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#which would mean he would also be great at making puff pastry
fisheito · 10 months
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@requiodile thank u SO MY HUNCH ABOUT THE MASSIVE MUSCLE MEN is SOMETHIGN!! im taking this anecdote as evidence and declaring quincy [the ultimate 6 rotisserie chicken as a teatime snack woodsman] as so frickin warm that anyone who cuddles him in the summer will be hot like fried egg. RIP touchstarved energy eating musclemen
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@idololivine (starts scribbling algebra all over a dry erase board} as long as quincy doesn't spend over 4.6 hours absorbing solar energy from a cloudless sky at peak daylight hours, yakumo will probably be fine if u wish to obtain yakumo jerky however, preheat your quincy for 277 minutes and yakumo's moisture will evaporate on contact
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perflorale · 9 months
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Fragrances I think Sailor Moon would wear….
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Moonlight by Ariana Grande
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This is Ariana’s least talked about perfume in my opinion, and it’s truly a shame because it’s the best smelling one in this particular line with the bottles that have the puff ball design. Not saying its her best fragrance over all, just my favourite in this line. The only drawback is the longevity isn’t the greatest, you will have to reapply or use some lotion or perfume oil to layer it with that will boost it’s lasting power. The smell of this though, is so worth it even if the lasting power isn’t great. Makes for a great scent to wear to bed, because if you wear it just before bed, how long it lasts doesn’t really matter. But i mean, i feel from the bottle, to the name of it, to the notes, this fragrance is USAGI in a bottle. It has usagi written all over it. The purple iridescence on the bottle gives that very 90s sailor moon pastel colour palette so frequently used as backdrops in the anime. The puff ball on it, is almost representative of a rabbit’s tail or her buns on her hair. It’s called moon light. It smells sweet and she is a huge sweet tooth. Could this be more fitting for her? Anyway, I’ve rambled unnecessarily about the bottle’s design but lets get into the thick of it. The notes. So this smells sweet definitely but not as young as it’s two other counterparts, Ari and Sweet like candy. This one has a more sultry edge. It opens with plum and black currant, which are juicy and delicious. The middle notes are soft marshmallow and peony and i think these notes especially have Usagi written all over them. Very soft and sweet. Marshmallow especially is a note I associate with her very much so there will be one more fragrance with marshmallow in this list as we move forward. The base notes are vanilla, sandalwood and amber which give this a maturity not many of the other fragrances in this line carry. This is delicious smelling but strikes me definitely as a night time fragrance. I think usagi would take a shower before bed, and use the moonlight shower gel and lotion before finally spraying the perfume. (If you’re thinking of getting this fragrance PLEASE get the shower gel, lotion, and body mist too, layering them all will help it last longer.) I can also see her wearing this to an evening date with Mamoru. This fragrance gives dreamy sleepy night time vibes. It’s romantic and elegant. She’s a romantic at heart so i can see her spraying this on any birthday or valentines cards she writes for Mamoru so that he remembers her, and she probably sprays this on her hair brush before passing it through her golden locks so he gets a whiff of it when he hugs her. Its a very pretty perfume that merits a hug for the wearer honestly. You want to hug whoever wears this because its just so lovely. I would wear this at night too. I mean it’s called moonlight. Yeah this is her romantic and cosy night fragrance for sure!
Live Irrésistible Délicieuse by Givenchy
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This is her every day, day time scent. The one she wears to school or when she’s hanging out with her friends, when she’s just being Usagi and not Sailor moon. If she were a real person and you met her, I think you would smell this. We all know she’s a huge lover of food, especially anything sweet. This girl is a sweet tooth so it’s no surprise she’d want to smell as delicious as the desserts she eats. She’d want to smell irresistible and this is exactly what this perfume encapsulates. Also the juice in the bottle is pink, and this is her colour. Its a very youthful carefree fragrance and what better match for our teen protagonist. The main player note here is definitely the cherry, it stands out the most but this fragrance has an interesting french pastry note which makes it heavier than the typical fruity perfume. Most fruity perfumes are usually reserved for the summer, but i feel it is one that can be worn year round. The caramel, vanilla and almond at the base give it body. Its rich but not cloying and sure to satisfy a sweet tooth. Sad to report though, that this is discontinued. ( I hear Mukhalat by Montale is a decent dupe for this, but it contains strawberry instead of cherry) I’m pretty sure you can still get it some places online if you’re a lover of cherry and absolutely need this in your collection but I’d grab it quick. (If it’s any consolation, there are plenty of other cherry based perfumes, so missing out on this isn’t the end of the world. I can make a post for cherry perfumes if any of you guys are cherry lovers, just let me know.) Some lotions this would be very well paired with are fruity ones I suggest maybe the body shop butters and lotions? Something in their strawberry or mango ranges. I can see Usagi pairing this with these lotions or a simple vanilla lotion.
Moon carnival by Vilhelm Perfumerie
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This is a brighter tropical floral, and the perfect summer time perfume. The white florals give it a delicate yet robust tone, and the citrusses at the top along with that tropical passion fruit note give it a brightness that’s classy yet very fit for hotter weather. This would be perfect for a summer day or a summer night. I have never been to Japan but I know and have heard that the summers can be intense and humid, and seeing as Usagi is from Japan, I think she would be drawn to a fragrance like this during the summer. It’s also appropriately named. I can see her wearing this to a summer festival to compliment her yukata or to the beach or to a picnic. I’ve heard many say this makes for a great wedding perfume. Especially if you are having a spring or summer wedding, something about it is so classy. It has a creamy soft quality thanks to the marshmallow and vanilla notes. Remember I said Usagi would be a sucker for the marshmallow notes? This is her expensive marshmallow perfume, and the Ariana Grande one is her affordable marshmallow perfume. Of course she is a high school student but she is also a princess, so i think it won’t be that far fetched for her to acquire this perfume. Or maybe it was a gift from Mamoru? Who can say? But I feel this is her choice for summer and a possible contender for a wedding fragrance in the future for her.
Luna by Penhaligon’s
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Now, we’re at the final boss perfume. This is her princess mode perfume. It’s also on the expensive side but not a ludicrous price range for a fragrance. Plus she’s the princess of the moon, i think she can handle it. Penhaligons has a few fragrances themed around Greek and Roman mythology and since this anime sort of does too, I couldn’t find a more perfect fit. The bottle and scent totally give a dreamy, ethereal, princess serenity vibe and what a perfect fit to wear with that Dior inspired 1992 palladium dress. Can’t you picture her wearing this fragrance and that dress and looking over from her castle balcony? Are you getting the other worldly, dreamy vibes? I certainly am. Anyway, on to the notes: It like many fragrances, greets you with a light and refreshing burst of different citruses, lemon, bergamot and orange, so the opening is cheerful and bright, then we get to the middle notes the delicate rose, juniper berries and jasmine which give it a feminine softness, it’s definitely very refined, something you could see a princess wearing. The base notes are balsam, musk and ambergris which are refreshing, clean and woody. There is definitely something dreamy and magical about this fragrance. It's relaxing and gives a spa or altar vibe, you know? A truly romantic fragrance too, I can see this working as a wedding fragrance if you are going for the ethereal fairytale sort of theme. This is definitely her past life fragrance. Something she would be seen getting teary eyed over because of the memories it evokes for her.
🌸 As always if you want to see more fragrance match ups for characters you love or for yourself, hit me with an ask! 🌸
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queen-rainy-love · 9 months
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HellHound's Secret Part 0
I promised this and I'm ready to deliver! A big thanks to @cherryartemis0 for helping with some of the reactions!
So, ladies, gentlemen, and nonbinary friends, welcome to the mini-arc HellHound's Secret.
*Our story begins after the break of dawn in the Cookie Kingdom. Red Velvet hobbled through the Vanilla District while holding a duffle bag and a box of milk bottles. As he walked up the steps to his family's house, he could hear the Cake Hounds start to bark and scratch the door. Before he could pull out his keys, the door opened up to Lilybell and Clover smiling.*
Lilybell: Good morning big brother! How was night patrol?
Red Velvet:...Great...Just great. After doing an all-night patrol, you have the nerve to ask me to get you, not a bottle of milk, but a whole box of milk bottles. *Angrily lifts the box* This took thirty minutes to get! Why couldn't you do it yourself?!
Clover: *takes the box* Because I needed to double-check if I have enough ingredients for the whole week. After all, this is the last week before Cream Puff and Capsaicin head back to school and I want to make sure they are fed well before they head off. *heads inside with Lilybell following him.*
Red Velvet: *follows them* Right...and you could have made something that didn't need milk?
Clover: Then deal with the lines later today? No thanks. *disappears into the kitchen with Lilybell.*
*Red Velvet huffs before flopping down onto the couch and closing his eyes. Two minutes later, Cream Puff, Capsaicin, Pastry, and Pond Dino came downstairs. They all noticed Red Velvet on the couch.*
Capsaicin: Hey dad! When did you get back?
Red Velvet: Just now.
Cream Puff: How was the night patrol?
Red Velvet: Long.
Pastry: Are you going to rest or pull an Espresso today?
Red Velvet: Yes.
Capsaicin: You need to rest Dad. Didn't you say you have another mission to do later today?
Red Velvet: Do I?
Capsaicin: Yeah. That's why you couldn't come with us to the End of Summer Concert today. You know, the concert that has Shining Glitter, Rockstar, Parfait, and B.A.D. 4 performing in them.
Red Velvet: *eyes fly open* Right...that's why. Is it really today?
Cream Puff: Yeah! You told us four weeks ago after Madeleine and Espresso's wedding that you had a big mission that day.
Capsaicin: Which is a shame since you really like Rockstar and I'm pretty sure you would really like B.A.D. 4. You even look like HellHound.
Clover: *from the kitchen* Yeah! Such a shame! You really need to listen to them!
Red Velvet: (Absolute traitor!) *sits up* Right...Guess it slipped my mind.
Capsaicin: You'll still be back for the rest of the week...right?
Red Velvet: Of course. I'll be back after you come back from the concert.
Cream Puff: And you'll spend time with us this week?
Red Velvet: *slightly chuckles* Yeah. I will.
Pastry: Wonderful, now. *hands Pond Dino to Capsaicin* Now get ready for breakfast. We have a long day ahead of us. *The two nodded before heading to the kitchen. Pastry looks over at Red Velvet and crosses her arms.*
Red Velvet: *nervously looks away* What?
Pastry: You need to tell him the truth.
Red Velvet: How I don't like one of his closest friends who's also my older brother's adopted sister?
Pastry: You know what I'm talking about.
Red Velvet: ...I mean...
Pastry: You can't hide it from him forever.
Red Velvet: I can try...*sees Pastry staring at him* But I promise that I will tell him eventually.
Pastry: This winter break?
Red Velvet: ...*smirks* the earliest.
*Pastry smiled and placed a kiss on his forehead before heading to the next room. After she left, Red Velvet's smirk fell and was replaced with worry.*
Red Velvet: (How am I going to get through this?)
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THE NOT-ULTIMATE OBVIOUSLY PARTIAL AND INCOMPLETE GUIDE TO EATIN' IN GOTHAM
So you're coming to Gotham City. Where does the discerning traveler get their nosh on? `Cause there's no WAY that we're eating at TGI Friday's.
Well, you're in luck, friendo. This native is going to spill on some of the most famous places in Gotham, as well as less-known local joints that everyone should try.
LUIGI'S Best. Fookin'. Pizza. In. Gotham. Yeah, they sell by the slice, but getchaself a pie. It's worth it. Classic sicilian, the crust is JUST a hair thicker than norm, but still bendy and thin - it's just not bendy enough to drop all the toppings on the floor when you pick it up. Best of all worlds, amazing homemade sauce. 10/10.
CHEZ VOUS Y'know the stereotypes about French restaurants being snooty and overpriced? Yeah, toss `em out the window. Chez Vous is the only French takeout joint I know. It helps that the Tarte A La Tomate is basically a puff-pastry pizza with mustard instead of red sauce. It's all very rustic French, even slipping in some Basque cuisine, and it's all damn good - but the best part is it won't break your wallet. Twelve bucks'll get you through almost any dish on the menu. Also, yes, like half the menu is fully vegan. 9/10, they lose a point for pretending they don't know what you're talking about when you ask for "the French pizza thing".
KATYA'S Formerly "Katya's Italian Kitchen", 3rd Street. Still called that according to the sign that they haven't changed yet. Just plain good Italian. Homemade pasta, and the mushroom tortellini is perfect. It's an open secret that it's a mafia front, but it stays in business because A) the Zucco family hasn't really done anything outside of white collar crime since Tony Zucco got fingered for murder a decade-plus ago, and B) it's pretty deece. 8/10, a little overpriced but solid, don't spring for the calzones.
BIG BELLY BURGER There's about twenty locations in Gotham, and if you want fast food, yeah it's damn good. They used to have the HQ here and they still treat their restaurants like they're the 'flagships' for the franchise. Expect a big honkin' slab of steamed meat with gooey white cheese in the middle, whatever veg you want (they nickle-and-dime you for anything past pickle and onion but they have a REALLY impressive selection anyway) and the trademark Big Belly Sauce (which I think is just thousand island without pickle but it's still good). The only weakness here is the fries, which are okay, but not great. 7/10, gives me heartburn every time.
BAT-BURGER This place gains points from my point of view by relentlessly mocking the asshats who keep trying to make Gotham a worse place to live. WHY YES I WOULD LIKE TO JOKERIZE THOSE FRIES! In all honesty it's a good mid-grade fast food place that gets extra points for proper seasoning on everything. Just don't go to the one in Old Gotham, the manager is constantly drunk and I doubt it's EVER been properly cleaned. 7/10 for most locations, 3/10 for OG.
THE ICEBERG LOUNGE Okay, y'know how it's an open secret that Katya's is a mafia front? The Iceberg Lounge isn't a secret, it relishes in it. This is Ozzie Cobblepot's one 100% legit venture, which is why it keeps surviving when he gets thrown in the slammer (I think it's technically owned by a separate property management company now, so they can't touch it anymore…). Big band music, glorious art deco themeing, and legit the best seafood in the city. 9/10, if you can afford the splurge it's worth it.
CUBBY'S DINING CAR This diner has been in business since 1937, and they've barely changed the menu since 1937. That means that yes, you can still get a hot Dr. Pepper here, and yes, it's still gross. No-frills breakfast standards and burgers. The "Cub Sauce" is just chili sauce, it's a nightmare for the digestion but it's almost worth it. Bonus points for having a loose meat "miscellaneous poultry" sammich they call "Skymeat". The owner claims that this is a local thing from West Virginia, I really don't buy it. 5/10, menu is a mixed bag but it's an experience, and they never close which is nice.
LOU'S CANDY SHOPPE While nominally 'just a candy shop', this place actually has a really good menu. Old fashioned malts and egg creams, Gotham style dogs that are as good as any street cart but prepared in a marginally cleaner environment, and even cheesesteaks (with whiz, always). The walls of Lou's are plastered with Gotham history, which Lou himself refers to as 'his trophies', basically anything that he lived through. 8/10, there's only three tables or this would probably rate higher.
IL-SHAN-TEN If you want decent Japanese food in Gotham Proper, this isn't a bad spot. It's halfway between an izakaya and a diner, and they make really good donburi. The place used to be a mahjong parlor (hence the name) and it's evidently gotten kinda trendy lately? Expect a crowd, but not a bad crowd. 6/10, a little overpriced, but serviceable.
THE GOTHAM BAR AND GRILL They say this place used to be good years ago. I don't believe it. As a bar, TGBaG is halfway passable, so long as you don't want a cocktail more complex than a boilermaker. As a grill, it's godawful. Burgers come in two varieties - underdone and burnt. Steaks are stingy, the fish and chips tastes indescribable (and not in a good way, but in a Cthulhu kinda way). Fries are passable. 2/10, avoid, the name does not make it a local institution, and the fact that it's been in business since `39 makes it an anomaly, not a mark of pride.
BLACK BASS BAR Now this is more like it. Closed from six AM to noon, seedy as all get out but lively and fun. The embodiment of a dive bar. Classic Brit style fish and chips, decent mini pizzas, cheap and greasy. 8/10, no, the bartender won't sleep with you but she's fun to hang with.
FOOD JUNCTON I think it's supposed to say "junction". Had to end this with my favorite anomaly. This place is right outside the stadium (GO KNIGHTS) and it's literally an old carnival food trailer that the put on a foundation and called good. It serves gyros and kebabs in various forms, all to go unless you want to sit on the curb (which a lot of people do). The only drink they serve is mystery-flavor Kool-Aid. Cheap as balls, homemade tzatziki or "happy sauce" (which is equally homemade ranch that they refuse to call ranch), always good. 12/10, a must-have.
Alright, that's it, if anyone has any requests for a short review I'll add `em in later with a reblog.
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literaticat · 1 year
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I’m writing a novel in first person peripheral (i.e. the narrator is not the protagonist of the story, but a secondary character observing and commenting like Nick Carraway in THE GREAT GATSBY). Do you have tips on how to write a query letter in this scenario?
Can't say I've ever heard this name for this POV (I'd call it first person limited) -- or thought about it before but I guess let's work it out together.
You could: A) Write it like a regular pitch, ie, about the main character, but then mention that it is told from this other POV. Or
B) Write it like it is about the narrator/side character, and their interaction with the main character. I guess it depends how important the side character is? (I haven't read Great Gatsby in a long time so I'm sure I'd get it all wrong if I tried to write a pitch to show you what I mean, so I'll make something up)
A)
Bakery owner Hildegarde St John has been practicing her profiteroles and rough-puff for years in a quest to get chosen for the popular Great American Pastry Show, and this year, she is one of the lucky contestants. But it's not all creampuffs.
Against the backdrop of a high-pressure kitchen and under the watchful eye of a national audience, Hildegarde must not only prove her skills as a baker, but also navigate the cutthroat world of reality TV. As she battles against a fierce lineup of competitors and grapples with the demands of the show's producers, she finds herself pushed to her limits.
And as the competition heats up, Hildegarde discovers a shocking secret that might just blow up the whole show. She must decide: Expose the truth and keep her integrity but face potential backlash -- or keep her head down, keep quiet and win the hundred thousand dollars to save her bakery.
Told from the cameraman's POV, FROSTING AND LIES is about what happens when reality TV gets a little TOO real.
B)
Tom has been a cameraman for the popular Great American Pastry Show for all ten seasons it has been on, but he's never seen a contestant like Hildegarde St John. Her profiteroles are perfection and her creampuffs would make angels weep, but what really strikes Tom in the lens is how cool she is under pressure.
Proving herself as a baker, navigating the cutthroat world of reality TV, and grappling with the demands of the shows producers -- Hildegarde makes it all look easy. But as the competition heats up, she accidentally discovers a secret that just might blow up the whole show and she must decide: Expose the truth and keep her integrity but face potential backlash -- or keep her head down, keep quiet and win the hundred thousand dollars to save her bakery.
FROSTING AND LIES is about what happens when reality TV gets a little TOO real -- and cameraman Tom is getting the whole thing on tape.
...
.... Hm. I don't really know which I like better? Again, I think it just kinda depends what YOU think, you know the book better than anyone. If Tom, his opinions, his perspective, etc, are an integral part of the story, then B. If Tom is basically just a bystander talking about the events and so really it might as well be third person -- then A?
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eigwayne · 1 year
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I have not been online much because I was dogsitting, and it was kind of nice not to feel shackled to my computer so I might continue on the internet-light schedule for a bit. It does mean the writing is crawling worse than usual but I really need this break to reboot. I didn’t realize how overwhelmed I was by multitasking and push-push-push of normal life! Sometimes I feel like I am not doing enough at once still, but you know what? That’s capitalism talking. The devil. Same difference. We should ignore that feeling and let ourselves savor things. It’s good for the soul or something.
So I will be running mostly on a queue, as usual, and if it runs out, I apologize, but I badly need to not be multitasking all the time and that might mean less internet time for a bit. We’ll see what happens.
For other updates:
I finished The King’s Avatar and it was so good! Some bits were corny but overall it’s a great show that really sells the characters. Most of them have nice little arcs, and even Sun Xiang grows as a person and you see him less than I thought. Super glad there wasn’t shoehorned romance- this show is about the team and their love of the game. It didn’t need a love story and would have suffered if it had one.
I platinumed Atelier Totori and got three more of the endings in Atelier Meruru. I did buy Atelier Ryza 1 and 2 while they were on sale, but I’ve felt drawn to Arland still, so those will have to wait.
I did my spring cleaning and really got this one alcove I’ve been putting off good. And I changed one of my book displays to Tolkien. I’ll post a picture at some point, if I remember.
I also tried out some new recipes. The dog ran me ragged so I didn’t try any of the recipes in the Tasting History cookbook, even though I was excited when it arrived. But I did not have the energy to make bread, that’s for sure! I did do a couple simple things- appleboo bites (grated apples in puff pastry, basically), veggie pancakes, and I made a lasagna which is always a hit in this house. I took pictures of the appleboo so I will hopefully write up that recipe, such as it is. Yes, it is inspired by Tales of Berseria- my brother mentioned he wanted to play, and we had apples, so I made like Velvet and grated some.
