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#don’t ever try to say these characters weren’t perfectly casted
magicalgirlsasuke · 7 months
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everyone stop. walker’s eyes noticeably take in the colour of his surroundings.
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meaning he naturally canonises one of the oldest headcanons in the fandom.
PERCY’S EYES CHANGE COLOUR
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sadaveniren · 2 years
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I feel like it’s time for me to share my theory about 1D’s formation (and why it had been planned well before this X-factor video was shot - though this video did very well at making it seem organic)
A lot of this theory comes from reading stuff from @verily-i-say who, if you weren’t around when she was, worked with reality television and talked about how casting for reality shows works (ie everyone is assigned a role before they are even cast and you just try to find someone who can fit the roles that you need)
Liam giving that talk a couple months back about how 1D was something he believed Simon made for him because of their talk only solidified this theory for me. So lets get into it.
Let’s start with what was going on in pop culture in the start of 2010, and what 1D was originally supposed to be. Because remember, 1D was never supposed to be as big as they ended up being! By 2010 boy bands still weren’t as big as they had been in the late 90s and early 00s. There were the Jonas Brothers who were starting to wind down their activities just by the nature of how long they had been. The producers of X-factor would have known this without any sort of inside knowledge it’s just how pop bands are. They have shelf lives. K-pop was trying hard to pierce the western market but so far nothing had stuck and there was a feeling at the time that kpop would never make it big in the west because of how their bands were crafted/promoted.
What that means is there was room for a boy band. I think Simon and the people in the X-factor knew it was a good time to make a boyband. There was a market for it, and something that needed filled. So they start crafting their story. No group had ever won the X-factor because pre-made groups kinda sucked/weren’t fully crafted the same way they used to be. Clearly this meant they would have more success making a group than anything else.
We know the producers knew of Liam and Louis. I think they started with Liam - and again this is all before we even got to the filmed auditions. I think they had the idea to make the band with these 5 boys from the original auditions and it was ALWAYS going to be them.
Niall filled the Irish niche. They had just opened auditions to Ireland. This was an easy way to gain success in Ireland.
Zayn filled the “ethnic” niche. How else is the group supposed to be “diverse” if they don’t have a POC?
Liam filled the group leader. The band was originally crafted around Liam and I will die by this.
Harry filled the “baby” role. He was the youngest. You think it was coincidence his age was brought up during his filmed audition? No it was meant to cast him as the “baby”. It’s not as intense a role as the “maknae” in kpop groups but it’s a role to fill. It also leads into him being marketed as “adorably slow”. He’s baby.
And Louis? Well Louis filled the “gay” role. Vee has talked about how obvious it is to anyone with eyes that 18 year old Louis was gay. I’ll get into why they needed a gay member in a moment.
So that was their initial set up: Irish, POC, Leader, Baby, Gay. Those are the roles the X-factor deemed they needed for a boyband in early 2010 and then they went about looking for people who fit those roles.
Now, like with any casting, it doesn’t always work out perfectly. You see it constantly in tv shows and reality shows. Audience reaction to people and also just general “character development” changes where people fall. Liam’s role of “leader” and “face” of the band swiftly fell apart because Harry is SO FUCKING CHARISMATIC. If you rewatch any X-factor stuff you can see it happen almost in real time. I could go on a whole tangent about how this affected Liam and Harry’s relationship but that’s not exactly the point of this post and it’s already way too long lol.
But what happened to Louis being “gay” and why did they need a “gay” member to begin with? It goes back to the idea 1D was never meant to be as successful as they are. In 2010 being gay and coming out/or being outted was like… pop culture candy. It was trendy. It got you promo. I’m not saying it’s right but that’s how it was. So I think they always wanted a gay member so that way they guaranteed a 3 album commitment from the boys. Album 1 rides off the back of X-factor. If Album 2 wasn’t as successful you pull out the gay card and BOOM instant interest in album 3. Enough to get Simon’s money worth from the band before they’re allowed to fade into obscurity.
Obviously that didn’t happen. Why? Well for starters the band was INSANELY popular. And secondly 🤷🏼‍♀️ Larry? They got put in a position with Larry where they couldn’t out Louis even if they needed to without outting Harry and ruining his “role” in the band.
And there’s my theory ✌🏻
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revasserium · 8 months
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balter + sakusa 🥺
send me a word and a character, and i'll write you a fic
practice makes perfect
sakusa kiyoomi; 2,272 words; fluff... that's it, sakusa isn't good at dancing, you convince him to do it anyway
“wow… i didn’t know that he could move like that…”
“ah… but uhm… it’s kind of shocking, isn’t it?”
“what, that sakusa kiyoomi could be so bad at something?”
komori laughs into his hand, glancing over to the dance floor where one sakusa kiyoomi is doing what seems like his best attempt at a popular dance move and failing rather miserably.
“well… at least he looks like he’s having fun,” komori says, grinning as he catches your eyes over sakusa’s shoulder and raises a hand in greeting. you smile back, shooting him a wink before going back to your equally abysmal dancing by sakusa’s side.
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“but. i don’t dance.”
sakusa blinks at you from across the hotel room table, his black coffee steaming between you, his jersey laid out in pristine condition on the freshly made bed. you hum as you reach for another piece of toast, applying a generous dose of butter and strawberry jam with a the same knife, seemingly oblivious to sakusa’s tiny wince as you jab the knife back into the jam jar. the toast is satisfyingly crunchy as you take a bite, making your toes curl as you finally look up to meet his eyes.
“yeah, so?”
sakusa licks his lips, his eyes flickering between the half-bitten monstrosity of toast in your hand and the crumbs littering the corner of your mouth. he bites down the urge to lunge across the table and wipe them away and maybe push you back into bed in the process, but he knows that there isn’t quite enough time for that. not today, anyway. but maybe tomorrow —
“so, why did you put me on the guest list for the dance party tonight?”
it’s a perfectly reasonable question, he thinks, even as you let out a melodramatic sigh, cramming the rest of the butter-jam-toast into your mouth and making for another slice.
“because, all your friends are gonna be there. and weren’t you saying just last week that you missed them?”
“i never said i missed them.”
“you said it’s been a while since you’ve seen them.”
“yeah, because it has.”
“so, you miss them.”
“that’s not —” sakusa sighs, reaching for his coffee. he takes a slow sip, counts his breaths, savors the bitter and tang. meanwhile, you crinkle your nose and frown at him, slathering more butter-jam onto your toast.
“kiyoomi-kun… have you ever done anything you were bad at?”
sakusa frowns at the question — what a strange thing to ask — why would he ever do anything he knew he’d be bad at? he narrows his eyes as you grin and shove the rest of the toast into your mouth. you lick your lips and sakusa bites back the urge to sigh — caught halfway between endeared and annoyed at the mess you’re making.
“no. i can’t say i have.”
“you should try it — could be fun!” you make a show of licking clean your fingers and smacking your lips.
sakusa shudders, unsure if he’s put off by the motion or turned on by it.
“right.”
you hike an eyebrow, “oh, c’mon — you can’t have been good at everything the first time you tried it — what about volleyball? were you good at it the first time you ever played?”
“yes,” sakusa deadpans, and you roll your eyes.
“okay then — maybe you were put on this earth to play volleyball and that’s not a fair example. hm…” you cast about for something else before a devlish grin spreads across your lips like butter and jam and sakusa is held still by both his curiosity and his certainty that this is not going to turn out well.
“what?” he asks, already snappish.
“i mean — i was just thinking — the first time we had sex… you weren’t as good as you are now but you seemed to have had a great time.”
sakusa sputters, nearly upsetting the tall glass of orange juice by his hands.
“that — what — you weren’t that good either!”
but then you’re laughing, shaking your head, “no! i wasn’t! but i also had a great time! see? you can be bad at something and still enjoy it!”
“that’s not — i mean — it’s different!”
“how would you know? have you ever danced before?”
sakusa clamps down on his bottom lip, glaring at the butter-dish, “no but — i know i wouldn’t like it.”
you lean forward, propping your chin on your hands, “how though? if you’ve never done it before?” your grin is just on the other side of a challenge and sakusa can’t fight down the feeling that maybe, just maybe — this is one battle he’s not going to win.
“i just — it’s just stupid.”
you giggle, stifling the sound behind your hand and he shoots you the best glare he can muster.
“c’mon — c’mere.” you motion for him to stand up as you push back your chair and jump to your feet.
sakusa stares, “what?”
“get up! c’mon!” you reach over and tug on his arm, nearly dragging him out of his seat before he has the good mind to stand up, if only to stop himself from tipping over.
you pull one of his hands around you waist and hold the other, palm to palm with your own. you laugh as you force the pair of you into a strange, crab-like march across the length of the hotel room and then back again. sakusa is red-cheeked and frowning by the time you finish your second pass.
“what are you doing?”
“we are dancing!”
when you try to tug him back across the room again, he pulls you to him, letting out a soft groan as he buries his face in the crook of your neck. you feel your warm breath against the tender of your skin — it leaves you shivering.
“that’s not dancing.”
you laugh, gently this time, curling your arms around the width of his body, leaning up on your tiptoes to try and hook your chin over one of his shoulders. you are fighting a losing battle — he’s always been too tall, too quiet, to suspicious — but he’s also always been yours.
“how would you know, hm? you’ve never done it!” you tease as he walks you both back towards the bed, smirking as you tumble back onto it, the length of his shadow long enough to cover your whole body, the light spilling in from the balcony window only serving to paint him in sharp, and shaper lines.
the curls of his hair look nothing short of angelic.
“because i know what it feels like to be good at something,” he answers, his breath a husky wisp of a thing, rolling like thunder across the horizon of your stretched out body and you’re powerless to resist him. you smile, you lay back. you let him tug you towards him by the soft of your hips —
“y-yeah? well… i think you could be good at dancing… if you just tried.”
“i don’t like to waste effort on things that won’t serve my future.”
you feel the mattress around you shift as he crawls over you, his arms by your ears, the tips of his curly-cued hair tickling your forehead. you reach up to sink your fingers into its depth.
“i dunno… i’d actually call it an investment.”
he pauses, cocks his head.
“and how do you figure that?”
you allow yourself the most indulgent smirk you can muster.
“i dunno… it’s just… i hear that dancing is pretty common place at weddings… but that’s just me, y’know?”
and or a second, sakusa merely blinks down at you — just long enough for doubt to start bubbling at the base of your stomach. and then —
“ah… i see…” he leans down to ghost his lips along the bare column of your neck, “so… i suppose it’s something we should practice, hm?”
“or — we could just be bad at it… and enjoy ourselves at the same time.”
his grin is decidedly lopsided when he pulls back, his head cocked.
“is that why you signed me up for the dance party tonight? to practice?”
you shrug, still pinned beneath him, your chest heaving at the proximity, the closeness of his body never failing to make yours simmer with anticipation.
“that depends, are you asking about dancing or practicing being bad at something and enjoying it?”
he leans down to kiss a slow, languid line along your collarbones, your thoughts fizzling out to mere static as he chuckles against your skin.
“either… both.”
“th-then both.”
he’s grinning when he pulls back, his expression just a tad sadistic.
“but first — we’ve still got… what? 15 minutes before we’ve gotta be downstairs for the press conference? why don’t we try doing something we’re both good at and will enjoy, hm?”
you open your mouth to answer, but he cuts you off with his lips, and then soon after that, coherent thought leaves you completely.
later that night, you’re both more than a little drunk, and for once sakusa is laughing like he actually means it, his arms flailing wildly as he tries to work through a series of ill-conceived dance steps.
you catch komori’s eyes over sakusa’s shoulder and shoot him a grin, raise your glass, and down the rest of your champagne in a single gulp. sakusa grins, wide and lazy and very, very drunk before he pulls you in, tucks your body against his and slows the pair of you to a soft sway, even as the music picks up and up and up.
eventually, komori wanders his way over to you both, his cheeks flushed with color, nursing a half-empty champagne flute as he looks you both over with an amused half-grin.
“and what might be going on here, hm?”
you grin as sakusa slowly spins the two of you in a circle and your eyes meet komori’s.
“can’t you tell? we’re practicing!”
komori’s eyebrows skyrocket, “practicing… what?”
“dancing!” this time, sakusa responds, a half-formed frown creasing his forehead as he looks over his cousin.
“you’re practicing… dancing… and can i ask why?”
you giggle as sakusa tries to dip you and it’s only by the strength of his arms that he doesn’t drop you flat on your ass.
“f-for a wedding!” you say, as sakusa pulls you back up and the pair of you continue to turn on the spot.
“w-wedding?” komori has the decency to look confused, “have you guys been invited to one?”
“nope!” you answer cheerfully.
komori blinks at you both for a full ten seconds before realization hits and his eyes go wide.
“o-oh! well — uhm — i’ll let you two get back to it, then!” he makes to back away before sakusa calls after him.
“make sure you practice too! y-you’re gonna be invited!”
komori nearly stumbles over his own feet as he turns to wave at you both.
“su-sure! alright — i’ll uh — look forward to the invite, then?”
you laugh as sakusa spins you out under his arm and pulls you back in again, almost stepping on your feet.
“don’t hold your breath — it won’t be for a while!”
komori cocks his head, “and why’s that?”
you squeal as sakusa hoists you up by the waist and spins you around.
“w-we’ve got a lot more practice to finish before we’ll be ready for it!”
and at this, komori finally laughs, shaking his had as he turns back around, flapping his hands at the both of you as he heads back towards the bar and his own group of friends.
behind him, sakusa positively pouts as he lowers you slowly to the ground.
“what’dyou mean we need alot more practice? i — i think we’re great.”
you lean up to brush your nose against his, “yeah but… i think we could be better.”
sakusa rolls his eyes, “fine — fine — we can —” he hiccups and crinkles his nose, “we can practice a bit more.”
“and then… after?” you ask, feeling suddenly breathless for a whole different reason.
“after… well after — we’ll be married.”
you bite your lips, searching his eyes for any sign of uncertainty, any clue that this might all just be a drunken farce but you find nothing except warmth, except sincerity, except a bone-deep sureness, a marrow-thick knowing.
“but… what if we’re bad at it? being married…”
sakusa leans down to cup your cheeks, his thumbs pressing against the smooth of your skin as he smiles.
“we won’t be… and if we are then… we’ll just have to practice.”
“yeah? you sure?”
“yeah — because… you can be bad at something and still enjoy it right? and… between the two of us — we can get good at anything with a bit of practice.”
you laugh, feeling something very close to tears prickling at the back of your eyes, hot and unsteady and you try your best to blink the feeling away. you clear your throat and nod.
“yeah — practice sounds good. practice sounds perfect.”
sakusa presses his lips to yours, his hands still cupping your face, “no… practice makes perfect… and that’s exactly what we’ll be — perfect.”
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I finished The Wire today, reasonably spoiler-free (but long and rambly) thoughts under the cut.
“Realism” and “subtlety” are the two words I keep coming back to when thinking about this show, and they tie into each other. It’s undoubtedly one of the most realistic (feeling) shows I’ve ever watched. The characters all feel like real people; people do things for selfish reasons, for emotional reasons, for cold and calculated reasons, for no reason at all. The casting is brilliant in that it’s diverse in every way: age, race, gender, sexuality, appearance. One thing I loved is that there’s barely any non-diegetic music, but the background soundscapes are really deliberate and detailed. There's a lot of times that you'll hear something in the background that ends up in the foreground by the end of the scene. There weren’t big plot twists that came out of nowhere, the rhythm and behavior of criminals and cops alike felt true, it just all feels very grounded in reality.
A big part of that is the subtlety. Very little is spelled out. The most nuanced, morally gray characters on other shows feel like absolute sledgehammers compared to the average corner kid on The Wire. No one is all good or all bad, and you always understand the reason people do things - you may not agree, but you can almost always see how they got there because of their own backgrounds and flaws. It's mundane. People don't think shit through. They're just doing what they have to do, acting selfishly - not earth-shatteringly, but without much thought beyond themselves and the people directly affected by them. Some of the people in authority positions have wider views, but they're still essentially serving their own interests. 
Maybe the most compelling thing about The Wire, throughout all the seasons and all the changes the characters go through, is how relentlessly it shows that there are no good cops.
I wasn’t quite expecting this; I didn’t know how central the policing plots were to the show before going in, I thought the show was primarily about the drug dealers’ side. Some of it I'm not even sure is intentional; I do think the show believes in some form of policing that is ethical and integrated with the community, when it steps back and points out structural issues. But it doesn't change the fact that every single cop on this show is a bastard.
They all lie. They all defend each other. They brutalize, entrap, intimidate, coerce, and manipulate innocent people and criminals alike, while their colleagues turn blind eyes. Many of them are violent meatheads who do all of this with glee and abandon, believing that they're waging war against violent drug lords overrunning their streets. But even the ones who are smart and kind and are trying to "do right" or "bring people to justice" do all of this too.
One character who cleans up his act as the show goes on is still willing to defend another cop for beating a civilian. Another character who's been doggedly pursuing the truth for the whole show becomes perfectly willing to run an illegal wiretap and mess with crime scene evidence to build the case he needs. An entire season’s plotline is kicked off because one viciously petty cop has a personal grudge, and he suffers no consequences throughout the entire show. There are some cops who do good things, or have good motives; but they either get corrupted by the system they’re in, or they end up ousted. There. Are. No. Good. Cops. 
There are points where the show almost says that the ends justify the means, but you always see what the means actually are, and the ends they actually lead to. Nobody’s ever quite satisfied with the outcomes, the status quo goes on, a few more people are killed or put in prison. Some seasons this goes further than others, but it’s always there under the surface.
I would say that the subtlety that I praised, though, is also the show’s biggest flaw. I usually don’t have issues following confusing plot lines and lots of characters, but I read an episode summary of every episode of this show to make sure I wasn’t missing anything (and I missed a lot). They also tend to introduce a whole new heap of characters at the beginning of each season, and it takes a while to get used to all the new faces and remember their roles. I’m already considering rewatching, not because I’m so captured by the story, but because I know I’ll be able to have a better handle on the early season plots now that I know who’s who. The strong Baltimore accents, while obviously adding tremendously to the realism, didn’t help with catching names and understanding plotlines; I wish I had taken the time to find a stream with subtitles.
Anyway, enough pretentious bullshit. I’m glad I watched it, even if I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it as a whole. It’s definitely the show that’s come closest to filling the Lost-shaped hole in my TV repertoire though, which is no small feat. 
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aion-rsa · 2 years
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How Batman ’89 Fulfills Dark Knight Fan Dreams
https://ift.tt/lZbTLED
Fans of a certain age will never forget a few great cinematic “almosts” in Batman movie history. Billy Dee Williams played Harvey Dent in Tim Burton’s first Batman movie, but we never got a chance to see his Harvey become the villainous Two-Face. Robin was supposed to appear in that film and then again in its sequel, but we never got to see how he would have looked on the big screen under Burton’s direction. And perhaps most famously, Michael Keaton never returned for a third turn as the Dark Knight after 1991’s Batman Returns. 
But DC is giving fans the next best thing with Batman ’89, a comic book that is the closest thing to Tim Burton’s Batman III as we’ll ever get. Taking place a couple of years after Batman Returns, the series depicts Harvey Dent’s Two-Face origin and introduces a new Robin worthy of this specific corner of the DC cinematic world. Its authenticity is complete down to the smallest detail, thanks to a creative team of original Batman screenwriter Sam Hamm and artist Joe Quinones, who was the perfect age to catch the wave of Batmania that swept the world in 1989 and beyond. 
“It’s a bit of a celebration of all things Batman that I love,” Quinones tells us. 
cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", mediaId: "c9b22066-0a9d-4064-9fab-963c0315e1eb" }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });
Quinones had pitched a Batman ’89 title several years before that never got off the ground. But when the time came, he was chosen for art, and it was his idea to recruit Hamm. For the writer, it was a chance to finish a story he had always hoped to tell.
“I tried to sell Warner Brothers on the idea of doing Two-Face in the second movie, but they weren’t interested,” Hamm says. “They wanted Catwoman and Penguin, so I never got a chance to write a version of Two-Face. The opportunity to do that and to just kind of drop back into this world was very appealing to me.”
For Quinones, it was a chance to create a story he had wanted to see since he was a kid.
“I was really drawn to Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent and such a huge Tim Burton fan,” Quinones says. “And then, as a nerdy little kid… I remember being really bummed out to not see the fulfillment of that promise of the casting of Billy as Harvey Dent and how interesting it would have been to see his fall from grace.”
Hamm had twice attempted to tell Dick Grayson’s origin in the movies, once in an early draft of the first movie and again in the first draft of what would eventually become Batman Returns. But after debating which Robin should be the one they adapt for the book, they went in another direction with a new character named Drake Winston. 
“That way, we weren’t constrained by the mythology that is already so coupled with Jason Todd, Tim Drake, or Dick Grayson,” Quinones says. “We can kind of pick and choose little elements that we could fold into our own version of the character [without being] constrained by any of that.”
Drake sports a costume that is at once recognizably Robin, and that would have fit perfectly on the big screen alongside Keaton’s Dark Knight, but his backstory isn’t rooted as deeply in personal tragedy or revenge as his predecessors. Instead, he’s a resident of Gotham’s Burnside neighborhood, where Batman isn’t necessarily a welcome presence. The need for his existence exposes one of the key flaws in Batman’s mission.
“Bruce Wayne is so isolated from the problems that Gotham City residents face on a day-to-day basis,” Hamm says. “That was part of the genesis of Drake as Robin… this neighborhood that doesn’t think of Batman as a hero… they don’t necessarily know that he’s there to help them [because] their friends and their brothers and their uncles are getting beat up by this guy dressed as a six-foot bat. Drake, in his vigilante persona, is a reaction to that. In his own way, he’s a mirror of Batman and he’s trying to protect specifically the people of this downtrodden community that is maybe ignored societally, and that Bruce needs to come to grips with the ways that he has neglected.”
Listen to the full interview on DC Standom wherever you get your podcasts.  
The post How Batman ’89 Fulfills Dark Knight Fan Dreams appeared first on Den of Geek.
from The Latest Comic Reviews & News | Den of Geek https://ift.tt/7DwodL1
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hangovercurse · 3 years
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Live from New York
You’re hosting SNL and get close with one of the cast members
Request: “hi! can you do something about pete where the reader is hosting snl and throughout the week they’re flirting with each other but she’s unsure if they should date and he convinces her? maybe a combo of fluff/angst/smut? it can be whatever :,)”
Pete x Reader
Warnings: Cursing
A/N: I told myself I wasn’t going to take that long on this one and then I ended up watching an entire documentary on the making of an SNL episode because I wanted to be as accurate as possible… someone stop me pls
Word Count: 2834
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Monday
Despite being a swiftly rising actress, you hated being the enter of attention. You’d always gotten anxious as a kid when a teacher made you stand in front of the class for presentations or during first-day introductions. So being front and center in a room of 30 people who were all there to study and try to impress you was not something you found pleasant.
