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#the initial anger towards her will make more sense by the end of the big fic
ace-the-fox · 2 years
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Ghosting
A quick little Haru fic set around the events of DMQ that I've been meaning to post for a WHILE but never did. Apparently it's inaccurate though because stand users can see ghosts which I didn't learn until recently (I mean, there's Reimi, but for some reason it didn't click in my mind that only stand users could see her. I kinda just assumed she was like a public ghost™ that everyone could see.)
But, anyways, it was fun to write regardless, so enjoy! :3
Haruka.
It's a name that drifts into his ear from the lonely far corner of a coffee shop. He's not sure exactly where from. But something about the name gave him some kind of unwarranted reaction. He's not sure why.
He's been dead for a whole year by this point. He certainly doesn't know her from the afterlife. He would be able to recognise her much more easily if that were the case. She must have been part of his life. One that he doesn't remember much of. Remember any of, actually.
He wants to be able to see her face, but the place is busy and there's no way of knowing who she might be. All he knows is her name, and that's not getting him anywhere. It's a dead end. He continues to scan over the room though, for anything that looks or sounds familiar.
He finds her eventually. He knows it's her because, just like her name, there's a stab of unexplainable feelings towards her. She's a university student, it seems. With a lilac hoodie over a simple black t-shirt. Staw blonde hair. She looks a bit like him actually. Perhaps they're even related.
She's staring at the other two awkwardly, only commenting accordingly or nodding along when necessary. Her rose pink eyes occasionally flittering about the room, as though scanning for something.
She seems to let her vision fall over to him. Though she's not actually looking at him. Just at his general space or aura. Her brow furrows, mildly upset. As though she too can sense some kind of disturbance in the force. It's momentary, maybe a few miliseconds of her "seeing" him, before she turns her head back around to her conversation.
He's feeling something towards her. Something hot and uncomfortable and incredibly strong. He quickly recognises it as anger. He's not sure exactly why, but he guesses they weren't exactly friendly while he was alive. That was fine. She probably isn't all that important then.
Then another girl steps in through the door of the shop. He recognises her too, though not as strongly. She's chubby and ginger, and overall unimportant to him. But then he sees this Haruka girl smile. Joyful and radiant. Suddenly much more comfortable. The feeling changes. It's warmer, yet it's softer. Less sharp and white hot. Something catches in his throat. He doesn't understand exactly what it is, and understands even less wether it's a good or bad thing.
He aches as he watches her leave. He isn't sure why exactly. He thought he didn't even like her. Yet, he wants so badly to be able to see her again. Perhaps she meant more to him than he thought. He doesn't even know what he'd say if he could talk to her. He just knows that he wants to. Needs to, even.
Maybe, even if only the smallest amounts, he misses her.
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dwreader · 2 months
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iwtv pt 2 book vs. show
in the book the loumand courtship leading up to the sham trial feels like it takes place over a few weeks (???) but now that we know the show is extending that to more like 2 years, there's a lot more space for smaller dramatic arcs that help build to the climax. like in the book we pretty much immediately get one vibe from louis (horny for armand), one vibe from armand (horny for louis, wants claudia gone) and one vibe from claudia (hates the theatre/armand). loumand get together, madeline is made as a consolation for claudia and then the big climactic blow up.
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idk what exactly the show's cooking but just from the trailers we've already seen multiple dynamics between claudia and theatre vampires. she's clearly excited watching their show and riding with them in the motorbike/mansion scene (there's also scene where they lift her in a chair and she's laughing some sort of initiation?), then her eventual annoyance with being tasked with dressing up as a doll and giving out flyers, and her diary entry where she's like fuck these vampires. in the earlier motorbike outing she gives louis a cute encouraging nod when he wants to stay outside to flirt with armand so how exactly that develops into the later anger towards them is again, way juicier to explore now that we have more breathing space. [which is again why i hope they don't rush these developments in favor of other less relevant flashbacks]
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the feeling i got from the earlier released cafe clip is that claudia has grown a bit tired of louis latching onto her as his only sense of identity possibly because they've become so co-dependent during their harsh travels through europe, which matches nicely to book claudia wandering off alone at times and louis being confused/upset about it. that makes him easier prey for armand. so again how do we go from that to claudia feeling threatened by louis's relationship with armand after the initial encouragement?? this is all a lot more complicated than what's given to us in the book and hopefully a sign of better writing than what AR was capable of.
similarly loumand's courtship doesn't seem as straightforward as just them hooking up and killing claudia like armand basically wants her GONE right off the bat and doesn't wait long to do it. in the show, whatever's happening builds up over the course of years and while there is a clear courtship phase in the show, it also seems like loumand are in a real relationship for a while (and potentially with even a mini break up) before things finally come to blows. the rainy bench and museum bits seem to be the break up/goodbye but somehow these four end up happily drinking martinis before the trial (exact same clothes on claudia and madeline). wtf is going on??? did the break up happen as a result of claudia's accusation that he's choosing armand over her? is the making of madeline a reconciliation between both loumand and louis and claudia (also in book facilitated by armand's mind control)? it's potentially a good way to explore what i felt was an underdeveloped aspect of the book, that is why armand finally decides he has to kill claudia as opposed to just letting her and madeline leave town together.
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that's not even getting into how and when madeline gets dragged into it cause the trailers haven't given us a lot of info on that. or what the hell is going on between louis and santiago since we've now gotten multiple hints in the trailers to focus our attention a bit more on that relationship. either way the relationships feel a lot more realistic where they go through sometimes contradictory spells of contentment and conflict rather than just point A to point B.
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arcanusarchieves-if · 2 months
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I was wondering how the ROs would think of the MC that looks like Johnny Depp's version of Grindelwald (minus the racist supremacist part ofc, that's just awful) after they reunite?
Truthfully, most probably wouldn't care/notice. While Grindelwald's appearance wouldn't be considered normal or anything, it's also not exactly odd to see a Magus looking like that. In order to make the answer a bit more interesting, I decided to add the fact that it was a pretty big change in appearance. I hope you don't mind :).
Also, I apologize that Maeve and Jasper's are much shorter than the other three's - they didn't know MC previously so to them this is how MC looks.
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Astoria's eyes haven't left your face since you've entered the room. If it were anyone else, you may have felt scrutinized but with the pure warmth radiating off of her, all you can feel is a disorienting sense of deja vu. One second, you're an adult, returning to a world that you once knew like the back of your hand - the next, you are a child, stumbling through the doors of a school that you were never supposed to be at. A fraud of a student. A mockery of a Magus. A third second passes and you return back to the present. Astoria is still staring at you - her curiosity this time seems sated though because she grants you a gentle smile before speaking. "It's very nice to see you again, {MC} - it has been quite a while. I'm embarrassed to admit but it took me a moment to recognize you. I-" Her gaze darts towards your single, pale silver eye, but she quickly looks away. Clearing her throat, she continues to speak. "If I may - I think that you look rather striking. Very...different. Not bad but...it will take some time to get used to!"
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Caspian's sharp gaze has been burning into you since the moment you reunited. Initially, you were willing to wave it off as it being related to the anger and bitterness over your decrease (and eventual lack) of communication over the years - but it hasn't wavered, even after your apologies and his (supposed) forgiveness. You open your mouth to question him but are immediately interrupted. "I've been meaning to ask about the...you know." He motions vaguely to your entire body with a raised brow, huffing in amusement when he sees your baffled expression. Seeming to realize that wasn't exactly specific, he continues, firmly grabbing your jaw so he can tilt your head up and get a better look at your features. "What, the war ended, and you decided to get a make-over? Don't look at me like that - it's not bad. It's just different. I mean, between the eyes and that hair, you're kinda asking to stand out a bit. I can't believe that you actually got away living near non-magicae folks looking like that."
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Dark pools of violet glare into you from across the room. That's not exactly new, but the frequent rate that it is happening is definitely a bit different. Back in school, Solaine would usually look away after a few seconds, a small but very directed scoff leaving their lips as they did so. Now they are silent - and staring. It's uncomfortable, scrutinizing. You don't want to risk their ire by bringing attention to it. Luckily you don't have to. Unluckily, it's because they approach you instead. "...I see that you decided to alter your appearance. While it's definitely more...refined...compared to before, it's also more eye-catching. I was under the impression that you were attempting to keep a low profile. Clearly, I was misinformed." Their words are as sharp as their gaze, they don't even give you a chance to respond as they smoothly pass by you to slip through the door. They hesitate at the last second though, turning to look at you once more. Their mouth opens as if they are going to say something - but they end up just letting out a scoff and turning back towards the hallway - their footsteps not as assured as they usually are.
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It's taken you a while to get used to the unfamiliar feeling of amber eyes glaring into you. You and Maeve had gotten off to a...unique start. Honestly, it felt more like the Circle was introducing two new cats to each other instead of two new members. You open your mouth as if to speak to her, perhaps to maybe break the ice, but are quickly interrupted. "...I thought you'd look different. I mean, you don't look bad or anything but...I heard that you were living in the...you know. Guess I thought you'd look a bit more lowkey. I dig the hair though - and the eyes too. Very mystical. Bit unsettling though. Kinda reminds me of someone..."
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"I was expecting you to look a lot different." Jasper's soft words pull you out of your thoughts. You stare at him for a few moments, trying to dissect the meaning of his statement. He seems to realize how abruptly he came across, his face flushing slightly, as he stumbles over himself to explain. "It's not bad though - obviously. I-I was just...you look very nice! Just different to how I expected you to. I-I had heard that you were living in non-magicae towns, so I had just assumed - I really do apologize. I honestly think that you look very...striking? Sorry, is this weird? I'm making it weird, aren't I?"
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chirpsythismorning · 1 year
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What 'early breakups' are you even talking about? Steve and Nancy's? Lucas and Max's? Nancy and Steve broke up in an 'ambigious' way and it happened what? After the Party mess and when Nancy was drunk... so that did not exactly even happen that early into the season. Lucas and Max were broken up off-screen so they could get together.
They want Milvn to break up permanently in an unambiguous way, without any possibility of them romantically getting together while at the same time asserting their importance to each other on a personal sense with the show's narrative.
How's an early and quick breakup where El just goes 'i am done bye' does that, with the knowledge we have that El drew strength from Mike based on love, not hatred. The words 'Mike's hands were pulling her from her drowning' and other variations are not about El drawing strength from anger...
Sorry if you felt like I was calling you delusional. Pointing out that the almost entire fandom is willing to ignore canon narrative is not calling someone delusional it is just a fact. It's not even an interpretation.
We cannot expect to really expect anything going into S5 when the fandom almost consistently ignores canon and prefers to go by fanon instead. All the analyses then become heaaaaavy handed but very misguided expectations from an analyzing standpoint.
Yes all of those couples followed a somewhat similar pattern of breaking up early on. But specifically the Steve/Nancy/Jonathan love triangle is what I’m referring to.
In s1 they separated early on and the rest of the season Jonathan and Nancy were a focus, which allowed us to root for them the whole season, besides the beginning and end. In s2, they had their fight at the beginning revolve around Nancy not being able to say I love you, which allowed us to root for them for the rest of the season and followed by them getting together.
Mike literally refers to him and El’s fight in s4 as 'a fight that you can’t come back from', a fight that paralleled his sister’s fight with her first boyfriend, who she also ended up being broken up with after that incident, not years later, because we all know that that wasn't a fight you could just push under the rug and save for another time, it had to be addressed.
The thing is, the time jump for s5 is likely to occur early in the season, because the cast's age difference is something they don’t want to be too distracting. The earlier the time jump, the more they film stuff post time jump, accommodating to that age gap between s4-5.
So having Mike and El’s break up be midseason, means that’s Mike and El would presumably be ignoring all of the deep and very hard to ignore problems in their relationship, for those initial epiosdes, and then for another 1-2 years depending on how long the time jump is, which I just don't see happening. I don't see them putting on a show of a romantic relationship for much longer, and that's based on how S4 ends. For them to go from not talking and staying within at least like 3 feet of each other in those last moments, tells me that they're not going to be gravitating towards each other the way romantic love interests do, the way Mike and Will are doing at the end of the season in direct contrast.
I think holding off on it until mid-s5, is arguably even more ambiguous than what I would imagine is going to happen if it’s addressed sooner rather than later. Because that would mean them just awkwardly dancing around it and acting like it's not going to happen, even though we know it's inevitable.
Because Mike and El’s problems were highlighted in s3-4 in a big way. We saw how especially in s4 neither of them were being honest in their relationship. The romantic love there was lacking because neither of them were in it for genuine reasons, in terms of genuinely being in love and wanting to be together in a romantic way.
El craved normalcy bc she has always had so many things in her life making her feel different. Mike and his relationship with El is all he knows. And s4 made a point to build up just how impossible it is for them to keep this going and act like everything is okay when it’s not. Like did you see early s4, the fake sort of show they put on to act like everything was fine? Why would s5 be repeat of that? Why wouldn't they evolve that to show that their conflict is no longer something they can ignore, and instead convey that it was indeed a fight they can't come back from.
And I personally do not think that the break up is just going to be an 'I’m done, so bye!' scenario 🤣. Even if it was midseason, it wouldn’t be like that either.
It's a lot more likely that how El felt about their fight in early s4, and how she felt about his monologue, is going to at least be addressed and acknowledged in early s5, because the audience deserves that closure of knowing how El truly feels, with her being able to say it. Meaning that if they stayed together in early s5, we’d also need El in early s5 saying she loves Mike too and to actually resolve that conflict with her actually being able to even respond to it.
And with them breaking up and byler being endgame inevitable, I just highly doubt they’re going to play this game all over again, only to rip it away haphazardly.
She started the show barely being able to say a couple of words. And now despite the fact that she can talk and speak for herself, she hasn't been granted that affordance in the narrative. Instead her brother confessed her love for her, using all things that applied to him. If they wanted to give us El's genuine feelings about Mike, they wouldn't be identical to her brothers and given from him. That's just soooo sad and not fair for anyone in this situation and that's why it needs to be addressed.
We know she was upset with Mike calling her a superhero in their fight, we know that she looked at him with this frustration that he was still not getting it. That was like the climax of their fight in her room, with her looking at him with fed up determination, because saying something like that was the last thing she wanted to hear. And if anything, her experience at Nina, where Brenner told her she needed to fly and revealed that he used her to find Henry from the very beginning, how would Mike saying she could fly and she's his superhero, be something that provides her comfort, when if anything it's just a similar thing being expected of her, without her having any say in it?
The whole You're regressing Eleven is literally hinting at this idea that El is holding onto something in her life that is keeping her in the past, in a situation that makes her development sort of go backwards, and that is in large part highlighting her holding onto this idea that her and Mike are peak romance, despite the fact the that he isn't loving her the way she deserves. By staying with Mike despite knowing both of them are unhappy and forcing it at this point, is a huge regression to all of this build up leading to an inevitable separation, then being followed by them finally accepting themselves in each others lives without the obligation to be together because they met in the woods a few years ago and have felt this pressure to stay together ever since.
In their fight, she didn't want Mike to point to her powers as a way to deflect her genuine feelings about their relationship and her insecurities with him not being able to love her the way she wants, as a person and not as someone who can keep saving the day for him. And so how would him again saying she is a superhero, HIS superhero, suddenly be what she wants to hear in the end after everything she went through?
The problem with that moment in the script is that it's the only thing that is supporting the assumption she was happy with Mike's monologue. Everything else in the story goes against that. All of s4 makes it very clear that that was not what El wanted from Mike.
This is a big part of the reason byler makes sense, because they follow an I didn't say it/You didn't have to approach to love (show don't tell). Mike never should have had to say I love you for El to believe it. If it was something genuine between them, completely natural like breathing, El wouldn't have asked of it from him. But he made a point to struggle with merely writing it, avoiding it at all costs, making El feel even more insecure that there was something wrong with her causing Mike not to love her anymore. And the monologue didn't fix that.
You don't have to apologize but you also don't have to get upset and say everyone in the fandom is wrong, but you're right. If you truly believe that, continue to and leave other people alone. If people are on their posts saying how they feel and it upsets you, block them.
My problem is that everything leading up to byler, that makes it make sense, is at it's core what lead to Mike and El having conflict in the first place. And not addressing that and leading on Mike and El fans, for shock value isn't exactly good for the narrative. And it's never been good for the narrative which is why they like to address it early on so that we can move on to focusing on the pairing that they want us to root for.
Arguably, a break up before the time jump allows for byler to get together well after Mike and El separated instead of mere days/weeks. I would think with how much people are going to have a hard time with considering byler as it is, the time jump happening after Mike and El's break up would allow them to accept that Mike and El are for sure done and have been done for a while, and Will isn't some rebound because Mike is feeling insecure and he'll just be with him the second him and El end things.
How I imagine a mid-season 5 break up is that it would be even more ambiguous than an early one, because it would require El and Mike to ignore their problems for five episodes when there really is no reason to do that with how obvious it was that their fight was a fight that you couldn't come back from. And addressing that is what will allow us to watch El actually experience closure on screen and then be able to focus on Max and working with everyone to beat Vecna. If the whole audience is watching at the edge of their seat being led on the whole season that Mike and El have a chance of getting back together, they're not going to be able to focus on El's arc as an individual character, bc they're going to be waiting for Mike and El to make up and be together.
But then when it doesn't happen, and they've been led astray unnecessarily even more than the previous 2 times, we'll only have a mere 4 episodes to build up them being a platonic pairing with it being blatantly obvious that the audience needs to accept it AND that we need to accept Mike and Will being romantic.
