It was the day of the Lantern Festival, the ending of the Chinese New Year celebration. I needed to go home, I needed to. But somehow, the Martian persuaded me to stay for this last trip, a goodbye to our permanent traveling trips. And as much as I needed to go back to Earth, I wanted to stay here, I wanted to stay with him and Martha.

Oh, and that was another thing: Martha was going home as well. I wanted to smack myself against the wall for provoking that one. I don't know for what reason, but the Doctor had decided to bring Martha back home as well. As much as I insisted before actually staying in China, he would not go back on his decision.

Martha was going home...and it was all my fault.

Now, we had found ourselves invited to Yue's family's home. The Doctor, Martha and myself were just walking down the streets when we heard a series of crashes coming from a vase shop. The Doctor had rushed inside to see what was going on when he saw Yue's little brother about to be hit with one of the vases. He managed to save the boy, with only a broken ankle as a result. The boy, Liang, then told us where he lived so we took him home, only to be thanked eternally for it and thus invited to spend the festival with them as a thank you.

This trip, just like always, was turning out to be wonderful...and that only made it harder to insist on leaving the TARDIS.

~0~

I entered the courtyard of the Zhao family, where everything was beautifully decorated. There were tables spread out in the center of the courtyard, the food being set around the center. Lanterns were placed on strings and then hung at each corner. They weren't lighted yet as the sun was just starting to set, but I knew they would look beautiful once it was dark.

"Minerva," Liling, Yue's mother, greeted me, my two companions not in sight for the moment, "You look wonderful."

"Thanks," I replied sheepishly, looking down at myself.

"The food is ready for whenever you and your friends would like to eat," she gestured back to the tables.

"Thank you, but...I'm sorry, but I heard there was a paint room..." I bit my lip, feeling even more shy than before.

"Ah yes, the Doctor informed me you draw," Liling nodded, "Says your wonderful."

"Did he now..." I smiled a little, then caught myself and shook my head, "...well, I was wondering if I could maybe take a look around?"

"Go right ahead. I think there's even a few empty canvases around and paper if you'd like to draw or paint something."

"Wow, really?"

"Of course!"

"Thank you," I hugged her.

She chuckled, "It's nothing."

I pulled back just as I heard Jing's voice nearing us. I looked back and saw him walking out, his hand on Mei's arm and practically pulling her out with him, "And from now on you are going to be staying with me!" he was angrily saying, "You are unbelievable!"

Liling blinked as the young couple passed by us, going after them, "Mei? What's wrong?"

I just smirked, watching after the woman with so much satisfaction...

"Careful there," Martha whispered behind, "Your jealousy is showing."

I turned around, mouth open to respond when we heard the Doctor's low mumbling as he walked out, his hand rubbing his neck.

"You alright, there?" Martha asked, moving beside me.

"Can someone just explain to me why a random man just punched my neck?" he looked past us, probably where Jing and Mei were.

"Maybe because the woman you were flirting with is engaged?" I crossed my arms, sounding cross but in reality I was more concerned with the red mark his neck bore.

"What? I was not flirting!"

"Uh, really? Because that's not what I saw!"

"We were having a good conversation, nothing more," he shrugged, making a face as he continued to rub his neck.

"You really know how to get yourself into trouble, don't you?" Martha shook her head.

"I didn't do anything! Mei came up and started talking to me so naturally, I did the same."

"And she flirted," I stepped up and pulled his hand down, "But you're so oblivious you didn't even notice it or you just liked it and flirted back," I yanked him down to check his neck.

"Ow, that hurt!" he pouted, "And I did not flirt back, honest."

"Hm..."

"Jealousy," Martha coughed once more.

"Well, you have a knack for never noticing when woman like you," I ignored her.

Martha scoffed, "I'll say."

I rolled my eyes, "I believe you," I let go of him, "And you're going to be fine."

"Keep them away from me," he looked at the couple, "Don't you dare leave me alone anymore."

"That I can do," I nodded, smiling and receiving one back, "That is the point of this last trip, isn't it? To spend time together."

"Yes! And have you heard about the painting room? I thought we could check it out," he linked arms with me and moved us for the fruit nearby, Martha walking beside with one of her stupid smirks again.

"Yeah, I asked Liling if we could go and she said yes!" I picked up a couple grapes.

"Looks like the Doctor isn't the only one receiving attention tonight, Minerva," Martha declared, taking my grapes and dropping them into her mouth.

"Martha, let it-"

"No, over there, look," she nodded to her left.

We all looked over and saw a young man across us, smiling at me.

"Huh, that's new," I remarked, offering a small smile back,

But then his eyes started looking up and down and it just made me uncomfortable. I turned around, wanting to forget his trailing looks, and picked up some more grapes, "I only have to say that these grapes are delicious."

"Well, what do you have to say about that, Doctor?" she turned to the Martian.

"Me? What would I have to say?" he raised an eyebrow, clearly confused which only proved Martha was wrong about all these 'feelings' and whatnot.

"What if the guy's engaged and Minerva ends up punched by the fiancee?"

"She'd have to answer to me, then," he quickly replied, "No one hurts Minerva."

Martha winked at me, satisfied with the response.

"I told you Doctor, it's impossible never to be hurt," I reminded. He'd taken his job of never letting anyone or anything hurt me quite serious. Sometimes, I'd try to make him see that it was impossible because there would always be something that would emotionally and/or physically harm someone, but he wouldn't listen!

"I must say, I really do not care for the way he's looking at you," he nearly glared at the stranger across.

"Yeah, it's a bit uncomfortable," I admitted in a low mumble.

"Maybe you should go meet him!" Martha suddenly pushed me towards the direction of the man.

"Wha-HEY!" I frowned, looking at her as I pushed her hands down, "I'd rather not."

"It'll be fun!" she insisted, pushing me once more. Before I declined once more, she stepped back and linked arms with the Doctor, waving sweetly as she walked away with him.

What the hell was this plan? What was it supposed to accomplish!?

Well, my mind didn't have nearly a minute to think more when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw the same young man from across standing before me, "Oh..."

Well, I had to admit he wasn't bad looking. He was pretty handsome...

He was tall, tanned, black hair that swiveled at its tips, and had chocolate brown eyes. He stood before me, his hand reaching out to shake mine without even saying a word, "Sorry if I'm a bit forwards..." he chuckled, sounding as if he was nervous, "My name is Zian."

