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pucksnsticksnhockeyboys · 3 years

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hometown

summary: Hallmark movies aren’t real life, and yet your childhood crush is helping decorate your family’s store for Christmas.

word count: 4.2k

tagging: @calgarycanuck @sorryjustafangirl @tayella13 @wastedheartcth @kiedhara @writinghockey @unfoundtreasure @nolanscheeks @bqstqnbruin/ add yourself to my christmas fics tag list

masterpost of my christmas fics

“Did you see Brock was back in town?”

The question, innocent enough, had been directed at you more times you could count now that it was the holiday season. Apparently, word got around fast, and with each familiar face you cashed out at your family’s bakery you were asked that one simple question.

You just wished people would stop asking you about your ex-boyfriend.

It had been years since you’d broken things off with Brock—three days after he was drafted to Vancouver and you were committed to staying in Minnesota. But that hadn’t been the last time you’d seen him; your families were close and you’d grown up with him, so you were forced to see him each holiday season. You just wanted to go one year without having to see your first love—first everything—mingling with your parents or have his mother make you your favorite dessert because she knew you loved it so much.

Christmas season was in full swing, and you had been in charge of picking up the decorations for the tree your parents insisted on getting for the shop, despite it being so close to the holiday. You ran the errand happily, taking the chance to slip out and get some fresh air. With arms laden with bags full of lights and ornaments, you returned to the bakery successful.

Pushing open the door, you were hit with the familiar combination of baked goods and Christmas music. Your dad called your name in greeting, and your mom shot you a look from behind the register. You didn’t understand what she was trying to warn you of, but you followed her not-so subtle gesture to the front of the store where—

Where Brock was setting up the Christmas tree in the front of the store.

“Did you see Brock was back in town?” God, you hated that question. Your dad, ever oblivious to the position he just put you in, grinned happily while holding the tree steady for Brock to secure it to the base. You pursed your lips, forcing a smile and a nod while setting down the bags of decorations you had gathered.

“Hey, how’ve you been?” Brock called over his shoulder, flashing you a grin before standing to his full height once making sure the tree was secure. You forced an even faker smile for him, mumbling nothing more than a ‘good, thanks’ before ducking behind the counter to cash out a customer while your mother stepped aside.

“We’re running out for a moment, but you can watch over the place. It shouldn’t be too busy.” Your mom told you, grabbing her coat before you had the chance to object. Bidding your parents goodbye, you kept your gaze set firmly on the counter after the only customer left, until Brock cleared his throat to try and break the tension.

“Thanks for setting up the tree.” You decided to be civil. It wasn’t like things ended poorly with you and him—they just ended, and you were the one with the final say. The distance wasn’t something you were ready to deal with at such a young age, no matter how much you loved him.

You just wished that the last time you had seen him, ever, was when you broke his heart.

“Don’t worry about it; I came by to see if you were around and saw your dad needed some help.” He shrugged his shoulders as if it was nothing, instead of him declaring that he was looking for you and reminding you how his kindness made you fall for him in the first place.

“When did you get back in town?” You decided to ask, as if you didn’t know the answer—your mom had written in her calendar when Brock came back into town so she could schedule the annual holiday dinner both of your families had together.

“Just yesterday. My flight got in early and Mom kept me cooped up in the house all day.” He explained with a lightness to his voice as he talked about his mom that had you smiling despite the fact that you shouldn’t be smiling with your ex in your family’s bakery.

“I bet, she kidnapped me last week so we could bake cookies together.” You explained with a smile. Brock rolled his eyes with a grin at his mother’s antics, and for a moment the chuckle you shared felt a little too much like old times and you cleared your throat. “If you’re not busy, would you want to stick around and help me decorate the tree?”

“I’d love to.” He grinned, and you smiled sheepishly before making your way out from behind the counter while there were no customers in the store and grabbed the bags you had just gotten full of the decorations. The store’s speakers were playing Christmas music, and you and Brock worked well together to get the colored string lights hung up and by the time you were moving to hang up the ornaments it was like old times with laughter and smiles.

Brock was back in town, and he brought ghosts of your past back with him.

Plugging in the tree, you stood back with Brock to admire your handiwork. This was far from the first time you had decorated a tree with him, but back then you’d admire your work and seal it with a kiss and the declaration of your love for each other—something you’d definitely not be doing then, even though he was smiling at you like he had when you were teenagers and looking as attractive as ever.

You forced yourself to move, to get out from under his stare, made your way behind the counter. There wasn’t really anything you needed to do, so you settled on shuffling a few papers on the counter by the register—advertisements for other local businesses, coupons, and the annual Christmas card your mother made you take. Brock let out a chuckle, picking up the card to examine it.

Your heart skipped a beat in your chest as you watched him brush his thumb over the goofy smile on your face printed on the card, the action so simple yet entirely too intimate for the nature of your relationship with him. Or, lack of a relationship.

Something unspoken settled in the air between you and Brock, something that felt eerily similar to the old way you used to be. Still, you couldn’t find it in you to be upset about it when you met his gaze and he was smiling softly at you—the same smile he always wore when he used to confess his love for you.

“You should stop by my place tonight; have a beer, watch a movie.” Brock offered with a light tone.

And stupidly, you agreed.

You had only been to Brock’s place a handful of times—and not once was he ever even there, the Boesers asking you to drop something off or pick something up at their son’s house—but the drive felt familiar all the same.

Brock met you at the front door, swinging it open with a grin before you even made it to the top porch step. Your heart skipped a beat in your chest the moment you saw him, but you pushed down the feeling and instead focused on the dogs rushing past him to greet you.

“It’s Coolie and Milo, right?” You asked for clarification, crouching down to scratch the dogs between the ears. You were a little embarrassed to admit that you knew their names because of his social media, not wanting to seem like an obsessed ex. But you were friends first, since you were in diapers, and rationalized that it was okay for friends to follow each other’s lives through Instagram.

“Hello to you, too.” Brock teased through a chuckle, and you scrunched your face up at him playfully. He should have known you better, that you’d greet his dogs before you’d greet him. “But yeah, Coolie and Milo.”

Giving the dogs one more scratch between the ears each for good measure, you stood to your full height and followed Brock into his place. He waited patiently by the door as you kicked off your shoes and hung up your coat. You tried not to let yourself feel awkward; it was Brock, the same guy who you shared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with from the age of two until the day you broke up.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve already picked the movie.” Brock told you, leading the way into his house and into his living room. You had been in his house before, but never once had you stopped to look around, usually just dropping off a box or grabbing something for his mom.

“I’m fine with whatever.” You told him with a shrug of your shoulders as you dropped onto the couch. Brock copied your actions, sitting slightly too close to you than what was probably necessary, but you didn’t mind.

It was easy to fall back into your old routine with him. You had loved him for so long and so hard that it was almost second nature to laugh and joke with him, your head on his shoulder and his arm wrapped securely around your waist to keep you close. You were so comfortable in your position, feeling warm and safe, that when the first movie ended you suggested another.

It was a little less easy for you to wake up the next morning on his couch, cuddled close to him with both dogs laying across your legs. Both of you were laying on your side, facing each other with your legs tangled together. Brock’s arms were encasing you, holding you close to him while your head was tucked under his chin.

You momentarily panicked, wondering if you should try and make a swift exit in order to avoid having Brock kick you out. But you didn’t have long to ponder, because soon after you woke up, Brock did too, and all your worry melted away when you saw his sleepy grin.

“Mornin’” He mumbled, voice low and laden with sleep. It was impossible to hide your grin and you reached a hand up to brush away the blond hair that had fallen onto his forehead in his sleep.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.” You teased, smile widening as he rolled his eyes at your comment. He was as attractive as ever, and it warmed your heart to see him so sleepy and relaxed while in your arms.

“If you wanted to spend the night, you could have just asked.” He chirped back, and you couldn’t help the quick laugh you let out at his words.

You tucked your head under his chin once more to hide the look on your face. It probably wasn’t a good idea to be in your current position—cuddled up with your ex-boyfriend and his dogs. But you wanted nothing more than to stay in with him for the rest of the day. Or maybe, until his flight took him back to Vancouver and away from you once more.

“You know, you never told me why you were looking for me yesterday at the bakery.” You murmured into the junction of his neck and shoulder, not wanting him to see the bashful look on your face. You hoped you weren’t reading into things, but something about the way he wasn’t making a move to let you go told you that Brock was sending you signals.

“Isn’t it obvious?” He mumbled back, pulling you impossibly closer while leaning his head back to press a kiss to your forehead before settling back into your previous position. You hummed out a questioning response, asking him without words to elaborate. He sighed, deep and heavy, and you felt each one of his movements from your position. “I miss you. All the time.”

You stayed silent, unsure how to respond to that. You missed him, too, from the moment you broke up with him, you missed him when he sat across the table from you at conjoined family gatherings, you missed him at that very moment, where you were wrapped in his arms and slowly waking up together.

So, instead of responding, you pressed your lips to his in a kiss years in the making. It was slow, at first, both of you remembering what it was like to be pressed against the other. Your hand reached up to thread through his hair on the back of his neck, and the moment you made contact you felt his tongue swipe across your bottom lip requesting access.

You gave it to him, and suddenly your bodies were flipped so that he was hovering over top of you and your back was pressed into the mattress, not once breaking the kiss. You knew it was a bad idea, but it felt so right that every worry in your mind melted away the longer you stayed there, making out like teenagers on his couch.

You’d deal with the consequences later.

The next few days passed in a whirlwind, most of your free time spent with Brock. It was blissful, like nothing had even changed between you and it almost felt too easy. But things with Brock had always been easy—the start of your relationship was nothing more than a simple progression from childhood best friends to something more.

The first person to call you out for your change in relationship with Brock was, naturally, your mother. She had pulled you aside the morning of Christmas Eve, stopping you on your way out the door for lunch with Brock, an old photo album on her lap and a smile on her lips. Patting the seat on the couch beside her, you sighed and followed her command.

“I found this while cleaning out the basement.” She told you, flipping open the first page of the album. You recognized the first photo, it was of you and Brock as toddlers, ice cream smeared on both of your faces along with wide smiles and arms slung over each other's shoulders.

“Oh, god, we look like dorks.” You grinned, pointing at another picture of a middle school-aged you and Brock posing for a picture on what you assumed to be the first day of seventh grade. Your mom chuckled, flipping deliberately to the last page.

It was clear what her intention was, the photo was of you and Brock on his draft day—the catalyst of your breakup. You couldn’t help but smile sadly at the picture, you and Brock looked so happy; he was wearing his Vancouver jersey and pressing a kiss to your temple and you were wearing the goofiest smile.

Still, even now, so many years later, you could still remember how terrified you felt knowing he would be leaving you for some place in Canada you’d never been to.

“You love him, you always have.” Your mom stated, as if it was a plain fact and not the very sentiment you’d spent years convincing yourself wasn’t true. You felt yourself deflate, and you forced your gaze away from the album.

“Mom, it’s been years. He doesn’t love me anymore.” You told her, not sure why you suddenly decided to bare your soul to her. Maybe it was the recent reminiscing, or the amount of time you had spent with Brock, but you knew how you felt despite knowing that you absolutely should not.

“But you still love him?” The million dollar question. If you said it aloud, then it’d be real, and you weren’t sure if you were ready for that yet. You had spent countless nights convincing yourself that no, you absolutely did not, love him anymore.

“That doesn’t matter anymore.” Sighing, you shook your head and trained your gaze onto the floor underneath your feet. Sure, Brock was your friend again and you had fallen into an almost relationship-esque state with kisses and the sorts, but there was no way that he still loved you.

“That always matters.” She told you in a tone that had you pursing your lips to hold back a comment because you could tell she was close to chastising you. Tough love, she’d say. “He’s never stopped loving you, either.”

“I’ve got to go, Mom.” You sighed, standing up off the couch and grabbing the photo album. You couldn’t let her comment get to you, you were just getting Brock back and you didn’t want to ruin anything by telling him how you felt and have him not feel the same way.

The drive to Brock’s place—one you had made nearly a dozen times to visit him every free moment you had—gave you time to clear your head. Pulling into his driveway, you felt a familiar feeling of giddiness bubble inside you at the prospect of being in his presence again.

Like always, Brock was waiting for you at his door with Coolie and Milo at his side. Almost as if it was a habit that you hadn’t broken days after he was drafted, you greeted him with a kiss that he eagerly returned.

“I made us lunch.” Brock told you, a nervous edge to his voice that shouldn’t have been there. Despite the odd greeting, you smiled at him and entered his house like you belonged there. You grinned, holding up the photo album you had been excited to show him.

“Look what I’ve found.” You cheered, leading the now-familiar way into Brock’s house to make yourself at home on his couch. He made a noise of acknowledgment as he slipped into the kitchen, returning with a plate that he set onto the coffee table before taking a seat beside you. “Did you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?”

It shouldn’t have been that deep, not in the slightest, but it was so much more between you and Brock. You’d been splitting sandwiches with him since before you could remember, and your first official date with him was spent over peanut butter and jelly.

“I can make something else, if you want.” He told you, his flushed cheeks clear evidence that he knew exactly what the implication behind the not-so simple sandwich was. You shook your head, picking up your half and tapping the album in your lap.

“If we’re going to be nostalgic, we’re doing it right.” Brock chuckled at your comment, one arm behind you on the couch as you leaned back into him. Flipping open the first page, you heard him groan as he spotted the same middle school picture you had complained about.

“I looked like such a dork back then.” He chuckled over a mouthful of his sandwich. You couldn’t help but laugh at the way he echoed your words from earlier.

“First of all, that’s what I said too. Secondly, who would have guessed that you would have grown up into being such a heartbreaker.” You teased, nudging him playfully with your elbow as you flipped the page.

“I’m pretty sure you were the heartbreaker.” He commented offhandedly, only seeming to realize the impact of his words after they settled in the air and you felt him stiffen beside you. Staying silent, you continued to flip through the photo album as you finished the sandwiches.

Your heart ached as you looked at the various snapshots of your life with Brock—when you were ten and he was on the ice while you were outside the rink grinning ear to ear while donned in one of his extra jerseys, the typical cheesy prom pictures where your mothers made you pose a million and one different ways, when you were five years old and on his dad’s boat together wearing wide smiles and too-large life jackets.

Finally, you got to the end of the album and to the draft day photo. You could feel his gaze on the picture, and you knew he was launched back into that day the same way you had been when you had first seen it.

“I was afraid. Terrified, actually.” You muttered, keeping your gaze trained on your lap as you felt him pull the album off of your lap to set it on the coffee table before he wrapped his hand around yours. He didn’t speak at first, so you decided to fill the silence with more nonsense ramblings before you could stop yourself. “Vancouver was—is—so far away and I couldn’t handle the thought of not having you close so I thought it would be easier to not have you at all. It wasn’t, not even a little bit.”

“I know.” He mumbled, kissing your knuckles and repeating the words until you couldn’t help but believe him. “I know, and I don’t blame you in the slightest.”

“I ruined us, Brock. You were the greatest thing I ever had and I threw it away because I was scared.” It was as if you couldn’t stop confessing now that you had started, tears brimming in your eyes and voice catching in your throat.

“You didn’t ruin anything.” He mumbled against your temple before pressing a kiss there. “Stay right here, I’ll be back.” You watched in confusion as he jumped to his feet and left the room, Milo trailing after him while Coolie stayed by your side, dropping his head in your lap as if he knew you needed some extra love. You busied yourself by scratching him between the ears, and soon enough the sound of Brock returning garnered your attention. “I got you a Christmas gift.”

“I didn’t get you anything—” You started, a moment of dread coursing through your veins but Brock shook his head to quell your worries.

“Just open it.” He urged, handing you the envelope and taking his previous seat perched on the couch next to you. You pursed your lips, but otherwise did as he asked. It took you a moment to understand what was inside, but suddenly it all clicked the moment you read Vancouver International Airport.

“Brock, these are one way tickets.” You told him, looking between him and the plane tickets in your hands. His gaze was serious, no hint of jest or teasing to be seen. He had bought you one way tickets to Vancouver. One way tickets to the life you could have had with him all those years ago.

“No more being scared. You and I can do this.” Voice level, you had never once seen him look as sure of himself and his decisions than he did at that very moment. It was an insane decision he was sure of, asking you to go back to Vancouver with him despite not technically being in a relationship.

“This is crazy, Brock.” You laughed breathily, more out of shock than humor. Though, you had to admit, you were considering his offer. Nothing was tying you to Minnesota; you had graduated college and had been applying to jobs out of state—what’s the difference if it was out of the country?

“I’m all for crazy, as long as it’s with you.” He joked, one hand coming up to cup your cheek and tilt your head in his direction. You couldn’t believe this was happening, you’d be lying if you said that you hadn’t thought about this before. “I still love you. And I know you love me too.”

“Where would I even live?” You didn’t even try to dispute his comment, because he was speaking nothing but the truth and you didn’t want to dispute it. You would’ve shouted it from the rooftops if it meant that you got to be with him. No more fear, no more worry.

“Well, I was hoping with me, but if you want your own place I can help you find something.” There was a lightness to his tone that you adored, but he wasn’t joking about anything. He was offering you something you thought you had lost years ago—the chance at a life with him.

“You’re serious?” The question was dumb, you knew he was telling nothing but the truth and that he’d never joke about something so serious, not when it meant you and him having a second chance at happiness.

“About you? Always.” His charming words had you smiling, deciding almost for you what your answer was. Still, you pretty much had your mind made up the moment you saw the tickets.

“Let’s do it.”

Brock barely let the words slip past your lips before he was kissing you between cheers and laughs drawn out by pure happiness. You were all smiles as he wrapped his arms around you, tugging you so that you were straddling his lap. You broke the kiss to admire him, his grin wide and eyes bright as he admired you back.

“I love you.” You told him confidently, brushing his hair off of his forehead and pressing a kiss to the tip of his nose. He grinned, hands squeezing your waist from where they settled on you.

“I love you, too, so much.” He breathed, unable to stop himself from tilting his head up and capturing your lips in a sweet kiss. “God, I missed hearing you say that.”

“I’ll say it every day.” You paused to kiss him again. “In Vancouver,” Another kiss. “With you.” The final kiss lasted longer than the first several, but there was no heat behind it. The kiss was more about just being there for each other, conveying without saying anything how you felt for each other. “As long as you say you love me back.”

“Oh, you’re stuck with me now.”

#brock boeser #brock boeser imagine #brock boeser x reader #brock boeser fic #vancouver canucks #vancouver canucks imagine #vancouver canucks x reader #hockey x reader #hockey imagine #nhl x reader #nhl imagine #12 days fics

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 4 years

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Emp-Ire, “Fallen Star.”

Here it is, the end of an arc. I hope you guys like it and thank you so much for humoring my little detour. I needed this :)

The sun rose turning the sky to a bright tangerine orange. Golden rays of sun filtered across the open desert landscape, highlighting ten silhouettes against the horizon. Ten men and ten horses trekking their way across the surface of an alien planet leaving only footprints in their wake across the open landscape.

Adam lifted his head to the open sky and took a long deep breath. The scent of the alien planet in early morning was snuffed out at a moment when he received a strong whiff of cigarette smoke and coughed, looking over at Deputy Thompson, who had lit up and was taking his second long drag.

“Those will kill you you know.”

“So will continuous self doubt.”

“Point taken.”

The Deputy blew a ring of smoke into the air, “Besides, gets me relaxed before we go out to do something stupid.” he glanced towards the front of the group where the sheriff had taken point, riding on the back of his glossy black horse now coated in a thin layer of orange dust, “Ain’t that right sheriff.”

The man turned slightly in his saddle, “The only one bringing the dumb here is you Thompson.” He turned around on his horse and fell back slightly to speak with them, “Besides if it wasn’t for McBride and his group, we would all be at home drinking cold beer and spending time with our wives, but instead he’s dragged us out of bed to go chasing after him, and I intend to make him regret that.”

He turned to look at Ramirez and Adam, “Now, you boys probably didn’t hear this, so I am going to give you the rundown. Last month we caught one of McBride’s boys out past the border of Caster and Collville, and with a little bit of… persuasion, he graciously told us a few things. Turns out McBride and his men are planning on robbing a train coming from one of the outlying colonies and in towards the capital. He plans on doing it halfway through its journey between Hander and Chelsey where there are the least amount of people and the least amount of eyes.”

Ramirez snorted, “A train job, seriously? Isn’t that a bit cliche?”

The Sheriff frowned at him, “I don’t think McBride was really considering the literary appeal of white might and might not be cliche, when he determined that there is a LOT of expensive stuff being brought in on that train.”

Adam tilted his head slightly, “Like what?”

“The crops grown here on this colony are a cardinal ingredient in many pharmaceuticals all across the galaxy both human and alien. Drug companies and hospitals alike pay top dollar for our crops to be refined and bottled right here. It only grows in very specific conditions in very specific towns on the western rim. It is harvested and refined on the rim, and then put on the train to the capital where it is tested and then sealed for shipping.” If McBride gets his hands on those bottles, he can sell them on the black market at top dollar, where they will be used for refinement in a whole myriad of illicit drugs, including but not limited to human derived hormonal drugs, which support not only the black market, but also slave trafficking rings.”

Adam and Ramirez both blinked in surprise, “Really, we had…. No idea.”

“The government doesn’t like to talk about how important some of the colonies are to the workings of the inner ring, but we supply a lot of natural resources and raw products that can be both dangerous and expensive once they get out. This is not to mention that the train just so happened to fall on the very auspicious day when they are moving a group of rich city investors on that same train…. Came to take stock of their investments on the rim, and are now being shipped back to the capitol. Our job is to make it to the train before McBride does, or, barring that we don’t make it in time, we need to at least stop them and stop the train before those crates go missing.”

“How many days away are we”

“We have about two or three days, so its best we pick up the pace.”

After that their voices were silenced, and only the sound of thundering hooves could be heard over the hard packed earth.

***

Adam was shaken awake on the third day, bleary eyed and confused, rubbing sleep from his eyes and rubbing his hands along the light stubble dusting his cheeks and chin. Ramirez knelt over him, “Rise and shine sleepy head, today is the train job, you wouldn’t want to miss it.”

Adam groaned and rubbed his head wobbling to his feet as the other men around him began to rouse, The air was filled with the smell of smoke from last nights dwindling campfire, now just ashes in the dirt before them.

A few of the men kicked dirt over the still smouldering remains while Adam and Ramirez worked to pack up camp, hoisting saddles onto the back of horses.

“You alright?’ Ramirez asked as he stood next to Adam, the two of them pulling their saddles onto their respective horses.

Adam nodded and shook himself little, “Yeah, just a…. Weird dream is all.”

“What was it about.”

He shrugged, “Can’t really remember much, but right before I woke up, it was like I was looking down at myself sleeping, from above, I swear I saw you walking across camp to wake me up, but…. That might just be me misremembering.”

“OR you had some sort of out of body experience.”

He snorted, “Yeah sure.”

“Remember anything else?”

“Blue fire and maybe some mountains, but that is about it.” He tightened the girth strap on his horse and patted Maroz on her soft velvet snout. The horse gummed at his hand with her upper lip, and he smiled slightly, patting her on the neck, “That’s a good girl.”

With the other men ready, the group of them saddled up and began their ride out into the desert.

The Sheriff kept there pace as fast as he could without tiring out the horses, knowing that they might need to chase.

“Not to question the wisdom of this sheriff, but how are we going to catch up with a train. I mean it may look and sound like an old time train, but we both know it isn’t, the thing can probably go at around 200 mph.”

The sheriff turned to look back at him, “That’s true, but due to the nature of the location, they have to slow the train coming through the valley, there are some pretty tight turns and curves that would be dangerous at such high speeds, not to mention that it is a common crossing rout for cattle, and the train needs to be slow in the area to keep from turning someone's livestock into pink mist. A collision that big and going that fast could also potentially derail a train. Its never happened, but the engineers say it can so thy like to keep it safe.”

“How slow?”

“Very slow, I would say about thirty mph through the hot zone, and that is….”

“About as fast as a horse can run.” Adam sighed,

“Precisely, now let's speed it up, the train is coming and we still have a ways to go.”

As the day wore on, Adam’s heart began to race, and he could feel it thudding away in his chest pressing out against the vest he wore like it was going to crash through his ribcage. Ramirez rode along beside him, a surprisingly fast learner when it came to horses and riding them.

Off in the distance, Adam caught the blast of a train whistle.”

“Speed up boys!”

Adam kicked gently against the Horse’s sides and snapped the reins, and below him Maroz bokre into a light gallop bouncing him up and down wit her thundering gate. With all ten of them riding at that speed, they sounded like rolling thunder.

Light flashed over the badge on his chest.

The whistle came again, and the roaring of the train grew louder as they poured over the ground, between rocks and around shrubs.

The plateau around them began to slope downwards, and as they came over the rise, the land below them morphed into sharp focus, a vast tract of land snaking between high plateaus, and a silver rail that ran like a glittering snake between them. And along that silver line came a roaring black goliath missing only the blaack puff of burning coal and smoke to set it aside from the trains of old.

And just behind it, ran at least a dozen black dots, slowly gaining.

“GET ON THAT TRAIN!” The sheriff shouted over the roaring, and the entire group of them broke down hill at a full gallop. Adam leaned low over his horse’s neck, feeling her body move and roar beneath him. His ears rung with the sound of the approaching train and the clatter of hives over packed earth.

The train was approaching now, fast, and he was coming up just on the left, pulling his horse into a shallow parabola that brought his run just parallel . The sounds was deafening now, though he thought he could hear the call of men’s voices. The horses legs rolled like a blur beneath him, and Maroz huffed and puffed and and snorted with exertion. He was close now, and the glittering rails of the track rolled by just to his right.

His heart throbbed in his chest.

Just ahead of him, the sheriff kicked his boots from the stirrups and threw himself sideways onto the train, grasping on with a grip of iron.

Other men began to do the same.

He heard a gunshot.

With a swift motion, he kicked his feet from the stirrups and braced his boots against the saddle. Maroz remained steady below him, and with a final prayer and a deep breath, he launched himself sideways reaching and grasping for anything he could hold to.

He caught one of the hand rails beside a compartment door and was jerked away from Maroz as her gait slowed.

His feet whipped behind him in the wind before he scrambled o gain purchase, the leather of his gloves helping maintain his grip as he hauled himself upwards and onto the side of the train just between compartments.

A voice, from over the sound of the roaring, and he looked back to see Ramirez and his horse sprinting after.

The horse’s back was lathered and wet, its eyes wild as it pushed itself forward.

Ramirez clung on with gritted teeth.

Adam reached out a hand, “JUMP!”

And like the good marine Ramirez was, no fear and no questions, he kicked his way frew and threw himself awkwardly sideways.

He would have landed below the train had Adam not caught him by the wrist and hauled him inward, where he scrambled onto a precarious handhold.

“GET INSIDE.” Adam shouted, “I’m going to head back to the cargo car.”

Ramirez nodded, swinging around Adam and onto the hitch that held the cars together. Adam hauled himself upward and onto the top of the speeding train. Wind whipped at the brim of his hat, and te bandana around his neck.

He jogged along the top of the train, his boots thundering against the meta.

At the end of the train a man appeared, one of McBride’s men, and Adam had just enough time to duck to the side as a bullet hissed past him.

He turned and fired off one shot. It went a bit wide, but caught the man by the brim of the hat, blowing it completely off. It got caught up in a gust of wind that pulled it down and under the train.Adam fired another shot just as the man was preparing to fire again.

The bullet caught the man in the upper chest, and before Adam could really take in what had happened, the man fell, pitching backwards off the train and hitting the ground hard in a cloud of dust only to vanish as the train whipped past.

Adam stood, stunned for a second. He’d never shot someone before, at least no one human, but the sound of gunfire broke him from his reverie, and he dived down as the bullets flew past him, crawling across the open top of the train with clawing hands. Another head appeared over the edge, and he fired off a wild shot with one hand hoping to t least deter the man for a moment.

His bullet did more than that, and before he knew it another body had fallen to the dust below the train.

Footsteps on the train behind him, and he rolled around in panic only to see the Sheriff running past him, “GET TO THAT CARGO CAR!”

Adam leapt to his feet, racing forward alongside the sheriff, wobbling slightly as the train rolled forward.

The Sheriff held a shotgun in one hand, and it only took the first two of McBride’s men to figure out what that meant.

Adam raced alon after him until a hail of bullets stopped them in their tracks.

They dropped down before one of the cargo cars and found Deputy Thompson with his back pressed against the wall, “THEY’RE TRYING TO DISCONNECT THE CARGO CARS!” he shouted over the sound of the wind.

“If they do that we’re fucked!”

The sheriff turned and looked at Adam, “You go up top,Thompson and I will go distract them from the inside. If you can get your hands on McBride, do it, and keep them from detaching that car.”

Adam nodded and jumped up to catch onto the edge of the car as the two other men prepared themselves to breach the door. Adam had just pulled his feat up when he heard the slame of the door being pushed open and the rapidfire of gunshots. He used the noise as cover to run along the top of the car as th men were distracted.

He could hear voices and more gunfire as the fight concentrated inside that cargo car.

He had just com upon the edge when he looked down, Finding McBride and one other man desperately working to get the clamp undone.

Adam didn't’ waste time.

A sharp gunshot was the only warning McBride and his man had before the second man pitched backwards and fell over the connecting metal clamp.. McBride looked up only to find a gun aimed at his face.

McBride went to pull his weapon but there was a sharp click as Adam fired…. But there was no gunshot.

McBride was still in the process of lifting his weapon as Adam made a last second decision, leaping downwards towards McBride.

The man’s eyes widened, and he jerked to the side. There was a gunshot, but the bullet went wide. A hot flash of searing pain cut along the underside of his ribcage before he slammed into McBride, pitching them both back through the opening and into the cargo car.

They were a mass of tangled rolling limbs as they scrambled to gain the upper hand. McBride grabbed him by the font of the vest with one hand and punched him repeatedly with the other until he was seeing stars. With one last ditch effort he kicked the man in the chest sending him pitching backwards towards the door. McBride landed on the floor with the clatter, and the two of them leaped to their feet.

Adam ran forward throwing a sharp jab at the man’s face which caught him along the cheek. McBride came in close slapping him against a pile of crates, and they ended up clawing at each other, grappling for the other man’s throat like two vicious dogs going for the kill.

Adam Kneed McBride in the stomach sending him staggering back before coming in with a low uppercut to the face.

He reeled backwards hand to his nose.blood already streaming down his face.

Adam looked around desperately for an upper hand, and, surprisingly, found one. A long steel rod stacked up against the wall, likely for use in some kind of construction, and left as scrap.

It grabbed it.

McBride laughed, “What are you going to do with that, hit me over the head with it?”

It was a bit of an enclosed space, but there was still enough room, and Adam spun it in one hand like the shaft of a Drev spear, and crouched low in a ready position point forward, using a stance that he thought was the inferno, before realizing that, somehow he had gotten the foot placing wrong.

That was strange, why had it felt so natural.

Like he had done it before.

He shifted his stance and grinned at McBride motioning him forward, “Why not come see.”

The look on McBride’s face was one of apprehension at first, glancing between Adam and his improvised weapon.

At some point, his pride overtook him, and he came charging forward, likely trying to get inside Adam’s guard before he could strike.

A pity that Adam was trained with the spear, a pity for McBride at least, because instead of swinging the shaft at him from above, he struck forward like a snake, trusting with an overhand grip, that sid the rod don the length of his arm and protruded from just under his triceps.

McBride doubled over, holding to his sternum with a look of agony.

WIth another sharp crack, Adam came down with the reverse end of the spear wheeling it around in a blur and sending the man crashing to the ground, unmoing. He staggered back to his feet bleeding from his lip, and from his nose, and from a cut above his eye. He was seeing stars, but he still had enough energy to hogtie McBride and grab his loaded weapon from the floor before heading into the car.

There was one man left, and with the pressing of cold steel to his temple, the man stopped and raised his hands.

“Might want to put the gun down, partner.” Adam hissed, some measure of sarcasm entering his voice.

The man’s weapon clattered to the ground.

The Sheriff and Thompson stepped from behind cover.

“You get McBride?”

“Yeah I got him, trussed up like a thanksgiving turkey.”

“What happened to your face.”

Adam frowned, and the two other men laughed.

“Thomspon, you take care of McBride, Vir and I are going to check the rest of the train and clean up whatever mess has been left.”

The other man nodded, and Adam fell into step with the Sheriff as they moved up through the inside of the train. All they found at first were scared passengers cowering in their seats, but finally, they met up with a man trying to make his way through one of the doors and into the next car.

Adam and the sheriff aimed their weapons, “Stop right there, your boss has been captured, and it might be best for you to surrender now.”

The man raised his hands wide and scared.

“Come slowly.”

Adam saw what the man was thinking seconds before it happened, and raised his weapon to late as the man went bolting through the door.

He and the sheriff broke into a run chasing after the man and down the length of the train.

They made it to the last car, when the man stopped in the middle, Adam looked up his gun raised to see what had stopped him. Ramirez was coming through the opposite door, whistling tunelessly. His eyes fell on Adam first, “I was wondering when you were going to…. His voice fell away as he saw the man between them.

A clear calculation had gone through the bandit’s head and he raised his gun towards his only hope of exit, and fired.

Ramirez jerked once eyes wide and then….fell backwards as if in slow motion.

Adam screamed, and the two of them raised their weapons at the same time, unable to fire for fear of hitting Ramirez a second time.

The man brushed past him thundering through the door. Adam leapt forward, catching Ramirez just before he hit the ground urging the sheriff forward, “Get that Bastard.”

He knelt on the hard metal floor of the train carriage, holding Ramirez in his arms. The look of shock had still not passed from the other man’s face, and Adam’s hands shook, “Ramirez…… R-ramirez.” His voice quivered a bit as he desperately looked for the bullet wound, sure he was going to see a spot of blood begin leaking across the other man's chest at any moment.”

Ramirez blinked in shock.

“Ramirez! I….Angel, stay with me dammit. Where were you hit!”

Ramirez blinked again reaching up with a shaking hand and began patting at his chest and body brows knit in confusion, “I…. I thought.”

Both of their heads turned, very slowly as they caught sight of a glittering bit of gold lying on the ground before them.

A dented, golden star.

Adam sighed in exasperation relief.

“No friggin way.”

Ramirez stared at the star on the floor, “Huh, ill be damned.” He looked up at Adam, “You know if I had known a nearth death experience would be what it took for you to hold me like this, I might have tried to die sooner.”

Adam harumphed and dropped ramirez unceremoniously to the ground with a thud, “Drama queen.”

Ramirez grunted, “I thought we were having a moment, you using my first name and all.”

“The only moment we are going to have is the moment I put my boot up your ass.”

“Kinky.” Ramirez said, reaching down and picking up the deputy star from the floor inspecting it with some measure of pride. Up ahead the train was beginning to grind to a slow halt.

The Sheriff returned a moment later, dragging the man who had made the ill fated attempt to Kill Ramirez.

He seemed only marginally surprised to see Ramirez on his feet, and laughed when he saw the star, “Well I'll be…. First time I’ve ever seen that happen.”

He looked between the two of them.

“Good work boys, some damn good work.”

***

The capital city stank of horses and mud, but the two men were smiling as the sheriff saw them off at the train station, “We owe you boys a debt of gratitude. Risking your lives like that, and helping us take down McBride and his cronies. This county will be forever grateful.”

The two of them looked down at the gold stars on the front of their vests, and slowly reached up sadly unpinning them from the front of their shirts and holding them out to the sheriff.

The man shook his head, “Keep em. And I’d be glad to work with you again if you ever decide to return. You’ve earned my respect and more.”

The train whistle bored, and the two of them were forced to step inside waving to the sheriff and the other deputies as the train began to roll forward slowly with a soft chug, chug, chug.

Ramirez and Adam left town surprisingly forlorn to watch their friends, and their horses go.

But they had a stack of pictures both print and on their implants.

The one picture that they both held, was a sepia photo of a group of men standing before the sheriff’s office, all with glittering badges, accept fo the trust up group of men kneeling at their feet. At the Center stood Adam and Ramirez Adam With his hand on McBride’s shoulder like a prise hunt, and Ramirez with his dented golden star.

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unlockthelore · 4 years

Text

Sunrise

It’s not unheard of for Kurama to wake up to find Yuusuke not in bed, but seeing him outside at dawn is. Part of the Guns and Roses series. For more updates, follow the guns and roses tag on this blog.

When Kurama wakes, he’s acutely aware of the empty space beside him where Yuusuke should have been. On the nights they spent together, waking up tangled in one another was commonplace but there were few exceptions when Yuusuke wandered. Squinting against the silhouettes, Kurama tried to make out the shape of his desk chair and the the television sitting atop the stand Yuusuke dragged into his room a few months ago. More and more of the former detective’s effects were left here and there — effectively making Kurama’s bedroom theirs but neither of them were opposed to the thought. Still, it didn’t feel like theirs when Yuusuke wasn’t there.

Easing to his bedside, Kurama pressed his hand to the rumpled sheets finding they were cooled. Yuusuke must have been up for some time. The early morning sun was beginning to peek through the curtains as the sky lightened from a deep navy to a softer shade of blue. Swinging his legs from beneath the warm blanket, cold air nipped at Kurama’s legs as he pushed up to pad across the room. His toes catching on Yuusuke’s t-shirt still strewn across the ground along with his own. Picking up the latter, he eyed the former and sighed.

Hopefully, the former detective wasn’t somewhere wearing less than the optimal amount of clothing for cold weather. Tossing Yuusuke’s shirt in the hamper, Kurama shrugged on his own and opened the door. Rubbing his palm against his eye as he wandered the halls, peering into the kitchen and the bathroom, stepping into the living room when he pauses and takes a step back. Out on the veranda with the curtains pulled aside, Yuusuke sits with messy bed hair sticking up at odd angles and shirtless.

He doesn’t turn around and seems not to notice Kurama’s presence at all. Kurama, after taking a bit longer to admire the soft blue glow of Yuusuke’s energy outlining the length of his body, decides to return for his t-shirt and a blanket. Bundling up both as he stepped to the terrace door, sliding it open and pulling Yuusuke’s shirt free from the bundle, handing it to him.

“Mm…?” Yuusuke hums softly, glancing away from the city skyline, his cheeks a little pinker and his eyes still glazed with sleep. “Kurama?”

The world is softer in the early morning with the city lights dotting the horizon, beginning to go out one by one as the sun rose. Still, it was early and the sky had an orange-pink hue to it, dappled with violets and lightening blues. Wisps of clouds floating past with a chilled wind that only made Kurama insist Yuusuke pull his shirt on. As much as he admired the view, he didn’t need for him to fall ill.

Yuusuke seemed to take the hint and shrugged on the shirt with a mumbled thanks, inching over to make room on the small stoop. Kurama settling next to him with the blanket unfurled, wrapped around their shoulders in record time before Yuusuke could voice a protest. To Kurama’s surprise, no protest command Yuusuke only mumbled another thanks, staring off into the distance.

He seemed oddly contemplative. A look that looked very charming on him but there is a sort of melancholy that wrenches at Kurama’s heart.

“Is everything alright?”

Yuusuke hums softly. “Just… thinking..” His voice is quieter than before, if such a thing were possible, and his words were slurred as if he weren’t entirely present. “… Why’re you awake?”

Kurama never once looked away from him but Yuusuke seemed to have eyes only for the world beyond. He thinks to tell him that he had been awake for a little while. Ever since Yuusuke climbed out of the space between his arms and left him with a ghost of warmth. That he waited patiently for him to return, drifting in and out of sleep, only to wake up rudely when he realized that he wasn’t coming back. Some small part of his mind, laced with worry, that the former detective had gotten himself in some sort of trouble or left before the morning sun woke them both.

