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#the way you drew his facial expression is so sweet

v3nusstardust · 4 months

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🪷”What are we?” 🪷

Pairing : Huening Kai x SHY!reader

Genre : Fluff🪷

A/N : enjoy bro I wrote this omw to my soccer tournament running off monster and a family size bag of takis yum:3 )

Summary: first date with Kai! cute picnic date in the meadow with your situationship <3 he can’t help but admire you and wish you were his.

You and your situationship, Huening Kai, went on your first date! You made sure to get dolled up. You wore a baby pink soft,flowy ankle length dress. Delicate ruffles adorn the hem, giving it a sweet and feminine touch.

As you both explored the lush , warm hued meadow. The symphony of birdsong and the vibrant dance of butterflies surrounded you, creating a warm atmosphere. "Is this a good spot?" you asked. He gazed down at you, a sparkle in his eyes. "It's perfect," he responded, his admiration of the scenery evident.

After finding the ideal spot, you laid out the picnic blanket while Kai unpacked the food. He sorted the array of delicious treats and savory food on a light blue colored tray.

The sun-bathed meadow served as the perfect canvas for your picnic, the vibrant colors of nature complementing the light blue tray. The sunlight dappled through the branches, casting a warm glow on your faces as you exchanged stories about your life or updates on moments in your life.

You and Kai tried all the food you both made. He brought the sweets and you brought the savory sandwiches. “Try one of these y/n.” He reached to the tray and picked up what looked like an egg tart. The golden flaky crust and caramelized custard filling looked delicious. “Gimme.” You smiled, playfully extending your hand. Kai giggled, his laugh sounded like a soft melody. "No, open your mouth," he teased, a mischievous smile on his face. "You're gonna feed me?" you questioned, a playful yet puzzled expression gracing your features. "Yes, now say ahh," he chuckled. You ate the egg tart, carefully paying attention to the flavor. Kai’s eyes locked with yours, his expression was cute. “Good?” He questioned. You gave him a thumbs up and a wide grin. “Super good, did you make them?” You asked. “I did, I’m glad you like them y/n.” Kai said with appreciation in his voice. You reached back to the tray for another. You're gonna have to show me how to make these!" you exclaimed, savoring the last remnants of the egg tart and gently licking your fingertips. Kai chuckled, "Oh, y/n…" he murmured. "Hm?" you looked at him with curiosity. Kai let out a gentle laugh."You've got custard on your lips."

Your eyes widened, embarrassment flushing your cheeks. "Oh! I do?" you said, hurriedly reaching to wipe your lips. "Did I get it?" you asked, looking to Kai for reassurance.

Kai squinted his eyes, pretending to contemplate. "Hmm, not quite," he teased. With a playful smile, he inched his body closer to yours and lifted his thumb, carefully wiping it over your lips. “Hold on..” he whispered. As Kai's face drew closer, you could feel the warmth emanating between you. Your face heated up from how close he was to you, and you couldn't help but be captivated by the intensity in his gaze.

His thumb continued its gentle caress on your lips, and his other fingers delicately cupped your chin. In that moment, you couldn't help but notice the exquisite details of his features, the way his eyes sparkled and his facial expressions highlighted the depth of his emotions. He looked undeniably pretty, a portrait of beauty that made your heart flutter.

“Is it off?..” you asked in a shy tone. Your question lingered in the air. “You’re so gorgeous Y/n.” Kai murmured, his gaze filled with admiration. You were speechless, unsure of how to respond. "Your lips are so soft," Kai continued, his fingers gently tracing the curve of your jaw, "so beautiful .”The tension between the both of you was intense. “Can I kiss you?" he whispered, his lips dangerously close. You could feel the warmth of his breath, the anticipation hanging in the air. Caught in the moment, you breathed out, "What... what are we?"

Kai's eyes met yours, his gaze unwavering. "Whatever you want us to be," he responded.

Feeling the tension in the air, you decided to break it by pulling Kai into a warm embrace. Your head found a comfortable spot in the crook of his neck, and his hands gently tangled in your hair. "I'm sorry. I don't know how to kiss..." you admitted, a soft laugh escaping your lips. Kai pulled away from the hug, looking deeply into your eyes. “Let me show you.” He whispered. His eyes admired your face. “Please..”

Your eyes told him everything. Deep down, you wanted to kiss him too, but you just didn’t know how. You were afraid of embarrassing yourself. “I wanna make out with you so badly.” Kai breathed out, cupping your face in one of his hands.

Without warning, Kai immediately pressed his lips onto yours. Your head went fuzzy and butterflies swarmed your stomach. You melted against his touch. The simple kiss turned heated and passionate. He bit your lower lip, causing you to gasp, which he took the chance to slip his tongue in.

“Wait, wait," you pulled away, your face flushed and stunned by the unexpected action. "I'm nervous," you admitted, covering your face with your hands. Kai chuckled, finding your reaction adorable.

“That’s okay.” He gently pulled your hands away from your face. “Wanna cuddle?” He asked, a lovesick smile on his face. You smiled back and nodded.

Together, you packed the food tray back into the basket, and once everything was in order, you both laid on the picnic blanket. "We should do this more often," Kai suggested with a wink. He took your hand and brought it to his lips, leaving a soft kiss on the back of it. "Come here, in my arms," he whispered, the tranquility of nature surrounding you both. As you nuzzled into his embrace, the quiet and euphoric sounds of nature became the backdrop to your shared moment. Looking up at him, your eyes sparkled with love, and you couldn't help but feel grateful for the simple beauty of a picnic, a kiss, and the promise of more moments together.

Another A/n : bro I was in such a hurry to finish this earlier and I’m pretty sure it’s shitty 😿 lmk what u think bae feedback is MUCH EXTREMELY appreciated 💋

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lipstickghoulie · 4 months

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Ribbons of Blood

-Ascendant Astarion/fem!reader (smut, soft smut, restraints/tying up, blood drinking, very light assplay, PIV, creampie, dirty talk)-

It had taken you over an hour to use mage hand to move the silken ropes over your body, even with your considerable experience using the cantrip for non-lascivious purposes. Still, it was hard for you to guess at some of the knots when you couldn’t actually see them, such as when the ghostly apparition of the hand was fastening your wrists together at the small of your back, and as such, the whole experience was more frustrating and time consuming than you could have imagined. You persevered though, and managed to finish using mage hand to secure the last loop of rope just a few minutes before Astarion opened the bedroom door, flouncing into the room in a pique of temper without even looking at you at first.

“Gods, darling, you won’t believe how busy the tailor’s shop was when I stopped by to pick up our traveling cloaks. What’s even the point in being a vampire lord when-“

Astarion’s words cut off with a breathy exhalation as he must have spotted you, bent over the edge of the bed with your hands tied behind your back with a length of crimson rope and legs spread, clad only in a white lace pair of panties. You couldn’t see his facial expression but a delightful shiver ran down your spine at what hunger you imagined might be making its home in his eyes.

“And what did I do to deserve such a perfect… little… gift wrapped present?” Astarion’s voice was suddenly much closer as he drew closer to where you were displayed over the bed, testing out the strength of your bonds by yanking on them in between pauses. He must have been satisfied by how secure they were since he hummed and skated his fingertips over your shoulder blades instead.

You wiggled at the warm touch of his hands against your cold flesh for a moment (such a reversal from when you first met) but beyond that, you didn’t move or attempt to break free. Demurely as you could, you told him, “You’ve been so stressed out lately, what with the new Council of Four sniffing around and with the holidays in general, I thought you might appreciate a little stress relief..”

Astarion huffed out a laugh, his fingers trailing down to bolder territory as they moved down to the waistband of your underwear, feeling the lace as if inspecting their quality and certainly not because he was shifting the material around to rub against your clit and the swells of your ass, of course not.

“Is this an invitation to use you for stress relief, my sweet treasure?” Astarion asked lowly, rhetorically. He knew that was what you had surely intended by making yourself so helpless for him like this and it was clear by the rumbling heat in his voice that he liked the idea.

You nodded quickly, your chin scuffing against the lavishly embroidered and down filled blankets underneath you as your head signaled your enthusiasm. You realized that Astarion couldn’t exactly see your face well from this position though so you clarified, “Yes. I want you to use me however you’d like, in any way that you’d ever dreamed of. I’m yours.”

There was a thick, cryptic silence that stretched out between you as Astarion didn’t say anything in response, his fingers still pulling at your underwear lazily and intermittently making it brush up your clit when you least expected it, making you jolt even as you struggled to stay limp and patient. Your lover not speaking didn’t worry you like it might with others; you knew that he needed time to decide what he wanted out of this little game of yours. Besides, you trusted him. You trusted him enough to know that he would never do anything to hurt you, that he would stop immediately if you asked him to. You would have not brought this salacious idea to fruition (or agreed to spend eternity with him, really) if you didn’t trust Astarion more than you trusted yourself.

Almost agonizingly slowly, one of his hands crept underneath your panties but not to where you expected. His thumb delicately pushed its way between the pert cheeks of your rear. Your breath hitched as it circled the puckered ring of your anus as unhurried as molasses dripping, just pressing down on the hole but not going inside.

“Would you let me take my pleasure here, if I wanted to? Would you let me spear open your tight little ass on my cock?” Astarion murmured inquisitively, and while you thought you could hear a smile in his voice, you couldn’t say for certain.

The thought made you squirm, though it was both with arousal and trepidation. You’d never been fucked there before or experimented with anal play but with Astarion… you’d be open to it. You knew that he wouldn’t do anything that would harm you and besides, he probably was experienced enough to do it in a way that wasn’t uncomfortable. The sensation of him teasing over your asshole was strange but not bad strange, the kind of strange that made you wiggle a little like you were being tickled.

You confirmed levelly, “Yes. I meant it when I said you could make use of me in any way that you wanted, my love.”

“You really would, wouldn’t you?” Astarion said, amused and in awe, his fingers slipping back out of your underwear and skipping up the raised bumps of your spine instead. “You’d allow me to debauch every one of your holes like you’re nothing like a fuck doll made for my pleasure, you would permit me to greedily use you like a sodden cock sleeve even after everything else you’ve already given me.”

His words made a shiver drip down your spine that you were sure that he could feel under his fingertips. Yes. You would let him do anything he wanted to you and more. His statements felt like a test but that didn’t matter. You would encourage Astarion to act out any fantasy that he had ever fantasized about. Didn’t he deserve it? Didn’t he deserve everything you had to offer him and then some? After performing for hundreds of years and having to bring pleasure to so many others while his mind was miles away, shouldn’t his desires matter now? You’d do anything for him, let him consume you and destroy you, if it would make up for even a small fraction of the atrocities he had endured and soothe even a speck of Astarion’s worries.

You didn’t have time to answer before Astarion grasped your hips firmly and flipped you over so you were flat on your back against the bedding, taking you by surprise. You saw him for the first time since you started this conversation and what you saw in his face took your breath away as if it had been punched out of you. Astarion’s lips parted slightly as his tongue swept over them as he gazed upon the exposed planes of your body, his pupils dilated in a ravenous and intense need. More compelling than that though was how his facial expression was soft, loving, reverent in a way that bordered on fanaticism.

When his touch left your hips, you whined at the loss of any kind of contact between you but Astarion just chuckled, his fingers flying over the fastenings on his wonderfully tailored shirt to slip it from his shoulders. You watched eagerly, pressing your thighs together in your impatience as he worked leisurely at each layer of clothing until he had a pile of apparel off to the side of the rich, scarlet carpet by the bed. The way he carelessly threw aside fabric that cost hundreds of coins as if it was nothing but rags reminded you of how messy and cluttered his tent used to be during your travels and the thought made you shake your head in fond exasperation. Thank the gods that you had servants now or you feared that this place would be just as filthy and disorganized with how badly that he took care of things. It seemed like you were the exception and the only thing in his possession that he handled with a careful touch.

Now nude himself, Astarion’s hands returned to your body, coasting up your rib cage and thumbs petting over the underside of your breasts. You could see his erection jutting out already even though barely anything had happened yet, a few drops of precum welling up at the tip as if inviting you to swipe your tongue over it and savor the salty taste of his arousal. Your wrists, bound underneath you and digging just slightly into your lower back, reminded you that you couldn’t and you weren’t the one in control here.

Astarion dipped his hips forward and pressed his stiff dick against your panties, stroking it over your panties starting at the shape of your lower lips around the edges of lace and ending at your clit. You both groaned loudly, simultaneously; Astarion at feeling how drenched you are even through the cloth and you at how amazing even that brief moment of friction felt, your back arched off of the bed and gave your wrists a reprieve from your weight on them. Thankfully, the ropes were made from a gentle and almost ribbon-like material that didn’t seem to be abrading your flesh (or at least not yet).

“If I can truly use you how I want to, do whatever I wish with you, I’d like to make love to you the way that you deserve. The way that we both deserve,” Astarion said tenderly, peppering his words with caressing kisses across your collarbones as he continued rutting his cock against your covered pussy. Every torturously lazy grind against you just coaxed out more fluids to the point that you could feel your upper thighs getting coated by your own need. “You’ve given me so much, darling, even now. And I’d just like to take my time with you.”

You could barely think at all when his palms took the weight of your breasts on completely and squeezed, enjoying groping them and making them move to his liking. Still, you couldn’t help but smile as your heart melted a bit at Astarion’s sweet declaration. You hadn’t really been sure what to expect when you had offered yourself up like this, though you had been mentally prepared for your lover to satiate himself with you in any manner of ways, and he had surprised you anyways. Then his fingers went to your nipples, pulling them and watching them harden and stand out under his expert attentions, and suddenly your brain stopped working at all beyond experiencing pleasure.

Your eyes were drawn to the way your juices were already wetting his cock when Astarion pulled back, highlighting every glacial blue vein bordering his erection and making a whimper mewl off of your lips at just how badly you needed him, how badly it felt like you’d combust if he wasn’t inside of you soon. His mouth tilted down to cover yours, his tongue dancing over the tips of your fangs (something you were sure it would take you another decade at least to get used to, especially how they still made you lisp on certain words while you were unused to their new residency amongst your other teeth). You kissed him back desperately, as if you required him more than blood, than life itself.

“So eager, my delectable present,” Astarion muttered against your lips as he broke the kiss, his hands now working to slip your soaked underwear off instead of massaging and squeezing the plushness of your tits, throwing the scrap of lace somewhere in the direction of his own clothes. Your thighs opened easily for him to fit himself between them, brushing his cock head over the frill of your clit the while you shivered and remained helpless and mostly immobile beneath him.

Your chin was gripped, hard enough to get your attention but not enough to hurt, and yanked upwards to meet his red stare. They bored into you with an intensity that he usually reserved for finding the best place in his enemies’s backs to bury his blade. Astarion ordered you sternly, “Eyes up here, beautiful. I want you to look at me as I take you, I want you to be very aware of who is making you feel like this. Do you understand? Eyes on me.”

Without reservation you nodded, your head moving up and down as much as you could with his hand holding you somewhat in place.

That was all that he needed to continue and his hips tipped into yours with the pace of someone who had all the time in the world; you could feel every inch, every millimeter of his cock as your pussy strained to take him. You were so wet from your grinding session that he didn’t have to struggle that much to bully into your tight, hot channel but still, even he had to freeze for a moment to take a shaky breath when you clenched around his girth when he was only situated halfway into your slit. Soon enough though, he was deep inside of you, down to the root of him, and it felt like being home. It felt like being complete, like your whole life had been leading to this moment of you being underneath the love of your life as he made room for himself in your cunt the same way that he had in your heart. The bright, energetic note of bergamot that always seemed to overpower the other notes of the perfume that he wore by the end of the day, maybe amped by Astarion’s skin chemistry now that it could warm like anyone else’s. It settled into your senses, like a comforting blanket at the end of a long day.

He seemed to relish the way your eyes widened and mouth went slack when he started moving in earnest. Astarion had always been so calm and controlled every time you two were intimate but now, with you restrained, it seemed like it had opened a door mentally for him because his demeanor was starting to go in a different direction this time. His nose was brushing up against yours on every thrust, eyes burning into yours feverishly, hands framing your face and brushing your already sweat-sticky strands of hair away from your cheeks and neck. Astarion seemed uncaring about his own silvery curls clinging to his forehead already as he sweated his pomade off. The world had narrowed to just the two of you as you shuddered and moaned with every undulation of those svelte hips into you.

