#READ THEORY OR SOME SHIT THIS IS EMBARASSING

[juceynightmare]

pink carnations part 3 - cody rhodes x reader

my masterlist

pink carnations masterlist

pairing(s): cody rhodes x reader, cody rhodes x brandi rhodes, austin theory x reader

warning(s): hanahaki, swearing

genre(s): heavy angst, fluff

<< previous part || next part >>

the occasional beeps from heart monitors down the hall accompanied by the sounds of hushed sobs and footsteps were the only noises in the lobby of the hospital besides cody’s own beating heart. besides him, austin sat with his arms crossed over his chest and his headphones turned up so loud that cody could hear the painfully sad music that he was listening to. however, cody could only assume that listening to sad music was better than listening to the chaos that was happening around the halls of the hospital as nurses and doctors constantly changed rooms to watch over a multitude of patients. this did, however, gave cody a chance to finally sit alone and face his own thoughts and emotions. he leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees and held his head in his hands as he closed his eyes and imagined how different life would be if he didn’t get tired of waiting.

“cody! holy shit cody you’re no fucking help! what do i do? cody!” y/n screamed, her eyes wide in panic as she struggled to put the car in reverse and pull away from the parked car that she had just hit while trying to park in the spot beside it.

cody laughed beside her, not even bothering to hide how humorous he found the entire situation. he took a second to calm down and catch his breath so he could say, “alright, alright. just pull out a little bit, put the car in park and switch with me.” he unbuckled his seatbelt, watching the woman’s shaky hands as she pulled back and put the car in park. as she moved to unbuckle her own seatbelt, cody reached over and grabbed her chin. he turned her head to face him so he could lean in and leave a gentle kiss on her lips. “you’ll be okay honey, don’t worry. just breathe.” he reassured her, holding his face in his hands as he watched the panic slowly leave his girlfriend’s face.

cody smiled, which y/n tried to mirror but it was clear she was still very much worried and embarassed about the entire situation. she found comfort having him touching her, and cody’s reassuring words and smile had eased the woman even more. “thanks honey, alright, now let’s switch.” she said, unbuckling her seatbelt. at the same time, cody quickly opened his own door and stepped out.

he jogged to the other side of the car and opened the door, only to see brandi step out of the car instead. cody felt brandi kiss him and thank him for opening her door, and he nodded to acknowledge her words. he shut the door behind her, and she quickly looped her arm with his. “alright, remember, no getting distracted on this grocery run, ok honey?” she reminded him, staring up at cody.

cody remembered how weird it felt at first to have some other woman that was not y/n on his arm. but now, as brandi does it, cody just takes it as routine. he nodded his head again, clearing his throat before asking, “shouldn’t i be telling that to you?” which earned him a confused look from brandi.

brandi was not the type to get distracted on these grocery runs and cody knows it. it was y/n. y/n who would sneak away from him whenever he was too focused on reading a nutrition label to run off to the trading cards section to feed her addiction. y/n who would hide between aisles as cody paced them looking for her, only to jump out and shoot cody with some toy gun she would find. y/n who would wonder off to stare at the ice cream section to debate about which flavor she should get before grabbing the cookies n cream ice cream that she would leave with… every.. single… time.

with y/n, everything was unexpected, exhilirating, but at the same time predictable because that was the type of person that y/n was and cody found her absolutely endearing. with brandi, everything was planned, calculated, and routine. cody knew exactly what brandi would do and where she would be, because that was the type of person that brandi was.

and although with brandi, cody found a stable foundation that he could rely on if nothing else worked out. with y/n, cody had an exhilirating love that pushed him to actually work for the life he wanted and when things didn’t go exactly as planned, he always had her to pick up the pieces, put him back together, and get him out there.

so why, why couldn’t he just wait a little longer? he remembers when he and brandi became official, something that was born out of the guys in the locker room peer pressuring him to finally get cuffed and that the hot ring announcer was interested in him. and he remembers never seeming to find a reason to break off the relationship with her. it was convenient, and filled a hole in his heart that only a relationship could heal, although it would never heal completely.

he remembers the first time he saw her again. it wasn’t anything spontaneous, and he knew that she would be there. she had come to the wwe with her first run for the company a few months before cody would make his return to the company at wrestlemania. it was backstage at this event that cody remembers meeting her behind the tour buses when no one else was supposed to know he was there.

“oh my god!” y/n yelled, running towards the hooded figure that stood between a tour bus and a concrete wall. she jumped, trusting that the hooded figure would catch her in his arms, and he did.

y/n wrapped her arms around cody’s neck and her legs around his waist, feeling his arms squeeze her by the waist to hold her impossibly close to him. he spun around, out of pure joy of finally having his favorite girl in his arms again. he remembered how shaky his hands were when he finally sent her that “i’m here at wrestlemania. meet me behind tour bus 073.” text. the first text he’d send her since they last spoke all those years ago. cody wasn’t even sure she’d even see the text, as he had to message her through instagram since he no longer had her number. but it was as if y/n was waiting, as he watched the “seen” message appear just under his text followed by a “no fucking way…” in response.

“hush, y/n” cody whispered, hating how calling y/n her own name to her face felt on his mouth. “no one knows i’m here besides the big guys. ok? i just…i just had to tell you, you know?” cody continued, leaning down as a sign for the woman to place her feet back on the ground. he set her down gently and pulled away, standing up straight and pulling off his hood so y/n can look at him.

and as he finally got to see her again, cody could feel the way his heart wanted to jump out of his chest. he could feel his lips tingle, as if they were telling him that he should kiss the woman in front of him whose lips were pulled into the widest smile he had seen on her face since the days that he would surprise her with pink carnations. however, he could feel how much his brain hurt at the thought that his wife could be watching them from the tour bus windows, as he was unable to lie to his wife and had told her that he’d be meeting with an old friend behind the bus that he wanted to introduce her to.

“cody… wow..” y/n breathed out, not hiding the fact that she was most definitely checking out her ex-boyfriend in that moment. how could she not? cody was certainly bigger than she remembered, and the feeling of his muscular arms around her just seconds before confirmed this thought. “you look amazing.”

cody could feel heat start creeping up his neck and bleed into his face, as he nervously placed his hand on the side of his neck. “you’re stunning, y/n. always have been and always will be.” he admitted softly, hoping that the tour bus was sound proof enough that his wife couldn’t snoop in on their conversation. “i.. there’s… my wife, she’s been dying to meet you. i’ve told her all about you, just.. just not about us. she doesn’t know about that.” cody whispered, hating the way that he saw something like sadness flicker in y/n’s eyes for a moment before the woman enthusiastically nodded her head.

“well, what are you waiting for? put your hoodie back on rockstar and take me go meet your hot wife!” y/n quickly replied, reaching up to pull up cody’s hoodie on for him before turning quickly on her heel and making her way out from behind the tour bus. she heard cody’s footsteps behind her to get in front of her and lead the way, and she quickly mentally punched herself in the head for forgetting that cody was, in fact, a married man now. married to a woman who only thinks  y/n and cody are only good friends, might she add.

she would be stupid to think that she’d have a chance again.

but little did she know, cody was already imagining what it’d be like if it was y/n in that tour bus helping him prepare for his big return instead of his wife.

cody shook his head at the thought, being pulled out of his thoughts by austin who was attempting to get cody’s attention by tapping the man’s shoulder.

he opened his eyes and turned his head to look at austin to meet his gaze, before breaking the eye contact and sitting back in his seat.

austin cleared his throat before speaking, “sorry about what accusing you of being unfaithful to your wife. i completely overstepped and that’s on me.”

cody nodded his head in acknowledgement before letting out a sigh, to which austin cocked a brow at. “it’s okay. it’s my fault anyway, through and through. i…” cody paused, fully aware of the fact that they are in a public area and they are public figures and anyone could be listening in on their conversation. despite knowing all this, cody continued after a beat, “i love her, you know.”

who this “her” was, austin couldn’t decipher. but it was clear that cody meant it towards whoever he had in mind and that it was something that cody would only know. “yeah, yeah i know. but, for the record, when it comes to y/n, i want to be there for her.” austin found himself admitting. cody bit back his tongue at austin’s words to prevent him from saying anything else that could hurt somebody.

“cody runnels-rhodes?” a nurse called out, catching the attention of both men. cody stood up and took a step towards the nurse before glancing back at austin and motioning him to follow. cody continued making his way towards the nurse, knowing that the sound of footsteps beside him was austin.

“oh, uh. is, is this your partner?” the nurse asked, and before austin could deny it, cody simply nodded and shot austin a look. austin finally caught on to what cody was doing, and nodded along side him. “good news, ms. y/n is in stable condition. you’re listed as one of y/n’s emergency contacts, so if you and your partner would like, you can both come in and visit her. but please, do be quiet, she should still be resting.”

the nurse lead the two men down the hall, and lead them to y/n’s room. the nurse quickly reminded them to be quiet before opening the door for the two of them.

cody stepped into the room first, feeling the tears quickly pool in his eyes at the sight of y/n laying in the hospital bed hooked up to countless machines and an oxygen mask over her face. his feet felt as though they were glued to the ground, before he felt austin lightly shove him towards one side of y/n’s bed. the two men pulled up two chairs closer to the bed.

austin wiped away his tears as he sat back in his seat, his eyes fixed on y/n’s sleeping body. he did his best to keep his eyes off of the crying man that sat across from him, wanting to give cody some sort of privacy.

cody had grabbed y/n’s hand the moment he sat down, bringing her hand up to his face so he could kiss it. he hadn’t even known he had started crying until he started tasting his own salty tears and he lightly kissed her hand.

the two men didn’t know how long they sat there for, listening to the sound of y/n’s heart on the heart monitor. finally, after what seemed to be forever, the room was filled with the sound of austin gasping out a “y/n… you’re awake” followed by y/n’s very light chuckles and coughs as she teased cody,

”oh codes. don’t tell me all those are for me.”

cody looked up at y/n in disbelief. he couldn’t believe that she had enough energy to still tease him after nearly dying in his arms because of him, but it did cause him to smile. he felt her take her hand out of his grasp so she could wipe away at his tear stained face, and cody allowed himself to lean into her touch.

“of course they’re for you, y/n. i’ve told you before there’s no point of living in this world if you weren’t in it.” he whispered, ignoring austin’s presence in the room and allowing himself to imagine that just for a moment it was only him and y/n in this world.

“god, i love you so much cody.” y/n breathed out, followed by a coughing fit which earned a shocked look from both of the men beside her. she brought her hand up to her lips, coughing out a petal. she stared down at it, noting that it wasn’t as painful as her previous coughing fits that’d happen. additionally, a single petal was nothing compared to the countless bouquets that the woman had already spewed out. if she remembers correctly, the effects of hanahaki decreasing in intensity was a sign of the disease being cured. so… why? clearly the doctors hadn’t performed surgery on her to remove the plant growing in her lungs - she would not be able to give consent to the surgery in the state she was in.

she looked over at cody, who looked relieved to hear her confess her love out loud and reached to take the petal out of her hand and throw it to the ground. he took her hand back in his and brought it up to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to the back of her hand.

could it be?

before she could question cody, the door to her hospital room was opened and a doctor stepped in.

|| next part >>

#cody rhodes x reader #cody rhodes #wwe #wwe x reader #austin theory #austin theory fanfiction #austin theory imagine #austin theory x reader #cody rhodes fanfiction #cody rhodes imagine

[chaifootsteps]

Also involving TADC. This isn't some no name. This is Gooseworx. She has a long line of animation before this that was popular. And I mean it that it has better wider appeal.

I tried to show my friends Hazbin back when the pilot released at a party, and I got stopped by someone saying "that creator is a pedophile, transphobic, racist, homophobic, disgusting person" and I got threatened to be kicked out of the party after trying to show someone the pilot. Now, dear readers, I had not heard the allegations at that point because I just wasn't on those parts of the internet, and I only knew VIvzie from her Die Young and speed paints. I knew of Zoophobia, but it did not interest me much so didn't read it. I will be honest I was orginally really sceptical, since that was alot of accusations being told to me aggressivly. I asked the guy where he saw this and said he had never heard of the creator until that week on twitter. I honestly was a bit suspicious since this was during the time of hunicast and everything seemed great. I almost got kicked out of a party over it too, which is not a good way to get someone to be sympathetic to your opinion if they had heard nothing up to that point. This was sometime after the pilot when the main big spike in controversy had started to settle and alot of callout posts got deleted by this point, so I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on. I couldn't find the evidence after all the big deleting and broken links, since it might be obvious to us, but it can be rough figuring it out for a newbee to the controversy. Especially back then when things were overwhelmingly more positive. I also wasn't going to condem someone for something I couldn't even find evidence for. I never spoke of Hazbin amongst anybody for years, and it was my biggest secret, since I knew folks were weird about it because of some twitter post I couldn't even find anymore. Maybe I should have read the writing on the wall, but I don't blame myself for being skeptical when I had such a hard time finding the evidence in the beginning, and the few I did find were some of the more softball accusations that leaned toward more a slap of the wrist like how she could he kind of a brat on twitter or something (alot of people are, so not gonna drop her over that. That's like alot of internet personalities). Obviously I found the stuff later and now things make more sense.

Not to mention some of the Hazbin content is edgy without a purpose at times, so it takes some disclaimers when showing a friend. The Hazbin pilot was not the worse, but you wanna show a friend the Helluva Boss Pilot. Good f***ing luck. You'll get alot of silent judgement. I will give credit that actual Helluva Boss after the pilot is more sharing friendly a bit. I think I could shiw a friend some early HB epidsodes especially the harvest moon festival without too much incident. Hazbin is pretty okay without the controversy with some bad moments like the Jeffery dahmer joke and shit, but you can kind of get by. However, Viv's controversy kept the show back from being shared more. It also sometimes push the envolope but rather than in storytelling it was edgy humor and you would have to ask yourself "Do I want my friends to associate this with me?"

My main point though. Throughout this entire time we watched the shit out of goosworx and would even hang out having "viewing parties" aka an excuse to hang out and eat. I never have been nervous about showing their stuff. I don't think you have to be no controvercial or plain for that either. Look at little runmo. My friends and I were obsessed with the idea of a capitalist metephor and some of the theories we made with deeper themes. But it was never crude in an embarassing way so it spreads through word of mouth better. That's why Vivzie has a fandom more than viewers now. You gotta already have bought in to watch it.

I'd say that at the end of the day, the adult show that you can show your friends, kids, and mother is going to have an easier time finding a bigger audience than the one that opens with the r-word...but Family Guy and South Park.

Vivzie's shows have several hurdles in place just by virtue of being an extremely crude animated show. And then, after all those, they've got to overcome Vivzie.

#Anonymous #vivziepop mention #actual blog post

[purplew]

modern mdzs hcs that have no substance whatsoever

wwx is a major conspiracy theoriest, like my man will question everything given the oportunity, and like everyone is just tired of his bs already except lwj (obv) and then at some point they start theorizing together and just imagine like one lan family dinner where lwj explains the flat earth theory to lqr with his dead pan face and lqr is just regretting ever letting his nephew out of the house

jyl buys jc and wwx like rlly cute and ugly socks that they cherish with everything they have, and just wear them all the time, she also got them pride ones

lwj unironically wearing crocs

jc knits when he's stressed. it started out w him wanting to do some cute baby clothes for jl and then he just started doing ugly sweaters for wwx and rlly intricate scarfs for jyl, and when jl grows up he also teaches him and they make little clothes for fairy and just quality time™

jyl and lwj cooking together pls

I feel like wwx definitely had a major hair dye phase in college, just the cheapest dye and a new color every month, his hair is low-key ruined now but lwj always conditions it and gives him oils and stuff

wangxian watch true crime documentaries together and then try to solve the murders, they do it monthly and they have one living room wall that's always full w police reports, maps, suspects idk

when wangxian started dating lwj got a pocket sized coloring book for wwx to use when he's anxious, sometimes he'll sit in the buss stop and do a monochrome flower other times he's in a cafe and just takes a small pencil pouch and goes off

jc and wwx went to a drag show drunk one time and rlly enjoyed it so they start doing it for halloween then for game nights and idk if there are any open mic drag shows but i feel like they'd deff go, and they're audience faves, rlly funny together just chaotic dumbass level off the charts, that's where they met mxy and wwx made him his protegé

lwj taught lsz how to play guitar and got him an electric one which wwx painted

lwj w gauges, he started stretching them when he was a senior in hs

when nhs comes over he braids wwx's hair, a different style everytime and they just talk shit while drinking mimosas

wn and lwj have a gaming rivalry, like one time wn was over and was playing mario kart w wwx and lwj comes in and he starts idk trying to help wwx and wwx is like why don't u try, and he does and wins and somewhere along the line he plays random games w wn and they both enjoy it but are competitive asf so they start counting wins

wwx has a massive record collection and his friends always get home like super rare ones when they travel and he just,,, his babies, also they're like every genre possible, i think he'd be a music snob but won't just settle for one type of music to obsess over

jc a kpop multi, nhs showed him some songs when they were in hs and it's been like his 'guilty pleasure' even tho everyone knows ab it, deff just does random kpop refrences on the daily, like one day he just tells lwj 'mAyBe iF yOU sTaNnEd LoOnA'

wangxian watch rlly bad horror movies and bet in which order the characters will die

wwx enjoys russian lit, has read all of dostoyevsky's works and most writers from that specific period of time

jgy has a pocket knife that he carries everywhere

lxc has a film camera collection and he bonds w wwx ab film photography and obscure photographers from the 90s

lwj hates modern art museums

wq tattooes wwx and he always passes out 5 minutes after they start

nhs and wwx learned french so they can bitch together in peace, jyl also knows it

lwj had a major latin phase in middle school and a mythology one, sometimes him and wwx just sit in bed and he tells him random myths or poems

junior quartet have a yt channel on which they used to post embarassing videos in middle school

jc and wwx were vine legends, like just imagine wwx playing the flute w his nose or some shit and jc just screaming tHIS IS WHY MOM DOESNT LOVE YOU, or tbh them on any kind of platform just bullying eo and middle schoolers, maybe they'd randomly find junior quartet's yt channel and react to it idk

nhs made like kinda ugly clay bracelets for wwx and jc when they were kids and they both still have them, wwx put it on his bag and jc has it as a key chain

jl tried to read self help books in hs but just got mad when the affirmations and stuff didn't work out

lsz and wwx bake together complicated deserts on saturdays and listen to european 00's pop

wwx does like a smudged eyeliner and that's it but lwj will have a 15 step skin care routine and like 3 types of highlighter

jzx always wears pretty silk scarfs and those big obnoxious designer sunglasses

wwx was a theater kid, and he'll just Shakespeare quote randomly

lwj and lxc love musicals and brodway, they see some live w nhs

nmj and his never ending metalhead phase

lsz enjoys foreign indie films, like french, norwegian, italian all the jazz

speaking of jazz, lwj,,, big mf fan

i think at some point yunmeng bros deff had a garage band, and they were actually pretty good and got quite famous, but couldn't pick a genre so that's why they 'split'

jyl and wwx watch Tim Burton movies as comfort

wn and lwj closet harry potter nerds

wq hates wearing jewlery but she has a thread bracelet lsz made her in kindergarten

#omg #forgot ab this #ive had it in my drafts for over a year #i still stand by them #maybe ill add more if im feeling goofy😜 #mxtx books #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #wen ning #wen qing #jiang cheng #mo xuanyu #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the untamed #mo dao su zhi #mdzs headcanons #mdzs modern au

[lavalave]

Changes on blog

Hi guys, just wanted to tell that I decided that this blog from now on WILL be an art blog (like it was suppoesed to be). I'll post some theories, AUs etc. here too but not reblogs (if they are not valid to the theories, AUs etc.), shit posts and other fandoms stuff.

All the things 'removed' from this blog will be now at @lavs-ve,the link to that blog is in the description and vice versa.

I won't be removing any of my previous posts from this blog nor rebloging them on my new one. (01.07.23 edit: I did remove a lot of posts actually. I don't think I removed any of my art tho, even if it is embarassing)

I just want to know if this will work out, if it won't then i'll go back to rebloging/shit posting here, it's just that this was bugging me for some time now, that i call it an art blog and the art is like only 40% of all the posts.

Thank you if you read this,

Lavs

#it's just kinda important to me that i learn how to organize my life and starting with blogs seems easy enough so i try

[seoafin]

saw a tiktok calling gojo a communist

#oh yeah mr. generational wealth is a COMMUNIST LMFAO #thx for the good laugh ig 😭 #I genuinely do not know how you can call gojo a communist with a straight face WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE #READ THEORY OR SOME SHIT THIS IS EMBARASSING #I........I literally have no words ppl took the 'why don't we kill all the higher ups' quote and RAN WITH IT #do I need to bring back my toji is a comrade for stabbing gojo post #mtjjk

[blxetsi]

Hi there! I love your work!! So I know this sounds a little niche but, could we get headcanons for a reader in a polyamorous relationship with Hange and Miche please? Hope you’re having a really good day!