Whereas with an early s5 break up, by episode 3-4 we will know that they are not together and can focus on the new conflicts that have arose from the final season, because dragging on stuff that has already been heavily built up in s4 as being a problem, just to give us the most obvious anti-climactic outcome halfway through in the middle of all the new storylines they are focused on, would fall flat.
Mid-season is likely going to be made up of Mike and Will having a substantial amount of time alone. That's something that those early break-ups allows, so that we can have that development for them that is necessary in order for them to be endgame. Arguably as Mike and Will are going through that, El isn't going to be around to break up with him.
If anything I could see an early s5 breakup, with the audience being aware of it, but not Will. This would mean that Mike and Will's interactions could still be interpreted as romantic comfortably, but we would see for the first time Mike pining and Will still assuming that Mike could never feel the same, until maybe mid-season he finds out that they are indeed not together.
I can't subscribe to the monologue when all of the conflict leading up to it makes it abundantly clear that isn't what El wanted to hear. And we would see in mid-season 5 that El is just going to end up saying all of the stuff we already knew. She's not stupid. She knows that something is off with Mike, that was the whole point from the beginning. That inner struggle he is having is even more heightened and made obvious by the fact that Will was what encouraged Mike to say I love you in the first place. She heard all of that. And then she proceeded to ignore them at the cabin.
How s4 ended is not at all giving the impression El is going to start s5 by gravitating towards Mike and looking to him for comfort, it was actually the direct opposite.
If I were to subscribe to the monologue being a convincing love confession to El, at that point I'd rather Mike and El just stay together instead of holding off even more on facing the truth about the conflict of their relationship that didn't just get fixed by the words I love you. I'd rather byler didn't end up together if Mike is just stringing El along to inevitably choose Will over her anyways at the last minute.
I do think that I love you is what El thought she wanted to hear from Mike, but not like that. And it would be a disservice to her character to have the focus be on her hoping he might choose her for any longer, only for him not to.
If a bunch of people are interpreting the show this way, then there's a good chance that they could be right. We were right about byler being endgame and all of our reasoning is supported by the conflict that has been building up for seasons, and that love confession that paralleled to El beating Henry in 79', doesn't look like one rooted in love, whereas that first face off was. Mike's monologue was bathed in red, El's memory of her birth bathed her in light.
Will on the other hand is bathed in light from Mike's perspective, most prominently at the end of s4. That wasn't in the script, does that mean it's not important? Almost all of bylers moments aren't in the script, does that mean everything about them means nothing?
Feel free to subscribe to whatever you want to. If you end up being right you can say I told you so and live with that satisfaction! Personally, if I'm right, I won't feel the need to come and say I told you so, bc it's not about some sort of vindication for me. I don't even plan on doing that to redditors bc they're going to be dealing with that enough as it is. I'd rather them just insist we're crazy right now and let it all unfold and let the show speak for itself. If I have to subscribe with everything they think bc of the scripts, then I'd be pretty bored rn because all of the evidence for byler would essentially mean nothing and they're just being put together for no reason. All of that lead up meant something, otherwise their endgame wouldn't be satisfying, least of all if El is once again being framed as waiting for Mike to choose, only to not choose her this time. She deserves so much better than that. They all deserve better than that.
Will on one hand assuming for a little longer that Mike doesn't feel the same merely drags out the mutual pining leading to that endgame. El assuming for a little longer that Mike does feel the same is just making her plot regressive for no reason when she could be finally getting that independance arc, truly separated from being linked to Mike in a way that prevents her from truly progressing and knowing her worth and living up to that authentically.
We'll have to wait and see. But I don't see the use in coming in other peoples inboxes and directing your dissatisfaction with their interpretation of things as contradicting yours and so they need to just drop it and subscribe to what you think or else...
Everyone on here can interpret things how they want since there is still a season left and everything is still up in the air. If you want to blow off steam and say your piece on your profile, then do that and if other people resonate with it then that's great! You don't have to force other people to involve themselves with your narrative. If people are doing that to you, you have every right to block them because you also shouldn't have to have people in your inbox saying that your interpretation of things is wrong.
I'll continue to analyze and break things down as I choose. That's not stopping anytime soon. And IDK why you would want others to. It would be pretty dead on here if we all just stopped and believed everything we've been told superficially despite everything we've been shown contradicting that. If everything we're being told is all there is to it, you could argue byler isn't even happening. But most of us can agree that isn't the case.
I hope you can continue to analyze how you view things and embrace your interpretation instead of tearing others' down. We still have two years left, let's not make this more unnecessarily unbearable than it needs to be.
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heketsbroodau · 1 year
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The Bishops
Someone asked the discord server how we characterised the Bishops, so here's mine (Narinder is still a wip).
To preface this follows the order of Shamura > Narinder > Heket > Kallamar > Leshy (it's not canon until it's in the game fight me).
Shamura
Rehabilitated from a God of War into a God of Knowledge. Before Narinder, Shamura was callous towards to mortals, seeing them as pawns to be used in their wars and schemes. Sometimes they would “play” with them to see how much they could endure before they “broke”.
After Narinder, Shamura learned to love and protect. Now Shamura is indifferent to mortals, seeing them as a means to an end, or as tools to be used as they see fit. But while tools may be used, they can also be taken care of, and even cherished. This is a viewpoint they have impressed upon their siblings to varying degrees of success.
The embodiment of patience. Shamura retains the cold and calculating nature of their early days in that they are very slow to anger or even irritate, and have rarely had need to raise their voice. When angered however, their anger is cold and their words or actions are precise and devastating.
As the eldest sibling, they rarely show vulnerability in front of their siblings.
Shamura's hobbies include reading and writing, forging (and sparring with) weapons and continuing to perfect the art of war that is taught to all their followers in the neverending fight against the heretics.
Heket
Heket operates on the idea of equivalent retribution/retaliation. Her punishments can be creative and cruel, and she is perfectly willing to inflict them on children if the occasion calls for it, but she must usually be provoked first.
She also has a warmth to her that will emerge in the company of her family, and even (though rarely) her most trusted followers, but it is subdued, in that Heket does not gush, nor is she overly affectionate, but will smile and often offer a comforting touch.
She can be quick to anger before being quick to violence. Usually this comes across as snarled speech and stern or cutting words. Violence will follow after this if not heeded, but she'll respond with violence to an offender that is particularly insulting or irksome.
As Heket is confident and self-assured, she projects an air of confidence and authority (and propriety) which serves to make her appear distant. As a Bishop of the Old Faith, her image is very important to her and she cannot abide witnesses to moments of weakness as she despises being perceived as weak. This extends to her siblings to a degree, but mostly with Kallamar and Leshy, as she will bottle her feelings around them to appear as their strong big sister.
She has a great love of music and cooking, and enjoys attending feasts and festivals even if she does not outwardly project it.
Kallamar
A squid of science and magic. He studied the blade at Shamura's insistence, not because he wanted to, and spars out of a sense of obligation rather than personal enjoyment.
Kallamar can sometimes be stuck up and obnoxious, partly borne of anxiety, partly because he is a God and believes mortals to be below him, and he can take time to warm up to newcomers to his temple, but get past this barrier and he becomes much more agreeable and pleasant.
Converse to initial impressions, he is actually more inclined to reward faithful and devoted followers than his siblings, and values their input and council, especially from those he can engage with on a more sophisticated or academic level.
Kallamar also has a bit of a temper and can be as quick to lash out as Heket, however he requires quite a bit more pushing before he'll choose violence. In other words, he's more bark than bite.
Kallamar can become cowed in the presence of his elder siblings, and becomes less inclined to speak his mind. However he will not hesitate to put Leshy in his place should his younger brother become too much. But this does not mean that he does not care for his siblings and will become affectionate should the situation call for it.
Kallamar's hobbies include science! aka studying everything under the sun, with a particular passion for the field of medicine, and art in the form of painting and calligraphy.
Leshy
As the youngest Bishop, Leshy is perpetually the baby of the family. This allows him a great deal freedom in regards to how he acts and is allowed to act both around his siblings and his followers, and will often push this freedom to its limit. Essentially he uses his “immaturity” as an excuse to be the most playful.
However he is also still a Bishop of the Old Faith and is frequently chastised by his family for not behaving like one, when he pushes those limits too far (which is often).
Leshy views mortals less as tools and more as toys, and loves toying with them by playing pranks, or stirring up drama between followers (without them realising he's responsible). His siblings will sometimes find themselves the targets of his tricks and pranks as well, though he knows not to take them to far, and he would never think of stirring up drama between any of them.
He is also always hungry and as the Bishop of Chaos, his mood can sometimes be fickle and unpredictable; He will do or say one thing and then change his mind and do or say something else (or the opposite) in rapid succession. His followers have little choice but to bow and cater to his whims, or they'll be eaten as punishment. Sometimes Leshy will eat them anyway.
Leshy enjoys attending feasts and festivals (and getting drunk) and his hobbies (besides pulling pranks on his siblings and followers) include wood-carving and gardening.
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mtdthoughts · 4 months
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Good Guy Akiyama (Migi & Dali Thought)
As we all know, Akiyama is a nice guy that really values his friend Hitori, the one who saved him from isolation and despair. He's also known to be a bit clingy, but I suppose that's just his way of expressing joy and affection. Here's all the times that bird boy hugged the twins in the anime.
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It could be argued that Akiyama may be in love with Hitori, but that's not really important nor is it the point of this post. In fact, this post is a bit more about Dali than it is about Akiyama.
I wanted to talk about Chapter 16, which was one of the chapters that was cut by the anime. It actually contains quite a bit of important subtext (particularly about Dali) that I really wish the anime could have kept.
Here's a summary of what happened:
The twins stay home from school, apparently because they can't get any learning done in their rowdy 1-5 classroom in which their teacher has no control.
The twins hatch a plan to get their teacher to discipline the class, and get the Sonoyamas to invite her over because Hitori is being bullied. It turns out that Hitori really was being bullied, except by Akiyama who stood up for him. Because of this, Akiyama was bullied too.
The twins mock their teacher in order to anger her, but fail (*Note: Dali even does his special laugh here)
Hitori (Migi) lies to his parents and his teacher that Akiyama is bullying him, and Youko is so outraged that she spanks him. Migi runs away, and Dali gets caught up and spanked as well. Honestly, good on Youko for teaching her son not to lie about his good friend!
The twins return to school thinking their plan has failed, but in a funny twist, it turns out that the teacher actually learned Youko's secret technique, and the whole class quiets down. Happy end?
I initially thought this chapter was one of the least important, since it was one of the chapters that was cut, but I think back upon it, and I think there's a little more to be said.
I think the real reason the twins stayed home from school was because of the bullying, rather than difficulty learning. In fact, it was Dali who couldn't stand the bullying, and it is very likely that he may have felt guilty that Akiyama was being bullied too.
At first, I thought it really was because of the learning, since this is what the twins stated, and their goal was to become gifted students so they could get close to Eiji. However, I think this was just a pretext, which would make sense since Dali, the twins' leader and planner, is an excellent liar who tends to hide his feelings and intentions from the characters and even the viewer/reader. Here's my thought process:
If it really was about the studying, couldn't the twins just study at home? Or maybe asked their mother for a tutor?
As was seen in Episode 4, the twins could have just taken care all of their learning in the library, where they can't be bothered.
Because of this, the idea that they stayed home from school due to the learning problem didn't sit right with me. And then, I reread the chapter and came across these panels:
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Sure, Dali may be disappointed that his plan probably failed, but I think he was sad that he had to return to being bullied, which becomes apparent once when he and Akiyama get bullied again. But more importantly, Dali seemed genuinely touched that despite the overwhelming hostility towards him, Akiyama was the only one to show him any sort of warmness and companionship, even after being bullied too. He definitely appreciated Akiyama, and at the very end he was glad to know that he wouldn't be bullied anymore once the teacher intervened with her "discipline". This was truly a display of Dali's hidden soft side.
Now, it all makes sense to me. Dali can't just admit to Migi that he hates being bullied, and insists on toughing it out because he can't show any weakness as the (parentified) big brother. That's why he came up with this roundabout strategy that would just so happen to take care of the bullying problem.
Furthermore, Dali's appreciation of Akiyama make these scenes make more sense:
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In the first, Dali angrily states that Migi just suddenly opened up to Akiyama after abandoning him, and in the second, Dali hides in Akiyama's closet looking conflicted. At first, one might think that Dali's just being insecure about losing Migi, but I think that additionally, Dali wanted to open up to Akiyama too, but he just couldn't due to his anger, his lust for revenge, or because he had to maintain himself as the "strong older brother". Once the twins visited Akiyama's house in Episode 10, Dali likely felt guilty about previously deceiving Akiyama (remember the slap?) and viewing him in a negative way (remember "insolent bird beast"?) that he hid himself, until Migi convinced him that Akiyama would be sure to accept him.
From what I've seen, it seems like common opinion that Akiyama gets along better with Migi, but after reviewing this, I definitely think that Dali gets along with him just as well. After all, a common motif is that although the twins think differently, they feel the same way, so it wouldn't be surprising if they valued Akiyama to the same degree.
Man, Migi & Dali really is a treasure trove of lies and hidden messages, huh? That's one of the big reasons why I love this series so much.
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shrinkthisviolet · 5 months
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Director's Commentary on 'i still love you (i promise)' please!!!!
So this is the affectionately-titled “Barry & Morgan angst fic”! It’s very centrally About Them, and they spend pretty much all of it at odds: first Morgan is mad at Barry, and then he’s mad at her.
It’s interesting, because initially the whole fic was just gonna be Morgan being mad at him. But then I kept finding reasons to reconcile them sooner, but they still needed to be not on speaking terms until 1x14, but then Morgan telling Barry “I helped Hartley” wouldn’t leave room for reconciliation at the end...so we ended up with what we got: Morgan being mad at Barry, reconciling, Eowells stepping in to wreck that reconciliation with his “revelation”, and then Barry being mad at Morgan.
Yeah, it’s strange thing to hear I bet, but Eowells did not initially have a hand in ruining that reconciliation in the very first draft 😂 which surprises even me tbh because he slots into that role perfectly. Makes it hit so much stronger.
This fic was chock full of the miscommunication trope, but hopefully I did it in a way that wasn’t just “easy misunderstanding that could be solved in 5 seconds is stretched out unnecessarily”. It’s more than that! Barry and Morgan do talk here and there, Barry does what he can to atone, but Morgan’s mad at him because her anger isn’t necessarily at Barry...it’s at Eowells, projected onto Barry because he’s a “safe” person to be mad at. Although Barry’s had outbursts of temper, Morgan doesn’t fear him the way she fears Eowells. Of course there’s Morgan’s fierce protectiveness over Tina playing a role in her anger at Barry too, but…it’s mostly anger at Eowells, given that she’s still mad at Barry even after knowing he apologized to Tina.
(It’s just his temper, Morgan tells herself, that’s what I fear—but what’s the difference between that and fearing the man himself, when you live with him? Eowells is rare with his outbursts of temper, but he’s not as effusively apologetic and comforting about it afterwards. Nor does he take any steps to fix it…he doesn’t even tolerate any dissent from her anyway.)
And on Barry’s end, he was told about Morgan working with Hartley from her “dad”!! The person who’s meant to paint her in the best light, always!! Ofc Barry should’ve probed deeper and looked closer, but he trusted Eowells to paint his own daughter in the best light, and that was his mistake, sadly 😭 an understandable one though, I hope.
There’s also the Ronnie & Barry parallels going like crazy in this fic, like how both of them helped measure Morgan's height—exclusively them, no one else. Not even Eowells back when he could stand. Clearly he felt it was “beneath” him past a certain point (past age 7, probably. In his mind, that’s when he “lost” Morgan). Also how Morgan constantly compares them. Also how often the narrative does too, framing them as similar and contrasts them too (Ronnie passing the big-brother torch to Barry is a bit of tragic foreshadowing about his fate at the end of the season). It’s great stuff 💞 I’ve talked more about Morgan's relationships with Barry and Ronnie here!
There’s also such a wonderful focus on Morgan & Tina and Iris & Morgan here, brought about in part because of Barry & Morgan being at odds (Iris & Morgan’s focus in particular is a large part of why I wanted to keep that Barry & Morgan tension later in the fic, especially the reveal).
Tina’s motherliness to Morgan gets to shine, and I loved showing how protective and supportive she is towards her. You also really get the sense that Tina knows…something 👀 maybe not fully, but enough to reasonably suspect.
And Iris!! Oh, how her friendship with Morgan shines in this fic. The future-sisters-in-law dynamic is going strong…and it’s very telling that she’s the first person Morgan actually tells about having powers and being a hero (Barry, Caitlin, Cisco, and Eowells all find out. So does James, and Sentry is half his idea anyway). She trusts Iris so much 🥰 and that’s so wonderful to write.
ask for the director's commentary on a certain story, or send a ⭐️star⭐️ for me to choose something to talk about!
Taglist (send an ask or DM to be added or removed):
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pb-dot · 20 days
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Poketeam Tag
The ever-delightful @owlsandwich tagged me in this nerdy exercise, and since I've got Thereafter on my mind lately (subscription link goes up on Saturday 27.04) I figured hell, why not do the entire gang. For my end of tagging duty, I tag in @tryingtowritestuff24 @jeahreading and @sparrow-orion-writes.
Rules: Build a Pokemon team for each of your OCs. Find the team-builder here
Teams and explanations below:
Michael
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The main challenge with assembling Michael's time was to convey his powers of sneaking and affinity for darkness while also not making him too edgy, as he is a teddy bear of a man when all is said and done. Excadrill was a no-brainer on account of his experiences with the molefolk, and following on that subterranean theme, Sableye also seemed to make sense. Sneasler's always given me cat burglar vibes, and hisuian Zoroark's ability to deceive did feel sufficiently stealth-adjacent to fit the bill. Greninja seems to be a bit more of the Naruto-style ninja than the sneaky guerilla fighter sort, but it's close enough, and since I already had decided that the stealth bomber-themed Dragapult was a-ok, then why not, right?
