#'took his acorn into his mouth ' WHY AN ACORN | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

itgirlgyu · 1 year

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MARMALADE MEMORIES

pairing : huening kai x fem! reader.

genre : best friend to lovers, mutual pining, idiots in love, fluff.

synopsis: under the melting sun of a nameless summer, you find out that the person who you call your best friend, and whom you once had fallen in love with , didn't in fact want your prized acorn paper weight, but your heart.

wc: 3.9k+

warning: huening kai is referred as a sadist and bastard multiple times, there is mention of a threat concerning a plastic fork and hyuka's nose, hyuka mentions his own balls, beomgyu, reader gets a concussion, hospital and bad example of physics.

a/n! heh my first one shot! stay tuned for the next one next year (jk) or am i

The swing still squeaked like it did every evening of those idyllic years of past; perhaps even more now, only a few years later. The shrill sound melting into the last breath of the light of the day, mixing itself with the palette of sunset, one that you both had savored together years later. Oddly wistful, if you had to put a word to that feeling. The buzzing warmth warbled at the pit of the stomach would definitely conquer the one of the diminishing bright star above. Although it's quite unclear to you whether it was the nostalgia of the ear-splitting noise of the unoiled metal clanging together that made you feel this way, or it was your best friend’s laughter that was one pitch away from over taking the invincible of swing that has been here since the buttcrack of 90’s.

“Never thought this old, rusty swing would bring so many memories,” Huening Kai exclaimed, eyes turning into the crescent’s that mirrored the one in the sky. Like a kid he had been clutching onto the metal grips of the swing, trying to get himself to sway as much as he could despite now being double the size of the swing set himself.

“Push me!” He added in with urgency, feets swinging in a childish tempo instantaneously teleporting him to the early years of his life when this very place was one of his daily commutes, despite all the jumbled brew of all sort of emotion a teenage boy can go through at the common playground of the society, only the sweeter of the bunch displayed on the apple of his rosy cheeks, and the lowkey questionable giggle that gurgled out of his mouth. All in the name of good nostalgia, you hoped.

"Fine!" You got up, wiping your hands onto the fabric of the skirt you were wearing, "Me next, though." You quickly threw in the condition.

The man kept his mouth shut, pretending to not hear what his best friend had said, earning a tug on his ear.

"Sure, sure!" Huening Kai winced in pain, prying your fingers off his ear, praying to his lord that none of your fingernails would catch onto his piercings and tug a few out; It had always been his biggest fear, once he got them pierced a few weeks ago.

You narrowed your eyes, but quietly took the place behind the man, placing your hands onto the metal chain attaching the seat to the pole, just above his fists, which tightened in anticipation.

"You know after all this time I thought you'd calm your violent outbursts a little." Huening Kai raised his feet above the ground to increase the velocity of the push, meanwhile you closed the proximity between the two of you as you brought your face next to his, trying to look at him in the eyes from standing behind him, nearing the stage of becoming cross eyed just to show the seriousness of the demand of the next turn being yours.

Huening Kai stopped breathing for a second at the interaction, the warmth from his cheeks radiating to his ear, urging him into deluding himself with the idea of the recent tugging of his ear being the cause of its turning into an embarrassing shade of red rather than having his best friend so close to him; he could have turned to his side just a little to close that shy little gap between them, which is exactly why he started to getting a cramp on his neck from the fear of moving at any direction and causing the unthinkable.

"I will push you too! No need to threaten me, geez!" He pulled his head in front of him, he might have looked like a duck but it was better than whatever the other options were.

"Good boy." You patted the top of his head, and pulled him back with all your might while stumbling backwards, making Huening Kai chortle joyfully like a kid in a toy store.

"Do you remember the time you chased me to this playground with a fork in your hand—STAND BACK! FAR!" Huening Kai yelled out, cautioning to get away in order to avoid the hit of the swing if he swung too far, hardly thinking it would, but both of you hadn't been the best at physics nor math and it would just be better for everyone if they maintained a safe distance.

You stepped a few feet away and sighed.

"That happened?" you lied confidently, trying to sound shocked and waver him off as you pulled back the seat, Huening Kai advised that it would give you better grip for a higher swing, and let go once again.

It had been only a few days since the two of you had met, acquainted, and fought when the murder attempt was made, and it was merely because he had taken your homework with him and went away for a get away with his parents which resulted in quite some trouble for you. And for that reason to this day, you do not regret threatening the man with that plastic fork which you said you would have generously shoved up one of his nostrils, and fetch it back from the other one.

Plus it started their beautiful friendship that transcended all those years.

"YES!" Huening Kai exclaimed, turning back to look at your face from high above the ground, "It was a plastic fork though."

"Don't really remember." You murmured, avoiding eye contact with the victim of the heinous crime. Huening Kai chuckled and shook his head, and turned back before whining to go a little bit faster.

"Do you remember the time when I wanted your acorn paper weight?" He asked quietly, playing the entire scenario of how it took place in the hallway of their school.

"And then we met here to trade."

You nodded even though Huening Kai had no way of seeing your non verbal confirmation, " I was so surprised when you asked for it, like it was a paper weight." laughter bubbled at the back of your throat as you rewinded the memory of an awkwardly tall, sheepish boy eyeing the acorn paper weight with such determination.

"It was pretty…"

"And that sticker book!" You gasped, leaning on one of the handles Huening Kai had been holding onto, "It had all my favorite animes!"

You giggled triumphantly, the years old exultation still making you giddy to this day, "I think I got a better end of the deal than you and your sad acorn!"

"Loser!" You added with an exaggerated evil laugher.

Huening Kai carelessly nodded, soaking in all of the fervorous cadence you offered, blissfully unaware of the eyes that were fixated on you; the movement long forgotten as Huening Kai opened the box of nostalgia. Handpicking each and every story that was made in this playground, and replaying it in front of them like a movie of a lifetime.

Oblivious to himself, he had been smiling up to you; the marmalade sunset melting the brown into his eyes and trickling like honey onto his cheeks, staining them oh so sweet.

"Do you remember the time you gave me a rose?" He pondered out loud.

"What a way to crash the nostalgia train, shithead."

Of course You remember, who could forget their first confession no matter how bad it went. Especially when it went inexplicably bad; the worst! But what was even more worse than worst, if that is possible (It was in this case), was the fact it had been Huening Kai, who you had confessed to. It sends you cold shivers that you still remember that day as clear as a sunny day.

"Sure I called you a loser," You sighed, "You didn't have to repay me with that blow."

You wondered whether her best friend had been a closeted sadist all these while.

"I didn't murder anything nor did I blow you with anything," He reasoned, turning his bottom into the seat to face you a little bit more, the inane smile had been replaced by a dinky frown, "I just asked you whether you remember it or not."

"Woah," You wheezed, "You're so cold hearted."

Huening Kai rolled his eyes waiting for you to get over the drama and reply to him, which you did, "Yeah."

"You're such a bastard, you want me to talk about it, don't you?" You put your hand on his head and yanked a fistful in rage, but let go soon enough when you saw a few of his bleached hair coming out; you didn't wanna be known as a the crazy lady who made a hole into her crush's head after he had rejected her years prior.

Huening Kai's hands flew to his crown in a panicked rush as early hair loss flashed before his eyes, letting out a sigh of relief when he did not see a patch of his yellow hair on your hands. He relaxed his shoulders, and leaned back on the other handle.

"Yes please," He pleaded with a smirk, "Tell me all about it."

One demonic shriek and three earth shattering convulsions later, you were ready to indulge into the revelatory experience you had at the beginning of your teenage years, and be done with the ridiculous life experience that haunted every night of those ripe years full of opportunities.

"I confessed to you," You murmured quickly, flitting your eyes everywhere except for the pair that were gazing into hers with a minuscule citrusy smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. You hated that dumb face he made; You despised the actuality of the little beat that your heart skipped in that moment.

You found him smiling up at you when the shame died down just a bit, "I didn't quite catch you, can you repeat that?"

"The only thing you'd be catching is," You held up a clenched fist, "this."

Huening Kai's cautiously touched the knuckled of your closed fist pushed it down as if he were testing the water, his gaze cavorting from your deadpanned eyes to your tiny fist that is now at half the height you had raised it at first without any visible scratches on him: always a good sign to go on.

"You heard me,"

"No, I did not."

"You-" You calmed yourself, snatching your fist away from the tip of his fingers that had been lingering on your knuckles despite the danger being out of question, you pointed your index finger at him, and then put it down. Your cheeks turning into the rouge of the rose you had shoved into his hands and left a few summers before.

"Anyway, whatever!" You explained, your hands capering around in the air, as Huening Kai watched with an amused smile that only increased in sizes as the second keys in the clock ticked away, "So I liked you!"

"Only a little," You clarified.

"Pfft," Huening Kai snickered, sitting up properly, further diminishing the distance between you two. He could see himself in your eyes, "You're lying."

"You shoved a single rose in my hand, muttered something like, I like you I guess and just booked it." He explained, reciting it exactly as it happened, word to word. Which meant only one thing, he remembered everything. Sure, he hadn't comically been hit by a car and lost his memories but You hadn't expected him to remember it as vividly as you did, that too from the perspective of the person who had not embarrassed himself in front of a person they had a crush on.

"Don't remind me," You slipped further onto the chain, somehow mimicking an otter pop in the summer heat after being in the hands of an hyperactive toddler for more than five minutes, " You never answered me back either."

"That's because I didn't get a single word that you told me, until I spent some time on the way your lips moved and what sounds that you made could be translated into words." Huening Kai chuckled, the memories of a younger him trying to impersonate his best friend and make those sounds to figure out what you had said was still as fresh as it had been yesterday.

"Still not an excuse," You sulked, "We had school together."

Huening Kai nodded in agreement, with his lips pursed and his eyebrows bunched together to come up with a feasible fib, "we did,"

"Perhaps I was shy?"

You rolled your eyes the exact moment an abrupt gush of wind gently brushed the silken web of dark hair away from your face, the sheen of burning sun shining onto your cheeks.

“You and shy?” You cocked your head to the side and leaned in closer. Huening Kai’s oxygen intake was immediately endangered when the nearness between your heads was less than mere five inches. Huening Kai blinked; once, twice. He had hoped providing a few seconds might remind you of the unseen boundary of friendship you had crossed, once again. Just as bravely done as you had done four years ago.

“Stop kidding me,” You broke the silence, finally retreating your head. Huening Kai was awfully confused: you sighed, and went to sit in the swing adjacent to his, Huening Kai’s eyes never leaving you.

“ You probably thought it was a joke or something,” You drawled, “and it’s okay you know?”

Huening Kai knows it's not okay. He could tell that from the way your eyebrows were furrowed together, and that etch of frown that marred your glow. Huening Kai hoped it wasn't okay. It was selfish of him to wish that but the boyish feelings he had harbored for you way before yours even began to flutter, turned him into one of those emerald tactless monsters.

“It's okay if you didn't like me back.”

Huening Kai internally groaned: he was going insane. The soft, pitiful tone you spoke in only added fuel to the hell fire that was already burning inside of his heart. He couldn’t blame it on the fried oreo Beomgyu had stuffed down his throat anymore. He might have been a coward years ago, but now his balls were all grown and ready to be used.

“Not true,” Huening Kai murmured, dragging himself across the steel seat to face the front.

“Very true,” You snapped back.

“You couldn’t have been further from the truth,’ Huening Kai snorted, avoiding your flaming eyes, sending you more death threats than a wounded fan at their bias’s wedding.

“Okay so you were madly in love with me? Ooh you would've died for me," You mocked him, but as though Huening Kai was hell bent on embarrassing the shit out of you, that bastard nodded at the ridiculous rumor you made up on that spot.

“Now that’s some good ol’ truth.”

“Nobody talks like that old guy!” You were mad; You were furious, your nostrils were flaring as though they had a life of their own and those lives were very stressful. It might have been years since you got ditched, but that was still your first actual in person crush, which remained unclear and now the offender of that deplorable act is sitting beside you and committing perjury. You could break his skull open.

Without a word, Huening Kai turned around meeting your accusatory eyes. His ones were serene, melting like candle wax, shimmering like the reflection of moon in a constant wavering lake, meanwhile yours were smokey, cautious and hurt clouding the pupil in iridescent droplets. You opened your mouth to plead, but nothing came out.

‘Don’t look at me like that,’ was what you wanted to say.

It was bizarre; insane actually how some gymnastic that snuck into your stomach was doing somersaults, like a whole butterfly convention letting all of them out in your gut. It was weird, because you had this exact torture executed on you years ago, on the command of this exact man.

“I wanted to tell you something that day,” Huening Kai began, breaking the harrowing eye contact that immured you, allowing you to breathe at last.

“I liked you,” Huening Kai confessed, letting out a breath of relief. The tingling sensation that erupted beneath his skin, electrifying him to the core. Despite the fear that laundered his entirety, it was freeing at last.

Although the same couldn’t have been said for you..

“I probably liked you before you did,” Huening Kai chuckled, throwing a side glance towards you, briefly catching the blanched appearance you adapted.

“You're pulling my leg.” You stated in a shaken tone, but it was just as quickly refuted by Huening Kai who shook his head.

“Do you think I’ve watched an episode of cardcaptor sakura in my life?” Huening Kai questioned, “Or inuyasha?”

Huening Kai was right: It had always been you who was a big fan of all those shows in that book. You didn't even know whether Huening Kai was even remotely aware of them except you mentioning them once in a while,yet the sticker book was filled with the obsessions you had rambled away to your heart's content.

It wasn't good, it wasn't good at all. The way Huening Kai looked at you; it made your heart skip beats like the first time you had figured out your irrational behavior, and palpitations were because of him. As though someone had turned back the clock, and they were back in the year and your biggest wish was for him to love you back.

You shook your head, "But you," you murmured, closing your eyes to collect yourself, "But I thought you wanted my acorn!"

Huening Kai was beside you in silence, trying to process what his best friend, and allegedly (according to you, it was still alleged) crush had said, before erupting in a fit of hysterical laughter. He pulled his head backwards, flinging his black locks along with him, clutching onto the metal chains to prevent himself from toppling over, all while you stared at him as if he had just smoked some green leaves.

"You really are dense," He sputtered out in difficulty through his laughter, "I wanted a reason, not your acorn!"

You opened your mouth to defend but closed it realizing you had nothing to put forth as evidence while blissfully ignoring the biggest lead for you to win the case. You slumped onto your uncomfortable metal plate of the swing, which was starting to hurt your tailbone, while slowly soaking in the new information from years prior that could have, frankly, changed the trajectory of your life.

Your first love could have been fulfilled.

"Why didn't you answer me back when I said I liked you?" You questioned, springing up from your slouched position, pointing an accusatory finger at Huening Kai.

"I-" Huening Kai stammered; at this age, he had no idea why he had just ignored that completely despite sharing those feelings. A look of defeat washed over his features, his head lolling downwards in a wave of shame that washed over him upon remembering what a candy-ass he had been in front of you.

"I am sorry," He apologized, "I guess, I was taken aback."

"So you're saying we could have dated in school?" You wondered out loud, pushing kicking the ground to swing yourself as high as you could. It felt funny in your gut knowing that your one sided high school love affair wasn't as bad as you had cursed it for so long, although quite a bit unfortunate. No one ever told you that discovering that your old crush, with whom you had no luck getting together with now, was actually interested in you too.

"It's kinda weird now, don't you think?" You added, turning to look at Huening Kai who never stopped staring at the soaring girl; glowing brighter than the moon that had embraced the navy sky.

