#there was a list of words somewhere I bet it's in my bookmarks from two years ago
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what if i fucked around and expanded my vocabulary
#there was a list of words somewhere I bet it's in my bookmarks from two years ago#post post ban post#room temp
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Ultimate taekook rec (pt.1??)!
Hello friends! Quarantine has a lot of us stuck inside so I’m gonna try and keep the fic recs comin and hopefully give y’all something to enjoy while we all stay home :) Taekook is one of my fav ships, I think their personalities fit really well and they are such a fun pair. All of these fic are from ao3 and they’re usually a little on the long side but I’ll throw in some short one-shots as well! This will likely be a pt1 bc i have soooo many taekook bookmarks on ao3. Let’s get started! (I have another BTS fic rec here if you would like more things to read!)
Bite Me by Curionenene, YeonAh
Summary: “Ho… Hoseok… my na- Ju-Jung Hoseok. Who— what…?”
On hindsight, maybe it wasn't the best idea to reveal your name to two lunatics who had fed you something from a blood bag at 11.54 pm in the middle of a quiet, isolated alleyway.
"Hoseok? Nice to meet you, Hoseok. I'm Kim Namjoon, and this is Kim Seokjin. Do you remember what happened to you?"
“I—”
“Seriously. Just tell him like I did you. It's like pulling off a band-aid, better fast than slow.”
A heavy sigh was Namjoon's response to Seokjin's interjection. "I think this is a bad idea, but alright. Hoseok, you nearly… well… you did die. I saved your life the only way I could. By turning you into a vampire."
On hindsight, maybe it was a really, really, really bad idea.
One unfortunate near-death later, Hoseok finds out a few things: One, vampires are real. Two, they don't sparkle. Three, a war is brewing and he's landed in the middle of it.
Or: AU in which Hoseok screams a lot
okay so I love this fic to the ends of the earth and back. It starts out as Hoseok centred when he is turned into a vampire but then starts to focus on other characters and storylines as well. The Taekook in this is very slow burn but seeing the evolution of their relationship killed me. This fic reads like a full ass novel and I highly highly recommend giving it a read.
refrigerator humming, chewing gum and instant karma by locks
Summary: Taehyung sets the flowers down on the dining table, plucking the card off the little holder. "Dearest Taehyung, just wanted you to know that I'm thinking about you. I hope you're thinking about me too. Love--" he pauses and squints before cocking an eyebrow and pursing his lips. "Hyung, why is the boss of your little boy band gang professing his love for me?"
Yoongi drops the noodles on the floor with a loud curse as he burns his hand.
Or, Taehyung's been trying his hardest to avoid Yoongi's criminal life for a long ass time, but a cute kid and his infuriating father keep pulling him deeper into the mix.
Mob boss JK but soft mob boss with his son I cannotttt. Watching the evolution of Tae and JK’s relationship was hella cute and fun. Also taekook with kids is just so soft omggg.
cuz in a sky full of stars (i think i saw you) by wowoashley
Summary: taehyung always has bad ideas. and jeongguk thinks this might be the best.
Proposal AU!! Jungkook needs a guest to bring to the Namjin wedding and it seems like his assistant Taehyung is just the man for the job. This is so sweet but angsty near the end, honestly so goodddd.
maybe we’re all just fools by airplanewishes
Summary: Jeongguk likes to run. He’s never wanted anyone to run with him before.
Fake dating AU! Jungkook’s on the school track team and his mother is bothering him about dating someone which JK really doesn’t wanna do so that’s where Tae comes in. Honestly it’s hella cute but also hella angst, highly recommend.
cliff drop gradient by astringxnt
Summary: “somewhere along the way, we will all realize that we only start chasing the things that we were once given a taste of.”
(or, in which Jungkook and Taehyung get married to qualify for more financial aid.)
Weeee love fake dating AUs in this house. Basically Taekook need money so they get married but nothing really changes at first, but then they start to realize their feelings for each other :))
let me know by wowoashley
Summary: taehyung never wears a shirt
JK moves into an new home and his neighbour just happens to be Taehyung. Through this, JK goes on a journey to discovering he is attracted to Tae and it’s really good but angst w/ a happy ending.
Cinnamon Crisp by teatimetaemint
Summary: Jungkook needs his daily dose of cuddles and Taehyung likes to wear Jungkook's clothes. They don't care that alphas and omegas aren't supposed to be best friends.
SO MUCH FLUFF. Im not a huge ABO lover but this is such a sweet story and they care about each other sm it warms my heart. Childhood friends to lovers is also one of my weaknesses sooo.
Date Me by flywithtaetae (kimtaehyungs)
Summary: Taehyung flirts with the cute high school boy and relishes in the flustered reaction he gets for almost an entire year. But when the following year comes along, he finds himself choking on his own words.
One of the only shorter fics on this list and omgggggggggg it sooooo cuteeeeee.
I knew I loved you then (but you’d never know) by nutaella
Summary: 'You asked me to the store with you and your child, and now my distant relative we met thinks I'm married with a baby' AU
Another shorter one but its so sweet. Jungkook has a little bb son and Taehyung is helping his bestie raise his son and they get mistaken for a couple.
beep boop by vvpa
Summary: Taehyung’s gaydar is broken. Maybe. Probably, at least. Jungkook can’t really tell.
This one was so funny omgggggg. Its short but so wholesome and funny as hell I actually laughed out loud.
15.30 - Appointment: Kim Taehyung for Jeon Jeongguk (genital piercing) by PaperTigerBlackAndWhite
Summary: Taehyung makes a bet, the forfeit of which is getting his dick pierced.
He loses the bet.
Good thing the piercer has nice eyes. And face. And hands. Not so nice that he seems to keep laughing at Taehyung, but you can't have everything.
This one is also hilarious omg. Tae getting his dick pierced was never something I thought I would read but here we are. Warning, this has a lot of smut so if that’s not your thing don’t read.
You’re So Special by miniimin
Summary: Sometimes you find your soulmate in the form of a dirty kid on the playground. Sometimes it takes a little longer to figure it out, but that's okay - in the meantime, you have a best friend.
(Or: Jeongguk falls in love before he knows what the word means. Taehyung spends all his years teaching him.)
This is one of the absolute sweetest fics I have ever read. It follows Tae and Kook as they grow up from little kids to uni and its so sweet. If u want something wholesome and makes u feel things, read this.
Fall Asleep (Fall For You) by drannie
Summary: “They say when you fall in love you can’t fall asleep, but now that I’ve met you I feel like I finally can.”
A University AU where Jungkook and Taehyung become roommates. But Jungkook has insomnia and can't fall asleep with other people and Taehyung can't fall asleep alone.
oh boi is the angst real w/ this one. It is one of the best taekook fics on ao3 for a reason. I highly recommend giving this one a read.
Chemistry by taecheeks
Summary: “What’s your zodiac sign?”
“Virgo,” Jungkook responds without thinking. He frowns, glaring. “Why?”
“Hm, I can work with that,” Taehyung says. “I’m a Capricorn.”
“Fascinating. Now back to Chemistry -”
“Isn’t that what I was talking about?”
[Or, Jungkook just wants to get his tutoring sessions with the President's son over with. Taehyung just wants to get his cute tutor under him.]
This one is longgggggg. Basically JK tutors Tae and everything progresses from there. Honestly this fic has a lot of elements to it and I really just love it. It deals with a lot of different themes like child abuse, panic attacks, and many other things so if any of that upsets you, this fic may not be done for you. The entire series is is really cute tho plz read.
fever started long ago by thestarsabove
Summary: Where there is love, there is warmth. Where there is honesty, there is relief.
In which Taehyung eats a magical fortune cookie and wakes up physically dependent on Jeongguk’s body heat.
A canon compliant fic rec and boi is it will written. Basically tae becomes dependent on JK’s body heat which ik sounds weird but its a really goof fic trust.
maybe we’re fireproof by thestarsabove
Summary: For as long as Jeongguk can remember (and even before that too), his body has been on fire.
Same author as the fic above and just as amazing. Not canon compliant this time and this now JK has problems w/ body heat. Hella recommend this author is fantastic.
Dogs Days by vestals
Summary: Chopa the corgi needs to be sent to dog school, and it just so happens that his trainer is, in Kim Taehyung's opinion, the finest man out there.
Too bad he's already got a boyfriend.
Okay so this one I was skeptical to read but I’m real happy I did. This fic was sooo good, the build up was killer and I really enjoyed it. There is quite a bit of smut in this one, you have been warned.
It’s gonna be you (I can’t let go) by OnlyWinterHere
Summary: "The sound of the crowd screaming is deafening. After four years, he should be used to it, but today he needs silence more than ever. Still, Taehyung smiles, because if there's something he's learned how to do is smiling even when he feels like dying."
Or the one where Jungkook gets a girlfriend and Taehyung can't cope.
This one hurttttttttt. If you are in the mood for some angst and sadness here is the fic for you. Happy ending tho and honestly it’s a really good fic. Also the yoomin spinoff is *chef’s kiss*.
5 millimeters per fucking second by Curionenene
Summary: Jungkook is painfully shy and he wants to do things with his boyfriend Taehyung.
(Or: the kind of slow burn you never knew you needed.)
AWWW this one is the sweetest omgggg. This brings an entirely new meaning to slow burn and it is so precious I can’t.
i wanna come put your lips on mine by locks
Summary: Taehyung glances over at him and with the light hitting the side of his face, throwing shadows over his face, Jeongguk can't bring himself to be that bothered about their date. Sure being alone would have been nice, but he thinks this is nice, too. He's with Taehyung, they got their dinner and movie. Just maybe next time they hopefully won't have his brothers as chaperones.
And when Taehyung puts his head on Jeongguk's shoulder later, he can't bring himself to be that mad at all, actually.
Or, it turns out Taehyung and Jeongguk share the same brothers: Fraternity for Jeongguk, and for Taehyung, well, blood.
This is another sweet fic. JK and Tae trying to date behind Tae’s brother’s backs is kinda hilarious and adorable.
Well folks that’s it for now but I have so many more so if y’all are interesting in a pt.2 let me know!! I hope you love these fics as much as I did. If you want other ship recs let me know and I’ll try my best to accommodate! Stay safe and healthy everyone!
#taekook#vkook#kim taehyung#jeon jeongguk#jeon jungkook#bts#bts fic#bts fic rec#taekook fic rec#taekook fic#ao3#bangtan sonyeondan#bangtan#fanfiction#fanfic#fic rec
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self-care 101 (covid-19 period)
Since we’ve rolled round to another May bank holiday, I thought it’d be nice to share some tips with you. As a homebody, and someone who will do absolutely ANYTHING to avoid one specific boring activity, I’ve racked up quite a long list over the past few years. Obviously, I’m no professional - but I find these help. There’s no specific chronological order to these - just pick and choose as you like!
Get out of bed!
Or lie in if you need to. Whatever makes you feel good
Start off the day with some yoga or meditation, or basic stretches
Or pray for a bit if you’re religious
Make your bed: tuck your sheets in, rearrange your pillows, etc.
Brush your hair and tie it up nicely
Pick out a cute outfit - could even be your favourite PJs - and lay it out
Go take a soothing shower, or a bubble bath
Use a bath bomb, get some nice candles if you feel like it
Put on some nice music to relax to
Try out a new hairstyle or style your hair the way you would if you had somewhere to be!
Slap on some makeup, why not? :)
Floss your teeth, or maybe use that teeth whitening formula you never picked up again after using it for the first time
Pick out a recipe for a hair mask or face mask and put it on
Before doing any of these, make sure they suit your hair & skin type
E.g. if you have frizzy and dry hair, use a moisturising and rejuvenating mask vs if you have sleek, straight hair - use a volume-enhancing mask. Same goes for your skin - evaluate whether you have dry skin, oily skin or combination
Stick to the recommended leave in time! It can be extremely difficult to get out later otherwise
Or make your own mask! There’s tons of recipes on YouTube and Google :)
Make yourself a nice breakfast
Breakfast smoothies are amazing! A really simple recipe I use contains a few spoonfuls of oats, handful of fruits (e.g. blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes), honey / sugar by taste and yogurt.
Or a nice bowl of your favourite cereal
Avocado toast - there are so many different varieties of this online, and I bet you’ll find that you like.
A fruit salad!
Eggs done the way you like
A full English if you’re feeling ambitious
Workout for an hour or so
This doesn’t have to be really equipment intense or challenging if you don’t want it to be
Some YouTubers I recommend: Chloe Ting, Emi Wong, Fitness Blender, MadFit, Blogilates, Yoga with Adrienne, etc.
Don’t over exert yourself. Take longer than the recommended break time between exercises if you need to
Grab a new book, or a book you just enjoy reading
You can browse through Spotify for any playlists to listen to while reading - or use a playlist of songs you like
Listen to some music you like
Or discover some new music using Spotify’s ‘Discover’ feature
Preferably something that lifts your mood!
Pick out a recipe you’ve been meaning to try and just make it!
Dance around the house to some music
This can also be a sort-of-workout!
You can try learning a routine
TikTok dances are so stupidly fun
Maybe get a friend on vid-call and learn a dance with them
Make some TikToks
Or duet some on the app!
Get out a new bottle of wine - it’ll make you feel boujie ;)
Or your drink of choice - I’m not big into alc so I usually love a cool mint lemonade or iced coffee
Sit outside if the weather is nice
Or even if it’s rainy! I particularly love rainy days
Go for a walk around your neighbourhood
Do some grocery shopping! It can be surprisingly fun when you’re in no rush - plus, that’s a task off your future to-do list
Go meet a friend - stand at least 2m away and have a chat
Or text/ call your family / friends
Houseparty is great to use because it’s got games that you can play together if you’re not big on talking
Watch that TV series / movie you’ve been trying to get round to
Play with your pet, if you have one!
Do a cute lil photoshoot
Put on a nice outfit and take some nice pictures using the timer
Pictures with your pet
Or take pictures of your surroundings when outside
Or of the new dish you’ve impulsively made
Grab a pretty notebook
Start a bullet journal
Or a diary!
Do some journalling using journal prompts online
One really simple activity I really like is writing out 3 things that made my day :)
If you’re a poet or writer - write write write!
Maybe take the first step towards starting a blog (like I did last week, aha)
Play a musical instrument
Or pick up something you haven’t played in a while
Try learning some basic chords online
Or just play your favourite music if you’re a professional
Sing along to your music!
Search up some online webinars and virtual events to attend
Lots of professional webinars on LinkedIn, even Facebook at times
Live museum and art gallery tours on Google!
Try some meditation
Headspace is a great freemium app, among others
Use a guided meditation from YouTube
Create a Pinterest account and start making boards
These can be pretty pictures
Or things you’ll have in your future house
Workout routines
Even more self-care recommendations
Sketching
There’s this activity where you put your playlist on shuffle and draw what comes to your mind when you hear each song
Or just search up an image online and draw it
Doodle in your bullet journal / book if you have one
Embroider/ stitch some of your old clothes
Plenty of tutorials online!
You can stitch in some cute images :)
Try a new podcast
There are so many to explore on Spotify under the Podcasts section
Or watch something on YouTube
Learn something new if you feel like it
Pick up a subject area of interest and search it up on YouTube
You’ll get so many results!
Reorganise your house / room
Put on some music to jam along to while doing this!
Vacuum
Or just tidy all those papers off the desk
Reorganise your drawers
Fold your clothes
Dust any surfaces - super satisfying!
Maybe spice up your furniture placement
Try moving things around - be careful not to strain yourself
Do some laundry maybe
Yawn, but can be satisfying once you’ve done it!
Purge your wardrobe of any old clothes
You can donate them to charities
Or sell them on apps like Depop
Do some online shopping
Be careful not to spend too much though! :)
Download a photoprint app and get some pictures printed
There’s a lot of apps that offer you __ amount of free prints with delivery costs - not a bad deal!
You can finally make a photowall / collage
Try some scrapbooking
Get out some old newspapers and magazines and cut out any pictures of words that particularly catch your eye
Make pretty lil collages or spreads with them
Reorganise your digital folders
E.g. bookmarks on Chrome
Saved folders on Insta
Email folders
To Do lists
Give them pretty names so you’re more likely to use them in future
Catch up on some much needed sleep
Afternoon cat naps are actually lovely!
Make yourself some tea or coffee and just sit by the window with some music
Cliché and niche, but makes you feel calmer!
Try some chai recipes online if you’re into relatively milky tea or trying out new recipes
I’m not a big fan of chai ^ which is surprising as an Indian, but my family and friends love it soo
Do something with your family / roommates
Movie night!
Group dinners (even better - themed dinners!)
Or a fine dining wine night (bonus points if you dress up!)
Board games night
Or just games night e.g. charades, Headbandz, Psych (app)
DnD - never tried it but sm people have recommended it!
Make some TikToks
Sit around and chat
This is random but you can make PPTs about things you like and present them to each other - good for shit n giggles :)
Play an old online game e.g. Fireboy and Watergirl!
Create each other in the Sims
Organise some friendly competitions :)
Truth or Dare?
Look at star sign stuff with them - whether you believe or not, it’s an interesting thing to do nonetheless
Do Enneagram tests - extremely interesting and scarily accurate from my personal experience
Experimental cocktails maybe!
Some DIY arts and crafts!
Pitch a tent outside
Or make a pillow fort inside
Speaking of which - pillow fights!
Karaoke night
Or set up your own club - make a playlist, get some strobe lights or turn off the lights and get everyone to switch on their phone flash and just dance around. Get some drinks if you want as well!
Have a BBQ - great to do especially in the afternoons or early evenings!
Have a date night if it’s just the two of you :)
Have a picnic outside
Text someone something nice!
Win-win for the sender and the recipient :)
Great chance to reconnect with someone
Cleanse your devices & social media profiles
Change your profile pictures, bios
Archive / delete some pictures (we’re all guilty of this)
Maybe restart your account if you haven’t used it in too long, have too many random followers or just want to start afresh
Check your phone storage and delete stuff accordingly
Change your wallpaper / theme
Back up old pictures and delete them off your device
And that’s my list for now! I might add to it later if something comes to me but I hope you guys enjoy this! :)
Image credits:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/151574343695926876/
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/579627414531062674/
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/AQzIfTN5EwSc9JESrIo1l8AQw6cznXq2HLFq_SQk6La00-yL2As1QnY/
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/499055202462999051/
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/328481366576228467/
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/6262886962801682/
#mental health#selfcare#self love#ideas#tips#happy#happiness#positivity#self postivity#bored#selfquarantine#covid#quarantine#thingstodo#refreshing#activities#covid-19#home & lifestyle#lifestyle#lifestyle blog#aesthetic#in the house bored#self help#postivity post#✨
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I Fancy You
Idol: Jeongyeon (Twice)
Prompt: Hello✨ Firt of all, I want to say that I really love the blog💖 Then, can I request a scenario with fem!reader being on a roadtrip with Jeongyeon from TWICE (and some other friends) and they end up confessing bc they both have a crush on the other? Much love💓💓
Writer: Admin Kiwi
A/N: Perhaps “Fancy” is my new favorite Twice title track. Also all of the girls looked incredible this comeback but my girl Jeongyeon is out here serving looks. Look at that long hair. She’s a goddess. Also the friends in this story are Jihyo and Nayeon because I was feeling in the mood for some 3mix today. And this is LONG I got a little obsessed with this prompt oops. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!
Warnings: Occasional curse words and a little bit of tension, I think that’s all.
♡ Tip Jar♡
“A road trip?” You looked up at Jihyo over your laptop, raising your eyebrows. Beside you, Jeongyeon looked up as well, putting a bookmark into her book. The two of you plus Nayeon had sitting at your normal table in the library, working on homework as the end of the semester crept closer, when Jihyo had approached, coffee in hand and a smile on her face.
“Yes, a road trip! To celebrate the end of the semester! We’ve all been friends for a while, right? It only makes sense that we go on a trip at least once before we aren’t young anymore.”
“Don’t say it like that,” Nayeon said, running her hands through her hair and sending Jihyo a look. “I don’t even want to think about not being young.”
“Because you’re already old,” Jeongyeon teased, earning her a kick under the table.
“No seriously, listen. When we finish the semester, we take a road trip somewhere. My uncle owns a vacation house near the beach, we could go to the beach and take a week to unwind and get into the mood for summer.” Jihyo sat down at the table and passed out the coffees as she spoke. “It would be a lot of fun, I promise.”
“It does sound fun,” Jeongyeon admitted, taking a sip of her coffee. “This would be the week after finals, right?”
“Right! You’ll want to take off of work now.”
“And the beach means lots of cute summer clothes. And lots of girls in those cute summer clothes,” Nayeon said, grinning as she turned to face Jihyo. “I think I’m down.”
With a laugh, you saved the essay you were working on and closed your laptop. You weren’t going to get any work done now. “You’re just going for the pretty girls?”
“Mostly. That and the ice cream.”
“So, (Y/N), are you in?” Jihyo turned to you with sparkling eyes, and you bit your lip, looking around the table. Everyone was looking at you, and your eyes lingered on Jeongyeon for a moment before you quickly looked away. Being on a trip with her for a whole week wasn’t something you’d been expecting to happen, but just the thought of the warm sun hitting your skin as you buried your toes in the sand made you relax a little bit, and you really wanted to go.
“I’m in,” you said, pushing back any reservations you might have had. “I’ll talk to my manager about taking time off tomorrow.”