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nxrthmizu · 3 years
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Crash and Burn
fandom | miraculous ladybug
genre | salt, lila salt
pairing | n/a
w.c | 3.2k
author's note | hey remember that lila salt fic i promised? this isn't it but this is something i made today so yep. please accept this as an apology for yknow. me promising to write and. not doing it.
Enough was enough.
“Marinette, stop accusing Lila! She just wants to make friends!”
“Take the high road.”
“Be a good model student, Marinette.”
Enough. Was. Enough.
Marinette had the connections, the power, the choice to make Lila’s entire world crumble apart. The only thing that stood between the liar’s demise was the tiniest pinch of morality and self-restraint— And no, that self-restraint did not come in the form of Tikki. Even the kwami, who had to be an aggregation of all the good and nice things in the world, was fed up and ready to retaliate.
“What a joke.” Lila cackled, tossing a chunk of her sausage hair over her shoulder flamboyantly. The two girls were in the bathroom, with Lila smirking in front of the sink and Marinette a little distance away from her. “You can make my world crumble? What is this, a threat?”
“A promise.” Marinette corrected. “Stop telling lies. Come clean to every one. No more lying about knowing celebrities left and right, no more making excuses about not being able to take your own notes, no more making up ‘diseases’ just so your life gets a little more convenient. To be frank, I really don’t care what happens to you— But by making these empty promises to introduce my classmates to great ‘celebrities’, you’re ruining their futures. Stop.”
“And what are you going to do if I don’t?” Lila sneered, face twisted into an ugly grin. “You going to cry in front of the class? Try and convince them that I, the one they adore— That I am lying?”
“No.” Marinette’s eyes were clear when she met Lila’s. The clouds of self-doubt that used to hover over the bright, shining star inside her soul had now dissipated, letting the bluenette emit a confident, glowing appearance as she met the liar head on. “I’m just going to keep my promise.”
──────── ⋆⋅❉⋅⋆ ────────
Lila headed off to a modelling shoot after school, pleased at the prospect of spending more time with Adrien. There were a couple tendrils of Marinette’s words hanging behind in her mind— Did the girl mean what she said? Did she actually… Was she actually capable of causing Lila’s downfall? … Surely not. Marinette may have once been the ‘Everyday Ladybug’, but there was no way she was that competent, there was no way the girl was capable of plotting.
The Italian hummed, brushing away thoughts of the annoying bluenette from her mind. She was going on a photoshoot— One that was going cause the rise and burst of her career, the one that was going to make her name a globally-known one. Unfortunately for Lila, her plans were going to be derailed quite soon— In fact, as soon as Gabriel Agreste’s car rolled into the parking lot of the shoot location.
“Explain this, Mlle. Rossi.” Gabriel’s nostrils flared as he pointed to the tabloid article on his tablet. The Italian girl froze, the headlines seared into her eyes, big and black and bold, shooting poison right into the core of her body, paralysing her cell by cell starting from her heart. “What is the meaning of this?”
‘Adrien Agreste Reported To Be Harassed by Fellow Model’— The image under the caption was one that was clearly taken by a hidden photographer. The picture was framed with leafy foliage, which suggested that the camera was tucked up in a tree. Despite the distance, it was quite obvious in the image that Adrien was reeling away, disgusted and uncomfortable as a faceless woman in an orange blazer, back turned to the camera— Invaded his personal space.
The subtitle was the cream on the cupcake.
‘Witnesses State Gabriel Agreste Ignorant of Workplace Harassment’.
──────── ⋆⋅❉⋅⋆ ────────
As if things couldn’t quite go down a worser path, Lila returned home to a fuming mother and an unexpected visitor.
“Lila! You come here right this instant!” The diplomat demanded as soon as the front door opened, her daughter shrinking slightly at the tone and pitch that her mother was using. The last time her mother had been this angry— Well, it was when she got expelled from her last school. “I can’t believe what you’ve done! If it weren’t for your kind classmate, lord knows how long you would’ve continued with this!”
The Italian meekly followed her mother into the living room, eyes widening until they were as large as saucers, mouth agape at the last person she expected to see sitting on the couch.
Marinette smiled kindly, waving at the girl, looking every bit the part of the innocent, pure, kind child that every parent wanted to have. Before Lila could release a torrent of questions about what the hell Marinette Dupain-Cheng was doing in her living room, her mother charged on, beginning to take out her anger on her daughter while a literal angel sat on the sofa, cradling a box of pastries from her family’s bakery.
“Your friend here tells me that you’ve been taking absences from school to go on trips to help humanity!” Mme. Rossi exploded, waving her arms around madly. “She says she’s here to share her notes from the classes you’ve missed! You’ve never left Paris this year! What’s this I hear about flying off to the kingdom of— What was it called again, Marinette dear?”
“Achu.” Provided the bluenette helpfully, the diplomat’s expression instantly softening when she talked to the other teen in the living room.
“Ah, yes. Thank you, dear.” The woman turned back to her daughter, instantly snapping on a mask of anger in a matter of a fraction of a second. “What’s this about flying off to this kingdom of Achu to help homeless orphans with some random prince?”
“Um…” Lila piped up, wriggling as her brain churned at 200 lies per hour, trying to whip up a cover of some sort.
“I’m not done! Your friend here is such a helpful child that she even went as far as to ask her family doctor is there’s a cure for your… Lying disease!” Mme. Rossi practically roared, breathing flames as if she were an intimidating dragon, her daughter flinching away from the heat. “I’ve never heard of anything more ridiculous! And then there’s the fact that you lied to your classmates about having tinnitus?!”
“I actually do have tinnitus!” Lila cut in forcibly, widening her eyes to make herself look more pitiful. “I was just afraid to tell you because I didn’t want you to worry!”
“Bullshit!”
“Um… Sorry to interrupt, Mme. Rossi,” Marinette piped up, the diplomat instantly cooling down as she faced the bluenette, a soft smile tracing the Italian woman’s lips. “But it’s getting rather late and my parents would love me home soon. I also have some tests to revise for tonight, so I think I should get going.”
“Oh, of course, dear.” Mme. Rossi hastily got up to help the bluenette to the door, shooting a warning glare at her daughter— ‘Sit still and don’t you dare go anywhere’, the glare read. “Feel free to come over again anytime you want, dear. I’m not home often, but you are such a sweet child. I’m sure Lila could learn a lot from you.”
“Thanks for having me as well, Mme. Rossi. I really like your home. I left the pastries on the counter— Make sure to warm the curry puffs before you eat them.” Marinette returned the smile, bowing slightly to the older woman as a sign of respect.
“Thank you for the pastries as well, Marinette. I ought to visit your parents’ bakery sometime when I’m free.” Mme. Rossi opened the door kindly for the bluenette, waving the girl off with an affectionate smile. Her parents must be so lucky to have such a sweet little thing like her, Mme. Rossi sighed internally, turning the key so she locked the door. And she seems to be a high-scoring student as well.
──────── ⋆⋅❉⋅⋆ ────────
Lila seethed, having been grounded by her mother. As far as Mme. Rossi was concerned, there was a boarding school not too far away from their current residence, and by the next week, the Italian girl would be transferred over. Lila had never hated Dupain-Cheng as much as she did in that moment.
Still furious, the Italian snapped her laptop open, too angry to bother with the fact she might’ve scratched the surface. Clicking into the web browser, she started to type in the words ‘Ladyblog’— That was, before a news article caught her eye.
‘Jagged Stone Interview Reveals Underage, Obsessed Fan’.
What on Earth…
As soon as Lila clicked into the link, the news footage from the interview immediately begin to play. The date stamp on it showed that it had aired last night— Which meant that she would’ve missed it, since her mother was too busy yelling at her to turn on the television to watch Nadja Chamack’s daily news.
“As soon as I heard this rumour about some underage teenage girl claiming that she had saved my cat on an airport runway, I called Penny and asked her to book a slot for me to clarify this,” Jagged Stone said grimly, dressed in more formal attire as he sat in the comfortable, cushioned chair of the news station, with Nadja nodding equally seriously beside him. “Let me clarify— I’ve never owned a cat. I’m allergic to fur. The only pet I’ve had was Fang, and he’s an al-li-ga-tor. Not a cat. Whatever the girl is claiming, she’s obsessed and making up stories.”
“It’s also kind of bewildering that she saved it on an airport runway,” Nadja continued, shaking her head in disappointment. “That kind of thing only happens in dramas— It’s too dangerous for anyone besides authorised workers to be on airport runways.”
“Right, right!” Jagged agreed instantly. “The whole rumour is just really baffling.”
“M. Jagged, may I ask what kind of effect these rumours have on a celebrities’ career?” Nadja continued, leading the conversation on like a professional.
“Well, rumours that circulate around tend to have really bad effects, and the worse ones can hang around for a long, long time. Tabloids are often spun off from rumours, baseless and with no evidence. Those tabloids will never truly disappear, so they can leave a mark on a celebrity’s reputation as some people will believe anything— Even things they read from un-cited tabloids.”
“That is simply terrible. Have you ever had any cases of rumours created by underaged teens before this?”
“I’ve had quite a number, but none of them really got as big as this one. From what Penny has found from digging around, the teen girl managed to spread the rumour through her school and onto a once-popular blog.” Jagged explained. “Penny has also found out that the same girl has claimed that I’ve written songs for her to thank her for saving my cat! I would never write songs and dedicate them to an underaged girl— Trust me. If I could do such a thing, I’d already have written a dozen in honour of my niece— She’s my favourite designer.”
Nadja smiled at that sentence. “Then—“
The news footage cut off abruptly as Lila slammed her laptop shut, too upset to continue watching.
──────── ⋆⋅❉⋅⋆ ────────
On the other side of Paris, Alya was pacing around her room frantically, wondering why on earth Lila wasn’t picking up on her calls. She’d left at least four dozen messages to the Italian, who was absent from school that day. There had been a couple whispers here and there about why she was missing— Rose had suggested another impromptu trip to Achu.
Lila’s absence wasn’t the weirdest part of the day, however.
That award would go to Marinette, who walked into class with a smile, the slightest sprinkles of delight colouring her bluebell eyes when she spotted Lila’s empty seat.
Growing in frustration, Alya threw herself onto her bed, phone clattering onto the mattress with her. Within the next few minutes, however, her phone suddenly started exploding with notifications. Excited at the prospect of Lila finally texting back, Alya turned on her phone, only to be disappointed by the notifications all clamouring from the class group chat.
Kim had sent a link to the chat— Without hesitation, Alya clicked into it, frowning when she saw Nadja and Jagged appear on the screen. Throughout the interview, the colour on the Ladyblogger’s face only paled by the second until she was as white as a sheet, and if it were halloween at that time, she would’ve won the best costume award for being a ghost.
There must… There must’ve been a mistake.
A notification from Lila’s number made the blogger perk up, instantly clicking into the conversation— But her newfound hope didn’t last very long.
[Lila]
Hi, Alya. This is Lila’s mom. She’s currently grounded right now. Is there anything important you need to tell her?
[Alya]
Oh, nothing much… I just wanted to ask where she was.
[Lila]
She’s at home.
[Alya]
Okay, thanks.
Flopping onto her bed, Alya begin thinking, revising over the past few months like it was an old clip. Lila’s exciting adventures and interactions with celebrities of every kind— Lila going overseas and face timing the entire class— Lila letting her in on the secrets of being Ladybug’s friend…
… Marinette trying to tell them that Lila was lying…
──────── ⋆⋅❉⋅⋆ ────────
The class was awfully silent the next day. Adrien was absent as well— A social worker was looking into his home life as a result of the tabloid that arose. Things for the blonde could either get better or worse from then on, as the matters were still foggy and things hadn’t cleared up yet. The blonde maintained contact with his friends, however, calling and texting them whenever he could.
“Class, settle down.” Mlle. Bustier stepped into the class, looking very tense and uncomfortable. “Today, we will have a guest, so please be on your best behaviours, alright?”
Just as the teacher finished speaking, a tall, regal-looking Italian woman entered the classroom, a cowering principal and a meek-looking Lila in tow. The class brightened slightly at the sight of their friend— But by the way she wasn’t looking into their eyes… Things weren’t going to be good.
“Good morning. I am Mme. Rossi, Lila’s mother.” The woman begin speaking, her firm and no-nonsense tone instantly making every student sit straight, their eyes too afraid to look anywhere else but the Italian diplomat. “It has come to my attention that my daughter has been taking absences from school to do charity work— And I have to clarify that this is a lie. Lila has been doing nothing but holing herself up in her room, lying to me and saying that there are no classes due to akumas.” The Italian diplomat glowered at Damocles. “What’s even more baffling is the fact that neither her homeroom nor the principal bothered to check up with me despite a student having extended periods of absence with no note or email written whatsoever.”
The class was so quiet that they could hear the quiver of Mlle. Bustier’s trembling lip.
“In addition, I’ve been kindly told that Lila has claimed to have a lying disease, which is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard this week.” It was impossible to miss the way the Italian diplomat was glaring daggers at both Mlle. Bustier and Damocles. “No one bothered to look it up online to see if it’s actual disorder, nor did anyone call me to confirm and ask for a doctor’s note, which is standard procedure.” Chills burst over the room, making every one shiver as the woman hissed out her words.
“Mme. Rossi, we didn’t want to disturb your busy schedule—” Damocles begin, only to be blown backwards from the sheer intensity of Mme. Rossi’s glower.
“M. Damocles, standard procedures exist for a reason. Unless you’d like to tell me about any other things you’ve been letting my daughter get away with?”
“N— No, Mme.”
The Italian diplomat continued on her war path. “My daughter also claimed to have tinnitus, am I correct?”
“Y— Yes, Mme.” Mlle. Bustier answered when it seemed like no one was going to.
“And I heard that the class seating arrangement was shifted to accommodate for that?” The homeroom teacher didn’t dare answer this time, for it seemed like whatever she said would be the incorrect answer. “And apparently, my daughter has also been faking broken wrists and requesting for her classmates to complete her work for her.” Mme. Rossi was practically breathing flames at that point, “And I am incredibly upset at the lack of action from the homeroom teacher.”
No one could breath.
“I have many concerns about the running of this schooling facility, and I expect to discuss this with M. Damocles privately after this. However, there is still something to be done.” Mme. Rossi swept her gaze towards her daughter, who found the floor incredibly interesting at that point of time. “Lila? Something you’d like to say to your classmates?”
“… I’m sorry for lying to you.” Lila mumbled resentfully.
“Louder, Lila. No one can hear you.”
“I’m sorry for lying to you!” Lila swallowed, bursting like an explosion that had finally been triggered, tears in her eyes and fists hatefully curled. “I’m sorry for lying about my diseases and injuries. I’m sorry for making you do my work,” She spat. “Sorry for causing any inconveniences.”
Mme. Rossi raised an eyebrow at her daughter. “Is that all?”
Lila glared at her mother, who was completely unfazed. “Oh, so you want an apology from me? Fine!” She turned to the class, a maniacal glint in her eyes as she sneered at the class, a few gasps puffing from around the room as they caught their first glimpse of the liar that resided in the ‘harmless’ shell of Lila Rossi. “I’m sorry that you are all such idiots that you all fell for everything. I’m sorry that Marinette has such terrible, untrusting classmates that turned their backs on her even though she was still a goody-two shoes till the end, even though she still wanted to help you sorry peasants. I’m sorry that you were all so goddamn gullible! There! Good enough for you?”
Shock was etched into the faces of every human in the classroom— Including Mlle. Bustier, M. Damocles, and Mme. Rossi themselves. Clearly, that part of the apology had not been part of the plan.
“Did I miss something?” Said a sweet voice, followed by the presence of a bluenette, her hair tied in a half-up. A royal blue blazer decorated her lithe form, accompanied by a smart-looking white blouse and a black plaited skirt. Formal had never looked so good on anyone— And if someone didn't know better, they'd think that the bluenette was a young lawyer, emerging victorious from her first successful case.
“Marinette!” Alya exclaimed.
“I’m sorry that you’re such an annoying, little, pest.” Lila bit in the girl’s face, disdain colouring her features as she ignored her mother’s enraged gasp behind her.
The bluenette simply smiled, unaffected by the liar who had crashed and burned like the liar once wished upon her. Marinette Dupain-Cheng stood at her full height, the perfect image of grace and poise as she maintained her composure, quite unlike her nemesis, who thrashed under her mother’s restraining hands.
“And I’m sorry that you didn’t take my promise to heart.”
this can count as adrien redemption depending on you cause ehhh i dont like how passive he is but i havent caught up with the recent episodes, he might have become better. idk.
also where the hell is my miraculous taglist i cant find it so eep. no tagging ppl ig oops
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recurring-polynya · 2 years
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Kiki’s Delivery Service Pumpkin-Herring Pie Baking Adventure
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LOOK AT MY PIE!! BEHOLD IT!!!!!!
Project was a big success, I am extremely proud of myself, would do (and probably will) make again.
Details below the cut
There are numerous recipes for this pie online, but I chose this one by Sylvia Wakana, because it seemed like a good combination of simple and accurate to the setting. The recipe is a little light on detail, and it’s missing a few amounts. I am a pretty good baker, but I am not a great cook-- nevertheless, I was able to make my way through easily enough, and I will tell you what my measurements were as we go.
I definitely wanted to use a kabocha squash, because it’s my understanding that is what a Japanese person would mean when they said “pumpkin.” I am lucky to have an enormous international grocery store near by, so it was easy to procure one. If you can’t, I found it to be somewhere between a pie pumpkin and a butternut or acorn squash. Of the three, I find butternut by far the easiest to work with, so that is what I would use if I couldn’t find the kabocha.
The recipe says to steam it, but I wanted to roast mine because I roast squashes all the time and it seemed nicer. A tip I found suggested that kabocha can be hard to slice, and recommended roasting whole for 10 minutes to soften it up a little, which I did. I honestly have no idea if it helped, but I was able to hack it open without too much trouble. I rubbed each side in olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper, then roasted face down for 30 minutes. It was still a little firm, at that point, so I re-oiled and put it back for another 15. At the time, I worried that I had overbaked it. I make roasted butternut lasagna a lot, and the longer you roast a butternut, it will just get softer, but the kabocha sort of dried out-- I am guessing it has less moisture. So, in retrospect, I probably would have only put it back for another 5 or maybe not at all. 
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Oh, here’s another tip! Whenever I am making a recipe with a roast squash, I roast the squash early in the day. On one hand, it’s a bit of a waste of oven heat, but on the other, it breaks up the cooking, and it also breaks up a time dependency. My kid doesn’t like dinner to be late, and a squash that is taking too long to roast and push your entire timeline back. Also, if you roast it ahead of time, you don’t burn your fingers trying to get it out of the rind!
Anyway, so the next step was to sautee some onion and mix in the squash. The moisture from the onion helped a little, but it was still looking pretty grainy. When, I added the Béchamel sauce, though, it mixed up soft an creamy! Whew!
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The recipe recommends Swedish-style canned herring, and I wasn’t able to find any. Sardines are technically just young herring, and all things I found labeled “canned herring” just seemed like sardines to me (you probably could use sardines, I am sure it would work). I had seen jarred herring before, and I just felt like it would work better than sardines. Now, at this point (this is earlier in the week), I told Mr. P that I was going to buy jarred herring and he insisted that it was pickled and I said I didn’t think it was. I went to the grocery story. I had a choice of herring in cream sauce or wine sauce. Neither of them had the word “pickled” on the label. I bought the cream sauce because I thought it would be better with the recipe. Was it pickled? Yes, as it turns out, which I did not know until I actually ate the pie. The ingredients on the jar are listed as “herring (herring, vinegar, etc)” so I guess you are just supposed to know (or possibly listen to your husband, but that seems awful). Anyway, it turned out fine, I’ll get to that at the end. FYI, the jar of herring + sauce was 12oz. 
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I went for Swiss as my cheese. Now, I get these same packets of shredded cheese in cheddar and mozzarella all the time, and they are 8oz, but the Swiss was 6oz for some reason. 
At this point, I was ready to start assembling. I rolled out my puff pastry (I used storebought, I have never made my own puff pastry and I don’t like to have too many unknowns in one project). I thought the puff pastry would be 9x13, or possibly larger, and was planning to bake this in my casserole. It was not, it was a square. I pulled out my 9x9 casserole instead, and, as it happened, everything fit very nicely inside, so that was serendipitous. 
A note about puff pastry! The instructions on the box said to take it out of the freezer 40 minutes before using, but I was doing some reading on puff pastry this morning and every single webpage said to put it in the fridge the night before. I stuck it in the fridge at maybe 9 this morning, and I took it out at the time I was finishing up the Béchamel sauce (this is also when I started pre-heating the oven) and it worked out great.
I ended up using one sheet of puff pastry to cover the pie and about half of the other to make decorations (I baked up the rest to eat with strawberries and ice cream as dessert). My puff pastry didn’t stick to itself very well, so I used the egg wash as glue during the assembly, which worked like a charm.
The sheet of pastry was just a teensy bit bigger than my dish, just perfect for folding down the edge and doing a little decorative crimp. I drew the fish on paper (while looking at a still from the movie) and then cut it out and used it as a stencil. I did the fins separately, which I think was a good call, because I think they puffed more that way. I have some tiny cookie cutters for doing pie decorations, which is where the stars came from. 
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The recipe said it would bake for 25-30-- mine took 35. I probably should have had the rack higher-- I had put it in low to roast the squash. Oh, well, it came out fine.