“Hi, I’m Y/N Y/L/N.” You spoke timidly to the crowded room, people clapping from their spots on the floor or various couches around the room, “it’s great to be here.”
Lorne cleared his throat, “alright, let’s start with you, Anna.”
You looked around the room as a young woman pitched the first sketch of the night, listening intently to her ideas while trying to match faces with the names Lorne had given you earlier. Then your eyes locked with a pair of deep brown ones, the man wearing a soft smile on his face. He radiated gentle energy despite the tattoos you could see running down his arms.
The pitches continued with an air of lightheartedness and fun. You found nearly everything funny, so you couldn’t even begin to imagine how you were going to cut any of the sketch pitches.
After a lull in ideas, Lorne announced that cast members could now pitch ideas for Weekend Update character appearances. The man you’d taken an interest in earlier, who you’d since learned was named Pete Davidson, pitched a new set of characters for you and him.
“You know those weird stoner kids in high school who were always hanging out in the parking lot and acted really weird and mysterious? Those characters who just give really vague answers to anything you ask and act like they’ve seen some shit when they have the most normal home lives.”
You giggled, knowing the exact kinds of kids he was talking about. Colin and Michael also chuckled, writing the idea down with some notes of their own. Soon after that, everyone went back to pitching regular sketches, Jost and Che pitching an unusual number of sketches featuring you and Pete.
After a few long hours, the session wrapped; everyone leaving the office space except for you and Lorne, “so, what did you think?”
You chuckled lightly, “you have some seriously talented people on this show, Mr. Michaels. I don’t understand how you guys write an entire show every week.”
“We all work very hard; I’ll tell you that. Now, talk to me. Anything you really liked or really hated?”
You shrugged, “you’re the comedy mastermind, I know nothing. But I thought that weird kids from high school bit was pretty funny.”
Lorne nodded, “So did Jost and Che it seems. Sometimes the kid has a good idea.” You giggled at his reference to Pete as “the kid.” He sighed, “anything else? I noticed you liked that proposal sketch.”
“Yeah, that one was super funny. I will say, I wasn’t too in love with the dad-teacher one, but I would have no problem with it being done with someone else as the daughter.”
Lorne and you spent the rest of the workday discussing the different sketch ideas that came up and gauging what type of comedy suited you best. Before you left, he introduced you to Donna, your dresser who would be helping you out throughout the week.
Tuesday
After a quick tour of the studio by Donna, you were given a list of cast members and writers who wanted to meet with you to get ideas about sketches. You first stepped into a small room with a desk and futon, Donna introducing you to Chloe Fineman and Celeste Yim.
Chloe smiled brightly at you, “okay, so we were thinking that we could do something where I bring you to a sleepover with some friends that you don’t know. But at some point, you try to go to sleep because you have a soccer tournament in the morning but everyone else is being loud and it turns into this big overdramatic argument.”
You giggled softly, “I love that!”
After writing with them for a while, you were whisked away to room after room, finally landing in Colin Jost and Michael Che’s office, where they were hunched over a computer with Pete.
Colin smiled at you, “hey Y/N, how’s your day been?”
“Busy, how are you guys?”
The men responded with variations of “good,” before Michael spoke, “I know it’s late, so don’t feel obligated to stay longer than you’re comfortable with.”
You shrugged, “what time is it? It doesn’t feel that late.”
Pete laughed, teasing Colin and Michael, “c’mon guys, don’t you know that the young people of New York don’t sleep?”
You giggled in agreement as Colin frowned, “I’m only 38, that’s not that old.”
“I’m only 26, Colin,” you said, laughing at the men.
Michael patted Colin on the shoulder, “Jost, we’re getting old.”
Colin frowned before clearing his throat, “anyways, we had a couple ideas for some sketches with you and Pete, if you’re up for it, and we wanted to hash out your weekend update appearance.”
You smiled and nodded, “yeah, that sounds great.”
The rest of the night (and into the early morning) was spent with the three men, eventually joined by Heidi Gardner and Kyle Mooney to work them into the scripts. A majority of the writing process was simply messing around with various sketch situations until someone found a joke that worked best.
Pete watched you carefully the entire night, doing everything in his power to make you laugh. You had no complaints, doing your best to not openly flirt with him in front of the rest of the cast (and failing quite miserably).
Wednesday
Wednesday was the designated day for the roundtable readthrough. You took a place between Pete and Lorne, who began the reading, “we’ve got 41 sketches so let’s get started.”
The table read was just like any other you’d been through; Lorne wasting no time between sketches to discuss or joke. You struggled with containing your laughter throughout the reading, trying to act professionally. It didn’t help that Pete was making jokes any chance he got, eliciting even more giggles from you.
The three hours seemed to take no time at all as sketch after sketch was read out loud. Every so often you would catch Lorne looking at you with an eyebrow raised, usually after you read one of the sketches with Pete.
After everyone was dismissed, you were led to Lorne’s office with the head writers and producers. There was a large wall covered in sticky notes with each sketch’s name written on one. Lorne turned to you, “what do you think?”
You scanned the wall, listing off some of the sketches that you really liked, though most of them were  great, so you had trouble narrowing them down.
Lorne let out a small laugh, “you guys noticed how she picked out the sketches with Pete in them, too, right?”
Your face went hot, immediately turning to face the ground. Colin and Michael chuckled, “we noticed,” the latter commented.
“There’s nothing wrong with it, Y/N, just wanted to point it out to you.” Lorne teased before turning back to the wall and thinking.
You giggled, “you guys suck.”
As embarrassed as you were, your anxiety was surprisingly low. You had been worried about hosting since you got the invite, but the cast and crew had been nothing but kind to you. Even just being able to make jokes like this with the writers made you feel oddly comforted.
You worked on narrowing down which sketches to keep for rehearsals and which ones were going to get cut immediately, a job that was very easy for Lorne but very difficult for you.
Eventually you got it down to enough sketches that Lorne was satisfied and he sent out the list to the cast. He led you out of his office, “you know, you have a real affinity for comedy,” he told you. “I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about sketch comedy, but from that read through you seem to know what you’re doing.”
You blushed slightly, thanking him, “we’ll see if you’re still saying that on Saturday.”
He chuckled, “have a good night.” You waved at him as you walked towards the exit, running into none other than Pete Davidson.
“Hey, you headed out?”
You smiled, “yeah, just got out of my meeting with Lorne. Did you get a chance to look at the revised sketch schedule?”
Pete nodded, walking with you to the door of the theater, “yeah, I noticed you kept a lot of our sketches in there,” he bumped your shoulder, a playful smirk on his face.
A giggle rolled from your lips, “what can I say? We’re funny together.”
He raised an eyebrow, watching as you flagged down your taxi, “whatever you say.”
“Are you complaining about having to work with me?” You asked, opening the door.
He chuckled, “oh yeah. I am just dreading tomorrow.” Sarcasm laced his words, making you laugh.
“Goodnight, Pete.”
“Goodnight, Y/N.”
Thursday
Donna ushered you around all day, making sure you were in the rehearsal space when you needed to be and supporting you from the side. This part of the process came naturally to you, as it was the most similar to rehearsing and filming on movie sets.
When you weren’t rehearsing a scene, you were hanging out with Pete. It was strange how easily you got along, your humors aligning almost perfectly. Not to mention he was a huge flirt and was making it more and more obvious with you. You flirted right back, earning looks of amusement from Lorne throughout the day.
The day was a whirlwind, and by the time you were able to go home, you were exhausted. Pete walked you out to the street again, talking about one of the sketches that went wrong earlier until your taxi pulled up. This time he opened the door for you and helped you inside, “see you tomorrow.”
You smiled up at him, “bright and early.”
Friday
After hours of rehearsing, you plopped onto the couch in Pete’s dressing room, where you had found yourself a home over the past few days, “I don’t know how you guys do this every week. I’ve been here for four days and I’m exhausted.”
Pete chuckled, “to be fair, you’re the host. The key is to try and only get one sketch into the show so that you don’t have to do anything during the week.”
You laughed, letting a comfortable silence fall over you. Pete studied you, taking in your tired appearance, “you’re doing great though, being a host. I’ve seen some people come in and try to take control of everything and then no one has fun. You’re really good at just letting the comedy speak for itself. Not many people do that.”
Shrugging, you responded, “I mean, I’m not a comedian, I’m just an actor. You guys come up with everything. I don’t know enough to try and control things around here, I just do what I can to make your visions come to life. I figured that’s what a host should do.”
Pete nodded, “yeah, but again, a lot of people want their SNL episode to look a certain way. You don’t seem to care.”
“I just want to have fun, honestly.”
He smirked, “are you?”
You looked up to him with a smile on your face, “definitely.”
Suddenly the speaker in the room rang out, “Y/N and Pete to main stage 1.”
Groaning, you lifted yourself from the couch, Pete watching you with amusement, “c’mon Ms. Host, we’ve got a show to rehearse.”
Saturday
The day was hectic; filled with rehearsal after rehearsal. Lorne and Donna made sure that you were comfortable all day, but you could feel the stress radiating from every inch of the studio.
Stronger than that, though, was the sense of excitement buzzing around everyone. You were fit into more costumes than you could count, all leading up to the final dress rehearsal of the night in front of the live studio audience.
Dress ran smoothly, but you could see Lorne cutting lines from sketches from stage out of the corner of your eye. Luckily, Pete distracted you from all the anxious energy. “I know Lorne looks like a psychopath, but that’s just what he does. Everything’s fine, don’t stress about it,” he said over dinner.
You chuckled, “thanks. I feel so out of my league this week.”
“I told you, you’re great. Everyone here loves you. I heard Lorne talking about wanting you back as soon as possible.”
Rolling your eyes, you responded, “yeah right, I’m never gonna do anything big enough to get me on this show again.”
Pete laughed, “you could always make guest appearances with me on the Weekend Update.”
“You aren’t sick of me already?” you joked.
After dinner you were paraded around by Donna, who got you into your style for opening monologue. She smiled at you through your dressing room mirror, “how are you feeling?”
You gave her a nervous smile, “terrified, but ready.”
The lady chuckled, “you’ll do great. I’ll be right offstage if you need anything.”
“Thank you, for everything this week.”
She squeezed your shoulders, “don’t mention it, though if you really want to thank me, go ask that Davidson boy out on a date.”
Your eyes went wide, “Donna!”
A chuckle rang out through the room, “what? I say it for your own good.”
She led you through a maze of hallways and tunnels until you were in place to walk onstage, the speaker announcing your name to the audience followed by cheers.
Exactly 90 minutes later you were gathered with the cast on stage, “thank you to Fletcher, Lorne Michaels, this amazing cast and crew, and thank you all for watching. Goodnight everybody!”
You turned to Pete, who was standing beside you and let him pull you in for a hug, “you did it!” he cheered.
You passed around the cast, giving hugs to as many people as you can before Lorne announced, “that’s a wrap on Y/N Y/L/N and Fletcher!”
Everyone cheered, clapping for you and your musical guest before heading to their dressing rooms to change into their night clothes. You went back to your own dressing room, taking a moment to bask in the feeling of accomplishment.
A knock on your door pulled you out of your haze, “come in!”
Pete entered the room, a wide smile on his face, “congrats!” You let him pull you in for another hug, “so I know that there’s supposed to be this big party after the show, but I was wondering if you’d let me take you to dinner instead?”
Your breath got caught in your throat, those words being the last thing you expected to hear from him. Of course, you wanted to say yes because you did, truthfully, really like him. But part of you was hesitant.
You’d dated your fair share of celebrities, and things always ended very publicly and typically poorly. On top of that, you couldn’t help but feel that this might be happening a bit too quick. You started to doubt that he would still have feelings for you in a week since he wouldn’t be around you nearly all the time.
And then there was the issue of your insane work schedules. Having just lived through his, you weren’t sure if you would be able to keep a relationship like that.
“Pete, I think you’re amazing and I really like you, I just-“
Pete nodded his head, cutting you off, “I know we only met like a couple of das ago, but people go on dates with literal strangers all the time.”
You sighed, “it’s not that, Pete, it’s just that…” you paused, searching for words, “things like this tend to be very public with me, and I really don’t want to have a relationship where there’s all this pressure by the media to be perfect.”
He shrugged, “I get that, but it’s just dinner. And we can go somewhere quiet and private, no one has to know. And if things go further then we’ll just keep it on the down low until you’re ready. Trust me, I know what a public relationship is like, I’m not a huge fan either.”
“Yeah, but what about your work schedule. I mean, I’ve only lived in your world for six days and I want to sleep for a month. How do you even hold a relationship on this schedule?”
Pete moved closer to you, fingers grazing your arm, “we can make it work. I promise. Just give me one date, and if it’s not the best first date of your life, you have no further obligations to me.”
You giggled lightly, leaning into his touch, “I’m only saying yes because you’re kinda cute.”
He smiled down at you, eyes twinkling, I’ll take it.”
372 notes · View notes
agustdakasuga · 3 years
Text
Between The Bloodshed | Chapter 11
Genre: Mafia!AU, Angst, Romance, Fluff
Pairing: OT7 x Reader
Characters: Doctor!Reader, Gangster!Namjoon, Gangster!Seokjin, Gangster!Yoongi, Gangster!Hoseok, Gangster!Jimin, Gangster!Taehyung, Gangster!Jungkook
Summary: Being a freelance doctor, this was just supposed to be any other job, helping a private client and taking care of him through his recovery. But you were not expecting to get caught in something so much darker that would change your life entirely.
Sometimes, you forget just how different the boys are at home and at ‘work’. And you realise that sometimes, your sharp tongue can get you into more trouble that needed. 
Warning: This story is fictional and has nothing to do with real life events or the actual members of BTS. It may contain depictions of violence, blood shed/ gore and mentions of abuse. Please read at your own discretion.
Chapter warning(s): Mentions of blood, gunshots, cyanide poisoning. Cursing. 
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“So, this is what happens on days off...?” You stood at the entrance of the lounge, watching the boys sprawled out everywhere. Jimin lifted his head up from his awkward position on the ground, his one leg draped over Hoseok’s, who was on the couch.
“Yes. Pretty much.” He nodded. 
“Well, I’ll be going off.” You said, checking if you had anything in your bag. 
“Wait! Where are you going?” There was scrambling and the pattering of multiple footsteps. The boys ran over like excited puppies, not wanting their owners to leave them at home. 
“There were some extra medical supplies at my mum’s hospital. She told me I could take them. We’re due for a refill anyway.” You explained. 
“How are you going?” Taehyung asked. 
“Don’t you know? I can just teleport there with my superpowers.” You rolled your eyes, walking away but you heard more footsteps following behind you. You were hoping to catch the next bus but with the long driveway in, you’ll probably miss it and have to take a cab. If you were later than the time you gave your mum, she’ll most definitely hold it against you. 
“We’ll drive you.” Namjoon offered. 
“All... 7 of you?” You turned to them with a raised eyebrow and your arms crossed. The boys quickly turned around, huddling together in a meeting. They were actually playing rock, paper, scissors. 
“Turns out, the others have another activity to do. We’ll go.” Jin grinned, putting his arm around you, which you pinched and made him pull away. 
“Yes.” Namjoon nodded. You shrugged, not really caring who was going in the first place. 
“Let’s go then.” You nodded to the leader and oldest.
“The only time Namjoon hyung wins at rock, paper, scissors.” Jungkook scoffed behind you. You shook your head, the youngest will always be the youngest. Jin drove while Namjoon sat in the back seat. You sat in the passenger seat to give directions to the hospital. 
“Go in here.” You directed him to the VIP entrance. And there she was, standing there, waiting for you. 
“Omma.” You got out and hugged her. 
“You brought company?” She tried to peek in but the boys’ car windows were all tinted. Jin and Namjoon came out, greeting your mother respectfully and shaking her hands.
“I can’t say I was expecting the both of you.” She chuckled. 
“It wouldn’t be nice of us to make her come alone. Especially if we knew she was meeting you.” Jin patted your head and you shot him a look. 
“How nice of you. Right this way.” She led all 3 of you in. At first, you wanted them to just wait in the car, worried that a passing paparazzi would start some fake news but your mother led all of you through the private VIP way in, assuring that no one would see you. You noticed all the interns bowing to your mother as you passed by. 
“Still as respectable as ever, huh omma?” You asked as you stepped into the lift with her. 
“You would be too if you stayed.” She hummed. You merely shrugged at her comment. You entered her office, seeing the boxes of spare medical supplies stacked in one corner. 
“There it is.” She pointed. 
“Right-”
“Sunbae.” An intern came rushing in. He stopped when he saw you standing there, eyebrows raised in amusement, along with Namjoon and Jin. His eyes widened when he realised his mistake. 
“I’m so sorry! I had no idea you had guests!” He bowed repeatedly. Your mother shook her head with a sigh, rubbing her temples. 
“What is it?” She looked up at him. The intern took the file out from under his arm and slid it over to your mother on her desk. Instead of opening it, your mother held it out to you. You shook your head, knowing exactly what she was getting at. 
“I just want your opinion.” She still held the folder. 
“This is a breach of patient privacy.” You crossed your arms. Your mother was never one to give up but you weren’t here to please her. So you took two boxes, handing them to Namjoon, then the same with Jin. 
“I’ll speak to you soon, omma.” You took the remaining boxes and exited her office with the two. 
“Can you... do that?” Namjoon asked. 
“She’ll get over it. I’m used to her tricks. First she’ll ask me to look through the papers, then come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan. Lastly, all the surgeons will be conveniently unavailable and I do the surgery.” You shrugged. 
“Wow.” Jin’s eyes widened. You nodded with a hum. The boys helped to load the things into the trunk of Jin’s car and you slid into the back seat. 
“Wanna get waffles?” Namjoon asked, scrolling on his phone as Jin drove. 
“You guys eat waffles?” You snickered. 
“What’s wrong with waffles?” 
“Nothing’s wrong with waffles. You guys eat such fancy food, prepared by private chefs every single meal. I’m just surprised you guys will eat waffles not prepared by Michelin star chefs.” You rolled your eyes with a scoff. Jin and Namjoon shook their heads at the same times. Jin pulled over to their favourite waffles cafe. 
“Here we are. This is our favourite place.” Namjoon opened the door for you. You stepped out to see the cozy little shop. 
“Cute.” You commented. The 3 of you entered the shop and went to stand in line. There were many high schoolers, still in their uniforms there. The two with you obviously caught their attention. 
“You know, for people that are meant to be lowkey, you’re very good at it.” You snorted. 
“Jealous?” 
“Nice try with the whole jealous thing. I just hate unnecessary attention.” You scoffed, stepping up to order. 
“I would like a cheese waffle.” You ordered and stepped aside to let Namjoon and Jin order. Jin read the others’ orders from his phone before paying. Namjoon ordered a coffee and you got an iced americano to drink while you wait for your orders. Jin was on the phone. 
“Order 42!” The worker shouted. You stood up and went over to the counter to collect the bags. 
“Sorry, doc but we may need to make a detour. There’s a work emergency that I need to attend to.” Jin sighed. You shrugged, not really caring. You already had your waffle so you were good to go. 
“Fine with me. I have my waffle.” You shook the waffle with a laugh. 
“Glad we now know that food is able to make you that happy.” Namjoon chuckled, taking a bite of his own waffle. 
“It should only be a while. Would you like to come in or wait here?” Jin asked as he pulled the car to the side of the road to park, unbuckling his seatbelt. Namjoon did the same. 
“Depends... Can I bring my waffle?” You raised your eyebrows. Jin laughed with a shake of his head but gave you a thumbs up. You cheered and slid out of the car, standing beside Namjoon while Jin walked in front. The people guarding the front bowed respectfully when they saw Jin approaching, immediately stepping aside and opening the door for you.
“B-Boss, t-they’re in your office.” Someone with a name tag ‘manager’, spoke nervously when he saw Jin. 
“They did this?” Jin gestured to the wrecked area. 
“I’m sorry, boss. We tried to stop them. We know it is your day off.” He tried to explain but Jin held his hand up to stop his babbling. You tilted your head, turning to look at the mess. 
“Luckily this happened before opening.” Jin rubbed his temples. The lounge wasn’t meant to open until later tonight. Fortunately, there were no customers around when this ruckus was caused or it may just cause more trouble. 
“Jin oppa!” You shivered when you heard that shrill voice. You scrunched your nose in annoyance while Namjoon chuckled, amused by the girl. 
“Shiori.” Jin turned his head. The girl latched herself onto Jin’s arm. She smiled sweetly as Jin spoke to his staff. 
“Umm, Jin?” You tapped his shoulder. Shiori turned to you, blinking at your presence then glared as she recognised you as the one Jin called his partner. You didn’t even cast a glance at her. 
“What do you want?” She frowned. 
“I’m done with my waffle. Can we go home now?” You held the empty paper bag up where your waffle once was. Jin threw his head back in laughter. If looks could kill, Shiori would have you in a pool of your own blood by now. Namjoon shook his head. 
“Almost, doc. My apologies, you can have drinks with Namjoon at the bar. Let me just settle the issue in my office. Then we’ll go home.” He patted your head with a smile. 
“It’s on your tab!” You shouted, walking to the bar. Namjoon chuckled, trailing behind you with his hands in his pockets. 
“Who is she, Jin? Really. She’s always around you and the other boys.” Shiori asked with a pout, walking beside Jin as he began to head upstairs to where his office was. 
“I told you, she’s my partner.” Jin tugged his arm back. 
“I don’t believe you.” She crossed her arms. 
“Well, that’s your prerogative. Now go. This level is for authorised personnel only.” Jin opened the glass door that granted access to the hallway where his office was. Shiori was no pleased. As she watched Jin’s retreating back, she stomped her feet and went downstairs. She saw you and Namjoon have a beer at the bar, making minimal conversation. 
“Yah.” She stood at your side. You stopped, giving her a side eye before continuing your conversation with Namjoon. 
“I’m talking to you!” She shouted. 
“I know... I have perfectly working ears. Which you may have now ruined with your voice.” You groaned, sighing in exasperation. Shiori’s jaw dropped slightly at how you spoke to her. 
“How dare you-” 
BANG!
“Head down!” Namjoon placed his hand behind your head, pressing you against his chest and pulling you to the ground with him. There were screams of shock, employees running everywhere to exit or take cover. 
“I need to help Jin. Can you get out of here?” Namjoon asked you, cupping your cheek with his hand. 
“W-What if he’s injured?” 
“You can’t treat him here if there are armed people. Get out of here and I’ll bring him out, okay? It’s probably nothing but we can’t be too sure.” Namjoon said firmly. You nodded and he looked around before standing up and leaving. You watched him take a gun out from the holster on his belt. 
“You stay at the front entrance. You, clear the back entrance. You two, cover me.” Namjoon said to the guards, who were also armed and ready. 
“Yes, boss.” They nodded and got into position. 