Swallowing those thoughts, Kurama admitted. “I couldn’t sleep once I noticed you were gone.” Yuusuke hums softly, a soft apologetic thing and he glances away from the skyline as Kurama rubbed his knuckled against his arm, trying to chase away the goosebumps raising. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Yuusuke’s brows furrowed and for a second, Kurama wondered if he crossed a line, but then recognition shows and he shakes his head.

“Nah, I mean… it’s nothing bad I guess… depends on how you view bad…”

Unsure of what expression he was wearing, he notices the reflexive way Yuusuke smiles and feels the jab coming before he hears it.

“Couldn’t sleep without me?” Yuusuke asks, a glimmer of amusement lightening an otherwise quiet and somber tone.

Kurama smiled despite the worry gnawing at him, slipping his arm around Yuusuke’s back and brushing his fingers against his side. “I couldn’t, no…” He presses a lingering kiss to Yuusuke’s forehead before resting his own there, rubbing small circles at his side. “You can tell me anything, Yuusuke.”

The needling isn’t always needed but when in moods like this, where Yuusuke feels far away from him despite being right at his side, it’s necessary to ground him. Yuusuke shuffled closer to him, the blanket sagging against his shoulder and bunching up between them, smoothed out absentmindedly by Kurama while Yuusuke made himself comfortable.

“I know,” Yuusuke murmurs, glancing up at the sky with a faint smile tugging ash is lips. “I should’ve asked you to come out here with me… but you’re such a log in the morning, we might’ve missed it.”

It doesn’t occur to him until Yuusuke draws his knees close to his chest and tucks the edge of the blanket into his lap that the former detective wanted to be held, and Kurama answered swiftly, easing his arms around him and hugging him close to his chest.

Dismissing the jab, Kurama tucked Yuusuke close to him and rested his chin atop his head, glancing up at the sky. “Missed it?”

“Sunrise,” Yuusuke chuckled, and Kurama could picture the smile on his face. “Now that I think about it… how am I supposed to be appreciating having another day with you if you’re not beside me?”

The emotionally charged words caught Kurama off guard and he squints down at the top of Yuusuke’s head. Able to see the curve of his smile and the gentle rolling of his energy as it circulated around his body, not enough to ward off, but radiating power. It was intoxicating and also worrisome.

“You are rather affectionate today.”

“You think…?”

Oh, he definitely did. It wasn’t as if Yuusuke wasn’t affectionate any other day. In fact, he could be quite affectionate when he wanted to be and had a habit of showing his feelings in grandiose or little gestures. This, however, was different. As if the filter between his mind and his mouth was looser than it normally was. And the valve which kept his emotions tightly sealed in his heart was opening.

“What’s on your mind?” Kurama finally asks, brushing his thumb along Yuusuke’s cheek, admiring the reddened flush and the way the detective leans into him. The amount of trust Yuusuke puts in him to hold his weight and keep him warm, both humbling and rewarding.

“I dunno….” Yuusuke sighs, his eyes rolling up and reflecting the orange-pink sheen before meeting Kurama’s own. “I woke up and felt… a lot.”

Kurama squeezes his shoulder and nods, humming to show that he was listening.

“I’m alive, and I sure as shit didn’t think I’d make it this far, and definitely not with all I have…” Yuusuke shrugs nonchalantly but Kurama squeezed his shoulder and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

He didn’t need to hear how Yuusuke felt about them. The former detective showed it in every action and word he bestowed on them. It was difficult not to see how much he cared and anyone who said otherwise was a fool.

“Then I looked at you, and you were peaceful and there and it just hit me that this is my life… so I just wanted to see the sunrise. Make it official, I guess.”

Kurama hums softly, smiling at the soft sentiment and he doesn’t feel thinned to point anything out to Yuusuke or detail his feelings. It’s enough that Yuusuke could express what he felt. Nuzzling the top of his head, Kurama pressed a kiss to his crown.

“I see.”

Yuusuke shuffled closer to him until they were pressed against one another solidly, and the warmth was coming from them rather than the blanket. The morning chill all but ignored.

“I’m gonna stay out here for a bit longer,” Yuusuke muttered, tucking his face against the side of Kurama’s neck.

“Do you want me to stay with you?”

A sleepy, almost delirious chuckle followed. “Always.”

Kurama’s heart fluttered and he hugged Yuusuke close, looking up as the sun began to peek over the rooftops and the city came to life. “Always it is.”

#yu yu hakusho #yyh #kurameshi #kurama #yusuke urameshi #fanfiction #my fanfiction #guns and roses

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the-dragons-knight · 4 years

Text

Morning Embrace

- A rare morning between the Lord and Lady of House Borel

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

The chill of the morning awakened Katsum as the cool air swept over her uncovered skin and made her shiver. She made a noise of discomfort as she shifted and attempted to pull up the covers without opening her eyes. She realized why she was so cold when her hand brushed over her bare skin, the absence of clothing quickly reminding her of the sensual events of the night before. She bit her lip to try and keep the grin from spreading across her face and of course she failed miserably; oh what a wonderful night it had been. With a soft, happy sigh, the Miqo’te woman moved to stretch out her body, raising her arms up above her head and pointing her toes. In doing so, her tail brushed past something under the covers, eliciting a soft mumble from behind her. Her ear flicked at the sound and Katsum finally opened her eyes.

The bedroom was dark thanks to the thick curtains that were drawn over the windows, only a few streams of light shining through. Using this soft glow, she could just make out Midgardsormr’s sleeping form curled up in his basket by the fireplace as well as Draco’s tail from his place on the rug at the end of the bed. Both were still fast asleep, snoring/hissing softly, and the sight made her smile. Rolling onto her back, Katsum looked over her shoulder to admire her sleeping partner’s face and...oh sweet heaven...she would surely never get used to this…

Aymeric had the visage of an angel the way the low lighting illuminated his features. His tan skin appeared to be almost like marble, his perfectly chiseled features looking like a masterpiece carved out of stone. The light cascaded over his hair and eyelashes, creating a twinkling halo over his raven locks. His expression showed no strain of thought, no sign of the stoic mask a government official must wear. It was the most peaceful expression Katsum believed she has ever seen on his face and it made her heart swell knowing that only she can see this unguarded version of the Lord De Borel. She noticed his arm was outstretched towards her, as if he had been holding her against him not long ago. She must have rolled away from him in her sleep, and while she felt guilty for that, as she stared at the holy image before her, how else would she have been able to get the chance to witness this? How blessed she was to see such beauty each and every morning; to wake beside this man and call him her husband. To behold his smiles as their eyes met, to feel his warm embrace and love in each kiss, to entangle her body with his when they made love. Oh yes, the Savior had truly blessed her with someone she was not sure she really deserved...but she would surely not let such a gift go to waste.

So captivated by him was she that she had not realized she had moved until she was flush against him again, carefully wrapping his arm back around her waist as she gently pushed him onto his back, trying not to wake him. She lay her body on top of his, hovering over him with her eyes locked on his lips. Katsum knew she should wake him first, but she can’t bring herself to disrupt his slumber, not when he was already beginning to stir. It had been far too long since she had a chance like this, so many mornings she’d woken to find him gone as Ishgard had called him away. To wake and find him still fast asleep this morning...Before she could stop herself, she closed her eyes and leaned down to seal his lips with her own.

It did not take long for him to awaken, a quiet hum rumbling between them as she felt his arm tighten to embrace her against him. The soft caress of Aymeric’s hand across her bare back made Katsum sigh into his mouth as they kissed again. Her hands moved up to gently cradle the back of his head as she leaned down into his lips, tilting her head to further deepen the kiss as her fingers softly tangled themselves in his silken black hair. She felt his hand move to trace across her skin, starting with her shoulder blades and moving slowly down her back. As he traced his way down her spine to the base of her tail, he pushed back the covers, exposing her skin to the chill outside the warmth of the bedsheets. She would have shivered had his touch not left a slow burning trail across her body, the sensation capturing her attention as she mindlessly kissed him again and again. His hand continued down, this time dipping under the covers to her butt, caressing and stroking her tail, earning him a soft moan and passionate kiss from the Miqo’te. His hand stopped just below on her thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze and Katsum gasped, allowing Aymeric to slip his tongue into her mouth to conquer it. Katsum felt him trace back up her body and then cup the back of her neck and her ears twitched back lovingly, her tail sweeping across their entangled legs under the covers. In response, Aymeric moaned softly into her mouth as their tongues battled, his fingers curling to lightly scrape his nails against her skin.

How she relished in the feeling of their bodies being pressed together, no boundary between them, only the warmth of their skin and the rise and fall of their chests with the short breaths they shared between kisses. Heaven, help her to never forget such bliss as this. Help her to never lose these moments of pure happiness she never thought she would ever feel. If only this moment could last forever…

Before it could go any further, Katsum pulled away from their kiss, just enough to smile lovingly down at him, “Good morning~.”

His sleepy, smiling expression made her heart swoon as he looked up at her through half-lidded eyes, “Good morning indeed, Kitten,” She blushed at the nickname as his hands moved to settle on her sides, his fingers gently caressing her skin as he mumbled serenely, “Any morning I wake see your darling face and not a stack of paperwork is a good morning. And this morning, I have been graced by your loving lips, which makes it all the sweeter.”

Katsum shivered at the feeling of his fingers moving up and down her sides, her ears falling back and a light pink dusting her cheeks at his comment, “Must you make me blush so early in the morning, Aymeric?”

“Must I make you blush? Indeed, I must! Who was it waking who with such a passionate kiss again?” She giggled as he continued, “I woke thinking perhaps we hadn’t even gone to sleep yet, that I had dozed off...and we were still in the midst of the night and our love making...” He leaned up to her neck, kissing and nipping her throat gently, making her squirm to try and escape.

He let her go and she nuzzled into his neck as she very quietly purred, “Can you blame me? Such an angelic vision that you were I could not help myself, my Prince.” His deep chuckle rumbled from his chest as she lay a kiss on his cheek. Katsum pulled back again to look guiltily into his eyes, “I’m sorry, my love.”

“‘Tis no need to apologize. I did not say I was not happily awaken by your lips. Quite the opposite,” His expression changed slightly in his eyes, “And I confess I cannot help myself when I know we are alone like this myself,” He grinned rather mischievously, his hand moving up her spine and gently scraping his nails against her skin again. Katsum flexed beneath his touch, her eyes falling upon his lips. His other hand came up to cup her face, drawing her eyes to his once more, “And you’ve no idea how much you entice me without even meaning to...”

He pulled her back down to him and locked her into such a loving kiss she almost felt she would faint. She felt him shift as he rolled them over, rolling on top of her and settling himself between her legs. Katsum reached up to wrap her arms around his neck to pull him closer, their kiss growing deeper and more passionate. Her tail twitched against his leg and his grip around her tightened. They breathlessly pulled apart again, their foreheads pressed together and gazes locked.

Aymeric smiled lovingly down at her, then spoke in a serious yet sweet tone, “My sweet lady, may I again show you...just how much I love you?”

“Hmm…” Katsum pulled back a little, unwinding her arms from around his neck to drag her fingers down his chest with a smirk, watching his light blue eyes darken as she did so, “I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

“Must you be such a tease, Kat?” He choked out, somehow finding a way to pull her against him more as he moved to press his forehead against hers again.

Katsum laughed softly, “Only to make it fair, my lord.” She looked into his eyes and gave him the warmest smile she could ever give, “I would love nothing more, my sweet Aymeric. Please, show me again…” Without a moment’s hesitation, he descended upon her lips again, kissing her over and over and deepening it with each kiss as she reached up to pull him closer, welcoming his advances.

Finally, after so many days spent pining for one another, passing by like ships in the night, only sharing time as they slept in each other’s arms only for one to wake and find the other gone, finally, they could bask in each other’s embrace without a care for who might be waiting on them. Any duties they might have had this morning, any meetings or affairs that may have needed their attention were forgotten and would remain that way for quite a while. They would have this morning and make up for all the lost nights they could have had, and heaven help any who dared to try and take it from them.

And so infatuated with each other were they that neither of them noticed as the bedroom door creaked open and Midgardsormr and Draco sleepily exited the room. They knew it would be quite a while before the masters of the house left the bedroom and so they decided it would be best to seek out another place to sleep.

#katsum almor #aymeric de borel #aymeric x katsum #warrior of light #final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #ffxiv writing #<3 #aymeric de borel x katsum almor #otp <3 #otp love #^///^#had this written for a long while and just never posted it #my own comfort fit <3

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nam-nam-joon · 4 years

Text

along the shore

Pairing: yukhei x reader

Genre: meet-cute, summer friendship

Wordcount: 10.3k

Warnings: proceed with caution if large bodies of water/rescue breathing makes you uncomfortable

Summary: the vacation you’ve been waiting for so long is finally here, but the sleepy town by the ocean is holding more secrets than you think

this was written for @kacchand ~! i’ve been thinking of dedicating a few fics to the people whose content i’ve been enjoying on here immensely, and you’re first! here is your well-deserved vacation. i hope you like it :)

It was so early that fog still obscured the tips of the cedars lining the shore.

Well, early was relative - 8 am would be late had it been any other day you’d have to get up and prepare for work. But here and now, on vacation, it was fairly early, especially considering you had, naturally, planned to sleep in every other morning. Theoretically at least.

And yet here you were, comfortably toasty in soft, fluffy clothes, stuffed into a big red wetsuit, head topped with a thick beanie and with excitement in your heart.

The little boat, driven by one of the guides knowing the area like their pocket, didn’t look too reassuring; it dipped and swayed in the little waves that licked at the pontons, shortly below the main tourhouse up half a flight of sun-bleached wooden steps.

Half a dozen other people milled around the waiting area as well, all without exception holding cameras.

You felt around one of the outer, non-waterproof pockets of the thick suit - yep, your phone was still there.

Not to think what would happen if you’d take the expensive digital camera out on a boat ride like this, only to have an unexpected little wave knock it out of your hands and plunge it into the bottomless depth…

Your phone was an acceptable substitute, especially considering how you hadn’t come here to take pictures, but to make memories.

“All aboard!” Came the hoarse cry from the driver. Anticipation washed over the group.

You would really do it. All these months of work and saving everything you could, for this vacation, for this boat ride - to drive out to the open ocean, to see wales.

The excitement made your hands quiver.

On your way out of the safe haven, a sound nestled into the embrace of the coast, you caught he guide throw a few questioning glances at the sky.

They only paused minimally in their telling about bald eagles sitting in the trees and how everyone was on watch-duty to spot them.

The fog stayed behind with the trees as soon as the driver turned towards the open ocean, past a formation of rocks that were covered in seals.

One of them lazily lifted one of its flippers and waved.

“Alright folks, so we might have to cut this tour short today - we’ve been getting reports there’s some heavy rain coming in, and we don’t wanna get hit with that on the open waters. But so far it’s looking good, so, eh, we’ll see.”

Someone asked about experiencing a storm in this boat, and the guide gave them a lopsided grin.

“In this old thing? You’d be lucky if you came out alive. Nah, you best sit out a storm safe on the shore. Better, in a warm cabin with someone to keep you company and a good drink in your hand!”

Cheers and laughter.

A little way further out the driver slowed the boat so everyone could take a good look at a sea otter that was just floating between the waves, disappearing now and then before coming back up and cleaning its little head. Not long after that, the walkie-talkie crackled and an almost not-understandable voice spoke something.

“Folks! We just got news of a whale sighting not too far from here. Hang in tight, we might end up seeing some today after all!”

The murmurs and approving words didn’t last too long, after the clouds started to look a little darker grey, hanging a little low. But then another tour-boat came into sight, and you caught a glance of a rounded back with a minimal fin and every doubt you’d had about anything else was swept away.

The salty breeze blew into your face, left a hint of the ocean on your lips as you followed the others and stood from the bench in the middle of the boat.

Two whales were gathering food, the driver narrated, explaining there wouldn’t be sights of a tail fin until one or both decided to dive deep.

For a while everyone took pictures and admired the parts they could catch of the large animals mostly hidden below water.

Then the other boat started to move, the crackling of an incoming message disrupting the otherwise very peaceful mood. Something like the sound of something big rushing over the water, still far away, reached your ears. Confused by its origin you turned in your seat.

In moments the wind picked up. The breeze from before, salty, suddenly smelled like rain, whipped the long hair of a fellow passenger next to you around and had the boat gently swaying from side to side.

“Everybody sit down and hold on to the boat, the rain might have come earlier than expected - if everybody holds on, we should get-”

You momentarily stopped listening as a boy, surely younger and nonetheless taller than you, rudely shoved his elbow into your back.

“Hey, watch it.” You grumbled, annoyed at how disinterested the other was concerning his surroundings. Another shove that brought you to the edge of your seat, literally, and you turned around, ready to raise your voice when a small wave hit the side of the boat, the top of it spraying water on the passengers. Some of it got into your eyes and you blinked at the sudden sting.

Raindrops began to fall, the water like a wall pushing itself over the ocean.

Mind focused on the primary problem at hand - not being able to see without mild irritation in your eyes - you didn’t see the second wave coming, larger and wilder than the first.

It hit, unexpected, and your butt slipped off the seat completely, forcing you to stand to hop back up. In the short moment in which you still tried to find your balance in the swaying, now moving, boat, a third wave collided with the vehicle.

The edge of the boat had seemed quite high.

And then suddenly it wasn’t, and you couldn’t muster as much as a noise of surprise before the sky and the ocean switched places and you plunged into the water.

Everything got very quiet suddenly.

And cold.

It was cold, so, so cold, and you dimly remembered the safety instruction, some hour ago, and how the person had mentioned that the suit would automatically fill with water. What had been the next step in securing your survival in the water…?

You opened your eyes.

The pain was all but forgotten as you looked out through the surprisingly clear water, saw the whales - three, not two - move under the surface.

They turned and twisted, and their songs reached your ears through the water.

Peaceful.

Something glinting on one of their flippers caught your attention. Narrowing your eyes at it, they almost immediately widened again at the sight.

Someone was swimming around the gigantic animal, their hands rubbing over its skin. A silver grey tail shimmering behind them.

The salt began to burn in your nose.

Nothing changed, and yet the person - was it a person? Were you seeing things? - let go of the whale and paused.

Your thoughts started to grow sluggish in the treacherous cold of the sea.

The person was incredibly fast in swimming around its larger friends. Within seconds large hands reached for you and intelligent, dark eyes, found yours.

“Humans…” Mused a voice, so clear in your ears as if they were speaking above water. “You always forget the most important parts when falling into the ocean.”

A broad smile brightened the boy’s - or was he a young man already?- brightened the face in front of you as quick, nimble fingers worked to tighten the loops around your arms and legs that would halt the flow of water into the suit.

You could do nothing but stare.

Short, dull brown hair flowed with every movement; pearls and other small stuff delicately woven into it, shimmering and glinting now and then.

You tried to speak but the boy was quick to press the pad of his finger to your lips.

“Hush, human. Your voices were made for the air, not the water. Save your breath.”

Breathing.

Only then did you realize your chest hurt.

“Hmm? Human, what’s the m-” His wide eyes travelled up to your own gaze after lingering on your lips, where his finger was still mushed against. Then he noticed your hand, weakly clutching at your chest.

“Oh. I see.”

His eyes seemed to search for something above before reconnecting with yours, and for the first time you thought to see something like mild worry in them.

The bewilderment reached through the haze that settled over your oxygen deprived brain as the boy moved forward, one of his hands on your jaw, the other holding you close, and then pressed his own lips to yours.

There was no leverage to hold on to, or to push away the stranger, and your fists weakly connected with his chest.

His hands only held you tighter, your heart beating faster in a rising panic.

With the shock it was easy for him to tilt his head and open both of your mouths together in what turned out to not be a kiss. Instead, he gave you air, and even though your head still swam, the pressure on your temples lessened.

“Let’s get you back up, you don’t belong here.” Were the last words you could hear before you felt the water pulling at you as the boy swam forward.

Shortly before you could break the surface you went limp in his hands.

You came to as the boat docked below the tourhouse, wet to the bones and shivering.

It took three mugs of steaming tea, an abundance of warm blankets and a donated hoodie and pants you were ushered into in favour of your soaked clothes, until you were somewhat clear in the head again and your hands weren’t shaking anymore.

After the head of tours had apologized, along with the rude boy from before that had definitely been a big part of the reason why you’d fallen, you sat on a bench above a heater, overlooking the haven and following the raindrops that raced down the glass.

Outside the storm was fully raging, and the opening through which the boats entered and left the haven was hidden in the rain.

The young man with the fishtail wouldn’t leave your mind.

Had you hallucinated him? The combination of the shock from the cold water, the salt, the lack of air…?

You had almost asked about it, after the guide had helped you ashore, the small team from the tourhouse already waiting to get you inside to dry and get warm as soon as possible.

There had been something like a silent exchange of words between the staff, at least it had seemed so. Or maybe the guide had just quietly accepted their fate of being beheaded later.

“How are you feeling, dear?”

As if sensing your thoughts were circling back to one topic and one topic only, the friendly woman from behind the counter slipped around it and towards you, hand already extended towards your mug in a questioning manner.

You nodded and smiled, politely declining the offer to get another refill.

“Better.” You sighed, then. “Can feel all my toes and fingers again.”

The woman pursed her lips but refrained from apologizing once more.

“You had the unfortunate luck to be our one-in-a-hundred case… Good thing you remembered the safety procedure.” She lifted an eyebrow, and you dipped your nose back into your mug to humm in agreement.

Except you hadn’t, hadn’t remembered, had been frozen in fear and if it hadn’t been for-

“Well, I guess, the kayaking tour this evening will have to be postponed to tomorrow… doesn’t look like the rain will stop anytime soon.”

As if on cue, thunder clapped in the distance. The woman frowned.

“Yikes. Stay as long as you’d like, okay? I threw your clothes into the wash, they should be good in an hour or so.”

You set the mug down on the windowsill quite suddenly as a thought fell into your head.

“The wetsuit… did you find a phone in it? I remember putting it in one of the outer pockets…”

The apologetic look on the woman’s face was saying it all.

“So sorry. There wasn’t anything in your suit after we helped you out of it. It must have slipped out when you fell.”

“Damn.” Your eyes fled outside the window, and resignation tugged at your heart.

This long awaited trip had, within only its first two days, gone from the dream of your dreams to a very unfortunate collection of mishaps.

“But there’s good news too; The weather’s supposed to get a lot better in the next days. It’s not much, I know, but it’s something, hm?”

After your clothes had come out of the drier, as fluffy and warm as they had been before, the friendly woman from the counter lend you a sturdy, bright yellow wax coat to keep you dry on your way to the hostel, and you took your leave.

On the way there you stopped by one of the many cozy, tiny restaurants.

The salmon soup and the freshly baked bread that came with it somewhat soothed the loss that your missing phone had left in you midst; replaced with food it was bearable for now.

It still sucked, but that was out of question.

The afternoon was spend in the common room of the hostel, overlooking part of the harbour and the sound.

There was a guitar sitting in a corner, and someone picked it up and began plucking calm tunes that mixed with the chatter of the two handful of people milling in the beautiful glass house addition to the main hostel.

Wrapped in a blanket with your book the time passed easily enough. The rain was still pouring and you decided against going out for dinner. Instead you raided the ‘up for grabs’ section of the hostel kitchen, and later slept in with a belly full of noodles and sauce you had cooked up from the bounty of the free shelve.

The next day dawned bright and early, warmer than the ones before and without a single cloud in the sky.

The sunscreen you had packed suddenly didn’t look as obsolete anymore, and you generously applied it before leaving the hostel to finally explore the small town.

It was already past noon when you stumbled through a patch of forest, the trees unkept and the barely there path overgrown. The tote over your shoulder held a sandwich of a respectable size and two cans of lemonade, and your belly had been loudly requesting them for a while.

You had been looking for a good place to sit down and rest for about the same time. As the trees thinned out and gave the view free on an old walkway that reached into the water, you felt relief washing over you.

The place for lunch had been found.

It felt awfully touristy but along with your food you had bought a simple straw hat. Sitting here on the edge of the walkway now, it made the burn of he sun bearable.

Your toes barely touched the water below as you dangled your legs over the edge, leaned back on your hands and just resting after wolving down the sandwich.

The sun was glistening on the surface of the waves. A few seagulls passed by overhead.

It was very quiet here, the trees in your back doing a great job at filtering the noise from the street beyond them and shielding the seclusive lagoon from prying eyes.

Sat here the awful events from yesterday were almost forgotten.

Almost.

Until…

“Hi.”

The voice startled you. There was noone on the wooden planks behind you, noone on the shore; it took your searching eyes a moment to move to the water.

“I’m- I’m down here.”

There was humour swinging in the words but you inched forward on your hastily pulled back legs, wary. You spied over the edge and sighed.

A head was bobbing shortly above the waves; the same wide, brown eyes staring up at you now that had so curiously taken in your face yesterday.

Here, in the sunlight, his skin had nothing of its ghostly paleness from below water anymore. Indeed he was quite tan, although his hair was still much darker. The pearls in it blinked.

“Hi?” You answered, not entirely sure if you had fallen asleep in the sun and were experiencing a very realistic dream.

“Hey. You’re the one from the tour yesterday, aren’t you? I found this after I brought you to the surface, it was just sort of… drifting. This morning it wouldn’t stop making noise, Yuta said it was probably yours?”

His words didn’t make much sense before he lifted a hand out of the water, droplets of the liquid running over the skin that blended into scales on one side of the appendix. Clutched in his fingers, looking almost entirely human, was your phone.

“My phone!” You repeated, hastily taking it from the boy and drying it with your shirt. The screen lit up after you pressed a button, and even though one edge of the display was of a slightly distorted colour, otherwise it seemed to be fine. You looked back at the boy, still floating in the same spot.

“Thank you so much!” You blinked, and lowered the device until it rested on your thigh. “Thank you. Not only for my phone but...you know. Saving my life.”

The previously rather passive expression on the merman’s morphed into a big grin. One hand ran through the wet locks, messed them up a bit. Already they were drying under the sunlight.

“You’re welcome. Taeil was worried when they saw you fall.”

“Taeil…?”

“My friend! One of the whales you saw yesterday.”

“Right.” You furrowed your eyebrows. “I-”

“Sorry,” He interrupted you, and you fell silent immediately. “Would you mind if I came up and sit with you? It gets super exhausting to keep talking up to you like that.”

“Um, sure.” You shuffled over to the left until there was more than enough room for one more to sit. After hastily stuffing the sandwich wrapper into your bag, you gave a thumbs-up to the guy below.

In the next breath he was already pulling himself up, arms flexing and tail splashing a fine mist of water over you before he settled down next to you.

You ran both your hands over your face and lifted your hat to brush back a few strands of hair. When you opened your eyes again you suddenly had to look up.

The guy was taller than you while sitting, his friendly face smiling down on you.

It was a fleeting thought in your head before your eyes travelled down and latched onto the same, glimmering, grey tail that had caught your attention yesterday already.

Up this close it was incredibly beautiful.

The scales overlapped, creating a shimmering slick surface that was able to follow every move the strong muscles did below.

It narrowed where it vanished in the water, the end concealed in the depths. The occasional single scale was brighter that the others wich, under a closer look, ranged from dark grey, almost charcoal, to a silverish concrete grey. The ones around the boy’s hips were overall lighter than the ones closer to the water, but the brighter scales dotting the whole tail were more noticeable there.

You realized you were staring and turned your head in the other direction, feeling a heat that had nothing to do with the clear sky entering your cheeks.

“First time seeing a mermaid, huh? I get it, we can be quite breathtaking.”

“Oh jesus christ.” You let out, glaring at the smug grin on the boy’s face. “At least introduce yourself before subjecting me to such horrible… horrible puns.”

The laughter, waiting to boil over beneath the cold surface, finally broke free after looking at the other’s face a little longer.

“You really think it was terrible, hmm?” He grinned, hands folded in his lap. “I’m Yukhei. What’s your name?”

“_______. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Oh please, the pleasure is all mine.” He wiggled his eyebrows, and you laughed again.

“Do you do that often?” You asked, after taking a sip from your drink.

Yukhei made a small noise of question and turned his head. Your eyes were trained on the horizon melting into the ocean in the heat.

“Save people who fall overboard.”

“Oh.” He huffed, following your gaze. “No, not usually. I mean, usually, people don’t fall in, and usually, on the rare occasion they do, they’re busy helping themselves.” He shrugged.

“Guess I owe you big time, then.” Your eyes dropped to where your legs dangled next to Yukhei’s tail.

The other watched you for a moment.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it. Many people forget everything as soon as they join us in the water. It’s not your fault.”

Your eyes briefly met with his and got stuck on the empathy in them.

The fingers in your lap, circled around your phone, tightened.

“Still. If there’s something I could do for you - it’d make me feel better.”

Without asking, Yukhei’s hand stole behind you and grabbed the unopened can of lemonade.

“Well, if you put it like that…” He took a sip of the drink, paused, and looked at the label. “Ah, this one’s good. Um. Yeah, if you really want to, I’d love to get some licorice. The good, german one. Think you can get me a pack of those?”

He lifted his eyebrows over his drink, hopeful smile half hidden behind the metal.

“Sure.” You laughed, incredulous at his odd request. “I think I can manage that.”

Yukhei’s smile was a radiant as the sun above. “Great! Thanks.”

A moment of silence in which you both sipped your lemonades in silence. Then he spoke up again.

“So did you get a good photo of my friends? That’s why you were there, right? To take photos of the whales?”

You shook your head, eyes leaving the deep blue of the ocean for the brown of Yukhei’s gaze. “No. I have a good camera but I didn’t take it out to the tour - looking back it proved to be a really good decision because I was- Well I wasn’t anticipating taking a dive but the possibility was there. You know? I mostly went to see whales and make memories.”

“Huh.” The mermaid sipped his drink, lazily swishing his tail through the water below. “That doesn’t happen too often. Mostly it’s just ‘Oh I gotta take a picture of this! Oh I gotta take a picture of that!’.”

“Tell me about it…” You sighed into your can, eyes squinting at the glistening water once more. “This is a super beautiful tiny town, I’m just glad not more people are as crazed to ban everything they get in front of their lense on photos. It’s the worst when they stop in the middle of the walkway and if you don’t pay attention you just smack right into them!”

Exasperated you dropped the hand that had gesticulated wildly back on your leg. Yukhei watched you with interest, taking in every word.

“So you’re not a tourist-tourist?” He asked, tip of his finger running over the top of the can in his hand.

You shook your head.

“I mean, I do take pictures as well, but at least I try to… Not inconvenience anyone else while doing it. I wanna have keepsakes that I won’t just throw away after they gather dust on some shelve.”

“That’s a good approach.”

The time seemed to fly by the longer you sat on the walkway with Yukhei, even after you had both finished your drink. He was a great listener and soaked up everything you told him about the town you usually lived and worked in, about the town just behind the line of trees that the merman had obviously never seen.

Before long you glanced at your watch and had to hurry to excuse yourself because the kayaking tour you’d signed up for would depart soon.

“Kayaking?” Yukhei’s eyes glinted. “Maybe I’ll come.” His smile was mischievous, and you worried your eyebrows.

“But- That means people would see you.”

“You saw me just now?”

“Yeah but-”

“Relax, I won’t swim next to your boat or something.” He grinned, entertained by your exasperation at the prospect of having a mermaid trailing your boat. “But maybe you’ll catch glances of me in the distance - keep an eye out on the horizon, baby.”

He winked, with both eyes, and clicked his tongue suggestively. It had you breaking into a laugh before you shoved him back into the water. He went in with a great splash, hovering in one spot and beaming up at you.

“Meet you back here at sundown? With my licorice?” His eyebrows curved on his forehead in an adorable way, and you weren’t entirely immune to those round, hopeful eyes he gave you.

“Sure.” You laughed again, hoisting the tote higher up your shoulder. “Yeah, I’ll be here.”

You waved with the hand still holding your phone, and then had to run to still make the kayaking trip.

In the evening you went into one of the shops and eventually had to ask one of the clerks there if they had what the mermaid had asked for.

With a small package of ‘Haribo Rotella’ in your sunburned hands you returned to the thick patch of forest you’d been wondering by noon. The store had had a select few packages of other Haribo sweets as well, smurves and something colourful, too, but you’d stuck with the ‘Rotella’ stuff since it was purely licorice.

Another two cans of the lemonade you’d bought before were in your bag now, and as you made your way down the hill to the walkway you could see something bobbing in the water next to it.

Yukhei was waiting already when your feet touched the wood on the construction, hair dripping water on his shoulders and droplets glistening all over him.

He waved enthusiastically as you approached, hopping in place and reminding you very much of an excited puppy.

“Did you get it?” He almost shouted, and wordless you held out the sweets. “Omg yass!”

He tore into the package and fished a coil of the black stuff out, munching on it excitedly.

“Did you just say ‘omg’?” You remarked with a smile as you smoothed down the fluttery fabric of your summer clothes to sit next to the merman. He grinned at you.

“So what if I did?”

“I didn’t know that was something merfolk - do you call it that?” Yukhei nodded patiently. “Didn’t know merfolk used such words.”

He shrugged. “You pick up a lot, you know? I mean, I do speak your language as well, so.”

“Oh yeah you’re right.” You looked at him with new interest. “Where did you learn it? Do merfolk have school as well?”

He was on his third of fourth coil now and not showing any signs of stopping.

“Your parents teach you, mostly. And the human children coming to the sea sometimes.”

At your astonishment he chuckled, plopping another piece into his mouth. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Mermaid’s a fairy tale right? Except for the natives living by the coast. They know they’re not. But you can’t really trust anyone else.”

Uncomfortably touched you looked away. The sky was a dusty orange dulling into greyish blue the lower the sun, just out of sight already, sunk. The breeze was still warm, but the freshness of summer nights began to circle on the area.

“But… That means… You trust me not to tell anyone I saw a mermaid.”

You looked back at Yukhei who, after more than half the pack, had seemed to finally slow down. The sweets were momentarily placed aside as he leaned forward, his elbows on his tail and holding your gaze with an unfamiliar intensity you hadn’t seen before.

“It’s less trusting and more desperately hoping. Of course, nobody would really believe you if you told them you’d seen someone like me… The locals who know will say you got a bad sunstroke and the glittering on the light on the water fooled your eyes. Nobody will carry word outside this town except you, maybe, but we hope you don’t. That wouldn’t be very nice. Not only because I saved your life.”

Stunned by the calm sincerity in his voice you just sat next to him for a moment. The bubbly, loud demeanor from before was entirely gone and there was something intense in his eyes the longer you looked into them.

“I won’t say anything. I promise.”

“Good.” He leaned back, smiled, and the tension dissipated.

His broad shoulders relaxed and he sporadically took out another piece of licorice, going back to the somewhat mindless chatter he’d filled your conversation before.

It felt a bit strange, to have the bubbly, open, happy version of himself back so suddenly, and it made you think twice when regarding him.

His looks were easygoing and borderline cheeky again, but now you could see something simmering beneath it.

When you had parted ways that evening, the night sky dotted with stars already, and finally lay in bed, your thoughts wouldn’t let go on how much he had risked in the gamble of not only saving you but also returning your phone.

It was currently charging at the port inside one of the small lockers that had come with the room. The discoloured corner would probably remain, but after a few hours stuck in rice you were positive the rest would work just fine.

Before you knew it, the first week of your vacation ended already.

Almost daily were the visits to the ocean, to the little, hidden walkway. More often than not you could see Yukhei already waiting, swimming between the wooden pollers keeping the walkway up, weaving in and out of them. After a few days he was laying with his arms and upper torso on the wood, baking in the sunlight.

As you approached your meeting space today you found him laying completely out of the water, with only his fluke hanging over the edge.

To see his tail in all its glory brushed all conscious thoughts from your head.

The boy seemed to sleep, his eyes closed and face relaxed as you crouched next to where his ankles would have been.

The glint of his scales was inviting you to reach out with a hand, to touch it, but you refrained and stuck to only watching how it slowly moved from side to side.

A sheen of moisture sparkled in the sunlight.

When a cloud pushed itself in front of the radiant orb in the sky the temperature went from scalding to bearable, waking Yukhei.

He scooted forward until he was on one height with you, at the edge of the walkway, yawning and pouting a bit.

“Why the long face?” You playfully jabbed an elbow into his side.

“You should have woken me up when you arrived! I don’t want to waste time I could spend in your company.”

It was difficult to suppress the fond smile spreading on your face.

“You looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to disturb you. Sorry.”

He shook his head and placed it on your shoulder.

“You were looking at my tail again, weren’t you?”

Now it was your turn to pull a pout. “Don’t call me out like that. Yes I was. It’s a very pretty tail.”

“You can touch it if you want, you know?”

You lifted your head and turned it to look at him. “You sure?”

He hummed affirmatively, lashes fanning over his cheeks as he watched where his appendix sloshed in the water below.

Hesitation made your hands heavy. But curiosity won.

With a single finger you poked the skin, on the height of where his knee would have been.

He giggled at the way you leaned down to inspect it better. The scales where smooth and covered in a thin film of slick, and it was almost like petting koi. His smile was still wide and the twinkle in his eyes still glinting when you leaned back after your thorough inspection.

The slick rubbed off and stuck to the palm you had hesitantly stroked Yukhei’s tail with and you were a bit grossed out at how it coated your skin.

The water wasn’t too far down and so you switched your legs hanging over the edge for your torso, reaching down to wave your hand around the water, hoping the sheen would dissipate. It didn’t, at first, and you went on to rub the fingers of the hand against each other before outright wiping the palm on the wood of a pillar. Still hanging with around half your body over the edge you collected your strength to pull yourself back up, before-

“Watch out!” Yukhei suddenly called, his hands jerking to your sides as you startled at his voice.

“Wh-!”

The blue came a lot closer and the next moment you were sputtering and coughing, treading water to hold yourself up while attempting to blink the salt out of your eyes.

“Yukhei!”

The merman was cupping the lower half of his face in his palm, trying and obviously failing to hide his laughter.

“You idiot!”

He cackled at that, head tipped back and with an arm wrapped around his middle to hold himself together while you glowered at him from the wetness.

Grumbling you went to the rusted steps of an ancient ladder mounted to the wood meant for this exact occasion.

The water clung to your clothes, dragged you back, and you needed to strain your arms to heave yourself up - were almost out of the water when two strong hands clamped over your hips and pulled you back in.

His name got half swallowed by a mouth full of saltwater and again you were coughing and glaring at the face of one all too happy merman.

He was effortlessly floating by your side, staying out of reach of your moving legs.

“Hm?”

He was giving you the doe eyes again, the fake-i-am-so-sorry-pls-don’t-hurt?-ones, and you shoved water at him. It didn’t yield much result as all it accomplished was soaking his hair, but the smile on his lips widened a little.

“Aww come on!” He circled you once, coming closer and tugging you towards him afterwards. With his arms around your middle it was easier to stay up, and the immediate fear of being pulled underwater by something vanished.

“We always sit on that dumb pier and talk, how about we play a bit now? In the water? Pretty please?”

All by themselves did your arms come to rest on top of his shoulders, after wiping the strands of hair from your face.

“You could’ve just asked instead of shoving me in!”

He was pouting now.

“You were slipping in already! I meant to save you!”

“The hell you were… you’re a really fishy person, you know that?”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you.”

He released you as you made attempts to get to the ladder, his expression now a little dulled at you continued lack of excitement.

“Don’t pull a face, Mr. Fish, I’ll come back in, I just need to take off my shoes first.”

He was beaming up at you again as you came back from stowing away the shoes, bag and other valuables you’d brought in a shaded spot under a tree, where it was unlikely to be spotted or taken. This place was pretty reclusive as it was already, but better safe than sorry. You’d already lost your phone on this trip once, you weren’t keen on that or worse happening again.

That evening you slept in early, tired as can be.