NO BEXAUSE IVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEINE TO REQUEST POLYAMOROUS STUFF OMGGGGG 😭 ty for your service anon it means a lot 😔🙏

hange and mike dating headcanons (canonverse)

zoë hange x gn!reader x mike zacharias

warnings: polyamorous relationship, and titans ??, reader is kinda innocent ?? like just easily wound up

also this is going to be SO fucking long and focused on hange for the first long bit sorry !

btw this isnt rlly dating headcanons so much as backstory, how you met, and shit leading up to actually getting together i went so fucking overboard and went the complete opposite way of what you asked ill do a part two with ACTUAL dating headcanons if youd like anon just tell me and ill do it

- i think you wouldve worked for garrison originally

- in season one when hange started the experiments on sawney and bean thats when you would've met them

- you had been a big fan of their research studies for a while, so being in front of someone you thought was so cool was a little nerve wracking

- you had just became newly appointed as a captain for a garrison squad, being one of the youngest recruits to get the position, which also meant some people thought you couldnt handle the job

- you were good at telling others what to do, and guiding them when needed, you took over the leader role very quickly, you had to if you wanted to keep the position

- although you thought you were a good leader, others didnt

- specifically older members of garrison who thought because you were so young, youd be naive

- and since you were a garrison captain, you worked closely with hange and moblit during their experiments

- any request they made for supplies or anything, went through you and youd get it for them

- they needed more help ? youre requesting three soldiers to the experimentation zone immediately. anything they needed you helped with, because you liked helping

- hange had quickly grown fond of you, they were so thankful that you were so willingly to have your squad help them. you remember the brunette grabbing your hand and saying "thank you for your dedication to this project and to science !" while bowing multiple times

- as unsanitary and childish as it was,,, you didnt wash that hand for a day

- hange saw how some members of your squad treated you, and it may have irked them a bit

- causing them to rant to moblit while writing down research data

- "hange." "i just dont get it, why dont they say anything ? theyre so nice so why dont people respect them like they should-" "hange !" "what ?!" "youre writing down captain l/n's name on your page !" "so what ?!- wait what" this causes a night of bickering between the two of them 😐🤚

- when sawney and bean died hange was devastated. you had grown to like the section commander as a friend and respected them greatly, so to see their hardwork and research all go down the drain was hard

- you immediately went into leader mode and started ordering your squad around "listen up ! i want this whole perimeter checked and searched for any evidence to help us find out who did this." a couple members groaned, and one man, who was in his early thirties made a comment about it. "theyre just stupid fucking titans. we're supposed to kill them, not keep them alive for some freak to experiment on them."

- yknow,, looking back on it maybe you shouldnt have went off on them the way you did, but you did because not only was the man questioning your authority and orders, he was blatantly disrespecting a section commander. "i am your captain. i am your leader. you will respect me, and you will listen to me. you either do i say or youll be suspended and taken off my squad immediately. and that goes for everyone ! do i make myself clear ?" you shouted. the man who had talked back raised his eyebrows, youd never once yelled or demanded things be done in a manner like this, and it clearly shocked him when you stood up for yourself.

- a bunch of murmurs came from your squad and you dismissed them, but not before stepping in front of your soldier in front of everyone. "between you and me ? you should be discharged for not only your blatant disrespect and defiance to me for months now, but also for your innapropriate and degrading comments about section commander hange. you wanna pull some shit like this in the future, not just to me but to anybody ? you should kiss your position in garrison squad goodbye, since youre too childish to keep your thoughts and opinions to yourself. now grow the fuck up and go do what ive asked please." the man looked scared as he stared at you, no one had seen you act like this before, his jaw clenched as he nodded and walked off, the rest of your squad dispersing with him

- you didnt notice hange calling your name until you felt their hand on your shoulder. you turned around and saw their sympathetic gaze on you. "thank you for defending me. are you okay ?"

- you rubbed the back of your neck and answered. "honestly ? i feel kind of bad, like i embarassed him or something." the survey corps leader tilted their head back as they laughed. "youre so kind y/n, but im proud of you." the comment, although lighthearted, struck a cord with you

- a couple days later you were requested to meet with not only the section commander but commander smith, as well as your superior, dot pixis

- the meeting only lasted about thirty minutes, but hange had boasted about not only your leadership skills but also your knowledge and ideas on various sciences. erwin decided to offer you a position to work under hange, and dot pixis agreed to have you transferred to the survey corps if you agreed.

- did your decision have to do with your crush on hange ? maybe. would you ever admit it ? no.

- pixis explained to you that youd be honorably disharged from the garrison regiment before being moved to the scouts' headquarters in trost

- you surprisingly got along well with others there. working in hanges squad was fun, and even though you were demoted from a captain back to a cadet you didnt mind

- hange had offered to share as much knowledge as they could with you, which led you to be in their office (as messy as it was) after work hours

- and thats where you met mike

- well, got to know him

- hange introduced you two when you first joined and the first thing the section commander did was NOT shake the hand you held out for him but to lean down and sniff around your hair and neck

- your face felt hot as you stuttered over your words, thrown off by his,,, unique, greeting

- hange and laughed and lightly pushed him away, before explaining to you that thats just what mike did

- back to being in hanges office

- for nights on end youd stay up together in their office, two chairs huddled beside one another while you read through books of research, not just from hange but from published scientists and anthropologists too

- mike had started joining you two only three days after you and hange started

- he would stay quiet, but would sit next to hange making them be sandwiched by the two of you

- after that you started to notice him more often

- down the halls he'd send you a small smile, which you brightly returned

- sometimes he'd be in charge of training that day, and he would wordlessly help you position your arms to properly block or punch when sparring with other members

- then he started bringing tea when he would come and listen to you and hange discuss different theories, articles and information together

- you didnt even know the two were dating until you accidentally walked in on them in hange's office

- they werent doing anything dirty, just giving each other a kiss, but you had walked in on them with a stack of papers captain levi told you to give to hange.

- you kinda,, stood there, slackjawed, while the two pulled apart slowly to look at you. hange had a mischievous grin on their face while mike just gave you a blank stare

- you dropped the papers. the stack of documents levi tasked you to give to hange. you dropped them. How Embarassing.

- your face began to feel hot not just from seeing them but also because youre embarassing yourself by dropping the papers and just standing there like an IDIOT

- "uh,,, i- captain levi said to give you those documents you requested." your voice cracked at the end making you wince

- "you mean the documents that are spread out on my floor now ?" hange asked. you looked between them and the floor, then at mike, then back to the floor than back at hange. "yes." you said, and you could feel that warmth in your face spreading to your ears now too. "im sorry." you exclaimed, your voice sounding strained as you quickly walked backwords and closed the door in front of you

- you started avoiding hange and mike after that, and became hyper aware of everything that they did. they were TAUNTING YOU 🙄 you could feel it

- instead of small smiles in the halls, after you started ducking your head down when you saw mike, he would now give you head pats when you crossed him

- hange would let their hand linger on your shoulder or side as they shuffled past you during meetings or experiments, and would come closer than usual when handing you documents

- mike would give you teasing smiles when you got your ass handed to you during sparring

- and finally you were fed up ! did this count as workplace harassment ? you didnt know but you wanted answers ! so you went to the source, hange's room after dinner

- you didnt bother knocking, you just walked in with your eyes closed

- hange giggled, "what are you doing y/n ?" "making sure im not walking into something i shouldnt be seeing, section commander." "by that do you mean the kiss mike and i shared ?" "yes." "well we're not kissing right now." they said, and you peaked one eye open to be sure they werent lying, and they werent !

mike stood up from his chair and slowly made his way past you, closing the door. you took a deep breath before throwing all of your word vomit on blond and brunette duo. "so i dont know why you guys think teasing me like this is fun, but it isnt. it makes me flustered and nervous and feel weird and im not sure if it counts as abuse of power but i dont like it so it needs to stop." you huffed in a big breath of air after saying all of that, and hange rested their head in their hands.

"y/n do you have a crush on me ?" they asked. their voice was soft but they still had that stupid smile on their face. you could feel your face getting warmer by the second. your mouth opened and closed but no words came out.

" i uh, im gonna leave now." you turned around but hit something hard, and looked up at mike looking down on you, a smirk on his face. he put his hands on your shoulders and turned you back around to hange, walking the two of you over to their desk. he gave you a slight push, causing you to put your hands on the desk and lean on it, while mike kept his hands on you to keep you from running.

hange leaned into you, your noses barely touching. "i only ask because, mike and i have grown very fond of you." they said. you nodded a little bit, the tips of your noses brushing against each other.

"yeah well, id be a little sad if my superiors didnt like me, that would be kind of bad." you replied.

"can i kiss you ?" they asked.

and now is when your brain really stops functioning. thoughts fill your mind of mike and his relationship to hange. are they actually together or is it a friends with benefits kind of thing ?

"i uh, i cant kiss you." you replied, a bit breathlessly caused by both section commanders.

"why not y/n ?"

"well i'm not a cheater, or a homewrecker. i mean i assume that you and mike are together so, im not going to kiss someone in a relationship." you stammered out. this was making you very nervous, butterflies errupting in your stomach. you knew they were just teasing you, goofing around to make you flustered, but a part of you hoped youd be able to kiss hange, and maybe mike for that matter.

they chuckled a bit, before their brown eyes looking behind you to mike's towering form. "honey, can you tell y/n its okay if they kiss me ?" they asked. mike let out a small laugh through his nose before leaning down.

"only if y/n promises to give me a kiss afterwards." he whispered. he pressed a faint kiss to your temple, and you shivered from the contact. he was warm, very warm, and even though it was such a small amount of contact it did so many things to you.

you gulped before bringing your eyes back to hange. you looked to their eyes, and then to their lips, and continued that pattern silently in hopes theyd understand. you didnt want to be teased anymore ! you wanted something to happen.

hange got the hint and smirked, before leaning in again and lightly brushing her lips against yours. theirs were soft compared to mikes chapped ones, and the kiss was so slow, so innocent, it had you leaning in for more. it was a slow, lazy kiss, a kiss to test the waters, it helped calm your nerves, but also made your nerved explode with heat.

finally the researched pulled away, and put their hands on your cheeks, squishing them to pucker your lips, before giving a kiss to your forehead, nose and lips one last time. they let go with a soft smile on their face, and a blush of their own.

you could feel mike press his body down against yours, making your knees buckle slightly. he took his right hand off your shoulder to place it on hange's cheek, thumbing over the red pigmentation. he then turned your head up and to the side, before giving you a kiss of his own. this one was a bit more dominating, hard. his chapped lips scratched against your own but you didnt mind. in a weird way it made you feel at ease, having him take control of it, the same way hange did but his was just more, needy.

he pulled back with a shaky breath and looked at you before looking at hange. "so y/n," hange began. they stood up and made their way around the table, mike pulling himself and you up straight so hange could sit on the edge, pulling you in to stand between their legs. being sandwiched in between mike and hange made you so aware of them, and even though you were very new to something like this you felt weirdly safe and secure. "mike and i genuinely care about you, and we want to be with you the way that we're with each other. would you like that ?"

honestly, how could you say no ?

thats it again im sorry the anon who requested this you did not get what you asked for 😭😭😭😭 hope u all enjoyed requests r open stay safe

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[yehet-me-up]

Fractions of Tomorrow

Pairing: Zitao/Reader (female)

Word Count: 10,249

Rating/Warnings: PG13

Summary: They always say opposites attract but you and Tao are putting that theory to the test. He works nights at Flanagan’s, you work the crack of dawn shift at Starbucks. He wears leather jackets, sings in a rock band, and drives a motorcycle. You prefer Keds to Chucks, study poetry at UW, and ride a pastel purple bike across town. Luckily, he’s not someone who’s afraid of a challenge.

When Baekhyun dares you and Tao to test the idea that two people can fall in love in one night you don’t expect to care so much, so fast. And when the sun rises all you can hope is that he feels the same.

Part seven of the Exodus Mall series (Can be read independently, but you’ll get some extra backstory if you read the other parts first!)

February 28, 1997

His head aches, body still reeling from the alcohol he drank far too much of the night before. The line at Starbucks is endlessly long and he groans. If he was responsible he’d go to the grocery across the street and get a decent breakfast. But his brain needs a substitute for the gin he was coerced into last night by his friends and it will only accept caffeine as an offering. 

A saccharine song pours in from the speakers and people around him clear their throats or rustle in their pockets and the sheer noise of the morning grates against him. He’s a creature of the night; he finds other humans far more tolerable without the sun beating down on him. Only desperation pulled him from his hangover to acquire the nectar of the gods. He taps his foot and shrugs his jacket further up his body, hoping the collar will keep the bright light pouring in from the tall windows from reaching him. 

A sweet voice breaks through the din and he turns to watch you, drawn by the warmth of the sound. It’s not his first time here, but it’s his first time paying attention. In the thriving ecosystem of the Exodus Mall everyone’s a friend of a friend of a cousin of someone and he distantly remembers you’re related to one of Baekhyun’s friends. 

Maybe it’s the way early mornings after late nights distort the world, making everything feel hazy like a dream. Maybe it’s the fact that he went home alone last night, yet again. Maybe it’s the bright, energetic shine in your eyes, astounding for the pre-eight-am time. Or maybe it’s the dimple in your cheek when you smile at the customer, writing his name on the cup and passing it to your co-workers. 

When the man moves aside and you turn your focus on Tao, for whatever reason, his intuition tells him to notice. Maybe it’s an illusion, but today feels different. You feel different. 

‘Hi, welcome to Starbucks. What can I get you?’ 

He opens his mouth, unsure what to say. For a long beat he simply observes you. The little hearts drawn around your name on your name tag. He rolls it around in his mind, matching your face with the word, almost saying it aloud. A dangerous proposition. A door he should leave shut. 

Someone coughs behind him and he shakes his head, stepping forward. ‘Just a big Americano please. As big as possible.’ His voice is thick and his throat dry. One day he’ll remember to drink a glass of water before bed after getting drunk.

You nod, reaching to the stack of cups. ‘A grande?’

He swallows to wet his throat. ‘Sure.’ 

‘Name?’ 

With a deep inhale he smells last night’s cologne still clinging to his skin. God he needs to get his shit together, he thinks with a sigh. His general state of dishevelment is even more noticeable next to you. He wonders if you ironed the collar of your shirt to be that precise or if you simply move through the world without acquiring any wrinkles. 

‘Zitao,’ he says finally. 

‘Cute.’ You say it under your breath but he still hears. His eyes go wide, his sluggish mind coming awake. After handing the cup to your co-worker you say the total. ‘That’ll be four oh two please.’

Automatically he reaches into his pocket for his wallet and pulls out the five dollar bill. He knows he’s staring like an idiot but he can’t help it. You hand him his change and on reflex he drops it into the tip jar. Service industry solidarity, he thinks with a half-smile.

The smile on your face blossoms; tentative at first, it grows when his eyes meet yours again. ‘Thank you!’ You pull a small coffee can out from beside the register and hold it out to him. ‘Anyone who tips gets a poem.’ 

He stares at the can and the slips of paper neatly folded within. Amusement fills him and he reaches for one at random, his fingers brushing yours as he pulls back. The sensation makes him want to linger. How long has it been since he touched someone, in the daylight? Since he wanted to hold and be held? Tao tells himself it doesn’t matter. It can’t. He’s got plans to leave Seattle and he doesn’t need anything tethering him here.

Before he embarasses himself he slides the paper into his pocket with a nod and moves on down the line. As he waits for his drink he keeps his focus on you. The efficiency of your motions and the genuine happiness on your face as you take order after order on the busy Friday morning. People come and go around him but he leans against the wall, waiting, thinking. 

Finally his drink is done and the cup spreads heat along his chilled palms. The world is too sharp and demanding and the thought of a day full of errands on too little sleep followed by a full shift at the bar drags at him. But the smell of coffee and your smile and the mystery poem in his pocket are life preservers thrown to him today. He clings to them with both hands to keep himself afloat. 

On his way out he finally reads the poem you’ve gifted to him. The writing is done with small, neat lettering and he knows it’s yours. 

There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled.

There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled.

You feel it, don’t you?

- Rumi

With a groan he pushes out the door with his shoulder, blinking on the too-bright sidewalk. It’s too early to feel so raw and exposed, he decides. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday July 18, 1997

You trail into Flanagan’s Pub after Baekhyun and your sister, Hitchcock. It’s not her real name, but she’s had the nickname so long it might as well be. As always, they argue about movies. As always, you’re the third wheel. Not that they’re actually dating. But everyone agrees they should. 

‘Come on, it was brilliant.’ Baekhyun waves his hands dramatically as you wind your way around the crowded bar after them. 

‘I’m not saying it wasn’t,’ she responds. They slide into a booth opposite each other and you follow after your sister. ‘All I’m saying is it’s unrealistic, that’s all.’

Baekhyun scoffs, offended. ‘As if realism was the point here.’ You unfold the drink menu while he carries on, undeterred. ‘I know you’re not a hopeless romantic like myself, but are you honestly telling me that you don’t think it’s possible?’ 

Tonight’s Friday-movie-night tradition was your first viewing of The Fifth Element and Korben and Leeloo’s instant connection has revived their years-long argument about love at first sight. You roll your eyes when your sister shakes her head, leaning forward to tease him. She’s told you about her crush on Baekhyun, her best friend. For someone who’s been in love for as long as you can remember she fights awfully hard against Baekhyun’s romantic nature. Methinks the lady doth protest too much…

‘Look at Before Sunrise,’ Baekhyun says with a click of his tongue. ‘One night and they fell in love.’

She hums and scans the menu. ‘So what? It’s just one night. Show me what happens ten years later. After they see each other with messy morning hair and when he leaves dishes in the sink or, I don’t know, when she bites her nails.’ Baekhyun huffs and she smothers a laugh. ‘Let’s see how that instant love does after it’s put to the test. I’m not saying it isn’t possible, I’m just saying one night doesn’t mean it will stand the test of time, that’s all.’ She folds her menu and rests her elbows on the table, looking incredibly smug. 

Baekhyun opens his mouth to argue but the server arrives and interrupts his tirade. ‘What can I get for you?’ 

The gravelly voice is familiar and your eyes widen in surprise when you see Tao towering over the table. Quickly you look away, back to the dark wood table. 

You’ve noticed him before - at Starbucks, at parties at Baek’s from a distance, at Moe’s ages ago - but tonight he’s so cleaned up you hardly recognize him. Gone are the bags under his eyes and the nervous, jittery, curmudgeon energy that seemed to hang over him like a dark cloud. Tonight his eyes are alert and crinkle at the corner when he smiles broadly and you can’t help but notice. A very bad idea. 

‘Hey man, how’s it going?’ Baekhyun reaches out and does a complex handshake with the man before you. 

‘Oh, you know. Just working at the salt mines,’ Tao says with a laugh. ‘Are you coming to Chan and Soo’s party tomorrow night?’ 

‘You know it. I wouldn’t miss your big send off. My man here is taking off on a national tour on Sunday. Local boy making it big!’ Baekhyun gives Tao a friendly punch on the arm before drumming his fingers on the table and raising a brow. ‘Since you’re here, maybe you can settle an argument for us.’ 

Tao darts a look to you and clears his throat. ‘Sure thing. Lay it on me.’

‘Do you believe you can fall in love with someone in one night?’ Baekhyun waggles his brows at your sister and she groans. ‘Like, soulmates burning-down-the world you’re the person I’ve waited for always Blockbuster kind of love.’ 

He tilts his head to the side, considering. After a moment he shrugs. ‘I’m not sure.’ For a flash Tao’s eyes linger on you once more. ‘I think it would depend on the person.’ And then the bastard goes and winks at you. 

Baekhyun snorts and lounges back in the booth, resting his arm on the back of the seat. 'Good luck, buddy. You'd have better luck charming a brick wall. She only reads about love these days, Double Shot here is a bit gun-shy at putting it into practice again.’

You glare at Baekhyun, body going rigid at being called out. For as long as he's been your sister's best friend he's acted like a surrogate older brother to you. He vacillates between telling you it’s good you’re so focused on your studies and telling you that you're too serious, too focused on school and work. Since you got broken up with Baekhyun seems focused on the latter, always needling you to go out and have fun. But, as they say, once burned twice shy. 

You focus intently on your hands resting on the table and absolutely avoid looking at Tao. From the first time you rang him up at Starbucks you knew his gaze would see more than you'd like. He's the type to see through every bullshit line you give about how you’re fine being alone, fine with how things ended, fine fine fine. 

If life was kind the three of you would order and Tao would leave and that would be the end of it. You could safely stay in your cocoon and hide. But of course, life doesn't play fair. 

Tao sticks the pen behind his ear and folds his arms. ‘Is that a bet?’

Your cheeks warm and your heart races. Finally, you look up to him fully. 'Excuse me?' 

