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that-crazy-five-foot-two-chick · 3 years

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I've been so excited to write for the Mystic Messenger Reverse Big Bang 2021 (go check out other amazing fics and art in the collection at @mysme-rbb), and it's the first fanfic/art event I've participated in! @madiebelleadventures and I teamed up to brainstorm this beast, so her art is at the very end (because I ain't spoilin nothin)!

Rating: T

Word Count: 5.1k

Summary: One day after the end of a work week, Vanderwood surprises MC with some husband-wife baking time—with a twist. Inspired by his agent training, he suggests that they bake as a team but have MC blindfolded. In order to make a cake that's actually edible, she must follow his directions to the letter. All that's left after that is chaos, banter, and spouse-flustering. And figuring out how to actually make a cake.

A/N: Fyi MC is definitely more of her own character than a reader-insert on this one. Also as per usual with me, I headcanon Vanderwood as British, so I tried heavily to align his phrasing accordingly, despite being an American myself. Enjoy seeing exactly how much fluff I can possibly cram into 5k words!

MC sighed happily at the feeling of the wind in her hair as she drove home from work one Friday evening. Windows down, jacket off, music blasting—the air itself felt like freedom. She had nothing against her job—in fact, she enjoyed it for the most part. She prided herself in a job well done, she liked being able to manage a team of her own, and the paycheck and benefits were good. Nothing extravagant, of course, but enough to comfortably support a couple newlyweds.

And that was the real reason MC nearly jumped out the door every day when everything wrapped up at the office. Who wouldn't, with a husband as unfairly hot as Vanderwood? Completely unfair how he could make leopard print and what was practically a mullet actually look attractive. Thank goodness his fashion sense had mellowed out over time, if only a little bit. With Vanderwood's past being what it was, they had mutually come to the conclusion that it would be best for their well-being if he stayed at their apartment during the day to keep the household running. He was very particular about how he cooked, cleaned, and did the laundry, and he handled their finances conscientiously and precisely. Admittedly, she did have to occasionally remind him that as sleek as that new top-of-the-line taser was, there was no real need for it, but that was just part of her husband's charm.

And boy, was he charming.

She truly couldn't wait to get home, past this rush hour traffic. She'd get home and be pulled in for a deep kiss moments after walking in the door. Maybe he'd slip a gentle but insistent hand into her hair. Maybe they'd take it a little further. Or a lot further.

"HOLY FUDGE NUGGETS ON BACON ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME???"

MC swerved to avoid a collision and waited for her heartbeat to settle down again. There was no freaking way she was going to die in some stupid car wreck before their date tonight. A surprise, he'd said. No matter how hard she'd tried to weasel more out of him, he wouldn’t bend. Darn agent training. Good thing it wouldn't be a surprise for much longer. Within minutes, the streets got smaller and quieter as she neared her apartment building. Another minute, and she flung open the apartment door and leapt on her husband.

MC's fantasies were soon replaced by an even better reality when Vanderwood's lips landed on hers. Kissing back enthusiastically, MC wrapped her arms around his middle so tight that a less sturdy man would be coughing for air. Vanderwood snatched her keys and purse and hung them by the doorway, never breaking his focus for a second. His kisses grew slower, but no less fervent, as he smoothed her wind-strewn hair. Eventually, their lips reluctantly parted, and MC broke the silence.

"How did I manage to snag the best kisser on earth on top of marrying the most insanely attractive man on earth?"

Vanderwood smirked. "Good taste, I guess." He kissed her once more soundly for good measure.

"Maybe. Will my insanely attractive husband tell me what our surprise date is now?"

"Perhaps."

"No perhapses! I've been dying waiting!"

"Very well. Start by changing your clothes, because I am not scrubbing stains out of your good work clothes."

"Do I otherwise have to wear anything in particular? That's not a lot to go off of."

"Doesn't matter to me. Now go change before I do the job myself."

"I wouldn't complain."

"This is not that kind of date! Go!"

"Fine, Sir Panties-in-a-bunch."

MC went to the bedroom and took stock of her clothing options. She had to choose something practical that could be easily washed, but she still wanted to look a little cute. After all, it was a date. It was a tough balance to strike. Eh, she could always stick an apron or an old shirt over it. She grabbed her oversized paint shirt just in case before snagging a light pink shirt. Now for the bottoms. She debated on a simple skirt, but decided to go for it. After all, if it didn't fit with Vanderwood's plans, he would tell her. MC changed quickly and weaved her hair into a side braid, slipping a tendril out on each side to frame her face. Mirror-MC nodded in approval. Time to see what on earth her husband had been planning.

She cracked open the door and peeked through before skipping over to Vanderwood, who had made himself comfortable on the couch. His amber eyes widened in interest.

"You have no business looking this pretty for a baking date."

MC grinned. "Ha! I did get it out of you! A baking date sounds cute. What made you think of that? Are you just really getting into the whole house husband gig?"

"It was my agent training, actually." Seeing the puzzled look on his wife's face, Vanderwood continued, "There's a bit of a twist to it, you see. I will hardly be doing any of the actual baking. You, my dear, on the other hand, will be completely blindfolded. You will have to follow my instructions explicitly, or else the result will be completely inedible."

"I still fail to see how the setup doesn't sound like 'that kind of date', but it sounds like fun! What does this have to do with your agent training, though?"

"Various exercises used similar techniques. Many times in the field, we had to follow orders to the letter with no questions asked if we wanted to make it out in one piece. We also did training to be able to operate blindly or in the dark if our vision was compromised. But none of it was as enjoyable as watching a beautiful woman bake a cake by pure trust."

"You're such a flatterer. Keep it coming," MC smirked.

"At least get into the kitchen first," Vanderwood said, handing her a blindfold that looked suspiciously like his nap mask.

"Okay, but if you don't want me in the kitchen until I'm blindfolded, you're gonna have to get my apron yourself."

"I thought I was the one giving out orders tonight?"

"A girl's gotta get her kicks somewhere."

"Such a docile wife I have. Never difficult, never demanding."

"You think it's sexy. Don't even try to deny it."

"I would have filed for immediate divorce if the description 'docile' actually fit you." He stepped into the kitchen and emerged a moment later with the apron. MC slipped it on and, after ducking briefly into the bathroom to wash her hands, covered her eyes with the blindfold.

"I'm at your mercy now. Don't abuse that privilege."

He materialized behind her, winding his arms around her waist. "I wouldn't dream of it," he murmured into her ear before attacking her stomach. MC burst into uncontrollable giggles.

"I swear—!" she giggled "—I swear I'm going to punch the living daylights out of you!"

"You're certainly welcome to try. You know I wouldn't even feel it."

"But I could try. How am I supposed to trust you to give me decent directions to bake whatever the heck we're making if I can't even trust you not to tickle me?"

"You don't. That's the thrill of it."

"You'd better have me make something actually edible for all our trouble."

"That all depends on how well you follow my instructions."

"And how decent your instructions are. Let's not forget that tiny detail," she reminded.

"Hmm, we'll see," The smile was evident in his voice. "Now if we're going to start, we need to go ahead and do it."

"Probably."

He guided MC by her upper arms into the narrow kitchen.

"Fortunately," he said, halting and holding her in place, "we're only baking a cake and not an entire meal, so it won't take an eternity."

"I sure hope not! It's pizza night and I'm already a little hungry!"

He wound his hands around his wife's waist, lightly patting her stomach. "Well, the faster we start, the faster we can eat. I've already laid everything out for you as best I can, so you just have to follow my directions, all right, love?"

"Got it."

"All right, can you feel the worktop?" A nod. "Raise your right hand just a bit...and over…now grab the box with the cake mix, because heaven knows neither of us knows or cares enough to make it from scratch. Got it? Now open it up. The mixing bowl is straight to the left. Go ahead and pour it in."

"Just so you know, if I spill anything, you're the one taking responsibility."

"And why is that, darling?" Vanderwood asked, feigning shock.

"Because you're the one who had this idea in the first place! Not to mention if I make a mess it’s because of your faulty directions."

Unfortunately, MC failed to prove her point, pouring the mix into the bowl and barely spilling a few crumbs.

"Looks like we may not have to worry about that," Vanderwood smirked.

"You have met me, right? You know something's going to get spilled, right?"

Ignoring her, he moved the empty box toward the back and continued, "The milk should be right around where the cake mix was, if you can remember where you just were. The measuring jug is right next to it. Do you think you can pour it in correctly?"

"We'll see, now won't we?"

"There you go. Just try to take it slowly, just in case, and stop when I say so."

MC obeyed, gradually tilting the milk jug until a thin stream hit the center of the measuring cup.

"Brilliant! Now careful, careful, slightly to the left...that's it! Now slow down...almost done...stop!" He kissed her cheek. "That was amazing. Now pour it into the bowl."

MC felt around for the mixing bowl again. She managed to find it and poured in the milk. "Where's the cap for the milk jug?"

"Hm...where did it go? Oh, there it is. Right by the sink."

She batted at the air around her right side to find the inside of the sink. Instead, her hand bumped the side of the milk jug. Vanderwood's hand shot out to catch it, but a small puddle had already sloshed onto the counter. MC's hand shot up to take off the blindfold, but Vanderwood caught her wrist first. She sighed.

"Vandy, give it to me straight. How bad is it?"

"Not bad at all. I caught it before much got out. Stay put for a moment while I wipe it up so it doesn't start to smell or dry up."

"Not to say I told you, but I definitely told you."

Her husband stuck out his tongue at her—one of the few ways he had begun to let himself be childish lately. Then the obvious dawned on him. "I'm sticking out my tongue. I thought you ought to know that."

"Crucial information. Are you done yet?"

"Yep. You ready to get your hands a little dirty?"

"Isn't that expected in all this?"

"That's probably a large part of why you demanded an apron first, yes."

"You would be right about that, also yes. And you're so dramatic. I did not demand."

"Up to interpretation. Reach up to the left of the mixing bowl and just grab it off the plate and toss it in."

As instructed, MC reached over and let out a tiny shriek when her hand came into contact with the soft butter. Vanderwood guffawed.

"I was waiting for that."

MC gasped. "You did this on purpose!" She flung the butter into the bowl with an extra dash of vindictiveness.

"Maybe so. I like hearing your reactions," he purred.

"Don't try to be all smooth when you're being a twit. It doesn't suit you," MC sniffed, then muttered under her breath, "actually it totally works for you but it doesn't make me less ticked at you."

"By the way, don't bother trying to wash your hands just yet. The next part is probably going to be the messiest. I'll go get the bin so it'll be close by for you."

"Appreciated. What's the next part?"

"Eggs."

"Yikes, okay. That's why I needed the trash can, then. And where are the eggs?"

"To your left. You're going to need four of them. I read somewhere that adding an extra egg makes it better, hypothetically."

"You're the one giving the instructions."

"Alright, the bin is to your left, whenever you're ready."

"I could hear the thunk when you set it down, but thank you," MC said wryly.

"I live to serve."

There was silence for a moment as MC cracked the first egg into the bowl, and a soft smile rose on her face like the dawn. "Not anymore, you don't. I thank God every day that you and Saeyoung were able to free yourselves from the agency. I never could have forgotten you even if you hadn't, but I never would have known the immense joy I've gotten to have by being your wife." She sniffed, then laughed. "Sorry for being so sentimental all of a sudden, I don't know what got into me. It's just that knowing how many things could have gotten between us makes me that much more grateful for what we have."

"Ah!" Vanderwood shot a hand out to correct the second egg's trajectory into the mixing bowl.

"Oops, thank you."

"No problem, love. We're a team." He settled against her back, rubbing her arms lightly and placing a tender kiss on her cheek. "And never feel sorry for your so-called sentimentality. In fact, I really think you hold back sometimes. You shouldn't. I know that I used to scoff at these things, but locking out your emotions for job after job really takes a toll on a man. The agency had no room for love of any sort, and I've long come to the realization that every person is hardwired to desire love of one kind or another. I know I'm still unlearning all of my coping mechanisms, and I know I'm still sharp with some people, but with you?" He smoothed a hair back from her face. "I'll take whatever love you can give me."

She cracked the third egg into the bowl and threw out the shell. "I always knew you could be a softie, very deep down. I'm just glad that I get to be the one to see it."

After the fourth egg was in the bowl, Vanderwood directed, "Okay, time to wash up. The next thing is mixing for two minutes. While I love you, I do not trust you to use an electric mixer while blindfolded, so you're going to use a whisk for that job."

"I suppose that's fair. Can you put away the trash can while I wash my hands?"

"Already on it."

"Where's the whisk, again?"

"I kind of put it toward the back, so either be careful or wait for me to move a few things."

"Oh, I've got it. Don't worry," MC waved a hand in dismissal and groped around for the whisk, but her arm was a bit too low, and she dipped her clothed elbow in the plate where the butter had been. She sighed. "What did I just decorate my elbow with?"

"Butter. Try it. It might be tasty," he teased.

"Come on, Vandy, this is not the time. Help me get it off before it soaks in too much."

"Alright, alright, I just had to pick on you a little bit for not listening to me." He carefully scooped off the top layer of the butter with a paper towel before trying to absorb the rest. "I'm going to roll up your sleeves a bit more so that this hopefully won't happen again."

"Well, not until I slosh half the cake out of this bowl trying and failing to mix it."

"You'll be fine. Just stick to mixing the center and bringing the outside of it toward the center so everything gets mixed. But mix it well and mix it fast. The timer starts...now!"

MC held the bowl against her stomach to steady it while she mixed the batter vigorously. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one trying to mix furiously while keeping it all in the bowl on top of being blindfolded!"

"Calm down, you're doing great. A couple drips, maybe, but it's staying in."

"So far, anyway. But that's good, I guess."

"No guessing. It's quite good." Vanderwood leaned against the counter. "We've got a minute and a half to kill. Should I spend it telling you how you look right now?"

"Oh gosh, do I even want to know?"

He shook his head in near disbelief, smiling. "Magnetic. Adorable. More delicious than the cake we're making."

MC cackled. "You cannot be serious. I've got to be a mess right now."

"You act as if that's a contradiction. It's the mess that makes you more beautiful. Is every single hair of yours in place? No. But they fall around your face in the most delicately beautiful way. Even the places where the ingredients got smudged on you somehow add to your charm." He leaned in so that his lips touched her ear, his voice lowering to a gravelly timbre. "Did you know that your cheeks are all rosy from the effort you're putting into stirring? It's unbelievably attractive. And the way your lips press together when you're concentrating? It makes me want to kiss them apart. In fact—"

"Vanderwood, how much time is left?" MC interrupted, suppressing a vivid blush and a shiver.

"Our entire lives," he said, happily ignoring the real question.

"The timer, Vanderwood. How much is left on the timer?"

The sound of the timer going off answered the question for him. "None," he grinned. "I'll go spray the cake pan while you rest for a moment. You've earned it."

She exhaled, set the mixing bowl aside, and stretched. Then a thought made her panic. "Vandy, we forgot to preheat the oven."

He held her face in his hands. "MC. Darling. Breathe. I set the oven when I grabbed the apron."

Her breathing gradually slowed. "Sorry, love. I'm just really hungry and kind of tired and I think not being able to see is doing weird things to my brain and you kind of flustered me a minute ago with what you were saying and I'm sorry, I—" her voice cracked, but Vanderwood cut her off and held her close.

"Hey...hey...you're alright. There's nothing to be sorry about. I kept you going after a long day of work without feeding you first. I should have known better." He smoothed her hair and tucked it into her braid. "I'll tell you what. How about we get this cake in the oven and then order some pizza and watch another episode of Cucumber Fish?"

MC sniffled and hummed in agreement. Vanderwood loosened his hold around her and gently brought her hands to the bowl again before grabbing the cake pan. "Okay, all you've got to do now is pour it into the pan that I've put just to the left of the bowl. Just take it nice and easy. There you go. Perfect. You're almost done. Now let me get a spatula to scoop the last of it out." After he finished, he slid the cake pan into the oven and started the timer. "There. All done." He slipped the mask off her eyes and gave her a peck on the lips as she blinked to adjust to the light. "I'll clean all this up, alright? Go ahead and relax on the sofa. You can order the pizza and get Cucumber Fish queued up while I finish up in here."

"Okay," she murmured. Another peck, and she curled up on the couch. She pulled out her phone to order the pizza and smiled at the notifications she'd gotten from the RFA chatroom. They were up to their normal antics again. Hopefully, Saeyoung wouldn't exasperate Saeran too much with his crazy propositions. But there was nothing she could do about that, and she was starving and in desperate need of pizza. Once it was ordered, she turned on the TV and selected the episode, making sure to let it run past the ads before pausing it.

After Vanderwood joined her on the couch, the next forty-five minutes was filled with lots of cuddling and pizza devouring, more kissing than watching the show, a few glances at the cake's progress, an agreement to actually watch the episode while they ate the cake, and several minutes of cooling time after the cake was removed from the oven. Vanderwood emerged from the kitchen after a few minutes of setting up to decorate.

"Are you sure you want to put on the mask again?" he asked. "I don't want it to mess with your head like it did last time."

"I'll be fine, babe. I'm pretty sure it was like that last time just because I was starving."

"Are you positive?"

"Yes."

"If you say so. Go ahead and get them on, then," he said, handing MC the apron and mask.

"Just make sure to lead me into the kitchen again."

"Hmm, we'll see."

"We'll see?" she repeated, but shrieked soon after when she no longer felt the ground beneath her feet. Vanderwood had scooped her up to carry her into the kitchen bridal-style and sank his lips against hers with intentionality. He bumped into the counter but managed to avoid any damage to his wife. He deposited one last kiss on her lips before setting her down.

"What have you done to me, woman? Years and years of agent skills, undone in a moment. If it were anything or anyone else, I never would have bumped into that worktop. But when it's you kissing me, you're the only thing that exists." He grinned. "It's a shame, really. I thought my dexterity was an impressive skill, but I don't even have that anymore, it seems."

"Shame indeed," MC parroted, trying to steal another kiss from his lips and stealing one from his nostrils instead. She made a face, causing Vanderwood to laugh.

"Well, at least I still have the ability to order you around." MC smacked him in response, and he continued, "Alright, alright, let's get to it then. This is where it'll get really interesting, since decorating requires more precision. Which, no offense, is a skill you don't have, since you're not exactly used to being blind."

"Now wait just a—okay, I can't argue that," MC sighed. He placed a spatula in one hand and a jar of frosting in her other.

"Turn around. Can you find where the cake is?"

"Ye—wait, Vandy! I thought you said you cleaned up!"

"I did…sort of." Before she could protest, he interjected, "I wiped the worktop! I just pushed all the dishes to one side so we could put all of it in the dishwasher at once when we were done!" He added with a mumble, "I just wanted to get back to you."

"You think you can charm your way out of anything," MC responded airily. "Well, you're right." She squared up as best she could with a frosting jar in hand. "I found the cake. I'll try to do my best."

"Well, in this part, I won't let you go completely solo. I can rotate the cake for you as you go, if you want."