He stopped shaking my hand and looked down, almost shameful. It didn't look that bad on him either...

"Minerva," I said quietly, still staring at him as I decided whether or not I'd be giving any further conversation with him.

"I know, you're...American," he took my hand and lifted it up to his lips where he placed a kiss, "My you are...mesmerizing," he whispered.

"Thank you..." for some reason, I just want to snatch my hand back and run off. It didn't feel right...

"Apologies," he lowered my hand but kept holding it to my misfortune, "I have never seen a more beautiful creature than yourself."

"Again, thank you," I gave a polite smile.

"Where are you from?"

"California."

"How old are you?"

"It's a bit direct, don't you think?" I frowned, "A woman never wants to admit her age."

"Sorry," he chuckled, "It's just you make kind of nervous and I tend to ask stupid questions when I get nervous."

"You're nervous...of me?" I blinked, that was a new one for me, "No one is ever nervous of me."

"I do not understand," his eyes trailed me over again, making me shift on my feet with discomfort, "I cannot seem to even form a decent sentence with you."

"Right, well, um, I have to go now..." I moved to walk off when I felt his hand grip mine, keeping me in place, "...um, something wrong?"

"Can we talk? Get to know each other?" he asked, smiling as if I hadn't just tried walking off.

"Well, I would but, I have some friends I came with and-"

"I'm sure they wouldn't mind sharing you with me for a couple of hours," he lifted my hand again to give it another kiss.

"Minerva, something wrong?" the Doctor strolled over, a drink in his hand.

"Um...I just wanted to go see that art room now," I looked at him, hoping he'd just take me away from this uncomfortable spot.

"Wonderful! Let's say goodbye to your...friend," he reached to where Zian's and my hand were together and practically pulled mine away from the man's, "And we can go together, how's that sound?"

"Good," I nodded fast, showing him I most definitely wanted to leave this spot now.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, what ever your name was," the Doctor handed Zian his drink, a fake grin plastered on his face, "We'll be going now, bye, bye," and he took my hand then walked us away.

"Oh thank goodness," I breathed a sigh of relief once we were a decent distance away, "Thank you so much for coming to get me."

"Was it me or is there something not right with the man?" he frowned.

"Well, the way his eyes seemed to keep looking over me every damn second could be a start," I shivered a bit.

"Tell me about it," he muttered.

"Can we go to the art room before the fireworks start?" I glanced at him, wanting to just forget the bad moment and spend time with the Martian, "Please?"

He smiled, "Of course. I sent Martha off with Yue."

"Why?"

"Because she sent you off with a stranger. I did not approve."

"Oh..." and I cursed myself for smiling at that, but I still kept doing it.

~0~

"Remind me again what we're doing?" the Doctor asked as he walked around the art room, picking up things here and there. The poor Martian seemed so bored but he clearly was making a struggle to not show it while I tried my hand at an art work in front of me.

"Well, I'm trying to create The Early Autumn and you're so bored out of your mind," I replied, watching him secretly.

"I'm not bored...bored out of mind..." he stopped, 'casually' looking around.

"Yes you are," I said, about to make another comment when I messed up and yelped, "Ah! Stupid butterfly!"

"What is with you humans and butterflies?" he walked over, standing beside me and tilting his head as he studied my attempt of recreation, "I don't see any mistake."

"Yes, right there!" I pointed to the black butterfly that had a slightly shorter wing on the left, "I can't get it right!"

"Minerva, it's not that hard, just brush it again."

"It's a bit more complicated than that. I can't do paintings," I shook my head and dropped the brush back to its place, "I quit."

"No you don't."

"Yes I do. I'm done."

"Why not draw another bird, instead?" he picked up the brush again and held it to me.

"Because I wanted to draw a butterfly."

"Then draw a butterfly."

"But I can't!"

"Yeah, you can, just try again," he took my hand and placed the brush on the canvas.

"I...no."

"Then try a dragonfly. It needs a new one."

"Doctor, I don't want-"

"Yes you do," he moved behind me and placed his hand over mine, lifting it to the artwork, "And you will."

"Is this really necessary?" I tried to sound as annoyed as I could, but the horseback rides started flashing in my head, making this position a tad more blush-worthy.

"This way you can't escape me," he teased, setting his chin on my shoulder, "Now draw, clever girl."

"It's pain, stupid," I mumbled, "And can you get off me?"

"Are you going to paint?"

"No! I said I was done!"

"Then no."

"You're such a child sometimes," I sighed, creating a new butterfly.

"Call me what you want but you're doing another butterfly..." he smirked," ...therefore I win."

"I hate you."

"Not really, you don't."

"Hey, I'm actually getting it!" I grinned up at the sight of an actual even-winged butterfly. All wings were coming out well!

"See, what I tell you? That you'd-"

"Shush!" I elbowed him, focusing on my work now.

"What exactly do you-"

'I said shush!"

"But-"

"Doctor! For god's sake, be quiet!" I chuckled, ready to scold him more when I turned my head and found our closeness a bit beyond...nervousy. Yes, that wasn't a real word but the Doctor had made me put a 'y' after nearly everything! Which, now that I think of it, was also a strong point for Martha. She claimed the Doctor and I spent so much time together that at times I said stupid words like him.

"Are...you finish with your painting?" he asked, mumbling really if I had to describe.

"Y-yes...yes!" I blinked back to reality, looking back at the painting, "What do you think?"

He moved beside and studied the painting, meanwhile I recollected myself, "I think it looks wonderful, just like the rest of your work."

"Are you sure?" I cleared my throat, "Because I've never painted before. It's okay to admit there's flaws."

'But...there isn't!"

I rolled my eyes, "Why do you feel the need to do that?"

"Do what?"

"Act like all my drawings are perfect when I know for a fact that's there's visible flaws."

"I do not do that!"

"Yeah you do," I chuckled, "You lie and say it's perfect but I know you're lying because sometimes I purposely make it bad. You're not supposed to do that, you know. It's wrong!"

"Oh yeah?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah!"

"Minerva," he stepped up, his hands behind his back and a fake, innocent look on his face.

"Yes?"

"How's my dancing?"

"Um..." I was going to answer 'you're a horrible dancer' but found that rude, even if it was true, "...well...you're, um...you're this," I put a hand on my cheek as I thought of some nice words, "...wonderful...unique...dancer?" I don't know why it came out like a question in the end.

He smirked, "You are such a liar! I can't dance! I can't dance to save my life!"