He shrugs and gives you a lopsided smile. 'If you're game, of course. What do you say, shall we put this to the test?' 

'You want to see if we'd fall in love in a night?' You're certain you look like a terrified animal. In a vain attempt to fold yourself back into someone confident you lean against the booth, pressing your feet to the ground and making your spine tall and straight. 'What makes you think you're even my type?'

‘Sweetheart, I’m everyone’s type.’ 

God knows he probably is. Tall, handsome bad boy who sings like an angel, drives a stupidly hot motorcycle, and looks like he knows the fastest way to make you come undone with just a look. But charming is only skin deep and in return you want to see if there’s anything underneath it that would keep your interest. 

‘Fine, then.’ You hold out your hand. ‘I’ll take your bet.’ Stubborn, always so stubborn. Baekhyun giggles and claps excitedly as you grip Tao’s rough, much larger hand.  

Your sister leans across you to stare Tao down. 'Hang on. I'm not about to let her go off with some random dude. How do we know you're trustworthy?' Hitchcock has turned her interrogation mode on. ‘I’ve seen you around, but I don’t know you from Bruce Willis.’

He must have other tables to attend to, other things to do, but he rests his palms on the table and leans down to meet her glare. 'I'm an open book. Ask me anything.' The move brings him inches from you. He smells like whisky, the kind that burns, and you swallow instinctively in response. 

She narrows her eyes and hums. 'How old are you?' 

'Twenty three.' 

'Did you go to school?' 

He chuckles. 'High school. No need for college.'

'Why not?' You speak up, preparing for an argument. He looks like he could actually keep up with you and a spark of excitement grows low in your body.

'Between singing and bartending I make plenty of money.’ He answers you, not your sister. ‘Don't get me wrong, I respect an education. But I get far more inspiration from living life than from just reading about it.' 

You bristle. As a poetry major this feels like a personal attack. ‘Are you telling me you’ve never read anything that made you feel - I don’t know - inspired. Magical. Exposed?' You press your lips together, wishing you could gather the words back. 

Tao looks at you through his lashes, bending close enough that you can feel his breath on your lips when he speaks. ‘Words are just the appetizer, darling. I prefer to have an entire feast.’ 

His dancing eyes dart down to your lips. But then he straightens, pulling the pen out and readying it on the pad. You grip the table to avoid swaying towards him and almost hate him for how much of a magnetic pull he seems to have over you. 'Any other questions or can I grab your orders?'

Baekhyun orders a Smirnoff Ice, delight pouring off him. Your sister narrows her eyes at Tao for a moment. Finally, she relents and orders a sex on the beach. You stare at the red plaid shirt tied around Tao’s hips and order something. An Appletini maybe? Your mind seems to have abandoned you but thankfully Tao nods and winds his way back through the crowd to the bar. In his absence you can breathe fully and look up to see Baekhyun smirking. 

‘What?’ you practically groan at him. 

‘Oh, nothing.’ He looks like the cat that caught the canary. ‘I just love being right.’ 

Hitchcock kicks him under the table and he winces, reaching for his shin. They resume their discussion, transitioning to talking about their opening shifts at the theater tomorrow and how much they can reasonably drink tonight and still be functional in the morning. You drum your nails on the lacquered wood table and wonder if your heart is racing from the heat of the packed bar or from the prospect of Tao holding you to your bargain. 

The man himself comes back with drinks a moment later. When he slides the light green concoction across the table to you he tilts his head in question. ‘So, how about tonight?’ 

You choke on your sip and fight the burn in your throat. ‘Are you serious? So soon?’

He grins. ‘Why, did you want time to get ready? I think if we’re going to put it to the test it would have to be tonight. Also, I leave on Sunday morning, so the clock is ticking so to speak.’ 

‘But I work tomorrow at Starbucks. At the crack of dawn.’ You sputter, waving your hand in front of you. ‘I didn’t think you-’

‘Guess we should get started soon, then.' He winks again and you're tempted to throw your drink at him, just to get the upper hand. ‘I get off at nine.’ Without another word he puts the serving tray under his arm and leaves.

Your sister rolls her eyes. ‘You’re such a bad influence, Baek.’ 

He throws his arms out wide. ‘I can’t help it baby, I’m a lover. What can I say?’ 

She snorts and pats you on the back sympathetically. You down your drink in two swallows and absolutely refuse to look at Tao, Baekhyun, or your sister. Instead you pull some bills from your purse and push your way out of the bar before anyone can suggest anything else insane. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It takes you several tries to find a presentable outfit. It's been more than six months since that last fateful date and in the time between you’ve built a literal barrier around yourself, bundling up in sweaters and blankets at home, only emerging for work and class and Friday movie nights. 

Baekhyun's words come back to you as you frown and throw yet another outfit on the bed. Are you really a brick wall, impenetrable and cold? You weren't always, surely. Byron's 'and thus, the heart will break, yet brokenly live on' swims in your mind, still fresh from the finals you took just a few weeks ago. 

You don't feel broken, just stuck. Numb. Waiting. You hold a dress up to your body and wonder if your ex feels the same or if he, as the one who did the dumping, moved on instantly, and it's just the broken-up-with half that flails around trying to find new footing.

With an defiant press of your lips you sigh and settle on your favorite black and white checkered dress and white Keds. It’s a declaration of intent in a peter pan collar. Your ex always hated your clothes, what you chose to study, your music; everything about you screamed soft and he tried so hard to bend and form you into someone he wanted. 

But you are as you are - romantic and idealistic and sweet. You roll your eyes. It’s the truth, and you remind yourself that just because you didn’t match him doesn’t mean you have to change just to make someone else happy. The outfit screams innocence it dares Tao to judge you tonight. As if you care what he thinks. Which you definitely do not. 

You barely make it back in time to Flanagan’s. When you rush up Tao is pushing out of the bar onto the street. A thrill runs down your spine at his smile when he sees you. Your ex doesn't control you anymore, you remind yourself. You get to decide when you move on; when you stop mourning something that's dead and over and find something new. Even if it's not with Tao, tonight is an experiment. To see if you can handle a fresh start.

‘Hi,’ you start, breathless from your hurrying. 

'Hi yourself. You still game?' he asks, mischief in his eyes and hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. 'If you want an out I won't hold it against you.' He looks you up and down and smirks, but doesn’t comment on your appearance.

In return you scan him as well. His hair is mussed just-so and his earrings match too well to be an accident. He’s trying too, even if his devil-may-care attitude would make others think he’s not. Everyone has an image they present to the world, tonight you’ll find if there’s substance behind Tao’s.

You press your tongue between your teeth and tilt your head at him. 'I'm ready to be surprised.' 

He barks out a laugh. ‘Fair enough. I’ll see what I can do’ 

Tao starts to move towards you across the sidewalk, but you hold out a hand at the level of his chest, stopping his movement. 'So, love, huh? There's not some girlfriend or boyfriend of yours waiting for you at home?'

‘I belong only to myself. For now, at least.' He smiles and holds his arms out wide. His brows tug together suddenly. For a moment he looks unsure. Vulnerable. But the look is gone so fast you wonder if you imagined it. ‘What about you?’ 

You want to fold in on yourself and turn away, hiding. As if the stain of failure is written across your face. The words that were thrown your way like scarlet letters on your skin for him to see. Prude. Uptight. Tease. Your stomach churns and you’re glad you only had the one drink tonight. 

‘Single.’ You suck in a breath after you get the word out, like it stole all the air from your lungs in speaking it. 

He nods, holding your gaze for a moment. Those eyes of his drink you in and you’re sure he can see it - the hesitation and the fear. But once more he simply stands tall and gives you space to think. ‘Shall we head towards the waterfront?’ 

A public place, lively and full of people on a Friday night. Safe, reassuring. He didn’t suggest a club or somewhere heavy with expectation and you like him better for it. Tao waves an arm out in front of you, inviting you to go first and you start walking, clutching your purse under your arm. 

He falls into step beside you. 'So I guess if we're going big or going home, shall we start with our dating history?'

You should have expected this level of inquisition, especially from someone who is friends with Baekhyun. ‘Jesus, you don’t pull any punches.’ But against your will you let out a laugh. 

There’s something refreshing about someone who seems like, for all his mystery, he doesn’t hold any secrets. Everything out in the cool night air and you wonder if it would be freeing, to let it all go. To not question the words you say. To trust that the person you’re speaking them to will hold them without judgement.

‘Never have, never will,’ he reassures you. The cat-like grin on his lips is teasing. ‘That I can guarantee you. I’m happy to go first, if you’d like?’

You nod, and he sighs, looking through the clouds to the moon that peeks through. The streets are dry for once, a brief respite after the wet Seattle spring. Everyone around you takes in the night with gleeful laughter, on the search for music and connection and entertainment. But even with the full sidewalks around you all you feel compelled to do, inexplicably, is lean in closer to hear Tao. 

A group of women brush by you, giggling, forcing you into Tao to avoid them. On instinct he reaches out an arm to keep you both from being overrun. You turn into him and end up meeting his eyes. In the night they’re so dark they look almost black, with flashes of light from passing cars.

The moment stretches around you and irrationally you want to stop him before he says anything else. No stories of the people he’s been with or kissed or loved or wrote songs about. Maybe that’s the appeal of one night love stories, you think. The beginning of love is always a lightning bolt. If that’s all it ever is you never have to deal with being knocked on your ass by the resulting thunderstorm. 

The women pass and Tao respectfully brings his hand back to his pocket and time carries on. But the look on his face remains as you both start walking towards the Market again. 

‘I should say up front, I uhh - I guess that I’ve never been in a relationship. Actually.’ He runs a hand through his hair and winces like he’s ashamed of it. ‘I came close a few times. But it’s just never worked out.’ 

You open your mouth but aren’t sure what to say. Do you make fun of him for clearly being a playboy, not wanting to be tied down, fitting the stereotype of the rockstar he’s on a path to becoming? Do you play coy, asking him if you might fit the bill? Or do you reassure him? 

The latter feels the most natural. ‘You’re young. It’s the nineties. I don’t think it’s unusual to be playing the field right now.’ You lift a shoulder and shrug, the edge of your black denim jacket slipping down your back a bit with the motion. It exposes the skin of your collarbone above the strap of your dress, where your neck meets your chest. 

Tao licks his lips and drags his eyes away from your shoulder to meet yours with a nod. ‘That’s true. I guess most of my friends are single. Sehun is. Jongin is. Baekhyun is, for sure. Even if he is in love with your sister.’ Your jaw drops and Tao bites his lip. ‘Shit, I shouldn’t have said anything. Please don’t tell her I -’ 

He looks genuinely panicked and you laugh, waving a hand. ‘Trust me, she’s in love with him too. They’re both too stubborn to admit it though. So your secret is safe with me.’ 

Tao sighs, relaxing, and gives you a half smile. ‘Thank you, I appreciate that.’ The neon lights from the bars and clubs along Pike street pass over his face, painting him dozens of bright colors. ‘So, that’s my story. Too busy working and writing lyrics and singing to be tied down. What’s yours?’ 

‘That’s hardly a story,’ you challenge, raising a brow. ‘More like the cover of a book.’

‘It’s plenty!’ he laughs. ‘I’ve exposed myself as a perpetually single man. I think that tells you tons about me.’ At your pursed lips he continues. ‘Fine. I’ve been chasing music for so long that I have avoided getting serious with anyone, lest it keep me from my dreams of stardom. I crave that intensity between me and an audience when I sing, but I’m afraid to let myself have something real. Something intimate, that expects more of me past one performance. I’m afraid that off-stage I’m more disappointing than on et cetera et cetera.’ 

He cuts off his rambling monologue, his eyes widening as he stops in his tracks for a moment, like he can’t believe he just said so much. But you stand next to him without judgement. Something about his disarming honesty and expressiveness makes you want to tell him the truth, ugly that it might be. 

While you stand on the corner and wait for the light to change you look at the zipper of his leather jacket to avoid his eyes and spit it out. ‘I got dumped six months ago.’ You lift your hands and drop them uselessly to your side. 

He tilts his head back in appraisal. Blessedly the teasing is gone from his face. He doesn’t offer sympathy, cloying and patronizing words about how you’ll find someone else. He doesn’t flirt with you, even though that seems to be his nature. 

‘I don’t know the circumstances, and you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but all I can say is - it’s his loss.’ He gives you a slight smile, not moving even when the light changes, and you can’t help but return it. 

It’s strange that it could be so simple. Perhaps if you do carry on something with Tao you’ll tell him more. But for tonight it can be that easy. The pain and doubt and shame can fade into a pinprick of light heading off into the distance and get swallowed up by the night. Like you can just wipe the slate clean and start over. You inhale a deep breath of cool, salty air and look up at Tao, your smile growing, becoming more genuine and whole. 

A lightness fills you and you wind your arm through his, pulling him into the crosswalk just as the last few seconds show on the countdown. He lets you guide him easily and you come to rest on the concrete looking down at the Pike Place Market. The bright neon red sign reflects against the dark night and the inky blue waters of the Bay beyond it. In the twilight ships move back and forth through the port, full of tiny lights of their own. 

He drops his hand a little, running over the clothed skin of your arm until he reaches your palm. The contact of his hand on yours makes you jolt. ‘Is this okay?’

Without thinking you nod, twining your fingers with his, savoring the heat as he presses against you. Your ex hated holding hands in public, hated any kind of PDA, calling it childish. But Tao stands by your side, hand in hand, as though it’s the most natural thing in the world.

People mill about you, heading to the endless restaurants and food stands that line the Market. In summer it’s in full bloom, crowded every night, and after a long winter and spring holed up in your apartment it’s disorienting to be out in the world again.

You start walking together, without a plan. It’s far more comfortable than you’d expected, the companionable silence with him. Everyone in your life talks a mile a minute - Baekhyun and your sister, your co-workers at the busy coffee shop, your classmates, hungry for discussion - but Tao seems content to just hold your hand and admire the rows of vendors you pass. The lack of pressure from him eases something that had drawn tight and anxious in your chest over the last few months. 

Before you is a maze of stalls. Tables full of tulips in bright yellows and pinks, bouquets wrapped in brown paper, that you stop to smell. Screen printed tee shirts with the Sonics logo or photos of the Space Needle or trendy political puns that Tao points out with a laugh. People sell everything from watercolor paintings to homemade honey to snow globes. As a recent college grad, you’re saving all your money, but everything is still fascinating to look at. 

The two of you settle on a kebab place for dinner after a long debate about the merits of the taco cart and the hole-in-the-wall seafood stop. The steam brings the rich smell of meat and vegetables to you. Against your protests to split the bill, Tao insists on buying dinner. 

‘If this is an official date I have to follow the guidelines,’ he winks. 

You roll your eyes and defiantly go to the next stall to order two Jones sodas from the seller. When you hold them up he laughs and inclines his head. ‘Alright, that’s fair.’ 

When you’re settled on the narrow rock wall beyond the far edge of the market, balancing Jones sodas on the uneven stones with a warm kebab resting on your knees, he carries on. 

'So, poetry. What made you choose that?' He asks around a bite.

After a sip of soda you tilt your head at him. ‘You can't laugh, okay?'

'Why would I laugh?’ His brows furrow like it’s the furthest thing from his mind. ‘I'm a singer, sweetheart. I don't take the arts lightly and anyone who does is an asshole.' He narrows his eyes at you in mock seriousness but the way his mouth fights a smile is endearing.

You snort, liking him yet again without planning on it. ‘I don’t know. I’ve always loved it and sometimes I try to write it. I’ve had some job or another since high school, so I’m confident I can always get a job if I need it but - there’s something so - so delicious about poetry.’ You swallow another drink of your soda and Tao’s eyes flick to the motion of your throat. ‘If I was going to go to college, and our parents kind of insisted on it, I wanted to study something I loved.’

Tao lifts his own soda and clinks it to yours in solidarity. ‘I can respect that. What’s your favorite poem?’

Suddenly shy you turn to set your soda down on the stone beside you, letting your hair fall over your face while you think. It’s not that you don’t know, but that it feels too close, too personal to tell him just yet. ‘That’s very private.’

When you look back to him he holds your gaze for a moment. ‘Hmm. Okay I can respect that. Favorite songs are pretty personal too so I’ll let you hold onto it, for now.’ With a movement as casual as breathing he tucks your hair behind your ear, as though he does it twenty times day, and resumes his eating. 

Poems run through your head as you chew, heart racing. You’d thought this was an experiment that would quickly go south. A quick walk to prove that you’re not compatible. A smug ‘I told you so’ to Baekhyun. And then a return to the comfort of your bed to read for the night. You didn’t expect to want him. Words, endless remembered words filter across your consciousness, ones of love and lust and death and the exhilaration of life. 

Normally your own creative voice is quiet, too afraid to give permanence to the ideas, the words, that live inside you. But as you watch the gentle night breeze ruffle his dark hair you think you could write some tonight, if you had pen and paper. Instead you shove an enormous bite in your mouth and chew, afraid of the attraction you have to him. 

When you’re both done eating he holds his hand out for your trash and you wad up the wrapper and hand it to him along with the empty bottle. He walks over to the trash and dutifully puts the bottles in the recycle, like any good Seattle boy. Dusting off his hands he turns back towards you, approaching slowly and holding out his hands. 

After a moment’s hesitation you reach for him, allowing him to help you stand. Continuing the night’s adventure. When you’re on your feet he releases one of your hands, keeping the other one tucked in his as the two of you wind your way back through the crowds. Both of you stop to pat the bronze pig at the crux of the Market for good luck.

He leads the way down the narrow stairs to Post Alley and the line outside the comedy club at its base winds around in a long chain. It’s funny, normally you’d want to know The Plan. Baekhyun calls you anal retentive, but you just consider yourself organized. You like knowing what’s coming. But tonight you consent to following him without knowing the destination. You bite back a smile - it’s exciting and terrifying all at once.

A group of people tries to come up the stairs as you’re going down and you are pressed against the rail, trying not to slip. It definitely isn’t meant to be wide enough for both directions of people at the same time. As if sensing your predicament Tao presses his broad back into the rowdy man behind you, ignoring his grumbles of annoyance, making space so you can descend the last few steps onto the courtyard. 

Out front of the Market Theater you thank him and wonder what exactly his plan is. Is he taking you to an improv show? A concert? Drinks? With your hand still in his he gently moves to the left, under the archway and in front of the long gum wall. You raise a brow at him but he merely smiles and shrugs. 

‘I didn’t peg you for someone who likes tourist attractions.’ 

His eyes dance with amusement. ‘Oh yeah? What kind of person did you imagine me to be?’ 

You purse your lips and try to figure out how to answer him. ‘I’m not sure, actually. Normally I can read people pretty easily, but I can’t pin you down.’ 

‘Me?’ He presses his hand that holds yours to his chest. ‘Baby, I’m an open book.’

The gum wall around you smells sickly sweet and you can almost taste it on your tongue. Everyone around you is taking polaroids in front of the wall or chewing their own gum in preparation to add to it. 

You wonder what the two of you look like from an outsider’s perspective. Tao, tall and imposing with his thick motorcycle boots. You with your white Keds and sweet, checkered dress and headband. It might seem like you’re an odd couple, but the heartbeat in his chest against your hand is strong and underneath it all perhaps you’re not so different. 

With a breathy laugh and a roll of your eyes you grip his hand and pull him further along the alley beside the gum walls, towards the water. Nearby one of the many buskers permitted to perform along Pike Place starts signing a loud and heartfelt, if slightly off-key, rendition of ‘Sweet Caroline,’ drawing the cheers of the onlookers. 

Away from the crowd in Post Alley you emerge onto a side street a block or so from the water. Tilting your head back you watch as everyone sings along. Tao’s free arm suddenly comes around your waist and dramatically he starts swaying you back and forth, crooning along to the Neil Diamond song far better than the busker. A few other people on the street around you smile or laugh, making their way to the pier up ahead. 

Instead of asking him what on earth he’s doing or feeling embarrassed about dancing in the middle of the sidewalk you just cling to him and try to keep up. His voice is rich and soothing, his hand holding you against him is sturdy and comforting. You can’t help but giggle and roll with it, holding onto his jacket and watching his jaw move as he sings. 

All too soon the performance back at the Market behind you ends and the last lyrics are drowned out by applause. Tao takes a step back and the night is cold without his warm embrace. You long to step forward and close the distance once more. Instead you brush your hair back and compose yourself. 

‘What kind of music do you like to sing?’ you ask as the two of you resume your progress towards the pier. 

‘All kinds.’ He shrugs. ‘But mostly love songs.’ 

‘Really?’ The light before you changes and ahead the aquarium looms in the night. To your left is the Kingdome waits, past the long stretch of the boardwalk. Without waiting for Tao you head that direction, the briny ocean air filling your lungs. 

He easily comes to your side. ‘Of course. Everything’s about love I think, when you get down to it.’ 

‘You weren’t singing love songs when I saw you perform.’ 