Alicia
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Alicia's team was initially very fighting themed, on account of her deal being physical exercise and some anger issues. I did however feel this was a relatively shallow interpretation of the character. Instead I went with fighting type as a baseline, with "capable of shocking levels of violence" as a subtype, thus Tinkaton and Morpeko. Lucario seemed like a natural fit for the focus and mastery Alicia has developed over her body and mind. As for the rest, they're mostly aspirational, big ol' bruisers that look like they can fight good, and can, in fact, fight good.
Lex
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Lex' was probably one of the easiest teams to assemble, as their love of science, experience with magic, and proclivity towards edgyness made for several fun picks. Mismagius was a simple first pick to reflect Lex' time at the Magnus College. Drifblim is a somewhat weaker match, but I feel it appeals to Lex' fondness for the odd and unusual. Amped form Toxtricity, Grimsnarl and Obstagoon point to Lex' punk aesthetics and proclivity towards the edgy. While Lex loves science, I think they'd also find Magnezone's "science can't understand this pokemon" vibe to be a delightful challenge.
Felipe
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Felipe was another challenge in terms of teambuilding. The man clearly needs a few birds on his team, but going monotype on Flying felt like it failed to capture other parts of his personality, such as his cocky self-assured nature and occasionally abrasive approach to interpersonal relationships. I also figured that having some type diversity would appeal to Felipe's tryhard nature, the man does not like losing. In general, I was looking for bird-themed mons, such as Braviary and Blaziken, filling out more type variety with quick and/or agile mons like Schyther, Emolga and Garchomp, with Weavile mostly here to match Felipe's general vibe.
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christowhore · 3 years
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Redeeming Myself
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pairing: chris evans x professor!fem!reader
summary: after breaking your heart and losing your trust, chris makes it his mission to prove to you how much you mean to him.
word count: 6.3k
warnings: age gap (reader is 29, chris is 40), angst, reminiscing on past actions, fluff, talks with therapist, chris makes up for bad behavior, slight alcohol consumption, smut, happy endings, rpf !!! 18+ MINORS DNI !!!
notes: the final installment of Pining for Professor. it was only supposed to be a one shot, but i got inspired and expanded it. it took a while cause writers block, but it’s here. for anyone who has read the series, thank you and hope you enjoy ! 💓🥰
i do not allow the reposting, rewriting or translating of my fics. these are works of my own and i do not give permission for any of the acts stated above.
join my taglist !
SERIES MASTERLIST • MAIN MASTERLIST
For a month and a half following that afternoon, Chris began to go above and beyond to mend his mistakes in an effort to regain your trust.
He knew that he shouldn’t have been forgiven for the hurtful words he hurled at you, the voice he raised, and his cold demeanor through it all. But you forgave him nonetheless, which he was eternally grateful for.
Chris suspected that his venom-laced words still took a toll on your overall being. He sensed it in the way your usual humming was kept to a minimum, as did your soft caresses to his body. The fun facts that you would randomly blurt out had basically become nonexistent.
You hadn’t tried initiating sex with Chris due to still being affected by his actions, which was understandable to the brunette.
He could tell you were being cautious around him, which broke his heart more than he could’ve imagined.
The two of you never really talked in depth about what happened, deciding to push it under the rug and move past it. But ignoring the elephant in the room could only last for so long.
That morning was no different. He had spent the night at your place and decided to wake up and make you breakfast in an effort to mend the faltering relationship.
You woke up to an empty bed, something that you were used to since Chris had always been an early riser. Getting your morning routine out the way, you made your descent downstairs with the smell of pesto guiding you down the steps.
Walking into the kitchen, you saw the sight of your topless boyfriend, donning only a pair of boxers and an apron. You watched as he studiously focused on the skillet in front of him. His intense focus and the sounds of eggs frying in the pan made him oblivious to your arrival.
It wasn’t until you made your way towards the fridge next to him, that he registered your presence. “Morning princess, you sleep well.”
“Yeah, I slept fine,” your voice still a bit gravely from your slumber. You poured yourself a glass of orange juice, ignoring the intense gaze from Chris in your peripheral vision.
He was so used to having you touch him in the mornings. Not so much in a sexual way, but more intimately. The way your lips would ghost against his shoulder blade, your palms would hold his sides and pull him against you so that way you could bask in his warmth. Your arms would wrap around his front until your fingers absentmindedly toyed with his lower abdomen, playing with the wisps of hair on his happy trail.
He missed when you would move your lips until they met the space behind his ears, giving light open mouth kisses. The sound of you whispering ‘Morning daddy’ would leave him awestruck. Even though the words were a regular occurrence for him to hear, it was the way you would say it in your morning voice that made it ten times more special.
Though those actions might seem minuscule to others, they meant the world to him and it was killing him that he hadn’t been able to experience such tender moments with you in a while.
“I’m making breakfast- pesto eggs and some bacon for you. It’ll be done in a minute.”
You nodded along before heading to the table, phone in hand while catching up on your morning news.
It didn’t take long before a steaming plate was placed in front of you, the scent of garlic and basil already making you salivate.
Chris sat besides you and watched as you dug a fork into your meal, a smile reaching his face as he heard your content moans.
The two of you ate in silence, only the sound of soft chewing and utensils hitting your respective plates could be heard.
Every so often, you would feel Chris peek at you, hoping for you to start up a conversation with him like you always did. It’s not like you didn’t want to, it was just that you were still hurting due to his words. You know from a psychological standpoint that there was something going on inside of him that caused him to lash out, which you understood. But it didn’t aid in diminishing your apprehensiveness towards opening up to him, afraid that another fight would break out and hurtful words would again be hurled.
He could sense the internal struggle battling within you so he spoke up, breaking you out from your subconscious.
“I know I’ve been saying this repeatedly over the past few weeks, but I want you to know how sorry I am,” Chris sympathetically stated, “You didn’t deserve what I put you through, the things I said. I just hope that we're able to someday go back to how we were.”
You sat there staring at the man in front of you. Was there a way that the two of you can revert to what once was? Could you actually forgive him?
Not knowing how to properly respond, you simply nodded. A tight lipped smile was evidence that Chris had a lot of making up to do.
Finishing up breakfast, you excused yourself to your office to go and work on your dissertation, leaving the brunette alone with his thoughts.
He knew that he needed to do something big to make up for his actions. He also knew that he needed to figure out why he lashed out on you.
Taking out his phone, he clicked on a saved contact and listened to the dial tone ring in his ear.
“Morning, I’d like to make an appointment as soon as possible. It’s an emergency.”
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Chris sat on the plush maroon couch, his eyes getting reacquainted with the familiar setting. The office had a few knick knacks littered around the space. A potted plant here and there. Motivational, yet cheesy posters on the wall. An assortment of magazines on the coffee table.
He hadn’t been here in a while, his usual talks were about his anxiety and dealing with fame. But for this appointment it was about you- specifically how he treated you.
The new topic was foreign to him, resulting in the brunette not knowing how to address it. So he silently sat there as his therapist, Dr. Reynolds, held her pen in her hand and studied his behavior.
“So,” she cautiously started, “What brings you in today?”
Chris sat there twiddling his fingers at her question. There could’ve been a few reasons that brought him in, but the main one was why he said the things he hurled at you.
He proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes recapping the events that had transpired, making sure to not spare any detail. After his spiel, Dr. Reynolds skimmed through her notes that she jotted down during his explanation.
Looking up from her notebook, she locked eyes with the brunette. “Do you think that some of your actions correlate with self-sabotaging behaviors? How, when you opened yourself up to her so suddenly it made you feel scared? Scared that you might need to face those fears that are plaguing you.”
Chris sat there incredulously, “Well- I mean no. I don’t think so.”
The pair talked for over an hour, going over the usual allotted time as they broke down why Chris had acted a certain way.
He realized the anger he felt was a coping mechanism to avoid feeling what he truly felt: fear. Mainly his fear of commitment. Part of him was scared that any future marriage would end up like his parents, in divorce. He feared that you would stop loving him. He feared that he would stop loving you.
And that fear was ultimately pushing you away from him. Which uncovered the biggest fear of all, losing you.
Dr. Reynolds eventually received a knock on her door, indicating a waiting patient, causing their therapy session to be cut and saved for another day.
“Thanks doc, I think I know what I need to do now.”
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After some much needed self-reflection made in the meeting with his therapist, Chris knew what he had to do. Leaving the office, he pulled out his phone and dialed his publicist, Megyn.
A few rings later, he went into detail to the blonde about his plan. Not caring about what the press might say, or how his fans might react, he needed to get it done.
She wasn’t too keen on dealing with the impending press that would come from it, but she was happy that he was able to find someone that he truly loved.
He went back to your place that evening with a refreshed mind. The rest of the day went by as usual, you both did your own respective things, the tension still heavy in the air.
As you both started on your own night routine, his main focus was on you. He didn’t even know he stopped brushing and was staring until you snapped your fingers in front of his eyes.
“Earth to Chris, everything alright?” your tone was light and airy, hinted with a bit of joy.
Chris looked at the slight smile on your face and was reminded all over again as to why he fell for you. That smile was something that was so ingrained in his mind that not even old age could make him forget it. It warmed his entire being whenever he was sad and it made him realize he could never take it off your face for the rest of his days.
“Yeah princess,” he whispered, still lost in you, “I’m alright.”
You nodded along to him, though your eyes squinted a bit due to being curious of his change in demeanor. Before he was overly cautious around you, now it seemed as if he couldn’t get enough of you.
Before you could set your toothbrush down and set out for bed, he stopped you with a hand on your elbow, pulling you into him. Not caring that there were still dribbles of toothpaste in his mouth, he leant down and attached his lips to yours.
The kiss was soft, he was desperate to feel your softness against him though wasn’t trying to rush the act in any way. Moving his hand up, he held onto your cheek in an effort to pull you even closer than you already are.
The smell of your lavender night cream instantly calmed him, making him feel safe in your embrace and absentmindedly smiling into the kiss.
Chris finally pulled away, only slightly, to look down on you with a dopey grin. “God I’m in love with you.”
For the first time in weeks, a genuine smile reached your face to match the man across from you.
“I love you too love bug,” you sighed against his lips, “You probably should’ve rinsed your mouth though, I can taste your toothpaste.”
A deep chuckle rumbled from his chest, “Sorry, just got caught up in the moment.”
Chris kept you secured in his arms as he continued to stare down at you. There was something different about him, specifically the way his gaze was directed at you. Though you were not complaining.
“How about we bring back date night? I can cook and we can finally sit and talk to one another like we used to.”
Your heart fluttered in your chest at his pleas. It had been a while since you two sat down and basked in each other’s presence. The thought had you hopeful that things could go back to normal.
“I would love that,” you began, “How about Friday? I have a test for a few of my classes this week so we can do it once I’m all free.”
Chris smiled down at you with eyes evident of his admiration for you, “Friday is perfect.”
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The rest of the week went on rather differently than previous ones. Your touches came back to his body, fingertips grazing alongside him whenever he was close. Chris would regularly kiss your cheek or top of your shoulder anytime he had the chance.
You did take notice of him on his phone a lot, part of it filled you with uneasiness but the rational part of your brain told you it wasn’t something to ponder too much over, so you let it go.
Chris had been spending the entire week making sure that his plan was rolling smoothly. He had the entire date night planned to a T. He informed his family about it, who were ecstatic for him, making his own mother tear up due to how happy she was. He made sure to have everything ready at the house so that everything would be successful.
The day of the planned affair, you were stuck in your home office grading the last set of tests before being able to officially clock out for the evening. Inputting the grades into Blackboard, you were brought out of focus due to the sounds of buzzing from your phone. Picking up the device, you unlocked it and saw the incoming text from your boyfriend.
Chris: Baby, I know you’re still probably finishing up, but dinner will be ready at my place at around 7. I put something on your bed for you to wear. See you soon!
The endearing message made you smile and also feel a bit elated. You missed the intimate moments shared between you and Chris. The loving looks sent your way, the delicious food and engaging conversations. But most importantly, you missed the sex. Before, the two of you were like jackrabbits, the longest you both went without getting hot and heavy was about 2 days. Now going on over two months, you were becoming insatiable.
Quickly inputting the final test scores in your online grade book, you got ready for your night in with Chris. Heading up the stairs, you walked into your room to be hit with a bit of nostalgia. Laying on the bed was the same black dress that you wore on your first date with him.
With the amount of dresses you had in your wardrobe, it was a shock that he was able to find the specific one you wore that night. The sentiment warmed your heart and filled you with hope.
Rushing to get ready, you went and got dressed, making sure that you appeared your best before heading out.
It was only a quick drive to his home, before you were sat in his driveway.
Your mind was plagued with worry. You feared that if this night didn’t go well, then it would ultimately mean the end of your relationship with the man. Taking in a deep breath, you calmed your nerves before exiting the vehicle and made the trek towards his front door.
Using the house key you still had attached to your own ring set, you unlocked the door and walked in though you didn’t get far when the sight before you made you stop and gasp.
Starting from the front door laid a trail of rose petals leading you through the house. The thoughtful effort made tears begin to form in your eyes and your breath unsteady.
Following the trail, the same smells of vegetables sautéing brought you back to that time over a year ago.
Once you made it inside the kitchen, you saw Chris with an apron adorning his massive frame on top of his suit. Once he took notice of your arrival he turned around and smiled at you. “There you are sweetheart. I was waiting for you to show.”
He turned down the fire before gliding towards you, about to reach down and kiss you when you beat him to it.
Grabbing a hold of either side of his face, you slammed your lips to his; the action surprising you both. You delivered him repeated pecks which caused the brunette to laugh between every one of your kisses.
Getting enough of your intimate fill, you pulled away from him and looked up. “What’s the special occasion? I mean I know it’s date night, but still.”
Chris brought his hands down to rest on the dip of your back before pulling you in closer to him. The action caused your neck to crane up to look directly into his eyes.
“I wanted to make things right with my best girl.”
You playfully rolled your eyes at the slight Captain America reference before delivering another kiss, “Thank you, I love it.”
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The meal went according to plan, the two of you enjoying the same shrimp scampi dish he made on your first date together.
You were sipping on your glass of wine when you heard Chris speak up.
“Though I’ve said it more times than either of us can count, I need you to know how regretful I am of how I acted.”
You sighed at his words, “Chris, I said it’s-”
“No, it’s not okay (Y/N),” he interrupted you, “It wasn’t okay for me to lash out at you. It wasn’t okay for me to hurt your feelings.”
“Tonight, I tried to recreate our first date together to show you just how much you mean to me.”
Chris had rehearsed what he was planning on saying for the past few days, but here now in this moment he couldn’t remember a single prepared line. So he just decided to follow his heart.
“(Y/N). The day I met you, it was one of the greatest days of my life. It wasn’t supposed to happen, but fate brought us together- well I guess I should say Ma did with her insisting.”
His words caused you to chuckle, “I can see where you got your determination. She really didn’t quit until she finally got us in the same room.”
The memory of Lisa bringing you two together that afternoon warmed both of your hearts.
“That day we met was the day I knew that there was no one else in the world that would matter to me as much as you would. Every single day that I get the pleasure of seeing that look on your face will forever make me the luckiest man on the Earth. So when I hurled those words at you and took that smile away, it made me feel horrendous.”
You didn’t even realize you had started crying until you felt the warmth of your tears sliding down your cheeks.
Chris reached across the table and curled his fingers around your hand, slightly stroking the back of it with his thumb.
“I know I haven’t been the best boyfriend that I could be. I realized that my own fears of commitment caused me to take out my frustrations out on you, and absentmindedly pushed you away. But I realized that pushing you away was the last thing I ever wanted to happen.”
He felt his heart rate race and his organ beat heavily in his chest, his anxiety slowly rising.
“You are the greatest thing to happen to me. You make the worst days seem minuscule whenever you’re around. I love the way you’re able to always help push me through any obstacle I face, no matter how big or small it may be. The way you easily get along with my crazy family. And I love how you make me feel like I am floating on cloud nine anytime I kiss you.”
Chris felt his hands begin to sweat. One of his hands clasped onto yours, while the other held onto the small box in his left pocket of his slacks.
“A few days ago I had a session with my therapist about you. And during it I realized how much I care about you, and how losing you, even though it was brief, was the worst thing I had ever experienced.”
Slowly standing up on shaky legs, he brought you up with him.
“I had to secretly figure out the right size while you were sleeping the other night,” he began to joke, “You don’t know how hard it was to get the measurement done considering how light of a sleeper you are.”
You felt your heart pound in your chest. You suspected that something was different about his behavior and this evening, and your suspicions were slowly coming to light.
“I can’t ever experience the feeling of not having you by my side again. Waking up to a cold bed and not seeing the way your nose would sometimes crunch up while you're deep in a dream is something I never want to go through again.”
Chris reached into his pocket of his pants and pulled out a cherry red box. The sight of the gold inscription labeling 'Cartier' made your breath catch in your throat and tears fall freely down your face.
The height difference was changed when he steadily dropped down on his left knee, his tear filled blue eyes looking up at you.
“(Y/N), you make me the happiest man in the world. And I know it’s a stereotypical line for me to say, but it’s true. I love how you’re able to bring the best out of me and everyone around you. I love how you love everyone unconditionally. God, I love how fucking breathtaking you are. I am in love with everything about you.”