"So then why did you ask?" I frowned.

"Because I know you'd lie to spare my feelings, and you did," he tapped my nose and wandered around the room.

I blinked, did he just...tap my nose? When did we ever start doing that?

"Face it Minerva," the Doctor turned around, "We're prone to compliment each other even if we're lying. And we'll do it because we like to see each other happy."

"I'm sorry I lied," I apologized quietly, faintly smiling, "But you really can't dance," I whispered, making him chuckle.

"I know, but I do it because it makes you happy. And besides, you can't make symmetrical wings except for this one," he looked at the current artwork beside us.

"But hey, we can always learn, right? That's how we're supposed to do it."

"Of course," he nodded.

"But seriously, Martha mimics you," I started chuckling, "Perhaps you should consider some lessons before you try to dance again. I know you do it for me, but I'm alright."

"Are you really?" he questioned, but it didn't have to do with the dancing anymore, "Are you okay?"

I sighed, "Well, right now I am...sort of."

I mean, it wasn't like apart from ridding myself of my guilt of Liv's death and my grandmother's disappointment of me I now had to deal with some developing feelings for a 903 year old Time Lord.

It wasn't like any of that was happening...

Not at all...

"It'll get better, I promise," the Doctor said, "I know I keep saying that and I know it's annoying but I mean it. One day, you'll look back and see how wrong your guilt. You'll see how much your grandmother loves you and only wanted to see you again. And you'll always smile, finally moving on with your life."

"Let me teach you how to dance," I said instead of a common answer like 'Maybe one day' and whatnot.

"What?" you could tell he was expecting one of those common answers.

I didn't feel like torturing myself with my usual guilt thoughts for today. I wanted to be happy, and I was going to do just that.

"I can't give back anything incredible like what you've done for me, but I can teach you how to dance. Just a little bit, anyways. I'm not grand myself but...let me try."

"Minerva, I don't...I don't understand," he admitted, poor thing looking confused.

"It's my lame attempt of thanking you," I reminded, stepping up, "Plus, I'm a bit guilty for making fun of you too," I said very quietly but still heard by the Martian.

"You made fun of me too!?"

"Sorry..." I bit my lip, "...but Martha did it too!"

"I don't care about Martha! She can't do math to save her life, and she's a doctor!"

"Now, let's not go insulting our companion, okay?" I pointed a warning finger at him, "And you better be nice to her when I leave."

"I told you Minerva, she's leaving. It's settled," he said, dead serious it quieted me for a moment as he moved to walk away.

"Hold on!" I grabbed his hand, stopping him, "I feel bad because you want to bring Martha back because I'm leaving. And it's not fair, Doctor. It's really not," I looked down, feeling another weight settling on my shoulders, "Martha is brilliant and...and you can't bring her back home because of me. I can't take more guilt, Doctor. Please don't take her home."

There was silence for a moment before he sighed and returned, keeping a firm hold on my hand, "Teach me how to dance, c'mon?"

I looked up at him, raising an eyebrow, "What?"

"Teach me how to dance and I may consider keeping the human doctor."

"But..."

But I stopped talking when he brought us to the center of the room, his arm winding around my waist till his hand rested on the small of my back, his other hand letting go of mine and moving my right hand up to his shoulder.

"Are you sure you don't know how to do this?" I asked curiously, seeing his hand return to my left and held.

"That's as far as I go," he shrugged, "Now teach me, clever girl!"

"Will you reconsider Martha's departure?"

"Uh...it's...debatable..."

It was not. He was just doing this to distract me, which he seemed pretty damn good at.

"Well..." I looked around, "...you just...step back," which he did, "Then, um...move here," and we did.

"Then we step to the front?"

"Yeah."

Which he did...

"Ow!" I flinched.

"Sorry!" he let go of me.

He had stepped on my foot, "No, no, it's okay," I lifted my foot and rubbed it.

"You know what, on second thought we should just go back out. We'll miss the fireworks!"

"Oh no, Martian, get back here," I pulled him back to his place, reforming our position.

"I don't want to hurt you," he frowned with himself.

"It was just one small step, it doesn't even hurt anymore. C'mon," I started moving us again, feeling the tips of his shoes brush mine, the poor Martian being extra cautious.

"I don't want to step on you..."

"Hm, that didn't seem a problem when you asked me to dance in the 50's," I reminded, "And you didn't seem that bad of a dancer either."

"Well, I was kind of focusing on getting your forgiveness."

"Then focus on the learning now, spin!" I ordered, and he obeyed, "There we go," I smiled, lightening up the gloomy mood that was threatening to fall over us.

"And dip?"

"What?"

But he dipped me down without asking again. I laughed when my hair actually touching the floor. He pulled me right up a few seconds later, leaving us closer than what he probably anticipated. Flashes of our dance in the 50's came rushing in my head when we ended face-to-face. How did he keep doing this to me!? I bet he didn't remember any of that!

"How was that?" the Doctor whispered.

"G-good," I awaited for him to move back since I was too frozen to move myself. But even then, if I had to admit it, I didn't really mind how close we were.

"You're a wonderful teacher," he smiled softly when he returned us to our normal positions.

"Yup, thanks," I cleared my throat, ending the so called lesson, "Now you can ask any pretty woman to dance with you."

"I'd probably step on them, again..."

"That's why it's called lessons, you learn them repeatedly until it sticks," I walked for my artwork, "So, I think we should get going, yeah? Martha's going to be wondering about us."

"Oh, um, yeah, let's go," he walked over, taking my hand and leading us out, "We'll pick up your work later."

"Mhm," I nodded, my racing heart not allowing a full answer with actual words. I hated him for making me feel these things that should not be. That won't be.

~0~

"Good, you're here! The fireworks are about to start," Martha gestured for the Doctor and I to take a seat, "How much fun is an art-room that you take an hour and a half in there?"

"I tried replicating an artwork," I shrugged.

"Well, I heard after the fireworks, we get to solve lantern riddles in the streets," she smiled, "I thought we could check them out. Apparently, if you win a riddle you get a prize."

"That does sound like fun," I considered it, "Intellectual fun. And hey, Doctor," I glanced at him, "I challenge you to see who can solve the most riddles. What do you say, Martian?" I crossed my arms and waited for his response, my grin turning into a playful smirk.

He looked at Martha who was just smiling, "You'll keep score? I don't trust Minerva. She can be a cheater," I gasped quietly and hit his arm, causing him to laugh, "Alright, alright, challenge accepted."