So, how did it taste? Well, let’s talk about that pickled herring. There aren’t that many strong flavors in this, and I actually think it would have been a little bland if I hadn’t used the pickled herring. My husband and son love vinegar (my husband notoriously drank pickle brine from the jar as a child) and they both thought this pie was delicious. I am pretty vinegar sensitive, but the squash, cheese and pastry worked pretty well to counter the fish, so the overall effect pretty nice. The squash was mild and sweet, and did not taste dry at all in the final product. My daughter, much like the grandchild in the movie, did not care for the pie, but that was not unexpected (she got a quesadilla). 
I would definitely make this again as is-- it might be nice to use a stronger cheese, like Gruyere, especially if I tried it with non-pickled herring. I also think it would be really tasty to make this with salmon instead of herring, swapping the squash for a leek and potato base, maybe with some dill. 
It took a long time to make, but nothing about it was particularly hard. I had intended to make it in the fall or winter, but the second best time to plant a tree is right now, as they say. It’s coming up on spring here, but it did get pretty chilly this evening and it was a warm and cozy meal. A+.
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nataliedanovelist · 3 years
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GF - Timestuck AU: The Power of Mabel ch.1
While fighting over a time machine so one twin can win a pig or the other can win the heart of a girl, Mabel is left stranded in a snowy forest with no time machine and no brother. Oops.
ch.2
Beautiful artwork was created by @starstruck-loner​! THANK YOU SO MUCH SWEETIE I LOVE IT!!!
~~~~~~~~~~
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Snow freckled the chilly January day lightly, like powdered sugar over a freshly baked pastry, sticking to each layer effortlessly and creating a blanket that completely covered the woods and the cabin nested between the trees. The atmosphere was still and stiff, like frozen icicles that were not going to start dripping any time soon. The air was bitter and unwelcoming, which was probably why no living thing was outside today. Today was the perfect day to burrow and sleep and keep warm with your own body heat.
A crack through space-time cut through the air. The crushing of tiny ice particles followed as two twelve-year-olds ran, one chasing the other, as the time-tape was heating up and buzzing. “This thing is getting hotter! Hot! Hot, hot, hot!” Mabel attempted to save her palms from burns by bouncing the tiny machine between her hands.
“What are you doing?!” Dipper demanded as Mabel bounced the tape-measure too hard and her twin reached a hand to catch it. He managed to catch it perfectly, like an athlete catching a baseball, and then was gone in a flash of baby-blue lightning.
Mabel’s eyes widened in sheer panic and she held her arms as a gust of wind blew and nearly froze her to her core. It felt like her skin was being pricked by mean sewing needles. She looked around wildly for her brother, for him to come back to this time and place immediately, because surely he would use the time machine to come back, but seconds ticked by and she was still alone.
Puffs of smoke decorated the wintry scene as she held her shivering body and looked at the shack. It wasn’t as colorful and welcoming and loud as the shack Mabel remembered, but she made herself consider that it was because there was no big sign or tourist-y things, and it was winter. Then a light turned on, the hall if Mabel remembered her summer home correctly, and the door opened.
The hope that Mabel had in her chest of seeing her great-uncle was gone, and replaced with fear and confusion. This man looked very much like Stan, though much younger, quite chubby and youthful, wearing a black t-shirt and blue plaid pajama-pants. He had the same face as a young-Stan, but with a more pink than orange nose, a cleft chin, fluffier hair that reminded Mabel of her’s when it was short, and different glasses. 
Mabel didn’t know what to do or how to react or how to feel. People change a lot when they age, sure, but this much? It was possible this person wasn’t Stan, but who else would look so similar to him and live in this house? Maybe this is the guy who lived here before Stan, and they just happen to look very similar. This is Gravity Falls, and though she and Dipper were still new to the town, it was a weird place where something like this could happen.
It also came to Mabel how odd the situation was for the man: a little girl was standing in a sweater and skirt outside his house in the winter. Would he try to send her home? She had no home to go to. She didn’t know what year this was, but if it was a time Stan didn’t live here, it must have been way before she was born, maybe even before her parents met. She was stranded.
But the man looked at her sympathetically and he seemed kind and worried. He grabbed a trenchcoat and called gently, “Hello. Are you okay?”
Mabel bit her lip. His voice was definitely not Grunkle Stan’s. A gust of wind made her shiver and her teeth chatter, and the man stepped into some slippers and walked up to her, draping the trenchcoat over her shoulders. “There there, that’s a very nice sweater, but it doesn’t seem to be keeping you warm, is it?”
“N-No.” Mabel shivered. “I… I used breathable yarn for…” She stopped. She was going to say how she used breathable yarn for the warm California weather, but she decided not to.
“You used?” The man repeated, rubbing her shoulders to try to make the trenchcoat work faster. “You made this?”
Mabel saw his excited grin and she smiled nervously. “Y-Yeah. I knit sweaters.”
The man bent his knees in front of her and studied her sweater. She held out an arm so he could see and his brown eyes sparkled. “That’s very impressive! I love sweaters!”
Mabel gasped happily. “C-C-Can I m-make you one?!”
The man looked taken back, but chuckled and stood. “Of course, but first let’s get you warm. How does hot chocolate sound?”
“Y-Yes, p-p-please.” Mabel shivered, and allowed the man to walk her into the house.
It was scaringly like the Mystery Shack, but so much was different. It was the same layout, the same house, but there was so much that was different. A coat rack stood by the door, holding a white lab coat with black rubber gloves in the pocket, some safety goggles like the ones in Mabel’s science classes, and Stan’s fez. Mabel stared at it. Well, okay it probably wasn’t Stan’s fez, but it was a maroon fez with a golden fish and a black tassle. 
There was a wood-burning stove alive in the living room, with a small box full of wood by it and a tiny stool. Instead of Grunkle Stan’s armchair, there was a red-velvet couch, a large writing desk, and the room was decorated with books, desks, papers, and jars and experiments. It was all strange, but warm and cozy with the fire going.
Mabel smiled as the man pulled out the tiny stool and gestured for her to sit by the stove. She obeyed and the coat was removed from her shoulders, but quickly replaced with a dark-green blanket.
“There, do you mind warming up here while I make your hot chocolate?” He asked, draping his trenchcoat over his arm.
Mabel shook her head and held her cold hands in front of the stove. “Thank you.”
The man smiled. “You’re welcome.” And he turned and left for where Mabel knew the kitchen was.
Sitting alone and feeling better as her body was getting warm, Mabel thought it all over. This man was clearly not her Grunkle Stan, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t nice or couldn’t help her. Any minute Dipper was going to come back for her, but until then she had to stay where she was. That’s what grown-ups told her to do if she was ever lost. Stay where you are until you’re found.
By the time Mabel was very comfortable, the man returned with two mugs of steaming hot chocolate with extra marshmallows, and handed one to the girl. “Here you are, my dear.”
“Thank you, sir.” Mabel sipped and hummed in delight as the man sat on the floor next to her.
“You’re very welcome.” He sipped his drink and added, “Now then, I have to ask, what were you doing out there? Did you get lost?”
Mabel’s face dropped and she nodded. “Uh, huh.”
“Hm, very well. That can easily happen when playing on a snow day.” The man said with a smile. “Why don’t I call our parents and we can arrange to have you back home safe?”
Mabel swallowed nervously. She bit her lip, looking down at her mug. She didn’t know what to say to that.
The man looked at her and noticed how scared she was. “Is something wrong?”
Mabel looked up at him, was met with a kind face, and whimpered, “I can’t call them.”
The man smiled sympathetically. “I’m sure you won’t get into too much trouble. Maybe a little, but it’s for the best to call them so we can get you home soon.”
Mabel shook her head and squeezed her stinging eyes shut. “They’re… not around.”
The man’s face dropped as Mabel scrubbed at her eyes. “Oh. I’m so sorry.”
Mabel only replied with a sniff and she sipped her hot chocolate.
“Is there someone I can call for you?” The man asked. “I’m sure there’s someone out there worried about you.”
Mabel bit her lip. “M-My brother… He’s still out there…”
“Is he lost, too?”
Mabel shrugged.
“Well,” The man held his cleft chin in thought. “I’m sure he’s out there looking for you. Perhaps then you should wait here until he comes here, and then we can send you to your guardian.”
“It’s just us.” Mabel muttered. “Just us.”
The man smiled. Mabel hoped he believed her brother was much older than her, or at least old enough to take care of her. That way she wasn’t really lying, just letting this man believe what he wanted to believe. Nothing wrong with that. “Okay. Still, you may stay here until he finds you.”
Mabel sniffed and wiped her nose with her sweater sleeve. “Thank you, sir.”
“Please, call me Ford.” He said and held out a hand to her.
Mabel smiled and shook his hand. “I’m Mabel.”
“Mabel, huh? That’s a beautiful name.”
“Thanks.” She looked down at their hands and her eyes widened. One, two, three, four, five, s-...
Ford pulled his hand free, his cheeks reddening as he sipped his hot chocolate, but Mabel was grinning at him happily and she gasped with joy, “You have six fingers?!”
Ford blinked at her, reminding Mabel of a startled owl, and he cleared his throat. “Um, y-yes. It’s a birth defect.”
“Nuh, huh! It’s cool! Can I see, please?” Mabel sat her mug on the floor by her feet.
The researcher didn’t like people staring at his hands, but this young girl wanted to look, it appears, in admiration, so Ford hesitantly gave her his hands and she held them lovingly, her eyes sparkling like stars.
“Wow! That’s neat! No wonder your hand shake was so friendly! It’s a whole finger friendlier than normal!” Mabel was then reminded that Dipper’s journal had a six-fingered hand on it.
The girl’s eyes widened as she wondered if she was meeting Dipper’s idol. It was possible. The journal Dipper had dated it in the 80s, and Dipper said that the author mysteriously disappeared. As exciting as it was to meet the Author of the Journals, all it did was put Mabel more at ease. If anyone can help her, he can.
Ford laughed and gave her hands a soft squeeze. “I like you! You’re weird.”
Mabel grinned, distracted from her thoughts and grateful for it. “I like you, too, Ford!”
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jungshookz · 3 years
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cream a little dream of me; knj
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➺ pairing; kim namjoon x reader
➺ genre; lveb!universe, you’ve been asking for this and i’m finally here to tell you that this is smut! nsfw! 18+! oral sex (receiving)! dirty talk! namjoon has a dirty mouth and y/n is into that!! y/n’s a great listener and namjoon is very into that!! also frosting is involved somewhere 
➺ wordcount: 8.9k
➺ summary; y/n has a wet dream about namjoon and yoongi just wants to help his best friend get laid. 
➺ what to expect; “it’s not a big deal or anything, but, uh... when were you planning on telling me about that nice little dream you had two weeks ago?”
➺ optional reading: here’s the link to la vie en bonsai if you haven’t read it yet or if you just want to experience the story all over again! 
                                      »»————- ☁️ ————-««
to say the least, yoongi is… confused.
in the three years that he’s been friends with you, he likes to think that he’s seen every single one of your emotions
but this?
this is different somehow… yet he can’t quite put his finger on what’s so different about it... 
he’s seen elated y/n
he’s seen devastated y/n
he’s seen infuriated y/n
he’s seen stressed out y/n
but this y/n?
the starry-eyed and constantly looking like you’re day dreaming y/n?
he can safely say he’s never seen this version of you before and it’s a little concerning because now he has no idea what the protocol is 
even back when you guys were in university you practically never daydreamed during lectures
you were always focused on the professor and whatever powerpoint was playing on the screen with a concerning amount of intensity 
one time, yoongi put his hand over your eyes just to be funny and you nearly snapped his wrist off
“okay, seriously?” yoongi waves his hand in front of your face for the fifth time in half an hour before shaking his head gently, “what’s gotten into you?”
you blink quickly when you snap out of your little daze, looking at him and setting the bowl of batter down on the counter before checking out the damage you’ve done
you’re supposed to fold this batter
not whIP it
now it’s ruined and you’re going to have to start all over!
“i don’t know what that batter ever did to you, but you might need to take it down a notch before you sprain your wrist…” yoongi trails off, leaning over a little and wondering if he can get away with dipping his finger in for a teeny tiny taste
sure, he might get salmonella or whatever from ingesting raw eggs, but it’ll be worth it 
“also, what are you even making?” he frowns, gesturing to all the items splayed on the counter, “because there are like ten different things going on here-”
you look around the kitchen before reaching up to scratch the back of your neck
you... don’t really have an answer for him 
there’s bread dough over here 
three bowls of frosting (chocolate, cream cheese, buttercream) over there
some chopped up peaches on the cutting board
the puff pastry is de-frosting in the fridge
there’s a pie baking in the oven at the moment
you just finished greasing up a mini cupcake tin
and don’t forget about the bowl of batter you’re currently whipping the life out of
(let the record show that you have no idea what you’re making. you have no clue what this batter is for. and why’d you take out your set of food-colouring dye??) 
you just needed to let off some steam and this is the only way you know hoW
“isn’t this great? working out in the comfort of my own personal gym…”
both you and yoongi look over towards the kitchen door when you hear jin’s voice ring through namjoon’s laptop from the living room
yoongi perks up in interest when you suddenly scurry over to spy at namjoon through the crack of the door before he gets up to follow you 
“yeah, easy for you to say-” namjoon grunts as he pushes himself up off the ground so he can clap his hands together quickly before his palms land back on the ground in a solid thump
he thought push-ups were already awful as is so he wasn’t very pleased when jin told him to start doing them with claps in between each set
also, jin has access to a full-blown gym in his house, but namjoon doesn’t have any access to actual weights so he’s had to resort to using jugs of water instead
it’s actually working out pretty well!
he took the sweeper part of the broom off and then used a lot of duct tape (and patience) to tape the jugs to both sides of the pole
he felt like he was mulan from that one part of the movie except mulan is probably physically stronger than him 
“you know, i’m surprised he hasn’t smashed his face against the floor yet...” yoongi snorts as he continues to peer at namjoon over your shoulder
he waits a couple seconds for you to respond but frowns when you let out a short little sigh while keeping your eyes glued on your sweaty boyfriend
...
see?!
you’re doing it again!!!!  
you have your bottom lip tucked in between your teeth and your eyes have gone all lidded and hazy
your grip around the edge of the door is really tight and your knuckles are going kind of white 
good god
yoongi narrows his eyes suspiciously before jabbing your shoulder roughly, “hey. what are you thinking about?”
you shake your head a little too quickly for his liking before turning back around and brushing past him to get back to the counter
huh
okay
something’s up for sure
he doesn’t know if it’s good or bad or whatever but he’s going to find out
your cheeks and the tips of your ears are a little flushed now which is even more interesting
what could possibly be going on in that little noggin of yours?
“tell me what you were thinking about.” yoongi sits back down on the stool as he stares you down across the counter, “y/n- look at me.”
“i’m not-” you glance up at yoongi for a quick second before looking back down, “nothing!” you mutter, your arm starting to move faster as you continue whipping the mystery batter 
yoongi immediately points to the ball of dough sitting a couple feet away from him, “tell me what you were thinking about or i’ll eat that ball of raw dough right noW-”
“-!” you set the bowl down before scrambling to move the dough out of yoongi’s reach
he’s eaten raw dough before (it was raw cookie dough and he took bites of it every time you turned to face away from him) which resulted in him suffering for like 48 hours and you’re not taking any chances
“you can’t keep secrets from me.” yoongi deadpans, “aren’t we best friends? don’t you trust me?” he bats his lashes at you before pushing his bottom lip out in a pout, “because i certainly trust you… and you, out of all people, should know how hard it is for me to trust someone…”
your eye twitches 
you know he’s only saying all of this to butter you up so that you’ll inevitably give in and tell him what’s going on... and you hate that it’s actually working... 
look at that face!
those cheeks!!!
those eyes!!!!
“i…” you trail off, biting the inside of your cheek as you contemplate whether it’s a good idea or not to tell yoongi what exactly’s been going on with you lately 
if you tell him, he’ll stop bugging you about it
then again, if you tell him, he might keep bugging you about it 
but he’s already suspicious of you so it seems like you don’t really have a choice...
this is really a lose-lose situation, if you think about it 
...damn. 
“hey, do you remember that time you were crying really hard and i made you feel better by telling you that i kind of sort of loved you...?” yoongi mentions casually while inspecting his nail beds, his eyes flickering up towards your face for a quick second to see your reaction 
he bites back a smirk of success when he hears you let out a sigh 
ha HA 
hook, line, and sinker bABY 
“okay, fine, but-” you slam the bowl down on the counter before placing your hands on your hips, ”it’s a secret. between us!” you gesture for him to come over to you
“god, finally-!” yoongi nods enthusiastically and hops off the stool before scurrying over to join you at the other side of the counter
you lift your hand up so the side of your mouth is covered and yoongi reaches up to wrap his fingers around your wrist, grinning excitedly as you whisper something into his ear 
yoongi’s jaw drops
holy shit
no wonder he hasn’t seen you act like this before! 
this isn’t elated y/n or disappointed y/n or excited y/n 
a new player has entered the ring
this is HORNY Y/N
“you… little… horndog!” yoongi cackles with glee as he claps his hands together wildly, “you, y/n y/l/n- you had a wet dream?!” 
you feel your anxiety spike at how loud yoongi’s being and you make a gesture to try to get him to use his inside voice but he doesn’t seem to be paying any attention to you at all right now 
“wow...” yoongi laughs lightly, crossing his arms as he looks up towards the ceiling, “i mean, welcome to puberty, i guess. a bit of a late start if you ask me, but either way i’m actually pretty proud of you for basically creaming your-”
“shh!” you quickly shove a spoon into yoongi’s mouth and he spits it out immediately
it falls onto the counter with a clang
to be honest, you actually don’t remember too much of the dream
flashes of namjoon’s head in between your legs and his strong arms wrapped around your thighs pinning you down pop into your mind every now and again to taunt you
but other than that
nothing!
it’s just that joon’s been working out a lot lately (jin’s trying to get in better shape because of one photo where the shadow made it look like he had a double chin and it traumatised him) so it makes sense that he’s turning into an actual beefcake now 
the other day you accidentally busted a bag of icing in your hands after squeezing it too hard because you were watching namjoon doing bicep curls with the milk jugs 
his arms just….,,. 
you want to bite into them
or dig your nails into them
or just look at them!
you would be perfectly content with just staring at them 24/7!
now, the issue here is that you...
you don’t really know…
you don’t know how to initiate things with namjoon
it’s awkward!
…on your end, that is
since getting together, you and namjoon have had plenty of heated make-out (and slight groping) sessions but you always end up chickening out as soon as you feel things starting to escalate 
you just get nervous that you’re going to do something wrong and it’ll pop the love-bubble you guys are in right now!! 
and you really don’t want to pop anything!! 
and namjoon, being the sweet, kind, caring, considerate, wonderful, absolutely flawless boy he is, never has an issue with it because his number one priority is making sure that you’re comfortable
he’s totally okay with moving at your pace! 
but after the last couple of times where you’ve left him high and dry, you notice that he either a) puts a pillow over his lap almost immediately and tries to change the subject or b) waddles off to the bathroom for a ‘pee break’
you feel awful knowing that you’re blue-balling him but you don’t want to take things further if there’s even a slight possibility of you ruining things 
so... yeah! 
your only stress reliever has been baking which isn’t new
you’ve stress baked before but this is a nEW type of stress baking
this is the most chaotic level of stress baking there is because everything’s just a disorganised MESS  
“you know what, it actually makes sense now,” yoongi reaches up to stroke his chin in thought before nodding to himself, “you’ve been acting so weird lately that i thought i did something wrong- and it turns out you’ve just been excruciatingly horny this entire time-”
“lower your voice!” you hiss, hurrying over to the door to make sure namjoon’s not listening in to what should be a private conversation if yoongi wasn’t so damn loud 
he may be in the living room but who knows how far your voices can travel??
you peek out to look at poor namjoon who looks like he’s just about ready to pass ouT from exhaustion
he lets out an almost animalistic growl as he pushes himself up off the ground one last time and you feel a tingle in your southern region
if you were a cartoon character there would be gigantic hearts pumping out of your eyes, your tongue would roll out of your mouth like a red carpet, and a horn would be blasting aooga in the background 
“okay, well - you can’t not tell me about what happened in it.” you turn back around to face yoongi, “give me all the details!!!!” he wiggles his brows as he leans down and folds him arms atop the counter, “and get real nasty with it because i haven’t had sex in months-” 
“no way!” you scoff before crossing one arm over the other to make an ‘x’ sign at yoongi, “no! i don’t remember anything.”
“you’re lying to me.” the smile on yoongi’s face drops and he scowls at you, “you totally are!”
“am not! it’s true.” you chirp, nodding satisfactorily when yoongi doesn’t respond
good 
the topic has been dropped and now you can focus your attention back on this weird, runny batter you’re still beating the life out of 
“...what about if i guess?”
you pause
oh
oh no
you don’t like that idea at all
you don’t get a chance to shake your head nO before yoongi starts listing out all your possible wet-dream scenarios
“he was finger-fucking you.”
“you were sucking him off?”
“he was eating you out!”