"Please."

MC scooped a large helping of frosting from the jar and started spreading around the perimeter. Her spatula made a slight detour for a moment to donate some frosting to the top of the cake, and Vanderwood halted and reversed his rotation slightly to avoid confusion. A few seconds later, she went for another, slightly smaller, scoop to finish frosting the circumference of the cake. Another scoop, added to the deposit from the first, finished off the top.

"Is there a big corner around the top edge? Or any dry spots?" she asked.

"Just a slight corner. Grab a little bit more frosting to round it off a bit and thicken the top."

She did as directed while he helped rotate, and stepped back. "Better?"

"Much better. Maybe we can add a little artistic touch by making some...what do you call them? Swoops? Around the sides from the top?"

"Sounds great. You're definitely going to have to help me, though."

"Alright, I'll rotate again and stop you when you're done. Then you can smooth off the top edge again quick."

Six slightly lopsided arcs later, he stepped back for a moment, observing. "This is certainly not the prettiest cake I've seen, but it all adds to the fun, yeah?"

"I guess," she laughed.

"Now here's the part that'll really get a laugh when you take off the blindfold. I've got a bowl over here with some frosting for smaller decorating, and you get to pick the food coloring that goes in it."

"Oh no."

"Oh yes," he snickered while guiding her over to a trio of colored bottles that she couldn't discern. "Take your pick," he said cheerily. MC gingerly selected one, and he suppressed a snort poorly. "Excellent choice!"

MC groaned. "I'm going to regret all my life choices, aren't I?"

"Of course not! Only your decision to marry me."

"Hey." She squeezed his wrist. "I could never regret that."

"You might reevaluate that statement when you take off the blindfold and see the cake. Or at least my ugly mug."

"Vanderwood. Don't you even start with me. You're so hot that if we were working with chocolate instead of a cake, we wouldn't need the microwave to melt it."

"You're so hot that the beach would need sunblock instead of you."

"You're so hot that the sun goes to you when it needs to warm up."

They collapsed against each other, gasping for air. Vanderwood caught his breath first. "Let's get this food coloring in the bowl, shall we? The spoon and frosting are already in it. All you have to do is put a few drops in and stir until I say so. The bowl's on your left."

"As you wish," she said as she did so.

After a few moments, he spoke. "That's enough. Let me get you back over to the cake, and I'll get the frosting in the decorating bag. Which is really just an ordinary plastic bag, but I did pick up some cheap decorating tips when I got the ingredients."

"Splendid. How am I going to decorate, though? Even if I could see, I don't know the first thing about cake decorating. Oh yeah, and I can't see."

"Don't get your 'panties in a bunch,' as you like to tell me so often. I'll do it with you this time."

"But you don't know how to decorate cakes, either!"

"Ah-ah-ah!” he chided. “Do you trust me or not?"

"Not particularly."

"Hey!"

"But! We should just go ahead and do it anyway, because even though neither of us knows what we're doing, we're the only ones in this apartment who can. And the frosting smells too good not to eat soon."

"That's my girl." Vanderwood curled around her. He molded one hand around hers and slid the other over her stomach. As they formed a few swirls on the top, he murmured, "We did this whole thing together. How impressive is that? Was it as fun for you as it was for me?"

MC smiled. "Of course it was. I know I got a little hangry for a bit there, but I know how much thought you put into this. None of my old deadbeat ex-boyfriends ever would have cared so much, let alone shown it. These are the things that make me love you that much more."

"I never experienced any permanent love until you showed it to me. And it's been so...world-altering—that I've been trying to wrap my head around it ever since. I still can't. But I swear I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to give you the same love you've given me. I certainly don't deserve it, after the things I've done. But you do. You deserve all the happiness a person can have."

MC paused and blushed slightly. "Vandy…" She exhaled. "We've gone over this whole 'not deserving it' thing. Whether you deserve it or not doesn't matter. To me, what matters is your heart. You have such a beautiful heart, Vandy. I love the kind of man you've become. I've seen you strive every day to be better than you were the day before, and that is so inspiring."

"Well, whether or not I deserve happiness, I would choose to be happy every day if my being happy made you happy." He squeezed her hip affectionately and pulled her in for a tender kiss.

"It would." She kissed him back. They added one last swirl and a border before they set down the bag of frosting. He uncurled her fingers and fiddled with her wedding ring.

"Are you ready to see it?"

"Sure."

He slipped off the blindfold, and she gasped.

"What have we done?" she exclaimed as her laughing grew louder by the second.

"Whatever do you mean, dear?" Vanderwood asked, feigning ignorance.

"The cake is bright flaming orange, Vandy!" She let out a snort, then covered her face. "Hey, wait! All the food coloring was the same color too, you little twit!"

He shrugged innocently. MC sputtered. "Nuh-uh. Don't you shrug at me, mister. Saeyoung has rubbed off on you way too much."

"Has not."

She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, maybe the tiniest bit."

"Uh huh, that's what I thought. Now are you as ready as I am to eat this cake and watch Cucumber Fish?"

"Let me take a picture first. And another one with you in it? You look so lovely, I can't not have one with you in it."

She tried desperately to keep a frown on her face as he snapped a picture but couldn't quite hold back the quirk at the corner of her mouth. He cut a slice for each of them and handed one to her. He curled the paper plate around his slice, and she did likewise. They looked each other in the eyes, both knowing exactly what would come next. Vanderwood solidified his stance. "Ready...steady...GO!" The couple raced to the living room and took a running jump onto the couch, ready for the wonderful night ahead.

#mysmerbb #mystic messenger #mysme #mysme vanderwood #vanderwood x mc #my writing #my fic #mysme fic #collab #art collab

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noonaduck · 4 years

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A boy who cried a wolf

Pairing: human Jungkook x werewolf reader genre: fluff,smut, Supernatural au, fantasy au, angst if u look with microscope warnings: SEX Words: 10662 A/N: I’m finally happy to present this fic for you guys. I have been working on it for ages and I’m really satisfied with the results. Summary: Once upon a time there was a boy who cried the wolf and the wolf who loved the boy. The wolf was ready to risk everything to be with her human and they boy was ready to face the world he never knew existed. Butterfly Effect m.list

[Gifs belongs to their rightful owners]

Long time ago in a far away land was a village which was only separated by small meadow from big and dark forest. There was many stories where someone has entered the forest and never returned. The trees were so tall that you couldn't navigate with the help of sun or the stars because you simply weren't able to see the sky over the tree branches. You always laughed to those stories, why someone would be afraid of the forest? The forest was your sanctuary, a calm place which melt your worries away. Ever since you had known how to walk you had been spying the people who lived in the village from the edge of the forest.

You were always near but not to seen. Your favorite pair of people was two young boys, one with dark brown hair and matching pair of eyes and another with soft blonde cloud of hair and deep dark eyes.

You enjoyed watching how they liked to run on the meadow among the sheep who were eating the grass lazily. You laughed when they did and cried when they felt down. You almost felt like they were your friends. Years passed and the boys grew and you along them. Sometimes your big brother came to watch the villagers too but he got bored rather easily and left you alone to enjoy your time.

You had just turned sixteen and were once again spying your boys behind tree trunks when your first encounter with them happened. It was late spring evening and the sun has started to set when you spotted the familiar faces running towards the woods, when they reached the border between the forest and the meadow they stopped hesitating.

''Are we really going to do this?'' The older, but funnily shorter, of the two asked looking his friend feeling insecure.

''I mean, we have came this far, don't you think that it would be too stupid to back out now?'' The younger one says and raises his right hand higher and only by then you notice the dark glass bottle in his hand.

''I ques that you are right.'' The older one agrees and takes a first step in to the forest. His friend follows him right after.

The boys have difficulties to navigate in the darkness but your eyes were used to dark and you knew the forest like you knew your hands, so it was easy for you to keep up with them. You lightly chuckled when one of the boys almost fell on his face because his foot got stuck on root sticking from the ground. The boys doesn't seem to be sure about direction and instead they walk aimlessly forward.

''I think the village is now far enough.'' The older one says and glances to the direction of the village, he can't see the village lights anymore.

''I agree.'' The second one says and they happily sit down on the ground, the older one leaning on fallen tree trunk and younger sits on the rock next to him.

''So should we open it?'' The older boy gestures towards the bottle. ''It's not everyday that my sister gets married and our folks brings alcohol on view.'' He adds and your attention turns to their clothing.

Instead of their usually grey cotton shirts and brown pants with suspenders they are both wearing straight black pants with polished shoes and a white shirts under a west. Only difference in their attires is that the older ones west is brown and younger ones' is deep green.

''One day you have a bride yourself, Miss Park Jimin, that sounds quite nice.'' The younger one teases the another and you can see even though the darkness that the one being teased is blushing.

''I think that Miss Jeon Jungkook isn't bat either.'' Jimin teases his friend who flashes a sheepish smile.

''Whatever, let's open this thing.'' Jungkook changes the subject and raises the bottle in his hand.

''Hey Jimin, how we are going to open this without a bottle opener?'' Jungkook grins awkwardly.

''I saw once how my father opened a bottle with his teeth, let me try.'' Jimin says and takes the bottle from his friend.

How foolish. You watch amused how Jimin puts the cork in his mouth and pulls it with his teeth. At first the cork stays and remains stuck but after few failed attempts and huffs the cork pops open and Jimin almost cracks his teeth while doing it. A strong and bitter smell of booze hits your nose and you flinch. The drinks in your home always smell so sweet and fruity that it's hard for you to believe that someone actually want to drink something like that. Jimin spits the cork out of his mouth and grins.

''Bottoms up.'' He cheers and takes a big gulp of the drink. When the booze hits his throat Jimin couches loudly and closes his eyes.

Jungkook laughs to his reaction but when it’s his turn to taste his reaction is the same.

''This is strong stuff, no wonder that your dad usually hides it on top of shelf.'' Jungkook admits and wipes his mouth.

The boys drink for a while in silence passing the bottle for each other. You get more comfortable and lay down on the forest bed. When time passes the reactions caused by the strong taste of booze weakens on the boys faces and they seem to get more light headed.

''Hey Jimin?'' Jungkook breaks the silence after another sip.

''Yeah?''

''Have you ever wanted to leave our village?''

''Sometimes. I often imagine how I leave my home and began to live as traveling performer.'' Jimin admits his cheeks in pink tint, that may be caused by his confession or the drink.

''Pfft, you a performer? What would you do?'' Jungkook teases his friend.

''I would sing and maybe dance, who knows. Maybe I would get invited to the palace.''' Jimin shrugs his shoulders. ''What about you? Have you ever considered leaving?''

''Yeah, I have always wanted to be a soldier. I want to bring glory to my country and honor to my family.''

You let a small huff escape from your mouth from his confession. Not because you think it's funny but because how accurate it is. You could see in your mind Jungkook in shining armor ready to lead a battle.

''Did you hear that?'' Jimin asks your mistake didn't go unnoticed.

''Did I hear what?'' Jungkook asks and he looks around alerted.

You start backing up deeper in the forest and in your hurry you miss a fallen tree branch under your feet which makes a sound leading the boys to look in to your direction. You know that you have been spotted when Jungkook's eyes meet yours.

''Jimin! Shit its a wolf!'' Jungkook screams panicked and gets up fumbling

from his sitting place.

You are frozen to your place too shocked to move and captivated by Jungkook's eyes that you won't even blink before Jimin has also spotted you.

''We need to go!'' Jimin tells and the bottle slips from his hands and falls on the forest ground spilling its insides on the ground.

You are able to recover from your shock and you spin around and start running deeper into the forest.

You would think that your cover being blown would make you stop spying on the village but it made you only even more curious about humans and the life outside of your forest. What came to Jimin and Jungkook they were punished by their parents to look after the sheep grazing on the meadow because they busted in to Jimin's sisters wedding smelling like a booze and crying a wolf. After all there hasn't been any wolf sighting in fifteen years.

It was your twentieth birthday and you were laying on your bed looking up to the ceiling where the ceiling beams were supporting the roof of your cabin. You really weren't in the mood of celebrating even though turning twenty meant that you would be adult in standards of your small community. You hear a soft knock by the door and your big brother, Alpha of the pack, peeks in.

''Can I come in?'' He ask and flashes a kind smile.

''No.'' You snort but he won't listen to you and steps in. ''What do you want Jin?'' You ask and roll on sitting position on your bed.

Jin comes to sit next to you and ruffles your hair. ''It is a big day, shouldn't you be more excited?'' Jin looks you with genuine care and his honey colored eyes glister in the sun.

You can clearly see why any single woman of the pack would drool after him, his shoulder are wide and his body is strong, his face is sculptured like a angels with soft perky lips, straight nose and soft brown hair cut into mullet.

''What it is to be excited about?'' You groan ''I hate double standards.'' You tell and hug fluffy pillow on your lap.

''It is a tradition to find a spouse for a shewolf if she doesn't have one when she turns twenty. Even our parents found each other in that way.''

''And where that lead to them, unhappy marriage and a mother who ran away with a water spirit.'' You retort sarcastically back. ''I think it's truly unfair that I have to get engaged with someone who I didn't choose.''

''I thought you were okay with getting married with Mark?''

''I mean he is only tolerable man in the pack but it doesn't mean that I love him.''

''Who you would want instead, that human boy?'' Now it's Jin's turn to sound sarcastic ''And how well that would go? 'Hey I'm Y/N and I have been spying on you ever since we have been kids. Don't be totally freaked out but I have huge crush on you and I thought that we could get married.'''Jin ends his speech with miming your voice and your face twists in anger.

''Get out!'' You yell pissed and throw the pillow at his face.

''Fine, I go. Being mad at me won't save you from tonight celebration though. Elena will be here in a hour to help you get ready.'' Jin raises his hands for surrender and leaves your room.

You know that he is right, after all you don't have the guts to defy traditions, right? Surely Mark would be good mate, after all you had known him since you were toddlers. And Jin is right, Jungkook would never want to be with someone like you. You curl in to a small ball and let silent tears fall.

Jin's words are true when exactly a hour has passed you hear another knock by your door and and a storm also known as Elena arrives to your room. Elena is your father's new partner who was able to pull your sulking father away from his depression after your mother left. Elena has a dark skin and a matching curls pulled in tight ponytail. She is a curvy woman who's loud laughter easily filled a room and gained attention of others. Elena is wearing tight leather pants with knee length boots and tight white shirt that hugs her in all right places.

''What are you doing still on bed? Come on, your bath is waiting.'' Elena pulls you up the bed and pulls you after her in to the living space of your cottage.

Your home is small and it only consist on three rooms, your bedroom, Jins bedroom/ office and the living space. There is no bathroom, those are for rich people only and when you have to relief yourself outhouse is the place. Jin is nowhere in sight and you ques that he has escaped somewhere out of the way. Elena stops you in front of the steaming bathtub of water and starts to loosen strings on the back of your shirt.

''You should be grateful for your brother, even though he is busy with his Alpha duties he still had time to pick water from stream and boil it for you.'' Elena chatters away. ''Hands up'' She ads and you are barely able to obey when she pulls the shirt over your head.

As a werewolf idea of undergarments seems rather bothersome, you get naked to sift so often that tucking and pulling those on and of would be waste of time. Soon you are completely naked and covered to your chin in the steaming bath while Elena rubs a soap over your hair.

''How long it has been since you took a bath?'' Elena asks while going through particularly difficult knot on your untamed H/C hair.

''A while, I prefer washing up as a wolf.'' You grin but yelp when Elena pulls your hair too harshly.

''It's not bathing if you go to swim in your fur.'' She huffs and you roll your eyes.

Elena keeps chattering about anything and everything while you let her voice buzz in the background of your thoughts. After your bath Elena pulls out a dress and flinch unhappily, dresses weren't your thing even though human women usually preferred them over the pants. The dress is simple and pure white, only to be tied with a belt on your waist. You let helplessly Elena to groom you and you are sitting on stool while Elena goes through your hair with comp when Jin enters again.

''You look good.'' Jin tells and shows his thumbs ups which gains eye roll from you as an answer.

''Seokjin, why you aren't wearing your formal wear yet?'' Elena lectures Jin who lets out sheepish smile being caught by the woman. In times like these Jin didn't seem like an Alpha at all.

''I'm just about to get changed.'' Jin tells and escapes to his room.

''Sometimes I wonder was it a good idea to make him an Alpha so early.'' Elena mumbles to herself and you chuckle at her words.

A knock comes by the front door and Elena tells the newcomer to enter. A young girls steps in carrying a flower grown in her hands.

''My mom told me to deliver this here.'' She tells shyly and you can't help yourself but smile to her.

''Thank you, please bring it here.'' Elena tells softly and the girl comes to you holding tightly at the grown.

''Would you like to put the grown top of Y/N's head?'' Elena asks and little girls smile widens in excitement.

''Yes please.'' She says and you tilt your head lower so she is able to reach your head.

''Thank you Amber.'' Elena tells and images flashes on your mind, you had seen the girl before playing with her friends in the village center.

''Thank you.'' You say as well and Amber leaves the cabin happily giggling for herself.

Elena pulls a hand mirror out somewhere and shows your reflection to you. You have to admit that you look quite good. Your usually wild H/C hair is tamed into soft curls and your skin is glowing after the cleaning.

''I look amazing, thank you Elena.'' You gasp admiring yourself from the mirror your E/C eyes looking back at you with full of wonder.

''You are welcome sweetie. I have to go and get myself already. Me and your father will see you at the party.'' Elena tells and takes the mirror from your hands and puts it on the table. ''You look stunning, everything will go great.'' Elena adds and gives a small peek to your forehead.

Distant drumming is reaching your ears and you are shifting from one foot to another nervously. Your future husband, Mark is standing next to you and offering you a calming smile. Mark is slim man with dark hair and his features are mix of Asian and western, his eyes are little bit crooked in typical way of Asian's but his shin is strong and angular. Mark is wearing black leather pants and a short fur coat on his shoulders which is typical part of formal attire in your pack, and a simple plain white shirt underneath. Neither of you are wearing shoes and that rule goes by every party goer tonight.

''Are you nervous?'' Mark asks voice full of worry.

''A little.'' You admit flashing a nervous smile.

''It's just a party.'' Mark tries again to assure you.

''A party where going with you literally means that I have decided to take you as my mate.'' You huff irritated and Mark looks taken back.

''I know that I wasn't your first option but don't rub it on my face.'' Mark barks back and you can see his eyes flash orange.

You take a deep breath and try to calm yourself down. ''You are right, I'm sorry. Let's get this over with.''

Your small village is located in a valley surrounded by mountains and rough landscape. If you don't know the route in its impossible to find in. In middle of your village goes a steaming river and get to across it you have to go over a wide wooden bridge. Right after the bridge goes the small town center where the party is taking its place. When you reach the bridge the drumming turns even louder and you can see the torches lighting up the night sky. Everywhere you look at is food and people in their wolf or human form having fun. You are only female to wear white and everywhere you look at you can see women dressed in bright colors, all the men are wearing similar attires to Mark only with some variation of their shirt and cloak colors.