“Why weird?” Huening Kai queried, stretching his arms before standing up and walking behind you, hoping to return the favor he had promised you.

“It’s just,” You paused when Huening Kai’s hands grabbed onto your shoulders to prevent you from crashing into him. Myriad of stars detonated behind your closed eyes; Heart racing as though it is being chased by something that would guarantee it from ever beating, thumping against the rib cage at a brush of his hand.

Huening Kai murmured a quick apology, moving his hands onto the metal chains. The downside of his closed palms slightly touching your closed fists: an action that wouldn’t have affected you anyway, just ten minutes ago, but now it was a whole different conversation. Huening Kai just broke open Pandora's box, and you were the one suffering.

You were only one step, one innocent touch, away from experiencing all nine stages of grief in front of your ex-cush and current best friend, “Do you think we would have still been together?”

“I would hope so,” Huening Kai answered truthfully, he let go of the swing when felt it was a safe enough distance,”But your boyfriend might not like that idea.”

An impish smile decorated Huening Kai’s lips: he was aware of the fact that you currently had no boyfriend; a fact which you had no idea of. Truthfully he’s just testing the waters.

“I have no boyfriend!” You yelled out from above. Huening Kai smirked, quickly doing a congratulatory fist pump, and fixed his posture, pushing you back up when you came down. Thankfully, he was standing behind you so he didn't have to hide his grin and appear as if someone injected anesthesia into his lips while trying to hide it.

“Do you want one?”

If your heart skimped on doing it’s only one job which essentially runs your body, you might just admit yourself in a cardiac specialized clinic, and stamp the bill onto Huening Kai’s forehead. This time, before he could push you again, you screamed for him to stop and turned back to get a better look at the man.

And that bastard looked as though he was enjoying this. You were now sure that your ex crush and current best friend is in fact a sadist.

Huening Kai bent down to look you in the eyes,

"Do you want one?” He repeated his question; this time a little bit slower, a bit more earnest and an amped up sexual appeal which his 16 year self never could even if he plucked up the courage.

You were the first one to break eye contact, as you narrowed your eyes. You got up and stood in front of him, now looking up at him with your arms crossed, before booking it and running out of the playing ground. But in a comical turn of events, you hadn’t noticed the pull up bar in the dark and fell back within a second. If the pain wasn’t enough, the embarrassment was enough reason for you to dig a hole into the ground and bury yourself into it.

“Hey you okay?!”

“You couldn’t wait till I got discharged?” You deadpanned, touching the bandage on your forehead that you had acquired from last night’s mishap.

“No,” Huening Kai quickly responded before pouting his lips to blow onto the spoonful of soup and took it towards you—which you consumed without any words. He had a content smile on his face, pulling his personal handkerchief out and wiping the corner of your lips.

“I think for our first date,” Huening Kai looked around, acknowledging the romantic setting of a plain hospital room, “This is pretty iconic.”

#txt x reader #txt imagines #txt one shot #txt fanfic #txt scenarios #txt fluff #txt funny #txt drabble #huening kai x reader #huening kai fluff #huening kai imagines #huening kai scenarios #huening kai drabbles #huening kai fic #huening kai one shot #huening kai funny

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waltzchristophh · 3 months

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Ricky and the gang are stranded at a train convention in America with no dope.

But you're there to save the day!

RICKY LAFLEUR X READER

Based on that one episode. (s7: e4)

You took your last puff from the cigarette and flicked it out the drivers side window, rolling it back up and resting into your reclined seat. Your hands shielded your eyes from the burning sun while somebody or something grew closer.

Within a few seconds a fire haired fellow in an MLK button-up was rapping at your window like he needed a minute to talk to you about our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. You squinted at him curiously, and rolled the window down with cautious hesitation.

He stood with an exasperated hand on his hip and sighed, "Hey, you got any weed on ya by any chance?."

You were blindsided by the strange man's forwardness, covering your mouth with your hand and coughing lightly. His stark blue eyes lingered on yours, awaiting an answer.

"Uh- um yeah. Think so."

"Sweet, can I smoke it with ya?"

The ginger stranger glowed with inebriated desire, his mouth hanging open slightly.

You smiled a gentle smile and broke the stare to shuffle through your belongings.

"Sure. Don't have any papers on me though."

You retracted your toes from the top of the dashboard and opened the compartment with a click.

"That's no biggie, I got a few on me right now actually."

---

"So what are you doing here anyway?" You asked thoughtfully.

"What'd'ya mean?"

The two of you sat lazily in the heated comfort of your 2002 cruiser.

"Well, you're not here for the convention... You come all the way out here lookin like a bum just to ask strangers for dope?"

Ricky belly laughed and passed the joint, shoulders bouncing.

"Yeah you fuckin caught me. I came all the way from Nova Scotia to go door to door pickin up cute girls with good dope."

You pursed your lips and held the air in your cheeks so you looked like a squirrel with acorns in its mouth. You blew the air out when your gaze met Ricky's, bursting with laughter. The edges of his mouth lifted into a cute smile.

"You think I'm a cute girl then, ehh??" You nudged at him playfully, forcing more laughter out of him.

"Heh... nah I'm just here for my friend, Bub's. He's got this huge boner for those modern train things or whatever. Got our weed thrown out by those *cough* border patrol fuckwads. Why the hell are you here?

"My brother's got the same kinda boner... holy fuck that sounds wrong."

The ginger stranger, who you now knew by the name of Ricky, laughed heartily.

"How old is he?"

"13."

"Why didn't you go with him?"

You sighed and rolled your head over to look at him with big cartoon eyes.

"Not my thing."

You took the final drag from the joint before putting it out on the top of your dashboard. "HEY, I got an idea."

"Yeah?" Ricky chuckled, "What idea you got, miss smarty pants?"

You turned the engine on and backed up the car, looking behind you, then back at Ricky.

Your front teeth tugged lightly at your lower lip as you smiled and looked down. Ricky's warm ashy hand grazed your cheek and lifted your eyes to meet his.

"Let's get outta here."

---

Pt 2?

Please comment if you enjoyed!

#ricky x reader tpb #tpb ricky x reader #ricky lafleur #ricky lafleur x reader #trailer park boys #trailer park boys fanfic

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prythiansfavoritefox · 2 days

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Pairing: Elucien

Elain stared at Lucien, shock clear on her face. "I...but I'm a human. This doesn't make sense. How could I-how could we possibly be mates?"

Lucien slumped over in his chair, head in his hands. He was just as stunned as she was. Something had compelled him to walk into the Lion's den, the place where his father held court like he was a goddamn king (well, not his father by blood, but the father he'd unfortunately grown up with). That something had driven him crazy, explosions of magic bursting out of him at the sight of the human woman they dragged by her hair. It was only after he'd killed everybody in the vicinity, grabbed her, and escaped from there that he'd realized what had happened.

Lucien sighed. "I'm not completely human, Elain." She was the most exceptionally beautiful woman he had ever seen, and he'd been surrounded by vampires most of his life; he just wished they'd met under different circumstances. Lucien had had no idea he could even imprint considering his mixed nature, but this answered his question. She narrowed her doe-brown eyes on him. "You have the mark of a vampire hunter," she said, indicating the small bit of skin exposed at his wrist revealing the magic mark. "Are you a werewolf, then?"

Lucien snorted. His skin did not feel cold like most vampires; it ran red hot because of the fire in his blood. Because of it, his relatives had a higher tolerance to sunlight then most vampire breeds. Hence, they were sometimes mistaken for werewolves whose blood ran hot. It also made them more dangerous than most vampires.

"No. I'm half-vampire."

Elain blanched and jumped away from him. Her eyes were wide as she exclaimed, "You're a hybrid? And you're hunting your own kind?"

Lucien couldn't help but be amused by her reaction, leaning back in his own chair and smirking slightly. "If you knew my family, you'd understand why. Besides, I like my human side better."

Elain stared at him haughtily, placing her hands on her hips. "I can assure you, nothing about your behavior thus far has remotely resembled that of a human's."

"Consider me an upgrade, then."

Elain rolled her eyes, walking away from him. Drawn by the mating bond instincts, Lucien followed her. "Are you a vampire hunter too, then?" He was pretty sure he'd seen the mark on her skin as Beron's servants had dragged her towards the dais.

"In a matter of speaking." Lucien followed Elain into some kind of kitchen, where various strange smelling herbs and stews were kept in closed pots. Lucien inspected one, and the pungent odor made him smile.

"Don't go near that!" Elain shouted, rushing towards him, but Lucien just chuckled. "Relax, little witch. This won't harm me. It wouldn't kill any of my family members either, but it would certainly do them a great deal of damage. Any other vampire would get one whiff and die instantly."

Elain heaved a sigh of relief. She had put on an apron now, and Lucien couldn't help but think of how adorable she looked in the squirrel and acorn print. She reached for the cupboard above him, getting on her tiptoes. Lucien, suppressing his laughter, reached up and handed it to her. She took it from him with a little huff, gracefully placing them beside yet another pan before going to the fridge and pulling out vegetables.

Lucien's brows rose. "Don't tell me you're making another potion? Don't you have enough of those?"

Elain turned back to him, the faintest of smiles on her face. "This isn't a potion, silly. It's dinner."

Oh. Lucien blinked. "Ahhhh, well, tell me what you're making so that I can help."

Elain opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly, there was the sound of a garage door opening, and she paused, something pained crossing her expression. "Quick! You need to hide!" she hissed.

Lucien wished he hadn't put it together so quickly, but he did. "Your husband?"

Elain shook her head. "My fiance. I...well before I met you, I was engaged. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but...truthfully, in the moment, I had forgotten." The words she didn't say hung between them.

Because I was so enamored by you.

Lucien quickly threw himself into a closet. He clenched his fists, squeezed his eyes tight, and took deep breaths to try and control his mating reflexes. There was the sound of a door opening and closing before Elain's lovely voice cried, "Graysen!" and nimble feet ran towards heavier feet.

There was a thud, and a yelp from Elain, and Lucien could guess what had happened. She had been slammed against the wall.

"Where is he?" Graysen snarled. Elain blinked. "Where is who?"

"Your mate!" he bellowed. "I know he's here; I can smell him."

Lucien could smell Graysen too; his mate had unknowingly gotten engaged to a vampire's sworn enemy: a werewolf.

"What do you mean, you can smell him?" Elain demanded. "What are you, a dog?"

"That's exactly what he is." Lucien swaggered out of his hiding place, lazy grin on his face. Inside, he was seething as he saw how helpless Elain was, pinned to the wall by her own lover. "Elain, your fiance is a werewolf. Dog, I'd advise you get your hands off the lady, right now."

Like a dog, Graysen barked at him and charged towards him. Lucien laughed. It was a werewolf's greatest weakness: their impulsivity and lack of control over their emotions. As Graysen barreled at him, Lucien easily sidestepped, grabbed his wrist, and slammed him against the opposite wall, whipping out a knife to press against his throat.

Lucien crooned in his ear, "Bad. Dog."

He looked back at Elain, and the hurt in her expression had the mating bond raring at him to slit Graysen's throat where he stood. But Lucien knew that wouldn't solve any problems, especially since she still loved him.

Instead, he pressed against a spot on Graysen's neck, knocking him out. "We'll deal with him later," Lucien assured her, and the slightest of smiles bloomed on her face. Lucien couldn't help but answer with a wider one of his own.

@tacocattacocattacocatexplosion

#elucien #lucien vanserra #elain archeron #fanfic #vampire hunter au

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abugeatbugworld · 2 months

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Five times Dot made Flik laugh (and one time she made him cry)

"Will you sit by my bed while I fall asleep?"

They'd started this little ritual almost a year ago, after Hopper and his gang came to visit the first time. The princess had a nightmare about Thumper and ended up wandering the anthill in the middle of the night, half-delirious from fear. Flik was the one who found her and carried her back to her room, then stayed by her bedside and held her hand until the orange light of sunrise filtered through the anthill.

Although the grasshoppers were gone and the nightmares didn't come as often, Flik never asked Dot why she sometimes still wanted him there.

It was one of those nights. He'd been sitting on a stone beside Dot's bed, which was made from the hollowed out acorn half that had once served as a fake bird's beak. She'd fallen asleep twenty minutes ago, but something in Flik compelled him to stay a little longer.

He was frantically scribbling ideas for new inventions on a piece of leaf parchment he'd found when a quiet voice broke his train of thought.

“Flik?”

“Hm?”

“You like-like Atta, don’t you?”

Flik blinked and rubbed at his eyes until the princess's face came into focus. "Of course I like her. I like everyone in your family."

Even in the dim light of her mushroom lamps he could see Dot's eyes roll. "No, like-like. That means you like her more than just a friend. Like...you want to marry her."

If Flik had been drinking something at that moment, he would have spewed it all over her crisp petal blanket.

“What makes you think that?” he asked, aware that his voice was about an octave higher than its normal pitch.

Dot's hand emerged from beneath the blanket as she began counting off the reasons on her fingers. “You’re with her all the time. You’re always smiling when she’s around. You do anything she wants you to. And you look at her with these…these…googly eyes.”

Flik smiled in spite of himself. "We're bugs, Dot. We all have googly eyes."

She stared at him, clearly unamused by his quip. Apparently he wasn't getting out of this one.

Flik sighed and rolled the parchment on his lap into a tube shape. Then he pressed his elbows into his knees and cupped his chin in his palms, giving his inquisitive friend his full attention.

"Okay…" he said softly. "So maybe I do ‘like-like' your sister. How does that make you feel?”

Dot took a moment to consider the question. “I dunno," she finally said, sitting up and wrapping her arms around her knees. She looked like a tiny purple version of Tuck or Roll. "A little weird, I guess.”

Flik frowned. He'd been worried that this might happen. “I’m sorry, Dot. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

She shrugged and looked down at her knees. “It’s okay. I’m getting used to it."

A beat of silence went by, during which Flik scrambled for the right thing to say. Before he could open his mouth, Dot's curled into a smile. "It does mean I get to see you more, which I like.”

Flik grinned and felt his shoulders relax. Maybe this whole situation didn't have to be as awkward as he thought it would be. “I like that, too.”

The room was draped in silence again, but this time it wasn't the bad kind. After a moment Dot yawned and nestled herself beneath the blanket. Instinctively Flik reached over to pull it up to her chin.

"For the record..." he whispered as he tucked the antling into bed like he'd done so many nights before. "...You were my friend first."

Dot rolled over onto her side, but not before Flik caught her smile deepening. He waited a few minutes until he was sure she was asleep by the pace of her breathing. Then he tucked the roll of parchment beneath his arm and stood up to head to bed himself.

He made it about halfway to the door.

"Flik?"

"Hm?"

“No kissing my sister in front of me, okay?”

#a bug's life #pixar #disney pixar #personal #fanfiction #fanfic #pixar fanfic #disney fanfiction #flik #dot #princess dot #five times

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lucigoo · 1 month

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#FFF245 - You Never Cared, Why Start Now?

Pairing - Past Bilbo/Thorin Warnings - Suicide by fire, MCD Words - 752

Summary - It started with the fires burning through Erebor. It will end with the fires burning through Bag End. Prompt #245 @flashfictionfridayofficial A03 here

Bilbo looked around at his smial. It was empty, bereft of life. Even though he had gotten everything back, even though it was all in place, it was useless. This wasn’t his home. This wasn’t anyone’s home anymore.

His home was buried in a mountain. Still and silent. His chest no longer moving, his heart now longer beating, no longer able to love Bilbo.