“Yay!” A librarian shushed her from a few feet away, but Nayeon just shrugged them off, eyes sparkling as she threw her arms around Jihyo. “We’re going to the beach!”
“It is finals season, Nayeon, try not to get us kicked out of the library,” Jeongyeon said, but the usual edge in her voice was gone, and you could see the beginnings of a smile on her lips as she turned back to her book. She was excited, cheeks slightly flushed, and as you turned back to your laptop, listening to Jihyo talk about the things the four of you could do, you found that you were excited too.
-
“Did you guys pack everything? Toothbrush, combs, deodorant, jackets just in case?” Jihyo was standing at the door, calling inside to where you stood with Jeongyeon and Nayeon at the table, finishing up with the last of the packing: snacks and drinks.
“Yes, mom, everything is packed,” Nayeon replied, picking up two of the smaller bags. “Want to help me start putting everything in the car?”
“Don’t call me mom, I’m younger than you,” Jihyo said in return, but took the bags from the older girl’s hands, sounding too tired to fight. All of you had stayed up late the night before, barely getting any sleep in order to pack for the trip and make sure everything was perfect. Jeongyeon especially had hardly slept at all, and you could see the dark circles under her eyes as the two of you finished packing the snack and drink box, but you didn’t say anything. She had always been a perfectionist, so she’d probably rather sleep in the car on the way there than accidentally forget to pack on of the many things on her packing list.
“Okay, that looks good.” Jeongyeon stepped back from the box, surveying its contents. “We have chips, granola bars, candy, sodas, water, and energy drinks. I think that’s all we need.”
You stepped back as well, squinting at the box. There was something that Jihyo had gotten the night before that nagged at the back of your head until you snapped your fingers, remembering. “Oh, we should probably pack Jihyo’s apple juice packets she got.”
Immediately, Jeongyeon’s hands went up to her head and she let out a dramatic gasp, reminding you too much of Nayeon. “You’re right! How did I forget those? She would have kicked me out of the car, you saved my butt.” She backtracked to the cabinet, rummaging around until she gathered something up in her hands and turned around triumphantly. “Apple juice acquired. Anything else we’re missing?”
“Nope, that’s it,” you said, giving her a smile as she walked back over. “Ready to load it into the car?”
“Let me just put these in here,” she said, stuffing them down into the box. After a moment, she shook her head and stood back up, letting out a sigh. “I can’t believe I almost forgot the one thing Jihyo told me specifically to remember.” She looked even more tired than before, and you let your hand settle on your shoulder, knowing that she had to still be exhausted from the finals the week before.
“You’re tired, any of us could have done it. In fact, I’m willing to bet Nayeon forgot her toothbrush, even though Jihyo has reminded her at least ten times to pack it.” At your words, she laughed softly, and you let out a little relieved sigh.
“You’re totally right. Nayeon is just a mess in general.”
“Right? That’s why nobody believes that she’s the oldest.”
“I can hear you guys talking shit in here!” Nayeon threw open the door and stomped inside, making both of you laugh. Grinning, Jeongyeon picked up the box and sent Nayeon a wink.
“Hey, did you remember to pack your toothbrush?” Her words made you laugh, and Nayeon just looked between the two of you, confused.
“For the hundredth time, yes! What’s this even about?”
“Nothing,” you said, grabbing your bag from where it sat under the table. “Let’s get going, shall we?”
Outside, Jihyo was stuffing the rest of the luggage into the trunk of her car and Red Velvet was already blasting over the speakers from Nayeon’s phone in the front seat. Jeongyeon jogged ahead of you to put away the box of snacks, and you watched her go as you walked slowly behind her, a smile blooming on your face as Nayeon yelled that she would be right out and Jihyo yelled back at her to hurry. This trip was already shaping up to be a lot of fun.
-
Less than an hour into the drive, Jeongyeon was passed out in the seat beside you, head leaning on her pillow propped against the window. Nayeon was also asleep, letting out soft snores that she would deny later as her head rested against the back of the chair, and Jihyo had long since turned down the music, although she was still quietly humming along as she drove with her apple sauce packet in hand. Usually, you would already be asleep too, but you found yourself staring at Jeongyeon beside you instead. She had been so tired after exams, and you could tell from the way she was sleeping with her mouth slightly open, completely passed out, that she hadn’t been sleeping enough after them either. Still, she looked cute, and you reached over to push her now-long hair out of her face to keep it from tickling and waking her up.
When you’d first met Jeongyeon, the two of you had been college freshmen in orientation. Back then, she’d had her hair cut short and dyed blonde, and she’d been intimidating until you shyly said hello. Then her face had lit up and she’d introduced herself, telling you that she was nervous that no one would talk to her and that she had a friend who went here already, but that she wanted to make new friends. She had a bubbly personality, and immediately, you were drawn in by her, heart jumping around in your chest as you told her that you’d be her friend if she wanted you to be.
That was how it started, and now her hair was grown out, she had a few more ear piercings, and a secret tattoo that only the group knew about, but she was still the same girl you’d fallen for during orientation. Even if she was tired, she still smiled with all her teeth and joked to cheer up the table and argued with Nayeon over things that didn’t matter. She was still bubbly, even if she was more mature and organized than before. Her room still had her Oh My Girl poster and her ten small cacti by the window, even if she’d changed the rest of her room to be more “adult” with black and white bed sheets and a black vanity. She’d grown, you both had, but she was still Jeongyeon. And you still had those feelings stuck in your heart, refusing to go away.
She shivered slightly, and you noticed that the temperature in the car was getting chilly.
“Hey, Jihyo, where did we put the blankets?” You tried to keep your voice low even though you had to be loud to be heard. Thankfully, she heard you, eyes darting to look at you in the rear view mirror.
“They’re in the trunk, but you can get them if you open the little door in the middle seat. It looks like a drink holder,” she said, “sorry, is it getting cold back there?”
“Only a little bit, but Jeongyeon is shivering.” You turned and looked at the middle seat until your eyes recognized the outline of a little door in the seat and you reached over to pull it out. As soon as it came out, you could see the blankets folded neatly inside the trunk. “Oh, wow, this is cool!”
“Right? I made sure to put anything we might need right beside the door, so if you need anything, check there first.”
“Got it, thank you!” You pulled out two blankets and draped the first one gently over Jeongyeon. She shifted slightly in her sleep and one hand grabbed at the blanket, but she didn’t wake up, and you couldn’t help smiling because of how cute it was. As you settled back into your seat, unfolding your own blanket, you saw Jihyo glance at you in the mirror one more time. There seemed to be a glimmer of recognition in her eyes, but she almost immediately turned her eyes back to the road, and you decided not to think about it. Instead, you closed your eyes and listened to the soft sounds of Oh My Girl’s “Closer” playing over the speaker, letting the rock of the road and Jeongyeon’s even breathing beside you lull you to sleep.
-
The beach was just as wonderful as you’d thought it would be. Jihyo’s uncle’s house was almost right on the beach, and your eyes were wide as you climbed out of the car, looking around. The place was gorgeous, especially with the setting sun coloring it orange, and you could hear the sounds of the ocean lapping at the shoreline.
“This place is awesome,” Nayeon said behind you, sounding a bit breathless as she closed her car door. “How the hell does your uncle afford it?”
“Apparently he makes good money, I’m just glad he’s letting us borrow it,” Jihyo called as she moved to the trunk of the car, smiling proudly. “Come help me unload now, if you’re done gawking.”
“You sound like a rich girl,” Nayeon grumbled as she turned around, but you could tell that she was just being dramatic because she all but skipped to the back of the car.
Jihyo looked at you over her shoulder as she handed two bags to Nayeon and nodded towards the car. “Oh, (Y/N), please wake Jeongyeon and let her know we’re here.” Your door was still open, so you climbed inside and reached across to gently shake her shoulder, feeling almost guilty about waking her up.
“Jeongyeon, we’re here. Wake up.” You said it softly, but it was enough to wake her up combined with Nayeon’s loud voice outside the car, and she blinked sleepily, looking up at you before glancing out the window.
“Oh, okay. Did I sleep the whole time?”
“Yep. We stopped to get gas and tried to wake you up but you were completely out. I’m guessing you really needed your sleep after exams.”
She let out a laugh and sat up, yawning and stretching her arms out in front of her. “I guess I did. I didn’t realize I was so tired. Sorry if I made the drive boring.”
“It’s okay, you needed the rest. But you should step out and see this place, it’s gorgeous.” At your words, she raised her eyebrows and ran her fingers through her messy hair, trying to smooth it down.
“It’s that good, huh?”
“See for yourself.” You sent a grin her way and stepped back out of the car, but glanced back at her before you shut the door. As she reached for the door, she looked down at the blanket and seemed a bit confused. But it was only for a second, and she opened the door and stepped out, turning to look towards the house. Immediately, her jaw dropped open, and you found yourself smiling again.
“Woah, it is that good.”
“Told you.”
“Hey, Jeongyeon, since you didn’t help with anything else during the drive, come help with these suitcases,” Nayeon called as she slung two bags over her shoulders, breaking the moment as Jeongyeon turned to glare at her.
“I’m sure you were so much help yourself.”
“She handed me my card when we were filling up at the gas station.” There was laughter in Jihyo’s voice as she fumbled with her keys, and her words make Nayeon pout at her.
“I also played all your favorite songs so you wouldn’t feel like falling asleep!”
“Oh yeah, of course. Thank you, Nayeon.”
“That doesn’t sound genuine at all,” Nayeon complained, and Jihyo just laughed, turning to you and Jeongyeon.
“You two grab some luggage and let’s go inside and check it out.”
The inside of the house was just as pretty. It wasn’t a big house, but it was beach themed, and the cool air inside felt nice. From the front door, you could see that there was a patio looking over the beach at the back, with chairs, a table, and a grilling area set up already. You wanted to go check it out, but Jihyo started to announce the room situation, so it had to wait.
“Okay, so there’s three rooms, each with one bed. Two of us are going to have to share a bed.” She said it like it was nothing, but those words sent your heart racing and made your cheeks begin to burn. You hoped that it wasn’t too visible in the low light.
Nayeon narrowed her eyes, dropping her luggage to the ground. “Wait, so who’s sharing the bed?”
“I thought we’d draw sticks for it. I already made them and everything.”
“How do we know you aren’t going to cheat and get yourself a good room?”
“It’s random, Nayeon. How would a cheat at pulling sticks? There’s two with red marks and two with blue. Reds get to share the bed, blues get their own bedroom.” Quickly, she turned to dig into her purse for the sticks, and you glanced at Jeongyeon. She’d been just as quiet as you while Nayeon was whining, and you could see that the ends of her ears were slightly red, but you didn’t want to give yourself any hope by reading into it. “Here! See? Completely fair, they all look the same here.” The sticks in her hand were covered halfway by a little black felt bag, bottoms completely concealed inside.
“If you say so. I’ll go first.” Nayeon still looked a bit skeptical, but she reached out anyway, grabbing one of the sticks. At the bottom was a blue mark obviously made with a highlighter, and she grinned. “Good! At least if you cheated, I benefited from it!” With a roll of her eyes, Jihyo offered the bag to you and Jeongyeon.
“Who’s next?”
Swallowing, you reached out to pull a stick from the bag. Red. At the sight of the color, your heart started up again, and Nayeon whistled. “(Y/N)’s sharing the bed! But with who?”
“Just because you’re a drama major doesn’t mean you have to make everything so dramatic or theatrical,” Jeongyeon said as she reached towards the bag, ears still flushed. Her words made Nayeon pout, again, as she reached over to gently hit the girl with her stick.
“Shut up. You’re mean,” Nayeon replied, but you could barely hear her over the sound of your own heartbeat in your ears as Jeongyeon’s fingers closed around a stick. Was this really happening.
“Oh. Red.”
“(Y/N) and Jeongyeon are sleeping together!” Nayeon yelled, and Jeongyeon threw her stick at her, making her yelp.
“Are you twelve? I’m going to drown you in the ocean, just wait.”
“You won’t do that, I’m your best friend.”
“Anyway, guys,” Jihyo spoke up, voice cheery as she waved her blue stick. You squinted at her, remembering the glimmer you’d seen in her eyes earlier. Had she planned this? “Since Jeongyeon and (Y/N) have to share a bed, they get the master bedroom. The bed is bigger and they actually get their own shower. Nayeon, you and me have to share a shower.”
“Fine with me. I get a whole queen size bed to myself.”
“Let’s try and finish getting everything inside before it gets too dark, okay? I had my uncle get groceries ordered for delivery so I could cook tonight and he said they should be here any minute. We can just chill tonight before we go out exploring tomorrow.” Jihyo picked her bag back up as she talked, walking into the hallway. “Nayeon, me and you are on this side of the hallway. Jeongyeon and (Y/N), your bedroom is on the right.”
“Thanks,” you said, glancing at Jeongyeon. Her ears were still slightly red, but she gave you a smile and shrugged.
“Nothing we can do about it, right? At least we got the master.” Leave it to Jeongyeon to always be positive. You smiled back at her and nodded in agreement.
“You’re right. We’ll make this work.”
Dinner sizzled in the kitchen as you unpacked your things, hanging them up in the closet or folding them into the dresser. Behind you, you could hear shuffling, and you turned around to see Jeongyeon dumping extra pillows onto the bed and arranging them down the middle. As if she sensed your gaze, she looked up and gave you a little smile.
“So things don’t get too awkward,” she explained, and you nodded your head, hoping that your feelings of disappointment weren’t written all over your face.
-
That night, you caught yourself watching as Jeongyeon walked back into the room from the shower, hair tied up into a messy bun and face slightly red from the heat of the water. She wore a pair of shorts and an old baggy t-shirt, and you watched as a trail of water ran down her neck and disappeared into the collar as she leaned down to search through her bag for her toothbrush. When she stood back up, her eyes locked with yours, and you quickly looked away, going back to getting ready for your own shower.
“Do you think Nayeon forgot her toothbrush?”
You shrug, careful not to let your eyes wander again as you stand up and send her a smile, stomach twisting into knots. This trip was going to ruin you. “Definitely. Are you done with the shower?”
-
You woke up to the smell of coffee and waffles, and an empty spot in the bed beside you. For a moment, you just laid there, staring up at the stark white ceiling as you listened to what was obviously Nayeon’s playlist coming from the kitchen. The bed still smelled like Jeongyeon, and you breathed in deeply, closing your eyes for a moment only to quickly open them again when the scene from the night before plays in your head.
“Hey (Y/N), do you want any creamer in your coffee?” Nayeon’s voice interrupted your thoughts and you sat up with a sigh, stretching your arms above you. Vacation or not, you needed to get up and get ready.
“Yes please, I’ll be right out!”
Jihyo was plating one of the biggest waffles you’d ever seen when you walked into the kitchen, and she looked up at the sound of your footsteps. “Good morning, (Y/N). We’re eating on the patio, Jeongyeon and Nayeon are already out there. Oh, and Jeongyeon finished your coffee.” She pushed a mug your way, and you took it gingerly, looking down at the liquid inside. It was the exact color that you always had your coffee, and you smiled slightly as you took a sip. It was perfect. “Here, this one’s yours.”
“Thanks, Jihyo. You’re seriously the best.” As you stepped outside, the view again took your breath away, and you stood there staring for a moment before you sat down in your chair beside Jeongyeon.
“I can’t wait to go down to the beach.” Nayeon’s voice was slightly hoarse from sleep, but you could tell she was excited as she stuffed the rest of her waffle into her mouth, making Jeongyeon laugh.
“Don’t choke or you won’t be able to go to the beach at all,” Jeongyeon said as she brought her coffee to her lips. Her hair was pulled back into a slightly messy ponytail and she was still wearing her pajamas, but what really caught your eye was the dark circles under her eyes, or rather, the lack of dark circles. She looked more energized than she had for the last month.
“Did you both sleep well?” You asked as you cut into your waffle, looking between the two.
“I did.” Nayeon spoke through the rest of the waffle in her mouth, making Jeongyeon grimace.
“Girl. Swallow your food before you talk.”
“What, are you trying to take the mom position from Jihyo?”
“I’m not a mom!” Jihyo yelled from inside, making you chuckle under your breath. The mood was good and the air was warm, and the weight from finals had lifted from your shoulders. Mentally, you thanked Jihyo’s uncle as you dug into your waffle and basked in the summer sun.
After finishing her plate, Nayeon jumped to her feet and stretched, looking out towards the ocean. “Come on you guys, let’s hurry so we can get on the beach. I really want to wear my new bathing suit. It’s so cute! You’ll all definitely fall for me.”
“No offense, but I’ve known you for most of your life, including your peak during high school. There’s no way I’m falling for you now.”
“I did not peak in high school! Yoo Jeongyeon, you take that back! We’ll see who peaked when we go down to the beach.” As Jeongyeon laughed, Nayeon turned her eyes to you, making you throw up your hands.
“Nope, no way. I’m not a part of this.”
“You are now. When we get down to the beach, we’ll have (Y/N) and Jihyo rate us based on our outfits. We’ll see if you’re laughing then!” She turned and stormed away, and when you turned to look at Jeongyeon, her cheeks were flushed. She was still smiling, and she shook her head as she picked up her plate, but you could see a bit of nervousness on her features.
“Why is she like this?”
“This is Nayeon we’re talking about here.”
“True. My swimsuit is old, so go easy on me, okay?” She gave you a little wink as she stood up to go inside, and you swallowed, nodding your head. You were so, so screwed.
-
Sometimes you wished you were as confident as Nayeon. She walked out the bedroom with nothing on but her swimsuit and some short-shorts, sunglasses perched up on her head and a grin on her face that obviously meant she was expecting to win. “Cute, right? It’s the latest style.”
“Definitely cute,” Jihyo said, raising her eyebrows. “When did you buy it?”
“As soon as you said we were going to the beach. I knew I needed something new.” She did a little twirl and tossed her hair over her shoulder, and you laughed softly, because she just loved being the center of attention so much it was funny. “Should we get going?”
“Let’s go, attention-seeker.” Jeongyeon stepped out of the bedroom behind her, pulling her hair back as she walked. Her outfit wasn’t anywhere near as flashy as Nayeon’s, but you still found yourself staring. She was wearing a sheer white cover-up that went just past her jean shorts, and you could see she faintest hint of mint green underneath it. She looked great, like she always did, and when she met your eyes, you gave her a little thumbs up. Her cheeks colored slightly but she smiled, sending you one in return as the two of you headed for the door behind Jihyo and Nayeon.
The beach was just as gorgeous as it had been that morning, and as Jihyo laid out the towels she’d brought from the house on the sand, Nayeon kicked off her sandals and danced around, singing the chorus of Oh My Girl’s “A-ing” as she went. Jeongyeon joined in, with Jihyo beginning to hum a moment later, and you grinned as you sat down, shielding your eyes against the sun. For a moment, you thought that maybe they’d forget about the dumb swimsuit contest Nayeon had suggested earlier, but no. After she’d danced and sang the chorus of “A-ing” Nayeon turned to you and pointed.
“It’s time.”
“Nayeon, do we have to?” You asked, and she immediately nodded, shimmying out of her jean shorts.
“Yes! Come on, Jeongyeon, show them your swimsuit.”
Jeongyeon seemed much more embarrassed than Nayeon as she reluctantly pulled her cover-up up over her head and handed it to you for safe-keeping. You’d seen her in this swimsuit before, but it didn’t matter, because it fit her. It was a light mint green with a tied string in the front and thick straps that went over her shoulders. It was nowhere near as flashy as Nayeon’s, but it still looked great.
“I vote for myself,” Jihyo joked, and Nayeon rolled her eyes.
“You won’t win with an Adidas swimsuit, Jihyo.”
“I think it’s cute!”
“Okay for real, (Y/N), whose swimsuit do you like better?” Nayeon turned to you with her arms crossed, and you swallowed, looking between the two girls. Of course you liked Jeongyeon’s better, but you had a feeling that you would hear about it for the rest of the trip if you told Nayeon that. As you looked at Jeongyeon, she gave you a big smile and made an exaggerated pose, and you laughed. You really had to pick her.
“Sorry Nayeon, I like Jeongyeon’s better.”
“Hell yeah! In your face, Nayeon!”
“The judge is biased, I want a rematch!”
“Okay Nayeon, I like yours,” Jihyo said in a playful tone, obviously just trying to make her feel better, but it seemed to work because Nayeon stopped steaming and came over to let the younger girl put sunscreen on her. Jeongyeon also moved over, raising her hand to give you a high-five. You equated her pink face to the heat.
“Thanks (Y/N), I appreciate you.”
“No problem.”
-
That evening, you stood on the patio, watching as the sun set over the ocean with a smoothie made by Nayeon in your hands. It was a little bit too cold and a little bit too sweet, but you were on a beach vacation, so it was just right. You still smelt a bit like salt water from swimming earlier, and you were pretty sure you were never going to get the sand out of your sandals, but it didn’t matter because you felt good.
“(Y/N)?” You turn around to see Jeongyeon at the door, her own smoothie in hand. “Jihyo and Nayeon are setting up Netflix and told me to ask if there’s anything you want to watch.”
“I’m fine with anything,” you said, smiling as she walked out to stand beside you.
“Wow, it’s really pretty out here. It looks like a photograph no matter how many times I see it.”
“I know, I can’t wait to see what the stars look like.” The two of you stood in silence for a moment, watching as the sun-kissed ocean lapped at the shore.