It had been fun, playing with Yukhei where he was most at home. The shallow water in the hidden lagoon had been a lot warmer than that out on sea, but even with the hot temperatures that had settled in after the first days it was still taxing on your body. Not to mention the exhaustion the physical exercise brought.

The next evening you brought your polaroid camera down to the hidden beach.

Yukhei in the light of the dying sun was something you didn’t want to forget.

It lit up his skin in touches of caramell and gold, caught in the pearls and glittering stones woven into his hair and the droplets of water on his skin.

You made sure not to aim at anything of his lower body, so to anyone who didn’t know, he just looked like a boy fresh from the surf, shirtless and with salt-swept hair.

There were soft scales running along parts of his upper body too, but to anyone who didn’t know what they were, they would just look like a funny reflection.

Yukhei hovered over your shoulder, asking to see the selfies you’d taken on your phone, gasped in amazement as you handed him the polaroid one and told him he’d have to wait until the image showed.

You laughed a little at how he spend the next few minutes sitting hunched forward, the small picture cradled in his palms, eyes fixed on the developing image.

“Look! Look, it showed up! It’s us!”

“I know.” You smiled at him and stabilized the shaking piece of paper and plastic he held out to you. His fingers didn’t let go and together you watched on as the final details showed up.

“You look happy.” You commented, peeling your eyes away from the keepsake and looking up at the merman.

“You too.” He mirrored you, squinting against the last rays of sunlight falling from around your back into his eyes. The smile seemed glued to his face the past days.

“Can I keep one as well?” His voice was a bit smaller than usual, his hands gripping the other in his lap.

“Mhm- Yeah, I think I could print one of the selfies and laminate it, so the water wouldn’t soak it. I’ll see what I can do tomorrow, okay?”

Satisfied, he nodded, slinging an arm around your side and tugging you into a hug.

“Thank you. I’m so glad I pulled you from the water. You’re a great human.”

You smiled and leaned your cheek against his shoulder and hugged him back, but when the sun had vanished completely and the darkness pulled over the sky on your way back to the hostel you were reminded how your vacation would end soon.

It was still several days, and yet…

The end drew closer with each sunkissed day you spend in this sleepy town, with Yukhei by your side.

He picked up on the somewhat gloomy mood you’d fallen into, asked what was wrong with a concerned expression and his head ducking down to meet your line of sight.

You told him, throwing tiny pebbles you’d picked up by the waterline back into the small waves lapping at the wooden structure.

He grew silent after that, and it seemed you weren’t the only one who had temporarily forgotten there was a clock ticking down.

You hadn’t explored nearly as much of the town and the surrounding area as you’d originally planned, and that was okay because there was Yukhei, but part of you knew the people who knew about your trip would nag you endlessly if you came back and told them you’d only seen a fraction of the scenic area.

For a while both of you stewed in silence.

Eventually your thoughts cleared a little again and you were able to focus on nicer things, but when you turned to Yukhei and wanted to ask him something he was already squinting his eyes into the distance, hand shielding his face. Shortly afterwards he turned and met your eyes, an apologetic look on his face.

“-Sorry, whatever you wanted to say, do you think you can keep it ‘till tomorrow? I think I have to go back, I’ve kind of been neglecting my duties these past days to come hang out with you and I think they caught on to me.”

You nodded in understanding.

“Will you be here tomorrow?”

He shrugged, already slipping into the water.

“Don’t know.”

And without saying more, he was gone.

You came back the next day, finally with the laminated selfie he’d asked about. You’d taped off the edges to make it even less likely for water to get to the image safe between the sheets of plastic, had put it into an envelope, even.

But Yukhei wasn’t there.

You waited, more than an hour. The waves and the gulls overhead were the only things keeping you company.

Back up on the hill you looked down one more time; at the spot on the walkway you knew was the envelope with a stone on top so the wind wouldn’t blow it away. You hoped Yukhei would find it, if he came by later.

The rest of the day was spend walking the town and finally crossing some things off your checklist.

It was nice, to see so many other people, to hear different voices and laughs and bathe in the general, light-hearted mood, but the disappearance of Yukhei yesterday nagged at the back of your head and wouldn’t go away completely.

As the sun lowered and you came by the path through the small forest, familiar for your eyes already, there was a moment in which you hesitated. Should you go look, see if Yukhei had found the photo? -But he hadn’t been there in the morning, he’d said people had caught him slacking off, maybe he would be banished to work extra now.

Your feet hurt and your shoulders too; Forgoing to put on sunscreen just because you wore a light button down with short sleeves over a tank top. But the day had been warmer than expected and so you’d taken the shirt off eventually, forgetting about your unprotected shoulders.

A cool shower and a snack and then bed would be nice.

A bird flew past you, keckering and complaining in the still evening air, and brought you back from your thoughts. No. It’d be best to just head back for now. Tomorrow you could come by again. And the day after, and then another day, and the day after that… Maybe you could say goodbye before catching the bus back. Maybe. Hopefully.

The moon hung over the ocean, big and bright, casting silver light on your path and dipping everything in mystic touches.

There were light clouds coming in from the sea over the following morning. By noon they had thickened, rain beginning to fall.

The earth smelled rich, the scent of the water on hot stones surrounding you.

The hostel had provided an umbrella as you’d mentioned you had forgotten to bring your own, and now you were huddled below it, barefoot and in shorts to get as little of your clothes wet as possible.

The path down the hill was slippery and you had to focus on every step in order to not take a tumble over the rocky patches of grass.

Mud squelched between your toes as you stepped onto the sand finally. The pier was deserted.

Still you walked the length of it, the raindrops washing your feet clean while you moved.

There was the stone you had left behind.

A sigh escaped you as you crouched down, gently lifting the weight. The envelope had turned to off-white mush, the last, dry spot it had had under the cover of the stone quickly soaking.

Among the dissolving paper was the selfie.

“Well, at least I know it’s waterproof now.” You put the stone back, deciding against taking it with you. Maybe if Yukhei would come by, maybe he would find it. There was a lot of maybe and you weren’t ready to accept he might have just left like that.

The inside of the restaurant was warm and dry and nobody gave you dirty looks for coming in like you had.

The sky was still covered in clouds when you went to bed, afternoon spent exploring the local museum and art gallery, but the rain was that of a summer day, not pelting down too harshly.

It trickled down the window in the dorm room and whenever the wind came in just right you could hear the waves crashing in the distance.

It was still dark when you sat up.

Hands reached for the water bottle by themselves until your thirst was quenched and still you didn’t feel like lying back down.

Moonlight shone through the window and painted rectangles on the floor, patterned by the half-drawn blinds.

No sound came through the cracked window, and none came from the people sharing the room with you, either.

For a moment you froze in your place, not daring to breathe.

It was like the world was holding its breath alongside you, was waiting for something. Anything.

The breeze came back, gently carding through the long grass below the window.

Someone turned on their other side in their bed, the wood creaking.

You relaxed, shoulders dropping. Whatever it had been seemed to have passed.

The pillow settled around your face as you lay down, drawing the blanket up higher as a shiver in the still air crept down your back.

Even with eyes closed your ears remained wide open, sensitive to any sound.

Sleep began to reach out its hands towards you once more, until-

The world spun a bit, so fast had you sat up.

There it was again.

Whatever had woken you before, there it was again, and it was… Music?

A song?

On quiet feet you stole towards the window, opening it a little wider.

The wind turned and the singing voice couldn’t be heard anymore.

Your phone proclaimed the time to be one am as you plucked it from its charging place, shrugged into a cardigan and slipped into a pair of shoes.

All the clouds had left the sky and it stretched endless into every direction, littered with stars.

There were so many more than you were used to, empty spaces filled in by more glowing dots than you could count, and every time you had to pause, wait for the wind to carry the song to your ears again, you stared up at the dome with wide eyes and wonder.

The patch of trees came into view and your steps sped up.

You really hoped this wouldn’t turn out to be a dream as you pushed through the bushes, eager to get to the other side, stumbling once and only barely regaining your footing as the slope began to dip further.

Next to the walkway floated Yukhei.

With steps as quiet as you could muster you inched over the wood, towards the mermaid drifting close by the edge. A small rectangle on his chest was a ghostly white and you didn’t know what it was until you stood next to him, saw the tape around the edges.

But by then his singing had picked up a note, had won in intensity.

He didn’t need instruments to accompany his voice. It was so rich, so deep and yet so melodious that anything else would have only interferred with the story he wove with the words that you couldn’t understand.

There was an ache in your chest growing as Yukhei’s song went on, his notes becoming more desperate until there were tears in your eyes because you knew Yukhei was calling for something, something out of his reach, but you didn’t know what and it brought pain into your heart.

His voice grew hoarse on the next verse and he broke off, closing his lips and swallowing once.

The silence filled the air around you, made the cool summer night heavy. Breathing was difficult and you hoped, longed Yukhei would continue.

But his eyebrows furrowed, creasing the skin between them, and he stayed silent under the stars, only drawing a slow breath every once in a while.

“What were you singing about, Yukhei?” You asked, crouching on the wood, cardigan wrapped around your legs.

The merman startled so badly he caused a small wave that swept over him, got into the wrong pipe and made him cough.

Bobbing upright in the water his wide eyes stared up at you, as if you were the mythical creature bathed in the light of a million stars and not him.

As if the moonlight didn’t put silver between his strands, place a silver glow over his shoulders.

“You’re here.”

You nodded, still looking down on him in the water.

“You- You came.”

Again you moved your head.

Yukhei seemed at a loss for words.

“You weren’t here yesterday.” You picked at a loose thread on your knitwear, averting your eyes. “I see you found the photo.”

He stilled in fiddling with the rectangle, flattening it to his chest instead.

He remained silent.

It must have been the longest time you hadn’t heard any sound coming from him before he gently laid the photo on the wood and pulled himself up to sit beside you.

His tail was so close to your leg you could feel the coolness that clung to his scales so fresh out of the water.

“Your song,” You continued, as it seemed unlikely he would raise his voice sometime soon. “It was so… full of emotion. What were you singing about?”

His gaze, erratic, fled your face and focused on the water rippling around his tail.

“I lost a friend.” He answered eventually, and although he didn’t whisper, it almost felt like he had. “I was trying to call them, pleading for them to come back to me.”

“I’m sorry.” You held your gaze trained on him until the brown, in the moonlight grey, eyes met yours again. Under your attention he stilled. “You must have liked them a lot if you were this desperate to have them with you again.”

He nodded, not losing the contact. His tongue flicked over his lips and the crease between his eyebrows returned before he spoke again, slowly, like he was picking his words with great care.

“They’re in a place I can’t reach. We don’t sing often. Your kind have made tales and warning stories of those you call Sirens, who lure sea-faring folk to their death by bewitching them. But it’s not like that. We protect what is most dear to us with the only thing more powerful than any weapon your kind could craft. We sing. But we don’t sing for destruction. We sing to make peace, to calm waves and to save those too weak to defend themselves.” He paused, the interruption minimally. “We sing for our loved ones, to heal and to lighten the mood and when they leave for their safe return.”

His face was uncharacteristically somber as he spoke, and you listened intently.

“Your friend,” You looked out over the ocean, thinking about how incredibly it had looked to see him swimming with the whales. “I hope they’ll come back to you soon. Even though that song was so beautiful, if it speaks of loneliness and the wish to see them again, I hope you won’t have to sing it too many times.”

Yukhei had taken the hand that had been lying on the wood between your bodies away, holding it by its wrist with the fingers of the other hand.

His expression was unreadable as you looked up into it, tried to see anything.

“Where is your friend? How far have they gone?”

The tips of his fingers were dry but still cold to the touch when they met with the skin of your own hand. You felt them when he moved his hand up your arm, to your shoulder and then across your back.

Tears collected on the waterline of his eyes as he turned to fully face you, looking down and taking in every detail of your face.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered, and you didn’t know what for exactly.

He closed his eyes before leaning forward, his chin on your shoulder and his arms holding your tightly.

With the weight of his arms over yours it wasn’t easy but you did your best to hug him back, waiting if he would explain.

His voice was husky when he drew a shaking breath through the hot liquid running over his cheeks and collecting in your cardigan.

“I don’t know where my friend went, but it was because I left them first, but they’ve come back now and I’m so happy but I’m so sorry.”

He tightened his hug and in the breathless moment in which he squeezed you as close as he could you realized he’d meant you.

He’d been singing about you.

With your hands cupping over his shoulders you pushed him back a little to be able to see his face properly.

He squinted his eyes at you through sniffling a little.

“You were singing for me? To come back to you?” He nodded, biting on his lower lip and covering the hand you’d put on his cheek to wipe away his tears. “You wanted me to come back? But- You were the one who didn’t show up. Who left without saying anything.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if he knew exactly what you were saying was true.

“I know. It was rude of me and I hate myself for doing it and- That’s not true, I was there when you put the photo on the pier, but I didn’t show myself which makes it even worse and I’m so sorry but when you said you were going to leave soon I just- I didn’t know what to do. Of course I knew you’d be gone sooner or later, of course I knew it shouldn’t mean anything to save you from drowning, but I still hoped… We would have more time.”

The corners of his mouth drooped down alongside his shoulders.

“In a way, I- I didn’t want the time I could spend with you to end yet, and that’s why I didn’t show- And also you said you wanted to see lots of the village, and I thought I kept you long enough but-”

You sighed deeply. “I understand.”

He closed his mouth and looked up to you ruefully.

“I’m sorry too. For not telling you earlier.”

This time it was him sighing, taking your hand from his cheek to his lap and curling both his palms around yours.

“Can we watch the stars together tonight?” He asked after a bit of silence in which he’d tapped on your skin in what you were pretty sure was morse code for something but you didn’t know morse and so didn’t know what he was saying.

“Yeah.”

Lying side by side, with your pinkies linked, Yukhei pointed at brighter spots overhead with his free hand, telling you about formations and tales he’d been told as a child about those who swam among the stars.

He described a gigantic whale, swimming through the sky, and you told him how humans had been to the moon and how there was no air in space and eternal cold that would freeze anyone who didn’t wear a suit.

“I don’t believe that.” Yukhei said after a moment of consideration. “Your stories are a lot less fun than mine.”

You turned your head to look at him, watch him looking into the endless dark, and laughed at his defiant comment.

There was no point in disagreeing with him or trying to prove what you had said was right and the space-whale he was sung to about wasn’t.

There were many things he wouldn’t believe if you would have told him, but you figured the concept of space was one of the most harmless he could choose to disbelief.

In the grew hours of dawn the day of your departure you sat in front of Yukhei on the walkway again, legs crossed and hands folded.

He had dipped down into the water for a moment before setting himself next to you again, and now your eyes switched between his hands, which he held cupped close, and his face; holding barely contained excitement.

“Okay, close your eyes and open your hands.”

“If this is a fish you caught for me, I told you, I can’t eat raw-”

He rolled his eyes but failed to bite back his grin.

“I promise, it’s not. Not this time.”

Mouth falling open you stared at him. “Wh- Not this time? When did you plan to give me a live fish?!”

“Can you please close your eyes now I want to give you your present.” He pouted, and finally you complied. Closing your eyes against the pastel colours of the coming sunrise in the sky, holding open your hands.

Something was placed into them; thin, with a small roundness to it at one point.

The wetness of Yukhei’s fingers brushed the side of your palms as he retracted his hands and then made a small sound, signalling it was okay for you to look.

Blinking down on your hands you took in what he’d put there.

It was dark with water but it looked like yarn or some other string, twisted and knotted and braided into something that was barely large enough to be a necklace.

Three small pearls were woven into it, a bigger one the size of your pinky finger’s nail flanked by two smaller ones.

You looked up into Yukhei’s nervous face.

“We give pearls or other pretty things as gifts, but my kind doesn’t wear bracelets or anything like that because it can get caught on sharp edges and strangle us; We put everything we get gifted into our hair, because it’ll hold on to it for us, but for you I had to improvise because your hair is dead and won’t be able to hold them.”

Your fingers curled around the gift protectively, but faced with this new information you couldn’t help but wonder.

“Your hair is alive?”

The merman nodded, hands clasped in front of him. “Touch it! You’ll see what I mean.”

Even more careful than when you had first stroked over his tail you now reached out with a hand, two fingertips brushing the darkened strands.

To your bewilderment and elation the hairs pulled away from the skull and wrapped around your fingers for a moment.

Spurred on by the soft giggle of Yukhei and the positive first contact you extended the rest of your hand and ran it over the side of Yukhei’s head.

The strands parted easily for you, reached up and placed themselves around your hand, slipped into the creases on your palm and held you in place for a moment before giving you free again.

“That’s amazing!”

Yukhei’s grin was big and contagious as you gave him his space again.

“Pretty cool right?”

“Yeah!” You sat in front of him for a moment longer, marvelling at him, all of him.

“You want me to help you put the necklace on?” He offered, but you insisted on trying it on your own first before having to relent to his help after not being able to fit the small wooden pearl through the designated clasp.

The necklace sat against your throat like a choker, and even though Yukhei expressed worry at how tight it was you waved it off and told him it was fine.

“Thank you so much.” You held out your hand, waiting for him to put his own into yours.

He did, thumb rubbing over the skin around your wrist.

“Thank you.” He echoed, smile wide and warm. It simmered down a little the longer you held eye-contact, until he looked away and cleared his throat.

“You’ll come back soon, right? I want to introduce you to everyone.”

“I have free time during winter again, but maybe I’ll be able to come by for Autumn break.” Yukhei groaned a the prospect of having to wait that long, pouted at you shamelessly.

“That face won’t get me back to you faster, I still have to earn the money it’ll cost me to come and stay here, you pebble.”

The playful expression replaced the half-hearted sulking, and he nudged your knee.

“Don’t you have a bus to catch?”

You checked the time.

“I think I have enough time for one last hug.”

And even though the saltwater still covered him head to fin, you held on to the other until the sun had almost fully risen above the horizon. Unwilling to let go just yet.

Months later you sat on the bus, face so close to the window the glass fogged over. There was a lot less green outside, and the thick clouds didn’t let through much daylight, but you could make out the rocks in the distance, the roofs of the houses.

In your luggage, safely stored underneath your seat, were gifts for a certain someone, alongside a neoprene suit and diving goggles.

Soon you would check into the hostel, to get rid of the bag. But after that there’d be nothing holding you back from venturing through the path of trees, down the slope of the hill and onto the wooden planks above the water - you’d see how many stones Yukhei had been able to gather and put there, one for each day he’d waited for you. And then you’d put them all into a single heap, a pyramid maybe, and wait.

You had a feeling it wouldn’t be too long before the familiar blinking of the pearls and glittery things in his hair would break through the surface, and you smiled to yourself, looking forward to being able to hug him again.

Soon.

You settled back into your seat and watched the world outside, watched the town by the ocean grow closer every moment.

i hope you liked it! ♥

72 notes · View notes

miracloud · 5 years

Text

Sealed Fate

han seungwoo x y/n

angst, fluff, bit rated

arranged marriage au

Part One } Part Two (to be posted)

You were appalled to hear that your parents agreed to set you on an arranged marriage. You were eating dinner and they slide a picture of your soon-to-be-husband.

“Are you serious?”

In the picture, you see a smiling Seungwoo wearing a suit. He’s a schoolmate and a popular one to top that. A good-looking friendly man is what he’s known in school but at some point, you were able to see past through his mask. You overheard him, along with his other friends, joking about the women following them around. From that moment on, you knew he’s a man far from your ideals.

“Darling, we’re just worried about you. You are single your whole life and we just want to give you happiness”, your mother said trying to convince you.

“Do you think that men are the only source of happiness? And mom, I’m still young. I still got plenty of time left.” There was no use. In the end, both of your parents had already agreed. There will be a dinner tomorrow to formally discuss the arrangement.

The next day, it’s a good thing you haven’t crossed paths with Seungwoo. You don’t know how to face him or if he even knows about the marriage. A car was waiting for you after class. A dress was prepared for you to wear but you ain’t wearing that. You were the only one they’re waiting for. The expressions your parents had almost made you laugh. You walked in wearing a black sweater which covers up to your knees and rubber shoes. You sat in front of Seungwoo while looking astonished.

“Ow!”, you exclaimed after your mother pinched you on the legs. “What’s got in your head? Why are you wearing that?!”, she said. Your father, on the other hand, apologized for your behavior which Seungwoo’s parents politely accepted.

“You have a really interesting formal wear”, Seungwoo remarked. You rolled your eyes. “Well, I’m not dressing up for something I’m against with. And are you even fine with this arrangement?”

He shook his head. “No, I went here to also say that I’m against this marriage”, he said enough for everyone in the table to hear. “Good”, you said and you looked at the adults in the table.

“This might be too rushed for the two of you but this is needed for the two families”, Seungwoo’s mother said.

“No matter how much you protest, you don’t have any choice. This dinner is not for hearing your opinions, it’s for formalities sake. Nothing will change”, Seungwoo’s father strongly added. In the end, only the four adults talked while the two of you were silently eating.

The dinner ended and you're heading to the car but you shift direction and went the opposite way. You heard your mother calling you back numerous times. "I'm not going home", you shouted back as you ran away.

Seungwoo witnessed everything and he can't believe why he never noticed a schoolmate with such a strong personality.

"I was expecting you. Your mother called", your friend said as she makes way so you can enter. You've done this before to the point that your parents already know where you're going.

You greeted her parents and went upstairs. "What's the problem this time?". You shook your head and decided not to drag your friend into the mess.

You were woken up by your friend quite hastily. "Hey, did you make a big problem? A car's waiting for you outside." You stood up immediately not to make more problems for her family. It's the first time that someone fetched you. You were shocked to see your parents fully dressed in formal wear.

"Where are we going?", you asked as you wished that whatever you are thinking is not true. "We'll stop by a shop then we're going to the church." You’re about to open the car door when your mother held your hand and with trembling lips, she said: “We’ll denounce you if you run away.”

Tears were falling as they dress you up in a wedding gown. Everything’s too fast. You knew your parents can be selfish but not to this point. As you were on the way to the church, you wished that Seungwoo’s not inside, that he disagreed and run away. Much to your dismay, he’s inside waiting for your arrival. Unlike your ideal wedding, the groom looks completely uninterested. The church is silent with only your parents and church personnel inside.

At the end of the day, your surname’s changed and you have a new home. The moment you’ve arrived in the new house provided by Seungwoo’s parents, he changed clothes and went somewhere else. You’ve examined the place. Everything’s provided but there’s only one room. Seems like they made sure that you’ll sleep in the same bed. You grabbed a pillow and a blanket and you went to the couch.

When Seungwoo returned, he saw you sleeping on the couch but never cared. He went to the bedroom to have a comfortable sleep. For the following weeks, this is your routine. You wouldn’t talk to each other at school and even at home. He would always eat dinner outside and would only come back when you are already asleep.

It was a Saturday and Seungwoo did not go home. You decided to clean the house and then cook some pasta for yourself as a reward. After that, you did some schoolwork. You did not notice the time and it was already evening.

You woke up when you heard a moan coming from his bedroom. Seriously? He would even bring a woman here? The marriage is on paper only and hearing that he’s with someone else did not affect you but bringing a stranger inside your house is disrespectful. The sounds coming from his room did not stop and fortunately, one of your friends live quite near so you went to her house. It must be a blessing that you have friends who are so in love with sleepovers.

It was 7 in the morning when you decided to go back. Hopefully, that woman left already. While you were on your way to your house, you saw an approaching car from afar. Your eyes grew wide when you realized that it’s your parents’ car. You hurriedly opened the door and went to Seungwoo’s bedroom. He was startled to see you opening the door. Not to mention that it was the first time that you actually entered his room. Before he can ask you, you put your hand in front of his face to stop him from talking.

“Did that woman went home already?”, you said as you catch your breath.

“What?” You rolled your eyes and stared at him. “Y-yes, she went home early in the morning.”

You opened the cabinet and searched for clothes he can wear. “What are you doing?”, he asked shocked with your actions. “My parents are on the way and I don’t want to hurt them by knowing that you slept with another woman.” You threw a hoodie and some pants to match it with. “Wear that now.” After saying that, you went to the living room to bring your things inside. You groaned seeing Seungwoo still half-naked. The young man not understanding the urgency of the situation.

“Seriously?! Why are you so slow?”, you said irritated. Seeing that he doesn’t have any plans to move faster, you made him wear the clothes. In front of you is a man older than you acting like a kindergarten student. “Ooh, you’re finally acting like my wife now”, he said amused. You looked at him with a blank face. “No, I think I’m acting like your mother now.” You shoot up when you heard the doorbell. Securing your arms with Seungwoo ’s, you dragged him outside. Before you opened the door, you noticed Seungwoo’s bed hair and tried to fix it before facing your parents. Seungwoo, on the other hand, had a playful smile all throughout the morning.

“If you’re still not informed, we’re going to act like a happy couple.”

“Oooh, why?”, Seungwoo asked with a smirk on his lips. “Because I don’t want my parents to be sad knowing that I’m living in hell while staying with you.” Seungwoo was shocked, almost guilty, hearing your words. He wanted to protest but you opened the door in a hurry. You flashed a big smile as you greeted your parents.

“I’m so happy seeing that both of you are doing well. I was worried that we made the wrong decision”, your mother said. “Of course not. It’s still hard but you know, we’re still adjusting”, you replied as you console your mother. “It was hard to sleep at night knowing that we sealed your fate forcefully”, your mother continued as you noticed the tears forming in her eyes. You held her hand and assured her that it’s fine. You knew that your mother will soon realize her mistake but seeing her cry will never be pleasant to your eyes.

After a few hours, they finally left. You immediately remove the smile on your face along with the loving holding hands with Seungwoo.

"Where did you went last night?", he asked.

"I went to my friend. And Seungwoo, please refrain from bringing women here. It was too noisy."

"Well, I can make any woman scream for my name", he said with a smug look on his face. You rolled your eyes. The day went on and it was very uncomfortable that Seungwoo did not leave the place. Usually, you can do your own plans but it's hard knowing that he's observing you the whole time.

Soon, sleepiness came to you. You arranged your bed aka couch and went to sleep. Later on that night, you heard a clicking sound from the doorknob. You ran to Seungwoo's room and went beside him.

"Woah woah. What are you doing? ", Seungwoo asked, completely awake.

"I heard someone opening the door and your parents are the only ones who own a spare key to this house. They're probably here to observe us secretly", you whispered.

You were startled when you felt Seungwoo's hand on your waist. "Then, we should at least play the part", he suggested. You wanted to protest but you heard the bedroom door opening that you hugged Seungwoo from the rush. While waiting for them to go, you unconsciously went to sleep.

You woke up when you felt a movement beside you. You opened your eyes to see Seungwoo looking at you with a small smile. “Good morning, wife”. You were about to push him when you remembered what happened last night. You hugged him again. “Are they still here?”, you whispered. He nods. So you continued hugging him but actually, they left already and only stayed for a few minutes. It was quiet so you asked him again one more time and he showed a playful smile. You blushed too hard and pushed him away. You hurriedly went outside and prepared for school.

Seungwoo’s smiling the whole time. Blushing hard from a simple hug made him think how cute and innocent you are. From that time, you would act in front of your parents and in-laws whenever they visit. You also talked to Seungwoo often now even at school though you panicked when he first approached you.

One day, you were eating alone in the cafeteria when someone sat beside you. “I’m almost finished. Why are you late?”, you said, assuming that it’s your friend. It was silent. You looked at his direction and you have Seungwoo sitting too close to you. Students were staring and you shoved that big piece of bread into your mouth and stood up. Seungwoo held your wrist and made you sit again.

“My parents will join us for dinner tonight.”

“What? Why?!”

“I don’t know. I just hope that your cooking abilities are good”, and he went away. Wait, I’m going to cook dinner?

You panicked and you can’t concentrate in class. All you can think of is the dinner and what meal will you cook. Once the school bell rang, you went to a nearby supermarket and bought ingredients. You were expecting that Seungwoo would atleast help but guess what? He did not. He went home when you are already finished cooking.

A few minutes after, his parents came. Again you put up the act and Seungwoo’s hands were all over your body. You hated it.

“y/n, I’m sorry for the abrupt visit. We just want to see you two again.”

“It’s no problem at all”, you replied. You invited them to eat in the meal on the table. Seungwoo also helped himself and grabbed a spoonful of it.

“Wow, you’re good in cooking!”, he exclaimed. You were about to boast but then remembered the two adults in front of you.

“Son, have you not tried her cooking before?”, his mother asked.

“Ah, I have. It’s just that she never cooked anything this good.” His parents laughed with his remark.

The dinner was fairly quiet until his father cleared his thorat.

“So.. I know you two are pretty young but when can we get a grandchild?”, he asked.

Gurl, the food you were chewing just flew out everywhere. You continuously tap your chest to breath. You were too shocked. You heard Seungwoo snickered and gently pushed the glass of water on your direction.

“Hahaha. Was that question too much?”, his father remarked.

You were about to respond but Seungwoo just placed his arm on your shoulders, pulling you closer.

“Don’t worry too much about it. We’ll get you not only a grandchild but grandchildren.”

“My my. I guess, your relationship is really doing great.”

You were blushing profusely and secretly pinching Seungwoo’s leg.

They left shortly after. You pushed Seungwoo’s arm away and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. You were humming to yourself when two arms surrounded you. Seungwoo’s hands rested on the counter with you on the middle.

“I think we should start trying for a child”, he whispered.

You felt your ears violated. You covered it immediately and push Seungwoo away.

“W-what are you s-s-saying?? T-that was for show!”

“Oh really? You know, you’re just being stubborn. We can make this work out”, he suggested while coming closer to you.

You turned around, closed the faucet, threw your rubber gloves, and run to the bedroom. You made sure it was locked.

“What are you running away from? And I sleep there”, he asked through the door. You can already picture that playful smile he has.

“You sleep at the sofa tonight!”

You jumped to the bed. You momentarily forgot that he sleeps here alone most of the time. The bedsheet smells like him. The pillow smells like his shampoo. You slapped your cheek when you realized what you were doing.

The next day, you slowly opened the door. When no one’s around, you knew that he is already at school since he has an earlier class than you. Going to your room, you brought out your towel and other bathing essentials. You opened the bathroom, only to see Seungwoo half-naked. A white towel was hugging his waist and you assumed that he just finished bathing because of his wet hair.

“W-wwwaaaah! You should have locked the door”, you shouted while attempting to look away but that perfect body made you peek some times. He held your hand, pulling it away from your face.

“Wife, why are you covering your face? You should be accustomed to this already”, and he has that playful smile again. You pushed him hard, outside the bathroom and you locked the door.

“Get dressed!”, you shouted and you heard him laugh.

When you stepped outside, he’s nowhere to be found. You sighed loudly.

“How was the quiz? It was really difficult for me”, your friend said after the professor left. It’s your only class for the day and you thought that you will have a fairly good rest but your professor unexpectedly prepared a quiz. You’re just wishing that it will at least be over the passing grade.

As you were approaching the door to exit, you saw Seungwoo outside and by instinct, you hid. Why is he here?

“What are you doing? Let’s go”, your friend said.

“You can go first”, you half-whispered.

“Uh.. okay. See you tomorrow then.” You’ve been sighing a lot this day.

“Aren’t you y/n’s friend? Is she here?”, you heard Seungwoo.

Oh shit. Please don’t tell him.

“y/n, she’s inside. I’ll call here for you”, she energetically answered. You hated that.

“y/n, Seungwoo’s looking for you”, she said and right after ,Seungwoo peeked into the classroom and he laughed seeing your hiding position.

Seungwoo thanked her and she bid goodbye. You facepalmed. I should have told her about what happened.

Seungwoo crouched beside you.

“So why are we hiding?”, he teased.

“H-hiding? I’m not hiding!”, you exclaimed.

“I’ve noticed that you stutter a lot when you are with me. Is there a meaning behind that?”, he responded.

“Shut up”, and you marched away. You heard his footsteps. He rested his arm on your shoulders which you grew to like.

“Get away from me.”

“Hmm? Not too convincing, are you? Let’s eat lunch together. I don’t have a class till 3 PM.”

You can’t really argue since you were also on your way for lunch. He led you to a nearby café. You silently ate. You realized that it’s the first time you ate with him without putting up an act to your parents and in-laws.

You realized that he’s a fine listener. He also shared funny stories during the meal. The atmosphere’s turning quite well.

“Seungwoo?”

Both of you looked at the voice’s direction. You were faced with a beautiful woman with great fashion sense. You knew at that moment who she was. With the way she talked with him and how natural she touched him, she’s one of Seungwoo’s women.

You didn’t know if she still meets with women since he never brought a woman home after that time. From the rumors you heard before, he’s been with different women at the same time. You did not really expect that he’ll become faithful once he’s married, or did you?

“Who is she?”, she asked.

Before Seungwoo can respond, you stood up and extended your hand.

“Hello. I’m y/n, his friend. We were just discussing about a school project.”

“I knew it. I mean, you’re too far from Seungwoo’s ideal type”, she said and it hurt. Why does it hurt? Is shouldn’t hurt, right?

You forced a laugh. You picked up your bag and invited her to sit on your empty seat.

“You’re going already?”, she asked.

“Yes. I have some personal errands to do”, you reasoned.

It hurts. Tears were falling on your cheeks. You failed to realize that you fell for him while doing those pretentious acts. You went home and immediately laid on the sofa, while covering yourself with a blanket. You heard the door knob clicked and you muffled your cry. As his footsteps grew closer, your heart was beating faster. There was silence for a few seconds.

“Are you awake?”, he asked. You did not reply.

“Sorry about what happened.”

Why is he apologizing? You were the one who’s wrong.

“Don’t apologize. It’s totally fine. We are only married on paper”, you reminded yourself him. He did not respond and you heard the bedroom door open and then closed.

The next morning, you woke up early, planning to avoid him for the rest of the day. You went to your friend’s house. Whenever you go to her house, it’s usually because you are in trouble. You reassured her that nothing’s wrong and you simply wanted to visit her.

You spent the day playing card games and gossiping about the people at school. Later on, he mother went inside the room to serve some snacks. She was about to leave when she paused, as if forgetting to something,

“Ah right. y/n, a young man came looking for you. He shortly left after knowing that you’re staying here.”

Eh? Don’t tell me it’s him.

“Do you remember how he looked like?”, you asked.

“Hmm.. a tall man with oriental eyes, and pointy nose. He also had a sweet smile”, she replied.

“Ah! He also had a tattoo on his collar bones. I didn’t mean to see it but it was slightly peeking out of his shirt”, she added.

That’s definitely Seungwoo. Why did he look for me?

Thinking that it might be an emergency, you sent him a message.

It was getting late. You thanked your friend and her family, for letting you stay. They invited you to stay over but you decided not to. It’s time to stop running away.

You heard the noise coming from the television, the creaking sound of the sofa as if Seungwoo’s sitting up tight and you were correct. You stepped to the living room, seeing Seungwoo sitting on the sofa with a smile on his face.

“I’m back”, you greeted him.

Before you can enter the bedroom to change clothes, Seungwoo called your name.

“y/n, do you have time? Let’s talk.”

“Sure.”

When you opened the door, he turned off the television and lightly tapped the space beside him. You scooted as far as possible. He scooted closer in response. You raised your hand, forming a wall between you and him.

“Okay, what is wrong with you?”

“You know.. I haven’t told you before.. but I’m quite serious about this”, he answered.

“Serious with what?”

“With us. Usually, I would have made a move already but I have been going with your pace. I learned that you haven’t had a boyfriend before so I don’t want to rush anything.”

Wait what? What is he saying?

“You’re serious, huh? Then how do you explain that woman who we met at the café?”, you mentioned.

“I was seeing her before we met. I never met any other woman after we got married.”

You stopped a smile. You are mentally hitting yourself for feeling happy.

“You were really jealous because of that, huh?”, he teased.

“Huh? O-of course not! And why would I even believe you?!Remember our first week here? You brought a woman home.”

“Ah, you’ve misinterpreted that. I did not bring any woman here. I was watching a movie then it has that kind of scene. That was the reason why I was so out-of-my-head when you walked in that morning. I did not know what you were talking about.”

Nothing can explain the embarrassment that you feel. Seungwoo can see that your mind is in a jumble. Whenever he sees you nervous or panicked, he kept help teasing you.

He touched your cheeks, placing his hand on your jaw. He played a smile feeling your tense body. Your eyes dilate and he saw his clear reflection in it. You were looking at him. He closed the distance and gently placed his lips on yours.

“How about we start from the very beginning? Let’s start going on dates, miss virgin”, he teased masked behind a gentle smile.

You pushed him hard, sending him to the other side of the sofa.

“Get away from me! And I’ll stay in the bedroom alone tonight!”

You made sure that he can hear the locked door. Seungwoo on the other hand saw this as a challenge, a fun challenge to top on that.

“Let’s see who will surrender first, y/n”, he said to himself.

a/n : part two to be posted. will explore the development of their relationship in the next part ~

#produce x 101 #produce x 101 scenarios #han seungwoo #victon #victon scenarios #x1 #x1 scenarios #x1 seungwoo #kpop scenarios #kpop fluff #han seungwoo scenarios

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justlookatthosesausages · 4 years

Text

‘Emergence’ - an interactive fanfic

=======

CHAPTER 4

=======

“Odd feelings when you’re around Honeymaren, uh?”

Elsa fidgeted with the sewing of the cushion, not looking up.

“Yes.” She simply muttered, blushing.

“Elsa. Come on. Have you considered that maybe it was... More than just friendship?”

“But... We’ve known each other for several months only...”

“For almost a year”, specified Anna, chuckling. “Sis, this is absolutely normal.”

Elsa looked up, still holding the cushion against her. She had a pout that was a mix of confusion and emotion, and Anna found it adorable.

“Look at you.” Laughed Anna. “You don’t even know what to think.”

The blonde grumbled. “I know very well what I think. My thoughts are very clear.” She groaned and planted her head in the cushion. “...And this is exactly the problem.”

Anna laughed in a light way, as she did for the passed hour.

“Why are you laughing so much?” Pouted Elsa, finally lifting her face and looking at her.

The redhead had her chin against her palm, her elbow on the arm of the seat, smiling widely at Elsa’s fluster. “Because you’re super cute. I haven’t seen you blush like that in a long while.”

“Don’t mock me.” Muttered Elsa, playing with the sewing of the cushion again.

“Okay, I stop. I didn’t want to upset you. It’s just... Gosh, was I in that state in the first months with Kristoff?”

Elsa finally smiled. “Probably. I can’t imagine how I look like, but... You were pretty much starstruck.”

“That’s the word. See? You’re starstruck.” Pointed Anna, who always loved the romantic terms.

The Fifth Spirit clenched the cushion harder, and moaned. “I don’t knowwww... I have to think about it.”

“You think too much.” Reminded Anna, for this was a fact they both knew.

She noticed how obsessed Elsa was about the topic given her body language, and rose up from her seat. “Come on. Let’s go to the village. It’ll change your mind.”

Slowly, Elsa put the cushion aside. Anna grabbed her arm to make her speed up.

“Wh-ANNA!” Exclaimed the blonde, shaken from her daydream.

“You have to see the changes we made in some streets. The Northuldra camp changed? Well, here too!”

They ran in the corridors.

“Change is great.” Smiled Elsa after a while, convinced thanks to Anna’s contagious enthusiasm.

“Change is great.” Winked Anna.

=======

The sun had set over the Forest, and the embers of the fire camp only shone in a fainted light.

“You seem exhausted”, smiled Honeymaren.

Elsa rubbed her eyes. “Yeah, Anna wanted to play charades last night to catch up on all the weeks I couldn’t come. And we did round after round after round... We went to bed at like, 3 in the morning.” Chuckled the blonde. “It was a lot of fun. But now I’m weary.”

Honeymaren laughed at the choice of vocabulary. Elsa still had such royal manners, in her way of acting and talking. She patted their travel bags to make them comfortable to lay on against the tree.