And yes, Bilbo’s heart still beat, as sluggishly as it did so, but the tempo was all wrong. It was broken. Like the rest of him.

He sighed again as his cup of tea turned to ash in his mouth.

He had done his job as a burglar. He had done his duty as a free being of middle earth.

He had saved the dwarves of Erebor, got their home back, and then he had gone to Mordor and saved everyone else.

It was then, with the frantic knocking on his door, that he wondered WHY he had even bothered. Wondered if the small-minded beings he knew had even been worth saving.

Bilbo opened the door to, well, a mob. He looked out at his family and sighed. He didn’t have the energy for this, and he had warned them not to come too close to him. Until he felt better. If he ever felt better.

“What?” he asked sharply, exhausted already.

“You can’t stay in Bag End alone Bilbo,” the shrill voice of Lobelia called through, increasing the pounding in his head even more.

Bilbo couldn’t hold back his wince at her voice. He took a deep breath and looked at her, hand reaching behind the door for Sting, in case he needed to chase the group away. “I can, and I shall. I’m sick, Lobelia. Go away before the malice of Sauron infects you too,” he said.

He watched as the other hobbits muttered about him and his “stories” to one another, right in front of his face. Bilbo’s nose screwed up in disgust. What happened to at least pretending to have manners and talking behind people’s backs?.

“You’re not well Bilbo,” Lobelia said in a sickly sweet voice.

“I know I am unwell. I’ve just told you I’m sick. But it isn’t the kind of sickness you are insisting upon. My head and my marbles are fine. I also wrote a will before I left. It will stand and you will not get Bag End no matter what happens to me. Now go,” he ordered.

Lobelia stood there seething as she tried one last time with the hobbits backing her up. “Bilbo, I only care about your well being,” she started.

“Do not lie to me!” Bilbo roared. “You do not care. You never cared. Any of you. The few who did are not here. You only cared to get my home, my assets. Who cared when I was a faunt? Lost and alone? Who cared when I had to arrange my parents’ funeral alone? Who cared between then and now? None of you. You never cared. And now it is too late. Leave my smial!” he thundered before slamming the door shut and locking it for good measure.

Bilbo heard them leave, heard the grumblings. Heard how no one sane would deal with Mad Baggins. He was already dying, so what difference did it make how or when he died?

He waited for the evening and got everything ready. And then he dropped the torch. He waited in his living room, Sting in one hand, his mithril on his knee, Thorin’s travelling cloak around his shoulder and his map in front of him.

Bilbo then knelt with his favoured possessions around him as the fire soared, as the red flames spread. He held his acorn close and sent a prayer to Yavanna. He was already dying and his heart had been lost back in Erebor. His kith and kin despised him for being different. He had nothing left. His purpose, if he ever had one, was done. Now he just felt like an empty shell in the shape of a hobbit.

Maybe Yavanna would show him mercy and allow him to go to Thorin. Maybe they would have pity on one small, sad, lost little hobbit as he sat there and let the flames destroy him and his home.

In the morning, there was nothing left of Bag End or Bilbo, but ash and smoke. Bag End was gone and so was a remarkable hobbit who had managed to save everyone but himself.

#FFF245 #flash fiction friday #Bagginshield #Sad Bilbo #This one hurt

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gothicmama · 1 year

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"The things you see in the market."

Krelven, like most Dwarrow from Ered Luin, had made many visits to and journeys through the Shire. The markets there were good to the struggling community. Despite the caution and fear present in most Hobbits, they treated anyone willing to trade fairly. There were the few exceptions of course, he knew to watch out for one Hobbit in particular and luckily the atrocious colored umbrella she liked to carry gave him a warning sign to head the other way. But other than that, he quite enjoyed his time in the market. Even when he didn’t have anything of his to sell or trade just strolling through was well worth the trip. And given the recent events that had left the Dwarrow community as a whole devastated, the familiar, calming chaos of the market was something he desperately needed.

It had been several months since his last visit, too busy with helping wherever he could as many residents of Ered Luin prepared for their trip home to Erebor. Mostly those were the ones who were originally from Erebor, the ones who’d had to flee decades before. But there was a fraction of those born in Ered Luin who were also making the trip. Krelven wasn’t one of those, he was born in the Blue Mountains, and he wasn’t ready to leave them. He knew eventually, when he was older, he would move to Erebor for a time, just to say he’d lived there. But for now, he was happy with his home, and he sent away those making the journey with a smile and a prayer.

Saying goodbye to some of his friends, and a few family members, was part of the reason why returning to the Shire was a welcome change. Familiar faces greeted him, and he even received enthusiastic “Welcome backs” from the ones who no longer feared him, the ones he could hesitantly call good acquaintances, if not distant friends. He felt a smile stretching across his face, mostly hidden under his bushy brown beard, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d smiled so freely. But his smile slipped when one face in the crowd caught his eye. Freezing in place, his mouth dropped open in astonishment. He’d never seen the Hobbit in person, but descriptions and drawings had made their way through the Dwarrow community, even to the ones who had no reason to know. He’d recognize him anywhere.

Bilbo Baggins looked just as he did in all the drawings Krelven had seen. Bright, honey curls bounced as he bobbed his head in time with the conversation he was having with the Hobbit manning the pie stall. The picture hadn’t captured the bright green of his eyes, nor the intelligence shining within them. The rest of his face was accurate, though in the picture his face was thinner. He supposed that made sense, even the simplest of journeys took their toll. And he knew the journey to retake Erebor had been anything but simple. Now his cheeks were filled out and flushed, signs of good health.

Krelven was snapped out of his awe when someone in the crowd, which hadn’t stopped moving around him, accidentally bumped into him. He automatically apologized without looking at them, ignoring their own apology, and quickly moved out of the way. He found a spot in between two stalls and if it was the perfect place to get a better look at the legendary Hobbit, no one else had to know. This vantage point let him see the Hobbit’s whole body. Just like his face, his body in the picture had been thin, ravaged by the journey. Now though, he looked like any other healthy Hobbit, on the smaller side of plump but still respectable from what he understood of Hobbit habits. His clothes were clean and neat, his coat a brilliant green fabric that matched the green of his eyes.

But what really caught Krelven’s interest was the Dwarfish accents of his clothes. The geometric pattern embroidered around the cuffs was gold, and the gold buttons were square instead of round. But staring at them his sharp eyes caught the acorn etched into the center of each one. And when Bilbo turned his head towards Krelven, a matching gold bead gleamed in the sunlight for just a second. Then it disappeared just as quickly as Bilbo turned his head back. But that second was more than enough for Krelven. Shock surged through him, and his mouth fell open a second time.

A bead. Bilbo Baggins had a bead, a gold bead. A gold bead with an acorn etched into it. And above the bead was a braid. He’d recognize a marriage braid anywhere. The shock gave way to delight, and he couldn’t help but smile. He’d heard the stories, the rumors. Many speculated that there had been something between Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield. No one spoke of it plainly, as it was nothing more than rumors that had no true confirmation. But it was just an accepted fact that Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield had been in love, whether they knew it or not.

In spite of the sadness that rose up thinking about the late king and their lost love, he was pleased to see Bilbo wearing a Dwarven braid and bead. It was an acknowledgement that something had been there, and he knew it had been there. And he was holding onto it. Krelven began to turn away then, not wanting to intrude any more than he already had. But then someone stepped up behind the Hobbit, reaching for him. Krelven’s attention was caught again, worry blooming inside him as he saw hands grabbing Bilbo’s arms. He actually took a step forward, only to stop himself when he realized the hands weren’t pulling or gripping. They were squeezing, gentle despite the obvious strength in them. And then Bilbo leaned back against the person and Krelven’s previous delight died.

He followed the hands up the arms and to the body. He couldn’t see anything except that it was a Dwarf, relatively tall and stocky like most. They had on a deep blue tunic and brown pants, tucked into their well-worn boots, typical fashion for most Dwarrow who weren’t royalty. Their face was hidden by their long hair as they leaned over Bilbo’s shoulder, like a thick, black curtain streaked with grey. The Hobbit turned to face them, a smile lighting up his whole face, and he nodded to whatever was said to him. Krelven tasted disgust in his mouth watching, immediately followed by guilt. He turned away and looked down at the ground.

He had no right to be upset at the Hobbit for finding love and happiness where he could. It had been over a year since the king’s death. More than enough time to grieve and fall in love again. And if he understood Hobbits correctly, they tended to do things like love and courting fast. And even if it had been no time at all, it wasn’t his place to have any feelings on the matter. He wasn’t close to Thorin Oakenshield and loyalty to his king only gave him so much opinion on the matter.

He put the happiness for Bilbo finding love at the forefront of his mind and looked back up. By now, the Dwarf had raised their head and Krelven could see their profile. And for the third time in just five minutes, Krelven froze in shock. This time though, he gasped out loud. He’d know that face just as well as he knew Bilbo’s, better even because he’d seen it in person from a distance many times. When he’d seen it before though, it had been thinner and tighter, as the stress of ruling and leading refugees had slowly eaten away at it. Now though, his cheeks were full and his face relaxed, his eyes alight as he talked with the stall vendor. There, in the middle of a Hobbit marketplace, stood Thorin Oakenshield, hale and healthy and looking more alive than he’d ever seen him.

Which was the problem his mind was struggling with, because Thorin Oakenshield had been buried over a year ago. Dwarrow all over Middle Earth had mourned the death of he and his nephews, while simultaneously celebrating the crowning of King Dain. He half wondered if the heat had finally gotten to him but it wasn’t even noon yet. Thoughts and ideas raced through his mind, each of them more ridiculous than the last. He wasn’t suffering heat stroke, he wasn’t sick, he couldn’t be having a delusion just out of nowhere, he hadn’t eaten anything strange or any mushrooms. And even if he believed in ghosts, and Bilbo Baggins believed in and could see Thorin’s ghost, the other Hobbits surely wouldn’t be quite so welcoming to the idea. They could put up with a lot, he knew, but that would be too much. That left him with the only explanation possible. Thorin Oakenshield was alive and had apparently faked his own death. But why?

The question was on the tip of his tongue as he took a step forward but then he noticed eyes on him. He looked at Bilbo and found the Hobbit staring at him, green eyes glittering dangerously. He stopped immediately, swallowing nervously. He wasn’t sure how to react, but he could see the protectiveness in the Hobbit’s eyes. He got the message instantly. Thorin Oakenshield was alive and, for whatever reason, wished for the world to think otherwise. And apparently the Hobbit was set on making sure it stayed that way.

Krelven stepped backwards and nodded, just barely stopping himself from dropping into a bow. The move seemed to placate the Hobbit and his demeanor switched completely. He grinned at Krelven, the danger in his eyes disappearing, and to the Dwarf’s shock, he raised his finger to his lips. That sign was known universally, no matter what language you spoke, and Krelven nodded again, faster this time. Pleased with his agreement, Bilbo ended the silent conversation by turning back to the stall. Above his head, Thorin seemed to have not noticed anything happening as he hadn’t stopped his conversation with the vendor.

Free from Bilbo’s glare, Krelven spun around and hurried away. His free day of exploring the market was forgotten as he hurried through the crowd, away from the Hobbit. Amongst the many stories he’d heard of Bilbo Baggins’ exploits, many of them centered solely on his prowess in battle. His stealth and cunning, and his ruthlessness. Krelven knew without a doubt, if he ever spoke a word of this to anyone, Bilbo would find out and find him. Even if he was the type of Dwarf to go around blabbing secrets that weren’t his, his fear of the famed burglar would have kept his mouth shut anyway. And as he continued his walk away from the market, he couldn’t help but come up with imaginative ways that the Hobbit could make good on his threat.

Bonus:

"Bilbo, did you threaten someone in the market today?"

"Of course not, Thorin dear, why do you ask?"

"You had that look in your eyes after we left the pie stall."

"I don't know what you're talking about, love. Eat up now, the pies should be cool enough by now."

I don't know what this is, I just got the idea of Thorin living in Hobbiton after faking his death. I know it's been done before, but I wanted to try. And yes, the boys are there as well, maybe I'll do another one with them in it, I've got a few ideas for this.

#thorin oakenshield #bilbo baggins #bagginshield #fluff #fanfiction

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starres-stuff · 7 months

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FFXIV Writes 2023 | Day 22 | Fulsome

Dimitri is left instructions by Vi on how to harvest her overabundant mint crop. Xixa appears right on time to help.

“Well, don’t you look cute Sonny?” The Sharlayan was currently down on his knees trimming the leaves off of his Sisters Gridania Mint Plants that she promised she would find a way to move eventually. This was painstaking work since the leaves were so fragile and overly abundant not to mention her instruction said that they had to be harvested specifically at six bells in the morning after as the moon entered its first quarter and was on the path to being full, herbalists he just didn’t understand them.

“Why do you always manage to find me when I am doing embarrassing things? This was one of those times when he couldn’t wear his fancy clothes and he had to tie his hair back so he didn’t even up with dirt in it, worse if it started to rain suddenly while he was doing this work. “Came to make sure you were doing what Vi asked you to do. Have to keep you on your toes especially since I know your Laurent is in that cottage behind us right now. You’d likely just sneak back into bed with him if I wasn’t here, Sonny.” Xixa padded and she gave a swift tug of his ponytail then knelt to supervise his work, giving that groan old people gave when they moved in certain ways.

“Oh, will you stop that!! I say again you are not old.” Dimitri grunted at her then started to return to clipping the leaves into the box that Vi had specified in her letter. This was rewarded with a lazy flick to his ear, the kind that made the length of it tingling. Xixa must have known a lot of Elezen in her day because she knew exactly where to hit and how hard.

“Ow! Did you wake up and just choose to be violent this morning?” Dimitri's eyes narrowed and he reached up with his free hand to rub his ear.

“Nah, after you are around Elezen long enough you learn how to put them in their place. If you were my mate I would just slap your ass, but you aren’t, You are my student so you get the ear flick. The only Elezen I never had to flick in the ear is Vi. She is a very obedient woman, you know.”

Dimitri grunted again, then returned to the plant he had been harvesting. It was only one of the twenty or so plants he would have to have clipped by twelve bells when Vi came by to pick up the box he had been putting the leaves into. “Well excuse me for not being as perfect as little Miss..” he didn’t get the last word out of his mouth for the evil Miqo’te had managed to land yet another flick to the ridge of his ear this one was even harder than the first, and it was very likely that it would leave a mark.

“Ow!!” He yelled again, this time swatting at Xixa. “You are an absolute menace and you continue to act like you are an old lady? I don’t think you are old at all, I think you just pretend to be old so people leave you the fuck alone. You, You are an imp if ever I saw one and I have met three thank you very much.” Dimitri tried to sound angry, or the very best annoyed but he just couldn’t. All he could do was stare at his mentor, waiting for her reaction to his words and when he didn’t get one he ended up tilting his head stumped at how she took things in such stride.

“The mint thinks you are cute as well.” She pointed to the plant he was working on “They like when you laugh. That one over there wants to know where Vi is, and the one on the far side wants to know when it is their turn their leaves feel heavy.”

“No, do not start that again Xixa. I had nightmares about you talking to the vines the other night when they tried to bind me to the wall after dinner. That is a very unsettling talent you Hearers have” A chill went down his spine, and over he moved to the next plant. It was only the third one he had touched since six bells since part of his yard work had been him napping until an acorn hit him in the head from above. “Fuck why does she need so many of these plants.” he had barely gotten the words out of his mouth when he saw the Miqo’te pull sheers from her apron pocket and head around to the other side of the garden plot.