Letting go of your hand, he held the box in his grasp before cracking it open. The action caused your hands to cover your mouth and you to bend at the knees. With the aid of the lights around the room, it unveiled to you a marquise cut diamond. One either side were two stones. On the left was a pearl, indicating his June birthstone. The other side showed your gemstone, the rocks pairing perfectly with one another.
“So,” Chris began with a shaky breath, “(Y/N) (Y/L/N), will you do me the honor and make me the luckiest person in the world. Will you marry me?”
Your body shook with sobs as you nodded along to his question.
“Wait, are you saying yes?” Chris asked, excitement evident in his tone. “I don’t know if that’s you nodding yes or no.”
Removing your hands from your face you grasped on to your now fiancé’s, “Yes, I would love to marry you.”
Chris didn’t even get the chance to put the ring on you before raising up and slamming his lips against yours. Both of you tasting the salty tears that expelled from the other.
It was his turn to lay a continuous stream of kisses to your lips. Soft chants of ‘thank you’ leaving his mouth between every one.
Pulling away, he retrieved the ring from its box as you held up your left hand. You watched as he slid the band down your finger until it situated perfectly against the base. A content sigh left the both of you.
Chris brought your hand up and kissed the back of it and then your ring finger before locking eyes with you.
You two stayed like that for a while, your gaze flicking back and forth between each other’s lips until finally you two connected them.
This time, the embrace was intimate, more passion filled. Your hands folded against the nape of his neck, the coolness of the gold band making him smile with contentment.
With his hands holding onto your hips, he guided you back until you were met with resistance from the wall behind you; the sudden force causing you to lightly grunt into his mouth.
Lowering his hands until his palms rested on the back of your thighs, he tapped on your skin, an unspoken request for you to jump. While securing your hold on his neck, you jumped up and rested in his palms. With you in his hands, Chris began to walk the two of you towards his bedroom. Since Dodger was staying at his mom's house, he didn’t bother closing the door, not worrying about any sudden intrusion.
Your mouth was still attached to Chris when he laid you down, you head against the soft pillow on the plush bed. His frame towering over you as he shook off the suit jacket from his body, kicked off his shoes and toed his socks away.
“I love you so much (Y/N),” he swooned through kisses.
“I love you too Chris.”
Untying the front of your wrap dress, the silk material fell to the sides of your body, revealing your figure which was only covered by a thin, lace pair of underwear. The sight of your half naked self made him growl down at you in desire.
Removing his lips from yours, he descended down your body, leaving kisses in his wake.
“You’re all mine.”
His lips kissed around your taut nipple, his tongue poking out to flick at your pert bud.
“Forever and always.”
You felt him leaving traces of wetness from open-mouth kisses on your abdomen.
“The love of my life.”
His fingers dug into the sides of your thong before dragging it down your legs.
“My beautiful fiancé.”
You breathing hitched as you felt his warm breath fan across your exposed cunt. The hot air was a stark contrast to the cool slick of your dripping wetness.
“The future Mrs. Evans.”
And with that, Chris flattened out his tongue before running a long stripe up your pussy, lapping up your wetness until he curled it around your clit. “Oh fuck, Chris.”
How exhausting the sexual hiatus that you experienced with the brunette was evident due to how you were squirming on the bed. Your hands spread throughout the sheets, gripping and tugging in an effort to gain some form of steadiness. Over two months without having him on you had you mewling into the air. “Please baby, don’t stop.”
With his tongue occupied, Chris continued to devour you. His tongue alternated between long drags and quick flicks between your folds. You felt the tip of his tongue prod at your opening in a desperate attempt to taste more of you- to feel more of you.
Removing his mouth, he heard you begin to groan in disappointment before it turned into a moan when he spat on your cunt then suctioned his lips around your clit. With one hand holding your stomach down, he used the other to enter your soaking hole with his index and middle fingers.
Chris was gentle with his digits inside of you, dragging his pads alongside your ways, stroking your contracting walls and feeling every ridge. Once he was knuckle deep, he scissored your cunt, basking in the sounds of your squelching around his fingers paired with your content moans of relief.
He replaced his mouth with his thumb, using the limb to draw slow, tortuous circles on your mound as he watched you fall into the deep recesses of ecstasy.
He observed your neck stretch back, exposing a slightly bulging vein running up the expanse. The way your lips quivered as your moans flew freely out. Your legs began to shake when he hit the spot he was all too familiar with deep in your core.
“Look at me,” Chris demanded, his Boston accent evident in his request, “Need’a watch my pretty girl cum all over my fingers.”
The eye contact with the brunette was intense, more fierce than ever experienced before, but you reveled in every second of it. You noticed how his pupils had become blown out, only showing a small ring of blue surrounding the black.
You tried to keep the gaze locked until you felt your orgasm come full force through your body like a tidal wave. “Christopher!”
Upon hearing your screech of desire and feeling your essence begin to soak his digits, he replaced his thumb back with his mouth, longing to taste every single drop of your sweetness. His fingers continued to pump inside of you, prolonging your release and causing more of your juices to flow into and around his mouth.
Chris finally removed his fingers to drink more of you until you attempted to feebly push his head away, the orgasm causing you to lose most of your strength.
“Sorry princess, you know Daddy just can't get enough of you,” Chris moaned as he licked your essence off his lips.
He rose up your lower half and hovered over you staring down at your exhausted self. You mustered the power to raise your arms and grasp his face in your hands before bringing him down to connect lips once more.
The kisses were lecherous, the both of you yearning to taste every single part of the other. Your tongue was firm against his as he massaged yours while you swallowed each other's moans.
Your body felt on fire with the way his large hands were massaging and caressing every inch of your exposed skin. His fingers digging into your softness and pulling you flush against his frame.
Taking your hands away from his face, you began to unbutton his dress shirt, peeling away the material until it unveiled his tattooed chest. Your fingers tracing the large design on his chest before making its way down to his belt, unbuckling it in the process.
Dragging the leather through the loops and away from his body, you unzipped his trousers before reaching in to palm his obvious erection. The action made the man above you keen against your tongue. “I wanna taste you Chris.”
With your thighs around his hips, you nudged him until your positions were switched. His head against the same pillow, he watched as you tugged down the material on his lower half, leaving the two of you completely bare for one another.
You laid down on your stomach between his legs before grabbing hold onto the base of his cock, drawing a hiss from Chris.
His head craned back at the feel of your wet mouth tonguing his length, the wet muscle licking a stripe from the base to his tip. “Ohh- that's it baby.”
You collected your spit before it dripped from your mouth and on his head, the liquid cascading down the massive length. Using it for your advantage, you began to stroke him while attaching your lips around his tip. Your tongue flicked his slit while drinking up his precum.
“God, I love you so much (Y/N).”
Removing one of your hands, you began to swallow his length, stroking off what you couldn’t take down. His moans and groans only stir you on as you bask in the feel of him throbbing in your mouth. With your free hand, you began to palm at his balls; the action making him grip the sheets as well as tenderly holding the side of your head.
His mouth was parted, showing only his tongue, as he panted out. “That’s it baby, such a good girl for me.”
Chris felt his peak slowly approaching, the buildup steadily growing with every swipe of your tongue, suction from your lips and tug at his balls. Though he would’ve loved to release down your throat and watch your mouth milk his balls, he wanted- needed to feel your warmth surrounding him as he coated your walls.
He went to unlatch you from his cock and raise you towards him. “I need to feel you,” he breathed out, “I miss the feel of you around me (Y/N).”
You crawled up his body til you were straddling his hips. Reaching down, you pumped his length a few times before positioning it for entry. The second you began the descent and his head met the resistance from your cunt, you both groaned out.
Chris couldn’t wait any longer so he brought his hands to your hips and fully sank you down on him, sheathing his entire cock inside of you. The action made you lurch forward with your hands planting themselves on his chest in search of stability.
“Oh that’s it princess,” professed Chris, “Missed this tight fucking cunt choking my cock. Missed you so goddamn much.”
With the help of his hands on your hips, you began to slowly work yourself on his dick. Every rise and fall of your hips made you experience the delectable feel of his veined shaft drag against your channel.
“Oh Christopher,” you cooed as you felt him throb inside of you.
“That’s it princess, I’m right here.”
You brought your hands from off of him and covered his large ones. Removing them from your body, you intertwined digits. The new position of your hands allowed the newly added engagement ring to gleam under the light.
If he had a camera, he would’ve wanted to capture the beauty of you in that moment. Every buck of your hips caused your breasts to bounce, the action enticing him even more than already. The sweat that began to form on your body caused your body to shine from the bedroom lights, making your body appear as if it were glowing.
He wanted to frame the glorious sight of you, but he decided to settle with the fact of knowing he would be able to recreate this exact moment for the rest of his life. Recreate with you as husband and wife.
He rose up from the mattress and maneuvered your legs to wrap around his waist before sitting on his haunches. The new position of your naked chest pressed up against his own while he fucked you on his cock was a sort of intimacy that couldn’t be explained.
The closeness of your faces allowed you to feel each other’s breaths warm your features. You could see pupils being blown, feel the sweat dripping off one another, and hear every single sound that escaped the other's mouth.
Attaching his lips to yours, Chris moaned into your mouth. “That’s it baby, cream all around my cock. Milk me til I fill you up with my cum.”
The heels of your feet dug into his lower back and your fingertips gripped onto his neck, leaving scratches in its wake.
You knew for certain that you would have bruises on your waist with the way he had latched onto you, raising you up and down his length.
With every thrust, your sweaty skin slapped together as his balls spanked up against your ass.
“Ahh baby, I- fuck Chris I’m almost there.”
“I know (Y/N), I’m right behind you.”
A few more harsh thrusts as his tip slammed against your g-spot and you were suddenly slammed into the blissful abyss of your orgasm. The tightness of your contracting walls caused Chris to achieve his own release. The shouting sounds of you two reaching your respective peaks echoed throughout the room.
Warmth flooded your body and your cunt as you felt Chris’s cock shoot ribbons of his seed deep into you. He continued to drag you along his length, hoping to prolong the glorious feeling of your pussy throbbing around him.
After the sensation of your peak began to wane, he fell back against the mattress, bringing you down with him.
The two of you laid there in each other’s arms, basking in the warmth radiating off the other.
Chris strokes your back, long traces of his thumb running along your spine as you both regain your breath.
“I’m in love with you (Y/N). So goddamn much.”
Still a little too spent, you nodded while your hands toyed around with his chest.
While you two sat there, a realization popped into the brunette's head, making him begin to stand up. “I’ll be right back.”
You watched his ass jiggle with every step out of the room, the sight making you chuckle. When he returned, he held his phone in his hand.
“Seriously Christopher, you wanna make a sex tape right now?”
A boisterous laughter left him at your assumption, “No sweetheart, not that.”
Chris sat back next to you on the bed as he scrolled through his phone gallery. After a few flicks on his thumb, he finally found the photo that you two took on your first date. You were as beautiful as ever, smiling at the camera as he looked in awe at you.
You watched as he loaded up Instagram and clicked on the plus sign to create a new post. “Chris, what are you doing?”
“Something I should’ve done a long time ago.”
Choosing the desired photo, he went to begin typing out his caption that would unveil you to the world.
chrisevans: A little over a year ago this photo was taken on our first date. I knew from that moment that I wanted to be with you for the rest of my life, that’s why I eagerly asked you to be mine. (Y/N) you make me the happiest man that I could be. I know this past year and a half has been a tough one, especially with everyone in the world claiming that they were dating me while I kept you in the shadows, but enough is enough. There’s no one else that I would rather be with. There’s no one in this entire world that holds a candle to you. To your beauty, your kindness, your everything. You are the love of my life. As of tonight, my fiancé. And soon to be my wife. I love you more than words can describe princess. (Y/@/N)
Chris finished typing out his message before looking down at you, silently asking for approval. He watched as your index finger raised up and clicked on the share button, indicating the end of your secrecy.
A dopey smile made his face before he looked at you, phone in hand, “Now, about that sex tape.”
You laughed at his joke as he made his way to kiss you once more. The embrace was full of contentment due to knowing that things were back to normal with a growing relationship full of unwavering love, reinstated trust, and pure happiness.
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A/N: and that's a wrap folks. thank you to everyone who read this series.
also i would like to say that this is in no way an indication of chris evans personality or character. this is just fiction.
if you enjoyed this, please make sure to reblog and comment. feedback is much appreciated !
* divider credits : @firefly-graphics *
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oneshotnewbie · 3 years
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Loves the story about being Amelia younger sister. Can this came to my mind could you pretty please make this a reality lol. So the reader is Amelia and dereks younger sister ( obviously lol) and she gets sick. But she doesn’t want them to know because they will overreact. So without her telling them that she is sick she ends up getting worse and ends up in the hospital, just for Amelia and Derek to find out . Does that make sense. This came to me late at night lol. Thank you:)
For a few days your well being in your body had been lost. From an initial exhaustion and fatigue, for which you had perceived stress as the main cause to slightly stinging in the chest and body aches that you only stamped as tiredness of the last week, there was a lot going at university; lectures until late in the evening, answering 80 quiz questions daily on top of your homework so that you don't forget what you have learned and the tests you had to write in what felt like every subject you could possibly have.
It was almost midnight when you started to finish up your work. You were the only one in this house, at least you thought so, who was still awake to do things that had no time to be postponed.
"You look pale," did you hear your sisters voice and startled for a second out of shock before you looked at the clock for the 10th time this minute and slowly began to collect the papers and pens from the brown coffee table."Is everything okay?"
You just nodded a 'yes', not even bothering to talk out of feeling sick, and got up from your chair to pile up the papers in the back of the table when a wave of dizziness caught up with you and you used your hands to support yourself. "Just totally stressed." you mumbled as you felt a worrying glance and a hand on your back.
Slowly your vision returned to normal, you picked up your things into your arms and turned to Amelia who was standing right behind you. With an attempted smile, you squeezed past her and walked up the stairs. "I'm good."
Before you went to bed, you stole a pill from the bathroom cabinet and disappeared. -It is just a little cold- you thought.
---
"Y/N Shepard, 22 years young." the paramedic called as soon as the doors were opened from the ambulance and he pulled out the stretcher and got out himself. "According to first responders, she passed out while she was about to order a coffee.. Mild sinus tachycardia, blood pressure is low. Temperature is 102,38°F"
You became conscious before the ambulance arrived, but the people around you didn't agree to let you go and wanted to have you examined and now you were here, the attempt to escape from the mess was unsuccessful.
A little confused, you looked around and saw the faces of Owen and Meredith. Almost immediately, before the blonde could even say something, you cut her out. "Don't tell Amy and Derek."
She stroked your hair and looked at you confused and worried. She didn't understood why you wanted to keep your ambulance arrival a secret from your siblings. Even if she had a medical confidentiality obligation towards her patients, she had to tell her sister in law and husband. They were your family.
She nodded to Owen and he understood immediately that he should beep both of them on their pagers. As soon as he disappeared, Meredith pushed you into one of the examination rooms and started to look you up and down.
"Why don't you want the two of them to know?" she asked cautiously while placing some adhesive stickers on your chest and hanging you on a machine. "You know exactly how they are as soon as I am sick. Overprotective - and that is annoying. I am not a little kid anymore."
She stopped moving and looked at you. Her hands found their way onto your shoulder and squeezed them once just before she sat down in front of you and looked deep into your eyes. "They are your siblings, Y/N. Be glad that you have someone who cares about you."
She stopped for a short time and looked at your heart rate on the monitor before turning to you a little worried, adapting a blood pressure cuff on your arm, waiting for the results to show up on her chart. "You have cardiac arrhythmia. Have you had a cold lately?"
"No, I've just been pretty tired and exhausted. I also had a slight sting in my chest once in a while but thought it came from my stomach; I haven't been eating particularly well lately."
---
"What were you thinking by not telling us that you are not feeling well? You don't have three doctors at your home around the clock for nothing!" said Derek a little louder, his face flashed red like a tomato.
When he got the news, he immediately ran down to the emergency room, fearing the worst. He was pissed of when he saw you lying there and he was even angrier when he had to hear every information from Meredith that she had found out and what she suspected. "And that's exactly why I didn't want you to know. You always overdo it!"
"Y/N, heart muscle inflammation is not a joke! If you had carried off the crap and hadn't passed out in the cafe, it could all have been worse than just a few needle sticks and a comfortable hospital bed!" he shouted in disbelief as his hands clenched into a fist and the knuckles were already turning white at the strength of his nervousness which he underpinned by pacing back and forth in front of your bed.
He didn't understand how you wanted to become a doctor but couldn't listen to your own body. It was impossible for him to understand how you could let it get this far. Derek asked for an answer, but you didn't feel like arguing with him anymore so you just stood silent; you were too tired and exhausted to continue this discussion.
You knew it was a fatal mistake, but you couldn't change and jump back in time either.
Just before Derek wanted to let his anger run free again, Amelia, who had previously been quiet, had stood in front of him and gave him an urgent look and some slight knocks on his now crossed arms. "You go now and calm down. The shouting doesn't help anyone here and I don't think the whole hospital has to know our family issues." he bit his lip and looked between you and your sister before he disappeared, but not without slamming the door behind him.
Startled, you let yourself fall back on the pillow, put your arm over your forehead and closed your eyes. You knew you messed up big time. "I'm sorry, Amelia."
"You should have told us, then you might not be here and have to stay for observation." she said calmly, unlike your brother and started moving towards the side of your bed where Amelia sat down on the chair that was already standing next to it and gently stroked the back of your head.