“69? you on top? or was it him on top? …no, it was probably you on to-”
“a classy combination of tongue and fingers? ooh, quick question- how quickly did dreamjoon find your g-spo-”
“missionary! can’t go wrong with good ol’ fashioned missio-”
“doggystyle? cowgirl! reverse cowgirl? or was he kind of, like, spooning you from behi-”
“ooh! plot twist! you gave him the strap-”
“butt-stuff! butt-stuff?? butt-stuff but the plug had a tail on- oh-ho, it was butt-stuff, wasn’t it-”
“something with a belt? something with cuffs? something with leather?”
“roleplaying! he was a sexy gardener with a big ol’ hose and you were just an innocent wittle twree-”
“was he rawdogging you?”
your eyes immediately widen and you look up at yoongi for the first time since he started rambling, “wha- WHAT is that?!”
rawdogging??
that sounds like it’d give you carpet burn for some reason 
“sex without a condom.” yoongi states as if it’s the most obvious fact in the entire world, “duh.”
god
boys are so
boyish!!!!
“why not just say that instead??” you ask incredulously, tilting your head
yoongi snorts, “well, because rawdogging sounds way hotter-”
your face screws up immediately, “does it really, though…?”
yoongi pauses before his face lights up, “aha! so dreamjoon WAS rawdogging y-”
“crude!” your entire face is bright red at this point and you hurry over to the fridge to grab a bag of frozen blueberries out of the freezer (for what purposes? you have no idea.)
“you think i’m being crude?” yoongi scoffs, “i think you’re being a prude. okay, lemme see what else i can think of-”
“yoongi, literally no one asked you to list-” 
“were you grinding on his-” yoongi pauses again, “you know, like dry humping?” he hums before pushing himself up off the counter and placing both his palms flat on the surface of it, “i mean, i guess i can see why that’d be hot, you know, with clothes being restrictive and all- oh! were you getting off on his thigh? because a couple of girls have done that to me before and it was actually pretty hot AND since namjoon’s dna consists of 80% plant he basically has tree trunk thighs-”
“okay, i don’t remember too much-” you grab yoongi by the arm to yank him back in so you can whisper in his ear again
yoongi listens attentively 
you clear your throat before shoving yoongi away to make it seem less suspicious if namjoon just so happens to come into the kitchen at this very moment 
“surprisingly simple, but it does the trick, that’s for sure…” yoongi hums as he strokes his chin thoughtfully, “damn. i hyped it up way too much. that’s actually a pretty boring dream compared to what i’ve dreamt about, now that i think about it-”
you can’t help but roll your eyes as you open up the bag of blueberries
…what did you pull these out for again?
“well, what’s the problem?” yoongi frowns, “you guys are already dating. just go up to him and ask him if he wants to do stuff. if a girl told me that she creamed her panties because of me, i’d be ecstatic!”
“stop saying it like that-”
you feel a little weird talking about this with yoongi
he’s always been comfortable telling you about his sex life but you prefer to keep your intimate details private
it’s not that you don’t trust him or anything, because obviously you do, but… you’d feel more comfortable if you talked about this with a girl-friend, you know?
guys just don’t understand! 
“i don’t know how to…” you shift in your spot, “ask.”
yoongi scoffs in response and crosses his arms, “y/n- namjoon is a man. men are simple. do you remember the other week when you invited me over for a breakfast and you dropped the spatula on the floor?”
you nod before tilting your head curiously, “…why?”
yoongi clears his throat
now he’S the one who looks slightly uncomfortable
“well...” he clears his throat, “namjoon was wearing sweats and i swear i wasn’t purposely looking- my eyes just happened to be looking downwards in that general direction naturally-”
“yoongi-”
“the man’s dick twitched in his sweats when you bent over, alright?” yoongi blurts out and your eyes immediately widen, “my point is: men are simple- painfully simple creatures. so... just ask him!”
you frown
just ask him??
was he even listening to you??
you just told yoongi you didn’t know how to ask namjoon and his advice was for you to ask namjoon
that’s like taking someone who doesn’t know how to swim and immediately tossing them into the OCEAN with a punctured life-ring
“god,” you roll your eyes before flicking your wrist at him, “just forget i told you!”
“hey!” yoongi gawks and shakes his head, “i can’t forget! now my only purpose in life is to get you some head-”
“jesus christ-!”
you jump ten feet into the air like a cat that’s just been sprayed by water when the kitchen door suddenly swings open and a sweaty namjoon stumbles in
“i think there’s sweat dripping into my contacts-”
“namjoon!” yoongi spins around in his stool and props his elbows up on the counter, “what a coincidence! we were just talking about you, my man…”
yoongi looks over at you with a cheeky grin and you shake your head stiffly before turning to get the jug of water from the fridge for namjoon 
“oh yeah?” namjoon huffs as he places his hands on your hips from behind, sliding past you to grab a clean glass from the dish rack, “what about?”
“just about how…” yoongi looks back at you quickly and you shoot him a glare
he wouldn’t… 
would he??
(he absolutely would.)
any word of your conversation and you’ll skin him alive
“-hard you’ve been working out lately!” yoongi chirps, “i mean, it looks like you were trapped in a washing machine-”
“oh, god. trust me, it’s so not worth it, i’m in so much pain-” namjoon winces and shakes his head, “you’re welcome to go and take my place if you want-”
“absolutely not-” yoongi snorts, “first of all, it’s the holidays, and everyone knows you don’t work out during december. also, you couldn’t pay me a million dollars to do a push-up. i’m perfectly happy with my somewhat doughy centre.” he pats his tummy with a happy hum and you can’t help but giggle
silly boy
namjoon laughs lightly before pausing to chug down some water, “i wish i could say the same. unfortunately, jin’s not giving me a choice-”
“sweaty!” you whine when namjoon suddenly wraps an arm around you from behind before kissing your cheek and he frowns playfully when you swat at his forearm, “and sticky…”  
“relax, i’m about to hit the shower-” he nudges his nose against your cheek before pulling away, “and then i won’t be sticky and i’ll smell like peaches-”
“i should probably go, too.” yoongi gets up from his seat, “i just ordered my dinner and it’s going to arrive at my apartment in like half an hour.”
“wait!” you hold a finger out before turning to open up the cupboards for a tupperware box, “take some pie with you…”
                                     »»————- ☁️ ————-««
“still coming friday?” you ask as you watch yoongi put his shoes on
you asked yoongi if he would be interested in helping you decorate the apartment on friday (aka you told him he didn’t have a choice and that he had to come and help you whether he wanted to or not)
“mhm.” he glances up at you, “still ordering pizza?”
“mhm.”
you reach down to pat the top of yoongi’s head gently just because you want to and pauses in the middle of tying his laces to reach over and jab your stomach
“i know the main focus is decorating the place for christmas but i think you guys are going to love the nature documentary i picked for us to watch while-” namjoon chimes in but shuts up quickly when you and yoongi exchange knowing glances, “what?”
yoongi looks back up at you with a raised brow, “…does he really have to join us?”
“no choice.” you shrug casually and namjoon’s jaw drops
wha-
“oh, hold on-” yoongi gets up off the ground before patting his pockets down with a frown, “i think i left my keys in the kitchen… can you go and get them for me?”
you nod before turning to hurry to the kitchen
you don’t want him to get another parking ticket
it’s only after you disappear into the kitchen that yoongi swiftly pulls his keys out of his back pocket with a jingle
namjoon opens his mouth to say something but yoongi quickly holds his hand out to shut him up
“야 남준아- 어제 니 여친이 니 꿈 꿨데~ (y/n had a sex dream about you).” he chirps and gives namjoon two firm pats on his surprisingly firm chest before his eyes widen in surprise, “어우 딴딴해 운동 열심히 했나보네! (woah, you really have been working out! good man.)”
“yeah, i-” namjoon chokes, “wait, wha-”
“y/n, i found my keys! my bad!” yoongi calls out and gives you a thumbs up when you come out of the kitchen, “see you losers on friday!”
he gives namjoon a grin and a light punch to the arm before swiftly turning on his heel
namjoon’s eyes are as wide as saucers as yoongi shuts the front door behind him and he blinks rapidly before turning to look at you
you tilt your head at him curiously and namjoon swallows before offering you a sheepish smile
oh, boy.
                                     »»————- ☁️ ————-««
namjoon hasn’t been able to think straight since it was revealed to him that you had a sex dream about him.
it’s been an entire week that he’s learned this new piece of information and it’s been weighing verY heavily on his mind!!
when he wakes up his first thought is gee i wonder what y/n dreamt about
when seokjin’s rambling about god knows what the only thing in his mind is gee i wonder what y/n dreamt about
the last thing he thinks about before he goes to bed is gee i wonder what y/n dreamt about
and then his imagination conjures up what could’ve happened in your sex dream which is very dangerous because he has an overly-active imagination 
it sucks that he doesn’t even know the details of the dream because stinky yoongi ziPPed off before he got a chance to squeeze the truth out of him!!!
and he hasn’t mustered up the courage to ask you about it because… how is he even supposed to ask you about it in a casual, non-confrontational way?!
he doesn’t want to embarrass you or anything like that!!
the only reason why he’s only slightly nervous about the whole situation because he doesn’t think he… oozes sex appeal?
so it was more than surprising to find out that you had a naughty dream about him
he’s like 90% leg and 10% dimple for crying out loud
and it’s not like he hasn’t done anything before, because he has, but it’s just different because it’s… you.
you’re his girlfriend and if he flubs this up the first time around then it’d be even more embarrassing than if you were just some random girl!
“말해줘여어 (you have to tell me).” namjoon whips around from where he’s standing by the tree, cradling the box of baubles to his chest, “you have to!”
“싫어 (nah).” yoongi shakes his head, tossing a kernel of popcorn into his mouth only for it to bounce off his cheek and onto the couch
he purses his lips before kicking it under the coffee table
it’s fine
the dust bunnies will get rid of it 
“말해줘여어! (you have to tell me!)”
“야 안돼 (no way).”  
namjoon clenches his jaw and sets the box down onto the floor promptly before balling his hands into fists and setting them on his hips, puffing his chest out
...
“아 왜여어어어~ (why not??)” he whines, deflating and resisting the urge to stamp his foot and throw an actual tantrum
“아니 비밀이라고 했으니까 그렇지! (it’s not my thing to tell! and i can’t betray y/n like that-)” yoongi shrugs as he keeps his eyes glued on the screen, “by the way, you didn’t even choose a cool nature documentary. what are we even watching?? the guy’s been talking about seaweed for the past ten minutes-”
“what do you mean it’s not your thing to tell??” namjoon scoffs, not even paying attention to the fact that yoongi just insulted his favourite nature documentary about plants in the ocean, “형이 먼저 말 꺼냈잖아! (you were the one who told me that she dreamt about me in the first place-!)” he snaps
“잠깐만 (wait, wait-)” yoongi sits up quickly, a couple kernels of popcorn rolling off his chest and falling onto his lap, “일주일이 지났는데 아무것도 안 했단 말이야?? (are you telling me that you… it’s been a whole week and you haven’t done anything about it??)”
namjoon shrinks down before reaching up to scratch the back of his neck, “노 코멘트 (…no comment.)”
“킄 정말로? (really? wow.)” yoongi snorts before shaking his head and leaning back against the couch, “both of you- i mean, both of you deserve each other, seriously-”
namjoon resists the urge to flop down on the couch dramatically, “아니 뭐라고 말하는 거예요 (well, i’m sorry, what am i even supposed to say-)”
“아우 그러지좀마 걍- (you don’t have to say anything, all you have to do is-)”
“yoongi!” namjoon and yoongi look over when you stick your head out around the kitchen door, “cream cheese or vanilla?”
“vanilla, duh.” yoongi raises a brow
you should know by this point that he prefers vanilla frosting over cream cheese!
halfway through the documentary you decided that you were going to make a carrot cake
(and yes, part of the reason why you made that decision was because you were bored of the documentary and wanted to do literally anything else, but you’ll never admit that to namjoon in case it breaks his heart)
namjoon stays quiet until after you disappear into the kitchen again and then he turns to face yoongi with both of his hands clasped together, “말해줘요오! (you have to tell me, c’mon!)”
“말해주면 제발 다른 거 보면 안 될까? (if i tell you, can we watch something else?)”
namjoon scowls
“아 됐어요 도와줄 거라도 있는지 확인 해볼게요- (fine, forget it. i’m gonna go see if y/n needs any help.)” he steps over the boxes of decorations on the ground before turning to look back at yoongi, “부엌에서 필요한 거 있어요? (you need anything?)”
“아니 (nah.)” yoongi responds before shoving a handful of popcorn into his mouth, “oh! actually, see if y/n would be willing to make little carrot cupcakes instead of a whole carrot cake. holding a tiny little cupcake in my hand makes me feel like a giant.”
                                     »»————- ☁️ ————-««
“knock, knock…” namjoon knocks on the kitchen door quietly before pushing it open, “everything going okay in here?”  
he smiles when you look up from the bowl and beam at him, “hi!”
“hi-” he comes in and shuts the door behind him, “you need any help?”
“help? from you?” you giggle lightly and shake your head, “i’m good.”
ever since he accidentally poured salt into your batter that one time he hasn’t been allowed to help you
:-//
“yoongi changed his mind, by the way.” namjoon gestures back to the direction of the living room, “king min would like cupcakes now.” 
your shoulders immediately droop and you gesture to the already greased cake-pans sitting on the side
what a waste! 
“hey, don’t shoot the messenger!” namjoon raises both his hands in defence before shrugging, “the man wants what he wants.”
you resist the urge to go out there just to throw the cake pans at yoongi
you’re definitely going to force him to wash everything for you later 
“also... you’re just doing this to get out of watching the nature doc, aren’t you?” namjoon wraps both his arms around you from behind and leans down to prop his chin up on your shoulder
you could’ve helped with the decorating, but somehow everything looks better when namjoon does it 
he hung a big red bow on your front door and it looks great! 
you pause in the middle of shredding carrots before letting out a nervous chuckle, “whaaat? no...”
“it’s about the types of plants in the ocean!” namjoon points out, “is that not cool?? plants are cool.”
you shake your head no almost immediately 
not cool
two and a half hours of someone talking about grass that lives in salty water?
not cool at aLL
“how’s the decorating going?” you ask, giggling lightly when namjoon nudges his nose under your jaw before planting a kiss against your neck
“it’s going fine… yoongi isn’t helping, obviously. i handed him one bauble to hang and he hooked it on the collar of his hoodie and told me he’d do it later.”
“mm.”
a brief moment passes where the only sound that can be heard is the carrot you’re shredding against the grater
namjoon purses his lips as he thinks about what yoongi just said to him 
...
ah
fuck it
“hey, can i ask you something?” namjoon sighs, smiling in delight when you suddenly turn your head to press a sweet little kiss into his cheek
“mhm!” you turn back, continuing to grate away
“it’s not a big deal or anything, but, uh... when were you planning on telling me about that nice little dream you had two weeks ago?” namjoon asks cockily, biting back a grin when he feels you freeze in his arms 
it’s at this moment that the fact that you had a wet dream about him has finally sunk into the depths of his brain and now he’s actually feeling... really good about it 
you had a sex dream about him
what’s not to love?  
he can almost hear the alarms wailing in your head
and now that he’s got the ball rolling- he’s not as nervous as he thought he’d be!
as a matter of fact... this could be fun.
“w-” you clear your throat quietly and the half-shredded carrot drops into the metal bowl with a muted plunk, “i- what dream? i didn’t have a dream about you.”
he knows you’re trying to play it cool but he can see how tightly you’re gripping the grater and he can feel your ears getting hotter against his cheek 
“i never said the dream was about me.”
oh, shit
you messed up
“so...?” namjoon moves your hair to the other side before leaning in to plant a warm kiss under your jaw, “this dream that you had… about me. tell me what happened in it.”
you swallow thickly, the gears working overtime in your brain as you try to come up with some kind of an excuse to get yourself out of this situation
you know that now isn’t the most appropriate moment to be thinking about this but you’re 100% going to slaughter yoongi the moment you get a chance to 
the secret ingredient to make these cupcakes taste good will not be love
it will be BLEACH 
you can’t believe he ratted you out like that!!
how embarrassing!!
“you were-” you cough, “um, you were… you… we…”
oh boy
this is already a train wreck
this is exactly why you didn’t want to tell namjoon about it!
because you know yourself and you knEW you were going to get all flustered and twitchy bringing it up
“well, i was-” you pause, “i was sitting on- sitting on the counter-”
“this one right here?” namjoon’s hand leaves your waist to pat the surface of the counter lightly and you nod gingerly, staring down at his obscenely pretty fingers, “what else?”
“that was it.” you blurt out, “the end!”
namjoon steps back a little and spins you around quickly before pressing you up against the counter, “what else, y/n?”
he traps you in between his arms and you fight the urge to explode into a million bits 
oh god
okay
just tell him!
just SAY it
it’s time to get it over with!!
“you were…” your eyes flicker downwards and your nose scrunches slightly
you really don’t want to say it but you don’t think you can back out at this point because you’ve already said too much 
“…eating me out.” you force out before averting your gaze and looking off to the side  
you really wish there was a better way to say that because the phrase eating me out just sounds so… in your face, you know?
namjoon swallows thickly
so you had a dream about him eating you out?
“y/n, there’s really nothing to be embarrassed about, i promise-” namjoon laughs lightly when he notices your entire face starting to go red
you let out a particularly pathetic whine before leaning your forehead against his chest and gently shoving at his (firm) abdomen
“what’s the problem?” he asks, rubbing comforting circles into your back, “i think about you, you know.”
“you’re just saying that…” you mumble, reaching up to pinch the bridge of your nose, “you’re lying...” 
“no, i’m serious!” namjoon pulls away to look at you, “i… i think about you. i think about things.”
you blink twice 
he thinks about you
he thinks about things 
he thinks about you?
he thinks about things?? 
…what kind of things does he think about?
“y-you do?” 
“of course i do.”
“oh.”
a moment of silence ticks by 
“i think about a lot of things, y/n.”
“like what?” you look up at him, the corner of namjoon’s pretty mouth curling upwards
“you really wanna know?”
“yes.” you respond a little too quickly before clearing your throat quietly, “…please.”
“hm.” he smiles, “as polite as always-” 
you gasp in surprise when namjoon suddenly lifts you up and plops you down on the countertop in one swift movement and your stomach flutters at how effortlessly he just did that
wowie
he places both hands flat on the surface on either side of you before looking up at you with his head tilted slightly
you keep your hands folded in your lap, nervously picking at the worn edges of the sweatshirt you’re wearing (it’s namjoon’s coffee-coloured sweatshirt that you ‘borrowed’ from him) 
“mostly about fucking you into the headboard.” namjoon confesses, a smirk twitching at the corner of his mouth when he notices the way your eyes flicker
oh
you definitely seemed to like that idea
“i think about your fingers pulling at my hair when i have my face in between your legs...” he hums, trailing a finger up from your kneecap to your thigh, “i think about how pretty you’d look bent over the counter for me. i think about the sounds you’d make, how soft your moans and gasps would be… i especially like thinking about you moaning my name. i think about you riding me wearing nothing but that cute little apron of yours - you know, the one with the little honeybees on them?”
“apron’s in the.. in the washing machine.” your breathing’s become a bit more shallow and you haven’t blinked in nearly a minute so it’s safe to say that he has your attention
“you know… i think you know what you do to me when you walk around wearing nothing but one of my sweatshirts and a pair of panties, or when you come out of the shower wrapped in a little towel because you ‘forgot’ your clothes in the bedroom…” namjoon murmurs lowly, “and don’t think i don’t notice the way you look at me whenever you suck frosting off your fingers.”
“frosting?” you whisper, namjoon nodding as his eyes flicker down to your lips briefly
your tongue pokes out to swipe over your bottom lip for a split second 
“that’s right.” the metal bowl scrapes against the counter as namjoon drags it over and you jump in surprise at the feeling of the chilled metal bumping up against your bare thigh
“you think you’re so innocent, don’t you?” namjoon chuckles lowly, lifting the spatula up before swiping some frosting off of it with the side of his thumb, “you think i don’t know what you’re up to?”
“i don’t…” you trail off, going cross-eyed when namjoon’s hand comes closer only for his pointer finger to tap at your bottom lip
“you do. open.”
you’re just a little thrown off because namjoon’s never... you’ve never seen him like this before
he’s never spoken to you like this before
he’s never looked at you like this before 
you’re certainly not complaining, of course 
“you taunt me because you like to-” you can’t seem to break away from namjoon’s gaze, the side of his pointer finger hooking underneath your chin as he pushes his thumb into your mouth, “i know you do it on purpose.”
almost immediately, the taste of sweet vanilla frosting washes over your palette
“you want me to think about you, don’t you?” namjoon swallows a groan when you start sucking, your cheeks hollowing slightly as your tongue swirls around his thumb to make sure no frosting gets left behind, “you like the thought of that? like leaving me high and dry because it forces me to use my own imagination?”