You answer without thinking, remembering the concert a few months ago that you and your sister went to. Baekhyun had invited you both to see Chanyeol’s band - Yeol and the Salty Wolves - and Tao was performing with the opening group. 

‘You’ve seen me on stage?’ His proud grin is teasing and playful and damned if you don’t want to kiss him. 

‘Yeah. It - my sister dragged me out of the house. She thought getting outside would do me some good.’ You focus on picking off a section of your pink nail polish that’s started to chip. ‘You guys were great. But you were definitely yelling about anarchy, not love.’ 

The imagine of him in his tank top, wide slits cut under the arms revealing a broad swath of his tanned skin, singing passionately, makes you suddenly very aware of him. Tonight he’s composed, a rebel in street clothes. But that night his face was slicked with sweat from his intensity, red in the cheeks and headbanging along with the crowd and the rest of the band. Even that night, so close after your recent break up, you wanted him. It was a dangerous idea then and it’s a dangerous idea now. 

He hums and veers to the right, heading down one of the longer piers. ‘I could argue that anarchy still is love. Love of your beliefs and love of a person or a place or a thing so much that you’re willing to fight for it, to go to war for what you care about.’ 

To that you don’t argue. ‘That’s true. I guess anything could be love when you get down to it. There’s so many poems about sadness - missing love or rejected love. Anger. Bitterness.’ 

The wooden boards of the pier below you give a gentle thunk with each heavy step of Tao’s huge boots. Below you the water sloshes against the planks. Now at the end you lean forward, resting your elbows on the railing, before turning back to Tao. 

‘I guess this is a day to be debating love,’ you smirk, thinking back to the conversation that got you into this. In the wind off the Bay you shiver. 

Like a reflex Tao shrugs out of his jacket and holds it out to you. But you lean over and wave your hand at him. ‘No it’s okay, I’m fine. Please, you don’t have to -’ 

But he drops it over you anyways, the warm weight of his jacket settling on your shoulders and insulating you from the wind. In his black, long-sleeve shirt he doesn’t even seem cold. With a sigh you pull it more fully onto you and bend upright again, inches from him. 

‘Debating love indeed. See I think love and intimacy is made far too complex by a lot of people.’ He slowly rubs his hands together, forearms resting on the railing as he leans over, looking at the waves. ‘I think it comes from knowing someone. Really knowing them. Hopes and fears and memories and all of that. and choosing to be with them. Simple and complicated as that.’

‘Simple as that?’ you gape at him, holding your wind-tousled hair out of the way with one hand so you can look at him. ‘There's no way to truly know someone in one night, though. There's too much nuance for love in such a short time.’ The beating of your heart in your palms when you look at him would argue otherwise and you inhale deeply, trying to keep your center. 

‘Hence why I also said complicated. But now we’re debating what love itself means.’ His gaze darts down to your lips before he meets your eyes. ‘I know plenty about you.’ 

You open your mouth to argue but he carries on. ‘I know you’re stubborn, given the soda earlier and the coat just now. I know you’re practical and competent - I’ve seen you at your job. I know you’re a romantic at heart, you have to be to study poetry, and even if some asshole temporarily doused that fire you look for evidence that love is real everywhere.’ 

Feeling raw and exposed you try to find anything to say to brush off the way his statements cut to the heart of you. ‘That doesn’t mean you - uhm - that you know me.’ 

The word you almost said in your haste was love and the thought makes your palms sweat. Irrational. Impossible. Everyone always says your emotions are easy to read, that they’re written all over your face, and you wonder what he sees as he watches you. The moment you said it you could see the slow smile start on his lips. At the very least he knows you’re not arguing with him as much as arguing with yourself, against what you feel. 

He leans in closer so that his forehead touches yours, low voice almost a murmur. ‘But I want to know you more. I want to do a lot of things. Does that count?’ 

‘Count?’ If you wanted to you could press up on your toes and kiss him. The thought is intoxicating and you close your eyes, heaving a breath into your lungs. 

After a long moment of thinking and waiting and wondering you finally open them again. Tao looks just as conflicted as you are - his brows tug together and the casual flirtation is gone. He holds himself still before you and something far more serious crosses his face. Though he doesn’t answer with words the look in his eyes telegraphs his feelings for you. 

With a sigh he pulls back, reaching to the railing with both hands to steady himself, and you sway in his absence. He looks up at the night sky, at the moon through the clouds, and smiles. The stars peek through here and there. It’s not a cold night, just a breeze across the water to relieve the heat from the long summer day. Distantly a line of poetry comes to you, about being thirsty, parched almost, and wanting to drink him in to quench it. 

Rather than indulge the dangerous impulse to touch him again you take off back down the boardwalk. Back to the city and the lights and far away from the closeness of being with him in the dark. The pressure of his thick jacket will have to be enough, for now. 

‘So, where do you want to go next?’ You’re impressed you manage to sound steady. 

He sticks his hands in his pockets once more and ambles after you, a small smile gracing his lips. ‘I know a place.’ 

As you make your way along the waterfront he turns the conversation to safer territory. You fill each other in on your jobs - how they started and what you like and don’t like. Co-workers who are dating, friends you have in common at the mall. Notorious customers. Tao has dozens of stories and his laugh is easy, his eyes bright with flirtation now that you’re both on safer ground. 

Through the night you meander around the city in a vague Northward direction. Past the Science Center, it’s great white sculptures lit up. Around the Space Needle and the fountain. Another city and the streets would be deserted this late. But here there’s groups of people, laughing and splashing each other at the base of the enormous bowl that forms the center of it. You pass the occasional jogger or couple holding hands, walking home. 

The two of you stop to use the restroom and get a drink of water at a 24 hour grocery store. Tao also insists on buying some snacks, chocolate and a bag of chips that you keep in the large pockets of his jacket as you progress to the edges of Lake Union. 

It’s easy, being with him. His energy is calm, reassuring. He’s got a wicked and witty sense of humor you wouldn’t have expected and you easily spend half an hour looking out at the boats, making up other, naughtier names for them. 

It turns out he likes X-Files just as much as you and your sister do. As you stroll along the Fremont bridge you end up taking his hand once more. The snacks are gone and you can’t resist touching him again. It must be well after midnight, but he doesn’t mention going home. Strangely, you don’t want to either. For someone who’s life has become so habitual you’re surprized you’ve not even spared a thought for your nightly routine of reading in bed with a glass of wine and a candle burning on the windowsill. 

There will be other nights for that, but for tonight you let the momentum of the evening carry you along with him. You both decide to skip a visit to the Troll, not wanting to tempt any disasters. The Keds on your feet hold up well and you give a thanks to your past self for not wearing heels or sandals. 

Eventually his destination becomes clear. The gates to the park are closed for the night. ‘Gas Works? This is your plan - breaking and entering?’ 

He nods, biting his lip. ‘Yep. I know a way in. The nighttime view is unbeatable.’ 

You hold out your hands, gesturing to the enormous PARK HOURS: DAWN TIL DUSK sign. 

‘Afraid of being caught?’ 

You roll your eyes. ‘Yes, actually. I don’t think getting arrested for trespassing would be a great thing for my resume.’ 

Tao considers before backing towards the edge of the fence with a smirk. ‘Come on. How about a little mischief here ‘upon the honey’d middle of the night’?’

‘You know Keats?’ It leaves you breathless, rooted to the ground. It’s not from your favorite poem, but he is your favorite poet. A good guess or has he been doing his research? 

‘Of course. Don’t you?’ Tao teases, folding back a corner of the fence and easing himself through. 

You scoff and charge after him. The smug bastard can’t just quote Keats and then run away from you. Once again you want to kiss the proud look off his face, to rattle him the way he seems so capable of rattling you, getting underneath your surface. With a last thought to your reputation you step through after him and a thrill runs down your spine. 

The rusted red containers and machines that form the center of the park are tall ghosts in the night, rising from the grass and casting long shadows around you in the distant light from the city. He holds out his hand and you easily catch it, both of you winding your way carefully around the gentle hills to make your way to the view. 

You find a suitable spot and sit down on the grass. ‘You’re right,’ you tell him reluctantly. 

‘About what?’ Tao sits beside you, linking his hands over his knees. He sits near enough you can feel his thigh pressing against yours. Close, always so close, but not as close as you want him.  

‘About this.’ You gesture to the Seattle skyline in front of you. 

Sure you’ve been in the daytime, watching the boats sail on Lake Union and the groups of yoga practitioners and families with young kids fill the grassy slopes down to the water. But by night the lights of the city look like a painting. Skyscrapers touching the clouds as the first hints of sun are lightening the horizon. 

‘I thought you’d enjoy it.’ He nudges you with his shoulder and smiles at you. 

The gentle sounds of the water below is relaxing. Even as you lift your hand to cover a yawn you don’t truly feel tired, like the night and closeness to him could keep you awake forever, if you let them. But even so, dawn is coming and you think back to the reason that you’re both here. 

‘So. About that bet?’ Your words are a sigh and somewhere between the late hours and the way his eyes crinkle at the corners when he smiles you don’t second guess the question. 

He side eyes you and can’t smother the grin on his face. ‘You mean the one about if we can fall in love in one night?’ 

‘Yes, that.’ It must be the lack of sleep causing the giddiness you feel, you tell yourself, as you lean back against the grass and cover your face with your hands. 

His own hands find yours and you turn to see him on his side next to you. Gently he pulls them down, holding them to his chest, so he can look you in the eyes. ‘Hmm, I don’t know about love, but I feel a whole hell of a lot right now. We never came up with an objective definition of it, anyways.’ 

You snort. ‘Did you honestly just say ‘objective definition?’’ 

‘Yes, I think if we’re going to agree here, we need to be on the same page.’ With his intense focus on yours he brushes a kiss against the backs of your hands. ‘If we say love is a feeling, who’s to say that we aren’t in love? If we decide it’s an action then which one is it? A kiss or a commitment or - maybe it’s nothing more complicated than putting words to the way I feel when you look at me?’ 

The smile blooms across your face and right then you’re tempted to say it’s all of them. How much you want his mouth on yours and his hands all over you. How you’re not quite sure you know how to have a relationship with a man anymore, after your ex, but that you want to try with him. How wild and free you feel being next to him. 

‘I don’t know about -’ you whisper. You let the truth fall out, not bothering to think about what it might mean. ‘Long term or after tonight. But I’d say, much that I hate to admit Baekhyun could be right, I’d say��� uhm, he could be right.’

You avoid Tao’s eyes, focusing on his jaw or the fabric of his shirt or the way his hands hold yours. But still you see how he smiles, almost glowing in the light of the moon and the barest reflection of the sun coloring the skyline to your left. 

He clears his throat, pressing another kiss to your hand. ‘Well, I'd look at it this way. Let's say we do get together. Maybe we last a month or maybe we last for the rest of our lives. Another fifty or sixty years. In either of those cases tonight would be just a fraction of the relationship. A small sliver. Important when looking at the broad view of a life together, but not crucial by itself.’

With a nod you look at him and the heat in his eyes makes you gasp. He moves over you, releasing your hands to brace himself on the ground behind your head. The sturdy press of his body reminds you this isn’t a movie or a dream, it’s something real that’s happening to you. The cool grass sinks into your dress at your back and brushes against your thighs. 

'Or.' His hot breath cascades across your lips. 'If all we have is tonight.' Moving himself to the side he runs his nose along your jaw, mouth teasing the skin of your neck with barely there kisses. 'One night would be everything. For all the marbles, as they say.' He pulls back and looks at you with a lopsided grin. 

You huff out a breath, blowing your bangs out of your eyes, absently running your hands across his shoulders, along his chest. 'I don't know. I like knowing there's always time for more. Like - what if I was tired tonight or hungry or cranky and I messed it up? The thought of just one night still makes me nervous.’ 

He kisses your forehead and the words come faster, as if hurried along by the morning. ‘If we're a forever thing, then it's okay, because there will be a thousand more chances to get it right. But just once? How can it be perfect if it's so brief?'

'Well, even if we do get together we'd still only have one first kiss.' He rests on one elbow and uses his free hand to cup your jaw, clearing his throat around the roughness of his voice. 'Do you want to wait or shall we attempt perfection tonight?'

The thought of waiting any longer makes you far sadder and you nod. ‘Screw it - kiss me. Please?’ 

Instead of answering he simply drops his head, closing the distance and sealing his mouth over yours. He groans at the contact, the sound vibrating in his chest where it rests against yours. You grip his neck, winding your fingers through the strands of his hair and hold on, to ground yourself, between him and the grass as he slowly, hungrily, kisses you.

Your eyes flutter for a moment as he sucks on your lower lip. Behind him the sky is bright, the rays of light spilling through the clouds and rendering him art himself. The arch of his brows, full of emotion. You squeeze your eyes closed and hold him tight, grazing his neck with your nails and sighing into his open mouth. Before you can kiss him again he pulls back, his cheeks flushed and his eyes full of delight. 

‘That was pretty damn good.’ He huffs out a laugh, running his tongue along his lower lip like he’s trying to keep the taste of you close. ‘Are you sure you want to risk another one? It could be -’

‘Yes,’ you answer immediately. ‘Again.’ 

He grins and buries his face in your neck, his hot breath falling on your sensitive skin. ‘I think we’ve found the crucial difference between us.’ At your hum he carries on. ‘I can take one moment and hold onto it forever, perpetually living off the way it felt. You want to have it over and over again. And here I thought you were the poet.’ 

Rolling onto his back he pulls you on top of him with a squeal as you right yourself, bracing hands on his shoulders for balance. His hand rests against your cheek. ‘But if it helps. I - feel the same way.’ 

‘Oh.’ To keep your surprise and delight from exploding all over your face you bite your lip. ‘Alright then.’ You trace patterns in the fabric covering his chest. 

It’s as simple and as complicated as that, just like he said, hours ago. 

As the day rises full and bright with the heat of the sun you do indeed kiss again. Several more times. When you’re both red lipped and thirsty and covered in wrinkled clothes you head back to your apartment by UW. He gives you a piggy back ride when your feet start to hurt and helps you make breakfast with a sleepy smile and runs his fingers over the covers of the numerous books stacked on every surface of your apartment and all the while the feeling in your chest grows, not diminishes. 

You hurry through a shower and getting dressed for work while he patiently waits on the couch. His eyes are closed when you emerge, putting your hair back in a ponytail. Leaning against the door frame you watch the gentle rise and fall of his chest. You stifle a yawn and think of how not twelve hours ago you didn’t know what his skin felt like beneath your palms or what he’d be like to kiss or how perfectly your bodies seem to line up.

Tomorrow, or perhaps later tonight, you’ll have to report back to Baekhyun and your sister. Though you still have no idea what you’ll say when he asks if the two of you fell in love in one night, you know that, at the very least, it was the start of something. 

You leave Tao a note with instructions to sleep as long as he wants and a spare copy of your keys. He works his own shift tonight at Flanagan’s at two, his last one before he leaves on tour. Reassured that at least you’ll see him once more tonight at the party, before he’s gone for - well, you suppose you didn’t ask the specifics yet. You laugh at the thought and quietly shut the door and sprint down the steps to work. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s hardly after nine in the morning when Tao arrives. Far earlier than you were expecting, but you’ve learned that he likes to surprise you. When you see him standing in line you bite your lip, tilting your head and giving him a sleepy smile. 

‘A bit early for you, isn’t it?’ You ask, friendly and professional. ‘You look like you had a long night.’

He laughs, shaking his head and resting his palms on the counter. ‘I did indeed. But it’s been over two hours since I last saw you.’ 

‘Oh yeah? Is that a long time, then?’ you tease him. 

He whistles and leans in to whisper so only you can hear. ‘Far too long for someone in love.’ 

‘Love?’ The word thunders in your chest.

‘Maybe it’s too soon to know,’ he says, not backing up at all. ‘Maybe love is confirmed by time. But what I feel, whatever this is the start of, I’m greatly looking forward to.’

‘Are you sure you want to start this? You’re leaving, like, tomorrow.’ Suddenly in the light of day the reality of the situation makes your stomach flip.

He clutches his chest dramatically. ‘Don’t sound so sad, love. Please. You say that like I won’t come back.’ He reaches for your hand across the counter. ‘At least we'll have tonight. Tonight or forever, right?’ 

‘Exactly.’ Unable to resist you lift your hand to hold his cheek and kiss him. It was killing you not to and why not? He’s right. If it’s just one more night, you’re going to make it count.

You pull back and fill out his cup, insisting it’s your treat. Before he leaves you hold out the jar of poems. When he reads the line he laughs, holding it out to you.

“And one by one the nights between our separated cities are joined to the night that unites us.”

― Pablo Neruda

#exowritersnet #tao x reader #zitao x reader #tao scenario #tao fanfic #exo x reader #exo au #exo fanfic #exo scenario #exo imagine #exodus mall

[comebackseasonisamess]

Drunken Secrets

Mark Lee x Reader | f2l!au | fluff

Word Count: 2.6k

Summary: It’s after grad, and as Mark gets more and more drunk, the truth he’s been hiding from you starts to slip out

Warnings: Underage drinking, swearing, mentions of a fight almost happening, slight manhandling of mark, never actually dtr-ed, suggested pregnancy mention, sex mention, terrible sentence structure, it’s funny how i can’t seem to spell acquaintance, use of italics for emphasis, cliche? Cliche, just two idiots, just two stupids, what a terrible title, i can’t write kiss or confession scenes. Also I can’t make banners for shit. Thanks for reading.

“Heads!”

You duck out of the way as a volleyball narrowly misses you.

Lucas jumps out of the water and goes and gets the ball, throwing it back in the pool before settling down next to you. “You enjoying yourself?”

“Yeah.” You shake your beer can at him. “Are you hoping no one pukes in the pool? Or falls in while drunk?”

Lucas laughs. “You think Mark’s gonna fall in? He’s already halfway drunk.”

Both of you look at Mark, who’s sitting in the hot tub, nursing the spiked punch and laughing loudly.

“Yeah… I’m trying not to drink too much to stop him from doing anything stupid.” You think back to the last time Mark got drunk and broke down and told you how much he appreciated your friendship in between his sobs.

“You’re a good friend,” Lucas says. Then waggles his eyebrows suggestively. “Or maybe more, if you know what I mean. If I was with Mark, I’d leave him and let him get drunk off his ass, then film all his shenanigans.” He smiles at you.

You brush off the insinuation. “Oh believe me, I wish I could. But Mark would probably break off our friendship if I did,” you laugh.

“Hey Lucas!” Hendery calls from the pool. “Come join the game!”

Lucas turns to you. “Talk to you later?”

You smile at him, and watch as he swims to rejoin the game. Reaching the bottom of the can, you stand up and head towards the booze table.

As you approach, Mark notices you and his face lights up. He stands up in the hot tub. “Heyyyyyyyyy,” he slurs, already very tipsy. He throws a wet arm around you and presses his face into your neck, forcing you to bend down with him. “I missed you.”

“Missed you too, Markles. What number drink is this?”

He looks down confusedly at his fingers, counting them off. “First I had a couple shots, then a can of Palm Bay, and this is my second cup of the punch.”

Yeri looks at you. “He’s missing some of them too, he finished off Hendery’s can of beer and my cup of punch.”

Mark looks back up at you excitedly. “But I’m not drunk! Chan drank more than me!”

“Yeah, and he’s reached conspiracy theory levels of drunkenness.” You all look at Chan, who’s sitting across from you yelling at Changbin, who’s holding out a cup (of water, you assume), about how “water is poisonous” and “forcing him to drink it is killing him.”

Mark blinks. “He’s kinda making sense….”

You and Yeri exchange a look. “He’s definitely wasted,” she says, and you laugh.

“Hey! You bitch!” Someone erupts from the side, barreling towards Xiao Jun. “You backing away from a fight?” The person keeps advancing on Xiao Jun, who turns his back on the aggressor.

“Whoa whoa whoa guys!” Lucas says, coming between the two of them and facing the instigator. You hurriedly stand in front of Xiao Jun, pushing him away.

“No fighting or else I’m kicking you out.” Lucas is serious for once. He may be an easygoing guy most of the time, but he hates fights and has kicked out others before for smaller offenses.

The guy gets more and more worked up before stalking away and throwing a “fuck you” over his shoulder for good measure.

Xiao Jun watches him go. “I didn’t even do anything to him…..”

“He’s drunk. And angry. And looking to pick on someone,” you explain. You rub a hand against his shoulders comfortingly as he wallows.

If you had glanced over at the hot tub, you would’ve seen Mark looking intensely at the two of you.

You get up out of the hot tub. Mark’s eyes follow you.

“Where ya goin’?” he asks, holding your hand.

“To go get some water for everyone,” you say.

“Ok hurry back, I already miss you,” he drawls.

You dip into the kitchen for water, filling up multiple red solo cups with water before passing them around to the people gathered there.

When you get back to the hot tub and slip in, and hand off the last cups to the occupants, Mark throws an arm behind you and pulls you towards him. He takes a loud sip from his cup, then says: “Wow, I love you.”