“You feel so good, so tight,” Astarion groaned, voice breaking, “Such a selfless gift for me, such a perfect, sweet bride…”

Something about the angle of his cock battering into your walls and the praise he’s doling out combined to make your orgasm approach at a gallop, your stomach tensing in preparation for your inevitable ruin. “Astarion, please, I’m going to cum!”

You weren’t exactly sure what you were asking for when you said ‘please’ but Astarion seemed to understand better than you did. He stopped his frantic eye contact and grabbed the back of your head, pressing your sharp teeth against the beckoning curve of his throat. “Drink, love, let me fill you in every way that I can,” He purred sensuously, though the way that his fingers trembled as they buried themselves in your hair showed that he was just as affected as you were.

You knew that other vampires didn’t let others feed from them like he did with you, even with the little that you knew of vampire lore. What this meant, exactly, you weren’t certain but you were grateful. Even a sip of his blood seemed to sustain you for weeks over even the freshest human blood, seemed to make you faster and more quick witted than ever before. His blood was his own kind of gift and one that Astarion seemed to give freely to you, especially during sex. It even seemed to turn him on, excite him, guiding you to leave your mark over the one that Cazador had imprinted on him all of those hundreds of years ago as if you could overwrite it with one made with love and respect instead of fear.

You tensed your jaw over his flesh and sunk your fangs into Astarion with a nearly inaudible snikt noise. The whine he let go at your bite was extremely loud and utterly depraved, the sound only adding fuel to the fires of your desperation. Even with Astarion moving your head for you, the feeding was sloppy and it was hard for you to latch onto the vein especially with the staccato pounding of his cock into your wet, gripping pussy. You got a few decent mouthfuls of his blood before it started pooling and drooled from the corners of your mouth. That was enough to aid you into your orgasm though, jerking and clawing at the bed underneath your pinned hands, the sheer pleasure blanking your mind but making your delirious cunt soak his pistoning dick. Still, you kept feeding, swallowing down every drop that you could even through your release, mindless in your hunger. The sweet, metallic tang of Astarion’s blood, so much like the flavor of the gelatin candies he favored these days from Cormyr, coated your tongue so deliciously that he couldn’t even resist having a taste. Astarion pulled your hair at the nape of your neck to pull you away from the sugary ambrosia of his neck, it made you hiss at the light yank but any sting was soothed when his mouth swept across yours.

Your tongues slipped against each other as if they were vines entangling and trapping, Astarion savoring the fluid slip of his blood mixed with your saliva. Then you could feel the pulsing of his cock inside of you, your still shaky walls squeezing out spurt after spurt of his cum deep inside of you as he rasped a broken exclamation of your name and the word “fuck” against your lips. His body made a few more languid, half-hearted rolls against yours as his dick softened and relaxed. Finally, he reached down to help his length escape your now flooded, stretched hole, giggling a bit breathlessly as he saw the mess that he had made of you.

The next order of business was freeing you from the bonds that you had created; Astarion making quick work of undoing loops and knots. You noted wryly that it had taken him seconds to unfasten what had taken you over an hour to get set up in the first place. Astarion rubbed over your wrists as if trying to make sure that your circulation was fine and that your arms hadn’t fallen asleep. You, quite frankly, were enjoying the attention so you didn’t remind him that your circulatory system didn’t really work like that any more and that you were fine. What was the harm in him fussing over you?

After a few moments of the two of you taking deep breaths (also not really necessary in the reality of things but something you both did out of habit to calm down) and swallowing down any more lingering traces of Astarion’s powerful blood, he laid a loving, chaste kiss on the knobs of bone in your palms near where you had tied the knots of your restraints. The move was rather innocent considering that you had a pool of several different types of bodily fluids from both of you pooling underneath your sweaty and exhausted frame.

“That really was sweet of you, my love,” Astarion mumbled with a content sigh. “You may trust me a little bit too much but I can’t complain when it nets me wonderful rewards. And you are, as always, the best form of stress relief that a man could dream of. Is there something I could do for you in return?”

You were tempted to just say no and that you already got rewarded as well but… closed mouths don’t get fed, as the saying goes. And you definitely had an idea for something you wanted to try.

Batting your eyelashes at him coquettishly, you cooed, “I wouldn’t mind if you were the one tied up next time. So handsome and completely at my mercy… that sounds like a reward befitting your consort, don’t you agree?”

You could practically see Astarion’s pointed ears prick up in interest, even as they flushed a light pink at the concept. “That it does,” he crooned back darkly, capturing your lips in another heated, passionate kiss. Oh, this was going to be another interesting week in the Crimson Palace and you couldn’t wait for your prize.

#astarion smut #ascendant astarion #ascended astarion #ascendant Astarion smut #astarion x female reader #astarion bg3 #my writing #my fics #my fanfiction #my fanfic writing #my smut

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generic-anime-boy-bracket · 9 months

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Round 1, Group A: Matchup 7

Haruka Nanase vs Tracey Sketchit

Reasons for being generic + Propaganda below

Haruka Nanase

Reasons:

Haru has The generic anime boy cut with black hair and blue eyes. He hardly ever talks. All my boy wants to do is swim and be homosexual with his pals (but in a cool way). He is the Main Character of course. Hardly ever makes a facial expression that isn’t straight boredom. If I drew him you wouldn’t be able to tell him from any other black hair anime boy if it weren’t for his jammers and swim club jacket tbh

I feel like if you drew him in the style of Mazm: Pechka he'd just end up looking like Pyotr tbh

Propaganda:

I love him your honor. Free! shaped me fundamentally

Tracey Sketchit

Reasons:

He has a very "just some guy" vibe, spending most of his time as a background character quietly observing after his 30ish episodes as a main character. Former head writer Takeshi Shudo himself once said on his blog that he thought Tracey didn't have a strong enough personality. Appearance-wise, Tracey has dark hair and brown eyes and doesn't stand out all that much.

He is literally *just* a guy. The best guy, but just a guy. A little dude, little fella. The guy ever.

Tracey is an incredibly sweet respectful king who got sidelined by the anime. It’s so sad because he loves drawing and research and pokemon, but he barely got any screentime 😔 I think he’s a wholesome fun character and he deserves more love!!

Propaganda:

Despite the fact that large swathes of the fandom either give him flak for being "boring" or completely forget about his existence, to the point that people also meme about his forgotten-ness, he has persisted. He went 17 years without a single line of dialogue due to his expensive seiyuu and then finally got to speak again in the final episode of Ash's story. He has 12 fans but we are dedicated and we are proud and we adore this sweet boy.

Tracey is king. Respects women, stays in his lane, draws pokemon. What’s not to love???

#generic anime boy bracket #free #free!#haruka nanase #pokemon anime #pokemon #tracey sketchit

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ecrisparfois · 1 year

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sketchbook

summary : Y/N drew Draco in the middle of class, and got caught.

warning(s) : Umbridge

words : 1.3k

A/N : This is inspired by a real life event lol, so very self-indulgent. I miss story with plots :( Working on one but tbh I rather read than write because even though writing is one of my hobbies, not writing is also my hobby. so, yeah.

Umbridge class is might be the last class you wanted to be in right now. It might sound a bit harsh, but you rather have death eater disguised in Mad Eye Moody than her. Despite what he did last year, he's clearly way more competent than the women standing in front of the class. Speaking of the disguised defense against the dark arts teacher last year, you remember how he turned Draco into a ferret. You snorted at the memory, your pals in the neighboring desk send you a look of concern which you return with a reassuring shook.

You glance at the sight of Draco in the other side of the class. The sight of him under the morning sun caused you to gasp softly, stunned. He seemed just as bored as everyone else in the room; his lips curved down makes unnoticeable pout; his eyes looking back and forth from the blackboard to his textbook; his slender long finger holding the quill, dip it to the ink bottle in front of him every other minute; his head laid flat on his palm, his elbow on the desk helping his arm support the weight of his head; white blonde hair of his look so soft, reflecting the morning light.

You instinctively grabbed the sketchbook and pencil in your satchel. Ready to draw the Slytherin across the room. You took out the needed supplies without second thought. After all, fuck this class. Draco's beautiful features under the good lighting was too precious to be missed. You tossed your textbook to the side, flipping your sketchbook and readjust your seat to get a better position while drawing Draco. As if he knew of your activity, he stayed still like a good model. He didn't move much and his facial expressions didn't change.

An hour later, after glances you took of him so often, Draco beautiful features imprinted on the paper of your sketchbook. You grinned in satisfaction; looking back and forth from the sketch to Draco across the classroom. Not bad, just need a little completion. You just about to continue to go on a few small details when out of nowhere, Umbridge showed up behind your shoulder.

"Ms Y/L/N," your hands freeze at the painfully sweet voice. "What are you doing?" she asked sweetly, but her eyes already attached to the sketch.

You opened your mouth to answer and give her excuses but immediately shut it close as you realised 'bored' was not an acceptable reason to draw your classmate.

"Is that Mr Malfoy?" she snatched the sketchbook from your hand before you even have time to process what she was doing.

My precious Draco, you cried silently as she brought the sketchbook to her desk.

Draco shoot his head at your direction as he heard his name mentioned. He furrowed his eyes at you in disapproval, you refuse to meet his eyes in embarrassment. Your face growing warm as Umbridge flipped page after page of your sketchbook. You prayed to whatever God that might exist to keep Umbridge's mouth shut and to give her a bit of compassion not to humiliate you in front of the whole class. It seemed like God must be nonexistent, because Umbridge sent you a wickedly sweet smile that made you loath the sight of her even more than you did before.

"Ms Y/L/N. Do you think you're a good artist?" she asked with a mocking tone. "Your sketch is awful." she added before you could answer. Her hands dangerously brought your sketchbook up and flip it for the class to see.

It was a few weeks ago, Hermione in library reading her book. She flipped to another random pages, Daphne and Pansy painted each other nails. And last, she showed the whole class your latest sketch of Draco with his bored face. The whole class wasn't laughing at you, instead they send you an emphatic look. Umbridge seemed to be unsatisfied with the lack of humiliating response from your fellow classmates.

"You have a crush on Mr Malfoy? You drew him quite often," her questions pushed you off the edge. How dare she barge in to your personal space.

"That's none of your concern. You could insult me for my drawings, but you shouldn't ask about my personal life because you don't have the right to." you snapped at her. You know it was a bad move when you heard a few gasps from your classmates.

Surely, Umbridge face turned sour. "Detention, Ms Y/L/N. Don't talk to me like that and don't sketch anyone ever again. You’re an awful artist; to be sketched in your Merlin awful drawing is the biggest insult anyone could ever receive," she spat venomously.

She walks right to the middle in front of the class, still carrying your sketchbook. You expected her to return the book to your hand, but when she muttered 'incendio' your heart dropped. Seconds later, your sketchbook had burn to ashes. You don't know what exactly you must be feeling. You’re mad, sad and embarrassed all at the same time. The class was dismissed right after that. She leaving after sternly told you to go to her office after dinner for detention.

You’re so embarrassed you can’t look at anyone even when they pat your shoulder softly in attempt of reassurance.

"Hey Y/L/N," a soft voice calling your name. You turned around to find Draco standing behind you.

"Oh, hello, Malfoy." you nodded at him before realizing he must think how much of a creep you are for drawing him 'quite often' without his permission. "I'm so sorry, Malfoy. I didn't mean to creep you out or stalk you or anything. It's just I found you quite attractive when the light fell right on you," you rambled.

He just chuckled. "You think I'm attractive?" he smirked and rise his eyebrows.

Damn it! You should think through your words before sputtering things and embarrass yourself.

"Uh, no. I mean, yeah. Everyone is attractive to draw if they have the right light. Anyway, I'll stop sketching you. It's awful anyway, sorry again," your voice gradually got quieter. You look at the ground as if Draco was scolding you.

"Your sketch is lovely." he said with a genuine smile. You gaped at him in astonishment. "I'm flattered you choose me as one of your models. Thanks for sketching me 'quite often'," he put an emphasis at the last two words. You smiled bashfully. "Walk with me?" he offered. You just nod.

For that day, you were not sure if you should be mad for Umbridge destroying your months of works or do you have to be grateful for the newfound friendship you have with the boy you had a crush on for sometimes.

Bonus:

You walk to your room to find a package on the bed.

"Dray, what is it a package on the bed?"

"What package? I don't know just open it!" your husband yells back from kitchen.

You look at the fancy wrapping paper investigatively. You tear it to get a clue of what inside. You can’t believe your eyes as it sets to a familiar front cover of your old sketchbook. It was the one Umbridge set on fire! A note falls to your feet. You pick it up.

Yes, it is what you think. You should be thankful to have an exceptionally genius husband, like me. I like the drawings by the way, I think I look better on your sketchbook ;)

Love x

D, Malfoy

"Do you like it?" Draco asks softly, sneak his arm around your waist and rest his chin on your shoulder.

"I like it. I love it, I love you," you jump on him, make him chuckle.

"I love you too." he kiss your temple lovingly.

#draco x reader #draco malfoy x y/n #draco malfoy x reader #draco malfoy imagine #draco malfoy #draco fanfiction

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oleander-nin · 11 months

Text

Smoke and Mirrors(Bakugō Katsuki x Reader)

A/N, not important: Oh wow look, something I forgot to ever post(jk this was written b4 I had a tumblr). Uh, sorry about it, I just felt like y'all needed to suffer too. Any criticism is welcome, constructive or not. This is supposed to be a gender neutral reader, so if I screwed up somewhere, please tell me.

-Ollie

Tw: old writing, female hinted(sorry), reader puts on makeup, seriously I wrote this a long time ago, Bakugo being a jerk, rejected confession, badly written sad, not beta read, honestly I haven't read this since I last wrote it like 2ish years ago

Words: 1100

Summary: Yes or No may be the normal answers to a confession, but Bakugō can always find something worse to say.

Just being near Bakugō Katsuki was intoxicating. The way a slight smell of caramel and smoke drifted from him, the way his bright red eyes shined in the light, the way his facial expressions changed as he was thinking things over. Even his brash, can-do attitude enticed you. There were so many factors pulling you into him. Not that any of this mattered to him though.

"Hah! How could I ever love someone as useless as you? You’re worse than Deku, always blabbing on and on about stupid things and being such a crybaby when you get scared." He said, mocking you. The same ruby red eyes that once drew you in were now throwing you out, flashing with anger and disgust at you merely being in his presence. How rude can this guy get? All this hatred for a simple confession? Tears started brimming at your eyes as you tried to control your breathing, not particularly wanting to break down in front of him and have his opinion about you being a crybaby be confirmed.

"I'm sorry if my confession offended you, just thought you'd wanna know." You retorted, turning on your heel as you left the classroom, wiping your eyes as you went. "Sorry for wasting your time Bakugō, it won't happen again".

"It'd better not! Come near me again with any sappy stuff and I'll blast yer brains in!"

Whoever said 'the worst they can say is no' has obviously never met someone like Bakugō. All you could do is hold in your tears as you walked away from class 1A and back into your dorm room. You were so glad you decided to do this at the end of the day and not during lunch like you originally planned. Your pace turned into a borderline run, wanting to go to your dorm room as soon as possible. You open the door to the 1-A dorms as the dam finally breaks, tears running down your face as you walk in.

Fortunately, Tsuyu and Uraraka were the only two people in the dorms at the moment. Unfortunately, they were in the dorms at the moment and witnessed you walk through the dorm like the mess you are. Both of them turn their attention away from the television and onto you, your face red and puffy from holding back the tears now pouring down your face.

***

Tsuyu and Uraraka trying to comfort you was a really sweet gesture, and it was kinda helping. Not really, but it's the thought that counts. You stared at the ceiling as they consoled you about the harsh rejection Bakugo gave you.

"It isn't like his opinion really matters, you'll get over him soon enough! Plus, now you don't have to worry about whether or not he likes you, so that's nice. And you shouldn’t be worrying much about dating anyways, we're just first-years.” Uraraka says cheerfully. You appreciated her trying her best to comfort you, you had no idea what you would do without her here to help. Cry probably, but that's beside the point. You were a bit jealous of Ochako though, not that you’d ever admit it. She never has to worry about Midoryia insulting her when she finally gets the courage to confess to him.