“She doesn’t need them, Sonny, she enjoyed them. They were the friends she didn’t have and the companions she needed. After your Aunt Doshaine passed on to the Sea, Vi was here alone for nearly a cycle before she met that Clement of hers and even then it was some time before she began to go out of the woods to see him or go on one of those date things.”

Dimitri found himself looking back towards the cottage where Laurent slept. While things were getting easier, he didn’t want him to wake up to Xixa talking about Viviane so openly in the yard first thing in the morning, and his brow creased while he listened for any sound of noise from the interior of the cabin. When he didn’t hear anything he went back to his work even though he knew Laurent was the quietest man he had ever met and could be just about anywhere if he wanted to be without being noticed.

“This yard, the various gardens. This was what kept her happy. She would spend most of her morning tending them. They were there for her when she was sad, when she was lonely when she wanted to share good news or just sit down and cry. These plants, as abundant as their harvest is each time they are ready, helped her to thrive when she could not do it on her own. There are days I have wondered if your Sister could be a Hearer herself. She denies it but I know she can speak to spirits, I heard her do it more than once.” Xixa sighed then, the clip of her shears becoming constant, the sound, one of the most soothing that Dimitri had ever heard.

“I doubt that you will ever get her to agree with you.” He commented across the plants, the box beside him starting to fill faster now as he followed the rhythm that Xixa had put in place with her cuts. Now and then he would hear the Miqo’te laugh across the way and that chill went down his spine again. It was the strangest thing to him to know that the woman could hear what the plants were muttering about while they cut but he could not.

“Viviane does not seem to be keen on labeling anything. We spoke the other day of the Guilds and formalized registering for those with gifts. She feels very strongly that it is wrong, and a means to control the people.” What he didn’t tell Xixa was that he found himself starting to agree with his Sister, he had already spent several nights lost in thought over the conversation that they had, and he expected there to be plenty more nights like that in his future.

“Can’t say I blame the lass. Hells of a life she had, always shite on the bottom of someone’s shoe. Think she relates better to plants than people most of the time. Her feelings are all bundled up in there can hear it in her music though. Heard yer a singer as well Sonny. Are you constipated too?”

“Xixa what kind of question is that!” He grumped across the plants, nearly cutting his finger on the shears as he did she had gotten his feathers ruffled.

“Feelings can be constipated as well. I tell my kits that all the time. Gotta get that shite out or it will plug you right up. Life is short, Sonny. We have to get over ourselves and move on. Put our feelings on the table, and just take what we want. If we don’t? Well then regret by the time you hit my age, all those people who walked into your life then hustled out because you weren’t ready. Have to come to terms with things and just walk into the unknown.”

Dimitri moved on to the fourth plant, and then the fifth. The harvest was a good one, and the company, despite the emotional outpouring, was also good. “I think you mean they can be pent-up Xixa.” He couldn’t help but chuckle at the woman as he worked. He knew she was right, it was true. There were many things he never got to say to his friends, things he had wanted them to know before he knew it. It was too late.”

#ffxivwrite2023 #ffxiv rp #my ocs #my writing #dimitri stories

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twinkbusted · 7 months

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The Prince and The Carpenter

EIGHT MONTHS OF EDITING AND IT'S FINALLY FINISHED.... i hope ygs enjoy this little chapter :DD constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!!!

rating: TV-14

warnings: none

Trees rustled in the breeze, releasing their orange leaves throughout the sky. Squirrels hustled and bustled, frantically gathering acorns to prepare for the coming winter. Bakers vigorously kneaded dough behind frayed windows, whilst others in the kitchen popped steaming pies out of the oven to cool. Many people and their families were out and about in the town square, laughing and bragging to each other about the spoils of their harvest.

Yes all was well in Palisade– but children always find ways to disrupt a perfectly peaceful day.

“We’re going to be awesome, Min-Gi! Just you wait, they’ll never know what hit them.” a boy dressed in red-colored rags said enthusiastically, giving his cully a toothy grin. “Mmm. I’m not sure, Ryan…” the other boy, presumably Min-Gi, replied. “isn’t it a little… untraditional?” Min-Gi asked.

“Yeah! That’s what makes it fun!” Ryan chirped, putting an arm across Min’s light blue jerkin. Min gave him a weak smile, tightly gripping the shiny flute in his hands. Min was nervous, he wasn't quite sure how his parents would react to their performance. After all, they hadn’t exactly practiced a lot, the possibilities of how his parents would react was infinite, and it was all on such short notice, they could have at least planned it better.

All these thoughts were running through Min’s twelve-year-old brain, distracting him from the current moment. Somewhere in the mix he must’ve found a middle ground, because eventually, Min glanced up at Ryan, whose grin was infectious. This was an absolutely terrible idea, but some of Ryan’s enthusiasm must have rubbed off on him, because he gave in. “Okay, I’m sure one song couldn’t hurt.” Min exhaled, following Ryan to the throne room.

And with that, it was over.

Long story short, Min’s parents weren’t terribly fond of the performance. Min could tell right away, his mother had that sullen look plastered on her face, attempting to hide it with her fan. His father simply ignored him, looking away from him. Min should have known, really, it was naive of him to think it would go any other way. He could still remember the metallic taste that lingered in his mouth after he removed the flute from his lips, tasting more bitter than usual.

Consequently, the next week, Min was told by his parents that Ryan’s family had moved, catching him completely off-guard. He didn’t quite know how to feel, Ryan wasn’t exactly good at talking things over with him, or his family for that matter. Min just couldn’t grasp why they would leave, being carpenters for the Rulers of Palisade was definitely not a bad business deal.

In just a few days, Min felt his entire life shift before his eyes. His studies became harder, dances and parties frequented more often, and extracurriculars doubled. Min rarely had time to himself, and the world simultaneously felt too big and too small. He did it all diligently, but it still took him back a little. Okay, maybe more than a little.

It didn’t get better over the years either, it just kept adding up. So he learned to keep up.

“Min-Gi, are you in there?” an overt voice asked, snapping the prince back into the present. Min’s eyes darted to the foil sword in his hands, and he sighed, twirling it around in front of him. “Sorry for interrupting your daily brooding fest.” The lady in front of him muttered, rolling her eyes.

The woman in front of him was Roseline, his insufferable fencing instructor. She was a pale-skinned woman of slender stature, with curly hair trimmed perfectly at her chin. Regularly donning a green kirtle with a white band collar, she always dressed to impress. But above all, Roseline was a perfectionist. She had high standards; and she expected nothing less from anyone, prince or not. Although Roseline was a supposed “expert,” it didn’t make her any less exhausting.

Generally, Roseline would teach him techniques and he would practice them on some sort of prop. Yet, since this was a summative test, he would have to use the skills he learned against her. He replayed the moves in his head over and over, silently wishing he had practiced more yesterday.

“So, are you gonna stand there or…” Roseline trailed off, looking down at Min’s shoes. With an exaggerated sigh, the prince put one foot back and bent his knees, indicating he was ready for the match to begin.

Roseline made the first move, a sideways feinte. Min could feel the sword start to slip out of his hands, but he braced himself and did a swift counter attack. In this moment, there was no “Min” or “Roseline”, no fancy titles, and no petty grudges. There was just his blade and his opponent; and the blade was determined to succeed.

#twinkbusted #cool writer yeahhhhhh #infinity train #infinity train book four #rymin #infinity train fandom WAKE UP!!!#royalty au #hurt/comfort #angst #fluff #girl dinner #is roseline an oc???

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wind-becomes-lightning · 2 years

Text

When we are older

Day 4 :) Angst again just for you guys. This got... very very very long.. oops! I had the idea while ago when I listened to a lot of Bastille, so its all based on their song "Laughter Lines"

Team Minato Gen Fic ahah

10358 words (oops!)

warning for all canon compliant events.

Ao3 link [x]

for @teamminatoweek Day 4: (Platonic) Soulmates

“Don’t worry,” Rin said and a self assured smile painted her face, “There is nothing we can’t do as long as we are all three together.”

You took me to your favourite place on earth,

To see the tree they cut down ten years from your birth.

It was a warm and sunny day, wind lightly blowing in their faces from the east as Team Minato decided to take a rest under a big acorn tree on their way back to the village. Their last mission had just ended successfully and neither of them had been injured majorly, which always delighted Rin and when Rin was happy, all the others were also uplifted from her good mood alone. They were now half way back home and as long as the sun continued to shine like this the rest would be equally as pleasant as the journey so far.

The three children sat down and leaned against the large tree, all of them sitting side by side so close together that they could have almost held hands. Kakashi still shied away a little from physical touch, but his aversion to it had already improved quite some since he had become their teammate. Rin sat in the middle, otherwise the boys would have never agreed to sit so close together, though they both still enjoyed it.

Minato-sensei sat not far from them in the shadows, cleaning out his special kunai. He enjoyed having them fast and at hand, for him every second counted. He didn’t get his nickname for nothing. The Yellow Flash really was the fastest shinobi around. Kakashi had wondered if there was even anybody out there who could ever match him. It seemed unbelievable to him that Minato would ever be late to anything, which was partly the reason why Kakashi couldn’t understand why sensei would allow someone like Obito to delay travel plans all the time by coming in late.

“I’m just so happy”, Rin said out of the blue and into the silence, a big smile on her face “With you guys, you know? With us.” Kakashi kept his eyes closed, but he silently agreed when Obito let out a confused: “Where is this coming from?”

Rin shifted a little so that she could pull both boys into a closer hug. Kakashi’s head bumped into Obito’s and he opened his eyes to glare at the other boy for a moment before Rin spoke again: “I just think we are well matched, you know? I don’t think any mission with the three of us together could ever go wrong. It hasn’t in the past and I’m positive it won’t in the future!”

Both boys started their usual rebellious murmuring, too embarrassed to admit that what she said was true to some extent. Kakashi was always annoyed by Obito’s constant questioning and lateness and general loudmouth, but the loud mouth and questioning had gained them intel more times than he cared to admit. Plus, he knew Obito admired Kakashi’s skill and they worked well together when they were fighting in sync. They had trained with each other so often that it had become second nature.

“With him?” Obito said loudly and turned his head away. “Never! I wish we could have someone our age in the team, not such a baby.”

“Pah,” Kakashi spat back instantly, “If there is a baby here it is you. At least I don’t need glasses to not cry all the time.”

“I have sensitive eyes, alright?” Obito waved the hand that was not pressed against Rin around and frowned.

Kakashi rolled his dark eyes: “Always the same excuses. You can’t even own up to-”

“Guys!”

Rin for some reason was never annoyed at them bickering, in fact, it seemed to just make her laugh when they did. It was magical, they could fight about the smallest things when they were alone, spit and bite and scratch each other, but as soon as Rin turned up they buried every argument instantly. So instead of scolding them she just laughed heartily and said: “You guys can never slow down, can’t you? That is why I like being in the middle of both of you. Somehow you get along better when Minato-sensei and I are around.”

Kakashi couldn’t argue with that, as much as he wanted to throw another slight at Obito. Instead he enjoyed listening to Rins laugh. “I just think it is a one in a million chance” the girl continued, “A Team like this, you know? I know they match us up according to relative skill, but others didn’t find together as easy as us” Nice of her to ignore every issue Kakashi and Obito continued to have with each other, Kakashi thought.

“Minato-sensei is also such an excellent shinobi, heralded as a hokage candidate by many. I got so lucky, we got so lucky. It is almost like it was destiny. Like we are soulmates, you know?” Rin pressed both boys against her side again.

Kakashi and Obito exchanged a look, the older boy grumbled: “D-Don’t be sappy, Rin.” He had a slight blush on his cheeks. Kakashi almost agreed, but held back not only because agreeing with anything Obito said was against his nature, but also because Rin seemed happy and when she was happy all of them were happy. Maybe she really believed in what she said and if she really did, Kakashi felt like taking it away from her just wasn’t right.

Instead Kakashi let his eyes wander over the field in front of him, the grass moving by the wind. They found Minato-sensei still working on his kunai, a content smile on his face. The way he seemed so at peace with himself reminded Kakashi suddenly of his father in a way he couldn’t quite explain. He closed his eyes and thought of Sakumo and though the pain still stung a little it felt far away now.

He didn’t notice how relaxed he felt here with Rin and Obito by his side until he fell asleep.

Our fingers traced in circles round its history,

We brushed our hands right back in time through centuries.

They moved on a few hours after that, Kakashi didn’t know how long it was exactly, but the sun had moved over the sky to the west slowly. Minato woke all three of them with a kind smile, explaining to them that if they left now they would all make it back to Konoha before dark. So they packed their stuff together and left the safety of their shady, comfortable acorn tree.

Obito was in a good mood now too, chatting away about whatever his mind could latch onto. Today’s topic seemed to be his personal growth as a shinobi since he had taken the chunin exams a few months ago. He neglected to mention that he had failed the first time around and just barely made it the second time too. “I’m going to be the greatest Hokage”, Obito said, banging a fist against his chest, “Everybody will know my name, they will fear me.”

Kakashi rolled his eyes and cleared his throat audibly. Obito put up a finger at him: “What do you want, bakashi?” Kakashi theatrically shrugged his shoulders like he always did when Obito started getting aggressive at him. It was sort of like a routine they were going through for the fun of it.

“You won’t ever be Hokage,” Kakashi yawned, “You’re never going to be strong enough for that, no matter how much you train.” He paused to watch the effect his words had on Obito, who’s face moved into a frown, with his finger still raised in the air. Kakashi looked away to prepare for the final blow: “You don’t even have the sharingan yet.”

That was something of an open wound for Obito. Other Uchiha had developed this innate ability already as children, but he was entering his teenage years without having it yet. Kakashi had seen him stare intensely at his own mirror image to somehow cohere the sharingan out of hiding, but to no avail. Obito took a step forward at Kakashi now, both hands pulled together in fists. “I’ll show you how strong I am, damned scarecrow”, he said.

Before he could land a punch Rin had already stepped in between them, one of her hands grabbing Obitos lifted arm and the other grabbing Kakashi’s wrist. “Guys,” she said sternly looking with furrowed brows from one boy to the other, “Enough.”

Her voice was clear and there was no room left for arguments, just the way she always talked when Obito and Kakashi were close to using their fists to settle their arguments, but Kakashi could clearly see the corner of her mouth was raised just a little. Rin somehow got endless pleasure out of the four of them doing anything together, even if it was arguing.

“Apologise for what you said Kakashi,” she said and pulled on Kakashi’s sleeve. He really didn’t want to. “What I said is the truth”, he murmured instead of the asked for apology. Obito’s reply came immediately: “Ha!”

“Apologise!” Rin repeated, a little more sternly this time and Kakashi gave up his fake resistance. “Sorry Obito,” he said and didn’t even try to sound sincere. “I’m sure you’ll get your sharingan someday between now and your deathbed, which, when you consider all your “skills” probably is soon.”

Obito waved the hand around in a fist that was not held down by Rin and started throwing out a tirade of reply insults, but Kakashi wasn’t listening. Rin shook her head dramatically and sighed. “Minato-sensei”, she called for him and the teacher turned around to look at all of them. “Do you think the two of them will always be like that?”

Minato laughed at the question, a sound that always was good coming from him. He had such a sunny face that was at its best when it was either focusing on a target or smiling, or both. Kakashi admired his teacher secretly, which went all the way back to him appearing right after the funeral of Kakashi’s father. “I think the two of them will still bicker with each other when they are old and long retired,” Minato laughed and waved with his hand. “And you, Rin, will always have to be there to get them to stop.”