“You shouldn’t have ridden Nokk this morning. You barely slept.”

“I’m good”, said Elsa with a wave of the hand. She however laid down next to Honeymaren, and looked like she was five seconds away from sleeping. “I didn’t want to miss this trip with you. Exploration is important.”

“And I missed you.” Smiled Honeymaren, looking at her.

“What?” Mumbled Elsa.

“Nothing.”

She noticed how the Fifth Spirit was getting more and more sleepy every passing second. “You know that I can see your eyelids getting heavy, right? You should sleep.”

“But I want to stay awake to keep talking with you”, muttered the blonde.

“We have all day tomorrow. And many days afterwards, given how long our trip will be.”

“Okay, but I’m just gonna… Rest my eyes for now…” Said Elsa, her voice drowsy.

She blinked slowly and softly slumbered to sleep, tilting on the bag.

Honeymaren shook her head. “Sleep well, you ethereal dork.”

=======

Elsa squinted at the sudden light. She looked around, confused, even though she knew exactly where she was standing: the memory room of Ahtohallan.

It had come into her dreams again. But this time, Elsa could feel it, she was fully asleep. She shared a mental connection with the magical source; she had discovered during the past months, and it still surprised her just as much as it fascinated her. Only her mind was there - her spirit, she even thought, not missing another occasion to think of a pun - and it was an odd sensation.

Elsa looked around, trying to see what memory Ahtohallan had picked this time. And when she recognized it, her heart fell in her chest.

“Oh no. Really?” She muttered.

There was a wall, being a crucial part of the memory. And a door. Obviously closed. And there was a girl, curled on herself, holding her folded legs against her chest, her head buried in her knees.

Ironically, the ice that composed the memory brilliantly highlighted the giant snowflake pattern that was traced on the door and starting from the back of the girl.

With trembling lips, Elsa stepped to the person, and noticed how their shoulders were shaken by silent sobs. Elsa sighed.

“Why, Ahtohallan?” She asked, out loud.

She looked up and around with a frown.

“WHY?!” She asked, louder.

But her voice only echoed in the chamber and the limits of her dream, and she bit her lip as she looked down, clenching her fists.

The fists that were facing them, however, were closely concealed, almost invisible given how much the girl was hiding them in her curl. And not an inch of skin was visible.

“To think that the gloves actually never were useful…” Murmured Elsa.

She surprised herself. She wouldn’t have thought that her first words when facing this specific memory would be those.

She knew exactly when this scene had happened. For this was a memory of hers. And, noted the Fifth Spirit, it was a memory happening at the exact same time than the one of Anna’s where she attended the funeral. Any minute now, her sister would knock to the door, begging her to open it once again, and slide in sorrow against the cold wood, in every meaning of the term.

The statue of young Elsa sobbed on the floor of the bedroom, and she gently kneeled, as if she was afraid of scaring her. Memories felt so real when it hit right home.

She hesitated at first, but slowly put her hand on her own, young, pained, shoulder. She knew it wouldn’t help. She knew it wouldn’t change anything. But she wanted to.

“This is going to be okay. Everything will get better. Your future will be alright.” Said Elsa.

Her voice was strong, because determined, but also soft, and warm, and maternal.

“I promise you it will.”

And then she melted into tears.

She sobbed for several minutes, in the cruelest of silences, only interrupted by the crystalline sound of her other self also sobbing.

Elsa wiped her tears, and put her second hand on the other shoulder. She would have wanted her younger self to lift her chin, to stare at her, but she knew that back at that time, nothing would make her look up.

The most natural need that came to Elsa’s mind was to tackle the statue in a warm hug. So she did. She wrapped her arms around her and clenched them tight, her eyes close and mouth shut. She felt it in her core.

Maybe it just was her imagination, but it seemed to help. Both of them.

When Elsa opened her eyes, she wasn’t in Ahtohallan anymore. She had opened her eyes in the forest, and she saw the leaves and the trees above her head. She sat up, rubbed her tears from her face, and noticed that the day was about to rise. A few hours had passed.

Next to her, Honeymaren was asleep on the ground, also using her bag as a pillow. Elsa looked around, took a deep breath and stood up.

She needed to take a walk. And to write a letter.

=======

"Morning, Gale.” Said Anna without lifting her eyes from the early paperwork.

The wind spirit twirled as a hello, forming itself with floating grass. Anna liked that she could tell how the weather was like in the Forest based on what the spirit had picked up from the ground and trees. Some of the blades of grass were covered with morning dew, and it brought a delightful perfume in the study.

Anna sniffed the air with a smile. “It smells nice. What brings you so early? You spirits have such ease to wake up in the morning. It took me a full hour to get out of bed.”

Kristoff had given up on waiting for her and left her a kiss on the forehead before going to work, ice harvesting on the top mountains.

Gale flew around the room before depositing a letter on the stack of paperwork next to Anna.

“A letter? From Elsa?” She asked, recognizing the elements symbol that Elsa usually made with ice and affixed on the back of it to seal it.

Anna put her quill back in the ink well, and smiled at how her sister and her had different ways to craft letters. She always folded hers into cute or funny shapes, whereas Elsa’s were always neat and proper, even if she was living in the woods. It told a lot about their personalities.

After thanking Gale, and letting them go by the window, Anna opened the letter and frowned with amusement at Elsa’s handwriting.

“She wrote while walking?” Wondered the Queen out loud.

With the passing year, Anna had become an expert in guessing in which condition her elder wrote her letters. Elsa had a very curved and tidy handwriting, so it was easy to know when she was writing the letters horizontally on her lap, or vertically by leaning against a tree. She could also tell if she was riding Nokk as she wrote because of how jerky the letters were, despite her efforts to focus and the ice plaque she would use as a support. And here, Anna could tell by the slight move of the letters, that Elsa had been walking and writing at the same time.

“I bet you were pacing around as you did...” Muttered Anna.

Shen then read the letter out loud. Both sisters often did so, because it felt like the other was standing right next to them.

‘Anna, I got another vision from Ahtohallan last night. This time, it was one of my memories. Also from the day of the funeral, however from my point of view this time. Don’t worry, I’m alright. We said that we would tell each other everything, so I do, but to be honest I still truly don’t understand why I received this vision. And why both memories were from that day. It can’t be a coincidence that two consecutive flashes of Ahtohallan are simultaneous moments. I’ll probably meditate later in the day to further understand. Maybe I’ll get another vision. Have a beautiful day I love you Elsa’

Anna let out a sigh and let her spine fall on the back of her chair. Her fingers passed along the fresh paper as her mind thought a thousand thoughts. What was Ahtohallan playing at? If it even had a sense of humor? Was it humor? Was it tricking with Elsa? Her elder had told her that only mutual respect resided between them. So why?

The redhead tapped her fingers on her desk. All she wanted was for Elsa to be happy. As she delicately folded the letter and put it aside to store into her box later with all of Elsa’s letters, she hoped that it wasn’t getting too much on her mind.

=======

Mattias chuckled softly, with respect, as Anna ended her long summary of the situation.

“Isn’t it her duty? And quite literally her job? To study the memories?”

Anna groaned and massaged the top of her nose. “Yes. That’s why she got gifted with ice magic at birth in the first place. But still! I’d like her to not be able to see those statues sometimes. It’s gonna drive her crazy. And she should fully enjoy her trip with Honeymaren, not interrupt herself to literally think about the past!”

“I’m certain that she can analyze them and find the reason why Ahtohallan picked those memories without losing her mind to it.” Smiled Mattias reassuringly. “She gained that knowledge and mastering, you know it.”

Anna pouted, turning to him as she was leaned on the stone railing of the harbor. “Why are you so right? And wise? Sometimes it’s a pain.”

“I do believe that it’s why you made me your counselor, Your Majesty.”

Anna’s pout turned into a soft smile. “Yes.”

Mattias winked, but still kept his stiffened posture, his hands in his back. He noticed that Anna groaned at bit as she massaged the back of her neck.

“You’re still hurt?”

“I’m fine”, assured Anna.

The general coughed lightly. “It’s not too late to cancel today’s meeting, you know.”

The redhead waved at him to dismiss the idea. “Keep positive. It’s gonna be alright.”

She stepped closer. “How’s my eye? Does it look bad?”

Mattias bent his head to inspect her in every angle, imagining the view of diplomats. “Hmmm… I think you’re good.”

“You hesitated.” Snorted Anna.

He frowned. “No, I didn’t. I was just–”

“I’m just kidding. It’s a private joke.”

“Oh.”

He wondered what she meant by ‘private joke’.

“HEY!” Yelled someone, and it was so loud and coming out of nowhere that Mattias and Anna frowned before turning around.

A man approached the part of the harbor they were walking in, and Anna instantly recognized him as one of the men she had knocked down at the pub.

“You!! I haven’t forgotten. You thought I’d be as drunk and amnesic as my friends, but I’m NOT! I know what you did and I WILL get my revenge.”

Anna lifted an eyebrow, surprised by his courage but unimpressed anyway. He suddenly dashed forward, genuinely wanting to either punch or strangle her, and Arendelle guards instantly ran in between them, blocking his way with their shields.

It was a good thing that Anna always was surrounded by soldiers when she was out of the castle. Nevertheless, they didn’t even need to take their swords out. The man stopped right in his tracks, grumbling.

“Hiding behind your personal guard, uh?”

“I don’t need to hide from you or to be protected”, puffed Anna, stepping forward. “You don’t scare me.”

The guards holding the man away turned around a bit at her sentence. Mattias signed to Anna with a warning hand near her arm.

“Your Majesty, it would be imprudent to let him go through.” He advised in a whisper.

Anna kept her eyes on the brute, who was still frowning and fulminating. One of the guards felt offended for his Queen when he muttered a swear towards her, clearly readable on her lips. The soldier had to restrain himself to not take his sword out right then and slice his face, and Anna realized that defending the honor of others apparently was something common in Arendelle. She smiled at that, and balled her fist in pride. She still had some bruises on it, and was willing to make her knuckles bleed again if needed.

“I don’t regret anything of what happened that night.” Stated Anna, her voice strong and confident, clear for him to hear from where he was. The bystanders’ gazes switched from her to the man.

The redhead stepped forward again, in a poised slow pace. “You disrespected your former Queen, and deserved to be corrected.”

“I only said the truth.” Spit the man. “And is that a way you listen to your people’s opinions, my Queen??” He blurted, accusing her.

Anna frowned and accelerated her pace. Mattias grabbed her arm to prevent her from going further. “Your Majesty, no.”

“Is that the way you treat people who disagree with you? By PUNCHING them?” Jolted the man, despite being hold by the soldiers’ shields.

He had raised his voice to take the villagers as witnesses. Some exchanged whispers, trying to understand what was going on. Anna’s mouth twisted.

“Disagreeing? You openly accused her of decisions and acts she never committed. Elsa did not abandon you, and you know that.”

Mattias could feel the way Anna’s muscles had just tensed under his hand.

“You all know that!” Said Anna, rising her voice as well to talk to the villagers.

“Peh. This is all sweet talk. She deserted and abdicated anyway, like the coward she is!” He groaned.

That was the trigger for Anna. Never would she let anyone call Elsa a coward.

She was strong enough to get out of Mattias’ hands, but he quickly ran to place himself in front of her, and faced his monarch.

“Anna. Don’t.”

The redhead blinked of surprise at the sudden use of her first name. Not that she didn’t like it - after all, Mattias and her had met each other in less formal ways, and she didn’t mind that he called her Anna - but he rarely did, and at his expression, she knew that it was because he got worried.

She looked at him, and they stared at each other for a moment, then she exhaled and sighed. “Alright”, she whispered. He was wiser than her for impetuous behaviors.

His shoulders slumped in relief, and he indicated her accompany him back to the castle. She did, and they walked along the harbor.

“Can I at least punch him in the arm? Just the arm.” She joked.

Mattias snorted. “No. Go on, we need to prepare the meeting anyway.”

“DON’T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME!” Yelled the man.

Anna turned around, gave a sign to the soldiers, and they nodded before pushing him away.

“Sir, I’ll ask you to leave or we lock you in jail for direct aggression to the Queen.”

“Direct aggression to the–”, he repeated. “But she’s not even the Queen! She got Queen by default!”

“Sir, this is your last warning”, frowned another guard.

The man spit on his uniform. The closest people in the crowd gasped.

“You’re just a bootlicker. Go eat a d–”

“Yes, that’s enough.” Interrupted the soldier, and they all grabbed his arms to walk him to the jail.

As Anna entered the castle’s walls, she gave a quick glance behind, and saw the Arendelle guards violently taking him away.

She sighed, and lowered her eyes.

=======

“Are you certain that it’s that way?” Asked Elsa.

Honeymaren put her hands on her hips, pretending to be offended. “What, you doubt of my sense of direction?”

Elsa smirked, feeling her sarcasm. “Well, you said you guided yourself with the stars. But you only saw an actual sky for less than a year, no?”

Her friend bumped her in the arm. “Don’t be mean! And there were stars during the fog. We just didn’t see the day sky.”

She twirled her staff, and used it as she walked forward. “Trust me. We’re going in the right direction.”

Elsa crossed her arms with a mocking expression. “Oh yeah? Then why are you heading East?”

Honeymaren frowned. “I’m not--” She interrupted herself, checking her compass. She did it discreetly, just in case she was wrong. She was. “Yeah, okay, I maybe shouldn’t have turned left at the last path... Wait, how can you know we’re heading East?”

Elsa smiled, pointing at the sky, or rather the air in general. “I can feel where the North is.”

The Sami woman puffed. “What, at all times?”

The blonde nodded. “Yes. It’s like... How can I describe it... Like I’m magnetized to it. I just can tell where it is. Permanently.”

Honeymaren thought she was joking, and was about to laugh, then realized that Elsa was serious. “Oh. Really? So... You’re a compass by yourself, then?”

Elsa wanted to reply, but froze in her move with her mouth open when she noticed that she actually was right. “I... Yeah, I suppose. I never thought of it that way.”

The brunette discarded her compass in her pocket. “Alright. Where are we heading, compass spirit?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Direction spirit?”

“Stop.”

“Map spirit.”

“Honey!”

The woman stopped talking, and they both froze. A blank floated in the air.

“-maren.” Forced to finished Elsa, blushing furiously.

Honeymaren blushed herself, and it took her a while to put words in her brain correctly to reply.

“What did you-”

“I just gave you a short name. It’s just a shorter version of your name. It’s no big deal. I just said the beginning of your name. I still called you by your name.”

That sounded way too defensive and fast from Elsa’s tone, and Honeymaren stared at her in confusion.

“...Okay.”

“We do it all the time. In Arendelle. Of course, you surely do it as well here. Among the Northuldra.” Blabbered Elsa, blushing more and more, and waving her hands around, much to Honeymaren’s amusement. “It’s a very common thing. It’s like when Anna calls Kristoff ‘Kris’. Wait, not like when Anna calls Kristoff...”

She sighed and buried her face in her hands.

“Forget everything that I said.” She mumbled, her voice masked by her hands.

Elsa was so ashamed that she wanted the ground to swallow her, or to run away and hide in an ice cave.

“It’s okay.” Smiled Honeymaren. “It’s just a short name.” She added, imitating Elsa’s voice.

The blonde groaned in her hands, and slid them to look at her above her fingers.

“I’m sorry.”

“You did nothing wrong.” Giggled Honeymaren.

“I’m just really tired...” Mumbled Elsa.

Honeymaren put a hand on her shoulder. “We can remain silent for the following hour of walk.”

“Good idea.”

“So, where’s West?”

Elsa pointed at the plains with her finger.

“Okay. Come on, let’s go!”

The blonde followed her, not saying a word. As Honeymaren walked in front of her and couldn’t see her, she checked above her head to see if there were snowflakes floating in the air. She gasped in relief when she saw none.

=======

So much fun in writing those chapters! :D

What happens next? This is an interactive fanfic! You get to choose. What do you want to see next? What could be the plot of the next chapter? I listen to you! Give suggestions in your reblogs, fellas!

#the interactions between anna and mattias is something i can't wait to do again haha #if you guys have a wish list about them go on because it boosted me up lol #what do you want to read next? unleash your ideas!#emergence #interactive fanfic #frozen 2 #frozen 2 spoilers #post frozen 2 #frozen 2 fanfics #frozen fanfics #frozen #queen anna #fifth spirit elsa #frohana #lieutenant mattias

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sethrine-writes · 4 years

Text

Devil-sitter May Cry, Ch. 3

Pairing: Dante x F!Reader, Vergil x F!Reader (Undecided)

Words: 2150

Warning: Cuteness, Defensive/protective Nero

Story Summary: Low on cash and desperate for a job, you reply to a flyer for a babysitting position. Little did you know that the opportunity to watch over two special boys would bring your life so much mayhem and adventure…and, perhaps, a chance at a family of your own.

A/N: First day on the job! How does the morning go down? Guess you gotta read to find out...!

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Chapter 3 - Early Morning Start

Waking up at 5:30 a.m. had never brought upon such relief and excitement as it did that particular morning.

The brothers of Devil May Cry had asked you to be at the shop by around seven, and given your one-hour commute, the early morning wake-up was a necessary evil you would gladly deal with.

A hasty breakfast of toast and the last few dredges of orange juice in your fridge were downed quickly as you rushed to get ready for the day ahead. You flung your bag over your shoulder, ensuring for the third time since waking that your bus pass was in the front pocket, and practically ran out the door and out of the complex to the bus stop just down the block.

Devil May Cry was on the other side of Red Grave City, and you happened to live near the outskirts of the bordering town. Luckily, the bus route had a drop off close to the shop, barely a five minute walking distance that gave you time to, once again, calm the nervous energy that had been building during your ride.

First day jitters were always the worst, but having met the boys beforehand gave your mind a sense of ease you were glad to have.

You approached the shop with time to spare, enough to ask any last-minute questions you had about caring for the boys. Just as you made to open the door, it swung out, revealing a grinning Dante on the other side.

"Ah, right on time," he mused, and you barely had a moment to wonder how he knew you were right there in the first place before you were being ushered inside.

"We got an easy job lined up for today," he began straight away, "so we should be back before dinner time, if everything goes smoothly. If not, then the boys will be sure to hound you for something decent to eat, so anything in the fridge is fair game."

You nodded along as Dante gave you the general run-down of how the day usually progressed, as well as giving you some tips for general things that would come in handy for caring for the boys. He even ensured you knew the basics of answering the phone, just in case a call came in.

"I think Vergil wrote some other things down," Dante mused after a moment, shifting some papers around on the much neater-looking desk with a bit of confusion.

"On your left," Vergil spoke up suddenly, nearly causing you to jump out of your skin with how close he was. Where did he even come from?!

"You're really good at that sneaking thing," you said aloud, flustered from having been surprised.

"So I've been told," he all but deadpanned as he moved to the opposite side of the desk and plucked a small notebook from under a few sealed envelopes.

"I've not written much," he said, "only the most important details. See to it that V's schedule is kept to."

Vergil held the small notebook out to you, of which you took immediately from his grasp. You thanked him sincerely, of which earned you a small nod from the intimidating man.

"I think you've got it from here," Dante grunted as he hefted what looked like a massive sword over his shoulder with ease, one you hadn't realized had been leaning against the desk this whole time. You were sure your eyes were as big as saucers at seeing such a display, forgetting momentarily that you had been hired by demon hunters to watch over their sons.

"Y-yeah, of course," you assured, rattling off the few things that deemed to be highlighted. "Uh, Nero is high-energy, so keep him snacked up and occupied; inhaler for V is in the second desk drawer; outside play after lunch; no naps after three, or bedtime will be hell. And keep to V's schedule, got it."

"She may survive us, yet," Dante chuckled as he glanced over to Vergil, who answered with a quirk of a smile.

You only had that moment to really study the twins and their attire, how they both wore full length coats made of well-worn leather, hands braced with fingerless gloves. Instead of a massive sword like Dante's, Vergil held a sleek katana within his grasp, elegant in its design, from what you were able to see of it.

They were so very different.

"Nero and V are awake," Vergil informed as he and Dante moved toward the front doors. "They will be ready for breakfast."

"I'll get to it, then," you assured, watching the twins head out. As a final thought, you couldn't help but wish them luck on their hunt.

"Be careful out there!"

They both turned to fix you with oddly amused looks, Dante giving a playful scoff as Vergil simply continued out the door.

"Don't miss us too much, babe," Dante parted with a wink, and just like that, you were left alone in the main room of Devil May Cry, both a business and home to two demon hunters and their young sons, of whom you would be watching over for the foreseeable future.

What a world you lived in.

You glanced down at the small notebook in your hand, flipping it open to find Vergil's neat penmanship inside. True to his word, there were bullets of immediate information, such as specific times V usually did specific things. Medicine and stretches after breakfast, usually a small nap after outside play, and more stretches right before dinner.

Bedtime routine wouldn't be necessary for your first day on the job, but it was nice that Vergil had the forethought to jot everything down for when you would inevitably need it. You'd been told they had hectic schedules and often responded to calls as they came in, so there were certain to be days you would be on night watch, as well.

Closing the notebook, you placed it within your bag for safekeeping, hefting the tote off your shoulder and leaving it in the chair behind the desk for the time being.

The kitchen entrance was just to the left side of the desk, obscured somewhat by a slight wall partition. You made your way into the area, finding the kitchen and dining area modest in size and pretty well kept. The counters and stove top were clean, as was the table, yet there were some dishes left in one side of the double sinks from what looked like their dinner the night previous.

Well, they were busy, single dads who ran a business together - what did you honestly expect?

Already set on the task at hand, you began shifting the dishes about as you filled the opposite side with warm, soapy water. You'd be dirtying some, anyways, so there wasn't really any reason to leave soiled plates and pans and cutlery lying about if you were already going to wash what you used.

It was as you were sliding the dirty dishes into their makeshift bubble bath to soak that you heard movement from behind, a yawn and the soft little thumps of feet hitting hardwood.

You turned, smiling sweetly at finding Nero and V standing just outside the kitchen, groggy-eyed and still sporting their pajamas.

"Good morning, you two," you greeted warmly, shifting into babysitter mode, or as your best friend liked to call it, your "mother hen" mode.

"Morning," Nero replied, followed by a grumbled, sleepy version of V's own greeting as he yawned and rubbed at his eyes sleepily.

It seemed he was a bit more on the sluggish side, but Nero took it in stride and carefully led V by the hand toward the table, ensuring his cousin had made it into the chair before taking up the one right beside him.

Frankly, it was an incredibly cute display, one you had a feeling you would be seeing quite a lot of in the future.

"Anything in particular you boys want for breakfast?" you asked as you opened the fridge, finding a decent variety of foods for both meals and snacks. "I was thinking maybe omelets-"

"Oh, spinach and cheese and bacon!" Nero shouted out excitedly, hands fisted against the table in an eager display. "V likes ham and cheese in his."

"Yeah? Well, I think I can manage that just fine. How about some juice?"

"Orange juice!"

"Apple, please."

You grabbed the two containers and set them on the counter, rummaging through the upper cabinets until you came across the cups. You poured each juice a little over halfway to avoid any major spills and handed them over, orange for Nero, and apple for V.

They both thanked you and smiled big, Nero almost immediately downing half his cup's worth while V sipped at his as he slowly continued to blink away the lingering sleepiness he held.

Satisfied that the boys were placated for the moment, you went about starting breakfast, gathering all the ingredients and rummaging around to find the utensils necessary to cook with. Lucky for you, it wasn't too hard to find what you needed, and within minutes, the kitchen was smelling of fried bacon and ham pieces.

As you cooked, you could hear Nero talking animatedly to V about the dream he had last night, going into vivid detail about the monsters he fought on a far-off planet.

It still amazed you just how vibrant a child Nero was, especially after seeing his bashful demeanor upon your first meeting. It really did seem like he was just wary of new people, not necessarily shy, just guarded. Once he'd gotten a chance to be around you, it had been such a jarring change into seeing his true personality, and it was largely thanks to V's eagerness to include Nero in what he had been doing.

You continued to muse on your thoughts while cooking, plating up the omelets as they finished. You then made your way back to the table and placed their respective meals in front of them, once again heralding thanks and sweet grins as both of them dug in.

Satisfied, you went back to the double sinks, going about washing the dishes that had been soaking. Luckily, there weren't too many, and the stuck-on bits were washing away with relative ease.

"Aren't you going to eat, too?" V asked suddenly.

"I already had breakfast before I got here," you assured, turning to see that Nero had nearly devoured his omelet, already over halfway finished with his meal.

You were suddenly glad you had made his out of two eggs instead of just one.

V stared at you for a long moment as if contemplating something, but eventually tucked back into his food with a little smile. You paused to refill their cups with juice and handed over napkins for messy mouths, moving back to finish off the previous night's dishes and beginning on the ones you had just sullied..

When you turned back to see if V had finally finished so that you could gather their plates, you were met with Nero eating half an omelet, and V missing his plate.

"Whoa, hey!" you startled, catching the boys' abrupt attention. "Nero, isn't that V's?"

Nero's baby blues narrowed immediately in a defensive way, but V was quick to cut in.

"I was finished! I got full," he said, though you were momentarily doubtful.

"You sure? You didn't eat very much," you gently questioned.

"I don't really eat like Nero does," he supplied with a little smile. "Uncle Dante says he's got lots of energy that needs lots of fuel, but I don't have that."

"And that's okay," Nero defended rather vehemently, "because you can still do lots of things, and I can help finish them. Like breakfast. And races in the park."

"Alright, alright, I understand," you appeased, though it was something that was still cause for some concern. "I'm not angry. I'm still learning how you guys do things, so be patient with me, and I'll keep a willing and open mind, okay? If there's something I need to know, don't hesitate to tell me."

V nodded as Nero gave a somewhat affirmative hum, though he still seemed a bit defensive, perhaps still thinking he was getting in trouble. Whatever the case, you cleared the table once he finished off the rest of V's omelet, leaving behind their juice cups, and made back to the soapy water.

"Why don't you two go get dressed for the day, and we can do V's morning stretches before finding something fun to play. Sound good?"

Both V and Nero seemed on board with the plan, both scooting out of their seats with more vigor than they came into the kitchen with, finally up and at 'em and ready for the day.

Something told you that you had your work cut out for you.

#dmc #devil may cry #dmc dante #dmc vergil #dmc nero #dmc v #dmc au #kid nero #kid v #babysitter au #reader #reader-insert #female reader

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thefinalcinderella · 5 years

Text

Tsurune Book 2 Chapter 6-Door (Part 1)

We’re in the endgame now...

This chapter was surprisingly dramatic. Some people get trapped in an elevator, someone gets hospitalized, and someone declares to someone else that they will make a world without hitting or missing...this chapter took a while. Hopefully, I can finish the book before September ends.

Full list of translations here

Glossary here

Translation Notes

1. Nanao lists a bunch of dishes from all over Japan. Imoni is a type of taro and meat soup eaten in the Tohoku region. Beef tongue, or gyuutan, was a dish created in Sendai. Wappameshi is a dish cooked in wooden containers and a specialty of the Niigata prefecture. Zunda mochi is a Tohoku specialty where rice cakes are coated with soy bean paste. Ika ninjin is a pickled mixture of dried squid and carrots, which is a specialty in Fukushima.

2. The bull’s eye of a hoshi-mato is called a zuboshi in Japanese. Zuboshi o sasu (to guess exactly right) literally means pointing at the bull’s eye.

3. The word used here, geki (檄), can mean encouragement as well as manifesto.

4. This was a bit confusing for me, but I think it’s connected to the idea of seven mysteries (fushigi) (a common trope in manga set in high schools) and how meeting one of them would bring you bad luck.

5. This is a reference to Shutaro Mendo, a character from the famous manga Urusei Yatsura who is the heir to a rich family and has claustrophobia.

6. “Form is emptiness” and the Heart Sutra are kind of the same thing in Buddhism. I think it means that everything is dependent on their parts and causes, and that forms themselves are inherently empty of existence???? Buddhism is complicated

Previous | Next

Anvil clouds floated distinctly against the sky.

In order to participate in the Interscholastic Athletic Meet Kyudo Tournament, Minato and the others took a connecting bullet train up north. August, over four days. The start of a hot and passionate summer for high school archers.

In the train, Minato, Seiya, and Ryouhei sat in a three-seat row, Kaito and Nanao sat in a two-seat row next to them, and Masa-san and Tommy-sensei sat behind them. So that their bows would not hinder the people around them, they had them put in the gap between the seats and the wall at the back of the car.

Ryouhei and Nanao promptly opened the seals on their bags of sweets. They proceeded to barter across the aisle.

Kaito wrinkled his brow.

"I can't believe you guys can eat so many sweets so often. Just looking at them gives me heartburn."

"Huh? When I get on a vehicle, I get kinda hungry, you know? Imoni, beef tongue, wappameshi, zunda mochi, ika ninjin! (1) Aah, what to eat?"

"Don't eat so much. Eating too much for lunch and getting sleepy, then not feeling so good in the afternoon even though you felt fine in the morning, is a thing that happens."

"Are you not eating then, Kacchan? As in, local cuisine?"

"No, I am though."

"Right?"

Nanao and Ryouhei were energetic since morning, but Minato was flipping through the provided booklet and drinking tea, unable to settle down if he wasn’t doing something.

Seiya spoke.

"Minato, it’s still too early to be nervous. We’re scheduled to shoot at the practice hall today first, after all. Apparently, we can do a practice round of four shots at the actual venue."

"When we got on the train, I just thought, it's finally time."

"I'm excited. To be able to shoot on such a big stage is like a dream. We've done all that we can, so the rest is just managing our health over these four days, I guess."

"Yeah, that's right."

Minato leaned back deeply into his seat and closed his eyes.

They entered the first day.

Shajos for groups of ten people appeared in a wide arena that was used for championship ball game matches and other events. The green mat that resembled the lawn of a yamichi dazzled the eyes. The stands were filled in all directions, and there were many camera lenses pointed at the competitors for web broadcasts and photos. Unlike the semi-open-air kyudojos, sounds echoed, so if one shouted a yagoe, it seemed like it would rebound and pierce one’s own heart.

The competition event was short-distance shooting, divided into girls’ and boys’ divisions, and the categories were group competitions and individual competitions. The targets used were wooden-framed kasumi-mato with a diameter of thirty-six centimeters. Two shajos for groups of ten, the space between the archers were a hundred and eighty centimeters, and the shooting distance was twenty-eight meters.

Following the opening ceremony, the girls’ individual competition began. The preliminaries and semifinals would have four rounds of shooting, and those who had three or more hits would advance. The preliminaries were done in rissha, and from the semifinals on, the matches would be done in zasha.

Kazemai High School was only in the group tournament, but Kirisaki High School’s Shuu was in the boys’ individual competition. His presence that surpassed others could not fade under any circumstances. Even in the most crowded places, one could quickly find Shuu.

Ryouhei spoke to Minato.

"Shuu-kun's as cool as ever. You'd know that he's definitely skilled just from seeing his standing figure."

"Yeah, exactly."

Shuu and Nikaidou both had a four-shot kaichuu, and passed the preliminaries and semifinals.

The individual competition finals were an "izume" competition. The current tournament had twenty-seven competitors.

Each person shot an arrow, the ones who missed were eliminated, and those who hit carried out their next shot. The one who continued to hit to the end was the winner. However, in the event that everyone missed, they can shoot once more.

Shuu and Nikaidou smoothly continued to hit, and from the fifth round, their targets were switched to twenty-four centimeters hoshi-mato. Hoshi-mato were targets with a single black circle in the middle of a white background, and that black circle was called the "zuboshi" which was the origin of the phrase used often in everyday life, "zuboshi o sasu" (to guess exactly right). (2)

In the sixth round, five people, including Shuu and Nikaidou, were left.

In the seventh round, one person was out, and after the eighth round, it became a one-on-one battle between Shuu and Nikaidou.

Nine shots, then ten.

In the midst of the enormous round of applause, the archer who kept hitting until the end slowly blinked his pale, thinly pigmented eyelashes.

The second day. The start of the group tournaments.

Teams were composed of one manager and six athletes, with five starting members. Up to three athlete substitutions were allowed. Each team had a total of twenty shots, and the top thirty-two teams with the most amount of hits would advance. The time limits were eight minutes for zasha and seven minutes for rissha. In the case of competitions that determine which team would advance past the preliminaries due to a tie, each person would shoot one arrow.

Minato’s team hung their ID cards from their necks, attached their numbers to their right hips, and put on their yellow-green headbands. The girls’ division took place in the morning, and the boys’ division would take place in the afternoon. Their parents, the girl members, and the elite members of the Nanao Fan Club, rushed to support them over a long and distant journey. The stands were divided into blocks of average people and competitors, and female staff members were patrolling around with plates that read "Please stay quiet during the competition.”

While waiting for their turn, the Kirisaki archers appeared before Minato. He readied himself to exchange sharp words with the twins, but their treatments of him were different.

Manji opened his mouth.

"I heard that the suggestion for me to shoot together with Shuu while standing behind him came from you and that coach of yours."

"Are you saying that I did something uncalled for?"

"Teams from the same prefecture would be separated into different blocks for the finals tournament. We’ll be waiting for you guys in the finals."

"Oh, yeah, wait for us," Minato answered.

Senichi and Manji stepped back, and then Shuu stepped forward between the two. His silhouette was bordered in gold, and it seemed like there was a blue-purple flame swaying upwards.

Shuu smiled brilliantly.

"Hey, Minato. I owe you for the other day."

"Congrats on winning the individual competition, Shuu. Your shooting was kinda like Saionji-sensei's."

"Fufu… Are you planning on pleasing me and make me turn into a fool? I will embody 'one shot and expire’ at this tournament."

"…One shot and expire?"

"That's right. A world where, other than drawing a bow and releasing an arrow, there are no such things as hitting and missing——. Minato, you follow me too."

Only informing Minato of that, Shuu left without waiting for a response.

What’s with Shuu?

Did he meant to do a Zen dialogue kind of thing here? I couldn’t even raise a question, much less answer him.

Tommy-sensei and Masa-san stood before the five boys.

"Thank you all for continuing to practice up to now. I have received all of your tenacity, for certain. Now, let’s start the mission!"

"Yes!"

Minato and others entered the third waiting room. When they were there, they felt like warriors taking on a battle. Beyond the partitioning white cloth was the shajo, and the moment one came out there, the immoveable enemy would be right before one's eyes.

They advanced to the second waiting room, and when they entered the shajo, they sat down in the chairs of the first waiting room.

At the signal to "start," they did their yuu bows and stepped forward to the shooting line, then they did ashibumi without squatting. They selected a pair of arrows from four.

First was to shoot was the oomae, Kaito. He carefully brought the tip of his arrow closer to the center of the target, and waited for the moment of release. After his arrow headed for the target along with a nimble yugaeri, there were shouts of "Alright!"

When Kaito was entering kai, the second archer, Ryouhei, raised his bow. His recent progress was amazing. He was so honest and straightforward that he absorbed what he learned as he was taught them. A lively matooto sounded.

The third archer, Seiya, was unusually relaxed. At the prefectural tournament, he was a bundle of nerves with a prim face on, but this time, the unity of the five was excellent, and he felt like they could win the championship like this. Of course, he hit.

It was then the fourth archer’s—Nanao’s—turn. The group with the yellow-green frog-shaped uchiwa fans in their hands pitched forward. While being aware of his tenouchi, Nanao carefully drew his bow. A circle appeared on the scoreboard, and the Nanao Fan Club elites sent out a big shout of support.

The fifth archer, the ochi, was Minato. The pain in his wrist was completely gone. He tensed his little finger, stretched his elbow, and stretched himself in all directions as much as possible. His arrow shot through the target with a ringing tsurune.

The five-person kaichuu was clinched, and a huge round of applause swelled from the venue. In the stands, Hanazawa, Shiragiku, and Seo were doing fist pumps in their minds.

"They did it! The boys were incredible from the very beginning."

"So you've been enlightened or something?"

"Maybe."

In the second round, the five got a kaichuu once again, and the Kazemai High School cheering squad was unexpectedly enlivened.

However, in the third round, Ryouhei, Seiya, and Nanao missed.

In the fourth round, Kaito had one more shot to go for a kaichuu, but missed and exited the shajo. Minato got a four-shot kaichuu and there was a round of applause.

As a result, Kazemai High School had three, three, three, three, four—a total of sixteen hits.

When all the teams finished shooting, the results were that Kirisaki High School and Tsujimine High School both had eighteen hits.

The three schools were in the top rankings and would advance.

The third day.

The finals tournament finally began.

This day was done in two matches, until it was whittled down to the best sixteen.

Their first match was with Iwakurisawa High School. They stood out quite a lot due to their buzz cuts and bright red headbands. When the person who appeared to be the captain commanded in a loud voice, "Form lines!", the athletes and cheering squad quickly formed five rows.

Their manager, with a similarly shaved head, issued a manifesto of encouragement. (3)

"All of you, things like losing to a school with only first-years are not needed!"

"Yes, sir."

"Too quiet!"

"Yes, sir!"

At that ferociousness that was more like something from the military than sports-oriented, the athletes from the other schools drew back a little. However, with the influence of their opponent’s manager, Minato’s team became calmer instead. They did rissha in the preliminaries, but from now on they would be doing zasha. From the stands, Masa-san watched Kazemai High School enter the first shajo and Iwakurisawa High School enter the second.

From "standing" to the end of "nocking," the five people’s movements were matching each other’s as much as possible, but Iwakurisawa was all over the place, and it could be perceived that they didn’t even feel like getting it together. And conversely, the timing to stand for the first shooting round was said to be when the person in front stood and put their right fist on their hip, but the five people from Iwakurisawa stood up together and did ashibumi together. Although it was alright as long as one didn’t overtake the movements of the person in front of them, there was a sense of discomfort felt from looking at that.

After they began shooting, shouts of "Alright!" came for both teams in succession.

Iwakurisawa used a shooting method where they moved themselves towards the targets to the extent that they were tilting their bodies. They firmly pushed their left arms and released their arrows immediately with just their right hands. It was a unique way of shooting, but they hit very well with it. But there was one person who was being put into disorder. The arrows their ochi was releasing were scattering left and right, and their landing spots were in disarray.

On the other hand, the Kazemai High School Kyudo Club showcased their composed shooting. Their raised their bows with their right arms and passed the initiative to the left arms at daisan. Rolling the targets that could be seen around their left elbows to above their arms and moving it to their fists, they then moved their right hands to their shoulders and pointed their right elbows to their hips before parting their bows. When they entered kai, they quietly exhaled. They flicked their right thumbs and their arrows rushed towards the targets.

For the results, Iwakurisawa had four, three, three, four, and one hit for a total of fifteen hits. Kazemai, opposing them, had four, two, four, three, and three hits and won with a total of sixteen hits.

After the first match was over, Tommy-sensei praised them all. No matter how old one was, words of praise from one’s teacher were something to be happy about. Next to them, the Iwakurisawa manager was yelling at their ochi.

"If you missed the first shot, then shouldn’t you change your aim for the second shot!? Why did you miss three of them!?"

"I’m sorry…"

"Why aren't you able to do what I taught you!?"

"I’m sorry, I’m so sorry——!"

The ochi continued to apologize, but his manager did not stop rebuking him. The voice that was relentlessly criticizing someone who had already broken down into tears was painful for those who were listening to it as well.

When Minato took a step, he heard a loud fit of coughing.

"Kaaaaa—" Coughing sounds. "Ah, please excuse me. As one gets older, there would be more phlegm stuck in one’s throat." Another cough.

The sounds of the Iwakurisawa manager’s rebukes were drowned out by the incessant and violent coughing. Perhaps their interest was dampened, Iwakurisawa High School started to move in silence. If Minato and the others copied them, they could be adding fuel to the fire, and the people around them couldn’t close their open mouths at the feat only Tommy-sensei could do.