"Oh, so who's gonna win this new challenge? Riddle solving?" Martha chuckled, "Ridiculous, by the way."

"Oh, I will," the Doctor and I answered together, both scoffing afterwards. We then looked at each other with a frown, "Hey, stop it."

Martha simply laughed at our faces, neither the Doctor or I backing down from our stare down.

"Minerva, no offense, but I'm a bit more experienced than you..." the Doctor began, "I have lived much longer than you."

"Yeah, you've lived 903 years and in all that time you still can't tell when people flirt with you," I leaned forwards, "Or maybe it's just because you're a guy. Either way, one of those characteristics is gonna bring you down on this challenge."

That got under his skin, his face just looking at me with an irritated expression. I smiled sweetly and leaned back on my chair, glancing at Martha who was more than amused, "Miss Jones I assume you'll get the notepad and pen? Not that you'll need it because the Doctor will only have zero."

She laughed, shaking her head, "Are you two this competitive over riddles? That's incredible!"

"You think you're so clever..." the Doctor continued to glare at me.

"You always say I am why shouldn't I believe it?"

"She's got you there," Martha said, shrugging, "How about you get us something to drink to cool your selves down? Such heated competition."

"Hm," he frowned and stood up, walked around my chair and leaning beside me, "You're gonna lose, Souza."

I glanced at him with a smirk, "Don't be so sure, martian."

"You two are ridiculous I'm telling you that now," Martha shook her head and laughed once more.

I nodded at her, holding back my scolding until I did this...

"Ow!" she jerked back her arm after being smacked by me, "What was that for?"

"That was for leaving me with a stranger," I whispered, looking around to make sure I hadn't been heard, "What the hell is wrong with you!?"

She smirked again as she looked down, rubbing her arm, knowing what she had done, "Well it worked," she mumbled so low I had barely heard her, "The Doctor left me to go take you back. He was so upset you should've seen it! He was jealous!"

"Yeah right," I rolled my eyes, "We were supposed to be together, all three of us. I'd be upset too if a friend just ditched me to be with a stranger."

"Would you quit making this so hard!" she whispered-yelled, looking frantic at the demand, "God, you're both so hard to work with!"

"It's just...jealous? No one would believe that. Perhaps, a little annoyed, maybe...irritated? Sure. But jealous would imply things that are simply not true."

"What is so hard about accepting it? I don't get it! Remember my theory!"

"Your theory sucks!"

She blinked, snorting, "That's a comeback!"

"There is nothing to accept, now shush!"

"A person who who shares more than a friendship has a set of double standards between that person they like and a friend, examples are you and me," she gestured to us. I rolled my eyes but let her continue, "Biggest example I can think of is that Torchwood job you had."

I shifted on my feet, wishing I could truly forget that awful job. I told her the brief story of my experience that and how it ended in the meantime Yue had picked out our clothes.

"He hated that place, right?"

"Well, it's more-"

"Shush," she covered my mouth, "Did he or did he not hate it?" I nodded and she took her hand back, "Okay, now, is he still angry you worked there?"

"What? No!" I shook my head, making a face at the ridiculousness of that question.

"But I bet if another friend worked there he'd be very angry," she smirked.

"Look, I explained to him in great detail why I took the job in the first place, how I didn't even know what Torchwood actually was and why I stayed there after discovering what its real purposes were. Now it's bad enough what we did to Rose, I'm so grateful he didn't stay angry."

"What we did to Rose?" she frowned, forgetting her point for a second, "Why do you say that?"

"Because it was true, it was Torchwood that sent her mom and Mickey to another world. I worked at that institution so I sent them to another world. She was right."

I don't think I would ever forget Rose's look after she told me everything was my fault. I knew I reacted like I was crazy, but now that I was better and though about it, she was right. It was my fault. Perhaps if I had told the Doctor from the start about the job and the sphere, he could've prevented the battle.

"God I really hate Rose," Martha crinkled her face with distaste.

"No, don't say that," I shook my head, "It's not right to talk bad about someone when they aren't here to defend themselves."

"And how exactly would she defend herself, hm!?" she nearly shouted, still attracting several looks around the place.

"Martha, shush," I put a finger to my lips.

"I'm sorry but, she's awful! I bet if the Doctor knew half the things about the real Rose, he wouldn't dare speak about her anymore."

"Don't you dare," I immediately warned, knowing anger could drive to impulsion.

"For example the threat," she began counting on her fingers, "The yells she gave you after the Doctor regenerated, blaming you for her choice of worlds-"

"Please stop," I sighed.

"No! I will not! Because while you proceed to belittle yourself, the blonde is left as a goddess who wouldn't hurt a fly."

"She was never violent," I mumbled, the thought of actually speaking bad about a woman who was once my friend didn't quite go with me.

"That was the last thing she needed," she huffed, "I'm just saying, maybe a little revelation to the Doctor wouldn't hurt."

"And then what? Huh? How would that help me?"

"He could support you. He could make you see how different you are from her, and he himself would finally see the biggest differences between you and her."

"And for what?"

"What do you mean for what? So you two can finally be-"

"No, it's not gonna happen. It's never going to happen. You don't seem to remember Martha, he was in love with her."

"That's what you think," she cut me off, both filled with tension, "But after everything you've told me, and after what I've seen, I wouldn't agree."

"But you weren't there, alright?"

"No, but I'm here now. And this time, you have a friend who actually cares about you and is not going to let you push away possibly the biggest piece of happiness you have. Nope," she crossed her arms and shook her head.

I sighed, sometimes I loved Martha but at other times I really wanted to strangle her.

Her eyes wandered past me suddenly, "Um, I think your new friend is pretty jealous too."

"What?"

"That guy I pushed you to," her look turned of one of discomfort as she continued looking, "In fact, he looks pretty mad."

She gestured with her head and I looked behind, finding Zian speaking to another man, almost angrily, "So?"

"I don't like him anymore..." she said just as Zian happened to look at us, his face pretty scary, "In fact, I forbid you to speak to him again."

I quickly looked away from him and back to her, "Thanks Martha, I think I just made a new enemy."

"Sorry, he didn't look like a creep earlier."

"Who didn't look like a creep?" the Doctor returned, struggling to hold three glasses.

"No one," I quickly took a glass, "Don't worry."