Rin sighed deeply at that reply, but then she grabbed both boys’ arms a little tighter still: “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Once again Kakashi felt it impossible to disagree with her statement. Too long after Sakumo’s death had he felt nothing but emptiness inside, but since he was with this team on mission he suddenly could feel things again. He wouldn’t mind keeping this forever.

–

As you held me down, you said:

–

Minato-sensei pulled them all in a big hug once they had safely made it back home. He looked with a wide grin from one to the next and back. “I’m so proud of our work together,” he said and sounded like he meant it. Kakashi usually hated these public displays of affection his teacher forced on him, but today he was in a good mood. On the way home Rin had continued having her arms linked to him and Obito, dragging them along to force them to no longer fight. It felt homely.

“When Kakashi finally becomes Jounin and I can’t lead you guys anymore I will miss you so much,” Minato continued and let go of them to give them a moment to breathe. There had been rumours for a while now that Kakashi would be promoted quite soon, the council just wasn’t sure if they should allow a 12 year old to take the tests that were required for it. They weren’t worried about his skill, but more of how emotionally ready he was for the task.

Obito groaned and threw his hands behind his head. “Why does Bakashi, who is by the way younger than me, get promoted before me? I think that’s not fair.” He mentioned this everytime the topic of Kakashi’s promotion came up.

“You took two times to become Chuunin, what makes you think you could pass this exam easily,” Kakashi bantered back and raised a brow provocatively. “While I did it on my first try and I was only 9!” He would have probably done it earlier than that if he’d been allowed to take the exam right after his graduation, but the council had decided in this case that he needed to wait a few years.

It was once again Rin who stepped in between them, taking both their hands and making Obito blush in the process. “Minato-sensei”, she said with a smile to their teacher, “We will also miss working with you.” She pressed both boy’s hands to indicate that she was not allowing any disagreement to her words.

Minato smiled and put his hand over the top of her head: “You will have to look after yourselves.”

“Don’t worry,” Rin said and a self assured smile painted her face, “There is nothing we can’t do as long as we are all three together.”

And though Kakashi hated this public display of affection he could not deny that what she was saying was true. They worked together better than any machine. Minato-sensei was a big part of that machine, but he wasn’t all that was needed. The three of them could always get out of any situation, as long as they stuck together and relied on each other.

Yes, Kakashi thought a little bitterly, that also included the idiot Obito.

“I’ll see you in the future when we’re older

And we are full of stories to be told.

There was so much dust everywhere. A big cloud hung low over him, and he coughed to free his lungs from it. Kakashi’s ears were ringing still from the sudden, loud noise that had encompassed him just seconds before and his head was hurting as if it was split apart. Clearly, the wound around his eye had opened up again, he could feel the blood flow out even with the bandages on. He would need to ask Rin to drape it new once he came back to his senses.

Slowly, very slowly, as if every little movement hurt more than the last, he finally opened his functioning eye and through the blur that was still laying over it he could see Rin right in front of him. That meant she had made it out in time, which was good. He scanned the crater behind her and couldn't see an enemy. Maybe they had gotten rid of them. Sounds slowly returned to his ears and he could hear shallow breathing not far from him.

What he saw was so hard to believe that he blinked two more times to take it in. Obito laid next to him, half of his body crushed under a large boulder. There was blood right under him and dripping out of his mouth. Kakashi froze as he saw this, his heartbeat loud and steady in his ear. This was not real, he thought. It had to be a genjutsu.

He jumped forward quickly and reached out to Obito’s free hand and pressed it. “Obito, no-” he whispered and pulled on the other boy, but no matter how much he did, the body would not move. This couldn’t be. Kakashi could feel hot tears in his eyes and shook them away. He was the leader of this mission! He had a responsibility to bring his entire team back home.

Just like Minato-sensei had predicted, he had been promoted to Jounin not long after their last mission. It was war time and as such young soldiers were always needed and Kakashi was seen as mature for his age so he had been given this privilege. But this mission, his first mission as leader, had gone horribly wrong as soon as Rin had been kidnapped. Obito and Kakashi had argued, gone separate ways and then found each other again anyway. But his indecision had cost Kakshi one of his eyes.

Rin had always said they were at their best when they were together and maybe she had been right and it had been Kakashi’s mistake from the beginning to break that up, maybe he deserved failing his first mission as a Jounin so hard that he lost one of his eyes in the process. But Obito did not deserve to die here, not to save Kakashi, when Kakashi had been so bad at taking care of him.

Somehow Obito seemed completely calm in his current position. He let Kakashi hold his hand without as much as a word and watched him from below. Once more Kakashi felt like his polar opposite. In his head the chaos reigned. He was going through all the jutsu he had learned in his young years and wondered if there was one that could crush a boulder as large as this one. His chaka had been depleted a lot already though, he had overdone it in the fight to free Rin.

“If only sensei were here,” Kakashi could feel the sobs coming in, the tears choking up his throat., “If only it wasn’t me who was leading this mission. I did everything wrong, I’m so sorry Obito, I’m so sorry.” He continued apologising a few more times until Obito weakly pressed his hand and shook his head so little that it was almost invisible.

Rin let out a wince. She was standing not too far from them and looked as if she was frozen in place, unable to come closer to look at the wreckage in front of her. “Don’t worry,” Obito said and his eyes went from her to Kakashi, “I don’t feel the other side anymore. I’m actually not in pain at all.”

Kakashi felt sick at seeing him so content. He wanted to turn around and throw up. His eyes were spinning violently and he could not help the images flooding in. His father, blood everywhere, laying on the floor to his feet. No warmth, no smile, no breath, nothing. Dead. The moment Kakashi had decided to become the perfect shinobi, to never make mistakes and now? Where had that gotten him? To just another corpse.

The pain filled him up and it felt like he was going to drown in it. Obito had said the White Fang was his hero, he had put Kakashi back into his place, and showed him what really was important. From The beginning he had been the better shinobi. Kakashi with his static keeping to the rules was nothing in comparison..

Cross my heart and hope to die,

I’ll see you with your laughter lines.”

Still, Obito kept the smile on his face through his friends' helpless sobs. Rin now took his hand away from Kakashi and held it, Obito gave her a loving look. “I had so much fun with both of you guys,” he said and coughed a little. The blood was still spilling from his mouth. “If you see Minato-sensei, please tell him that he was a good teacher and that I hope he will be Hokage as they say.”

Rin leaned forward and nodded against Obito’s cheek. The boy smiled over her shoulder at Kakashi, scanning his face as if he was trying to remember it for the future. “Oh, bakashi,” he started and Kakashi could feel his heart sting at the old nickname, “I didn’t give you a present for your Jounin promotion, do you remember?”

“You don’t need to. I’m terrible at this job anyway. They should demot-” Kakashi began but Obito cut him off with a laugh. “No no, I remember you holding out your hand to me and saying “Where is my gift”, well I have a gift for you.” He paused to give Kakashi time to come a bit closer. “You shall have my sharingan.”

Kakashi stared at him and needed a second to digest the news. “I can’t accept that”, he said out right. “I do not deserve something like that Obito, this is the sacred tradition of your clan.”

Obito chuckled: “It is not like I can use it after this, you know.”

It was Rin who stepped in for the two of them, pulling Kakashi by the sleeve just like she had done so many times. “Come here Kakashi”, she said sternly, “I will transplant the eye for you.” All the time they’d been a team together she’d always taken charge when Obito and him had not agreed on things and this was no exception. It was extraordinary when one thought about it hard enough, that Rin could perform a complete transplant at 13 years of age, but Kakashi only really realised that when he was older.

It took them about five minutes to get the procedure done, then Kakashi blinked and could see through his new eye. His vision was back, but sharper and more draining. The sharingan burned in its new socket as if it knew that Kakashi was not the rightful owner to carry it. Rin had put a cloth over Obito’s now empty eye as if he was already a dead person waiting for burial, but Obito did not complain - when did he ever complain about something Rin had done.

“I wish I could have stayed with you guys a little longer,” he started and pressed Rin’s hand again, “I really would have loved to see how we develop next to each other into adulthood. But now, Kakashi will have to be my eyes and show me the world through him. You will do that, won’t you Kakashi?”

Kakashi almost choked on his spit because he tried to reply so fast: “Yes, of course Obito. I’ll record it all for you to watch later.” It was naive to assume something like the afterlife existed, but that was not the point at the moment.

Around them the earth was shaking and more and more stones from the side were rolling in over them. “It is collapsing”, Rin stated and covered her face with an arm. Kakashi looked from her to the surroundings. “We should go”, he said and hated every word of it. Letting Obito choke to death all alone and blind under a large pile of rocks was not one of his favourite ideas. More and more sides caved in and he knew they didn’t have another choice.

“Go,” Obito said weakly, “I’m almost gone. Promise to take care of Rin for me.”

Kakashi reached out for Rin as the walls kept tumbling down. She cried and held onto Obitos’s hand. He could feel the tears on his cheeks now too, but he had a promise to uphold now. “Rin!” he exclaimed and then a little softer, more pleading: “Please.”

Finally, she seperated herself from Obito and took Kakashi’s hand out of the crater. It wasn’t a moment too late, because it all fully caved about ten seconds after they had made it out. Both now stood at the top of it, completely out of breath, tears streaming down their faces. Obito was gone. The reality of it didn’t sink in until much later.

Later, when they were standing side by side at a makeshift memorial they had put up for Obito, Rin would say that it felt like a part of her soul had died with him. She had mentioned before that their team felt like soulmates that were destined to be together. Always the three of them, from now until forever and that the fact that one was taken so early meant that the others would suffer all the rest of their lives.

Minato, who had arrived just after the cave had collapsed and taken both children home, was standing right next to them, pulling them both into his arms just like he’d always done with the three of them. From now on they would take care of each other, he said. They would stay close to one another. This was, after all, what Obito had wanted them to do.

Changes on our hands and on our faces,

Memories are mapped out by the lines we’ll trace

When he was 13 his voice cracked for the first time when he spoke and Rin mentioned off handedly that he was outgrowing her easily now. Kakashi couldn’t really see it, mostly because he did not like looking at mirrors and if he did always saw either his father or Obito staring back at him and so he wasn’t used to his own image. He didn’t realise that he was changing until his voice cracked all the time.

Rin was changing too, he could see that change much more clearly. Her hair grew out a little and her facial features became more refined, sharper in a way. The lines on her cheeks grew longer as her face grew and she started being more aware of the way she moved and the way she spoke. Teenage girls, Gai told Kakashi, were always self conscious, even though they need not be. But nobody ever needed to be self conscious if Gai were making the rules.

It was now only a matter of time until Minato-sensei would be named Hokage. The possibility had been in the air for many years, but now it seemed like the actual date would approach within the next year. Rin and Kakashi were excited to hear that and Kakashi especially knew that Minato would be a good choice. The war was still going on outside of village bounds and Kakashi had gone back to leading missions that were no failures, though the memory of that first mission laid heavy on him.

The three of them visited Obito’s grave a lot. There still wasn’t an actual, full scale grave for him. His body had not been found after Minato had returned to the cave, so he couldn’t be burned according to Uchiha rituals. The higher ups in the village promised that they would build a memorial stone with the names of all the fallen once the war was winding down, but it seemed like that would still take some time, so the team kept their makeshift shrine up.

They would always talk to Obito about their missions. Kakashi knew rationally that talking to a dead person was useless, as evident from the many conversations he had had with his father at that grave, but Rin was at ease and smiling just like she had before when she was around Obito’s grave and so he indulged her. Keeping her safe and happy was Kakashi’s only responsibility now and he took it very seriously. Obito was not to worry.

Gai joined their three man squad on missions together and that was great, because Gai had an endless amount of energy to keep them both up to spirits. Kakashi noticed that Rin always smiled a little more genuine when Gai was around to compliment her skills and her soft spoken nature and Rin noticed that Kakashi could not shut out Gai’s aggressive advances for spars or other challenges. He was good for both of them and that showed when they went on missions together.

With Kakashi a Jounin that could technically lead the squad, Minato was often assigned more dangerous missions that he did on his own. Still, he did sometimes find time to train each of them individually. Kakashi needed more training to adapt to one of his eyes being covered and needed instruction in how the sharingan worked. Not that Minato knew this very well on his own, but books helped out. He also sometimes dropped by at the house of the clan leader of the Uchiha’s, Fugaku, whom he was friends with. This might also be the reason that Kakashi could keep his eye in the first place. Kakashi figured as much at least.

In her freetime Rin hung out with Shizune a lot, a girl her age, who never really liked talking to Kakashi much. Both of them were very fascinated by Shizune’s aunt, the legendary Sannin Tsunade and were dreaming of being taught in advanced medical ninjutsu from her. Kakashi remembered the Sannin from when he was young and connected it with his father being alive, so he really didn’t want to think of them too much. The last thing he needed was someone asking him how he was doing with pity in their eyes.

As you held me down you said:

Soon after Rin’s 14th birthday Kakashi and her found themselves back to back surrounded by enemies, while Gai was held by one of them. One of the attackers reached forward and grabbed Rin, faster than Kakashi could react. “Let’s see how well you can handle this,” he snickered and infused Rin’s arm with his own chakra. Chakra mixing wasn’t easy to take, especially to an untrained person, but Rin was unbothered. In fact, she could convert the foreign chakra to her own.

It was a gift, a skill she had been born with. Healers needed perfect chakra control to find and close injuries even in the depths of the human’s body, so it was not completely surprising that she had that gift, but it was something to be celebrated nonetheless. Eventually they fought their way out of the situation, with the opponent shinobi unfortunately being able to flee the scene, but as long as Rin was safe, that was all that mattered to Kakashi.

Now that Rin had this new speciality, so many options opened up for her, especially in the area of medical ninjutsu. Kakashi and her talked endlessly about it to Obito’s grave and discussed what the future might bring. It would now be undeniably of opportunity if she could train under Tsunade, since there was nobody out there with as much expertise.

“Let me try!” Kakashi said one day and offered his hands to Rin. He was really curious about how foreign chakra on his own felt.

Rin frowned a little and lifted a finger like a warning: “I don’t think that is a good idea. Normal people would just faint.”

Kakashi was adamant. He slowly had regained the confidence in his own skills both as a friend and as a leader. So Rin infused her chakra into his hands.

He fainted.

Once Minato invited them both over for dinner and his girlfriend Kushina-sensei was also present. Kakashi liked to see them both together as their positive energy was hard not to rub off on others. It was no secret that Kushina adored Obito above the others in the team, but she doted on all of them.

“You should open a hospital when you are older, y’know,” she said, waving a lentil around that made the others duck. “Give relief to the Konoha hospital which is already so full and overworked.” With war going on there just wasn’t enough capacity for all of the patients that needed treatment. Eventually, if peace time came around, it should all go back to normal. Kakashi was hoping that it was soon. Right now the hospital was very ineffective.

Minato scratched his head and then put his hand in Rin’s hair: “Whatever you will do, you will be excellent at it.” He smiled fatherly down on his two remaining students. “This new skill you have gained is going to change the future for all of us, I really believe that.

Rin beamed from the praise. Too used to being cast aside as “only” a healer and not a “real” fighter. Only a few people knew that medical ninjutsu actually was more draining to the body than most other jutsu types. The world just prefered a flashy hero who could hit shuriken into 10 different goals without looking. People just liked Kakashi’s arrogant way of fighting more than Rin’s selfless healing.

“I think Kushina should teach you from now on,” Minato said once they had all finished their food. Rin looked up and over to Kushina-sensei and found her as surprised as she was. “Kushina has knowledge about large amounts of chakra. I’m sure she can help you better than I ever could.” For some reason he winked at Kushina after saying that.