(admittedly, yes. a little part of you likes the thought of you completely consuming every corner of namjoon’s mind... just a little part, though.)
you nod slowly in response with glazed over eyes and namjoon clenches his jaw 
fuck
he flattens his thumb down on your tongue to get you to open your mouth a little more for him and hums contently when you do so obediently
a thin line of spit stretches from your tongue to namjoon’s slick thumb as he pulls his hand away and you don’t even get a chance to register whatever that moment was before he’s leaning forward to slant his mouth over yours
namjoon kisses you purposefully, pulling you closer to him as you fist at his shirt tightly 
he savours the faint sweetness of the frosting left behind on your tongue and can’t help but smile when he hears you whimper
“can i tell you something?” namjoon pulls away only to start sponging kisses to your neck and you tilt your head to the side for him
“uh-huh, y-yeah-” you nod quickly, slinging an arm around his neck to keep him close while the other hand grips at his shoulder
your eyes roll to the back of your head for a split second and you can’t help but quietly mouth an ‘oh my god’ to yourself because you never knew it could feel this good to have your neck kissed
“i think it’s hot as fuck that you had a wet dream about me,” namjoon groans lowly and you immediately feel a zing! of electricity travel straight down south from the sound of him speaking to you in such a deep, gravelly voice, “and you definitely don’t have to be shy about asking me to touch you… because i’m very willing to do so.”
“i want you to- w-want you to touch me-” you stutter, feeling your cheeks warm from hearing those words come out of your mouth, “want it so bad-”
your eyes pop open when namjoon suddenly pulls away and you frown, instantly missing the feeling of him being pressed up so tightly against you
“lift your hips-” namjoon pushes the bowl of frosting to the side before tapping two fingers on your upper thigh, “-up off the counter.”
?
your brows knit together in confusion
why would you-
your eyes widen in realisation when it dawns on you what exactly is happening here
“w-what-” you glance at the (for the most part, closed) kitchen door frantically before looking down at joon, “but yoongi’s in the-” you turn back and jump in surprise when you see that namjoon’s face is right in front of yours
you’re practically nose to nose with him
“i know.” namjoon leans in to give you a quick peck before pulling away with a particularly smug grin, “so you’re just going to have to stay quiet for me then, aren’t you?”
you WHAT
“why don’t we get these off, hm?” namjoon hooks a finger into the waistband of your shorts and gives it a gentle tug
you look at the door once again and then back at namjoon, who offers you an innocent little smile as if he didn’t just suggest going down on you on the kitchen counter with your friend in the room next door
okay
think about this!
think about this with your logical brain and not your bonk horny brain
would you rather see your very hot boyfriend’s face in between your legs or would you rather send him away so you can continue making a cake for your very picky friend?
you plant both palms on the counter before raising your hips a little, namjoon grinning in victory before yanking your shorts down in one go
if you would’ve known this was going to happen today you definitely would’ve worn a sexier pair of panties
white cotton is boring!!!
also you know this is the wrong time to be thinking this but you’re wondering if it would be possible to rope yoongi into a shopping spree at victoria’s secret next week because you’re going to need better looking panties if namjoon’s going to keep springing these spontaneous sessions on you
“cute.” namjoon hums, poking at the little blue bow that sits at the centre of the waistband
your breathing stills as he slowly lowers himself to his knees in front of you and you feel like your heart is about to beat out of your chest at the sight alone 
“soaked right through…” namjoon observes quietly, turning his head to press a kiss to the pillowy flesh of your inner thigh, “i’ve barely touched you, baby.”
you jolt in surprise when he runs his thumb slowly up your slit through the thinned fabric of your panties, though he stops right as he’s about to reach your clit
so close yet so, so painfully far
you nudge him with your foot, “you’re teasing.” you swallow thickly, namjoon offering you a boyish grin as he tilts his head, pushing his bottom lip out in a mocking pout
“aw… am i?” he coos, and you shiver when he leans in to press a kiss over your clothed clit, “i’m sorry, darling… that must be so hard for you…”
“and you’re being mean.” you murmur, namjoon chuckling to himself as he pulls your panties down your legs
“am not.”
“are too.”
“am not.” namjoon perks a brow, pushing your thighs apart gently, “take it back.”
“no wa-!” your back immediately straightens as if a jolt of electricity just shot straight up your spine at the first feeling of namjoon licking one long stripe up your centre, and you fight back the urge to snap your legs shut
that’s.,., new!
very new
very new feeling
you’re certainly not against it and it’s not a bad feeling 
it’s just…
new
“good?” your breath wavers when namjoon hums against you, your eyelids fluttering shut at the feeling of his tongue slowly pressing in deep, “hm?”
namjoon slips his tongue in between your folds before sliding it flat and straight up to your swollen clit, grinning to himself when you finally give in to pleasure and lie back on the counter
you whimper, rolling your hips down towards his mouth as he drags his tongue over your slit in repetitive strokes before flicking his tongue over the top of your clit
it’s too much and not enough at the same time, your legs instinctively starting to squeeze shut around him
“nuh-uh, baby…” you find that you can barely move, namjoon’s fingers digging into your thigh as a warning as he keeps your legs open, “keep them spread for me.”
namjoon watches your reaction intensely, finding pleasure in the way that your chest rises and falls quickly and in the way you twitch every now and again
from here, he can see the way your brows furrow and the way you bite and tug at your bottom lip in a poor effort to keep yourself quiet 
“you can use your words like a good girl, can’t you?” namjoon teases, two fingers rolling tight little circles into your clit as he watches you, barely blinking, “tell me how good it feels…”
“good- ungh, feels good-” you whimper, hips bucking up against his fingers desperately
namjoon looks down to see you practically dripping onto the counter
jesus 
he would’ve done this a lot sooner had he known you’d be acting like this from his touch 
“fuck me,” namjoon groans suddenly, and all of a sudden it seems like everything’s moving ten times faster than before, “you look so fucking hot right now-”, he wraps his strong arms underneath both your thighs before yanking you closer to him, practically burying his entire face in between your legs
your right leg gets hitched up over his shoulder and you quickly sit back up, digging your fingers into the soft strands of namjoon’s hair as his tongue laves back and forth against your folds
your back arches and you tilt your head up towards the ceiling, namjoon instinctively pushing his clothed crotch against the bottom part of the counter for some kind of relief 
he’s so painfully hard from just hearing you hold back moans and watching you squirm and twitch 
you remind yourself to loosen your grip on namjoon’s hair because you’re worried that you might accidentally rip some strands out and leave him with a bald patch, but namjoon obviously doesn’t seem to mind as he doubles his efforts and starts to lick and and suck with tremendous fervour 
“fuck, you taste good-” he curses, his right hand sliding underneath your sweatshirt to cup your bare breast before he pinches and rolls your nipple in between his fingers
he drags his tongue down to circle around your tight hole and you jerk immediately, “oh my god-” you pant, overwhelmed by all the different feelings your body is experiencing at this moment, “that feels so-”
your bum is teetering on the edge of the counter at this point because namjoon’s basically pulled you off of it and you reach down to grip at the edges so you don’t fall off 
“gonna cum?” namjoon murmurs, eyes locking on your face almost immediately as he feels you starting to squirm underneath him 
he really wants to watch you cum
“j-joonie, god, don’t stop-” the arm wrapped around your waist tightens around you and your eyes roll to the back of your head as he continues his torturous onslaught of pleasure, “i-i- nngh- namjoon-!”
“i’ve got you, baby… you can cum…” namjoon feels himself twitch in his sweats upon hearing you moan his name like that 
the thought of gagging you with your own panties to mute your moans briefly flits through his mind but... he wants to hear you moaning his name over and over and over again 
he wants to make you scream for him
when it happens, you practically bite your bottom lip off trying not to cry out in ecstasy
namjoon has to hold your trembling thighs open to keep them from snapping his head right off
your hips buck lazily as you quiver around namjoon’s hot tongue, your body glistening in a sheen layer of sweat as you bask in the slow, rolling waves of ecstasy
you lie back down against the counter, chest heaving beneath your sweater as you stare dazedly up at the ceiling
oh, wow
you watch as the ceiling fan whirrs around and around and around
you feel like you’re not physically here right now 
like your soul left your body and you’re just floating in the air like a bunch of particles 
“-!” you twitch when namjoon carefully wipes you off with your panties before setting them onto the counter next to you 
you slowly prop yourself up onto your elbows so you can look at him, feeling your cheeks flush when you see that he’s looking right at you 
you’re not sure why you’ve gone all shy again as if his tongue wasn’t licking you out ten seconds ago 
“hi, pretty girl...” he smiles, his dimple popping up in his right cheek, “welcome back.” he jokes, rising to his feet while keeping your right leg propped up onto his shoulder
he turns to give your ankle a kiss before gently bringing your leg down and helping you sit up
“that was really something...” you wrap your arms loosely around his neck as he grasps your hips before leaning down to give you a sweet little kiss 
“oh yeah? did i live up to dreamjoon?” namjoon teases, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear before pinching the apple of your cheek 
“you did a much better job than dreamjoon.” you hum, and it’s only then that you’re aware of the very prominent bulge pressing into your centre, “but i... i wanna make you feel good, too…” you murmur, namjoon biting back a groan when you nudge your bare centre against him, a darkened splotch now staining the front of his sweatpants  “and…” you lean upwards to whisper something into namjoon’s ear
...
...
holy shit
yes please
“yeah, shit, we can definitely do that-” namjoon hates to admit to how horny he is but he can’t help it when you go around saying stuff like that to him, “we-” he pauses suddenly, eyes going wide in panic, “oh, shit!” 
“wh- what??” you look around the kitchen frantically before grabbing the closest thing to you as a form of defence (a silicone whisk) 
“friggin’ yoongi-!” namjoon hisses in pain as he adjusts himself in his sweatpants, “i forgot about yoongi-”
okay
a little weird of him to be thinking about yoongi while he’s touching his- 
“oh my god, yoongi!” you hiss quietly, hopping off the counter with wobbly legs 
namjoon hands you your shorts and you quickly wiggle into them before pulling your sweatshirt down  
you completely forgot that yoongi was in the room right next to you guys and that last moan of yours wasn’t exactly quiet
and you know that yoongi might not have a lot of knowledge when it comes to baking, but you’re sure that he knows enough to know that practically screaming namjoon’s name out loud isn’t a key step in achieving a fluffy cake batter 
“we weren’t doing anything!” 
the two of you stumble out into the living room and you file through your brain to come up with some kind of a logical excuse as to why you’re hot and sweaty and why namjoon’s hiding his lower half behind a kitchen towel and how in the world those two facts are related to his precious carrot cake cupcakes
you pause when you notice that yoongi’s nowhere to be found 
?
the documentary’s still playing on the TV, the boxes of tinsel and baubles have been completely abandoned, and there’s nothing but a blue sticky note sitting on the couch 
taking a nap in my car. text me when you guys are done being horny. also - you’re welcome. 
christmas with cee 2020 masterlist
🎁what would you like from ceenta this year? 🎁
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bothcreativitybois · 3 years
Text
The Mayor’s Sweet Treat Chapter 7
Ao3 link Wordcount: 1861 (a bit shorter than usual sorry) Ship: Intruality TWs: Food, anxiety attack, unhealthy family relationships (mentioned), swearing, sexual references Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Taglist:  @crazydemigod666 @star-crossed-shipper @newtnotfound @idont-freaking-know @someoneiwasnt @crownofrats @the-sympathetic-villain @cute-and-angsty-princess @lonelymuffin @bloodyjay-0666 @im-an-anxious-wreck @fantasticallytired @obsessive-fallen-angel 
Janus subtly slipped away from the large party. Growing up with a parent who is a cop he got very good at sneaking around. As teenagers he, Remus and Virgil would sneak out most nights and get up to no good. Well teenagers may have been a bit of a stretch, it all only really stopped two years ago when Remus decided to run for mayor. Even now Janus was still doing the same things, just alone. Janus looked around the well taken care of lawn, it was very different to any other farms. It hadn’t changed a bit from how he remembered it. He’d been here a few times as a kid along with the others. “Virgil?” Janus called quietly as he poked his head around some bushes. No one was there. Janus was usually the one who helped Virgil when he panicked, the twins were too loud for him but hell they tried. Janus looked across at the door to the large house and saw the barrier blocking the door was disturbed. He ran over and ducked under it. “You’re lucky Remus isn’t the one finding you.”
Remus straightened his outfit and walked over to his twin. He laughed and put an arm around Roman. “Funny seeing you here, Specs.” Remus greeted. Logan’s face fell from the warm smile he was sharing with Roman to a blank professional stare. “Yes, well I am in charge of supervising the closure of Mr Sweet’s bakery. Which includes any and all events that he holds or attends on behalf of the bakery until then.” Logan explained. Roman shook off Remus. “Also it’s hardly fair they be held up in a small hotel room for a month.” Roman added with a laugh. “Did you know Logan uses they them pronouns? Just like me!” They looked at their twin with sparkling eyes. Remus looked between the two people. Roman was the kind of person to get along with anyone, but this was more than that. They’d never had another person like them around. This was more than just business.   “That’s great, Ro.” Remus said in a somewhat strained tone.
“Virgil!” Janus’ voice echoed through the halls of the house. His shoes squeaked against the tile floors. Everything in the house was so white and clean. Would it kill them to add some colour? A smirk threatened Janus’ face as he thought of the ways he could ‘help’ with that. Janus passed a room with an open door and caught sight of a flash of dark colour. He stepped back and looked in the room. “Virgil!” Janus shouted quietly at the sight of his friend. Virgil stood in front of a mantle. On instinct Janus walked into the room and shut the door. He looked around and began closing curtains. Once the room was dark enough he walked over to Virgil and looked at his face. Virgil’s mouth was covered with his hand as tears soaked his face. His eyes were drowning. Janus pushed his dark and damp hair out of his face. Virgil didn’t move from the touch. “Virgil, can you talk?” Janus asked as he put a hand on Virgil’s chest. His heart was pounding like a thoroughbred's hooves. He shook his head. Remus wandered away from Roman and Logan, they were chatting happily and it was clear he couldn’t solve the problem from there. Instead he went for something more direct. He looked around for Patton. An elderly lady popped into his vision. “Remus dear.” Mrs Blackforest said. “You seem lost.” “I am fine. Just looking for Patton.” Remus informed while looking around. Mrs Blackforest sighed. “You know, it’s hardly kind to ignore the host.” Mrs Blackforest scorned. Anger bubbled in Remus’ chest. Who the hell was she to tell him about rudeness after everything they put Virgil through? The stress, the passive aggressive comments, the hovering over everything he did. Remus balled his hand into a fist and tried to stay calm. Patton and Roman put too much work into this for it to be ruined by him. “Apologies, Mrs Blackforest.” Remus grumbled through gritted teeth. “That’s more like it.” Her face lit up with a happiness that Remus found unsettling. “Now, have you seen Virgil? I wanted to have a word with him.” She asked. Remus couldn’t answer that if he wanted to, which he didn’t. He tried to think of an excuse. “Remus!” There was a gentle hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Patton holding a tray with a sweet smile. “Could you take these around?”
Janus managed to get Virgil to sit down but hadn’t made much progress past that. He had one hand against Virgil’s chest and the other across his shoulders to support him. Janus shushed quietly as Virgil rocked back and forth. “Tell me what you ate today.” Janus soothed. Virgil moved his hands and opened his mouth slightly. “I had... toast... and coffee... for breakfast.” Virgil only just croaked out. Janus nodded. “Then what?” He asked. “An apple at the office as a snack.” Virgil spoke a little more clearly. “And for lunch?” Janus asked again. He noticed Virgil’s heart rate start to slow. “A sandwich.” Virgil said as his rocking subsided. “What was on it?” “Leftover bacon, some lettuce and fresh tomato from your place.” Virgil calmed as he listed the ingredients. Janus reached up and wiped Virgil’s face. “What are you having for dinner when you get home?” Janus gently moved his hand into Virgil’s. “Stew that’s been in the slow cooker all day.” Virgil answered as he squeezed Janus’ hand. Listing things always helped Virgil. That and organising. Always most calm when he was in control. Virgil closed his eyes and tried to steady his breath. From this point he could help himself, but Janus still didn’t want to let him go.
Remus took the tray from Patton and began walking through the crowd. To his surprise Patton walked with him. “Ya didn’t have to do that.” Remus said as he lifted the tray to his shoulder. Patton smiled. “Hey, you're always helping me. I might as well try to help you.” Patton responded with a light-hearted giggle. Remus looked down at him quickly. “Yeah but…” Remus tried to find an excuse. “I have everything handled. You shouldn’t have to worry ya pretty little head ‘bout me.” Remus looked up and saw Logan ahead of them, he quickly turned right and Patton followed. “But I want to help you.” Patton looked up at Remus with large eyes. Remus remembered all the time he had seen Patton make those eyes in his thoughts. “I want to help you.” Patton cooed as he rubbed his hands against Remus’ shoulders. His legs were crossed around Remus’ torso as they cuddled on a couch. Patton massaged Remus’ bare shoulders as the larger man sighed. Remus leant his head back onto Patton’s shoulders with a soft hum. “You’re an angel.” Remus whispered as he nuzzled into Patton’s neck. “What?” Patton asked, alarmed. Remus snapped out of their fantasy. He saw Patton’s alarmed and blushing face before realising that he had said that last part out loud. He stammered for a moment. “You’re too nice to me.” Remus eventually managed. “You’re always so kind and gentle, like an angel.” Patton looked down. A giddy feeling rose in his chest, he felt like a schoolgirl with a crush. Surely Remus didn’t mean it in that way. “And what does that make you?” Patton teased. “The handsome sexy demon that tricks you into leaving heaven.” Remus beamed and put a hand on his hip. Patton laughed. Remus felt a sense of pride from being able to make Patton laugh, even though he’d done it before. He couldn’t take his eyes off Patton’s smile.                      As guests started clearing and the light started fading the group joined up again. Remus and Virgil placed down two empty trays as Janus began folding one of the tables. “Was there anything left?” Virgil asked in surprise. Patton turned to him with a proud smile. “Not much. Maybe a few cream puffs.” Patton said happily. “I can get rid of those for you.” Remus responded quickly. The group laughed. Patton turned and picked up a tray of small blobs of cream and pastry with strawberries poking out of the cream. Virgil and Remus both quickly took one. The pastry was nearly as light and fluffy as the cream with the strawberries adding a little bite to it. Patton turned again to keep packing but was met with a familiar face that wasn’t there before. He jumped back slightly. “Ah Logan!” He shouted in shock. Remus quickly stepped forward and defensively put a hand on Patton’s shoulder. Roman stood next to Logan and rolled his eyes at Remus. “Sorry for startling you.” Logan apologised. “I didn’t know you were here.” Patton stated. Roman had made sure he talked to everyone at the picnic. Except Logan. “Ah yes, that would be Remus’ doing I believe.” Logan said calmly. “Anyway, I just came to congratulate you. Everyone seemed to enjoy your food.” “Well… thank you, Logan.” Patton said. He was caught off guard with how kind Logan was being. “Did you happen to try any?” Patton was deathly curious and he wasn’t sure why. Logan adjusted his glasses. “No. I am not a fan of sweets.” Logan answered plainly. Janus and Virgil watched as they packed up, wondering if they should step in. “Anyway.” Roman interrupted to avoid any awkwardness. “Here is your pay for catering.” Roman handed a cheque to Patton, their nails shining in the little light that was left. Patton squinted at the cheque. Remus gasped. “Damn... Patty Cake…” Remus marvelled before turning to Roman. “Is that number right?” “Yeah, that’s the usual amount my company gives caterers plus some extra from Mrs Blackforest for the, and I quote, ‘irresistible little goods.’” Patton kept squinting at the paper. “Uh… I don’t have my glasses…” Patton said as he looked up at Remus who leant down and whispered the number to him. Patton quickly panicked. “I can’t accept that much!” He tried to hand the cheque back to Roman. Roman and Logan both backed away. “You deserve it, sweetie.” Roman reassured. Remus turned Patton to him so he’d stop trying to assault his twin with a slip of paper. “And it means we’re well on the way to paying off what you owe.” Remus added. “This is a good thing!” Patton quickly became excited from seeing how happy Remus was. A wide smile broke across his face. “You’re right.” Patton submitted. Remus cheered and hugged Patton who laughed. If this is how Remus reacted now he couldn’t imagine what would happen if they actually managed to get all the money. “Anyway, I’m gonna show Logan around so I’m heading out.” Roman shouted over Remus’ excitement. They waved to Janus and Virgil before turning to walk away. “Are Patton and your brother dating?” Logan whispered. Roman laughed and looked back where the two men celebrated together. They’d not seen Remus this happy… ever really. “Not yet.” They smiled. Though they knew it wouldn’t be long.
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Micchy and your choice with 6 and/or 10?
6. "Is that all you've got?"
10. "Who did this?"
The black eye is visible almost before the rest of Micchi is, coming up the line at Charmant. Hideyasu raises an eyebrow, but doesn't greet him out of turn, and then doesn't get the chance to when he gets to the counter and opens with, "I don't want to talk about it."
Hideyasu snorts. "You don't want to order? Then why are you here?"
"No, I mean--you were looking at me."
"Yes, I was trying to remember if your brother had any orders in that you might be picking up. He doesn't, by the way. So what can I get you?"
"Uh..." Micchi stares at the various confections on display, looking overwhelmed. "I. Can you. Recommend something?" A beat, and then, hurriedly, "Nothing with oranges."
Hideyasu squints at him, feeling a swell of something like pity, and then glances at the line behind him. Two other customers, no one approaching the door. "Just sit down, I'll bring you something."
"I--wait, what?"
"That wasn't an invitation to argue with me, Mitsuzane. Go sit down. Corner table over there is free."