Tsuyu nods her head in agreement with Ochako. “He was a big jerk, ribbit, but now you know just how big of a jerk he was, so it might be easier to lose the crush on him, ribbit.”. You groaned and turned over, shoving your face into your soft pillow.

“Maybe you guys are right. I might be able to get over him now. I wish I didn't have to though. Hearing him say all that really hurt.” You said, although your words were a bit muffled as you haven't removed your face from your pillow just yet. Tsuyu nods in agreement to your last statement, rubbing your back comfortingly. Both Ochako and Tsuyu leave, but not before giving you a few more speeches on how amazing you are, and how Bakugou never deserved you anyway. It felt nice to know they cared about you, even if Bakugou didn’t.

Your eyes felt heavy as you thought about the day, silent tears falling down your face as you came to terms with the fact that your crush called you useless. That he thought no more of you than the dirt under his boot. And as much as you hate to admit it, it hurts. It hurts so, so very bad.

When you finally fell asleep, your eyes were red and puffy, your lips swollen from being chewed and bitten so much to try to keep quiet. And if a few sobs escaped despite your valiant efforts last night? Well, nobody has to know.

***

Waking up was hard in the morning. Well, it always was, but today especially. Your alarm went off at a time that felt way too early to be right, your head feels like it’s being crushed in a vice, and your face was still hot and gross looking from all the crying you did last night. All in all, you felt like garbage. You dawdled your way through getting dressed. It isn’t like brushing your teeth a bit longer and more tired than usual really matters. Who really cares if it takes you a few extra minutes to get your tie right, your hands were feeling numb anyway. And so what if your makeup was really only partially done? Not like anyone would notice. You only were using it to cover up your face because it still had some evidence of tears.

The walk to class also took you longer than usual. Who could blame you though, with your headache and heavier than usual limbs? You barely noticed you were moving, and were surprised when you looked up to see the classroom door. You open it begrudgingly and trudge in, happy to have finally made it, but dreading all the schoolwork you have to do today. Iida’s all too loud voice welcomes you, and you know it’s with good intention, but you can’t help but glare at the unwanted sound that's now echoing throughout your head. You deliberately avoid eye-contact with Bakugo, choosing to look around the already familiar room instead. You plop down in your seat behind Midoriya, finding your notebook and a pencil so you can be ready for whatever Aizawa Sensei throws at you. You look at the back of Bakugo’s head one last time and close your eyes. Your friends were right, love really isn’t all that worth it.

#i wrote a bakugo fic #ew #bakugo katuski #katsukibakugou #katsuki bakugo x reader #bakugo #katsuki bakugo mha #bakugo katsuki #bnha bakugo katsuki #katsuki bakugo fanfiction #bakugo imagine #katsuki #kacchan #bakugo x reader #katsuki x reader #bakugou katuski x reader #katsuki x you #bakugou katsuki x reader

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justporo · 8 months

Text

A Night of Song and Laughter (Part 4)

In which Tav and Astarion bicker a lot. It is their love language to piss each other off and then make up with kisses and sweet nothings - I'm convinced. It's all fun and games until someone ends up as a pile of ash, burned into the ground - am I right?

Thank you all so much for the love so far - I love seeing all the likes, reblogs and I eat up comments, thank you, sweethearts!

Song choice is "Kiss with a Fist" by Florence + The Machine for this one.

As always, you can also read this on AO3 - that and a few more parts already!

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Astarion/Fem!Tav (You)

(Gif from here!)

Astarion set you down on the top step of the staircase, grabbed you by the hips and spun you around until you faced away from him and gave you a little pat on the butt: “Go on, you know the way, dearest.”

You took another step to give Astarion enough space to come up the rest of the stairs behind you. Then you stopped and took in the much smaller area of the gallery. At the back wall was a much smaller bar and the only place you could get halfway decent drinks. No beer though, since the big kegs were way too heavy to carry up here. At the wall above it hung different instruments – lutes, flutes, violins. The inside joke was that these where instruments from bards and bands that… didn’t quite make the cut. But that was kind of an urban legend. Almost all the tables were filled. There only remained a few smaller bar tables at the pillars that slightly divided the area. You motioned to Astarion to go over to one of the bar tables.

You were only just telling him the myth about the instruments hanging on the wall which he listened to with an affectionate smile and one or two snide remarks about the cultural state of society, when you got jumped from behind.

Taken by surprise your survival instincts immediately kicked in, your hands immediately went to where your dagger would have been, had you brought it. You also felt Astarion tense next to you immediately getting into fighting stance. But you recognized the cackling giggle next to your pointy ear and as you turned your head slightly, you saw the face of a half-elf woman. “Lira, get off me, I’m not a monkey bar”, you said and tried to shake off the petite woman that clung to your back like a squirrel. “No, if I let go, I fear you might just disappear into thin air again”, she pouted and shook her head so her braid of thick black hair swung animatedly. You sighed desperately and tried twisting and turning to get her off your back. You heard Astarion quietly chuckle but saying nothing.

As you turned you also saw two different people standing behind you. A tall tiefling woman with dark red skin and even darker facial expression and a pretty young dwarf, at least judging by his rather short beard. “Oh hi, Miyena, Daegin”, you said while still trying to get the half-elf off your back. “Care to give me a hand?”, you asked them with an embarrassed half-smile. But the tiefling woman only raised an eyebrow at you, drew her long sleek ponytail of midnight blue hair over one shoulder and then crossed her slender arms over her chest; and the dwarf just shrugged.

“Alright, some friends you are”, you said and turned around to Astarion. But he just gave you an even more sassy impersonation of the reaction your tiefling friend had given you - dickhead.

“Ugh”, you made in desperation. Then you sighed: “Alright, I get it, I owe you some serious explanation, but how about we do that like civilized people: with everyone on the ground and a round of drinks. First round’s mine of course.” Everyone stared at you for a moment longer then the tiefling named Miyena spoke with a deep voice: “You’ll pay the whole evening and that’s not guaranteeing we’ll accept your explanation or a much needed apology.” At her words the half-elf started to climb of your back, went around you and hugged you deeply.

“Wheredidyougoweweresoworriedaboutyou”, she mumbled into your shoulder. You hugged her back and felt your body relax. They were right, you really did owe them an explanation – at least some of it – and an apology. Miyena and Daegin made to walk over to you and stand around the table. The tiefling still had her arms crossed and looked disapprovingly at Astarion: “Also, who in the Nine Hells is this? But uh” – she made and raised a single hand to silence you, when you were starting to talk – “firstly, you’ll get us some drinks. I’ll take something strong, you know what I like.” “Cherrywine”, Lira mumbled into your shoulder before finally letting go of you. “Ugh, Imma get myself a beer downstairs, you can pay me back later”, Daegin said and went off to head downstairs.

You looked at Astarion defeatedly waiting for his desired drink request but he was quick to put his hand on the small of your back and push you towards the bar: “I’ll help you, my dear, excuse us for a moment.” That earned him another disapproving onceover from Miyena while Lira just giggled and grinned at you knowingly.

Once you were out of earshot of the two, Astarion leaned over to say into your ear: “These are your friends? A chipmunk disguised as an half-elf, a dwarf barely old enough to buy a beer and a tiefling that I think would have smited right on the spot with her disapproving looks had she not been in public?” You heard the smile in his voice but you still felt insulted on their behalf. You slapped his shoulder: “You’re a twat sometimes, you know that?” He shrugged: “You knew I was bloody bastard from the very start, my love, so no news on that front.” You rolled your eyes and stuck out your tongue at him before you said: “I guess you’re not completely wrong, this group is almost as dysfunctional as our little adventure troupe was. But that’s not even Miyena’s most disapproving reaction – for her that’s basically giving you a hug and offering you cookies and a hot milk. I’m pretty surprised.” At that the elf looked quite pleased, as he so easily was with flattery. “Well, I guess who could resist this magnificent face, am I right? Good to know I still got it in me after all”, he purred and fixed his white curls with one hand despite them not needing any fixing at all. “Am I joke to you?”, you said flabbergasted “Does my attraction to you not count, or…” “Of course, my love, but I’ve had you wrapped around my finger for so long now, I bet the sun could burn me to a pile of ash right this moment and you’d still sigh in admiration at me.” He chuckled, full of self-confidence – and also full of himself of course.

This arrogant ass. Did you think of him as your soulmate? You thought you’d might have to give that decision another consideration. In a split second decision you put the heel of your foot down in front of his feet and flipped the tip of your boot, so he tripped over it. He had his wicked roguish senses but you were a ranger and a former thief – so he fell. Right into the half-orc in front of him which caused a huge spillage of red wine. The massive creature turned around with a nasty growled and leveled a stare at the vampire who had only just caught his balance again. The half-orcs linen tunic was completely drenched in red liquid now. He glared at Astarion, very angrily. “Huh”, Astarion made in high-pitched voice “Oh, I’m terribly sorry, must have tripped over a crack” – he snarled the word, you snickered – “in the floorboard. I’m really terribly sorry, but really red is your colour, good sir, I hear the ladies are really into it this season.” The half-orc growled wordlessly again but seemed soothed and turned around again. How the hell had that worked? His silver tongue really worked wonders; also could raise hell as he had just experienced.

Astarion turned to you with a grimace with his fangs showing and hissed at you in a low voice: “Dick!” “Ass!”, you hissed back and stuck your tongue out at him again. “Maybe the next time you think before you make me jealous and take my love for granted”, you pouted. Astarion gave you sad puppy eyes: “How am I to blame when you just tell me that I have an endearing effect on the people around me, you know, I do love the attention. Can you possibly hold it against me?” Then he lifted one of his hands to your face and softly moved a strand of your reddish-brown hair behind your pointy ear: “And you know, I would never take a single thing about you for granted, my love, never.” You were immediately charmed by his genuine tone and soft look in his ruby eyes. You smiled and…

“By the gods, passing through!”, a man pushed through the two of you and the affectionate scene, quite obviously annoyed by the two of you blocking the way to the bar for so long. “For all our sakes, get a room and make some goddamn space for the rest of us”, he grumbled while he stomped past you and Astarion.

„So rude“, you mouthed to Astarion. “Totally”, he mouthed back and dramatically rolled his eyes and then smirked before motioning for you to keep walking.

“Still”, you said and pointed a finger at the elf’s face as you were waiting at the bar to order “if you try and chat up and flirt with my friends while I’m right there, you’ll wish the sun had burned you into the ground long ago, Astarion.” You glare at him, half teasingly, half in earnest. He raised his hands in mock surrender: “I will try and be as monogamous as I can be, my sweet darling, but flirting is like breathing to me.” You pouted at his mocking until he sighed: “I was just joking, love, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.” “Apology accepted”, you answered immediately and gave him a peck on the nose before you turned to order.

With two cherry wines for Lira and yourself, a dark, dry red wine for Astarion and a strong herbal spirit for Miyena, the two of you return to the table. Daegin was already sipping from a giant mug of dark beer. You threw him a gold coin for his drink, then handed out the drinks around the table. The other three had already taken up the conversation without you and Astarion and for a few minutes both of you just sipped on your drinks and listened contentedly. The tiefling kept looking at Astarion openly, not even trying to hide her curiosity. Then topics shifted to you, your dis- and reappearance and your mysterious new acquaintance again.

“I guess, it’s time you introduce us to your mysterious beau here, Tav”, Miyena said with her dark voice and eyed your companion again. Now, you almost thought there was something hungry in her stare. You saw Astarion smirk at your friend’s display of interest, but you could tell he was starting to feel uneasy by her attention when he tensed next to you and threw you a short look. He cleared his throat – a clear sign of his nervousness as you’d come to know – and spoke before you could beat him to it: “Well, my name is Astarion and I met your wonderful friend, Tav, when I was adventuring out in the countryside. She saved me, more than once, and well, first we became travel companions and then… so much more. And well now, we are both happy to be back in our hometown, aren’t we, darling?” You took his other hand that was not currently holding a glass of wine and squeezed it gently in reassurance. The intonation on the words “she saved me” hadn’t been lost on you. He squeezed your hand back, while you took up his story. Over the table Miyena slightly narrowed her eyes at the two of you, she obviously suspected you weren’t telling the whole story. But she said nothing for the time being and let the conversation go on.

The two of you told them of select parts of your adventure, agreeing on parts to be left out without needing to speak about it. Astarion relaxed and started enjoying himself telling stories and making quips about you and your adventures together. You told them about the ogre and the bugbear you happened upon, about vicious gnolls and an exhausting hike trough the mountain pass. You felt your heart fill with warmth at being with your friends again and them enjoying your and Astarion’s company. And your heart filled with even more love seeing Astarion being so open and relaxed, just being himself, making Daegin laugh at his jokes and Lira gasp at his overly dramatic retellings. Only Miyena had become awfully silent, her frown growing with every touch, look and smile you and Astarion exchanged. But you didn’t mind, tonight you wouldn’t let your night be ruined by her grumpy act.

All of you were well into your third round of drinks, when Daegin suddenly stopped, threw up his beer mug and screamed. He was already pretty drunk so his drink sloshed everywhere, a big gulp only missing you because you still had the wits about you to dodge in time. The dwarf waved enthusiastically at someone behind you, he almost fell off the stool he’d organised for himself.

“Eodin, Eodin! Come here, you wouldn’t believe what the cat dragged in”, Daegin yelled. You turned and sure as the sun would rise tomorrow morning, there he was at the top of the stairs: Eodin. You quickly turned back around pretending you hadn’t seen him. You lifted your hand to the side of your face to keep him out of your field of view for as long as possible. Panic filled your eyes as you looked at Astarion, who grinned at you sneeringly, placed his elbow on the table and then his chin on his hand: “Where’s the sun to burn you into the ground if you need it, darling, am I right?”

#astarion #astarion x tav #baldurs gate #baldurs gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #astarion x reader #astarion x mc #baldurs gate astarion #astarion x oc #astarion x you #fanfic #fanfiction #astarion ancunin #bg3 spoilers #astarion is so cute when he's annoyed #aww that his silver tongue get astarion into trouble?#they love each other so much #a night of song and laughter

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lily-blue · 10 months

Text

13 reasons why | reason no.10: they are enthusiastic about the holiday seasons

☆ characters: interim manager!soonyoung & rival!you (Eunseo - ‘97 liner) ☆ genre: coffee shop au, humour ☆ summary: you have always liked a good enemies to lovers story, but once your own y/n moments come knocking on your door, you come to realise that having a handsome rival is actually more tiring than it appears to be on paper ☆ words: 11,2k ☆ taglist: @dat-town, @soobin-chois

➼ chapter index

Even though working at your grandparents’ small bubble tea and coffee shop had started as a convenient part-time job beside your studies, the youthful atmosphere of the place and the freedom you had with the menu had grown on you through the years. Hence, when you had eventually graduated and gotten rejected by eight IT companies within a single month, you had decided to take on more responsibility in the family business. Your grandfather was nearing eighty-two after all, and your grandmother had always had a hard time not pampering him when he showed the tiniest signs of discomfort. With your chronic back pain that seemed to run in the family, you had never blamed the woman for spoiling the old man. Some days you wished you had someone who drew you hot baths and gave you amazing massages in the tub, too. Not that you wanted to picture your grandparents in a similar scenario.

Shaking your head with a carefree laugh, you placed the freshly made biscuits on a porcelain plate and carried the sweet dessert to the only occupied table in the shop. It was already past nine, which meant you were off the clock for the day, but as the granddaughter of the owners and the person who had spent almost every day behind the counter in the past six months, no one had the right to tell you that you weren’t allowed to have your friend over for some tea and biscuits while you were making the usual inventory rounds.

‘I was about to make some chocolate-banana biscuits this time, you know, nothing too crazy, but then I saw the caramel candies in the jar on the counter and I couldn’t help myself,’ you explained what had inspired your latest experiment with your desserts, pointing at the jar somewhere behind your back with your thumb from above your shoulder. ‘Feel free to say they taste like shit if they’re bad,’ you added with a sheepish smile like you always did when Hoyeon was about to have the first bite of your biscuits you couldn’t have taste-tested first. Unfortunately, your acne prone skin hated chocolate, so you tried to minimise your intake to zero.