BANG! BANG! BANG!
“I’m gonna die!” Shiori whimpered. 
“Calm down! We just need to get out of here. Follow me.” You hissed in annoyance. She covered her ears, shivering in fear. You stood up and began to head to the front entrance, where Jin parked the car. 
“Damn it! Shiori.” You realised she wasn’t following you and turned around to grab her. Just then, someone grabbed your collar. 
“What do we have here?” Some guy smirked. 
“A human, duh.” You frowned. 
“I saw you walk in with the two bosses. I was spying for my boss that’s upstairs.” He chuckled. You gave him a bored look, which he obviously did not take very well to. 
“I’m not afraid to beat a girl up.” He threatened. 
“But you’re apparently afraid to use mouthwash.” You scrunched your nose in disgust. The man frowned, slapping you. You closed your eyes, not trying to show how much pain you were as you felt your cheek burn from the impact. Behind him, you saw Namjoon come out, an obviously injured Jin’s arm around his shoulder for support. 
“Doc.” Namjoon spoke and the man turned around, taking a knife out and pressing it to your throat. Of course, you were scared. You took a deep breath, trying to think with a clear mind. 
“Don’t come closer or I slit her throat.” He threatened. 
“Your boss is dead, you’re nothing.” Namjoon glared, putting Jin down on one of the couches. 
“Whatever, he may be dead but I know your weakness now. I have the upper hand. You listen to what I say.” He pressed the blade against your neck slightly and you felt a slight cut, the skin splitting ever so slightly. 
“You’ve got it all wrong. She’s a mere employee.” Namjoon shrugged. 
“He’s right.” You suddenly took a syringe out of your pocket, jabbing it into his left side. The man gasped, dropping the knife and falling to the ground.
“Doc!” Namjoon was quick to catch you before your wobbly legs gave out. You held his arms, taking a deep breath. 
“I-I’m fine. We have to help Jin. Let’s go.” You told him. He nodded, helping Jin up and bringing him to the car. Namjoon jumped into the driver’s seat. (Yes, Namjoon has his license in this story lol.) You made a quick call to the estate, letting them know what happened. 
“What did you inject that guy with? Shall we bring him in before he gets conscious?” Namjoon asked as he sped. 
“He’s dead. That was a syringe of cyanide. I started carrying it around in case of situations like this.” You pressed a handkerchief to Jin’s bullet wound on his right pec. Jin winced and groaned in pain. 
“Smart.” Was all Namjoon said. 
“Bring him to my office.” You said to the butlers who helped a groaning Jin out of the car. The other boys rushed out. 
“You’re bleeding!” Taehyung gasped. You waved him off, rushing to your office. You washed your hands and put your gloves on. Jin was placed on the metal examination table. The first thing you did was try to stop most of the bleeding with gauze and antiseptic. Jin hissed, moving slightly. Hoseok came to help hold him down while you worked. 
“Jin, can you hear me?” You asked.
“Y-Yes... Damn, it hurts like a b*tch.” He forced out.
“Keep him as still as possible. I’ll get the bullet out.” With a pair of forceps, you reached in to try and get the bullet out since there was no exit wound.
“F*ck! That hurts!” Jin screamed out, his face going red, the veins on his neck showing prominently. You grabbed the bullet, pulling it out and dropping it onto the metal dish. 
“The bullet is out.” You cleaned the wound and bandaged him up then put him on a drip to help with his blood loss. 
“Bring him here to lie down. I have to hook him up.” You instructed. 
“Yah! Be careful!” Jin scolded the boys. They slowly helped move him to the bed and you hook him up to a heart rate monitor, placing the drip bag on the hook. You took his temperature and covered him with a blanket.
“I’ll get someone to clean this blood up.” Jimin said. 
“Doc, your wounds. You’re still bleeding.” Jungkook took your first aid kit. You shook your head, taking it and going to your mirror. You cleaned the wound with some cotton soaked with antiseptic. After that, you wrapped a bandage around your neck. You even put some ointment on your cheek. 
“Here.” Taehyung lightly pressed a towel-wrapped icepack to your cheek. You smiled gratefully. 
“Jin, have this painkiller.” You held the pills out to him with a glass of water. It only took a few minutes before Jin passed out. 
“How did you get this hurt?” Yoongi frowned. 
“I don’t know. Some guy that worked for the guy that shot Jin upstairs grabbed me while I was trying to leave. He saw Namjoon and grew scared, threatened me with a knife.” You shrugged. 
“Yeah, then doc jabbed him with a syringe of cyanide.” Namjoon chuckled. The other boys’ eyes widened, turning to you. You blinked at them. Cyanide worked quickly in the system and because you purposely jabbed him on his left side, near his heart, the asphyxiation worked a lot faster than it normally would. But it definitely killed him. 
“Hell yeah, doc! You’re bada*s!” Jungkook held his hand up to hi-five you.
“It was only for self defence, Jungkook. I didn’t do it for the thrill.” You scoffed, making Jungkook pout for ignoring his hi-five. 
“I’ll bring you to your room.” Hoseok said as the maids came to clean your office of Jin’s blood. He walked with you to your room, all the while you held the ice pack to your cheek. 
“Maybe I won’t sleep. Feels weird to be sleeping when I’m supposed to be awake. I’ll just read a book.” You said. Hoseok hummed. 
“You sure you feeling okay?” Hoseok asked. 
“Yeah, a little less shaken than before... But I’ll get over it. I always do, somehow.” You forced a small smile. Hoseok stopped, tugging you gently by the arm to give you a hug. 
“Thanks, Hobi.” You patted his shoulder. 
“You don’t have to bottle it all up, okay? We all took a while to get over it the first few times.” He patted your head and you nodded. You went to your room and grabbed your book, bringing Kookie with you as well. Kookie followed you, hopping along as you went downstairs. 
“Careful, Kookie.” You chuckled. He was so adorable, hopping up and down the stairs like it was his own playground. 
“Not resting?” Taehyung asked. 
“I’m not gravely injured. So I’ll just stay out here to read.” You waved your book for emphasis. Taehyung bent down to stroke Kookie’s ears and he stood on his hind legs to sniff Taehyung’s hand. 
“(y/n), I told you to leave when I went to get Jin hyung. What happened?” Namjoon came out, sitting on the couch beside you. 
“I went back to get that girl. She was so scared she couldn’t move. So I turned back to get her but got caught. I may not like her, for obvious reasons, but I wasn’t going to leave her there to get shot up.” You sighed, moving your book to let Kookie sit in your lap.
“You’re really amazing. Insulting someone even when they have a collar grip on you. Yes, I heard you.” Namjoon laughed. 
“I wasn’t insulting him. I was merely stating the facts.” You gave Namjoon a flat look. The other boys came and joined you, spreading out across the available seats in the living room. 
“Hyung, who were the people that shot Jin hyung?” 
“Not sure. I just know they caused trouble at the lounge and Jin hyung went to settle it. When I got there, Jin hyung was shot. The henchmen with the boss were shot too. I had to kill the boss since he was armed. I don’t think they were big. The big ones wouldn’t do that, it’s just dumb, waltzing into the enemies’ turf like that.” Namjoon informed. 
“I agree.” Yoongi nodded. 
“It’ll be the last we see of them then.” Jungkook smirked. 
~~
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alicanta77 · 3 years
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Finale: Glitter and Gold
Pairing: princess!y/n x prince!Chenle
Themes: royalty au, fluff, angst
Warnings: arranged marriage, violence, war, character death, injury, descriptions of injury and blood
Words: 11.5k
Inspiration: BTS - Blood, Sweat and Tears - orchestral cover
Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Finale
tag list: @hiqhkey @jaeshatshop @lebrookestore @honei-n @cheonsa1004 @haechans-sunflower @crispy-chan @rvse-hvvck @chezzontop​ 
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Note: This is it! The final chapter of Royal Blooded! I want to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who has read and supported this story. The first chapter of this story was published before I had 100 followers on here, and now, as we celebrate the finale, we have over 1500. I have grown so much throughout the 9 months of my life that I spent creating this world, and every word of support, every message, every ask about it means so much to me. I’m a little emotional that it’s ending because of how long I spent on it and how much I put into it, but I am so excited to look forwards at everything that’s coming next. Thank you for the love on this, and enjoy the finale!
Felix xox
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~ 6 months later ~
You held your head high as you walked towards the throne room. You had your main servant walking behind you and two guards escorting you on either side. Your shoes made small tapping noises on the stone floor with every step you took and your clothes and hair gently flowed in time to the repetitive movement. Your lady in waiting was smoothing out your dress as you moved, trying to make everything look perfect. You paused as she quickly adjusted one final piece of hair before giving you a loving smile and hug and wishing you well.
Your chest felt tight with nerves and you took a deep breath. Your dress was beautiful, the most expensive one you owned and you were made up to look more beautiful than you think you ever had before. Your mother had bought this dress for you and, as soon as you had seen it your jaw had dropped, the scarlet red colour complimented your skin tone perfectly and the gold details that swirled around to form the shape of dragons were captivating.
You knew that a dress like this would only be wearable on a day like today, the most important day of your life.
You approached the grand doors, nodding at the two knights guarding the entrance with a smile, both of whom bowed back before moving their spears and opening the grand doors for you.
The throne room appeared in all its glory. The metal chandelier hung from the ceiling, dangling above the engraved stone floors that were currently stood on by the entire court. The court and knights of your kingdom were all in neat rows on the left of the room, framed by the sculpted columns that ran up the walls, engraved with detailed patterns. On the right side of the great hall stood another court entirely. One which you had met once and had recently had the pleasure of getting to know better. Their red and gold emblems were proudly on display on their cloaks, letting everyone who saw them know that they were the court of the royal kingdom of Shanghai.
You remembered doing this over a year and a half ago, only then you had been meeting Chenle for the first time. If someone had told you just how much he would come to mean to you in such a short amount of time, you would never have believed them. You had thought it would take you years to fall for the boy you were arranged to marry, but life is funny like that. You look back now and you don’t see him as the boy you were arranged to love, but rather the boy you were destined to.
However, even with all this going on around you, you couldn’t take your eyes off the boy waiting for you at the end of the hall. He too was dressed in his finest clothes, the dark green and silver colours of your kingdom decorating his outfit. As you walked down the hall, dressed in the representative colours of Shanghai, his face split into the largest smile you had ever seen.
His eyes never left your face as you moved closer to him with every step, in fact, it took all of Chenle’s self restraint not to run towards you right there and then. You finally reached the front and Chenle offered a hand to help you up the few steps.
You accepted, your hands slotting together as if they were jigsaw pieces. You lifted your dress with your left hand, making sure not to step on it and accidentally rip it or, god forbid, face plant. You would never recover from the embarrassment if that happened.
Luckily you made it up the three stairs without any problems, but now you faced the challenge of speaking. You knew Chenle was going to speak first so you had time to mentally prepare yourself, but deep down you felt an overwhelming sense of serenity. You knew that you would be fine. You had been taking public speaking classes since you were young and you’d addressed more people than this in one go before. Just as with the stairs, you knew that nothing would happen, but your mind went to the worst case scenario. You just wanted this day to be perfect, after all, you were only doing it once.
You and Chenle tore your eyes away from each other as you turned your attention to the front, where your childhood tutor, now a well respected member of the court and keeper of the archives, was about to speak.
“We are gathered here today for the wedding and coronation of Prince Chenle and Princess y/n.”
~ flashback ~
“Will you marry me?”
The words left Chenle’s lips and it was as if they kick started your brain into action. You threw yourself at him, his arms catching you as the two of you hit the ground in a heap.
“Yes.” You cried repeatedly. “Yes, with all my heart.”
Chenle rolled the two of you over so that you were lying on top of him, the laughter that was emitting from the two of you radiated pure happiness. You sat up, kneeling next to Chenle as he gently grabbed your hand.
He held you so softly, his thumb gently caressing the back of your palm as he slipped the diamond onto your finger. A second passed in which the two of you stared at the jewel, the symbol of a silent promise to love each other until the end of time.
You looked up at him, eyes shining and his hands came up to cup your face. He pulled you in and you kissed him with everything you had.
You’d lost count of the amount of time you’d kissed Chenle, but this was different. This held so much more to it. It was as if it was a kiss that made all the other kisses on the planet seem pathetic. Love exploded between the two of you, your love, the kind of love that would last a lifetime.
You both pulled away, the need to breath breaking the captivating spell that Chenle had cast on you with that kiss. He leant down, resting his forehead on yours as you both closed your eyes and enjoyed being so close to the one you adored.
“I love you so much.” He whispered, afraid that if his words were any louder they would shatter the perfect moment.
“I love you more.” You whispered back, grinning as you heard Chenle chuckle quietly.
He pulled his forehead off yours only to replace it with his lips for a soft kiss.
“That’s not possible.”
~ flashback ends ~
The great hall was decorated with banners of both your kingdom and Shanghai. Ever since the engagement announcement, the castle had been in full on planning mode, preparing everything for this day to be perfect. There had been banquets, feasts and balls thrown in your honour, with gifts from kingdoms far and wide coming to the two of you in congratulations.
Word had been sent to Chenle’s family in Shanghai and they had announced that they would be coming to visit for the wedding. You had never felt happier than when you saw the smile on Chenle’s face when he was told he was going to see his family. His parents and three older brothers, Kun, Sicheng and Renjun, were all leaving Shanghai to attend, and they were planning on staying with you for a couple of days either side of the monumental event.
However, the good news about Chenle’s family came with bad news about yours. Your mother was frail, ill and barely eating anymore. She spent her days drowning herself in work so she didn’t have to focus on the cold empty space in her bed beside her. For the past 6 months she had worked diligently and done everything she could, but one night she came into your bedroom and quietly asked to speak to you and Chenle.
She told you that she didn’t think she could do it anymore, she didn’t think she could rule the kingdom. She explained that she had only managed to take on all the duties because she had had her husband, your father, by her side. But he wasn’t here anymore, and she couldn’t go on with the burden, it was simply too much for her to bear.
After a long and heavy conversation, your mother announced the next morning that she would soon be stepping down from ruling, and allowing you and Chenle to ascend to the thrones. She addressed her people, admitting to them that she was unfit to govern them and that she felt it was unfair to keep herself on the throne and deny them a better pair of rulers. She then proceeded to inform them that the wedding would be combined with the coronation so that you would be married and crowned on the same day.
You would be lying if you said that this hadn’t had an effect on you. You were already feeling the stress of your title, and you had been working closely with a group of advisors and your mother to introduce you to the world of being Queen. But, still, you were terrified. What if you weren’t a good ruler? What if you made a bad choice for your people? What if this affects your relationship with Chenle? You wouldn’t even get a chance to get used to being married before the role of King and Queen would be thrust upon you. But you forced yourself to ignore the growing voice in your head that filled your being with doubt. You had been preparing for this day your entire life, and now that it was here, you refused to let down those people who had helped you along the way. You would do your best, and make them proud.
So here you were. Standing next to the man you loved, about to promise your everything to him forever. Even though you had been filled to the brim with nerves before entering, as soon as you had locked eyes with Chenle, all of that had melted away. You knew that, as long as you had him by your side, the two of you could handle anything.
While the wedding was only attended to by family and members of the court, the celebrations ran throughout the entire kingdom, with all your people overjoyed at the beautiful ceremony.
You listened as the officiant went through the traditional wedding procedure, both you and Chenle replying with the rehearsed statements. His hand never left yours and you couldn’t express how relieved you were that it didn’t. The physical reassurance that he was there grounded you.
You turned to face each other, holding your joined hands out for the gold ribbon to be wrapped around them. The officiant continued to speak, his words about unity and strength reminding you of your father’s speech when Chenle first arrived with his family. So many things about this day were taking you back to the beginning, and the similarities were making you miss your father more than anything.
You felt a small squeeze on your hand and looked into Chenle’s soft brown eyes. He gave you a nod, one so minute that it would be unnoticeable to anyone who wasn’t you. You repeated the move to him, another reassurance that the two of you were there for each other, no matter what.
The officiant moved on to the vows, Chenle going first before you followed, saying the words you had recently memorised. Due to you both being royals, you couldn’t write personal vows and you had to stick to the scripture, but that didn’t mean that you didn’t mean every word. You meant it with your whole body when you promised to stand by him for as long as you lived, to look after him as best you could, and to support and love him no matter what. And from the look in your soon to be husband’s face, he meant every word he said too.
“Chenle, do you take y/n as your wife?”
“I do.” He spoke, sincerity strong in his voice and you didn’t bother to fight the smile that grew across your face at his certain words. The only thing you didn’t know, was that Chenle had never been so sure of anything in his life. 
“Y/n, do you take Chenle as your husband?”
“I do.” You repeated Chenle’s answer, your voice just as steady and sure as his had been, your mindset reflecting that as well.
You were still scared out of your mind at what was going to happen after today, but the thought of having Chenle by your side for the rest of your life, that didn’t scare you at all. No, that thought was the most comforting thing on the planet.
And that thought was just about to become your reality.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Chenle wasted absolutely no time, moving forwards before the officiant had even finished speaking, gently grabbing your face and pulling you in for a kiss. You smiled into the kiss, your hands coming up to rest on his waist.
The kiss wasn’t long, the awareness that your families and courts were watching you not quite having left your mind. But it held everything, the past years that you had known each other, your entire journey together into who you were now was told in the few seconds that Chenle’s lips pressed against yours. The clapping and cheers brought the two of you fully back to reality as you pulled back. You leaned back in for an even shorter kiss, officially sealing the eternal bond between the two of you.
“I love you.” You whispered, Chenle chuckling.
“That was my line.” You opened your eyes to look at him and he smiled down at you. “But I love you too.”
You both pulled away, as the claps gradually died down and the ceremony began to progress. The two of you barely had time to register the giant step you had just taken before you were being instructed to kneel in front of the thrones and the crowns were held above your head.
You were sure that it had taken longer than you realised, but you were so wrapped up in the feeling of loving Chenle, and how much he loved you, that it felt as though not even thirty seconds had passed.
And yet, here you were, repeating yet another set of responses that you had been taught, promising to protect and fairly govern the people, vowing to follow the example set by those who ruled before you and do whatever you can to live according to the traditions and customs of your kingdom.
As the final vows left both your lips, you felt the gold crown land on your head, the heaviness of the metal it was made out of, and the title it represent, weighing you down already.
“I crown you King Chenle. I crown you Queen y/n.”
With those words, you pulled your legs underneath you and stood, turning around to face the people of your courts. Chenle reached for your hand once again, this time you interlinked your fingers, intertwining your hands as a physical sign of the link between your kingdoms.
The throne room erupted in cheers and clapping once again, this time to an almost deafening volume. You and Chenle began to walk back down the middle, waving and smiling at those closest to you as you passed. You walked all the way out of the throne room and straight onto the balcony, ready to greet your people as their official rulers.
---
You stood just outside the balcony together waiting for the words that would signal the two of you to step outside. You hadn’t spoken to anyone yet, just waiting for you final duties of the day so that you could celebrate with your friends and families.
“Did you feel as though that went really quickly?” Chenle asked out of nowhere, making you jump slightly at the sudden noise before your eyes widened in agreement.
“It did! Leading up to the ceremony felt like an eternity, but then as soon as the ceremony began, it went in a flash. I’m not sure I was even there for half of it.” You muttered the last part, but Chenle’s sharp hearing caught your words none the less and he chuckled whilst muttering out a softer reply.
“Me neither. It kind of feels as though it hasn’t happened yet.”
“Exactly.” You didn’t realise how nervous you had still been until the realisation that you were both feeling the same way. You both fell into silence, it was comfortable but it still felt as though there was a lot that the two of you were leaving unsaid.
“You know-” Chenle paused his words to swallow his nerves, he hadn’t been this nervous around since the two of you met. “I’m starting to remember why I was so nervous for this marriage when I met you.”
You looked at him, the short distance between you suddenly feeling like a million miles.
“Me too.” You admitted softly. “It doesn’t matter how long we’ve known each other, there’s still a pressure for this marriage to be successful and for our kingdom to flourish.”
Chenle whispered a quiet “Yeah”, showing you that he was feeling exactly the same way.
“Chenle?” His eyes shot up from his feet to yours and you could see the nerves bubbling in them. He was chewing on the inside of his cheek and you took a step forward to grab on of the hands that he had behind his back. “Listen to me, I thought you weren’t nervous at all. Honestly, I thought I was the only one freaking out.”
“Trust me you weren’t.” Chenle said dryly, moving slightly so that he was facing you full on.
“I know that now, but I didn’t when I really needed to.”
“What are you saying?” Chenle asked, his brows creasing with worry at your soft words. He knew you only spoke with this tone of voice when you had something important to say to him.
“I’m saying we need to communicate. We need to tell each other the truth, talk about how we feel, both the good things, and the bad. We’re in this together, and that means we don’t need to be perfect for each other. We just need to be there.”
Chenle nodded, a small smile finally making it’s way onto his face as he pulled you closer by the hand that was already in his. His arms came to wrap around your shoulders and you fell into his arms for a hug. You felt his scent overcome you and drown your senses and you let out a deep sigh, feeling some of your worries and concerns leaving you with it.
“You’re right. I know you are and I promise to tell you when I’m stressing out of my mind or nervous to the point where my knees are shaking, especially if I can’t tell anyone else. We’re married now so that means you’re stuck with me no matter what.” Chenle looked down at you, grinning that signature grin of his that you fell in love with until a look of shock suddenly shot across his face. “Holy shit, we’re married!”
You stared at him in confusion.
“What did you think the wedding ceremony meant?” You asked him as Chenle waved you off.
“No, no, I mean, I knew we were married but I guess it’s starting to sink in that we’re really married. Like I get to have you by my side forever...” Chenle trailed off, his eyes never leaving your face.
You leaned up to him, pressing your lips together softly, before pulling back slightly and whispering:
“Well you better get used to it, because it’s you and me for the rest of time now.”
A trumpet riff interrupted your moment, signalling that your time was almost upon you. You and Chenle got into position just as the doors in front of you opened and you prepared to greet your people.
You walked out into the sunlight, the sound of cheers and shouts overwhelming you as you waved to the citizens you had just promised to govern. Chenle’s hand found you once more, holding onto it tightly and pulling you slightly closer as he waved with his free hand. His grip remained tight, and you squeezed it reassuringly leaning in so that only he could hear before saying “I got you” and he seemed to relax. His grip loosened slightly and his smile faded into a genuine expression of joy and awe and you grinned, knowing that you loved him more than anything else on this planet.
The announcer lifted his hand, calling for momentary silence as he uttered the words that were followed by the largest cheer and celebration of them all.
“May I present, for the first time, the King and Queen of Ivairis!”
---
You laughed as Chenle twirled you around in time to the music, before pulling you back in and dipping you gently. You’d lost track of how long the celebrations had been going on for, but the music and lights had hypnotised you into staying longer and longer to enjoy the night. 