You feel yourself heat up in embarassment. Mark gets especially affectionate when he’s drunk, getting more and more touchy and verbally loving as the liquor hits his bloodstream.

Since you first met Mark in freshman year, you’ve always been fascinated by him. Your lockermate and Bio seatmate had been so shy and awkward back then, but as the years progressed he grew into his body and his personality. Suddenly, you couldn’t walk down the hallways without people turning and looking at him. Whispers were always going around about how goodlooking he was, how he must be good in bed.

Needless to say, sometime during sophmore year you realized that what you felt for Mark wasn’t just platonic affection, but the beginning of love, of the “fuck i’m in love with my best friend” kind. And Mark’s drunken habit of being affectionate really wasn’t helping you get rid of your feelings and move on.

As the party winds down, people start heading to the tents in the backyard, and others get rides back with designated drivers or parents.

Mark hangs off of you as he stumbles into Lucas’ bedroom. He had been kind enough to let some of the drunker friends stay there instead of the couches in the living room, where it would be too close to the party and too far from the bathroom.

Mark falls face first into the bed once you reach it, crawling up to the pillow and squishing his face into it. He looks at you from it, motioning towards the empty spot next to him. “Come sleep with me!” he exclaims.

You smile, feeling your heart warm at this version of Mark. He’s always so cute when he gets drunk, all giggly and childish. “I can’t Markles, I gotta help Lucas with the rest of the drunks.”

“But I don’t want you to go,” Mark whines, reaching out with a hand to grab onto you. “I want you to stay here with me!” His eyes light up when he says the last words, and your heart skips a beat. Mark will be the death of you, this you know for a fact.

“Mark Lee,” you chide him, releasing your wrist from his hold. “You need to go to bed alone.”

He pouts, turns over, and mumbles something.

“What, you big baby?”

“Wanna kiss you,” he says louder. Rolling over, he looks at you with his big eyes. “Can I kiss you?”

You freeze. Mark Lee, your best friend since freshman year, your soulmate, the object of your affections for two years now, wants to kiss you? But he’s drunk. And probably not aware of what he’s saying. “Mark, baby, ask me again when you’re sober.”

“Okay!” Mark shuts his eyes and makes shooing motions for you to leave. “I’ll wake up sober in the morning and I can ask you again.”

You smooth down his hair and switch off the light as you walk out.

When Mark wakes up the next morning, it’s to a glass of water and an aspirin. He knows automatically that you left it for him, and then suddenly he remembers what he said to you last night. “Fuck, why am I so dumb…” he says to himself, before rubbing a hand over his face.

Admitting your long harboured desire to kiss your best friend in a drunken haze was really not Mark’s plan. In fact, he had been hoping to squash his feelings for you, and maybe when you were in university together you would find a nice person who really complimented you and made you laugh and you would marry that person, and your friendship would be one that was thought of with nostalgia as you told new friends or children or even grandchildren.

But Mark knows that you hadn’t drank enough to not have remembered what he told you. And he has a strange feeling your friendship wasn’t going to last. He just hopes you are still willing to be acquaintance until he could get rid of his pesky feelings.

Mark finally comes downstairs, looking disheveled with his hair sticking up, and you don’t notice at first as you’re busy flipping pancakes while Lucas is serving coffee and tea. Lucas was one of those people who just didn’t get hungover, and bounced back from an evening’s worth of drinking with a smile and his loud voice.

As you finish the pancake you’re currently making, you pass the spatula off to Xiao Jun. “Junnie can you finish for me? I need to talk to Mark,” you say lowly.

He nods, having been filled in on the potential confession from your best friend just this morning, as he had been the only other person up when you were.

You head over to Mark, tugging gently on his t-shirt to pull him into the entrance hallway, a couple closed doors away from everyone else.

Mark straightens his t-shirt and runs a hand through his hair, looking everywhere but at you. He’s probably having difficulties seeing straight, you had taken out his contacts before putting him to bed and his vision is reduced to blurry blobs without his glasses.

“So…” you drawl out. “I think we need to talk.”

Mark looks embarassed. “I’m sorry,” he says.

You lean back, expectantly. Is he going to tell you that it was a mistake? That he meant it for someone else?

“I shouldn’t’ve done that to you,” he continues. “Put you in that position, I mean. It’s not fair for me to confess to you when I know you don’t feel the same way about me, when I know you’re just good friends with me and that you don’t see me the way I see you.”

“Mark-” you start, but he cuts you off.

“And before you start saying ‘Mark why didn’t you tell me before,’ or suggest that we could try out a relationship, know that I don’t want pity from you. If you don’t want to see me for a while until I’m over you, that’s ok. I respect that.”

You purse your lips, feeling elated, but also very annoyed. “Mark Lee-”

“And I know you don’t tell me everything, and if you already have a significant other and I’m making this awkward I’m so sorry, I just want you to know that I’ve liked you for a while now, and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, so I’m just gonna rejoin the others, drive you home and then I won’t speak to you unless you want me to, ok?”

He turns around, hand on the doorknob, and you whirl him around and place your hands on his stupid face firmly, stopping him from saying anything more or leaving. “Mark fucking Lee, how dare you explain my emotions to me? Have you ever even paused to think that maybe I like you too? Maybe I’d also like to kiss you? Did you even remember what I said last night? That you could ask me again this morning?”

Mark’s eyes widen, clearly just remembering that. He opens his mouth to speak, but you cut him off.

“And for the record, Mark Lee, I don’t want you to pretend like nothing happened. Or try and kill your crush on me or something in the same, stupid, vein. I want you to ask me if you can kiss me again, and then I’ll say yes, and then we’ll kiss, and then we’ll walk out of here hand in hand and in a fucking relationship. Because your feelings are fucking mutual Mark Lee. And I’ve been in love with you since sophm-” Your words stop as Mark, having regained some of his mobility as your hands had lessened their pressure against his cheeks, leans in for a kiss. He places his hands around your waist, and gently presses his mouth against yours. He’s surprisingly smooth for such an awkward guy.

You lose track of time as you and Mark exchange kisses that have been in the making for a while. With each one, you can feel his love seep through, thousands of unsaid thoughts being communicated for once.

As you pull away from each other, Mark looks at you. “So you’re in love with me?” he teases.

“And what about it?” you glare at him. “Is it a crime to be in love with you? Are you embarassed?”

“No,” he whispers as he starts leaning in again. “I just can’t believe you said ‘I love you’ first.”

You push away from him. “Wait.... Does this mean you love me too?”

Mark shyly nods. “I love you too.” He leans in once more, but you solidly push him back.

“Wait a second! While I’d love to keep kissing you Markles, the others are probably wondering what we’re doing.... And knowing Lucas he probably thinks we’re fucking in his closet somewhere.”

Mark instantly reddens, suddenly remembering all the times Lucas said the two of you had major sexual tension. He turns around and quickly flings open the door, latching onto your fingers with his own. “Well at least we know he’s pretty close to being right,” he says as he pulls you through the doorway.

You stare at him, incredulous. “Mark! Were you expecting to fuck me in the entrance way? Of Lucas’ house? Where everyone’s gonna walk out of?”

Mark gets even more red than he already is. “No!” he says, but his voice cracks and he enters the kitchen, you right behind him.

Lucas turns away from his conversation with Xiao Jun, then yells: “Please tell me that you’re together! And that you didn’t fuck in my closet!”

“No!” Mark screeches, his voice breaking again. “Dude, who do you think I am?”

You giggle. “Yes Lucas, me and Mark are together now,” you say.

“Finally!” Lucas shouts, then pours some coffee into two mugs and takes out leftover booze. “This calls for a celebration!”

You and Mark glance at each other, then look at Xiao Jun, who understands what you want him to do and wrestles the booze away from Lucas.

A disgruntled noise comes from a blob on the couch. Yangyang looks through the slit in his hoodie. “Eyyyyyy guyssssss… Shut up a bit please? My head hurts and I wanna puke,” he groans.

“That’s what you get for getting drunk for the first time!” Lucas roars, then proceeds to make fun of Yangyang, who’s pleas for help go unnoticed.

You reach for your cup of coffee, then squeeze Mark’s fingers. “Wanna sit down outside? It’s nice and sunny.”

He blinks a couple of times at you, confused, then grabs his cup and follows you out the door.

If Lucas had stopped teasing Yangyang for a moment and looked out the window, he would’ve seen you and Mark, sitting side by side with your legs in the pool, holding tightly onto one another as you laugh. And while Lucas isn’t looking (which is honestly a blessing, he probably would’ve cannonballed right in between the two of you and ruined the mood), Xiao Jun is, and he’s quite relieved that the two idiots finally got their shit together and confessed.

Bonus: Three years in the future, in their shared apartment together

“Are you ok?” Mark says as you wriggle around on your shared bed.

“Just… Babies are so cute and I want one,” you say, looking up from your phone.

Mark looks you dead in the eye. “I- I could give one to you.”

You perk up. “Really?”

Mark blushes hard and looks away. “I’m joking…”

“Mark, sweetheart I know that. Your game’s not that good.”

Copyright @comebackseasonisamess​ 2020

#neowritingsnet #neowriters #mark imagines #mark scenarios #mark fic #mark fanfiction #mark au #nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct fic #nct fanfiction #nct au #mark lee imagines #mark lee scenarios #mark lee fic #mark lee fanfiction #mark lee au #nct friends to lovers #mark lee friends to lovers #mark friends to lovers #mark x reader #mark lee x reader #nct fluff #mark fluff #mark lee fluff

[saltyyashahime]

You know what Im tired of reading, people coming at Antis with the same tired ass excuses that have been debunked over and over again.

I have a whole blog full of the answers you want to know.

Starting from the favorite of “its historically accuracte (also as a history major... you sound so fucking stupid when you say this shippers. Stop watching Game of Thrones and do some research) (also also that theory has been debunked, and that is on my blog). And to end with “but he wasn’t a dad to Rin.”

Im tired and dont have the energy to argue but my fellow antis who are much more read and have more time to write their thoughts down have done this work for me. Like can ya’s just acknowledge that its problematic and shut the fuck up? Most of us don’t care what you personally ship we care about what’s canon. Plenty of problematic ships happen. This isn’t against you personally, but against a potential canonization of a problematic ship. Grow up, have a civil discourse, stop targetting anti blogs and posts.

Most of you dont want to have a civil discourse. You want to scream canon, repeat the same tired arguments like they’re fucking “gotcha” moments and go off on anon like your big fucking badasses. Sit down child. You’re embarassing yourself.

If you’re a Sessrinner who actually minds their business and are embarassed by your compatriots, I apologize on their behalf, and for any Anti who act out in the same manner. 🤷🏻‍♀️

We can not like something. That is still okay. We can still call out problematic shit. It doesn’t mean we need to go after on another. I see a shipper post, I roll my eyes and make my own. I do not engage. You see the Inucest shippers? The NaraSess shippers? Be like them. Be better.

#anti sessrin #anti rinsess #my only horse in this race is not rin #kagura is interesting can you shut the fuck up #seriously

[cabin-13]

u said self indulgent nico hcs?? 👀👀

ajkdsjkkj when I say self-indulgent, it’s Self-Indulgent and i pretty much ignore richard’s canon / haven't reread the books from either series in a long time nor have i read toa but if ur really interested... (long post ahead, sorry!)

nb nico is top tier 

goes by he/they pronouns 

touristcore aesthetic that’s slowly encroaching into e-person territory

he’s The Blueprint

likes thorn from the hex girls (even the reboot ver.) but digs dusk’s look more

how is this related u may ask?

yeah, i answer

idc abt canon so he and drew are bitchy friends and drew rags on his appearance constantly while brushing his hair but throws in self-care tips btwn loving insults

nico: you know im not a boy right

drew: doesnt change the fact you look like a wet rat, sweetie <3

i will forever stand by reynico being (platonic) soulmates and im gonna b extra self-indulgent and say they were friends in previous lives too and that’s why they vibed w each other so well <3 

speaking of previous lives, well.... heh..

(no but really, this hc is kinda embarassing but , if u want elaboration uhhhhhhhhhh)

i know nico only has like. a 5th grade education but i like to think he would be a good student ... if anything i think hades would at least homeschool him with the ghosts of (famous) teachers ??? he seems to be naturally curious and he’s kind of a smart ass (not in a mean way) in canon idk

polyglot nico! polyglot nico! polyglot nico!!!! he becomes the go-to translator at camp ( like he isn't already sjkjskjdk) 

yes he would know asl. why? bc i said so and rick needs to include include some hoh/deaf characters within the greek/roman pantheon <3 (if there is, not counting hearthstone from mcga)

leo finds out abt nico knowing spanish bc he once snorted at a joke he said and now leo won’t stop telling him shit like “¿cuál es la fruta que más se ríe? .... la naranja, ja, ja, ja --”

ironically has the best hair at chb (rick once said the di angelos had silky hair in the titan’s curse i think + reyna said something abt his hair too in boo ?? i'll have to check...) once he cleans up and the aphrodite kids are seething

nico’s hair starting to gray at a young age is also an interesting concept ! i think tumblr user fuocogo drew something ft that and it stuck with me

really self indulgent but he’s roman at heart (maybe even Literally. i read somewhere that an italian fan said the di angelos fit the desc. of modern day romans better than venicians ?? if i find it, i’ll link it >>>)

 i like to think his family are legacies of victoria seeing as he’s always one of the key pieces / an important informant for winning both wars ... plus his grandpa was a diplomat and uhhh idk where I was going w this ngl

speaking of family, I need to know if the di angelo bloodline no longer exists assuming maria was an only child and there was no mention of any other di angelos aside from her parents ..? i like the idea of nico finding out that he has more family tho !!

also I would love it if rick cleared up where and when he met maria pls and thank u <3

I MISS BABY NICO’S PERSONALITY SM ... which is why i propose that whenever one of his friend’s see his eyes sparkling and arms waving while he babbles abt whatever topic, they think it’s really cute !!!! like !! keep talking !! 

 he gets embarrassed when he sees his friends smiling at him but it kinda makes him a bit teary eyed bc it’s been so long since he was able to talk abt his interests without being shut down / forcing himself to keep quiet because he felt like he was being too childish/annoying

what im saying is that he should be able to act like a kid bc he is one !!!! he's 14 !!!!!

he either has the cutest laugh or the weirdest laugh and it strictly depends on who ur asking

i feel like he sneezes like a kitten...............he sneezes and everyone whips their head around to look at him and he’s never wanted to dig a hole and put himself in it more than now

i like the imagery of tinkling bells being associated with him so im gonna sayyy he would have a necklace with a little bell (something like this kinda ??) and yes, leo would’ve made it for him as a joke kinda but not really

valdangelo (either as a friendship or nah) is underrated

like ur telling me this kid has a metal dragon and builds the coolest things ever and nico doesn't even think it’s a little bit cool ?? nah. rr did them dirty.

the kids at camp love him and i won't take no for an answer

he brings out ye ol’ mythomagic figurines to explain/show them the monsters and gods of the greek pantheon

it’s a win-win situation bc he gets to babble abt his hyperfixation and the kids get to learn abt what they're gonna get into in a way that’s better than the camp orientation film (since nico’s literally the only one who’s seen it ((but i think the stolls wanted to check it out too ??)) )

they give him a “camp’s best counselor <3333” mug and he cries abt it to reyna and hazel

yes he’s wearing an unusual amount of friendship bracelets no he's not gonna take them off shut up

unfortunately im team short!nico bc i want 2 see him get engulfed by the hugs his sisters (yes this includes reyna) and friends give him !!! 

he wears demonia platform sneakers / doc martens (and converse but that’s p much a given) thank you <3

piper/nico friendship ... I Need It

they borrow each other’s clothes constantly

leo and them clown on jason  and jason is Suffering but he loves them all so it’s ok 

piper could probably carry nico 

nico stress bakes 

yeah

he and clovis become good friends and hang out in the dream world and u know what, im gonna say they’re cuddle buddies too. clovis seems like he would give nice hugs !

im a sucker for nico having friends from different pantheons too !!! also becoming sort-of friends with gods/immortals of different pantheons !!

the underworld demigod discord gc is cursed; one moment they're all talking abt how they're pretty much fated to stay in the underworld while they're both living and after they die but the next moment someone says they want a hug and a chorus of “yeah...”’s follows.

nico was a momma’s boy most definitely 

speaking of which, i like to think that while him and bianca looked like their dad and mom respectively, it would’ve switched when they got older ?? idk

autistic nico ..... rick make it canon and not btwn the lines......

idk how to explain this one bc it’s just Plain Weird but . i feel like . nico would like?? hang out under his bed ??? maybe i’ll draw a pic or something and edit this later sjjdjkddk

this is just me projecting but he hates looking at mirrors / seeing himself in photos bc the person he sees doesn't match the person he sees in his head ?? if that makes sense ??? like he doesn't look like the nico he used to be bc of how much his appearance changed ? idk

uhhh he sometimes hallucinates, esp when he was in tartarus and in the month after coming out of the jar

maybe i’ll elaborate on this later ..

i need more annabeth and nico friendship pls...... both of them like/liked percy and now he can't stop getting clowned 

HOWEVER.... if I see one more “not his/my type” joke im going to delete my tumblr

speaking of which, i have a conspiracy theory abt Things, but i don't wanna get my ass sniped into next tuesday

introvert leo forcing himself to be the group comedian even though he’d much rather be with machines and extrovert nico who pushes ppl away so he doesn't get hurt but desiring the company of another type vibes. im not gonna elaborate.

his latest hyperfixation is pokemon and his favorite pokemon are gengar and skitty, but jirachi and mimikyuu are close seconds

has a crush on N Harmonia  and a bunch of the male gym leaders no im not gonna elaborate

this isn't a hc but. rick u really gotta stop writing abt ppl automatically distrusting nico because of his appearance / godly parent (although some were kinda warranted based of their personal history even though nico still pulled through in the end)  im getting tired of reading abt ppl wanting to like. hurt him or Actually hurting him for stuff he didn't have control of sjkjsjkdsjkdk (like wtf happened with frank when hazel got poisoned?? I thought frank actually liked nico ahjkjsjkf) 

uhhhhh that’s p much it ??????  sorry for the long ass post .. maybe i’ll write abt him more if ppl really want me to...

#nico di angelo #pjo #please tell me to shut the fuck up #im mortified #null.txt

[telli1206]

The Only Time I Feel Alive Is When I Find Something I Would Die For (Part 2)

Mal’s plots turn personal when she cooks up a plan for her big brother, Jay, and Evie’s brother, Carlos.

Part 1 is here.

This also based off a @bunny-lou​ prompt from this post.

Evie has to admit, Mal can really be insufferable sometimes. 

Whatever plan she has, Evie can’t help but worry a little as to why Mal needs to have her brother involved. One minute her purple-haired friend is all talk of of their school assignment/actual plot to rule the isle, and the next minute she’s asking her to bring Carlos to a secret movie screening being projected on the side of a factory just outside of downtown, and refusing to give any explanation as to why. 

Of course, Evie has her theories. After all, you can’t just ask if someone is single without having any romantic ulterior motives can you? Mal is smart, sure, but Evie wasn’t born yesterday. She’s spent enough time with her best friend at this point to surmise at least part of her plotting before she attempts a follow-through.

But Evie’s not sure how she feels about that, since she has really no idea what Mal’s romantic intentions are for Carlos. Does she have a crush on him? Is Mal trying to plan a date for herself with Evie’s older brother?

For some reason, the thought of Mal flirting with Carlos leaves a lump in Evie’s throat and sends her stomach churning. Mal is her friend, and she doesn’t want to lose her time with her in favor of her brother. Or anyone else, actually. She enjoys every moment she spends with the girl with purpley hair, fiery green eyes and a devilish pout. She doesn’t want to give that up to anyone.

But she can’t ever deny Mal anything. 

“I’m glad you found out about this screening and invited me, Eves. I’ve been dying to see this movie,” Carlos tells her, smiling brightly ahead as they walk.

“Of course! Thanks for agreeing to be my chaperone so mom would let me go,” she giggles, bumping him playfully in his shoulder. “But I did know that this movie would be right up your alley. A guy travelling across the country to find a girl he met online is just romantic enough to catch your interest,” Evie teased, making Carlos snort at her and shake his head.

“You know me too well, sis. But don’t you start spreading the word that I love rom coms. You might ruin my rep,” Carlos adds with a wink.

Evie can’t hide the chuckle that bursts from her lips. “Sure thing, bro. Gotta protect that rep that I’ve never heard anyone talk about ever.” 

Carlos tries to give Evie a knowing glare, but his eyes are alight with laughter, and the pair chuckle quietly to themselves as they finally approach the crowd gathering in front of the factory.

-----

“Why am I here again?” Jay moans,unable to hide his irritation.

Mal rolls her eyes. “Because mom didn’t want me to die going out at night alone? You can’t just be my chaperone for once and NOT bitch about it?”