‘Next time I’ll make sure to introduce you to Mingyu’s girlfriend. She’s a food critic and a really good one. I’m sure she would give you better feedback than I could ever do,’ the older girl said, even though she didn’t hesitate to take a huge bite from the biscuit. She was a huge supporter of your baking from day one, but because of her mild addiction to said dessert and the fact that she didn’t have a single rude bone in her body, she tended to compliment your biscuits even when they were too bitter due to the amount of cocoa powder you had used.

Still, you appreciated her gentle insights each and every time. You also liked watching her eat with such enthusiasm. Her facial expressions and exaggerated hums never failed to make you smile.

‘Oh? His granny finally found someone he actually likes?’ You inquired on your way back to the counter where you started to make a list of those ingredients you should have ordered some more of in the morning. You might not have known Mingyu super well - you could have counted on one hand how many times the two of you had spoken since Seungcheol had opened Coffee Carat -, but you were pretty up to date with the everyday happenings at the coffee shop on other side of the park because of your friendship with the owner’s fiancée.

Hoyeon liked talking about the guys like they were either her annoying older brothers or her precious babies. She was such a mom friend.

‘Nah, she’s the one who wrote that harsh criticism about our cupcakes. He took it a bit too seriously when he decided to change her mind about his baking skills,’ Hoyeon said, the amusement in her voice too obvious to miss. You had faintly remembered the day when your friend had told you about the article that had caused a temporary drop in the number of their customers, but since she hadn’t mentioned it ever since, you had assumed that the situation had been the exemplary case of “every storm runs out of rain”.

The thought that the tall baker had managed not only to score a date with the critic who had called his cupcakes average, but to successfully make it official with her in such a short period of time made you smile to yourself. You had always loved a good enemies to lovers story, so theirs only made you feel more certain that your Y/N moments were also waiting for you somewhere out there. Maybe, you should have gotten out more often.

Speaking of which….

‘Are you excited about Saturday?’ You asked your friend, stealing a quick glance at her from behind the counter. The closer the official date came, the more anxious you felt because of the biscuits you had promised to bake for their wedding, but to your surprise, Hoyeon rarely spoke about the big day recently. If you hadn’t known better, you would have thought that she had completely forgotten she would get married in three days.

‘I am, but not as much as I expected to be,’ she confessed as she shoved another piece of food into her mouth. She looked unbothered. Hell, she sounded pretty unbothered, too. You could have never. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m not happy or that I love Seungcheol any less, it’s just…’ she tried to put her thoughts into words that you could understand, so you didn’t push. Instead, you gave her as much time as she needed while you checked the storage room. You would need to order more recycled plastic cups from Rina and twelve bags of tapioca pearls, too. ‘We’re already living together. It doesn’t feel like such a big step.’

You nodded with a low hum in the back of your throat. What she said made perfect sense, actually.

‘You really are like a married couple, hah?’ You teased, relieved that their relationship with Seungcheol was as good as ever, hence you had been worried for no reason. You didn’t particularly like being wrong, but situations like this were obviously exceptions.

While you were talking about when you should have arrived at the venue on Saturday with all those sweets you planned to bake for them, you started to pack the unsold pastries into plastic containers. You were at the third box, a little bummed that you had so many cupcakes left that no one had wanted to buy, when Hoyeon made a light-hearted comment on how you might have also found someone at their wedding as her fiancé still had handsome yet single friends despite many of them getting in a serious relationship since the coffee shop had opened two years ago. Her silly way of advertising her boys plastered a small smile on your face.

‘I heard Joshua is off the market again,’ you chirped in, putting the full containers aside and turning towards the machines you had to scrub clean. ‘Too bad, I could picture myself going home from the party with him,’ you admitted, finding it almost amusing that usually, by the time you heard about Joshua’s break-up, he was already with another girl. It was like some higher power didn’t want you to shoot your shot with him at all, although the guy matched your ideal type nicely. He was attentive, always made sure to compliment you when you met and hadn’t belittled your effort when he had accidentally gotten to know that you had failed as a web developer before you could have started your career.

‘Argh, let’s not talk about those two, Seungcheol is already out of the game and if they don’t break up until the day after our wedding, Jeonghan can boss us around for a whole week. The both of us,’ Hoyeon complained, her mood getting sour only momentarily, until she shoved another chocolate-banana and caramel candy biscuit into her mouth.

You shook your head with a smile.

‘You should really stop making these bets. They just aren’t worth it,’ you advised, unsure whom you should have felt more sorry for. It might have been Joshua’s inevitable heartbreak on the line, but regardless of your conflicted feelings about the morality of these games, you were aware that whoever was the subject of them, they also knew about the competition. On the other hand, was it really worth risking giving so much power to Yoon Jeonghan for the mere possibility of controlling his life for a week? Highly unlikely.

Yet, they did it each and every time.

‘But they are,’ Hoyeon argued, telling you about that one time early into their relationship when Seungcheol had still lived with Jeonghan and Joshua and he had won the right to send the boys away from home without giving them any explanation. She claimed those had been the most peaceful movie night dates they had before her fiancé had found a nice apartment for them and Kkuma.

Once the biscuits were gone, Hoyeon offered to help you with cleaning the customer area and you accepted her help with a grateful smile. She didn’t have to, you would have gladly kept her entertained while closing the shop, but she did every time, the sweetheart she was.

Right on time, about an hour after Coffee Carat had closed its doors as well, Seungcheol knocked on the door of Freefall to pick up his fiancée. Before leaving, he asked you whether you needed any help with your old machines or if you had any boxes or sacks that were too heavy for you to carry from one place to another, but you just waved him off with a smile.

‘Eyes on the road!’ You said them goodbye, asking Seungcheol to make sure they both got home in one piece despite the late night traffic.

Closing the shop, you headed home ten minutes later. The small studio apartment you rented two corners from Freefall greeted you with silence and a sweet smell you couldn’t have described in any other way than home.

The traditional wedding ceremony didn’t last longer than an hour, and while both Seungcheol and Hoyeon (and their parents) looked amazing in their hanbok, you were grateful for it. As much as you loved reading about love, you had always had a hard time sitting still for a longer period of time. You would have hated it if they had thought you didn’t enjoy their big day - because you did! - just because you had your own shortcomings and more frequently than not, you felt antsy when you didn’t have anything productive to do.

Munching on your lower lip, you leaned closer to the myriad of desserts that were placed on one side of the venue, so that you could read their funny descriptions that had been written by Hoyeon and smell-test them before choosing which ones you would have liked to try.

‘You should try those! They might not look as fancy as the shortcakes, but those biscuits are fantastic. I’m telling you, I’ve already eaten like,’ the boy in the elegant, white shirt and deep orange dress pants claimed, counting on his fingers slowly with his eyes focusing on nothing in particular. ‘Six or seven. And I keep coming back for more!’

You took a moment to observe his features: the bright, genuine-looking smile on his face, his almond-shaped eyes that were barely visible due to how excited and happy he appeared to be and his fluffy black hair; a few stubborn strands were covering a part of his forehead. He looked handsome in an adorable way you had never before considered manly. Until now.

‘Aren’t you afraid I’ll eat all of them if they are really that good?’ You teased, paying close attention to his reaction. Despite assuming the best - you doubted either of the newlyweds would have invited douchebags for their wedding unless they were family -, you didn’t know him. And you didn’t feel like engaging in anything but a short conversation with someone who got offended easily. Your jokes could get pretty controversial after three tequila shots.

For a couple of seconds, the two of you were staring at each other with intent. Then, the boy shrugged nonchalantly and reached for a cinnamon biscuit that was one of the most basic flavours you had prepared for today. Initially, you had intended to bake your most special creations for the party after the ceremony, but on Thursday morning Seungcheol had dropped a sly comment on how obsessed Hoyeon was with this particular flavour and you couldn’t not have made five dozen of them when they were the bride’s recent favourite.

‘I don’t mind sharing, especially with someone so beautiful,’ he said, and instead of lifting the sweets in front of his mouth with his bare hand, you were surprised to realise that he was using a textile napkin to hand it to you.

‘Smooth, aren’t you?’ You asked, but accepted the baked good with a soft smile on your face, biting off a huge piece of it, not shying away just because it wasn’t too lady-like. If the boy couldn’t have handled this much, he wouldn’t have survived seeing you munching on burgers or pizza happily.

Gosh, were you already thinking about spending some time with him in different settings? Well, he had indeed passed the vibe check so far, but it wasn’t like you had known him for longer than two minutes. It must have been the wedding’s doing; it was messing with your head, making you borderline desperate.

Luckily, the boy couldn’t read your mind.

‘With so many couples around, you kind of have to be,’ he explained with a smile as he took a banana-chocolate and caramel candy biscuit in his hand. ‘You know, so that you could play it safe and say you didn’t mean that way when the other person’s partner shows up to punch you in the face out of freaking nowhere,’ he added, coaxing an amused scoff out of you with those exaggerated hand gestures he was making.

‘That’s alarmingly specific,’ you joked, wondering if he had accidentally hit on someone with a girlfriend or a boyfriend in the past few hours or if he was talking about a past incident. For some reason, maybe because of the soft, rose-tinted patches on his neck, the possibility that he was talking about someone else or making the scenario up didn’t even cross your mind.

The boy’s embarrassed chuckle was adorable.

You reached for a caramel-apple shortcake next.

‘So… you didn’t mean it that way?’ You inquired after the first bite, the flavours dancing in your mouth, making it impossible to suppress the pleased moan that scratched your throat. It escaped the same moment you started your question, turning your cheeks the same colour as the boy’s neck was dressed in.

‘I mean, you’re drop dead gorgeous, so if you, by any chance, happen to be single, then I was definitely flirting with you, yeah,’ he admitted, ears burning by the time he stumbled over the last couple of words. So awkward. So endearing.

‘Good to know,’ you said with a hint of a smile in the corner of your lips before you took another bite from the shortcake and finished it by shoving the third in your mouth. Delicious. Should you have tried another flavour, too?

As you were contemplating which one you should go for, the mango-orange or the last piece of strawberry-crackers, you could feel the boy’s piercing eyes on you, but it wasn’t creepy or unpleasant. You did put more effort into your posture, though, straightening your back and tilting your head sideways just enough to give him a better view for the crook of your neck, but that was your business and no one else’s.

‘You didn’t like them?’ It was a half-question, half-statement, and you needed a few seconds to understand what he was talking about, but when you shifted your gaze from the table to his face and saw how fixated he was on the biscuits, it became crystal clear.

You shook your head, careful to not mess up your elegant, loose bun with the sudden motion.

‘I had more than enough of them while I was perfecting the recipe,’ you explained before you added as a clarification: ‘I made them.’

You didn’t mean to brag. In fact, you were determined to keep your voice nonchalant as if it hadn’t been a big deal, because you had already known he liked them enough to praise them in front of a stranger. You didn’t want him to think that you were full of yourself and found joy in deceiving him, even if only temporarily. However, the way the boy’s eyes lit up after your claim indicated anything but.

‘Really? Thank God Mingyu isn’t single anymore!’ He exclaimed, a relieved sigh escaping from his lips as he made a show out of wiping the nonexistent sweat off his forehead. He was so dramatic, but more entertaining than annoying.

‘Why? Afraid of a little competition?’ You teased, the thought that you should have gone easy on him and admitted that you weren’t interested in the baker anyway crossing your mind for a split second. But then again, where was the fun in that? It wasn’t like you were hurting his feelings on purpose. You didn’t even try to make him jealous, to be fair.

Whether it was your raised eyebrow or the tension in the air that grew with every second you spent in silence after your playful question, but the boy’s eventual reaction was everything a good comedian needed: wide eyes, parted lips and big hand gestures.

‘Hah! Not a chance! I love a good competition,’ he claimed with pride in every single word, fist tapping his chest multiple times in a manner that reminded you of gorillas from that one Disney movie about a kid who had grown up amongst them. Tarzan. The resemblance really cracked you up. Especially when he caught himself and let his hand fall back beside him with a pout. ‘Is there a competition, though?’

‘Why? Would you like to win me over?’ You pushed, just a little more, while you lifted the strawberry-cracker shortcake without whipped cream on the top in front of your lips.

‘I mean, this whole conversation already makes me feel like a winner, but…’

His unfinished sentence and the smug curve of his lips made you smile like a Cheshire cat, but you felt like he deserved to see your amusement on display after all that teasing, so you made no attempt at hiding your happiness from him. Coming to a wedding without a plus one was indeed a whole different experience. And not in the lonely, lowkey depressing way you had previously expected based on the number of couples who had been sat at the same table your name tag was on.

Speaking of name tags…

‘You could start with telling me your name,’ you suggested instead of calling him out on his lame pick-up line or whatever his comment had been supposed to be. You weren’t sure what it said about your personality and preferences or maybe, about your sense of humour, but you didn’t find his flirting too cringe just yet.

‘Soonyoung,’ he introduced himself eagerly and you told him your name in exchange with a less wide but equally genuine smile.

‘Well, Soonyoung, let’s drink some and hit up the dance floor,’ you suggested, grabbing one last shortcake from the table (the mango-orange one, obviously) before you led him towards the bar at the end of the food section. You hadn’t drunk more than a glass of champagne so far, but you were determined to catch up with the rest of the guests before you embarrassed yourself in front of everyone dear to Hoyeon and Seungcheol. You see, you loved dancing, you always had fun moving your hips and limbs for mainstream, upbeat music, however, you wouldn’t have called yourself particularly talented.

Still, you loved dancing. No one could keep you off the dance floor when the opportunity to shake your booty presented itself. Your friends’ wedding couldn’t have been the exception. You just needed a shot or two first.

‘You should be careful with this one. Our Hoshi is a lightweight. Like, light. His drunk face is literally in the dictionary, check it out when you hit up “feather”,’ Yoon Jeonghan warned you as soon as you reached the bar with Soonyoung; the name Hoshi vaguely familiar from your friend’s stories.

‘I am not,’ Soonyoung insisted and you shifted your gaze from the blacked-haired boy to the blondie before you decided to not care too much about which one of them was right and asked for eight tequila shots from the bartender - two from each, silver and gold, for the two of you.

Waiting for the drinks, you listened to Jeonghan’s stories about their bi-monthly dude nights with the guys and tried not to let your confusion show when he yet again warned you about Soonyoung’s drunk antics: some sort of tiger agenda, whatever that meant.

‘Okay, now how about I tell some stories to Yoohyeon noona about your sappy ass whenever you hit your limit, hah?’ Soonyoung threatened, but before he could have spilled the beans to the blonde girl who sat beside Jeonghan, your shots were served and you pulled on his sleeve to gain his attention.

‘I’m pretty sure she knows about his sappy side,’ you tried to keep the peace as you handed the first shot to Soonyoung and poured a bit of salt on his empty hand.

You both managed to drink three shots in a row before they hit, so you gave the remaining two to the couple and pulled Soonyoung towards the small crowd in front of the DJ booth. To say he was an amazing dancer would have been an understatement. He moved his body like he was made of liquid - and not the way your body was also 60% of water - and did it so effortlessly, you started to wonder whether you were the one who couldn’t hold her alcohol instead. Why did your arms move so awkwardly compared to his?

Whatever. The music was exhilarating, the crowd wasn’t suffocating and Soonyoung didn’t show any interest in anyone else around while he was with you, encouraging you and even joining you when you started to perform silly disco moves from the last century. It was easily one of the best days of your life.

‘Food break?’ The boy asked you before you noticed that you were actually out of breath and you nodded, letting him wrap his pretty, long fingers around your wrist before he elbowed his way through the mass. How could someone’s hold be so firm but gentle at the same time? Should you have asked him whether he had visited a nail technician before the wedding? He had such pretty hands!

‘Drinks, too,’ you shouted, so that he could hear it despite the music and based on how he shot you a smile from above his shoulder and squeezed your wrist simultaneously, you were pretty sure you had succeeded.

You ended up at one of the tables where the guests could comfortably eat and converse, far enough from the dance floor to protect your voice from the aftereffects of constant screaming, and ate some real food while you shared funny stories of your lives with each other and how the two of you had gotten to know the newlyweds. Of course, as the afternoon turned into early evening then midnight, the two of you talked a few words with almost everyone from the guest list, but you spent most of your time on the dance floor, in each others’ arms, as you blended into the crowd after each necessary break.

If you had been a more chaotic drunk, you might have shed a few tears of joy because of how freaking comfortable your high heels were.