Amelia understood why you hadn't said anything, she had gone through the same with him too. But on the other hand, she could understand Derek. It also hurt her that you hadn't mentioned anything and that you didn't let her help you. "From now on, no more secrets, understand? I don't want to have this horrible feeling in my stomach when I get a message like that ever again. When you are in pain then let one of us know, regardless of whether you think it is a cramped muscle or not."
"You are so over caring." you said annoyed and rolled your eyes.
You knew it was in their nature to react like that, but as a young adult you couldn't understand that exactly this small gesture showed how important you were to a person. You just found it annoying.
"At some point in your life, you will think back to that moment and judge it completely different. Maybe we are far too caring now, later you will perhaps be grateful to us for it and understand why we do this." she sighed.
"We do this because we love you and we don't ever want to lose you."
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tea-and-la · 3 years
Text
Aang as Zuko’s “Found-Sibling”
so i kind of alluded to it on my previous post but if zuko sees his relationship with any of the gaang as a foil to his sibling relationship with azula, it’s aang. 
in the season 1 finale, zuko compares the two directly:
zuko:  I finally have you, but I can't get you home because of this blizzard. There's always something. Not that you would understand. You're like my sister. Everything always came easy to her. She's a Firebending prodigy, and everyone adores her. My father says she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born. I don't need luck, though. I don't want it. I've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong. It's made me who I am.
here zuko makes a lot of assumptions. he is implying that because aang is a prodigy like azula, everything must come easy for him. we as the audience know this isn’t true (he doesn’t know aang’s background at this point), but it does speak to his insecurities in terms of his sister (foreshadowing to his season 2 interactions with azula.) 
contrast that quote with what zuko says to katara in the season 1 finale:
zuko: you rise with the moon, i rise with the sun.
he sees katara as evenly skilled as himself. a match, but with opposite bending elements. and that’s even reflected in the way that katara wins their match at night, but zuko wins their fight when it’s day time.
zuko (especially in season 1) sees azula as superior to him, someone who he’ll never catch up to in skill because she’s a prodigy. in contrast, he’s seen katara when she first started to bend and made mistakes (barely able to form a water whip, and the time she accidentally froze sokka). zuko has seen and acknowledged her growth throughout the show and he sees her as someone who has also had to struggle and work hard to get to her current bending capacity.
and like @sokkastyles​ already said: 
Aang is the younger prodigy who he resents for being better than him in the beginning, the one who is imbued with power and authority by birth that he lacks, the “lucky” one.
continuing on, i wanna talk about crossroads of destiny. the zk scene again emphasizes how similar zuko sees katara to himself (not azula.)
he is calm, open, and vulnerable throughout these scene with katara. he almost allows himself to forget they’re on opposite sides because of how much they have in common. but once aang comes in:
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there’s that same anger and resentment he has towards azula. 
i’ve seen some people refer to the crossroads of destiny as zuko some hidden meaning of choosing between “sisters,” but i disagree. it’s framed as a decision between azula and aang, and for zuko, it’s supposed to be an impossible choice. 
so we see him go after aang with an uncontrolled intensity that is so different from the brief peace he was able to achieve with iroh in ba sing se. and it’s easy to imagine that this is because he’s taking his frustration that he can’t express towards azula, out on aang, as a substitute. 
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we see lingering bits of zuko’s resentment towards aang, even after he joins the gaang. it’s unintentional, but from the firebending masters, we can see how he initially still holds onto that insecurity a bit.
when he initially realizes he lost his firebending he tries the forms over and over, while aang is just chilling:
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aang: that one felt kinda hot
zuko: don’t patronize me!
aang: sorry sifu hotman
zuko: and stop calling me that!
even though aang was being genuine, it’s easy to imagine that zuko is connecting this moment back to times with azula growing up. especially because we know how much his ability to fire bend is tied up into his self worth. 
he’s given the chance to “prove” himself by teaching someone who he considers superior in skill to himself (aang, just off virtue of being the avatar), and when he fails, that rears up the resentment again. 
but then, their dynamic shifts after zuko admits he doesn’t want to rely on hate and anger anymore. zuko has several moments where he encourages aang (who he was previously resentful towards) because he sees that aang needs it. he’s able to realize that aang isn’t a prodigy in the sense that he thinks he’s superior to anyone else. and he’s also able to see that aang has his own insecurities as well, as they get to know each other more on their trip. he has phrases like: 
zuko: you can do it. i know you can. you’re a strong kid.
aang: [Turning to Zuko.] We could turn back now. We've already learned more about fire than we'd hoped. [Aang shows Zuko his flame and gives a weak smile.]
zuko: No, we're seeing this through to the end.
and aang’s face as a result: 
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so in a sense, zuko is able to be needed as a big brother. and to offer support because aang is unsure about himself. 
also this scene reeks of sibling energy:
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but anyways, i think aang/zuko’s found-sibling relationship foils azula/zuko’s sibling relationship because even though they start off with resentment for similar reasons, his dynamic with aang changes.
i see people say that the reason they think katara is zuko’s “surrogate sibling” is because she provides him with care and kindness, unlike azula. the same could be said about aang.
whereas azula has made it clear that she doesn’t respect zuko’s bending, aang values and respects zuko for his skills (even when he was struggling at the beginning of the firebending masters.) aang is able to reciprocally affirm zuko as well:
aang: i don’t care what everyone else says about you. you’re pretty smart!
i also find the last few lines after they meet with the dragons to be significant:
zuko: That's why my firebending was so weak before. Because for so many years, hunting you [Turns toward Aang as screen zooms out to show Aang.] was my drive ... it was my purpose. [Aang turns toward Zuko as well.] So when I joined you, I lost sight of my inner fire. But now, I have a new drive. [Cut to Zuko's face as screen zooms in.] I have to help you defeat my father and restore balance to the world.
i’d like to think that part of losing/letting go of his anger/resentment in part was because of the new relationship he was able to build with aang. in a sense, he’s able to repair a “pseudo-sibling” relationship with a found-sibling who willingly accepts him. 
i love that they’re address their confidence issues regarding firebending together. 
and how, when they rushed to show the rest of the gaang after they returned:
aang: [Cut to Aang and Zuko demonstrating the Dancing Dragon to the rest of Team Avatar and friends.] With this technique the dragons showed us, Zuko and I will be unstoppable.
zuko has gained a found-sibling relationship that isn’t about comparing their firebending to each other, but working as a team. it’s so so meaningful that aang says “zuko and i.” the idea of zuko having a sibling relationship where he’s able to share his love of firebending and not feel insecure about it ...🥺. him having a “sibling” who wants to hang out with him and do things together and gushes about it with the confidence that aang had when he said they would be unstoppable. 
oh! not to mention that i’ve seen people say that zuko/katara have a sibling relationship because she teases him in EIP. but like .. that’s such flimsy logic. and also? aang and zuko have their mutual teasing moments especially in the firebending masters, and it’s just adorable. 
anyways, my main point from all this is that ik people love to say zuko/katara fit surrogate siblings (which i hate btw), but it’s mostly said because of katara/azula’s similar age. it doesnt matter that aang is 12, though, because honestly, he fits the “found-sibling” dynamic a lot better because of how zuko used to see aang in relation to azula. it just works better thematically. especially, because like i’ve said, and as so many people in fandom point out: zuko and katara are similar (some people... antis.. would say “too” similar). and when has zuko ever seen azula as being similar to himself? exactly. 
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ashesandhackles · 3 years
Text
Harry And Personal Conflict: A Meta On Evolving Dynamic With Ron and Hermione
One of my last metas on Harry was how his abuse at the Dursleys informed who he is as a person and a lot of his main personality traits. This time, I want to explore Harry's relationship with conflict, mostly in regard to his best friends - Ron and Hermione.
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First things first, because of his abusive upbringing where he is constantly in conflict with his caregivers, conflict is seen as Bad Thing when we first meet him as a 11 year old. And it informs how he reacts to both Ron and Hermione at first. He instantly relates to Ron because Ron is an underdog - a boy who feels neglected and passed over in his large and boisterous family. Harry shares his own experience of neglect with Ron and they both bond instantly.
His initial impression of Hermione is that she has a "bossy sort of voice" . The bossiness is an important characterstic to his impression of her - she reminds him of an authority figure and he does not particularly take to her as easily as he does Ron. Before the troll incident, he is frequently annoyed by her interventions because "he can't believe anyone would be so interfering". It's her vulnerability and the fact that she may be in danger that makes Harry, and by extension Ron, go after her. And she pays it back in full with a demonstration of loyalty to them in front of people she wants to impress: teachers. This sets the tone of his friendship with Ron and Hermione.
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There is sense of easiness to his friendship with Ron, especially in earlier books that he doesn't quite share with Hermione. This is a bit gendered as well, of course. His relationship with Hermione evolves as Ron's own equation with two of them changes, more specifically Ron's cognisance of his romantic feelings for Hermione. So how does this inform his relationship with personal conflict?
Let's look at it Book wise.
Book 1-4: Since Harry tends to see All Conflict As Bad, when Hermione becomes his friend, he tends to ignore traits of her that he particularly doesn't take to. Specifically her argumentativeness - which he usually leaves Ron to deal with. For example, look at when Hermione drags him off to the kitchens in GOF. When he realises what this is about, he nudges Ron, and Ron does the protesting: "Hermione, you are trying to rope us into that spew stuff again!".
Often, you can say he is amused by Ron's more ..let's say colourful.. reactions to Hermione being overbearing. So when Ron and him are not speaking and Hermione gets a Quidditch term wrong, it causes him "a pang to imagine Ron's expression of he could have heard Hermione talking about Wonky Faints". It's that deeply ingrained into the dynamic.
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While Ron acts buffer and protects Harry from stepping into a potential conflict ("skip the lecture", "don't nag" he tells her), Harry's world view remains quite the same. Part of Harry's growing up is integrating conflicting points of view and gaining nuance. For example, he can't understand why someone like Snape, who seems to hate him so much, can also save his life at the end of Philosopher's Stone. This is his first venture into trying to integrate two conflicting things about a person into nuance. Dumbledore gives him a very easily digestible story, one that appeals to his ideal of his father and Harry is sated.
Again, Harry's world view is tested when he finds out that he relates with Tom Riddle - for their "strange likenesses". He doth protest too much at Dumbledore's office: "I don't think I am like him! I am Gryffindor!". And Dumbledore offers him a wisdom nugget: "It's our choices which define who we are" (paraphrasing). Harry is uncomfortable that he empathises with Tom Riddle, his parents' murderer, at this point in the story.
In the first four books, his only proper personal conflict has been with Ron.
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It is depressing to think about in these terms - but Ron is Harry's first experience of unconditional love (we can even put Hagrid here, but he is not the one who spends most time with Harry). And when Ron and him fight, Harry is so hurt by the prospect that he proceeds to abandon Ron before Ron abandons him. (the whole chucking a "Potter stinks" badge at him and making a jab about having a scar is what he wants, or the fight in DH where he yells "then leave! Pretend you have gotten over your spattergoit and have your mummy feed you up"). It's an interesting defense mechanism and he feels "corrosive hatred" towards Ron during these times because Ron and him aren't supposed to be like this. Ron is a certainty in his life. It's also why when Ron comes back, Harry either doesn't need him to apologise (as in GOF) or quickly forgives him in DH - although I do think Harry thinks the locket bit was punishment enough. But even without the whole locket, I think Harry has trouble holding Ron accountable in general beyond few slaps on the wrist - especially if Ron and he are on good terms.
5th Book: This is the transition point for Golden Trio friendship. Harry has come back from an immensely traumatising night at the graveyard and his PTSD isolates him from his best friends. This is also the point where Ron, especially after GOF, is aware of his romantic feelings for Hermione ("the perfume is unusual Ron", Hermione tells him in this book). So in this book, we often see Ron and Hermione on one side, with Harry on the other.
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Ron is unwilling (quite like Harry in that respect) to engage him in a direct conflict, but he is also unwilling to shield him from Hermione's nagging in this book. This is why, OOTP is the book where you see Harry ignore or avoid Hermione and lie to her more than usual to avoid conflict. For example, he tells her that Snape thinks he can carry on Occlumency once he got the basics - that is categorically not what happened. Or the entire day he spends ignoring Hermione's warnings about breaking into Umbridge's office. (The description here is comical - about Hermione vehemently hissing so much that Seamus Finnigan is checking his cauldron for leaks. ) If he cannot lie to her or avoid her, at the end of the rope, he will treat her to display of his frightening temper.
Interestingly, OOTP is also the book that his world view goes through a tremendous upheaval: mainly, his ideal of his father and having empathy for Snape. It is unnerving for Harry to see Snape being the "boy who cried in the corner" when his father shouts at a cowering woman. Similarly unnerving is that his intense empathy for him - "he knew exactly what Snape felt when his father taunted him and judging by what he had seen, his father was every bit as arrogant as Snape always told him".
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While he is placated that his father grew out of it, this memory of his father being a bully is something he cannot bear to watch again in DH. Few chapters later, he grins at Ron "sweeping his hair" back to make it look more windswept, just like his father - suggesting that Harry is beginning to integrate two conflicting things he knew about his father: from the people who loved him vs the people he was cruel to.
6th Book onwards: It's interesting to me that his better appreciation for Hermione comes after OOTP (one, because she is the one who challenged the whole Ministry plan and she followed him into a trap knowing it was one anyway) but also the timing of it is in line with Harry having a more nuanced understanding of his father. He struggled to hold conflicting information about him into one cohesive person - the boy who was a bully vs the man who joins Order of Phoenix to fight a war he could very well have sat out. The pedestal crashing helped Harry gain nuance (he thinks of his father and mother with pride in HBP - of them walking into an arena with head held high). HBP also sets up his deeper understanding with Snape in DH. There is lovely meta by about this by thedreamersmusing. Read it here. HBP is also the book he feels "sorry" for Voldemort and also feels "reluctant admiration" for him - both of things he is less defensive about.
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And this nuance informs his relationship with conflicts - especially the kind he has with Hermione. He is more confrontational with her and does not lie or sneak around her as much as he did in OOTP in the Half Blood Prince. ("Finished? Or do you want to see if it does back flips?" He asks her when she takes the book from him to check if it's jinxed. Or the "I hope you enjoy yourself" he calls out irritably when she declares intention to find out who HBP is. And "do you want to rub it in Hermione? How do you think I feel now?" He tells her when she says she was right about HBP).
The fact that he is willing to be confrontational with her is a big step in his character - a step up from his unregulated outbursts in OOTP, which is a function of him not knowing how to put his anger across in normal ways. He is also more willing to stand up for her in front of Ron too - "You could say sorry" he tells Ron bluntly. This is in contrast to his more quiet standing up for her in POA: "Can't you give her a break?" Harry asked him quietly. In POA, he lets the subject drop after Ron flatly refuses. Here, he presses on more : "What did you have to imitate her for?" "She laughed at moustache!" "So did I, it's the stupidest thing I have ever seen".
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His relationship with Ron is an interesting contrast to his relationship with Hermione, which functionally teaches a very important lesson for an abused child who thought all conflicts are bad: That his friendship with her is challenging, and frustrating, filled with conflicts but their love for each other isn't disputed. It's a very important thing for brain development in general - to hold conflicting information in one space. The defense mechanism abused children do to avoid this is called splitting.
So, Ron allows Harry to be the age he is: a teenager and it's foundation for his further development, and Hermione teaches him how to be an adult, and therefore, spurs his growth. (In esoteric terms, if you look at Ron and Hermione as proxy parents - Ron is the Mother archetype, the one who offers unconditional love. Hermione is the Father archetype - one who demands best of him, and guides him).
Additional reading: Harry, Prongs and Prince - Harry's Inner Struggles For Forging An Identity. By u/metametatron4
Harry Identifies, and Reluctantly Admires Snape Even Before The Prince's Tale by thedreamersmusing
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anotheranimewriter · 3 years
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How You Met The TR Boys
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PC: Google! Look at this sweet angel faced boy, sigh~ I just want the best for him y'know?
Missed Our Last Meeting? Catch Up Below!
Hanma Shuji
Chifuyu Matsuno
Hakkai Shiba
Baji Keisuke
Manjiro 'Mikey' Sano
Ken 'Draken' Ryuguji
Mitsuya Takashi
So, after this angel faced baby, I have one more person (Shinichiro Sano) that was requested, so if you have anyone you want to see in this series please let me know!
CW: Spoilers, like big time! Sadness, mentions of death, harassment, grieving, and just overall a train wreck of emotions.
Inui Seishu: He was just visiting, in remembrance of something that changed his life forever, but what happens when he meets someone who's only starting their own grieving process when he's still struggling with him own?
Another year had already passed since that fateful night. Another anniversary, another set of flowers, and another year of guilt to swallow Inui alive. Resting the flowers against her grave, a somber expression on his face, with no tears escaping his eyes, he didn’t have any left to cry if he was being honest. Standing above the grave, he only felt regret, the same questions bouncing around his mind. Why her? Why not him? Why did Koko have to mistake them? Why wasn’t she here with him to guide her? Why did she have to leave him? Clenching his fist tightly at his sides, digging his nails into the flesh of his palms, the anger always took over before reality set in. It wasn’t either of their faults, and she wouldn’t like Inui blaming himself for something he couldn’t control, she’d scold him for even thinking that each year, but he couldn’t help himself but put the blame on him.