The second match began. Their opponent was Chikuten High School.

The Chikuten oomae was petite but the ace of his team, and was skilled enough to be in the top three of the individual competition. The other members’ standing postures were also good, and they looked quite dignified. When they stood at the shooting line, they took forward-bent postures. They raised their bows while keeping that tilt, firmly put in their shoulders and pushed open their bows. Their arrows headed towards their targets with a sharp release.

Of course, Minato’s team did not yield to them either. The five’s movements were perfectly overlapping from moving their bows to nocking, showing their amount of training. They drew their bows to the limit and waited for the moment to release their arrows.

At the end of the four rounds, Ryouhei and Nanao got kaichuu, and they got three, four, three, four, three hits for a total of seventeen hits.

At the end of the tie-breaking match, Kazemai won with four hits to three.

Minato, dressed in the casual outfit of a t-shirt and a jersey, was on the first floor of his hotel.

After the schedule for the third day was over, the manager and athletes went back to their hotel to rest their bodies. This hotel had twelve floors and was fully equipped with a large public bath, and Minato was returning to his room after having finished bathing a step before everyone else.

Tomorrow, the curtains would close on the high school generals. He wondered what kind of results would be waiting for them. If they went on winning at this rate, they would face Kirisaki High School, where Shuu was.

Drawing their bows at the same place, at the same time.

The secret, violent throbbing in his chest would not stop until the competition was over.

When Minato headed for the elevator landing, he saw someone he recognized there. It seemed like he had also just come out of the bath.

"Nikaidou-senpai."

"…Yo. I sure bump into you a lot, Minato-chan. I don’t even use the elevator normally, so this must be fate or something."

"Oh, I saw the notice on the way here. It seems that the stairs can’t be used due to a lighting failure. Nikaidou-senpai, you have a rule of not using the elevator or escalator as much as possible to train your legs, right?"

"That’s Minato-chan for ya. You even remember stuff that don’t even matter. Even though I was able to use the stairs on the way to the baths, but, well, things happen sometimes."

Staying in the same lodgings as Tsujimine High School again was unlucky. The desire to not meet each other as much as possible was probably mutual for the two of them. They waited for the elevator to come in silence, and then got in when the doors opened.

Nikaidou asked him a question.

"What floor?"

"Eighth floor, please."

"Got it."

He pressed the buttons for the seventh and eighth floors. The elevator rose with an indistinct sound.

Four, five, six…

They would finally be approaching the seventh floor soon.

Minato was at the back of the elevator, and Nikaidou stood before the doors as he was about to get off. But, the elevator stopped just a little bit before its destination.

"…The hell? The door’s not opening."

Nikaidou pressed several of the buttons, but nothing happened. Minato also tried pressing the buttons as a test, but the results were the same.

"Oi oi, is this for real…"

"Should I try pressing the call button?"

"Go ahead."

After Minato pressed the button, a voice could be heard from the speaker.

"What is the problem?"

"The elevator stopped and the doors aren’t opening."

"We are very sorry for the inconvenience. Which floor did the elevator stop near? Also, how many people are in the elevator?"

"We’re almost at the seventh floor. There are two people."

"Understood. We will now be sending people to your location, so please wait. They will arrive in about fifteen minutes."

The voice broke off.

That they were trapped in an elevator in a place like this was completely unexpected. It wasn’t like they didn’t feel like they could get out if they force the door open either, but for now they could only wait. It was fifteen minutes of endurance.

When the two left the elevator panel, the lights suddenly went out.

"Uwah!"

Nikaidou slammed his hand against the wall hard, and the impact caused the elevator to shake violently. That made the fact that they were in a hanging box right now feel all the more real.

"Are you okay, Nikaidou-senpai?"

"Shut up, I was just surprised!"

Nikaidou’s voice echoed in the cramped chamber. Minato could even hear the sound of him clicking his tongue. In the darkness, the two held their breaths, at a loss as to what to do.

They waited for the time to pass without stirring a muscle.

Footsteps could be heard from somewhere, passing by.

The lights came back on after a while, and they became able to maintain their sight. Minato rubbed his chest with a sigh of relief, but a strange change was happening in Nikaidou.

His complexion was bad, and there was cold sweat beading on his forehead. He was panting in quick, rough breaths, and then he bent at his waist and curled his back. Perhaps not being able to stand, he pushed his body against the wall and scrunched down.

"Shit, what the hell is this crap… I need to get out of here now. Pretty sure it’s been fifteen minutes a long time ago…"

During Minato’s hospitalization, he had had similar symptoms.

He reached out his hand to rub Nikaidou’s back.

"Don’t touch me!"

"Nikaidou-senpai, you are probably hyperventilating. You are breathing in too much oxygen. Please breathe more slowly."

"Shut up. Don’t order me around…"

"I am not. I think it will soothe you, so please try it."

"Shut the hell up! This is all because I’m riding the same elevator as someone like you. I need to get out of here, now!"

Beneath his pale face, his eyes shone with a tinge of bloodlust.

"…It’s all your fault. Heard that the Kazemai coach got injured protecting you, didn’t he? Misfortune befalls anyone involved with you…"

Minato felt like he had been struck with a blunt object. He couldn’t deny it and the core of his head was numb. Before his eyes was a person who was clearly in bad condition and becoming panicked, but since he was told that anyone who gets involved with him becomes unlucky, he wouldn’t be able to interfere with him. But, there should be some way calm him down.

Think, think.

Rack your brain.

Minato crouched down and matched Nikaidou’s gaze.

"Nikaidou-senpai, if you sleep here, a zashiki-warashi will come and draw whiskers on your face, you know?"

"…Hah?"

"If you say misfortune befalls anyone who gets involved with me, isn’t something unfamiliar approaching you also mysterious? (4) At the summer training camp, when one of our club members woke up, a zashiki-warashi drew whiskers on his face. And it was with permanent marker."

Are you serious, the graffiti artist wasn’t a zashiki-warashi, but unmistakably a human—was what Nikaidou wanted to retort, but he was already in a state where it was difficult for him to talk. There was buzzing in his ears and was barely keeping conscious with the dizziness and numbness throughout his whole body. In the first place, for a joke that was just waiting for a sarcastic retort, telling it with a serious face was just too scary.

Minato placed his hand on Nikaidou’s back arbitrarily.

"I told you not to touch me…"

"Please breathe slowly, like you’re entered kai. It’s your strong point, right, senpai? I will count. One…two…three. You’ll be alright. Let’s breathe slowly one more time."

Without any strength to disobey, and with the single-minded desire to escape from this pain, Nikaidou breathed out as he was told. In the meantime, Minato continued to rub his back.

How much time had passed? Nikaidou, whose breathing was now stable, raised his hand in indication that Minato no longer had to rub his back. There were people’s voices outside, but rescue still hadn’t come yet. Maybe the hallway was busy.

Nikaidou let fall a few words in a low voice.

"…My uncle asked Saionji-sensei to take him as a disciple. Although he begged him with the willing resolution to even change his school, he wasn’t accepted, and nowadays his body is ruined and he can’t even draw a bow. I always thought this. That if Saionji-sensei chose my uncle instead of you guys, then the future might have changed. Why was it an elementary schooler, and what’s more, someone like you who just passed by… Even now, you’re blessed with an advisor and coach. I can’t forgive you…"

Minato thought that meeting Saionji-sensei and Masa-san were events akin to miracles, so he truly was blessed. But, even if he could redo his life once again, he wouldn’t give up anything.

A beautiful tsurune that shot through his heart.

His encounter with the bow.

"Nikaidou-senpai, you're actually a kyudo nut. I didn’t realize that until now."

"…Hah? How did you get that?"

"And, I think you and I are both lucky. Tsujimine High School’s total number of hits in the preliminaries was eighteen, right? Even though you aren’t a powerhouse school, a school that had people with that high of a hitting rate gathered together surely means that your passion towards kyudo had drew comrades towards you. You can’t win group competitions even if just one person was skilled."

"…Quit it. That’s just a coincidence."

"Yeah. A lucky coincidence."

At that moment, the elevator slowly ascended, and the door opened. Right on the other side were several people, and a nostalgic face greeted Minato.

"Minato! Thank goodness. Here, drink some water."

"Did you and the others go to the bath?"

"We got out of it a long time ago. There was another elevator that was working normally."

"I see. I guess our elevator broke down by chance."

When he checked the time, he learned that they had been confined for forty-five minutes, but it felt like about two hours had passed.

Right after Nikaidou exited the elevator, he collapsed on the spot, and was caught by Fuwa and Ootaguro.

Ootaguro spoke.

"Here, I’ll lend you my shoulder."

"No, I’m fine…"

Fuwa also inserted his arm under Nikaidou’s armpit.

"If you try to be thoughtful in a situation like this, we won’t win tomorrow’s competition, right? Ootaguro and I both know that you have claustrophobia. You should really muzzle your brother. When you were little, you were accidentally locked into a cellar, right? You’re like a certain countryside rich boy." (5)

Nikaidou met his eyes. A nasty smile appeared on his face.

"What the hell … I really am the lamest…"

"Yeah, you're super uncool. It’s too late for you now."

"Shit… Fuwa, I’ll punch your lights out later."

"Can you even punch me when you’re so unsteady like this?"

Nikaidou stood with the support of Fuwa and Ootaguro. They slowly began to walk.

"Sorry about this, Kuro-chan."

"It’s nothing, since you’re so light!"

"…I can’t really be happy about that. Since I’m a boy."

Nikaidou’s brows lowered.

Afterwards, Minato got apologies and explanations from the person from the elevator company and the hotel manager, and then was finally released.

Tommy-sensei placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You must have had quite the scare. Go take a long rest for the rest of today."

"Yes, sir. I am sorry for all the trouble."

Minato was sharing a room with Seiya, but he climbed into bed first and fell asleep just like that. To not wake him up, Seiya passed the time in Kaito, Nanao, and Ryouhei’s room.

Before long, Seiya decided to go to bed and returned to his room, where he noticed that Minato was curled up in blankets that he had brought out from the closet, in addition to his comforter.

Seiya called out to him softly.

"Minato, what’s wrong? Aren’t you hot covered in so many blankets?"

"…I feel way too cold. And my body hurts all over…"

"Cold?"

It wasn’t like the air conditioning was too effective. His exposed skin was red, and he was covered in a faint sheen of sweat. When Seiya felt his forehead, he could feel that he was burning up without having to check his temperature. He could imagine that his body pains were muscle pains from a high fever. Seiya rubbed Minato’s arms, back, and feet.

"How do you feel? Do you feel a little better when I massage you?"

"…Yeah, I feel better. But, Seiya, you should stay away from me. I don’t think it’s the flu or anything like that since it’s summer, but it'd be bad if you caught a cold…"

As soon as he said that, Minato turned over. Frequently turning and tossing in bed happened when one trying to escape from pain or suffering, so he seemed to be in quite a lot of pain. Since muscles covered the entire body, the range of the pain was wide, and Seiya alone could not attend to all of them. Seiya contacted Tommy-sensei and Masa-san.

Thinking how suspicious that people kept entering and exiting the room, Kaito, Nanao, and Ryouhei also visited. Following Seiya, they also volunteered to care for Minato, but the sight of the four boys massaging Minato’s whole body was nothing but hilariously absurd to the point of view of an onlooker.

Masa-san stilled everyone’s hands, and then put the back of his hand to Minato’s cheek.

"He is certainly burning up. I think it’s something like a developmental fever, but let’s take him to the hospital."

He changed his sweaty clothes with the help of Tommy-sensei, and wrapped them in a blanket. They had decided to go to a night hospital, but Minato couldn’t stand up because of the pain all over his body.

Masa-san turned his back to him.

"I'm carrying you."

"…Sorry, Masa-san…"

When they were getting into the taxi, Masa-san spoke.

"Seiya, switch rooms with me. Move to Tommy-sensei’s room."

"But, it’s better that I stay with Minato."

"If you get a fever too and it affects tomorrow’s competition, then Minato would be the one who would feel the most depressed. I'm leaving this to you. Seiya, you are the club president. I’m counting on you to support everyone else."

"…I understand."

Seiya saw the taxi off.

After they reached the hospital, they waited for their turn for a medical examination in the waiting room. They came after they called ahead, but it seemed that it was unexpectedly busy and it would take a while.

The TV would be on during the day, but the screen was turned off at night. Other than this corner, the lights were turned off, and in the darkness, the underwater forest in the aqua terrarium looked like it was floating in the sky. Foam bubbles burst open at the water’s edge.

Masa-san wiped the sweat off Minato’s forehead with a towel. Minato then closed his eyes.

"Do you want to lie down?"

"No. But more importantly, Masa-san, you should keep a distance from me."

"I’ll be fine, since when my whole family had to stay in bed because of the flu, I was the only one who didn’t catch it."

Minato opened his half-closed eyes and smiled a little bit.

"…As expected of Masa-san."

"You can lean on me if you’re tired."

"…No, I’m okay."

Minato crossed his arms to hug himself tightly.

Even though he usually didn’t get fevers, what was he doing after having come such a long way here? Tomorrow was the last day, the day of the finals that he made a promise to Shuu and the others to be in. He even talked with Seiya about managing their health.

He felt like crying at his own feebleness.

Why am I so weak?

Names were called by order, and before long Minato and Masa-san were the only ones in the waiting room.

Minato muttered.

"With my condition like this, I might not be able to be in tomorrow’s match…"

"You went through the experience of being trapped in an elevator, so your body’s been through a shock. You’ll be cured when you take medicine and have a good night’s sleep.”

"It’s okay, you don’t have to comfort me."

"That’s pretty negative for you to say, Minato. I thought you said that you would be in the competition even if you had to crawl. If you weren’t there, then Kazemai would only have four people, you know?"

The jade-green colour of the aqua terrarium was reflected in Minato’s eyes.

"…Sorry. I was being timid just now. That wound on your forehead didn't disappear, Masa-san. Misfortune befalls those who get involved with me…"

"What’s with that chuunibyou-like thing you said? My wound is mostly gone, and even now you can’t see it because my bangs are covering it, right? Oh, did Nikaidou say something to you? He’s quite the talker."

"That’s not it…"

"Your face tells me otherwise. Then let me ask you, do I look unlucky to you?"

Minato shook his head.

"See? The only one who decides if I'm lucky or not is me. It’s not something to have other people decide for you. For me, what’s unlucky is not having that place."

Masa-san grinned.

What they did not hear until now was the sound of the river flowing in the forest of the aqua terrarium.

The clear murmuring of the stream reminded him of a scene from summer training camp. It was fun and pleasant to spend the time together with everyone, and he wished that it could continue on like that forever.

Memories of summer vacation.

His precious bow friends.

"This is often used in analogies, but there is a cup half-filled with water. The levels of happiness are completely different for the people who think it’s half-full, and the people who think it’s half-empty. The one who associates the matter of a cup half-filled with water with things like happy or sad, good or bad, is oneself—"I." The matter itself is not good or evil."

"'Form is emptiness’—it’s similar to the Heart Sutra. Saionji-sensei taught it to us as a breathing method in the past." (6)

"Buddhism preaches casting away worldly desires. That fixations and desires cause people inconvenience. When those limiters are removed, a person are able to perform at their best.”

"Masa-san, I want to ask you something."

"Hmm? What’s that?”

“I want to touch the wound on your forehead——”

The current me can’t be like this person, who has such a clear view of things. "if at that time, if I didn’t stay in that spot and acted with everyone else, Masa-san wouldn’t have been injured”—I can’t erase that regret.

In that case, I’ll accept it all properly. I will continue to bear the truths that I want to turn my eyes away from, that I want to pretend doesn’t exist.

"Go ahead."

Masa-san moved his face closer, presenting his forehead. His eyes, deep blue like the sea, were slowly blinking.

Minato ran his heat-tinged fingers through Masa-san’s bangs.

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#tsurune #tsurune translation

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neko-shinigxmi · 4 years

Text

.: Day 3 - F/O February :.

Beach Day/Vacation

Keigo and Akira find time amidst hero work to have a little vacation by the beach.

Akira woke up to the familiar sound of waves that morning, sighing in pre-resignation as they opened their eyes. White walls and a tad bit too many windows, letting in the early morning light... It felt too early. When was the last time, even, that they woke up at such an early hour?

Still, they laid there for a moment longer, passively watching the windows and taking the view of the room in again. Side table, doorway to the bathroom/walk in closet...and to their right, a faint view of vermilion.

Keigo was still sleeping, an arm still draped over their middle, but otherwise face first into the fluffy pillows. It was nice, to see him so relaxed for once. Man of a million faces just to appease every damn facet life demanded of him, but to see him sleeping? Where he didn’t have to juggle them all, keep playing the part of...whatever anyone else wanted him to be?

It was a relief so freeing, Akira’s heart hurt at the mere thought of it.

They managed to wiggle on their side, more awake than before, and press gentle kisses over his face. Up his jawline to what bit of his forehead existed beyond a mass of fluffy, golden hair. He didn’t seem to wake, either, giving a small noise before sleeping on, unmoving. They laughed softly; yeah, should’ve expected that. Keigo Takami would sooner sleep past the zombie apocalypse before he woke up an hour earlier than usual. It’s just how he was.

So they very, very carefully slipped away from him, his arm now stretched over empty bed, put their glasses on, and carefully crept away, not wanting to risk him waking up. Even almost entirely closing the door behind them, bypassing the kitchen to the living room area, and finally popping open the shades.

It was a beach house in the US for a week, which was why they were both so damn tired. The flight had kicked ass and getting to the beach house, specifically, was no easy little car trip... Which is why Keigo then insisted on doing all the work himself, becoming completely exhausted by the time they made it to the house and settled in that same night.

He really deserved all the rest he could get...

Still, it was a lovely scene. The ocean was a few feet out, visible beyond the cliffs less than a mile out. The rest of the land was a bunch of tall grass, opening only for the lawns of shorter, maintained grass. Though what would be especially exciting would be the wildlife that passed through here from time to time, that they were so excited to show to Keigo.

Deer, pelicans, seals, vultures, hawks (he’s going to LOVE those, they know it), seabirds of all kinds...and maybe they can go by the ranches and check out the animals there, too? There was a horse ranch not too far down the road...

“Awake already?” Akira jumped in their seat by the windows, looking back to see Keigo, disheveled and still obviously sleepy. For a moment- despite having seen him shirtless plenty of times- they just...stared at him. A combination of simply being in awe of him, loving him, and the rustic look of the beach house... It made their heart ache all over again, taking in his features like it was their first meeting all over again. “Mm, I know I’m handsome, but c’mon... What’re doing awake so early, baby?”

Well, being called baby certainly called them out of it. That, and he continued to step forward, until he was seated behind Akira and could wrap his arms around them all over again. Without even needing to think about it, they relaxed into his hold, leaning back into him.

“Sun and the fog made it all just...a bit too bright.” They looked back at him, blinking curiously. “What about you? I thought you were still sleeping.”

“Well, I was,” he mused thoughtfully, head dipping down to nuzzle into their shoulder, “but I think...I woke up not too long after you left. All I know is that the bed wasn’t that warm and you were gone. So I came out to find you.”

“Mmm, I’m sorry...” Akira pressed a kiss to his head, much as they could reach. “I tried to not wake you up, but... I guess I did, anyways.”

“It’s alright, geez.” He laughed at that, shaking them both with the motion, swaying them both side to side; rustling from behind sounded of his wings were stretching out. “No need to apologize... Glad I could wake up with you, even if I was a few minutes late.” Keigo sighed against their neck, grinning at the shiver that ran down their back. Kissing up and down their neck, teasing Akira with hints of his teeth, knowing how flustered and heated it would get them-

“Anyways, baby bird, what’re we doing for breakfast~?” He left just as soon as he entered, Akira left sitting by the windows in a daze as his footsteps padded away from the carpeted floors, and into the tile of the kitchen.

......That. Was so. Beyond. Mean. They looked back in shock, only able to catch a glimpse of vermilion wing from their seat. What an asshole!!!

“Awh, I was mean~?”

“Like you didn’t know,” Akira grumbled, poking at the last of their eggs. The pout was adorable, but it was a damn struggle to leave it there. Keigo was slightly more tempted to kiss it off...but he also wanted to see them get more worked up! Decisions, decisions... “You’re such a meanie.”

“And yet, you love this meanie, don’t you?” He could only grin at their squinty-eyed pout, nodding their head. “Good. I love you, my pouty cutie.” He leaned forward, using his fingers to tilt their chin up and kiss them softly, lingering until they were forgetting how to breathe...and only then did he pull away, delighting in the renewed flush to their cheeks.

“...Meanie.”

“Say what you will to make yourself feel better, kitty cat.” Keigo scooped up the last of his own eggs, shoving them into his mouth with all the grace benefiting of the number 2 hero...without the pressure of having to be that man today. Or the rest of this week. “So... What’re we even doing, anyways?” A pause for him to swallow down the food, cheek resting on his fingers. “I never remembered hearing of a plan...”

“You expect a plan from me, Kei?” A brow raised, though his eyes were glued on them with that nickname, laser focused on future prey. “Nah, we’re doing what I do while here... Lots of wandering, reading, and having fun while getting outta the city. You’ll like it!”

“Oh? And why’s that?” Akira grinned, cleaning off their plate for dramatic effect before taking Keigo’s plate, as well.

“Didn’t I tell you...? Hawks live around here.” Keigo froze up, watching Akira go blankly for a long moment.... From the kitchen, they could hear a flurry of movement, a loud thump, and then muttered cursing following soon after.

“HAWKS?!” He whisper-yelled in excitement, more thumping following each frustrated flutter of his wings. “There are hawks here?!?”

Afternoon was barely reaching to twilight, and still Akira and Keigo were out and about. Despite the energy sapping that was yesterday, he’d insisted to fly around for awhile in order to find hawks. Dorky man nearly cried to be flying along with them once they were found farther out, hanging around before eventually heading out to one of the many small towns located in the area. Extra food and snacks got picked up to add to the fridge, then they dropped it off back home.

Now the duo was walking around one one of the natural paths the community used, one that went each which way into nature...or continued alongside the other beach houses, right down to a lighthouse.

“Think we’ll see the stars here, too?”

“Like never before,” Akira assured, smiling up at Keigo a moment before looking back out to the ocean. It was gorgeous, that blue-green and the shimmering of the sun...! The skies had really cleared up since morning, leaving the sky a sweet blue and who’s colors were beginning to shift away as the sun sank lower into the sky... In the distance, a wall of grey that signaled fog later on. The usual.

“...Yeah?”

“I’ve been here before,” they admitted with a shrug. “With family... Mom’s side, anyways. Last time... We saw a meteor shower... I don’t remember it that well, I’ll admit, but I remember never wanting to leave.” Their gaze went up to the still-blue sky, as if to already be searching for those stars. “I...hated blinking that night, too. I didn’t want to look away.”

“...Heh, I don’t need to look at stars to know how you must’ve felt.” Akira blinked turning to him, cat ear flicking atop their head. He could almost see the curiosity in their eyes, and it was hard to resist smirking...but he managed into a sweet, affectionate smile, leaning down to kiss them. Soft, but lingering. Pulling away only to kiss again....and again, before finally pulling away. “That’s how I feel when I look at you, kitten.”

...The blush that consumed their face warmed his heart, pulling them close as he laughed, pressing a kiss into the top of their head.

“Ugh, I....” A pause, then a deep sigh. “Let’s just....go see if the seals are around. I was only a kid when I came here, so I want to see if we’d be okay to hang around them or...whatever.” Keigo could only chuckle, nodding as he nudged Akira’s back.

“By all means, kitten...let’s go.”

By the time dinner rolled around, Akira was out for a catnap and Keigo was on the couch, feet kicked up and reading one of the many books in the house. A ton of them were super old- pre-the glowing baby, even- and it was kinda interesting to see how things used to be before Quirks became so....commonplace. In fact, he’d originally been talking to Akira about all that, but at some point, they’d become resigned to sleep.

So he let them, reading on his own while their head was in his lap and the rest covered up by a blanket dragged out of who-knows-where. He didn’t care, anyways. The book was damn interesting!

...Well, not interesting enough to prevent Keigo from realizing his stomach hurt and started to rumble. Right... Food. Kinda needed that, especially with all the calories he’s been burning today. The only issue was...the cat in his lap. Keigo Takami isn’t as much of an asshole as people give him credit for; he’s not above the law of “they chose you, now you don’t move”, but at the same time, food was important...and if he got up to make it, then Akira could wake up to food, too. One bird, one cat, and the stone.

Keigo sighed, frowning a little as he carefully moved his hips out of the way, one hand spared to hold Akira’s head. Once he was safely out of the way and free, he slid a couch pillow under their head and snuck off. There! Problem solved, so now... Onto the next.

What to make for dinner...?

While attempting to decide, his eyes caught onto the chicken they had...and started to drool. Hmm, well... That, or there was chicken strips and tater tots...just got them today, but why not? With his datemate asleep, he had free reign of tonight’s dinner, as per the custom in the beach house. So really, there’s nothing stopping him but himself!

And with that much figured out, Keigo checked the bags and got started on preheating the oven.

“Of course I take an hour nap...and you make chicken strips and tater tots,” they teased, still sleepy, but eyes shining in amusement as they both sat at the dinner table. Now across from him, they played lazy footsies under the table.

“Like this isn’t the best combo in human history?” He points out, a brow raising. It’s almost a pretty damn compelling look...but the dreaded crumbs around his mouth seriously take away from the intimidation factor. Akira can only smile at him, that “really?” sort of way that has him faltering a little. Where’d his charm go? Thing worked every time before this!

“You’re right...but it’s also not much of a dinner.” A pause, dipping a tater tot into ketchup and plopping it into their mouth. “Mmm... I could cut up strawberries for us? Or if you still want to save them all for the ice cream, we could do a little berry bowl of the other ones? Cantaloupe slices?”

“Cantaloupe, hell yeah!” He cheered, suddenly the embodiment of a five year old and Akira burst into delighted giggles, covering their mouth with a hand. The expression of sheer DELIGHT on his face along with the crumbs... It really just brought out a whole ‘nother side to him.

“Alright, mister crumbs, I’ll do that really quick... Give me a bit.” However, the crumbs comment caught Keigo off his guard yet again, touching the sides of his mouth until he located the offenders of a crime...and it all made sense. No wonder his kitten wouldn’t take him seriously!!! He probably looked ridiculous right then!

...But remembering the way they looked at him, warm and affectionate... Maybe being a little childish like this wasn’t the worst thing in the world, huh?

Washing the plates was a quick, quiet, and easy affair. Leftovers were packed away (surprisingly, there was still some left) and tucked into the fridge. They both got ready for bed...but instead of heading into the cozy mattress of the master bedroom, the two slipped outside and into the night, up at the waxing crescent moon.....and under more stars Keigo had ever seen.

“...oh,” was all he was able to manage, pupils blown wide in awe and attempting to soak up every little detail of the glorious sky above them. In that moment, he could almost be jealous of his partner, knowing their view very well might have more quality to it...but unable to keep up that envy for long. Especially when they cuddled close into his arms, the waves sounding in the distance only adding to the mood of the night.

“...Isn’t it gorgeous?” Akira murmured, ears pressing against his chest as they tilted their head back to look up at him. “See why I missed this place so much?”

“All that and more,” he admitted with a breathless laugh. “Shall we get closer?”

“Eh, I’ll regret it later, but that’s future me’s problem,” they said, happily letting Keigo pick them up and cradle them close. Definitely couldn’t help laughing a little at their shenanigans, though...and with a jump to start them off, they were soaring high into the air. So, so damn cold... Colder than the city by far, but Keigo couldn’t find it in him to care. The sky was radiant above them and in his arms...

The moon reflected double; in their eyes and glasses. His eyes could even pick up faint light of the stars, all caught up in their eyes...and once again, he was breathless. Breathless and in love and in awe...and for once in his damn life, uncaring of every wall he’d ever built. That was something for city Keigo to worry about; for now, all he had to do...was hold them a little tighter and not focus on everything else back home.

“...Keigo?” Their voice was so damn cute... So small sounding like that. A mystery how he let anyone in this deep. Afforded himself to care this much for someone else, even if they were another pro-hero.

“...I love you, Akira.” Warmth radiated from them in the cool night, head tilting to press their forehead to his. Flustered, but still showing signs of affection, even now.

“I... I love you, too, Keigo.” A smile grew on his face, eyes lighting up...and kissed them under the light of that moon. Still high in the sky, basking in the moonlight and the light of distant stars... Heart full and at peace.

#FOFebruary #FOFebruary2020 #self insert #self insert community #self ship #self ship community #Aki Stories #otp; nekohawks #THIS IS THE LONGEST FIC I'VE EVER DONE I THINK #PLS REBLOG IT #I'M SO SO DAMN PROUD OF IT AAAAAAAAAA

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bluestmoons · 4 years

Text

a shame

Long before the sun even made it to the tip of the horizon -- long before the rest of her family were even considering stirring -- Leonie awakened. The world was still dark, and cold, and her footfalls creaked against the wood of the floor as she tried to make her way out the door. Any attempts to muffle them were not enough to protect her from her eldest son hearing, and shifting awake. He’d always been a light sleeper, even as an infant, and he sat up groggily as she pulled on her boots. To her great fortune, it only took a tuck-in and a kiss on his forehead to send him back to sleep.

She’d be back in a few hours, with their breakfasts from the market.

Her mare was tied outside, and was anxious with the anticipation of a good, early ride, and the soft grass right outside the marketplace. She tapped her hooves in place as Leonie dragged the saddle on -- hardly waited for the bit to start chomping at it. By the time Leonie was on her back, she was long ready for the promise of movement offered to her.

The wind was nice over the top of her head, against her braid -- the crisp air stung, but it smarted less with the knowledge of where she was going, and why.

To get their breakfasts, of course. But that wasn’t quite the only reason.

A few minutes shy of an hour later, she was wandering through a marketplace only half-staffed in a town only groggily pulling their bones from bed. The sky was still gray and tumultuous -- just like the stones beneath it. Everything was overlaid with fog, and it felt dreamy -- sticky -- in a way the rest of the world never had, to her. She was hesitating over some vegetables that’d been clearly left out over the night, wondering if anything was still fresh enough to take home, when a figure hesitated next to her.

“Lovely weather we’re having, isn’t it?”

She grinned, only enough to bite her lip. She had to try to swallow the snort that bubbled forward.

Oh, Alexei.

If they were still teenagers -- still back home -- still where there was sun, and warmth, and pressing futures and endless days -- she would’ve taken him by the shirt and kissed him right there.

But they weren’t. They were in cold Bern, standing near each other like two strangers. She was married, with a family to tend to. And he was...

He was standing next to the stall in a puffy white shirt, shimmery and soft like satin. The kind of clothing she’d worn all the time as a child, and her children had probably never even felt. They hadn’t the money for that sort of thing. He had small gold frames on his face -- again, the luxury of a noble -- and well-fitted boots, and a cape. Leonie’s own was gray from years of use, and worn with holes in it.

They were no longer childhood best friends. They were no longer lovers.

He was a nobleman.

And she was just a poor mercenary.

“Is that the best you can do for an opener?”

He gasped, agape in horror. “I thought it was rather funny!”

She smiled even as she picked up a fruit. “The weather in Bern is never humorous. Only bitterly serious.”

“Yet only one of us have chosen to move here.”

Her grin and hand fell at the same time. The fruit was released back to its place. “I have chosen for the same reason as you.”

It was silent. She ambled a few feet away, started gathering some of Lloyd’s favorite vegetables, which were luckily in season -- if anything could be truly in season here -- but Alexei stumbled towards her, following with hands uncomfortably clasped behind his cape.

Always following.

“So, ah, did -- did Linus finish his chapter?”

Leonie sighed, squeezing a few of the vegetables on the table. “No. But he has certainly made progress, which is what I will tell Brendan when he corners me about Linus’ schooling. Should he ever spend enough time within our walls again to remember such details, that is.” Some of these were on the turn, but if they ate them today… She added it to her basket.

Alexei grimaced out a smile, somewhat good-naturedly. “He’s… still taking jobs? Even after Isadora?”

Everything on Leonie was flat. “Even after.”

“How are you dealing with it?”

“As I always do.” She’d reached the front of the stall, and had enough fruit for at least this morning. “I’ll have these, thank you.” Leonie offered coin to the grateful salesman, moved on to another stall for her fruit.

Alexei was wise enough to wait until they’d wandered from earshot to pester her further. “How can you be so calm about it?”

“I have no choice.” Wow, the color on that berry… She examined it coolly. “It is his work.”

Alexei’s back came against the stall, and his focus was solely on her, even as she attempted to ignore him. “Being a father is his work, too.”

So early in the morning to sigh so often. “The boys love him, Alexei.”

“They’re children. They love everything.”

“Ha!” Now that was funny. “You are sorely mistaken if you believe my boys could love everything. I can hardly get them to mildly enjoy the same somethings.”

“What I’m saying is -- boys always love their fathers. Don’t they?”

“You tell me.”

It did seem to be true, though. No matter what Brendan did, he could do no wrong in the eyes of her boys. And it seemed like everything she did was wrong to the youngest. Even on days she allowed him to shirk his duties and play -- something her parents never would’ve tolerated of her -- he found something she’d done that was distasteful. It was near impossible to stay in Linus’ graces for long. As if her absence right after his birth had sealed them from being separate, forever.

She thought of Lloyd’s serious face -- his refusal to relax or cry -- and she unintentionally dug a nail into fruit she was holding. Lips quirked downwards at her own burst of anger, and she added it to her basket, and a few more to hide the real reason for her being.

Behind her, Alexei released a puff of air that went steamy in the foggy morning, stared up at the buildings around them. “I don’t know. I liked mine well enough, I suppose.”

“Well, mine love him. More than they love me.”

When he spoke, it was too serious -- tone far darker than normal. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder, you know. I would know.”

“Too early for a guilt trip.”

Luckily, his attention seemed not long enough to dwell on that -- he was already reaching for something, eyes alight with energy. “Leonie, look.” And there in his hands was a green, misshapen fruit, with green bumps at the top and bottom, that slightly resembled… “Doesn’t it look like...?”

“Oh, Saints.” Leonie smiled in the dusty memories. A warm cool, night. All the stars above them. A frog in his hand, his knee on the ground. “It does.”

He looked down at it rather wistfully. “I miss that amphibian.”

“I miss the weather back home.”

“Again with the weather.”

“Mm.”

She was moving down the stall, already. She’d added a few more fruit -- decided this was enough for her family, and offered coin to the tender, who held out wrinkled hands tiredly.

“You know…” His voice was but a whisper. She almost didn’t hear it. “If you married me, you could go back home.”

It struck her -- the suddenness of his question. The seriousness of it. She let her smile take the weight away from it. “Perhaps you are right. Weather can be humorous.”

“In fact...”

And with no further discussion, he was down. On one knee, holding up the melon.

Everything was hot. Her neck. Her cheeks. Wasn’t the morning just cold, moments ago? “Alexei!” The old tender was looking at her. Sleepy-eyed townspeople were looking at her. Even the horses seemed to be transfixed. “What are you doing? Get up, you’ll stain your pants.”

He pulled a face. “Who are you?”

“Someone who does washing for four.”

“If only your mother knew all she had to do was get you to do laundry to humble you.”

“She’d faint, I’m sure.”

“Marry me.” He pushed the melon closer to her.

Now it wasn’t just the town. Now it was everyone in the entire world. All eyes, transfixed on her, and the love of her life.

“Alexei...” she breathed.

“I’m serious. Marry me.”

Nothing was moving. Even the fog seemed still.

Still, like Lloyd was. So much more withdrawn, and faraway, and what would his eyes look like, if he saw his mother with someone that wasn’t his father? Would they even change at all, anymore?

A flash of heat. A finger tapped on his offering. “Did you put a ring in here?”

“No.”

She took the melon from his hands, placed it back on the stall he’s gotten it from. “Excuse us.” And with that, she was grabbing him by the silk of his dumb shirt, dragging him away from the prying eyes of the market place, pinning him against a wall down a side alley. “... Alexei, you cannot do things like that. People know me here.”

He panted -- either from the surprise or their proximity, she didn’t know and wasn’t keen to find out -- and stared at her with wide eyes beneath a red face. “And they should know we are together! Leo, it’s been years since Linus was born.”

Her grip slackened, if only a little. “I know.”

“So?”

“So I -- I...”

So she’d promised. She’d promised when he found her shortly after Linus’ birth that she’d run away with him. She’d been speaking through the lips of trauma -- of pain. And held her and smoothed her hair, and told her not to make any rash decisions. She had wanted to never go back home, but he encouraged her. He told her later he knew she’d regret it had she left then.

But what about now? Would she not still regret it? Why was it different now that both boys could walk and feed themselves?

“Be like you again, Leo.” His eyes were on fire. “Run away with me.”

Anger grit into the sides of her mouth. “It is not that simple! I have children now!”

“Then take them with you!”

“I cannot do that to Brendan.”

“Leo!” His voice had excitement she couldn’t feel. Excitement she was doubting she’d ever felt. “One of you will have to have them. It can’t be both ways!”

“I know, but I…”

“You and Brendan agree on nothing. He is not around anymore. You’re not happy.”

Leonie could feel herself get emotional -- but couldn’t quite find the will to tamper down on it, even as her voice rose. “Stop! Stop trying to break my family apart. You do not know how difficult this is for me.”

To her utter shock, his rose in turn. The happiness in his voice rose to frustration, his eyes swam behind his spectacles, both suddenly and somehow not suddenly at all. “And you do not know how difficult it is for me! I have been waiting my whole life for you! I have nothing except for you!”

His voice seemed to ring, echo around them. If this cold world felt like a dream, him yelling felt like waking up.

They’d had nothing but each other their whole lives. The only thing they could trust and rely on had been the other.

And then Leonie had left him.

And then Leonie had left everyone.

She realized, with a sudden shiver, that this was the first time in their lives Alexei had ever asked anything of her.

“Alexei... Alexei...”

She realized, with a hoarse voice, that this was the first time in her life that she could not give him what he wanted.

He knew it, too. He was staring down at his shoes, points pressed together like he was still a schoolboy, sagged into his shoulders with a sorrow she knew all too intimately. His voice was a wisp, as if he’d spent it all yelling. “I’m sorry.”

“As am I.”

He still spoke, though. “Feeling like you have no choice in your life... in your marriage... that was your mother. Do you want that for you?”

“No.”

“Do you want that example for your boys?”

Leonie stared at her feet, too. Why was the ground so much safer than their faces? “No.”

“I trust any decision you make. I just love you. We promised ourselves to each other.”

“I know, Alexei.” How did one breathe? Did they always have this weight in their throats? Was everything always so hard? “But then you died.”

“That wasn’t my fault!” Just enough energy to sound indignant, it seemed.

“I know. But then I promised myself to another.” It hadn’t been a glorious ceremony, and it wasn’t a beautiful marriage, but it was real to her, all the same.

What sort of honorable woman would tuck tail and leave when it was hard -- impossible -- beyond it -- anyway?

“I have to make it work with Brendan. They are my family.” Whether or not they wanted it.

“But you’re my family.”

So strange. To think that anyone still wanted her to be family.

So disgusting -- how desperately she wanted to accept his offer.

“I know,” she breathed. Then, “I do not think we should see each other anymore.”

“Please…” Desperation broke his voice, and when she looked up, she saw tear streaks running over his face. “Please, Leo, don’t do this.”

She held his face in her hands, like she did when one of her boys were crying from a nightmare that she knew she could never fully soothe, and whispered, “This is what is best for us.”

“No, it isn’t.” He wrapped her hands around hers, closed his eyes. It was only a moment or two before he’d relented. “I’ll leave. But I’m coming back. Perhaps in a few months… we can be friends, truly. Without needing to be lovers.”

They’d been trying it for years with no success, but she still said, “Perhaps.”