Kakashi hadn’t known that Kushina-sensei had large storages of chakra, but she had never directly trained him, so how could he have known. Kushina at least seemed excited at the prospect, as her three students had already moved on to other projects.

“I’ll make you as strong as the other girls!” she exclaimed. “Nobody will call you weak anymore, because that is just wrong, y’know!” Kakashi smiled beneath his mask, but frowned immediately again when he noticed Minato was looking at him.

Their teacher laughed a little to himself at the sudden change in Kakashi’s demeanour. Instead of calling him out, he filled everybody’s glas with sweet soda again. They had added a chair to the table, for Obito, Rin had said and so Minato had also filled a glass for him. If Obito was here, he would surely be proud of their ability to slowly move on from his death.

Minato lifted his glas: “To Rin’s bright future!” He smiled.

“To the future,” they all said in unison.

“I’ll see you in the future when we’re older

When we are full of stories to be told

There was so much blood everywhere.

“Ka-kashi,” Rin could barely get a word out.

He couldn't feel his hand. It was like it was a foreign object that was currently attached to his arm. The dangerous and heavy hand that was now pierced full through Rin’s chest and heart, leaving blood all over his harness and face. Everything had happened so quickly that he hadn’t even gotten a chance to realise what had been going on.

Rin stared at him, her eyes dead and far away as if she was looking at something in the distance. But Kakashi knew she wasn’t looking anywhere, because after the last coughed out words the last life that had been in her had left. She was only a corpse hanging on this foreign hand that was somehow attached to him.

She had cried before she died, tears still wet on her cheeks and visible. And then there was the blood. There was so much of it coming out of the hole that was now her lower body half, running and running, as if her body had not yet caught up with the fact that her heart had stopped beating. As if her body was still trying to keep the system working that was already broken beyond repair.

After their recent string of successful missions, Kakashi had thought he was safe from death. The war was clearly dying down, slowly, but surely and soon they’d have full peace. This should have never happened. Someone, somehow, had known that Rin had better chakra control than other kunoichi her age and abducted her on the way to her usual training session with Kushina-sensei. Kakashi was sent to chase her, get her back and though Kushina had insisted she’d join, Kakashi had set out on his own.

Maybe he had been wrong to do that, but Kushina was not as fast as he was because she was taller and heavier and so he had counted his chances higher if he just went alone. After all, his skills over the passing year had improved quite a lot. On top of that, Kakashi knew that Minato-sensei was in the area not far from here and could probably jump in the second he heard about their issues.

But Rin had been easy to find, maybe a little too easy. She was under genjutsu and needed quite a while to regain her memories. She had mentioned that there was something wrong with her, but she could not explain exactly what it was and it seemed that she could not fully remember. That was when they were suddenly attacked by opponents.

He had led the way forward into the forests of Fire country from Water country, crossing the border with ease and without much issues, just holding the opponents off. But Rin had slowed down and distrubed his fighting with a pulls to his sleeve more than once. There was something she had wanted to say, Kakashi realised now, but he didn’t have the mental capacity or time to let her speak.

Somehow, Rin seemed like she was hindering their return to Konoha, as if she didn’t want to return. Kakashi didn’t have time to ask and clarify, there were enemies in pursuit that needed defeating and while the look in her eyes was very similar to the look she usual carried when she was being stern and close to scolding him, he just didn’t have the time to listen to it right in this moment.

They reached a clearing together, out of the forest and into the open. It was worse for fighting but better for the chidori, as he could take on two or three enemies at once. Kakashi made sure through glances over his shoulder that Rin was still safe and unharmed where he had left her. Her eyes were on him whenever he looked for her and her hands were fists.

Cross my heart and hope to die

I’ll see you with your laughter lines.”

There had been so many enemies at once, it felt like they were circling him from all sides. Kakashi was jumping from one to the other, knocking them out because he couldn’t quite get the deathblow off, but they kept coming. There was dust in the air from constant movement and while he stayed in Rin’s general area, he at some point lost orientation to where he was exactly. Had he killed most of them already and new shinobi were coming in or had he missed the killing move and still the same people were fighting?

His chidori was fast and deadly, that was what he always used it for, why he liked using it so much, and he had not seen her, hadn’t noticed her body jumping in the air until his fake hand impaled her right through it, put her on a spike right in front of him. Rin must have jumped on her own somehow, there was no way he strayed from his path so much to accidentally hit her like this. No, it must have been deliberate. But, why?

Kakashi pulled his arm out of the dead girl. His head was spinning violently and he could feel his stomach turn. He felt suddenly so very tired, as if someone had completely knocked him out. He staggered backwards and held one hand to his head, smearing blood all through his silver hair, and one hand to the stomach to prevent himself from throwing up on Rin’s body.

Rin lay still in front of him. She had fallen on her face to his feet. Kakashi looked at her through watering eyes and blurring vision. This was his fault, he thought. Another friend that he let die. He had done this - again. The pain crawled up his throat like a poison filling his mouth with a taste of iron and bitterness. He had thought they’d be safe. He had thought as long as they were together nothing bad could ever happen to them. Pain, so much pain, so much pain.

That was when his last reserves of power left him and he fell backwards, losing consciousness immediately.

Once he woke up, he was drowning in a sea of blood. It took Kakashi a moment to realise where he was, for the memory of Rin’s death to get back into his mind, but then he sat up, kunai in his hand like he was ready to continue fighting for his life. He didn’t know how long he’d been out.

Around him was a mountain of dead bodies. Face down in the water, bled out against the rocks, or impaled into something that looked like wooden spikes in the sky. Kakashi was full of blood from top to bottom. Who had killed all of these people? He looked around in a panic, but it took him just a quick scan to realise that he was completely alone.

“Who did this?!” he said out loud, as if there was a person hiding in the nearby forest who could hear him. “Who killed all these people?” There was no reaction from the dark trees ahead or the stone cliff behind.

Kakashi pulled himself up to his still shaking knees and took a step forward. Rin’s body was still there, though she was turned on her back now. Whoever had killed all the people here had closed her eyes and touched her face - and he had kept Kakashi alive by choice. It must have been a friend of Konoha, otherwise Kakashi could not explain it.

Rin was still when he picked her up to hold her in his arms. Her hair was stained and dirty and Kakashi went with his fingers through it to clean it out. Once she’d said that she loved him, but who could love someone like him who allowed soulmates like her to die and promises to be broken. The pain gribbed at Kakashi again and he screamed into the night.

That was when Minato arrived. Like a flash of sunlight on a rainy day he appeared in the clearing, his blue eyes wide in horror at the scene that unfolded in front of him. When he saw Kakashi with Rin’s body he took a leap towards him. “Sensei, I-” Kakashi started but Minato made “shh” and took the boy into his arms.

Minato led them back to Konoha after Rin had been sealed in a body scroll. It would take him days to get out of Kakashi what had happened that night and even more days to finally hear the truth that Rin had deliberately jumped in front of Kakashi’s lightning to kill herself. The second suicide of one of Kakashi’s loved ones. Minato remembered very well the little boy with the silver hair that had worked himself to exhaustion after his father had taken his life. The boy that had wanted no support from the village or his friends or someone like Minato and just soldiered through.

Back then Minato had decided not to force himself on the young boy. That Kakashi needed grieving time alone. But this time Minato knew he would not let that happen again. This was his last surviving student and he would protect that one all his life. This last child of his team would remain close, Minato would make sure Kakashi would no longer be sent on solo- missions. After all, they did say he’d be hokage soon.

Ashen faces in cold breeze

All the stories you will leave

After the ceremony that officially made Minato-sensei Hokage, he summoned Kakashi to the new office he had moved into. Since Rin’s death he had not been assigned any mission and was told to stay back to heal the bruises on his soul, as if a few months off really helped that. Instead it got the boy itching for something to do, left him alone with his thoughts one too many times. Kushina-sensei could only so often look after him, she had her own duties and Minato was busy getting ready for the transition in power.

“I want you to join my ANBU squad” Minato said and got no reaction from Kakashi. “You will be in the division that directly works under me and does tasks exclusively for me.” Some of ANBU worked directly for the Hokage, but most also did tasks decided by the council or elders of the village. Being an operative directly working with the Hokage had a higher kind of status. Kakashi knew he should have been grateful for the promotion, but he felt nothing. Instead he just nodded his head and left.

The ANBU compound was dark and closed off and they gave him his uniform without much question. The greys looked exactly like he felt and when he put the mask on his face he couldn’t help but feel relieved by it. He was Hound now and nothing else. Hound was nothing but one in a group of many operatives. Hatake Kakashi was no more.

He didn’t know what Minato-sensei had expected once Kakashi started going on ANBU missions, maybe he had hoped it would help him somehow to learn to rely on his strengths again, but Kakashi’s first few missions in his new squad turned out to be a disaster. It seemed like his body was functioning on auto-pilot, killing everything that was in his sight and an opponent. He had lost his rationality, one of his teammates whispered to another behind his back.

That was not the only thing he had lost. The lightning between his fingers now gave him severe panic attacks to the point that he could not control or use it anymore and even if he did, he was haunted by dreams of Rin’s dying body hanging on his arm at night. Sleep never let him rest. He walked around constantly exhausted. In those times, not even Gai could help him out of the slumb. Kakashi cut himself off from everyone.

They had finally put up a memorial stone for the people who died in the Third War. Kakashi alternated between it, to let his fingers run over Obito’s name, and Rin’s grave that was in the general graveyard. He would spend hours standing with his eyes looking at her name engraved in the white stone without saying much other than updating her on what was going on in his life. It was useless, of course, he still didn’t believe people in the afterlife could hear him, but Rin had been so happy to do this for Obito, so he needed to continue the tradition.

Sometimes when he visited her grave in the morning and returned in the evening the flowers he had left there were gone. He assumed that one of the other Noharas that wasn’t happy with the way her life had ended were taking them away after he placed them. That was only fair, after all, they did call him “Friend-Killer Kakashi” and they weren’t wrong.

“I will assign you a new task”, Minato said one day after calling Kakashi into the Hokage office again. The boy knew his ANBU squad had complained about him, about how uncooperative he apparently was, and they reminded him of the first team he had had way back when he graduated from the academy - before he was assigned to Team Minato.

“Kushina is pregnant,” Minato smiled and put his head to the side. This got the first genuine reaction out of Kakashi since Rin had died. “Really?” the boy replied in surprise.

Minato nodded slowly, his blond hair shining in the afternoon sun streaming in from the window: “I want you to be her personal guard for the time of pregnancy. Who knows who could want to harm the mother of the hokage’s child.” Secretly Minato hoped that Kakashi’s proximity to Kushina, her ever so warm and excited spirit, might help Kakashi find his humanity again.

The plan seemed to work for the most part. Kakashi eased into his new guardian role very quickly, enjoying the time he was spending in the sunlight of spring and then summer sitting on the window sill of their apartment. He could watch the two teachers spend time together, enjoy and celebrate every movement of their growing child and sometimes Kushina-sensei would pull him inside for a meal or so. He could get his mind off the past for a little bit.

Their child would have great parents, Kakashi thought one morning in autumn. It was almost time for the baby to come and Minato had mentioned that it would be a boy. With parents like them leading the next generation, the world would eventually become a better place. The war had ended over a year ago at this point and there had been no more fighting, even if pessimistic people had predicted so.

Kakashi calmed down, the wind in his hair did him well and soothed his soul. Maybe the future wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe.

I’ll see you in the future when we’re older

And we are full of stories to be told

The roar in the air was so loud that it made the earth beneath Kakashi’s feet shake. Gai and him were running side by side in a vain attempt to figure out what was happening. All around them people were running and screaming, a chaos of shinobi and civilians panicking as far as the eye could see. Whatever was tormenting the village was big and dangerous, the killing intent chilled Kakashi to the core.

They bumped head first into Asuma, who had been running from a different direction with Kurenai following on his trail. Asuma was the son of the former Hokage and often knew things that were going on in the village. He was breathing hard as he pulled Kakashi back onto his feet. “We need to leave the village”, he said and his voice sounded urget. “Orders from my Dad.”

“What is going on?” Kakashi asked as they started running towards the grand gates. Asuma threw a look over his shoulder as he pressed on forward. “The Kyuubi. It has somehow escaped from where it was sealed.” Another roar echoed over the rooftops of the village as if to confirm what Asuma was saying.

Kakashi suddenly remembered something and his feet slowed down on his own. “What are you doing, rival?” Gai asked in a little panic, pulling him by the arm.

“Sensei’s child will be born today - was born today. I need to make sure he and Kushina are safe”, he felt his fingers shake, his head spinning. Someone needed to do something. He turned on his heels ready to get back into the village when Asuma pulled him by the sleeve. “You can’t go”, he said and furrowed a brow. “We are not allowed to assist in the fighting. That is the order.”

Kakashi had not met Asuma as someone who would be sticking up for the rules so this change in attitude shocked him a little. Was it really that serious? He looked the other boy into the dark eyes: “Why? Why can’t I, a Jounin mind you, go back and assist in the fighting?”

It was another shinobi who replied. An older Yamanaka that Kakashi recognised as Inochi: “Because young people like you are the future of this village and we have lost too many of you in the war. Now go and make sure to evacuate all the civilians you can find that need assistance. This is not your fight.”

Asuma pulled him by the arm on one side and Gai pulled him on the other and so Kakashi turned around and left the village with them. He thought about whether it was worth it to break the rules here and go back to help out. There was so much chaos around them that it wouldn’t even be too hard to slip away and even if he would be punished later as long as he made sure everyone was safe now, then it wasn’t too bad to be yelled at the next day.

“Rival,” Gai said next to him and looked at him as if he had seen right through Kakashi’s trail of thoughts. “Don’t go back, Rival. I’m sure Lord Fourth is taking care of it. He is a strong shinobi who will protect himself and his family.” A pause, then: “I don’t want you to go on any more suicide missions.”

Kakashi remembered now that Gai had seen him during the early days with his ANBU squad, that he had reported to the Hokage that Kakashi had trouble still with the trauma he had lived through. Gai had meant well then and meant well now, but Kakashi could not help the resentment anyway. If he were to die by saving Kushina or Minato-sensei, it would be all worth it.

Still, Gai kept pulling him, just like he always had back when Rin was still alive and so Kakashi let himself get lead out of the village with all the other shinobi under 16 and all he could do was hope that what he had said was true, that Minato was handling the situation well on his own.

“You’re the only one left”, he thought like a pleading young child, “Please..”

Cross my heart and hope to die

I’ll see you with your laughter lines.

It took hours before they were allowed to return to the village. Hours in which they heard nothing but screamed curses, the roar of the beast and collapsing houses. Kakashi was nervous, but Gai was the one pacing up and down in front of him. He was talking nonstop which made it impossible for Kakashi to form a cohesive thought. Maybe that was Gai’s goal in the first place, Kakashi thought much later.

As soon as they had the opportunity to return, Kakashi ran forward as fast as his feet could carry him. Sometime the Kyuubi had disappeared from the centre of the village and his roars had suddenly been audible from another place outside of it. Minato must have taken it somewhere, Kakashi deduced. Blindly he followed the destruction in the direction he thought the beast must have gone and when more and more older shinobi and ANBU also went that way he realised he was going the right way.

He knew something had gone wrong when he approached the scene more closely. There were so many people standing in a circle around three people on the ground. Kakashi slipped through bushes unseen and got to have a closer look. He saw the baby first. A blond boy, laying on his back on a little bed, was crying. Kakashi felt relief washing over him knowing that their son was safe and breathing.