"I think I'm gonna go ask for that notepad," Martha started getting up, her eyes seeming to be fixated on what I assumed was Zian behind me, "Don't separate."

"What?" the Doctor asked, confused.

She had caught herself and shook her head, putting a smile, "I'll be right back."

"What's wrong with her?"

"She's just a bit irritated with our competitiveness," I shrugged, taking a drink and hoping he'd forget about it.

"Yeah why are you so competitive?"

I looked at him, raising an eyebrow, "You're serious?"

He chuckled, "Sorry, sorry."

I shook my head, disapproving but laughing anyways, "You know, when I'm not in the TARDIS, you're gonna need someone to be competitive with..." his chuckle faded as he realized where I was headed. I did feel a little nervous as I continued to speak but I just had to make an argument against her departure, "...Martha could be a good match. She's fun, eh?"

"If I'm not gonna have my friend, then I'm sure as hell not gonna have a companion."

I blinked at his seriousness, the way he had said it...it was just...kind of cold and harsh. It was as if Martha was no where near a friend to him, like she was just a stray that we had picked up and sometimes remembered she was with us.

And Martha was most certainly not that. Ever.

"How can you say that after everything she's done for us? She saved our lives in New York. She killed the pigmen before they killed us. And apart from that, she supported me when I needed friends the most. She had no obligation to do any of that stuff and yet she did. How can you degrade her like that?"

"I'm not belittling her, I just don't see her as a close friend to me, alright? I understand the bond you two have but I don't share that bond, okay? I have that with you, not her."

"We have a bond..." I whispered, smiling to myself.

"Yes, and I respect Martha, I know she's done a lot but...you can't ask me to see her the way I see you."

"And...how do you see me?" I dared to ask, my cheeks flushing red.

"As the most incredible woman that's ever traveled with me."

"Really?" I blinked.

He nodded, "Martha is wonderful. She's okay..."

"No Doctor, she's brilliant. She is fantastic, she is good. And she is exactly who you need to be around when I'm not there. She's yet to see what I've seen and I know she'll keep a good reign on you like me. But most importantly, she's a good friend to you. She helps, she fights, she listens," I started to chuckle lightly, "And we both know that with your mouth, it's a good quality to have," that made him smile a little, as he knew it was true and there was no denying it, "So c'mon, why don't you let her stay?"

He set his drink on the table and looked me in the eyes this time, a new expression on his face that I had only seen once.

The day he had lost Rose.

It was of pain, but also of sadness. When he's around with other people, he would show his pain of the loss of Rose, but only to a certain extent. Even when we first traveled together, he believed he could trick me and make me believe he wasn't as badly affected as he actually was. But then we started getting closer, and gaining each other's trust, and slowly he started letting me see just how hurt he was. I hated that look, feelings or not, I simply hated it. Ever since we took Martha on, the look seemed to falter...and now I made it return.

"Well, Doctor? Why won't you let her stay?" I repeated, a little more nervous now.

"Because if I let her stay, and you go, I'm afraid that you'll never come back and I'll have the reminder of you in Martha."

I swallowed hard, "Just like I was reminder of Rose, huh?"

"It's not like that!" he quickly said, shaking his head.

"I know," I said quietly, taking a deep breath, "It's not..."

"You're not a ghost of her, Minerva. I don't know how I'm gonna make you see it. Look, whenever you react to something I say, whether to scold me for being daft, or laugh at something funny I said," he sighed, "Or simply shine those big eyes both of you had when you see something new for the first time...I can't help but remember Rose. You two seemed to get along really...good."

I shifted on my seat, sure I'd let him believe that...

"I imagine her standing right beside you, reacting similarly to you...and I don't want to see that happen with you. You're not a ghost of Rose, you're two completely different people and I need you to understand that. Now, I don't want to see you beside Martha when you're not there. I don't want another reminder. If I can't have you, in the TARDIS, in person, then I don't want anyone else," I looked down, scolding myself for having a little ray of hope that his last sentence might have had a double meaning, "Hey," he called softly, making me look up, although silent because I had no idea how to respond anymore, "I don't have anything against Martha, I simply don't want another set of reminders."

He tried smiling but I knew it was just fake. He remembered Rose and now he was hurting again.

"I got it!" Martha's voice called from a distance, causing both to glance back, seeing her walking for us, waving a small notepad and a pen in her hands, "And just so you know, I'm not gonna have a soft spot for either of you," she pointed at us with the pen, giving a stern look. She noticed our quietness and became concerned, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I answered first, looking around for a good excuse, the sky being the last thing I saw and the perfect excuse, "C'mon, take a seat. The fireworks are gonna start."

"Alright," she reached for her drink and eyed the both of us, "Fireworks it is."

In the short time that we had before the fireworks actually began, there was just silence. I couldn't shake off the Doctor's words, as friend-zoned as it was, it was still concerning. And another thing, I was a little on guard with the looks I continued to receive from Zian. Martha was right, he did seem angry. I didn't care what it was for, I just needed him to stop.

"Oh, look!" Martha suddenly pointed above. We followed her gaze, and heard the beginning of mini-explosions, to the sky.

The fireworks had begun and had started in a lazy manner, I should add, with simple colored sparkles. However, as the seconds passed, the colors began to merge into twists and shapes. There came the shape of a lantern, a brilliant shade of red and a radiant yellow. Other figures arose into the sky afterwards, one of a large dragon shooting the familiar flames from its nostrils.

"That one! That one's my favorite!" Martha laughed as a figure of a man on stilts was formed.

I laughed along with her, watching another form appear beside it, one of a little girl, dressed in the traditional attire, "I like that one!"

A good hour passed by and the fireworks were not even close to finishing. Knowing they'd last all night, we agreed to go ahead and do he lantern riddles.

We stood up from our tables, bid our thank you's to Yue's family and then headed for the exit. I was left behind when a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me back. It was Zian, and looking slightly less angry. He came around and faced me, a small smile on his face.

"Uh, Zian, hello..." I looked past him to see Martha and the Doctor still walking away; they hadn't noticed I wasn't there yet.

"Minerva, I wanted to say something to you," Zian began, and I immediately looked at him with the little bravery I had gathered in the last two seconds.

"So do I. Listen, I don't know if I did anything to make you angry but the looks you were giving me are kinda scaring me so if you could stop, that'd be great."

"Oh...sorry, I didn't mean to. I was simply a bit...taken aback, by your, um...friend?"