“Hey, did you really like my swimsuit better earlier? Or were you just saying that to get a rile out of Nayeon?”
You turned to look at Jeongyeon, taking her in. She was still looking at the ocean, the outline of her face glowing in the golden hour light. Somehow, she was even more beautiful than the view. “I really liked it better. You looked cute today.” A smile bloomed on her lips.
“Good. I hoped that you did.” You didn’t have the time to decipher what that meant. So you didn’t, instead turning to look back at the living room, where Jihyo and Nayeon were arguing over what to watch.
“Should we go back inside?”
Jeongyeon’s voice was soft as she spoke. “Let’s stay here for a little longer.”
-
The next day at the shops near the beach, Jeongyeon picked up a giant pair of earrings and held them up next to her face, grinning widely.
“Do you think these fit me?”
Nayeon replied with some sarcastic comment as she headed to the register with two dresses in her arms, but you couldn’t help but smile, placing down the necklace you were inspecting to really look at her. The earrings were shaped like sand dollars, and although you would have never picked them up for yourself, they looked good against Jeongyeon’s wavy dark hair.
“I like them on you.”
Her face brightened up and she placed them into her palm. “Then I’ll get them. Are you going to get the necklace?” She pointed at the necklace you’d been looking at, but you shook your head, laughing.
“No way. It’s too expensive and fancy for a college student like me. I just liked the way it looked.”
“Oh, okay.”
After the purchase, she took out the earrings she’d been wearing before and replaced them with the sand dollars, moving her head slightly to make them bounce. “How do I look?”
“You look amazing, let me take a picture,” you said, pulling out your phone and holding it up with a smile, and she quickly tucked her hair behind her ears and posed for the photo.
Later, you’d look at the photo and swear she was glowing.
-
That night, Jeongyeon turned on music in the shower (not Oh My Girl, for once) and you tried not to listen as you finished getting ready to sleep. The pillow wall in the middle of the bed stared at you as you climbed into bed, but you ignored it, settling into the covers. Minutes after the music stopped, the bed dipped and you could hear her shuffling with her things and the blankets as she climbed into bed.
The lights were turned off, and for a moment, there was no sound other than the AC blowing cool air into the room. Then, you felt her shifting on the other side of the pillow wall, and she spoke, close yet muffled by the barrier. Somehow still so far away.
“Good night, (Y/N).”
“Good night, Jeongyeon.”
-
You woke up to find Jeongyeon up first once again, but when you padded out into the kitchen, Jihyo informed you that Jeongyeon and Nayeon had gone out to the store and would be back soon. Something like jealousy nagged at the back of your head, but you shook it away, knowing you were being sleepy and dumb. Jeongyeon and Nayeon had been friends for years. That had nothing to do with your relationship (or lack of one, really) with Jeongyeon.
You were sitting on the back patio with Jihyo, talking and people-watching while eating snow cones, when Jeongyeon and Nayeon got back. Nayeon immediately came out to settle herself into Jihyo’s lap and tell her about the outrageous outfit she’d seen at the market (Jihyo was unphased by Nayeon’s antics it was impressive), but Jeongyeon lingered behind for a while longer. You thought nothing of it as you finished your snow cone, figuring that Nayeon had just left her to put things away as usual.
It wasn’t until she poked her head out the door and asked for you to come inside that you realized something was up. “(Y/N), I need your help with something in our room for a minute.”
You raised your eyebrows as you stood, wondering if something had fallen. “Yeah? What’s up?”
“You’ll see.” Jeongyeon turned around without saying anything else, and you caught Nayeon smiling like she knew something, but you didn’t know what to make of it as you stepped inside, dropping your cup into the sink before hurrying off towards the bedroom.
When you got there, Jeongyeon was sitting on the bed, something square in her hands. “Here. This is for you.” Your heart jumped up into your throat and butterflies began to dance in your stomach as your mind went wild with the possibilities. But you tried to keep it cool just in case, walking slowly over to her.
“Really? From you?”
“Yeah. It’s a present.” Her face was impossible to read as she handed you the box, and your mouth went dry as you looked down at the gift. “Go ahead and open it.”
You did as you were told, slowly lifting the top off the box. As soon as you realized what was inside, your heart skipped a beat, eyes widening and mouth dropping open. “Jeongyeon! This necklace was expensive, you didn’t have to get this for me!” The familiar necklace from the store reflected the light from the window, and your fingers moved on their own to touch the carefully crafted and polished stones.
“I saw that you really liked it at the store,” Jeongyeon said, tucking her hair behind her ears, a sign that she was nervous. “I guess I just wanted you to have it.”
“But it’s so fancy, when am I even going to wear this?” As you spoke, she stood from the bed and gently took the necklace from the box, unclasping the back. On instinct, you leaned forward, letting her put it on for you.
“Well, I got it for you because I fancy you, so it fits to wear it now, right?” Her face reddened immediately, but it took you a moment to process what she said, blinking at her in confusion before it hit you and your face turned red to match hers.
“I-I... W-what? Jeongyeon, did you buy this necklace just to use that pun?” Despite your stuttering and the urge to squeal building up in your chest, you could feel yourself smiling like an idiot. Jeongyeon, too, giggled and covered her face.
“The pun was just too perfect. But I also bought it because you liked it. Was that too corny?”
“No, I liked it.” You reached over to pull her hands away from her face. “I fancy you too, Jeongyeon.”
“Oh. Good. That’s great. Date me then?”
“Gladly.”
“Awesome.” The two of you looked at each other before bursting into giggles at the situation, and Jeongyeon let out a little squeal as she flopped back onto the bed, pulling you so that you ended up right beside her. “Oh my god, that was the most awkward thing I’ve ever done in my life!”
“It was pretty awkward. But it was cute too. I liked it.” You grinned as she turned to look at you, face still flushed.
“I’ve been wanting to tell you that for a while now. Not in those words, but you know. That I like you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know. I was scared. But this trip made me think a lot and realize a lot, so I told Nayeon and she agreed to help me get the necklace to confess to you. It was kind of a mess. But I’m happy I did.” She was glowing again, and you had the sudden urge to kiss her.
“I’m happy you did too. I’m so happy that I want to kiss you.”
Again, she turned pink, but her smile didn’t waver. “Then kiss me, (Y/N).”
Jeongyeon tasted like the strawberries and pancakes from breakfast, and her lips were smooth against yours. As she kissed you, her arms snaked around to pull you closer, fingers caressing the skin under your thin shirt, and you would have kissed her forever if you could. But eventually you had to pull away, and the two of you sat up, still tangled together. The pillow wall caught your eye, and laughed softly.
“Can we do away with the pillow wall now?”
“Oh god, yeah. That was stupid, why did I do that anyway?”
“To not make it awkward, even though it kind of did the opposite of that,” you said, voice teasing as she groaned and buried her head into your shoulder.
“Sorry I’m so awkward. I’d like to cuddle with you from now on, if that’s okay.”
“No more pillow walls?”
“No more pillow walls, I promise.”
“Good, because I’d like to cuddle with you too.”
“Then we have a deal.” Jeongyeon looked back up at you, and the two of you dissolved into more giggles until her lips found yours again. The ocean could be heard outside the open window as Jeongyeon kicked the offending pillows off the bed, and happiness bubbled up in your chest as you pulled her close again. You made a mental note to thank Jihyo for suggesting the road trip as Jeongyeon kissed you breathless, because everything was perfect, just like it always was when you were with her: your girlfriend, the woman of your dreams. And you wouldn’t have it any other way.
#twice#jeongyeon#twice scenario#twice scenarios#jeongyeon scenarios#girl group scenarios#kpop scenario#girl groups#kpop girl groups
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Gravitas. Hubris. Gravitas.
Fandom: The Arcana
Chapter Rating: Lime
Masterpost
Now.
I wake up to Julian’s fingers tracing figure eights on my hip and thigh. He nuzzles my neck. “Good morning, my dear.” I hum happily and roll over onto my back, stretching my arms above my head.
“Morning.” I yawn and toss an arm over my eyes. “How late is it?”
“Mid morning. I didn’t want to wake you.” He head dips down, lips pressing against my collarbone. “I did make some coffee.” He sits up and pushes his hair out of his face, suddenly looking concerned. “Do you drink coffee? I could make tea, if you don’t drink coffee.”
I smile at the thought that he’s actually worried that I don’t like coffee. “I do.” He turns to the side as I sit up and rub the sleep out of my eyes. He turns back with a mug in his hands. His expression is almost shy as he passes it to me. I take the cup from him with a grin. It’s barely warm in my hands, and the liquid within is nearly cold. “How long have you been watching me sleep?”
“Not sure.” His hand slides along my thigh, and he kisses my shoulder. Whether reassuring himself or me, or maybe both of us, that last night wasn’t a one off. “You’re cute when you sleep.”
“Mmmm . . . sure.” I drink some more of the coffee and lean my head against his arm. "I was drooling, I bet."
"Still adorable. So, um, what do you have to do today?”
"Schedule is terribly full, I'm afraid. Got to prove a really stubborn man innocent."
"Hmm, I, uh, don't suppose you'd need to spend any time with him to do that." He shifts around to sit behind me, and I let my head fall back on his chest as his arms wrap around me.
"I suppose that couldn't hurt. Especially if he'd be a little more helpful."
Fingertips creep up my stomach curling around one breast as his lips find the side of my neck. "I'm sure I can help you with something."
I find a flat surface for the coffee before we can manage to spill it; although, as lukewarm as it is, that wouldn't be a disaster so much as an unwelcome distraction. "And what would that something be?”
"Mmmm... Whatever will please you. Anything."
I twist around as he leans back, until I’m laying flat against him, mouth pressed to his neck. His hands slid up the back of my thighs, pushing aside the shirt. “I can think of a few things that would please me.”
***
The backyard of the house is tiny but tidy, enclosed by a stone wall and surrounded by fruit trees. Julian's and my clothes from the prior day are strung on a line, drying in the sun. Nearby there's a pump for water and a half barrel that looks conveniently placed for the purposes of laundry. For that matter, I think another quick rinse would do me good. And the trees seem to create enough privacy.
I drop the sheets in a pile beside the half barrel and begin pulling water into the barrel. Julian takes behind for a moment then takes over the pump, filling the half barrel far quicker than I could have managed on my own.
I snag one of the towels from last night off the line before stripping off the oversized shirt and stepping into the cool water. A quick tock from my hand warms it a bit, and I kneel down. Julian is leaning against one of the posts holding up the clothesline and grinning from ear to ear. I roll my eyes and scoop up a double handful of water, tossing it into the air and giving it a little push of magic to make sure it hits his face. He sputters and curses while I splash my own face with water and rinse off after last night's escapades. It's quick work. I'm out of the barrel and wrapped in a towel before Julian has fully ceased his dramatics over the water I flung at him.
"What was that for?”
"Fun." I pick up the pile of sheets and dump them into the tub, then step back in. Much easier to do the scrubbing with my feet rather than my hands. "And you were leering. Lech."
"I was not." He's smiling again. I want to stop what I'm doing to kiss those lips that are curved just so. "Just admiring."
"Sure..." I kick the sheets around, letting the suds work through the fabric, one hand holding the towel close around me.
"And what's this?" He gives me a curious look and starts taking down our shirts from the line, folding them loosely as he goes. "Some kind of magician thing."
"Nope. Just a lot easier than doing the washing by hand."
I work the sheets to the point that they should be clean, and with Julian's help dump the soapy water out and give the fabric a double rinse. I let him hang out the sopping wet sheets while I pull back on my clothes. Then, with a sly smile, I touch the fabric and work a spell that dried them immediately.
He looks annoyed for a moment. "Why didn't you just do that to start with?”
"It doesn't work as well if everything's crumpled together into one big sodden pile. And the sun will still bleach them a bit." I hadn't come across any spells that would handle every step of the laundry and certainly none that quite replicated the smell of sheets that had been allowed to hang in the sun and breeze for a few hours. I trace my fingers down his bare chest. Even with the sun high in the sky, it’s too early for him to bother with buttons. “Any chance of some more coffee?”
“Oh, there’s always a chance for more coffee.”
Mazelinka’s kitchen doesn’t have a traditional stove. Julian kneels by the hearth for a few minutes, humming to himself while he brings water and coffee grounds to a boil three times in a tiny bronze pot. He pours the liquid off into two tiny cups and settles onto the bench next to me. “One place I visited had these contraptions that forced water through the coffee at high pressure. Amazing stuff. Going to have to try to build one someday.”
I blow on the coffee and take a sip before setting it back down to cool. “This is good though.”
“Brewing a good cup of coffee - necessary life skill. At least for me.” He stretches, back cracking as he arches it. "Maz did leave us - well, uh, me - an errand."
"And that errand would be?” I take another sip of the rich coffee. I can feel my pulse thrumming behind my ears, whether from the coffee or from Julian isn’t clear.
"Dropping this off to a contact." He takes a package wrapped in brown paper from the table and juggles it from hand to hand before tucking it away in his coat.
"Sounds fun.”
"Umm, yeah, sketchy place really. You should probably just head back to the palace -"
"No. Seriously. Sounds fun." Besides, somewhere sketchy sounds like just the place to overhear rumors about the Count's death that the Countess's agents might have missed.
"It's not the safest place."
I shrug and have another drink. "I'm not entirely helpless." Asra had taught me several defensive spells before he left me for the first time. At least he had wanted to increase the chances that I was still alive when he got back. Better than no concern at all, I suppose.
***
The sketchy side of town isn’t that sketchy. It’s more run down than the neighborhood Asra and I live in, but nothing about the crumbling buildings feels particularly threatening. Children play in the street, watched from windows by grandparents. Julian stops at a stall advertising fine tobacco. He exchanges a few words with the owner of the stall, then trades the wrapped packages from Mazelinka. He laughs at some joke and turns back, wrapping an arm around my shoulders as he pulls me back out into the street. “Smoke?” He offers me a hand rolled cigarette. “These are just tobacco, not any of the, um, backroom goods, but he claims it’s a particularly nice leaf.”
“Sure.” I take one from him and pause to summon tiny flame above my fingertips to light it. He raises an eyebrow, then returns a packet of matches back to a pocket in his jacket before leaning down to lit his off mine. It is a good smoke, sweet and lightweight, and I mentally bookmark the shop in my head.
“Where to next, boss?”
“Mind stopping my shop?” I know my shirt is clean, but Mazelinka was right that there wasn’t much to be done about the bloodstain. A clean one would be welcome. And I still haven’t figured out how I ended up with my tarot deck instead of Asra’s the other night. I’d like to know if his had reappeared where mine should have been.
“Works for me.”
While we walk, he keeps a hand in contact with me as much as possible, touching my shoulder or the small of my back. I pause in front a stall selling trinkets and charms. They aren’t quite like any that I’ve seen in the market near my house. These are deceptively simple glass, but they shimmer with colors captured in perichoresis, blending and flowing into each other. Asra would love them. I dig in my bag for a coin and trade it to the shopkeep for one that ripples between violet and lavender.
When I turn back Julian is staring at an announcement recently pasted to the wall of a building. It’s a rough sketch of him, with a price listed for his capture. My breath catches in my throat. At least it’s for his live capture. Not much reassurance there.
“Huh, I wouldn’t have thought I was worth that much.”
“Nadia didn’t say anything about this.”
A passer by stops and peers at the poster. They wink at Julian, then step past us, rip the poster from the wall and tear it into several pieces. “Bit of an eyesore,” they comment. “And I can think of several hundred better uses for five thousand soldi if the Countess actually wants to help the city.”
“We better get back to my shop, I think.” I suspect that the larger part of the city population will respond in a similar way as that passer by, but the sum is twice what the shop has ever earned in a year according to the ledgers I had gone through. Someone will be tempted.
“Yeah, uh, that’s a good idea.”
I pause to cast a quick glamour, a simple one that I can keep up for a time, just darkening his hair a few shades to a nondescript brown, and nudge Julian so that he’s walking closer to the building, even if as short as I am, I’m not much of a visual block for his height. We walk at a quick clip, ignoring the other stalls in the market. Julian turns off the main avenue and down a side street, clearly intending to avoid foot traffic.
It’s a mistake. Two heavy bodies knock into us, shoving Julian into an alley. Julian catches his balance and pulls a knife from his boot with a single fluid motion. One of the men faces him, a short sword drawn. The other grabs me, twisting one arm behind my back and holding me against him.
“It’d probably be best if you just come with us, Dr. Devorak.” His breath smells of stale beer. I can feel a sharp prick at the base of my throat, distracting me for a moment from the painful tension in the arm twisted behind my back. Julian unclenches fists, dropping the knife his held and lowering his hands.
"Hands on the wall," the second one instructs. Julian starts to turn, all too ready to give up. I'm not sure that his resignation is entirely about keeping me safe either. No matter. I don't really need to be kept safe.
I turn the wrist my captor is holding sharply, flattening my palm against his torso and pushing a crackling wave of energy into him, mentally thanking Asra for teaching me that spell as I do. He convulses with a shout, and I twist out of his grasp. There's a sting along the base of my throat from the knife, but it's nothing more than a scratch. He collapses to his knees, arms around his chest.
Julian takes advantage of the distraction to spin around on his toes and land a solid punch the second man's face. He singles backwards into a wall. Julian bolts forward, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the alley and down the street. A few blocks later, we duck into another alley.
Julian's eyes widen when he sees the blood at the base of my neck. He strips off a glove before I can protest and touches my throat, the mark of his own flaring as he does. A line if red, truly no more than a scratch, appears on his neck.
"Julian, you didn't need -"
He shushes me, then pulls me close against him as he leans back against the wall, whispering breathlessly into my hair. “You’re alright. You’re alive.” He runs his bare hand through my hair. The superficial cut heals over quickly, but not before adding yet another bloodstain to his shirt. "You got hurt because you were walking with me."
“Julian . . .”
“You’re okay.”
“I’m fine. Ilya, I’m okay.” I pull away from him. Just enough that I can cradle his face in my hands and look into his eyes. “I’m alright. Let’s go.” I adjust his jacket to cover as much of the blood as I can. “My shop.”
***
The wards of the door of my shop are untouched when we make it there. I undo them quickly and push Julian inside. His grey eyes are dazed, refusing to quite come into focus. “Julian. Look at me.” His eyebrows are pinched together with anxiety when he turns his face to me. “You’re safe. I’m safe.” At least for the moment. Nadia hadn’t said anything to indicate that she was considering placing a bounty on Julian. Had one of the courtiers swayed her? Valerius wouldn’t have been interested in the additional uproar a bounty would cause, but someone within that court was interested in creating a show. But right now, my concern for Julian is rather more personal. “Come on, upstairs. I’ll make some tea, and we can both get cleaned up.”
I coax Julian into settling into a chair and start a kettle of water for tea. I could use magic to heat the water, but that’s another thing that can’t be done well with magic. It doesn’t taste at all the same as tea made from water that was allowed to come to a boil naturally. That done, I dampen a rag and sit across from Julian. He lifts his head as I push aside his shirt and begin dabbing away the thin line of dried blood. His fingers wrap around mine. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
His shoulders roll as he exhales. “Getting you involved in this.”
“I hardly think you’re responsible for that. Blame the Countess. Or Asra for leaving me unsupervised.”
“I could - I should just turn myself in.”
“Not until we’ve figured out what actually happened.” The Countess might honestly desire to know the full truth, but it would be all too human to accept the easy out that Julian turning himself in would provide. And whoever had placed that bounty was clearly motivated to ensure that blame fell on Julian. The kettle interrupts my thoughts with a whistle. I pour the water of the tea leaves and set the pot and a mug on the table beside Julian. “I’m going to change into clean clothes.” I run my hand through his hair and press a quick kiss to his forehead. “And find a shirt for you. I think we’ve got one or two that might fit you.”
I strip out of the clothes I’m wearing and toss them into one the piles on the floor that I think is dirty laundry. I rummage through my drawer settling on a dark pair of pants and a striped linen tunic that I think Asra wore last. But it fits me well enough, and I like the colors. A few plain white shirts that are too large for either of us have been shoved into the back corner of the bottom drawer for years. I shake both out on the bed and then grab the one that appears less wrinkled before stepping back into the kitchen.
“Hey, I found this shirt that looks like - Julian, where are you going?"
"I . . . You, you see." He picks his foot up from the top of the stairs and turns to me. His hands drop helplessly to his sides. "This is the second time you've ended up bleeding. In less than a day. It's dangerous to be around - I'm dangerous to be around."
"This is also the second time you've healed me. In less than a day."
"Still -"
I cut him off and hold the shirt up to his shoulders. It's similar to the one he's wearing, a bit closer cut in the sleeves, and unlike his current one, free of knife stabs and blood stains. "I think this will fit you. Actually -" I wink, trying to distract him. "I think it might even be yours."
"Heh." He smiles for a moment then takes the shirt from me and shakes it out. "Must have left it here in another life. I'm surprised Asra kept it."
"Really? I don't think he's ever let anything go."
Julian smiles wistfully. "He wasn't awful all the time. He's just . . ."
". . . Complicated. Or at least he makes everything crooked and confused."
"That's one way to put it." Julian changes shirts and sits down at the table. "Last night you, um, you said you only remember the past three years... Have you been with Asra for all of those?”