A small band is beating the drums in the border of the square their bodies following the beat. Someone notices you and points at you followed by loud cheers of the celebrating people. You wave awkwardly back to the people who you have known your whole life and walk the rest of the way towards the square followed by moody Mark. Still you couldn't blame him after your split up. Who would be excited to get married with someone who wasn't clearly into them? Mark has only accepted to marry you because his visible crush towards you and this being the only way to be with you.

''You are finally here.'' Jin steps out from the crowd and comes towards you with open arms. He hugs you and whispers. ''Even a minute later and I would had made someone to pick you up.'' When he lets go of you there is no trace of his threat and his face is full of smiles. Jin's fur cloak is only one which stands on the crowd, as and Alpha he is wearing a cloak that almost reaches on the ground.

''My fellow pack member today we have gathered here to celebrate my sisters coming to age ceremony and her engagement to Mark.'' The whole crowd goes silent and the drumming stops when their Alpha is speaking. ''As all of you know this party is more than just having fun, it's about making sure that our pack will bloom in the future and bless us with more offspring. Werewolf are one of the species which numbers are getting smaller year by year while humans take more and more space with their growing population. There were times were our kind didn't have to hide and we were free to be what we are but sadly things changed. Humans got scared of us and our powers, where we were winning in power they were leading with numbers.'' Jin pauses and some pack members boo to his words. Jin raises his hand and everyone turn silent again. ''We aren't alone in this situation, other creatures like elves and even vampires are in the same situation. It's more important than ever to have each other backs and make sure that our culture and us in individuals will remain.'' When Jin ends his speech the grow cheers and the drumming returns.

Everyone return to have fun and except you to follow after all it's your party and you are expected to be in cloud nine after catching one of the most wanted single men in the pack. Coming to age party is exceptional in that way that almost every other party in the werewolf tradition consist on ceremonies and rules that you have to follow. The chaos and lack of rules in the coming age party is supposed to symbolize the ending youth and beginning of the adult responsibilities.

''I will go to meet my friends.'' Mark informs and slips away from the place and you nod as an answer in your thoughts.

You aren't able to dream for long when Elena and your father reaches you. Your father is in his late fifties, his once light hair turning into grey, he is like older version of your brother to be honest. Your father is limping his right leg and leaning to walking stick. Permanent injuries are rare in the wolf world where everyone heals quickly but your father was trapped under a fallen tree trunk for days before he was found and his bone had ossified in twisted way. The healers of the pack had had to break his leg all over again and it was never the same again even after healing.

''There's my girl.'' Your Father smiles warmly when he stops in front of you. Elena is smiling next to to him holding his free hand.

''Here I'm.'' You try to sound cheerful but you fail horribly.

''Where is my future son in law?'' Your father asks and glances around in hopes of seeing him.

''We had a small fight.'' You admit with quiet voice.

''Y/N...'' Your father sighs is disappointment.

''Don't worry about it, I'm sure that Mark is able to recover from it.'' Jin butts in and you glance your brother angrily.

''Jin is right, after all we all know how smitten Mark is with Y/N.'' Elena steps in to calm your father.

''I guess you are right.'' Your father's face softens again.

''I bet they will make such a beautiful babies.'' Elena tells with dreamy voice. While your father is agreeing with Elena you slip away in the crowd.

No one really doesn't seem to get you. Everyone is so excited about your marriage and future puppies that they forgot how you are feeling about it. If you could you would run. Run, that one word consumes you and you start pushing your way through the mass of people. Some worried looking pack members tries to stop you but you are too stubborn. You need air somewhere where isn't other wolves. Before you even realize you have sifted in to your wolf form and running all fours towards the beginning of the valley and where the secret passageway to the outside world is located.

You keep running without any particular destination in your mind but soon you understand that you have picked the direction of the nearest human village. You feel like your heart is about to burst in your chest and you won't stop until you reach the tree line. Your storming mind calms instantly when you see Jungkook laying on the meadow his eyes closed and lips parted. He is supposed to look after the sheep but he is snoring lightly. Your mind goes blank and you crawl closer in your wolf form. People should give more credit to the animals, the sheep won't even flinch when you near the sleeping man, after all they have heard and smelled you over the years when you had spied the village and deemed you to no threat to them. You turn into small ball next to Jungkook and close your eyes seeking comfort in Jungkook's warmth.

''What the hell I do, there is a wolf sleeping next to me!'' Someone's voice is breaking in to your dreams and you sift annoyed.

''I don't know, don't be so loud or you wake it up.'' Another voice hurries to answer. This dream is getting rather annoying. ''Should I get your father?'' Your ears twitch and you are more aware of reality.

''So he can kill the wolf? No'' The first speaker sifts next to you and finally you open your eyes.

You have to blink few times before you believe what you are actually seeing. Jungkook is sitting next to you on the grass his body rolling with fear and Jimin is standing next to him and not in any better shape. For a moment three of you only stare at each other without knowing what to to.

''The wolf is acting rather strange, maybe it is just a large dog?'' Jimin gains the courage to speak when nothing happens.

''No, I'm sure it's wolf. There isn't a dog that huge in this world'' Jungkook answer quickly back. Are they saying that you are fat? You huff annoyed and both men tense again. ''There is something definitely going on with this animal, I mean look at the sheep! They don't even flinch even when their natural predator is right next to them.''

''Perhaps its a werewolf?''

''Don't be an idiot those are just some stupid old tales to scare kids to behave.'' Jungkook tells rolling his eyes to his friend. Only if you knew...

You have come to understand that neither of them is going to pull a knife at you or go to ask for help. Maybe your behavior is really that odd for an animal. You get up on all fours and decide to leave just in case they have second thoughts. The men are left behind when you sprint in to run just before the forest line you end up taking a quick look back seeing them still dumb founded on the meadow. What neither you or the two men doesn't notice is a extra pair of eyes looking after you when you disappear into the forest.

When you reach home you get a lifetime long lecture from your brother how it's disrespectful to leave from your own party even it wasn't a formal event.

''...I was so ashamed to tell to your future husband where you were as an alpha I should know these thing and even more as your brother...'' Jin keeps rambling on and there is no other option than you to swallow and listen.

When Jin finally stops panting you are finally able to put some words in. ''I'm sorry that I left. I will also apologize Mark.'' You tell nervously. There is no chance that you would tell Jin what actually happened during your little escape he would flip even more.

''Oh, I will make sure that you do, but for now you are under house arrest.''

''What the hell, I'm an adult, you can't do that to me!''

''Well you surely doesn't act like a one, so you won’t be treated as such.'' Jin barks back.

''You can't make me!''

''Maybe not as your brother but as your alpha I demand you to stay inside of these four walls until further notice.''

''I fucking can't believe you! Did you just use alpha’s command on me?''

''Yes I did.'' Jin's voice is firm when he answers but his eyes seem little hesitant.

''I can't stand you right now.'' You tell voice full of rage and go to your room slamming the door shut. Okay maybe you acted somewhat still like a teenager, but you just couldn't take your brother for now.

Jin surely kept his word, first two weeks of your house arrest you weren't allowed to leave the small cabin and only company you were allowed to have over was Mark, your future husband. At first your time spent together was awkward after all you had left him on the party but when days passed you were grateful from the company. You and Jin still avoided each other both regretting your fight but both too hard-headed to admit it. When the two weeks has passed you were allowed outside again, but only in the surrounding of your village, you weren't allowed to enter the forest and there was surely no speak about even going near the human village. You finally gained your true freedom when the summer has started to turn in to Autumn and the leaves on the trees started to turn different shades of yellow and red. Your fur's color has started to change color along with the leaves as well.

You still haven't admitted your faults to your brother and he didn't say that he is sorry either but you were having some sort of truce. You start to visit the forest border next to the human village again and time to time you are able to see glances of Jungkook but Jimin isn't nowhere in sight. Even Jungkook seems to miss his friend sighing time to time looking up the sky in longing.

You are once again spying the humans but you are sad to notice that this time Jungkook isn't spending his time among the sheep and instead the field is out of humans. You wait for a hour but only human that arrives is some stranger human man who is told to look after the sheep.

You can see even when is his back against the woods that he is tall and muscular underneath his clothing even though this detail doesn't give you much.

You are about to turn around and leave when you finally hear a familiar voice.

''Hey Jackson guess what!' Jungkook jells from a long way while he runs toward the meadow.

''You got accepted?'' Jackson answers with smirk when Jungkook stops in front of him panting.

''How did you know?'' Jungkook seems sad that he wasn't able to surprise the another man.

''Well you have been talking about becoming a soldier since you were a little kid.'' Jackson smirks.

''Not just any kind of soldier, I was accepted to trials to train to become on of the new king's guards. Anyone can apply to be a regular soldier and get in but only the best are accepted in to the kings watch.'' Jungkook is full of excitement like a little child.

''When you are leaving?''

''In two weeks. The journey to the capital isn't a short one.''

''Ah, what do I do when both of you are gone? Jimin left to travel as touring performer and now you are also leaving me.'' Jackson sight dramatically. Wait Jimin is gone? You feel angry about how much you have missed.

'' I don't know, keep the mill rotating?'' Jungkook smirks subtly.

''You know I do.'' Jackson sighs.

You have heard enough and let rest of the men's conversation to go in from an ear and out from another. Jungkook will be leaving the village and your chance with him will be lost forever.

All this time you had secretly hoped to somehow to be with Jungkook even when you are engaged to another. You can see with your eyes how you will be spending rest of your life stuck in your village, which isn't that bad you love your home, and breeding pups to a man who you don't even love. At that moment you have made your decision, you had to make him to fall in love with you just in two weeks and hope that it was enough to stop him from leaving. Only problem in that was that you have to appear in front of him in your human form and if anything is scary to you then that is. ~ You cringe for your reflection but you had decided that little dressing up wouldn’t make any harm in your quest of charming your knight. You are wearing one of your few dresses, the one fitting for colder weather, and measuring the results. The dress is soft blue with tulle skirt and a matching bow on the back. You had struggled when you had tried to put corset on your own for a first time and with few failed attempts you had managed to put yourself somewhat together. Now the only problem was how you could slip out of the pact village without alerting your brother or the wolves who would be patrolling outside. It was almost dawn and you had thought that best opportunity to slip out without detecting in your current outfit was now. You could hear slight snoring coming from Jin’s room when you tried to sneak through the floor towards the front door. A creaking plank makes you halt when Jin’s snoring halts but you breath in relief when it continues after short pause. You shut the cabin door quietly and sigh in relief, one obstacle down and one left. You hide behind of huge rock near the stream crossing your village when a patrolling wolf passes you. You hold your breath when the wolf walks past you. You are again grateful for your luck when he doesn’t spot you. Werewolves has heightened instincts but they were also able to move quietly without being detected if they had been training for year and luckily for you being an old’s alphas daughter and current ones sister you had been through many lessons. You walk over the bridge and are able to reach the other side of the village where the passageway to the forest is located. Your journey to the human village is slower than usual after all you don’t want to ruin your outfit by sifting and you have to settle walking on two feet instead. The sun is rising and painting the sky in light pink when you finally begun to near the forest border. You hesitate with your steps when you reach the meadow but collect your courage and step in to human world. You walk across the meadow and past the sheep and sleeping sepherd to get on the border of the village. There is a low wooden fence separating the meadow from the village area and you cross over it easily. The scents hit you all at once. Usually when you are staying only by the border and meadow the air is full of scent of grass and sheeps wool masking the scents coming from the village. You look around in wonder and note to yourself that the place is slightly bigger than your home village. The roads are made of dirt and the houses are one or two floor buildings made of rocks and the roofs are mainly built with hey. You can see how a baker is opening his bakery putting freshly baked bread on display. The scent pulls you closer and you admire the freshly baked pastries though the window. The baker notices you and gestures you to come in but you shake your head and step away from the window. You didn’t have any human money. When you turn around you hit something and close your eyes hissing. Your head throbs and you rub your forehead with your temple. ‘’Oh, I’m so sorry are you okay miss?’’ You look up and recognize the man fas Jackson who you had earlier seen with Jungkook. Jackson’s eyes were full of worry and he searched your face worriedly. Jackson was carrying a heavy sack of flours on his shoulder and he was heading inside the bakery when you had spun around and caught him by surprise. You had to admit that up close Jackson was even better looking that you first thought but he was nothing compared to Jungkook in your eyes. The man has black hair covered with a brown transmitter cap and he is wearing a matching pants with white long sleeve shirt. ‘’I’m, I wasn’t looking where I was going. I should be the one to apologize.’’ You tell shyly. ‘’Let’s just say that we both are in fault then.’’ Jackson says flashing a small smile. ‘’I’m Jackson by the way.’’ Jackson tells offering his hand for you to shake. ‘’I kno- I mean I’m Y/N.’’ You had almost told him that you knew who he was but he didn’t seem to notice your mistake. ‘’I haven’t seen you around before. It’s rare to see strangers here.’’ ‘’Oh well, I’m just passing by with my brother…’You lie smoothly. If you would have said that you were traveling on your own you would get strange and disapproval looks, you were a woman after all! ‘’I see, where is he now if I may ask?’’ Jackson asks curiously.

‘’Um, I’m sure that he is around.’’ You try to pry him of. The bakery door opens and the baker steps out from the door. Only now you notice how similar his features are to Jackson and you are sure that he is related to him somehow. ‘’Jackson what are you doing? I need the flour, these breads won’t bake themselves.’’ The man tells jokingly.

‘’I’m sorry father I was caught in chatting with Y/-, oh she’s gone.’’ Jackson looks around and you aren’t nowhere to be seen, you had slipped away during his father had caught his attention. You decide to continue your adventure in the village and walk deeper into the center where you can see people waking up and getting ready to coming day. Small shops are opening their doors and welcoming customers in. You stop in front of a window of small tailoring shop and admire the dresses on display. Even though you didn’t wear dresses yourself it didn’t mean that you couldn’t admire them! A beautiful busy looking brown haired woman in her late forties comes by the window inside of the shop and starts to do adjustments on dresses in display but when she notices you she stops and taps on the window. You look her confused and soon she hurries out of the door. ‘’Hey miss, could I bother you for a sec?’’ She ask smiling excitedly. ‘’What do you need?’’ You ask curiously. ‘’You are in perfect size for a dress I’m making, could you model for me a little. I will be sure to pay for your troubles.’’ She tells measuring you with her gaze. ‘’I don’t know if I’m that good model.’’ ‘’Nonsense! Come in.’’ She doesn’t leave you space for argument when she pulls you after her into the small shop. You look around amazed seeing dresses, shirts, pants, vests and other pieces of clothing in different stages of making. The woman leads you to the mannequin where a beautiful teal colored dress is on display. The dress has a complicated corset and many layers which make you feel little stuffed even when you aren’t even the one wearing it. ‘’A customer of mine ordered this dress for her daughter’s birthday and I’m sure that you are close to her size. If you could wear it while I make few fixes it would help me a lot.’’ The woman continues while starting to remove the dress gently from the mannequin. You can’t put even a word in when she chatters away the dress. When she has finally removed the dress she pulls you behind the curtain with her and her hands find your dress’ strings. You stop her by putting your hand on top of hers. ‘’Uh Mam, you are eagerly trying to undress me while i don’t even know your name.’’ You tell smiling awkwardly. ‘’Oh, how silly of me when I get excited I keep forgetting to give my name. My name is Jeon Dae but you can call me just Dae.’’ She finally gives her name away. ‘’I’m Y/N.’’ You offer with small smile. ‘’Well it’s nice to meet you miss Y/N, are you still willing to help me?’’ Dae asks hopefully. You almost remind her that you never promised to help her at first place but decide otherwise. ‘’ I will and please just call me Y/N.’’ You agree and Dae gets to work to remove your dress and replace it with her model. For a while you just watch in silence how the woman spins around you a needle between her lips and a few other on her hand while making adjustments with her dress. A small bell chimes and someone steps in to the shop but you cant see the newcomer behind the heavy curtain. ‘’Mother it’s me.’’ You hear a familiar voice and you can swear that your heart stop beating for a second. ‘’I’m in the back with a customer, wait a second.’’Dae yells back. ‘’It’s my son Jungkook, I’m sure that you will like him.’’ Dae tells with smile and looks up from her crouched position from working the hem.

Steps near the curtain and stops in other side of it. ‘’Can I step in? Is the customer properly dressed?’’ He asks hesitating. ‘’Is it okay that my son comes in?’’ Dae asks you and you nod your head in loss of words. ‘’Okay, you can come in now.’’ Dae tells and the curtain is pulled aside revealing Jungkook’s cheerful face. You feel suddenly shy when you are so close to him for a first time and look down your feet. ‘’Jackson’s father send us some pastries as a thanks for you repairing his shirt yesterday.’’ Jungkook tells showing the paper bag in his arms. ‘’That’s so nice of him but he shouldn’t have to.’’ Dae answers with small smile. ‘’Jungkook this is Y/N, she offered to help me with the dress.’’ Dae introduces you turning Jungkook’s attention to you. ‘’Oh it’s nice to meet you, I’m glad that you offered to help my mother.’’ Jungkook tells with fond smile on his lips, he clearly loves his mother. ‘’Umm, it has no trouble at all.’’ You assure smiling shyly. ‘’I’m finally done.’’ Dae declares and looks the dress happily. ‘’The dress is pretty but so is the model.’’ Jungkook tells with a grin. ‘’I know, anyone wearing my clothes look neither dull or ugly but even without it she would be beautiful.’’ Dae agrees. ‘’Kook could you step outside for a little, I help Y/N to change back to her dress.’’ ‘’Sure.’’ Jungkook tells stepping back and disappearing on the other side of the curtain leaving you alone with Dae. Dae helps the teal dress away from you and helps pulling your dress back up. ‘’Jungkook is a great son but I hate that he is leaving me and my husband. On the moment when he told us his dream about becoming soldier I knew he was meant for it.’’ Dae tells smiling sadly. She finishes tightening your dress and smoothes the hem of the skirt. ‘’Okay we are all done. let's go back to the shop’s side. I’m sure that there is pastries enough for you too.’’ ~ When you return to your home the sun is already setting and you know that you are in trouble if Jin catches you. When you open the front door of your home Jin isn't the one who is waiting you. Mark is sitting on kitchen table and his head shot up in the moment he hears the front door opening. ‘’Where have you been and why you smell like that human.’’ He asks angrily getting you of guard. You have never heard Mark so unhappy. ‘’I was out. And I don’t know who you are talking about.’’ You tell putting your arms above your chest in defending manner. ‘’Y/N please, I know that you have been spying that human for a while now. I even followed you when I saw you sprinting away from you coming of age ceremony and you went to sleep next to him in your wolf form! I don’t know what’s wrong with you. I was ready to bark in any moment the men even looked you wrongly but you clearly didn’t care yourself enough to stay away.’’ Mark is almost yelling and he has started to stand during his speech. You look him with your mouth hanging open and only noise escaping from you is you shocked breathing. You are finally able to pull yourself together and speak. ‘’How long have you been spying on me?’’ You ask quietly your voice trembling. ‘’Long enough to know that we aren’t working.’’ Mark tells and falls back on his chair like all strength is escaping from him. ‘’Mark I’m sor-’’ ‘’Don’t you dare to say that you are sorry.’’ Mark glances you angrily. ‘’When your brother arrives home I will call our engagement of and you can be happily the first she wolf to break her pack traditions.’’ Mark tells with colorless voice. ‘’But I-’’ ‘’Y/n save it, could you go to your room I just can’t stand to be around you.’’ Mark tells and you obey him quietly. When you are about to close your bedroom door you swear that you can smell the salty scent of tears in the air. When Jin arrives home and hears the news from Mark he is anything but pleased but when he is ready to yell at you after opening your bedroom door he changes his mind after finding you crying quietly on your bed. ‘’Hey, are you okay?’’ Jin asks and sits next to you on your bed. ‘’Do I look like I’m okay?’’ You bark for your brother’s question. ‘’I have ruined everything and when everyone in the village will hear what happened I will be a laughing stock.’’ ‘’No one dares to laugh at you, I make sure of it.’’ ‘’It’ doesn’t help that you are an alpha on the moment you turn your back the gossips will start again. ‘’ You tell shaking your head. Jin looks you back silently and begins to stroke your cheek. ‘’Do you know why she wolfs are forced to mate when they turn twenty?’’ he suddenly asks quietly. ‘’Because it's stupid tradition.’’You sniff. ‘’Well that too but there is another reason for it. When she wolf falls in love her hear can’t be changed. We usually pick mates for females because if she falls in love nothing can ever change it. If their mate dies or leave them it leads more often to death than not. I don’t like it either but male wolves doesn’t have the same problem, perhaps it because the survival of the species is on stage that they aren’t that deeply bonded like females are. We still love in our own way but our feelings are more humane when she wolves follow more their wolf sides. Our mother was able to leave our father because she wasn’t really in love. We try prevent she wolves for truly loving because we want to protect them.’’ Jin tells and you look him with wide eyes. ‘’Then the tradition is even more confusing. What if the she wolf is in love with the person she is meant to marry.’’ ‘’The divorce rate is really low if you haven’t noticed. If the couple loves each other that's great then but if they don’t male wolf rarely leaves in fear of breaking the female’s heart. I only wanted you to marry Mark because I feared losing you. I clearly didn’t realize how much you love that human.’’ Jin smiles sadly.