“And if not… I can always leave and come back again.”

Leonie opened her mouth to suggest he leave forever -- but could not wrap her tongue around the first word. How could she? She’d sobbed for years that he’d come back to her. How could she ever wish to be rid of him?

“We’ll make a friendship work,” she said, instead.

“Yes.” He rested his forehead against hers, and she closed her eyes -- allowed him. “We will.”

It was just less than half a year later that Lloyd and Linus were traversing that same marketplace, alone. It was midday, so there was enough sun to see, but fog was still a formidable enemy, as it always was in Bern. Lloyd was holding Linus’ hand and the bag of money -- Linus had the joy of carrying around the basket.

“Stay near to me,” Lloyd said, firmly, in a voice he could remember his mama using. In a voice his father still used. Linus pouted, but padded along after him.

They reached a stall full of assorted fruit. Lloyd was just tall enough to see the display, and Linus was trying to balance his chin on the bottom.

“It’s a shame about their mother, isn’t it?”

It was a voice from some of the townswomen, milling by. Lloyd’s fingers froze against the fruit.

“I heard she agreed to a marriage proposal with a fruit! You think a noble would go further out of his way to win her graces.”

“Well, she was never pleasing to the eye, you know,” mumbled another one back. “Besides, if that’s all it took...”

“Disgraceful whore. What kind of woman does that to her children?”

Lloyd was meant to be moving. He had food to get. But he couldn’t. His hand was on the fruit. He couldn’t breathe, let alone move. e couldn’t will his body into action.

“She was never a good woman, anyway. She was a killer, you know. Would rather be out bloodying her hands than rocking her children.”

“No kidding? I heard she did unspeakable things to the noble in that very alleyway, while she was still married!”

“Poor Brendan. Who would leave a man like that?”

“Lloyd, look!”

Lloyd jolted, turned to see Linus holding a melon above his head. It was strangely shaped -- weird bumps all over it. Like a small green animal.

“This one looks stupid! I want it!”

Lloyd could move again, so he took the fruit away, put it back, and pressed their palms together again. “Let’s go, Linus.”

“But I wanted that one!”

“No, we’re going.”

“You’re not the boss of me! Let me buy it! Hey! Stop! Lloyd! Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd, Lloyd--”

Linus was screaming at the top of his lungs, tugging on their hands, but for some strange reason, Lloyd couldn’t hear him.

#( the rising of. ) leonie.#( the light of. ) leonie.#( the lively lady. ) leonie.#[ :) get ready to suffer kristopher :)#GOD this is so bad BUT!!!! ALAS!!!! ]#gendered slur tw #[ rip to those on mobile....... i'm so sorry ]#long post for tw #( v. pack mom. ) leonie.

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disruptedvice · 6 years

Text

This could be yours

Because thorkyrie is giving me life

Summary: “Where is my… boyfriend? Where's Thor?!” Valkyrie shouts after busting through the wall of the enemy compound where he was being held captive. It’s when she realizes she would’ve felt much more badass breaking down a wall and shouting where’s my husband that she realizes yes, she does want to marry him.

____________________

This could be yours

____________________

It's too early in the morning for dawn to have even broken yet, but they've been up all night. Twisted up in the sheets, a tangle of limbs, just enjoying the night together.

Valkyrie sits up, the silken sheets slipping off her body. Thor follows the path of newly uncovered warm brown skin with his lips, kissing up her arm, to her shoulder, wrapping an arm around her waist as his lips travelled to her collar. She closes her eyes, sighing, cradling his head as his lips continue to express his devotion.

It was nice and peaceful, an intimate and languid moment of relaxation just past the middle of the night.

“Marry me,” Thor murmurs, lips brushing her clavicle.

Her eyes flash open, tensing suddenly, convinced she must have heard him wrong.

“What?” Valkyrie chuckles nervously, convinced she must be going crazy.

He looks up at her then, face serene, his expression soft, and repeats it clear as day. “Marry me.”

“But you're king, “ she states rather dumbly.

Thor raises his eyebrow as if to say and?

“Whoever marries you will be queen.”

“Yes, that is how things tend to go,” he quips, his smile light and welcoming in a way that still surprises her sometimes.

“But I- I can't be queen,” Valkyrie stutters, her eyes wide in alarm as her whole body locks up in his arms.

“And why not?”

She laughs, thinking he must be joking. This is all some big joke, a trick he's playing on her, so she forces a laugh, because he has to be joking.

Apparently, he's not.

“So-so many reasons,” she says when he keeps waiting for an answer to his not joke. “Too many reasons to name.”

“I don't think there are,” Thor tells her, threading his fingers through her long dark hair. It always was so soothing when he did that. He sweeps it into cascading waves down her left shoulder, clearing up the path for his lips to continue taking, resuming his soft and sweet kisses on her now bare throat. It’s enough to make her shiver. She can’t help but lean into his warmth.

Thor’s arm tightens around her waist, not to keep her there, but to pull her closer to him.

“But what would I even do?” She asks, sounding marginally less panicked, but still a little frazzled. She still wants to laugh at just how crazy of an idea it was.

Thor shrugs. “Same as you do everyday, except we’d be married, instead of, you know, dating. Like now.”

“Yes, but when we are dating, I am just the valkyrie. Training recruits, head of the army, going off into battle. I can’t do that if I’m… if I’m… that is a valkyrie’s position, not a queen’s. A queen can’t do those things.”

“I don’t see why not,” he murmurs against her skin. “Why couldn’t you be a valkyrie and a queen who trained recruits, was leader of the army, and headed off into battle?”

She practically gapes at him. How did he not get this?

“I don’t know! They just don’t! Queens don’t get to fight, they’re supposed to be all- all regal and stuff. They don’t lead armies. I served for centuries under Odin, and never once did your mother ride off into battle.”

“Ah, but my mother was not a warrior. You are,” he says with a smile, lifting her hand to his lips and kissing it. Sometimes she wonders what happened to the man who fell over and broke things in her presence. Because that right there was suave. “You are a warrior first, the woman I love second,” he tilts his head to the side. “Queen would come third.”

She laughs then, some of the tension leaving her. Not all of it, but some of it. It’s a step.

“It’s not that simple. They don’t let important people do fun stuff. Whatever’s too dangerous. Queens have things like diplomatic duties, not training fighters. All Royals do. It’s all throne this, throne that, that’s beneath you, let someone else do this, let someone else do that. Not fighting and leading armies. Not training new recruits. They’d call that a security risk.

“They still let me head off into battle, don’t they?” He asks. Clearly, it’s a rhetorical question. “You would just be another in a long line of asgardian warrior royals.”

“But I’m not a royal!”

“You could be, though,” he says gently.

This quiets her. This gentle softness about him, the quiet warmth he surrounds her with.

Valkyrie chews on her lip, looking down. “I’m not a leader, Thor.”

She supposed that might be her main worry. Her main opposition to it. Other than just about everything else. The idea of her being a queen is absurd. Who in their right mind who want her as their queen?

“You’re head of an army,” he reminds her. Though, technically, the asgardian army has never been so small- their population has never been so small. They were still rebuilding. They would be rebuilding for a long time to come.

And the guard now was built by Valkyrie herself.

Before ragnarok- every trained asgardian soldier had been killed the day that Hela came. He lost so many friends, people he grew up with, who died at Hela’s hand fighting her in the square that day. While he was stuck falling through a portal.

And they saved their people, but at the end of the day, much was lost. So many were gone.

But asgardians were strong. So was the woman before him now.

Every member of the proud again asgardian army was trained by Valkyrie herself. Taught discipline, trained how to fight, learned how to protect.

They were lucky to have her to show them the way. As their leader. She didn't seem to think so, though.

“Of troops, fine. I'm not…” Valkyrie sighs, shaking her head. “I'm not a leader of people. Not like you are.”

Thor doesn't reply to that. She knows he's disappointed.

“I love you,” she tells him, cupping his cheek.

“And you as well,” he says with a small smile, laying his hand over hers. He kisses her, then, and she just melts into him.

“Just, don't say yes or no right now,” he asks of her, tracing his thumb along the back of her hand. “I would never want you to do anything you didn't want to, but my mind won't change. I don't want an answer right now. Just… promise me you’ll think about it?”

She purses her lips, but she really can't say no to him, not when he's looking at her so cute and sweet like that with that undoubtedly puppy-ish look in his eye.

Valkyrie sighs. “Fine. I’ll think about it.”

____________________

Months go by.

Everything’s fine between them in the meantime, he doesn't get weird about it or try to convince her, just completely drops the subject and things go back to normal. He doesn't try to push the idea.

Thor asked her to think about it, but he also accepted her answer, and left it up to her to let him know if that answer ever changed.

____________________

What really seals the deal for her happens months after that conversation took place.

Thor had managed to get himself captured because of course he had, and she came to rescue him because of course she did.

She doesn't make a particularly delicate entrance.

Valkyrie busts through the wall of the compound, sword drawn, and with a strong and raised voice demands, “Where’s my… boyfriend? Where's Thor?!”

It’s at that moment she realizes she would’ve felt much more badass busting through a wall and shouting ‘where’s my husband’.

That would've sounded much cooler than demanding to know where her boyfriend was being held captive.

She made a quick decision to go with boyfriend, because she couldn't say lover or something weird like that.

It didn't look like the people in the room were going to be much help anyway. They had already drawn their swords, but she had picked the right room to literally break into- the soldiers manning the control station also had a nice little video feed that had a stream of a certain asgardian that she knew and loved in the top left corner.

She can see his lips moving-obviously talking to someone off screen, and she has to sigh. This method of extracting information by getting himself captured was really something he needed to stop pulling.

Anyways, back to her revelation. It's not like the guards would have cared or given her information regardless of what she had referred to Thor as.

It didn't really matter what she called him, especially not in rescue situations when talking to hostile opponents.

It was just- that was the moment she realized.

That was when she knew.

When Valkyrie realized she would have felt much more badass breaking down that wall and shouting “Where’s my husband”-

That's when she knew she wanted to marry him.

____________________

“You know, your method of getting captured just to get information is really quite troublesome,” Valkyrie tells him with a pointed look on the way home.

“Aw, but it worked so well the first time!” Thor whines, but he’s smiling too. “This time too. I love it when they monologue. Bad guys always want to gloat. Now I know where the thing is! Let’s go get the thing!”

She shakes her head at his bright eyed and genuinely excited look. “Dare I ask when the first time was? What did you do before you had me to break you out of prison cells? Who came to save you then? I can’t imagine Loki would come when you called.”

“Before you,” he starts as if about to regale a story of untold wonders, “I had a hammer.”

She shoves him in the shoulder, and he falls away laughing. “Come on then, hammer boy. We’ve got a thing to get.”

____________________

“Okay, let’s do it,” Valkyrie tells him the next day, after they’ve gotten the thing that he got himself captured for in the first place. She got up early, and was returning to their bedroom from her morning workout routine to see that his sleepy face had finally woken up that morning. He was still in bed, looking unfairly cute and bleary-eyed.

Thor yawns. “Do what?” He asks, popping his jaw as he stretched back.

“That marriage thing you were talking about. I wanna do it. I wanna marry you.”

Surprised is hardly an adequate word to describe his expression. Shock and disbelief come closer. “Wait, what? Are you joking?”

“Have you rescinded your offer?” Valkyrie raises her eyebrow, trying not to smile because she knows he hasn’t, but she also wants to tease him.

“What? Of course not!” He practically shouts, incredibly panicked. He was too fun to mess with sometimes.

“Good, then,” she smiles. “It’s settled. We’re getting married.”

____________________

~FIN~

____________________

AN: I just needed to write something cute for them, because this fandom is too damn small. For this ship, I mean. There is not nearly as much thorkyrie content as they deserve

#RIP mjolnir #thorkyrie #thorkyrie fanfiction #thor x valkyrie #thor ragnarok fic #valkyrie/thor #valkyrie is a badass and i love her #valor fanfic #i'm such trash #MCU fanfiction #Thor fic #Thorkyrie fic #my fic

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allofthisnonsenseplease · 6 years

Text

Another R76 au in which Jack is definitely not a cat person (unless you ask Gabe)

A/N: written based on some stuff Leah & i were talking about a while ago. silliness, and Jack thinking entirely too hard about certain things. =^..^=

Jack Morrison was not a cat person. He didn't hate them, exactly, but he didn't like them, either. As far as he was concerned, cats belonged in barns to control rodent populations, or—as he'd come to accept, if not understand—in secondhand bookstores to judge the customers as they browsed. He didn't think cats were evil or heartless, but there was something off-putting about the way they stared, something in their eyes that always made him suspect that they knew more than they were letting on. They were all so...alien-looking. And they cheated at physics. Jack was pretty sure that Douglas Adams had gotten it wrong—if the world was one giant lab set up with humans as the test subjects, it wouldn't be mice running the show, but cats.

Taking all that into account, he wondered, not for the first time, how he had ended up sitting at his favorite bar, looking at photos of a little white cat with stubby legs, while the creature's owner sang her praises.

Jack took a sip of his drink and let his gaze slip from the phone screen held between them, down to the leg of the man sitting next to him. Dark blue jeans hugged his calves and strained around thickly muscled thighs that Jack really wanted to become more intimately acquainted with. His eyes traveled up, past a gorgeous ass unfortunately firmly ensconced on the bar stool, trim waist and flat stomach, nice chest hidden beneath a gray hoodie bearing a few stray cat hairs, broad shoulders, and....

“Jack?”

His eyes snapped up at the sound of his name, meeting those of the man who had been regaling him with tales of his cat for the past half hour. The man's name was Gabriel.

He was a goddamn angel.

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

They'd met at the gym. Jack had noticed Gabriel almost immediately. Who wouldn't have? He was huge, and all of it, from what Jack had seen, was muscle. There was a presence about him, too, something commanding, and the ball chain disappearing into his tank top suggested dog tags. He had a bad case of resting bitch face, but he smiled easily enough that Jack made him for a genuinely friendly guy. That assumption proved itself true when, seeing him hovering indecisively near a weight bench, Jack had wandered over and asked if he needed someone to spot for him.

Gabriel had lit right up, and Jack had been unprepared for the full force of that smile. He'd gotten used to being the charming one. It was unexpected to find himself tongue-tied. Unexpected...but not entirely unpleasant. He smiled back and took his place as spotter and let Gabriel lead the conversation. The topic quickly came around to his pet cat, and Jack let the words flow over him, half lost in appreciation of Gabriel's arms and chest, his warm eyes and sharp cheekbones, the beard that looked like it would scratch so deliciously against delicate skin, the sweat-slicked curls atop his head, even just the quality of his voice.

“You want to get a drink when we're done here?” Jack asked as he finished. He sealed the deal with his brightest smile and added: “You can tell me more about your cat.”

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

“Jack? You all right?”

He managed to drag his focus back to what Gabriel was saying, though he couldn't for the life of him remember anything about the cat.

What had he said her name was? Munchkin? Or had that been the breed? Something with a 'B,' wasn't it?

God, he just wanted to climb right onto Gabriel's lap. He caught himself starting to chew on his thumbnail, and forced his hand down, brushing non-existent dust from his t-shirt.

“She's a real cutie,” Jack said, nodding at the phone. He nearly choked on his beer when Gabriel beamed. The man was unfairly handsome.

“Yeah, Bunny's my little angel.”

Gabriel smiled fondly at the picture on the phone, one of the least flattering ones that made it look like the squat furball's eyes were looking off in opposite directions as she lay tangled up in a ribbon toy. He glanced up suddenly at Jack, smile fading as he made to put his phone away.

“Sorry. Was I boring you? I didn't mean—”

“No, no. Not at all.” Jack was willing to put up with a lot more than just some uninteresting conversation if it meant improving his chances with a guy like Gabriel. He smiled winningly, and raised his beer in a mock toast. “I love cats.”

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

Gabriel gave Jack his number before they parted, and drinks after their workout that night turned into a couple days of texting followed by a date. They met at the gym, worked up an appetite, showered off (separately, to Jack's dismay, although his imagination was loudly opinionated on exactly what he was missing), and walked to a nearby pub for dinner. Dinner turned into drinks turned into three hours gone in the blink of an eye as they talked and laughed and Jack admired Gabriel's laughter and his voice and the way his mouth moved, lips and tongue shaping words that Jack did his best to focus on past his desire to bring Gabriel home and find out what those lips felt like against his skin, what his voice would sound like breathless with need, what the contours of Gabriel's body would feel like beneath his hands. Yes, it was fun talking with Gabriel—although the stories about his cat were just a bit too numerous—but Jack wanted something other than simply a date run long.

They parted ways at the pub. Jack mourned the missed opportunity, but Gabriel smiled for him and said they should do it again soon, and Jack's heart made a funny sort of leap in his chest that forced out his “Yes!” just a beat too quickly, a shade too enthusiastically. Gabriel wasn't a sex-on-the-first-date kind of guy. Jack could respect that. There were plenty of other guys he could hook up with. It wasn't as if he was desperate.

Still....

As he walked home, there was no use trying to lie to himself about being eager to see Gabriel again. And it had been a nice date, all in all, just not entirely what Jack had been hoping for. Next time, then, he told himself, and made do that night with the memory of Gabriel's warm voice and crooked smile, letting his imagination fill in a few blanks as he stroked himself to quell the unsatisfied need that had lain banked since their first meeting and had flared to life over the course of the evening.

They had their second date the very next night. Gabriel picked the restaurant this time—a Thai place Jack had never tried before, but immediately added to his list of favorite places to eat. It wasn't far from his apartment, and his hopes for the end of the evening soared higher as the comfortable vibe they'd found carried over. He couldn't seem to stop fidgeting—tugging his shirt straight, brushing dust off his clothes, smoothing down his jeans. When he asked as they were leaving if Gabriel wanted to come over to his place, he had to force a casualness that he didn't feel. Gabriel's quiet “Sure.” was a victory.

Utterly pleased with himself, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the darkened glass of a storefront along the way home and paused. Seeing that his hair had begun to droop, he wet the tips of his fingers on his tongue and spiked it back up, preening a bit in his anticipation. After a moment, Gabriel stepped up right behind him and laid his hands heavily on Jack's shoulders.

“Why bother with that now?” he murmured in Jack's ear. “I'm only going to mess it up as soon as we get back to your apartment.”

A shiver ran straight down Jack's spine. He wasted no further time heading home.

It didn't really bother him when, hours later, Gabriel got out of bed and began getting dressed to leave. Jack was used to partners not always wanting to stay the night. So, well-fucked and pleasantly worn out, he bid Gabriel a sleepy good night and curled into the warmth left behind. He was drifting off even before Gabriel had left, but, on the edge of sleep, felt a hand ruffle his hair.

That evening was the first of several more like it. They texted throughout the day, met up at the gym or at restaurants that they took turns suggesting, talked over dinner and drinks and new photos of Gabriel's cat, and ended the night in Jack's apartment, making good use of his bed. Or sofa. Or, once, his shower. Gabriel always left before midnight, always petted Jack's hair as he left, and, as the days passed, Jack found himself wishing that he would stay a bit longer, that Gabriel would fall asleep with him and at least stay until morning.

He brought it up casually, once or twice, but Gabriel left early to be sure his cat was taken care of, and the only solution he offered was for Jack to come home with him instead. Convinced that Bunny would hate him on sight, and that actually encountering her would expose him for the liar that he was, Jack found excuse after excuse to avoid Gabriel's apartment. As much as Gabriel loved that cat, there was no doubt in Jack's mind that Bunny would always come first. It would put a damper on things if Gabriel found out that Jack didn't like cats, and Jack wasn't ready to let their relationship fizzle out. In the back of his mind, he knew it would end sooner or later like all the others...but something about Gabriel made him want to hold on, even if just for a little bit longer.

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

Jack almost thought he'd gotten his wish for Gabriel to stay over one night. They'd cuddled up and drifted off after getting cleaned up, but Gabriel had set an alarm on his phone. The sound of it yanked Jack out of his comfortable stupor, and he grumbled as Gabriel kissed his forehead and slipped out of bed. For a moment, Jack listened to him moving carefully around the room, then he sat up, spilling the sheets into his lap, and turned on the bedside lamp.

“You can go back to sleep,” Gabriel said, picking up his jeans. “I'll lock the door on the way out.”

“They make automatic food dispensers for cats, you know,” he said as he watched Gabriel dress.

“Yeah, but...it's not the same as being there with her. I don't like to leave her alone all night.”

Sighing, Jack lay back against the pillow. He left the sheets low over his hips where they'd fallen, and ran a hand idly over his chest. “What about me?”

Gabriel paused, socks in hand, looking unusually pleased with himself. “What about you?”

“Maybe I don't want to be left alone all night. Come play with me some more.”

He stretched, smirking to feel the sheets slide just a bit lower as he showed off his body and watched Gabriel watching him. He let his hand skim lower, past his stomach, until his fingers stirred the blond trail of hair below his bellybutton. The move didn't get the response he'd expected.

Gabriel chuckled. “You are exactly like Bunny.”

“What?”

At Jack's deadpan response, Gabriel sat down on the edge of the bed and reached over to ruffle his hair...a gesture Jack leaned into until he realized how much it resembled petting a cat, and he batted Gabriel's hand away. That didn't dissuade him. If anything, Gabriel's eyes took on a warmth that left Jack reflexively leaning even closer, bottom lip caught in his teeth. Gabriel cupped his cheek and stroked a thumb over his skin. He let Jack catch up his hand and bring it to his lips to kiss his fingers, suck them gently past his teeth, and run his tongue against the tips. When Gabriel pulled free, Jack pouted briefly, then smiled as Gabriel caressed his throat and ran his fingers down his chest, leaving a trail of coolness and shivers in his wake.

“You and Bunny,” Gabriel murmured, his voice a pleasant, low rumble. “Both of you want the maximum reward for the minimum effort.”

“Hey! That's not—!” His protest stopped short as Gabriel's hand reached the edge of the sheet and slipped beneath to cup him.

“It's all right,” he said, grinning as he began to stroke. “I think it's cute.”

Part of Jack was insulted. He wasn't 'cute.' He was sexy, hot, desirable—any number of things that shouldn't be associated with small, furry animals. He wanted to sit up and protest, make Gabriel take it back...

...but he was getting what he wanted. A bit more time, a bit more of Gabriel's attention and affection. He rocked his hips up into Gabriel's touch and moaned softly.

He could definitely bear being cute, if this was what it earned him.

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

“I'm telling you, Ana, he loves that cat more than me.”

'Jack...exactly how long have you been seeing this man?'

“Not the point,” he muttered, grateful that she couldn't see the embarrassment reddening his cheeks over the phone. He never should have called her up over this, but Gabriel had left immediately after that consolation hand job the previous night, and Jack was starting to panic over the thought that he was losing to a cat.

Saying 'love' had been...simply the most accurate way to describe Gabriel's attachment to his pet. It had no bearing on Jack's own feelings at all. As if he even could start to fall for someone in.... How long had he been seeing Gabriel? A couple of weeks? It couldn't have been more than—

'Jack?'

“Sorry, Ana, what were you saying?”

She sighed. 'I was saying that you're being ridiculous. Don't go looking for problems where there aren't any.'

“This isn't a fake problem! People always put their pets first. And you know I don't get along with cats.”

'I can tell you think this is important, which is why, instead of hanging up and considering this a waste of my time, I am going to suggest that you ask yourself if it is truly likely that all cats everywhere have an intrinsic dislike for you and, if so, if you honestly believe, in your heart of hearts, that Gabriel will dump you for not being as enamored with his pet as he is.'

Jack thought for a moment. Then: “You don't understand.”

'I'm hanging up now, Jack. Good luck with your paranoia.'

“Ana, wait!” The line went dead, droning heartlessly until he hit the end call button. He tossed his phone onto the coffee table and paced the living room. “I'm not making this up,” he muttered to himself.

He was going to have to work something out, and soon. He was running out of excuses to avoid going over to Gabriel's place, certain that Bunny would take an instant dislike to him and ruin everything. Or just get cat hair all over his clothes. Maybe crap in his shoes. Cats were sneaky.

The point was: Bunny would sense his dislike. She would know he had lied to Gabriel. Jack didn't want an angry cat throwing a wrench into this relationship. Things were going so well! Better than they had in a while, he realized. It was more than just great sex—there was a connection with Gabriel, he was sure of it. He was also sure that if Gabriel found out that he was the cold, heartless sort who couldn't love the little cat Gabriel was so devoted to, then that would be the end. Jack didn't know what the future might have in store for the two of them, but for the first time in a long time, he wanted to find out. He would have to keep the cat issue under wraps until he'd racked up enough points in his favor to stop it from being a deal-breaker. He just needed a bit more time. After all, even counting that first night when all they'd done was get a drink and exchange numbers, they'd only been seeing each other for...

Jack did a quick count backward and halted in his pacing. Without noticing it, he'd started biting his thumbnail again, and he yanked his hand away from his mouth as he muttered to himself: “Shit. It's been almost a month.”

Time had flown. He realized that he might be in a bit deeper than he'd thought.

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

Jack's sofa was gray. The salesperson had called it “charcoal gray,” and said it was “neutral” and would “go with anything.” It matched some of his decor. The TV was black, so far, so good. The TV stand was chrome and glass. The glass had a faintly greenish tint. His coffee table was a battered, solid oak monstrosity that had moved with him from Indiana and been in the family for who knew how long before that. The bookshelves were black-laminated plywood. His dinette was more chrome and glass (the glass had a faintly grayish tint). The carpet was basic apartment beige, the walls were the sort of matte white that always managed to look dingy, and the vertical blinds in front of the sliding door out onto his tiny balcony were eggshell. The sofa failed to bring everything together as promised, but it was comfy and, as far as Jack cared, that was what mattered.

It was a mishmash, but it was saved from being a dull mishmash by the plants. A vase of sunflowers sat to one side of the coffee table. They'd been a cash crop back home, but he'd found that keeping some in the apartment dulled the occasional sting of homesickness. The rest of the plants had accumulated for much the same reason. An enormous peace lily took up most of the corner between the TV stand and the balcony doors, and African violets peeked out from his bookshelves. A kalanchoe with bright yellow flowers sat on the kitchen table. When he pushed the blinds aside, the last rays of fading sunlight streamed in past the container garden that took up most of his balcony—planters of succulents, pots of begonias, hanging baskets overflowing with petunias, even a small grape tomato plant. He'd hung bird feeders up to either side. It gave him something to watch while he had his morning coffee.

Two days after he'd been abandoned in favor of a kitten who he was sure couldn't possibly be as lonely as her owner claimed, Jack had another date planned with Gabriel. Didn't everyone always say that cats were solitary creatures? They were supposed to be able to get along fine on their own. Bunny just had Gabriel wrapped around her stubby paw. She probably already hated Jack. He was competition.

He stalked through the apartment, making sure everything was cleaned up and set to rights. Originally, they had planned to go out for dinner, but Gabriel had texted him earlier to ask if he would mind changing things up. Now, Gabriel was on his way with fixings to make dinner. They were going to cook together and watch movies on the couch. Jack wasn't sure what had put the idea into Gabriel's head, but he was happy enough to go along with it. Although he'd had boyfriends that cooked for him once or twice, he hadn't ever cooked with someone like that. He was looking forward to it.

The sunflowers on his coffee table were wilting. Wishing he'd had time to pick up some fresh ones, Jack threw them away and rinsed out the vase. The table looked bare without them, and the room seemed suddenly colorless. Turning to the patio doors, he flicked on the balcony light against the growing darkness. His little container garden looked odd at night beneath artificial lights, but at least it would liven up the room a bit.

Realizing he was fussing over nothing, that Gabriel had already seen his apartment under more cluttered circumstances, Jack tried to sit down and relax. He told himself that this wasn't a big deal. It was casual. The assurances felt like lies. Casual, yes, but intimate. They were going to be cooking together, in his tiny kitchen. This wasn't just a couple guys grabbing a bite before heading back to an apartment to fuck, this was domestic. Nervous energy had him smoothing down his navy v-neck shirt, plucking at the slightest suggestion of dust, brushing imaginary wrinkles out of his khakis. More than almost anything at the moment, he wanted to be able to go for a jog or head to the gym for a few rounds against a punching bag. He shouldn't be so damn unsettled! This wasn't as big a deal as his nerves were making it out to be.

Part of him wanted it to be a big deal, though, which didn't help at all.

He was chewing his thumbnail when the sudden knock at his door broke into his whirling thoughts. It startled him badly enough that he jumped out of his seat, banging his shins against the coffee table. With a hiss he stumbled around it and hurried for the door.

“Coming!”

He pulled the door open and went still as stone, expression freezing in the middle of shifting from a pained grimace to a welcoming smile. The impulse to slam the door was strong enough that he had to tighten his fist around the knob until he could almost feel it creaking under the pressure. Gabriel stood just across the threshold, grinning and holding up a little ball of white fur that didn't look at all happy to be there.

“Say hi to Jack, Bunny!” Gabriel turned his grin onto the cat, giving Jack a much needed moment to shake off the unwelcome surprise.

“You brought Bunny.” The false enthusiasm he'd tried to buoy his voice with fell flat. Thankfully, Gabriel didn't seem to notice.

“Yeah. She's been dying to meet you. Here! Hold her for a sec while I bring all this in.”

Before Jack could protest, Bunny was thrust forward into his arms. He scrabbled, trying to get a good hold on the cat—dropping her would be like dropping Gabriel's flesh-and-blood child—without actually touching her any more than was necessary. He felt the warning prick of claws against his hands as Gabriel turned away.

“Uhh...Gabe?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise. We talk about her all the time, but you haven't been able to come over. Besides—” His smile as he turned around with a cat carrier in one hand and grocery bags in the other was far more suggestive than his grin had been. “—now I can stay the night with no distractions.”

One very big distraction squirmed in Jack's hold as he stepped aside to let Gabriel in. Bunny was soft as dandelion fluff, and not pleased with her situation. She meowed imperiously as Gabriel leaned in to give Jack a quick peck on the lips.

“Happy one month anniversary.” He slipped past Jack to set the groceries on the dining table and the cat carrier on the floor.

The reminder of a realization he'd only just come to the day before kick started Jack's brain. He smiled, hiding his discomfort as best he could while he fought to—gently—keep hold of the increasingly wriggly Bunny.

“So that explains the change of plans,” Jack said. “I was just thinking about that the other day, but I hadn't really expected we'd do much for it.”

Gabriel looked back at him, smile fading. “Too much? I just thought—”

“No, no!” Jack moved in for another kiss, sweet and lingering, and managed to pass Bunny off in the middle of it. “Cooking together, relaxing on the couch with a movie, and I get to keep you all night? We can celebrate every week if it means more dates like this.”

The words had just spilled out. Had that been too much? Was he being clingy? It had been so long since he'd wanted anything more than a good fuck out of a partner that he wasn't sure—

With his hands full of cat, Gabriel couldn't pull him into a hug, but he did catch Jack's lips in another kiss which only ended as Bunny began to protest. Laughing, Gabriel pulled away and soothed her with scratches behind her ears.

“Spoiled little imp,” he said affectionately.

Jack felt a sudden, acute spike of jealousy.

“Do me a favor, Jack, and move the lily and the kalanchoe out onto the balcony.” He caught Jack's look of bewilderment and added with an apologetic smile: “They're poisonous to cats. I had to look up the kalanchoe, but with lilies it's pretty common knowledge.”

Thinking that if Bunny wasn't smart enough to avoid eating poisonous plants, then she was obviously an evolutionary dead end, Jack nevertheless took his plants outside without a word of protest. He heard his door open and shut again, and turned to see that Gabriel had brought in one more thing. With Bunny now loose and sniffing around behind him, he came forward with a dwarf sunflower in a red ceramic pot painted with little black cats.

“Happy anniversary,” he said again, handing them to Jack along with another brief kiss.

Bunny meowed her disapproval, and Gabriel pulled away, laughing softly as Jack tried to marshal his warring delight and dismay.

“Do these need to go outside, too?”

“Nope.” Gabriel was practically beaming. “Your favorite flowers are cat friendly.”

“Great.” Smiling past the looming knowledge that he was a fraud, he set the flowers on the coffee table, and skirted around Bunny as she approached to sniff his feet.

“She won't bite.”

Jack looked up, startled to see Gabriel watching him with a crooked smile. “Oh. Yeah, I just.... She's so small, you know?”

He saw Gabriel's expression change, saw the smile widen, lips parting to reveal a glimpse of white teeth, saw it crinkle around the corners of his eyes, saw such clear affection focused on himself that it made his heart speed up. Jack felt himself heat up and knew he'd be blushing from the top of his chest all the way up to his ears. He clenched his fists at his sides and locked his knees, because if he moved, he was going to rush straight into Gabriel's arms and once that happened, they were not going to be getting around to cooking dinner anytime soon.

“Just be gentle with her, Jack. She'll love you.”

Jack wasn't convinced. He was certain that cats could tell when people didn't like them, and Bunny, with her stubby legs and suspicious stare and white fur that was going to get everywhere, was not exactly a welcome guest in his apartment. He moved out of the way to watch from a corner near the balcony door as Gabriel began pulling things out of bags to make Bunny at home. He had a small, plastic tray and litter, a pair of bowls, bagged food, canned food, three cat toys, and, stuffed into the cat carrier, a small, plush cat bed. Jack's pristine floor was soon scattered with Bunny's things. The cat meowed and rubbed against Gabriel, begging as he poured out a measure of dry food for her to eat, and playfully scolded her for her whining, reminding her that it wasn't yet dinnertime and that she'd get her wet food in just a little bit if she was patient and behaved. He talked to her as if she could understand.

It was only once he was done making Bunny at home that Gabriel began unpacking the things he'd brought to make dinner with. Jack eased out of his corner and slipped into the kitchen, watching Bunny warily the whole while, though she never once looked up from her food. On his way, he caught sight of his shoes next to the door. He had no good excuse to move them—'I don't trust your cat not to piss in my shoes' probably wouldn't go over well—so he crossed his fingers and hoped for the best. Maybe if he kept out of Bunny's way, she wouldn't take exception to him.

In the kitchen, Gabriel was arranging the ingredients he'd brought on the counter, and going through the cabinets, pulling out pans and utensils. Jack stepped up behind him, a bit closer than he strictly needed to even in the small space, and ran a hand across Gabriel's lower back as he came around to his other side to take a closer look. He noted the two bottles of wine with interest as Gabriel put a carton of strawberries and a covered steel mixing bowl into the fridge.

“What's on the menu?”

“Filet mignon with a balsamic glaze, steamed asparagus and grape tomatoes with Parmesan, and baby red potatoes. And I brought strawberries with homemade whipped cream for dessert.”

Jack blinked in surprise. “What, no bread to cover that last food group?” He was pleased to earn a soft laugh, and moved in closer, leaning against Gabriel and setting his chin on his shoulder to peek as he finished sorting things out. “That sounds complicated. Would it have been easier for me to come over?”

“It's simpler than you think.” Reaching up, Gabriel ruffled Jack's hair affectionately. “Wash up and help me chop potatoes.”

They got to it, Gabriel giving each of the baby reds a quick scrub, then handing them off to Jack to be chopped and tossed into a pot, then set to boil. “They'd be better roasted, really, but I was planing more for speed tonight,” he admitted. His smile turned smug, and there was a teasing note of challenge in his voice as he added: “Maybe next time, I'll have you over instead so I can take my time cooking something up.”

Jack's stomach flipped, and for a moment, he couldn't remember why he'd kept dodging Gabriel's invitations. Then, as if realizing that her presence had slipped Jack's mind, Bunny stalked into the kitchen, tail held high, and rubbed against Gabriel's leg, crying for his attention. Gabriel only laughed and assured her that he didn't have anything she would want to eat, winking at Jack as if keeping filet mignon from the cat was a joke they were sharing. He did, however, pull one of the dinette chairs near the edge of the counter and lift Bunny up onto the seat to give her a better view of what was going on. She cried and batted her paws for attention, even lifted up on her back feet, but aside from the occasional word of reassurance, Gabriel turned his attention back to cooking. Eventually, she gave up, quieted down, and resigned herself to simply watching.

Doing his best to ignore their audience, Jack clung to Gabriel like a burr, hands pressed against his back, chin resting on his shoulder, watching him work. Gabriel seemed not to mind as he rinsed off the asparagus and sliced away the dried bases of the stalks before putting them into a skillet, running some water over them, and setting them aside. The steaks got a coating of salt and pepper on both sides, then placed in their own small skillet. By then, the potatoes were just beginning to simmer, and Gabriel turned on the heat to steam the asparagus.

When Gabriel sidled away from the stove, Jack followed, hands slipping down to settle at his waist, fingers rubbing lightly just above the hem of his jeans. He grinned as Gabriel turned in his arms to kiss him, letting Jack press him against the counter. They shared slow kisses, a smack of lips, a breath in parting, the slightest tilt of their chins to bring their lips together again. Gabriel's palms were planted on the counter top. Jack's fingertips rested lightly on his waist, trembling with the need to explore, but reluctant to disturb the soothing give and take. He leaned into Gabriel, soaking up the heat of his body, delighting in how pleasantly they fit against one another. The moment dragged out, and might have gone on longer had it not been for a soft thud and a demanding meow and the feel of paws stepping on his feet as Bunny wormed her way in-between them.

Gabriel pulled back with a laugh, and looked down at his cat. “My sous chef says it's time to put the steaks on.”

“Why does the cat get to be the sous chef?” Jack grumbled. He slipped his hands beneath Gabriel's shirt to knead at his skin.

“Because she is actually being helpful.” Gently but firmly, he took hold of Jack's wrists and pulled his hands away, then turned back to the stove.

Despite what he'd said, he didn't shrug Jack off when Jack once more settled his chin on Gabriel's shoulder to watch him cook. He switched on the burner for the steaks and seared each side, then reached for one of the wine bottles and a cruet nearly full with a dark liquid. Turning down the heat, Gabriel poured a measure of both into the skillet as Jack sniffed appreciatively as the aroma of cooking meat mixed with the bitter scents of wine and balsamic vinegar, and the lighter smell of the asparagus. Gabriel covered the meat and checked on the greens, then reached for the small carton of grape tomatoes.

“Want to halve the tomatoes for me?”

Jack considered for a moment, then nuzzled the crook of Gabriel's neck. “No.” God, he smelled so good. Even better than the dinner he was cooking.

Again, Gabriel reached up and ruffled his hair, scratching briefly just above his ear. “You're going to have to give me a bit of room, then, so I can do it.” He was grinning broadly, and answered Jack's quizzical look with a quick peck on the cheek.

Wondering what joke he was missing, Jack stepped aside, bracing his forearms along the counter at the far edge. As Gabriel rinsed the tomatoes and piled them on the cutting board, a few slipped free. One dropped to the floor and was immediately attacked by Bunny, who began batting it around the small kitchen. Jack caught another that rolled too close and began absently rolling it on the counter as he watched Gabriel slice the rest neatly in half.

“So, who taught you how to cook?”

“My grandmother taught me the basics, a few favorite family recipes. Mostly, I learn new ones on my own. There's this great resource for that—you might have heard of it. The internet?”

“Ass.” Jack ducked his head, trying and failing to repress a smile. “I know how to find recipes.”

“Oh, yeah? And follow them, too? 'Cause, I couldn't help noticing, Jack, that you have never cooked in the month that I've known you. Everything is take out and leftovers. I had to check to be sure you'd have all the pans I needed last time I was here.”

“So that's why you were snooping in here.” He shifted his weight, hips canting to one side, and studied Gabriel's smirk until realization hit. “You don't think I can cook!” He accused.

Gabriel glanced sidelong at him, eyes bright with amusement. “Going to prove me wrong?”

“Name the date and then prepare to be amazed.” Although Jack's only secret family recipe was for chili, he wasn't about to let that get in the way of a challenge. How hard could it be to pick a recipe and follow the instructions? He could handle this romantic wine-and-dine stuff.