Jay slouches back on the blanket they laid out with a quiet ‘oomph,’ glaring daggers at his sister but otherwise keeping quiet. Mal huffs, checking her phone for the tenth time, waiting for Evie to respond to her text. She’s not late persay, but Mal is eager to put her plan in motion. She’s fairly sure Jay is completely oblivious, despite her odd request for him to brush out his hair and brush his teeth, griping and asking why Mal suddenty cared about his appearance. Luckily, he had bought her whining that she didn’t want to be embarassed being seen with him and just shrugged it off, while still adding a jab about her being too much of a princess if that’s what she’s worrying about as he went about with his primping.

“What’s this movie about anyway? I swear if this is some lame ass romance I’m leaving you here to fend for yourself,” Jay sneers, grinding his teeth at the thought.

Before Mal can answer, her phone alerts to the text message she’s been waiting for. She smiles disarmingly as she reads, peaking Jay’s curiosity. He tries to lean over to see but she quickly clicks off her screen, standing up and looking out to the back of the parking lot.

“Well I won’t be alone now if you want to leave, but I have a feeling you won’t,” she says, chuckling to herself. Evie comes into view, waving excitedly when she sees Mal, with Carlos in tow just behind her.

A glance over her shoulder is more than rewarding, as Mal is greeted with the reaction she had expected - Jay is frozen, openly staring at the boy with Evie, his mouth agape. 

“Keep yourself in check, lover boy,” she mumbles, tipping her shoulder up to tap Jay’s mouth shut. He stands fully upright, shaking himself out of his stupor as he glares at his sister.

“You did NOT tell me Carlos was coming,” he hissed, his hands frantically smoothing his hair and clothing, trying his best to look presentable.

“Would you have come if I did? Or would you have chickened out, like yesterday?”

Mal keeps her eyes trained on Jay as he stares back, stunned. Finally, he lets his shoulders slump in defeat, prompting a tiny snort from Mal as she turns to face him, patting his shoulder reassuringly.

“Forget it. The point is, you have your shot now. DON’T blow it,” she insists, pointing insistently in Jay’s face.

Speechless, Jay merely nods, turning back to face the approaching siblings.

Carlos’ face mirrors Jay’s, surprise in his eyes, mouth open. But Evie shares a knowing look with Mal, and the fact that her best friend has already figured out her idea has Mal absolutely glowing. No one will ever get her like Evie does.

“Hi Mal! Jay!” Evie greets them warmly, grabbing Carlos’ arm to pull him in front of her. “Jay, you remember my brother, Carlos, right?”

Carlos’ lips turn up into a weak, awkward smile as he lifts his gaze to meet Jay’s. Jay smiles back, gulping loudly as he tries to respond.

“Of course. Hi, Carlos. It’s good to see you again,” Jay replies sweetly, tipping his head to the boy.

“Y-you too. Jay.” Carlos voice is barely above a whisper, and for the first time Mal notices that Evie’s brother seems just as flustered around Jay as Jay is around him. 

Her plan might go even more smoothly than she thought.

“Alright!” Mal interjects loudly, clapping her hands together for attention. “Now that we’ve had introductions, why don’t you both join us on the blanket we laid out?” She offers, gesturing to the spot they prepared just to the side of them.

As the boys start to sit, Mal walks behind them to quickly grasp at Evie’s hand, holding her back. Evie quirks a brow, eyeing her quizzically.

“Come to think of it, I should probably run to the bathroom before the movie starts. Evie, do you need to go?” Mal’s eyes widen as she stares at her blue-haired friend, giving her a tiny wink when she turns her back to Jay and Carlos.

“Oh...oh! Yes, I do. Thanks for reminding me, Mal.” Evie turns up the wattage on her smile, stretching it so wide it almost looks like her face could break. 

The boys pause in their movements, but Mal places firm hands on Jay’s shoulders to push him to the blanket, with Evie nodding to Carlos to join him. Finally seated, they glance at each other only to look away again quickly. 

Mal fights back an eye roll as she watches them. These boys are so ridiculous.

“We’ll be back in a minute,” she assures, grabbing Evie by the hand again. Before walking away, she quickly dips her head behind her brother.

“Compliment him.” she whispers in his ear, picking up her pace to walk away as soon as she’s sure Jay hears her. She practically takes off, forced to pull Evie along to keep up. 

When she’s sure the boys aren’t watching them, Mal lunges behind a row of garbages cans, yanking Evie down with a tiny yelp beside her.

“Ready to watch some terrible flirting?” Mal jokes. She leans close to the bluenette beauty, until their foreheads are almost touching. The girl grins toothily at her, using her free hand to point to a space between the cans with a perfect view of the blanket.

Mal comes in close, her breath hitching as she presses her cheek against Evie’s to get a better view through the small opening, letting her eyes shut for a second to revel in the touch of her friend’s petal soft skin. They stand perfectly still, breath shallow as they strain to listen.

“You know, you could have told me your plan,” Evie tells her, tone breathy. “It’s not like I wouldn’t have helped if I’d known. You know I hate being left in the dark.”

“Now where’s the fun in that?” Mal giggles, turning a side eye to the girl pressed against her. “Besides, I love how fast you always figure things out, Eves. You’re an evil genius, too, just like me. You know that?”

Mal can feel Evie’s face warming against hers, and Mal feels a warmth of her own blooming in her chest, just from knowing that her words had made the bluenette blush. 

She gives Evie’s hand a squeeze, tilting her head through their makeshift peephole. “Shhhh, now. We need to hear this. Knowing my brother, there’s a good chance this could still be a shit show, even after all my help.”

-----

Jay nervously picks at the hem of his jeans, keeping his eyes trained on the patch of blue blanket between his legs. He steals glances of the boy next to him every few seconds, seeing how Carlos focuses on the people setting up the movie screen, and that he’s fisting the blankets in his hands as he pays close attention, almost examining the equipment as if he was trying to figure out how it works.

A few minutes have passed in complete silence, and Jay feels restless with each passing second. The command from his sister repeats in his head, and as much as he tries to push it down, he knows it’s his best shot to get things moving forward with Carlos.

 But before he can think of something to say, he startles, turning to face Carlos as hears the boy loudly clear his throat.

“S-so...” Carlos starts, slowly. “Were you, excited to see this movie, too? Is that why you came?”

Jay’s sure Mal didn’t even tell him what they were seeing, but simply nods in agreement, too eager to finally be engaging in conversation with Carlos. He looks up, meeting the boy’s gaze, and he feels his mouth instantly go dry. He’s met with beautiful, deep pools of dark chocolate brown, brows furrowed only slightly as Carlos waits for Jay to talk.

“Uh, yeah man. I can’t wait.” He stares, waiting for Carlos’ reaction.

The boy’s face is blank for a moment, as Jay holds his breath. Finally, his lips curl into a hint of a half smile.

“Really? That’s great. I actually thought I might be the only guy on the isle that geeked out over rom coms.”

Shit.

Jay almost winces, but forces himself to hold his composure. Carlos was smiling, after all. Smiling at him. That was most important.

“Uhhhh. Yeah, man. They’re great. I love them.”

A weird snorting noise in the distance jolts him for a moment. He’d recognize that unpolished outburst anywhere. Mal.

A quick scan around him shows no sign of an irritating little sibling, but the reminder of her presence is enough set him back on task.

He pauses to think, wiping a few beads of sweat off his forehead as he does, and then brushing away a few strands of hair that are sticking to his face.

“Man, it’s hot,” he comments, glancing at Carlos.

The boys nods, his curls bouncing softly in the movement.

“I wish I had your hair,” Jay says wistfully. He reaches a hand up, slowly, grazing a few ringlets with his fingertips. “You always look good.”

The sudden silence is deafening, and Jay’s hand tenses at the sight of Carlos’ widened eyes and parted lips.

“I mean, your hair! It always looks good. Mine is a sweaty, sticky mess right now, see?” He gestures frantically, pulling his fingers through some sweaty pieces. “Do you, like...curl it? Yourself?”

Carlos tilts his head, looking like a lost puppy. “Um, it just. Curls this way. I don’t do, anything?”

“Right! Of course not,” Jay relents, biting his lip. “Well, it still looks good. It...suits you. Like, really.”

Carlos can’t hide the smile the spreads across his face, brightened with a pink flush that blooms almost immediately. Jay visibly relaxes when he sees that, heaving a sigh of release. His eyes never leave Carlos’ as he returns the smile, his teeth flashing prominently as his grin spreads even wider.

“Thank Evil,” Mal breathes, squeezing Evie’s hand. “That was touch and go for a minute there. Good thing my brother finally got his head out of his ass.”

Evie giggles as she stands, pulling Mal up with her. “Oh stop it. That was cute. Carlos likes him, I can tell. There’s definitely something there.”

“Yeah, I see it,” Mal agrees, swinging Evie’s hand casually as they walk back. “That’s why i had to help that dumbass brother of mine get his shit together. Who knows if he’d ever have made a move without my help.”

“Who knew you were such a good sister?” Evie teases, quirking a smile at her friend.

“Um, I did, of course,” Mal snidely remarks, chuckling at Evie. “Not gonna lie though, I might have my own, personal reasons, too.” She stops a few feet short of the boys, holding Evie back with her.

“And once I can get my lame brother to seal the deal, I just might let you in on them, Eves.”

#jaylos #jay x carlos #malvie #mal x evie #jay son of jafar #mal bertha #Carlos De Vil #evie grimhilde #Descendents #descendants fanfiction #bunny-lou prompt

[freunwol]

one order of freunwol pls <3 i would like to hear Thoughts,

imagine just an absolute wall of emojis

- sO JUST. hair. i may be a little obsessed w hair as a symbol of affection but like. euns hair...soft. theres no doubt in my mind freud plays w it any chance he can get

- on that note, burying his face in euns hair is prolly heaven and it transports u to another dimension on the other side which actually gives me a fic idea fuck HOLD ON

you ever just get so sidetracked

- ANYWAY eun probably loves reading really bad romance novels, both to laugh at and also i just think hes a really romantic kind of guy YELLS

- freud...likely doesnt really know how to do romantic things, or be romantic, or anything of the sort, hes probably just confused like? for me? why? huh? hello?

- guh i hcd that freud like shoves down negative emotions and some positive ones cuz he feels like his only real purpose left is fighting bm and being some kind of hero, and the stuff he enjoys (books, knowledge, Friendship, etc) is gonna end up being ultimately aimless and he’ll wind up just existing for the rest of his life...canonically he tries to go around helping people but i feel like he wouldnt rlly be satisfied with it :(... and he tries to tell himself the same advice he gave to eun, that he has every reason to stick around and he can get through the tough times, but sometimes it rings hollow...

- UH. ABOUT THAT ADVICE i hcd that freud found eun like shivering and soaking wet in a pier town in the middle of winder and gave him his coat and the sun came out at just the right time and eun was like ‘holy shit theres a sun god and hes giving me a coat what the Fuck’ and then friendship ensued

- and the reason he was there was another hc that eun was basically raised (”””raised”””) by a pirate crew but got sick of it and swam to shore eventually, and proooobably wouldve died of hypothermia if freud wasnt there oops

- THIS ONES A LITTLE INCOMPATABLE WITH THE LAST ONE BUT i ALSO had a theory that eun used to be an assassin before he became a mercenary (essentially raised to be a killing machine), and cant really forgive himself for it, so the fact that freud was like ‘yeah but u cant blame urself for how u were raised’ probably like creeped him out at first but eventually he started to believe him especially after probably aran was like ‘damn that fuckin sucks sorry bro’

- whatever eun cant really confide in freud he probably tells aran, which he prolly ends up telling freud later anyway

- freud hugging eun was prolly the first time hed ever actually been hugged so u know ur boy broke the fuck down

- this ones close to canon but they like to watch the moonlight through the huge hole in freuds roof together...i do also think if they went to seoul world theyd sit on top of tall buildings and watch the streetlights below & the sunset and everything turn orange and pink and theyd talk about nothing for hours... ;u;

- eun doesnt really know how to handle having friends or just anyone who cares about him, and likely closes himself off at first because hes confused and kind of uncomfortable being around these people that pay attention to him and not for monetary gain or other selfish stuff... like what do you say? how are you supposed to react?

- oh i had a bunch of modern au hcs that i dont remember most of but i do know i hcd the whole group buying an apartment to live in and eventually they all get houses n shit but freud and eun prolly stay in that apartment for a while and everyone goes there to hang out anyway

- freud has euns contact saved as some inside joke and eun has freuds as his name with a red heart next to it which he is immensely embarassed by when aran finds out

guh i feel like i had more but im like mentally drained and im trying to sort through 5-6 years of interpretation in my head...get back to me in like a day or two and ill have more

#maplestory #freunwol #anon whoever you are i give you all my love #long post #putting a read more on this one which i shouldve done before oops #anons

[sukkasupremacy]

Secretary Suki—-A One Shot excerpt from “Fan & Sword”-

(Very Mild Smut warning :) )

Suki had just come home from dropping Yukari and Yumie off at school and was now ready to enjoy her day off from work.

Sokka was talking pretty seriously on the phone, “Yeah she should stay home if she’s not feeling well. I can manage my own schedule…yes that’s fine. Okay? Bye.” Sokka hung up.

“Hey love, you good?”

Sokka stuffed his notebook into his bag and gave her a thumbs up, “Yeah. My secretary is really sick today so I told them to send her home. Do you have work today?”

“Oh, that’s awful. I hope she gets well and no I’m off today.”

“That’s good, you should rest. I have to leave in like an hour so you wanna have some tea together? I made some before you got back.” Sokka got up and poured some tea for them to have together.

“Thank you,” Suki accepted the cup and drank from it, “Will you be able to manage without your secretary? I know it’s a lot to keep up with.”

“Pfft, yeah I’ll be fine. I’m Sokka!” He flashed her a smile and she rolled her eyes.

“Mmhmm. Well you can be pretty forgetful at times!” She teased taking another sip.

“Hey!”

Suki put her hand on his shoulder and chuckled, “Just kidding councilman. I’m sure you can manage.”

“Hmmm well...I do tend to forget things a lot,” Sokka took a sip and then an idea dawned on him, “Hey Suki, you should come to work with me! And like my secretary for today! It would be fun!”

Suki chuckled, “That sounds like a good idea in theory but will you even be able to concentrate with me around?” She raised her eyebrow and leaned forward to smirk at him.

Sokka frowned, “Hey! I can totally do work even with my amazing, beautiful, awesome, powerful, smart…,” Sokka trailed off and she covered her mouth to muffle her laughter, “Okay. You have a point.”

Suki picked up the tea cups and started to wash them in the sink, “Well the girls are going over at Katara and Aang’s later so I’m free all day. I would love to be your secretary.”

“ALRIGHT! BRING YOUR GIRLFRIEND TO WORK DAY!” Sokka got up and ran into their room and came back with an outfit, “Here! Wear this so you look like a person who works at city hall.”

Suki chuckled and took the clothes, “Well this should be fun.” She went to their room and changed into the white dress shirt and black tie, a black pencil skirt, and an emerald green blazer. Suki put her hair half up and applied a layer of her favorite lipstick. “So, do I look like secretary Suki?” Suki chuckled and grabbed a notebook and clipboard to put into her “secretary bag.”

Sokka blushed, “Wow, you look really beautiful!”

“Hehe, thanks councilman,” She gave him a hug and pecked his cheek, “Let’s go?”

Sokka exhaled the breath he was holding and smiled sheepishly, “Yes! Let’s go-to work-hehe.”

Suki rolled her eyes and took his hand.They made their way down the stairs of their apartment complex to walk to city hall. It was only a thirty minute walk and they had time.

Suki clutched his arm and looked at the beautiful cherry blossom trees around Republic City, “So when I get there, what do I do?”

“Well basically you follow me around and remind me of meetings and make my schedule. At meetings you take notes for me.”

“Sounds easy enough!”

Sokka smiled, “Ooo! Since you’re my secretary today then maybe...I could take you out for lunch?”

Suki raised her eyebrow, “Hmmm but this is a professional environment councilman so I think I’ll have to pass on that one. I don’t wanna get fired for going on non platonic lunch dates with my boss!” Sokka shook his head and rolled his eyes causing her to laugh, “Kidding. Lunch sounds fun.”

Sokka poked her cheek, “You are having way too much fun with this….It’s kind of cute.”

Suki giggled and kissed his cheek, “I’m just excited to spend the day with you.”

Sokka smiled and then they arrived, “Okay we’re here!” He opened the door and led her up the stairs to his office, “This is city hall! Here’s a big library with government books and stuff, here’s all the offices, council room, a meeting room, another one, another one...oh and here’s my office!” He opened the door, “Ladies first!”

Suki chuckled and entered the room, “What a gentleman.” He closed the door and followed her, “So where do I go?”

Sokka ran over to his secretary’s desk and pushed it next to his desk, “Here!”

She crossed her arms and smirked, “Will you even be able to concentrate, Councilman Sokka.”

“Yes Secretary Suki I believe in my will power!” He pulled the chair out for her because chivalry isn’t dead, “Let’s start work!”

Suki chuckled and sat down on the comfy office chair and watched him sit down and get settled. He made himself comfy, lit a candle for light, and pulled out his paperwork and notebook. He pulled out a schedule from Suki’s desk and gave it to her, “Here, that’s my schedule. When’s my next meeting babe?”

Suki read the schedule, “Uhhh, today at 12pm and that’s it. You have lunch at 1:00pm and go home at 6pm. Oh I missed this one you need to have whatever you’re doing done by 11pm.”

“Thanks Secretary Suki,” he chuckled and smiled at her, “Okay I have to work now. I’ll tell you if you need to write anything down. Oh and thanks Suki.” He leaned over to give her a quick kiss and got right to work.

Suki smiled and nodded. She watched him write and read for about thirty minutes, “So, love, what’s this meeting for?”

Sokka continued to write, “It’s for funding for the elementary schools. Toph said we’ll be taking some money from the police budget since they don’t need it and education is important but we still need this many pieces,” Sokka pointed to the balance, “So I’m trying to figure out who would wanna invest. Cabbage Corp is way too big so we need to go smaller and…”

“What about Future Industries? Hiro has a kid in the schools so he would probably wanna invest and they’re pretty successful but not too up there.”

Sokka grabbed her face between his hands, “You are a genius!” He smacked a kiss on her lips, “So smart Suki! That’s a great idea!”

She smiled and wrote down the idea, “So you don’t forget!” She scribbled the idea down and sat up straight in her chair like the ‘professional’ she was. Sokka made a call to Future Industries and they agreed in exchange for a sponsorship from the council which he could make happen. Suki wrote down the details of the call and Sokka got back to work. After awhile, she got bored and decided to watch Sokka again. She rested her chin on her hand and smiled, “Hey Sokka,”

“Hmm?” He hummed still focused.

Suki blushed, “You’re really cute when you’re working.”

“Thanks,” he said still focused

She got up and gave the side of his head a kiss, then his cheek, and then his lips. Sokka gave her that, ‘stop that’ look and she chuckled and sat back down.

“Suki, you’re making it so hard right focused right now!” He chuckled and flipped the page.

She twirled the quill in her hand and put her feet up on her desk, “Sorry you’re just so hardworking and I’m proud of you.”

Sokka blushed and turned back to his paperwork and whatnot, “Thanks.” After hour he glanced over at her and his heart stopped. “Suki you look so hot. Can I kiss you?”

She bursted out into laughter and got up as he did the same, “Hey before we make out, are you at least almost done with your work?”

“Yeah, I’m done,” he gripped her under her skirt and lifted her onto the desk. Suki chuckled and sealed the gap between them. Sokka pulled away and kissed her neck.

“Sokka.” She exhaled, “What if someone walks in.”

“My next meeting isn’t for ten minutes so,” he kissed down to her collarbone,”I think we can do it.”

“Hmmm,” Suki hummed. She pushed his face away and gave him a look, “Hmm well I don’t think you can do anything to me in ten minutes.”

“What? Yes I can!” He pouted.

Suki chuckled and hopped off the desk and went down on her knees, “No babe. Ten minutes won’t do me any good and you know that but,” she played with the zipper of his pants and looked up at his face which was tense, wide eyed, and red faced, “I could maybe finish you in ten minutes?”

Sokka nodded quickly, “Yes. Yes please do that.”

Suki chuckled and undid his pants and belt. She gently poked him and he jerked, “Wow, councilman, you’re rock solid.”

Suki kissed him through his briefs and he swallowed the lump in his throat, “Suki,” he exhaled.

Suki chuckled and pulled his briefs down and took him into her hands to stroked him and looked up at him, “You like?” She giggled and kissed the top and swirled her tongue around him and pulled off with a gentle pop.

Sokka groaned brought his hand to hair and massaged it, “Gah, yes Suki. Good. Like that.” He stuttered.

Suki moaned and licked a long stripe from his bass to the top and went down on him.

“Nngh! Fuck Suki!” He groaned out, whisper yelling because the walls in city hall weren’t that thick.