You’d had the pleasure of meeting Chenle’s brothers as well. Kun was first in line for the throne, he was also married and honestly was the epitome of a perfect heir. Sicheng was second in line for the throne and, before you had met you had been slightly intimidated by him. After meeting him, however you had learnt he was one of the nicest people and so easy to get along with. Family was everything to him, and he spent most of his time working with new recruits for the Shanghai army.
Renjun was closest in age to Chenle, with only a year and a half separating them, and it was clear that they were closest to each other. Chenle had previously confided in you that, since he had three brothers, he hadn’t had much attention from his parents when he was young, and it was Renjun who was there for him. It was Renjun who had essentially shown him how to learn to grow up. Their casual bickering provided you with huge amounts of entertainment, but it was clear that they cherished each other dearly, and Renjun was so proud of everything Chenle had accomplished here.
The most bittersweet moment however, came when Chenle’s father approached you and asked to dance. He had the same kind smile on his face that he always wore and you easily agreed. He led you out onto the dance floor, just as he did the day Chenle first arrived at Ivairis.
“You two have come a long way since the last time we met.” King Zhong commented, a twinkle in his eyes that made you smile.
“You gave me some good advice.” You admitted to him. “When you came here, and we danced you told me: don’t rush this. And that was the best piece of advice anyone has ever given me. I feel like I married my best friend.”
King Zhong smiled down at you, blinking twice as he tried to figure out the best way to say his next words.
“Y/n-” You looked up at him as he paused, before swallowing and continuing. “I know how much you must have wanted your father to be here, he was such a brilliant man and I’m so sorry he couldn’t be with us today.”
“Me too.” You whispered, just loud enough to be heard over the music and people chatting in the background.
“I know that no one else will say this to you, so I will.” You looked up once again, to see him looking down at you with an expression that reminded you so much of your own father that it brought tears to your eyes. “I’m proud of you.”
You felt even more tears gather rapidly in your eyes at that, and you blinked repeatedly to keep them at bay. Chenle’s father’s hands came up to rest on your shoulders and hugged you. You hugged him back, feeling the fatherly warmth from his hug calm you down slightly.
“Thank you.” You said as he pulled back and smiled at you. He nodded at you, patting you on the head gently before the two of you continued to dance. You couldn’t quite describe the comfort that his words had brought you. Deep down you knew your father would be proud of you and all you had accomplished, you just wish he had been here to see it happen.
The song that was playing came to a stop, and you stepped away to clap for the musicians. You and Chenle’s father smiled at each other, before you excused yourself to the sides, needing a short break. You stood quietly and just observed the scene in front of you. There were countless members of the courts of Shanghai and Ivairis dancing together, you saw Chenle’s parents dancing in the middle as well, Renjun was speaking to Jisung by the side, saying something that caused Jisung to stare at the older boy with his eyes wide in amazement. Over on the other side of the hall were Taeyong, Jaehyun, Sicheng and Kun, all immersed in deep conversation and you could see both Jaemin and Jeno heading over to join the conversation. In fact you could see everyone except for-
“Hi love.” You felt a soft kiss on your cheek as you turned to your left and saw how Chenle had snuck up on you without you noticing.
“Hi.” You replied, smiling up at him.
“I was thinking, do you remember the celebration when we came back from the battle against Odin’s kingdom?” You nodded at his words and he carried on. “Well, what would you say about going back into the town again? Not just us though, opening the doors to the palace and courtyard and bringing the musicians outside so that the court and citizens can all celebrate as one?”
“Chenle...” You breathed. “I think that’s an amazing idea.”
His face split into a wide grin at your words and you both immediately moved to put his plan into action. You split up to find different guards who were on the doors, and explain to them what you would like to do. They seemed slightly hesitant, as this had never been done before, but they couldn’t disagree with their new King and Queen so they did exactly as you asked. You walked back into the hall, finding Chenle there waiting for you and the door remained open after you had arrived. 
You slipped your hand into Chenle’s and he squeezed it gently, while signalling the musicians to stop playing. An air of confusion came over the room as every single pair of eyes came to rest on the two of you.
“Whenever we have a celebration, it seems to be split in two, with a chosen few celebrating in the castle, and the rest down in the town. The Queen and I would like to change this.”
“Indeed.” You took over from Chenle, your voice strong as you addressed the courts. “The whole emphasis of this marriage and alliance is on unity, and so, as we stand united in two different kingdoms, we will also stand united with all our people. We would like to invite you to join us as we go into the lower town for the rest of the night.”
There were a few murmurs amongst the crowd, but most people nodded and smiled in agreement, understanding your point on unity. You gestured for the musicians to come first, allowing them to be set up amongst the others playing in the lower towns before the rest of you began to move. You and Chenle were amongst the last people to leave, with only Jisung behind you.
He was grinning at the two of you like the Cheshire cat, shaking his head slightly as he chuckled.
“What is it?” Chenle asked his friend, rolling his eyes jokingly.
“Only the two of you would do something like this. In your first few hours as King and Queen, you break up an age-old tradition because of the separation and divide it causes. Only you would realise that and take the step to do something about it.” Jisung shrugged, brushing off his own words as if they were meaningless, but you knew he knew how much they meant to Chenle and yourself. If your marriage was supposed to bring unity, you had to make sure that you were making sure that it did. “Come on then, let’s go dance!”
He stepped in between the two of you, throwing his arms over each of your shoulders as the three of you burst out into laughter and headed into the lower town together, ready to dance the night away.
---
Both you and Chenle relied heavily on advisors during your first months of ruling. You mother stepped down and completely away from royal duties and, even though you felt as though you needed her guidance at times, you couldn’t ask her for help. She barely remembered who you were anymore, much less how to rule a kingdom. You visited her everyday, as did Chenle, and each time hurt more than the last. Watching the clouds pass over your mother’s mind as she struggles to place the face of the child who she cared for and loved all her life, was an indescribable pain.
She always remembered you eventually, something that you counted yourself very lucky for. You remember sitting by her bed, holding her hand as you spoke to her late one evening, telling her about a successful conclusion that you had come to during a council meeting that day.
“You’re doing so well my dear.” She spoke, her voice gravelly as if her throat was constantly dry.
“I’m trying.” You replied, forcing a smile on your face so that she wouldn’t see how tired you were. “I’ll make you proud.”
Your mother tightened her grip on your hand, encouraging you to look her in the eyes as she spoke again. 
“You already have.”
She passed away that night.
You were almost relieved that her suffering was over, but her loss hit both you and Chenle very hard. She had become a second mother to him, and you knew how much he loved her. The night you both lost her, you stayed together, hugging each other and crying, just allowing yourselves to be vulnerable before you had to put on another strong appearance for your people when you appeared for the funeral.
Her funeral was identical to your fathers. She was laid, in her best clothes, softly in a long boat, decorated with flowers and pushed down along the river. You held Chenle’s shaking hand in your own as you both whispered your goodbyes into the lanterns and let them fly off into the sky. Allowing your mother to finally be reunited with the man she loved.
You walked back into your shared room, breathing out a heavy sigh as the doors closed behind you and you could finally drop the act you’d been holding all day. Sitting in those meetings, talking with different noblemen of the court about petty details, you had never felt more alone.
You were struggling to come to terms with the fact that you held the entire responsibility of this kingdom on your shoulders, and you didn’t have your parents to show you how to do it anymore. You rested your back against your door, and allowed your knees to give out and for you to sink to the floor.
Once you softly hit the ground you just sat there. You didn’t cry, you didn’t speak, you didn’t move. You just sat there, listening to the sounds of the kingdom around you. You shut your eyes, allowing yourself to get lost in your mind as time passed you by.
A knock on your door forced you to open your eyes and pull yourself back into reality. You stood up and quickly opened your door, finding one of your main advisors there with the paperwork for tomorrow’s sessions. You thanked him, accepting the documents and closed the door once more.
You stepped further into your room, placing the papers down on the desk you had before turning around, planning to lie down on your bed, but your gaze was caught by a figure standing on your balcony.
He had his back to you and was leaning over, but you knew without needing to see his face that it was Chenle. From the way that he was hunched over the balcony to the way he rolled his scarred shoulder every so often to keep the injured muscle moving, you knew he was deep in thought. You debated whether you should go out to see him, wondering if it was best to just leave him thinking, and eventually you turned away, deciding to leave him to his thoughts.
You pulled off your shoes, removed your jewellery and combed through your hair with your fingers. You looked at the small pile of jewellery on your dresser,  before reaching down slowly and picking up the silver ring that bared the royal seal of Ivairis. Your bottom lip began to tremble as your mind was flooded with memories of your parents and your childhood. From your mother gently tying up your hair in the mornings, to your father bringing you along to meetings and you hiding behind his legs.
You dropped the ring, your head falling into your hands as you finally let the tears fall. Your breath shortened as you quietly sobbed into your hands, hiccuping as you tried to catch your breath. You needed to see Chenle. You stood up, whirling around to run out to the balcony, but instead you were greeted with him standing in front of you. He had come back inside, and you had been so lost in your sadness that you hadn’t realised. 
The two of you stood there, staring at each other, both having red eyes and countless tear tracks down your faces. Chenle said nothing, and instead just opened his arms and you ran into them, the force of your bodies colliding making him take a step back to steady the two of you, but it didn’t matter.
You completely broke down, sobbing into his shoulder as Chenle tried to console you. He gently stroked your head with one hand, the other resting comfortably on your waist as he whispered soft words of comfort into your ear. It didn’t seem to be helping as your crying wasn’t stopping at all.
Chenle’s voice broke more as he tried to talk and all it took was you tightening your grip on him for him to give up on trying to hold it together. He buried his face into your shoulder and let the grief overcome him, crying for the people who took him in and gave him a home.
You both held onto each other for dear life, as if the other would slip through your fingers if you let go for a second. It took a while for you to calm down, feeling as though you only stopped crying because you ran out of tears. You brought your hand up to the back of Chenle’s head, running your fingers through his hair and placing a feather light kiss to his temple.
Even after the two of you calmed down, the sadness was still there, drowning your every thought.
“I’m not ready to be Queen.” You admitted, your voice so quiet, as if you were scared for the words to come out. “I thought I’d have more time, I thought I’d be able to get used to the idea of doing it by myself but I’m not. I’m not ready for any of this, I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“I’m not ready either.” Chenle croaked back, his voice sore from the amount of crying he had done already that night. “My parents may still be alive, but they aren’t here, they aren’t close and I can’t contact them easily enough to ask for help when I need it. I just feel... isolated.” Chenle voice broke once again as he pushed his head further into your shoulder.
“Me too. I’ve never felt this alone.” You whispered, not trusting your voice to speak any louder.
This time Chenle didn’t reply, instead just silently nodding as he held you close. You both understood that you didn’t need advice, or a solution. At least, not yet, right now, all you needed, was to tell the other how you felt. Finally saying the words, admitting the overwhelming emotions that had been weighing you down for the past few months, had already made you feel lighter. 
He pulled his head out from your shoulder to rest his forehead on yours. You breathed out, leaning into him as he kept his comforting grip on you. Your eyes were closed, as your mind focused on the one fact that Chenle was standing right there with you, and he understood how you felt.
“I’m sorry.” His quiet whisper making you open your eyes in confusion.
“What for?” You asked and Chenle sighed, as if he was preparing to get something off his chest.
“For not telling you. We made a deal on our wedding day to always be honest with each other about how we were feeling, and I didn’t tell you, and now we’re both here breaking down...”
“Chenle... I’m sorry too. You weren’t the only one keeping things to yourself.” You swallowed, before finally pulling your forehead off his and losing at him straight on. “We aren’t used to this. And I don’t just mean being King and Queen, I mean all of it. We aren’t used to being married, we aren’t used to be sole rulers, we aren’t used to being alone. We had just got married when we then got crowned what felt like five minutes after.”
“We need to figure out who we are as a King and Queen, and who we are as husband and wife. And they don’t necessarily need to be the same people.” You nodded at Chenle’s words before adding onto them with your own.
“There’s so much pressure on this, and I think a lot of that is coming from us. We need to take a step back from being this groundbreaking alliance, and just be us. Chenle and y/n, just two people in love, not the King and Queen of Ivairis whose wedding united lands for generations to come. We don’t need to be our titles, we just need to be-”
“Us.” Chenle finished and you nodded. “And we need to mean it this time. We can’t just say that we’re going to be honest and open with each other and then keep things to ourselves. We’re a team. It’s you and me y/n, and nothing is going to change that.”
You leaned up, closing the small distance between the two of you and pressing your lips to his. He kissed you back, sighing into it slightly before you both pulled away. The kiss was short, but it was enough. It was a promise.
You weren’t just these young kids in love anymore, trying to figure out the best way to spend time with their crush. You were grown adults, married, ruling a kingdom, but no matter how far you went, or how much you grew, you knew that Chenle would always be by your side. You knew that now better than ever.
And for the first time in a long while, neither of you felt alone.
---
You and Chenle kept to your promise, coming to talk to each other, to trust the other to be vulnerable with the smallest of details. Whether it was a certain knight in training being a bit arrogant, or a trade deal you were unsure was worth you signing off on, you shared it with each other. Your close bond as husband and wife translated into your royal duties and you found yourselves settling into a good rhythm as King and Queen. 
But nothing good lasts forever.
You and Chenle stayed late after a particularly gruelling council session. The repairs to the outlying villages were almost complete, and the bandit attacks had decreased to them being almost non-existent. A few more supplies were being organised to be sent down, and Chenle was still keen on the idea of training some of the people in the outlying villagers so that, if a bandit attack does happen, they can defend themselves. However, a couple of council members were arguing that it would be a waste of resources to train them, which resulted in a lengthy discussion that lasted for much longer than planned.
With both you and Chenle in agreement however, there was not much that the council men could do against it once the decision had been made. They would send some knights down to the outlying villages to train the few they could, and then that knowledge would be passed down from generation to generation, with knights arriving every once in a while to help out and make sure the correct technique was being practiced.
You quickly instructed a messenger to deliver this note the following morning, thinking that nobody needs to be disturbed this late. The two of you were looking over the plans, deciding on the knights who would go when the doors to the great hall burst open and a scout of yours came running in.
“Mark, what’s wrong?” Chenle asked worriedly, noticing the look of panic on the older boy’s face.
“Fayre’s kingdom, your majesty. They heard of the Queen’s mother passing and that the two of you ascended to the throne and they think you’ll be weak. They’re planning to attack Ivairis with the full force of their army.” Mark relayed the bad news, breathing heavily as he tried to recover from his rush to the palace.
“Oh god.” You breathed, your hand coming to your face in shock. This was not good. Fayre was one of the strongest and bloodthirsty kings around, and if he wanted Ivairis, chances were he wouldn’t stop until he had it.
You and Chenle shared one look and knew that you had to act fast. Chenle called for the guards to bring in his closest knights, two scouts and a messenger, while you whirled on Mark to ask him more questions.
“When did their army leave?” 
“Three days ago, I rushed to get back here to warn you before them.”
“Thank you Mark, you may have saved us by doing that. If they left three days ago, they still have at least two before they reach us here, meaning we could send our army out to meet them somewhere we choose.” You thought out loud, Mark rapidly nodding his head next to you.
Chenle reappeared out of nowhere, you not even having noticed he’d left in your state of panic. His arms held a bunch of rolled up papers that depicted the maps of the surrounding lands.
“I’m way ahead of you.” He said, placing them all on the round table in front of you as you rolled them out and moved them into position.
You were lining up details to get a larger picture when the people Chenle had summoned began to arrive. Jisung came first, the head of the royal guard was always ready to be called for his job, with both Jeno and Taeyong close behind. The two scouts, Yangyang and Shotaro came next, with Jaemin close behind and Jaehyun and the other messenger Xiaojun arrived last.
You didn’t both to tell them to take a seat or to greet them, the stakes were simply too high. Instead you just told them the news straight away, not wasting time by sugarcoating it or easing into it at all.
“Fayre is planning to attack Ivairis.”
You heard a chorus of worried inhales of breath, signalling the panic that the rest of the group were feeling. You nodded at Mark, allowing him to explain the rest of the details.
“They left their kingdom three days ago and were travelling south, aiming to take this route here to avoid getting spotted by the Ivairis patrol. As far as I’m aware, this plan wasn’t changed, meaning that, as long as nothing disrupts their route, they should reach Ivairis by sunset in two days time and will likely attack the following morning.”
“Our best shot is heading out to meet them somewhere, like we did with Odin’s kingdom.” Jisung spoke first, the rest nodding in agreement. “I would place my bets on somewhere like here.” He reached forwards and circled a certain spot on the map. “It’s not sheltered, so there’s no chance for a surprise attack. While that limits our chances of coming up with one ourselves, Fayre destroys his enemies by drawing them in and then having a second plan up his sleeve.”
“Jisung’s right.” Taeyong said, all eyes flicking towards him as he spoke. “We can’t try to outsmart him by using his own tactics against him, that’s how people get killed. We need to force him into a situation where he has to fight us on our terms, that’s our best shot.”
“Xiaojun-” Chenle called out, the boy’s head shooting up at his king’s voice. “I need you to send word to Shanghai, tell them of the severity of the situation and that we need reinforcements as soon as possible.” Xiaojun nodded, quickly making a note of the battle location before disappearing.
You turned to the other two scouts.
“Yangyang, Shotaro, you need to scout the army. Get us a rough idea of numbers and see if there’s any weak spots. There won’t be enough time for you to report back to us here so you’ll need to tell the army when they arrive at the battle location, understand?” Both of the boys nodded at your words, before heading back out of the door to go do as you asked.
“What about me?” Mark asked, but you shook your head.
“You’ve done enough Mark.” You said, not allowing him to put himself in danger again.
“But they trust me, I could find out more insider information, I-”
“No, Mark.” Chenle cut him off. “Y/n’s right, you’ve done more than enough. Without you we would never stand a chance, that’s for sure. Plus as soon as we meet them they will know that we had a man on the inside, and it won’t take long for them to figure out it’s you. We can’t put you in that danger.”
Mark nodded, understanding your decision before you both thanked him again and allowed him to go for the night.
“What about us?” Jaehyun asked and Chenle turned to look at the remaining knights, his face grave.
“Be ready to prepare the troops in the morning. We’re going to war.”
---
One night. That was all it took for your world to be thrown upside down. In one night you had gone from council meetings and rebuilding the outlying villages to sending the man you loved off to war. You were standing in your joint room, watching as he finished getting dressed just as the first rays of light were appearing through the window. You walked towards him, silently taking the necklace out of his hands and fastening it yourself.
He turned around to face you but you didn’t take your gaze off the jewellery he was wearing. He wore it everyday, a simple necklace with two seals on it. One being the royal seal of Shanghai and the other being the royal seal of Ivairis. The symbol of his two nations. Chenle noticed you avoiding his gaze and brought his hands to your face, gently cupping your jaw and guiding you to look at him.
He leant in, placing a kiss on your forehead and your hand gripped at the fabric around his waist.
“If things aren’t going well-”
“Stop.” You said, not wanting to hear about what would happen if they lost this war. If they lost, Chenle would be dead, and you didn’t want to think about the possibility of that happening.
“Listen.” Chenle commanded softly. “If things aren’t going well, I’ll send a Shanghai messenger back here. You need to get as many of our people as you can, and take them with you to Shanghai. I made sure Xiaojun mentioned in the message the possibility of that happening and I know they would look after you. They reassured us we always have a home there, and I know that would apply to you if I don’t come back from this.” Your hands tightened their grip around his shirt at his words. “If anything happens to me... I need to know that you’ll be safe.”
You nodded silently and Chenle breathed a sigh of relief at your agreement, moving his hands from your face to around your shoulders to hug you close as you did the same around his waist. You buried your face in his chest, breathing in as much of him as you could before you had to let him go.
You walked with him through the castle, your hand held tightly in his as you both approached the main doors. You knew that beyond those doors stood your entire army, waiting for their king to lead them into battle. You suddenly stopped moving, causing Chenle to turn back in confusion.
You stared at him for a second, trying to find the right words to say before just throwing your arms around his neck and hugging him as tightly as you could. Chenle caught you, wrapping his own arms around your waist and squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to make this fleeting moment last forever.
“Come back to me.” You whispered.
“I promise.”
---
It had been a month.
An entire month and the only sign you’d had that they were still alive were the two letters from the Shanghai reinforcements sending word to you that they had arrived at the battlefield to help. The knowledge that they had extra men fighting with them was reassuring, but not hearing a single word from Chenle, not knowing if he was even alive, for a whole month was tearing you apart.
The entire kingdom had been in a state of fear. The outlying villages had been told to be prepared to move into the citadel in case the battle was lost so that they could barricade themselves in and be protected. Every citizen had their nerves on fire for the past month as they all waited for any kind of news.
You had been in the weekly review of the tax collection when the sound of horses hooves caught your attention. The entire table froze, knowing that, one way or another, the battle was over. The doors to the great hall burst open and Mark appeared, nodding at you, a relieved expression on his face.
“It’s them.”
You dropped the paper in your hand, standing up and running out of the hall. You ran down the corridors, Mark by your side and you didn’t stop for anything. Various other members of the court and servants in the castle joined you as they all were eager to welcome the knights home, but all you cared about was finding Chenle.
You burst out of the front doors just in time to see the last of the knights trickle back in. Your jaw dropped, nothing could have prepared you for the sight in front of you.
Out of all the knights who went to battle, only around a fifth of them made it back. Your eyes did a desperate scan of the faces of the live men. You saw Taeyong, who had his left arm in a makeshift sling, Jaehyun and Jaemin were carrying an unresponsive Jeno between them, the large red stain on Jeno’s shirt giving away that he was seriously injured, and Jisung was standing further down the steps in front of you.
You couldn’t see Chenle anywhere.
Jisung took a few steps towards you, limping heavily, and you rushed down to him, throwing your arms around him in a hug.
He caught you with a grunt and you tried to apologise but the words got stuck in your throat. You were shaking slightly in his hold but Jisung still hugged you tightly, relieved to be back home.
“We won.” He whispered, and you nodded slowly at his words before pulling back.
“At what cost?” You asked, too scared to directly voice the question that was plaguing your mind.
Did Chenle survive?
“He’s alive. The last I saw him, he was alive.” Jisung answered your unasked question, a small ounce of relief flooding your system, but it didn’t nothing to calm the furious fear at the fact that nobody knew where he was.
You took a couple of steps back to find all the knights looking at you for your words. You found that you didn’t even know what to say to them, how could you comfort someone who has been through the ordeal they have?
You cleared your throat before addressing the men in front of you.
“Our brave knights. There are no words to describe how thankful we are to you for everything you have done for us. You bravery and sacrifice will never be forgotten. Today, we will have our traditional victory procession, and I would like to add a moment at the end, for anyone to address anything they would wish to. And to speak to or about anyone they may have lost. Please go to the court physician and your people in Ivairis are eternally indebted to you.” Your voice broke slightly at the end and the knights all nodded at you in appreciation.