"O...k?" Looking bewildered, Micchi goes to sit down at the corner table, and Hideyasu turns to the next customer with a stiff customer-service smile.
That customer, the next, and one last-minute arrival later, the line is finally gone and Hideyasu has a moment to grab a serving tray, a plate, and a set of utensils and say to the kitchen staff, "I'm taking fifteen. If Oren asks, tell him it's important. Also, could you get me a pot of tea?"
Micchi looks even more bewildered when Hideyasu sits down at the table across from him. "What...I feel like I missed something here."
"You didn't, I've been on my feet all morning and felt like sitting down for three seconds. Here. Raspberry tart. Eat."
A long, suspicious look, and then Micchi takes a forkful of his half of the raspberry tart and pops it into his mouth.
Hideyasu allows himself a moment of smug satisfaction at Micchi's startled, mouth-full, "This is delicious," before serving himself the other half of the tart and saying, "So. Who did this?"
--
Micchi jumps in the middle of swallowing and very nearly chokes. "Who did what?"
Jounouchi just sort of stares at him and then gestures. "What do you think I'm talking about?"
"...I said I didn't want to talk about it."
"That's nice, but if you don't tell me then I'm going to guess. Actually, you know what, I've already figured it out. What'd you do to Zack to make him punch you?"
Micchi stares at him. "How. How did you know it was Zack."
"Well, you don't hang out with anyone but Beat Riders, and even them only barely, so it's probably a Beat Rider. I mean, I guess it could have been someone mad at your brother, but I feel like you wouldn't be as weird about that. The Raid Wild guys are all too stupid to punch straight, my girls would rather talk mean than fight, Gaim is all saps, and Peko'd just shoot you with that slingshot of his, so I'm guessing it was Zack. Which, he's tough to piss off, I'm impressed."
Glumly, Micchi takes another bite of tart and chews for a moment before saying, "He wasn't pissed off. I asked him to."
"Huh. Kinky. Never figured you for the type."
This time Micchi does choke, and Jounouchi snorts and leans across the table to pound on his back a little. After a moment his airway clears and he croaks, "It's not like that."
"No, obviously not, you did it because you Kureshimas love to beat yourselves up about things you can't fix and you figured it might be nice to get someone else to do it for you." Jounouchi squints at his plate and then takes something else from the serving tray and puts it down among the crumbs of Micchi's tart. "Lemon matcha madeline. Take a sip of tea first, clear your palate."
"...how do you know so much about my brother?" Micchi takes a sip of tea and then bites into the madeline. It is spectacular, which he's weirdly frustrated by.
"Because he has a standing date for tea here with Kazuraba's sister, every two weeks and I love to eavesdrop, and he keeps ordering madelines from me to give to visiting whatevers. Also, Oren talks about him constantly." Jounouchi takes a sip of his own tea. "Speaking of Kazuraba's sister, are they or what?"
"What? No, uh, definitely not. They're just friends." A glance down at his hands, and--he's already finished his madeline. He surreptitiously swipes some crumbs up from his plate with a fingertip, eats them when Jounouchi is looking away, and takes another sip of tea.
"So is he single, then?"
Micchi doesn't choke this time, but only through sheer willpower. "Is he--what? Why?"
"What, you think I don't want a backup plan in case I decide to get out of pastry?" Jounouchi flashes him a brief, unexpected smile and pulls over his empty plate. "I'm teasing you, Mitsuzane, your brother's not my type. Here. Rose and pomegranate mille feuille."
The plate slides back across the table, and Micchi stares at the layered pink confection on it for a long moment before saying, slowly, "Why are you doing this for me? You barely know me. I think this might be the first time we've ever really spoken."
--
It takes a long time for Hideyasu to respond, because he's not entirely sure of what to say. Instead he takes a bite of his own portion of mille feuille, satisfied by the buttery melt of handmade puff pastry on his tongue, the delicacy of the rose flavor coming through behind the pomegranate. Perfecting this recipe took ages; when he finally got a batch to turn out, Oren actually bought a bottle of champagne. Speaking of uncertainty, though, he's also not especially sure of why he feels like showing off his best recipes to Kureshima Takatora's little brother, except maybe that he likes watching people eat what he's made.
Finally he says, "I have a weakness for lost puppies."
Micchi snorts. He looks offended, but he also looks amused, which means Hideyasu's won. "I look like a lost puppy to you?"
"You look like you could stand to have a few more actual friends than you've got. When I see you at Beat Rider events--if I see you at Beat Rider events--you're just hiding in those massive hoodies of yours, not talking to anyone. And since my closest friend died...somehow...during all the. Stuff. I don't exactly have a lot of people to talk to either."
"I...guess I didn't think of that. I'm sorry."
"Don't say you're sorry, that one's not your fault. If you have to be a Kureshima about it and apologize, do it by eating your mille feuille and telling me how brilliant I am."
That gets an eye roll, and if Micchi's relaxing enough to make faces at him then maybe they can have an actually conversation. Pleasingly, this is followed by a bite of mille feuille and then a startled, "Holy shit, this is amazing."
"Yes, it is, thank you."
"...were you always this full of yourself, or did you get it from Oren?"
"All of the great patissiers have god complexes." Hideyasu takes a sip of tea. "That's what makes the créme pat turn out."
Micchi stares at him, obviously disbelieving, and then takes another bite of mille feuille. "Ok, so. Maybe you deserve that, this is really good." A third bite. "You still haven't really answered my question, though. Why me?"
Hideyasu scowls. "I don't know, all right? It just bothers me to see you hanging around at the back of everything like a ghost when you used to be just as obnoxious as everyone else in Gaim."
"I'm not sure what else you expect me to do."
"I'm not sure either, Mitsuzane, but this can't be all you've got. I thought you Kureshimas had more spine."
"Wanna bet?" Micchi mutters, and then blinks, as if he's surprised at himself.
And that's bait that Hideyasu can take easily, so he grins and has another sip of tea and says, "See, I feel like that's more of the attitude I remember you having."
"Surprised you remember me at all, I don't think you and your Mean Girls crew ever even spoke to me." Micchi's phone beeps, and he digs it out of his pocket. "Shit, I actually need to get going, I have to meet with a classmate. Uh...thank you for. Talking to me. What do I owe you for the food?"
"Nothing right now." Hideyasu looks at him sidelong. "Let's say you'll buy me coffee in a month and let me know whether you've started finding your backbone again."
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onlydreamofmysoul · 4 years
Text
Let Them Eat Cake part iii (Wolfstar Bake off au)
Chapter three!!!
This episode on The Great British Bake Off, it’s pastry week.
I’m not going to jinx it.
Oh my god, I am so sorry!
As usual… this is as good as it’s going to get.
“Have you been practicing?” Lily teased, bumping her hip against Remus’.
“Lily, we literally practice together. You’ve been eating my pastries all week.”
Lily pouted. “I mean, I know you’re right but also I’m literally with you all the time and I’m running out of conversation starters.”
Remus felt a laugh overtake him as he slung his arm over her shoulders. “Okay that’s fair, I’ll give you that much.”
“Especially since you declared some topics off-limit.” Lily grumbled. Remus sighed as he looked up at the clear blue sky. It was one of those cold crisp mornings where the grass is glittering with frost but not a single cloud decorated the sky. 
“Fine, I remove my ban.”
Lily actually squealed as they entered the tent, drawing more than one look from the other contestants. 
“Oh my god, keep it down or I’ll revoke it.”
Lily’s eyes widened as she comically mimed zipping her lips shut. Remus swung himself up on her worktop, and she swatted his knee but he didn’t move.
“So,” She prompted, her voice low. “You and Sirius?”
Remus rolled his eyes. “Lils, I already told you, there is no ‘me and Sirius’.”
Lily shook her head. “That’s not true!” 
Remus made a betrayed noise at the volume of her voice and she immediately hushed herself. 
“Sorry!” She whispered. “But Re, I’m right. I mean, there wasn’t a you and Sirius at first but now… there’s definitely potential.”
“What’s there potential for?”
Remus’s heart shot right out of his chest and his stomach plummeted as Sirius hopped right up onto the counter next to him. Lily had visibly paled as the pair of them searched for an excuse.
“For… for the technical challenge to be easier this week.” Remus said, praying it would seem like a normal topic of conversation. Fortunately for him, being in a baking competition did tend to allow for the contestants to talk about it… a lot.
Sirius just nodded, seeming to go with the conversation and Lily and Remus shared a look of intense relief. On the outside, Remus was pleasantly chatting to Sirius. On the inside, he was plotting Lily Evans’ death.
“So, are we excited for pastry week?” Sirius asked. 
“I mean, no but I was never gonna be so…” Remus shrugged trailing off. 
“Ignore him, his practice rounds have been so good.” Lily endorsed. “As the person who gets to eat all of them, I’ve been very satisfied.”
“I’ll have to try them then.” Sirius was saying but Remus was watching the judges entering the tent. He hopped off the counter and moved to his own bench, with Sirius’ voice still jabbering in the background.
“Dude, I’m gonna be like ten pounds heavier leaving this show. Like wow, everything tastes so good I just want to eat it all.”
Lily’s laugh was interrupted by someone in the crew calling Sirius.
“Duty calls.” He said, saluting Remus and Lily before dashing off to the front of the tent, holding the attention of everyone in the room in the way that only someone with Sirius’ charisma could manage. James came close, but no one was quite on Sirius’ level. Which was good. Remus could barely handle one Sirius Black, never mind if there were two.
“Okay and we’re rolling in three, two, one.” Marlene called, signalling that the camera had begun.
“Welcome back bakers! It’s the week we’ve all been waiting for!”
“No James, it’s the week you’ve been waiting for.”
“That’s basically the same thing. It’s pastry week!”
“Today our lovely judges have asked you to prepare a tart or pie made with puff pastry.” Sirius said, gesturing to McGonagall and Dumbledore.
“The fillings are, as usual, yours to interpret, but it should be eight inches in diameter and have a clear design on top.”
“On your marks,”
“Get set,”
“Bake!”
And once again, they were off. Remus began work at a leisurely pace. He wasn't worried this week. Pastries were something he made quite often, his mother had a particular fondness for them so Remus made sure there were nearly always some in the house. He was making a lemon meringue pie and could probably make it with his eyes closed at this point.
Was it too early in the competition for him to feel this calm? Possibly. Was Remus going to question it? Nope, he would take any break from the nerves that he could get.
“He set about making the pastry first - it needed time to rest in the fridge and Remus wanted to allow as much time for that as possible. He soon settled into the familiar cathartic movements or cubing the butter and sieving flour, wishing he could have his music blasting like he did at home. Baking meant music playing as loud as humanly possible.
He rolled his dough into a ball, wrapped it in cellophane and popped it in the fridge, clicking the button on the kettle as he retired to his station, pulling out a pot and a clean whisking bowl. He made the lemon curd quickly, adding a generous amount of lemon zest to make sure the flavour was there before setting it aside to cool and whipping up some egg whites and sugar to make a meringue mix.
“You look confident.” Lily commented as Remus finished making his cup of tea, his meringue still wishing in the bowl.
“I don’t want to jinx it but… I am?” I feel like pastry week is the one I was born to do.
Lily laughed at his theatrics. “Going for star baker again I see.” But Remus shook his head.
“Nah I’m not that confident… I’m just not worried about going home this week. Does that make sense?”
Lily nodded smiling. Remus stuck out his tongue at her cheekily before turning back to work.
“I’d be careful where you put that tongue Lupin.” Sirius said, appearing besides Remus in the manner in which only Sirius could move, flowing gracefully through a room. Remus tried so hard not to blush. He failed.
(But it was hot in the tent, so that would explain it… right?)
“It seems like a valuable commodity, you being on a baking show and all. Wouldn’t want you to lose your main asset.
Now if Remus were one; not on national television, two; a person who could deliver smooth lines well and three; talking to anyone other than his celebrity crush he might have said something along the lines of “Will you take care of it for me then?”
But Remus was on national television, he wasn’t smooth, this was Sirius Black and to be perfectly honest, that was a really terrible, cringy line that didn’t make all that much sense but Remus never claimed to be good at this.
Instead he just continued blushing and laughed nervously, hoping it would cover up his little pause.
“I already have an official taste tester, so I’m sure I’d get along just fine.”
“Did someone say ‘official taste tester’?” James chimed in, appearing on the other side of Remus.
“Okay, no offence but take this as your official eviction notice, there are too many people behind this bench.” Remus said, his tone joking but he also meant the words. He would chat later, now he needed to get back to work.
“Oh how you wound us!” James cried, clutching his chest. Sirius pretended to break down in tears before they both grinned and Remus and promptly went off to bug someone else. Remus shook his head fondly and set back to work. He rolled out his pastry and lined the tin, adding some (frankly, beautiful) crimping detail on the edge and popping it into the oven for fifteen minutes for a blind bake.
“Here we go.” He half sang, dragging out the last word as he pulled the tin out of the oven and ladled in his lemon curd. He piped on the meringue and took out the little blowtorch he had to finish it.
“I have a weapon!” He declared, brandishing it to Lily and Tonks on the bench next to him burst out laughing.
“Who would have thought that the innocent little Lupin would have so much fun with something so dangerous.” She teased.
“Oi!” Remus protested. “Who’s calling me innocent?”
Lily looked at him like he had lost his head. “Have you not been keeping up with Bake Off Twitter?”
“Uh, no? Should I be?”
“Yes!” Lily and Tonks enthused at the same time.
“It’s like, my only source of entertainment at this point.” Peter chimed in and Remus looked around in confusion. 
“Am I the only one who didn’t know about this?”
Lily shrugged. “I guess so.”
Sighing, Remus turned back to his pie. All he wanted to do now was whip out his phone and check out what was being said, but he had a cake to make. Or really, a pie to furnish.
Ever so carefully, Remus turned on the blowtorch and began moving it over the top of his creation, watching the white piping turn a beautiful gold.
“I’m kind of obsessed with the blue flame, I’m not going to lie.” Sirius said, coming up to Remus once again and Remus really wasn’t sure how he was supposed to handle fire and Sirius Black at the same time. This competition sure was testing more than his ability to bake.
“How long do we have left?” He asked instead of replying.
“Two minutes.” Sirius confirmed, just before James announced it to the entire room from the other side of the tent.
Remus nodded, biting his lip in concentration as he tidied up the finishing touches of his presentation, very aware of Sirius’ eyes on him the whole time, and then time was up.
“Okay bakers, set your creations on the end of your bench please.” Sirius said and the judges came into the tent.
“Mr Lupin, we’ll start with you today.” Dumbledore announced pleasantly and Remus smiled, the nerves that had been absent all morning making an appearance.
Dumbledore cut into the pie and Remus couldn’t stop himself from smiling when it looked perfect on the inside.
“The flavours in this are excellent.” McGonagall commented, going for another bite. Remus bit down his grin.
“Thank you.”
“I would have liked to maybe see a little more decoration on top.” Dumbledore said and Remus nodded along. “But otherwise, this was a lovely treat. I do have an affinity for lemon, you know.”
Remus beamed as they moved away. Pastry week was off to a good start.
“Thank god it’s lunch.” Lily groaned, throwing herself into a chair. “I know we have stools in the tent but, it’s just not the same.”
“Preach!” Tonks cried, collapsing down next to her.
Peter shuffled in, a few of the other contestants joining them. Sirius and James filtered over from where they had been chatting to the judges. Remus pulled out his phone so that he could finally look at Twitter.
“Remus Lupin is such a sweetheart, I would die for him.”
“Remus Lupin blushing is my new religion.”
“Has anyone else noticed the way Sirius looks at Remus? No? Just me?”
The last one caused Remus’ apparently infamous blush to appear. He really hoped Sirius hadn’t seen that one. Remus was just kidding himself if he thought Sirius hadn’t. He had been in the media since he was small - both his parents being famous politicians. Sirius was famously separated from the rest of the Black clan, leaving them and making his own life. He had jumped around jobs for a little while, Remus remembered reading once in an interview Sirius had done in some newspaper, before falling in love with presenting. He had been appearing on shows ever since.
“I’m so ready to just go to sleep now.” Peter groaned and Remus nodded in agreement.
“Seconded.” He said, wishing he could just close his eyes for a few moments. Sadly, the show must go on.
“How about we all go get dinner after we finish filming today?” Sirius suggested. Suddenly Remus was wide awake. The end of the day couldn’t come quick enough.
“Today for our technical challenge, our judges would like you to make six identical apple turnovers.” Sirius announced.
“They should have a buttery, flaky pastry with a soft, sweet filling.” James continued. “Everything you need can be found under the cloth on your bench.”
Remus eyed the blue and white checked cloth, keeping it’s secrets hidden.
“Do our judges have anything they say before they go?”
“Make sure you watch out for the colour.” McGonagall said vaguely and with that, they were gone.
“Well that was helpful.” Remus muttered to Lily as they uncovered their ingredients, Lily giggling at him.
“Have you ever made these before?” She asked. 
“Um… Once maybe?” Remus said, scrunching up his nose in thought. “But it was years ago. Have you?”
Lily shook her head. “No. I’m not sure why because I love them, but I’ve never made them.”
Remus nodded and picked up the sheet of ingredients, scanning the instructions quickly.
“They seem… pretty okay?”
“That’s what I was thinking too.” Lily agreed. “Which is making me nervous.”
Remus chuckled and nodded his head. “I suppose we’d better get to it then.”
“I would suppose so.” Lily agreed and that was the most they spoke for another while.
Remus made his dough, set it aside and prepared the apples, the actions new but familiar enough that his brain could tune out a little. His traitorous mind wandered to Sirius, to the tweets talking about the way Sirius looked at him. Remus could almost imagine it, him icing a cake, biting his lip in concentration while Sirius looked on, wishing he could be the one to take his lip between his teeth-
Remus shook himself out of his thoughts. That was crazy. Sirius didn’t look at him that way and he was only teasing himself to let himself fantasise about it.
He filled his pastries carefully, not wanting to over fill them or the dough would split, but if he under-stuffed them, they would just look collapsed and sad. He crimped the edges with a fork and using a knife, carefully cut slits in the dough to let the steam escape. Finally, he brushed the tops with an egg wash and sprinkled sugar over them before placing the tray into the oven.
Bake until cooked the recipe said and Remus groaned. Would it kill them to be a little more specific.
He turned around and saw Lily make a face at her recipe and smiled, knowing she was thinking the same thing. He crouched down and peeked into his oven, watching the dough cook.
“A watched pot never boils.”” Sirius chirped from above him and Remus looked up.
“Good thing this isn’t a pot then.”
Sirius snorted and hopped onto Remus’ counter. “How’re things going?”
“Pretty okay? So far today everything’s gone right, so I’m trying not to jinx it.”
Sirius laughed. “That’s fair. I won’t ask you any more so.”
“I’d appreciate that.” Remus grinned. “So, tonight? Don’t we all have dinner together anyway?”
Sirius shrugged. “At different times though! I mean, I know we have to stay in the hotel to protect our little bake off bubble but I thought maybe we could pretend it was a real night out, get dressed up, all that kind of thing.”
Remus nodded. “Sounds good.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” 
Remus barely dared to breathe as they held eye contact for a moment, but then Sirius coughed and jumped down and Remus looked in on his turnovers, the moment nothing more than a blip on his radar.
(A blip he would think about a lot).
(But it was just a blip).
Remus looked at his pastries. Fuck, they were a little darker than he would have liked. Not burned, but still not the nice golden Remus had wanted. Fucking Sirius with his gorgeous fucking face and his maddening smile and his dumb ideas.
Remus set his pastries out on the plate he would present them on with a sigh. They weren’t bad, really they weren’t. But they could have been perfect.
Fucking Sirius Black.
(But damn if Remus wasn’t enamoured).
Sirius and James called time up and the bakers all made their way to the table at the front of the tent to put their baking behind their pictures for the blind judge. Remus waited patiently at the side for a moment as the people crowded around the table, waiting until there was more room. Finally he stepped up next to Peter and was just putting his plate down when Peter, who was talking to Tonks, waved his hands in a dramatic hand gesture and knocked the plate right out of Remus’ hands.
There was nothing Remus could do. From the moment Peter had made contact, Remus was doomed, unable to catch the plate. He could only watch in horror as his pastries crashed to the floor.
“Oh my god, Remus I am so sorry!” Peter cried in horror, dropping to his knees to Remus’ aid.
“It’s okay Pete.” He said, his throat tight. Just needing a minute to figure out what the fuck to do. Sirius was there in a heartbeat, salvaging two of the turnovers and putting them on a plate.
“Hey, Re, don’t worry, I’ll go talk to the judges now, it’ll be fine, I promise.”
Remus met his eyes and smiled tightly. “Thanks.”
Peter was still apologising profusely so Remus stood up and turned to him. “Pete, it’s fine really. It was an accident.”
They all sat down on their stools and Lily took Remus’ hand in hers. He squeezed it a little trying not to panic. This wasn’t his fault.
James and Sirius arrived just a second before the judges, having explained the situation. McGonagall and Dumbledore went to Remus’ first, still not knowing of course that the disaster turnovers belonged to him.
“I heard there was a bit of an accident.” Dumbledore said, eyeing the plate. “But never mind that, we’ll judge based on this one.
Remus let out a breath of relief as the pastry was cut down the middle and McGonagall and Dumbledore both took a bite.