‘’I’m truly regretting to force you go through all of this.’’Jin tells and pulls you in to his embrace. You begin to cry again this time your tears aren’t quiet and you are crying loudly while your nose starts leaking along your chin and making a mess on Jin’s shirt. Still either of you cares or move. On that night jin sleeps next to you for a first time since your childhood while hugging you and whispering sweet nothings to your ear. ~ Even though your break up with Mark broke you a little you also feel relieved that pressure of your marriage has been lifted from your shoulders. JIn was the one to tell your father what has happened and you had been avoiding him in fear of judgement. You were once again heading for the human village only few day after your last visit when you had met jungkook in person for a first time. This time you had given up wearing a dress and were wearing a more comfortable attire, ap pair of leather pants and a black shirt paired with brown jacket. When you arrive on the meadow you raise your brows in surprise. You really didn’t except finding Jungkook practising with wooden spear against a doll made of heavy and a bright red target painted to it chest. Jungkook was sweating and panting heavily while practising strikes and dodges with the target. ‘’Hi.’’ You approach Jungkook waving shyly at him. ‘’Hi, where did you came from?’’ Jungkook asks panting and swiping a sweat from his forehead. His shirt is wet with his sweat and clinging dangerously to his chest revealing his abs. You try not to stare but are caught if you can say anything about Jungkook’s satisfied smirk. ‘’I was just hanging nearby,’’ You tell trying to avoid the subject. ‘’So what are you doing?’’ You try to change a subject and it seems working. ‘’I’m practicing for a test to become one of the King’s watch.’’ Jungkook tells. You act like you have heard it for a first time.’’ A king’s man that sound exciting but don’t you think how it's weird that no one has seen the king's face?’’ ‘’I know that the king is wearing a mask but so is his closest servants.’’ Jungkook shrugs his shoulders. ‘’I think he must have a good reason for it after all he has been a good king for past eight years.’’ He continues sounding certain. ‘’Well if you say so…’’ ‘’If he trusts me enough maybe one day I will be able to see his face.’’ Jungkook beams with excitement. ‘’Maybe. Hey I noticed few mistakes with your postures, do you mind if I help you?’’ ‘’Sure.’’ Jungkook agrees surprised. You take the spear from his hands and straighten your posture. Jungkook watches quietly your movements and admires you in seacret. He had thought that you were a pretty while wearing a dress but now you were even prettier while moving confidently with the spear in your hands. Ever since that day you had showed up in early morning to practice with Jungkook and even at some point Jackson joined you after recovering from the surprise that you knew each other. The two weeks deadline was almost over but you tried not to think about it and spend all your free time with Jungkook. Even if he was suspicious from your origins he didn’t say anything and instead enjoyed spending time with you after all his best friend has left and he has been feeling lonely despite of Jackson offering his company. With you he felt close as he felt with Jimin and maybe even closer in some ways. Without even noticing Jungkook's feelings had developed into more deep than a friendship. You were following Jungkook into the woods giggling. You both were tipsy after Jungkook had bought a booze into today's training session and you both had felt the effects. Somehow you had thought that hide and seek in the forest would be a good idea so now you were hiding behind of huge spruce hardly able to hide your laughter. Even though the taste of alcohol Jungkook had offered wasn’t that good it was quick to get you both drunk. You laugh loudly when you feel arms around you and Jungkook raises you from the ground spinning you around.

‘’Kookie put me down!’’ You laugh and Jungkook obeys with a low chuckle. You are spun around in Jungkook’s arms and you both look each other breathing heavily. Jungkooks lips finds yours and you answer hungrily for his kiss. Even though you are insecure with your actions and your kisses are more sloppy than his he doesn’t seem to mind. You pull away panting and smile at each other. ‘’I have wanted to do this for a while now.’’ Jungkook tells gaining courage from the alcohol. ‘’Me too.’’ You admit shyly. ‘’Good.’’ Jungkook answers and peeks your lips again. His hands begins to wonder on your body and measuring all of your curves. When Jungkook’s hands stops on your butt giving you a squeeze you gasp softly. ‘’Is this okay?’’ he asks stopping his actions. ‘’Yes, please keep going.’’ You beg and Jungkook is happy to oblige. His hands pulls hem of your shirt and slides underneath of it his thumbs brushing your skin slightly making you shiver. Jungkook presses himself harder against you and you can feel his hardening bulge against your lower belly. Jungkook’s lips finds your once again and you move against his in slow rhythm. You are feeling a new things in your body that you haven't before but you are definitely enjoying them. ‘’Jungkook.’’ You whine against his lips. ‘’Tell me what you need.’’ Jungkook tells his voice husky. ‘’I-I’m not sure.’’ You admit embarrassed. ‘’It’s okay, I got you if you let me.’’ Jungkook smiles softly. ‘’I trust you.’’ You admit and it is all he need as permission to push you against the tree behind of you. Jungkook’s hands find your pants and slides gently among the trim. He slips his index finger in slowly his face observing your reactions for a whole time. You part your mouth slightly when Jungkook’s finger slides on your outer lips. ‘’Tell me if you want me to stop.’’ He tells and dips his finger between your folds. Jungkook moves his finger around your clit collecting your juices with him. You shudder when he adds his thumb into the mix rubbing your clit lightly. You feel your stomach making flips and a moan escapes your lips.You try to keep quiet biting your lip bu Jungkook stops you. ‘’No let me hear you.’’ He tells and you obey letting even the smallest noises to escape your lips. Jungkook slips his index finger slowly into your hole and it sucks it right in and it's no wonder after all you are getting really soaked. At first you feel uncomfortable with the invasion but your displeasure is quick to turn around after he starts to pump his finger in and out slowly while his thumb keeps working on your clit. Soon you need more and tell that to Jungkook who slips second finger inside of you. This time the stretch is wider and you cling to Jungkook's arm while he keep working to bring you nearer to your peak. ‘’I think I’m close.’’ You moan and squeeze his arm tighter in your fist leaving small half moon mark from your nails. ‘’Y/N it’s okay to let go, come for me.’’ Jungkook assures and presses his thump harder against your clit while moving his fingers and finally you snap. You mewl loudly when you are pushed over the edge and you close your eyes almost falling from the intensity of your orgasm. Only thing keeping you up is the tree trunk behind of you and Jungkook's strong hands which have left your pants. When your high finally settles you look Jungkook panting. ‘’That was amazing.’’ You tell your eyes wide from emotion. ‘’I’m glad you think that. Y/N I’m late to ask this but are you a virgin?’’ Jungkook asks blushing. ‘’Oh, I’m.’’ You admit blushing. ‘’That’s okay, I had to know so I go slow.’’ ‘’We aren’t done?’’ You ask surprised. ‘’Not even close.’’ Jungkook smirks. ‘’Can I remove your pants?’’ He asks his hands wandering to your waist. ‘’Okay.’’ You are quick to agree after the pleasure you just experienced. You being a werewolf have made you used to being naked with other people and that fact also helps you with your shyness. Jungkook kneels to remove your boots and then pulls your pants away from you legs. You feel embarrassed after your juices clings to your pants and thighs but Jungkook just shakes his head slightly and smiles. Jungkook pulls his pants lower freeing his member and you can’t help but stare. His member is already leaking with precum and his tip is angry color of red. ‘’Turn around.’’ Jungkook tells and bend you slightly so you are taking support from the tree your ass on display. ‘’You have a really pretty butt.’’ he tells and smacks it slightly which makes you moan. ‘’Oh you like to be spanked? We can explore that kink later but right now I need to be inside of you or I will literally explode.’’ Jungkook spears your legs wider so he fits better in between of them and slides his cock up and down your outer pussy lips to collect your juices. He pushes the tip of his member in making you sift and whine in discomfort. ‘’Do I need to stop?’’ Jungkook asks halting.

‘’No, just be slow.’ You assure already feeling the familiar heat in your belly. Jungkook obeys and slides inside of you slowly spearing you wider. When he is fully seated he halts and brushes your hair out of way kissing you neck. After you feel comfortable enough you speak. ‘’You can move now.’’ Jungkook is quick to follow and slides almost all the way out and then slides slowly back in. He repeats the motion for few times until you get impatient. ‘’Go faster and harder,’’ ‘’Are you sure?’’ ‘’I'm just please Jungkook I need-’’ You moan when his thrust gets more speed and strength. ‘’Say my name again.’’ Jungkook tells burying his hands into your hips so hard that he is surely leaving marks. ‘’Jung-kook.’’ You pant when Jungkook pounds inside of you without mercy. Jungkook moans for that and for a while only sounds that fills the forest are your both needy moans. You feel the tightening feeling nearing you again. ‘’I’m close.’’ You warn and Jungkook's hand sneaks around your body to find your clit. With the extra simulation you came seeing stars behind your eyelids. Your insides squeezing Jungkook’s dick hard like a wine makes him careless and he comes right there inside of you. Jungkook pulls away from you shuddering his seed leaking out of your used hole. Jungkook curses and blames the alcohol for him being careless. ‘’What’s wrong?’’ You ask after you come back to the ground again. ‘’I came inside of you.’’ Jungkook tells feeling guilty. ‘’Oh, its okay I can’t get pregnant right now.’’ ‘’How you are so sure?’’ Jungkook asks worriedly. ‘’I just am.’’ You assure, you can’t just tell him that you can’t come pregnant outside of your heat. A small yawn escapes your lips and Jungkook spins you leaning against the tree so you are facing him again. Jungkook helps your pants back up quietly and adjust his own. He pulls you on the ground him leaning against the tree this time and putting you to his lap without caring the coldening air. You yawn again and relax in his arms. You are almost asleep when he whispers. ‘’Don’t worry if you got pregnant i take the responsibility.’’ Next morning you wake up in Jungkook’s loud scream of horror. You open your eyes your body in full alert and ready to attack anyone who is threatening you. ‘’Oh my god, did a wolf eat Y/N last night and I didn’t hear a thing?’’ He shudders and backs of crawling from you. You look him with wide eyes feeling confused when it hits you at once. you had changed in to your wolf form while sleeping your previous night's clothes torn around your form. You curse at yourself, you never turned in human if you slept as a wolf but it happened sometimes other way around. You try get in to standing position but Jungkook shakes even more in fear seeking his belt and a knife which is hanging there loosely. At that moment you know what you have to do. Your bones start cracking and joints popping in front of Jungkook when your fur crawls back inside revealing a human skin. When your change is complete Jungkook looks you with shock. ‘’Y/N!’’ He whines and faints on the ground. You carry Jungkook’s unconscious form on the border of meadow and run away in your wolf form back to your village. You run through your village as fast as your paws carry you and bark in to your home to find Jin reading a book in the living area. ‘’Y/N what’s wrong.’’Jin asks worriedly and gets up from his seat. You sift in front of him without caring being naked and Jin covers his eyes quickly picking a blanket from one of the seats and throwing it at you. ‘’In sake of Luna cover yourself.’’ Jin screams. There is some limits that even werewolves follows and the one is being to avoid seeing your siblings naked even though you can’t sometimes avoid it. You are just in too big shock and denial to register your actions fully and you would surely be ashamed later on. You tie your blanket tightly around you and only by then Jin looks back at you again. ‘’Jin.’’ You cry and walk to your big brother's open arms. ‘’Tell me what’s wrong pup.’’ Jin uses a nickname that he hasn’t used in years. ‘’Jungkook knows what I’m now.’’ You tell crying and Jin keeps hugging you and petting your hair. ~ You return to the human village and this time Jin is following you in his wolf form just in case. It's the day that Jungkook is supposed to leave to the capital and you are terrified of losing him. You don’t expect much but feel warmth spearing through your body when you see Jungkook sitting in middle of the meadow staring the forest deeply in his thoughts. He has a heavy bag back next to him and he is weared for a traveling. Jin snuggles you with his snot to step out of the woods and he stays behind waiting for you. When Jungkook sees you stepping out of the forest he gets quickly up from the ground. You stop leaving a space between of you and Jungkook so he would feel more secure. To your surprise Jungkook takes a closing steps and without a word pulls you into his embrace. ‘’I thought that I wouldn’t see you again.’’ he breathes into your hair and loosens his hold so he can see your face. ‘’I thought that I would scare you.’’ You say confused. ‘’You could never scare me. I admit I was shocked and didn’t take it well but I felt really broken after I woke up alone and you were nowhere to be seen.’’ Jungkook admits. ‘’At least now I know the wolf who was so brave to sleep next to me.’’he adds with small chuckle. ‘’I’m happy that you feel that way.’’ You admit and glance his bag sadly. ‘’Are you leaving?’’ ‘’I have to but I promise to get you when I can.’’ Jungkook tells feeling guilty. ‘’It’s my dream to serve the king.’’ ‘’I know.’’ You smile sadly and a tear slips from you eyes. ‘’I will always come back to you my wolf girl.’’ Jungkook tells pressing his lips against your he also crying. A bark from the forest line pulls you apart and you see your brother who has stepped out form the meadow and gesturing you to follow. ‘’It’s my brother.’’ You tell to confused Jungkook. ‘’Oh.’’ Is all that Jungkook can say measuring the huge wolf in front of him. Even though he said that he accepts you it doesn’t mean that he adjust in a seconds. ‘’I will be always waiting you by the treeline.’’ You tell stepping away from Jungkook. ‘’And I will be always calling my wolf.’’

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hardnoctlife · 4 years

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My Thoughts on FFVIIR

It’s been a few days since I finished FFVIIR, and I wanted to put my thoughts on the game into words, but I gotta get a few housekeeping things out of the way.

1. These are all MY opinions. I understand and respect that others may have different opinions from me, however, that does not make this an open invitation for argument in the comments, bashing, etc. I have no problem blocking anyone who wants to be an asshole. Just be nice, please.

2. I grew up playing FFVII and all of its spin-offs. FFVII was my first RPG, and ultimately what got me into playing video games. Nostalgia is a -huge- part of why I enjoyed FFVIIR so much, and therefore I am openly biased towards the game. I’m interested to hear the thoughts of people not familiar with the original, because they’re seeing the story with a fresh set of eyes.

3. With that being said, I’ve already noticed drama surrounding FFVIIR fans who -have- played the original vs. those who haven’t, or those who haven’t played Crisis Core, etc. I am firmly of the belief that this is a great game for new and old fans and won’t tolerate any condescending attitudes in either direction. Video games are supposed to be fun, so let’s just all agree to enjoy the thing TOGETHER, shall we?

Alright, now that those things are out of the way, onto my thoughts. **MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**

I’m going to be breaking this up into sections, because there is just too much to dissect! Let’s start with the characters.

“The Good Guys”

Cloud: Still my favorite character of all time, even more so after playing the remake. And of course, he is gorgeous. I could stare into his eyes all day. I know there has been a lot of controversy over getting new voice actors for the remake, but I feel like his VA did a great job. They nailed his personality of “broody asshole with a heart of gold”, and I think the remake had reasonable and believable character development when it came to Cloud’s interactions with the other party members. His dynamic with Tifa, Aerith, and Barrett was also spot on. I think it was a good move on Squeenix’s part to keep him pretty much the same, because he’s such an iconic character for the entire Final Fantasy series, so no complaints on my part!

Jessie: Okay, so, I hated Jessie at first. She was too flirty and all over Cloud for my liking, and I felt this strange disconnect between the “I used to be an actress but now I’m fighting for the planet” part of her backstory. Yes, she was still spunky in the original, but they didn’t draw it out nearly as much (I assume because she was killed off early). I -do- appreciate that the developer’s felt the need to give her more depth and show more interactions between her and Cloud and everyone else, but I also thought it detracted from Cloud’s relationships with Tifa and Aerith to an extent, especially the whole scene where she was asking him to come back to her place with him (yikes). And, true to Squeenix form, they killed off her character, even while letting Biggs and Wedge live (they both died in the original). So, in that sense, I didn’t really care that much for her, although her final scene with Cloud was very moving and redeemed her in some ways for me. So, yay for more screen time, but c’mon Squeenix, why do you gotta use your female characters this way?!

Biggs & Wedge: I loved the updates to their character models, and like with Jessie, I appreciate they tried to give them more depth and dialogue to make their involvement more significant. It did throw me for a loop when they both ended up living instead of dying when the Sector 7 plate fell. I was delighted to discover they survived (until I found out Jessie died and they didn’t). At times, I felt like their exalted importance detracted from other characters, especially at the end in Shinra HQ where Wedge shows up to warn everyone and Avalanche comes in to try and rescue Cloud & the gang, only to imply that he dies -there- instead. To me, it felt like an unnecessary moment to add in, but hey, there are only so many characters in the remake that people get to see, so why not give the Avalanche crew a more important role? I’m interested to see if this means that they’ll be returning in the next installments as they may be ‘fated’ to survive.