A twig snapped near Inui causing him to turn his head to turn to the side, taking into account a person who was now kneeling in front of a gravestone that was about two plots away from his sisters. He watched the girl, observing her movement, watching the violent shaking of her shoulders and listening to her soft sniffling. He felt a great sense of understanding when looking at her thinking back to the first month of his sister's death. He wanted nothing more than to look away, say his final goodbyes and leave the cemetery at this point, but as he shifted his sight back to his sisters grave he knew she would scold him for letting a girl cry, a defeated sigh slipped from his lips as he held his down “You were always better at providing the comfort element.” He mumbled softly into the air before taking in a deep breath, nodding at the grave knowing what his sister would tell him “Just give her a shoulder to cry on, and the rest is a piece of cake.” She’d end the sentence with a wink and Koko would be so love struck that he’d just repeat her statement.
Only Akane and Koko were not here with him, it was only Inui, and he would try to heed their words of advice as best as he could. Turning back to the girl and the grave he noticed she was no longer kneeling in front of the grave but now walking away from it, her shoulders still thrashed as she brought her hand up to wipe the tears away from her face, shaking his head he took long strides to make his way towards her. But unfortunately the clicking of his heels didn’t exactly work well with the idea of being silent, and the combination of his heels and the gravel only made her turn around in a twisted expression of shock and fear.
“Are you- No, of course you’re not..- uhh how long has the person been…crap.. this comforting thing-” she gave a soft smile “It’s not your area of expertise?” She offered as Inui let out a frustrated sigh, shaking his head trying to rack his brains for the right words to say. “It's been about two weeks, the person was my closest friend… more like a sister I guess you could say.” She answered his half question, looking at the ground as she spoke to him, and as he looked over at her he took quick notice of the new droplets that had begun to fall from her face, as he let out another sigh “I lost my sister too..” he said softly, his words causing her to turn to him with such sympathetic eyes as if she wasn't the one actively hurting.
“It was a stupid house fire that took her away from me.. And my only friend at the time caught wind of it and desperately tried to save her, because he was in love with my sister.. But me and my sister, we just always had this striking resemblance. Which is why you're seeing me here and not my sister, like she should be.” Inui continued bitterly as he watched the girl flinch slightly towards his ending comments. He hadn't expressed to anyone how he felt about the night of the fire, and how he desperately wished Koko had saved his sister instead of him, but Inui knew that even if Koko did successfully save Akane, she would've darted right back into the home to save him.
“She was protecting me.. Some drunk guys had been following us all night and when we tried to run into an alleyway to leave their line of vision, one of them tried to grab me but she jumped in front of the way. I turned around to run and save her from those guys, but she only yelled at me to run and find the police, she yelled at me to run as fast as I could.. So I did.. And by the time I found someone to help me.. She was lying on the ground in a pool of her blood.. And I-I went completely numb.. My legs carried me until I was kneeling beside her, clenching her hand.. Trying to get her to speak to me..” She choked up, patting her chest lightly as Inui felt a tightness in his own chest.
He had been an outsider in his sister's death, her coma induced state allowed for pain and closure, but the girl before him, she watched it all before her eyes, knowing she couldn't have done anything to make it different. Inui felt his hand moved slightly towards her, nearly flinching at the flesh as he looked over to her softly as he felt her hand interlock with his, it wasn't like him to initiate such an intimate interaction but he couldn't help himself, he told himself that his sisters would have pulled the girl into her arms and caressed her hair until she stopped crying but that was beyond his comfort level. So he would just have to make due with hand holding, as a form of comfort.  “I watched her blink slowly as a smile appeared on her face, she told me that no matter where she was, she would be watching over me.. And then I watched her leave me.. Right before my eyes..” She finished softly as Inui gave her hand a light squeeze, as she turned to look at him, it was now he who had sadden sympathetic eyes, she began to chuckle quietly.
“You know.. I’m telling you my sob story, holding your hand while walking out of the graveyard and I don't even know your name.” She said softly in a matter-of-fact tone causing Inui to chuckle himself as he thought over her words “I’m Inui Seishu, the boy who is holding your hand in the graveyard.” He replied as she smiled, nodding at him. “Well, Inui, I am (Y/L/N) (Y/N), the girl who is holding your hand at the graveyard.” She replied as he smirked ever so lightly, what a strange bond that had formed in the middle of the graveyard on this fateful anniversary, maybe both of their sisters were looking out for them, no matter where they were, a promise is still a promise after all.
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Unlikely friends: Imagine being Toph’s cousin and befriending Azula, much to the gang’s horror and confusion as it starts to become something more...
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Note: The is loosely based on the comic the search which takes place after the tv show ended
Part two here
part three here
Your pov
You’d never been exposed to Azula much. Of course you knew who she was, everyone in the four nations did, but you’d never met her face to face. You only joined the gang after Zuko was firelord and so the first time you met her was when Zuko recruited her to help find his mother.
You were at the royal palace when Zuko revealed his sister would be coming on the trip with the rest of you. The others all gasped as a girl appeared beside Zuko but you just blinked confused. The girl in front of you was your age, average to small height and honestly just looked tired and worn down. You’d heard Azula had been locked up for a year due to her mental health difficulties and you couldn’t understand how the others didn’t see this all over her.
Zuko noticed you staring at Azula and realised you’d never met before. “Ow you don’t know each other....y/n this is Azula, Azula this is y/n Toph’s cousin”. “Hmmm a Beifong so not a peasant but earth kingdom scum is still earth kingdom scum” Azula replied glancing over you. “Azula!” Zuko snapped but you just shrugged “it’s fine, nice to meet you Azula”. Azula blinked at you confused at the notion any one of her brother’s friends would ever be pleased to see her. She stared at you before moving past you. “Sorry she’s....like that” Zuko commented and you smiled “no need to apologise, i’m sure after everything she’s been through this is hard for her, tracking your mother down...I bet she’s very nervous to be seeing her again, that’s probably why she’s lashing out”. Zuko frowned “I guess, I hadn’t thought of it that way...”.
Throughout the trip you had more patience with Azula than the others because you empathised with her. Yes, she was rude and snarky but you could tell she was only doing that to get a reaction out of the people she knew hated her. You’d grown up with difficult people who liked to annoy an reaction out of you (your cousin was Toph freaking Beifong) and so you knew they usually did it when they didn’t feel welcome or good about themselves. So you never responded to Azula’s quips about you or retaliated in any way and slowly she stopped. Soon you noticed you were the only one in the group who Azula didn’t rush to attack. She largely acted like you weren’t there but you took that as a good sign. If it was just the two of you she seemed more relaxed, less guarded and you were glad you had that effect on her. You wanted her to know not everyone hated her and apparently she did. 
Obviously however Azula couldn’t just be alone with you the whole trip. She was surrounded by the gang who rightfully mistrusted and intensely disliked her. It was a stressful environment and you saw its growing mark on Azula each day...
You usually took the main night watch as you didn’t need as much sleep as the others and you’d noticed while everyone else slept soundly Azula would often jerk and mutter in her sleep endlessly. One night it was particularly bad. Azula curled up into herself and her mutterings sounded more like whimpers. You tried to ignore it and just focus on your book but after a while you couldn’t. So you approached her slowly and realised she must be having a particularly bad nightmare. Azula” you called trying to wake her up. When the girl didn’t respond you walked closer and knelt down beside her “Azula?” you called shaking her slightly. Azula jolted awake suddenly, sitting up so fast she almost headbutted you. She flinched away from you, fire at her fingertips before she blinked “ow it’s just you, what were you doing leaning over me?”. “You were having a nightmare I was trying to wake you” you replied and Azula glared “impossible nightmares are for weak people and children”. You laughed “no they’re not! Everyone gets nightmares, it’s not something you can control and it certainly doesn’t mean you’re weak”. Azula huffed sitting up and pulled her legs into her chest “well either way I wasn’t having one okay?”. You nodded your head raising your hands in surrender “fine”. Silence settled and you looked at her “well i’m going to go sit back by the fire, you can join me if you want. It’d be nice to have some company”. Azula huffed “no thank you” she said sarcastically and you shrugged “suit yourself but the invite is there”.
You sat down by the fire and returned to your book. You heard Azula shuffling around and after a few minutes saw her stand up and head towards you. You pretended not to notice as Azula got closer and only looked up when she reached the campfire. “Since you rudely woke me up and I can’t get back to sleep I’ve decided to sit here, there’s no point just laying on the floor”. You nodded your head “that makes sense” and smiled slightly. Azula looked down embarrassed but seemed grateful you didn’t push it. You sat in comfortable silence, only talking fleetingly and it was calm and neutral. Azula looked the most relaxed and normal you’d ever seen her and sure enough she soon fell back to sleep. You smiled and grabbed a blanket laying it over her. She may be difficult but difficult people were that way because they were hurting. You could sense that in Azula and didn’t want to cause her any more harm. You thought Azula could sense your intentions to her were different than the other’s and that’s why she behaved differently with you. Every time you interacted you saw more of Azula, the healthy happier Azula, but all the walls went back up as soon as the others were around. It upset you Azula didn’t feel comfortable with the others but at least feeling comfortable with one person was a start.
3 days later
You were finally only one day away from reaching the village Zuko’s mom was in and you all sat around discussing what to do next. Well apart from Azula, she was always made to stand away when you discussed plans, nobody forced her to but she felt unwelcomed so would usually go sulk out of earshot. It was decided you’d make the journey the next morning rather than arriving in the middle of the night. You nodded along with the plans before standing up and heading off in Azula’s direction “okay i’ll go let her know”. “Let who know?” Katara asked and you paused “Azula, she doesn’t know the plan”. “So?” Zuko asked and you hesitated “well shouldn’t we tell her....i mean she’s a part of the group now, she deserves to know what we’re dragging her into”. Aang nodded, Toph and Sokka shrugged but Katara and Zuko didn’t look convinced. “Fine i guess” Zuko shrugged and you nodded, going to get Azula from her stance by the woods. The gang all watching on confused. 
The next day
You reached Ursa’s village the next day and found her home easily. She was thrilled to see her children again and the town threw a large party to celebrate the return of Ursa’s son the fire lord. You all attended and the whole gang looked so happy to finally be off the road and in a house, Zuko especially was in high spirits. He was beaming, a grin spread from ear to ear and you smiled to see he hadn’t left his mother’s side since he’d found her again. You saw Zuko’s family, his mom, new little sister Kiyi and stepdad all sat together and paused....they looked like a perfect happy family but someone was missing. You glanced around and saw Azula was outside, as far away from the happy occasion as she could get and was staring intensely at the surrounding scenery. You made your way outside and Azula jumped. “Only me” you said holding up a hand and Azula lowered her hands but her shoulders were still tensed “what do you want?”. “Nothing” you shrugged “just wanted to see if you were okay”. “Of course i’m okay” Azula snapped and you frowned. Over the period you’d spent travelling you’d seen Azula improve, she was less jumpy and agitated but the second you’d reached her mother’s town she was right back at square one. Her mother had been the reason for her initial mental breakdown and you were worried something like this could set her over the edge again. You knew Azula wasn’t one for small talk but wanted her to feel less alone so started talking to her. “You know I haven’t seen my family in 5 years?”. Azula didn’t attack you so you carried on. “They sent me to go live with Toph’s parents when I was 12 and I haven’t seen them since. To be honest it wasn’t a big move I was at Toph’s all the time but still to make it permanent... My father...he worked a lot so I never saw him even when I was home but as for my other family. My mom and I never saw eye to eye on anything, she hated all my decisions and honestly I think she was glad when I left...it gave her more time to focus on my brothers. Her favourites, she’s always preferred my brothers to me just because they’ll carry on the name or whatever”. You trailed off and Azula raised an eyebrow “are you actually trying to bond with me over mommy issues?”. You paused and rushed to explain you weren’t trying anything when you saw Azula had a slight smirk on her face and so you smiled. “Why not?” you asked “my point is, my parents were never there for me and I turned out fine! They only have as much power over you as you let them. Azula tutted “you should save the philosophy for Aang y/n”. You smiled “I probably should but all i’m saying is you’re not a product of what they’ve done to you unless you let yourself be, unless you hold onto that anger. I’ve forgiven my mother and father for how they treated me”. Azula spun on you and you jumped to see how angry she suddenly looked. “You expect me to believe after all she did to you, you forgave her? How stupid do you think I am?”. “I have” you said confused “I hold no anger towards my mother anymore”. “Well you should” Azula commented “she doesn’t deserve anything less”. You shrugged “maybe so but that anger was causing me way more harm than it was her”. Azula didn’t respond and you frowned. “I haven’t forgotten what she...what all my family did to me and I haven’t let them off for it, I set boundaries and refuse to let them treat me that way anymore...but I also don’t fixate over what happened, it happened, it was in the past and that’s where it should stay...that’s where I make it stay, I won’t let it take up any more of my time”. Silence settled and as time stretched on you stopped expecting a reply. That was fine with you, you just hoped any part of what you’d said had made Azula feel a little better. “I’m cold so i’m going to head back inside, you could come with me? I hate entering parties alone” you tried to joke but Azula didn’t glance at you. You shrugged and started back inside when Azula sighed and appeared beside you “come on then, if I must hold your hand with everything”. You grinned as you realised this was Azula’s way of saying she’d come back to the party with you. “But we’re getting food” Azula told you “i’m starving, that food Sokka hands out is awful”. You grinned as you walked in together “blubbered seal jerky, it is awful but it does sustain you”, Azula wrinkled her nose in disgust and you laughed. “I never figured you a picky eater”. “I’m not” Azula said defiantly “but i refuse to eat any animal’s blubber” she commented piling a plate with food. Not wanting to make her eat alone you copied her and filled a plate too. You found a table near the outskirts of the party and sat down together. Azula tucked into her food and you were surprised at her appetite though you knew you shouldn’t be. The girl was a machine of muscle and strength, of course she ate a lot. Still you watched impressed as Azula cleared her plate "you were hungry" you grinned and Azula smirked "why do you never believe me?". "I don’t know maybe your whole history with manipulation?". Azula’s smirk vanished and you worried you’d gone too far when she laughed. It was odd seeing her face contort into a laugh and her shoulders shake but a good weird. You liked seeing it and felt very proud you’d made the fearsome and dreadful Azula laugh. So proud you didn’t even notice that your and Azula’s table was getting attention.
Ursa’s POV
Ursa’s head shot up as she heard a vaguely familiar but sorely missed sound and her eyes landed on Azula almost instantly. Azula was laughing! She was smiling at a friend and appeared happy. Joy filled Ursa’s heart and she felt her eyes tear up to see her daughter happy. "Mother?" Zuko asked and she jumped. "Are you okay?" Zuko asked and she nodded "it’s just your sister...". "What has she done now?" Zuko snapped and Ursa shook her head "nothing! I just, i know i showed favourites and i always regretted leaving you both, i worried it would impact you both beyond repair especially Azula but then i saw her smiling...". Zuko followed his mothers gaze not believing her until he saw Azula beside you. His mother was right, Azula was actually smiling...well her form of a smile which was more of an upturned lip but still for Azula that was insane. "Who is her friend?" Ursa asked "she seems lovely". "Y/n" Zuko said confused "i didn’t even know they were friends" he was ashamed to admit. Ursa noticed and patted his back "i know things can’t have been easy and i’m sorry for my part in that but things can only get better now, for all of us" she said glancing back to Azula and Zuko nodded "apparently so".
Your POV
After the party was finished you were heading to your shared room with Toph when Katara appeared "y/n can we talk?". You shrugged and motioned for her to follow you into the room. She did and once inside you turned to her expectantly. "What are you doing are you insane!" she burst. You blinked "come again?". "Since when are you friends with Azula! Why would you want to be? What is wrong with you?". You took in the comments and breathed "erm...i guess we’ve become friends over the journey, i have spent the most time with her, i didn’t try to become friends with her i just talked to her and treated her like a human and it kind of just happened. As for what’s wrong with me....how long have you got?". Toph laughed and Katara glared "y/n this isn’t funny, don’t you remember all she’s done!". You rolled your eyes "ow yeah all water under the bridge...of course i haven’t forgotten what she's done but i have seen enough of her to know she’s just as broken as Zuko, she’s human Katara and she deserves the decency of being treated like one". Katara tutted "i don’t remember seeing an inch of humanity in her". "Well i’m sure if you start really looking at her you'll find it" you said sharply "now I’m going to bed so goodnight" and you turned away from the water bender letting her know this conversation was over.
Mai’s POV After Ursa had been found everyone returned to the fire nation to celebrate. Zuko was the happiest Mai had ever seen him but he wasn’t the only one who returned from the journey oddly happy. Thanks to her help Azula hadn’t been locked back up upon her return and she was freely roaming the palace. Old habits die hard and Mai found herself watching the girl who’d tormented her through her childhood and was surprised by what she saw. Azula had made a friend and one that actually seemed to genuinely like her judging by your smile. "So...Azula and y/n seem to get on" Mai commented and Zuko nodded amazed that this friendship had formed and that Azula was here at the party at all. He figured knowing their mother would be here she’d have run and hidden but here she was. "They seem quite close" Mai carried on "are they...is it more than a friendship?". Zuko paused "what?". Ty lee nodded "i was thinking the same thing, notice how Azula hardly looks away from her?". Mai nodded and Zuko frowned, clearly lost in the conversation. "I don’t know...i don’t think so" he babbled. Mai rolled her eyes at how clueless Zuko was "well is y/n or has y/n ever dated anyone to your knowledge". "No..." Zuko frowned. "They’re so dating" Ty lee grinned and Zuko frowned "are you sure? I mean my sister...date anyone?". Mai shook her head "you know she is a human being right Zuko? And an attractive one at that, i wouldn’t be surprised if she and y/n kindled something it's actually rather...sweet".