Then his eyes moved over to the left because another head of blond hair caught his eye. There was Minato-sensei, laying on his back and thought Kakashi at first thought he could see him moving, he realised quickly that Minato’s body had been torn up through the middle, as if he had been impaled. Kakashi could feel his head spin and he needed to force himself to look away to not throw up. Rin appeared in front of his eyes as she hung dead and empty on his hand.

Almost inaudible, Kakashi could hear Kushina whisper to the shinobi that were around her. Lord Third was there talking and listening to her. Kakashi could not make out the words that were being exchanged but he knew that she wasn’t going to survive for much longer. He wished he hadn’t skipped all his medical ninjutsu classes, he wished Rin was here or Obito or anyone that could fix it all. Kushina’s head slumped forward and he knew that she too was gone.

The baby screamed when Lord Third picked him up and Kakashi also felt like screaming. They had told him and the other young shinobi that they had to stay out of the fighting to become the village’s future, but what future? If a baby like him, who had been so wanted and so loved before he was even born, had so much injustice happen to him on his first day in this world, what kind of world was this supposed to be? Why should a future for this world be necessary?

His head felt like it was splitting in half and he turned around to throw up.

I’ll see you in the future when we’re old.

For a long time, Kakashi did not go see the graves of all of them. After the funeral he decided to move into the shinobi apartments near the ANBU headquarters and away from his family home in the woods. He dedicated himself to the work he had to do and tried his hardest to keep away from everything else. In those times, he hardly spoke with most of his school friends or even squad colleagues. He was mostly just on his own.

It was already deep winter, snow laying in high layers over the entire village, when he finally went to see the memorial, Rin’s grave and the grave of Minato sensei. It was already dark and the streets were completely deserted. His steps left footprints behind in the fresh snow as he walked over the graveyard to see all of them. He left a single flower for Rin, another for Obito and then made his way to where Minato was buried.

The memorial stone was larger than others and had his and Kushina’s name engraved next to the leaf and uzumaki symbol. It was tasteful and beautifully crafted and Kakashi commended whoever made that decision. He ran his fingers over Minato’s name and bit his shaking lip. It was the first time in a long time he allowed himself to feel the pain he had been harbouring since october.

Kakashi’s knees suddenly gave in and he fell forward in the snow, his hands in fists punching around him. He couldn’t stop the tears from falling down, not like he had for weeks on end now and so he just sat there and cried for hours waiting for the tears to stop, but they just kept coming.

“How am I supposed to do this alone?” he sobbed, hands grabbing fists full of cold snow, “Sensei, I need your guidance.” But he had always known that talking to a gravestone meant nothing, that it changed nothing, and so his teacher did not reply to his pleas.

At some point he just repeated himself, his mind spinning. “We were supposed to be together. We were supposed to always always be together. We were soulmates.” Why was the world so cruel to all of them? What made Kakashi so special that he was the only one who still had to live on?

The cries suddenly came to a stop when he was suddenly aware that there was someone not far from him, watching. He was sure he could hear someone breathing deeply and when Kakashi turned his head, someone turned a corner. He was embarrassed to have been watched this way, even when he had come in the dead of night. So he got up and pushed the snow off his clothes and went to his new home. He didn’t cry for years after that.

For a long while he only exited his apartment with his ANBU mask on, trying to disappear behind the anonymity of it. To him, Hatake Kakashi had fully ceased to exist the night Namikaze Minato died. He was dead and buried next to all of his other teammates. They were together in the world that came after death - if such a thing existed.

I’ll see you in the future when we’re old.

“I’m sorry, I’m too busy to come see you as often now,” Kakashi said apologetically and slouched with his hands in his sweats. “The kids need all the attention that I can muster and then I also need some sleep. Minato-sensei, were we also this exhausting? I can’t seem to recall.”

Kakashi was older now, he stood tall at his full grown body height (when he wasn’t crouching like he was now). The voice that had given him trouble for a few years had fully lost an octave or two and settled on a nice, dark vibrant sound that others complimented when they heard it. Eventually he had accepted Hatake Kakashi back into his consciousness and took off the mask and then eventually he had also given up the ANBU greys to let colour into his life again.

He had never stopped updating his teammates at their grave stones, though. This habit that had essentially been started by Rin now was an integral part of his daily and weekly activity. When he found some free time he would go over to the graveyard to speak to them. It was soothing. Maybe that was why Rin had liked it so much. Over ten years had passed since Minato’s death.

Lately Kakashi had gotten his own genin team. Three young shinobi who seemed to be difficult troublemakers that he had to set straight. He wasn’t sure if he was ever that bad, though he could remember arguing with Obito a lot. He liked the kids, they kept him on his toes and their carefree, naive ways made him feel carefree and naive again sometimes. At least when they weren’t accidentally stumbling into missions above their rank.

“I will make sure that they can stay by each other’s side forever,” Kakashi said and meant it. He wasn’t going to let any of his closed ones die anymore. “I’ll give them the time together that we should have gotten.”

It seemed like an easy promise to give. Since the Kyuubi attack there had been no major danger to the village. The war was long gone and the peace treaties seemed to hold up. The villages got along surprisingly well and would soon host the Chunin exams together as a joint effort too. The children nowadays were growing up in unparalleled peace time and that was a gift Kakashi was very happy they had.

“Part of you is always with me”, he said, putting his hand on the blue of the memorial stone. He could count the scars on his own fingers as he moved them over the cold material of the stone. Closing his eyes for a second he heard his heart beating against his chest, felt the air moving in his hair and the sun shine onto his neck. He felt how alive he was. “I think that is what Rin meant when she called us soulmates all those years ago.”

He took the hand off the stone and opened his eyes to put a smile into them: “I can’t wait to see you again when I am older and tell you all about it.”

#fanfiction things #team minato #team minato week 2022 #teamminatoweek2022 #hatake kakashi #namikaze minato #uchiha obito #nohara rin

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theoryfan205 · 2 years

Text

He loved the ocean breeze, it was always so cold and calming, sitting on the ship's bow was his favorite part of traveling to new islands.

He could hear his builder talking with that captain brownbeard about the latest island, moonbrooke he thinks? He wonders what it'd be like there for a moment... Maybe dark? A dark woods with a moon always above? Heh, acorn would love that, he bets she'd feel right at home in a place like that. She sure did love furrowfield like that, though she looked that happy at everything.

...something touched him. He felt a cold wet thing on his head, angrily looking up to see where it came from he saw millions of white dots, slowly falling down onto the boat, what the hell was this!?

"Snow! Malroth look! It's snowing!"

Turning around at the sound of acorns voice he saw her smiling with that Same dopey smile she always had. She looked amazed at the sky as this... Snow, fell down onto her. Acorn seemed okay with it, so it wasn't something bad. but then again she also casually walked up to those children of hargon weirdos and announced that she was a builder.

What really drove him to action was acorn trying to... Eat it?! Opening her mouth to try and catch the snow as it fell. He jumped off the bow and rushed towards her, stopping her from eating anymore

"What the bloody hell are you doing? If you're hungry acorn you can always eat some of the food we brought with us!"

At his confusion she simply laughed, smiling at him like a big idiot who didn't understand a word he said

"That's not what I'm doing silly! It's snow! You're supposed to do that! I think... You can catch the snowflakes on your tongue. And when there's enough of it on the ground you can make snow angels!"

Even though she spoke softly and quietly he could still hear her every word perfectly, like she was shouting it so the underworld would hear her

"Snow angels, huh? I think I'd prefer a snow demon to that! Haha! Though what do you mean, you think? Haven't you seen this stuff before?"

She looked a bit to the side, he didn't like how her smile lowered slightly at that.

"Well... No? This is my first time seeing snow, it's not... Very cold in cantlin, we rarely see snow. Have you seen it before Malroth?"

He scoffed and flicked at her pigtail, causing her to chuckle slightly at his antics

"I have no clue! I can't remember anything, remember? At this rate you're probably the one with memory issues"

A laugh escaped from her, it sounded as lovely as she was, if not a bit stupid sometimes

"Right, right. Well... I guess we can experience snow for the first time together then? Since we both haven't seen it before."

She held out her hand slightly as she spoke, without hesitation he high fived it, before she just took a grip of his hand, holding it gently.

"Sure, why not. It's not like there's anyone better I could share a first time with. Imagine if lulu were here, she'd probably complain about it staining her clothes!"

"Hahaha! Malroth!"

"You know I'm right!"

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Okay so I'm writing this like not even an hour after my last one, but I'm gonna queue it so it posts later on instead, this was absolutely inspired by that one line in the last one about acorn seeing snow for the first time, I've already written them both in sad times twice now it's time for the happiness and that happiness comes via the form of snow! It's short but I hope you enjoyed the read!

#dqb2 #dqb2 Malroth #dqb2 builder #dragon quest builders 2 #dragon quest builders 2 malroth #dragon quest builders 2 builder #Malroth #my writing #i say i hate moonbrooke yet I've written with it twice kind of #for something made also at midnight this is good enough for me

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junkydrawr · 8 months

Text

Snively fic! Another real quickie scene. This one is probably the furthest in the story. Snively has found himself growing closer with a few villagers. (but only a few ;))

Rosie drew forth a large cookie from the basket and pressed it into his hand. "Sweets make everything better."

He took a grateful nibble. "One of these days, you're going to lace these with posion. Just biding your time."

She chuckled and drew out another cookie for herself. "I wouldn't trust myself not to mix them up, dearie."

Dearie. Sometimes he truly thought she was going senile.

They ate the cookies and Rosie brushed off her hands. She reached into the basket again. "I have something else for you."

It was a gray hoodie, slightly oversized for his frame.

He took it wordlessly.

"You might feel more comfortable in that. I'm working on a coat for you too."

He stared down at the gray cloth. "Um. Thanks."

She smiled. "You always seem so flabbergasted when someone does anything nice for you."

He didn't say anything. It's not 'flabbergastion', he thought. What was the deeper motive? Why the fake graciousness?

She read him. "Most times, folk just like being kind to each other. My folk, at least. That's all there is to it. Now, try it on, so I can see how it fits!"

He pulled the hoodie over his head. His body almost seemed to sigh. His skin covered, his scars hidden.

"I do know a way you can repay me," Rosie said.

Snively groaned internally, wondering if he should give the hoodie back.

Rosie continued, with a hopeful smile. "Sally said that you said the Acorn Library hasn't been destroyed. Is that true?"

Well, that's easy. "It's true."

Rosie clasped her hands together, her eyes starry. "Truly?"

"The books, the artwork, things from the museums... it's down there. Er...in the vaults. Way under the city." He fiddled with the hoodie strings. "Anything outside was decimated though. I suppose you know that."

"The books...the paintings were saved?" Her voice cracked slightly and those starry eyes were starting to flood.

Snively nodded, shifting uncomfortably. And then Rosie lunged for him. He squealed as her arms wrapped him in an embrace. His body went utterly stiff, playing dead in the jaws of...affection?

She sniffled, patting his shoulder as she drew back. "I'm sorry, dearie. You nevermind this silly old woman."

"...Um. All right." Strange tingles traveled his skin. He could still feel the cage of arms around him...alien, unfamiliar. He rubbed his biceps to alleviate it.

She wiped her eyes, her smile becoming sad. "It's like you've never been hugged before."

No, no. He tried to slam the door on his own vault, the things he wished he could destroy. Memories. Julian had hugged him as a child. Julian had loved - pretended to love.

"Who needs it?" His voice lashed out like a snake. "Stupid, sentimental slop."

She put a hand to her mouth and he hunched his shoulders into the hoodie she'd give him. The thing she'd made for him. He reigned his anger back, swallowing hard.

"...Sorry," he whispered.

#Snively #SatAM fic #Junkysnivfic #Short N sweet

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niuniente · 2 years

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Have you ever had a character tell you something that leaves you like o_o

Surprised? Yes. Many times. Shocked? Not really, at least not yet. Here are few examples, I can't find the post where I spoke about these things long ago.

In FUZZY, the protagonist Fuzzy tells Irene that "Don't let them find me". I was like ????? WHO? WHAT??? WHO'S AFTER YOU??? It took really, really long until it turned out that two other Lempo monsters, Chaos and Misery, where after Fuzzy. I didn't know that! But Fuzzy did.

Also in FUZZY, when the comic starts Fuzzy writes his name down to Irene in Lempo language. Irene keeps it as a memento. Loid, the antagonist of the story, sees the name and goes "Ah, so that's your name - The One Who Brings Misfortune". I was so surprised! Like, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE SWEET FUZZY BRINGS MISFORTUNE, THAT'S A HORRIBLE NAME???!! Loid didn't answer but I got the answer later in the comic - and sure enough, it was exactly what Loid had told me.

Fuzzy also got a random two items from a magical wending machine. one was a stone, which was powerful but I didn't know what it is. Other one was a small chestnut which made even less sense! Even Loid, who usually always have answers I need, didn't know at first what the acorn was and didn't know at all what the stone was. Its purpose was revealed to me by another character.

Loid started his journey in my other comic ARE, as an antagonist to the protagonist Elena. Elena is a protagonist against her will, and she's got a bodyguard A or R looking after her. When Elena got lost, Loid was the one who brought her back to her realm. When A or R asked why Loid saved her, he just said "She reminds me of someone." I spent probably a year or more trying to figure out to who Loid was referring to. A friend, a family member, a lover, a partner, a neighbor, a teacher??? Then, one morning at 5am Loid started to tell the story. Turned out that Elena reminded Loid of himself, as he had been a fated protagonist until bad things happened and he had ran away to become an antagonist because of the pain he caused.

Loid also once randomly showed me eyes that appeared on his chest and on his jacket. It took probably two years until I found out that he got a gift - a protective amulet - which he then accidentally corrupted and now it manifests in a weird way when he casts the spell.

When Alrick introduced himself to me out of the blue, I noticed that I didn't hear him speaking nor saw him opening his mouth. As Fuzzy is already a mute character, I wondered what was Alrick's reason not to speak. He casually mentioned that his tongue had been cut off. I sat there and thought "....No. No way. That's way too dark. There has to be another reason, I don't like this one." But, what Alrick said, that was the truth.

Joon introduced me both Miranda and Viv. I would have never chosen myself names Miranda or Viv to any character of mine! Not that those are bad names, they just aren't my kind of names.

Nyrkes from Demon Sanctuary was supposed to just pop in for a comic or two to show readers demonxhuman relationship with his human girlfriend Eva. Nyrkes then revealed that he's going to stay in Father Furmann's house (who saved him) and that he's got a horrible crush on him. Not my plan but the baby has his own feelings!

These came to my mind but there's a lot these kind of things happening when I interact with the characters. I should probably sometimes open some thought-intuition process that actually somehow makes sense :D

#ask niu #loid #fuzzy #alrick #nyrkes #furmann

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gothighunicorntolerance · 2 years

Text

In League With Dragons- chapter six

Beach episode

read on ao3!

“Nico, may I ssspeak with you?”

Thomas and Nico looked up from the stone where Nico had drawn a musical staff on.

“Oh, uh, sure, Janus. What’s up?” Nico brushed his hands together, wiping off the chalk he had used.

Janus didn’t reply, just turned and flicked his tail, gesturing for Nico to follow him behind the trees.

Nico looked back at Thomas, who shrugged and nodded.

“Don’t worry about it,” Thomas assured him. “You’ll be fine. Janus is more bark than bite.”

Thomas whispered the last bit with a sly smile.