Barrett: What a glow up! Barrett looked good, he sounded good, his character was solid and true to the original. I have to say my favorite thing to see was how the banter and dialogue shifted between him and Cloud as you progressed through the remake. They went from basically hating on each other to complimenting each other and being buddy-buddy, and it was truly heartwarming. I even enjoyed using Barrett in battle (more on the fighting system later), which was refreshing. It was a good move on Squeenix’s part to show his softer side by including more scenes with Marlene, and he’s an excellent foil to Cloud’s character, which I feel was consistent for both games.

Tifa: My lady, the love of my life, my HERO. Tifa was -amazing- for me. Also, her VA was probably my favorite of the bunch. The updates to her outfit were much needed, yet she still retained her sexy allure, even if it was a little awkward to hear all the male NPC’s talking about how hot she was all the time. Other than Cloud, she was my favorite party member to use in battle—what a total badass!—and the scenes with her and Cloud made me squeal with delight. I was grateful for the extra attention put into their relationship, and how it was made clear that she was just as important and strong as the male characters.

Aerith: First, the positives. They expanded Aerith’s fighting range, which was appreciated, because in the original I only used her as healer. Her personality shone through a bit more, as she was even ore outgoing than I remembered her being (and even cursed a few times!), and I loved all of her interactions with Tifa and Cloud (my favorite trio/love triangle). Her backstory was pretty well communicated regarding the Ancients and her relationship with Shinra. On the flip side of things, I found her party banter annoying as hell and her voice grating at times (it reminded me of a high school girl), and I’m not sure how I feel about her interactions with the Whispers and what that implies for future installments. There was some hinting at the end of the remake that Aerith may not die like she did in the original (at least that was my interpretation), and I’m not sure whether I like that possibility or not, mainly because Aerith’s death is one of the most memorable scenes of FFVII, and that would change the entire plot. For better or for worse, who’s to say?

Red XIII: I loved all of the scenes with Red! His voice fit him really well, and they showed a lot of character development with him and the group in a short amount of time. I was sad you couldn’t control him in your party, but I’m hoping that will change in the next installment. I’m excited to see his backstory in Cosmo Canyon when we finally get to that point in the remake.

Chadley: This kid was annoying and weird, and I wasn’t sure exactly what his deal was, but he was definitely shady AF. Not sure why he was entirely necessary if he was simply a way to upgrade your materia, but hey, I’ll take that assess materia from ya buddy if it means new stuff for me to use.

Johnny: Johnny grew on me. Was he also annoying and weird too? Yes. But he reminded me of a Prompto-Gladio lovechild and turned out to be a sweetheart, so I say he can stay, Squeenix.

“The Bad Guys”

Shinra executives: Not much to say here for me other than great job in bringing this diabolic group to life. Yep, still hate every one of ‘em. They stayed pretty much true to their original selves, and all of them matched what I remembered of them, right down to the dialogue. I thought it was an interesting choice to see Sephiroth kill President Shinra (in the original you just find him dead at his desk, impaled on Sephiroth’s sword), but I’m not complaining. That guy was a grade A asshole.

The Turks: Love, love, love how they portrayed each of these guys, and showed how they are also unwilling participants in all of Shinra’s shit. They definitely made them more likeable from the get-go and I felt a lot of callbacks to Advent Children. Reno cursing and being sassy was probably one of my favorite things out of the entire game. He had -so- many great lines, even if they weren’t direct translations of the Japanese. I’m hoping they will include more of the Turks in future installments (like Cissnei in Crisis Core) and continue fleshing out their story arcs.

Rosche: Okay, unpopular opinion, but I did not like this guy at all. I’m not sure what the hype is about him all over my social media. Could be the mullet, which is an automatic ‘no’ for me (Gladio from FFXV being the only exception), but he seemed like an irritating and very pointless addition to the game. His sole purpose appeared to be to prepare you for escaping Shinra and fighting from Cloud’s motorcycle towards the end, but I felt like he could have been taken out of the story entirely without missing anything. I didn’t hate as many of the newer characters (like Leslie) as much as I did him, but I guess he and I just didn’t vibe. I’m assuming he’ll return later on, so maybe my opinion will change. (I sure hope so.)

Leslie: Okay, at first, I was like, “who is this knock-off Noctis wannabe?” but I really enjoyed the backstory and depth they gave this seemingly minor character. I see that Squeenix is trying to provide new things for older fans to take interest in, and in this case, I felt he was a nice touch. (Edit: I was told that Leslie, Kyrie, and some of the other new NPCs were featured in an audio book?! Which I had no idea even existed, so...the more you know!)

Don Corneo: Even slimier and creepier in HD! Honestly, hats off to Squeenix for translating what was possibly the most cringy and controversial part of the original in a ‘tasteful’ way in regard to all of Wall Market. This guy was definitely a worthy villain in the remake.

Rufus: Holy hell. I never ever in my life thought I’d be saying this, but wow, is Rufus hotter than I remember. Thank you, Squeenix for giving me another foxy bad boy to drool over. He was also, for me, the hardest and most frustrating boss battle (even more so than Sephiroth), but it was totally worth dying to watch all the cut scenes with him over again. Can’t wait to see more of him in the next installment.

Hojo: God, I hate this guy. I know you’re -supposed- to, but he is such a creep. Hearing his dialogue in the remake was even worse than reading it in the original. Gotta say, dealing with his four wards in Shinra HQ was my least favorite part of the game by far, but I know he will get his comeuppance later down the road. All the dialogue was just as shocking as I remember, so, yeah. Good job?!

Sephiroth: Alright, anyone else feel like they made Sephiroth EXTRA SEXUAL in this remake?! You too? Oh, good, good, same bro. Now, it could just be me projecting, but anytime he came on the screen…panties were dropping y’all. Of course, I’m not one to complain about Sephiroth content. On the contrary, I lap it up like I just walked through the desert and found an oasis, BUT, I will say this…you barely see Sephiroth at all at this point in the original. As a reminder, the remake only covered the first 4-6 hours of the original game, and I get you can’t really do a remake without at least SHOWING Sephiroth for the people who have been waiting to see him in HD, but with that being said, he was VERY involved. I love Sephiroth, he’s a great villain, but they are definitely changing things with him, so I guess we will have to wait and see what happens.

My one criticism? His voice was my least favorite out of the main characters. Not saying the VA didn’t do a great job, but it didn’t sound deep enough to be as intimidating. I prefer the VA who voiced him in Advent Children, but I’m sure it will grow on me in time.

Gameplay

Battle system: When the remake’s demo was released, I remember a lot of people were complaining about how ‘difficult’ the new battle system was, but I absolutely love it. It’s just the perfect balance of turn-based and real-time, with plenty of options for customization. If you want more real time, you can set your short cuts, and if you want more turn-based, you also have that option. My only real complaint was that item use is also tied to the ATB bar, but overtime I figured out when to heal myself in a timely fashion (after dying more than a handful of times). Button mashers won’t enjoy this battle system because it requires a little more strategy, but I think the point was to create an updated version of the original fighting style that would appeal to both old and new players, and it definitely delivered. Seeing the classic limit breaks used and being able to run around during battle was so much fun for me, and I about died when I saw Cloud strike his OG victory pose in Wall Market’s coliseum. Also, the transition between running through Midgar and entering battle was SO incredibly smooth and seamless that at times you didn’t notice the shift. Phenomenal.

o Boss Battles: As much as I enjoyed the battle system of remake, some of the bosses felt unnecessarily hard and/or tedious (I’m looking at you, Hell House). Making use of the assess materia early on definitely helped me out, but I legit got bored at times, especially that damn giant robot you fight with only Barrett and Aerith when escaping Shinra HQ. This is really just a minor complaint, but there were a couple bosses where I died several times (*cough* Rufus *cough*) before I figured out the secret to defeating them, while others were super easy or just not that interesting. Meh. For context, I played on “normal” mode, but it truly felt hard in certain scenarios. (That could just have been me trying to get used to the new fighting style.)

o Materia: speaking of materia, I did notice some new materia in the game, which was neat, and although I didn’t care for Chadley (dude, where are your parents?) it was nice to have a way to develop and earn new materia throughout. I found it somewhat strange that summon materia was just a thing you could get so early on instead of having to work for it, but I was excited to use it. Shiva and Ifrit were definitely my favorite summons (which hasn’t changed from the original for me). My one big question: where is the freaking ‘all’ materia?! I know they kinda split ‘all’ up into many different types of materia, and you do have ‘pray’ for healing your entire party, but man, that was so versatile in the original so that was a hard adjustment for me not to have use of it.

o Weapons: I think it’s cool that they developed an upgrade system to make use of your weapons long term, giving them their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Made me think of FFX where you used the spheres to upgrade your characters. Also? I loved being able to see materia in my weapons when I switched them out. That was a really neat touch.

Music: And here I thought they couldn’t make the music of the original game any more epic, but they definitely outdid themselves in the remake. I enjoyed hearing all the remixes and ways they wove the classic themes into different parts of the games. I think my favorite was when you’re going through sector 5 with Aerith and have to control the giant robotic hands. The music in that section SLAPPED. The in-game jukebox was also a nice way to honor the old school classics. Hearing Aerith’s theme for the first time just about made me cry, and listening to One-Winged Angel fighting Sephiroth? Nothing could beat that moment musically for me.

Side quests: I’m not sure about anyone else, but I really didn’t care for the side quests. They weren’t very fun for the most part, and considering how linear the game is, they felt more like chores that needed to be completed because I had to, and not because I wanted to. The only exception was Wall Market, but all-in-all, most of them didn’t add much to the story, unlike in FFXV where I could go down a rabbit hole of sidequests for hours and hours.

Graphics: This is clearly stating the obvious, as anyone with eyes will tell you, the game is nothing short of gorgeous. I cannot tell you how many screencaps I took of just Cloud. It was definitely a world that I wanted to run around in for hours (and did) and will do so again and again just to look at all the little details. My favorite thing to do is watch comparison videos of the original and remake openings side-by-side. How crazy is it that technology has come this far!

Playtime: My biggest critique of this game is that it was too damn short. Stretching the first 4-6 hours of the original into 40 was definitely impressive, but considering I waited 20+ years for the remake, it was pretty disappointing to finish the game in less than a week. Like most people, I’m wondering just how long they plan on stretching this out, how many installments there will be, and when the second part will be released. Hopefully not another ten years, but it -is- Squeenix we’re talking about...

Storyline

Most people who played will tell you that most of the remake stayed very true to the original, even lifting some of the exact dialogue and scenes. The nostalgia hit me so hard in parts that I was literally in tears. The first time I watched the opening in the demo, I cried. That’s the power this game has over many people, including myself.

In other ways, the remake improved on parts of the story or re-imagined them. We always knew it wasn’t going to be a copy and paste of the original story, which I’m sincerely grateful for. I would seriously hope that after 20+ years they would have thought of ways to improve or polish FFVII and make it new and exciting for returning fans and people just picking it up.

My pros regarding the updates in the story:

- They fleshed out many background characters and added in new ones. Most of the core group spent more time interacting, and the party banter felt natural and progressed realistically as the game went on.

- New mini-games and side quests expanded on the slums and made the areas larger and more interactive, yet they still kept the nostalgia of iconic locales.

- Plenty of fuel to fan shipping fires with emotionally charged scenes and pretty boys abounding (Cloti and Clerith especially).

- All of Wall Market was brilliantly done. I was wondering how they’d update it for the new generation, and it was seriously the best part of the game for me (and had me laughing the entire time).

- Hinting that Zack is alive and/or Aerith may live is something I’m listing as a pro, only because I would love to see these characters used to their full potential, however, this is also a con for me, and I’ll explain why.

My cons:

Whispers: If you played the original, you probably had the same reaction as I did when the ‘Whispers’ showed up. “Wtf are these dementor-looking things?” At first, I thought they might be something similar to what we saw in Advent Children, and that they were ‘remnants’ or parts of Sephiroth, or somehow his minions, or even souls from the Lifestream, etc. When I found out they were actually supposed to be ‘protectors of fate’ or whatever, I rolled my eyes, especially when Barret was ‘killed’ by Sephiroth and then miraculously brought back to life. It felt very ‘deus ex machina’ to me in the sense that ‘everything has to go a certain way because we said so.’ While it makes sense, I really wasn’t buying it, but I’m assuming that we will learn more about them in the second installment.

The Ending: The whole final boss battle of the remake was surprising, because it felt almost exactly like the final boss bottle of the original game, right down to the cutscene where Cloud is thrown through space and faces off against Sephiroth one-on-one. Before you defeat the ‘harbinger of fate’ (anyone else get KH heartless vibes?) and fight Sephiroth as the final boss, Aerith goes on her long spiel about ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’ and ‘this will change us,’ and it’s laid on so thick that it’s almost like they were setting us up for an alternate timeline, which is entirely possible, but that’s all speculation at this point. Regardless, they made it clear that whatever is coming next is going to be -very- different from the original, or possibly is going to be another timeline of the story, especially since Zack was shown alive and well. One criticism I heard from someone who hadn’t played the original game was that they treated Sephiroth and Zack like people you were supposed to know, and I can agree with that. They didn’t spend -any- time explaining their significance, backstory, or why people were so afraid of Sephiroth other than showing you little flashbacks into Cloud’s deranged memories, so in that sense, the ending might have fallen flat for those who don’t know exactly what Sephiroth represents or who he is, or why he stole Jenova from Hojo’s lab, etc, etc. Plus, throwing in Zack at the end is something that anyone who played the original game or Crisis Core would get, but new fans would also not understand the significance of. Personally, I screamed when I saw Zack because I was so happy , but I can see why that ending would be very unsatisfying and/or confusing for some.

Overall: 9/10

No, it doesn’t get a 10/10 for me, even as someone who absolutely loves Final Fantasy VII, but hey, no game is perfect. It’s honestly hard to live up to the hype this game has created since it was officially announced, and all things considered, Squeenix -did- live up to it. I will still be eagerly awaiting part two, playing the shit out of this game and squeezing the most I can out of it until I get to experience more.

I’d love to hear what other people thought (so long as the discourse is respectful of course). If you read this far, thanks for listening to my ramblings!

#ffvii #ffviir #ffviir spoilers #ff7r spoilers #cloud strife #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 #review #thoughts #personal #opinion #final fantasy vii remake #final fantasy 7 remake

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mst3kproject · 5 years

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820: Space Mutiny

Well, I did one of MST3k’s John Phillip Law movies, so I might as well do the other. Ladies, Gentlemen, etc, I give you: Mother. Fucking. Space. Mutiny.

The Southern Sun is a generation starship on its way to colonize a new planet. Most of the people on board are okay with this, but there’s a faction, led by Commander Kalgan, who want to abandon the mission and land somewhere. Kalgan and his cronies are willing to do anything to get their way, including sabotage the ship and make a deal with some space pirates. Lucky the Southern Sun has Dave Ryder, a big dumb beefalo of a man who will roll, shoot, and scream the rebels into submission! Oh, yeah, and there’s some Yoga Witches in the cargo hold, I dunno what’s up with that, but the movie assures me they contributed.

MUZ has been called the Manos of the Sci-Fi Channel era, in that it’s incoherent and badly-photographed. This is a compelling argument, but for my own part I consider Space Mutiny the Manos of the Sci-Fi Channel era, in that it’s absolutely iconic. It’s the episode that comes to mind when people think of that period in the show. It gave rise to memes. It’s also very much the Starcrash of the Sci-Fi Channel era, in that it is absolute comedy gold in ways the film-makers never intended.

You could write a book on the many sparkling facets of this movie's sucktitude. As Mike and the bots repeatedly observed, Cisse Cameron is ten years older than the character she’s playing, and the ‘engine room’ shots are all in a factory somewhere with sunlight shining through the windows. As they famously never observed even once, all the spacecraft shots are stolen from Battlestar Galactica. The bridge is made of cardboard. Nobody’s costume fits – Ryder’s in particular sags at the ass, which is a shame because I bet his ass is terrific. The women wear outfits so tiny that one with extra-long hair looks like Lady Godiva from behind. The end credits song takes the best bits of every 80’s power ballad ever written and assembles them into something far less than the sum of its parts. You can hear the singer’s mullet.

The writing is nothing short of stunning in its badness. Battle sequences are a mess, with no idea what’s at stake in each area the mutineers are trying to capture. There are whole scenes in which nothing much is actually said – the most glaring example is probably the bit where Commander Santa tells Captain Sting ‘it would have to be somebody on this ship with something to gain from this’. The exchange tells us nothing we didn’t already know. MacPherson only shows up in the room where Miss Santa is being interrogated so that he can expose himself as a traitor. Kalgan uses ‘space-bitch’ as an insult, unironically, twice, and calls Ryder a ‘meddling fool’.

There are at least three places where something is set up and then disposed of without ever being paid off. Commander Santa’s daughter tells Ryder that they can call for help against the pirates and mutineers, but he says he figures Kalgan has already installed scramblers – so they don’t even try. That seems to me like a situation where can’t hurt, might help would be a good philosophy. There’s also the ‘countermeasures’ subplot, where we learn that MacPherson will have revealed all their defense plans to the mutineers… and then the whole subject is just dropped. The biggest dangling plot thread, however, is the Bellerians.

These are the Yoga Witches I mentioned. They show up wearing bathing suits and veils, rub themselves all over the walls and some of those plasma globes that were popular in the 80s and 90s, and I think they seduce some of the security personnel. One of them visits Commander Santa and tells him it’s time for action, and they murmur things about time being up for one or other of the mutiny leaders, but they never actually do anything. The first time I watched this, as the MST3K episode, years and years ago, I remember waiting and waiting for the Bellerians to do something cool and they never did. They are entirely decorative.

(They also made it impossible for me to take Avatar seriously. The exchange a superintelligent dandelion seed! – Man, they'll worship anything! will not leave my head the entire damn movie.)

I also have to ask: if Kalgan and his followers are not satisfied living on the Southern Sun, why don’t they just… leave? The ship is clearly still in an inhabited part of the galaxy. There are the pirates, there’s the idea of calling for help, and people do come and go. Professor Spooner was on board the ship at some point to be Miss Santa’s mentor, then he left, and now he’s coming back. The Bellerians arrive and are given a place to stay, and it’s implied that they will be on board for some time but not permanently. Ryder is new to the Southern Sun, and I think the nonsensical does that mean you won’t marry me? at the end is supposed to tell us that he’s leaving again and hoping to take Miss Santa with him. If Kalgan wants to go, he can… but the writers completely ignore this.

Yet for all that, Space Mutiny is actually quite engaging. It’s structured like a proper movie, alternating between action, mystery, and romance. Reb Brown as Ryder and Cisse Cameron as Miss Santa have decent chemistry – they actually met on this movie, fell in love, got married, and are still married to this day. Sometimes you can’t follow what’s going on in an individual scene, but you always know where you are in the story as a whole.