 Azula’s POV
Azula had only agreed to come to this party because you were going to be here and also because she’d been assured her mother wouldn’t try anything with her. Still Azula had been apprehensive to attend and the second you left her side her suspicions were confirmed. She was ambushed.  "Sooooo" Azula heard and turned to see an old friend? Ex friend? She still wasn’t sure but either way there was Ty lee grinning her. "Ty lee" she nodded at her curtly. "It’s good to see you" Ty lee smiled "i noticed you and y/n seem close". Azula raised an eyebrow, Ty lee was never good at being subtle and clearly meant something more with those words. "If you’re worried she’s beating you in the rankings of friendship you needn’t worry, you dropped right out of there the minute you betrayed me". Ty lee paused and Azula smirked "your face, you always were too easy to fool". Ty lee laughed nervously, Azula knew how to joke now?  "But seriously what’s up with you and y/n? Is it friends....is it more?". Azula paused "more?". "Well you guys just seemed very close" Ty lee shrugged "almost couple-y". Azula paused, this was a new perspective for her, she hadn’t even thought about her friendship with you or that it could be something more....now the idea was there she realised it wasn’t such a bad one.  She liked you, she thought you were nice to be around and funny. Not to mention you were beautiful and athletic. Azula thought it over while Ty lee almost burst. "So?" Ty lee finally asked and Azula paused. She didn’t want Ty lee to go around telling people before she even knew what she wanted so she shook her head "me and y/n are just friends". Ty lee looked disappointed "ow...well i’m still glad you’ve got such a good friend, you look a lot happier than i’ve ever seen you" Ty lee smiled and Azula realised she was. Even here at the palace where she had so many bad memories it wasn’t as bad anymore. Azula suspected a lot of that was because of you and felt a blush rise to her cheeks. How hadn’t she worked this out sooner? 
A few days later
All good things had to come to an end. With the mission a success the avatar and all his friends were leaving the fire nation soon and Azula knew you were planning on leaving too. You were going to help the little earth bender with her school. Azula knew Toph was the person you cared most about in the world so of course you’d want to go with her but part of her wished you wouldn’t. She wished you had nothing to pull you away from her.
She’d heard from Zuko you were leaving soon and so she debated back and forth if she should come see you to say goodbye or just let you go. As the time trickled away and the day of your departure arrived she decided to just swallow her pride and come and find you. She found you in your room in the palace doing some very late packing. You had apparently just finished as she found you lining up your luggage for the trip. “Azula” you said happily spotting her and she couldn’t help but smile “hi y/n”. “Hello” you smiled “how are you?”. “I’m good, and you?”. “Great” you smiled “we’re all set to leave soon! I can’t wait to get home”. Azula nodded “I can imagine” and stared at the floor. “Is everything okay?” you asked and Azula tensed. “Everything’s fine I just wanted to say goodbye”  Azula shrugged meeting your eye and smiling slightly. She thought she’d been pretty convincing but apparently not.
Your POV
"Azula what’s wrong? I can tell somethings bothering you" you said frowning and came to stand closer to her. You could tell she was nervous, something you’d rarely seen on the firebender’s face. "I...i was just wondering when you were coming to the fire nation again?". You paused "well i’m not sure honestly, i guess whenever the gang comes again, why have you got a big festival coming up or something?". Azula shook her head "no we don’t...". She sounded disappointed and an idea formed in your head, did Azula not want you to go? "The gang might be too busy to just swing by but that doesn’t mean i can’t" you said testing the water and saw Azula’s eyes widen and her cheeks flush slightly. "I think that would be nice" she said looking down and you smiled softly. Azula wanted you around! "Yeah?" you asked and Azula nodded "i guess i’ve become...accustomed to your presence" she said.
You almost laughed that this was what Azula thought was an honest compliment. No, Azula could do better than that so you prompted her.
"Accustomed to my presence?" you asked raising an eyebrow and Azula searched for words before sighing. "I like being around you" she shrugged going red "so you coming back to the fire nation wouldn’t be a bad thing i guess". You grinned "you’d cope with that idea?". Azula nodded her head still blushing "i would". You laughed and couldn’t stop smiling at Azula’s blush. "Well in that case i’d be more than happy to have regular visits, not to mention you can come visit me and Toph at her school anytime you want". "I can?" Azula asked and you nodded "of course! You think i’d leave you all alone with these firebenders and no escape route". Azula smiled at you, a genuine happy smile and nodded her head "that’s...thank you, i’m sure i’ll be taking you up on that offer frequently". "As much as you want" you said taking her hand "i mean it Azula, even if it’s just for a few hours or a night, you’re always welcome with me". Azula stared at you and wondered again how she hadn’t realised she liked you before. It was so obvious to her now, she only hoped it wasn’t so obvious to you but judging by the fact she had a permanent blush this whole time she wasn’t too sure about that. Azula nodded "thank you y/n" and you smiled "no problem". You carried on looking at her before blushing at your close proximity and stepped away. "So i best be going but expect many letters". Azula chucked and you shrugged "what? I’m not kidding? I love writing letters, you will receive many from me, once a day if you’re lucky". Azula smiled "i promise to reply to every single one" and you grinned "you better". You started towards the door and stopped to look back at her. "I’ve really enjoyed our time together and I just wanted you to know...i think you’re pretty amazing”. Azula blushed "thank you....you’re also very good". You chuckled at her awkward reply and smiled "all i meant was, don’t let anyone tell you you’re not good enough, from where i’m standing...that’s not the case at all, in any way". Azula’s face turned an even deeper shade of red and you smiled. "Anyway i’ll go now, bye Azula". "Bye y/n" she managed and with a last smile you were gone. Azula immediately felt a pang of loneliness but then thought of what you’d do. She took a few deep breaths and repeated what you’d told her. She was good enough, she was more than good enough, she didn’t need to be insecure or cruel. She opened her eyes, let out a sigh and turned to her daily tasks. She'd see you again soon enough and only 13 hours until your promised daily letter, Azula could wait that long.
____
I absolutely love this idea of Azula finding someone she can be open and vulnerable with and might make this into a 3 part series??
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theodora3022 · 3 years
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Playing tricks with the trickster
Summary: Failed escape attempt from yandere Childe. He lets you play your cards, even playing along, just for his own amusement.
Notes: My first genshin piece yay... I had a sweet and terrible dream of me running from Childe in the woods. Also some inspiration was drawn from @cinnamonest‘s this post, one big virtual hug to her! I hope I did Childe justice, what can I say I love manipulative smiling boys. It has become a pattern as I dash from one fandom to another. This is had turned out to be longer then I expected...Ginger boy demands my time and energy too much omg. Mind the warnings, although there is nothing extreme in this.
Fun fact, I was looping to Nintendo game by Alessia Cara when writing this down. I believe it fits the theme of this fic quite well.
Tagging: @akutaguagua a great friend who patiently beta-read this mess of a horror dream and gave me lots of kind praises! 
(Offical art belongs to miHoYo! This is a cover page of this video, if there is any issues, contact me and I will remove it at once)
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Warnings: Implied past abduction,dub-con touching, mild degradation, drugging(not on reader), implied non-con/dub-con at the end, this is not healthy love and I do not condone this irl.
It has been nearly a month since the youngest Fatui Harbinger had “taken you in”. After a few tries, you were too horrified by the punishments to continuously fight him. You learned on the first day that Childe’s smiling, the friendly mask would come off towards you. Your behaviour would decide if that is a curse or a “blessing”.
So you had quieted down, struggling to restrain yourself from yelling or screaming, carefully not to provoke his anger. Despite being compliant to his orders, you never truly showed him any affection either. Sure, you would sit on his lap if he asked, but you never initiated anything intimate with him. No matter how much Tartaglia spoiled you with clothes, books, jewelry or other luxuries, he is still the one who holds the commanding end of your shackles. It’s the best not to get used to all of that when your sight is set on the door.
Although he has taken your freedom away, you are not kept in a windowless room. On the contrary, you have too many outings now. Wherever he goes, you have to be present in a 2m radius, including meetings. Being a Harbinger is no easy job, so he prefers not having to worry about your safetly during buisness hours. The best way to do that is never let you out of his sight.
“Love, no one should witness our little problems. Well, no one alive that is.” Of course you wouldn’t want to put innocent people's lives at stake. You never dared to act out when you two are in public, and no one would bat an eye if a Fatui had taken a lover. 
You had taken an emotionless approach towards him. If Childe wants a kiss on the cheek, you’ll give him a quick light peck. If he wants breakfast, you’ll go make some pancakes with the topping he likes. Luckily, Childe had not done anything too extreme yet. If cuddling to sleep does not count as extreme that is. The only time you slipped up is when he suddenly hugs you from behind when you’re cooking.  
You thought maybe, just maybe, by being as boring and dull as you could, this bastard might just get tired of you and let you go. Childe only loves the fun of it right? Or maybe it could lower his guard.
Oh, how naive you are. You should have known better than to underestimate a Fatui harbinger. See, this is exactly why he needs to keep you around. Yes, unfortunately for you, Childe loves you, so very much. Speaking to him with a monotone voice isn’t going to alter that fact.
You have been devoid of emotions as of late. While Childe does appreciate fewer screams for the sake of his eardrums, this schemer can sense you are up to something. Perhaps this is the peace before your “storm”(he thought of it more like a drizzle)
You want to play a game? Okay, why not? Childe cannot wait to see what tricks you got on those sleeves. Are you ever getting away? Does an amateur ever win when they play a game with a professional trickster? Never.
Still, nothing bites like a cornered rat. You are no airhead, and he is fully aware of that. Just not as cunning and observent as him, that’s all.
The way you just kept your emotions sealed up is impressive, even to someone like him. Even when he got hansy, you did not flinch and just stared at the corner. Childe can only catch faint glimpses of anger when you thought he wasn’t looking.
Hm, when are you pulling your trigger? Tonight, or tomorrow night? Not that Childe is impatient, anything from you is worth waiting. But he would need to dismiss his patrolling underlings in the nearby woods beforehand. No extras would be allowed to disturb this game.
There is no chance during the day, a somewhat mutual understanding for you two. Night time in comparison, is a different story. 
Anyone’s sleeping hours is their most vulnerable time of the day, Childe is no exception. You do not plan to harm him, not that you don’t want to. But you are willing to swallow the pent up frustration towards him if you would never see his face again after this. Maybe beating up some slimes would help with the release?
You somehow managed to slip a mixture of herbs into his tea. Since he would buy cooking ingredients for you from time to time, you had requested a bunch of herbs along with the ingredients of a sleep inducing medicine you remembered. Although Childe does all he can to keep you near him, there are inevitable hours that he needs to be somewhere without you. He cannot jeopardize your safety with troublesome monsters. On a side note, he loves showing you off to anyone, his colleagues, acquaintances, business partners, anyone he does not deem a threat.
Enough time for you to make those herbs into powder and cover it up with a few spoons of milk. Tea with milk has become quite popular in Liyue as of late. Childe has grown to love them, so you have learned how to mix it up. He always let you handle his food and drinks, saying that he “trusts you”. What you do not know is this is one of the openings he exposed on purpose. It’s not like you can aquire anything deadly under his suffocating supervision.
Your plan will work, or so you think. Childe will not wake up when you wiggle out of his grasp, because dreamland will keep him occupied. All you need is a glider and a usable sword from Liyue and you’ll get your life back. Bottling up extreme emotions has certainly taken a toll on your mind, but it will be worth it if that is the prerequisite of being free.
Something about this being so easy sits ill with you. Have you really been with the youngest Fatui Harbinger this whole time? But that was brushed off your shoulders by the sheer excitement of regaining your long lost freedom. You know Liyue is in walking distance, all you need to do is cross these woods and-
The moment you dive into the forest, you think you heard an amused chuckle. 
That smooth voice terrifies you to no end, the same voice you took orders from for the past month.
Oh, how Childe loves seeing you happy. It’s priceless, both literally and figuratively. No matter how many things he buys you, you had not shown him even one small smile. Enjoy your sweet freedom, because it ain’t going to last. You certainly will know your place after this right? If not you are just dumber then he give you credit for.
That glow of relief in your eyes is worth every last bit of this intense dizzying feeling to Childe. To make sure your plan go through, he had drunk the tea without hesitation, quick enough to catch the momentarily excitement you expressed. He knows the game is on, therefore he had given the night patrol guards the entire evening off. Forcing himself to stay concious by digging his nails into his palms, Childe followed you into the woods.
Your potion is quite strong. Excellent, you’ll have to give him the recipe for informational purposes later. Especially how you managed to achieve such effects with a few herbs you had. He never took you to be anything less than a smart girl, but this has exceeded his expectations. Where’s the fun in a game without challenges?
How you storm through the forest wearing that cute terrified expression looks so endearing, it’s surely not his fault if he wants to enjoy this sight to be longer right.
So, each time you feel the slightest at ease due to whatever reason, expect Childe to make some sound to send you running like your life depends on it again. The sadistic man is hunting you down playfully, like a cat chasing a stray mouse to the inevitable corner.
You know he is toying with you. There is nothing you can do to make him shut up though.
“Love, you had scratched your leg. Must hurts by the looks of it.”
“Liyue is that way, you know.”
“Are you tired? If you want to jog in the middle of the night, you should have called me to come along!”
How can he say those things nonchalantly while you are trying to escape from him?  Here he is, daunting you with that signature smile he wears so very often. That is when reality slaps you right in the face. No matter how hard you plan, no matter how fast you run, there is no getting rid of him.
When your stamina runs out, a simple pull and push on your left wrist is enough to let you fall onto the ground panting. Even now, you still refuse to beg for mercy. You would take the cold grounds to the warmth of Childe’s embrace anyday. 
“Aw, burnt out already? Pathetic. Looks like we need to work on your stamina more. But this is not the place for exercise.”
“Look at me.” His slender but forceful fingers tilt your head up, making you look into those ocean blue orbs. There is anger present in his eyes, but those emotions are more a mixture of delight and that. His smile had also been replaced by a mocking smirk. “You, trying to leave me? Your sense of humor is...well, let’s just call it unique. Lucky for you, you amused me nonetheless.”
“I know what you’re thinking. How I’m a selfish jerk and you hate me. Why be so ungrateful? You get to live in luxury thanks to me, you know. I am selfish, yes, but look how stupid you are. I know you added something extra in my evening tea, my beloved.”
“Come now, we are going to do some exercises suited for a night like this once we’re back home. It is our one month milestone, after all. You had already given me your gift, it is only fair for you that I do the same.”
Childe is not making a sarcastic remark. The thrill of that chase was the best fun he had in months. And you are going to love his gift too, maybe not right away, but surely sometimes after. 
You have to mentally prepare yourself for the worst as he dragged you back to the prison, hopefully you’ll still be able to walk properly after whatever Childe got in store.
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nyctophilin · 4 years
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Fake affection | I
sweet anon: Can I request a dom! Han Jisung smut? Where he and the reader are fake dating because Jisung want's to make someone jealous but ends up fucking the reader instead? I love your writings so much!!
Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Epilogue
Description: Han Jisung has been rejected by the girl he likes one to many times. He decides that he has had enough and is set on making her want him back. What could possibly make her want him more than seeing him with her rival after she boldly assumed he can’t find anyone better. That way Jisung and Y/N are stuck in a fake relationship until Jisung’s crush falls for him. Or he falls for someone else.
All rights reserved © nyctophilin 2020. Re-posting, copying and translating any of my works is prohibited.
Pairing: Han x fem!Reader, Hyunjin x fem!Reader
Word count: 4.5k
Genre: College!AU, Fake dating!AU, Angst, Fluff, eventual Smut
Warnings: swearing, mention of masturbation
A/N: Wow, so it looks like I am unable of making short fics, haha. I planed for this to be a one-shot but it’s already this long and I don’t want to bore you guys with long fics so I will make a second part and a third if needed but I doubt. I really hope you guys like this one. Feedback is very much appreciated.
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      Y/N was tapping her finger on the desk, her head resting in her palm. She was watching the professor walk around in front of the class explaining something but she wasn’t paying attention. Her mind was filled with thoughts about whether or not she was going to get the role. 
      Some people from her university that were majoring in Film Production had to write a script for a short movie and the best five got chosen to be produced. Initially, she believed that only Theater and Film Majors could participate at the auditions but the administration of the school made an announcement one morning informing them that everyone could take part in the audition process. That meant she had to deal with more competitors for the role she wanted.
      Initially, Y/N was the only one who wanted to audition for the main role of one of the movies since people didn’t really catch its concept that well. When the audition day finally came, one Modern Dance major showed up out of nowhere and auditioned as well. The apparition of that particular character made her blood boil with anger.
      Her competitor for the role was none other than Mina, her so-called enemy. They weren’t enemies in the real sense of the word. They just simply didn’t click with one another and silently agreed a long time ago to ignore each other. They weren’t pulling childish stunts on each other, they didn’t speak each other's names unless necessary, they didn’t try to win each other in grades or parties or body counts. They were just mutually ignoring one another. And everything was fine until she showed up there.
      Y/N wasn’t going to lie and say that Mina wasn’t good. Her performance wasn’t exceptional but for someone that has never done that before, she was fairly good. That had her worried about her chances of getting chosen.
      When the bell finally rang ending her suffering she got up in the split of a second and left the room. She could not bear to hear any more of the professor’s babbling. Her boots let out quiet thuds every time they touched the concrete floors. She found herself in front of the announcement board but the paper that was supposed to tell her if she got chosen or not, was missing. Thinking to herself that they probably will put it up later she turned on her heels and made her way towards the cafeteria.
      She met her friend Hayoon there and they sat down at a table situated in the centre of the cafeteria. They talked about how they had been up until then and Hayoon complained about one of her classes and how she’s going to fail it.