They each headed inside one by one, only Jisung, Jaehyun, Jaemin and Jeno remained. A few members of the medical team rushed out, taking Jeno’s limp body from Jaehyun and Jaemin and carrying him inside, shouting out various treatments. Jaehyun squeezed your shoulder as he went inside, the exhaustion clear on his face. Jaemin stepped up but paused for a minute and turned to face you.
“Thank you, for adding that opportunity at the end. We lost a lot of men out there and I know people will want to address it.”
With that he headed inside, leaving just you and Jisung standing there looking at each other. Jisung opened his mouth to speak but you got there first.
“Go to the court physician Jisung. Please get yourself checked out and your wounds treated first.”
He closed his mouth, nodding at you before moving past you and entering the castle. You turned you gaze on the now empty courtyard, the men having cleared out and the horses having been retrieved. You took a few shaky breaths, waiting a few extra seconds, staring wistfully at the gate, praying that by some miracle Chenle would come riding through. But he didn’t. So you shut your eyes, took a deep breath, and turned back into the castle, the doors closing behind you.
---
The victory procession was bittersweet. The knights were acknowledged for their hard work and struggles, and nobody tried to deny that this had been a heart wrenching battle. The celebrations were half hearted however, the entire kingdom feeling the loss of so many knights and the king that they were all missing. The toasts at the end brought tears to your eyes as the knight took it in turns to remember their fallen friends.
And through it all, anyone could tell that the entire kingdom was terrified that their king wouldn’t come back. The king who every citizen had grown to love and admire. The king who set an example for all future kings, who acted as a king should, the king who you were lucky enough to call your husband, your love.
You removed your final piece of jewellery, staring at yourself in the mirror as you tried to figure out the whirlpool of emotions in your head. The knock at your bedroom door made your head snap towards it as you called out for whoever it was to enter. Jisung’s head poked around the door, and you couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed.
You had known Jisung almost your entire life, and you had never seen him look this broken. He took a couple of steps into your room before looking questioningly at your bed, asking silently for permission. You gestured for him to sit, moving over to join him yourself.
“I think I should tell you what I know.”
You nodded, not trusting yourself to speak quite yet.
“It was the final day. We knew it was coming to an end, we could all feel it. It’s hard to describe but there’s a difference in the air. On the final night, the king names someone he wants to be in charge of the army in case...” Jisung swallowed as he continued trying to get the words out. “In case he’s killed. Chenle chose me. The next morning, just before we went out, Chenle told me to do whatever I could to get this back to you.”
It was only then that you noticed Jisung had been holding something ever since he stepped foot into your room. He lifted up the object and you recognised it immediately. He placed it gently in your hands, watching as you turned it over in your fingers.
It was Chenle’s necklace.
“I didn’t see him after that.” Jisung’s voice brought you to tear your eyes away from the necklace in your lap and look back up at him. “I lost sight of him in battle. I know it sounds like he didn’t make it but- we scoured every inch of the battlefield after we won, there was no sign of Chenle among the bodies, nor was he taken captive by Fayre either because we searched their base. Aspen was missing too. Chenle is out there, alive and trying to make his way back here to you. And he will, he has to.”
You let your eyes flicker back down to Chenle’s necklace for a second before looking back up at Jisung.
“Thank you.” You whispered. “It’s been a long day, you should get some sleep.”
Jisung nodded, standing quickly and heading back out the same door he entered through. You didn’t from move your position, instead sitting in the same spot for the next few hours, turning the seals over and over in your fingers, wondering if Chenle would ever find his way back.
---
You were sat in the throne room, having just finished a meeting with the keeper of the archives to document the battle. Labelling Chenle as missing was something you had hoped you would never have to do, but there you were, drawing your signature on that very slip of paper. You really understood your mother’s words now when she said that she only felt as though she could rule when she had the person she loved by her side.
Because you didn’t just feel alone without Chenle, you felt completely and utterly lost.
A guard appears, telling you that there is a messenger for you, and you gesture for them to be let in. Yangyang strolls through the door, and you can’t help the small smile that appears on your face at sight of his much larger, contagious one.
“I have good news!” He announced, making you raise your eyebrows. “News of the victory travelled fast around kingdoms both close by and far away, and any thoughts off attacking Ivairis have been wiped off the map. Between the strength of our army and the alliance with Shanghai, the kingdom is almost invincible.”
You let out a breath of disbelief, smiling lightly at the boy in front of you as the news settled. Ivairis was safe. You asked Yangyang to spread the news around the kingdom, allow everyone to revel in the announcement and he gladly agreed before running out of the room so fast he left the door open.
You chuckled slightly at the sight of him, but the smile on your face faded quickly as the thought of Chenle travelled through your head. Another two weeks had passed but he was still missing. Nobody had heard a word from or about him since the final day in battle, and the fear that you were never going to see him again had become your natural state of mind.
You looked out of the window on your left, staring down at the rose buses and stone bench that sat there. You felt all the memories rush through your head of the times you and Chenle had sat on that very bench. You still remembered walking past it in the first few days of Chenle arriving, when you had given him a tour around the grounds. Though he would deny it within an inch of his life, Chenle had a soft spot for flowers and loved nothing more than spending a day surrounded with flowers of all different kinds.
You sighed out once more, closing your eyes to stop the tears that were threatening to fall.
“You promised you’d come back to me...” You spoke to the empty room, your voice wavering heavily.
You rested your head on the glass, lost in your own mind when a voice cut through. Your eyes shot open and you whirled around to be greeted with the person you thought you would never see again, the person you loved more than anything else in this world, more than life itself.
“Have I ever broken my promises?”
Chenle.
The world stopped when you saw him. You didn’t blink, didn’t move, didn’t even breathe, terrified that if you did, the image of him would disappear and you would be left with the reality that didn’t have him in it.
He took a step forward, standing in front of you and reaching up to tuck a stay piece of hair behind your ear. You lifted a shaky hand to his face, pressing your palm against his cheek and taking in the fact that he was stood in front of you.
“Chenle...” You whispered, trying to convince yourself that this was real life.
He nodded at your words, tears filling his eyes at the sight of you after so long. When it sunk in it hit you like a ton of bricks. You threw your arms around him and broke down, sobbing into his shoulder.
“Oh my god, Chenle. You made it back.” You cried, holding him tighter that you ever had before.
“Of course I did, I could never leave you like that.” He whispered, his quiet voice a stark contrast to your broken one.
His arms were securely around your waist, capturing you next to his being. You could feel that he was smaller, having lost weight when he was lost and trying to get back. He had dirt in his hair, and various bruises and other minor injuries that you could see, but he was here. He was here, in your arms, alive.
You pulled back, bringing one hand to rest on his cheek as you pressed your foreheads together.
“I love you so much.” You breathed, the tears still steadily falling down your cheeks.
“I love you more.” He replied, relaxing in the knowledge that he was home. He was standing in your arms, surrounded by his kingdom.
Chenle was home.
---
~ 10 years later ~
“So we are in agreement?” You asked the court, looking around the round table and seeing all the other heads of the men and women present nodding at your words. “Well in that case, we can call it a day here. Thank you for your input.”
You stood, smiling at the people in front of you as they all left the room.
“Ten years and council meetings are still as dull as the first one.” You muttered to yourself.
“I hear that.” A voice replied, making your eyes shoot up. You found yourself looking at your husband, who was leaning against the door with a cheeky grin on his face. “But if we want to set a good example, we should probably pretend they are.”
You shook your head, chuckling to yourself at his words. The sound of light footsteps running down the hall caused you and Chenle to send each other a knowing look.
The doors to the great hall opened once more and in ran two little children.
“Daddy, look I won!” You son yelled happily, grabbing Chenle’s hand and pointing towards the doorway where a panting Jisung stood, leaning on the door frame for support.
“Really Jisung? Two children under the age of 6 can outrun you?” Chenle asked, his eyebrows raised judgmentally.
“Look.” Jisung spat, pointing a finger accusingly at the two of you. “If the two of you hadn’t had twins with Chenle’s bluntness and y/n determination, I would be fine. But these two are like the mixture of you two, it’s terrifying.”
“Well, Jisung I hate to break it to you, but that is how children work. They tend to be a mixture of their parents.” You replied dryly, reaching down to hug your daughter as she held on to your leg, catching her breath.
“You know... we made a deal that we would have three.” Chenle reminded you, wiggling his eyebrows at you as you burst out into laughter at Jisung’s disgusted expression.
“Okay, that’s my cue to leave. Just remember, there are young children here.”
Jisung gestured to the twins that were standing close to you, before saying a quick goodbye, which your twins shouted back even louder, as he headed off to the next training session.
“Is everything sorted?” Chenle asked you, trying to stop your son from attempting to sit on the documents on the table.
“Yes, everything was agreed upon today. Starting from tomorrow, we are in an official peace treaty with all the surrounding lands. There are plans to share combat tactics, and resources if any kingdom needs it. We’re about to enter a new era.” You told him, the smile on your face growing at your words.
“That’s amazing, I’m so proud of you.” He breathed, his voice lowering for the last part as he grabbed your hand.
You intertwined your fingers with his. “I’m proud of us. We did this together.”
Chenle smiled at you, the signature smile of his that always took you back to the shy boy who you toured around the rose garden. You reach out with your other hand, your daughter grabbing it as Chenle took a hold of your son and together you walked out to stand on the battlements. Neither of your children were tall enough to see over the stone walls, so you both picked them up, allowing them to sit and see the view.
“One day, you’ll be the ones to rule this kingdom.” Chenle told them, watching as their eyes lit up in amazement. “And you’ll do it with a very special someone by your side.”
You smiled out at the view, the roofs of houses, the market stalls, the training grounds... you could see your entire kingdom from up here. Your entire home.
“Tell us the story again of how you and Mummy met?” Your daughter asked, looking up at her father with wide eyes.
Chenle began the tale, pointing out to the view as he did. He had got in the habit of telling them this story to put them to sleep, and since then they had asked for it constantly, the way he changed certain words to make it sound like a fairytale had made it their favourite.
He told the story of a magical land that became his home and the evil kings and dragons that he and Uncle Jisung had fought to protect it, all while his fairy queen, which was you, stood bravely behind the walls sheltering and looking after the people.
You listened to his calming voice tell the legendary tale and couldn’t stop the smile that spread across your face as you watched your family. You thought about how your life had turned out, all the ups and downs and challenges that you had faced, but you never faced them alone. Chenle was right there with you, ready to tackle any problem that the two of you may encounter. You turned your gaze out to your kingdom, the wealthy and prosperous civilisation that the two of you had grown together, yet it only meant everything it did because of the man you shared it with.
You remembered your conversation with Chenle before he proposed, the two of you talking about the life you could possibly have if you weren’t royals. You discussed all the things you would change, and how it would be different. But, standing here now, looking over your kingdom, with your family by your side, you knew one thing for certain.
You wouldn’t change a thing.
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Don’t Go Breaking My Heart | Charlie Gillespie
Requested by anonymous: Hi! Could you possibly do a Charlie x reader fic where they are filming season 2 & there is a new character (fashion expert/can see ghost/a little bit of enemies with Luke at first) but off screen they are very close (always hanging out/on ig posts & stories/dance partners/they sing karaoke/adventure) & the whole cast likes to tease them about it but they deny any feelings however they are about to film a very important scene that involves their characters & might change everything between them.
Pairing: Charlie Gillespie x reader
Warnings: fluff
Words: 2,789
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Season 2. Finally Season 2. Everyone had been hoping, wishing, praying for a season 2 of Julie and The Phantoms, and after months of waiting, Netflix finally picked it up for a second season. After those months, the actors had just to wait a little while longer while the crew wrote up the first drafts of scripts and made it perfectly save for the actors to do their work. Once all of that’s ready and they’re good to go, the cast finally reunite again in Vancouver. They even meet some new cast members. Like you. You had auditioned for the role of Daniela Ramos, Julie’s cousin and Victoria’s daughter, and got it pretty much straight away. Daniela is a fashion student at a High School in Melrose Hill and Julie asks her for some help with costumes for her next gig with her band. To Julie’s surprise, Daniela can actually see the boys, even when they’re not playing, which causes for a lot of trouble in the band and family, especially between Julie and Luke. This is your first big role on the small screen and you’re the most excited you’ve ever been. You met the other cast members at the summer bootcamp before the filming process would start, and though almost everything had to be done with a face mask covering half of everyone’s face, it still was a lot of fun getting to meet everyone and spend the most fun summer ever. Every day, you grew closer and closer to everyone on set, and soon became best friends with Madi, Jadah, Savannah and Tori, doing plenty of sleepovers. Besides the girls, you also grew closer to Charlie, Owen and Jeremy, but mostly Charlie. For some reason, the two of you just clicked instantly. You have the same humor, the same taste of adventure, the same passions and dreams. You, Charlie and Owen even rented a place together to live in for the time being in Vancouver. You got even closer during filming, especially since you and Charlie have a lot of scenes together. “Oh my God, Luke, you’re so annoying!” you yell at him when the two of you are in the garage, taping a scene. It had taken you about ten takes and you still couldn’t help but giggle at the shocked face he pulled every time. “If I’m so annoying, Dani, why do you keep coming back?!” The angry face he pulls resembles that of an angry kitten, which just makes you crack up again. “God dammit, Y/N!” Charlie laughs now too as Kenny yells “Cut!” “Sorry! Sorry, guys! I promise I’m a real actor!” You hold your hands up in defense, then cough to get ready for another take. This time around, you could finally manage to get through it without laughing. “Yes!” Charlie exclaims when Kenny yells “Cut!” again. He holds his hand up for a high five, which you giddily give him. “Do you need any more takes, Kenny?” he asks the man himself. “Nope, you’re good! You can go on your break now!” he pats Charlie’s shoulder. “Nice job, guys!” “Thanks, Kenny,” you say, the smile growing on your face. “I need food, Gillespie,” you tell your best friend, linking your arm with his. “Let’s go get food!” The two of you head down to catering and sit down at a table with a plate full of food. “What are we doing tonight?” he then asks before taking a bite of food. You swallow your bite of food and take a sip from your drink. “Don’t you have a night shoot tonight?” you ask, remembering him saying something about a late call. “No, that’s tomorrow, after our dance rehearsal,” he replies after swallowing the food. “Oh! Okay!” You start thinking of things to do, “We could go to karaoke? Bring the others maybe?” He raises his eyebrows, looking at you questionably. “I’ve always loved karaoke,” you shrug with a giggle. “Yeah, okay!” Charlie nods his head agreeingly. “Karaoke it is!” The two of you smile up at each other, teeth showing, both of you glowing. “What are you love birds discussing?” Owen asks when he joins them, his voice muffled from the mask covering his face. He pulls it down to under his chin as he and Jeremy join the two at the table. “We’re thinking about going to karaoke tonight with the whole team!” you tell them, completely ignoring the ‘love birds’. “Ooh, fun!” Owen exclaims with a smile that nearly reaches his ears. “Yeah, we’ll leave after shooting the last scene tonight,” Charlie suggests, looking at you for confirmation. You nod your head agreeingly. That night, you and the rest of the cast head to the nearest karaoke place you know. You’ve linked arms with Savannah and Tori, giggling through the night, trying to keep your balance on your heeled boots. Meanwhile, without you realizing, Charlie has been keeping his eyes on you the whole way there. He finds it adorable how your giggle floats through the night air and your hips bump against the other girls’. He couldn’t lie, you had easily become the light in his life. “So, what song shall we begin with?” you ask the gang as you settle into the booth. “Pick the first one on the list,” Jeremy replies when no one else does. You nod your head curtly and press play on the first song, which is Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. You can already tell after that first song; tonight is going to be a fun night. You sing a couple of songs with the girls, there are many group numbers, and you even sing one with your roommates. After singing with Owen and Charlie, the latter points at you. “We’re going to sing together now!” he exclaims excitedly before turning around and picking a song for you to sing. When he’s picked one, he grabs your hand to pull you closer towards him. You blink a couple of times, unable to process what’s happening right now. The opening notes to Don’t Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee chime through the booth. You glance over at Savannah and Tori, who offer you an encouraging smile. Then you look at Jadah and Madison, but they’re too busy giggling and whispering, and it makes you wonder if that’s about you and Charlie. Your eyes dart over to the boys – Jeremy, Owen and Sacha – who just offer you suggestive smiles and eyebrow-wiggles. Charlie’s voice captures your attention again, and you turn to him. “I couldn’t if I tried,” you sing back to him. The encouraging smile on Charlie’s face calms you down a little up to the point where it almost seems like the two of you are the only people in the room. You have no clue what is happening or why it’s happening. All you know is that you’ve wanted it to happen sooner. Though you wouldn’t ever admit that to anyone. It’s the way he looks at you and the way he makes you feel like you’re the only person on this planet that matters. It’s been the way he’d looked at you since that first day of meeting him. “I won't go breaking your heart,” you sing the very last line to him ever so softly, not even looking at the screen anymore, but instead, looking into his eyes. “Don't go breaking my heart,” he sings back. The song ends and you both lower your microphones, staring into each other’s eyes. If it wasn’t for the rest of the cast breaking out into cheers and applause, you would’ve kissed him then and there. But it startles you, and you step away from him upon realizing how close you are and how that must look to the others. “So, when’s the wedding?” Madison asks teasingly, which makes the others laugh, and you blush. After that night at karaoke, the two of you had silently agreed to forget anything ever happened. Savannah said you were in denial, but you believed you weren’t. You told her it was just the atmosphere in the air that night, the both of you had consumed a little bit of alcohol and it might’ve just been that. No one stopped teasing you though. On every possible occasion, they’d ask you if you’d kissed him yet, or when your next date it, or started singing Don’t Go Breaking My Heart randomly. You just shook it off every time, finding it amusing how consumed the cast was with this ‘relationship’ you had with Charlie. There was nothing more going on than just a really, really tight friendship. Until the dance scene happened. Your character, Dani, was supposed to go to a school dance with her crush, but she was nervous because she had never slow danced with anyone before. When she tells Luke, he insisted on teaching her, saying he’d gone to plenty of school dances back in ’94 and ’95 before he died. You and Charlie know this choreography by heart, you’ve been doing it for weeks on end at bootcamp and during rehearsals. It had always just been fun and games, the two of you being immaculate dancers and bouncing off of each other so well because of your tight friendship. “I could teach you?” Charlie says as Luke, stepping closer to you. You raise your eyebrows at him. “I’ve gone to numerous dances in my days, Dani…” One corner of his mouth curls up into a teasing smirk. “Unless you want to embarrass yourself in front of… Jake.” He emphasizes the name of your fictional crush, to which you react with wide eyes and a blush spreading on your cheeks. “Come on, Dani!” He reaches out for your hand, which you place hesitantly in his. Dani being able to see ghosts, is also able to make them corporeal. The lights on set dim a little, except for one spot on the pair in the middle of the studio, and then the music starts playing through the speakers. Charlie starts singing the song they’d learned at bootcamp, one the cast wrote together during the quarantine. The atmosphere in the studio has suddenly become really intense. You can feel the butterflies erupting in your stomach as the man in front of you sings to you, mere inches away from each other as he leads you in this beautiful dance Paul Becker and Tori Caro choreographed for you. Just like at the karaoke booth, it feels like the two of you are the only people on set. Just you and him. You and Charlie. You and your best friend. There’s no denying you have feeling for him anymore. You knew you did, you just told yourself it wasn’t a good idea and suppressed those feelings, pushing them down. It worked for a while. Until now. “Cut!” Kenny yells after your scene. You step away from Charlie, glancing down at the floor as you try your hardest to hide your flustered face. “That was perfect, guys! It really looks like the two of you were in love!” he claps his hands in excitement, then tells them to do it again. After four takes of the dance, Kenny tells you to go and take a break. Without saying another word to Charlie, you rush off set and towards your trailer where you sit down on a chair, trying to calm your breathing. Charlie might not like you the way you like him. Admitting to these feelings might just ruin everything the two of you have. With this in mind, you grab your phone and text Savannah, asking her to come over to your trailer. Maybe she could help you. “Are you okay?” she asks when she enters and finds you staring at the ceiling. “No…” you reply and take a deep breath, “I think I’m in love with my best friend?” “Oh, sweetie…” Savannah sighs, and pulls you up to take you in a hug, “I know…” You pull her away again to face her properly. “What do you mean ‘you know’?” “Everybody knows,” she starts, “The two of you have been inseparable since the day you met, and everyone can see the way you look at each other. Plus, your duet the other night was a little intense for it to be a platonic one.” She chuckles, and you can’t help but chuckle too. She then grabs her phone from her back pocket, opening Instagram. “You know fans have caught on too, right?” She shows you the comments on some of Charlie’s pictures on his account. One picture is of the two of you, napping in Julie’s bed on set, cuddled up. He even posted pictures from your hikes on your days off. All of them are bombarded with comments from fans saying, ‘I ship it!’ or ‘Y/S/N’. Sav then opens her dm’s which are flooded with fans asking if you and Charlie are dating yet, and how the two of them are so in love with each other. “Charlie isn’t in love with me?” you deny, not believing one bit about it. “He is, though…” This does not come from Savannah’s mouth. Your eyes widen when you recognize the voice, and peek behind Savannah to find your best friend standing at your open trailer door. “Sav, can you give us a minute?” he asks the younger girl. “More than a minute,” she chirps, offering you a wink before leaving the trailer. Charlie steps in completely and moves until he’s in front of you. He takes your hands in his, and chuckles at your overwhelmed and confused expression. “Are you okay?” he asks, that beautiful smile of his persistent on his face. “Y—yeah? No? I’m not sure?” you sigh, trying to get your thoughts in order. “Charlie, wha—?” “Can I talk? I’ve been going over this conversation in my mind a billion times, and if I don’t say it now, I think I’m going to forget what I’m supposed to say…” You nod your head in response. “Y/N, I’ve been in love with you since the very first time I saw you walking in at bootcamp. You looked adorable with your little nervous smile and your polite hellos to everybody. I knew from that moment on that I wanted to get to know you better, and that I wanted to become more than just friends…I didn’t think you’d feel the same way, so I told myself that it was okay if we’d just stay friends. Especially since your character kind of hates mine and you bring Dani to life so convincingly, that I was almost sure you hated me too,” you chuckle at that, “But I can’t hide it anymore, Y/N. I am so embarrassingly in love with you that I could’ve kissed you after that scene we just did and that I could kiss you right now even though I’m—” before he can finish his sentence, you lean up and crash your lips onto his, your hands flying into his hair. He’s a little startled at first, but quickly melts into the kiss and presses you closer to him. “I am so embarrassingly in love with you too, Charlie,” you whisper when you pull away, pressing your forehead against his. “They’re going to be so relieved,” you tell him with a chuckle. He frowns his eyebrows at you. “Who?” he asks. You take his hand in yours and lead him towards the door of your trailer, pushing it open and making it bump against whoever was closest to the door. All of your cast mates scramble, trying to act natural while Owen rubs his forehead since he was the one that got a door in his face. “Ah, them!” Charlie chuckles. “Thanks for the door in my face, guys,” Owen says disgruntled. “That’s on you, buddy,” you tell him with a grin. “Don’t you guys have a scene to shoot or something?” Their eyes widen at the realization and, after yelling at the two how happy they are for them, rush to set in a hurry. “So, where were we?” Charlie turns back to you when everyone’s gone. “Don’t you have a scene with them?” “Shit!” he grumbles and jumps off the small steps in front of the trailer. He starts running towards set but turns around almost immediately to you and kisses your lips quickly, but sweetly, and then runs off. You watch him with an amused smile on your face. There was nothing to be afraid about after all and nothing changed between you two. You were still the best of friends, just friends that kiss and are in love with each other. But both of you happy.