Miss Santa appears to be an attempt at a Strong Female Character(tm). She’s supposed to be a PhD, and she gets involved with the shooting and punching right alongside Ryder. I think the did you see my butt? scene is supposed to tell us that she’s in charge of her own sexuality (this might work better if the camera didn’t leer like a miserly tipper at a strip club), and when she’s taken hostage she’s able to almost rescue herself by the time Ryder comes for her. She also has a few hints of actual personality, in that she’s shown using her work in the greenhouse as a way to blow off steam, and she sulks a bit when she doesn’t get her way (well, that’s gratitude for you!).

Ryder is a much larger presence in the movie, both physically and in terms of screen time, but he has far less to him as a person. He’s brave and heroic and likes to yell and shoot at things, and that’s about it. I suppose, like Duke Barnum in Last of the Wild Horses, he’s supposed to be a man-shaped hole that the audience members can place themselves in. It works a bit better here, because Ryder is a handsome, muscular space pilot, which seems, at least to me, like a better fantasy life than ‘broke cowboy who interferes in other people’s problems’. There’s also the fact that Ryder has a reason to be involved in these events, since he, too, is trapped on the Southern Sun with the mutineers.

I guess Space Mutiny is probably trying to be about long-term versus short-term goals. The Southern Sun was built with a long-term goal in mind – find and colonize a new planet. The people on board mostly accept that they are just a stage in this process, and that the end result will benefit descendants they will never meet. The mutineers are focused on a short-term goal, settling on a planet somewhere and becoming rich and powerful. The movie doesn’t really delve into the consequences for everybody else on the ship if Kalgan wins, but we’re clearly meant to assume that the long-term goal entails more benefit to more people. That’s a good enough theme, I guess.

One thing the movie does go into, although probably by accident, is the nature of male versus female power. The men in this movie – Captain Santa, Ryder, and Kalgan – are proactive, giving orders, firing guns, and throwing punches. The women largely sit at desks and serve drinks, and those who attempt to take action are punished for it. Lieutenant Lamont tries to investigate the theft of explosives, and gets shot (we’re supposed to ignore the fact that she’s back at her console ten minutes later). Leah goes to help Ryder in the battle and is lectured for it. These are unacceptable forms of power for women to wield.

Acceptable female power is embodied in the Bellerians, who manipulate events subtly from behind the scenes. Unfortunately, they do it so subtly that I have no idea what, if anything, they actually contribute – which just makes it look like women can tell themselves they’re in charge but they’re not. They’re just hanging out while the men do all the real work.

I guess I should mention that there’s only one guy in this movie who isn’t white, and he’s hanging up in a freezer in his underpants. I could complain, but I’m tired.

What makes some bad movies entertaining and others insufferable? What is the difference between, say, Teenagers from Outer Space and Invasion of the Neptune Men, or The Giant Spider Invasion versus The Starfighters? Looking back across the gulf of around two hundred bad movies I’ve written about in the past three and a half years, I’m going to say it involves weaving your failures into a structure that might otherwise work. Fun bad movies have characters we can follow and a plot that makes some kind of sense – we know who Ryder and Miss Santa are, and we have some idea what they’re doing, so we’re not sitting and trying to puzzle that out instead of enjoying the floor polisher chase scenes. Once the movie has us in a place where we want to pay attention, it doesn’t really matter if the technicalities are up to snuff. This is where movies like Radar Secret Service fail, and where Space Mutiny almost succeeds.

#mst3k #reviews #space mutiny #80s #magic voice recommends

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peppusae · 4 years

Text

[kth] lavender honey ch. 7

note: this fanfic has multiple chapters, so please look forward to more!

lavender honey: kim taehyung x reader

genre: crack, fluff, college au, smut

word count: 3k words

lavender honey

ch 7: in which taehyung achieves his dream of world dominance. at least... in the world of your stupid thoughts.

The drive back is filled with jazz music.

Taehyung sits at the passenger seat, half-pouting at a stubborn Namjoon who did not give in, even when the younger male had asked him to rest.

So, instead, Taehyung continues to jam to jazz music and acting as if you all were inside a karaoke box. It’s lively for a change, so you find yourself giggling as you exchange chats with Jungkook here and there.

When a slow song comes on and Namjoon’s gaze goes to the way Taehyung’s deep voice sings the soft song, you put your phone down and listen to the younger male as well. You couldn’t see his face from your seat in the back seat, but you became acutely aware of some little details that you had never noticed before.

Kim Taehyung has the most beautiful shoulders, it fits his posture and build really well. It

You notice for the first time that his hair is growing out, a mullet of sorts.

Shit. That’s hot.

The nape of his neck is so smooth, and you can see the veins in his neck as he sings the song in a very sorrowful voice.

Oh.

This is too much, seriously.

Your subconscious mind, Minji is being extra horny today.

You shut your eyes tight and try to get the nasty visions your nastyass brain was forming in your head as far away from you as possible.

And then, you wake up.

You could feel a huge cramp on the left side of your neck, and when you begin to stretch the pain away, you realize that you’re still inside the car, and someone was next to you.

“T-Taehyung?”

“Ah, my dear cauliflower. You finally decided to wake up?”

Cauliflower?

That isn’t even worth questioning..

You yawn in response, stretching yourself a little and looking outside. “Ah, we reached? Where’s Joon?”

“He’s inside. For now, let’s get off.” Taehyung says, and you nod, opening the door and the two of you climb outside.

“Wait. How is it already night, we left from Ilsan in the evening, and the drive shouldn’t have taken more than half an hour, and you were in the passenger seat so why were you in the back just now-”

“You really should leave that nasty habit you have of dumping ten billion questions at once.” He has to say. “And you use varying registers for each word and it hurts my ears.”

“I use varying what?!”

“Anyway. Go back in, here’s the key to the car.” Taehyung says, throwing it at you and you manage to catch in. Score! “I’ll head off home. Rest well today, yeah?”

It’s kinda annoying that he wouldn’t wait for a response. Maybe it’s a guy thing. To say something cool and then turn around and walk off. Taehyung even has his hands in his pockets like the thug wannabe kid he probably is, as well. Is that a trend, now?

You watch him bring the door of the gate to a close, and then walk off, and honestly. Peach is such a hot color on him.

It’s kinda stupid, but peach is perfect on Taehyung’s hair because it makes him look beautiful during bright light, and very… attractive, at night, when the light is fading and the hue of peach darkens a little.

Why are you thinking about Taehyung’s hair at a time like this, what even.

You heave out a big sigh, opening the door and getting inside your house. You find Namjoon in his room, by his study desk, and he watches you take a seat on his bed.

“So. You slept in the car for two hours. How do you feel?”

“I what ?!”

“Yes you did. You fell asleep right after Taehyungie finally started driving, and I was gonna wake you up but he didn’t want to. So he stayed with you until you woke up.”

This makes your mouth wide open in shock, wondering just why on Earth he would stay for so long, when he could have just woke you up and asked you to go to bed at your own home.

See. This is going to go on to the list of the 54920435 things that will forever baffle you, in regards to Kim Taehyung. The mysteries are endless, and if someone is gonna do urban legends on the 21st century in the year 3829, you feel bad at how many things they’ll have to learn about Taehyung.

So instead, you wish Namjoon a good night and retire to your room, where you stare at the ceiling for God knows how long, before you fall asleep again.

‘Noona. Are you back? Can I call you?’

A text is waiting for you when you wake up on Sunday morning.

A couple seconds after you reply with a ‘yes’, Jungkook makes the call.

Not just sexy but also a reliable man! What a catch!!

“I… I found out Taehyungie-hyung went to Ilsan to visit you… I had no idea, Noona. If I knew, I’d have gone with him, as well.”

You shake your head, giving him a smile in response. Wait a sec. This is a phone call bro.

Oh yeah.

“It’s fine, Kookie. I’m fine, really. I just had a hard day, but I’m okay, now. Joon is, too.”

“Noonim. If you don’t have other plans, I’d like to prepone our date for tomorrow, to today.”

“I’d like that, Jungoo.”

“I’ll pick you up in an hour, Noonim.” Jungkook says, before he hangs up.

He shows up five minutes early.

Your mouth is an ‘o’ like those naan you crave to perfect when Joon announces that Jungkook has shown up. Since you were not finished getting ready yet, you ask Namjoon to bring the kid inside till you finish.

Since finding out that Jungkook feels… that…. Uh? Positive… Wanna-go-out kind of feelings towards you, you find yourself changing a little in the sense that your allowance each month goes towards buying beauty products instead of useless junk food.

You even bought one of those stupid… tweezers…

Bruh. What were you even becoming?

Jeon Jungkook is quite famous among the freshmen, and you’ve had some of your classmates ask about what your relationship was, when you two had been wearing the totally-obvious-as-fuck clothing on your first date day.

What really was your relationship with Jungkook? Even Taehyung had asked the same question and you didn’t really have much of a solid answer to give.

Oh shit. That might have been the first time you didn’t have a good answer to give to Kim Taehyung.

Dammit. You really hope Seokjin manages to prepare that memory-erasing potion he fantasizes on creating. It’d be nice to wipe that memory away from his head.

And also that time when you came down to the living room to get ice after you’d finished waxing and you were only wearing your towel around your body and Taehyung had been chillaxing with Namjoon and discussing which member from Stranger Things went through the most development.

That’s some quality discussion, now that you think about it.

You also hope you could erase the memory of him watching you slather on makeup for your first date. Crazy as shit, but you still think about that… disappointed expression on his face.

Is this what doom feels like?

Now that you think some more, you’d probably use the potion on erasing only things related to Taehyung.

Why are we even (silent) discussing fantasy potions even, how is Seokjin gonna create a memory-erasing potion when he can’t even figure out and notice how obvious it is that Namjoon likes him back.

Send help now.

You shake your head and race down the stairs after you get ready. Jungkook is sitting on the sofa next to Namjoon, and you didn’t even know that Taehyung hadn’t left for home yet.

So, the two Kim boys and one Jeon boy are just chilling around the coffee table, playing uno.

Uno? L a m e.

Okay, Uno isn’t really lame, but you were expecting them to do something more wild and less mediocre… Maybe having a mini parkour marathon.

Okay, you’ve watched way too much of prince of stride episodes.

Jungkook looks up when you finally come over to the living room.

“Noonim!”

“Noonim?!” Namjoon’s voice echoes in startlement. Out of context, sure, that sounds a bit weird. Who even calls people that anymore, this is the age of blossoming Noona-romances, after all-

Minji does a double flip in your head, so you tell her to calm the fuck down.

“[Name]-noona is older than me, of course. So-”

“I know that, but why specifically Noonim, is my question-”

“Your sister has some nastyass kinks, dearest Hyung of mine.” Taehyung has to say, before he puts a card down and screeches ‘UNO’ at the top of his lungs.

Jungkook looks very flustered and takes a glance at you, too embarrassed to look at Namjoon and instead looks at Taehyung with a small pout.

Seriously, Taehyung really needs to grow up.

Wait.

If Taehyung does any more of growing up, his voice is probably gonna be deeper and his shoulders broader and his-

Minji needs to shut the fuck up oh my good god.

“Shut up!” You hiss at Taehyung. What was he even doing here anyways? Doesn’t he have an apartment that has been paid to keep him inside it? Why can’t he do one single job?

“L-Let’s go, Noona?” Jungkook says, and you nod. He still looks to embarrassed after Taehyung’s remark, to look at Namjoon, so he simply says ‘I’ll be off, Hyung’ instead and stands up. You pull on his sleeve a little and Jungkook lets you pull him out as you stomp out of the house, feeling a little bit annoyed.

“It’s nice to know that you’re not too gloomy. I’m sure your grandpa is at a better place now, so don’t put yourself through any pain. He isn’t suffering either.”

Those are such comforting words, and you almost tear up and ruin your mascara at the way Jungkook looks a little worried.

“I won’t. Where are you taking me, Jungoo?”

The nickname makes him smile, showing his front teeth and he looks so adorable that you can’t stand it. How can he have such burly arms but such doe eyes and bunny teeth like that?

Some men get ALL the luck.

Jungkook interrupts your worry towards the rest of the general male population by pointing at where his bike was parked at. After he makes sure you’ve gotten on his bike safely, he asks you to please be patient for a bit.

And then.

He takes you to an art gallery.

Jungkook takes you to an art gallery, filled with classical paintings.

The paintings there are so detailed, vibrant and beautiful, and they do nothing but remind you of Taehyung.

Okay. This is getting out of hand. When did this even start?

Is it because he came to attend your grandpa’s funeral?

Or because you both keep spending so much time together for your extra credit?

Is it because he’s the one you see the most after Namjoon?

Or is it simply nothing except the sole fact that he technically worships Vincent Van Gogh?

Jungkook seems to notice your fraying thoughts and lack of conversation between you two.

“Noonim? Are you upset about what Taehyungie-hyung said?”

“No! That’s not it! I’m so sorry Taehyung said that. He’s really stupid, he doesn’t realize what he’s saying when he speaks!!”

Jungkook reacts belatedly, his stare on you for a couple seconds before he then says, ‘Was it a lie?’

“What-”

“You know what I’m talking about, Noona~” He sings, and this makes you punch his arm playfully, your face heating up.

Of course, it’s a kink.

Jungkook himself is a kink, after all.

You were so glad you didn’t say that out loud.

Minji has some issues today.

Daylight changes to city lights in the matter of a couple hours while the two of you laze around at a coffee shop and sip on frothy coffees.

While Jungkook drives you back home and you have your hands clutching onto two handfuls of his sweater, you take a good moment to think about your day.

And it’s very upsetting for you when you realize how different this date was from your first date with Jungkook, how much less the conversations had become, and you wonder if Jungkook would still be interested in taking you out if you keep having other thoughts and memories splurging around in your mind like crazy.

“Noona, next week, can I take you to the grass fields a couple blocks from my apartment? It’s really pretty there, and I want to take you there and then take you home.”

“W-What?!”

Holy shit, you could almost see Minji starting to strip, in your head.

You nasty.

“Ah! I- I really need to learn to rephrase my wordings better.” Jungkook says with a facepalm. Minji is putting her clothes back on when he goes on. “I want to show you what I do. Like, what I’m drawing and what kind of videos I make.”

“Oh.”

“You sound a bit disappointed, Noona.”

“Don’t be too cocky.” You respond, and this earns a big grin from Jungkook, and he hurries to intertwine your fingers together. “Now that I think about it, even if we’ve known each other for a while, I haven’t really been able to see much of your drawings.”

“That’s right! I want to show you so that you’d be impressed!” He gushes. “I always want to take pictures of you that I can sketch, if I have your permission. I have the whole date all planned!”

This makes you giggle, the two of you taking a seat at the porch of your house. It was nice that he didn’t want to leave just yet and thought the same thing you did.

“I also have one more date all planned out! That’s for the next next week, though.”

“What’s that date for?”

“I want to sit by the beach with you for the whole day.”

Your heart swells. Aigoo. How can someone be that cute? You’re almost afraid of asking, because you weren’t sure how much your fragile heart could handle this cute little baby boy.

“And the week after that?”

“Well…” He says, glancing at you, and then getting up. “Let’s let you decide that.”

You give him an ok sign, and the two of you glance at the door.

“I should get going,” Jungkook says, carding his fingers through your hair and looking a little disappointed. “Go in first, Noona. I’ll see you at college tomorrow.”

“Drive safe, Jungoo. I had fun today. With you.”

This makes him smile, and you’re expecting the action much earlier than it actually starts, when he holds your hands tight and then leans in to kiss you.

The taste of banana milk still remains on his lips, and the way one hand softly holds your cheek tenderly makes your heart race a little as you kiss him back and wrap an arm around his neck.

Your first kiss! With Jeon Jungkook!

It’s such a new warmth, and it still stays, even when Jungkook moves away a little, his hold changing into a hug while he looks at your face.

“That was my first kiss, Noonim.” He confesses, bursting into a huge grin.

“That was my first kiss too, Jungoo.”

“What?! Are you serious?” He looks surprised, but doesn’t let you go, and you look up at him and give him a nod.

“I’m a happy, and very lucky man, then. I… I like this, and this is definitely not a platonic feeling.”

Your heart races a little, and the fact that Jungkook has both his arms around your waist is not helping. You really couldn’t concentrate, and the fact that you two were still standing at the porch of your house makes you a little nervous about Namjoon or Taehyung seeing you two.

Ah. That was quite a lot of time that went by without you thinking about Taehyung.

Did Minji sign a contract with him or what-

“Let’s see what happens, Noona. Let’s go on dates and find out what we feel. Are you okay with me?”

“Okay is not enough as an adjective to describe how I feel about you.”

“That makes me glad.” Jungkook joins you and chuckles, and then he takes a step away. “Go inside first, and I’ll text you when I go home.”

“Bye, Jungkook- Wait. You have some of my lipstick on your lips!” You say, noticing the uneven red on his lips now.

“What? Really?!”

When you reach a hand to his face, he takes a step back, shaking his head a little.

“K-Keep it.”

“But-”

“Ah, Noona~ Don’t make your Jungoo more embarrassed!” He whines cutely, and you’re surprised that you aren’t on the floor as melted goo right now.

The two of you wave goodbye, and Jungkook heads back home with a big smile on his face.

There’s no one downstairs, and you’re still recovering from the little high you were on because of Jungkook. As you walk upstairs and head to your room, you see that Namjoon’s room door was open.

Now, you had zero intentions on eavesdropping on what was going on, but when you hear ‘Do you like someone, Taehyung-ah?’, you can’t just walk past or interrupt the conversation, right?

Yeah! You’re doing the right thing! Who knows how much Namjoon might have worked to finally ask this question.

Yeah! It’s all for your bro’s sake!

“My… my chances are rare, hyung. I might want to hold tight, the person I like, but I can’t. Not when things are going well for her with the person she likes. I don’t want to be the person that ruins things for the one person I have the hardest time staying away from, you know?”

#lavender honey #kim taehyung #taehyung #bts #fanfic #btsfanfic #taehyungfanfic #4thwall

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real-fakedoors · 5 years

Link

star-crossed just hit 1,000 kudos!

(klance / cinderella AU / fantasy & medieval elements)

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR AMAZING LOVE AND SUPPORT.

like, just, wow.

I never thought this story would amass such a loving audience and im humbled everyday when i log into AO3 and see the steady uptick in kudos, comments, bookmarks all of it. I check the stats on this fic religiously and I promise if you’ve even VIEWED the fic I’ve noticed, I watch it that closely. thank you, from the very bottom of my heart; there aren’t adequate words to express my gratitude.

I wanted to at least share something to mark this milestone, so here is the working introduction to the second installment. I’m so excited to get some of my other projects finished so I can dive back into this. :)

Lance had heard his fair share of folk tales from his Mamá, about people who rise above the station of their birth, about triumphing against bitter odds, about falling in love and living happily ever after. He remembered a lot of awfully convenient montages, glossing over the finer details of consequences. What happened to the villains? Did they get thrown in jail? Executed? Or what about the hero’s best friend, ex-lover, family—do they miss the hero once they go on to live their big, exciting lives, or is it always a happily ever after?