“Slightly overbaked.” McGonagall commented. “But otherwise, quite good. I like the apple to pastry ratio.”
Dumbledore nodded. “Overall, quite good.”
Remus let out a breath of relief, having experienced the most stress he had encountered so far on the competition. The judges went through the rest of the pastries, and were quite impressed. They had all produced some decent bakes.
Remus came fourth, Lily came second. Peter had come fifth and Tonks won it. The rest of the contestants filed in the other slots.
Peter apologies again as Remus helped tidy his station and gather his things but Remus just smiled tiredly. “Pete, it’s really fine. There’s no harm done.”
Peter smiled gratefully and moved away. Remus walked back to the hotel with Lily, ready to relax.
“Are you wearing a shirt?” Lily yelled from the bathroom.
“Yeah but with skinny jeans. Dress that shit down.”
Lily snorted as she emerged into the bedroom wearing a floaty sort of dress that stopped just above the knee.
“Oh you look great!” Remus enthused as she gave him a little twirl.
“Yeah and you look hot. Who would have thought the bookworm could have such scandalous jeans!”
Remus blushed. “They’re not that bad.”
“Remus they’re practically painted on. But it’s great. Sirius will love them.”
Remus rolled his eyes. “Yeah as if I was thinking about Sirius when I got dressed.”
(He was thinking about Sirius when he got dressed).
“You ready to go down?” She asked, holding out her elbow like a gentleman escorting a lady to a dance. Remus chuckled and linked her arm and together they strolled down to the hotel’s restaurant
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Britain's favourite bakers!” James declared as he strolled up to them just inside the restaurant. They both laughed but Remus didn’t miss the pink stain on Lily’s cheeks.
“Grab a seat anywhere.” James said, gesturing to the one long table, already half-filled with contestants and crew alike.
“The host even on your night off!” Lily joked and James grinned. 
“What can I say? I give the people what they want.”
Remus and Lily went to sit down, slotting in by Tonks, Marlene and Peter. Sirius and James joined them a couple of minutes later and the night kicked off. No one was drinking - they were filming the next morning. None of the bakers were risking being anything less than on top of their game and the rest of the crew were up a lot earlier to get the set prepared, but they didn’t need it. The food was good, the conversation was good and the people… well the people were great.
“So how did you get into presenting?” Lily asked Sirius as they all dung into their main course. 
James and Sirius grinned at it. “Well Jamie always knew it was what he wanted to do,” Sirius said, ruffling James’ hair and laughing when James tried to shove him off. “He was insufferable in school, always doing dramatic presentations and the like. I realised one day when I came to pick him up from the set of a show and, I don’t know, I just thought ‘hey I could do this’.” 
Remus smiled at the careful nonchalance Sirius had, it was almost as if he didn’t realise what an icon he’d become in the country.
“How did you all get into baking?”
Lily blushed, looking down at her plate, Remus burst out laughing, already knowing the story.
“Her sister told her she wouldn’t be able to bake well and Lily had to prove her wrong.” He told them and the table burst out laughing.
“In my defence,” Lily protested, “That was only for that first time! I realised I loved it and that’s why I bake now.”
“I don’t believe you.” Tonks said as he took a bite of her food, ducking when Lily threw a balled up napkin at her head.
“How about you Remus?” Sirius asked and Remus looked to his left to see those grey eyes trained on him.
“My mom always baked.” He said with a shrug. “I always used to help her. I don’t even remember when I started doing it myself, it was so long ago. I suppose it’s just something I’ve always done.”
Sirius smiled. “That’s nice.”
“Well I,” Tonks interjected, “Was forced to start baking in school. I hated it.”
Remus looked at her incredulously. “What?”
“Yeah! But then there was this cake I had to make for one of my exams and it was so good. And I wanted to eat it one day, so I made it, and I realised I didn’t actually hate baking, I just hated baking in school.”
“Okay but, does Bake Off not remind you of school?” Peter asked.
“Oh yeah,” Tonks agreed, nodding empathically. “I’m having major flashbacks. I have no idea how I thought this would be a good idea.”
“Tonks, I say this with love, but you are an idiot.” Remus wheezed, tears building in his eyes from laughing. 
The desserts came out and the waitress with ‘Dorcas’ on her name tag joked that she hoped they would be up to standards. Remus didn’t miss the way Marelene’s eyes followed her around the room. He looked up and saw Sirius noticing him notice. Their eyes met and Remus couldn’t fully express what it was, but something passed between them. Remus grinned and lifted a forkful of cake to his mouth, holding eye contact throughout. Sirius bit his lip and grinned.
It was a good night.
“Hello again bakers! As you well know, it’s time for our Showstopper challenge!” James said, grinning broadly. “This time, our judges are looking for a savoury twist.”
“They would like you to prepare twenty four amuse-bouche, made with filo pastry and of course, with a savoury filling of your choice.” Sirius continued
“Judges, any words of advice?”
“The trick to filo pastry is to try to stretch it as thin as possible.” Dumbledore said, and with that, the pair of them left the tent.
“Eloquent as ever.” James joked. “Alright, ready?”
“Set.”
“Bake!”
“Here we go again…” Tonks drawled, dragging out the last word. Remus shot her a grin.
“I hope you don’t feel like you’re back in school.” He teased. Tonks threw an onion at him. Things were good.
“Are you able to get the window pane?” Lily asked, lifting up on her tip-toes to try to peer over at Remus’ bench.
Remus lifted up his dough, stretching it and holding it up to the light. ‘Window panes’ in baking were essentially when you could stretch the dough so thin, it became transparent.”
“Em… Kind of? I mean it’s not perfect but I suppose it’s not the worst.” He shrugged and put it in the fridge. “As usual… that’s as good as it’s gonna get.”
Lily chuckled and placed her own dough in the fridge. “Seconded.”
Remus took out a pan and while it heated up, he started chopping sausage and black pudding into tiny pieces. He threw them on the pan to fry while he sliced an apple as thinly as possible before tossing them in the pan too. After he had taken his filling off the heat and let it cool down a little, he took out his dough and divided it into twenty five sections - leaving an extra piece of dough in case something went wrong.
He rolled the dough out until he thought it couldn’t possibly get any thinner, and then he rolled it a little dough. As with the turnovers, adding the right amount of filling was a little tricky. Remus had discovered that exactly one tablespoon seemed to produce the best result, so he measured pedantically, wanting to make sure this challenge was as perfect as possible. He crimped the edges (he was going to be so good at crimping after this week) and popped his pastries into the oven, starting a timer and then all that was left to do right now, was wait.
“This is the worst part.” Lily groaned. “It’s so boring.”
“Now I’m having school flashbacks.” Tonks agreed.
“Oh my god, stop being so dramatic and just make a cup of tea.” Remus said. “Tea is the magic solution to everything.”
Tea, it turned out, was not quite the magic solution to everything, because when Remus took his pastries out of the oven, a few of them had split.
“But I had a formula!” He muttered mostly to himself. “Dumbass pastries, doing me dirty like this.”
“And here we have a wild Remus Lupin in his natural habitat.” Sirius commentated, appearing at his side. “Remus, are you really talking to the baking?”
Remus looked at him, his face revealing nothing. “They betrayed me.”
“Talking to them won’t change that.”
“Maybe not, but at least they’ll feel ashamed, the little shits.”
“Remus! Can you never let me get footage that I can actually use? I swear I spend half my time editing your scenes, you and your mouth.” Marlene exclaimed.
Remus winced. “Oops?”
Marlene grumbled as she walked away. Sirius shot him a wink.
“Don’t worry,” He said. “I quite like your mouth.”
Remus dropped the pastry he was holding. It was a good thing he made twenty five.
Peter won star baker. “A bloody good thing too - pastries are basically the only thing I eat!” and a woman named Sarah was sent home. Remus registered approximately none of this. All he could hear were Sirius’ words replaying over and over in his head.
“I quite like your mouth.”
It really was official. Remus Lupin was completely and utterly fucked.
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desire-tenderness · 3 years
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I will return to old Brazil
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I’m three weeks away in New York on a laser and independence trip, I miss home. It’s only two days away and soon I’m back in Brazil to meet my family and friends. I was taking the opportunity to organize some of the things, like some clothes and documents, that’s when I missed my passport. “Where did it go, my God?! My credit card was on the cover. I’ve turned this apartment upside down and can’t find it anywhere. There’s no way I lost! This shit only happens to me. I only have two more days stay in this Irbnb, how will I solve the problem of passport loss in two days without my credit card!? I don’t have a penny more.” [ranting, going into outbreak] “OK, relax, I’m smart! I need to raise money for at least another day or two, I have enough for daily meals. Well, didn’t I want to experience something unique and inspiring? Here’s a chance to have a tragic story to tell and laugh at later.” [I thought out loud]  “I can manage as a street performer, starting tomorrow. I take my ukulele and some blank sheets of paper and make illustrations of pedestrians, I hope to reap the benefits of that. The last place I remember seeing my passport was yesterday when I was at the MoMA. Now I need to go back there and hope that I find in the "lost and found" of the place.” [The next day] I woke up early today and I’m already on my way to Central Park, hoping to find a space on Bethesda Terrace to play. The first time I went I saw a young man playing the cello so beautifully, it made me overflow with emotion. I played some songs, I noticed that I had a very positive return looking at the cover of Ukulele, I was curious to tell how much money I had made with those 5 songs played. It’s quite amazing the satisfaction of playing there, people seem to want to hear me play. I thought of ending with Naive - The Kooks and so I did. - I'm not saying it was your fault Although you could have done more Oh, you're so naïve, yet so..   {music}
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Soon formed a circle of people singing together, I was shivered, did not imagine that The Kooks still had an audience. A little girl left $16 on the cover of the instrument, it made me float. With less than a minute to go, I saw a wonderfully attractive boy, at least 15 feet away, "do I know you?" I thought while I messed up a song. At the end of the last song I thanked him and forced my eyes to reach the boy again, but he was no longer there. The minute I thanked her, the same little girl started pulling a leather saying "one more, one more". I didn’t have a repertoire anymore and I couldn’t think of anything. The sky was with an attractive texture and the climate had a palette of color that sent me the song Postcards From Italy - Beirut and without thinking too much about whether or not it made sense for the moment, I started playing and singing. As I played, I closed my eyes to feel the instrumental climax of the song that was approaching. And when I opened my eyes the same boy I saw from afar was standing in front of me watching my show. Who was he? Timothée Chalamet. My whole body was frozen with the fright, but I didn’t want to leave anything evident. If I showed my anxiety, that space would turn into an afternoon of autographs and I don’t want to take your time. Did he give me money? The cover of the instrument had received more notes of paper, but for being with eyes closed I could not see. He smiled and nodded, turned away. I kept silent. Second then I hurried thanking everyone for my return, guarding my instrument and taking my bag. I run after him. - Hey! Timo! He turned at the same second, confused, trying to find who called him. He must have noticed me tightening my stride to get close to him as soon as possible. - Hi! Our is a pleasure, I can’t believe it’s really you. I let you go so you wouldn’t make a big deal out of it, but I needed to talk to you and thank you for listening to me play and a lot of other stuff. Sorry, I’m talking too much, all right? I spoke so fast that I hardly breathed. He laughed. - Hi, Beirut, huh? It goes well with today’s weather. It was nice! Am I well and you? Alias, your name? - Do you like Beirut? Gee. My name is (xxxx) but it doesn’t matter now. - Yes, you do. Are you from New York? - No, I come from Brazil. I’m traveling.. The words were disappearing from my mind as the minutes passed, I was somewhat hypnotized. - Cool! I really want to see Brazil someday. Do you want a photo? - Man I want a photo yes. I never thought that moment would be here and now. We took the photo, he thanked me for coming to him and for me playing with such emotion. He finally said that it was "very harmonious". And with a lot of pain in my heart I let him go. "Gee, I met Timothée chalamet two days before returning to Brazil! I must confess that fate has killed, just bring my passport back." [I thought out loud] Arriving at the Moma I received the terrible news that my passport was not there, it was my only hope going down the drain. I wanted to cry out of desperation, but I was also totally happy to have met Timothée and to have taken a picture that I will keep for the rest of my life. "I wish I’d been calmer and sane, I guess I just thought I was crazy. I hope he hasn’t noticed my despair, anxiety and complete fascination. Well, back to what I need to focus on.. Do I get some freelance work at some designer studio? Well, it could be a coffee shop. " The day has gone by so fast, the clock is almost 4:00 p.m. I think I’ll have a cup of coffee and a bite to eat, and I’ll get a job, if that’s not too embarrassing. I thought I’d walk around the West Village and find some cool coffee over there. Said and done, I found a coffee visibly attractive and had a delicious smell coming out the door, but it was empty. I think this is the perfect opportunity for a presentation, so I’m gonna eat something first. I ordered a latte and a lobster, one of my favorite treats. That crispy puff pastry, filled with vanilla cream, caramel and flor de sal makes me roll my eyes. I ate with such desire that I began to remember how surprising my day was. I thought I would make an illustration of the Timothée, a drawing of how I met him, the ambience was delicious to draw in peace and so I did. I noticed that someone came through the cafeteria door, I heard the sound of the door open. It was him, he was again in the same environment as me. The coincidence was so much that I could hardly believe it, I kept my calm. He sat across the room, pretended not to see it.
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On the local radio started playing First date - Blink, obviously I started singing and trying to finish my drawing as soon as possible, who knows he could see before going. "Lets go! Don’t Wait! this night’s Almost over Honest, Let’s make this night last Forever' {Music} Suddenly someone came to my table and put a glass of Vanilla Malt and a snack with a great smell. When I looked up he completed the harmony. - Forever and Ever, Let’s make this last Forever. Hi again! "Are you kidding that this is really happening? And if it is not? Well, I will act as if I were dreaming, I can do better in this communication" - I don’t believe it. This is crazy, what are you doing here at my table?! - Would you like me to leave? - You’re crazy, of course not, sit down, please! - So, what are you doing? Wait, that’s... that’s me?! Fuck!  [He pointed to the drawing] - hãnn yes, look.. this coincidence I will never live again. Now in my head I go through a cruel dilemma. - Which would it be? Excuse me. [He took the marvelous drawing and took a photo] - Should I finish it and give it to you, or should I ask for an autograph and frame it? - Hmm look.. my autograph is nothing, I would ruin the drawing, but it’s so awesome, I would love it if it was mine, but I took a picture, it’s worth the frame! - Arranged, Mr. Chalamet. I told him about my passport drama and how distressed I was. His face of "Holy shit, I’m sorry, you’ll have a headache" didn’t help. But he offered me real help with this red tape. "Does that mean I’ll see you beyond today?!" - Okay, you’re tense. Let’s break the ice by relaxing with a theatrical technique. I say a word, you think fast and say the first one that pops into your head. -Okay... Can I get started? [What’s going on here? ] -Yes, of course, yes! - Silver - Gold - Desire - Fire - Friend - you - Call me by your name - And I call you by mine. Oh shit! [laughed with his hand in his mouth] - That’s pretty cool hahaha let me ask. What are you going to do now? I’m really surprised to see you "living normally" - It is sometimes I get this feat. But anyway, I have no plans. - Do you want to go to the street cinema and see what classic is going on today? - My God, yes I am, thank you for the suggestion. We left the cafeteria and I didn’t ask for a job, I don’t regret it, my day is being fucking awesome. We went to the cinema of East Village and Singing in the rain was on display, that was perfect! I’ll watch one of my favorite movies with Timothée, it’s the fourth time I’ve pinched myself and I notice it’s not a dream. This day cannot end. We took the tickets and entered without him being stopped or recognized, I was relieved. And sitting next to him in a movie theater, all I could think about was how I wanted to be able to take his hand, kiss it as classically as the movie we’re watching. He made a story, I’m dying to open my phone and see, knowing that I’m next to him and nobody else but me and he knows, fuck!
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At the end of the movie we came out, another coincidence or not, it was raining. I had my instrument and drawing sheets in my purse, but I wanted to literally sing in the rain, only without an umbrella. I dropped everything on the stairs and called him into this brief shower of rain. EPIC. I danced and sang in the rain with Timothée Chalamet and he seems absurdly happy about it.
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We end with: "Come on with the Rain I have a Smile on my face I walk down the Lane With a happy refrain Just Singin', Singin' in the Rain" - Do you fancy a bagel or something? - I’m in! Tompkins? - Sure, and you have better? I answer, no way. - That’s so sweet, come on! And so we continued, hungry, laughing and wet. I think he appreciates moments like this, you can see in his eyes extreme pleasure and relief, that’s beautiful. The hunger was so great that we ate 3 bagels with bacon, eggs and cheese. We were wet so we ordered for the trip and ate outside. During the final bites we’ll talk about my passport again. - Where was the last time you saw him and when did you realize he was gone? - The last time was in Moma, the day before yesterday. But I went back there and they did not find.. I realized last night when I was starting to leave part of the suitcases ready to "go back to Brazil tomorrow". - Have you looked in the pockets of the clothes you wore when you went to Moma? - I looked at that jacket 10 times and I couldn’t find it. - Why do you think it’s in my jacket? I always carry a full pair of pants. - My God this is so obvious! I took the laundry to the building, if it is there I owe you my life. - Stop it. Can I go with you and film you finding your passport? [He laughed] - That if I find, will know a mix of relief, gratitude and anger. [laughs together] - Come on.
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Yes, my passport and credit card were always "with me", were in the inside pocket of the pants as he had said. I was about to explode with relief!
I was ready to corrupt the good impression made during the day, but I was so excited and happy that I jumped in his lap grabbing his neck and kissing his cheeks.
He was silent as he stared at me confused as he held my thighs around his waist. I felt his breath on my neck, I didn’t want to leave, but I needed to.
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- I’m sorry, really, I’m just happy. Thank you. - Don’t worry, it’s fine. I’m glad you found it. Do you still want that autograph? - Of course! [ He signed my drawing and took another picture of it, but this time with me holding the art. ]
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- Sing one last song before I go. - My God that hard, I don’t know. Huh.. Sing with me? - If I know. Then I started singing Marvin Gaye’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, he seemed surprised. "Just call my name I’ll be there in a Hurry You don’t have to Worry'Cause, baby, there Ain’t no mountain high enough Ain’t no Valley low enough Ain’t no river wide enough To Keep me from Getting to you, baby" We laughed and finished. I was almost crying. Shame, I’m not a child. - So that’s it, I will be eternally grateful for today. Thank you and good luck girl, it was a pleasure. He turned and opened the door, waved his hand. And I recited.. "Now, when Twilight dims the sky above Recalling Thrills of our love There’s one Thing I’m Certain of I will Return to old Brazil" He smiled and came back to me, kissing my forehead. - Until one day, anywhere in the world. - See you, Timolito. He came out and I cried. {This is a fanfic. All I write about is my feelings and desires. TEXT BY: L.M }
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Text
Bat Outta Hell
Text-session today so yay. Can look at my sheets peacefully.
Still in the cave, about to go through new door.
Courage ready, Aleris ready, Silas ready! (Imogen might drop in but she's battling fire currently.)
Grim landscape stretches out with a city in the middle, obviously we must go to the city.
We emerge from the cave, maybe, from a cliff and can climb down safely.
Aleris turns into a bat! Whoooo!
Courage climbs down normally though is worried about Silas getting down but ehh, he has his boyfriend
Silas climbs down as well
I'm expecting some dex saves or something.... (It never happens.)
Bat Aleris is trying to guide us down to stop us falling
Drusten and Link also get down okay
See an aarokokra and two goliath guards approaching us as we reach the bottom
Bat Aleris is hiding behind one of Courage's horns
Friendly bird-man welcomes us and offers some food and drink but Courage says no.
Bird insists as the guard behind him shakes his head, holding out a tray to Silas.
Silas just asks what the pastries are made of.
"Just some puff pastry and roasted vegetables grown locally, folded up and baked with some salt." -Yeah, not suspicious at all.
Silas asks about if it contains mushrooms. Good question.
Offers Drusten one, he takes it. (also says it contains no mushrooms.)
Silas takes one and Aleris wants to try one as a bat so takes a little of Silas'
The aarokokra starts cooing Aleris
"Is this your pet bat, good sir?" - To Silas.
Aleris hides in one of Silas' pockets to escape the bird man who is scaring her
Silas is amazing! - "um,, well, the bat is certainly our companion, though I don't think they're fond of being called a pet..I apologise, but we are in a bit of a hurry, so we must be off. Thank you for the sample."
Heads off but gives an extra pastry 'for your stern friend'-Courage.
Finally the goliath guards approach and ask what we're here for
Bat Aleris pokes her head out to hear better
The guards ask about the bat hiding anything on their person and Courage says it's just a bat
"Also, is that bat hiding anything on their person? Any seeds, plants, etc.?"/You don't want to know what we've found inside bat ear canals."
Aleris gets nervous because she's carrying a LOT of fruit, nuts and stuff
(thought the guards wouldn't.. bat an eye) - Thank you Griff. Never change because you are perfect.
Calls us rich and tells us to go back to the caves
*face palm* Silas actually explains the situation and then Aleris turns back into herself and demands to see druids
The guards are surprised as Aleris keeps demanding to see druids
Silas says 'Aleris' in a warning voice
"...What is your business here? Our boss told us not to let anyone in unless they had a note from him." - Great.