‘Afterparty at mine?’ Soonyoung asked between two upbeat songs, his warm breath fanning over your neck, making you shiver because of the thin layer of sweat that coated your skin.

You looked around to check your surroundings; you weren’t sure why you felt the need, but it came naturally as though you had been seventeen again, hesitant to leave your friends behind because of a pair of pretty eyes and a smile that turned them into tiny crescends. It wasn’t like you were responsible for anyone in the building other than yourself nor had you come with another person. Not to mention that Soonyoung wasn’t a complete stranger, either. As it had turned out during the party, he was actually close friends with many of your own friends and acquaintances.

You could see Joshua sitting with Jeonghan and Seungcheol by the bar with only the latter two having their girlfriends close. They were drinking and laughing at something that made Joshua pout. If you had been less drunk, you might have been able to put the puzzle pieces together, but with your mushy brain, the only conclusion you could come to was that they looked lost in their own world. You didn’t want to disturb them.

‘Let’s go,’ so you said, not registering how utterly rude it was that you didn’t say goodbye to anyone whom you didn’t bump into on your way out or that you wouldn’t be able to apologise to the newlyweds in person for two weeks - they would leave for their honeymoon in Thailand and Laos early afternoon, which meant meeting up with you would be the last thing on their priority list. That, and you would most probably be sleeping out your hangover somewhere. Preferably, at home.

Or maybe, at Soonyoung’s place as you were heading there for the promised afterparty with a pleased smile on your face and feather-like kisses on your bare shoulder in the backseat of a cab you didn’t remember calling.

Did you have expectations? Maybe. Did the two of you lick into each other’s mouth as soon as the front door closed shut behind your back? Absolutely.

Yet, once you reached Soonyoung’s bedroom and you fell onto his bed, you knew having sex with the boy was off the table. If it hadn’t been, he would have hovered over you and kept kissing you instead of laying down by your side.

‘Can we not take a shower right now? I’m sooo tired,’ the boy mumbled against your upper arm, his nose nuzzling the edge of your shoulder. You couldn’t see his face from this angle, but you were sure his eyes were already closed.

‘I mean, sure, I guess,’ you whispered back, feeling the tiredness creeping in slowly. Maybe, it was for the better. Having a one night stand with one of Hoyeon’s boys wouldn’t have been the wisest decision of your life even though a part of you still craved Soonyoung’s touch despite how heavy your eyelids were.

‘Yey!’ Soonyoung’s arm knocked the air out of your lungs as it swung over your chest, his excitement absolutely beyond you. Still, it would have been a lie to say that you didn’t enjoy the way he hugged you close like you were his human-sized teddy bear. ‘You’re the best! The coolest person,’ he exclaimed happily, coaxing an airy chuckle out of you with his child-like behaviour. He was so ridiculous.

That night, you fell asleep in your sweaty clothes, atop of the softest blankets that would have felt like heaven over you, listening to Soonyoung’s endless chatter about how much he loved his mom, but how she would have forced him to take a shower immediately. At that point, it was lost on you why the woman refused to appear in your dreams. Certainly, you knew more details about her habits than you knew about your own parents’.

In the morning, you regretted not insisting on taking a shower before falling asleep. You also felt like you were about to get sick. Not because of how gross you felt or how bad both of you smelled, but because your throat was sore. Your body had definitely missed the warmth of a blanket over the night.

Was your head hurting because of the blinding light that came through the windows or was it your hangover? With your luck, it could be both.

Letting out a groan, you carefully lifted the boy’s arm off your middle and sat up, looking for your balance and the will to move. It would have been so easy to just lay back and stare out of your head. You could have even gone for a morning quicky with…

Yeah, it would have been wiser if you had just left.

Taking one last glance at the sleeping boy, you bit back an amused chuckle at the sight of his drooling face. Gross, but in some weird way, cute as well. Could you have developed a crush on someone so different from all the boyfriends you had ever had? Of course, it had to be one of Hoyeon’s boys.

Shaking your head, you pushed yourself up into a standing position, then left the flat without leaving as much as a note behind. If he wanted to see you again, he knew where to find you. It wasn’t like you were running away from him. But he had never asked for your kkt ID, either, or any of your other contact information through the night.

You refused to believe wanting some reassurance that the boy planned to stay in touch with you was a bitch move. You had every right to keep your walls up regardless of what you had done or hadn’t done a couple of hours ago.

What you hadn’t expected, though, was Soonyoung storming into Freefall three days later, before your grandparents’ bubble tea and coffee shop would have opened for the customers, accusing you of playing dirty. As you furrowed your eyebrows, confusion clearly written on your face, your fingers turned white around the orange white board marker in your hand. The door should have had the CLOSED sign on. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been standing on a ladder, finishing up the decoration for the Halloween season instead of standing behind the cash register in your uniform.

With your back to the front door, you took a deep breath and let your hand fall by your side; then you took hold of the ladder, so that you could climb down without breaking a bone. As you turned around and raised a challenging brow at the boy, you wondered how you could have missed the crazy glint in his eyes last time. Because as you were staring daggers at him, it was clear as day that he was nuts as hell.

‘Playing dirty? How so?’ You asked, linking your arms in front of your chest to show him he did not intimidate you, although your stiff posture might have looked defensive on second thought. Whatever. You simply raised your chin higher.

‘Carved pumpkins instead of fake pumpkins?’ He pointed at the scary-looking decoration you had put out the day before, the scoff that escaped his mouth mocking. ‘POPcorn maze in the customer area?’ He huffed, stomping his feet. ‘Pumpkin latte?’

You rolled your eyes at the last addition. Did he really think he had any right to call dibs on serving pumpkin latte in October? And since when had he worked in a coffee shop to begin with? Wasn’t he a choreographer at his bestie’s workplace or what?

‘What does any of these have to do with you?’ You inquired, scolding yourself mentally for assuming that he had been hinting at your night together (and the way you had left) when he had walked into the shop. Clearly, it was all about your handmade decoration that had been inspired by the moodboards you had seen on Pinterest.

As far as you were concerned, he had no idea who he was screaming at like a child.

‘I’m the manager at Coffee Carat until the owner is on his honeymoon. You know, the coffee shop you’re stealing your ideas from,’ he accused you, his stupid index finger pointing at you like he knew no manners. Based on his complaints about his nagging mother, you would have thought she had raised a decent son. What a waste of looks!

‘Not that I owe you any explanation, but I found these ideas on the internet. Also, thinking that pumpkin latte is something you owe is really entitled of you,’ you said. The longer he was staring at you with those vengeful eyes, the more frustrated you felt. ‘There’s still half an hour until the shop opens, by the way. So, as the manager of this shop, I need to ask you to take your baseless accusations somewhere else, Kwon Soonyoung!’

Even from the generous distance that separated the two of you, you could see it in the boy’s eyes when the realisation hit him: those chocolate orbs became twice as big as their usual size and it seemed he had momentarily forgotten how to blink.

‘You…’ he mumbled, his gaze sliding to the displays on your left and the boards above your head you still had to finish. ‘The biscuits…’

It was hard not to find the situation ridiculous, but you refused to acknowledge the comedy in his taken aback features that slowly morphed into something indecipherable. Was he happy to see you again? Was he mortified that he had accused you of stealing ideas that weren’t even his to begin with? Did he feel regret for acting so rude?

If any of these cases was true, he didn’t admit it. Instead, he let out a puff of air and linked his arms, checking you out from the top of your head to your torso - the last part of your body he could see from where he was standing.

‘If you think I’ll go easy on you just because you’re pretty and fun and smell like candies, you’re dead wrong,’ the boy said with his chin held high, making you scoff with his claim. You genuinely didn’t get what his deal was. Why did he take his time to come over to your shop to scream at you when he was only an interim manager and your coffee shops weren’t even competitors. Freefall mostly lived off on its bubble teas and biscuits while Coffee Carat served more quality coffees and amazing pastries.

Not to mention that you were close friends with Hoyeon, hence with Seungcheol as well. Had he not put two and two together considering that the two of you had met at their wedding? Or did he seriously believe that you were the kind of person who would have used their absence to your advantage and undermined their business? With what? Halloween themed decoration? It made no freaking sense.

You were about to tell Soonyoung that there was something seriously wrong with him when he spun on his heels and turned his back to you. He walked out the door without a proper goodbye - you couldn’t help but wonder whether it was his way of showing you how it felt to be on the receiving end of such an unpleasant exit -, the echo of the door sliding back into its frame filling the quiet atmosphere.

It took you longer than you would have ever admitted aloud to put yourself together once the silence sat on your chest. However, the time was ticking and you still had things to do before you opened the shop, so you willed your limbs to move.

You knew you had done nothing wrong or malicious when you had decided to change up the interior design of Freefall to suit the holiday season. You refused to let Soonyoung convince you of anything that suggested otherwise.

The following dawn, as you were walking to your grandparents’ bubble tea and coffee shop from your flat, you took a detour. You didn’t mean to spy on your rival, but last night you had been too tired to check out what Soonyoung had been so upset about and you would have much preferred knowing what you were up against. After all, that grown ass child had acted like he was about to march into war. It was both scary and ridiculous.

You considered yourself a laid back, chill person in your whole life. You weren’t one who got easily intimidated, either. You hadn’t broken down and thought that your life had been about to end when you couldn’t have secured a nice office job with your degree. Yet, you felt a tad bit jittery when you put the edges of your palms on the window of Coffee Carat and peeked into the building.

‘What the…’ you breathed, barely able to comprehend all the changes the interior design had gone through since the wedding. Instead of the usual, light brown and beige colours, the shop was dominated by dark grey and orange. There were (hopefully) fake spiderwebs around the windows and the coffee machines. The boards had the same skeleton and pumpkin drawings you had finished the day before just before opening and there was a POPcorn maze on one side of the customer area, the kpop version of it just like in Freefall.

Ever since Seungcheol had opened the shop, you had never seen Coffee Carat looking this… this during any of the Western holiday seasons.

‘A-ha! I knew it!’ You heard a familiar voice from behind you and your entire body tensed as you had thought you still had time. Why was he here so early in the morning when even the place’s owner preferred to show up later, a mere hour and a half before opening?

You should have still had time.

‘What? I didn’t do anything,’ you protested, mentally cursing yourself for sounding so lame. Because really, hearing these cheap lines, even you wouldn’t have believed yourself despite knowing more than anyone that this wasn’t what it looked like.

To make it worse, you spun around with the speed of lightning, like touching the window had burnt you: like you had been caught red-handed, when you hadn’t been. You had never stolen a single thing in your life, stealing stupid decoration ideas would have been the last thing you would have started your criminal career with.

Soonyoung narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to the right. Fists balled up, you wished you could have wiped that stupid frown off his face.

‘I’m off to work,’ you claimed, hating the feeling of powerlessness and the palpable tension in the chilly, morning air. You craved to be in control.

So you bid your goodbye with mocking respect and turned your back to the boy, determined to get to the pedestrian crossing before the lights turned red again. Obviously, it was too far for you to succeed, but at least Soonyoung didn’t follow you. He seemed to be more than content with the reaction he had coaxed out of you.

That and with those smug accusations he screamed after you.

‘If you weren’t guilty, you wouldn’t run away. You’ve just proved I was right all along.’

You hated him for his confidence when it was clear to you that he was wrong and you hated yourself even more for giving Soonyoung fake evidence that only fueled his desire to destroy you in this ridiculous, coffee-centric Battle royal you had no intention to play.

The first week while Hoyeon and Seungcheol were away was both heaven and hell. On one hand, your childish competition with Soonyoung helped your creativity: you came up with new recipes every other day, you went as far as carving little skeleton bones from the jellies you put into your bubble teas and you managed to organise a daily lottery in which the more receipts a customer had, the bigger chance they got to win themselves a handmade keychain or bracelet and other boba-themed prices. Due to your immense effort, there were more people in the shop during the past days than in the previous months combined and that was huge. It was freaking awesome!

On the other hand, you hadn’t felt so emotionally and physically drained since your uni days. It was hard to have a new, original idea every day; not to mention the extra hours you needed to spend on turning each one of them into reality. Because those cute keychains and bracelets didn’t create themselves. The jelly didn’t become bone-shaped overnight on its own. Not to mention how tiring it was to banter with Soonyoung each morning before opening just for him to shop up after closing as well, bragging about their sales.

Of course, you could have locked him out, but as much as you didn’t want to admit, the boy’s extremes inspired you when you let your last remaining brain cell spread its wings in his company. Usually, you were carving jellies by the time he closed the shop on the opposite side of the park, so it wasn’t like you had to stand or move your stiff limbs around too much. You just sat still, like you did at that moment, humming along his endless chatters with your gaze fixed on the fruity goods.

‘It’s a Korean-Italian fusion Mingyu came up with. It was sold out in an hour,’ he claimed with his whole chest, sliding a familiar food container towards you with two slices of creamy cakes in it. At first glance, they looked like classic tiramisu, but they were orange-coloured and smelled like vanilla and pumpkin instead of freshly brewed coffee.

‘I thought it’s sold out,’ you commented with a brow raised in challenge before you turned back to your jellies. Based on the sales of the last two days, you needed to carve at least one more kilo of these and it was already nearing eleven. You genuinely wondered whether the holiday season was really worth the hype.

‘Yeah, but then Mingyu made some more. Obviously,’ he replied, pushing the container closer to you, urging you to have a bite. And honestly, they looked mouth-watering.

‘Obviously,’ you hummed, putting aside your work for a moment, so that you could fish out the metal dessert fork from beside the cake and have a bite from the baker’s new creation.

You didn’t expect Soonyoung to stand up and walk towards the counter for a pair of plastic gloves, but you were grateful for it deep down. Even if you watched him with hawk eyes as he tried his best to turn your regular jellies into Halloween-themed ones for God knew why. Shouldn’t he have been happy that you allowed him to steal some of your time? Should you have been more wary of his skills?

‘What are you doing?’ You asked suspiciously, taking another, bigger bite from the creamy cake that melted in your mouth. It tasted like a pumpkin pie, but it was lighter like you were cutting bites from a sweetened cloud with distinct vanilla flavour. Genius.

‘Making sure you get in bed before midnight,’ he retorted and you scoffed without malice when his smile became bigger at the sight of his own work. He looked so proud of himself, you decided to let him have this moment and enjoy the sweet treat instead.

Once the dessert was gone, you got up from your seat and stretched your body. Then, you walked up to the counter and poured some tea for the both of you into porcelain mugs, but with lots of tapioca pearls.

‘Here,’ you said when you slid the brown mug closer to him and took a seat from across him with your own bowl of jellies in front of you.

You intended to work in complete silence, so that you could have finished for the day as soon as possible, but Soonyoung had different plans. Between two sips, he chatted your ears off about his best friend and the guy’s girlfriend who apparently worked for the same company the two of them did. He told you about this new project Jihye was working on on her own - the very first mini album she composed without Jihoon -, then made you promise that you wouldn’t talk about this top secret comeback to anyone you knew. As if he hadn’t been the one who couldn’t have kept his mouth shut! The audacity.

You rolled your eyes and refused to swear secrecy.

‘Do your grandparents know you work so late?’ He asked at the end, breaking the momentary silence and making you look at him with indecipherable feelings in your eyes.

You didn’t understand why he asked. Admittedly, you didn’t understand why he stayed after he had rubbed their new dessert’s success into your wounds; your pumpkin-chocolate biscuit had been a huge failure that day. In hindsight, you should have gone for a combination you could have actually taste-tested yourself. A lesson that had been relearned the hard way.

You missed Hoyeon so much.

‘No, they don’t. But it’s only because of the stupid war you started, so they don’t have to know,’ you said, intending to keep your messed up sleep schedule from your grandparents as long as possible. Normally, you didn’t like lying. It made you antsy because you were bad at remembering those details that made your semi-truths believable and often got caught at the worst moments possible. However, you told yourself no October lasted forever. Making them worried because of a couple of extra hours of work would have been useless. ‘It’s temporary.’

Based on your history with Soonyoung - short but impactful -, you expected him to push you a bit, maybe call you out on lying and neglecting your health. In response to these, you would have kindly told him that you had been through worse in university and once again reminded him that it was all his fault. But he remained silent and with that… with that, you had no idea what to do.

You glanced at him a little worried and seeing the pout on his lips, you kept staring, trying to figure out what could have been going on in his head.