"I really gotta go, we're going to solve riddles and...we have a challenge," I rushed off, catching up quickly with my friends.

"Everything alright?" the Doctor asked, looking past to Zian.

I nodded, "Yeah, but, can we get out of here? I just want to solve riddles," he nodded and put his arm around my shoulders, leading us off.

~0~

We headed for the parks, to where millions of lanterns were hung around, the business around doing the same thing. Lanterns were everywhere...and ready to be riddle-solved!

"Alright, so now that I've had a go and we won prizes," Martha wiggled her finger that now bore a fake, gold ring, "We can start your competition."

The Doctor and I smiled, looking at our own hands that also wore the fake, gold rings thanks to Martha. She'd wanted a go at a lantern herself, and actually solved it and won a prize of rings. We offered to let her into the competition, making it three against each other, but she declined.

The deal with the lanterns was that every single on of them bore a riddle and a hint, called tips, for anyone to solve. If the person thought they got the answer right, then they'd take the lantern to its owners. The owners, either shops or stands or anything else, would hear the answer the person had to say and told them whether or not they were right or not. If they were correct, the person earned a prize from the owner's. In Martha's case, the owner of the lantern she solved the riddle from was a jewelry store keeper.

"Here's one," Martha left us and walked towards a lantern that was hanging from a window's top layer of a flower shop, "Are you ready?" the Doctor and I nodded and awaited for her to read the riddle, "The riddle is 'What building has the most stories? Tip: Things.'"

The Doctor and I scoffed simultaneously, "That's easy, a library."

And then we both glared at each other, turning to face one another.

"I said it first," I said.

"No, I said it first."

"No you didn't. I did."

"Martha, tell her I said it first," he glanced at her, not backing down.

"No Martha, you tell him I said it first."

She smiled as she looked between us, "This is gonna be fun."

We turned to her, our anger gone and replaced by a whining session.

"Martha, I said it first," I pointed at myself.

"No she didn't," the Doctor shook his head, "I did."

"Okay!" she exclaimed, startling us, "It's a point for both of you."

"No!" the Doctor frowned.

"Damn it!" I turned for another lantern to solve. I pointed at one hanging on a branch of a tree, "That one!" and I ran for it, leaving the other two to follow.

"You can't read it first!" the Doctor shouted as I stopped before it. Once he had caught up he pulled me back beside him as Martha walked up to the lantern.

"Okay, second riddle."

"I am so ready this time," I shot a look at the Doctor, "And I'm gonna take this one."

"You sure?" he asked, just as smug as I was.

"Yes," I crossed my arms and looked back at Martha who was just staring at both of us again, a smirk on her face, "Martha, go ahead."

"Okay," she nodded and turned back to the lantern, "The riddle is actually for English speakers so this should be fun."

I glanced at the Doctor, "Well considering you're an alien, I already have this one."

"What?"

"English speaker," I pointed at myself, grinning widely.

"And what do I speak?"

"Hey, how do I know the TARDIS isn't translating your language right now?" I raised an eyebrow, resuming my smirk, understanding perfectly well he purposely spoke English, but it just ticked him off even more so I went with it, "You could be speaking gibberish for all I know."

"You know damn well what my language is!"

I gasped happily, "He's angry now," I looked at Martha quickly, "Quick, do the riddle! He can't think right when he's angry!"

Martha let out a laugh as she looked at the lantern once more, "'What is the longest word in English? Tip: Being happy."

"Easy, the word 'smiles'," I replied before she even looked back at us.

"Yes but do you know why?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow, a severe doubt on his eyes.

"Yes, actually, I do," I turned to him, "Because the word 'smiles' has the word 'mile' in-between two S's."

He was surprised nonetheless, but he still wasn't giving this one up, "Alright, but the actual longest English word-"

"Is 'Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis'," I finished for him, leaving his him wide-eyed and a mouth half open in shock, "And the meaning of the word is a lung disease in which the inhalation of very fine silica particles cause the inflammation of the lungs. Anymore questions?" I asked sweetly, walking around him with another smirk.

I scanned for a new lantern and when I found one I looked back at the other two, seeing only Martha had moved and the Doctor remained where I had left them, his back to me, "Doctor, are you coming?"

Almost like he was in a trance, he shook himself and turned, making his way to join us again, "I am ready."

Martha smirked as she walked past me, "I think you just made him snap," she whispered, "And he liked it."

I blushed, turning away from both of them, "Okay, let's try another one. Doctor?"

"Oh I'm ready," he declared, coming back to reality and fixing his coat.

"Which is the word in English that has nine letters, and remains a word at each step even when you remove one letter from it, right up to a single letter remaining."

"'Startling'," the Doctor answered in a mere second, my eyes snapping to him as his met mine, "What? You didn't think to remove the 'L', therefore making it 'starting' and then taking away the 'T', making it 'staring', then remove 'A' for 'string', take off 'R' for 'sting', 'T' for 'sing', 'G' for 'sin', 'S' for 'in' and finally 'N' for good old 'I'," he grinned with a devilish smile.

I blinked, taking in his speedful explanation that went at light speed. And now with a proud smirk, he turned on his heel and headed for a new lantern.

Martha stepped to my side, peering at my face, "Wow, that's the same face the Doctor had when you beat him."

"I think he just got hotter," I exhaled a shaky breath, not even realizing my words until I heard Martha's laughter.

"Admittance! Finally!" she linked arms with me, "It's about time!"

"It's not admittance to anything," I pushed her arm down, my eyes still on the not-so-stupid-alien, "It's just...I've never been outmatched before...it feels amazing..."

"Attraction between geeks is so weird," she shook her head, getting an elbow on the stomach but no look as I was too preoccupied staring after the Doctor, "But if figures you'd like it too, ugh," Martha crinkled her face in distaste, "This isn't going to be a riddle match. It's gonna be a flirting competition," she faked a shiver before laughing again. I was partially ignoring her, truthfully, and as she laughed, I started walking for the alien.

Oh, it was so on now.

~0~

"Until I am measured,

I am not known.

Yet how you miss me,

When I have flown!

What am I?"

"Time!" The Doctor exclaimed, throwing me a simpering look.

I scowled and crossed my arms, "Well obviously you're at an advantage!"

"What!?"

"You're a time traveler!"

He mock-glared while Martha laughed, writing down his newest point on the notepad, "That has nothing to do with this. So quit making that face," he wagged a finger at me.

"What face?"