“You done playing with that?” Pointing with his knife, Gabriel indicated the tomato Jack was batting back and forth between his hands. He rinsed it off again when Jack handed it over, then chopped it in half and piled it with the rest. Checking the steaks filled the kitchen with their mouthwatering aroma. Jack rested his hands on Gabriel's shoulder as he peeked. His stomach growled as Gabriel flipped the steaks and spooned the glaze over top of them before settling the lid back on the skillet.

“So?” Jack prompted as Gabriel checked on the asparagus and turned down the heat. “When do you want your delicious, homemade meal prepared by yours truly?”

Steam wafted up as Gabriel drained the water from the skillet into the sink. Without turning to face Jack, he asked quietly: “What about for our three month anniversary?”

A happy little thrill uncoiled in Jack's stomach and shot up his spine. Gabriel wanted to be with him for the next few months at least; was making long-term plans with him! Small long-term plans, yes, but plans nonetheless. He couldn't have stopped smiling if he'd wanted to, and catching a glimpse of Gabriel's cheeks flushed a shade darker than normal was just icing on the cake.

“It's a date!” He tried to sound cool, but his delight spilled over enough for Gabriel to glance over his shoulder and break into a grin. Jack felt like a teenager again, caught in the undertow of heady young love.

The thought knocked the breath out of him. He took a step back, shaking his head to clear it. They'd only been seeing each other for a month. Sure, they'd clicked, but...love? That was a heavy concept. He liked Gabriel. A lot. Wanted to see more of him, get to know him better. Even listening to him talk about his cat had been starting to seem interesting lately, particularly given the way Gabriel lit right up, became more animated as he described Bunny's latest exploits. It made Jack wonder sometimes if Gabriel ever talked about him, if, one day, he might brighten up while talking about Jack to someone.

It was a nice thought, the idea of being someone who made Gabriel that happy.

“I'll go set the table,” Jack murmured. He pulled plates out of the cabinet, as Gabriel added Parmesan and halved grape tomatoes to the pan of asparagus and set it back on the burner to finish cooking.

“This is almost ready, so you can just leave the plates there and I'll serve. Go ahead and pour the wine. The unopened one is for us.”

Wordlessly, trying not to catch Gabriel's eye lest his expression give away his thoughts, Jack fetched a pair of long unused wine glasses from the very top cabinet and brought them and the bottle to the table. The wine was faintly chilled, and he took a long drink of his before refilling his glass. He fiddled with his glass, listening to the sounds of Gabriel moving around in his kitchen plating food, putting the finishing touches on a romantic dinner he'd planned and cooked for their one month anniversary.

This is crazy, Jack found himself thinking. This is going too fast. Since when do hook ups last long enough for an anniversary?

But Gabriel wasn't just a hook up. At least, not any more. And maybe Jack hadn't really wanted an anniversary, but, to be fair, he'd never considered that they might have one. The thought had never even crossed his mind. And now that it was happening....

“Coming through.” Gabriel stepped out of the kitchen with two plates loaded with mouth-watering filet mignon, bright and fragrant steamed vegetables, and mounds of red potatoes sprinkled with herbs and topped with melting butter. Jack looked from the dishes to Gabriel's face, saw pride and affection in his grin, and felt his anxiety easing.

“Looks amazing,” Jack said.

“Smells amazing. And it's going to taste amazing! Sit.” He set their plates down and took the chair across from Jack. As soon as he was settled, he raised his wineglass. “Cheers.”

“Happy anniversary,” Jack said, more pleased to say it than he would have thought possible.

Now that it was happening, he was so glad that this was something he had a chance to make work.

The meal was, of course, interrupted several times by Bunny.

She sat herself on the floor at Gabriel's side, crying for scraps and reaching up to set her paws on his leg when he didn't acknowledge her soon enough. It seemed to Jack that, had Gabriel wanted to break her of that habit, it would be easy enough to ignore her. Instead, he indulged the spoiled feline. Gabriel scraped the glaze off a bit of his steak, then sliced that piece off and cut it into tiny chunks.

“You wanna try some of what we're having? I don't know if you'll like it.”

“I like it,” Jack said, watching Gabriel actually get up from his seat to go put the chopped up filet in Bunny's food bowl.

“She likes to try new things,” Gabriel said as he sat back down. “Picky, though. Steak and hamburgers are okay, but she doesn't like pot roast. And she'll eat tuna all day, but turn up her nose at salmon.”

“You spoil that cat,” Jack said, and immediately could have swallowed his tongue. The accusation had popped out before he could stop it. Thankfully, Gabriel only laughed.

“Yeah. I do.” He caught Jack's eye, and the knowing grin he wore froze Jack in place. “You jealous? Feeling like I don't spoil you enough?”

Jack took a sip of wine, and smiled over the rim of the glass. “You just cooked an amazing meal for me as part of a surprise one month anniversary celebration. I'm feeling a little bit spoiled.”

“Only a little bit?” He leaned back in his chair, studying Jack in a way that sent a shiver up his spine. “I'll have to try harder.”

“When our two month rolls around?”

Gabriel's grin was absolutely wicked, and rousing appetites that had nothing to do with food. “When I take you to bed tonight.”

Jack swallowed hard. “Is there a reason we're waiting?” He was proud that his voice sounded mostly normal.

Smiling, Gabriel speared a grape tomato on his fork and licked it off the end of the tines, eyes on Jack the whole while. “Anticipation,” he said once he'd swallowed it down.

Whatever clever, flirty thing Jack might have responded with was cut off as he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see that Bunny had jumped up onto the coffee table and was stalking his new potted sunflower.

“Hey!” He was up out of his seat without thinking, only slowing when he reached the table and realized that Gabriel probably wouldn't appreciate him snatching the cat up from where she had chosen to be. “Shoo,” he said quietly, feeling ridiculous as he flapped his hands a good foot away from Bunny, anxious not to scare her with Gabriel watching. “Go on. Hop down. You aren't supposed to be up here.”

Oh, God. Now he was talking to her as if she could understand. It was spreading.

There was a muffled laugh and a simulated shutter noise, and Jack turned to see Gabriel hiding a grin behind one hand as he held up his phone with the other.

“Smile for the camera, Jack.”

The expression was crooked and awkward, and Jack looked away just as he heard the click because the bright yellow petals in his peripheral vision had suddenly started to shake. Bunny had her paws on the rim of the pot, and he scooped her up before she could overturn it. Holding her out, suddenly unsure what to do, Jack looked to Gabriel for help and was met with another shutter snap.

“See? I told you she'd love you.”

Jack looked doubtfully at Bunny. She was kneading his sleeve, staring at him with an expression that he was pretty sure meant something closer to: 'Put me down or I will make you bleed' than whatever Gabriel believed was going on. Gingerly, Jack lowered Bunny to the floor, making sure all of her paws were firmly settled on the carpet before letting go. She swiped at his fingers, causing him to jerk away and take a step back.

“Just let her be. She's only curious. Once she's given the flowers a good sniff, she'll leave them alone.”

“So you say,” Jack murmured, returning to his chair.

The food was incredible, and Gabriel was the best company he could wish for, but the tiniest sound from the living room snatched Jack's attention away from dinner so often that Gabriel finally suggested that they finish their meal on the couch. Embarrassed to have been so obviously nervous about the cat exploring his apartment, Jack nevertheless agreed quickly. They gathered their plates and glasses and moved to sit on the sofa. As he pulled up a movie on Netflix, Jack decided that he preferred the new arrangement. He tucked himself against Gabriel's side and then tucked into the food, warm and content and still very much interested in Gabriel's teasing promises about where the evening was leading.

Bunny refused to admit defeat. She crawled up Gabriel's leg and nearly onto his plate. Eventually, he had to rest the dish on the arm of the sofa, and hold her on his lap while trying to feed the both of them. Jack cleared his plate long before Gabriel was done and barely restrained the urge to lick it clean. He watched as Gabriel struggled to cut cat-sized bites of filet to feed to Bunny, then leaned in and licked his lips.

“If you aren't going to finish your dinner, I'll be happy to share what's left.”

Side-eyeing him, Gabriel snorted as the corner of his lips quirked up. He cut a bite of filet and fed it to Jack, then offered Bunny a much smaller tidbit before taking another bite for himself. The rest of Gabriel's dinner was divided up similarly. He fed Jack bites of everything, and teased off tiny bits of steak for Bunny. If he hadn't looked so plainly self-satisfied, Jack might have backed off and left the begging to the cat, but something about the expression on Gabriel's face and the almost teasing affection every time he fed Jack another bite kept him butting his head against Gabriel's shoulder and tilting his chin up for more.

Once the last bites had been finished, Gabriel set his plate aside on the coffee table and relaxed back against the cushions. Jack, on the other hand, found himself facing an obstacle. His usual favorite place to rest his head when they watched movies together had been usurped. Bunny sat on Gabriel's lap, purring smugly as Gabriel stroked her fur. Unwilling to risk Gabriel's displeasure by chasing her off, Jack settled somewhat discontentedly at Gabriel's side.

He couldn't bring it up.

He absolutely couldn't bring it up....

But...

Bunny was in his spot!

It should have been his head resting on Gabriel's thigh, his hair that Gabriel's fingers were carding slowly through.

“Not enjoying the movie?” Gabriel murmured.

“What? No, it's all right.” He shifted guiltily, hoping Gabriel wouldn't be able to figure him out.

“It's not as good as I was hoping.”

“No?”

“No.” The hand he'd been petting Bunny with found its way to Jack's thigh and gave him a squeeze. “I don't really think it needs our full attention.”

“Definitely not,” Jack muttered, leaning in to meet Gabriel's lips. They shifted as the kiss deepened, pulling each other closer and quickly forgetting about everything else until an angry meow yanked their attention back to the present and the disapproving ball of fluff stubbornly clinging to her perch on Gabriel's lap.

“Telling us to get a room, sweetie?” Gabriel asked with a laugh. Gently, he shooed Bunny onto the floor, then stood and pulled Jack up after him. His smile crinkled up the corners of his eyes, etching laugh lines into his already handsome face, and making his eyes twinkle. “Come on. Let's find someplace more private.”

Jack was more than happy with that idea.

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

Bunny cried and scratched at the bedroom door nearly the entire time. Vocal to begin with, Jack made it a point to be loud enough to drown her out. He shouted himself hoarse as Gabriel made good on his earlier promise to try harder to spoil him. They wore each other out, finally collapsing in a tangle of limbs and sweat-soaked sheets to catch their breath. 'Marry me,' Jack wanted to say, and, in that moment, it wouldn't have been entirely a joke. He laughed breathlessly and let the impulse born of euphoria fade away.

“What did I ever do to deserve you?” he muttered, and winced to hear the rusty grating of his voice.

Gabriel nuzzled closer and kissed his neck lazily. He had an arm slung over Jack's body, fingers barely stirring against the skin of his hip. “You listened,” he said.

“Hmm?”

“When we got drinks together that first night, and you tried to pretend that you like cats.”

“I do like cats,” Jack insisted. He tried to sit up as a dawning panic chased away the warm stupor of the afterglow, but Gabriel slid an arm up his chest and held him down. “What makes you think I don't like cats?”

“It's okay, Jack.” His quiet laugh rumbled between them. “I've known from the start. You're not as good a liar as you think you are.”

Not liking this revelation one little bit, Jack huffed and tried to sink even further into the mattress. “If it was so obvious I lied, then why go out with me?”

“Well...I know I can be a little...overeager...about Bunny. Most guys I talk to, they make it obvious that they don't care, don't want to listen, would rather talk about anything else. At least you did me the courtesy of encouraging me to go on about her. I figured you deserved a chance after that. And what do you know?” He raised himself up on an elbow so that he could lean down and kiss Jack's lips. “You didn't fuck it up.”

“I lied to you, though. I don't.... Bunny doesn't....”

“A little white lie, told so I wouldn't feel bad going on about something I love. Don't worry about Bunny. She likes you just fine. I was hoping that, once you'd met her, you'd stop avoiding my place.”

“So...you really don't mind that I'm not a cat person?” Even looking up into the warm, reassuring brown of Gabriel's eyes, Jack still couldn't bring himself to say that he wasn't comfortable around Bunny. Gabriel seemed to understand anyway.

“I'm betting that she'll grow on you. If you still feel bad about it, then how about this? You be honest with me about your thoughts on cats, and I'll try to dial back the crazy cat owner stuff. Deal?”

Jack's gaze slid away from his. “I like listening to you talk about her,” he mumbled. “You light up.”

Even lying there in Gabriel's arms, in a room grown stuffy and humid, Jack still felt his cheeks heat up at the admission. He could only keep his gaze averted for so long before his eyes were drawn back up to Gabriel's, and the grin he saw focused on him left his mouth dry. Jack reached out to drag him down even as Gabriel slid fully atop him and caught his lips in a kiss. They moved against each other, ardor sparking anew. Outside the door, Bunny's plaintive meowing picked up again and went ignored.

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

Jack woke before Gabriel and lay still in his arms for a few minutes, savoring the comfort of waking up next to someone. He was careful as he slipped out of bed, not wanting to wake him. Bunny was curled up on Gabriel's pillow. They had let her in before going to sleep last night. She stretched as Jack got up and pulled on a pair of boxers, watching him with imperious eyes.

“Meow,” she demanded.

Jack raised a finger to his lips and motioned for her to follow him. She considered for a moment, then, to his surprise, hopped down and led the way out of the room, tail held high. Obviously she was smart enough to know that, fond of her or not, Jack was willing to buy her silence with food. Shaking his head, he followed after her. Cats were something else.

He fed Bunny and made coffee. Outside, the sun was warming his small container garden. He stood before the patio doors, sipping his coffee and watching birds come and go at the feeders. Bunny stood on her back paws, batting at the door as the birds caught her interest as well.

The soft noise of Gabriel's phone as he took a picture was the first warning Jack had that he'd woken up. Turning around, he saw Gabriel wearing nothing but a hoodie, grinning as he looked at the photo he'd taken. When he looked up to meet Jack's eyes, his grin only got wider.

“I think I have an idea about why you don't like cats, Jackie.”

“I'm still annoyed that you didn't say anything sooner.”

“Says the guy who spent a month lying to me about trivial shit. But seriously. Do you realize that you're practically a cat, yourself?”

“Excuse me?” He bristled, turning fully away from the view out the glass doors. “What, because I watch the birds in the morning?”

“Not just that.” Gabriel crossed the room, holding out his phone. “Here. Look.”

He scrolled through photos of Jack. There weren't as many as there were of Bunny, but there were still far more than Jack would have expected—photos from above of him resting his head on Gabriel's lap, one hand curled into his sweats as if he'd been kneading the fabric, photos of him with his tongue peeking between his lips as he fixed his hair, photos of him chewing on his thumbnail like a cat grooming its paw. There was a series of photos showing him going from sitting in a patch of late afternoon sunlight on the living room floor with a box of take out, to stretched out on his back in the sun, to rolling onto his stomach as he followed the light as it moved across the floor.

“Have you noticed that you'll bat pens and things back and forth when you've got one in front of you?”

“Bad habit.”

“And that if I cup your cheek, you nuzzle into my hand every time?”

“That's normal.”

“You're constantly grooming yourself.”

“I don't want to look like a slob!”

“And there's the fact that the comb you use looks suspiciously like a flea comb.”

“Okay, look. They have steel bristles and my hair's thick enough that I need something that won't break.”

Gabriel was only barely holding back laughter. “You knock glasses off the table all the time.”

“Not on purpose! I have bad depth perception!”

“What about this, then?”

He pulled up a video on his phone, and when Jack leaned in to watch, he saw himself stalking something around his living room as Gabriel laughed quietly, mumbling 'Get it, Jack,' under his breath. In the video, Jack batted at the air once, twice, then lunged forward and clapped his hands together. 'Got it!' he shouted, looking triumphantly up at Gabriel.

“I killed the fly, didn't I?”

“You are a mighty and impressive hunter. Just like Bunny.” He gestured, and Jack turned to see the cat batting at a moth on the other side of the glass doors.

“I don't have to listen to this.” He stalked off toward the short hall leading to his bedroom as Gabriel's laughter finally won out and burst free.

“Oh, come on, Jack. You're only proving my point. I can practically see your tail lashing.”

Gabriel caught up, wrapping one arm around Jack's waist and reaching up to ruffle his hair with his other hand. He kissed the back of Jack's neck and trailed his attentions to his ear, nipping at the lobe. Noticing that her human was paying too much attention to someone else, Bunny lost interest in the outside world and trotted over to weave through their ankles, butting her head against their legs and meowing.

“Bunny. Tell Jack I was only kidding.”

“Maaaow!”

“Thank you.”

“Sorry, I don't speak cat.”

“Jaaack.” Gabriel wrapped both arms around his chest and butted his head against the back of Jack's neck. “Come on,” he said, a smile still audible as he spoke. “What's it going to take for you to forgive this awful mistake I made?”

“Hmmm.... I suppose you could start by cooking breakfast.”

Gabriel snorted and let go of him. When Jack turned around, he was kneeling to scoop up Bunny. Both of them fixed him with knowing stares as Gabriel cuddled the cat and murmured: “Hear that, Bunny? Jack, who is definitely not like you in any way, says I can appease him with food.” His grin stretched suddenly wider. “You know, there's still that whipped cream in the fridge. What do you think? Does Jack deserve some cream as a special treat?”

Giving them the most disdainful stare he could manage, Jack gathered his dignity and stepped past them, heading for the kitchen. “I've got to water my plants.”

He ignored the muffled laughter as he filled up a plastic watering can in the sink and went out onto the patio. Gabriel let him have his space, and soon Jack heard faint noises from the kitchen and assumed that he was starting in on breakfast after all. Just as Jack was coming to terms with the idea that Gabriel might not be completely wrong about certain aspects of his behavior, his thoughts were interrupted by a quiet meow. Bunny had followed him outside.

Glancing back to be sure Gabriel hadn't noticed, Jack knelt down and carefully slid the door shut. It wasn't soundproof, but it would be better than nothing.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Bunny.” He watched her sniff at his plants, completely uninterested in him. Feeling a bit like an idiot, he continued anyway. “You really love Gabe, right? Well...he's pretty important to me, too. So, I just wanted to say, for his sake, that I hope we can get along.”

He reached out very hesitantly and, with another quick check to be sure that Gabriel wasn't secretly taking more pictures, patted her gently on the head.

#cornfuck and the reaper #fanfiction

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jaemtens · 6 years

Text

The Canned Genie

monsta x| kihyuk | side jookyun | 11.5k | ao3

summary: Lee Minhyuk was just making dinner when he ends up with a genie that he didn’t ask for. Yoo Kihyun was just chilling in his “lamp” when he ends up with several headaches that he didn’t ask for.

☆ The First Wish ☆

Minhyuk dropped his backpack on the ground and dramatically collapsed on his rickety bed.

He should eat, he thought to himself.

Long ago, he was sure that the bed frame would iminently give out, folding on itself while he was sleeping on it. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do if that happened -- sleep on the floor? That’s not the worst, right? A few days passed, and he was pretty sure he was in the clear. His bed was just rickety and old, even if it was comfy and, um, well-used. He could definitely fall asleep right now. Minhyuk rolled to his side, hugging his blanket and burying his face into it. It was so warm; yup, he could fall asleep right now if he wanted to.

He really should eat, he thought again.

Minhyuk was so tired. Beyond tired. Exhausted? Yeah, exhausted was the word. Today, he had to work the early-morning shift at the convenience store before heading to his night lecture for Quantitative Chemistry aka Quant aka Hell On Earth. Yeah, yeah, he knew that choosing chemistry as his major was definitely not the easy way out. He knew that every waking moment of his four-year degree was going to be hard. But, even if your average Biology or Pre-Medical major Suffered (yes, Suffered, not suffered. Just ask a biology major about organic chemistry and you’ll know why) through every chemistry class, Minhyuk took most of them in stride. Quant was a whole ‘nother level, and his brain ached just thinking about the class. He didn’t know how he made it through today’s lecture, and he certainly didn’t remember dragging himself through the dark streets back to his apartment building.

Just get up and eat, you lard! he chided himself.

He finally acquiesced to his conscience. With a prolonged groan, Minhyuk rolled off his bed, his gangly limbs steadying the sleep-deprived college student. His eyes were barely open, the light streaming from the incandescent bulb above him too much to handle right now. Minhyuk dragged himself to the kitchen, nearly tripping on his bag along the way. God, he was a mess.

Look, he wasn’t usually a mess, okay? Just after Quant. And Inorganic. And -- never mind.

Just how was Minhyuk so perpetually tired?

Well, first, he was a college student. An unhealthy dose of exhaustion was the name of the game. Bonus tired points because he was a chemistry major, a department in which the professors literally did not care if you slept or not. Suffering (yes, Suffering!) was widespread in his major. And Minhyuk? Well, he was basically an academic masochist. Just ask the nuclear magnetic resonance spectrographs scattered all over his desk.

Second, he worked. It wasn’t a good job. It wasn’t even a job he liked. It was a dead-end retail job at a convenience store. But, let’s face it. Who’s going to hire a broke underclassmen chemistry major with literally no work experience? A convenience store, that’s who. Unfortunately, that wiped out most of Minhyuk’s free time.

Third, Minhyuk was the type of person to sleep whenever he could. His sleep schedule oscillated wildly between consecutive all-nighters to, like, 36 hours of sleep straight. Okay, not quite straight, but laying in bed and hiding under your covers while technically awake is not really awake, right? Minhyuk took naps everywhere and anywhere. Altogether, he was pretty sure his sleep schedule was screwed up beyond saving.

Fortunately for sleepy Minhyuk, his kitchen was really close to his bed. The upside to a closet-sized apartment? Is his studio even a real apartment? Still half-awake, Minhyuk opened one of the cupboards and sighed at how hopelessly empty it was. He really needed to get more stuff from the convenience store... Or steal more free food from campus. Grocery stores were too expensive. Who has money for fruit in this economy? Minhyuk reached for his last can of chicken noodle soup and fished out his hand-me-down can opener from one of the drawers. He latched the can opener’s teeth on the can of soup and clenched down hard on the handles, perforating the can on one edge.

Without any further warning, the top of the can practically exploded off, and a plume of lavender-white smoke swirled up from the can. The smoke enveloped his small kitchen, but it left as soon as it had appeared. In its place was an empty can of ‘soup,’ and a boy who looked like he couldn’t be much older than him.

Oh, and the boy was floating.

“I must be hallucinating,” Minhyuk murmured, rubbing his eyes. That was the only reasonable explanation; he was so tired that he was hallucinating. God, he really should’ve just stayed in bed. This is what happens when you shun sleep. Never give up on sleep, kids.

The floating boy rolled his eyes. “No, you’re not,” he emphatically replied. “Name’s Kihyun, I’m a genie, and you get five wishes.”

“What?”

Kihyun sighed. “My name is Yoo Kihyun. I’m a genie, and I grant wishes... Anything you want, really. You get five wishes.”

The hallucination -- Kihyun, his tripped-out brain corrected -- seemed pretty serious for being, you know, completely fake.

“I wish I had another can of soup,” Minhyuk deadpanned, rubbing his eyes again. What a weird dream.

Kihyun rolled his eyes again. Minhyuk swore he heard the boy mutter something under his breath, but, without missing a beat, Kihyun snapped his fingers. Another puff of lavender smoke appeared on his kitchen counter, quickly dissipating to reveal an exact replica of the empty can of chicken noodle soup that Kihyun came from. This new one was sealed, unlike the empty one next to it. Minhyuk looked back over at Kihyun, who acted like this was totally and completely normal.

“Four wishes,” Kihyun dryly said.

Okay, this was a little much for a hallucination… maybe he was dreaming? Minhyuk tried to wake himself up a little, studying all of Kihyun’s features. Even though he was hovering a few inches off the ground, Minhyuk could tell that Kihyun was a few inches shorter than him. He had light brown hair that was boyishly combed down over his forehead. His features were remarkably sharp with strong cheekbones and a strong jawline. His eyes were small and narrow, but his lips and nose were larger. He had small unremarkable earrings in each ear and a blinged-out ring on his right hand, but otherwise he was dressed in plain business casual: a white collared shirt and black pants.

This was oddly specific for a dream. Minhyuk was really tired, though -- maybe he had actually passed out? Kihyun was starting to look impatient. Would he really have dreamed this up? He remembered reading somewhere that your most vivid dreams occurred when you were the most tired. And, well, he was really tired when he got home.

“So…” Minhyuk slowly started. “You’re a genie?”

“That’s what I said, didn’t I?” Kihyun retorted. He seemed disinterested, like Minhyuk was probably the most boring thing in his genie-life right now.

“And you grant wishes?”

“Yup,” Kihyun dismissively answered. “If you wish for anything, I’ll make it come true.”

“And you just wasted your first wish on a can of soup,” he added, disdain evident in his voice. Compared to Minhyuk’s low, nasally voice, Kihyun had a high-pitched tone that sounded like a cross between a sassy gay boy and an annoyed younger sibling. It was almost endearing?

“Well, can I get a do-over on that wish?”

“There aren’t any do-overs for wishes,” Kihyun harshly replied.

“Can I wish for more wishes then?”

“No!”

“Oh.”

So, turns out that you can’t wish for more wishes. What a joke. Kihyun said he could wish for anything, doesn’t that mean he can wish for more wishes?

Minhyuk looked back over at the can of soup on his counter. “Why… why were you in a can of soup? I thought genies came in lamps?”

Kihyun sighed. “Look, how many magic lamps have you seen, like, ever?”

“Mmm,” Minhyuk paused, thinking out loud. “None?”

“Exactly. So we have to get creative.”

“But… a can of soup?”

“Okay, first off, it’s a lot bigger than it looks. Quite roomy, actually. But you wouldn’t know since you’re just a boring old human.”

“And… you’re a genie.”

“Ohmygod, yes! Yes, I’m a genie! How many times do I have to tell you?”

“Okay, okay, you’re a genie,” Minhyuk tacitly agreed. “And you do genie things like grant wishes.”

“Yes.”

“And live in soup cans.”

“Listen here, you little shit,” Kihyun threatened, his eyes fierce and staring directly at Minhyuk’s eyes now; Kihyun definitely had a temper. “With a snap of my fingers I can banish you to another dimension. Or I can shrink you down to the size of an ant. Or I can turn you into an actual ant. Point is, I have more magic in one finger than you can even dream up in your wildest nightmares.”

Kihyun sure was awfully angry. Or annoyed. He couldn’t tell for sure, but Kihyun seemed upset for someone who had just been released from, well, a can of soup.

“Isn’t it, like, against the genie rules to hurt the person who summoned you?”

Kihyun sighed again. He seemed to do that a lot? He was clearly still annoyed.

“Yes,” he belatedly admitted. “But that doesn’t mean that the second you finish your fifth wish--”

“--Don’t you just go back into the soup can?”

“Why are you so annoying!”

“Because this is definitely a dream,” Minhyuk argued. “Or a nightmare, I guess.”

“No, I can assure you that this is very much real, that you’re awake. If anyone’s having a nightmare, it’s me.”

“Oh come on, I’m not that bad,” Minhyuk protested. Just then, his stomach growled in hunger. He blushed a little -- he still hadn’t eaten.

“Anyways, you don’t get hungry in dreams.”

“Uh huh,” Minhyuk dismissed. Kihyun did have a point: you don’t usually get hungry in dreams. And they usually aren’t this… realistic. He was really hungry. And Kihyun seemed really… real. “You don’t mind if I, uh…” he added, motioning toward the can of soup that Kihyun had conjured up for him.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Kihyun replied, rolling his eyes again. Minhyuk just smiled in response as he cracked open the new can and poured it into a bowl. He threw it in the microwave and let it cook.

“I hope you, like, made this correctly.”

“I can assure you that it’s just as salty, preservative-filled, and unhealthy as every other can of chicken noodle soup.”

“Great,” Minhyuk feigned. “Just the way I like it.”

“You still haven’t told me your name.”

“Oh.” Minhyuk was too sleepy to be embarrassed. “That’s because I thought you weren’t real.”

“GENIES ARE REAL!”

Minhyuk just laughed in response. “My name’s Lee Minhyuk.”

“Well, okay, Minhyuk,” Kihyun started, “You live in a dump. These kitchen appliances look like they’re from 1962. Your cupboards? 1942. There’s no furniture in this place except for your desk, which, by the way, is covered in crap so you can’t even see the desk. Your walls and ceiling are peeling in at least five places, and I can only imagine what your bedroom looks like. Not to mention that you have no food, no tableware, and no proper cutlery.”

“Um,” Minhyuk demurred, sheepishly scratching his neck while looking around his place. “First, I don’t have a bedroom. Studio and all. Second, I wasn’t exactly planning on having visitors tonight, you know?”

Kihyun didn’t really seem satisfied with that answer, but at this hour? That was the best he was going to get.

“You can, uh, make yourself at home, I guess?” he added.

“Trust me, there’s nothing that you can do to this apartment to make it more homey.”

“You’re right, I can’t make it look like the inside of a soup can,” Minhyuk replied, giggling as he watched Kihyun’s expression sour.

“Why you little--”

The microwave beeped, signaling that his soup was done. Minhyuk stopped giggling and grabbed his tupperware bowl from the microwave with a hand-towel. He cradled the soup in one hand with the towel whilst using his free hand to find a plastic spork for slurping the noodles.

“You were saying?”

Kihyun sighed and rolled his eyes at the same time. Minhyuk wondered if that was an improvement?

“Aren’t you going to make another wish?”

Oh, yeah, the whole genie bit.

“Hmm, well I think I need some time to think about it,” Minhyuk countered before blowing on a sporkful of noodles and stuffing it in his mouth.

“Did me listing all the things that were wrong about your apartment not help?”

“Nope~” Minhyuk replied with a smile.

☆ The Second Wish ☆

Minhyuk’s eyes fluttered open when the sunlight just started to assault his eyes through his apartment’s lone window. Everything was really freaking bright, so he barely cracked his eyes open; he shuffled in his bed, rolling around to face the rest of the room. Everything looked normal? Normal-ish, at least. He lifted his upper body up and sitting -- well, float-sitting (is that the right word for that?) -- near the foot of his bed and looking totally unamused was none other than Yoo Kihyun. He was unchanged from last night, except he had an unimpressed look and a hand on his chin like he had been watching Minhyuk sleeping for… hours? Hours. Minhyuk’s eyes got real wide and he pulled his covers up over his bare chest.

“What are you doing in here?” he groggily stammered out, still in shock that Kihyun would desecrate the sanctimony of his bedroom-slash-living room. And surely he knew that Kihyun was going to say something about the state of his room soon enough.

“The genie equivalent of watching grass grow,” Kihyun deadpanned, still not moving his hand from his face. “Except for us it’s watching humans sleep.”

“Wait, what?” Minhyuk complained. “Don’t you have, like, genie things to go do?”

“Oh, I would love to be doing literally anything else right now, Minhyuk. But, unfortunately for me, I’m stuck with you until you use all of your wishes. And, even more unfortunately for me, you are a very boring person who doesn’t wish for things quickly. So here I am, watching grass grow.”

Minhyuk let his covers fall back down after realizing that, no, Kihyun was not going to kill him. Though, he still had at least one question nagging at him.

“Couldn’t you, like, do something? Anything? Other than watch me.”

Kihyun sighed. “I would do literally anything else, but, again, you’re a boring person who has literally nothing of interest in this shoebox of an apartment.”

“Right.” Minhyuk feigned agreement, still trying to wake up. “Sorry, I’m still really tired.”

“Well, it’s not like you’ve got a genie who could instantly solve that problem for you,” Kihyun wryly commented, perking up a little. “You could wish for a comfier bed? Fluffier pillows? Warmer covers? Or how about a fully-furnished apartment? Or a larger apartment? Or you could skip the whole apartment and wish to be fully-rested every day?”

Kihyun seemed really excited about the prospect of Minhyuk using up another wish. But why would he want to? He just got up; shouldn’t he, like, fully think this through? Kihyun probably just wanted him to wish for stuff so that he could go back in his soup can and do whatever genies do. Yeah, Minhyuk was pretty sure that whatever Kihyun wanted to do was probably more important than granting his wishes, but honestly? Kihyun was pretty cute and he wasn’t gonna pass up the opportunity to have a cute magical boy follow him around for a few days, even if it came at Kihyun’s expense.

“I want -- not wish for -- some privacy while I shower and get ready,” Minhyuk calmly said, walking to his micro-sized bathroom wearing nothing but sweats. Kihyun’s expression darkened when he realized that, no, Minhyuk was not going to get this over with quickly.

“Trust me, I do not want to see you naked.”

“Nope, you just want to watch me sleep,” Minhyuk joked with a smile before shutting the door to the bathroom. He wanted nothing more than to see Kihyun’s facial expression change in response to that comment, but he needed to get ready; his first class started in an hour, and it took him twenty minutes to get to campus. He started the shower and looked at himself in the mirror. His black hair was messy and all over the place, but he didn’t really care. Bedhead was pretty normal for him. You know, a common side effect of excessive sleeping. While the shower was warming up, he brushed his teeth and picked out a towel to sling over the shower rod. Minhyuk undressed and stepped into the nearly-scalding water.

What did he want to wish for? Every time his mind turned to his remaining four wishes, everything just went… blank? Like, sure his life wasn’t perfect. Kihyun was right, his apartment was kind of a dump, and he didn’t have much food in his kitchen, and he was always tired. But he couldn’t imagine his life any other way. If he just wished away one of his problems -- or even most of them -- new problems would just take their place. Minhyuk wanted things, sure, but he wanted things that you couldn’t just put into words, that you couldn’t just conjure up, that you couldn’t just wish for. It wasn’t that simple.

He just had to figure those things out.

After lathering himself and throwing some shampoo in his unwieldy hair, Minhyuk rinsed himself off, stopped the water, and dried himself with his towel. He tied his towel around his waist and stepped back into the bedroom to put together an outfit and to find out what sassmaster-genie Kihyun had prepared in past five minutes.

“You know, you really should be nice to your genie. I can pervert all of your wishes to their worst possible meaning.”

“Uh huh,” Minhyuk dismissed, searching his closet for something to wear.

“Aren’t you going to wish for something? I’m sure you thought of something in the shower. Lots of shower thoughts, right?”

“Were you imagining me in the shower?” Minhyuk asked.

“No,” Kihyun flatly replied.

“Do you want me to wish that you were thinking about that?”

“Look--”

“--Besides, how would genies even, like, know what goes on in the shower? Do genies even shower?”

Kihyun didn’t have an answer for that one. He licked his lips while his eyes darted around shiftily; Minhyuk was satisfied.

“I didn’t sign up for this,” he finally complained.

“I didn’t either,” Minhyuk added before disappearing back in the bathroom to change.

“So are you going to come with me to class today?” he shouted through the door.

“Unfortunately,” Kihyun replied, also shouting.

“Okay, well I have--”

“--Organic chemistry lab, I know.”

What? How did Kihyun--

“You had your class schedule on your desk,” Kihyun mentioned. “And your lab. You screwed up #4, by the way. You’re welcome.”

“You fixed it!?”

“I wasn’t gonna leave it wrong, Minhyuk.”

“H-how do you even know organic chemistry?”

“Minhyuk, I’ve been doing this genie thing since before organic chemistry was even a thing.”

He threw on his hoodie and exited the bathroom.

“Why would anyone even willingly learn organic chemistry,” he mused in full earshot of Kihyun. He went straight to kitchen, and he could feel Kihyun’s floaty presence follow him.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Kihyun replied. “Don’t you wanna wish for, like, a nice breakfast? A stack full of pancakes perhaps?”

“Mmm, pancakes sound, like, really good right now. But maybe I should wish for you to stop asking me about my wishes?” Minhyuk deadpanned before pulling out an Eggo waffle from his freezer. He threw it in the microwave and turned to face Kihyun. “Are you really going out like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like that!” Minhyuk repeated, gesturing at Kihyun’s whole body.

“I’ll have you know that I’ve kept up with current fashion trends,” Kihyun started, “Besides, a collared shirt and pants will never go out of style.”

“Not that... That,”he corrected, motioning more toward Kihyun’s feet, where he was most definitely still floating. Kihyun seemed to take even more offense to Minhyuk’s insinuation, his eyes widening and then narrowing before the microwave decided to interrupt his reaction. Minhyuk tossed the waffle in his mouth, holding it with his teeth, and moved over to his desk, grabbing all the stuff he needed for lab.

“Uh, no, I am not going to walk,” Kihyun protested. “I haven’t walked in over fifty years, and I’m not going to start today. It’s disgraceful for a genie to walk. We can float for a reason -- so we don’t have to walk. Walking is for humans.”

“Well, I would really prefer it if you walked if you’re going to follow me around. Besides, like, aren’t people gonna ask?”

“No, they’re not. You’re the only one who can see me.”

Minhyuk frowned. “Maybe I’ll wish for things faster if I’m not distracted by a floating genie.”

He finished shoving notebooks into his backpack, zipping up the pockets one-by-one until his homework and labs and class notes were all stuffed in his completely-disorganized bag. He finished off his waffle and turned to face Kihyun, who, to his disbelief, looked even more ticked off than before. But! He wasn’t floating. Small victories.

“Do you remember how to walk after fifty years?”

“I wish I didn’t,” Kihyun sassed back.

Minhyuk laughed. “For being hundreds of years old, you don’t look a day over twenty-five.”

“I’m actually twenty-two in genie years, you asshole.”

He laughed again, motioning Kihyun toward the door. “Let’s go,” he announced. Kihyun sighed, marching out of his apartment with a gait and facial expression that told Minhyuk he’d rather be doing basically anything other than this.

“You know, I bet you look older because of the soup can thing.”

“I’m going to kill you, Minhyuk.”

“Are you sure you’re supposed to add that chemical next?”

“For the love of God,” Minhyuk whispered under his breath. He had quickly learned that perhaps having his cute genie follow him around all day was not the best thing to happen to him. For instance, the cons of no one else noticing Kihyun became readily apparent:

First, if Minhyuk tried to talk to him in public, everybody looked at him weird, like Minhyuk was talking to himself. To be fair, that’s exactly what it looked like to everyone else. And there was no feasible way for Minhyuk to explain that, no, I’m not crazy, I’m just talking to my personal genie whom you can’t see. This relegated Minhyuk to whispering, subtly gesturing, and, to steal a page from Kihyun’s book, rolling his eyes.

Second, because Minhyuk couldn’t really respond to Kihyun, this gave Kihyun ample time to be even sassier than he was before. Minhyuk couldn’t shut him down like he usually did, which made Kihyun extra smug. It wasn’t as bad as it sounded -- even if Kihyun liked to slip little comments about wishing for this and wishing for that, he usually chimed in when Minhyuk was about to do something stupid. Like add the wrong solid to his chemical reaction.

Third -- and Minhyuk hated to admit this -- Kihyun was starting to look really cute.

He didn’t dare tell his genie that, though.

“Look, I really think you should double-check the protocol, Minhyuk,” his genie insisted, his butt plopped on the empty bench space next to him. He wasn’t floating per se, but his feet didn’t reach the ground and if that wasn’t the most adorable thing ever --

“No, not that one,” Kihyun interjected as Minhyuk went to grab a different solid.

“Which one,” Minhyuk whispered, slightly exhausted by the constant badgering. Honestly, Kihyun was the only reason he was still working on the lab. Usually he had screwed up so badly that there was no way for him to recover, forcing him to leave early.

Kihyun pointed at a yellow solid, rolling his eyes in the process. “Did you even read the protocol?”

“I was going to, but then my plans got kinda screwed up by an unexpected visitor.”

“Sure, blame it on the genie who you could easily get rid of in four wishes.”