As he followed the dragon, Nico couldn’t help but feel as if he was in trouble with a parent who was going to scold him for something.

When Thomas was out of sight, Janus turned back around and sat on his hind legs. Nico looked up at Janus, who, though he was sitting, was still much taller than Nico.

“I don’t underssstand you,” Janus said, his forked tongue flicking back and forth. “But Thomasss sssemsss to like you. He wantsss to keep you around. I’m sssure you can guess that I did not agree with you being here. A drain on recourcesss, extra weight, another thing to take care of. But I will admit that Thomasss is happier sssince you’ve been with us. If I had my way, I should have dropped you off in the nearest city and left you. But Thomasss didn’t want that, and sssince I care about him, I didn’t.”

Nico didn’t know what to say. Where was this going?

“Ssso, Nico, if I find you hurting him, I will not hesssitate to leave you behind. Underssstand?”

“I- yes, I understand.”

Nico had the brief idea to say “yes, sir,” but that felt too much like talking to his own father.

Besides, do dragons even use honorifics? Stars, I’m overthinking this.

Janus nodded in approval. “Good. That’sss all. You may go back to… whatever it wasss you two were doing.”

As soon as Janus said his last words, he spread his wings and burst into the air, sending Nico stumbling backwards with a gust of wind.

“Rude,” Nico muttered. Oh, he really hoped Thomas was right about Janus having more bark than bite. He did not want to have to fend for himself in the middle of the woods somewhere. And besides, he did genuinely enjoy being around Thomas! What would he do without him?

Nico sighed and picked himself up from where he had fallen, and began to walk back to Thomas, occasionally glancing up at the sky to watch Janus circle above the trees.

Lately, Nico had seen very little of the dragons. They were always out hunting or sleeping in preparation for winter, Logan explained. As a result, Thomas and Nico had been left mostly to their own devices with each other, and their days had been mostly filled with music and preparing for winter in their own ways.

When Thomas came back into sight, he jumped up and ran towards Nico, cupping something in his hands.

“Look! I did it!”

Thomas took Nico’s hands in his own and pointed out the green sprout growing in the handful of soil.

“See? I did what you said, and-“

“And it grew from a seed!” Nico grinned. “Can you do it again? I want to see!”

“I’ll try! Here, come sit down.”

Nico watched as Thomas took a deep breath and reached for the pile of seeds the two had spent the morning collecting. He turned an acorn over in his hands then took a fistful of the patch of rich, dark soil they had discovered.

“Here goes nothing,” Thomas closed his eyes.

“You did it once, you can do it again!”

“I appreciate your enthusiasm. Ugh, why am I so nervous!?”

Thomas took a deep breath, exhaled, then another…

And Nico gasped when Thomas opened his mouth to sing.

There were no words to the tune, but Nico knew exactly what Thomas was saying.

He felt—he felt!

It was as if his head was suddenly clear, his muscles stopped aching, he felt strong! He could do anything! He could grow!

Meanwhile, between Thomas’s hands, the little acorn’s shell cracked open, a white tendril reaching first towards the sky, then plunging down into the small bit of soil, green erupting towards the sky, lengthening and widening, turning brown and more twigs shooting out.

Nico hardly dared to breathe in fear of disturbing Thomas, holding his breath as he watched what seemed like hundreds of sunsets pass in the palm of his hand.

As the song reached its crescendo, roots began to spill out of Thomas’s plans, brushing against the stone beneath them, more leaves unfurled and reached towards the sun.

The growth began to slow, and the song ended just as the stem was beginning to turn into a proper trunk.

“Oh,” Thomas peeked an eye open. “Oh my.”

Nico stood up and clapped. “That was incredible! You- just- look what you made!”

“I never knew I could do this,” Thomas smiled, staring at the tree sapling that had appeared in his hands.

“I wonder what else you can do!”

“I’d love to find out, my oh, gosh, I’m exhausted! And this is heavy!” He turned to place the new tree in the soil.

“You did fantastic, you deserve a rest.”

Thomas groaned as he lay down underneath his new tree, which though its growth had slowed, it was still noticeably much faster than the rest of the trees in the woods. It looked as if it had grown another few inches since the last time Nico had glanced over at it.

“I’m taking a nap now,” Thomas announced.

Nico smiled as Thomas’s hair flopped over his eyes, strands moving as he exhaled.

Up above, Nico could just make out Patton’s silhouette, the pale blue dragon blending in almost perfectly to the cloudless sky.

Patton must have spotted him, too, as he began to spiral lower, until he swooped down and landed a few feet away, skidding as he went.

“Oops! That was clumsy!”

Another thing Nico had learned about dragons: giggling sounded quite a bit like a human’s cough.

“Hey, Patton,” Nico smiled. “Thomas is trying to take a nap-“

“And I’m succeeding!” Thomas announced.

“Yes, he’s doing very well,” Nico amended. “So try not to be too loud.”

Patton covered his mouth with a talon. “Sorry!”

From under his still-growing tree, Thomas huffed. Patton and Nico looked at each other, paused, and laughed.

“So, what’s up, Patton?”

“Well,” Patton shifted from side to side. “I don’t really know you, but I think you seem nice. So, uh, yeah. Thomas likes you, so I guess I do, too. So I want to get to know you better, but I don’t know how. ”

“Oh. Oh! Er, thank you, I guess. Maybe we would do something? Just you and I?”

Patton brightened. “Sure! Thomas, do you-“

“I’m sleeping! I am very much asleep.”

Nico nodded. “Well, since you’re sleeping, I’ll leave you alone for a bit and hang out with Patton.”

“This way!” Patton whisper-shouted and began to trot down the sloped grassy hill below where Thomas and Nico had sat earlier, Nico rushing to catch up to Patton, who began half jumping, half gliding down towards the valley.

“Hey, wait a minute! I could carry you!” Patton turned and called up to Nico, who was still stumbling down, trying his best not to simply fall on his face and roll down the rest of the hill.

“Ah, it's fine! I’ll be there in just a second!”

Nico didn’t want to admit it out loud, to be quite honest, he didn’t really trust anyone except Logan to fly with, and that was even only if Thomas was there for him to hold onto.

So even though Patton seemed willing and perfectly capable, there was still a fear that Nico couldn’t place.

Just a moment later, Nico made it down the hill and stood beside Patton on the riverbank. The river had been mostly hidden from view from where he and Thomas had sat earlier, drawing musical notes in chalk, having been blocked from view by a perfectly timed curve around a steep hill, but now, standing on its banks, Nico could see his distorted reflection on the surface of the cool, surprisingly clear water.

He bent down to roll up the legs of his pants and threw his shoes closer to the grass and stepped into the river up to his ankles, sending ripples outwards.

“Look!” Patton pointed with a talon downwards towards the rocky shore where the river water lapped at smooth stones. “It’s a clam!”

Nico waded over and crouched to look where Patton pointed, and, sure enough, wedged between two rocks sat a pair of shells.

“I think it’s an oyster, actually,” Nico said as he picked it up and turned it over in his hands.

“What’s the difference?”

If dragons had eyebrows, Nico thought that Patton would certainly be raising his.

“Oyster shells are rough, but clams are smooth. And oysters can make pearls, but clams can’t.”

“Huh! The more you know! Let’s see if there are more! Maybe there are pearls!”

Patton leaped across the rocky shore, letting his wings spread as he reached the highest point in his jump to let himself glide a few extra yards.

Nico smiled and followed behind, looking carefully between the stones where the river’s flow was shallow. Every once in a while, he knelt to pick up more oyster shells or other interesting finds and stashed them in one of the many pockets of his bag that he carried around his shoulder.

“Here’s another one!” Patton shouted in delight. “You’re so good at finding them! Ooh, I wonder if there are any pearls inside! How do you crack them open?”

Now that it was just him and Patton, Nico noticed a change in the dragon. Before, he had been somewhat standoffish, watching from the sidelines at Nico’s and Thomas’s conversations, whereas now he seemed much more enthusiastic.

Much more enthusiastic.

“I wouldn’t count on finding pearls, they’re pretty rare. But you just have to force them open, then you can eat the inside,” Nico explained, smiling to himself.

“Like this?”

Patton took one of the shells and attempted to stick his claw inside to no avail. Then he attempted to pull the two halves apart, roaring with effort.

Nico watched with a small grin.

“Almost there,” Nico laughed.

“There!” Patton pulled back his lips in a smile as a loud crack signaled that Patton had succeeded. “Now what? Do I just… eat it?”

“Yeah! I’ve never liked oysters, so you can have them all.”

Patton regarded the half-shell with suspicion, then tilted his head back and tossed the actual oyster creature into his mouth.

“He chewed for a minute, then gave his opinion. “Slimy… yet satisfying!”

Nico clapped. “So do you want to open some more?”

“I bet I can get it faster now!”

Nico watched as Patton once again wrestled with opening the shells, and Nico watched, standing in the water, occasionally darting his hand down into the sediment to grab something that had caught his eye. Most of the time it was just a small fish that glimmered beneath his ripples, but this time he knew his fingers would close around something good!

And-

And his hand fumbled over the smooth river stones until he clutched whatever glimmering thing he had seen. He brought it up above the water and smiled at the small cluster of crystals he held. The single long one had several stubs branching out from the base of it, where a small bit of brown stone held stubbornly on.

They had been worn almost entirely smooth by the running water, yet there was still a pointed tip and roughness where Nico assumed the crystal he held had broken off from a much larger chunk. It was almost completely clear except for a cloudy band of orange running through the center.

His first thought was: “Thomas would love this!”

“Look at this!” Nico waved his find over his head and waded back over to Patton, who had a growing pile of broken shells next to him.

“Woah!” Patton’s eyes lit up. “Now look at this!”

Between his talons, Patton gripped a small, oddly shaped pearl, long and thicker at one end than the other. When Patton wiggled his talons, the color of the pearl shifted from green to purple and almost every color between.

“Will you put it in your pocket so I don’t lose it?” Patton asked.

“Of course!”

“I wish I had pockets. Pockets seem so useful! I would put so many things in my pockets. Like bread! Bread seems really nice. Dad says bread isn’t good for us, but sometimes Thomas gives me a few mites and it’s so yummy! And I would put cats in my pocket! And-!”

Patton kept talking about all the things he would put inside of a dragon-sized pocket, and Nico found it… somewhat comforting, really.

To know that sometimes dragons wished they could do things that humans do, almost as much as Thomas talked about wanting wings of his own.

To know that dragons weren’t really the bloodthirsty beasts everyone had made them out to be. That some dragons wanted a cat just as much as a human kid would.

Nico mused over these thoughts as he continued splashing through the shallow end of the river until the sun began to touch the horizon, when Patton once again offered him a ride.

“It’ll take you so much longer to climb all the way back up! And I promise, promise, promise I won’t go too fast!”

Nico sighed. Patton was right, of course. By the time he gay back up, it would be dark already.

“Alright,” he agreed. “But please don’t go too high!”

Patton crouched low to allow Nico to climb on, which he did- quite hesitantly.

Despite Patton being much shorter than Logan (Patton standing just over a foot taller than Nico, while Logan towered over him), he found it much more difficult to haul himself into a position where he didn’t feel like he was going to go flying off the moment Patton moved.

There was no one to tell him where to put his hands, no one to tell him how to grip the webbed ridges on Patton’s back as opposed to Logam’s separated spines.

But he found a way.

All on my own, Nico sighed a breath of relief. And while no, it hadn’t been a particularly stressful task, it still felt good to have an achievement all his own.

“I’m ready,” Nico called out, nodding to himself.

“Three, two, one!” Patton launched himself into the air after giving much too quick of a countdown, gliding high (but not too high, as he had promised) over the river, and from so high up Nico could tell it stretched on for miles, far past the horizon, an endless snake of blue.

Where would it lead, if he followed along the river until it ended?

Would it pass close to Ember’s Valley?

How many other dragons had flown above it? Had they ever reached the end?

Staring down at the giant shadow that glided over the river, a sense of… what was it? He felt alone, yes, but not lonely. Like if he let go and spread his arms out, he would only soar higher and could go wherever he wanted.

All too soon, the flight was over, and Patton landed clumsily along the stone and sparse grass.

Nico slid off, not nearly as gracefully as he would have hoped, and turned to face Patton.

“I had fun today, I hope you did too,” Nico smiled.

“I did!” Patton thumped his tail up and down behind him, reminiscent of an excited puppy.

“So,” he bit his lip. “Can we be friends?”

“Absolutely yes! I know you know, and I like you. You’re smart like my dad, and you’re really great at finding all sorts of treasure, and I think you’re very brave for going in the water alone! I’ve seen all sorts of gigantic toothy monsters in the water!”

Nico really didn’t want to know what type of creatures a dragon considered a monster, but perhaps if he pressed the subject further, his dreams would be filled with nothing but those animals, so he ignored it.

Instead, he held up his hand for a high-five, but paused on Patton’s confused looks.

“Here, so you hold your you… hand?”

What term should he use for the part where the dragon’s five talons connected to each other in a shape that was somewhat like a human palm? Paws didn’t sound right. Neither did a pad. But Patton seemed to know what he meant, and followed.

“And now you slap against mine.”

Patton gave his hand a gentle tap.

“No, no! Harder! Like you’re clapping against my hand.”

“Like this?”

Patton slammed his hand into Nico’s, pushing him backwards.

“Yeah! Much better! But uh, we’ll keep working on your high-fives.”

“Practice makes perfect!” Patton whirled. “Now where did Thomas go? Did he ever actually get his nap in?”

Nico scanned the area for the scrawny tree that Thomas had decided was the perfect resetting spot, but instead of the plant that could be called little more than a bush among the giants, he found Thomas nesting under a tall standing canopy of green, spotlighting it from the rest of the woods that had begun to turn orange.

It still wasn’t nearly as large as the rest of the forest, but in the little time that Nico and Patton had been gone, it had grown to well over seven feet.

Nico crouched next to Thomas and shook him awake.

Almost as soon as Nico placed his hand on Thomas’s shoulder, Thomas shuddered and sat straight up.

“What-! Oh! Hi! You’re back!” Thomas smiled and got up to his knees. “Oh, wow. That was the best sleep I’ve had in… since forever!

Thomas reached his hands over his head and groaned. “Ugh, that feels good.”

“Look what we found!” Patton bounded over, his tail swishing back and forth, reminding Nico once again of an excitable puppy. “Show him!”

Nico obliged and fished out the pearl and the crystal and held them out to Thomas.

“Thomas, you can have the pearl. I found it!” Patton puffed his chest out with pride.

Thomas took the pearl and turned it over in his fingers, just as Nico had earlier.

Before Thomas could open his mouth to say something, a giant shadow blotted out the sky above them and a sudden gust of wind blew through the newly grown leaves of Thomas’s tree, a few unlucky clusters of green whirling away.

“Hi, dad!” Patton shouted.

Logan landed with a thump and gave what could have been the closest thing to a smile that Nico had seen on him. “Hello, Patton. I can see you’ve been having fun.”

“Yeah! Me and Nico-“

“Nico and I,” Logan corrected.

“Right, right. Nico and I found all sorts of shiny things in the river! And I opened oysters! They feel gross, but they taste just like fish!”

Logan nodded with a grin.

“Well, Nico, Thomas, I have good news for you two. I have located a suitable city for you to resupply at. We will leave early tomorrow.”

Thank you for reading! Tagging:

@ts-storytime @theimprobabledreamersworld @edupunkn00b

#Sanders sides #thomas sanders #nico flores #pintroverts #ts nico #logan sanders #patton sanders #janus sanders #ts big bang

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