Aleris is being very blunt but I suppose it's understandable, she's kind of close to finally seeing who might have abandoned her.
"I don't think so, small druid. If you'll stay here, we can send a messenger out to the city and bring our boss back and he'll tell us if you can be let through." - About Aleris entering the city.
oooh, threats from Aleris as she says, 'Or you'll learn not to call me small."
Aleris tries to look scary and a thunder sound back up her scary-ness
Silas is done with this group and wants to see the guard's boss.
The say it will take an hour and are scared of Aleris, one looks at the pastries
"I strongly suggest you throw those out at the nearest opportunity."
Aleris eats one in stubbornness. (I really like her.) While Courage asks why
"Nobody's healing you if you get ill from that pastry." - Silas to Aleris
'Aleris, you've eaten your fair share of foul-tasting things in your life, as anyone who's been on the road before and has eaten from sketchy street vendors has, and this is one of them. It tastes like some unholy combination of bitter and sweet and salty.'
Power move! - Though not how Si would put it
Guard is scared of Aleris, yay
Silas asks a lot of questions about where they are, anything th guards might recommend about this place, who the guard's boss is.
"Our boss is a man named Doneld Gray Old. He runs the city you see back there. Honestly, in terms of places I'd recommend, it would probably be going back to the surface."
Silas asks about 'why the surface?'
"Because you're enemies of the truth?" - Aleris
"Aleris you're being rude." - Silas
"Well, it's just a bit gloomy here, isn't it? I mean look around you. No sun, nothing taller than a bush, those rivers have mosquito larvae in it..." He turns very deliberately towards Silas and away from Aleris. "It's not a nice place down here. That city, for example...", he gestures to the city, "is full of zombies if you're in there at the wrong time."
Well...that's good to know. Always handy
"So is the surface, I don't see the difference." - Aleris laying down the facts as she ignores Silas purposefully.
Silas says pros and cons
"The surface has the sun, at least." He grumbles. "I don't see any pros to living down here. I have to deal with that damned aaracokra and his attempts to make puff pastry with crushed leaves."
Aleris suggests kicking the bird out then
Silas laying down the logic on Aleris' head. (Stop Si, you might make her shorter.)
so on, so on. The talk continues about stuff.
HOLD IT! The Aarokokra has been alone down here...all this time? ALONE!?
Silas suggest getting the bird coupons for a cookery course
Courage asks what they mean by him being alone here.
"He was the original guardian of the gate before we came along and he picked up baking. Before that he'd be the one doing what we did. With significantly less professionalism, may I add."
Aleris asks about how much longer they have to wait, she might be able to teach the bird the basics.
"It'll probably be another while. If you can get him to accept your help, may the gods rain blessings down on you, because I couldn't and I've been subjected to shitty pastries for the past three months now."
So Aleris goes to see the bird
Courage asks their names because I've been wondering for a while.
Might ask the bird his name as well...
"M'name's Edar. Edar Helhein. The other guard is Sam, and the Aaracokra is Griss." (Opps, they actually didn't have names.)
Hear a shout and a large ploom of smoke comes out of Griss' house.
"I suggest you go teach him to cook before he burns his house down."
I open the door and say to Griss If you're try to kill them so you can have your old job back you're doing if the wrong way - Aww, Aleris you sweet murderer. No one suspects you.
Griss tells her not to come in because it's smoky and jogs out
Aleris asks if her 'murder' hunch is true and if she can help.
Griss thinks he's good at baking. (oh baby nooo.)
Aleris tells him the truth
Aww, Griss is learning from his mistakes. No...he's not.
"I can learn myself, thank you very much. Also, when did you get here? You need to check in with the guards." - I think..he might have memory problems
He goes back in his house which is still kind of full of smoke
Aleris accepts it and starts cooking in front of his house. (she's making a plant-based bread.)
Griss realizes it's too smoky and asks 'our names' but...Only Aleris is there at his house.
Aleris tells him her name while making dough.
Drusten also tells him his name. Griss then asks Silas' and Courage's. (strange.)
Courage states her name and asks how old Griss is
He's twenty four. Cool.
He holds out a sooty wing and I couldn't help but make Courage slowly raise her weapon and stare
He stares at your weapon for a bit. "Huh. I'm...gonna assume you don't wanna take my wing off as a trophy?"
"N-no... I wanted to shake your hand...as I did with Drusten...?" Drusten is trying to silence and hide his chuckles behind his hand.
Courage does lower her weapon but still doesn't shake his wing. (just be thankful Griss, the last person to hold out his arm got it half removed...)
Finally Silas introduces himself as just some bard. (still hiding from being hunted then.)
Griss asks about the taste of the pastries
Silas says he's never tasted anything like it, which is true, and says they were great, which is a lie.
Aleris mutters that she's surrounded by liars
"YOU HEAR THAT?" He suddenly yells across the field to the guard. "PRETTY GOOD, HE SAID! THEY'RE GOOD!"
Courage says Silas would probably eat a bird
Griss tries to argue but nope, Courage is having none of it
Silas apparently has friends who are bakers. Big suprise right there, for Courage
Griss doesn't trust falconmail and looks at Aleris' vegan-bread
Aleris continues baking and Griss is suprised by flowers and flour.
poor bird but Aleris offers that he can help if his feathers are clean.
Oh no, Aleris is turning to the bird's leafy ways! (leaves are probably what made his food so bad.)
Griss goes to get leaves and Drusten sits down to have lunch
Courage finally has jerky, courtesy of Drusten.
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Coffee Shop au part four
(Segment one of three)
If I forget to tag something important please tell me.
(Present day)
(Small warning Acylius does use those he tortures for food for other demons and non mortal creatures to consume so if you have a problem with that then um just keep scrolling I guess ^^; )
What was this…that strange feeling of disappointment at seeing Black Hats chair being vacant; after all he’d only been there twice so it was not as if he was a regular customer, especially as they’d only been open for two days.
Why should the old demon stay until closing time anyway, just because he did it on the first day didn’t mean he’d do it again today, he had no reason to stay…Black Hat had been rather forward though, kissing him like that, not that he was complaining but , he wasn’t one to just play around and be used.
Friends with benefits was one thing, at least you knew where you both stood, and yet still, why did it feel so familiar, an old dream perhaps, after all who didn’t at least have one wet dream about the great Black Hat doing sordid things to your body right.
Especially with tentacles, while wearing priest robes.
Yes he had his kinks, but damn you if you tried to shame him for them.
He huffed, shoulders going slump, no this was ridiculous , feeling sad just because that idiot of a Gremlin just upped and left without so much as a good bye, Hat didn’t owe him anything and he didn’t owe Hat anything either.
Clearly he was crazy, he had finally fucking lost it, thinking of The Great Lord Black Hat owing him a good bye and a kiss on the cheek as if they were lovers, he’d just met the bastard.
No he needed to either relax or worry if the destroyer of worlds was going to ruin his café that’d he’d always wanted with his mischievous downright evil antics.
Acylius was currently grinding up their latest victim, a man who’d been abusing Nicodemus’s workers (don’t worry if you don’t know who that is I won’t be bringing him into this unless I need him for like filler scenes)
Body parts in neat piles on the counter top, ‘pork’ pies were on the menu tomorrow, this was Black Hat’s island so even the people knew some places the menu would cater to demons so if they saw the chalk was in red they knew it was demon cuisine, though of course there was always the daring person who’d ask for it anyway in which a waiver definitely had to be signed.
Hey, wasn’t going to be Acylius’s problem if they decided to off themselves on food that probably wasn’t for human consumption.
This particular man had been a pig and he was serving sow next week.
Vile beings needed to meet a vile end.
This was going to be a long night, he could manage though, at best he could manage on two nights of sleep during the week.
Currently the head of the meat sack was animated and still alive, the man was so far gone he’d reached that point of acceptance that this was happening and nothing could be done, so seeing his body being prepped for pastries and such was more amusing than anything.
“I’m a Legion demon Jake, that’s your name right?”
“Yeah.”
“So, anyway as I was saying I’m a Legion demon in this day and age that means nothing to most unless you are perhaps ancient or still follow the old ways, I have nothing to offer thee Great Lord Black Hat.”
Jake watched as the demon deboned, removed a hand and of his shaved one of his arms before washing it down to make sure all the hair was gone before slapping it into the mince meat maker.
“Last I heard your kind was like some kinda lucky charm right dude?”
“Yes, but he does not need that from me, if we did anything he would be interested in me for all of five minutes and bail, he is all shadows and darkness, I will literally spend weekends in my boxers eating cheese puffs if the week has been hard enough, hardly a turn on for someone like Black Hat.”
Acylius snapped while working on another piece.
“I dunno, some beings like to see their partners being able to feel that chill around them, but hey that’s just my jam you know, anyway stop whining, this guy is old as shit right, you don’t know, your Legion demon shit might actually put a huge boner in his pants.”
Jake taunted, smirking as he watched his killer bristle up, oooo hooo sensitive much.
You know those scenes in anime’s where the other character suddenly gets really tall, shadows where their eyes should be and their hair seems to just be blowing in the wind and there’s that broken glass sound sometimes.
That’s Acylius’s reaction as his mouth turns into a ground out grin that’s splitting wider and wider along where the scars are, ironically that injury is the reason he can smile this wide now when the demon in him starts to show.
Jake was going to die, he was already he dead he knew it so why not torment him just a little more and get it over with
“Awww no I know what it is baby demon, you want a daddy you can suckle on and-
Acylius brought the meat tenderiser down on Jake’s head repeatedly until there was only pulp left, brain matter and blood were splattered across his apron with a few deep scarlet streaks going across his cheek, how brightly the red stood out against the snow white skin.
He was staring at the mess he’d made, panting softly, pupils thin and biting his lip, alright maybe he’d enjoyed that a little too much, he frowned though when he saw the pies had been covered to, well perhaps they would still be salvageable.
Scraping the remains of the head into the bin marked biohazard he pulled the bag out and set it down getting rid of other pieces he no longer required, tomorrow non human waste disposal would be picking up the remains anyway.
Demencia had caught the show and was leaning on the door.
“Looks like you got a little too into that Lulu, sure you don’t want to tenderise me on the surface.”
(NOTE, Acylius’s nick name Lulu was made last year in November 2019 because my friend had trouble pronouncing his name, so I tried to think of a name that he’d only let close friends and loved ones call him and that’s where that comes from, not Helluva boss, just thought I’d point that out as there’s a Lulu world and Loo Loo land)
“Not now Demencia, I’m not in the mood for your jokes.”
Acylius ran his fingers through his hair, regretting it once he remembered oh yeah covered in blood; a shower would definitely be needed before bed.
“Ah I see, so the head got sassy huh?”
Flug, because yes reminder Acylius is Doctor Flug, paused at the backdoor and pouted
“Might have, he also said some very offensive words that I did not appreciate.”
Demmy folded her arms, shaking her head and smiling
“Well you showed that head who’s boss, now hurry up binch I want my cookies and hot chocolate, it’s late.”
Flug lovingly gave her the finger as he walked out the door while telling her she had two hands she could do it herself.
The back alley was dimly lit, not that he couldn’t see or choose to focus his vision to see clearer but sometimes it was nice just to appreciate light that softly glowed and curled around corners to take in the world in all different ways and settings…oh he missed rain, there hadn’t been any in nearly two months now, he missed how things glowed, street lamps became brighter and car lights so red and vibrant against the grey trailing along winding roads of shimmering black.
Perhaps it would soon when the snow had melted, he’d go for a long drive and listen to the rain hitting the roof of his car, patting against the windows, listening to the quiet tick, tick, tick of the vehicle when he switched on the indicator.
Yeah just drive out the middle of nowhere, strip down and run in the rain or just let it soak into his clothes as his breath streamed out in wispy clouds…
Ears twitching he heard a late party of drunks making their way home, he watched them pass by, they were completely unaware of him, if he were perhaps a rabid sort of demon they would be easy pickings, but that was not his game, at least not tonight, there was no scent that told him a wrong doing had been done, just a group of friends heading home for bed.
Snow had fallen in the tracks left by the bustling day life of the people around here and now in the silence he wondered was he lonely, Demencia’s offers had sometimes had been all too tempting simply out of need for comfort and to be close to someone, sometimes it seemed she needed it just as much as he did when they’d just lean on each other and complain about their day.
Looking up he found someone watching him from the shadows, well more saw a pair of eyes, completely yellow, no white to be seen, oranges and reds, as if he were looking at the sun, shivering as a breeze rolled through he pulled down his sleeves, goose bumps rising, a tingling down his spine, just the little things that reminded him he was alive, he was not afraid of what lingered in the shadows, there was no sense of danger.
Perhaps they were a Legion fan , someone caught off guard by his appearance, after all Flug knew his scars could be quiet unsettling to some people…though come to think of it he did sense an air of fear about this being, still they were wide and unmoving.
Really the sensible thing to do would be to just go inside and ignore this creature, yet something kept him there a longing to talk to it, placing the garbage into the bins he smiled just a little
“You know stranger, you remind me of someone…someone I feel like I should know.”
Acylius’s ears lay flat as he heard them softly whimper, it sounded so sad.
“I am sorry, I was not being offensive I assure you, this person I speak of was very kind, at least he was in the dream, I dreamt when I was little , funnily enough a night like this, Mother had locked me out…”
He held one hand in the other looking at them, fingers curling around his thumb
“My fingers were so cold and red I could barely feel them, or the rest of myself to be honest…heh you probably do not want to hear the tired ramblings of an out of date demon.”
“No, please continue.”
There was silence again, that whispered voice, it comforted him, made him feel at ease, this indeed truly was a strange day.
“Mother had locked me out, I didn’t cry or beg her to let me back in, I knew she would not open the door, so I laid down cheek to the snow, despite being almost numb my face burned, my face…”
Tracing along his scars as he recalled the moment could not help but wince
“I had to be careful still they had barely healed by that point, but I remember how good the cold felt on them, red and angry they seemed to only be satisfied when pressed to the freezing earth, I knew that night or at least believed I was going to die and…I was alright with that until I saw a pair of eyes just like yours.”
Acylius took a step forward only stopping when he saw this being step back
“They were gold, I thought they were so beautiful , I thought maybe the angels we were told about were not so bad if they could come for something like me, his claws hands reached down for me but I didn’t see his face, all I heard was that I was coming home with him and his name…his name was…”
Acylius held his head in his hands, scrubbing them down his face
“His name was Cruentus.”
When he looked back at where the eyes had been there was only darkness, the demon in the dark had disappeared so quickly he wondered for a moment if they’d even been there.
No, nope, nope, that dream was not real, that being was not Cruentus, it was all coincidence and he was just exhausted, yes that was it, perhaps he should sleep tonight, or maybe he’d snacked on too much of Jake while he was working, or had too many sugary treats either way, it was pies in the fridge and off to bed.
Opening the back door he locked it behind him, ignoring the fact Demencia was chomping on one of the pies, after all she knew what was in them if she wanted to eat it that was up to her, his mind was elsewhere.
“Mmmm you tenderized this one good, Legs, nice and juicy.”
Usually her friend would react to that name, at least grunt or gently nudge her and tell her not to call him that, something was clearly bothering Acylius.
“Legs?”
Demencia asked gently, placing a hand on his shoulder, only for him to turn and pick her up by the front of her shirt, snarling as he did so
“Do not call me that name!”
Looking down at him, Demencia could really see something wasn’t right here, was he remembering something to do with that name, like it had always annoyed him, but that glare, the disheveled hair and fangs all bared …honestly in another situation he would be hot as fuck…alright she was already thinking he looked hot as fuck but this was not the time or place.
Touching Acylius’s face lightly, she watched as his ears flicked, his breathing was ragged, his eyes returning from being solid blue to having pupils and irises again, her hands were warm and comforting and he found himself leaning into them, lips pressed against her palm…she was there to ground him in his bad moments and he could never thank his friend enough for that.
“You mind setting me down you tree.”
Demencia laughed softly.
He carefully set her back down and pulled her in for a hug
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I would never hurt you, never.”
Nuzzling against his chest and wrapping her arms around him, patting his back
“Hey, hey now, none of that you dumb tree, I know you have gaps in your memory, did you remember why do you don’t like that name?”
“Hate, I don’t just dislike that name, I hate it…all I can hear is someone called Vincent and they make me curl up and die, I have no face only a voice, if I ever heard it…I would know…”
Flug was quiet, taking in just how small she was against him, reminding him how small most were against him like this, his talons formed, slowly stroking her hair, playing with the fuchsia overlay, down to her neck where it faded to lime green, such an interesting choice of colours to wear in ones hair.
“You already know I just appeared back into existence, as if the world itself birthed me, I was somewhere forgotten…and seeing Black Hat today, I think…no it is a stupid notion to think he could see me as anything.”
He kissed the top of her head, thankful that she had not let go, Demencia was the one being who never seemed to be afraid of him, who he knew he could trust and rely on in these moments where memories were trying to break through the surface and suffocated when they could not make it.
“I am a Legion demon, no more than a trinket in the end, I am a nothing in his world and I am okay with that, I have a nice peaceful life and a coffee shop just like I always wanted…”
He sat with her on the counter, as she sat on one of his thighs
“This is just a hug, you don’t need more right?”
Demmy enquired, slightly hopeful because who didn’t want to climb him, honestly, he was an idiot for not seeing he didn’t need to be some grand demon to be wonderful.
“Yes, just a hug…I wish I could say I grew up in a loving home with Christmases like in the movies, that I could tell you my life’s story, talk about a time I scraped my knee when I was small and had a mother who put cute cat plasters on me just because I like cats.”
She listened and let him stroke her hair, it’d always calmed him to pet soft things, so perhaps she might use shampoos that were just a little pricier than she’d usually buy simply to make sure her hair was soft for these broken moments no one else saw.
Even though he was not sobbing, made no notion he was crying, the damp warmth on her shoulder told her otherwise.
“I want to tell you the times my Father took me for ice cream, my first kiss with the person I fell in love with, something…anything, but there’s nothing there.”
She listened attentively until he had nothing left to say, carefully taking his hand from her scalp; Demencia held his face and looked at him
“Damn Sillyus, they really did send you back with nothing more than a leaflet.”
“I suppose, but I have so much to thank you for, when you found me on that street, I only remembered enough to get by, to survive, but you helped me to settle into this time and be a part of the modern world.”
Acylius kissed her forehead before pressing his to hers, eyes closed as he whispered
“I’m so tired of being lost, of being unsure of what I am, who I am, I just want to bake, make coffee and kill people in my basement, I think fortune smiled on me for a moment when you found me, I think I might just give you the world if you asked.”
“Awww come on dude, sounds like a love confession here, I have bills to pay off and knew there was a darker side in me, you’re the Sweeny to my Lovett.”
She teased fondly, lightly smacking the back of his head, smiling as he managed a laugh
“I guess I could agree platonically with that.”
“But honestly Slender Man, babe if you wanted to plant your tentacles and leave your seed in me I wouldn’t say no.”
Acylius rolled his eyes and shook his head, using a tea towel to wipe his face
“Honestly woman you are bloody hopeless.”
“Yeah but you love me all the more for it.”
She grinned punching him playfully on the shoulder
“Perhaps I do, but I am not as hot as you like to say I am, I hide my face, I hate when people look at my scars and pity me.”
Demmy raised a brow and climbed off of his leg, flicking his forehead
“I know you like to hide your face behind glamour and tricks but you’re beautiful even if you don’t see it dumbass, I’m starting to wonder what the fuck happened outside that had you coming back in as if someone stole your last apple crown and there’ll never be another one again on the face of the planet.”
She put the kettle on and took out the upside down pineapple cake; this was definitely a cake and tea situation
“First of all, do not say such blasphemous things, life would not be worth living without apple crowns, second of all…I think, I know I said there’s nothing there but I think I might have had a memory about my childhood involving Cruentus.”
Demencia nearly dropped the mug she was holding, setting it down she turned to face him
“Holy fucking shit, you mean thee fucking Cruentus, Hellhound butler, Hell Knight, works for the brooding clearly wants you to nail his ass Black Hat, that Cruentus…ahh I hear he has eyes like the fucking sun.”
Acylius gave her a deadpan look, hands on hips as he stood, looming over her, trying to look seriously only for it to falter
“You Demmy are just horny on main.”
“So what if I am? Gonna call me a slut like my last partner?”
She swatted away his playfully prodding hand.
“No, I never understood why it’s perfectly fine for men to have as many partners as they wish but seen as something terrible when a woman just wants to enjoy her life the same way, society is mad…also no more jokes on Black Hat you wicked beastie.”
Demencia would be lying if she didn’t admit his ability to shift from one mood to the other sometimes made her head spin, but it was clear he’d needed that moment to talk, shrugging she turned back to the kettle
“Alright, alright I’ll behave at least for now, I mean it’s clear the big bad doesn’t want you, how could he possibly want you…even though anyone with eyes could see he kept checking you out and every single coffee you brought him in hopes your stupid number was on it somewhere.”
Demencia couldn’t help but stifle a giggle at his sounds of huffing and frustration and heard him sit at the table, she did know there was stories, legends really by this point of Cruentus having a son, but you literally had to pour through footnotes and any books that might have had more information had been removed from shelves and privatized under the order of Black Hat himself.
End of segment one
(I'll try and type up segment two tomorrow)
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