"He's the first person I remember." It's hazy, but I can hear Asra's desperate voice calling my name and feel his hand pushing the hair out of my eyes. His voice, his hands were anchors against the smoke that threatened to swallow me back. "Something happened. Something bad. I've been sick - confused - since. For a few weeks at a time. Here and there. Maybe it was like that, but worse."
"I don't want another bad thing to happen to you. Not this . . ." His voice trails off and his eyebrows furrow, as if there’s something else, but he can’t quite put it into words. I cup his face in my hands and smooth my thumbs over his eyebrows. He looks up at me, expression pained for a moment, then smiles. “Want to go find some food? There’s a tea shop around here that I always liked.”
***
Julian is uncharacteristically quiet as we walk through the streets. Like before, he's greeted multiple times, but now his responses are muted. Glum even. He manages a grin when a little boy, maybe nine or ten, appears with wooden sword and declares dramatically that he's here to protect us. Word seems to have gotten around and it appears the majority of the city doesn't intend to allow anyone to collect the bounty on Julian's head.
The boy follows us for two blocks before Julian solemnly thanks him, ruffles his hair, and tells him to go home to his mother.
"Would you be treated like that if you were a bad man?"
Julian turns down an alley. "A bad man who kills a bad man doesn't become a good man." He pauses by an unmarked door, rubbing his hands together nervously. "This was a real underground place. High ceilings, cozy booths. Good place to talk. And we, um, we need to talk."
"Jul-”
He takes my hand and leads me down a hallway that seems dusty even for a clandestine tea shop, but otherwise ignores me and continues to muse to me, or to himself, it isn't clear. "Used to come here to get away from the palace. Nice and quiet. People didn't bother you." Just as he's speaking of quiet, the sounds of applause carries down the corridor from further in the building. The door he pushes open leads not to a tea room but into some sort of storage space or costume shop. He gave back at me, eyebrows raised in surprise. "Well, uh, things may have changed a bit over the past few years."
There's a motley collection of brightly colored outfits hanging on a rack and a pile of blunted metal weaponry signed into a barrel. Masks cover the walls, staring with hollow eyes. "Quite a bit of change, I think."
"Pity. They had this one smoky tea that I've never found since." Julian steps further into the room, running his fingers over the masks on the wall. "Oho. What have we here?” He lifts a narrow, curving mask from the wall and holds it over his face for a second before hiding it behind his back. "Sorry. I forget, um, I know you don't care for . . ."
"It's okay." The mask is clearly intended to suggest the ones the plague doctors wore, but it's so stylized that I don't fear any dread twisting in my stomach. "Try it on."
He pushes his hair back and fixes the mask over his face. It looks good on him, the gold detailing over black paint compliments his outfit. "What do you think? Dashing?”
"Oh, very!” I push him back against the wall and lift myself up on my toes. "Bit hard to kiss in one of these." My teeth find his throat anyway. Moaning, he wraps an arm around my back, holding me choose and lifting me just a touch higher.
"Imagine . . . Oh, yeah, that's . . . Leave a mark if you want. Something to remember you..."
I pause one hard buried in his hair and the other grasping the back of his jacket. "Julian, you don't have to -”
He clears his throat trying to recover. "I don't, I. Never, um, nevermind that. Imagine trying to kiss with both people wearing one."
"Mmm . . ." I'll play along. Maybe if he delays long enough, he'll talk himself out of this notion that he’s too dangerous for me to be around. "You'd have to get creative."
Any creativity is interrupted by a door swinging open. A man dressed all in black grabs Julian and shouts. "There you are! You're about to miss your cue!" He catches a glimpse of me over Julian's shoulder and pauses. "Who is - nevermind, come on, big finale time."
He hustles Julian mask and all down a darkened hallway. There’s no threat in the man’s voice, just exasperation. Who does he think Julian is? The hallway opens into a cavernous space, cut across by a heavy curtain. Beyond the curtain I can hear a crowd laughing aloud and a single wailing voice projecting over all of them.
“Listen to them! Partying without me! On my birthday even!”
I keep to the shadows, creeping alongside the curtain until I can just peer out to the stage beyond. A man in scarlet robes and a white half mask, exaggerated mascara weeping around the eyes sprawls on an elaborate daybed, a bulky golden arm tossed over the back. “Ingrates! What do they expect me to do all night? Clomp around in my hooves? Boots! I mean, boots! Beg the busboy for table scraps? If I can’t disgust anyone while doing it, what’s the point?”
The man in black, a stage manager I suppose, tosses a cape around Julian’s shoulders and shoves him past the curtain. Julian stumbles through, almost catches himself, then trips over his own feet and into the lap of the thespian portraying the count. The gathered crowd breaks into cheers and applause. There’s the briefest of pauses from the actor and then he raises his hands in delight. “Doctor Devorak! Here to cure my boredom!”
Julian looks from side to side, but his face is still hidden behind the mask, and well, Artemis had described him as a drama queen. His posture shifts as he decides to go for it, rubbing his hands together and cackling. “Hello my poor, poor patient. The bell tolls for you tonight! I’ve come to end your suffering. Enjoy that gasp, it will be your last.”
“What are you going to do, Jules?” The actor playing Lucio reaches out with his gold foil covered arm and lifts Julian’s chin. “Smother me with your thighs?”
“For the hundredth time -” Julian turns from the count, rolling his shoulders in place of the eyes that can’t been seen beneath his mask. He snaps back to the other actor and grabs his shoulders. “NO!”
They tussle on the daybed to the delight of the gathered crowd. The theater is small, but packed for a matinee. Mocking the Count appears to be a continued delight in this part of the city. Feathers fly as a pillow is destroyed. The actor reaches behind him and pulls out a foil blade. Julian leaps backward. "Ah! It's a fight you want! Then -” He stops and looks at his empty hands. A stagehand appears with a second foil sword. Julian accepts it with a deep bow and turns back to the actor. "It's a fight you'll get!"
The two of them spar, playfully bouncing around the stage. How long will Julian keep this up? And will anyone recognize him under the mask? It might not matter if they did. The crowd hardly sympathized with the character of the Count.
The Count staggers back under Julian's blows and falls against the daybed, flinging an arm over his eyes. Julian looms over him, fair sword pointed at his throat. Julian's body is coiled and trembling with menace that I'm not sure is entirely feigned.
"Any last words, Lucio?"
"Jules, Jules, you know I like you better than the rest. We've always been friends, right?" The actor's voice quavers and rises in pitch to a whine. "And I'm generous. Especially with my friends. What is it you want? A ship? Riches?”
Julian leans closer, voice pitched low. “Some of us don’t kill for money, you damn mercenary. Some of us kill to make up for not doing it sooner.” With a sharp thrust, he plunges the sword, just to the side of the actor's neck. As the actor gasps his way through drawn out death throes, Julian looks to where I'm standing just off stage. Behind the mask his eyes are wide and wild, gone just a bit too far into the moment. He straightens up slowly, gaze shifting to the sword in his hand. I think he might have forgotten that it's fake.
A second actor stumbles onto the other side of the stage. He clutches an oversized wine goblet and his mask is contorted into a sneer. Valerius. A portrayal that I can't imagine the Consul would care to recognize himself in. He shambles across the stage with exaggerated drunkenness, and then stops sort. "Devorak! You... Murderer! Guards!”
The shout seems to break Julian out of his spell. He turns to face the audience and bows with a grand flourish before running off the stage. He laughs aloud as he peels off his mask and loops his arm through mine, pulling me down a hallway before anyone can question us.
Next chapter
Masterpost
a/n: chapter title from Devotchka, ‘Ruthless’
#the arcana#the arcana fanfic#julian devorak#julian x mc#julian x apprentice#fan apprentice#dema#my writing#whatever i've done
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Jikook/Kookmin Fic Rec Part 1
(Part 2 Here)
I’ve slowly been building up my list of KM fics and thought I might as well share them with the rest of the Tumblr-sphere (and organize them all because if the rest of my life is a mess, at least my fav fics can be orderly amirite)! I’m somewhat new to BTS and KM so it’s not too big a list, but I’m going to be updating this as I find more that I enjoy :) Happy Reading!
(most of these are probs old fics because like i said IM NEW HERE IM SO SORRY, but i hope you still find it helpful idk man)
Mostly Fluffy Fics
you are the ruler of the stars (and my heart) by cygnus (sunsprite) | Words: 18k | Jimin reluctantly joins his college’s Space and Astronomy club on the basis of Taehyung’s persuasion. Surrounded by a group of unnecessarily tall space nerds, he unexpectedly finds himself falling in love with one of them.
OH MY GOD THIS WAS SO CUTE. One of my fav fluffy fics to be honest. I was squealing basically the whole time i was reading. love.
i’ll stick to you like glue-cose by cygnus (sunsprite) | Words: 7k | Jimin merely wanted to study in peace, yet a certain five-foot ten frat boy -- unfortunately also a past hookup -- that epitomizes the very definition of smugness in one entire body whose ego is as big and full-scaled as the national debt, won’t let him.
Another super cute fluffy fic!!! i just found this author and the fluff is just so amazingly written and not cliche at all and ugh. JK acts like he’s all suave but he’s really just a big softie and AH.
friday nights (with you) by kstorms | Words: 24k | How a random night at a karaoke bar leaves Jimin with two new friends and a frowny, terribly handsome crush.
Anther classic tbh. I think I’ve read this through like four or five times bc i have literally no life and enjoy this VERY well written humor. There’s like zero angst in this and it’s all mostly Taehyung being a very cute little shit to JK (KM is there obvs and they super cute but ya know). Def a must read.
competency at its highest potency by MauveTarte | Words: 10k | State-Sponsored Runs are the excitement of every Alpha and Omega youth.
Or,
Jimin has one final chance at this bonding thing before his life goes to shit.
the one and only ABO fic i’ve read with NO SMUT. that’s right, ya heathens! this one is solely plot driven (and super fluffy). It’s cute af and Taehyung is an amazing friend :)
(my heart beats) for you by sabotagemyheart | Words: 17k | In which Jungkook, as a child, befriends the exceptionally adorable, small and friendless Jimin, not knowing that after a few years, he’ll be wrecking this very boy underneath himself making him whimper out his name.
okay LISTEnn. This summary makes this fic sound a lot dirtier than it is (ok yes it’s smutty BUT there’s more fluff in this than anything else. its so so so cute.)
Mostly Smutty Fics
Studio 2 by Charmander | Words: 20k WIP | Somewhere along the way, Jimin lost that passion he used to pour into his art, watching as it slipped through his very fingers. But street kid Jungkook is all heart and soul, and he’s more than willing to help Jimin learn to burn with the same fire he carries inside himself.
okay so this one is very plot heavy (as is most of Charmander’s fics) so don’t think you’re getting JUST smut. it has an amazing storyline about sexuality struggles and i think a lot of you would enjoy it! (the smut is bomb af tho sooo)
Starstruck by SugaTheTurtle | Words: 5k | Everyone is attracted to idols at one point or another. As part of Big Hit’s staff, Jimin really shouldn’t still be as attracted to Jungkook as he was at the beginning. Maybe if he wasn’t he wouldn’t be stuck hiding inside a closet in his dressing room silently praying that the idol was reaching for the zipper on his pants to change into something more comfortable.
ALRIGHTY HERE WE GO LADIES AND GENTS. This is for all you kinky fuckers out there who love pure smut. It was very interesting at first but as it progressed i was like whoaoaa i need some holy water. this fic is the epitome of “well, that escalated quickly” (but it’s still not rushed ??? which like...how?) enjoy! lmao.
Interlude by Bunbungee | Words: 9k | Jungkook has fallen in love at first listen with Jimin’s interlude and he won’t stop until he finds out why he is reacting so strongly to it. His search for answers takes a new turn when, one night, he discovers just how much the song can affect him.
Okay this was smutty, but still SUPER CUTE bc jeon is his typical shy bunny self who’s super oblivious and jimin is just a sweetheart. looooove.
Wet Depths by WorldwideWriter | Words: 10k | All it takes for Jungkook to break is a slightly unfair swimming competition and a too seductive Jimin.
GIVE ME ALL THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS FICS hell yes. I love their dynamic in this one, they hate each other (but they really don’t lol like come on.) and the sexual tension is insane.
everybody’s watching him, but he’s looking at you by jonghyunslisterine | Words: 6k| In which Jimin formulates a three-step plan to get the hot bouncer to notice him. (Spoiler: it doesn’t go quite as expected.)
okay this is smutty but also super cute so like idk where to put it but jimin wears a thong in it so i think the smut category will suffice. a quick read but so worth it, JK is a lowkey sweetheart.
Blood & Chocolate by MyHope (CutesyMe) | Words: 35k | “What if I only want you to sit on my lap?” the stranger asks, which is an odd request. People always want Jimin to dance for them. Only sometimes do they ask of him to just sit on their lap but event hen he has to move in some way and not just sit still.
“Same price,” Jimin retorts.
Jungkook spreads his legs slightly and motions to his lap as if it’s the best seat that has ever been offered to Jimin. “Be my guest.”
so i don’t really know what to say here but i loved their dynamic in this fic?? i love the way JK treats JM in this ahhhh its SMUTTY AF but he still super sweet and protective. There’s sooooome angst but it’s not too bad. Good plot.
New Heights by Charmander | Words 11k| There’s no better way to remind yourself that you’re alive than tempting fate from 700 meters above the ground and the searing touch of another’s fingers dragging down your chest.
1000% my favorite smut fic out there. the dialogue written in this fic is so well-done and absolutely hilarious. Sexual tension is CRAZY. love his fics.
give in to the game by cherrygloss | Words: 23k | “Jimin, if you honestly think that I’m going to pretend to be your boyfriend so you can make your ex jealous, then you’re out of your mind.”
im s oRRY, i know this is mostly smut aljfdlkaldfj my thirsty ass has bookmarked so many smut fics but i can’t help it oof. but this is super cute smut with some feeliins.
Nu ABO: A Memoir by Park Jimin by decompositionbooks | Words: 34k | The world didn’t think it was necessary to give him a guide when it shoved all of these omega hormones at him, so here it is, Park Jimin’s handbook to dealing with heats, unrequited love, and Jeon Jungkook.
WOOH another classic! I live for jealous/protective!JK idk its just super cute. my fav ABO fic!!
two sides; same story by namjoone | Words: 12k | Okay, so maybe Jimin thinks his neighbor is hot.
A little.
Okay, maybe a lot.
haha ohhhh man i love mutual pining. they’re both totally dumb at the beginning of this and i live for it. also some hoottttttt ass smut. (bc i need jesus at this point)
Not a Girl by PinkBTS | Words: 8k | Jeongguk isn’t sure what he did in his previous life to deserve this but he probably screwed up big time...he’s kinda grateful though.
A story about Santa, assumptions and thick-rimmed glasses.
AHHHHH this is so funny and awkward and hot and EVERYTHING. I live for frat!bangtan with my whole heart.
Downpour by kikistiel (Kikai) | Words: 15k | Jimin doesn’t know what it is. But now, he’s not sure he’s ready for summer to be over just yet.
IM SCREAMING. This was almost poetically good (aka A+ writing oh my gerrrd). It’s kinda angsty too like a bit but its also so sweet i love it :( go read pls.
How to Seduce Your Dance Teacher by Jeon Jungkook by soranosuzu | Words: 5k | Currently there are a million thoughts racing through Jungkook’s brain, but two very prominent ones finally beat their way to the forefront of his mind. First, Jimin is hot as hell and Jungkook needs to find a way to get into his pants. Second (and maybe slightly more urgent than the first), Jungkook needs to find a way to prevent himself from popping a boner every time Jimin does that in the future and, more importantly, right now.
(aka AU in which Jungkook devises a plan to seduce his ridiculously hot dance teacher Jimin)
HELLL YEAH. that is all.
i like how desperate you seem (in the way you look at me) by fatal (cumrich) | Words: 71k WIP | Packs merge all the time. It’s survival, Jimin knows that, but what he’s not prepared for is the attention he’s getting from a certain Jeon Jungkook, the alpha’s son.
yeeesss we got some more ABO up in this biiiiihhcc. It’s not done yet, but i strongly urge you to read!! so goooood and the smut is A1.
Mostly Angst
The Bet by jonghyunslisterine | Words: 46k | Where Jeon Jungkook makes a bet that he can get the notoriously single Park Jimin to sleep with him by the end of the semester.
Needless to say, things don’t go exactly as planned.
Yes i had to include this lovely classic :) Still one of my favs and probably always will be *shrug*. I’m not usually an angst person but this is like the perfect dosage for me to handle lol. If you haven’t read it yet, what are you doing with your life honestly go do it lmao.
lost stars by pjungkook | Words: 25k | Park Jimin has another maknae in his life and Jeon Jungkook is completely losing it.
have you ever felt like your heart was being smushed under an eighteen wheeler and your chest was caving in? Yeah that was me during this fic. But it’s sososo good and i promise there’s still fluff (i cannot live through angst without fluff) so READ.
Falling for you again by Rose_gold715 | Words: 30k | Jungkook loses all memory of the last five years of his life.
Jimin is scared he will never love him again.
wow okay so this one was a tear-jerker. you sympathize with both JK and JM but you’re also sort of frustrated with them at the same time?? soso good, definitely give it a read.
serendipity (none of this is a coincidence) by nclnns | Words: 30k | Jimin feels like crying.
Because the boy -- Jeon Jungkook as he had learnt a week ago -- is the exact opposite of Jimin.
And he’s the person Jimin’s boyfriend has been cheating on him with.
or
In which Jimin finds out that Taehyung is cheating on him with a boy named Jeon Jungkook and in the quest to understand what went wrong, he ends up falling in love with said boy.
so i haven’t read this one in a few months but i remember it being one of the first KM fics i had ever bookmarked, so it must have hit me in some way. JK is a sweetie though from what i remember.
On Patrol by Ragi | Words: 129k| Officer Jeon has his eyes on Mr. Adorable. Officer Min has a strange neighbor he can’t seem to keep out of his life. Captain Kim finds comfort in his son’s homeroom teacher.
Well, cops need some loving too, right?
Okay so this isn’t like suuuuper angsty but it’s also not smutty nor super fluffy either??? So idk where to put it but i think angst fits this most. I also laughed quite a bit during this so it has humor!! Tae is also like an 8 year-old kid LDJAFODJOA (ft. Sope and Namjin)
we’re not broken just bent by calipha | Words 16k | “You’ll die,” Jimin hisses and they’re so close now that his perfect illusion is broken. Jungkook can see his dark circles, can see Jimin’s lips, red and raw from biting.
“I did almost die in this house once, five years ago,” he whispers, watching as Jimin clenches his jaw but doesn’t look away. “I think I can handle more. I’m bigger and stronger now, see?” Jimin holds his gaze for two seconds before it tracks south to move down Jungkook’s body.
MY HARRY POTTER LOVIN ASS IS VERY SATISFIED. jimin is just a misunderstood bb and jungkook is trying SO HARD not to pine ajweklfkldf.
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That Cute Couple You See at a Coffee Shop
SURPRISE! (Or not?) I’m your @tgpsecretsanta @alys07! I hope you enjoy this Cheleanor Cinderella Story/College AU I wrote for you! You can read it on AO3 or down in the cut below!
P.S. special thanks to @chidi-anagonye for editing! <3
Summary: What happens when Chidi and Eleanor begin messaging each other online, with no idea of who the other really is?
Words: 5555
I got my latte with almond milk this morning, pinged Chidi’s penpal. A special shoutout to you, bud.
A grin slipped onto Chidi’s lips. He was in the middle of class, his seminar about Middle Eastern civilization, but still he typed back,
I’m jealous. But! at least you’re able to enjoy it without any of my agony and guilt.
Did you just make a joke? She wrote back. Look at you! I’m impressed. Character development.
You taught me well.
“Chidi!” Tahani hissed, catching Chidi in the middle of his lovestruck look at his computer. “Chidi!” She cried again, tapping his desk with her manicured index finger.
“Huh? What?”
“Look, I know you are quite infatuated with this mystery girl, but can you please pay attention for one moment so we can meet with our group project partners?”
“Right! Sorry!” Chidi cleared his throat. As he whipped out his notes from his backpack, Tahani squinted at Chidi’s iMessage. Blushing furiously, Chidi clicked the ‘X’ at the corner of the window. The last thing Tahani needed to see were his ramblings from last night, after he told his mystery friend that he wished they were a couple he had seen at the coffeehouse, studying together, staring into each other’s eyes. He then panicked because he realized how desperate he sounded. To cover for his semi-flirty messages, he typed out a long explanation, spanning paragraphs, but it didn’t work. He was bad at lying, and the worst part was, he wasn’t even drunk. He was just that awkward.
“Ugh,” Tahani sighed, flopping down in the seat next to him dramatically. “Chidi, you obviously like this girl. It’s been three months. Are you ever going to tell her how you feel?”
“First of all,” Chidi shut his laptop. “You should not be reading my messages! Also, no. It wouldn’t be right to disclose my feelings if she doesn’t have all of the information she can possibly can have about me. And! I don’t know if she has a boyfriend, or girlfriend, or if she’s romantically interested in any gender at all! It would be ethically unsound for me to dump that burden on her. And since finals are approaching, and it might distract her, too!”
“I mean that’s technically true, but still-“
“Alright!” interrupted Eleanor, the de facto leader of their project team, barreling in from the doorway. “Let’s get to work!”
Perfect timing, Chidi thought, letting out a sigh of relief.