You were aware that you weren’t subtle about where your focus lay, but it still took you off guard when Soonyoung noticed and he masked his emotions immediately. Within seconds, his almost sad pout turned into a smug grin and his eyes disappeared because of his fake happiness. You might not have been friends, more like frenemies, really, but for some reason, you didn’t like that he felt he couldn’t be himself around you.

‘Like what you see?’ He teased you, the pick-up line as old as time and twice as cringe, but you just shook your head and turned back to your jellies.

‘Just keep carving those jellies and sipping on your drink. You said you wanted me in bed by midnight,’ you reminded him with a small, hidden smile in the corner of your mouth. His red cheeks and slightly parted lips were enough to bring your mood back up. In fact! While he was trying to come up with a cool, sassy comeback, you mapped out whole ass dialogues in your head, entertaining yourself with your own hypothetical remarks that aimed at turning the boy redder.

Sure, their desserts sold better, their coffee tasted better, but at the end of the day, at least he couldn’t beat you in your own game. Flirting shamelessly while you were switching between acting coy and as though you were down to anything was your element. You thrived off his amused scoffs and unconscious stutters.

That day, only your endless banters were longer than the night itself. However, you managed to finish the rest of the jellies almost twenty minutes before midnight, which gave you plenty of time to get home before the clock hit 12 AM. You might have refused to let the boy walk you home once he figured out you lived close and failed to get under the sheets before the new day officially began, but you did text Soonyoung when your head hit the pillow. You fell asleep not long after, for the unmistakable sound of an incoming message wishing you sweet dreams.

During the second week, some days were spent in a good mood regardless of your sales, some days were horrible and you wished you had been able to act like you were the bigger person and never engaged with a lunatic (affectionate?) like Kwon Soonyoung. Because the dude had difficulties sensing your boundaries and you snapped easier when you were running on four hours of sleep.

The worst part was the immense amount of guilt that overwhelmed your sense whenever the silence embraced you after you raised your voice at the boy. It made you feel like you were one of those people you had never gotten along with because of your harsh humour: people who took every joke personally. Self-loathing didn’t match well with your usual vibe. On the other hand, it generously contributed to your sour mood hidden behind your customer service smiles.

A teeny tiny voice in your head told you that you should have told Soonyoung to stop with this nonsense. He must have already figured it out that you had never intended to copy their decoration and their damned pumpkin latte that he had never had an ownership over. So what was the point of fighting?

As you called for the customer who had ordered a large Cantaloupe milk tea and handed over the drink with a smile, the same voice, with a pinch of mockery to it, called you out mentally on how playful banters and late night snacks shared over personal anecdotes didn’t count as fighting. You frowned, knowing more than anyone that if you had wanted to shut the boy out of your life, you could have easily locked the door after the last customer left Freefall. Yet, you never did.

The realisation that you wanted the holiday season to end as much as you didn’t want the boy to go back to working as a full-time choreographer left a bitter taste in your mouth. What kind of insane person developed a crush on someone so impossible? Soonyoung had been making your life four times harder since your lives had crossed paths. You let out a dramatic sigh. You had never pegged yourself as a masochist before.

Taking a new plastic cup into your hand, you reached for the metal ladle that you used for the tapioca pearls and poured a generous amount into the empty container to prepare the next drink: a medium sized Matcha milk tea.

‘Hey,’ you heard a faintly familiar voice from the other side of the counter. You stole a glance at the customer from above your shoulder and acknowledged his presence with a small nod before you turned back towards the tea you were making.

‘I’ll be there in a moment,’ you promised with your back to Soonyoung, silently wondering what he was doing at your shop so early. Even if it had been him who had opened the coffee shop this morning and Wonwoo had been the one who closed it, it was only 1 PM. He knew you didn’t sell anything at Freefall that could have been considered a nutritious, filling lunch.

Did he have his food container with him or something? It was true that you couldn’t have seen it from where you were standing.

Once the cup sealing machine did its magic, you called for the customer who had paid for the Macha milk tea, then turned towards Soonyoung with your palms on the countertop.

‘What can I get for you?’ You asked, your head tilted to the right, left eyebrow raised slightly. What you really wanted to ask was what he was doing here in the middle of the day when he had never once been at the shop when it was open for customers. You couldn’t help but feel alarmed due to the sudden change.

‘I’m sorry,’ he blurted out, his gaze weirdly fixated on the biscuit display and those colourful, plastic straws that were stuffed in a cylinder-shaped container next to the cash register. Your right eyebrow caught up with the other one, wrinkling your forehead in the process.

‘For what?’ You asked, his reasons genuinely lost on you. Sure, he had done many things in your short acquaintanceship that rubbed you the wrong way, but you were fairly certain that you had pissed him off just as many times in return with your snarky remarks. Neither of you had ever said sorry at those moments, but neither of you had been affected by the incidents afterwards, either.

If you wanted to be completely honest, his sudden urge to apologise was unnerving. It had a feel of finality to it as though he wanted to clear the air before disappearing on you.

‘For this whole thing. I got too excited about being the best manager and… I’ve never wanted to stress you out,’ he explained and honestly, it was too easy to admit that you missed the big hand gestures that usually accompanied his rambles.

‘Where’s this coming from?’ You asked, trying to keep your cool instead of overthinking what could have possibly been going on in his mind. With Soonyoung, it had never been easy to see the logic behind the word vomits that left his mouth. But you loved the challenge and had learned with time that all you needed to do was ask. He was chaotic by nature, but he had the patience to explain almost anything to you in detail two or three times in a row while you were willing to listen. Hell. You just had to ask! ‘If it’s because I screamed at you yesterday, it’s fine. I came in sooner today and made enough tapioca pearls for the day, no biggie. I was just tired,’ you reassured him with a pseudo-nonchalant wave of your hand.

In hindsight, you could see that you must have crossed a line last night when Soonyoung had accidentally dropped a 10 litre cooking pot’s worth of tapioca pearls on the floor while he had been holding the ladder for you behind the counter, meaning you not only needed to clean up the mess, but also remake the whole thing. (Not to mention the waste of ingredients.) Still, at that moment your frustration had felt justified, so you didn’t intend to apologise. However, saying that you two were fine was something you could do with your chest.

‘Actually, hyung said I should come over and apologise for my actions on my own if I don’t want him to drag me over here by my ear,’ Soonyoung admitted after the momentary silence, somehow turning it even deeper with his confession. For a second, you were seriously at a loss for words.

But then, you failed to contain your laughter. How was someone like him real?

‘So now you’re sorry or not?’ You asked, half-amused, half-bewildered due to the unexpected turn of events. You had already had a hard time keeping up with the apology, but finding out that it hadn’t even been his idea to begin with was seriously messing with your head. It gave you a whiplash. Should you have been angry with him that he had come here to give you an insincere apology? Should you have felt relieved that seemingly he hadn’t meant to change your dynamic?

‘Well, if I really stressed you out, then yes. Otherwise, not really,’ he said and lacking a better reaction, you let out a scoff-like chuckle. At least, he was honest till the end; it provided you some familiarity you could hold onto. It pulled you out from your messy thoughts and helped you get back in the game.

‘I mean, you can be a bit too much sometimes and you clearly have no idea when not to push someone…’ you teased because it was your thing from the get-go and it would have been such a shame to waste the perfect opportunity to shift things back to normal. ‘But I wasn’t too nice all the time, either, so I guess it’s fine. I enjoy our late night snacks more than I’d like to admit,’ you added with a tight lipped smile.

You weren’t proud of your mistakes, but you could admit it when you were in the wrong.

‘Me too!’ He exclaimed happily, drawing some of your customers’ attention at himself with his loud voice before he sheepishly lifted his hand to his nape and started to scratch it. ‘Though, I got fired an hour ago.’

You furrowed your brows and Soonyoung dived into the story without further interrogation. Lips ridiculously kissable and pouty, the boy explained that now that Seungcheol was back, his hyung didn’t need extra help at the coffee shop and that when he had been joking around, asking his friend what he would do without such a capable manager in the future, the older man had kindly declined his help and let him know that the mental health of his employees would always be more important to him than their profit.

‘It turns out, Mingyu was complaining about me to them throughout their entire honeymoon. Can you believe it?’ He whined, the flicker of hurt in his eyes faint but visible. It urged you to wrap him up in your hands and pull his chin atop of your shoulder, so that you could pat his head and comfort him with your closeness.

But there were already new customers waiting for their turn behind his back, hence you had to set your priorities as the owner’s granddaughter straight.

‘Go wait at that table,’ you pointed at one of the empty spots in the temporary POPcorn maze where people could enjoy good music and check out numerous different kpop albums’ photo books courtesy of your cousin. You had offered free drinks for her and two of her friends for a whole month in exchange for her collection, but Eunhye said she was happy to help. She had also said these albums only collected dust in her bedroom, so it was nice that she could share them with your customers. She was such an angel! ‘I’ll be there after I serve the customers.’

The promise earned a sweet smile from Soonyoung and it warmed your heart, but you had a job to do, so you quickly schooled your facial expressions and put on your customer service smile that was equally genuine, but in a different way.

As soon as the boy walked away from the counter, you turned towards the couple who took a step forward and took their order. You prepared them a medium iced tea and a large milk tea, then repeated the same process with four more people. You worked efficiently, hence it didn’t take that long. And you loved your job, so no matter how much you wanted to comfort Soonyoung at that moment, making sure that each and every customer got the best service you could offer didn’t feel like a bother at all.

It was Freefall’s policy that customers had to pick up their order at the counter. It was a must because your shop didn’t have any waitresses who could have walked around the customer area without the counter being left unsupervised. However, once you prepared a surprise Taro milk tea with bone-shaped jellies and tapioca pearls for Soonyoung, you decided to make an exception for him.

He had just gotten fired. Despite knowing from the beginning that it was a temporary job, he deserved some pampering. He loved being a manager at Coffee Carat.

‘Just so you know, you’re always welcomed here. Even after closing time. Even if you’re not a crazy, Halloween season-obsessed manager anymore,’ you teased when you placed the cup in front of him on the table.

He looked at the drink with wide eyes then shifted his gaze to you with an amused glint in those brown sugar orbs.

‘I was never!’ He linked his arms in front of his chest, pseudo-offended, but untied them soon, so that he could take the milk tea in his hand. Such a weirdo!

‘Sure, you were,’ you indulged him and patted his shoulder once, twice, three times before you walked back to the counter.

You tried not to stare at him while you were waiting for new customers, but regardless of your efforts, you saw the smile on his face when he took the first sip and that smug grin, too, that he shot in your direction when he left the bubble tea shop. He seemed happier.

He hadn’t visited you that night, but he came back to Freefall after closing time frequently in the following weeks. Without the illogical rivalry between you, there were less banters and more meaningful conversations passed around that filled the tranquil, past-sunset atmosphere while you were cleaning the shop. You got to know how close his relationship was with his family members and in exchange you explained to him why you had felt the need to move out from home despite staying in the same city where your parents and grandparents lived.

Your values were similar in many aspects, although you had your fair share of differences. For one, he couldn’t shut up while you were watching movies together and it got increasingly worse when it was something he had already seen. When he was around, it was impossible to not hear a spoiler every ten minutes, which meant that after the third time his rambles had gotten you frustrated, you had needed to come up with creative ways to soothe your urge to strangle him in a spoonful of water. Chips and popcorn were a must on those nights. He needed his mouth to be full to stay quiet.

You realised you were hopelessly gone for him nevertheless when your gossip sessions with Hoyeon started to involve your detailed reports about your not-date dates with the boy. You liked complaining about him in an endeared way to the older girl (mostly because she knew him personally, hence she considered both of your sides when she expressed her opinion) and listening to the older girl’s predictions about where your relationship was heading.

‘When’s your next day off?’ Soonyoung’s question reached your ears, pulling you back to the present. You looked up at him from the coffee machine, wondering when he could have arrived and just how deep you could have been in your thoughts that you hadn’t heard the bells above the front door.

‘Hm…’ you pondered, thinking through your schedule. You had promised your grandfather to supervise the restocking on Monday, but you were supposed to be free in the afternoon. ‘On Monday. Why?’

You put back the clean water container into the machine and wiped off the stray droplets from the counter.

‘Seungkwan, Chan and their girlfriends are going to an escape room date on Sunday. Was wondering whether we could join them, but it’s fine. Maybe, some other time,’ he said and took the mop in his hands with practised ease, getting to work immediately.

You let out a hum, chewing on your cheek from the inside as you were contemplating. The escape room date sounded fun and there were still three days until Sunday. Maybe, you could have made it work.

‘I’ll speak with grandpa. I might be able to make it work, but no promises,’ you said, earning a happy squeal from the boy. Seeing his obvious excitement, you linked your arms in front of your chest and shook your head. ‘Soonyoung, I said no promises,’ you reminded him in case he had misheard you, not wanting to put him into an uncomfortable position by cancelling the program at the last minute. It was better to be safe than sorry.

‘I know,’ he claimed, turning back to his work and breaking the silence within the next ten or so seconds.

As always, time flew quickly while you were filling the silence with mindless conversations. You asked him about the new choreo he was admittedly struggling with and you let him taste-test the new biscuit recipe you had a hard time perfecting. There was nothing unusual in your interactions: they were borderline shameless, flirty and light-hearted.

No wonder you were taken aback when Soonyoung hugged you from behind when you were about to grab your padded jacket and turn off the lights.

‘I really like you, you know?’ He murmured into the crook of your neck, his weight on your shoulders not too heavy, but slightly unpleasant after hours of working behind the counter. You couldn’t wait to stand under the shower head and let the warm water work its magic on the knots around your blade bones.

‘I had a feeling, but it’s always nice to hear,’ you teased, your answer playful and lacking any malice. You were confident that he knew you weren’t disregarding his feelings. You felt the same way.

The palm that slid over your tummy sent a pleasant shiver down your spine.

‘Can I kiss you? I’d like to kiss you,’ Soonyoung inquired and you furrowed your brows due to his unexpected straightforwardness. It wasn’t like you had never kissed before, but neither of you had initiated anything more than reenergizing hugs and coy hand-holdings since your friends’ wedding.

You turned around in his arms, so that you could see his eyes.

‘Is everything okay?’ You asked, worry lacing your voice, and he shook his head, blushing. You raised an eyebrow to dare him to refuse to give you an honest answer.

‘Jeonghan hyung said you are out of my league. That I better shoot my shot before someone steals you away from me,’ the boy whispered, clearly embarrassed. If he hadn’t looked so vulnerable, you would have teased him how easy it was to manipulate him, to influence his decisions. Like when he had apologised to you because Seungcheol had told him so even though he hadn’t been sorry.

However, Soonyoung was clearly in a fragile state of mind, so you brushed aside the memory and cupped his cheeks gently.

‘And since when is Yoon Jeonghan a qualified relationship expert?’ You asked, shaking your head in disapproval. ‘Of course, you can kiss me,’ you gave him permission and a bit of extra push as well when he didn’t act on desires right away.

Soonyoung’s lips were fluffy albeit a little chapped. The press against your mouth light as a feather until he finally overcame his shock and reciprocated the kiss.

A part of you - a tiny voice suspiciously akin to Hoyeon’s - wanted to ask him about labels as soon as you came up for air, but then he leaned in again and your thoughts became scrambled like a poorly made omelett. The night didn’t stay on the path you would have preferred it to take, but ended up being just as delicious.

When you arrived at your place half an hour later, you weren’t just sleeping in your bed and unlike you, he didn’t leave in the morning. Instead, he took you on a breakfast date.

➼ next reason

#seventeen scenarios #caratwritersclub #hoshi x reader #soonyoung x reader #hoshi x you #soonyoung x you #hoshi #ssbyme #seventeen series #coffee shop au

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romantichomicide95 · 2 months

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heyy😭 im a biggg fan of your work and was thinking of your fics while drawing so I drew megumi since hes ya boy

anyway your work is amazing and im so sorry all those anons are such assholes to you 🙏 you seem so sweet

the way my mouth literally went 😮😮😮 when i opened this. that’s literally the cutest thing ever that you thought of my stuff when making that and also it’s soooo good he looks so cute, i love his facial expression it’s so him <3

also thank you for saying that it means so much you have no idea 🤍

#megumi fushiguro #jujutsu kaisen

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run-me-through-but-not-like-that · 2 years

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Oh my god, that last fic with Izzy telling reader to call him Israel WAS!!!! SO!!!! CUTE!!!! I SWEAR YOU HAD ME SCREAMING THE ENTIRE TIME. Can we get a part 2 where Reader calls Izzy Israel in front of the others? Maybe they try to join in (perhaps to annoy Izzy?) and Reader tells them to stop bc they know this is important for Izzy? Maybe the crew starts to suspect there's ~SOMETHING~ between those two? (Sorry, I just love POV outsider, even for reader fics, lol)

Part 1 HERE!