Suki moaned and continued as he rubbed her hair.

She pulled off of him for a brief moment to catch her breath, “Does,” she cleared her throat, “Sorry, it’s bigger than I remember.”

Sokka caressed her face and his face turned an embarassing shade of red, “Spirits, you’re unreal.”

Suki smirked and put him back into her mouth and hallowed her cheeks. She ran her hands up his thigh, leaving a burning sensation of pleasure where she touched.

Sokka gently pulled her in further and groaned, “Gah, Suki!” And moaned, “I’m close baby-“

KNOCK KNOCK!

Suki pulled off of him, “Shit.” She muttered. Suki pulled his briefs up and he flinched, still sensitive and shocked, and pulled his pants up and did them.

“Yes?!” Sokka called our still breathless.

“Meeting in five Councilmen Sokka.”

“Got it!” Suki chuckled and stood up to pat his shoulder, “You are something else Suki.” He kissed her cheek and blushed, “Can you see it still?”

She shrugged, “Just a little.” She smiled, “Does my mouth look okay?”

Sokka licked his thumb and wiped below her bottom lip, “You had some lipstick smudging but you should be good.”

Suki grabbed her clipboard and looped her arm in his, “Alright, let’s go Councilman.”

———

“In conclusion we will partially defund our city police since we have already implemented crime prevention programs and rehabilitation centers to prevent crime and we will reallocate those funds to fund education to make better citizens of the world. We will also strike an investment with Future Industries in exchange for advertisement of their company which we can do. Thank you.” Sokka sat down the the meeting clapped at his idea.

Suki rested her hand on his knee and smiled, “Amazing job babe.”

Sokka smiled at her and turned back to the meeting orator, “Okay everyone. That concludes our meeting today. Thank you!”

All the council people bowed their heads and got up to leave.

“Councilman Sokka!”

Sokka turned, “Oh! Hey Councilwoman Hisoka! How’s your day going!”

Hisoka gave him a side hug and smiled and Suki crossed her arms awkwardly, “Great! Good idea at the meeting Councilman Sokka!”

Sokka chuckled and she let go, “Actually, it was this awesome lady’s idea.”

Hisoka looked at Suki and asked, “Did you get a new secretary?”

Suki shook her head and offered her hand for a handshake, “Nope, I’m Councilman Sokka’s girlfriend nice to meet you.” Suki forced a smile and shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Hisoka. Sokka’s like my best buddy here at work! Great guy!” She smiled, “You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend?”

“He has children too. Two girls.”

Hisoka gasped, “Really? You gotta bring them on bring your kids to work day!”

Sokka felt the tension and put his arm around Suki, “Yeah, this my girlfriend, Suki, and we’ve been together for ten years? I think so? Yeah.”

“Cute.” Hisoka said with that weird smile of hers, “Well I’m going to go back to my office to finish up some paperwork. Catch ya later! And nice to meet you Suki” and then she was gone.

Sokka and Suki made their way back to his office and Sokka noticed her expression, “Babe.”

“Yes?” She said in an annoyed tone.

“I know what you’re thinking. Me and Hisoka are just friends.”

Suki sat down at her desk and rested her chin on her hand, “Hmmm she was awfully excited to see you and give you a hug.”

Sokka sat down and chuckled, “You are so cute Suki,” he poked her cheek and smiled, “Don’t worry. I only got eyes for you.”

Suki pursed her lip and blew a stray hair out of her face, “Okay fine. I trust you.” She turned her annoyed expression to him, “BUT if that girl tries to flirt with you again-“

Sokka laughed and looked at her sweetly, “You’ll kick her ass. I know. Calm down you fire ferret!” Sokka leaned his face close to hers and smiled, “ You won because you’re the one who stole my heart,” and pinched her cheek playfully, “Okay?”

Suki looked at the desk and pouted for a second then returned her eyes to him, “Okayyyyyy.”

Sokka rolled his chair over to her and gave her a kiss, “I love you. Okay?”

Suki tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and smiled, “Okay.” Then she got an idea, “But how do I know that your secretary isn’t as pretty as me Sokka?”

“What? Since when do you get jealous?” Sokka saw what she was doing and he liked it.

Suki sighed and pushed her chair to roll it to the nearby wall, “How do I know that she’s not flirting with you? I mean every girl and some of the boys on this council seem to have heart eyes for you. So how do I know that you can resist them. I mean they are all pretty people.”

Sokka got up and chuckled, “Babe,” he got down on his knees to be at her level, “Only you.” Sokka rubbed her knees and she sighed

“Hmm...prove it.” Suki smirked and Sokka’s eyes widened.

“Right now?” He whispered loudly.

“If you want.” She teased tussling his hair.

“Well...I’ve always imagined fucking my secretary on a desk at work.” He teased, as a joke of course and Suki knew that.

“Ah Ha! So you do think your secretary is pretty?!”

Sokka laughed and slid his hands under her skirt to lift her off the chair and onto his desk, “Yeah, my secretary is really pretty,” Sokka winked and kissed her cheek, “She’s got a great smile, a beautiful body no matter what, clever fingers, a smart mind, pretty eyes, dark auburn hair, and a golden heart.” Sokka leaned into kiss her and Suki smiled out of the kiss, “And she’s from Kyoshi Island and was the incredible leader of the Kyoshi Warriors.”

Suki chuckled and brought her arms around his neck to pull him in, “Hmm I think I know her.”

“You think so?” Sokka chuckled and sealed her lips with a kiss and Suki leaned down with her back flat on the desk and Sokka hovering over her.

Sokka trailed his hands down her side and tickled it slightly causing Suki to pull away and giggle breathlessly, “S-Sokka,” She squirmed as he attacked her neck, “W-what if,SOK-,” she giggled and nudged his head, “What if we get caught?”

Sokka pulled out of her neck and tapped her nose with his finger, “That’s why I locked the door, silly.”

Suki raised her eyebrow, “Oh, so you were planning this?” She smiled and he leaned down to kiss her again.

“I got the idea while you were reading with your feet up on the desk,” he squeezed her hip and smiled, “So what do ya say, Secretary Suki?”

“Well don’t just stand there!”

Sokka chuckled and started to take her skirt off when the doorknob rattled.

KNOCK KNOCK!

Sokka groaned and Suki chuckled, “Yes?” He replied in a frustrated tone.

Suki got up and sat back down at her desk, “Councilman Sokka! There’s an emergency meeting in regards to the bender and no bender conflict in ten minutes. We will eat lunch during the meeting.”

“Okay!” Sokka frowned and Suki chuckled.

“Aww, no lunch date?” She teased while getting up to write the meeting down on the schedule.

Sokka slumped back into his chair, “And no making love on the office desk to my girlfriend!” He whined.

Suki snorted and glanced up at him, “Maybe when we get home.” She smiled and returned to organizing the notes from the last meeting.

Sokka looked at her wide-eyed, “Really?!”

“Yeah,” Suki said nonchalantly, “Just make sure to bring me on that lunch date sometime soon. I was actually looking forward to that!”

——-

#sukka #sokka #suki #avatar the last airbender #sukkafanfiction

[country-club]

Games #3

#1 / #2

*gif not mine* Warnings: mentions of puke and embarassment Wordcount: 1.959

> Remember Rafe owing you a tour?

Yesterday you hung out with Sarah and her friends. It was fun, though you were left with a headache. Thanks to JJ. The day went by rather quickly and around 8pm you called your friends to play a game of skribbl, an online drawing game. They updated you on what’s going on at home and your ‘ex’. Were you technically dating? You can’t say for sure. But it felt like you did. He quit talking to you a week before you left. In return, you told your friends about your newly made friends and Rafe. Do you like him? It’s too early to say. Is he cute? Yes. Picture? Haven’t got one. How old is he? He looks 18/19. Does he have any cute friends? Well, there’s Topper.

“Oooh, I can be his bottom!” One of your friends cheered.

“I’ll let him know, hon.” You replied.

“Yall I’m beating your asses. Do you want to play or talk about y/n’s boyhunt?” One of the guys asks. You finished the game and continued talking. One of your friends sent you a link over chat.

“Is this him, y/n?” She asks. You clicked it and found Rafe’s Instagram page. It only had a few pictures, the latest being one of him, Topper and another boy, tagged as Kelce.

“Yep, that’s him.” You scrolled through his pictures. Sarah had commented on one of his pictures. You tapped her name and looked through her feed as well. Not much here either. What about the other Pogues? Kiara was the only one you could find. The boys probably didn’t care much about social media. Kiara had some photos of baby turtles on the beach, a few of her looking stunning in every outfit she wore and 2 pictures with the boys. You sent the pictures to your friends.

“Ok, so Kiara is the girl, the boy on her left is John B, the one behind her is Pope and the blonde one is JJ.”

“Y/n, you have been blessed, you know that?”

“Are all the boys in Outer Banks this attractive?” Your friends asked. You nodded.

“Most of them are.”

“So, will you leave any for us?”

“I think John B and Sarah are dating, and Pope looked like he has a thing for Kiara. But I’ll introduce you for sure.”

“What’s JJ short for?”

“Yeah, and why is it John B? How many John’s can there be on an island?” You weren’t sure. You discussed possible names and theories. It was about 11pm when you said goodbye and hung up.

You walked downstairs to stretch your legs, debating whether or not you should go for a walk. Hmm, yes. You grabbed a hoodie, put on some sneakers and out you went. Putting on some music and shuffling through your playlist. The sky was clear, and you could see the moon and stars above you. Your guilty pleasure started playing and you almost bumped into a lamppost, trying not to make dance moves whilst walking. You walked past Sarah’s house and got caught in the headlights of a car on their driveway. You almost had a heart attack. Taking out the earpiece your shyly waved at whoever was inside. They turned the lights off. You saw a tall figure getting out of the car. Rafe.

“Hey, y/n. What are you doing out?”

“Hey, Rafe. What are you doing alone inside your car, on the driveway, at 11:30 at night?”

“I asked you first.” He said playfully.

“Just taking a walk.”

“I was about to head over to Kelce.” Kelce was the guy from his Instagram picture.

“Was?” Rafe laughed. You walked closer to him, so you could actually see his face and stop talking loudly outside.

“Didn’t think I would run into you.” What did he mean by that? Is he not going to go to Kelce because of you or does he-. Your thoughts were interrupted by Rafe’s voice. He must have noticed your confusion. “I believe I promised you a tour.” It took you a second to realize what he was talking about. You had asked him to show you around Outer Banks yesterday.

“Right, you owed me one.” Rafe nodded to his car and opened the door for you. You got in and pulled the door close. Rafe got in behind the wheel. He looked extremely good tonight. His hair wasn’t as slicked back as usual. It made him look softer. It wasn’t hot at all outside, yet he was still wearing shorts. What is it with boys and shorts even though it’s cold?

The two of you drove around Figure 8 for a while and continued on The Cut. Rafe didn’t talk much, so it was up to you. “Do you want to play 20 questions?” Rafe looked over to you.

“Only if we can take turns.” He said. Alright now you just had to think of a question. You still wanted to know what happened two nights ago. Who he had fought and why. It’s too forward.

“What was your favorite dinosaur as a child?” Rafe didn’t have to think about it.

“Triceratops.” He said.

“Still is, am I right?” You didn’t really ask. They are simply the best. Rafe took his time to come up with a question.

“Alright, if you could find out how you were going to die, would you want to know?” Well goodbye dinosaur talk.

“I don’t think I would. No matter how much I hate surprises, I’d rather not be scared of cars or bathrooms for the rest of my life, you know?”

“Why would you be scared of bathrooms?”

“I don’t know I once read that a ton of people have died in bathrooms. It’s where a lot of accidents happen you know.” He looked at you, a bit confused, amused and impressed.

“If you could go back in time to change something, what would it be?” Rafe sighed.

“Not using my dad’s money to buy a bike.” You wanted to ask more questions, but he wouldn’t let you. “I don’t want to talk about that.” Rafe added. He stopped the car. “Can I show the around the boneyard?” This is starting to sound like The Lion King. Elephant graveyard? You opened the car door and got outside, as did Rafe. Rafe locked the car and led you to the beach. There were tree trucks and branches around the beach. It does kind of look like a boneyard.

“What do you think is the ugliest animal in the world?” Rafe asked. Right 20 questions. Truth or dare, without the dare part. You had to think for a minute. What is the ugliest animal?

“Those birds from the Jungle Book. They scream so loud.”

“Vultures?” Yep those, you nodded. You were walking on the boneyard and couldn’t see much. You tried to be careful enough to not trip and make yourself look like a fool. The stars were still very pretty. You could see the Little Bear, it kind of looks like a saucepan. And there you go. Your foot got stuck on a tree branch. However, before you could hit the ground you could feel two arms holding you up. You stood up straight again.

“You alright?” He asked. To which you nodded.

“Yeah, just got distracted for a second. Can we sit down for a minute?” You asked. Rafe dusted away some sand off a trunk and sat down. You sat down next to him. “What is something you wish you were better at?”

Rafe looked up at the night sky. “Making my dad proud.” Why wouldn’t Ward be proud of him? “I just feel like sometimes I can’t do anything right, you know?” You nodded. Was this his soft spot, his dad? You didn’t ask any further questions, seeing as you barely knew him and the subject sounds personal. You looked up again as well. Seeing his face turning your way in the corner of your eye. You could feel his eyes on you. The moonlight was bright enough for him to see your features.

“Is there any memory you would like to erase from your mind?” You couldn’t help but laugh nervously and feel embarrassed already. “What’s so funny?” You looked at him and your eyes met. His blonde hair was getting slightly pushed around by the wind.

“What I’m about to tell you. Promise to keep it between us?” He promised. “Okay, so before moving to Outer Banks I had a boyfriend situation going on. And we were at my place after a party, where he had maybe a drink or two too many.” You sighed, feeling the redness on your face appear. “And we were about to..you know. But he couldn’t, because of the alcohol and then he threw up in my bed.” Rafe tried his best not to burst out in laughter, instead he put an arm around you. “He left after that. So, there I was, cleaning my barf-covered bed and desperately spraying deodorant through my room. We haven’t talked since and I’m not counting on it anymore either.” Rafe started rubbing your back.

“That really sucks man, I’m sorry that happened.” Did he just call you ‘man’? “It wasn’t supposed to be your first time, right?” You must look like a tomato right now.

“I believe it is my turn.” You switched the conversation. “What was your first crush like?” When the word left your mouth you felt like a 12 year old again. Rafe blew out some air.

“I think it was the babysitter we had as kids. She was really sweet and artsy, and stuff. Also really pretty, like you.” You couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, I invited her into my pillow fort to eat Cheez-its with me.”

“And?”

“She friendly declined my offer.” You burst out in laughing. “Hey, I didn’t laugh at your story.” He angrily joked, punching your arm.

“Mine was worse.”

“True.”

You softly punched him back. “Hey!” Rafe fake moaned, pretending you had hurt him.

“Aw, I’m sorry. Kiss to make it better?” Rafe pouted and nodded to you. As you were debating whether or not to kiss his arm, your phone started vibrating. It was your stepdad. “Shit.” It was already 12:30. He must’ve realized you weren’t home and you didn’t leave a note.

“What’s up?”

“It’s my stepdad, I really have to go home like right now.” You mumbled as you got up and started heading to the car.

“You gonna get into trouble?” He sounded the tiniest bit worried. Maybe you would. You had been staying out late the past three days and didn’t pick up the phone when your stepdad called. As Rafe pulled up a couple of houses before yours, you thanked him and got out. “I should walk with you, so your dad knows you weren’t out alone.” That somehow makes sense. He got out of the car as well and you speed walked to the front door. You unlocked it and walked inside. As if shot for a horror movie, your stepdad put on the living room lights.

“Y/n? Where have you been and why didn’t you answer my calls?”

“Steve, I’m sorry if I made you worry. I was taking a walk and bumped into Rafe, Ward Cameron’s son-“

“I remember who Rafe is. So, he just left you to walk home on your own? Do you know what time-”

This time it was Rafe who cut your stepfather short. He had waited outside and stepped in. “I would never let y/n walk alone, sir.” Your stepdad nodded.

“Bedtime, y/n. Goodnight Rafe.”

“Goodnight.” You gave Rafe a hug, to which he wrapped his arms around your middle.

“Goodnight, y/n.”

You walked up the stairs and called it a day.

#4

~Taglist~

@emmalvei-blog​

#rafe cameron #drew starkey #obx #outerbanks #imagine

[moon-yean]

could u elaborate what was so bad about the barbarians? i saw the show and thought it was ok but i don't have enough knowledge to know what are the ideological implications of it? sorry, just really curious and wanna learn more

*takes a deep breath* oh boy, where to even begin? Thanks for your question as I might finally get this off my chest! Okay, fair’s fair, anyone who likes the show should look away now because I’m not going to mince words. And I want to reiterate that there were things about the show that I liked, mostly on a superficial aesthetical level. Generally you could tell from the get-go though that the writers are hacks who know nothing about history or good storytelling for that matter. I could’ve dealt with a show that was historically inaccurate if only the character drama had been written well. I might also have enjoyed the show more if the character drama had been mediocre but if there had been a sense of historical authenticity (not accuracy, mind; but still something tangibly more substantial than the patina they tried to throw onto their frankly embarrassingly lowbrow attempt by having parts of the dialogue translated into Latin by an expert and by hiring a good crew for the costume and props design - of the Romans at least... putting lipstick on a pig and all that, although pigs are great and the writing here is not).

Since you asked about the ideological implications specifically, I’ll start with that and work my way towards other criticisms (this is going to be LONG):

19th century nationalism: The story of Arminius and his merry band of brothers who defy the big bad Roman empire is a narrative that became especially popular in Germany in the 18th and 19th century, both with liberal patriotic movements that were advocating for the unification of the “German cultural nation” in a modern nation state (spurred by the Wars of Liberation against Napoléon Bonaparte and French occupation) and later with the völkisch movements where that nationalism segued into the pseudo-scientific racial ‘theories’ of a ‘superior German race’ which in turn was part of the ideological foundation of the genocides and atrocities committed by Germany in the 20th century (not only in WWII, see also the colonial genocide of the Herero in 1904). We cannot disentangle this predominantly racist reception history that re-invented Arminius (”Hermann der Cherusker” - “Hermann the Cheruscan” - or, indeed “Hermann the German” ha!) as the founding myth of a German people from the way this story has been depicted in media, entertainment and culture and, as evidenced by Barbarians, continues to be to this day.

Barbarians pays lip service to the fact that actually there was no German people at the time by having the tribes meet at the Ting in the first episode and have someone outright state it. These kinds of tidbits literally voiced by characters give off a strong whiff of the authors googling something, reading something on Wikipedia, and then putting it in there. I’m sorry (actually not sorry) to come down harsh on this but given what we’re talking about here, that’s just not good enough. It’s an embarrassing level of “writing”. The authors clearly have NO idea what they’re talking about or what they’re dealing with because despite their lip services, they actively reproduce the harmful narratives that were spun around this actual historical event and these actual historical figures in the 19th century. No effort was made to depict anything complex or realistic here. Case in point: Even though there’s a pretense that the tribes aren’t part of the same people, they don’t look much different from each other, they all speak the same kind of modern high German that sounds like they’re at a costume party in the year of our lord 2020 (and in the case of Folkwin, drugged out of their mind; he sounds like a guy who’d throw beer cans at passersby). They come across as basically just being separated by the few acres between their villages. And then when the big bad evil Roman empire wants to squash their resistance (Asterix did it better change my mind challenge), freedom fighter Arminius rallies them together with a heroic speech and they charge at the Romans RAAHWWHR! ... no, just no.

There would have been SO MANY ways to reframe and retell this story in a fresh, new, and exciting way that would have made for amazing character drama. The premise is so good. If we were to look at the basics of what is known, there are so many personal AND political complexities in there that just beg to be coloured in with a little imagination. I just... I don’t even know where to begin to fix the choices that the show did go with since most of them don’t make any sense, don’t contribute anything to the narrative and are just. there. Have y’all noticed that there is ZERO dramatic tension in any of the scenes? Like, what? How?? Culture clash, divided loyalties, identity issues, the way that a militaristic upbringing might warp the mind, feelings of home and belonging and displacement, the return of the lost son, the betrayal of a high-ranking officer, just, there are so many themes that the show could have focused on but it botches all of them, nothing of it feels real, earned, or logical. Characters behave in idiotic ways for the sake of the plot (I wanted to like Thusnelda, I really did, I’m always here for female characters but she was so painfully obviously written by 3 dudes who thought that feminism = praying to the good sisters of the forest and slashing your face aöldksfaökdjf plus the actress could not sell any of it, she sounded ridic).