“Did you just get to class?” he inquired, eyeing the coffee cup still in hand and scarf around her neck. It didn’t surprise him, Eleanor always came late, but still, it floored Chidi how she strolled in with unabashed confidence. Chidi shriveled away when he arrived even one minute late, how could Eleanor muster the guts to come forty five minutes after class began?
“Long line at Michael’s,” Eleanor explained, setting her cup down and pulling her messy notes onto the desk. As Chidi learned from their midterm presentation, Eleanor wasn’t the best student, but she was the best at organizing their projects of the four of them. Unlike Chidi, she didn’t waver on which details to include and unlike Tahani, she wasn’t concerned with how to woo the teacher for self-validation. And unlike Jason, she actually had… a brain, so she could contribute sometimes.
(To be honest, Chidi didn’t know how Jason got into college at all. Not that he minded having him there, he always offered free snacks at their group meetings, but he wasn’t... the sharpest tool in the shed)
“By the way, I saw Jason nuzzling with Janet by the windows,” Eleanor mentioned. “ So I guess they’re not coming either.”
“Wait, Jason and Janet together?” Tahani asked, flabbergasted. Tahani wasn’t the only one surprised. Jason was a great guy but Janet wasn’t exactly... his type. She was pretty, funny, president of the student body and the Scholars Club. On top of that, she knew everything. He wasn’t exaggerating. She literally knew everything. Sometimes his friend Simone joked she was secretly a robot. “Since when have they been… dating?”
“I wouldn’t say they’ve been ‘dating’ if you know what I mean,” Eleanor snorted. She flipped through her stack of loose leaf paper and pulled out her project notes, clicking into her planning mode, “Alright, so we have five more days to put together our final presentation, and from what I remember from what we talked about on Tuesday, no one has any weekend finals, so I vote we get together Saturday and Sunday and just bang this shiz out, ya feel me?” Proud of her quick thinking, Eleanor laid back in her seat and propped her feet up on Jason’s vacant chair.
“Oh!” Tahani clucked. “I’m sorry Eleanor! But no can do!”
“I’m sorry?” Eleanor sat back up.
“What Tahani is trying to say is, the Scholars Club has a ball on Saturday of winter finals week,” Chidi filled her in, “And since Tahani and I are on the board, we’re busy planning until Saturday, and then on Sunday, we have to clean up and debrief, so it probably won’t be until Monday that we can work on the presentation.”
“Seriously?” Eleanor threw her head back and groaned. “Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”
“Well, we’ve been caught up with other finals, Scholars Club events, I’m part of the Plato society…”
“Oh my god, I get it, you ner-” Eleanor paused mid-sentence.
Chidi cocked his head at her. Was she about to say nerds? Huh. He felt like he had heard that phrase from somewhere, but he couldn’t place where…
“-naturally very busy overachievers,” Eleanor covered. She froze for a second before flapping her lips exasperatedly, folding up her notes and shoving them back into her backpack. “I guess we’ll just do it on Monday around my philosophy final, then.”
“I’m sorry, Eleanor,” Tahani patted her hand. “But I promise I’ll come by your dorm tonight to give you that face cream. It will make all your blemishes disappear!”
“Tahani, I never said-”
“Oh, I’m so excited to see your triple, Eleanor!” Tahani interrupted, clapping her hands together. “I bet it’s just so… quaint.”
She shot her one last grin before gathering all her books and striding away, her floral dress billowing behind her. Eleanor’s mouth dropped open at she watched Tahani exit, still wondering what just happened.
“Don’t worry,” Chidi told her. “She gave me face cream last week, too. You don’t need it.”
Eleanor’s eyes sparkled before she coughed and stood up, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. For some reason, Chidi found himself liking the way her eyes glimmered under the fluorescent lights, how the ends of her mouth softened, how her cheeks tinted pink. She looked pretty.
Calm down, Chidi, he scolded himself as he shook his head. One crush at a time.
***
I ate a quesadilla for lunch today, Chidi texted mystery girl later that day, at the library with Uzo. And now I have a giant stomach ache.
I’m sorry, philosophy cutie, she instantly replied. I wish you didn’t feel so sick all the time :(
The campus health center is open until 7. She added. Maybe you can make an appointment? She sent him a link to the online appointment maker.
I have to study for my psych final tomorrow, Chidi messaged. But thank you for checking for me. That was really nice of you.
Guess you’re not the only one with character development. :)
Chidi chuckled to himself. He began crafting a witty response, clicking on the urban dictionary link he bookmarked to match her constant use of casual slang. He felt Uzo peering over his shoulder and turned around.
“Shrimp freak again?” Uzo lifted an eyebrow.
Chidi nodded.
Uzo, his childhood best friend, his roommate, his pseudo-brother, was one of the only people who knew the full story. Of how Chidi wrote under a pen name for the university’s online philosophy zine. Of how one day, “StoneColdSteveAustinfreak” had commented on his post, mocking his rigidity and suggesting he “lighten up.” Chidi responded politely, requesting that she directly contact him for her difference in perspective, and two days later, he received a message from shrimpfreak1014 over his newspaper gmail chat. At the time, he was refining his midterm paper for deontology, checking every now and again for messages. Somehow, he remained embroiled in an argument with her until three A.M.
She irritated Chidi to to end. She was argumentative, and she made fun of his nerdy habits, and her sense of humor was cruder than he liked. But at the same time, Chidi didn’t want to stop talking to her. She was sharp and witty and unlike anyone he’d ever met. She was selfish, but she was trying to be better. She was rude, but she apologized when she went too far. She coined herself as a moral particularist, yet she sometimes cited Kant in her arguments, emphasizing when she did just to tease him.
And soon, as their chats grew more and more frequent, they became closer. She messaged him during her work breaks, and he talked to her while he worked on his homework late at night, bags sagging under his eyes as he alternated between his essay about Plato to their discussion of Tim Scanlon. They were friends, advisors, maybe even confidantes, their conversations ranging from philosophy to their favorite coffeehouse on campus to their lives outside of university. She told him how she emancipated from her parents at fourteen, how she worked three jobs to pay off her student loans, how she decided to become a better person after a near-death experience getting her stomach pumped. He confided that his grandmother passed away last year and he missed her, he missed the snacks she used to send and the stews she used to serve. Since then, he told her, he had been more anxious than usual, the simplest of decisions causing his palms to sweat and his leg to bounce .
Listen, dude, how about this? She wrote. Since you’ve been my dorky mentor and you’ve helped me a better person and all the junk, why don’t I help you make decisions? I’m good at that stuff, anyway.
You would do that? He asked.
Yeah, man, I owe it to you! She insisted. The next time you freak out over a big decision just come to me.
And so he came to her each time he freaked out, faced with a choice between white or black, right or left, frozen mocha or coffee.
Just get the frozen mocha, she would reply, as if choosing was so easy. You don’t even like the taste of fair trade coffee at the cafe, so why not get something you enjoy?
You’re right, said Chidi, shocked at her ability to choose without qualms. And so they went on, Chidi as her philosophy mentor and shrimpfreak as his decision maker, and Chidi found himself aching for her messages. During the day, his mind began drifting to her: how perfectly she complemented Chidi, how since they started talking, he softened her and she strengthened him. He wonder about her in ways he shouldn’t, about how her eyes were probably bright and fearless, about if her mouth would curl after a quip, about how her skin would feel against his, cuddling in Chidi’s bed-
No, no, no. It was wrong. How could he have a crush on her when-
“Chidi?” Uzo waved a hand in front of his face, snapping him back to reality. “Chidi? Dude, are you freaking out about your crush on shrimp freak again?”
“A little,” Chidi squeaked. “Okay, well a lot,” He admitted. “I can’t handle this anymore, Uzo! I mean I’ve kept this from her for way too long, and I’m the one who’s always maintained a moral code of honesty! And if I do tell her how I feel, it could potentially destroy our relationship and all the progress she’s made! And who am I to destroy progress, Uzo? I don’t have that kind of authority!”
“Listen, you’ve got to calm down, man,” Uzo advised, while Chidi gasped for air. “Look, it seems like this is eating you alive inside…”
“Pretty much everything does!”
“Right, but it seems like you like her a lot, so… why don’t you put yourself out there? ” He punched Chidi lightly on the shoulder. “Ask her to the Scholars Club ball.”
“The Scholars Club ball?”
“The Scholars Club ball.” Uzo nodded. “Just so you have a shot at meeting in person. I mean, it’s been four months and you don’t even know her real name. You can just go as friends, too. No pressure. But this way, you don’t have to worry about her not knowing who you really are, and if you want, you can come clean and tell her about your feelings.”
“Huh. That’s not a bad idea, actually.” Chidi pondered, tilting his head. If they went to the Scholar’s Ball together, they could have a lot of fun. Shrimpfreak could meet Uzo and Tahani and Simone, and they could talk and laugh all through the night. And maybe, just maybe, (just a thought!) they could slow-dance together, too. He even knew how to sell it to her. There were tons of caterers and free cocktail shrimp. He’s sure she would like that.
But there were drawbacks, too, and Chidi had to consider those, too. Maybe he could make a pros and cons list. Or maybe he would use that Magic 8 Ball in the student union to make a decision for him.
“I’ll think about it,” he told Uzo.
“You’re going to stay up all night agonizing about whether to ask her, aren’t you?” Uzo anticipated.
“Yeah, pretty much!”
“I know you too well, buddy,” Uzo laughed.
***
“Eleanor!” Tahani sang outside her door. “I have your face cream!”
“Oh, no,” Eleanor muttered. “Here we go.”
She closed her laptop and ripped down her Stone Cold Steve Austin poster. Eleanor wasn’t sure if Chidi told her about their messages, but wasn’t taking any chances. She scanned her room for any other defining items that might give her away. Luckily, she wasn’t much of a decorator, unlike Becky, who littered her desk with pictures of cats, Spiderman figurines, and frog drawings by her cousin, Jeremy. Yeah, sure, the frog sketches were cute, but the Spiderman figurines? Come on, Becky!
“Hello, Eleanor!” Tahani greeted as Eleanor opened the door, waltzing right into her room without permission.
“Sure, come on in, Tahani. I definitely invited you.” Eleanor grumbled and flopped onto her bed.
“Here’s a bag with some face cream, and some other Korean skincare products I’d thought you might like to try!” Tahani perched herself on the edge of Eleanor’s bed. As she examined the rest of Eleanor’s dorm room, her face scrunched. “Why, this space is awfully… cramped…”
“Because it’s a dorm room,” Eleanor drawled sarcastically. “It’s small? It’s something normal college students usually live in?”
“I mean it’s nothing compared to the spacious single I have in the Scholar’s Club house, and it’s not as quaint as I thought, but I have to admit, it’s quite cute. Aside from the Spiderman figurines on that desk, which are creeping me out…”
“Right? Thank you!” Eleanor threw her hands up in the air emphatically. “I keep telling Becky to turn them to the side so we don’t have to see them!”
“Though I suppose they would creep out the people walking and looking at the dorm windows,” Tahani giggled.
“Haha! You’re right!” Eleanor snickered. “There’s no winning, is there?”
“Not unless you accidentally throw them in the garbage can!” Tahani joked.
“That’s the best idea you’ve ever had, babe!” Eleanor rolled over from laughing so hard. Tahani, who was keeling over with her laughter along with her, suddenly stopped, focusing on the left corner of Eleanor’s room.
Eleanor’s eyes widened. Oh no. She had completely forgotten that she left her work backpack on her desk. It was free of badges and patches and tacky Becky-like decorations… besides the small shrimp keychain on the zipper.
Shit.
“Say Eleanor,” Tahani spun back towards Eleanor. “Shrimp doesn’t happen to be your favorite food, does it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Tahani,” Eleanor challenged, shooting Tahani her sharpest eyes. Tahani’s normally light demeanor darkened to match Eleanor’s venomous stare.
“Anyway,” Eleanor swung her legs around her bed and stood up. The faster she could shove Tahani out of the room, the better. “I think it’s time for you to go, Tahani,” She pushed Tahani back towards the door with her feeble muscles. Jeez, she was surprisingly strong. “Buh-bye! See you Monday!”
“Hang on just a second,” Tahani resisted Eleanor’s shove.“You don’t happen to have a poster of Stone Cold Steve Austin, do you?”
“Again,” Eleanor choked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Tahani. See you later, okay buh-bye!”
“Oh, really?” Tahani smugly leaned against the doorframe, pointing to the back of the room. “Then why is that Stone Cold Steve Austin poster on the ground?”
Eleanor flicked her eyes back to the back of the room. Her Stone Cold Steve Austin poster was lying face-up. Fuck. She tore the poster down but she forgot to turn it over or hide it under the bed. Damn it, Eleanor!
“Okay, fine, you caught me!” Eleanor caved. She sighed and walked back to her bed. “I’m shrimpfreak1014.”
“Well, since I am very well-connected,” bragged Tahani, shutting the door and joining her on the bed. “I happen to know the identity of the lucky man you’ve been talking with-”
“Please,” Eleanor rolled her eyes. “ I know it’s Chidi. I sit behind him in class and he’s not super discrete about messaging on his laptop.”
“Oh,” Tahani shook herself out of her initial shock before agreeing, “That is true. But if you know who he is, and you both are very close, why don’t you tell him who you are?”
Because it’s Chidi, she wanted to say. He’s intelligent and patient and kind and he genuinely cares about people. He cares about me. But I don’t even know if he cares about me me. Eleanor me.
And I couldn’t stand losing him if he didn’t.
“Because I don’t even know if he likes me,” she said instead. She avoided Tahani’s gaze as her eyes welled with tears, tucking the strands of hair behind her ears. God, she probably looked like an idiot, getting all soft talking about how much she liked him. “We always bicker while working on projects, and he always gives me a funny look whenever I say something ignorant, and I just… I don’t want him to change his mind if he knows who I really am…”
“Eleanor,” comforted Tahani, rubbing her back in circles. “I’ve known Chidi for a long time, and he doesn’t dislike anyone. Including you. And also…” Tahani hesitated “You never know how someone will react if you tell them how you feel, so it never hurts to try. Like the time I told Daniel Radcliffe that…”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Eleanor cut her off. “I always get it. But…. Thanks, Tahani. I guess. Maybe. I’ll think about it.” She smiled up at her in between sniffles.
“No problem, friend,” Tahani gave her one last pat on the back before heading back to the door, this time, without Eleanor forcing her out. “Well, I better get going. I have to run a bunch of errands for the ball. But Eleanor,” Tahani lingered in the doorway, rocking back and forth on her feet. “If you ever want to get lunch or something…I’d be happy to put something in my calendar.”
“That would be great, Tahani,” accepted Eleanor, grinning. Sure, Tahani was a snob, and she name-dropped too much. She wore heels even though she didn’t need them, and she was too concerned with her popularity…but she also had a good heart. And she was kind of fun to be around. It was only fair that Eleanor gave her a chance.
“But only if we go to get burgers,” she added. “I’m not much of a fancy girl, and you could use some loosening up.”
“Well, I look forward to the grease.” Tahani bobbed her head, then double-checked, “Is grease something to look forward to?”
“You’ll see, babe,” Eleanor winked at her. “You’ll see.”
***
Chidi paced up and down the shiny, hardwood floor of the Scholars Club house kitchen. He had been at it for an hour and a half. Femi already came down to check if he was okay, and he had already scarfed down three bananas from the ornate ceramic fruit bowl Tahani had made for the kitchen. Okay, he was going to go over the possible outcomes one last time, then he was going to decide on what to do…
Hey, bud, his phone vibrated in his hand, disrupting his train of thought. Haven’t heard from you in awhile. Feeling alright?
Chidi trembled as he reread the message. He couldn’t keep up this charade any longer, otherwise he would just end up freezing her out. Yeah, that’s what normally ended up happening with his friends and ex-girlfriends he couldn’t break secrets to, but he didn’t want this to happen with her. He didn’t want to lose her; he wanted this, finally, to be the one that stuck.
You know what? His mind whipped into shape and settled, He was going to do it. If shrimpfreak had taught him anything, it was how to be more decisive. He yearned so badly to meet her, he yearned for nothing else, but he was letting the tossing and turning of his mind prevent him from going for what he desired.
Hey! He texted. Thanks for checking up on me. I was just thinking how to ask you something. So I’m part of the Scholars Club on campus and we’re having a ball on Saturday night. Do you want to go with me? Just as friends, of course. There’ll be free shrimp!
He held his breath while he waited for her response. Nothing.
He removed another banana from the fruit bowl. Maybe the overload of potassium could somehow carry him through the day.
***
It was only in his final class of the day, creating a study guide for philosophy of neuroscience alongside Simone, when he heard back from shrimpfreak1014:
Sorry man, I have work from 9-5 tomorrow and then I have to finish my group project. :(
Oh, Chidi responded, swallowing his disappointment. I understand. Good luck with finals! If you end up having time, feel free to come by.
Yeah, honestly, dude, I’m not really sure if I will. I don’t know if I’m ready to meet yet.
Chidi blinked, pushing down the sickening feeling slithering up his throat.
That’s okay, He reassured, although he was stewing in his own regret. We can just meet when we’re ready. There’s no rush, right?
No response.
Chidi heaved as he ran his fingers through his hair.
“You okay, Chidi?” Simone asked, tapping him on the shoulder.
“Yeah,” He somehow managed to lie through his heaving. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”
This was why he couldn’t make decisions.
***
On the day of the ball, Chidi rose with dread.
He was surprised he could get up at all- his muscles fatigued from restless turning, his eyes strained from rereading old messages all night. Uzo calmed him down for a little bit in the morning, promising that shrimp freak just needed some time to process the idea of meeting him in person. Chidi told him he was probably right, but still, he checked his phone a couple more times to see if she had messaged back.
The rest of the day kept him distracted enough; he and the rest of the board met in the living room to begin ball preparations: wrapping carnations around the banisters, confirming arrival times of the caterers, transporting surprise gift bags to the gazebo. He felt normal, for the most part- until he overheard Simone and Vicky talking about their dates.
Chidi’s stomach boiled with agony. He didn’t know why he cared so much- he had been fine with not having a date, with not meeting his secret friend in the near future. Now he couldn’t get it out of his head, and he hated himself for it. Why did he have to go and ruin everything?
As the sun lowered over the Scholars Club house hill, the guests rolled into the living room. Chidi feigned a smile as he tore them in half, trying not to let his misery get the best of them. They had planned this ball for months and at least it was going well: the decorations colorful yet classy, the guests adorned in flowing gowns and fitted suits.
After he finished up registration, Chidi floated throughout the house to different groups, greeting them and asking if they were having a good time. It wasn’t a distraction, he tried to convince himself. It was part of his job as a board member. He wasn’t trying to keep his mind off shrimpfreak at all. He wasn’t even thinking about her.
“Chidi!” beckoned Simone from the kitchen.
Chidi let out a sad smile and moved towards Tahani, Uzo, and Simone. As he approached them, Tahani handed him a plate of shrimp. Chidi thanked her gratefully and popped it in his mouth, humming delightfully at its taste.
“Mmmm.” He turned to Tahani. “You did a great job with all of this. The shrimp is so much better than last year, and people seem to be having a great time.”
“It’s much better than the one Kamilah threw two years ago, isn’t it?”
“Oh, much better,” Chidi reassured, and he meant it. Kamilah’s taste was a little too loud and garish for him, but Tahani struck the tasteful balance between sophisticated and fun.
“Be honest,” Uzo slugged an arm around his shoulder. “How are you holding up, man?”
“Could be better,” He shrugged. “But, I’m not doing horrible. I think… I’m going to go outside for a little bit. Get some fresh air.”
“Oh,” Uzo dropped his arm from his shoulders. “Do you need anything else?”
“I’m okay.”
“Would you like some more shrimp, Chidi?” Tahani extended out another plate.
“I’m good,” Chidi tried to think of an excuse so he didn’t sound lame “I’ll come back in later… maybe… to get some more.”
Skeptically, Simone crossed her arms. “You’re going to go outside and read until you calm down for a bit, aren’t you?”
“I-I-I-I-I, um-” Chidi stuttered, but their gleeful chortles freed him explanation.
“Go ahead, mate,” Simone shooed him off. “Just come back after the dance ends to clean up. We’re going out to iHop after.”
Chidi confirmed their plans one last time before he left for the gazebo. On the way out, he grabbed his copy of Symposium, the one he had purposely left on the living room table in case he wanted to escape. Deftly, he balanced the book with his plate of shrimp as he pushed open the door. He paused on the steps to appreciate how beautiful the night was, the thickness of the black winter sky, the shimmering stars that lay overhead. The gazebo stood brightly against the dark with its fresh white paint, quickly drawing Chidi in with its solitaire.
Ever since he was a freshman, Chidi sought solace in the gazebo. He frequently snuck away when he needed to be by himself, especially after his grandmother passed away. It boasted a sprawling view of the campus and open panels that breathed in fresh air. Yes, the paint was chipping, and the roof crumbled when it rained, but Chidi loved it nonetheless. Last spring, Tahani held a fundraiser for its restoration, and by fall, it had returned to its former glory. The days of Chidi’s secret, safe place slipped away as he found kids, not even from the Scholar’s Club, using it as a gathering spot to down shots. He was surprised no one was out here right now. He hoped it stayed that way.
Chidi closed his eyes, listening to the plucking of the guitar seep out of the house. He was in his favorite place. The music inside was slowing, the shadows were swaying loosely, and he felt, just for once, that he could handle things.