"The one of 'Wow I'm losing to such a genius'."

"You're not a genius and this is my face."

"It is," his smirk played on his lips as he moved around me, "And it looks well on you."

Martha's mouth opened in surprise and happiness, "He just flirted," she moved right beside me, nudging me, "Alert, he just flirted!"

"No he didn't, shut up," I gently pushed her away, "Read that one, Martha," I pointed to the lantern across us.

"The person who makes it has no need for it. The person who purchases it does not use it. The person who does use it does not know he or she is. What is it?"

"A coffin..." I uttered in a hushed tone, my gaze slowly falling to the ground.

Suddenly winning wasn't so much fun anymore...

"Minerva?" Martha called, her smile fading as I looked up, "What's wrong?"

I looked at her then the Doctor, "Nothing. Point for me..."

"And no snide remark against my slowness?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow, "No, that's wrong. C'mon, where's my snide remark?"

I sighed, looking at him sadly, "Olivia."

With that, I walked away from the two. And, as if I was being teased, a few children, specifically a brunette and a blonde that seemed to fit in the age gap Olivia and I used to, passed by. I watched after them, seeing the smaller brunette excitedly point at a lantern while the blonde simply smiled and took the lantern off its place.

"I'd ask what you were thinking but I think the answer has pretty much been given, huh?" the Doctor strolled over to my side.

I sighed, nodding my head as I watched the brunette and blonde go, "I can't help it. Anytime I get a memory of Liv, I get all sad and...this," I gestured to myself, and he chuckled.

"Imagine me when I remember my whole planet?"

I know he said that to light up the mood, but I looked at him with such sadness. Suddenly, I felt like I had no right to feel like this over one person when he had a whole family, whole planet to mourn.

He must have caught my thoughts because he smiled and shook his head, "No, this is part of the process. Learn to remember the memories you had with good intentions. Don't be sad they're over..."

"Be glad they happened," I finished, knowing the words too well, "But it's just hard..."

"Hey, I get it, don't worry."

"I'm sorry," I shook my head. Here we were trying to have a good time and I come and ruin as usual.

"It's okay, would you like to continue the riddle challenge or do you want to call it a night? Whatever you choose is fine."

I bit my lip, looking back at Martha who was scribbling something on the notepad, "I think...we should continue. That's what we came for, right?" I looked back at him, "To have fun?"

"Definitely," he took my hand and started walking us to our friend.

"Minerva?"

I stopped walking and looked back, finding Zian across us, "Oh..."

"Can we talk for a moment?"

"Minerva, don't," the Doctor mumbled, "Something's not right with the guy."

"I'm sure no harm can come from a little talk," I replied, though the nervous feeling returning to me.

"I assure you it'll only take a moment," Zian said, unable to hear us from his spot.

"Uh, sure..." I moved to approach him but the Doctor gripped my hand. I looked back, sighing, "...just stay close with Martha."

"I don't like him," he muttered, "Something's wrong."

"You don't like a lot of people," I reminded, taking my hand away and following Zian to a distant spot.

I happened to see Yue not too far away from us, she saw us and gave us a wave then returned to chatting with her friends. Zian walked us towards a stand where an elderly man stood behind.

"Zian, I have to be honest-" I began but he put a finger to my lips, leaving me wide-eyed. I was going to tell him his actions from earlier made me nervous but now I suppose it'd be more difficult with his finger on my mouth.

"Can I offer you a cup of tea?"

"Um..."

He didn't await my answer and simply turned us for the stand, "Two cups please."

The man nodded and handed us two prepared cups to each of us. I smiled awkwardly and moved to sip some. The man reached out and stopped me from drinking it, "You need these," he held out two red-flowered bracelets for us, "You must wear it."

"Why?" I asked, confused as Zian took them and placed it around my wrist before doing his.

"Tradition."

"Um, okay..." I said slowly, watching Zian smile as he reached for his cup again.

"Here, take this," the man handed me a strip of paper, "Read it. It is for good fortune."

"Although in the beginning it is never sure what will happen with me and you, forever I will always say 'I do'...?" I looked up after reading, more than confused, "What does that mean?"

Zian took the paper and looked at it, "Although in the beginning it is never sure what will happen with me and you, forever I will always say 'I do'."

"What does that mean?" I looked back at the man who had disappeared all of a sudden, "Hey, where'd he go?"

Zian shrugged and took a sip of tea, "Probably off to get more of the coffee. It sells out fast. You should try it."

Slowly, I raised the cup to my lips and sipped a little, "It tastes just like regular tea."

"Really? I think it's delicious!"

"Um, I think I'm gonna go back over there..." I looked back at Martha and the Doctor who weren't that far off anymore.

He grabbed my arm suddenly, "No you're not."

I shot him a look, confused and a beginning of anger, "Yes I am," I took back my arm, setting my tea on the stand and removing my bracelet, "Thank you but I'm gonna go now."

He frowned and snatched my arm again, "I said you're not."

"I said I am!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"NO!"

At his sudden yell I flinched, and looked around before I figured what to do next, what I always did next, "Doctor! Doctor!"

"What are you doing?" Zian demanded as he started tugging me towards him, "We're going home!"

"Let go!" I cried, trying to pry his hand off my arm, "You're hurting me!"

"Hey, hey, hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?" the Doctor ran beside us, Martha right behind him.

"Doctor, he doesn't wanna let me go," I gestured to Zian's hand on my arm, "I don't want to go with him!"

"Listen, if she says she doesn't want to go with you, she's not," he said, placing his hand over Zian's and forcefully detaching it from me, "And now, we're off," he brought me to his side and turned us away, walking Martha and I from Zian.

"You're not going anywhere with my wife!" Zian snapped, freezing all three of us in our tracks.

I looked back at him, raising an eyebrow, "What do you mean 'wife'?"

"What you heard, lovely," he sweetly smiled, "You're my wife now."

"I never agreed to that."

"You did. You took the cups of tea, the bracelet and most importantly, you said 'I do'."

"No I-" I stopped at the reminder of the strip of paper, "The fortune..."

"Minerva, what is he talking about?" the Doctor asked, looking between us in confusion.

I shot my eyes up at Zian, angrier than ever, "You tricked me!"

But the man only bitterly smiled, "And I said 'I do' as well, making us husband and wife."

"Why would you do that?" Martha questioned.

"Because I like her," he gestured to me, "Look at her."

I wanted to hide myself from his scanning eyes that were looking me up and down. I hated the way he did that.