Call me Israel Part 2:

Up on the quarterdeck of the Revenge stood Izzy, watching the crew down on the deck with his usual scowl. Still, you approached him with a familiarity that was rarely shown towards Blackbeard's first mate, and a mug of coffee in your hands.

"Morning, Israel," you greeted him. You noticed the way his shoulders relaxed as he turned his head to look at you, taking the place beside him.

"Roach mentioned that you had been up since dawn, before he even started on breakfast. Brought you some coffee," you explained, offering the mug out to him.

"Somebody has to be up to make sure we don't sink," Izzy grumbled, looking back out across the deck.

"All the more reason you deserve some coffee," you insisted, pushing the mug out towards him some more.

He sighed but accepted the mug. "Thanks," he mumbled before taking a sip. Pausing, nose scrunching up slightly, he took another sip and looked at you. "What did you do to it?" Just as you figured, he usually took his coffee plain and bitter.

"Calm down, Iz. I didn't poison it or anything, I added a bit of honey for sweetness," you assured him with a fond chuckle. Izzy just scoffed a little, but you caught him smiling into the rim of his mug as he took another generous sip. "Nothing wrong with a bit of sweetness, Israel. Drink up," you patted his shoulder affectionately before leaving to get on with your morning chores.

Fang had been the only other person up on the quarterdeck, his facial expression journey going unnoticed to you and the first mate as you spoke.

Most of the crew new Izzy's birth name, it wasn't like it was some big secret, but he has always gone by Izzy, so that's what they called him. Fang had never heard somebody call him Israel, maybe Blackbeard once back when he first joined their crew. Fang certainly hadn't dared to use the name. And yet...Izzy didn't gut you for your insolence.

Fang had been the only other person up on the quarterdeck. Which meant that the only person who could have ran their mouth about what they heard was, you guessed it, Fang.

Of course, the first person he told was Lucius. And, well, secrets don't usually remain secrets for very long when Lucius knows about it. A character flaw he is more than aware of.

And so it began.

"Was just getting to it, Israel," Black Pete smirked as he drew out the name, watching for Izzy's reaction. The cruel glare he received made him snap to attention, turning to finish the task that Izzy had ordered him to do.

"Morning, Israel, just finished up breakfast," Roach informed Izzy as he entered the galley one morning. The cook had laughed at Izzy's sneer, letting him know that he was definitely doing this on purpose. That the whole crew was.

"You sure I can't tempt you into being sketched, Israel," Lucius drawled, slightly sultry. That had been what pushed him over the edge. Lucius and his stupid fucking smirk as he used that name. Like he had any right too.

Izzy had snapped at him, throwing a threat or two in for good measure, before storming off. It wasn't the same as when you used the name. It felt mocking. It made him feel vulnerable, like the crew were prying into an aspect of him that he didn't want them anywhere near. It was you that he gave permission too, it was you that used the name with such tenderness and care. It was you who had cared about it. Made the name fit him correctly.

Fortunately, you had seen it all play out from the side-lines, frowning to yourself. This was why you had been concerned about using the name in front of the others. Now, you just wanted to make this right.

You had waited for dinner to say anything. When the crew would all be gathered together without Izzy or the captain's around, since the captains ate in their cabin and Izzy refused to eat with the crew (especially since they started calling him Israel like they had earnt it).

Grabbing your bowl of stew and a roll of bread, you sat at the end of the bench. The crew talked among themselves and, after a few moments of consideration, you interrupted them. You had already nearly finished your stew by then.

"Alright, listen up," you cleared your throat, placing your mug down heavily to get everyone's attention. "I know you love annoying Izzy, and I know that most of the time he deserves it, but please stop calling him Israel," ideally, they would just agree and you wouldn't have to say to much, but you knew that was very unlikely.

"Why? You call him that," the Swede frowned.

"Yeah...because he said I could. Gave me permission. It's...it's important to him, alright. Bother him about other stuff but this is off limits, okay?" you tried to argue, knowing that this would only open up more questions.

"Why would he tell you to call him that then? No offence," Roach asked, taking a bite of his roll.

"I don't know, he just did. You guys rile him up all the time but this is crossing a boundary, okay? You didn't know that before but you know it now, so please just...stop," you sighed, pushing the last of your stew around the bowl with disinterest.

"Yeah...yeah, we'll stop," Lucius nodded, his brow furrowed slightly. "He's a dick but it's not like we actually want to upset him," they liked to piss off Izzy because he pissed them off but he never said anything that upset them, even if he tried too. He supposed they could do the same towards him.

"Speak for yourself," Roach scoffed.

"Guys," you whined, dropping your spoon into the bowl.

"We promise," Frenchie assured you with a small smile.

"Thank you," you took a breath, standing from the bench. They watched as you tossed your bowl into the sink and left the galley.

"So...what do you think that was all about?" Oluwande asked, looking around the table. Jim just shrugged, disinterested in the whole thing.

"Yeah, like...if it's so important to Izzy, why would he tell them to call him that. Don't think I've even heard Blackbeard call him that," Black Pete pondered.

"Probably got a crush on them or something. He's always had a soft spot for them," Lucius suggested with a small shrug. Come to think about it, you had been spending more time with Izzy...

"Do you think there's like...something going on between them?" Fang questioned, looking to Lucius like he might have the answer. Ivan remained focused on his meal, not all that interested in getting involved in his boss' love life.

"Yeah, they were a little protective over him just then," Frenchie pointed out, "they clearly care."

"There's definitely something going on," Lucius concluded, humming curiously to himself.

"First person to find out what's going on does have to swab the deck for a week?" Wee John suggested with a smile.

Everyone agreed with various levels of enthusiasm. Even if they didn't care about what was going on between the two of you, they wouldn't mind getting out of swabbing the deck.

"May the best pirate win," Black Pete raised his mug, before leaning over to whisper to Lucius, "we've so got this, babe."

A couple of days passed since you warned the crew and you hadn't heard anyone using that name again. You hoped they had actually stopped using it, you couldn't help but feel a little guilty that they had only started using it because of you, even if Izzy had asked you too.

Knowing that Izzy was on watch this evening, you headed up onto the deck, finding him staring out at the sea. You walked over to the railings, light footsteps alerting him to your presence, and lent your elbows against it like he did.

"I know you told the crew to stop call me Israel," was the first thing Izzy said to you, barely glancing at you out the corner of his eye.

"I know it means a lot to you, that it's important. I promised I'd respect that. You don't want them using that name, so I won't let them," you gave a small shrug, as if to say it wasn't any bother for you.

"How did you get them to agree?" Izzy asked with a small frown, figuring you must have had to bribe the twats with something.

"Just told them it was important to you, that they were crossing a line. They like getting under your skin but they aren't cruel enough to poke at something that genuinely bothers you," you explained, that the crew weren't as bad as he thought them to be. "Like you said, it's not for them," you added.

"Only for you," he whispered into the evening breeze, and you couldn't help but smile.

"Can I ask you something? You don't have to answer," you watched his profile carefully, trying to read his expressions from one side of his face.

"Go ahead," he nodded once.

"Why don't you like people using your full name?" you asked.

Of course, you had heard Edward's reason, that Izzy found it too personal, too intimate, but you had never actually asked him.

Izzy sighed, possibly deciding how to explain it. He started with, "y'know how Ed doesn't like being call Blackbeard anymore?"

"Sure, says that's not who he is anymore, never was, I guess. With the crew, he just wants to be Ed," you nodded.

"We created Blackbeard, in a way, we created Izzy Hands too. It's not quite the same but it's a little similar, same idea. We put up walls, we did stuff to protect ourselves, to build the legacy," Izzy explained slowly, but you hung onto every word. "With the crew, Ed just wants to be Ed," he confirmed what you said before meeting your gaze, "with you, I just want to be Israel."

With a tender smile, you placed your hand on top of his where he gripped the railing, "and I only want you to be Israel. I quite like him."

Izzy rolled his eyes but still smiled. The hand he had against the railing turned around, gently taking hold of yours.

"Israel," you guided him to face you, pulling away from the railing, his hand still in yours.

He watched you, almost as if he was anticipating an attack, but his attention slowly softened into something more trusting, more comfortable. As he relaxed, his gaze dropped to your lips before shooting up to meet your eyes again.

Taking a step closer, you closed the distance between you both, leaning in to brush your lips over his. But you paused just before properly touching your lips to him. You waited. Letting him close the gap if he chose too.

Izzy let out a small breath but tilted his chin just right, pressing his lips to yours.

"Oh shit..." Pete whispered from his place crouched down behind a crate.

"I knew it," Lucius declared his victory, voice hushed, "how, hush babe, don't want to get caught."

Pete nodded, eyes wide as they both watched on.

The moon hung full, large, and bright in the sky, illuminating your silhouettes from behind as you stepped towards the first mate, meeting him in a tender kiss. A tenderness the crew didn't think him capable of.

Yet, Izzy was full of surprised, lifting his hand to cup your cheek, the pad of his thumb stroking over your cheekbone.

"C'mon, babe. We won, lets get outta here," Pete warned, knowing that if Izzy caught them spying they were as good as dead.

"Yeah, yeah, okay, babe," Lucius nodded, tearing his gaze away, before the two of them snuck off down into the ship and towards the bunks.

Up on the quarterdeck, hidden in the shadows, Frenchie and Wee John slowly removed their hands from each other's mouths. "We can't sneak past them," John observed. There was no way they could get down from the quarterdeck without being seen.

"Have to wait until they leave first," Frenchie agreed.

"Isn't Izzy on watch tonight?" John asked, earning a small groan from the bard.

"...crap...will have to wait until Buttons comes to relieve him," Frenchie concluded, not sounding too happy about it.

"Hey, at least we won the bet. No swabbing for a week," John grinned, looking on the bright side.

"Hell yeah!" Frenchie whisper-yelled, giving John a silent high-five.

Back down on the main deck, Izzy smiled to himself, content, as you rested your head against his shoulder. The two of you staring out at where the inky ocean met the starry sky.

#izzy hands x reader #israel hands x reader #izzy hands #ofmd izzy #ofmd #our flag means death

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wonda-fhr · 7 months

Text

Just a short sweet little moment. For my beloved curls. David and Ric are there, too. ^^

--------------

It had been far too long since David had stood in front of his own mirror. He brushed over the heavy wooden sink, he always thought he had no special connection to his apartment, but he had missed the wooden surfaces. But he wasn't there to get melancholic, he was there to pick up some things and take them back to Ric's home.

He was emptying his bathroom supplies out of the small cabinet when the scissors fell into his hands. For far too long the curls had been allowed to spread unchecked, it was time to put them in their place. The one that kept falling into his right eye he did not even want to endure until the evening. He started to arrange his hair in front of the mirror, scissors ready to use in his hand.

"What are you going to do?" Ric asked, poking his head curiously through the half-open bathroom door.

David smiled back at him lovingly, enjoying the feeling that they were here together and even more the knowledge that they would leaving together as well. "I just want to quickly cut this curl that keeps catching my eye."

With sheer horror on his face, Ric opened the door all the way and piled up next to the sink, trying to reach the scissors in David's hand. "Give it to me. Don't you dare cut that curl!"

Deftly, David's arm dodged each attempt to catch it, the scissors constantly out of reach. "It's bothering me."

"Not me!" was the prompt retort before Ric's arm closed around David's waist from behind, pulling him in while the other arm was still fishing for the scissors.

"It's not sticking in your eye!" David turned in Ric's arm to look into his eyes as that one curl hung demonstratively over his right eye.

Skillfully, Ric twisted his finger into the curled strand and drew David's attention to the mirror with a nod. "See that? How perfectly it fits around my finger? They all fit so perfectly around my fingers and hold me even when you're sleeping. I won't let you hurt them."

"They've grown way too long in the last few weeks." The arm around his waist pulling him close, the hand playing with his hair and the completely horrified look on Ric's face amused David far too much and he felt his resistance softening into a smile.

His counterpart, however, maintained a completely serious expression as he added a little more insistence to his request. "You wanted the beard, I want the longer curls. If your hair falls, mine will too!"

"That's blackmail!" Laughing in shock, David dropped the scissors in the sink and put both hands in Ric's face to run them through the short beard.

"You know damn well I'll stop at nothing to protect what I love." David would have liked to wipe the victorious grin off the bearded face, but hearing that he liked something about him, even if it was just a curl, made him melt in his arms every single time.

If he was going to lose the fight, the least he could do was level the playing field in his favor. "You'll need more than these three days of stubble to stop me. If you want more length, I'll get that too. Well groomed, and long enough that I can bury my fingertips in it. And I'll tame my curls with a hair clip, because facial hair is your part alone."

"Deal, we'll stop by the jeweler next and I'll buy you a nice clip." With a kiss, Ric sealed the deal and David looked forward to the moment when the still slightly prickly beard hairs would grow to a cuddly length.

#don't mind me #pure self indulgence #for my fevered brain #happy chargestep moment #david kingsley #wonda writes

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amazing-spiderling · 1 year

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So, for the ask thing, share a favorite thing with me, tell me all about it ^^

Hey, friend! Sorry for taking so long with these asks, I've been busy busy irl. :)

Soooo I'll tell you about my favorite comic artist! It's Alan Davis, who has been giving us the gift or some of the most graceful figures to show up on a comic book page.

His figures always capture movement and flow in a lovely way, and he has a knack for drawing different body types and facial expressions that are frankly elegant. This isn't the overly complicated linework of a lot of modern artists- but it still conveys so much. I fell in love with his artwork in the 90's while reading Excalibur, where I also fell in love with Nightcrawler, because in addition to being a great artist, Davis was also a great writer who showed the character a lot of care and respect.

As the years soldiered on and coloring techniques and technology became more advanced, Davis' art only looked more gorgeous.

The added glow of light brings another dimension of warmth to the illustrations that makes them SING, wouldn't you agree?

I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Davis at a convention one year (and get a sketch for myself) and he was very sweet and took some time to chat with me while he drew. The illustration of Nightcrawler I got is one of my favorite pieces of artwork that I own. :)

#alan davis #nightcrawler #thanks for the ask #excalibur #x-men #rachel summers

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we-pay-for-everything · 9 months

Text

Nancy Drew season 2, episode 12:

This is the Nace episode, right? Before seasons 3 and 4 at least. I don't know much about the fandom but it's agreed that this is when Nace became more tangible?

Honestly, there isn't much to it from Nace's perspective. What I like about the episode is Ace and his brother and their dad. The scene where Grant meets his dad is very moving. The actor who plays Ace's dad did such a good job! I loved his facial expression when they hugged and how he grabbed Grant by the back of his neck - that was really sweet. Imagine finding out you have a son, brother or father and then immediately being forced to part ways with them... Grant's life must be so lonely... Being in witness protection must be so scary and lonely... Ace was really sad to see his brother leave. It showed a different side to him, which I liked. I also like the care they put into this storyline. They introduced Grant as a side character episodes ago, and in episode 10 they showed Ace was super distracted and worried about meeting his brother. Instead of just dropping Grant on us, this storyline began way earlier and so it feels a lot more realistic and satisfying (though there isn't much of a followup to it...)

As for Nancy and Ace, their hug was touching. Nancy isn't very big on hugging, but she has been known to hug people after nearly losing them (like when George died). I like that Ace immediately hugged her back but was hesitant at the same time? I think Nancy's reaction surprised her and you can see that it's a turning point for her. But what Nancy did for Ace she would've done for anyone else. I don't know... They kind of took the easy way out, because between saving Ace, Grant's mom and the other witnesses, and letting a murderer walk and losing face, the second option is still better. She can find a new way to imprison Everett but she can't bring the dead back. Ace was really brave for insisting that she not hand over the list. But Nace is too subtle sometimes. I only pick up on the obvious!