He opened his book and begin to read.
“Hey nerd,” A brash voice echoed from the doorway mid-paragraph. He snapped his head up to see a familiar frame leaning against the entrance. Wait… was that? No… it couldn’t be…
“Are you reading Plato during the ball?” teased Eleanor. She sauntered over and joined him on the bench.
Chidi opened his mouth to ask her more questions, but instead, he broke into a grin. It was Eleanor. Of course it was Eleanor. No one else was as funny and hard-working and brave as she was. He should have known. He had crushes on both shrimpfreak and Eleanor for the same reasons; how could he not have figured it out before?
“Just needed to get away for a little bit.” He shut back his book and slid it to the side. Eleanor was dressed more casually than normal. Her hair was messy, she sported oversized, food-stained sweats, and still, Chidi couldn’t take his eyes off of her. “Did you kn-”
“Yeah, yeah, I knew,” Eleanor scoffed. “You leave your messages open way too much, Chidi.”
“Right,” Chidi couldn’t help but laugh. She was right. Tahani was always telling him that, too.
Eleanor bit her lip and gave him a shy smile.
He scooted closer to her.
“Um, I created a rough outline of the project!” She cried. She began fiddling with her fingers. “It’s almost done, we just have to add more details in the slides.”
“You worked on the project?” Chidi felt himself warm towards her. He knew how much she hated schoolwork. “Without us there?”
“Yeah,” Eleanor shifted in her seat. “I mean, you and Tahani and Jason are all my friends. I just figured it would make things easier for all of us, since I had the time.”
“That was really nice of you, Eleanor,” His voice fell quietly at the end of his sentence. Eleanor glanced down at her shoes, failing to hide her blush. Chidi wanted to hold her so badly, but he kept talking,
“So, you emancipated from your parents when you were fourteen?”
“Yup. That’s why I work three jobs. I’m surprised you never noticed. I’ve been on shift when you ordered your frozen mochas at the coffeehouse.”
“And you like shrimp?”
“More than I love life itself. And I’m ready to wolf down this unlimited free shrimp! If I’m still allowed to, that is.”
Chidi ducked his head down and chuckled to himself. He couldn’t wait to talk with her the rest of the night.
“I can’t believe you came,” he said happily. “I’m really happy you did.”
“You are?” Eleanor’s eyes shone.
“Of course I am,” He lifted her hand and stroked her palm with his thumb. Eleanor wove her fingers in his and squeezed his hands, leaning her forehead against his.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized. He could feel her shaking against him. “I said no because I freaked out, not because I didn’t want to see you.”
“I understand,” Chidi empathized. “I freak out all the time.”
“That couldn’t be more true,” Eleanor agreed endearingly.
They moved in closer to each other.
“Eleanor?” Chidi licked his lips nervously. He didn’t know why he was about to ask what he was about to ask, but he really wanted to. “Can I- can I kiss you?”
Eleanor beamed up at him.
“Go ahead, bud.”
Chidi sprang his lips onto Eleanor’s, moving his mouth passionately against hers. Eleanor drew back at first, startled, but then she sank into the kiss, her mouth curving against Chidi’s in a smile. Chidi removed his hand from hers and wrapped them around her back, sliding one down to her waist and the other up her back. As Eleanor laid her hands on his stomach and let them travel up to his shoulders, Chidi reveled in having her fingers against his chest. This, he realized, thoughts unlocking as they kissed and kissed, is what he always dreamed of. It was always Eleanor he heard when reading her messages. It was always Eleanor he imagined kissing. It was always Eleanor he longed to be near, and now he finally was: her tiny little body pressed against his, her mouth moving with trademark feistiness he admired and loved.
They kissed until their lips grew weary, reluctantly pulling apart as they clung to each other still. Eleanor gazed up at him, her eyes full, and it struck Chidi that he’d never seen her so happy. Guess they both made each other that way.
Chidi kissed her forehead as she snuggled herself his chest. He felt ready to make million decisions right then, with Eleanor in his arms in his favorite place, the brisk air gusting all around them.
“Hey, shrimpfreak.” He bumbled as the music spilled back into the gazebo, “Do you- do you maybe want to dance? Um, with me?”
Eleanor laughed, tugging Chidi up onto his feet.
“Come on, Kantafficado.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Show me how it’s done.”
#tgpsecretsanta#alys07#cheleanorfic#cheleanor#tgpfic#i hope you like it bbkins!#im sure its littered with errors when I was copying and pasting over whoops!#still hope you like it!#userleila
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First of all, LOVE your blog! Secondly, have any recommendations on Sterek Fanfics?!? I feel like I've read them all but I always need more!!!
Thanks! We’ve been mutuals for a while now and it’s always nice to see you pop up :) I actually have a sideblog entirely dedicated to TW so if you’re looking for a blog that focuses on it then maybe take a look at that, too. @wheredidhiseyebrowsgo is probably the best blog I know when it comes to fic recs/finding fics/etc. so you should give them a follow!
As for Sterek recs, oh geez… So, fun fact, on ao3 I actually have over 700 Sterek works bookmarked! And then I know there’s a ton of little ficlets in my likes on here, too, and really my point is just that there are so many great Sterek works and I will list some of my all time favs in case you haven’t seen them. And I do love all of these but my super-duper faves will have a ★ next to them. I started at the back of my ao3 bookmarks and went in about five pages I figured 25 would be good enough for now, especially since some of them are series so that’s actually more.
★★★He Fucks My Best Friend by mydickisthealpha (667 words, rated M)
“I, for one, would like to vote to keep this as part of all the meetings,” Lydia announces and Stiles flushes scarlet basically everywhere. (My comment: short and funny, Stiles&Derek forget the pack is coming by and are having sex. Scott POV)
★★★As the Lights Go Down by standinginanicedress (62,890 words, rated E)
Stiles is standing there looking bizarre – which maybe isn’t a very nice thing or even a convincing thing to say about a person that Derek’s basically invited over to hook up with (whatever that even fucking means to kids these days) – but he…does. He’s wearing dark jeans, a black hoodie with the hood pulled up so Derek can’t even really see his face aside from his mouth and jawline, and he’s got that metal baseball bat in his fingers again.He looks like he’s come here to literally beat Derek to death.Then, he grins, lifts one shoulder up in a half shrug, and says, “I can’t come in until you invite me.”Derek is mystified enough that all he can say is, “really?” He thought that was a vampire thing.(My comment: AU but they’re all still supes. Stiles is a spark and they are powerful things, him even more so because of plot you should read. standinginanicedress has several good ones you might want to peruse.)
★★★The Domestic Series by thepsychicclam (149,239 words, various ratings)
First work’s description: It’s Saturday night, and Derek Hale is at Toys R Us. Shopping for Leapfrog games. If asked, it wasn’t exactly how he pictured his life. Or his Saturday nights. In which Derek and Stiles have been married for ten years, have two kids, and are planning their five year old’s birthday party.
(My comment: The domestic series is just parent Sterek fluff for the most part and it is absolutely wonderful. Realistic, I think, in the fights that happen and how Stiles&Derek fit together. I love the children.
Also @thepsychicclam has a lot of wonderful works besides this series that should be read if you haven’t but this is definitely my favorite.)
Nothing Short Of Perfect by GotTheSilver (27,019 words, rated E)
In which Derek and Stiles are made aware of their potential and have to make a choice about what their relationship will be.“Let me get this straight,” his dad says. “You’re telling me a witch told Derek and yourself that you could be destined to be together and now Derek will be going to college with you?”Stiles shrugs, resting his hands on his legs to stop himself from fidgeting. “That’s about it, yep.”
★★★My Heart Comes Tumbling Down by DevilDoll (5,689 words, rated E)
“This is a casual, adult relationship based on sex, and it is awesome.” In which Stiles and Derek have a great time buddyfucking until a burrito ruins it all. (my comment: devildoll is one of those I see rarely recced outside of SFiYE [below] and they have some really good other stuff, too)
★★★Stand Fast in Your Enchantments by DevilDoll (76,956words, rated E)
“Stiles knew damn well what a pissed-off wolf sounded like, and every hair on the back of his neck was telling him that somewhere in this room was a very pissed-off werewolf.” An AU in which Derek is feral, Stiles is magical, and they eat a lot of fast food.
Won’t Do Me No Good Washing in the River by DevilDoll (5,939 words, rated M)
“Remember, Derek: you never get back what you lost.” Story by Devil Doll, artwork by Rahciach, podfic by Jinxy. This story has a happy ending, but please read the tags. (My comment: Angst with a happy ending. Major character death but they are brought back.)
★★★The One with the Napping by Captain_Loki (4,768 words, rated M)
It is a unique and somewhat unhelpful talent, but Stiles can fall asleep anywhere.
★★★[Sleep]Walking After You by relenafanel (56,551 words, rated M)
Derek is a sleepwalker who keeps wandering into his downstairs neighbour’s bedroom.Stiles is pretty sure the hot guy from the park is going to kill him in his sleep. He knows he shouldn’t have been so obvious about objectifying the guy’s really fine ass.Too bad it turns out Derek is easier to get along with when he’s sleeping.
★★★Play It Again by metisket (63,206 words, rated T)
In which Stiles goes along with one of Derek’s plans and ends up in an alternate universe as a result. He should’ve known better. He did know better, actually, and that means he has no one to blame but himself.“Laura wants to lure the kid in with food and kindness and make a pet of him, like a feral cat. Derek wants to have him arrested for stalking. They’re at an impasse. (And the rest of the family is staying emphatically out of it in a way that suggests bets have been placed.)”
Hemingway Can Suck It by KuriKuri (10,054 words, rated T)
“For those of you who just transferred into this class or simply decided that day one wasn’t important enough to attend, I’m Professor Hale. Welcome to English 346, The American Novel.”Stiles is pretty sure his mouth is hanging open right now and that his eyes are wide with shock, because holy fuck, he thinks he knows why his students transferred. Hell, if he was still an undergrad, he probably would have transferred, too. (Or: In which Stiles is a Biology professor and Derek thinks he’s a student.)
★★★Baking My Way Into Your Heart by theSilence (178,630 words, rated M)
Derek is an uptight college student, all work and no play. His carefully scheduled life is thrown kilter when his regular barista is replaced with someone new. (My comment: Coffee shop/college AU with slowburn. It’s beautiful.)
★★★The Well of Living Waters by Kalpurna (30,322 words, rated E)
King Derek takes a consort. (My comment: royalty AU. Demisexual Derek although I don’t think it’s explicitly tagged. So good.)
Pretty Human Virgin Boy Comes to the Pond- Feed Him All the Best Heads by Delta_Immortal (49,771 words, rated E)
Stiles knew it was a bad idea to go into the woods, but little did he know his actions would cause the death of everyone around him. Running from the thing that killed Danny, Scott and Stiles stumble upon a pond, which happens to hold a strange man named Derek who floats around in the middle of it. Derek assures them they’re safe now.What appears to be salvation is nothing more than the start of the death of everyone Stiles cares about. The being known as Derek haunts him at every turn, unsatisfied until Stiles succumbs to Derek’s whims. Stiles isn’t sure if that involves sexing him or eating him, and he really doesn’t want to find out.
(My comment: pay attention to the tags! This is not a fluffy Sterek fic; what sex there is in this is basically Derek mind fucking Stiles and possessing him. It’s good, I love it, but definitely heed the tags.)
★★★(Sacred) In the Ordinary by idyll (78,759 words, rated E)
The Pack, after college, graduate school and the starting of careers, comes back to Beacon Hills. Nothing’s gotten less complicated after all this time.Based on a kink meme prompt that grew legs and got serious.Note: This is a whole lot of pack!fic with a very slow build Derek/Stiles. (My comment: I have read this fic like 8 times now. The pack dynamics are wonderful and the gang is all older here, coming back to BH after college. Set after season one)
When the Bough Breaks by The Feels Whale (12,068 words, rated T)
Look, Stiles knows he’s not really part of the pack, but really? He wishes the others aside from Scott and Allison would stay a little more up to date on what’s going on his life beyond how it affects them. (my comment: Stiles adopts a baby. Scott is having a pissing contest w/ Derek over Stiles and Allison so Derek and his pack doesn’t actually know Stiles is adopting a baby. Adorable chaos ensues)
The Time Travelling Werewolf’s Confused Spirit Guide also by The Feels Whale (4,832 words, rated G)
Normally you don’t imagine yourself as living in the dystopian future that hapless time travelers accidentally stumble into.Or: that one where Stiles learns the hard way that reality is not static, time is not a river, and sometimes the way things are is not the way they were supposed to be.
How I Met My Werebunny by Moku (19,873 words, rated T)
“This is going to end in tears,” Scott told Derek while he watched the man easily lifting Stiles’ desk up with one hand and driving nails into the ceiling with the thumb of the other. “Probably mine.”Or:When a Stiles and a Failwolf love each other very much, they’ll engage in a prank war. Basically, it’s a mating ritual for dorks in love.
★★★For better, for worse by Vendelin (13,336 words, rated E)
Derek and Stiles have been married for six years. Derek loves his job as a successful lawyer, loves his financial security and his large house. It isn’t until Stiles gets shot while working that he starts to understand that maybe Stiles isn’t loving their life as much as Derek is. (My comment: human AU! Stiles is a cop and gets shot in the line of duty. Derek hadn’t noticed they were drifting apart. Realistic with the coming back together & even has couples counseling. Angsty with a fluffy, happy ending.)
★★★the other shoe by stilinskisparkles (4,633 words, rated T)
They’re lounging on Derek’s bed one afternoon, Stiles halfheartedly trying to make headway on an essay, and Derek’s supposedly helping. Instead, Derek’s spent the last eight minutes mouthing lazily at Stiles’ shoulder, and Stiles is five seconds from giving up completely. (My comment: pretty much just fluff.)
★★★Those Are The Days That Bind Us by s_a_m (52,171 words, rated M)
His father wasn’t stupid. He was an officer of the law, trained to look for patterns. He confronted Stiles about werewolves and they shouted and Stiles tried to explain but his father was so, so, so mad, more mad than Stiles had ever seen him, ever in all his life and then his father looked at him and said, “It’s like you’re not my son anymore.”And Stiles broke.(My comment: I love this one. Has some major angst and an unborn baby does die due to a possession kind of thing. But out of all the “Stiles is kicked out of/leaves the pack” things this one is my favorite. I think Stiles’ progression through this is so good. It does have a happy ending but not without a lot of healing on Stiles’ end. Heed the tags.)
Divided We Stand by KouriArashi (156,742 words, rated M)
Derek is being pressured by his family to pick a mate, and somehow stumbles into a choice that they didn’t expect and aren’t sure they approve of….
(My comment: This is the first work in The Searching Ceremonies. All of it is A++ and even has wolfcop (Peter/Sheriff Stilinski). It’s all AU and the world is very well developed, plus every part of it is over 100k words. KouriArashi also has a lot of other wonderful works that should be checked out.)
Stilinski’s Home for Wayward Wolves by owlpostagain (35,197 words, rated T)
“At least your puppies knock first,” Stiles snorts. “Here I thought their alpha raised them to be well-mannered.” “There’s a sign,” Derek responds stiffly. Stiles, whose curiosity outweighs even his hardest of grudges, abandons his chilly façade of nonchalance in a heartbeat. He jumps right up and all but pushes Derek out of the way in his effort to get to the window, and sure enough when he leans outside there’s a laminated strip of cardstock duct taped to the vinyl siding: DON’T FORGET TO KNOCK Stiles gets cranky when we scare him—Or, in which Stiles Stilinski moves to Beacon Hills for his junior year of high school and accidentally adopts a pack of teenage werewolves.(my comment: fairly fluffy and humorous. owlpostagain is one of those that I never see recced and they have some amazing writing.)
here is the deepest secret nobody knows by owlpostagain (22,322 words, rated T)
“Derek,” Stiles groans. “You have me. You’ve always had me, you absolute moron, how many physically impossible feats of life-saving heroics do I have to perform before you get it?” (my comment: post s2 and the pack is just starting to come together. lots of pack feels)
will to follow through by owlpostagain (42,411 words, rated T)
“It depends entirely on how you look at it, I guess,” Stiles shrugs. “On the one hand, instant healing and the apparently inherited ability to pull off leather at all times. On the other, serious attitude problems and a suspicious disappearance of eyebrows.”“Even Derek’s?” Danny snorts, “that’s a lot of eyebrow to lose.”“I know,” Stiles agrees. “You should see, it’s so weird. Every time I want to ask him where they go, except he’d totally eat my face off.”“There are worse ways to die.” (my comment: Danny&Lydia&Stiles ultimate friendship post season 2. So good.)
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Top Places To Start A Blog (Updated Edition) - Thats Huge For What I Am Striving To Accomplish With My Blog)
Similar to MySpace, Xanga started off in 1999 as a social networking site frequented by teens.
One year later, Xanga added blogging capabilities.
Therefore the platform offers users the option of giving eProps to show love for a particular post. With that said, the site has an estimated 40 million users, and is the 1438th most visited site on earth. I also think WordPress is a lot better than blogger overall. You have unlimited possibilities because of the thousands of plugins people have created and WordPress is easier to use when you get the hang of it. One page for blogging, comments and a petition and one page for updating and organizing historical documents, images and pdfs as needed. So here is a question. Recommendations?
I look for to create an ongoing research based blog for a specific population. Thanks! Highly informative just bookmarked for further updates. Fact, hi that's better review for beginners who look for to start online blogging in easy way by beginning to ending bit by bit explanation thank you very much for your efforts for this article, its really helpful for us. Basically, will you kindly suggest and help? p site I have found that is free, uses Cpanel control panel, and gives me unlimited disk space, and bandwidth is while experimenting with templates am facing with problems and haven't come across any template that made me happy. All these sites are great for people that know absolutely nothing about web hosting or managing a website.
These sites give you should you rather pay upfront for a domain and hosting so have things free after that, or pay as you pick things like pages, video, traffic levels and more? This where it starts getting very entertaining, right? Will you like to monetize and keep all the earnings, or have to share? Notice, wordPress vs Squarespace/Wix/Weebly is a highly common question new website owners face. Let me ask you a few questions to see which way is best.. Will you like no glitches, or glitches?
Will you rather have communities and support forums everywhere to ask questions, or get a site thence exist in a contained and lonely environment?
Sort of an online diary.
Can I transfer posts when switching to, if I start out on WordPress.com. I look for to keep it all consistent and coherent. Must I just start out with the.org to save a headache later? While I use a plugin for this on my sites now I've direct coded them for clients and in the past for my own sites and love the extra functionality you can get by looking into those variables. Tumblr was recently bought by Yahoo, who has interesting plans for the entire blog advertising thing. At a time when WordPress and Blogger were neck and neck for new users, Tumblr showed up as the 3rd guy to the party. Actually, they received quite a few 'signups' from users wanting a tally refreshing have blogging, and have grown ever since. Nearly everyone is there already and you get taken seriously outright.
Awesome question.
Sorry for the extreme delay here as I get up to date on comments.
You won't own your blog there or be able to monetize it, for the sake of example. Google + can be used like a blog if you put hard work into sharing quality posts with the right people, and consistently engaging good circles. Oftentimes whenever making beautiful blog posts and more, s awesome for building google rankings. At the moment and really for any time in the forseeable future I like wordpress.org for running a blog. Now pay attention please. I am writing a blog about Angels for almost two years. I make no money, And so it's all about making a better world. As a result, must I go to word press? Now I just need cheap. Your advice is appreciated. Time to renew and I will like to move. I went with them as I was so new I needed that's all very new, as you can tell.
I have a registered domain name and a website on iPage.
I don't know how WordPress should / does / can fit in with the blog portion of my website.
Can I create an active blog as amidst the tabs, or do I sensibly require a separate site dedicated to a blog to do, eventually, the full range of marketing, promotion, and so on? Sites is good for private groups or a corporate intranet, not much else. Then, google does not put much effort into supporting Sites. It has very limited functionality. I am using Google Sites since 2010 for my blog/ecommerce site, and regret that I didn't start with WordPress.org. I noticed Google Sites ain't on the list. I've squeezed as much as I can out of Sites but am now considering changing. I think I am planning to start with wordpress.com and see how I get on.
Thanks for all this amazing info! Please can you clarify similar structures as a WordPress site does. Joomla is an advanced CMS used by developers to publish plenty of the websites we visits every day. Minus of blogger is that blogger do not allow to cash in if your blog with adult content. Recently I opened my new blog about erotic photos and videos -I have to say that blogger is easier to use comparing with wordpress -'htmlediting' is plus, free video downloading. Besides, minus of blogger that administation can delete your blog without alert. So this not only makes it harder to transition those images down the road BUT can affect Search Engine Optimisation if you have an image or graphic heavy site.
My additional Blogger con should be that the photos aren't stored within website either, they are linked to an offsite location. And suchlike you can't change the fact that the photo/image is linked or at least sourced to another domain, while you can add your alt tags. I added your remark about Squarespace! I only wish I had a link to your web site, I would give you credit for that kind comment. Thank you for informing everyone including myself, and hope you found a better home for your blog posts! You can do it! You should take it into account. You are right that bloggers have to learn that on their own. I'm almost sure I realised many professional bloggers prefer to write than to manage all things techie or buggy, there're many free tutorials out there to help. Myzooming.com is a blogging platform for those who seek for to use wordpress but can't afford. I appreciate your work. I hope it ok you a time to finish it. Did you hear of something like that before? This list is awesome braa. Eventually, for the most part there's another platform I think you can add. Go watch all of Gregs youtube videos.