I’m exhausted just thinking about the many ways in which the writing on the show sucked. Impaired character used as a symbol~ for other characters instead of being a character on his own? Check. Weird mystical shit? Check. Earthbound tribal people who are one with nature? Check. Death on the cross to get that Christian imagery in there? Check. Lack of female characters except feisty!badass!Thusnelda, scheming!conniving!pulling-the-strings!wife, weird!mystical!seer? Check. Varus doing a Herod by demanding first-borns to up the Christian persecuted ante? Check. (All he was missing was the mustache to twirl. Was he even a character? He looked vaguely concerned and sceptical. That was his character.)

Look, the actor Arminius was great but even he couldn’t make sense of any of it. The character work was so shoddy, it was shocking. One minute he’s still all-in with the Romans, ordering lashes for “German” mercenaries without being very conflicted about it, reminiscing with fellow Roman soldiers about the good old times in some fireside bonding, asking his foster father to go home to Rome, and then when bad!dad is like “lol no” (surely they would have had that convo before??? surely Arminius would have known how far his career could go???), Arminius turns around and goes “let’s kill 3 Roman legions!! I’M MAD!!” ... lmao dude, just...

Another favourite of mine: The romance between Thusnelda and Folkwin is supposed to be illicit and against her social status. Does anyone even notice? Does anybody even care? Why did the writers come up with Folkwin in the first place? (His name Folkwin Wolfspeer is a hoot and an embarassment in itself. I wonder whether they used some kind of Germanic name generator. They certainly did use a generic speech generator for the battle speech Arminius gives in the last episode lol)

Back to the topic of a lack of tension. Of course there can’t be any tension if the characters suck. But it’s also because of the design of the scenes and plot points. The cliffhangers are so telegraphed and artificially constructed, it’s almost hilarious. My “favourite” has got to be the one of the first episode: The “hi dad” one. Not only does Arminius go to the village with other Romans in tow who then disappear because nothing in this show makes sense but this kind of revelation also goes against everything we know about good storytelling. There’s a famous quote by Hitchcock and I’ll quote it in full because I think it absolutely applies here (and it is valid for character tension as much as it is for suspense):

There is a distinct difference between "suspense" and "surprise," and yet many pictures continually confuse the two. I'll explain what I mean.

We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let's suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, "Boom!" There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: "You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!"

In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.

I hope you can see what I mean here. Barbarians continuously springs surprises on its audience but it has absolutely no tension/suspense in any of its scenes. The only time where the show even comes close to having any kind of genuinely dramatic moment is the conversation between Arminius and Varus where Arminius tries to hide his hurt and disappointment, and all the emotion in that scene is completely due to the actor since the dialogue is fairly idiotic for what is supposed to be the turning moment. Let’s go back to the basics and imagine what the show could have done differently, even allowing for the way in which the writers wanted to tell it (which, as I mentioned, is not appropriately sensitized to the misappropriation of the material in the past - but even if we go with THAT kind of freedom fighter / lost child narrative, it ought to be done well). And here now follows my actual essay of grievances:

The premise of the story, in as much as we know from history, is amazing: An officer of the Roman army, delivered to the Romans by his tribe as a child, returns to the "country" of his birth as part of the invading Roman army which oppresses the natives of the lands. He switches sides, unites different tribes and leads them to a decisive victory against the Roman army in a battle in a forest that lasted for several days and was cleverly planned by the "Germans" who end up outsmarting the Romans who are victims of ambush and the terrain, being split up and stumbling through the forest exhausted and without finding a way back to the other troops (love that the show as we have it managed to squeeze in the cliché "two armies standing on opposing sides decide to just start running towards each other, epic clash, chaos" (which is militarily so fucking stupid and nobody ever did that)).

Anyway, that premise is amazing. You could do so much with it. And if you wanted to make a miniseries about it, the biggest question would surely be: Why did Arminius switch sides? That’s the key plot point. And themes of otherness, oppression, exploitation, identity, and so on, would be a good fit. The first problem with the miniseries is that it has nothing to say about any of that. Arminius doesn’t even feel like the main character (aside from his actor being a cut above the rest). We don’t get to see much of his POV. We don’t get many meaningful conversations between him and Varus (actually just one after which he has a total character transplant). Instead, we get to spend lots of time with characters that don’t add anything in particular to the central plot nor to any of the central themes. Literally, why? 6 episodes is already pretty fucking short to make Arminius’ turn believable, so you’d better spend most of them on him. This is not material for an ensemble show (nevermind that the other characters suck and are not well-acted and written to behave stupidly... that’s just ON TOP of the fundamental issue of this show lacking a POV).

Like, you can turn this into a big Hollywood action movie about the battle or you make it a character drama where the battle is also told from a character perspective (i.e. focusing on the mounting fear and desperation of the soldiers as the battle drags on for days etc but more importantly focusing on why the battle takes place and why it’s important to both the Romans and the “Germans”). As it is, in the show, we don’t get any idea why the Romans are even there in the first place and pestering the people by demanding some tributes. And we don’t get any idea why the Germanic tribes are so opposed to this or why others of them might not be. We don’t get any of the broader political implications, we just get some eagle-stealing pranks (defiance!! cool, just agitate them in a completely stupid and arbitrary way, why don’t you) and a few people executed because the “Germans” were being stupid. That’s not the scale that’s needed here. And I don’t mean that we needed to see mass executions. In fact, I would have preferred if there had been no such hackneyed and emotionally manipulative device.

Arminius is basically absent for all the early encounters of the Romans with the “Germans”. So while we suspect that the mistreatment of the “Germans” at the hands of the Romans would be a strong motivational factor for him, we don’t actually see him witness any of few hints in that direction that we get, so it doesn’t actually matter for his character arc. I have so many issues with how his arc is written. In the first episodes, we don’t get any sense that he’s not a happy Roman. When a “Barbarian” mercenary ridicules Rome, he has him whipped and we don’t get much of a sense that he’s very conflicted about it. Even just moments before he ends up destroying his effigies of Roman gods, we see him trying to get Varus to send him back to Rome. Earlier in the same episode, he prays to those Roman gods. I’m sorry but wtf? How the turntables... If you want to make it believable that he would turn on Rome, why not start with him already being frustrated with the way that things in Rome work? With the way the army is run? And why not give him a careerist streak and make him frustrated that he can’t advance much further because of his lowly birth and background? And instead of Varus being an asshole to him about it (he’s supposed to be his foster father, surely Arminius would already know how Varus thinks about his people and surely he’d already know how far he can climb up the ranks), have Varus be sympathetic but basically like “sorry, there’s nothing I can do.”

Arminius betraying Rome shouldn’t be about Varus saying something mean~, if anything a personal connection of his with Varus should just make the betrayal harder and be something that he does despite the fact that there are Romans he cares about. If you start out the show with him already having significant doubts about his place in the Roman army and identity issues, you just need to add something to it that will finally breaks the camel’s back. Have him become increasingly agitated by the way the "Germans” are treated by the Romans. Start the show with him making to leave Rome, someone asking him whether he’s excited to return to his place of birth and him joking about it but obviously being conflicted and then overwhelmed when he actually gets there because it totally destroys his sense of self which he has built for himself (and for which we would have needed to see the contrast, even if just for one scene, of how he is treated in Rome – perhaps snobbed by others, not treated equally in some sort of social setting, could be something subtle – to show us and him that as much as he wishes, he is not and will never be accepted as a Roman).

And then when he gets to the provinces, we need to see that from his perspective. What’s his reaction to arriving there? To seeing the familiar landscapes? (Or maybe he was taken as a younger child and doesn’t actually have that many memories of it but feels a sense of belonging anyway.) There are so many scenes in this show that seem to hint at these things but they are completely random and unfocused and interspersed with the stupid village people shenanigans. Varus talks about burning down villages in retribution. Well, why don’t we see any of that? (Nevermind that it’s comic book villain level of evil, but I’m working with a fix here and not a total rewrite as would be better.) Surely it can’t be too expensive to burn down a few huts in the night. And having Arminius ride along / witness it but not say anything even though we can see these things having an effect on him. As mentioned: The worst offense is the scene when he rides to the village (with other Romans in tow!) and announces “hi dad!” just to have that cliffhanger. Wtf?

Characters doling out information that the viewer doesn’t have is the absolute worst way of telling a story and maintaining tension. It should be the other way around. How about instead you have him be part of a Roman delegation that rides into the village and demands [random, whatever, the fucking eagle if you must keep that shit] and when the Reik (whom the audience already knows to be Arminius’ father) doesn’t want to give it (because he’s not actually a weak fucking clown as almost everyone in the actual show is aside from feisty Thusnelda who’s a fierce~ fucking clown rmfe), the Romans begin beating the dad or whipping him or whatever, completely humiliating him and his people, and we see Arminius on his horse watching the show with growing unrest until the realization really hits him that this is his father (cue flashback to a very young Arminius being dragged away) and the tension keeps ratcheting until he shouts in German “that’s enough” before correcting himself to give the same command in Latin (maybe he still thinks in German, would be an interesting idea) and the Romans look at him with suspicion, like wtf was that, and the "Germans” are like, why tf does this Roman officer speak German, and it’s super awkward and shit and maybe Varus is also there and he looks at Arminius like, oh shit I need to protect my boy he’s actually all up in his feels about these wildlings let’s go back to the camp and have a talk, and so the Romans end up leaving and the “Germans” are like “wait, was that... could it have been.. remember lil Ari who you gave up... but it couldn’t be...” and meanwhile the beaten dad doesn’t want to hear any of that because he actually has never dared hope he would see his son again and also he kind of doesn’t want to see him again because he would be too ashamed to meet his eyes.

And then later we see Arminius pacing up and down in his tent because this won’t let him go, even after he had a talk with Varus, and after some agonizing he steals away in the night to go confront his father (if you want to keep that German mercenary noticing shit, have him notice that). And then we see the father in his hut and everything is quiet and we are waiting for Arminius to show up because we know he’s on his way. But we don’t know whether he wants to talk to his father or just kill him in revenge for the trauma he’s caused him. You’d show the dad and if it were a good actor, you could see so much in his unrest, maybe despite not wanting to think that that guy could be his son, he kind of knows in his heart that it must be and he’s unsettled and whatnot and then we hear someone outside the door and the door opens and there stands Arminius in a cloak and there’s none of that ridiculous music that wants to scream “epic” but falls way short. Have it be quiet. Have Arminius enter and pull back the hood and they just look at each other. And the dad looks like he wants to hug him but he doesn’t move. And Arminius looks like he wants to murder him but he actually moves to sit down, all the while they keep an eye on each other because who knows, they might actually end up murdering each other. That’s the kind of confrontation you need with a reunion like this jfc. And then they talk and it’s an important scene and I’m not going to write it all out but I hope y’all know what I mean.

I feel like you’d have to rewrite this whole show to actually give the character drama the weight that it needs and deserves because what’s happening in the show is dramatic af but you wouldn’t know because it’s so unbelievably stupidly written. I CANNOT believe that when Arminius is back in the village, he’s standing around with Thusnelda and Folkwin in a field as if they’re catching up at a high school reunion. “So, how’s it been?” “My name is now Arminius lol” “You’re kidding lol” ... uhm hello ??? Is this show a meme or...???

Actually as a last thought, I would have kept Arminius’ mother alive and killed his dad. His dad is irredeemable. He gave him away. But if we assume that he never had a substitute mother, then meeting his mother again (who was against giving him away) would make for much more interesting scenes and would also have a much stronger impact on Arminius. I’ll stop now but I just wanted to note how much I hate the writing on this show and everything it chooses to be. Thanks.

#anonymous #ask #reply #barbarians spoilers #barbarians meta #tv: barbarians #txt #i feel like there is so much more to say #actually the show would need to be rewritten from scratch to be either a good character drama or a good period drama or both #forget my fix here #you can't fix stupid #the whole motivation for arminius' betrayal would need to be revamped #with an eye towards the ways in which it has been misused #in history #but at the same time the story DOES need to be told from his POV imo and it's not here and that's the biggest issue #the conflict within the Roman army would have made for the most intriguing approach #and all that childhood sweetheart bs has to go #that was the worst #so soapy and plain bad #can you imagine how amazing it would've been for roman officer arminius to meet germanic princess thusnelda for the first time? #(if she had been written and acted well) #what could have been... #imma cry #(also WHY is varus the actual foster father of arminius instead of just a higher-ranking officer who takes him under his wing #when he joins up bc he takes a liking to the kid? just... aöldjsfaökdjls)

[sumrtm]

     *    hey   buds   ,   i’m   kuromi   !   comin’   straight   from   the   midwest   with   an   intro   written   way   below   the   influence   b/c   time   &   responsibility   is   not   real   at   this   point   so   why   not   let   the   blunts   smoke   me      ?   i’ll   be   playing   summer  ,   who   i   affectionately   named   after   my   favorite   singer      &   favorite   movie   character   ,   but   failed   to   incorporate   any   of   their   traits   while   she   was   coming   to   be   .   i   thought   it’d   be   fun   to   bring   her   in   as   a   new   student   since   she’s   taken   on   a   new   persona   over   the   summer   to   cope   with   the   trauma   of   her   parents’   divorce   ,   so   she’s   an   incoming   junior   !   she’s   still   a   work   in   progress   but   below   the   cut   ,   i’ve   done   my   best   to   sum   her   up   for   ‘ya   !   

     *    summer   verona   ,   welcome   to   dillon   university   .   has   anyone   ever   told   you   you’re   kendall   jenner’s   twin   ?   no   ?   well   okay   ,   i   heard   you   are   twenty  -  one   &   a   junior   at   the   university   .   we   hope   music  theory  &  composition   isn’t   kicking   your   ass   too   much   ,   especially   since   you’re   a   base   on   the   cheer   team   .   see   you   at   the   next   game  ,   sum   &   cis   female   +   she / her   . 

     *     character   influence   ⤻   the   characters   i   shaped   her   personality   from   &   what   attributes   of   theirs   she   holds   .

     brooke   davis   &   haley   james   of   one   tree   hill   .

   two   huge   sources   of   inspo   entirely   .   from   brooke   ,   she   shares   the   shaky  family   life   due   to   her   parents’   divorce   after   30   years   after   her   father’s   infidelity   came   to   light   ,   as   well   as   the   cheerleader   trope   where   she   comes   off   as   the   cliche   sl*tty   ,   dumb   ,   &   'genki   girl’   cheerleader   who   has   actually   got   some   deeply   hidden   depths   .   much   like   haley   ,   she   has   an   embarassing   middle   name   (   it   isn’t   bob   ,   but   summer   bear   verona   is   almost   as   bad   .   .   the   plights   of   having   southern   parents   !   )   ,   is   very   sweet   natured   ,   &   extremely   astute   . 

     summer   finn   of   (500)   days   of   summer   .   

   summer   finn’s   influence   is   kind   of   contradictory   ,   but   so   is   sum   ,   so   it   oddly   makes   sense   to   me   .   sum’s   always   been   very   quixotic   &   enthralled   in   love   &   what   it   entails   ,   but   she’s   never   let   anyone   close   enough   to   actually   experience   it   herself   ,   even   if   the   opposite   person   was   in   love   with   her   .   she   loved   love   ,   but   there’s   always   been   a   fear   of   love   due   to   the   open   opportunity   for   rejection   ,   but   her   parents’   divorce   only   made   it   worse   ,   &   now   ,   she   doesn’t   believe   in   it   at   all   .   she   shares   summer’s   now   emotionless   girl   trope   ,   as   she’s   purposely   enigmatic   &   manic   pixie   dream   girl  -  like   after   her   parents’   crumbled   marriage   .  however   ,   it’s   not   actuality   ,   &   sum   can   be   overemotional   at   times   behind   closed   doors   .   with   her   relations   ,   sum   sends   a   lot   of   mixed   messages   &   will   say   she   wants   one   thing   but   act   as   though   she  wants   the   opposite   .   she   can   be   childish   in   that   sense   ,   but   ultimately   believes   she’s   protecting   herself   from   ending   up   broken   like   her   mother   .

      cassie   ainsworth   of   skins   .

   cassie’s   influence   serves   as   a   deeper   look   into   the   underbelly   of   summer   —   she’s   got   low   self   esteem   ,   suffers   from   major   depression   ,   &   anxiety   .   it’s   such   a   constrast   from   what   she   used   to   be   ,   however   ,   so   she   acts   the   opposite   of   how   she   feels   in   front   of   others   &   uses   alcohol   &   sex   to   keep   those   demons   from   coming   to   surface   .

     *     the   cheerleader   ⤻   summer   @   dillon   university   on   a   surface   level   .

   full   name   :   summer   bear   verona   .   the   younger   of   seven   &   the   verona’s   rainbow   baby   ,   sum   was   named   after   the   season   her   parents   got   married   in   ,   which   also   happened   to   be   their   favorite   season   .

   birthdate   :   2/20/99   .

   astrology   :   pisces   sun   ,   aries   moon   ,   sagittarius   rising   .

   birthplace   :   baton   rouge   ,   louisiana   ,   usa   .

   hometown   :   houston   ,   texas   ,   usa   .

   parents   :   walker   bear   verona   ,   celia   rae   verona   (   née   :   banks   )   .      

   religion   :   christian   .

   sexuality   :   recently   discovered   she’s   bisexual   after   a   summer   sling   with   another   girl   before   college   began   ,   but   aside   from   drunken   makeouts   for   insta   stories   @  weekend   ragers   ,   she’s   in   a   closet   bolted   from   the   inside   b/c   of   her   family’s   unfortunate   beliefs   .  

   love   language   :   physical   touch   ,   acts   of   service   .   she   is   very   action   oriented   as   she   thinks   words   mean   absolute   shit   while   also   choking   on   her   own   .  

   major   :   double   major   in   music   theory   &   composition   &   creative   writing   .

   cheer   team   affiliation   :   due   to   standing   at   a   majestic   5′10   ,   she’s   a   base   although   she   does   it   begrudgingly   .   her   mother   attended   dillon   &   was   a   cheerleader   herself   ,   but   she   also   met   her   father   while   he   played   on   the   football   team   ,   so   sum’s   relationship   with   it   as   a   whole   is   complicated   .   however   ,   she   loves   the   perks   that   come   with   being   a   cheerleader   ,   with   emphasis   on   the   attention   .

   hobbies   :   reading   ,   fitness   ,   songwriting   &   creative   writing   ,   music   composition   ,   &   singing   .   she   currently   uploads   self  -  composed   music   to   her   youtube   channel   using   only   garageband   .   her   “claim”   of   sorts   is   clairo   ,   &   she   uploads   very   often   .

        *     connections   ⤻   my   deepest   needs   to   fulfill   summer’s   social   life   .

   summer   fling   ,   f   .

   the   girl   summer   owes   her   sexual   awakening   to   in   terms   of   women   .   sum   was   back   &   forth   between   houston   ,   dillon   ,   &   lousiana   over   the   summer   with   her   parents   divorcing   ,   leaving   plenty   of   room   for   this   fling   to   occur   .   things   ended   sourly   on   summer’s   end   when   it   got   too   overwhelming   ,   &   she   ghosted   .   with   the   discovery   that   they   go   to   the   same   school   ,   summer   has   gone   out   of   her   way   to   avoid   them   ,   but   can’t   help   the   way   the   hairs   on   the   back   of   her   neck   stand   up   ,   the   rapid   beating   of   her   heart   ,   or   the   way   she   craves   them   whenever   she   sees   them   .

     mutual   crush   ,   m  /  nb  .

   someone   she’s   been   crushing   on   since   school   started   after   they   met   at   the   tail   end   of   summer   during   tryouts   .   they’re   partially   why   summer   fling   ended   ,   &   have   kissed   while   drunk   at   a   party   before   ,   but   it’s   not   gone   further   than   that   yet   !   this   is   definitely   a   slow  -  burn   type   of   relationship   .

     high   school   ex   ,   m   /   nb   .

   her   first   &   arguably   only   serious   r/s   .   this   person   must   be   a   texan   native   ,   or   at   the   very   least   ,   attended   high   school   in   texas   as   sum’s   from   houston   .   they   dated   their   senior   year   after   being   friends   throughout   high   school   ,   &   maintained   a   long   distance   r/s   in   their   freshman   &   sophomore   years   of   college   ,   though   it   ended   due   to  infidelity   .   we   can   discuss   the  culprit   !

     #quad   ,   f   /   nb   .

   three   girls   sum   isn’t   seen   without   who   call   themselves   the   “quad”   for   obvious   reasons   .   they’re   inseperable   &   travel   in   a   pack   at   almost   ALL   times   .   they’re   constantly   on   each   other’s   feeds   &   lives   ,   at   every   party   ,   every   event   ,   etc.   may   or   may   not  be   bad   influences   on   each   other   .

   *     these   are   just   a   few   ideas   ,   but   i’ll   also   reblog   wanted   connections   as  well   ,   &   i’d  love   to   fit   sum   into   w/e   you   have   in   mind   !

#friday:intro #trauma tw #anxiety tw #depression tw #i got this done in (1) go which is a RECORD for me but i'm so happy to be here with y'all so we had to do it ! #i genuinely can't tell if it's informative enough or not but we hungy for plots so i hope it is . #🥺 .