      The chatter in the cafeteria died down when the door was slammed open and Mina stomped in, a bitter expression on her face. “I can not believe that they made me a stunt double! What does that even mean?” Her voice was louder than it should have been as she addressed her friends. Her intention was most probably to attract attention.
      A smirk crept on Y/N’s face as she realised that she did, in fact, get the main role. She gave her friend a suggestive eyebrow raise as she slowly took the chopstick to her mouth. Her face dropped when she heard the stomping approaching her. “Hey, loser, what’s a stunt double?” Mina’s voice was scratching her ears. How she managed to sound like one of those toys for dogs sometimes, she’ll never understand.
      “I can’t believe you’ve auditioned for a role without knowing what a stunt double is.” Y/N rolled her eyes at the other girl and a few people from around them chuckled. Mina’s face caught a crimson colour as the embarrassment settled in.
      “Haha, you are so funny!” It was clear by now that the girl was trying to mask her flustered form by trying to embarrass Y/N back.
      The truth was that she didn’t mean to make fun of her. She just let her first thoughts leave her mouth. “I wasn’t trying to be funny.” A sigh left her lips. “A stunt double is a person that executes all the dangerous or action scenes for the main actor so they don’t get injured. Stunt doubles are usually gymnasts, people that know martial arts and all that jazz. They probably chose you because of your dance background.”
      “I can’t believe it. Not only they didn’t give me the role, but they are also going to use me to protect you?” Mina had an annoyed expression.
      “Oh please! Did you really think they were going to choose you? You entered that room without even knowing the concept and somehow managed to get the feel right a couple of times. Meanwhile, some of us actually prepared for that audition.” Y/N was fed up with Mina’s princess behaviour. Always thinking that everything is rightfully hers and expecting everyone to kiss her ass. All that just because her father was donating a big sum of money to the university every term. They are donations at the end of the day and she should not be expecting special treatment just for that.
      Mina’s face became a crimson red for the second time in ten minutes and she stomped away from Y/N’s table. The few people that were watching them averted their eyes when Y/N took a look around.
      From the corner of the cafeteria, someone was watching them with a smirk on their face. Oh, how he got just the perfect idea.
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            Y/N sat in the second closest row to the professor. She was in “Canto class” as she liked to call it. It was one of the optional classes she chose to take that year. It wasn’t a compulsory class for Theater and Film majors since you don’t necessarily have to know how to sing to be an actress but she took it anyway because she thought it would be fun. And so far it was.
      A loud bang invaded her left ear and she turned to find Han Jisung having his back to her and chatting with his friends that were seated a few rows behind them. She raised her eyebrow but didn’t question it. It wasn’t like the seat was occupied and she definitely had nothing against him sitting next to her. He probably just wanted to pay more attention since he and his friends are always distracted during class. 
      Y/N turned back to her stuff and opened her notebook to take another look at the notes from last class. Soon after the professor entered the classroom and the chatter died down. 
      She was vigorously writing in her notebook everything the professor was explaining to them. Suddenly she felt a touch on her left elbow and stopped for a second. She immediately resumed her writing, convinced that he probably did that by mistake. Not even a minute later she felt another touch on her elbow this time more evident. She ignored it again not paying much mind to it. Jisung’s elbow collided with hers causing her to push her notebook and scribble on it.
      She snapped her head towards him and felt anger overcome her when she noticed the smirk on his face. “What?” She whispers yelled in his direction.
      “Hi!” He did a short wave of his hand in her direction and she clenched her jaw. She closed her eyes and exhaled deeply before going back to her note-taking. She had only five minutes of peace before he poked her side again. She smacked his hand away from her and continued to mind her own business.
      Throughout the class, Jisung kept bothering her and trying to talk to her despite her obvious wish to let her take notes. When the bell rang she got up quickly, her blood boiling and left the room in a hurry hoping she could lose Jisung on the busy halls. As she was hurriedly making her way between the sea of people she felt an arm going over her shoulders and she crashed with the owner of the arm.
      “Why are you in such a hurry babe?” Jisung’s voice rang in her ear as they were practically glued to each other. She grabbed his hand and swung his arm away from her shoulders.
      “For the love of God, what do you want from me Han Jisung?” Exasperation was present in her voice as she threw him an ugly look.
      She couldn’t guess what he needed from her to annoy her to that extent. They were acquaintances and nothing more. They knew each other from that one class they shared and the longest interaction they had was when the professor prepared an interactive class once and they had to work in groups of five.
      He was the university’s “heartthrob” as people liked to call him. Y/N personally thought that that title should be given to Hwang Hyunjin who was majoring in Modern Dance. He was more mature than the rest of his friends, he was friendly with everyone and wasn’t pulling pranks on innocent people to entertain some brainless creatures. But who was she to oppose the masses?
      On top of doing all those things, Jisung was also in a relationship with Mina. Every time they are together they will target someone and will start making fun of them. More Mina than Jisung but he was still entertaining her actions and that made him as guilty as she was.
      “I need to ask you something. Or better, make you a proposal.” He winked at her and she felt an uncomfortable shiver run through her. How disgusting.
      “Ok, and what is it?” She threw him an expectant look and he started looking around.
      “Let’s talk outside where there are fewer people. You got a free period, right?” Confusion made its way on her face.
      “How do you know that? Are you weirdo following me?” She has never talked with him as friends and they share only one class. How on earth would he know her schedule?
      “What? No! I see you hanging out around the university all the time after our class.” She rolled her eyes at his answer and gestured her hand towards the closest exit out of the building signalling him to lead the way.
      Very soon they were seated on a bench under a tree somewhere behind the university. It was her first time coming there. Y/N usually liked to remain at the front of the building since couples usually liked to come there and make out sometimes even fuck.
      “I think we should start dating.” He blurted out and she froze for a second before jumping to her feet startling the man.
      “I knew you were fucking weird. I’m leaving!” What in the actual fuck did she think when she came here. For a second she expected a real conversation but Jisung’s main skills were flirting and making bad jokes. She set her expectations way too high for that conversation.
      She picked her bag from the bench and started leaving only to have Jisung grab her wrist and stop her. “Wait, let me explain. I swear you’ll understand better after.” Y/n wanted to turn and leave but the puppy dog eyes he gave her made her stay and listen to him. Now, don’t get her wrong, his expression didn’t soften her but if he was desperate enough to try the puppy eyes on her then it must be important to him.
      She plopped down on the bench and waited for him to start talking. “Look, I’m pretty sure you know Mina. And I know you two aren’t on great terms. I say we date so you can get back at her for all the things she has done to you.” He raised his eyebrows at her and pursed his lips.
      Y/N was the one that raised her eyebrow next as she leaned her head to the side. “Aren’t you and Mina dating?” 
      “Obviously not.” Jisung used a tone that pissed Y/N off. A tone that said ‘It was so obvious, how can you not know?’ and she didn’t like it one bit.
      “Oh, I’m so sorry! I must have read the signs the wrong way. I mean, it's not like you are always together and you carry her backpack around and you hang out outside of school six days out of seven and kiss before classes and make out behind the university probably right on this bench.”
      A smirk appeared on Jisung’s face. “Who’s following who now?”
      “Don’t flatter yourself. Mina’s voice is so annoying I could hear her every time she talked. When I would turn to see what was up now you two were most times engaged in some sort of PDA.” She spoke fast trying to prove that she wasn’t following him. She didn’t know why she felt the need to do that but the thought of Jisung thinking that she has some sort of interest in him was terrifying. He completely humiliated the last “unpopular” girl that confessed her feelings to him and at that moment the last thing she needed was for him to go around saying she is a stalker.
      “Well, we are getting there. I asked her out and she said that she’ll love to but it’s too fun to tease me. When I asked her ‘What if I get a girlfriend?’ she told me I can not find anyone better for me than her. When I saw you fighting in the cafeteria earlier I knew I found my perfect girl. Not only are you hot, but she also hates you.” Y/N raised an eyebrow at his words.
      “Hot?” Her tone was untrusting as this was the first time someone from uni had said that to her. 
      “Yeah. You didn’t think that guys came to last year’s theatre spectacles because they were actually interested in theatre, right?” A laugh left his mouth at her dumbfounded face as she registered his words. A blank expression adorned her face immediately after trying not to seem so surprised.
      “Well, not anymore.” She let her tongue trace her bottom lip before biting the flesh. “Ok, so tell me what you actually want us to do.” Uneasiness settled inside Jisung as he watched her bored face.
      “Well, I mean what I said. We should date. Or fake dating if you will. That way I can make Mina jealous and push her to run into my arms. I bet she can’t stand seeing me with you for too long.” He looked into her eyes hopefully thinking that maybe he convinced her but his hope was quickly shattered when she opened her mouth.
      “What are you? Five? I don’t want to get back at her and I have absolutely no reason to help you in your sick plan. I’m out of here!” Once again she picked up her bag to leave only for Jisung to grab her wrist and stop her, again.
      “Please Y/N! I’m desperate. I’ve been trying to date her for a year and a half already.” That was pathetic. She had absolutely no reason to help him. None at all. But something pushed her to stay and accept his offer. Maybe she could take advantage of the situation.
      Turning her head towards her she tried to keep a straight face as best as she could. “What do I get out of it?”
      Jisung’s face brightened instantly at her question and he held her hand with both of his. “Anything you want. If it’s possible I’ll do it.” His eyes were pouring into hers and a stupid sparkle was present in them.
      “I guess you were going to do that anyway but I want you to present me to your friends.” The same bored expression that she had on for almost the entirety of their conversation was adorning her face. Jisung was amazed at the lack of emotions she managed to show but she was an actress. Maybe she’s just good at her job.
      “Why? Do you have a crush on any of them?” A smirk was enveloping his facial features and he had a teasing tone. Y/N rolled her eyes at his comment.
      “No. Some of them seem like really interesting people but their only defect was hanging out with you. Now that I have to hang out with you too I might as well start talking to them.” She shook his hands off hers before putting it in her front pocket. “Now I have to go to class cause my free period is almost over. See you later, babe!” She winked at him before turning around and making her way to her next class.
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      The next day she met with Jisung in front of the cafeteria so they could walk in together and “announce” their relationship. Somehow he got hold of her number and they texted the night prior about the terms of their little deal. She felt like laughing when she saw how serious he was about it. If he really did end up dating Mina she’ll be convinced that both of them are idiots.
      His arm was over her shoulders as they walked through the tables. Multiple people were staring at them but she decided to ignore them. Upon reaching the table she placed her tray down and took a seat. The people at the table were looking confused at one another and some were throwing Jisung questioning looks.
      “Everyone, meet my girlfriend.” He spoke gesturing with a hand towards her. She smiled at them and waved her hand, muttering a soft ‘Hi!’.
      One of them, who she recognised to be Lee Minho, a Modern Dance major cleared his throat. “Hey. It’s nice to meet you.” He had an awkward smile on. “What are you majoring in?”
      “Yeah, I don’t recall seeing you around campus.” Seo Changbin, a Music Production major added.
      “Oh, I…” She started talking but a puff coming from her left stopped her.
      “Seriously dude? You share a class. She’s L/N Y/N from your Theory and Improvisation class.” The voice belonged to Hwang Hyunjin and she felt a funny feeling in her stomach at the realisation that he knows her. Everyone around the table was throwing him weird looks.
      “You are right but how do you know that? I’m pretty sure you don’t take that class.” There was a trace of embarrassment in her voice.
      “I don’t but sometimes when I wait for those guys outside of the classroom I see you walking out.” He said that with nonchalance taking a bite from his food.
      “And how do you know her? She’s not a Music Production major otherwise we would have known. And she’s not a Dance major either otherwise Minho and Felix would have known about her as well.”Changbin’s tone was almost provoking as if Hyunjin had done something bad and he was about to reveal it.
      “She’s a Theatre and Film major. Last year when we went to all those theatre spectacles to support Jeongin I was actually paying attention to the plays. She had either the main role or the lead. I remember her being really good.” She felt her cheeks heat at his comment.
      “Thank you!” She threw him a smile. However, she got ignored as Lee Felix started talking.
      “Do you know her Jeongin?” She somehow felt offended by his question. Maybe that wasn’t his intention but he should have used a different tone.
      “Of course I do. We share almost all of our classes and last year we worked on multiple plays together.” Annoyance was present in his voice caused by his friends' ignorance.
      She knew Jeongin from the first day. He was the first to speak to her although they didn’t exactly become friends. They kept on working on plays together throughout the entirety of the first year of college but they kept everything mostly professional since they both had their own group of friends and she kind of disliked most of his friends.
      “Then how come you never talk about her?” Now, wasn’t Changbin an annoying one? She rolled her eyes discreetly at his question.
      “Because we are not the best of friends. Why don’t you talk about Kim Gina from your degree?” The youngest question was a good one. They were acquaintances and barely knew something about each other. What was he supposed to talk about?
      “Gina is not hot. What am I supposed to talk about?” The older male said calmly with a shrug of his shoulders.
      The water she was just drinking got stuck in her throat and she started coughing violently. Jisung started hitting her back repeatedly trying to help her swallow. When she finally calmed down she looked at him annoyed.
      “Who she is, is not important. What’s important is that she is my girlfriend” he gave Changbin a side look ”and you have to accept that. Stop talking about her like she is not sitting right in front of you.” A few of them raised their hands in defeat while some of them averted their eyes. Minho and Changbin rolled their eyes.
      She felt her blood pressure spike up at their action. She remembered why she never wanted to talk to any of them. Arrogant pricks.
      “Ok, Mister protective boyfriend. Just tell us when you break up.” Minho took a bite of his food done with the younger man’s antics. Everyone knew that he was in love with Mina. The moment she shows some interest in him he would probably leave this one in a heartbeat.
      Y/N sucked in a breath discreetly. He really got her worked up and she hated it. She put an arm around Jisungs shoulders and yanked him towards her, his face close to her chest. With her other hand, she grabbed the sides of his face making him look up at her and forcefully pursing his lips. 
      “Break up? Do you wanna break up with me, babe?” Y/N’s voice was mocking as if she was talking with a child. Jisung swallowed hard before shaking his head. She smiled at his response and used the hand from around his shoulders to ruffle his hair. “That’s what I thought.” She placed a short kiss on his lips before releasing him and turning back to her food.
      Everyone at the table was looking at both of them shocked, especially Minho and Changbin. She wanted to let a proud smile escape her but she controlled herself.
      For the rest of the lunch, she decided not to engage in any more discussions with Jisung’s friends. She continued eating her food and listened to them talking about things that didn’t involve her, occasionally responding to Hayoon’s texts.
      She was the first one to get up, impatient to go to her next class and not have to see them. “Bye guys. It was lovely meeting you!” She smiled at them, a smile half true because she did like some of them. “Bye babe. See you later!” She grabbed the sides of his face again placing another kiss on his lips before taking her empty tray and leaving them alone.
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      The men all watched her as she made her way out of the cafeteria. When she closed the door behind her they all burst into laughter. Jisung was biting the inside of his cheek irked by their action. When the laughter stopped, Seungmin that was sitting next to him put his hand on his shoulder.
      “I absolutely adore your girlfriend. She knows how to keep her ‘babe’ in check I see.” Seungmin tried cupping his face as Y/N did but Jisung slapped his hand away.
      “Are you her good boy, Jisungie? Does she give you rewards if you listen to her?” Minho cooed at him and Jisung held back an insult.
      “Shut the fuck up. It’s not like that. She surprised me as well. Who the fuck knew she was going to do that?” When he proposed the whole fake dating thing to her he thought it would be easier. Looking at it now he can’t understand why he thought that. He saw the way her fights with Mina unfold and he knew she was an actress which meant that she was probably either crazy confident or really good at faking it. For some reason, he thought she would be easier to tease and control but it would be a lie if he said it didn’t intrigue him. He liked a challenge and if the prize was Mina he would try his best.
      “And you man” Chan spoke for the first time “what the fuck was that? Do you know her entire biography?” He was looking at Hyunjin who rolled his eyes.
      “I told you I paid attention to last year’s plays. On top of that, she’s hot. I remember that after one spectacle I and the guys from my dance group at the time talked about her for like a month. She was so..” The man let out a groan and threw his head back trying to explain what he meant.
      “Sure, tell me more. Did you masturbate to the thought of my girlfriend? Perhaps got any wet dreams about her?” Jisung commented, raising an eyebrow.
      Hyunjin winked at him as a smirk made its way on his face. Some of the guys simultaneously let out disgusted sounds at his gesture.
      “But how did this whole thing happen? I can’t remember a moment when you talked about her or when you were together.” Felix’s deep voice rang making everyone pay attention to him.
      Changbin suddenly let a gasp out and dramatically covered his mouth. “Yesterday our little Jisungie sat next to her in Theory and Improvisation and when the class ended he ran after her. I think he might have had a secret crush!” The older man teased.
      “Yeah, but she looked really annoyed with him. Hence why she sprinted out of the class. Why would she accept to date him if she looked like she’d rather listen to Mr Jung talk about the first piano ever invented.” Chan intervened making Jisung shrug his shoulders.
      “She was annoyed with me but what can I say? I’m so charming she couldn’t refuse me.” He leaned back in his chair putting his arms over the back of the chair. 
      “I think she did it out of pity. When she realized you’ve been trying to get Mina for a year and a half now she probably felt so bad for you she decided to sacrifice herself so you look less like a loser.” Hyunjin said his tone way to serious to be a joke.
      Jisung threw the man a deadly stare. “At least I didn’t masturbate to the thought of her like a fucking virgin.” He spat in the other man’s face.
      “Touche.”
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