“Shut up,” Minhyuk toothlessly warned. It was an empty threat -- like there was anything Minhyuk could do to actually get Kihyun to stop talking. Meanwhile, Kihyun played with the ring on his right hand’s ring finger, spinning it around aimlessly. Minhyuk really was boring to him.

“Um, what?”

Minhyuk looked to his right.

Crap.

“Hyungwon, I’m sorry, I was talking to myself.”

His hood buddy -- the other student who he shared the fume hood with -- made a face, like Minhyuk had three heads. Hyungwon made that face at him a lot. Kihyun snickered in amusement.

Hyungwon, unlike Minhyuk, usually knew what he was doing. He was a straight-A student who knew chemistry inside and out. Quiet, bookish, and the type to actually study regularly instead of cramming like literally everybody else, Hyungwon was the star of the program. Hyungwon usually didn’t bother to grace Minhyuk with any words throughout their three-hour lab; he was methodical, laser-focused, and, honestly? Too good for the frenetic and unorganized Minhyuk. Hyungwon actually knew what he was doing while Minhyuk was usually just guessing.

“Yo! Minhyuk, pay attention!” Kihyun hollered, leaning forward a bit.

Minhyuk looked over at the reaction he had been carefully stirring.

“Dude!” Kihyun started, peering into the fume hood from his position perched on the lab bench. “You were supposed to stop stirring when it turned white again!”

Minhyuk looked down at his definitely not-white liquid. It was more like a salmon pink color, the reaction having gone past completion. It was also sticky, like silly putty. Minhyuk sighed. This always happened. He wasn’t good at organic chemistry.

Without missing a beat, Minhyuk started cleaning up after himself. He was used to it by now -- the shameful dance of cleaning up your station far before you were supposed to be done. Everybody knew what happened: Minhyuk screwed up. Again. Minhyuk glanced over at the TA, who just shook his head. His TA did that last week too.

He tossed his toxic reagents in the waste container, washed his glassware with distilled water, packed up his belongings, and started taking off his lab coat.

His grade was still salvageable. Yeah, it wasn’t going to be perfect, but Minhyuk just needed to pass the class. You could still get a C on the lab report even if the reaction didn’t work.

Surprisingly, Kihyun was silent throughout the whole ordeal, like he could tell Minhyuk was genuinely upset about the whole thing. He tried his best -- he really did! He just wasn’t the best at labwork. He wasn’t Hyungwon.

“Oh no.”

Just as Minhyuk was about to leave, he heard Hyungwon start to panic. He glanced over at his hood buddy’s reaction, which had started to turn pink, too.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Hyungwon repeated, trying to load the paste-like mixture into his funnel. It seemed like it was too late, though; the mixture wasn’t falling out of his beaker into the funnel at all. Instead, it was like glue, sticking to the bottom of his glassware.

Minhyuk had never, ever seen Hyungwon screw up before. And watching the scene unfold before him -- it was heartbreaking. It sucked when things didn’t work, but Hyungwon was beyond that. His perpetually-pouty face was upset, his eyes starting to gloss up. He was completely distraught, desperately trying to save his reaction, trying to help the rapidly-solidifying mixture into his funnel with his mixing spatula. Nothing was working, and Hyungwon could see his A in the class slipping away as the reaction refused to leave his beaker.

Minhyuk could too.

He immediately turned to Kihyun, who looked surprised by Minhyuk’s reaction to Hyungwon.

“Kihyun, I wish that Hyungwon’s reaction worked.”

Kihyun seemed genuinely shocked. Minhyuk hadn’t wished for anything in over a day, and now he was wishing for someone else’s reaction to work? Even after his own reaction had already failed? Kihyun had no choice though, so he reluctantly snapped his fingers.

Minhyuk ignored Kihyun’s reluctance and threw his backpack’s strap over his shoulder, slowly walking away with Kihyun in tow. They could both hear as Hyungwon’s started whispering incredulously as his reaction liquefied, falling out of his beaker and into the filter-funnel that he had been trying to scrape it into for the past few minutes. Hyungwon was beyond happy, moving wildly to keep his reaction going and his A alive.

Once they were out of earshot of the rest of the lab, Kihyun piped up:

“You don’t wish for anything all day, and then you wish for someone else’s lab to work?” the genie questioned. “Why?”

“I had to,” Minhyuk bluntly replied. “I had to.”

☆ The Third Wish ☆

Saturday.

Finally, it was Saturday.

And if you -- yes, you, random person following Minhyuk’s so-called boring life -- thought Saturday was gonna be any easier than Friday… ha. What a terrible joke. No, Saturday was the day Minhyuk had to go work his meaningless convenience store job. At 7. Yes, as in, 7 in the morning. Not that 7 pm would be any better.

Minhyuk expected that he would tired. He was always tired during this shift. He could sleep all day Friday (yes, he had slept all day Friday before) and still be tired during this shift. It just was a fact of life. Like how Kihyun following him around was also a fact of life.

What he did not expect was that Kihyun would also be tired.

Which led to them walking to the convenience store together in silence.

Maybe Kihyun wasn’t like the physical version of tired, but Kihyun was surely tired of him. Of course, Minhyuk couldn’t read Kihyun’s mind, but if he had to guess? Well…

Kihyun was probably tired of how bubbly Minhyuk was all the time, how he never knew what was going on, how little Minhyuk prepared for his classes, how he slept forever when he didn’t have classes, and, most of all,

How many wishes Minhyuk still had left.

It had now been several days since Minhyuk tried to have soup that one fateful night, and he still had three wishes left. Three whole wishes! Some people would have wished for five things in five minutes. But Minhyuk? Well, he could hardly think of one good thing to wish for. Every idea that popped into his head was something that he didn’t actually want. No, he didn’t want to just graduate. No, he didn’t want a nicer apartment. No, he didn’t want a better job. Minhyuk wanted to earn those things through his own hard work, even if required him to grind through college to get his degree. Kihyun kept suggesting all these material things for Minhyuk to wish for, but he didn’t want any of it.

So that left him with abstract things. You know, love, happiness, et cetera. Things that money couldn’t buy, but Minhyuk could surely wish for… the problem was Minhyuk didn’t want to wish for any of those things either! He could wish for happiness, but, like, what’s happiness without sadness or love without heartbreak? Yeah yeah yeah, you can fault Minhyuk for being a sappy romantic, but those things had to be earned as well. Wishing to find the boyfriend of his dreams would just cheapen the whole thing, right? And, yeah, there were other un-wishable things -- who doesn’t want to be a few inches taller, right? -- but Minhyuk was happy with himself as a person. Maybe it’d be nice to have abs again, but, hey, some boys didn’t like abs.

Did Kihyun like abs?

Did Kihyun have abs?

Did genies work out? Could genies work out?

It was, what, like four days into this… this arrangement and Minhyuk hardly knew anything about Kihyun.

Where he was from, how old he actually was, why he dyed his hair brown, what his favorite color was…

Kihyun was surely fed up with him now… but…

“Kihyunnie!”

When Minhyuk didn’t hear an immediate response, he stopped and looked back at his genie, who had already stopped in the middle of the empty sidewalk. They were the only losers out and about on a Saturday morning, so Minhyuk could speak to Kihyun with a normal-ish voice instead of a whisper. If Kihyun wanted to talk, that is.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“What… what did you call me?”

“Um,” Minhyuk demurred, “I called you ‘Kihyunnie.’ Is--Is that not okay?”

Kihyun shook his head and looked down at the ground, a small smile breaking across his face. “No, it’s fine,” he replied. “It’s just… no one’s called me that in hundreds of years. Not since I was a kid.”

Oh.

“I… I, uh, missed it,” the brown-haired genie added, looking up at him. There was something childish about his expression -- he didn’t look so sullen and annoyed anymore, the contours of his sharp jawline and cheekbones softening ever-so-slightly. It was cute, and Minhyuk couldn’t help but smiling back.

“I was actually wondering about that… what’s it like being a kid-genie? How… how do genies even have kids?”

“Heh, well it’s a little different from being a human, right? Like, um, there’s no intimacy involved. There’s actually a set number of genies in the universe at any one point in time, and whenever a genie is needed, a new one is ‘born’ from the aether. It’s actually a rare event? There weren’t any other genies ‘born’ within one hundred human years of me.”

“Really?” Minhyuk incredulously replied. “That sounds so… lonely?”

“It wasn’t that bad. My moms were wonderful to me.”

“Moms?”

“Yeah, moms. New genies are raised by a genie pair. There’s a list? It’s weird.”

“That’s not too weird. Where do genies even, like, live?”

“Um, shouldn’t we keep walking, Minhyuk? You’ll be late.”

“Oh, right,” he answered, pivoting on his feet. He started walking toward the store again, but Kihyun jogged up next to him. Apparently he was okay with walking now.

“So, how can I describe this in human terms? Genies live in a dimension parallel to this one. We’re connected to this world by mundane objects.”

“Like cans of soup?”

Kihyun sighed. “Yes, like cans of soup.”

“Did you even pick the can of soup?”

“I mean, in the same way that you ‘picked’ your apartment?”

Minhyuk cocked his head at Kihyun. What?

“It wasn’t really a choice. It was the only place that I could ‘afford’ based on my seniority if that makes sense? Don’t get me wrong, it’s still infinitely better than your apartment--”

“--Hey!”

Kihyun chuckled. Minhyuk liked how Kihyun’s nose scrunched up when he laughed -- it was cute. He had one thought nagging his brain, though.

“Wait, so if you were ‘born’ or whatever, does that mean another genie died?”

“Not necessarily,” Kihyun absentmindedly replied. Minhyuk noticed that Kihyun was playing with the ring on his finger again. “There are a few ways for us to lose a genie.”

“Oh.”

“Sorry, I can’t tell you. Genie secrets,” Kihyun explained, his smile turning into a bit of a smirk. “Besides, I think we’re here?”

Minhyuk broke his pouting face and looked up at the storefront. They were here! How did Kihyun know…?

“Right on time, too.”

He was a little shocked, to be honest. Minhyuk was never on-time for this shift -- he was always late. He fumbled through his pocket, finding his key for the sliding front door. Kihyun waited patiently while Minhyuk pried the door open, sliding inside. Before he could even make it past the front, his manager called out from behind the register.

“You’re late.”

“Um, actually--”

“--It doesn’t matter,” his manager nonchalantly interrupted. “You’re in charge of re-stocking.”

Minhyuk just sighed and nodded in response. Making his way to the storeroom in the back, he knew Kihyun was following him. They were going to be out of earshot of his manager, and he knew Kihyun was going to say something.

“You’re just going to let her treat you like that?” Kihyun asked. “You’re gonna let her walk all over you?”

“It’s okay, really,” he explained. “This, um, happens every week.”

“And you don’t do anything about it!” Kihyun answered, his voice getting louder. “You don’t tell her to help you?”

“Kihyun, I--”

“You need to stand up for yourself!”

“It’s not that simple, I--”

“Why don’t you just wish you had a better job? Or a better manager?”

Minhyuk looked down and away this time. Kihyun was basically glaring at him -- glaring at him like he was the biggest idiot in the world. But he wasn’t. He just didn’t care what his manager said anymore.

“Because I’m okay with it not being perfect.”

Minhyuk made it through his shift. It was still light outside -- after all, it was only 3pm -- but he wanted nothing more than to get home and collapse on his bed.

The manager, as per usual, did jack-shit. When it was busy, she escaped to the back, hiding from all of the customers. When it wasn’t busy, she manned the register, refusing to lift a finger to help Minhyuk re-stock the store for the rest of the week. It was a lose-lose situation for him; he was always working, and, because of that, he was exhausted after his shift. He was like a ghost, limping along the street, dragging himself to his apartment building.

Kihyun, meanwhile, refused to talk to him for the rest of the shift. Something about “not standing up for yourself” or whatever. Minhyuk was sure that Kihyun thought he was a ditzy wimp, unwilling to fight to be treated better. Even during their walk back, Kihyun kept his distance, a perpetual glare fixed on his face. It made Minhyuk feel all dejected on the inside, like he disappointed Kihyun. He didn’t want to make Kihyun’s life miserable, but he didn’t want to rock the boat at his job. And he wasn’t going to wish for it to get better -- the second his job gets better is the second another part of his life (like Organic Chemistry Lab) becomes the shitty part of his week.

Yet, even with how mad Kihyun seemed to be… something seemed off. There were a few times Minhyuk was ferrying items from the storeroom to the front of the store, and, well, it seemed like he finished way faster than he should have. Like he’d make a few trips and suddenly in between trips there’d be a few more items stocked than he remembered doing.

Kihyun never fessed up to doing anything, though.

Sometimes Minhyuk wished he could float up the stairs like Kihyun -- magically will himself up to his apartment on the third floor. It would make these stairs so much easier, like they didn’t even exist.

By the time he keyed into his apartment and closed the door, he was ready to die on his bed. Apparently someone had other plans.

Before his face could even reach his pillow, he heard three loud knocks at his door. Minhyuk froze where he was standing, listening to the door to see if he could hear anything. He caught Kihyun out of the corner of his eyes; he was shaking his head, instructing Minhyuk not to answer.

“Minhyuk?” he heard from the other side of the door. “It’s Hoseok. Your neighbor.”

Minhyuk just shrugged at Kihyun, turning around to go to the door. He caught Kihyun starting to roll his eyes, but he ignored the genie. Minhyuk unlocked the front door, and he opened it up about 30 degrees. As expected, Hoseok was waiting for him on the other side.

“Hey Minhyuk,” Hoseok murmured.

Minhyuk immediately thought something was off. Hoseok was the type of person to envelope him in a bear hug as soon as he saw him; instead, he was quiet now. Nothing like the normal Hoseok.

“Hey,” Minhyuk replied. “What’s up?”

Hoseok perked up and looked back at his apartment. They stood there for a few moments in silence before Hoseok decided to turn his attention back to Minhyuk.

“I’m, uh, sorry to bother you, I know you just got home. I was just wondering you had seen a cat?”

“A cat?”

“My cat,” Hoseok corrected himself. “Calico. Fluffy. Meows a lot. Have you seen her?”

Minhyuk didn’t even know Hoseok had a cat.

He looked back at Kihyun, who shook his head. Apparently Kihyun hadn’t seen her either. Or he disapproved of this whole thing. Either way, Kihyun wasn’t helpful.

“I’m sorry, I haven’t seen her.”

“Oh,” Hoseok mumbled, his voice deflated.

“How long have you been looking?”

“S-since I got home an hour ago,” Hoseok replied, his voice trembling. “I, uh, I don’t know where she could have gone.”

“Do you want me to help look?” Minhyuk asked. He could hear Kihyun facepalming behind him, but Minhyuk didn’t pay any attention to him.

“No, uh, it’s okay, I’ve already taken up too much of your time. I’ve gotta keep looking,” Hoseok hurriedly replied, turning around and heading for his apartment. Minhyuk didn’t say anything afterwards, instead shutting his door and turning around to face Kihyun.

“Why did you even offer to help?” Kihyun dryly asked. “You’re so tired that you probably don’t even know what day it is.”

“It’s Saturday,” Minhyuk quietly answered. “And I wanted to help because I��ve never seen Hoseok so upset before…”

Kihyun sighed.

“Kihyun, I wish that Hoseok would find his cat.”

“What?”

“You heard me,” Minhyuk asserted.

“I’m just -- why?” Kihyun snapped his fingers, a small plume of purple smoke appearing near his hand. Moments later, Minhyuk faintly heard Hoseok yelling excitedly through the wall they shared. He had been reunited with his calico.

“That’s why.”

☆ The Fourth Wish ☆

Day #8 with Minhyuk.

Eight days of pure, uninterrupted monotony.

Eight days of watching Minhyuk struggle to… well, everything. The kid had an unnerving mixture of unintentional aloofness, perpetual sleepiness, and intentional laziness. He ambled from one disaster to the next, barely skinning by each and every day. It was like watching a slow-motion trainwreck… but a boring one.

Kihyun’s first thought was that Minhyuk was basically one-dimensional. He was motivated by one thing: sleep. How did that jive with the kid picking one of the hardest majors in his college? A good job gets him more time to sleep. Working on the side? He needed to pay for rent so he could sleep somewhere. Eating? Can’t sleep if you’re dead. Honestly, it made Minhyuk a remarkably boring person. Sure, he had a lot going on between class and work and trying (and failing) to be a functional adult. But it was all very routine -- nothing Kihyun hadn’t already seen in his hundreds of years being a genie.

But then…

Some days, Minhyuk surprised him.

Some days, Minhyuk would get up early and make pancakes for himself from two month old box mix that he “only used sparingly,” according the smiley boy. Some days, Minhyuk would go out of his way to help a complete stranger, saying “it’s the right thing to do” when Kihyun interrogated him. Some days, Minhyuk would use the most valuable thing he owned right now -- his five, now two, wishes -- to make someone else’s day better. Some days, Minhyuk would forget about himself and his own needs.

It was infuriating. Absolutely infuriating.

That confused Kihyun. It scared him. A lot. Because, honestly, it meant he cared about Minhyuk. This was the longest amount of time he had spent with any one person in the human world -- besides that one time his human got too careless after his first wish, got hit by a car, and was in a coma for a week. But that doesn’t count. No, he had spent seven waking days with Minhyuk, and he was barely half-done with Minhyuk’s wishes.

“Kihyun?”

“Hmm,” he replied, looking over his shoulder to find Minhyuk cheekily smiling at him. His black hair was shooting out all over the place, still wearing pajamas and sitting up on his bed. It was cute, that little shit. He must have been napping for a while now.

“I invited my friend Jooheon over. He needed to talk about something.”

“You have friends?” he quipped.

Minhyuk’s smile immediately disappeared. “Why are you always so mean to me, Yoo Kihyun?”

Kihyun smirked. “It’s a genie thing.”

The other boy made a face. “I can’t tell if you’re telling the truth or not.”

“I’ve had 500 years to practice my lying -- you can barely read your textbook, what makes you think you can read me?”

“I can read that you don’t totally hate me.”

Kihyun paused. He knew it was a joke, but had he really been that obvious? Had his stupid feelings seeped through to how he acted around Minhyuk? Had he really changed after spending a week with Minhyuk?

No, he answered himself.

“Uh huh,” he finally replied, rolling his eyes. He crossed his arms, impatiently rotating his ring around his ring finger. He had only started doing it in the past few days with Minhyuk, but now it was basically his nervous tick.

“Are you blushing, Kihyun?” Minhyuk teased.

“Keep dreaming,” Kihyun fired back without missing a beat. Minhyuk giggled, letting his head fall back onto his bed. Kihyun knew he wasn’t blushing. He would never blush around Minhyuk -- maybe he’d smack him, but he certainly wouldn’t blush.

He’d make sure not to smack him too hard. Besides, Minhyuk’s pretty face is one of the few assets he’s got going for him... aside from his endearingly boring life and half-witted brain, both of which had their moments.

“When’s Jooheon getting here anyways,” Kihyun absentmindedly asked.

“Oh, in five minutes.”

“And you’re just telling me now!?”

Minhyuk shot him a confused look. “You’re upset?”

“Clearly,” he flatly replied.

“Why? It’s not like Jooheon can see you.”

“I -- I know that!” Kihyun asserted. “I just, uh, need to mentally prepare to deal with more people.”

Minhyuk laughed, his nasally giggles loud and boisterous from his laying-down position. “More like you need more time to come up with ways to torture me when I have to pretend you don’t exist.”

“Er, right.”

“Do you have friends, Kihyunnie?”

“Of course I have friends, you twat.”

“... For some reason, I feel like that’s a lie,” Minhyuk rambled, “... Like, you’re pretty mean to me.”

“Untrue.”

“Um, you definitely just called me a twat,” Minhyuk retorted, sitting up again.

“No, I meant that I’m not mean to most people.”

“Aww, so I’m special?” Minhyuk put on his best puppy-dog eyes, clasped his hands together, and looked at Kihyun expectantly. It was too cute, even for Minhyuk.

“Sure, Minhyuk.”

“Ouch,” Minhyuk replied, feigning the gayest hurt face Kihyun had ever seen.

That was “gay” as in gay, not stupid, by the way.

Just how did Kihyun know Minhyuk was gay?

You mean other than the endless flirting and Minhyuk’s sassy-gay tendencies?

Well, there was that one time when he was mind-numbingly bored when Minhyuk was asleep, so he pulled out Minhyuk’s laptop and decided to get on the Internet. One thing led to another, and, well…

Let’s just say Minhyuk has an interesting browsing history.

“Tell me about your friends, Kihyunnie,” Minhyuk piped up.

“Oh, um, well,” he mumbled.

“-- So your friends aren’t real!” Minhyuk interjected.

“Shut up,” Kihyun harmlessly threatened. “I’m just not used to humans asking about my life, okay? Anyways, so my best friend is named Hyunwoo. He’s only 75 human years older than me, but he acts like he’s 400 years older than me. Wise and worldly and cares about all that genie crap that I, uh, ignore.”

Kihyun paused, but Minhyuk didn’t say anything immediately.

“And your other friends?”

“Uh, well, actually…” he started, nervously running a hand through his hair. “So I don’t really have any friends besides Hyunwoo.”

“I’m sorry,” Minhyuk immediately replied. “I kinda know what that’s like. Jooheon’s basically my only friend.”

“Really?” Kihyun was sure Minhyuk was the type of human to have 100 friends. Outgoing, sociable, loud -- he had all the makings of an extrovert who just clicked with everyone.

“Yeah, most people think I’m annoying? At least that’s what I think.”

Oh.

“Well, um, if it’s any consolation, Minhyuk…” Kihyun began before a knock at Minhyuk’s door cut him off. Minhyuk was still looking at him, though; he was waiting for him to finish.

“I don’t think you’re that annoying.”

Minhyuk smiled. “Thanks.”

The other boy made his way for the door to let his best friend into his apartment.

“It’ll all work out, Jooheon. I promise.”

Minhyuk closed the door to the front of his apartment and looked over at Kihyun. They were finally alone again; Jooheon left to catch the last bus to his own apartment complex. Kihyun, meanwhile, was putting on his best unimpressed face for Minhyuk, but it was mostly a front to hide total and utter disdain Kihyun had been harboring for the past four hours.

“So, what did you think of Jooheon?”

“Charming,” Kihyun dismissively replied, leaning over Minhyuk’s kitchen counter and planting his chin in his left palm. “Absolutely charming.”

“What? So you didn’t like Jooheon?”

“Honestly, I didn’t get to know him too well,” Kihyun replied, keeping his voice monotone and disinterested.

“He was here for four hours!”

“Yeah, two of which were spent watching a movie while basically sitting on your lap. The other two hours were him crying about his crush, Changbin.”

“Changkyun.”

“Whatever.”

“Look,” Minhyuk answered. “Jooheonie’s going through a really tough time. And him and Changkyun would make a great couple. But Jooheon’s too shy to say anything, and Changkyun’s definitely too shy to say anything either, so we’re stuck in this predicament. Which reminds me…”

“What?”

“I wish Jooheon would finally have the courage to ask Changkyun out. Let’s say, tomorrow.”

“You’re serious?” Kihyun couldn’t believe that Minhyuk would wish for something so--

“Yes.”

--asinine. Again.

He was compelled to snap his fingers once more, zapping some confidence into Minhyuk’s best friend. At the very least, he gave the boy enough confidence to ask his crush out without stammering for fifteen minutes like he ordinarily would. Kihyun then quickly turned his attention back to Minhyuk, who was smiling triumphantly, like he had solved world peace. Kihyun finally snapped, this time in a different way.

“Why,” he bitingly demanded.

“Why what?” Minhyuk was so oblivious that it just made Kihyun angrier. He could feel his blood pressure rising, after it had already been building over the past few hours of Jooheon and Minhyuk bro-time.

“Why do you keep on wishing for stupid things?” he spat out.

“Stupid?”

“Yes, stupid! Why do you wish for such stupid things!”

Minhyuk looked even more confused, which fueled Kihyun to continue berating him.

“I’m a genie, Minhyuk. I’m not here for your entertainment. I’m not here to grant stupid wishes. I’m not here to do something that a stupid fairy could do. I grant important wishes, wishes that no human could fathom achieving. But you! You little… You waste my powers on wishing for things that don’t matter. Things that don’t matter, Minhyuk!”

Minhyuk now looked more hurt than confused. But Kihyun didn’t care. He wanted Minhyuk to realize that his wishes were the stupidest wishes Kihyun had granted in hundreds of years.

“Why, Minhyuk? Why do you waste your wishes?”

Minhyuk shook his head. “Do -- do you really think that my wishes are stupid?”

“Yes!”

“T-that Hyungwon’s grades don’t matter to him?”

Kihyun didn’t answer that one.

“That Hoseok’s cat doesn’t matter to him?”

No -- that’s not what he meant.

“That Jooheon’s happiness doesn’t matter to him? Or matter to me?”

“No, I --”

“You what? Think you’re better than that?”

“No!”

Minhyuk looked directly at him now. His facial features were strained, like he was in pain having to say these things. Having to confront Kihyun like this.

“No?”

“No, I -- I, uh…”

“You what?”

Kihyun was mute. He couldn’t say anything. For once, he didn’t know what to say. He was usually four steps ahead of Minhyuk.

Minhyuk shook his head again.

“Could you please leave me alone tonight? I’m going to bed.”

With that, Minhyuk disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Kihyun alone in Minhyuk’s tiny kitchen. He wasn’t supposed to leave, but he did. Everything in the genie rule book told him he had to stay, to be around in case his human wanted to wish anything. But something told him that Minhyuk didn’t want to use his fifth wish. At least, not now.

Kihyun walked out, his brain still numb.

He walked. He hated to admit it, but it felt nice to walk. It forced him to focus on something, to help the numbness go away.

Eventually, one thought percolated to the front of Kihyun’s mind: that he cared too much. He wanted nothing more than for Minhyuk to wish for something for himself. He wanted Minhyuk to care about himself. To think about himself. To live in a better apartment, to have a better job, to be able to afford some actual groceries. Minhyuk deserved better.

Just then, he had a thought that scared him even more. That made him even more upset.

If Minhyuk deserved better, then why did he just scream at him for being stupid?

☆ The Fifth Wish ☆

A big part of Minhyuk wanted nothing more than to make his final wish right then and there. To get this all over with, to make Kihyun disappear from his life forever. But as soon as Kihyun left, a wave of relief swept over him: he didn’t do something stupid. Again, Kihyun would have added, that bitingly cynical thought creeping into his mind. He was becoming as cynical as Kihyun now.

But an even bigger part of Minhyuk won out. The part of him that loved Kihyun’s dimples, his sassiness, his hair, their banter -- it won out. The part of him that only became obvious over the past few days.

When Kihyun first popped into Minhyuk’s life in a plume of lavender smoke (a shade of lavender that Minhyuk now found more endearing than ever before), he didn’t think much of him. Minhyuk flirted, sure, but that’s just who he was. Naturally flirty, making quips about seeing each other naked, and so on. He didn’t expect Kihyun to play along, to take his flirting in stride and throw it right back at him with sassiness. It piqued his interest.

But what sealed the deal, what made Minhyuk really fall for Kihyun, was something else. No, it wasn’t Kihyun’s angelic giggling (but that did help). Minhyuk loved that Kihyun seemed to care. Kihyun did little things that made his life easier, like fixing his homework, coaching him through a difficult lab, helping restock the convenience store -- mini “wishes” that he wouldn’t, that he couldn’t make for himself. Underneath all his biting sardonicism and cynicism was a Kihyun who genuinely cared. Minhyuk didn’t know a whole lot about genies, but he sure didn’t think it was normal for a genie to go out of their way to make their human’s life easier unless they wished for it. That definitely sounded like something that would be against the rules if Kihyun’s friend Hyunwoo ever found out. And yet, Kihyun risked it.

For Minhyuk.

So why did Kihyun snap at him like that? What would compel Kihyun to be so hurtful? What would make Kihyun, who went out of his way to make Minhyuk’s life easier even while pretending like he wouldn’t, try to break Minhyuk down? Where did this Kihyun come from? Who replaced the Kihyun that Minhyuk had been secretly falling for?

Part of him needed to know.

Minhyuk didn’t sleep much that night.

The next day was a big studying day for Minhyuk. He had a P-Chem exam this week, and, God, he sucked at P-Chem. It was his weakest subject, and the perfect mix of chemistry and physics to make him wonder if he hated himself. Y’know, choosing this major and all.

No sign of Kihyun, though. Minhyuk was starting to worry. He had already gotten up, showered, thrown on some clothes -- all before 9am on a day when he didn’t have work or class. So, basically a miracle. Aka Thursday. He was currently in the process of shoving his heavy P-Chem textbook into his poor backpack, which seemed to resist his ‘desire’ to study even more than internal Minhyuk did. Finally, he managed to guide the 900-page behemoth down into the right pocket, zipping up the pockets and moving his backpack in front of the door.

Now for breakfast.

Minhyuk moved to his kitchenette, expecting to face a Major Breakfast Problem: he had no breakfast. He had used the last of his precious pancake mix the other day. Eggo waffles were long gone. And he certainly couldn’t afford to buy breakfast out this morning. He hopelessly searched his cupboards, debating whether instant ramen would be better than soup for breakfast. Screw it; he decided that skipping breakfast altogether was easiest.

Turning around, he noticed a large pile of piping hot pancakes with syrup drizzling down the sides of the pancake tower sitting on his kitchen counter.

“Kihyun?” he called out.

Instead of digging in to the pancakes -- why are you such an idiot, his stomach protested -- Minhyuk decided to search his studio apartment. Kihyun had to be around here somewhere. That’s how genies worked, right?. They have to be like, you know, nearby. Like Wi-Fi networks: their powers have a range. Right?

Minhyuk searched his living room. Nothing. The bathroom? Nope. Behind the shower curtain? No. Under his bed sheets? He wished, but nada. In the kitchen cupboards? Zilch. Just then, Minhyuk turned around to face his mysterious pancakes again. This time, there was a handwritten note sitting next to the pancakes that he swore wasn’t there before.

“Just eat them,” it read.

It had to be Kihyun, right?

Kihyun’s handwriting was pretty.

Where was he?

Minhyuk decided that he might as well eat the pancakes while they were here, cutting off a large portion with the accompanying knife and fork. It was like Kihyun was there, insisting that Minhyuk use actual silverware instead of the plastic stuff he jacked from Starbucks. Minhyuk committed to absolutely demolishing these pancakes, stuffing huge pieces into his mouth without thinking. Well, he was thinking. Just not about pancakes. He was thinking about Kihyun, and if this was his apology for last night. But where was he?

Before he knew it, Minhyuk had cleared his plate, his mind preoccupied by considering all the ways today could play out. Like, was Kihyun going to avoid him all day? Yeah, those types of thoughts. Not much healthier than the pancakes he apparently just inhaled.

There wasn’t much he could do to make Kihyun re-appear, so he slung his backpack over his shoulders and walked to the library. At the very least, he could try to study for P-Chem.

You know those walks where you kinda just… forget everything? And walk? That’s what today’s walk to campus was. He just walked. One foot in front of the other, stopping at crosswalks, ignoring everything but focusing on nothing -- he was on auto-pilot. Minhyuk wandered into the library, which was surprisingly empty. He’d never been up this early before, so he had no baseline for library crowdedness at 9:30am. He was able to nab a self-study room, the studying equivalent of a booth table at a restaurant, with ease.

He shut the door to the room, and dropped his bag on an empty chair. He unzipped the pockets, but, before he could coax his textbook out of his bag, he heard the door click back open.

“Oh, I’m sorry this room is ta--”

Minhyuk stopped mid-sentence when he looked up and saw who it was.

“Hey,” the shorter boy said, shutting the door again.

Minhyuk just stood there, hand half in his bag, mouth slack-jawed, and completely speechless.

Kihyun looked like he always did: beautiful. The same sharp facial features, narrow eyes, wide nose, soft brown hair. He looked… sad. Minhyuk had never seen so much emotion in Kihyun, except for last night.

“Studying?” Kihyun finally piped up, breaking the long awkward silence between them.

“Look, if you’re here to tell me to wish to just pass the exam…” Minhyuk replied, his voice a bit hoarse and dramatic. He didn’t know where that thought came from, but it was the first thing that popped into his mind. It was like his mind was wandering around Kihyun’s plump lips but his mouth was vocalizing all the pent-up pain that had accumulated in the last twelve hours.

Kihyun seemed to expect something along these lines, looking down toward the carpet, his expression unchanged. He couldn’t look Minhyuk in the eyes while Minhyuk was outwardly angry with him.

The shorter boy stared at the ground for a few more moments before gathering the courage to look back up at him. “I want to help you study.”

Minhyuk paused. Kihyun seemed earnest, like he meant ‘help’ in the human way and not in the I’m-going-to-use-magic-to-solve-this-problem genie way.

“Okay,” he responded.

“Okay?”

“Yes, okay,” he confirmed, yanking his textbook out of his bag. “I have my P-Chem exam on--”

“--Tuesday,” Kihyun interrupted, cutting him off. He had moved toward the table in the middle of the study room, taking a seat opposite of Minhyuk. It deflated him a bit -- he wished Kihyun had decided to sit next to him.

“Yeah, Tuesday.” Minhyuk pulled out his textbook and sat down.

“So what’s it on?”

“Umm,” Minhyuk demurred.

Kihyun gave him a look.

“Look, I'm just trying to go over all the material today, and then I’ll study the stuff I really suck at tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a plan… ish,” Kihyun replied. Minhyuk giggled -- he forgot how much he missed Kihyun’s sass.

He pulled out his syllabus, placing it next to the open textbook. There was kind of a problem, though.

“Kihyun.”

“Yeah.”

“It would be easier if you were, um…” he started. “Sitting next to me? That way it’s easier to show you stuff.”

“Oh. Right,” Kihyun replied. “Actually, how about I go grab some reference textbooks and study material from the stacks outside while you figure out what your test is on?”

“Okay.”

“Oh my god, I’m so tired,” Minhyuk dramatically complained, letting his head fall onto the table with a thud. One of his hands was holding his throbbing head while his other arm was stretched out, reaching across the table. He rolled his head over to look at his tutor-genie, Kihyun.

“I can go get some more snacks?” Kihyun suggested. Minhyuk could see his eyes darting around at all the empty wrappers scattered around the table, though -- he knew Kihyun was secretly judging just how much ‘brain food,’ aka junk food, Minhyuk needed to stay motivated and awake. They’d been at this for hours, and Minhyuk was just about brain dead. Delirious, or whatever.

He wasn’t sure if it was the exhaustion or the fact that Kihyun must have tried to push his brown hair back like fourteen times in the past thirty minutes when explaining basic P-Chem concepts to Minhyuk, but Kihyun looked even prettier right now. Especially looking up at his jawline from the side. His side profile was stunning.

“Minhyuk? Snacks?”

Oh, right. Words. But, instead of vocalizing his needs like an adult, he just groaned dramatically, earning another look from Kihyun.

“Okay, no snacks.”

“I don’t know anything,” he whined.

“That’s a lie!” Kihyun reassured him. “You know some things!”

Minhyuk groaned again.

“Look,” Kihyun started. “And I really don’t want you to take this the wrong way? But I’m going to suggest it because you’ve tried really hard and because I really want you to pass this exam. But… you could… just… wish to pass the exam?”

Minhyuk was squealing inside. Maybe it was from the delirium, but he loved how Kihyun tip-toed around asking him to wish for it this time. It was so cute. The Kihyun that he knew cared about him deeply finally appeared, and it made him ridiculously happy.

“But that’s not what I want~” Minhyuk teased, looking directly into Kihyun’s eyes while sing-songing his response.

“Oh?” Kihyun replied, dramatically splaying his own arm out like Minhyuk and resting his head on the table. They were now at eye-level, both staring at each other. “Do you want... another stack of pancakes, o lazy one?”

“Nope~”

“What do you want then, Minhyuk?”

Without missing a beat, he replied: “I wish” -- dramatically letting that word fall off his lips -- “that the boy I was looking at right now would kiss me.”

Kihyun’s eyes widened, a light shade of pink instantly creeping across his face.

“You -- You didn’t have to use one of your wishes on that,” he murmured. Kihyun looked away briefly, then focused back on Minhyuk. Hesitantly, the shorter boy leaned closer and closer before softly planting his lips on Minhyuk’s. It was quick -- chaste almost -- because Kihyun recoiled almost as soon as he naturally could. Minhyuk couldn’t get over how insanely pink Kihyun’s cheeks looked, how bashfully cute his genie was.

“Gotta save the best wish for last?” Minhyuk choked out, the humor mixing with the pain to form a lump in his throat. Kihyun had to leave now, right? That’s how this worked. That’s how it worked in Aladdin. Oh god.

“It… It wasn’t your last wish, Minhyuk,” Kihyun softly replied. Minhyuk watched as Kihyun, who still had his planted on the table like Minhyuk, brought his hands together. Using his right hand, he removed the large blingy-looking ring that adorned his right ring finger -- the ring that he liked to play with when he was nervous. Kihyun then reached for Minhyuk’s right hand, gently pulling it close so that it was positioned between the two of them. Kihyun was lazy but deliberate; he slid the ring down Minhyuk’s dainty ring finger.

“You… you know how you asked how we could ‘lose’ a genie?” Kihyun started. “Well, uh, I may not know the genie rules that well, but I know that this is the way that I say that I want to spend some more time with a human.”

More time?

“Y--you mean you’re not a genie anymore?”

“Not anymore,” Kihyun confirmed, a shy smile creeping across his face.

“You can’t grant wishes anymore?”

“I can, actually,” he answered. “But only yours.”

☆ Epilogue: The Eleventh (?) Wish ☆

Minhyuk actually lost track of how many wishes it had been now.

It had been about a week since Kihyun committed to him. A week since Kihyun and him became ‘real,’ since Minhyuk had to explain to Jooheon (and Changkyun) that he had a new boyfriend. A side-effect of committing to Minhyuk? Everybody could see Kihyun now. It made Minhyuk’s life much easier, to be honest.

Their relationship improved dramatically without the constant pressure of wishes hanging over them. Kihyun was relaxed. He was still sassy, of course, and Minhyuk loved him for that. But Kihyun also was fiercely protective -- fiery when someone so much as threatened to hurt Minhyuk’s feelings. It was nice to see that fire directed at someone else, to be honest, even if Minhyuk could more than handle himself.

There were problems of course.

One day, Minhyuk came home from class to a fully-stocked kitchen. New pots, new pans, new appliances, tons of food. Fruit -- even in this economy! And lots of pancake mix. All the pancake mix.

And while Minhyuk truly loved that Kihyun cared, he had to set ground rules for wishing. No amazing, life-changing wishes, no surprising him with tons of new worldly possessions, no making his life so easy that one of his problems became irrelevant, no more than one “wish” per day, et cetera.

“-- Only one a day?” Kihyun complained.

“Yeah, and it has to be small.”

“Why?” Kihyun protested. “I love you and I want to show that I love you, Minhyukie.”

“I love too too, babe. But, like, wishes are the easy way out. I love you because you’re you, not because you’re a genie who can grant any wish.”

The next day was slightly better -- he ‘only’ got a new laptop from Kihyun. They had to sit down and have a talk about what “small” meant. You know, flowers and chocolates and a home-made dinner. Not a new car.

Minhyuk also insisted that Kihyun find something to do during the day. Like enroll in some classes. In a different major, he emphasized. Kihyun acquiesced, got a perfect score on the college entrance exam, and became a philosophy major. Apparently he had a soft spot for the Enlightenment. Something about his youth.

But other than those few problems -- and what relationship doesn’t have problems? -- Minhyuk couldn’t be happier. Besides, it was a nice day out today, and he could watch Kihyun try (and fail) to eat his ice cream for at least a few hours. The park was lovely, but his date was lovelier.

Minhyuk was glad he canned his genie.

#monsta x #kihyuk #kihyuk fic #monsta x fic #kihyun #minhyuk #my writing

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