"You listen to me and stop it," the Doctor snapped, moving in front of me, "I see your eyes trail again and I'll personally dump you in a black hole."

"Not to mention the big punch he's gonna get from me!" Martha added, glaring daggers at the man, "It's obvious he doesn't like her. He just wants what every man wants!"

"Oi," the Doctor frowned, giving her a quick look.

"Sorry, what every human man wants."

I swallowed hard, my nervousness turned to terror at what they were talking about. I've never been in a situation like this and it horrified to me to think of what could happen if Martha and the Doctor don't succeed in helping me.

"You tricked her and therefore your marriage is invalid," the Doctor said.

"No, see because she read it out of her own will. She's my wife and by tradition and law you are not allowed to take my wife anywhere," Zian took a step forwards.

The Doctor took my hand, gripping it tightly, "Over my dead body."

"I don't have problems with that."

Yue was making her way over to us at the sounds of our snaps and yells, "What's going on?"

"Your friend tricked Minerva into marrying him!" Martha exclaimed.

"Is that legal?" the Doctor asked her, "She was tricked and didn't know anything about it."

Yue looked at Zian who then gestured for the stand that held the cups, bracelet and paper. She sighed, "I'm afraid so. It's a custom for the festival, only."

"But I was tricked!" I cried, the water in my eyes threatening to spill, "How can that be legal?"

"Isn't there somewhere around it?" Martha asked, "Like a loophole or something? C'mon, marriages aren't sealed off!"

"Doctor, don't leave me here," I turned him to me, "Please help me. Please..."

"N-n-n-no, don't worry," he took my hand in his and lifted it to his lips, giving it a kiss on the back, "You are not staying here."

"Let go of my wife!" Zian ordered.

"I'm gonna need you to shut up!" the Doctor yelled, quieting down the man for a moment, "You tricked her. Her place is home, with me and Martha."

"Are you married?" Yue suddenly asked, looking at our interlocked hands, and upon seeing her perked up eyes, I took the opportunity.

"Yes," I quickly answered.

"In that case," she looked at Zian, tilting her head with a smirk, "Your marriage, Zian, is invalidated."

"Impossible," he shook his head, "They're not married."

"Yes they are," Martha stepped up, having caught on, putting her hands behind her back and removing her ring, "I was a witness. Bridesmaid. And look, they're wearing rings."

"Those are fake gold," Zian spat, "You give a fake gold ring to that kind of girl?" he gestured to me, only making me hide once more behind the Doctor.

"Haven't you ever heard it's the thought that counts?" Martha countered, "Unlike you, he," she gestured to the Doctor, "Doesn't care about appearances and actually likes what's within."

"Zian, let it go, this was a foul trick you played on the poor girl," Yue shook her head, "She's married."

"I don't believe it," he insisted, staring me down, "And in any case, you know this Yue, if they are truly married then they need to provide evidence."

"What kind?" I asked, my heart beating faster with each second we remained here.

"Something to prove you are actually married," Yue informed, sighing with defeat on that point, "Could range from the rings to the certificate. Something that proves it."

"Like a kiss!" Martha suddenly exclaimed.

"What?" the Doctor and I looked over at her.

The woman had finally lost it.

"Anyone can fake a kiss," Zian crossed his arms.

"Not these two," she pointed at us, "Believe me. They flirt, they do the sweet gestures for one another and they can snog the hell out of each other!"

I rubbed my neck, feeling my face warm up as they looked at us. If I got to leave from this place, I was so gonna kill her for this.

"How long have they been married?" Yue asked, casting a look at Zian who was simply not backing down.

"One year," Martha answered, "Minerva is only eighteen, naturally it'd only be a year of marriage."

"But you said you were seventeen..." Yue said slowly, glancing at me.

"...I feel like I still am," I said, coming around to this crazy idea, "You know, in the eyes of my parents. Still a child and all."

"Child or not, you're my wife!" Zian exclaimed.

"No I'm not!" I yelled, "I already have a husband and that is not you! So leave me alone!"

"I don't believe it!" he yelled back, growing angrier.

"Well that's not my problem! What do you want from us? A damn kiss? Because I'll give you a real, damn kiss," I spun to the Doctor, silently pleading him to help me get out of this, "You want a kiss...I'll give you a kiss," I stepped up, my hands going up to cup his face.

Everything that Martha had said to me about my feelings started rushing through my head. And now that I was here, so close to getting another kiss from the man I refused to say I liked, I felt my heart racing yet still willing me to go ahead and prove myself wrong. The question was, did I really want to find out whether or not I had actual feelings for the Doctor? Did I?

The Doctor was looking down with such shock that I was actually gonna do this. I expected him to push my hands down at any second...but he never did. I took a silent breath in, not waiting for this small act of boldness to slip away, and pulled him down for a kiss.

I felt his surprise but didn't feel any sort of rejection. In fact, in mere seconds I felt his hands placing themselves on either side of my face. We moved our lips together once more, reminding me of the last time this had happened. It was slightly weird suddenly, just like the last time, but...a different weird. I liked the feeling, I admitted. One could even say it felt familiar in a sense, like we'd already done this and we knew exactly how to best please each other. That mere act made my entire body feel the rush.

This might have been to prove something utterly fake but it felt so real to me. But I didn't know what was worse, the fact that I had taken advantage of the moment to prove a theory, or the results that I got. When we finally pulled back, neither of us let go of each other. We simply looked at each other and I dare say we were both dazed.

"See," Martha stepped in front of us, her back to us as she directed herself to Zian, "And if you're wondering, the marriage has been finalized if you know what I mean. So if I were you, I'd get to looking for another bride because this one's taken."

"Get out of here, Zian," Yue then ordered.

"Good job guys," Martha turned to us, hands on hips and a relief sigh coming from her, "I think we should head home, right?" but neither of us answered her, "Guys? Hey guys? Let's go...guys?"

My theory had been proven. There was no denying anymore. If I had the chance to kiss the Doctor again, I would do it. Martha had been right this whole time, it wouldn't matter what I had to say because my heart had the final word. I accepted it now.

I had fallen for the Doctor.

#10th doctor #doctor who #ocappreciation #ocapp #dw imagine #10th doctor imagines #dw imagines #10th doctor imagine #doctor who fics #doctor who imagines #10th doctor fics #martha jones #oc: Minerva Souza #fic: next stop eveywhere

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