Taglist: @hannahhistorian92​ @marinettepotterandplagg​ @thequirkybookaholic​ @parkeret​​ @lukeys-giggle​ @gingerxarmy​ @lovesanimals​
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aminiatureworld · 3 years
Text
Deserving
Characters: Childe, gn!reader
Word Count: 1,651
Warnings: None
Premise: Even those who don’t regret their choices can doubt their worth.
In which Childe feels undeserving.
Author’s Note: Since I’m no longer dying you get a proper length fic. I realized halfway through I didn’t write anything for Diluc’s birthday, but blatant Childe favoritism comes first!
He’d never expected to be in a relationship, expected to spend his entire life serving the Tsaritsa and her purposes, dying for the salvation of Snezhnaya. He had no need for romance, no need for any of those connections that humans did. He’d given that all up the day he’d stepped into the Abyss, and for a long time he’d managed to make it seem like it didn’t matter to him, even to himself. And then he’d met you.
You were the greatest source of Childe’s happiness, offering him a sort of sanctuary, without any attempt to do so. You didn’t treat him as a lesser being, as the automaton he’d turned into; nor would you accept his superiority, determined to be his equal in every way. It was refreshing, to have a relationship unfettered by bureaucracy or by prejudice. But it was also frightening, and the small voice inside Childe that whispered he was no more than a monster was quick to remind him how undeserving he was of your love.
Not that Childe didn’t think that already, that he didn’t feel that emptiness inside of him where had once stood his hope, his innocence, the piece of his humanity that could still believe in a good ending. Sometimes it seemed even his empathy had been sacrificed, and now he had little left of himself. All these feelings had only grown, given encouragement the more time he spent with you, the more time he realized how much was truly missing from himself. And though he tried to ignore these feelings, knowing they weren’t your burden to bear, knowing that he could never change what had happened, he still knew they were there.
 “Are you okay?”
You tugged at the end of Childe’s sleeve, eyes filled with concern. It was a lovely day, right between the beginning of spring and the end of winter. It was colder than it had been the past few days, and you’d taken the lowered temperature as an opportunity to steal Childe’s scarf. The tails flapped about around you, and for a moment Childe’s eyes followed the movement as he attempted to come up with something to say.
“I’m perfectly fine my dear. Simply a little tired.”
“A long day at work?”
“A long week. The servants of the Tsaritsa never sleep, as you know firsthand.” Childe smirked, ruffling your hair. The movement seemed to distract you, and as you batted at his hands, grumbling as usual about his work, the Harbinger wondered if it wasn’t dishonest of him to lie about such a thing.
 “I’m sorry I have to go again.” Childe smiled apologetically, checking his belt to make sure his wax and extra bow strings were there.
“It’s alright.” You smiled, leaning over to give Childe a quick peck on the cheek.
Childe smiled back, before leaning down to kiss you properly. He wondered if you could feel all the love he held towards you, if his lips could convey his regret not just in words. He wondered if one day these fleeting kisses would be enough to sate the distance between the two of you each time he left.
“I’ll write to you as soon as I find a mailbox.” He said, withdrawing slightly, hand still grazing your hip.
“I’ll try to reply.”
“Try?”
“No promises.” You teased.
“The audacity! Honestly, how do I ever put up with you?”
“Because you love me?”
“Yes.” Childe pressed one last kiss to your forehead. “Because I love you.”
If only my love were enough to keep us united, he added in his mind, too apprehensive to let those words be released into the air.
 My dear,
How very boring things are without you. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if I’m not working in a glorified daycare, my subordinates more uncontrollable with every passing day. One must wonder if it’s even worth it to whip them into shape, for they make poor sparring partners. If you were here you’d knock every single one of them on the ground, before they could even wonder what an adventurer was doing in a Fatui camp. Maybe I’ll invite you next time, we’ll make it happen.
Childe couldn’t express truly the solace he found in writing to you. It was easier to write sometimes than talk, and it was easier to send his words out to you than rely on the memories of what had already happened. More than that it was the one thing that reminded him of his outside existence, of his world beyond the camp grounds and the men and women who dragged their feet around him, no wish to fight in them, only the wish to get a few hours more sleep. It was a depressing existence, if Childe were honest with himself. It’d become even more depressing, now that he missed you.
He set down his pen for a moment, sighing at the ink which was now frozen in its jar. Where were you now? Were you happy? Did you miss him? Did you resent the fact that he was gone? Three weeks was nothing to a member of the Fatui, how long had Childe been in Liyue before he met you, and yet now those weeks seemed interminable. And if it seemed so to him, he who was used to the isolation, then what would it be like for you?
The Harbinger sighed. Placing a blank sheet on top of his letter he stood up. He never got that much time to write letters. Maybe that was why they weren’t really any good. But you didn’t mind. Didn’t you?
 It was dark when he stepped off the ship and onto the docks of Liyue. Night had fallen, and the lanterns were lit, casting a familiar glow on the city which Childe had come to appreciate so much. Taking a pocket watch out of his pack he checked the time, cursing when he realized how truly late it was. Hurrying up the ramp he didn’t bother to look behind at the subordinates who were also plodding towards the city. If they got lost it was their fault.
The door opened silently, something that made the Harbinger breathe out a sigh of relief. Hopefully he wouldn’t wake you up. Setting down his things he smiled slightly to himself. It’d certainly be a surprise, you waking up to him next to you. Hopefully you’d forgive him for not waking you at 4 in the morning. Walking slowly down the hall, hoping that the occasional creaks weren’t audible, Childe slid open the door to the bedroom you shared.
The first thing he noticed was the chill of the room, something that surprised him. The next thing he noticed was the door to the balcony open. The third thing was you, leaning against the railing, gaze pointed towards the inky sky, expression somewhat distant. He didn’t move for a moment, taking in this small moment of intimacy. You looked beautiful, face glowing slightly from the distant lanternlight, expression serene, a soft smile playing at the edges of your mouth. And yet there was something opaque in your eyes, something that Childe couldn’t quite touch upon. It shook him out of his thoughts, and caused him to call out softly to you.
“I’m home.”
You started for a moment, spinning around to meet the Harbinger’s gaze. For a moment you were still, but then a sort of cry left your lips, as you barreled into Childe’s chest. He just as soon wrapped his arms around you, sighing softly, for the moment feeling nothing but pure bliss, pure love.
“You’re home.”
“I am.”
“I’ve missed you so much.” You drew back, expression ecstatic.
“I’ve missed you too.”
For a moment Childe hesitated, not wanting to break this moment, not wanting to go down that path of doubt, of fear and uncertainty. Yet he was tired, and slightly emotional. If he regretted it later so be it, he had to ask the question that burned in the back of his mind, the question that had once more reappeared upon seeing your expression.
“Am I worth waiting for?”
“Oh Ajax.” your reaction was immediate as you wrapped your arms once more around him, pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek. “Always, you’re always worth waiting for.”
“But I’m away for so long. And when I’m here I’m still bound to my duties as a Harbinger. Nor can I shed that part of me when I’m not doing my job. I cannot get back those pieces of me that would make me a better lover, a better person. What if I’m just not worth it?”
“Don’t talk like that!” You let out a small sigh, that opaque expression once more visible in your eyes. “I wish you wouldn’t talk like that. You aren’t missing anything, you aren’t worth any less than me or any other person. You’re loyalties might be… unconventional –”
“You mean wrong to most?”
“I mean unconventional. And yes even wrong. There may be parts of your work I hate, things I wish you wouldn’t do or have to do. But I don’t wish for you to change. You. Childe. Ajax. You are who you are, and that is the person I’ve fallen in love with. It’s a choice I made, and I don’t question it, don’t regret it. So neither should you.”
“Are you sure?” Childe knew he was probably being annoying, but he didn’t care. Neither did you, it seemed, for you simply shook you head, an exasperated expression on your face.
“Yes. I will always be sure.”
Childe nodded, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from off his back. Suddenly he was aware of how very tired he was. Stifling a yawn he smiled once more.
“It’s late. We should go to sleep.”
“Yes,” you smiled, closing the balcony door and sliding the curtains closed, “we should.”
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sadaveniren · 1 year
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I posted 2,905 times in 2022
405 posts created (14%)
2,500 posts reblogged (86%)
Blogs I reblogged the most:
@londonfoginacup
@alarrylarrie
@onesweetworld18
@lululawrence
@crinkle-eyed-boo
I tagged 2,872 of my posts in 2022
Only 1% of my posts had no tags
#😭😭😭 - 69 posts
#yes - 65 posts
#bless - 59 posts
#😂😂😂 - 51 posts
#answered - 47 posts
#love it - 32 posts
#🥺🥺🥺 - 30 posts
#mood - 28 posts
#lol - 27 posts
#this is a queue - 27 posts
Longest Tag: 125 characters
#he wouldn’t change a thing because he knows if he did he wouldn’t be where he is today and he’s happy with where he is 🥺🥺🥺
My Top Posts in 2022:
#5
Harry: writing Complicated Freak, Medicine, Stockholm Syndrome
Louis:
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741 notes - Posted April 20, 2022
#4
I feel like it’s time for me to share my theory about 1D’s formation (and why it had been planned well before this X-factor video was shot - though this video did very well at making it seem organic)
A lot of this theory comes from reading stuff from @verily-i-say who, if you weren’t around when she was, worked with reality television and talked about how casting for reality shows works (ie everyone is assigned a role before they are even cast and you just try to find someone who can fit the roles that you need)
Liam giving that talk a couple months back about how 1D was something he believed Simon made for him because of their talk only solidified this theory for me. So lets get into it.
Let’s start with what was going on in pop culture in the start of 2010, and what 1D was originally supposed to be. Because remember, 1D was never supposed to be as big as they ended up being! By 2010 boy bands still weren’t as big as they had been in the late 90s and early 00s. There were the Jonas Brothers who were starting to wind down their activities just by the nature of how long they had been. The producers of X-factor would have known this without any sort of inside knowledge it’s just how pop bands are. They have shelf lives. K-pop was trying hard to pierce the western market but so far nothing had stuck and there was a feeling at the time that kpop would never make it big in the west because of how their bands were crafted/promoted.
What that means is there was room for a boy band. I think Simon and the people in the X-factor knew it was a good time to make a boyband. There was a market for it, and something that needed filled. So they start crafting their story. No group had ever won the X-factor because pre-made groups kinda sucked/weren’t fully crafted the same way they used to be. Clearly this meant they would have more success making a group than anything else.
We know the producers knew of Liam and Louis. I think they started with Liam - and again this is all before we even got to the filmed auditions. I think they had the idea to make the band with these 5 boys from the original auditions and it was ALWAYS going to be them.
Niall filled the Irish niche. They had just opened auditions to Ireland. This was an easy way to gain success in Ireland.
Zayn filled the “ethnic” niche. How else is the group supposed to be “diverse” if they don’t have a POC?
Liam filled the group leader. The band was originally crafted around Liam and I will die by this.
Harry filled the “baby” role. He was the youngest. You think it was coincidence his age was brought up during his filmed audition? No it was meant to cast him as the “baby”. It’s not as intense a role as the “maknae” in kpop groups but it’s a role to fill. It also leads into him being marketed as “adorably slow”. He’s baby.
And Louis? Well Louis filled the “gay” role. Vee has talked about how obvious it is to anyone with eyes that 18 year old Louis was gay. I’ll get into why they needed a gay member in a moment.
So that was their initial set up: Irish, POC, Leader, Baby, Gay. Those are the roles the X-factor deemed they needed for a boyband in early 2010 and then they went about looking for people who fit those roles.
Now, like with any casting, it doesn’t always work out perfectly. You see it constantly in tv shows and reality shows. Audience reaction to people and also just general “character development” changes where people fall. Liam’s role of “leader” and “face” of the band swiftly fell apart because Harry is SO FUCKING CHARISMATIC. If you rewatch any X-factor stuff you can see it happen almost in real time. I could go on a whole tangent about how this affected Liam and Harry’s relationship but that’s not exactly the point of this post and it’s already way too long lol.
But what happened to Louis being “gay” and why did they need a “gay” member to begin with? It goes back to the idea 1D was never meant to be as successful as they are. In 2010 being gay and coming out/or being outted was like… pop culture candy. It was trendy. It got you promo. I’m not saying it’s right but that’s how it was. So I think they always wanted a gay member so that way they guaranteed a 3 album commitment from the boys. Album 1 rides off the back of X-factor. If Album 2 wasn’t as successful you pull out the gay card and BOOM instant interest in album 3. Enough to get Simon’s money worth from the band before they’re allowed to fade into obscurity.
Obviously that didn’t happen. Why? Well for starters the band was INSANELY popular. And secondly 🤷🏼‍♀️ Larry? They got put in a position with Larry where they couldn’t out Louis even if they needed to without outting Harry and ruining his “role” in the band.
And there’s my theory ✌🏻
751 notes - Posted July 23, 2022
#3
Here’s the thing about him singing Still the One in 2022. When he did it at MSG in 2018 we very loudly made it about Louis. And HSHQ is just like LTHQ. They see everything. They have to because it’s their job to see everything.
So that means they know that we think that.
Harry knows we think Still the One is about Louis.
And he still did that.
Anyway glad they’re still going strong ✌🏻
924 notes - Posted April 16, 2022
#2
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954 notes - Posted August 26, 2022
My #1 post of 2022
Larries since 2010: Harry and Louis are being forcibly closeted
Antis since 2010: NO ONE CAN FORCE THEM TO STAY CLOSETED
Larries since 2010: sure they can there are purity clauses that say they can’t do anything to tarnish the band brand
Antis since 2010: THATS NOT TRUE. YOURE THE HOMOPHOBIC ONES FOR THINKING THIS
Harry in 2022:
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1,157 notes - Posted April 26, 2022
Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →
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firelxdykatara · 3 years
Text
gods, ok, apparently i’m not done.
atla fandom? we need to have a chat.
(....ok that made me sound pretentious as fuck. and maybe i am, but this needs to be said, cause i’m getting....real, real tired of a Certain Corner of this fandom and as a result, this is gonna be a discourse-heavy post so feel free to scroll past if that’s not your bag. as always, my salt posts all carry the catch-all #salt for ts tag, which you’re free to blacklist/filter at your leisure. i’m Very Annoyed at the moment, which will probably come through in the following post, so just. yknow. be prepared for that. or ignore it, that’s perfectly valid too.)
under a cut bc i do care for my followers and their sanity i swear lmao
there’s a real serious issue in this fandom with not understanding what queer terminology actually means or implies, especially when applied to a fictional narrative.
i’m specifically talking about ‘coding’, here. (if i were in a more meme-y mood, i might have said ‘the atla fandom found out about the term “gay-coding” and haven’t shut up since’.)
to the people who say ‘zuko is gay-coded’, i have this to say: you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means. because he isn’t. i’m sorry, but he’s not! and the fact that this is such a prevalent claim in this fandom is distressing, bc it says to me that none of y’all know what gay-coding is or when and how to apply it! please, i’m begging you, go and look up these terms and what they mean and when they should be used before actually trying to plug them into your critical analysis, because when you misuse them and then call other people delusional for disagreeing with you it casts a pall over the entire fandom and is, i think, the root of some of the worst toxicity this fandom has to offer.
and the thing is, there are cases where gay-coding would apply--for instance, a couple series that are famous for queerbaiting their audience by coding their main characters as being attracted to one another (sometimes even despite their openly stated sexualities) come to mind, but those shows bare no similarities at all to atla and how zuko was written and portrayed! (and it would be funny, if it weren’t so obnoxious and infuriatingly wide-spread throughout the fandom, because the only queer couple we actually seen on-screen in either show wasn’t even queer-coded in any respect, and they’re canonically bi! [yes, i’m shading korrasami, or more accurately i’m shading bryke for refusing to give ka the build-up and development they deserved].)
this absolutely isn’t to say that headcanoning zuko as gay is a bad thing or invalid in any respect. (although the tendency for zukka shippers to do this specifically to keep zuko away from katara and/or invalidate his canon relationship/attraction to girls is more than a little eyebrow raising. especially since sokka is usually allowed to be bi, bc fans have no problem letting sukka stay in the background bc it’s no real threat, while jetko shippers are happy to have both boys be bi. [possibly bc katara is less a threat to jetko bc jetkotara is every bit as valid as any single ship between the three, but zukka can’t exactly let katara join in, and if the potential exists for zuko to be attracted to her then canon giving them the far deeper emotional bond becomes a threat to zukka’s existence? idk for sure--you be the judge.]) i prefer to hc zuko as bi (and always have, long before the atla renaissance), bc i don’t think zuko being attracted to boys is outside the realm of possibility, and it isn’t a threat to my ship since zuko&katara had a deep and emotional bond in canon that is very easy to develop further into something that becomes explicitly romantic--but the headcanon itself isn’t really the problem (although what it’s often in service to can be).
it’s the strange insistence that this is the only way to read his character, bc he was coded that way and so anyone who doesn’t see it must be too straight to understand--and i really shouldn’t have to say why and how that is so incredibly fucking insulting. (the ‘hetero lenses’ comment wasn’t cute when it came from bryke six years ago, and the same sentiment being repackaged and delivered by zukka shippers ain’t cute now.)
calling zuko gay-coded not only demonstrates ignorance as to what the term actually means, and how to usefully apply it in critical analysis, but also validates the frankly bullshit insertion of institutionalized homophobia in the world of atla where it was neither needed, nor wanted, nor ever hinted at in canon. as a queer woman i’m still infuriated by one fucking comic panel shoving institutionalized and systemic homophobia into a world where it was entirely unnecessary (and doing this in the first installment of the franchise showcasing a queer relationship??? making korra and asami worried about ‘coming out’ when they could have just gone on to have cute adventures together and tell people ‘hey we’re dating’ and have everyone else be ‘that’s awesome =DDD’ [because it is, in fact, possible to just have a world without homophobia i promise!!!!!] double yikes, i’m still pissed at bryke about it), and i doubly hate that ‘zuko is gay coded’ has become so widespread that ‘ozai hates him bc he’s gay’ has become a staple in that part of the fandom.
not only does making zuko gay and implying (or outright stating) that ozai hated and abused him because of it completely undermine zuko’s character arc by making his abuse about his sexuality rather than ozai’s toxic pride and anger at seeing himself reflected in his ‘weak’ son, but it comes very close to outright stating that abuse and trauma are inherently gay experiences, and they aren’t!!! they really aren’t, i promise!!!
abuse and trauma narratives exist outside of ‘my dad hates me because i’m gay’. and, quite frankly, there are MORE THAN ENOUGH queer trauma narratives out in the world. we do not need to start trying to retroactively make them canon in a series where they didn’t exist! if you’re gay and see yourself in zuko and project your own experiences on him, that’s understandable and valid. that does not make zuko gay-coded. and honestly, the insistence that he is makes very little sense to me, because you’re essentially trying to give the show credit for work you put into interpreting the characters! why would you want to do that? why not own your own headcanons and take credit for them, rather than insisting they are canon and everyone else is wrong for not seeing them??? like, i’ve said before that i’ve always headcanoned zuko (and katara) as bi, and even support it with my interpretations of evidence from the show, but the difference between ‘i think zuko is bi’ and ‘zuko is definitely gay-coded’ is that i know that bi zuko is my interpretation of canon, and that it is work i’m putting into the show that wasn’t actually intended by the creators/writers, no matter how much sexual tension i read into the jetko swordfight.
and like, zuko’s character arc doesn’t actually parallel a queer one all that well to begin with. it’s easy enough to do the work and twist it sideways just enough to make the general points fit, but the fact is, zuko’s arc is not one of self-discovery. it’s not one of coming to understand something fundamental about himself that he can’t change, that he was hated for, and coming out to his father in a dramatic confrontation where he shows that he understands himself and doesn’t need his father’s acceptance to be fulfilled.
zuko’s arc is actually one of trauma and healing. and those can (and often are--like i said, there are more than enough queer trauma narratives in the world, atla really doesn’t need to be one of them) be part of queer narratives, for sure! but they aren’t uniquely queer. and zuko’s confrontation with ozai during the eclipse doesn’t read like a ‘coming out’ at all. (yes, i’ve seen that post. yes, i rolled my eyes and moved on, bc unlike some people, i’m capable of not clowning on correctly tagged posts i disagree with.) zuko is specifically confronting ozai over his abuse, because his arc wasn’t about discovering anything fundamental about himself (and therefore realizing that ozai was hating him for something he couldn’t change)--it was about realizing that he was not at fault for the way his father treated him. it was also about realizing that the fire nation was broken and corrupt at its core, and that his father was an aspect of that he needed to break away from so that he could help the world begin to heal.
he says it himself:
Zuko: No, I've learned everything! And I've had to learn it on my own! Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the War was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it! We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.
making this about zuko being gay and rejecting ozai’s homophobia, rather than zuko learning fundamental truths about the world and about his home and about how there was something deeply wrong with his nation that needed to be fixed in order for the world to heal (and, no, ‘homophobia’ is not the answer to ‘what is wrong with the fire nation’, i’m still fucking pissed at bryke about that), misses the entire point of his character arc. this is the culmination of zuko realizing that he should never have had to earn his father’s love, because that should have been unconditional from the start. this is zuko realizing that he was not at fault for his father’s abuse--that speaking out of turn in a war meeting in no way justified fighting a duel with a child.
is that first realization (that a parent’s love should be unconditional, and if it isn’t, then that is the parent’s fault and not the child’s) something that queer kids in homophobic households/families can relate to? of course it is. but it’s also something that every other abused kid, straight kids and even queer kids who were abused for other reasons before they even knew they were anything other than cishet, can relate to as well. in that respect, it is not a uniquely queer experience, nor is it a uniquely queer story, and zuko not being attracted to girls (which is what a lot of it seems to boil down to, at the end of the day--cutting down zuko’s potential ships so that only zukka and a few far more niche ships are left standing) is not necessary to his character arc. nor does it particularly make sense.