Maybe those are just the stories people like to tell. The stories people like to remember, where everyone is happy and the bad things only happen to bad people.

Most of the tales Lance knew didn’t tell him what happened when people are stuck living in the poverty they were born into, no matter how hard they try to get out of it; or what happens when the odds are not in the hero’s favor; or how love is so painfully unconditional, and impossible to explain, and that it could kill you much faster than any magical weapon or poisoned apple if you let it.

He was staring at the pages of an old tome, thick but well-maintained, the pages all in decent shape. It had been pulled from the archives by Sir Coran before he and the others returned to Altea, and Lance had found himself zoning out on the image of a pretty blonde human in the arms of her pretty human Prince Charming.

A weird thought occurred to him: would stories be written about Keith, like this one? It was easy to forget that Keith was indeed a figure of legends, would be memorialized like all the Princes and Queens and rulers that came before him.

Would people make up harrowing things to say about them?

Lance almost laughed out loud before turning the page. “Pfft. No.”

Because, first of all, Prince Charming? Out of the long list of words Lance would use to describe his fiancé, charming was not really one of them. Irritable, thoughtful, and just mullet, to name a few.

and, a few other small things to share in celebration, I’ve included two scenes beneath the cut

deleted scene from epilogue pt. 2 untitled dream sequence from the second installment

deleted scene from epilogue, pt. 2 conversation between paladins, Allura and Coran keith POV

[Allura continued.] “I want to give you the best answer available, I need to have all the information surrounding this whole mess first. For that to happen…” she sighed, a sound of abrupt sadness slipping through a clearly, if not expertly, worn façade. “I need to ask you all a favor, but once again, unfairly, much of the burden for this falls to Lance. It is of paramount importance that you tell me exactly what transpired between you and Lotor, starting from the first night he approached you.”

The tan-skinned teenager blinked a few times, and Keith thought he looked paler than when he and Shiro first arrived. Gently, he gave Lance’s hand a little squeeze. “Oh. Umm. I mean, I can, I just -- what do you need to know?”

Fingers steepled in front of her nose, the Princess sighed. “As much as you feel you’re comfortable sharing, I suppose, but I would say the more the better. I just don’t know enough of what the Galra have planned, or if this is connected to Zarkon, Lotor, the witch -- none of them, all of them?” she sounded unusually frustrated, a fist coming down on the table. The mouses scurried towards different paladins, leaving the two Alteans to stare at each other. Keith didn’t mind the mouse, but he did glower at Allura -- she didn’t mean anything by it, he knew, but perhaps the nonverbal warning would be enough to have her compose herself. No need to project her anger towards Keith’s fiancé.

“I — I mean, I can try, some of the stuff Lotor said was really…” he paused to bite his lip, and Keith felt a strange twist in his stomach when Lance’s eyes darted anxiously towards him. “It was sort of… personal. I was kind of trying to forget about it, to be honest. Thinking about it makes me… I don’t know, I can tell you if you think it’s important, but it might...make you mad?”

By the end, Lance wasn’t talking to Allura anymore, and Keith’s hand was moving before he could really think about it.

“Hey, stop that,” the Prince said, brushing his thumb over the abused skin of Lance’s bottom lip so he might stop with the self-harming habit. “Don’t bottle things up for my benefit. If you have something you want to say, say it. I can’t promise I won’t get mad, but I can promise I’ll get over it.”

Shiro barely concealed his snort with a cough. “Wow, Keith, that might be the most mature thing you’ve ever said.”

Keith attempted to kick Shiro under the table. “Fuck you, old man.”

That made Lance laugh, and while Pidge made a point to do a loud gagging demonstration, it did little to distract from the simple pleasure Keith felt at being responsible for eliciting such a pretty sound from his fiancé.

Lance’s shoulders were still visibly tense, but he didn’t look quite as uneasy about the subject when he met Allura’s steely, blue-soulfire gaze. “Okay. I guess, what, start from the third night of the ball? That’s when I really interacted with Lotor. A little on the second night, but he was mostly just being a dick.”

Nodding, the Princess gestured for Coran to take a seat beside her. A writing utensil and fresh piece of parchment seemed to materialize in the advisors’ hand.

“Queen Krolia has managed to supply some basic information on what happened when you and Lotor spoke privately in the infirmary, but due to the nature of your healing, the resources expended on gathering testimony, and all the other din of these past few quintant, it doesn’t appear you’ve given any sort of statement about what you and Lotor talked about -- the night of the peace summit, and then explicitly what was discussed that night in the infirmary. I know this is asking a lot, but it’s important that we’re all on the same page if we’re to try to fight whatever this is.”

“I — well — I guess I just hadn’t thought about, like, talking to anyone about it, like in a reporting-way.” He looked thoughtful for a moment before choosing a place to begin. “The night of the peace accord thing, he said I had to dance with him, or he was going to tell the realm that I was in a relationship with Keith. In retrospect, it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but he had… framed it… in a sort of shitty way.”

“Meaning?”

Lance swallowed, his hold on Keith’s hand slipping away as his complexion took on a rosy tint. “Uhh… well, he said, um… like, it was insulting to me to, ya know, sleep with Keith. He said I could do a lot better… and obviously implied that he was the better option. Like, it would have been a big scandal or something for both Keith and you, since, like, both of you were still supposed to be getting married at the time? That’s about when Coran showed up. Oh, and er, he also saiiiiiid…” his voice turned sing-songy, face even redder. “That I was special, and uh, that he would find a way to ‘make me his,’ basically no matter what. He said ‘Keith is your price’, which like, I don’t know if I’m super okay with the idea of talking about myself in those terms, but… I didn’t really have a good comeback that wouldn’t put both your reputations in jeopardy, so I just didn’t answer.”

From the side of the table, Hunk looked like he wanted to reach over and scoop Lance up like a baby. “Buddy...”

Lance cleared his throat, staring at Coran’s hand as it flew over the page, not meeting anyone’s eye. “I’m fine, Hunk. The next time I saw him was after everything, I was in that private room Sir Adam let me use. I woke up, and I was just like, bam, on the ground. It was sort of dizzying and I hadn’t been sleeping super well so I guess, I just didn’t know how to react at first. He told me back talk wasn’t —” A pause, and Lance pursed his lips. “He told me not to talk and to just listen. So, ya know, I wasn’t in a position to fight him, so I did as he said. I mean, my back was exposed and he basically was standing on me so I didn’t have a choice.”

Lance sat up, back arching a bit as he ran his hands through his hair. Keith noticed his fingers were shaking when he pulled them back down and into his lap again. Silently, the Prince was simmering beneath the surface, his blood hot and roaring in his ears. The edge of his vision had tinted red.

“And then there was a lot of the same stuff again. He was super fixated on the fact that I was with Keith. I don’t know, I feel like he jumped around a lot, because after that there was this big monologue about how the realm was about to go to war. And that no matter what happened, as long as... I was alive, there would be a war… unless I became one of his ‘consorts.’ I know, it was really fucked up.” Lance added the last sentence quickly, arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Um. He went through this whole list, pretty much. He said Daibaazal would absorb Olkarion, and then Altea would be next or something. And that his dad is on some super fucked up power trip, feeling like he’s not important anymore with Marmora and Altea around. And that the guy who had the bomb, he asked me if I saw him -- I did. He looked… Olkari, but Lotor seemed like he expected that? Like, he said it was probably an Altean shape-shifted as an Olkari. Um… what else… oh, yeah. Um. He gave me an ultimatum, and said if I didn’t go along with him, my choices were:” Lance began ticking them off on his fingers, one by one. “Let Zarkon kill me, like, I think he said make an example or maybe a martyr of me or something; make a statement that I was the one who set off the bomb so I might not get literally murdered by his Dad, instead, I would, hah --” he let out a humorless chuckle -- “I could just fucking hang for it instead. How messed up is that? Or I could let the realm go to war if I stayed in Marmora. Or, lastly, I could agree to be his -- his personal bitch, basically. I don’t know what goes into being a consort but I have an idea, and I -- yeah. I didn’t have much of a choice, though I told him to fuck off and that I’d rather let Zarkon kill me with his bare hands than spend another second with him.”

Keith had never in his life tried so hard to control the devastatingly violent impulse of his Galra heritage, but his gums tingled with the insistent pressure of fangs pushing against his mouth. Even the skin of his fingers felt strange, like he could so easily just let go of his control and the tips could sharpen into claws in seconds if he let them.

Breaking Lotor’s wrist now felt pathetically underwhelming. He should have just killed him. The realm would have been better for it.

“Anyway... Lotor wasn’t super happy about that, I know, shocker. And he basically said he would buy my family, you know, since we’re all fucking slaves or whatever, if I didn’t do what he said. I didn’t -- I didn’t know what to do. I want to say I would never agree to that but just, f-fuck, I’m sorry.” Lance’s voice cracked at the end, the sound of tears edging into his tone. His arms, already folded over his chest, tightened. “So, yeah. That’s when the Queen showed up.”

“Stars above, I’m so… sorry. I had no idea it was that severe.” Allura sounded disturbed, and both Hunk and Pidge were exchanging nervous glances with each other. Keith couldn’t see Shiro, seeing as he was turned to face Lance, who was staring down at the box on the table in front of him with a clenched jaw and dry eyes.

“I’m okay,” Lance said for the second time, and some of the immediate emotion had drained from his voice. “Keith’s mom showed up before I had to agree to anything. That’s all that happened with Lotor, though. The only other thing was the vision-dream thing I had with Blue… I told you guys about that while Keith was getting his stitches, right?”

Various people nodded, and Keith vaguely remembered hearing Lance’s voice, too-loud to be speaking to people nearby but that was just how Lance was, somewhere off to his side. He made a mental note to ask him to re-explain the details to that later.

“...So, yeah. That’s all I can really remember. I don’t remember Lotor mentioning anything about Oriande or any of this stuff.”

“Yes, well,” the Princess laid out both her hands on the table, and as if a silent call, all four mice returned to her in a sudden rush of paws and squeaks. “I’m not sure of anything at this point, but I am near certain that this is the witch’s doing at minimum. Whether it is Zarkon or Lotor who she is aiding, we will still have to consider all of this information. The fact that Lotor seemed to find it unacceptable that you die, so much so that he was willing to blackmail you, leads me to believe he might be more invested in this than I had previously thought. It could have been his pathetic attempt at courtship, but I’m not sure. Whatever it is, the reality is the same: something is happening to the realm, and if more corruption like that we saw earlier from that Beast spread, I fear the whole realm may be in danger. For now, we will have to continue to gather information, try to understand what exactly they’re planning.”

unpublished from part 2:

untitled dream sequence

lance POV

His legs weren’t working properly.

Lance felt them buckling, like his torso and arms and head and heart were weighed down by the entire universe. Why? Why couldn’t he use his legs? He wasn’t even standing, so the fact that his dumb legs weren’t working seemed especially frustrating to him. Laying on his stomach, Lance pushed himself up to a sit-up, the bottom half of his body utterly useless at the moment. Ugh.

Someone was calling his name, but the voice was warbled and hard to place, like he’d been trapped beneath the ice of a lake and there was someone pounding on the other side, trying to find him.

Craning his neck, it was with a small start that he realized he knew this place, dark and infinite and magnificent in every direction, but he couldn’t move. What was it called? Why couldn’t he remember? Blue told him about it...

“Blue? Blue, are you here?” He turned, annoyed by his lack of motion, but blinked in surprise at the sight of something much, much bigger than the little kitten he was expecting.

Lance’s mouth dropped open, but no sound came out.

It was the single most beautiful, overwhelming things he’d ever seen.

About fifteen paces away, a massive tree sprouted from the ground, crowded by iridescent leaves. There was no breeze that he could feel on his face or brushing through his hair, but the leaves danced and shimmered anyway. A million colors, reds and blues and greens and whites and yellows -- and every color in between, peach and cream and mahogany and turquoise and blush and lavender -- colors that he didn’t even have names for, was pretty sure weren’t even on the real spectrum of light, all glittering crystal-bright in the dark expanse of the empty space around him. In every direction, the ground was the black surface of an endless ocean, rippling when Lance moved but otherwise flawlessly reflective. It sent back an inversion of the same sight, an overwhelming sense of purity, of flawlessness, of flowing sublimity with the roots at the center.

Lance couldn’t breathe, awestruck.

What was it? Why was it here?

Oh, gods. Lance used to believe people had always been dramatic when they heard a song or saw a painting so beautiful that they were brought to tears, but this was his comeuppance for that attitude, evidently. His cheeks were wet, and the corners of his eyes were pulsing light blue.

This was definitely some sort of… something otherworldly. Magical.

Shit. Shit, shit, uhhh, fuck, this was probably important, wasn’t it? Was this some sort of dream-vision thing? In his stream of consciousness, dream-Lance tried to will himself to summon a dream-roll-of-parchment and a dream-inkpot, but all that amounted to was making him strangely dizzy.

After attempting to summon things, and dealing with the subsequent disappointment, Lance hauled himself up as best as he could with his hands, sort of like a mix between a push-up and an army crawl.

Chewing his lip, Lance eyed the immaculate branches, overlapping but never touching, a faultless flow of leaves brushing back in forth, almost lazily. It was a sort of breathtaking, heart-stopping, gun-wrenching sort of beauty.

Blinding, almost.

#klance #klance fanfic #star-crossed #AO3 fanfic #keith x lance #keith kogane #lance mcclain #vld fanfic

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stardust-and-blades · 5 years

Text

Shatter: part 1

*whispers* I swear I’m writing fluff in my ghost au but at the moment I wanna write a zombie apocalypse scene that I had in my head for my oc’s but was unable to write due to a past friend not willing to write with me anymore so here it is

klance form

Summary: Keith and Lance are set up on a mission to gather supplies within a small town. It was meant to be an easy errand, one they have done before. But the situation turns dire when Keith ends up getting bit and doesn’t tell the team. Nor Lance.

----------------------

Keith lied awake in bed, Lance knocked out from the day’s earlier expedition. He is curled up besides Keith, his head resting in the crook of his neck and a hand in Keith’s. He was content. Most likely dreaming about finding his family. Dreaming of a world where the dead stayed dead and you could walk anywhere without the fear of being eaten.

Keith wanted to dream like that. Have his entire mind submerged in fantasy, living in another reality for five minutes instead of the remainder of his life in the absolute shithole humanity managed to dig themselves into.

He wanted to imagine his life extending far beyond a couple of days, looking forward to red and blue tulips and a flowery path leading to a priest, bands of gold embracing his marriage finger.

But no. He does not have eternity. He does not have a year. He does not have 24 hours, because the throbbing in his side reminded him of what is to come. To relive the early days of the zombie infestation, his parents being turned and Keith being forced to kill them.

Is that what awaits him? A cold death. A brutal death. Either one by a bullet to the head or his human will slipping from his fingers, it overwhelmed by the need to feed and the desire to sink his teeth into soft, pulsing flesh.

He didn’t eat, but his stomach churned to expel the nausea.

Keith slowly got up, slipping his arm out of Lance’s grasp. Lance frowned in his sleep, wondering where the warmth of his partner went. To ease him, Keith kissed the top of his head, whispering he needed to use the bathroom. It smoothed out Lance’s features, him mumbling a faint “kay...ove you...” before those beautiful whisps of imagination and ‘what ifs’ ebbed him back into a blessed slumber.

When Keith locked himself in the bathroom, he covered the small window far up above the toilet with its black drapes. He switched on his flashlight and pulled his shirt up, hissing as he prodded on the torn, scabbed skin. Purple veins popped out, the yellow and green of infection coursed its way around the bite, Keith suppressing the urge to claw at it. Make it bleed. Swallowing the wave of chipped nails and chilling, metallic shards. Anything so he could feel human.

If he were bit on the arm or leg, he could have easily chopped it off. Hacked at it away until he was sure he was safe, at ease to lose a limb than the life he grew to value. But no. He went out and got bit on the stomach. There is no amputating that.

To think he made such a rookie mistake.

“Hey Keith, lets check out the building over there!” Lance suggested, nudging him with his elbow. “The market is still a little ways away, and usually swarming with undead. Maybe we can find some nonperishable items in the food bank.”

Keith smiled. “Good idea. Hopefully some bottled water, too. We are running low. And we will need some medication for Shiro’s arm.”

Lance tapped his chin. “Hmm, we can try a couple of houses. Hospitals are hard. And it looks like this place is hanging on by a thread.” Lance glanced around, taking in the rotting wood, overgrown weeds, shattered windows, and lack of humans and zombies. It was a small town, afterall. Unlike the city, the place mirrored the dead in outcome.

“Yeah, I had to save your ass last time we were at a hospital.”

Lance pouted. “Hey, it’s not my fault there was a random torso underneath the desk.”

Still had to save you.”

“Keep talking and I’m chopping off your mullet.”

Keith shrugged and kissed him on the lips, silencing him at least for a good five seconds before his face bloomed with blush and began sputtering. “You--! You can’t keep doing that to win an argument!”

“Why?”

“Because--Because--” He fished for a reason, his hook coming out with very little. “Because you just can’t!”

“Smooth, Lance.”

Lance just shoved his hood over his head and tightened the strings. “You’re insufferable. I hope a zombie eats me.”

Keith went quiet. He almost forgot what they were there for. What world they are in. For a brief second, he felt like he was back in the time Before. When he was just a kid trying to pay off his school loans.

Noticing Keith’s silence, Lance peaked from his hoodie. Keith’s eyes are far away, the shine dimmed and his body tense. He could have been mistaken for a statue.

Lance wrapped his hands around his limp one by his side, the other one holding a prepped knife. “Sorry, poor choice in words. If anything, I won’t be eaten.” Lance said, a feather of good fun disguising his comfort. “I’ll be saving the day. Like always.”

Keith, consumed by the past, snapped out of it and looked back at Lance. He melted, the crease in his brow and the infecting paranoia subsiding. Washed away with Lance’s warmth, leaving the mode of survival and embracing the rush of love through those beautiful aquas.

“Yeah. Like always.”

So they went into the abandoned food bank, drunk on the sparkles and butterflies of those moments.

It was a two leveled house made to look like a business, the main foyer holding aged desks and shattered lamps. They checked for any zombies that could be lurking in nooks, crannies, and closets, taking slow footsteps and weapons drawn. The basement, which was flooded, was left unchecked until Keith flashed his light inside, calling to Lance that he was going to dive in and see if there is anything pidge could tinker with. Maybe find some canned food untouched by the murky waters. No doubt the flooding was caused by a broken, rusty pipe. It wasn’t that deep. Up to his knees. Quiet. harmless.

Or so he thought.

He saw what seemed to be an old package of bottled water, Keith not bothering to double check he was safe. He just went to the water, picking one up when it all went wrong.

It all went terribly wrong.