#nancy drew #nancy drew cw #cw nancy drew #ace [redacted]#nace #ace x nancy

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nerd-at-sea5 · 11 months

Text

the last s2 chaos dump post. spoilers ahead

also i think i just lost my shit while watching this ep

oh all of his joy is abt to go away SO FAST

FUCK WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY????

LOTTIE BABES PUT DOWN THE POISON-

shauna. shauna. SHAUNA.

van tai nat the judge-y lesbians of all time <333

yeah lisa's dying.

TAISSA'S LITTLE THUMBS UP IM DYING I LOVE HER SO MUCH

hate to say it but misty's right lottie pls get some therapy

nat defending her wife (kinda?)

'we got over it' *taissa's head tilt* oh nat honey none of you got over it

oh my god the look of terror when misty tells lottie nat drew the queen

MISTY STOP FUCKING SMILING WTAF

SHE NEVER WANTED THIS!! THEIR MAKING A GOD OUT OF A GIRL WHO DOSEN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT SHE'S DOING!! AAAAA

ok technically shauna started the cannibalism

nat....MISTY STOP LYING WTF OH TAIVAN :))

#letnataliescatorcciodecksomeone1996

ok no give him time to greive.

....at least their taking off his clothes first?

thank you natalie

HAND SHAKING HAND SHAKING. REMORSE OR WANT???

do not. do this. while fucking. blindfolded.

and after all of it, van is still squimish about blood....gonna sob

van is making some painfully good points rn

she's dulling down the knifes...SCRATCHED OUT EYES.

jeff YOU are on tv...callie's facial expressions alone i love her-LMFAO SHE KNOWS EXACTLY WHERE THE GUN IS-

KILL THE CREEPY COP!! LET THE WILDERNESS DECIDE IT.

nat's trying to protect lisa....she's so dead!!! oh my god nat and lisa im gonna s o b

BEN BAD FUCKING TIMING ALSO GOOD GOD THATS A LOT OF BLOOD-

he wants to go with her because he think she's not like them but she wont let herself go with because she thinks SHES WORSE.

van's minor case of insanity should not be as hot as it is.

ok she's phrasing it weirdly but she has a point

walter's gonna kill kevyn.

HAHA I KNEW IT

'are you one of the cult people' 'no i'm from the shire'

HA JEFFREY.

his heart is so small....OH SWEET FUCKING LORD.

yeah ok ive gotta fast forward that. DUDE IT WAS RAW.

misty i'm rlly not liking you rn

van just kicking the fire ily

FUCK CALLIE NO RUN. OH SHE HAS A GUN. SHOOT HIM.

vannnnnnnnn OH she wants to die-nvm.

it's gonna be nat i stfg and im gonna die

this gives me to much anxiety oh good god. lottie??

NO NOT AGAIN.

SHAUNA????????????

fucking hell.

WALTER KILL HIM.

CALLIE SADECKI GODDAMN

'it was vans idea' *the face of bitch pls*

AYE VAN PRINCESS BRIDE NERD CANON.

ben?

oh lottie-wait i wanna hear van's story....

it's van or nat. nvm it's nat. CALLED IT.

FUCK NATALIE OK-

lottienat pls makeout NOW challange. BOTH timelines.

IM SO SORRY NAT BABE THAT IS THE FACE OF GAY PANIC

ben watching like: i do not understand lesbians, also. i want to die.

nat you want to kiss her so bad, ur also having a midlife crisis at 17

omfg akilah's little curtsy and the way she and nat smile at each other

misty it was cute but the way ur looking at her makes me think you want to kill her

fuck. damnit lisa.

misty if you do this i will forever hate you.

SHIT NAT'S DYING-

yep. misty i hate you. idgaf if it was an accident.

JAVI??

just when she wanted to live. SHES NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE.

pls tell me shes got like a tolerance to this stuff?? pls.

SHIT HELLO SOPHIE THATCHER.

IM SHAKING OH MY GOD

'this is exactly where we belong' no, no you deserve to live you just haven't realized it yet.

LOTTIE?!?!!? IM HAVING A FUCKING STROKE

jesus the way she's smiling at her. she just wants to help!!

fuck she's actually dead.

i am so fucking furious right now.

god van's entire face is just 'it's supposed to be me.'

FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WAHT THE FUCK BEN WHAT THE FUCK IT WAS BEN

van palmer i should not find this hot.

VAN GET THE FUCK OUT

hey at least their warm now right

#yellowjackets #yellowjackets spoilers #natalie scatorccio #nat scatorccio #van palmer #vanessa palmer #taissa turner #shauna shipman #misty quigley #travis martinez #javi martinez #ben scott #lottie matthews #gen yellowjackets #akilah yellowjackets

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makos-hotbox · 1 year

Text

SMALL FONT VER.

.! 𝔠𝔥𝔢𝔢𝔰𝔶 !.

— “ I know I'm feeling so much more, than ever before. “

— “ And so I'm giving more to you, than I thought I could do! “

The black pen smudged on the paper slightly as you finished writing your signature. A small lovely note written for your boyfriend who was being deployed again. You had drawn and sketched out a bunch of pictures for König while he was home.

Whenever you two would be sitting with each other in silence, you would usually whip out your notebook and start drawing the beautiful large man. Making sure to always include the smallest of details because that’s what you loved about König.

Stacking up the various sheets of paper with the note to König on top, you stapled them together and hid them in his bag for him to find later.

Later that day, the two of you kissed each other goodbye as König made his way to work. And you internally hoped he would be able to come back again.

!!!

A frustrated König stomped his way into his room, hands ruffling through his bag in hopes to find literally anything that would help calm him down. He had done some training today to make sure he wasn’t rusty after being home longer than usual, and none of it had gone well. He missed multiple easy snipes in the shooting range and even pulled a few muscles during combat stuff. He was pissed.

Growing even more frustrated that he couldn’t find what he wanted from his back, he lifted the whole thing and turned it upside down, emptying the bag onto the floor. König’s eyes immediately landed on a stapled stack of papers, noticing the familiar signature on the bottom of the top page.

Grabbing the papers, he quickly began to settle down. Reading the note you had written for him. Boasting about your love for the large man and how much he meant to you. That you wished he would come safe.

That was a great thing to hear for König. You wanted him to come home. Sweet you, the love of his life, you. König’s demeanor changed completely now, he was relaxed and gushing silently over your fantastic words. You had him wrapped around your finger and he didn’t care one bit.

König began to turn through the pages. There were some messy pencil sketches of König sitting in different positions. Different facial expressions and even full artwork of him. It made him feel kind of confident in himself. You drew this, you drew him. He didn’t think he could fall in love anymore than he already has.

Shuffling to the last of the pages, a fully inked and colored version of König took up the whole paper. It was badass, he was in his gear with his mask and everything, even his gun. He fucking loved it and wanted to frame it on the wall when he got home. And on the final page was another full art of König, but this time with you. The reference was from a picture you had taken for your anniversary, but it looked the exact same. The two of you sitting next to each other as you placed a surprise kiss on König’s cheek. Your friend had taken the picture while they were stalking your dinner date and called it the cutest thing ever. Especially since König looked absolutely ecstatic.

König couldn’t help but smile at the picture in his hand, feeling a slight tease of emotion coming in. But how could he not? He missed you. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to him. He just wants to go home. To tell you how much he loves the art you always make for him, and how much he loves you as well. Call him cheesy but as long as you always draw these pictures for König, he will be the cheesiest man alive.

REQUESTS :: OPEN

#largefont.duplicate

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archiveikemen · 2 years

Text

‘Sweet Newlywed Life’ Story Event — Chapter 01 [Yoshitsune Route]

I do not own any of the content being uploaded on this blog, everything belongs to CYBIRD. Please support them by downloading and playing their games.

read this before interacting with my posts

This is a story about a future that will one day come true ——

(…Mm)

It was morning and I slowly opened my eyes.

The first thing I saw was the peaceful sleeping face of the man I loved.

(He looks so comfortable…)

How many times have I woke up to Yoshitsune’s face like this after we started dating?

But it was different this morning.

Feeling the gentle beating of his heart, I peered into his sleeping face glowing in the morning sunlight.

(It still doesn’t feel real…)

We got married last night and had our first night together as a married couple.

(We’re really married… Yoshitsune is my husband now…)

Yuno: … Hubby?

I said in a small voice so as not to wake Yoshitsune up.

It still felt strange and embarrassing to call him that.

(I think it’s going to take me quite a while to get used to it.)

I felt my cheeks burning and hid my face in the pillow.

Yoshitsune: … Did you call me? Yuno.

I immediately looked up and saw Yoshitsune staring at me with half-asleep eyes.

Yuno: Were you awake?

Yoshitsune: Your voice woke me up.

Yoshitsune: I heard you call me ‘hubby’.

Yuno: O-Oh.

His soft smile made me blush even more.

(I can’t believe he heard that…)

I noticed that Yoshitsune’s face had also turned a pale shade of red.

(… It’s rare to see Yoshitsune embarrassed.)

Unable to stand the awkwardness any longer, I buried my face in Yoshitsune’s chest.

(I’m so happy that we’re married now… but I can’t felt but feel a little shy.)

The sweet and sour feeling that filled my heart was new to me.

Yoshitsune chuckled and pulled me into a gentle embrace.

Yoshitsune: I remember the first morning we spent together.

Yoshitsune: It was the same back then… no, maybe it’s better now.

Yuno: I feel the same way…

(He also thinks that this morning is special.)

Yoshitsune: Oh I just realised that I haven’t said good morning to you yet.

I could feel Yoshitsune’s breath on my ear ——

Yoshitsune: Good morning, my newly wedded wife. You look even lovelier than usual this morning.

His voice was sweet and he sounded so happy.

Yuno: Good morning… my husband.

Yoshitsune: …Mmhmm.

Our lips overlapped as he drew me in for a kiss.

Yuno: Mm…

He didn’t stop showering me with kisses, as if he were dreading the end of our morning together.

(It’s time for us to wake up and get ready for the day… but I want to stay like this for a little longer.)

In the room with the morning sun shining in, we enjoyed a blissful morning together.

Afterwards, we got dressed and joined everyone else in the main hall.

Yuno: Today’s breakfast is more extravagant than usual…

I sat down at the table with the others and looked at the wide spread of dishes.

Yoichi: Looks like Benkei was too enthusiastic about making breakfast.

Benkei: It wasn’t just me. Everyone else in the kitchen was the same.

Sueharu: All the ingredients used were top-grade.

Kurama: I don’t get why you have to go through that much trouble when it’s all going into your stomachs and coming out as poop anyway.

Benkei: Shut it, Kurama.

Yuno: But these dishes are all really delicious.

Glancing next to me, I saw that Yoshitsune was enjoying his meal more than usual.

(Maybe it’s because the food was made with everyone’s blessings, so his appetite is better.)

Yoichi: Lord Yoshitsune, how’s the food?

Yoshitsune: Oh it’s delicious.

(He looks so happy.)

I could tell from his facial expression, and it made me glad to see him smiling.

Benkei: Lord Yoshitsune just woke up, but he’s still eating so much…!

Yoichi: Is he sleepwalking?

Sueharu: He’s even eating his vegetables.

Yoshitsune finished every dish he was served for breakfast.

Yoshitsune: Thanks for the meal.

Yoshitsune: Every dish was really good.

Yoshitsune: Most importantly, I could feel everyone’s genuine blessings. Thank you.

Benkei: I’ll let everyone in the kitchen know. I’m sure they’ll be glad to hear that.

As I watched them with a smile on my face, Kurama got curious.

Kurama: Yoshitsune seems to have a bigger appetite today. Why is that?

Yuno: Well… maybe it’s because today’s breakfast is a little special.

Yoichi: That’s right. It’s special for Lord Yoshitsune and Yuno.

Sueharu: They will only experience this once in their lifetime.

Kurama: … Oh?

Kurama: In that case, have this, Yoshitsune. Eat up.

Kurama picked up the leftover konjac on his plate and placed it on Yoshitsune’s.

Yoshitsune: Thanks, Kurama.

Benkei: Please don’t thank him for that, Lord Yoshitsune.

Benkei: Kurama, you’re only giving that away because you dislike it. Stop being so picky with your food.

I couldn’t stop giggling at their exchange.

(This lively atmosphere feels pretty nice.)

Thinking about how much time I’ve spent with Yoshitsune and the others was making me emotional.

(By the way, Yoshitsune really did eat a lot this morning. I ate more than my usual portion too.)

(Oh right. I want to prepare something for them, to express my gratitude for their well wishes.)

Yuno: Lord Yoshitsune, if it’s alright, I’d like to be the one cooking tonight’s dinner.

Yoshitsune: You?

Yoshitsune’s eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected suggestion.

Yuno: I’d like to cook for everyone as a way to thank them. Will that be alright with you?

Yoshitsune: Of course it is. I’ll never stop you from doing what you want to do.

Yoshitsune: And… I’m looking forward to eating your cooking.

My heart fluttered when I heard the little hint of joy in his voice.

(Looks like I’ll have to do my best to meet his expectations!)

Yoichi: The two of you are already married, and yet you’re still lovey dovey like a new couple.

Sueharu: I mean, it’s only been a day since they got married after all.

Yuno: Yoichi and Sueharu…

Their teasing made me slightly embarrassed.

As heat rose in my cheeks, Yoshitsune rested his hand on mine ——

Yoshitsune: Let’s go shopping for ingredients together.

#ikemen genjiden #ikegen story event #ikemen series #cybird ikemen #otome #cybird otome

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tomwaterbabies · 2 years

Note

I'd like to know if you could share some of your favorite art that you drew? since you have fantastic drawings 😊

you're very sweet, thank you! favorite pieces Of All Time would be too hard to pick i think so i'll share some of my (somewhat recent) favorite pieces ive done.

(DISCLAIMER: apparently there's quite a few i wanted to share so. sorry about the fact that there's 14 down below. lol)

^one of my first attempts with my new toned sketch style. and the first thing i drew this year! getting expressions/posing just the way i imagined is always a rare treat for me LOL so im also really happy with that still

^probably my favorite ive done with one of my Other new styles (semi-lineless painting) (along with the first i did with my favorite oc lol) kind of funny to have this as one of my favorites. like of course one of these answers would be pinocchio. but i really like this style because i try not to use any effects like glow or multiply. all the shading, highlights, and stuff like that here is just regular paint

^more disney... sigh. well these ones are sentimental because i love these guys and drew the first one on my bday which was also when this parade debuted at disneyland again. ive been called insane to have done that one entirely in one day but honestly that just makes me happy because i think ive really developed a good process for sketches like this to make them look nice AND to enjoy making them. the other was made after the last show of said parade and it was just fun to draw a bunch of characters interacting while trying to keep them in character

^too embarrassed to say what this is other than it's insane oc/canon art BUT i really love this new toned sketch style i do as i said above. and the left one came out nice i think! particularly fond of the wings and facial expressions! and the second one... well i really think it's just one of the best ive done of this character. his hair and proportions on his features just came out so well... ok im gay moving on

^dont even remember if this was this year or not but let's pretend it is. this one is self-explanatory i think. BIG lineup (for me anyway) and it's of the party from my first ever dnd campaign! very special

^these ones look simple but they both show things that became SO much more. the first one... it's a catalyst. the start of making what was originally just a COMPLETE joke character into one of my favorite ocs. a treasure. isnt he cute :3c and then the second one is my character i made for a custom ttrpg which ended up being one of the best EVER!!!!!!!! augh. a brilliant campaign made by my very talented friend that ive shared a bit of here

^idk this is just a cool prompt im proud of. "draw your ocs in fairytales/folktales" and i went mad (i love fairytales/folktales) and just did a bunch of them. in my painting style. can u guess which story is which (little hooded cloak man has the most niche one)

^pinocchio madness has done a few positive things for me. one, this oc my friend and i made for pinocchio is so precious, i really love their relationship and they bring me so much joy. but ive also developed my skills with expressiveness by studying and drawing disney's pinocchio. these are good examples of posing and expressions im really happy with (can u tell im really focused on expressions LOL). also pinocchio helped me get back to animation work??? wild

^i am pretty much always happy with how my "screenshot" styled pieces turn out, but this is the most recent one! glad to share this one too since it is literally fanart of the efteling which is that themepark im not normal about

OK IM STOPPING NOW. THANK U

#asks #my art

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