(and before anyone brings up his date with jin--a) he enjoyed it when she kissed him, and b) he was a traumatized, abused child going out on a first date. of course he was fucking awkward. have you ever met a teenage boy????)
anyway, uh, that was a lot of words, so have a tl;dr: zuko is not gay-coded. there is nothing uniquely gay (or even uniquely queer) about his character arc or characterization, and he was certainly not coded gay in an attempt to sneak a queer character past the censors. if anyone involved with atla was gonna try that, it would’ve been in lok, and as established, they didn’t even manage to queer-code the actual queer relationship before the last few minutes of the final episode. headcanoning zuko as gay is absolutely fine (though if it’s only done to keep him away from female characters he may otherwise be attracted to, that smells more like misogyny than anything else), but insisting that this reading is the only one that makes sense, and anyone who doesn’t agree must be straight (hello, queer woman here making this insanely long thinkpiece) is very much not.
ship what you like, but stop trying to invalidate other ships and other interpretations of characters just to make your ship seem more plausible. it’s really not a good look.
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morganaspendragonss · 3 years
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holly's august extravaganza day 17: you and me (moving through this world as a two-man team)
for both my incredible birthday twin jenny (@laelipoo) and a little bit for myself! i hope you are having a wonderful, wonderful day and i wish you all the love in the world. i'm so glad we became friends and i cannot tell you how glad i am for our conversations 🥰🥰🥰
many, many, many thanks to jenny as well for helping me out with the plot!
ao3 | 3.1k | firefighter carlos, hurt/comfort, pining, developing relationship, major character injury (two of them 😌)
TK does not have a crush on the 126's latest hire.
Carlos Reyes: an Austin local, an incredible firefighter, and—objectively speaking—the most beautiful man TK has ever laid eyes on. Which is, in fact, the entire point; TK has eyes and, yes, he will use them to sneak a look or two when he’s suddenly sharing space with a man who looks like a Greek god.
That does not mean he has a crush, Paul.
(and, sure, maybe he does sometimes dream about how soft Carlos’s lips look and the soft blush he gets when he laughs and those little flecks of gold in his eyes, but he’s only human)
(how TK knows about the gold in Carlos’s eyes is none of anybody’s business)
The thing about Carlos Reyes is that he isn’t only stupidly hot; he’s also just plain nice. TK can’t even make up a flimsy excuse to keep his distance. Carlos is, quite literally, perfect.
He shares recipes and book recommendations with Paul, he spars with Marjan, he discusses superheroes with Mateo, and Judd has had nothing but good things to say since before Carlos even joined them. Apparently they’d worked together a lot before the explosion, when Carlos was with the 116, and he’s ‘one of the best damn firefighters’ Judd has ever seen.
He even makes time to hang with the paramedics, which...isn’t a new development, exactly. But it is recent, and TK is willing to bet they’d still be pretty divided if Tim hadn’t suddenly transferred back to Maryland and he hadn’t taken the leap to be a full paramedic.
Even after that… His friends were hardly going to abandon him after he switched, but Nancy had still only been semi-included at best. She’d called him out about it during their first week working together, but fixing it had been a slow process.
Until Carlos came along, that is. Excluding Judd, they all regularly hang out at his place now, and Nancy’s inclusion had never even been a question. Safe to say, Carlos has charmed everyone in the firehouse, including both captains, and the worst part is, he doesn’t seem to realise he’s doing it.
He’s perfect, from his freakishly toned body to his infuriatingly sweet personality to his incredible skills in the field, and TK does not have a crush, goddammit!
One morning about three weeks after Carlos’s arrival, TK is greeted in the firehouse by the sound of a long, beautiful laugh coming from the kitchen. Three weeks is an embarrassingly short amount of time to admit that he’s memorised everything about him, but he instantly recognises the noise as coming from Carlos, even if he can’t see him yet.
He saunters into the kitchen, where Carlos is standing with Paul, and leans up against the counter. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Carlos turns with a winning smile and holds out a steaming mug of coffee, clearly freshly made even though TK only got in two minutes ago.
He blinks. “How—” Then, taking in the slight pinkness to Carlos’s cheeks, “Are you seriously offering me your own coffee, Reyes?”
Carlos shrugs, forcing the mug into TK’s hands. “I only just made it so technically it belongs to anyone, and I can always make another,” he says. “Besides, you look like you could use it more than me.”
His grin has TK narrowing his eyes and stubbornly refusing to drink even though Carlos is right—he really, really needs it.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that was an insult.”
“Who says you do know better?”
TK splutters, momentarily left speechless in the face of Carlos’s smile and the twinkle in those goddamn eyes. He turns to Paul for help, but Paul...has disappeared. Huh. TK honestly hadn't noticed him go.
He shakes his head and looks back to Carlos, only to be stunned silent again by the way his smile has softened into something else, something more.
TK’s heart skips a beat or two and he swallows, staring down into Carlos’s coffee. “Whatever, Reyes,” he mutters.
It was too late for a witty comeback anyway.
Carlos’s laugh follows him out of the kitchen, and TK wonders when, exactly, he let himself fall this far.
*
“Earth to TK? Hello?”
TK is rudely snapped back to reality by one Nancy Gillian’s hand waving violently in his face. He scowls at her, to which she responds with an eye roll.
“Stop drooling over your man and come help me with inventory.”
“I’m not drooling,” TK argues, following her over to the rig. “And he’s not my man.”
“Right,” Nancy drawls, folding her arms over her chest as she leans against the ambulance. “So you’re just going to deny that weird energy around you two that makes the rest of us feel like we’re creeping on something?”
“Exactly.” TK nods emphatically, then frowns. “Wait, what?”
Nancy casts her eyes heavenward. “You know,” she says, “you’re a lot of things, Strand, but I hadn’t pegged you for oblivious.”
TK’s next words are reflexive, said without thought for the consequences—the story of his life, really.
“I’m not oblivious!”
The grin spreading over Nancy’s face rams home just how much he’s fucked up with those three words. TK drops his head in his hands and groans, unable and unwilling to look Nancy in the eye.
“Not a word,” he warns, which Nancy appears to respect, for now. TK is well aware that there will be words—several of them—later, whether he wants them or not.
The thing is, he really isn’t oblivious. He knows perfectly well what Nancy is talking about and he has often fantasised about all the things he’d do to Carlos given half a chance. TK likes Carlos, way more than just in the physical sense, and he’s pretty sure that Carlos likes him right back. It would be so easy to start something between them and, god, TK wants to. He just… He can’t.
One year—that’s what he promised himself back in New York. One year on his own to sort his head out and figure out how he fits back into the world after the overdose. Granted, his sobriety anniversary is only a couple of months away now, but he refuses to give up on his promise, especially when he’s so close.
Maybe in a couple months, if Carlos hasn’t gotten bored of something that’s clearly going nowhere.
But not now.
*
“He did not ask me out!”
“He totally did, dude, and you know it. You want to say yes, I can tell.”
“No, I don’t. I—”
“Children,” Tommy interrupts from the back of the ambulance. They’re heading to a callout, and Nancy has not let up the entire way about something TK is certain never actually happened. “Either of you want to enlighten me on what the argument is about this time?”
“TK’s too chicken to go out with Carlos,” Nancy jumps in, before TK can stop her.
“I am not!” he protests. “Plus, he wasn’t asking me out, he said we should go over to his place for dinner sometime, which Carlos does all the time. So there.”
“Strand, you are not this dense,” Nancy snarks, probably rolling her eyes. “His exact words were, ‘You should come over sometime’.”
“We were all there! It was obviously the plural you.”
“Oh my god—”
“Alright!” Tommy sighs wearily. “Nancy, can we keep from provoking TK until we’re back at the firehouse and he’s no longer driving?”
“Ha!” TK exclaims, but Tommy’s not done.
“TK, if I weren’t your captain, I’d be telling you that Nancy is right and you should pull your head out of your ass before it’s too late, understand?”
Now it’s Nancy’s turn to be triumphant as TK struggles to form a coherent response. Thankfully, he’s saved from further torment by them finally pulling up at the scene—a warehouse where one of the workers had become trapped after parts of the upper level walkway had broken and fallen. Apparently, the falling metal had caused some of the machinery to malfunction, turning the call from simple to beyond complicated in a matter of minutes.
“TK, grab your turnout gear and your bag; I’m sending you in with them,” Tommy informs him as soon as they’re out of the rig. “Normally, we’d just talk the firefighters through it over radio, but given your training it’ll be quicker and safer for you to deal with our patient.”
TK grins; he’s missed the adrenaline rush of running into emergencies more than he can say. “Got it, Cap.”
“Maybe try and look a little less happy about a serious injury, too.”
“Copy that.”
*
The noise when they enter the warehouse is deafening, an ugly screeching cutting right through TK’s skull.
“Shouldn’t they have shut the machines off?” he shouts, fighting to be heard.
“Apparently they can’t,” Judd calls back. “Something wrong with the control panel, I don’t know exactly what.”
TK groans—just what they need. The sound is lost in the din, but Carlos still looks over and gives him a sympathetic grin, shrugging in a ‘what can you do’ motion. TK can’t help but grin back, the mere sight of Carlos easing the annoyance he feels and the headache already beginning to build behind his eyes.
Their patient, when they reach him, is pinned under a large, heavy-looking sheet of metal. He’s bleeding from a gash on his temple and his skin is worryingly pale, to the extent that TK can tell even from a distance. He jogs to the patient’s side and kneels down, pressing his fingers against his neck.
“Cap, I have a pulse,” he reports into his radio after a few seconds. “But he’s unconscious with a head wound, and I think there are probably injuries I can’t see yet. Possible spinal damage, but I can’t tell until we’ve got this metal off him.”
“Copy that,” Captain Vega says. “Get ready to run a line; he’s gonna need it as soon as he’s free.”
TK nods and moves to secure a c-collar around his neck. “We need to cut this thing off of him,” he says, addressing the team. “Quickly, but carefully.”
Judd steps forward, brandishing the saw. He hands TK a couple of spare turnouts and kneels on the patient’s other side. “Couple of you need to cover him, and yourselves.”
TK doesn’t even have to ask before Carlos appears next to him, taking one of the turnouts from him. He smiles gratefully before arranging himself to provide maximum protection to all three of them as Judd starts working on the metal. The vibrations from the saw are unpleasant, and TK dreads to think what effect it’s having on the already unstable machinery, but it’s the only option they have to get their patient free.
Fortunately, everything seems to go off without a hitch, and soon the team are able to remove the metal. TK immediately gets to work, feeling for any damage. As he suspected, there’s a pretty large gash on the man’s leg which is bleeding badly, though thankfully it seems to have missed any arteries. He also seems to have a broken wrist, but he should heal.
TK quickly wraps his leg, then gets Carlos and Judd to help move him onto the spine board. It feels like, for once, the call has gone as smoothly as possible, and TK allows himself a breath of relief as they prep to get the guy outside to the ambulance.
Naturally, that’s when everything goes to hell.
The machine closest to them lets out a threatening groan and shudders before there’s a loud roar and it explodes. On instinct, TK folds himself over the patient as shrapnel rains down on them, and he sees Carlos doing the same in his periphery.
The downpour seems to last forever, but eventually it slows and comes to a stop. TK cautiously lifts his head, his heart pounding, and sags in relief as it seems that the worst is over.
They need to get out of here, now.
He stands, a brief stab of pain running through his back—probably because of his awkward position over the patient—and turns to Carlos, reaching to offer him a hand up.
Only to see Carlos’s face tight with agony, and then the cause—a jagged piece of shrapnel running right through his hand.
“Carlos,” TK breathes, horrified. Carlos looks up at him, his breathing carefully measured and his eyes wide, and TK drops back to his knees, reaching out for him. “It’s okay, I’ve got you, don’t worry.”
Carlos swallows and nods, his eyes squeezing tight. TK’s heart rate skyrockets, and he’s barely able to keep his cool as he signals to the others to get their first patient out of the warehouse.
“Cap, the team are bringing him out, but we have a problem.”
“Talk to me, Strand, what’s going on?”
“It—It’s Carlos.” TK breathes out shakily and takes a moment to steady himself before continuing, “It’s not serious, but some of the machinery broke apart and some shrapnel impaled his hand. I’ve got to stabilise the shard before we come out to you.”
“Alright, but hurry. I don’t want you guys in there for longer than necessary.”
“Copy.”
Stabilising the shrapnel with rolls of gauze and wrapping Carlos’s hand should be a matter of course—it’s an easy process that TK could probably do in his sleep. But this is Carlos, so his damn hands won’t stop shaking and he almost fumbles and drops his supplies.
He manages though, and soon he’s helping Carlos up, instructing him to hold his injured hand above his heart. Carlos sends him a wobbly smile, which ends up turning out to be more of a grimace, but it’s a comfort nonetheless. Things could have gone so much worse today; TK could have even lost him, and he would have never been able to—
But that’s not important. Carlos is okay, or he will be, and they still have plenty of time to figure out whatever this is between them.
Everything will be okay.
TK’s back and side twinge again as they make their way out, but he brushes it off, too focused on getting Carlos to the hospital as fast as possible. Tommy shakes her head as they make their way over, her eyebrows raised despite the concern clearly in her expression.
“Never a peaceful moment with you, Strand, is it?” she asks dryly, hissing as she inspects Carlos’s wound.
“In my defence, Cap,” he says, more at ease now that they’re safe, “it’s not me who’s injured this time.”
Tommy hums, then directs Carlos into the back of the rig, jumping in after him. “Get back here, TK. Nancy’s driving.”
She has a teasing look in her eyes that instantly makes TK suspicious, but he moves to comply, shrugging off his turnout coat as he does. The movement hurts, which is weird, but he thinks nothing of it.
At least, until Tommy’s eyes go wide and she stands from her seat, holding her hands out towards him. “TK, do not move,” she instructs, her eyes firmly fixed on his right side.
TK frowns, then follows her gaze down, and— Oh.
His grey undershirt is stained with blood, and it’s difficult to miss the large piece of metal sticking out of his side. He has no idea how he missed it, but now that he knows, the pain slams into him full force, causing him to stagger.
“Oh,” he gasps, eloquently.
Then, his legs buckle and the world goes black.
*
TK wakes up to a steady beeping sound, which only exacerbates his pounding headache. He groans, scrunching his face up, before slowly peeling his eyes open, almost slamming them shut again after getting an eyeful of obnoxiously bright fluorescents.
“You’re awake,” a voice says, sounding surprised, then the lights suddenly dim, the room lit by the gentle glow of a lamp. TK sighs in relief and shifts to look at his saviour.
It’s Carlos.
“You… You’re here,” TK states, confused. His gaze drifts down Carlos’s body and lands on the white bandages around his hand, the memories of the warehouse suddenly hitting him all at once. “Shit, you— How are you?”
Carlos shakes his head and comes to sit in the chair by TK’s bed. “I can’t believe you’re the one asking me that.”
“I’m a paramedic, it’s my job.”
“Not when you’re the one in the hospital bed,” Carlos counters, sighing. “If you must know, I’m fine. They gave me some pretty good drugs, so…” He shrugs, and TK can’t help but laugh, which proves to be a very bad idea.
His side lights up, an unnecessary reminder that TK is very much not on the good drugs, and he moans softly, slowly settling back in the bed. “I hate you,” he mumbles, eyes closed.
“You love me,” Carlos says, and TK’s heart seizes in his chest.
The silence after his words is deafening, so TK forces himself to crack his eyes open enough to look at him. Carlos is frozen in his chair, biting his lip hard, and he looks like he either wants to bolt or be swallowed by the earth.
TK thinks he should probably be feeling the same. They’ve been dancing around this issue for weeks now, and he’d thought he had it under control. That he could last that little bit longer until his one year was up; that he could ignore these feelings that have been steadily growing since he first laid eyes on Carlos.
It was a hopeless endeavour; he recognises that now. TK remembers the fear he felt when Carlos was injured back at the warehouse, the desperation for him to be better, and now with his own injury…
He could have lost this chance before he ever got it, and TK isn’t about to let it slip through his fingers now. He reaches out and takes Carlos’s good hand, startling him into meeting TK’s eyes.
“Yeah,” TK whispers, just loud enough for Carlos to hear him. “I think I do.”
The smile Carlos gives him lights up the room, and he doesn’t waste any time in leaning down to kiss TK. And it’s… It’s everything TK had hoped and imagined it would be and more. It’s soft and sweet and gentle and perfect, and he never wants it to end.
But end it does, though Carlos doesn’t go far. TK smiles at him, squeezing his hand with all the strength he can muster.
“That’s a yes, by the way,” he says.
Carlos frowns. “What?”
TK’s smile widens and he flicks his eyebrows at Carlos. “To dinner. Or were you not asking me out after all?”
Carlos huffs a laugh, and the look in his eyes when they lock back onto TK’s melts his heart and makes his entire chest ache. “Does Friday work for you?”
He nods, tugging Carlos down for another kiss. “It’s a date.”
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💫✨💕send this to ten bloggers you think are wonderful. keep the game going 💕✨
Have a nice day/night/dance battle with the peacocks! :D
Alright, since you are a) very cool and fun and b) you took the time to send such a lovely message, I’m going to give you a part of a fic series I started many moons ago and abandoned for other things
🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
Hatter Has Definitely Kissed Every Executive At Least Once And This Is How It Went:  Ann Edition 
🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
Rating: PG-13
Tags: Alcohol, shenanigans, everyone’s cutting loose, mild reluctance (but these people don’t turn down dares so y’know)
Summary: As a “team building” exercise, all of the Executives have met for a little get-together; and with alcohol and a rousing game of “truth or dare” involved, what could possibly go wrong?
“Ann,” Chisiya says, “truth or dare?”
Ann sighs.  Her red-lacquered fingernails tap rhythmically against the green of a beer bottle, the glassy sound barely audible above the chatting of the half-drunk executives.
“I already told you, I’m not playing.”
“The fuck you aren’t,” Niragi snaps, grip on his rifle tightening as he downs another shot of vodka, “no skips, that’s the rule.”
“If I had to do it, you have to do it,” Keiichi offers mournfully, taking a sad sip of bourbon from a crystal-cut glass, “it’s only fair.”
Ann turns her attention towards Hatter.  He’s taking a healthy swig from—ew, is that a bottle of peppermint schnapps?  She wrinkles her nose in disgust as he raises his eyebrows in a suggestive arch.
“This is a terrible idea,” she tells him for the fourth time in the last hour, “and you should feel bad for making us do this.”
“Ann.  Sweet, darling,” Hatter takes note of her unimpressed grimace, “angry Ann.  This is all an exercise in trust.  A way for all of us executives to bond.”
“And because he loves the drama,” Aguni adds.
“I really do,” Hatter says wistfully, “So, come on.  One round and then you can go back to summoning demons or whatever you do in your little basement crypt.”
Ann sighs.  Everyone is looking at her with expectant eyes.  She finishes the rest of her beer and puts the empty bottle on the table.
“Fine,” she says, “One round, and then I’m leaving.”
“The ice queen giveth in,” Chisiya says, the corners of his mouth turning up onto a mischievous grin, “So, pick your poison.  Truth...or dare?”
“Dare,” Ann says coolly, and the room erupts.  Even Last Boss, who had been lurking in the corner until now, gasps.  In a rare show of camaraderie, Niragi slaps Chisiya on the back and tells him to ‘give that bitch a good one.’
Imbeciles.  All of them.
“Everyone gather ‘round the table,” Chisiya purrs—yes, purrs—as he looks her with a twinkle in his eye, “because this particular date involves each and every one of you.”
“Even me?” asks Last Boss.
“But of course,” Chisiya says, “we need everyone if we’re going to play...spin the bottle.”
Ann feels the blood drain from her face.  Oh, this little blond twerp is despicable.  He is evil and terrible and—
“No re-spins.  No backing out.  The kiss must last a minimum of five seconds, but it can go longer if you feel so inclined.”
“I won’t,” Ann answers curtly.  There is not a person in this room she could ever want to kiss.  (Except for Mira, but.  Well.  That’s a thought for another day.)
“I don’t know,” Niragi says with an exaggerated flick of his tongue, the silver piercing winking at her in a supposedly seductive manner, “once you get a taste of a real man, you might find yourself hooked.”
“Perhaps Niragi wouldn’t be so bad,” Mira muses with a serene smile, “his oral fixation is off-putting on the best of days, but it might translate well to a more intimate experience.  That is, until he starts talking again.  Then it’ll be terrible.”
Niragi’s face twists into a sharp scowl as he tries to sputter a comeback; drunkenness and embarrassment have apparently robbed him of his mental faculties, so he crosses his arms over his chest and pouts.
“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Ann says with a huff.  
She places her empty beer bottle, label-side down, on the long wooden table.  For the first time this evening, everyone is silent.  Honestly, it’s kind of nice—it would be better if she didn’t have to end up kissing one of them, but, beggars can’t be choosers.
“You know,” Ann says, “there is a possibility it could land on me.  Does that mean I don’t have to kiss anyone?”
“That means you get to choose,” Chisiya says, “which...well, that will most certainly add some spice to the night, wouldn’t it?”
“Very evil,” Aguni concludes with a nod, “I like it.”
Hm.  Well, it was worth a shot.  
With one final, annoyed sigh, Ann places her hand on the bottle and gives it a powerful spin.  Maybe it’ll spin right off the table and shatter on the floor.  She wouldn’t have to do anything weird, and then she could just go back to her room and take a long bath.  Alone.  The way the universe intended.
It’s impossible not to watch the bottle spin, light refracting off the glass and casting flickering spots of light around the room.  It’s just a kiss.  She’s kissed people before.  Many people.  At least two.  
Friends kiss each other all the time.  Not her friends, but other people and their friends.  And these people aren’t really ‘friends,’ but they’re...acquaintances.  Colleagues.  Does that make it better or worse?
It’s slowing down now.  With each passing second, her fate is being decided by the neck of the bottle.  Mira, Last Boss, Keiichi—oh, God, please don’t let it be Keiichi, they have a meeting in the morning, that would be so awkward...
But, luckily, the bottle does not land on Keiichi.  It does not land on Niragi, nor does it land on Chisiya.  Last Boss has also been spared, as have Aguni and Mira.  That leaves only one candidate...
“Oh, Ann,” Hatter says, clapping his hands together and looking entirely too pleased with this very strange turn of events, “I always knew there was something between us!”
The thing he’s talking about is tolerance—she tolerates him because it is both sensible and beneficial to be on his good side.  He also, surprisingly enough, defers to her expertise on certain matters, which is more than can be said for her previous employers.  They are friendly, certainly, but most certainly not friends.  
And...lovers?  
Out of the question.
But Fate (and a smug little blonde) have decided that they share a moment of passion. Could she have spun worse?  Yes.  Could she have spun better?  Absolutely.  100%.  Without a doubt.
But Ann is a woman of integrity.  When she commits, she commits.  And so, as she walks to the other side of the table, she keeps her spine straight and her head held high.  She refuses to let these people see her falter.