Get download wordpress, hostgator for hosting research theme plugins, pick one, and your off and running, best of luck and any more questions, come baqck here and ask. All the best, have fun and give us your domain name when your ready so we can check it out. I'm from Indonesia and can't speak english nocely. Needless to say, free trial, thanks for share, I'm almost sure I just wanna say that ghost dot org not free. I need another dedicat ips, not dot com…hehehe thanks, I actually know you are not understand. Then again, I read that it should cost money annually to move from WordPress to, is there a way I could get past that? I'm not sure about Blogger, I'm quite sure I know you can do it with WordPress.
Say I go with Blogger, so decide that my blog will be better and worth the fees over at WordPress can I move all my content from Blogger to WordPress?
It may be by Blogger or WordPress and its main focus might be to update my readers about music, pictures, music videos, new releases, magazines, lives, and stuff,, I'm intending to start a blog.
I need to be able to do the following. It's a well if WordPress will allow me to do everything I that Blogger does I might just go with WordPress. Therefore, I've read almost almost any comment and your information about the blog options that we have, and it seems like Blogger is the right blog for me.
I think I will try Blogger out first, after that,.
That last statement leads neatly into my next question.
I do move to wordpress, how much would it cost and, is there a way to avoid the fees for the redirection link? As I said, I don't seek for to have to pay additional fees and I understand that if I go with org from the start it won't be something I want to move to wordpress, I should like to start at wordpress.
Including the via attribute which you would use to specify your personal Twitter user name for the via @soandso that generally follows a tweet, So in case you go to https.//dev.twitter.com/docs/tweetbutton and scroll midway down you'll see how you can add specific variables. Therefore if wordpres blogger or so identical if we were not able to take care of and maintain as possible, I love you for this article and I reckon anyway. Which we were able to lots of good, identical nonsense, O Lord, do not??? Did I dream that? I may have misunderstood you somewhere here but I believe you mentioned in a comment to somebody else to keep away from Bluehost. Of course, who will you suggest using apart from Bluehost, if not. While meaning specific, on topics, start niche narrow. Nearly all big brands we know of are going WordPress. It's p way if you need to build a loyal audience. Now please pay attention. People are looking to blogs more than ever for product recommendations but you can't do this Therefore a personal website on WordPress.org is your best bet.
Since it's a roller coaster, overall, go with a pic you can write a LOT on, so this blogging thing.
Revenue, and your ability to profit with a website, will come once your audience is there. You have to establish yourself as an expert in one field consequently blend in your other interests. Everyone needs one, being that it teaches you a lot about the web and is easy to use. Although, pick WordPress, I'd say if you seek for a fancy blogs with plug ins and design flexibility. Of course tips, and stuff take Blogger, I'd say in case you just need to share posts. Most blog readers should go for contents than fancy stuffs that take time to load. Notice that I think it really depends in what you seek for to achieve. Which of the two should you recommend to generate enough traffic and make connections within my industry, with what I need to offer on my blog.
I'm debating between using WordPress, that I know is the go to platform or Google +.
It'll be part blogging of information, I am in the midst of creating a blog that caters to the indie music scene, advice, tips my skills and services should be shared with artists,, personal thoughts and insight and resources but the main premise is to ofcourse network.
Great post and thanks for the insight. Get online quickly with a free trial, setup a cool design and start attracting clients -that's the motto. All over television with beautiful and encouraging ads, SquareSpace offers a nice solution for the business owner in need of a web presence. Go and share publicly I'd say in case you look for to build any sort of following.
As we've been making an attempt to dominate it for a year now, if you need a guide on how to use Google Plus we've got you covered.
Fun features like the badge make getting followers easier.
Google Plus brings you instant community + audience -two things any blogger wants more of. Some might say WP and some will say blogger. However, for an example creately thrives in the diagramming category as it has the perfection that matters. Later, as I manage to learn php and more js, By the way I transform my website in a greate cms gaming platform, build on wordpress, at firat I start as very easy blog on wordpress. Combine in it anithing and display it anywhere I seek for. I had used Movable Type for the blog section, and figured that it will be nearimpossible to make the transition to WordPress. Thanks to you I decided to revive my 'longdormant' website.
Hi, in my opinion it would've been best if you 'copy paste', republish your old posts, and backdate them if you like.
Pretty sure major blogging platforms have this particular feature.
I highly suggest you delete your.blog blog as I reckon the platform should be shutting down soon since look, there're other better options for us out there. Is the WordPress hosting package at Network Solutions limited? Essentially, how limited, I'd say if so.. They say they are using WordPress version they don't really say much else that makes sense to me. Also, I'm wondering how it fares in searches and if I control the ads and receive the ad revenue, or if they do. Consequently, what's different, I'd say in case not. I'm wanting to know how it compares to using WordPress.org -is it quite similar? Recently I built Blogging platform for IT engineers called Wiredify.
It's simple UI but focusing on software engineering. It's quite new but striving to be useful site for all developers. I have learned many things from this post. Blogger? It is a great informative post. Just keep reading! WordPress? On p of this, I can not decide that what's best blogging platform for me. Please give me some suggestion. I am a brand new blogger. I did try other CMS like Joomla and drupal but nothing is better than WordPress I believe. I started out with blogger 6 years ago but later on moved to WordPress and since so I have never looked back. A well-known fact that is. I am a photographer/storyteller, and I'd like to blog as you suggest using hostgator. Nonetheless, I have browsed the wordpress.com themes and can't find one in which the font is not tiny and greyish and in which the photos uploaded are allowed to be large enough for my liking. Thanks for answering my questions! By the way I don't know if wordpress can, I know Blogger can handle it.
I've learned what I'll need to do to backup my blog.
I gonna be able to figure that one out on my own, I believe!
There you should be able to test a demo version of it, as for your A Cwrite is a chat write that you can install in your blog or website -if you seek for to know more type cwrite in your search bar and click on the site that has cwrite ws in the URL. Therefore if I switch from a free WordPress.com blog to a domain where I pay a fee per year will my blog become part of WordPress.org? For example, I am quite worried being that a blogger ld me that WordPress.com doesn't have many options as opposed to Blogger but I don't look for to change now that I have built a small audience. However, thank you very much. Oftentimes any advice? You see, you may find articles at Hubpages you'd wonder why anyone would ever publish.
You may find better home for your blogging and writing needs.
Hubpages started as an article network, the kind of place where you were rewarded for publishing a lot of articles on any one pic like cooking, travel or homeimprovement.
Today, it boasts millions of informative articles and guides. Now look, a byproduct of mass publishing is slightly lesser quality. It's a good idea to send this to them, I'd say if you know a friend who could benefit. Then again, just send an email. Lastly, so this post ok me months to research and make. Thanks to share with us. Helps alot during creating a blog for website whose expecting for traffic. Actually a person can pay more for space and just about every item. Seriously. Basically the org side is worse although a person gets a few free templates. Although, support is a bad joke on WordPress.com. Remember, the real kicker is the price of $ 250 dot 00 for an usable backup. I am in the process of moving first of the year. For the expense of expanding WordPress.com it my be easier to buy web space from a decent host. Some info can be found easily on the internet. For less than $ 150 dot 00 a year lots of us know that there are good hosting sites who have WordPress so you can invite friends to join.
WordPress have a very limited number of social networking links available. WordPress charges for any small step and limit store space. It's not far off from learning something like Microsoft Word and becomes second nature quickly, do expect a learning curve. It's the most powerful and respected blogging platform with endless opportunities. This the case. You got it Nuien. I have made my blog with blogger grindingchocolate.blogspot.mk/. Now please pay attention. Therefore in case I do start the business I'd rather simply be able to build the site on similar platform as my blog rather than have to start from scratch. Generally, given all this information is WordPress my best bet? Hi, I'm looking at starting a blog which I may eventually need to attach to a web based business that I still can't decide if I need to gamble on starting or not -I'm also currently unemployed.
How hard is it to switch from com to org if I just seek for to try out the interface and the blog to see how both go?
In my opinion you have pointed out for the most part there're a huge number of good blogging services available!
I think I was lucky to only know about wordpress.org when I got started and didn't have to take a roundabout way to get there. I any day. WordPress does take slightly longer to learn but if you are serious about a business it's definitely the choice I recommend. So, in any of the questions above, the first scenario is the WordPress.org. For instance, you could've written 1560 posts, 200 posts, 17500 posts, or 82 posts, on the Squarespace platform, and there must be absolutely no way of knowing exactly how many posts you have published -because they don't keep count! Please update this list to include the fact Squarespace does not in any way tell you exactly how many blog posts you have. For instance, my vote goes for wordpress as I know it's quite easier than other blogging platforms. I just love the extra functionality you can add with the vast quantity of plugins.
Hey great post, been looking at the ones I haven't seen before but I believe being a web designer WordPress is my favourite and may always be.
I can't install software without corporate approval and computer management support, Know what guys, I can access the intranet and internet with Internet Explorer 10.
Which web hosts are ready to work with SharePoint from start to finish? My employer owns by rig, and to protect their internal network from malware, they forbid and prevent me from installing unauthorized software. I read a few discussions about getting SharePoint and WordPress.org to work gether and it looks like a disaster, especially for a brand new comer. Nevertheless, will the web site management software try to install on my laptop, or will it become a feature on the web site, if I try to start a blog on WordPress.org or somewhere else.
MS SharePoint Designer 14 dot 0 is authorized for use in supporting internal blogs, wordPress ain't on my employers list of authorized software. Its more like wordpress for more even if I have not been I'm almost sure I liked both the good cms platform for wordpress or blogger. My country ain't listed on Paypal to receive payments. I am currently on a trip and should like to start a blog. Remember, I can only make payments. Actually, being that I am abroad, Actually I am not able to do any payments as well. Sounds like a lovely group and place. I dunno, I'm pretty sure I like WordPress's Users panel bc you can set different levels of power Like can edit, comment, publish, etcetera hereafter email out the logins from WP. I appreciate all the work put in to the info above. Will you mind clarifying the diff between the two sites please? I've always understood ‘org' to be basically not for profit and ‘com' to be a business for financial gain. Usually, I'm still a little confused about the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com though. Those definitions is being reversed in your descriptions. You got a great read on me there I like Blogger bc it's free and fun, and WordPress.org bc you can advertise, rank well in search, and generally do more regarding the building entire websites.
We have got for the most part there're hundreds of thousands of blogs out there so unless someone has the right link there's little change they'll get there.
You should better announce it with care and good timing! Your blog is private until you announce it. With that said, I like both platforms as a newbie I just start with blogspot now I move to wordpress. Loved both…. You undoubtedly should both what the big issue behind both? I'm almost sure I use weebly for my church websitre. On p of this, in spite the fact that the sites listed in here can be considered simple it's nice to know someone with 0 code knowledge can have their own creative slice of the internet world. I get positive feedback about it I am thinking to have a ddler food blog for the past 2 yrs til now I have not done so.
My question, for a first time blogger that has no clue about coding is wordpress.com easy enough for a starter?? Is there another blog site that u advise others. Thank u for a great article! What do you think? Plenty of info can be found easily by going online. Still haven't decided on whether I should use WordPress, To be honest I am very interested in starting a blog. That's right! I don't have any HTML skills so I fear that settling on, I actually see the great reviews on WordPress.org. Minus of blogger is that blogger do not allow to earn money if your blog with adult content.
Check this out.
HostGator to install WordPress onto I opened my new site about -I have to say that blogger is easier to use comparing with wordpress -'htmlediting' is plus, free video downloading.
Minus of blogger that administation can delete your blog without alert. Blogger is a great intro. Or a Tumblr or WordPress, like you said a logger blog. It's dangerous to invest time making a business here in spite the fact that they are fun. Usually, ok I have opted to take it. Furthermore, I decided on godaddy. You see, I started to put gether my worpress.org stuff and have transferred my domain. Now I am stuck. Let me tell you something. I can't seem to get my temporary wordpress.org site to become my old domain name.
Which blog site is easiest for fans to subscribe to?
Is that even available in free blog platforms?
It gets missed in the massive news feed, I post it to Facebook. People complain that they have no information when I have a brand new post, there's not a subscription option, I have a weebly blog. Did you know that an experience so compelling that Katy Perry decided This Is How We Do it with the elegance of NYTimes, Sony, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Snoop Dogg and more. Consequently, wordPress requires no coding knowledge and is free software -it's the domain name and hosting you pay 'aboutasmuchasacupofcoffeepermonth' for. It gives you a website like the world's best and teaches you all about websites, find out how to make a WordPress blog. For p place to blog, and it continues to be the largest blogging community on the web. I must say bravo like in a single word. Now this updated list is really helpful for getting all the bloggers altogether. You should take it into account. Know what guys, I am owner of Namaste UI and follow a certain amount blogger that you have mentioned in the list.
Let me tell you one concern I have learned about life.
There's no MAGIC.
Have a look at my site…automotiverepairinsidernews. You still have to invest the time. Your choice. With Gregs FREE online tutorials and $ I said $ 12 This what you can build. Everything you need is there. My site crashed from my own stupidity, Hostgator had it up and running in 5 minutes. Let me know. You can lead a horse to water, but…. Essentially, enjoy the journey and if I can would have lost 50 work hours, I'd say if I had opted for a free site.a lot of free themes out there, like I said. Have you watched all of Gregs videos on you tube. So, you get what you pay for. I am sure that the $ 12 includes Hostgator, wordpress and Suffusion theme. Just go on and LOOK and Research. With wordpress, a free bog can crash. Free software gives you minimal customizations.org, you can download many free themes and customize them yourself.
Blogger is Google's free blog hosting site.
More popular at the turn of the millenium, Blogger still offers a great service but the designs are a bit elementary.
Try Adsense monetization, design a brand new layout and even edit your first piece of code. Login and publish your first post for free with only a Gmail account. 50 of the time, 'nonresponsive' support, dreadful performance, limited functionality, awful interface, My blog was down >. I know that the registrar responded instantly and were a great help. Therefore, even in transferring my domain, a manual process for them even when it's so easy to automate, they've been 'nonresponsive' and I had to bring in the registrar for which blog.com are resellers. Great insight on the world of Blogging.
I'm a complete newbie to this and … I don't have a FB account!!
My end goal is to eventually gain some ground and start my own biz someday.
I need to start a blog for cathartic reasons and wondered if journal type writing is appropriate for the web. What do you suggest? And so it's the most serious con in the Squarespace advantages and flaws list, and it would've been useful if everyone knew this major disadvantage before investing time energy into starting a blog on that platform. Literally just the domain and hosting are necessary Cheap will be getting your first month of hosting for 1 penny with the coffeemoney coupon. Cheapest will be using a GoDaddy coupon from Fat Wallet should be getting the domain name at GoDaddy. This where it starts getting very intriguing, right? This entry was very helpful. It's good that through this, I've had the chance to brush up with a certain amount blog sites that might suit my preferences. It is quite some amount of time since the last time that I've had a blog of my own and due to unforeseen circumstances, I have not maintained it and almost went on an online hiatus, in fact.
Thanks a lot David!
Not easy.
WordPress.com is designed for tally beginners who don't need much control. Adding that in. Anyways, my mom just started on WordPress.com and paid about $ 26 to get going. Have you heard of something like that before? Got any more details? Start a WordPress blog here, gether with other DB readers. Anyway, what you really seek for is a domain somewhere like GoDaddy or HostGator, and a hosting plan. Also, with these two things you can use WordPress.org which is FREE. Now look. You pay for it with addons. I'm sure you heard about this. I'm pretty sure, that's what not make any sense, Therefore if u will NOTICE I wanted free blog so If I have FREE BLOG with FREE theme why I have to pay for a customizing the FREE THEME. You should take this seriously. Wow, Xanga is still mention worthy?
Still, not that I have much of interest to say.
I'm just over the entire social networking platforms and have noone to talk to but myself!
Ive been missing the writing. Almost any blogger needs to know the exact percentage of blogs published, and needs to be able to access them at any time. You will see that you can not do this basic function, when you try the platform for yourself. You shall not know, since there is no way to count, even by number of posts per page, So in case you write 500 posts. So do not put energy into the platform without knowing this information in advance. To create an online store I will use wordpress. Considering the above said. Even the free plan has certain things the Wix free option doesn't and Weebly is easier to use overall. I feel Weebly is better. Yes, that's right! Ultimately, it depends on what kind of blog it could be. Just try out both for a week and see which you like best they're both free. On p of that, I couldn't log in anymore and I never found some ‘ customer ‘ it's just lost from that moment or after a while it was showing to me that BLOG DOES NOT EXIST or THAT I AM NOT A OWNER… This was a big disappointment for me!
Hello I used a BLOG. After a some blog a big lot, cOM for 3 years. By the way, a great article, has opened my eyes to some new options as I contemplate how/where to establish a blog look for to start. We're looking to do a multiauthor blog with a header/topic message and later posts from various members of the author group in response -each offering various perspectives on the pic at hand. Then, perhaps you can give some advice. Must I first transfer my content to wordpress.org and after that sign up, or sign up to host gator stright away? I currently have a blog on wordpress.com and I bought the domain name. Essentially, I'm looking to move to wordpress.org with hostgator doing the hosting. Try to avoid paying for redirects, it's a good idea to only have to buy your domain name and hosting plan. Nevertheless, write me any more Qs. I will 100 get the hosting setup and tell HostGator what domain you're using first, hereafter export content. I found that they have a Earn Cashback page which direct to cashback, great works bro you are doing a pretty good job. While browsing I found a site buytoearn.in. So found that this site is hosted on blogger which dont allow php and apache server on it.
Funny you ask, just made a video on a couple of kinds of advertising.
Enjoy and write me any questions https.//you love asking people to comment… well, have a happy day!
Know what guys, I might be deeply buried in your inwrite, To be honest I asked you question earlier. Monetizingwise, you can send paying customers to your business. Nonetheless, take it! Just think for a moment. You can build a trusting audience and send out good information to customers on Google +. It's true that almost any blogging platform has certain privileges and also for the most part there're ourselves. It's a well I like WordPress among all other existing platforms, when it boils down to me. Thank you very much for sharing valuable information, enjoyed the post throughout. So in case I start a.com blog will I be able to shift everything over to my new.org blog or would I have to start fresh?
Thanks Greg that's really helpful. I am not in a position at the moment to pay for a domain so in my opinion given that it's only a personal blog I will start on.com and see how it goes for quite a while hereafter when I am in a position to think about buying a domain I will reassess my situation. And so it's so simple and the ns of themes make any blog so unique. On p of that, I must say though, I have love wordpress. Doesn't it sound familiar? The article just keeps scrolling.
Now this has opened my eyes to plenty of other platforms.
Thanks for creating it, now this has been really useful though.
Wow, Know what, I didn't actually know there was so many. I am so confused on what are the steps that I'm almost sure I am mom who is interested in starting a mommy blog. Have no info what platform to use, By the way I want to buy a domain. Furthermore, I need to make my blog look pretty and add icons and stuff. Must I go with blogger or wordpress? I have a blog through blog.com.
However, Actually I started writing, and wanted to pick up that blog again… the site ain't working correctly, Since so.
I have to go through round about ways in case you are going to sign in… and I can't even think about creating a really new post without using the quickpost feature in my dashboard.
I tried blogging a couple of years ago, only got a few posts in, and after that writeped it. Therefore if wordpres or blogger so identical if we are not able to take care of and maintain as possible, I love you for this article and I think anyway, how can we take care of the website that we manage it that much good, similar bullshit ya not boss??? With that said, whenever your personal success its difficult to comprehend, That's a fact, it's unfortunate that the bad titles get rated on p on google and I'm sure some individuals can be fun for dozens of people as it helps them to share their beliefs and thinking with others.
Many blogging platforms are available these days that can won't do any good for aspiring bloggers who are looking to continue blogging for a long time. Get an actual domain name and You can try hosting for 1c so it's kind of like why not as you get to use WordPress.org like the big guys. Find your way to HostGator and use coupon COFFEEMONEY at checkout, in order to get this. Thanks and hey! Definitely wondered similar things long time ago in the past so here goes. Now let me tell you something. By the way I recommend this path, I see plenty of folks getting tied up with them and actually spending more money, oddly, free blogs are fun and ok. Hey I followed Ana's link over here to read your post -nice summary though I have an additional point I'll put in a ‘real' comment. Whenever making money is more convenient, ll also own a WordPress.org blog entirely so.
Either way is optimal though.
With the ease of WordPress.org these days and the fact people actually end up paying for things like a domain name on WordPress.com, Know what, I 100 recommend using the.org to start.
You can export/import your entire blog. You can definitely start on WP.com and move to WordPress.org later. I tried WordPress and it's not WYSIWYG with MS Word. Blogger has had a huge issue with its templates and its graphics insertion since the end of 2013 and none of their forums has figured out the answer, it's a wash. Let me know, I'd say in case you know the answer. I tried out WordPress with those same articles and it doesn't look right, the way it does on Blogger. Doesn't it sound familiar? I have a multilingual thread on my current blog, Blogger, and I wrote posts in advance. Catch with Wix is the premium features, that of course cost money, that you'll almost definitely need as you expand your website.
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Gravitas. Hubris. Gravitas.
(This chapter rated lime.)
I wake up to Julian’s fingers tracing figure eights on my hip and thigh. He nuzzles my neck. “Good morning, my dear.” I hum happily and roll over onto my back, stretching my arms above my head.
“Morning.” I yawn and toss an arm over my eyes. “How late is it?”
“Mid morning. I didn’t want to wake you.” He head dips down, lips pressing against my collarbone. “I did make some coffee.” He sits up and pushes his hair out of his face, suddenly looking concerned. “Do you drink coffee? I could make tea, if you don’t drink coffee.”
I smile at the thought that he’s actually worried that I don’t like coffee. “I do.” He turns to the side as I sit up and rub the sleep out of my eyes. He turns back with a mug in his hands. His expression is almost shy as he passes it to me. I take the cup from him with a grin. It’s barely warm in my hands, and the liquid within is nearly cold. “How long have you been watching me sleep?”
“Not sure.” His hand slides along my thigh, and he kisses my shoulder. Whether reassuring himself or me, or maybe both of us, that last night wasn’t a one off. “You’re cute when you sleep.”
“Mmmm … sure.” I drink some more of the coffee and lean my head against his arm. “I was drooling, I bet.”
“Still adorable. So, um, what do you have to do today?”
"Schedule is terribly full, I’m afraid. Got to prove a really stubborn man innocent.”
“Hmm, I, uh, don’t suppose you’d need to spend any time with him to do that." He shifts around to sit behind me, and I let my head fall back on his chest as his arms wrap around me.
"I suppose that couldn’t hurt. Especially if he’d be a little more helpful.”
Fingertips creep up my stomach curling around one breast as his lips find the side of my neck. “I’m sure I can help you with something.”
I find a flat surface for the coffee before we can manage to spill it; although, as lukewarm as it is, that wouldn’t be a disaster so much as an unwelcome distraction. “And what would that something be?”
"Mmmm… Whatever will please you. Anything.”
I twist around as he leans back, until I’m laying flat against him, mouth pressed to his neck. His hands slid up the back of my thighs, pushing aside the shirt. “I can think of a few things that would please me.”
***
The backyard of the house is tiny but tidy, enclosed by a stone wall and surrounded by fruit trees. Julian’s and my clothes from the prior day are strung on a line, drying in the sun. Nearby there’s a pump for water and a half barrel that looks conveniently placed for the purposes of laundry. For that matter, I think another quick rinse would do me good. And the trees seem to create enough privacy.
I drop the sheets in a pile beside the half barrel and begin pulling water into the barrel. Julian takes behind for a moment then takes over the pump, filling the half barrel far quicker than I could have managed on my own.
I snag one of the towels from last night off the line before stripping off the oversized shirt and stepping into the cool water. A quick tock from my hand warms it a bit, and I kneel down. Julian is leaning against one of the posts holding up the clothesline and grinning from ear to ear. I roll my eyes and scoop up a double handful of water, tossing it into the air and giving it a little push of magic to make sure it hits his face. He sputters and curses while I splash my own face with water and rinse off after last night’s escapades. It’s quick work. I’m out of the barrel and wrapped in a towel before Julian has fully ceased his dramatics over the water I flung at him.
“What was that for?”
"Fun." I pick up the pile of sheets and dump them into the tub, then step back in. Much easier to do the scrubbing with my feet rather than my hands. "And you were leering. Lech.”
“I was not." He’s smiling again. I want to stop what I’m doing to kiss those lips that are curved just so. "Just admiring.”
“Sure…" I kick the sheets around, letting the suds work through the fabric, one hand holding the towel close around me.
"And what’s this?" He gives me a curious look and starts taking down our shirts from the line, folding them loosely as he goes. "Some kind of magician thing.”
“Nope. Just a lot easier than doing the washing by hand.”
I work the sheets to the point that they should be clean, and with Julian’s help dump the soapy water out and give the fabric a double rinse. I let him hang out the sopping wet sheets while I pull back on my clothes. Then, with a sly smile, I touch the fabric and work a spell that dried them immediately.
He looks annoyed for a moment. “Why didn’t you just do that to start with?”
"It doesn’t work as well if everything’s crumpled together into one big sodden pile. And the sun will still bleach them a bit.” I hadn’t come across any spells that would handle every step of the laundry and certainly none that quite replicated the smell of sheets that had been allowed to hang in the sun and breeze for a few hours. I trace my fingers down his bare chest. Even with the sun high in the sky, it’s too early for him to bother with buttons. “Any chance of some more coffee?”
“Oh, there’s always a chance for more coffee.”
Mazelinka’s kitchen doesn’t have a traditional stove. Julian kneels by the hearth for a few minutes, humming to himself while he brings water and coffee grounds to a boil three times in a tiny bronze pot. He pours the liquid off into two tiny cups and settles onto the bench next to me. “One place I visited had these contraptions that forced water through the coffee at high pressure. Amazing stuff. Going to have to try to build one someday.”
I blow on the coffee and take a sip before setting it back down to cool. “This is good though.”
“Brewing a good cup of coffee - necessary life skill. At least for me.” He stretches, back cracking as he arches it. “Maz did leave us - well, uh, me - an errand.”
“And that errand would be?” I take another sip of the rich coffee. I can feel my pulse thrumming behind my ears, whether from the coffee or from Julian isn’t clear.
"Dropping this off to a contact." He takes a package wrapped in brown paper from the table and juggles it from hand to hand before tucking it away in his coat.
"Sounds fun.”
"Umm, yeah, sketchy place really. You should probably just head back to the palace -”
“No. Seriously. Sounds fun." Besides, somewhere sketchy sounds like just the place to overhear rumors about the Count’s death that the Countess’s agents might have missed.
"It’s not the safest place.”
I shrug and have another drink. “I’m not entirely helpless.” Asra had taught me several defensive spells before he left me for the first time. At least he had wanted to increase the chances that I was still alive when he got back. Better than no concern at all, I suppose.
***
The sketchy side of town isn’t that sketchy. It’s more run down than the neighborhood Asra and I live in, but nothing about the crumbling buildings feels particularly threatening. Children play in the street, watched from windows by grandparents. Julian stops at a stall advertising fine tobacco. He exchanges a few words with the owner of the stall, then trades the wrapped packages from Mazelinka. He laughs at some joke and turns back, wrapping an arm around my shoulders as he pulls me back out into the street. “Smoke?” He offers me a hand rolled cigarette. “These are just tobacco, not any of the, um, backroom goods, but he claims it’s a particularly nice leaf.”
“Sure.” I take one from him and pause to summon tiny flame above my fingertips to light it. He raises an eyebrow, then returns a packet of matches back to a pocket in his jacket before leaning down to lit his off mine. It is a good smoke, sweet and lightweight, and I mentally bookmark the shop in my head.
“Where to next, boss?”
“Mind stopping my shop?” I know my shirt is clean, but Mazelinka was right that there wasn’t much to be done about the bloodstain. A clean one would be welcome. And I still haven’t figured out how I ended up with my tarot deck instead of Asra’s the other night. I’d like to know if his had reappeared where mine should have been.
“Works for me.”
While we walk, he keeps a hand in contact with me as much as possible, touching my shoulder or the small of my back. I pause in front a stall selling trinkets and charms. They aren’t quite like any that I’ve seen in the market near my house. These are deceptively simple glass, but they shimmer with colors captured in perichoresis, blending and flowing into each other. Asra would love them. I dig in my bag for a coin and trade it to the shopkeep for one that ripples between violet and lavender.
When I turn back Julian is staring at an announcement recently pasted to the wall of a building. It’s a rough sketch of him, with a price listed for his capture. My breath catches in my throat. At least it’s for his live capture. Not much reassurance there.
“Huh, I wouldn’t have thought I was worth that much.”
“Nadia didn’t say anything about this.”
A passer by stops and peers at the poster. They wink at Julian, then step past us, rip the poster from the wall and tear it into several pieces. “Bit of an eyesore,” they comment. “And I can think of several hundred better uses for five thousand soldi if the Countess actually wants to help the city.”
“We better get back to my shop, I think.” I suspect that the larger part of the city population will respond in a similar way as that passer by, but the sum is twice what the shop has ever earned in a year according to the ledgers I had gone through. Someone will be tempted.
“Yeah, uh, that’s a good idea.”
I pause to cast a quick glamour, a simple one that I can keep up for a time, just darkening his hair a few shades to a nondescript brown, and nudge Julian so that he’s walking closer to the building, even if as short as I am, I’m not much of a visual block for his height. We walk at a quick clip, ignoring the other stalls in the market. Julian turns off the main avenue and down a side street, clearly intending to avoid foot traffic.
It’s a mistake. Two heavy bodies knock into us, shoving Julian into an alley. Julian catches his balance and pulls a knife from his boot with a single fluid motion. One of the men faces him, a short sword drawn. The other grabs me, twisting one arm behind my back and holding me against him.
“It’d probably be best if you just come with us, Dr. Devorak.” His breath smells of stale beer. I can feel a sharp prick at the base of my throat, distracting me for a moment from the painful tension in the arm twisted behind my back. Julian unclenches fists, dropping the knife his held and lowering his hands.
“Hands on the wall,” the second one instructs. Julian starts to turn, all too ready to give up. I’m not sure that his resignation is entirely about keeping me safe either. No matter. I don’t really need to be kept safe.
I turn the wrist my captor is holding sharply, flattening my palm against his torso and pushing a crackling wave of energy into him, mentally thanking Asra for teaching me that spell as I do. He convulses with a shout, and I twist out of his grasp. There’s a sting along the base of my throat from the knife, but it’s nothing more than a scratch. He collapses to his knees, arms around his chest.
Julian takes advantage of the distraction to spin around on his toes and land a solid punch the second man’s face. He singles backwards into a wall. Julian bolts forward, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the alley and down the street. A few blocks later, we duck into another alley.
Julian’s eyes widen when he sees the blood at the base of my neck. He strips off a glove before I can protest and touches my throat, the mark of his own flaring as he does. A line if red, truly no more than a scratch, appears on his neck.
“Julian, you didn’t need -”
He shushes me, then pulls me close against him as he leans back against the wall, whispering breathlessly into my hair. “You’re alright. You’re alive.” He runs his bare hand through my hair. The superficial cut heals over quickly, but not before adding yet another bloodstain to his shirt. “You got hurt because you were walking with me.”
“Julian …”
“You’re okay.”
“I’m fine. Ilya, I’m okay.” I pull away from him. Just enough that I can cradle his face in my hands and look into his eyes. “I’m alright. Let’s go.” I adjust his jacket to cover as much of the blood as I can. “My shop.”
***
The wards of the door of my shop are untouched when we make it there. I undo them quickly and push Julian inside. His grey eyes are dazed, refusing to quite come into focus. “Julian. Look at me.” His eyebrows are pinched together with anxiety when he turns his face to me. “You’re safe. I’m safe.” At least for the moment. Nadia hadn’t said anything to indicate that she was considering placing a bounty on Julian. Had one of the courtiers swayed her? Valerius wouldn’t have been interested in the additional uproar a bounty would cause, but someone within that court was interested in creating a show. But right now, my concern for Julian is rather more personal. “Come on, upstairs. I’ll make some tea, and we can both get cleaned up.”
I coax Julian into settling into a chair and start a kettle of water for tea. I could use magic to heat the water, but that’s another thing that can’t be done well with magic. It doesn’t taste at all the same as tea made from water that was allowed to come to a boil naturally. That done, I dampen a rag and sit across from Julian. He lifts his head as I push aside his shirt and begin dabbing away the thin line of dried blood. His fingers wrap around mine. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
His shoulders roll as he exhales. “Getting you involved in this.”
“I hardly think you’re responsible for that. Blame the Countess. Or Asra for leaving me unsupervised.”
“I could - I should just turn myself in.”
“Not until we’ve figured out what actually happened.” The Countess might honestly desire to know the full truth, but it would be all too human to accept the easy out that Julian turning himself in would provide. And whoever had placed that bounty was clearly motivated to ensure that blame fell on Julian. The kettle interrupts my thoughts with a whistle. I pour the water of the tea leaves and set the pot and a mug on the table beside Julian. “I’m going to change into clean clothes.” I run my hand through his hair and press a quick kiss to his forehead. “And find a shirt for you. I think we’ve got one or two that might fit you.”
I strip out of the clothes I’m wearing and toss them into one the piles on the floor that I think is dirty laundry. I rummage through my drawer settling on a dark pair of pants and a striped linen tunic that I think Asra wore last. But it fits me well enough, and I like the colors. A few plain white shirts that are too large for either of us have been shoved into the back corner of the bottom drawer for years. I shake both out on the bed and then grab the one that appears less wrinkled before stepping back into the kitchen.
“Hey, I found this shirt that looks like - Julian, where are you going?“
"I … You, you see." He picks his foot up from the top of the stairs and turns to me. His hands drop helplessly to his sides. "This is the second time you’ve ended up bleeding. In less than a day. It’s dangerous to be around - I’m dangerous to be around.”
“This is also the second time you’ve healed me. In less than a day."
"Still -”
I cut him off and hold the shirt up to his shoulders. It’s similar to the one he’s wearing, a bit closer cut in the sleeves, and unlike his current one, free of knife stabs and blood stains. “I think this will fit you. Actually -” I wink, trying to distract him. "I think it might even be yours.“
"Heh." He smiles for a moment then takes the shirt from me and shakes it out. "Must have left it here in another life. I’m surprised Asra kept it.”
“Really? I don’t think he’s ever let anything go.”
Julian smiles wistfully. “He wasn’t awful all the time. He’s just …”
“… Complicated. Or at least he makes everything crooked and confused.”
“That’s one way to put it." Julian changes shirts and sits down at the table. "Last night you, um, you said you only remember the past three years… Have you been with Asra for all of those?”
"He’s the first person I remember." It’s hazy, but I can hear Asra’s desperate voice calling my name and feel his hand pushing the hair out of my eyes. His voice, his hands were anchors against the smoke that threatened to swallow me back. "Something happened. Something bad. I’ve been sick - confused - since. For a few weeks at a time. Here and there. Maybe it was like that, but worse.”
“I don’t want another bad thing to happen to you. Not this …” His voice trails off and his eyebrows furrow, as if there’s something else, but he can’t quite put it into words. I cup his face in my hands and smooth my thumbs over his eyebrows. He looks up at me, expression pained for a moment, then smiles. “Want to go find some food? There’s a tea shop around here that I always liked.”
***
Julian is uncharacteristically quiet as we walk through the streets. Like before, he’s greeted multiple times, but now his responses are muted. Glum even. He manages a grin when a little boy, maybe nine or ten, appears with wooden sword and declares dramatically that he’s here to protect us. Word seems to have gotten around and it appears the majority of the city doesn’t intend to allow anyone to collect the bounty on Julian’s head.
The boy follows us for two blocks before Julian solemnly thanks him, ruffles his hair, and tells him to go home to his mother.
“Would you be treated like that if you were a bad man?”
Julian turns down an alley. “A bad man who kills a bad man doesn’t become a good man." He pauses by an unmarked door, rubbing his hands together nervously. "This was a real underground place. High ceilings, cozy booths. Good place to talk. And we, um, we need to talk.”
“Jul-”
He takes my hand and leads me down a hallway that seems dusty even for a clandestine tea shop, but otherwise ignores me and continues to muse to me, or to himself, it isn’t clear. "Used to come here to get away from the palace. Nice and quiet. People didn’t bother you.” Just as he’s speaking of quiet, the sounds of applause carries down the corridor from further in the building. The door he pushes open leads not to a tea room but into some sort of storage space or costume shop. He gave back at me, eyebrows raised in surprise. "Well, uh, things may have changed a bit over the past few years.“
There’s a motley collection of brightly colored outfits hanging on a rack and a pile of blunted metal weaponry signed into a barrel. Masks cover the walls, staring with hollow eyes. "Quite a bit of change, I think.”
“Pity. They had this one smoky tea that I’ve never found since." Julian steps further into the room, running his fingers over the masks on the wall. "Oho. What have we here?” He lifts a narrow, curving mask from the wall and holds it over his face for a second before hiding it behind his back. "Sorry. I forget, um, I know you don’t care for …”
“It’s okay." The mask is clearly intended to suggest the ones the plague doctors wore, but it’s so stylized that I don’t fear any dread twisting in my stomach. "Try it on.”
He pushes his hair back and fixes the mask over his face. It looks good on him, the gold detailing over black paint compliments his outfit. “What do you think? Dashing?”
"Oh, very!” I push him back against the wall and lift myself up on my toes. "Bit hard to kiss in one of these.” My teeth find his throat anyway. Moaning, he wraps an arm around my back, holding me choose and lifting me just a touch higher.
“Imagine … Oh, yeah, that’s … Leave a mark if you want. Something to remember you…"
I pause one hard buried in his hair and the other grasping the back of his jacket. "Julian, you don’t have to -”
He clears his throat trying to recover. "I don’t, I. Never, um, nevermind that. Imagine trying to kiss with both people wearing one.”
“Mmm …" I’ll play along. Maybe if he delays long enough, he’ll talk himself out of this notion that he’s too dangerous for me to be around. "You’d have to get creative.”
Any creativity is interrupted by a door swinging open. A man dressed all in black grabs Julian and shouts. "There you are! You’re about to miss your cue!“ He catches a glimpse of me over Julian’s shoulder and pauses. "Who is - nevermind, come on, big finale time.”
He hustles Julian mask and all down a darkened hallway. There’s no threat in the man’s voice, just exasperation. Who does he think Julian is? The hallway opens into a cavernous space, cut across by a heavy curtain. Beyond the curtain I can hear a crowd laughing aloud and a single wailing voice projecting over all of them.
“Listen to them! Partying without me! On my birthday even!”
I keep to the shadows, creeping alongside the curtain until I can just peer out to the stage beyond. A man in scarlet robes and a white half mask, exaggerated mascara weeping around the eyes sprawls on an elaborate daybed, a bulky golden arm tossed over the back. “Ingrates! What do they expect me to do all night? Clomp around in my hooves? Boots! I mean, boots! Beg the busboy for table scraps? If I can’t disgust anyone while doing it, what’s the point?”
The man in black, a stage manager I suppose, tosses a cape around Julian’s shoulders and shoves him past the curtain. Julian stumbles through, almost catches himself, then trips over his own feet and into the lap of the thespian portraying the count. The gathered crowd breaks into cheers and applause. There’s the briefest of pauses from the actor and then he raises his hands in delight. “Doctor Devorak! Here to cure my boredom!”
Julian looks from side to side, but his face is still hidden behind the mask, and well, Artemis had used drama queen to describe him. His posture shifts as he decides to go for it, rubbing his hands together and cackling. “Hello my poor, poor patient. The bell tolls for you tonight! I’ve come to end your suffering. Enjoy that gasp, it will be your last.”
“What are you going to do, Jules?” The actor playing Lucio reaches out with his gold foil covered arm and lifts Julian’s chin. “Smother me with your thighs?”
“For the hundredth time -” Julian turns from the count, rolling his shoulders in place of the eyes that can’t been seen beneath his mask. He snaps back to the other actor and grabs his shoulders. “NO!”
They tussle on the daybed to the delight of the gathered crowd. The theater is small, but packed for a matinee. Mocking the Count appears to be a continued delight in this part of the city. Feathers fly as a pillow is destroyed. The actor reaches behind him and pulls out a foil blade. Julian leaps backward. "Ah! It’s a fight you want! Then -” He stops and looks at his empty hands. A stagehand appears with a second foil sword. Julian accepts it with a deep bow and turns back to the actor. “It’s a fight you’ll get!”
The two of them spar, playfully bouncing around the stage. How long will Julian keep this up? And will anyone recognize him under the mask? It might not matter if they did. The crowd hardly sympathized with the character of the Count.
The Count staggers back under Julian’s blows and falls against the daybed, flinging an arm over his eyes. Julian looms over him, fair sword pointed at his throat. Julian’s body is coiled and trembling with menace that I’m not sure is entirely feigned.
“Any last words, Lucio?"
"Jules, Jules, you know I like you better than the rest. We’ve always been friends, right?” The actor’s voice quavers and rises in pitch to a whine. “And I’m generous. Especially with my friends. What is it you want? A ship? Riches?”
Julian leans closer, voice pitched low. “Some of us don’t kill for money, you damn mercenary. Some of us kill to make up for not doing it sooner.” With a sharp thrust, he plunges the sword, just to the side of the actor’s neck. As the actor gasps his way through drawn out death throes, Julian looks to where I’m standing just off stage. Behind the mask his eyes are wide and wild, gone just a bit too far into the moment. He straightens up slowly, gaze shifting to the sword in his hand. I think he might have forgotten that it’s fake.
A second actor stumbles onto the other side of the stage. He clutches an oversized wine goblet and his mask is contorted into a sneer. Valerius. A portrayal that I can’t imagine the Consul would care to recognize himself in. He shambles across the stage with exaggerated drunkenness, and then stops sort. "Devorak! You… Murderer! Guards!”
The shout seems to break Julian out of his spell. He turns to face the audience and bows with a grand flourish before running off the stage. He laughs aloud as he peels off his mask and loops his arm through mine, pulling me down a hallway before anyone can question us.
#the arcana#the arcana fanfiction#julian devorak#julian x apprentice#julian x mc#fan apprentice#fanfiction#my writing#lime
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