“In addition to the parameters already given, I’d like to establish some rules of my own,” she says coolly, barely resisting the temptation to roll her eyes when he takes another gulp of alcohol.  Yep, that’s definitely peppermint schnapps he has—she can tell by the stench of it, the way it’s sharpness burns at her eyes.
She’s always hated peppermint schnapps.
“Fine, fine,” Hatter says with a wave of his hand, “as long as you promise not to fall completely in love with me in the process.”
That gets a laugh from everyone—and even Ann considers cracking a smile at the thought of someone like her ever feeling something for someone like him.  
“No tongue.  No teeth.  And,” Ann tell him firmly, “if you want to leave this room with your balls intact, I suggest you keep your hands to yourself.”
The group ooh’s at that.  Ann doesn’t look at them.  She keeps her gaze focused on the man in front of her, watching him intently for any signs of weakness.
All she gets is a smirk.
“I would expect nothing less of you, Ann,” he replies, “however, you’re more than welcome to put your hands anywhere on my person.”
He leans in slightly, almost as if he’s letting her in on a secret.
“I could even give you a few suggestions, if you like.”
What a perfectly hideous thing for him to say.  It doesn’t help that he’s fluttering his eyelashes at her like some kind of lovestruck cartoon character.  
It’s annoying.
He’s annoying.
With a roll of her eyes, Ann grabs Takeru by the silk of his obnoxious robe and crashes her mouth against his-- because she’ll be damned if he’s the one kissing her.  
Five...
The group gasps-- Takeru included, the noise muffled by the seal of their lips as she kisses him fully and firmly.
Four...
And it’s...not as gross as it could be, but it’s still a very odd experience.  His lips are soft enough, and his beard-moustache-whatever-the-fuck is scratchy in a way that is.  Well, it’s interesting.  Not good, but...interesting.
Three...
“This is fucking weird,” Niragi shouts, sounding very disgusted.
Two...
“It’s like watching my parents,” Last Boss adds, “when they were still trying to convince my sister and I they were still in love and weren’t going to get a divorce.”
One...
And done.
“Okay,” Ann says flatly as she pulls away and swallows a grimace at the sight of her favorite shade of lipstick on Takeru’s lips (and is actually a very nice compliment to his skin tone, frustratingly enough) “Can I go now.” 
For good measure, she releases his robe with a disdainful flick of her fingers and subtly brushes her hands off on her shorts.  It’s not enough to get the scent of peppermint schnapps and awkwardness off of her skin, but it can’t hurt.
“A deal’s a deal,” Chisiya concedes, his eternally mischievous smirk stretched across his cheeks, “And I must say, I didn’t expect you to fulfill your end of the bargain so...enthusiastically.”
“That’s because nobody can resist me,” Takeru gloats, bottle of alcohol back in his grip as if it had never truly left, “It’s not her fault I’m so delectable--”
“Detestable,” Ann corrects under her breath.
“--And, even though you’ll try to deny it,” Takeru continues, disregarding her comment, “both of us know that there’s a part of you that liked kissing me.”
“I liked the part when she stopped,” Mira chirps cheerfully, “In fact, I think we all did!”
“You have no idea,” Aguni murmurs solemnly into his drink, his eyes darting towards Takeru with an unimpressed look.  That’s...hm, there’s clearly some kind of story there, although Ann isn’t sure she wants to know about it. 
Everyone begins talking amongst themselves once again-- Niragi has offered to spin the bottle next, and there’s a small argument breaking out over whether or not the group should continue with their original game of ‘truth or dare’ or pivot to this new one. 
And, Ann?
Ann doesn’t stick around to find out. 
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Text
first show ~ aaron tveit
word count: 1756
request?: yes!
“I'll take anything Aaron Tveit. (There are not enough fics out there lol)”
description: after years of practice and studying, she gets casted in her first big broadway show, and finds herself falling for her leading man
pairing: aaron tveit x female!reader
warnings: swearing
masterlist (one, two)
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I gasped as the costume person pulled out the beautiful black dress I was meant to wear for our run through of Come What May. I couldn’t get over how beautiful my costumes were. I almost felt like I was undeserving of them. I was fresh out of college and already cast in my first big Broadway musical. If this was a dream, I didn’t want to ever wake up.
“You don’t have long to get dressed,” the costume person reminded me. “The dress rehearsal for Come What May is in 10. Although I’d love to see you staring at all your costumes in amazement.”
“I’ll do that after dress rehearsal,” I joked.
I took the black dress and quickly changed into it, longing to look at myself in the mirror but knowing I had no time. With my hair and makeup already finished, I rushed to the stage. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one running a bit late as my co-star was yet to arrive once I took my place.
“There’s our Satine!” the director proclaimed as I stood on stage. “Welcome to the stage, dear. How do you feel?”
“Nervous,” I admitted. “But I look damn good for a nervous girl.”
The director chuckled. “Our Christian should be here soon.”
“He’s here!”
I tried not to seem as starstruck as I felt at the sound of my co-star’s voice. Aaron joined me on stage, dressed in his Christian costume. I had to try my best not to fangirl over him. He was basically Broadway royalty, and I was acting with him in my first show! I had to remind myself how to breathe.
I smiled slightly at him. “Nice to meet you. I’m (Y/N).”
“Nice to meet you, too, (Y/N). I’m Aaron.”
I had to stop myself from responded with I know as I shook his hand.
“While I’d love for you two to get to know one another, I’d like to run Come What May first,” the director told us. “It’s one of the biggest songs in the musical, and the one with the most chemistry. So, we need to nail this song before we can nail the entire musical.”
Aaron and I nodded and took our places for the song. The band started playing the song and I felt my nerves growing. I tried to focus just on Aaron, but that made me even more nervous.
“Never knew I could feel like this Like I’ve never seen the sky before Want to vanish inside your kiss Every day I love you more and more”
No shock that his voice sounded perfect. I already knew this, I had seen the show on its opening night years before. But it was different to hear the voice up close, too have him singing directly to me. It made my heart flutter and I almost forgot my cues.
“Come what may Come what may I will love you until my dying day”
For a moment I feared my voice wouldn’t work, but when I opened my mouth the words came out effortlessly.
“Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace”
I tried not to break character as pride swelled within me at the look on Aaron’s face. I could only describe it as a look of astonishment, as if my voice shocked him, and that made me so proud.
My heart spiked as Aaron took my hands and we sang together
“Storm clouds my gather And stars may collide But I love you (I love you) Until the end of time”
The music swelled as we reached the end of the song, our voices mixing together perfectly as we held the last line. I looked into Aaron’s perfectly blue eyes, glad that the song had ended because he had taken my breath away.
I had forgotten all about the small audience of crew members and our director until he spoke. “That was great! But can we take it from that last chorus and can you guys end the song with the kiss?”
“O-Oh,” I stuttered, still trying to recover from the song. “Y-You want to do the kiss now?”
“It’s better to get the first one out of the way now to get past any initial awkwardness.”
“Are you okay with that?” Aaron asked me, concern on his face.
I nodded. “Yeah. He has a point, we will be kissing almost every night. We should get used to it now.”
The director motioned to the band and they began playing from the last chorus again.
“Come what may Come what may I will love you until my dying day”
I looked into Aaron’s eyes, the only thing keeping me calm in that moment. One of his hands reached up to gently cup my face, bringing me closer to him. The distance between us was small, but it felt like I was waiting for his lips to touch mine forever.
When they finally did, it felt as though something had exploded inside of me. My whole body felt warm and fuzzy, and my stomach felt like it was full of butterflies. I couldn’t stop myself from putting a hand behind his neck, wanting to keep his lips on mine for a long time.
We were forced to pull away when the director began to clap, completely taking us out of the moment.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” he exclaimed. “That was brilliant! See? Now there’ll be no awkwardness when we run that scene from now on.”
I wouldn’t say that, I thought, glancing over at Aaron. I wondered if he had felt what I did, or if it was just another stage kiss for him. If he felt the latter, it would definitely be very awkward for me.
“Okay, you two take five and then (Y/N), I want you ready for your entrance medley.”
The crew continued on about their work while the director turned his attention to his assistant and began talking about the technical stuff having to do with the show. Aaron and I awkwardly stood on stage together for a moment, unsure of what to do next.
“I guess I should go get ready for my entrance rehearsal,” I said, trying my best to look at Aaron. How the hell did two actors who weren’t already in relationships kiss on stage and not fall in love?
“I’ll walk you to your dressing room,” Aaron offered. “We can get to know one another.”
I smiled at this and the two of us exited the stage together.
“So,” Aaron started, “there’s a rumor on the streets that this is your first ever show.”
I nodded. “Yeah, it is. I’m actually not long out of college. I graduated maybe a month ago? Top of my classes because I was always an overachiever, and most of my teacher’s favorites. Actually, it was one of my teachers that got me this audition. She knows the director and when it was announced that Karen Olivo was leaving the show, she urged me to audition.”
“Looks like it worked out in your favor.”
“Yeah, somehow,” I said with a slight laugh. “I’m sure there were dozens of better, more experienced girls who auditioned. My teacher must’ve slipped the director a bribe or something to get me this role.”
“Or, and hear me out on this one, you were actually that good and got the role on your own.”
I shook my head. “No way. That’s nearly impossible.”
“Nearly being the keyword. Newbies gotta start somehow or else Broadway shows would never have a cast.”
“Yeah, but most newbies start as a part of the ensemble or the company, then make their way to very minor character, then less than minor character, and then, if they’re lucky, they become main characters. It’s not as easy as auditioning fresh out of school and getting the role right away.”
Aaron shrugged. “I don’t know, I think it’s that easy for some people. You have a fantastic voice, definitely a voice worth of a Satine and not just an ensemble girl.”
I smiled up at Aaron. “I appreciate the compliment, and the confidence you have in me. I hope I don’t let any of you guys down.”
“I don’t think you will. I think you’re going to be amazing. You’ll probably steal the show from me.”
I laughed at this. There was absolutely no way that I, a newbie, could possibly steal the show from a Broadway vet like Aaron Tveit.
I was sad when we reached my dressing room, although I knew it wasn’t that far of a walk from the stage. I wanted to talk to Aaron for longer, to have more time alone with him. But we were trying to prepare a show, and that meant that eventually I had to give up my time with him in order to rehearse.
Both of us paused outside of my dressing room. It was almost like we were waiting for the other to leave first. I glanced at the clock in my dressing room and sighed upon seeing the time.
“I have about two more minutes to get into my costume for my entrance medley and to get back to the stage. So, I guess this is where we say goodbye.”
“Well, only for now. I’ll be in the audience watching you absolutely destroy that medley, and then we have basically the entire play together that we have to rehearse,” he told me. “But, if you’re not too tired after rehearsal, I’d love to maybe go out and grab a drink with you. If you’d be interested in doing that, that is.”
Now was when my voice stopped working. I could barley believe that this was actually happening. Too many amazing things going on the one time, I was sure I was dreaming. I had to slip my hands behind my back to pinch myself, and I had to suppress a yelp as I realized I was very much awake.
“Yeah,” I finally managed. “I’d love to.”
Aaron’s smile was as wide as a child on Christmas morning. “Okay! Well, I won’t distract you any longer. Break a leg out there.”
I watched after him as he went back in the direction of the stage before hurrying into my dressing room to prepare for my next scene. The entire time I had a smile on my face so wide that my cheeks were starting to hurt.
I guess dreams really do come true.
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countryclubstarkey · 4 years
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Hate To Like You - Drew Starkey x Reader (Smut)
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NOT MY GIF
Pairings: Drew Starkey x Reader; Rafe Cameron x Y/C/N (Character’s name)
Warnings: NSFW, Smut, 18+, Choking, Angry Drew, Degradation, Rough Drew, Overstimulation, Daddy kink, Fingering, Creampie, Cockwarming, Violence, Face Slapping. 
Word Count: 2.4K+
A/N: This is extremely filthy and dirty, please read at your own discretion. 
You were close to finishing shooting season 1 with the cast, but there is one scene that you have yet to do that you have been dreading. Throughout filming, the whole crew have all become close as ever, well except you and Drew. You two have an extremely complicated relationship, not only do your characters hate each other, but you do as well in real life. 
The first time you met, he made a rude comment towards you, and ever since then you two have been at each other’s throats. Throwing shady comments, or lightly fighting without injuring the other is something that happened often, your friends interfered each time dividing you two so there wasn’t a big fight where anybody got hurt emotionally or physically. 
Currently, you were trying to calm your nerves down because your character and Drew’s character have to do a sex scene today. The two characters are finally going to deal with the sexual tension between them. Not only is this your first ever sex scene in the film industry, but the details are pretty descriptive. The shoot is going to take most of the day apparently, that is if you and Drew can get along without ripping each other’s throats out. 
There is a knock on your trailer door, “Y/N we’re ready for you on set,” one of the assistants yells at you through the door. 
You straightened out your outfit and headed towards the set. Jonas kept it a closed set mostly today since it’s an intimate scene and wants as much privacy as possible. 
You arrive at the scene to see the set up all done, Drew is having some final touch-ups to his hair, while the makeup artist is fixing some of your makeup as well before the shoot can start. 
You look towards Drew and notice his appearance. He’s wearing a baby blue suit with his hair gelled back. You’re going to admit, he looks extremely good but you would never say that to others or him. He’s trying to get into his Rafe mindset, which shouldn’t be hard since it’s pretty similar to his own shitty personality. 
“Okay, let’s start this, Y/C/N is going to follow the kooks and JJ inside the building, trying to stop the kooks from beating him up, then this is where the scene between the two of you happens,” Jonas exclaims. You both nod as you try to calm your nerves down a little by doing some deep breaths.  
“And, Action.” 
------------------The scene between the characters.
You start running after the kooks trying to protect JJ, but you bump into someone causing them to knock the wind out of you. You trip over your heels and fall to the ground, noticing Rafe Cameron is the cause of the altercation. 
“You really got to be careful princess, we wouldn’t want you to get hurt, do we?” He deviously smirks at you. 
You try to stand up, but it’s a little hard with your long flowy dress and high heels, “Get out of my way Rafe, where’s JJ?” You try to push past him, but he blocks the way trapping you between his body and the wall. 
“What, you trying to save your little friend from getting his ass beat,” he taunts you. Trying to get away, but Rafe’s broad figure prevents you from moving even an inch. 
You push against his chest roughly causing him to stumble a little, “I’m so sick of your shit,” you yell at him. The little stumble gives you a chance to walk away from him, as you continue your journey to find JJ. 
“You’re not going anywhere you little whore,” he wraps his hand around your wrist and pulls you towards his chest. He crashes his lips against yours making your eyes widen from his rough actions. He bangs you against the wall while keeping your lips connected continuing to kiss you passionately with his soft lips. 
His tongue swipes your bottom lips demanding access, but you keep your lips together teasing him. He delivers a harsh slap to your ass, making you gasp giving him access to tangle his tongue with yours. You begin to fight each other trying to gain dominance, but you get distracted when Rafe’s hands move towards your neck limiting your breathing. Keeping a tight grip around your neck, his lips leave sloppy wet kisses all over your jaw and collarbones. He slides one of your straps down, leaving gentle kisses on your shoulder causing delicate moans to release from your lips.  
Rafe’s hands squeeze your ass lifting you up slightly, “Jump,” he grunts in your ears. Your legs wrap around his waist, as you feel him poke your thighs slightly through his dress pants. 
His hand moves up squeezing your face roughly, while he stares into your eyes that are filled with lust and desire, “You want me to fuck you don’t you, you little bitch.” You shake your head at him, not wanting to give in. 
“Are you sure, I’m going to even feel it,” you taunt him chuckling. His hand returns to your neck squeezing it harder than before making it hard for you to get anything out, as your pants begin to fill the narrow hallway. 
“You’re going to regret saying that, I’m going to fuck you into next week,” Rafe walks towards the closet that’s near and slams the door shut. He drops you onto the ground, making you turn around so your face is pressed against the cold hard wall. 
He removes your dress as it pools on the ground around your feet. You hear him unzip his pants and unbutton his shirt and jacket. 
As Drew pretends to drop his boxers as well, you hear the words. 
“And Cut.” 
———————————-End of Rafe x Y/C/N Scene.
Jonas hands you your robe, quickly putting it on to cover up, “That was great, but I feel like it was missing some chemistry, I want you both to go to Drew’s trailer and talk a little, then we’ll try the scene again tomorrow.” Jonas didn’t know about the rivalry you had with Drew, so he doesn’t know how badly you want to kill him for forcing you to do this with Drew. He just knew that you and Drew have a rocky friendship and weren’t that close. 
He notices the grim look on your faces, and his smile drops, “What, what’s wrong?” he asks. You shake your head at him not wanting to disappoint him in any way.
“Nothing man, well we better get going, come on Y/N.” Drew offers his hand, which you take hesitantly. Heading towards Drew’s trailer, you immediately let go of his hand when Jonas can no longer see the two of you. 
“Never grab my hand again,” you tell Drew with a scowl on your face as you open the door to his trailer slamming it in his face. He enters the room with his cheeks bright red from anger, his heavy breathing following through. 
He walks towards you getting close to your face, “You know what, I’m so glad Rafe gets to call you a whore and a bitch because that’s exactly what you are,” he spits out. His comment makes your blood boil, which makes you give him a rough slap to the face making a little red mark that is going to last for a few hours. Drew punches the wall beside your head as retaliation making a small dent, you release a small yelp from his action, “You make me so mad,” he breathes out. The room is filled with silence only the sound of your heavy breathing is heard. 
Leaving you speechless as you look into his lustful blue eyes, you take a step forward crashing your lips against his breaking the tension. Immediately, his hands travel to your waist while yours envelop his neck bringing him down closer to your height. Your teeth and tongue clash against each other, both of you wanting to rip the clothes off each other as soon as possible. He unties your robe, leaving you in your matching baby pink lace set, your hands fumble with his shorts trying to pull them down. 
Drew slaps your hands away, gripping your throat like he did as Rafe earlier, “You want me to make you my little whore,” letting out a desperate whimper due to his language, you nod at him not trusting your voice enough. 
He chuckles darkly at your desperate state, “Words, baby, I need your words.” 
Your hands wander down his body, palming him softly through his pants, “Use me as you wish, Daddy.” You catch him off guard, but Drew gathers his thoughts lifting you up, making you sit on the counter in his trailer. 
Feeling his hands traveling all over your body trying to explore every inch that is visible to him, he rubs your inner thighs but doesn’t touch you between your legs where you crave him immensely. His fingers travel towards your clothed cunt, sliding his hands up and down to see how wet you were for him. Filthy words escape your lips as his hands connect with your little bundle, rubbing it a few times. Drew slides your panties to the side, and two of his finger feeling around your outer lips before sliding them in your warm pussy. 
“F-uck Drew,” you moan slowly, his fingers filling you up perfectly. He slaps your clit aggressively, causing you to pull away from his hands not used to the feeling, “What did you call me?” He questions you. 
“I meant Daddy, sorry,” your voice trembles. His fingers return to your pussy, as he speeds them up, while his thumb rubs your clit at a faster pace. Your hands grip the countertop, turning your knuckles white since Drew’s hitting the spot that you had been craving for since you’ve met him.  
He adds a third finger, increasing the pressure deeply you throw your head back in pleasure, “F-uck I’m going to cum,” you scream out grabbing onto his hair pulling it as hard as you can. He growls at you, speeding up his actions while you feel yourself cum all over his fingers. Drew drops to his knees licking up the mess you just left right away, lapping your wetness and juices. His tongue teasing your entrance, licking a long strip. 
You try to push his head away, too sensitive from your previous orgasm, “I’m too sensitive, give me a minute.” He doesn’t listen but continues his actions instead. You feel the pressure building up in your stomach again, as your body trembles all over specifically your legs. He alternates between pleasuring your clit and your entrance. You almost slip from the counter as you feel your orgasm hit you harder than the last, as you cum over all over Drew’s face. He continues eating you out until satisfied with your shaking body. 
Pulling him for a kiss, and tasting yourself on his tongue, his hands travel to breasts to rip your bra apart not having the patience to reach your clasp. About to complain, he grips your face harshly preventing you from making any noise. 
He softly slaps your face trying to see your reaction to it, “Harder,” you try to say between your heavy moans as his hands tease your breasts. He slaps your face harder before doing the same action to your breasts. Drew releases his member from his boxers, as your mouth waters from his size, not expecting it to look as good. His defined veins, red tip oozing precum as you try to wrap your hands around him. 
“Not today, Princess,” he whispers to you. Seconds later, he slams into you giving no chance to adjust to his size. You grip his biceps trying to keep up with his pace as he rams into you, his hips meeting yours. Pulling you forward so that you’re barely sitting on the counter, most of your weight supported by Drew. Your nails drag down his chest leaving long streaks, the trailer filled with your shuddering sobs as you feel Drew hit your g-spot with each thrust. One of his hands furiously rubs your clit, as the other travels to your face once again alternating between delivering slaps to your face and gripping your neck.  
You feel the coil build up in your stomach again, as your body shakes violently around Drew from the amount of pleasure, “F-uck, fuck, Drew, I’m going to cum,” you scream out. 
“Wait, for me.” He groans in your ear trying to reach his orgasm as well, you begin clenching all around making his thrusts sloppier. His hand grips your throat tightly causing your oxygen supply to cut off slightly making you light headed not only from that but because of your orgasm as well. 
Delivering a few last thrusts, “Cum for me,” Drew yells out as you feel his warmth fill you up leaking out of you at the same time. Tears begin to build up in your eyes, as you let out a silent scream reaching your own orgasm. Your body falls limp in Drew’s arms, as he continues his thrusts to make sure your orgasm lasts throughout. He remains inside you, as you feel your broken body calm down from your intense orgasm as Drew whispers calming words in your ears. He carries you towards the couch and sits down with his cock still inside you as your body shudders from the sudden movement. 
You brush the hair out of his eyes, as you make eye contact, “Didn’t know you were kinky as Rafe,” you tell him. His body rumbles with laughter, you feel the vibrations through his cock making your body shudder, “Fuck, don’t do that,” you whisper. 
“You know, I’ve always wanted to do this since the first day I saw you,” Drew tells you sweetly. 
You roll your eyes at him, “What, fuck me in your trailer?” you ask him. He shakes his head smiling at your comment, “No, tell you I like you, then fuck you in my trailer.” 
Your eyes widen, “You like me, I thought you hated me since the first day.” 
Drew leans his forehead against yours before whispering, “I’ve always liked, but you never gave me a chance and then we started fighting all the time.” 
“I like you too Drew.” You both grin widely at you. He lays down pulling your body towards him, cuddling you. 
“Are you going to get out of me or what.” you wonder. 
He shakes his head playfully and closes his eyes, “Nah, we’re going to have round two when we wake up.” 
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(Need some holy water after writing this). 
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