A hand wrapped around his ankle and pulled, Keith losing his footing and splashing into the dirty water, his nose flooded and throat choking for air. He tried to scream, but all that came out was gurgles and bubbles. Lance probably can’t hear him thrash, his face being shoved further down as he caught sight of decaying teeth and skin. His knife gone. He fought for the surface. Writhed and squirmed for his machete, pure terror coursing through his veins as his eyes landed on the teeth inching towards his stomach.

No, no no no no--

As he got hold of the hilt of his machete, red hot pain flared, Keith letting out a scream as a chunk of him is torn out. He pushed and kicked, refusing to be a meal on the zombie’s menu. He kneed the rotting corpse in the head, it releasing Keith as he gasped for oxygen. But he didn’t stop to fully breathe, for he plunged his blade deep into its head.

His ears were ringing. The water tinged with crimson, his eyes seeing nothing as all he registered was the the fact he got bit.

He got bit.

He didn’t even hear Lance call from him above, Keith’s body moving on its own as he angrily sifted through the water, searching for another corpse to kill. To mangle. To destroy, just like they destroyed his future. It was bad enough he lost friends and family during the breakout. Now...Now he is doomed. Branded. Cursed to become one of them. To bring grief to the smiles he adored.

To hurt Lance, already seeing Lance’s serene blues morph into a drought of disbelief and teardrops.

When Lance found Keith due to him not responding to his calls, he discovered a motionless boy, staring down at the zombie and his machete soaked with blood. The face of the undead is barely recognizable, and Lance wondered what provoked Keith to unleash such brutality.

“Keith?” Lance said again, grabbing him by the shoulders and forcing him to look at Lance. He cupped Keith’s face in his hands, asking desperately for a response. “Keith? Keith, are you hurt? Are you okay? Keith?”

He could only muster a weak hug as Lance held him close, shoving a bloodcurdling scream deep within until he was away from Lance.

He had to tell someone. But who?

There was a light knock on the door, Keith shoving his shirt back down.

“Yeah?”

“Keith?” Shiro called. “You okay? I saw your light earlier.”

No doubt. Keith forgot Shiro was on watch tonight.

Keith opened his mouth to say what he usually says, an old habit he was good at. But he stopped, taking in the memory of earlier that day.

He had to tell someone. He had such a short amount of time left. He didn’t want to end up like one of them. But he also didn’t want to be alone.

He took a breath.

“Actually, can you come in? I need to tell you something.”

By the end, the others remained in blissful ignorance, never hearing the choked sob of the dying boy and the drop of a flashlight, the protective glass shattering into a million pieces.

And as Keith walked up the stairs of his and Lance’s room and Shiro lost the sensation of drowsiness to the plans for the next day, Keith curled in the sheets. He kept Lance close, breathing in his smell of sweat and pine and working to memorize it. To savor the last little bit he had with his love, the tears not stopping until morning broke.

Lance greeted him with a sleepy but soft smile. The sunlight not touching the couple, but might as well have with the radiance seeping from a simple glance. Keith wanted to bottle it up, hold it close to him until his dying breath, refusing to let the rain touch it.

But life had other plans. The rain came early. And Lance was left speechless, worry etched in his tone as he asked Keith what was wrong.

“Nothing,” Keith said, wiping away his tears. “Just a nightmare.”

Lance wiped a drop from his cheek, understanding. “Ah. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No...I...” Keith struggled for words, split between telling him and sealing his mouth shut. He hid his face in the pillow, wanting nothing more but to disappear. “Not yet. It’s still fresh. I just want to stay like this for a little longer.”

“Hunk is going to be serving breakfast in a bit. We should go eat something.” Lance suggested, kind but also knowing the team rarely had meals like this. They scored in finding plenty of supplies for a week in the food bank. Hunk no doubt wanted to celebrate by eating a full meal rather than the beans and canned fruit they had lived on.

Keith circled his arms around Lance’s middle, begging for five more minutes. Five more. That was all he needed to gain his bearings. To put his mask back on. To believe he had years left of life than a measly couple of days. Or was it a day now? He did not care. He wanted to focus on the now.

Lance sighed, but combed his hands through Keith’s nest of hair and kissed the top of his hairline, Keith turning into a puddle by the normalcy. The facade everything would be okay, thought deep down he knew it to be a lie.

He hated lies. But this lie is the only one he can allow.

Soon, fatigue laid their sheets, Keith’s vision becoming scarce as the fingers of his lover whisked away his fears. Cascaded them to the wind, his nightmare temporarily being forced into remission.

If he could choose, he would choose to die like this. Caressed and loved. His heart human and his mind content.

Don’t break the illusion.

Don’t shatter.

#shania writes #klance #keith kogane #lance mcclain #VLD #voltron #klangst #zombie apocalypse au #shatter

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unclejuho · 5 years

Text

sf9 in london event + concert experience ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

this is my 5k essay on what happened 190512 // enjoy reading!!!

so i got to the venue at 11pm the night before bc i was so stressed by the other concerts (ppl at la started lining up at 6pm??) i really wanted to be near the front since im coming all way from the netherlands anyways i better go big or go home!!!! so like i waited there for an hour amongst other fans who were still waiting from a diff concert and when they left other fantasy arrived so we started queueing up. i rlly have to thank sf9 uk casue they were so nice to me and they kept letting me use their hotel next door to let me go to the bathroom and change ♥️

i ended up getting nr1 (or nr21 ig isbdhs) so!!!! we did it LMAO succesfully got a good spot even though my feet and butt were dead by the time anything even happened,, its so hard to wait for 16+ hours to go to a concert but its sf9 so who cares about health 🤡 we didnt get knifed and a lot of ppl came up to ask who the fuck we were waiting for hdbshsh it was so funny

so i started handing out my juho stuff ofc and ppl seemed to like it!!! so im glad haha eventually even i didnt have any anymore so i was happy ppl liked it!

skip to like 1pm which is when the members arrived at the venue, i was a lil late noticing cus i was waiting for those signed narcissus albums but i ran to the front anyways n saw youngbin chani tae leave the van (like what they posted in the travel preview) so that was!!!!! jdbdbsb they were so unbothered it was so cute so i went to get my albums and came back to line (i got all hwiyoung pcs oshshah)

also there were so many other fans handing out fanmades it was so sweet the entire atmosphere was fantastic bc everyone was nice to eachother, rlly everyone i talked to was super sweet!!! also so many fansites with slogans or fans so i went broke once more but it was all worth it theyre so pretty...

at like 4.30 was the special event which lmao i rlly was so tired and i got sooo nervous i had my already signed fanfare from mwave bc if ure gonna sign any album it should be fanfare (looking at ALL the ppl that gave them narcissus) sooo us 20 were led upstairs to some sort of bar area and they had a long table w water bottles so we had to wait a lil while the staff checked our signed items if they were ok and then we had to form a line to wait (they were late) i met another dutchie so that was nice hdhshsh

finally the members walk out and im shaking bc baek ju is the first to enter the room!!! he was wearing that leopard sweater and i didnt even hate his mullet seeing it upclose...

jae was wearing that stupid unbottoned shirt skbssbsb and he came in giving ALL the fanservice like him and inseong were here for the entire thing osbdbsb the other members just sat down and sociaized with eachother like yb kept being adorable and pulling faces at the table it was everything and i couldnt see rowoon bc ppl were standing in front of him but i was!!!! shaking already bc whos idea was it to start off this event with fucking rowoon lmao is like immediate heart attack! ju was last which was oof...

so i had like ideas of what i wanted to talk abt w each members but lmao??? i didnt talk abt any of it to any member my mind was so shook...

first up was rowoon and he just hdhshsh???? the eye contact of this man and just seeing him upclose was so intense tf he rlly was.. so gorgeous n bc of his hair up his eyes looked even bigger n shimmered and the pics rlly dont do him justice... so the first thing i said was wow so handsome bc why not.. i was gagged indeed hdbdbsb he said like woooow our debut album and you already have it signed oabdbs i didnt explain the entire mwave thing bc wud he understand haha but he opened n he saw the pic of himself hes like what do u like better me now or me here??? me being myself im like fanfare bc ur hair down is so cute oahdhshs i rlly not a narcissus hag anyways but fanfare was best rowoon as always... so rowoon did his sign and i asked him to do sky castle impersonation he didnt understand so i just repeated sky castle he was like ah the voice thing im like yes cha minhyuk isbdbsh so he did the fucking thing and i was dying lmao great to have seen it in the flesh ofc...

after rowoon was taeyang and taeyang!!!! was so hyper and attentive like hdnsb whenever u see him in vids hes usually very casual but he was soooo sweet and he too was like ahhh fanfare he took a while to say but he said his heart was still in there hdhdhsh so i was 🤧🤧 i just asked tae if he was doing okay or if he wasnt feeling tired and he said he was doing great bc i was there im like dying hdhshsh so i said yah me too!!!!

jae was after taeyang n jae was jdhshshs soooo into it i know korean fans say ppl change biases to jae after meeting him and i have to say i can see why!!! i didnt rlly know what to say to jae beforehand but he said oooo i really love london and im like haha i dont like it here im like im from the netherlands so he was shocked he said thank you for coming to travel here and he held my hand isbdbsbsb

next was inseong and... the eye contact level was sooo severe he rlly threw all into it hes like hi thank you for coming so much so i was wearing this shirt w a 🥩 on it and im like inseong do u like my shirt bc i know u love meat iahdhahsh so he was laughing n said yea wow this is my favorite shirt oshdhshs rlly had me going LOL he asked if it was my first time seeing them im like yea but im going to korea in the summer tho oshdhshs he said that was great n asked how long i was staying for,,, so im like im going a month so he asked why i was going so long im like im going for u!!! hdbshsb he gave me some hearts and i moved on ndhsbsab

so chani was next up and he looked so shy,,,, im sad bc i forgot to say everything i wanted to say to him at the beginning and i was just like chaniiiiiii and he laughed and signed my album before i went i quickly pushed in a URE MY FAVE DANCER n he highfived me hdhsbs

so youngbin was next and i... lmao... i was weak haha he just read my name hes like hiiiii gia im here being depressed saying HI YOUNGBIN I LOVE U SM thank u sm for everything u do for us and i shit u not my eyes like tearing up oshdbsbs yb asking me how im feeling im like YEA GREAT tears in my eyes oabdbs i rly couldnt speak otherwise id actually have them roll down my face so i just nodded and moved on iabsbs

hwiyoung im so sorry... i was still emo from yb and i even forgot to say happy birthday like pls hit me... hwi cheered for the fanfare album and im like yess hwi i love ur hair here i love the blonde;; hwi thanked me for coming

next up was dawon and jdbsbs i came in saying hi fantasy president so he said yeeee fantasyyyyy and hes an unbothered legend oabbdhssbn he signed quickly and within a minute i was away again jdhdhs

so juho.. my god oshdhshwh hes so:((( pretty let me breathe liek... i came there im like juho i love u oahdhshsh hes just nodding his way going to sign my album and he drawing that heart stickman so im like i have a question can u draw— hes like this is my signature drawing LUCKILY i drew the jucasso next to my name so im like pointing at it being like lmao boy we dont want this heart flop bdhdhsh so he quickly drew it and i said i hope u feel better soon and i was off again,,, rlly dawon and juhos signing went so quick...

so we moved on to the pictures and they were grabbing the chairs and ju was standing all way back at first but then no members went to sit on the chairs oahdhs so JUHO THE MAN WENT FOR THE SEAT NEXT TO THE MIDDLE HDHSHSH and hwi on the other side and jae behind so im blessed like juho... he rlly did it... hdhshsh i quickly go to grab one of my banners bc im like bitch i gotta fucking rep for it now otherwise i wudnt know a pose anyways oahdhshs so i quickly took off my glasses as well

so its my turn im going up and sitting down and like handing this banner to ju and hes like ???? oh???? he quickly reads it n was impressed hdbsb so there was one pic and tae was sitting next to ju and wanted to read what was on the banner so he turned to us but then we had to take another pic so he had to turn back quickly again oahdhshsh and then i had to go again but as i walked away ju was explaining to the members what was on my banner so i :((((

after everyones picture was taken they said goodbye and waved and inseong stayed behind a lil to joke abt drinking beer (i rlly hate him but also me?) and then they left and we got our merch bags n went back downstairs

so i quickly ran over to my bestie to tell her abt it before realizing we had to line up to go inside for the concert so i was like stressed running away i rlly almost lost my first spot LOL but we were let inside the venue i had like 50 bags but i ran to the front and BLESS IT there was like tiny space left at the left side which is were i wanted to be bc juwoon!!!!!! so i rly did get barrier thank god i could put down all my bags as well and the fantasy next to me were great as well!!!!

// i’ll add the concert later as im tired rn and this is already 5k osjbhdbhjas

#sf9 concert #thsi is sooo long wtf #hate this oashjbdbajsd

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echotovalley · 5 years

Text

we rule the kingdom inside my room // king of my heart

modern royalty au

“Wait, you’re a what?”

The word has more bite than he means, the sound causing Lance to flinch as it slaps awkwardly against Shiro’s clean, off-white walls. Keith’s fighting panic - not because of the word itself, but the possibility that this is some horrible prank he’s being slapped on the end of.

Wouldn’t be the first time he just walked right into one of Lance’s jokes or puns. But they had stayed pretty tame, Lance never took it past a certain degree and Keith had gotten Lance to fall for a few of his own. It was some personal mantel Lance had taken up against Keith that turned into their one and only outlet for flirting before they had the Good Ol’ Feelings Talk.

This isn’t how he wanted to end their night, he demands soft and comfortable and fucking adorable because they deserve this.

Their date was supposed to be dinner with Shiro, then cuddling on the couch while they bummed off of Shiro’s Netflix account and Shiro washed the dishes (he adamantly insisted on them not helping him - in hindsight, it was blatantly obvious as a ploy to conveniently be absent at the scene of the crime). They were supposed to watch a few episodes of a show and kiss intermittently until Shiro kicked them out of his apartment to go make out on one of their own couches. Even though they did a pretty good job about keeping themselves in check as guests or if other people were around them together at either his or Lance’s. They didn’t just disappear behind a bedroom door every time someone turned around and that’s supposed to mean the universe meets them halfway because honestly, have people seen Lance???

Keith deserves a medal for this kind of self-control.

For what it’s worth, Lance looks physically pained by the audible gulp as he swallows around a lump in his throat. The one in Keith’s damn near cuts out his breathing entirely.

“I’m a prince?”

Keith raises his eyebrows, bites the inside of his cheek. “Are you asking me?”

Lance scrubs his hands over his face - Keith bites back the urge to tell him his face is going to get red and splotchy, catches himself from reaching into Lance’s hoodie that he’s wearing for the stem toy in the pocket or from handing over the good hair tie on his own wrist. A part of Keith enjoys seeing Lance sweat so much because if this is a joke...if this is Pidge and Hunk barreling out of the closet with the washer and dryer armed with a camera in the next twenty seconds, he wants this moment to not be easy.

Eventually, they were going to have their first fight.

So like, if it’s tonight, Keith’s...He doesn’t wa-

He ignores another urge to beg Lance to just forget it and call the ultimate forever truce on the joke-rivalry thing they used to exhaust the unresolved tension they stored up. He feels heat flush the back of his neck because this is dramatic, he’s being dramatic, everything’s going to be fine. Lance will backpedal and Keith will stand to punch him in the arm and call him an asshole for all of the grief and Shiro will quip in with some sage dating advice that assists Lance and Keith in the development and maturity of their relationship because his life is a sitcom.

That’s not what happens when Lance abruptly goes back to pacing Shiro’s living room, muttering under his breath in Spanish. “Verónica hizo esta mirada fácil.”

Shiro’s head pops around the corner of the kitchen, sweeping his gaze over them and Keith begs, wills, him to understand and do what Keith needs without him verbalizing it.

To tell Lance this isn’t funny.

Demand to know how he thought it would be okay.

To kick him out.

To make him stay until Keith could sort out whatever nightmare he was in and for reality to fall back into its rightful place where Lance would kiss him just short of breathless and ask if he wanted to go out for ice cream or have an impromptu sleepover in their PJs watching cartoons until they fell asleep.

Or tell Keith that class and work had reduced him to a feverish haze that induced hallucinations.

Instead, Shiro is Shiro.

“Hey.”

Keith holds his breath, lets it out and allows his heart to break a little when he realizes he isn’t talking to Keith, but to Lance. With that soft, “Go, be great.” look that softens the corners of his eyes and stretches the scar across his nose.

“Deep breaths, Lance.”

It’s just so...hurtful.

The way it instantly gets Lance to relax his lanky frame in a whoosh before he’s squaring his shoulders again. Shiro doesn’t offer anything for Keith before he’s ducking back into the kitchen and the sound of the tap echoes throughout the room.

“I...Well technically, Rachel and I, are- We won the birth lottery? Fuck, I’m doing the question thing again. Okay, so. I’m a prince. My parents are the King and Queen of my home country, but not as absolute monarchs? We encourage our people to vote for their leaders in a government that was formed when my great-great grandparents were kids and make their homeland a good place and we do fancy shindigs with really old money and jewels to raise money or bring attention to issues we care about and build relationships with other world leaders outside of UN proceedings. We’re just figureheads with antique china, but I digress.”

Keith drops his head in hands and swears.

“Language.”

He glares in the direction of the kitchen before cutting his gaze back on Lance. “H-how did you keep this a secret? Why did you keep this a secret for so long?”

Lance shrugs, a moment of nonchalance weaving through his frame before the tension settled back over his shoulders. “England shoulders most of the spotlight, but also, we’re a small Latino country most people aren’t aware have a royal family. Especially Westerners.”

Grime paints the inside of Keith’s mouth as he breathes out an, “Oh.” He recovers, scowls. “That only answers one of my questions.”

“Well, it wasn’t just my secret to tell now, was it? Rachel and I are here for school, this university has one of the best engineering programs out there and we wanted to travel without the hassle. Plus, I was dying to go to Disney World. It isn’t something I just want to tell people right off the bat, you get treated differently. People expect perks of being chummy with a royal. Gets even weirder when you’re being hit on by one. Also, I’m pretty sure you would have punched me if I hit on you then followed that up with the ‘I’m a Prince’ spiel.”

Keith folds his arms and flops back on the couch. “If memory serves, you got my number from Pidge’s phone to ask me about an assignment for a class I wasn’t even in.”

A small smirk tips the corner of Lance’s mouth up and warms his eyes. “I had to get creative with you, you were exceptionally good at deflecting and I have a desperate need to embarrass myself in front of you - if your memory serves more than one dish.” Lance takes a step toward the couch and nods to the spot beside Keith, waits for Keith’s whatever shrug in return before sitting down heavily. “I wasn’t going to bring necessary drama into it if by chance we didn’t work out and you blocked my number and stole all of my friends with your bad haircut and cool fingerless gloves in a few weeks.

“I knew if and when I started seeing someone, I would wait until a certain point to make sure mutual attraction and dating interest were still a thing. But I also knew that waiting longer would make it worse and hurt someone I really care about. Kind of sucks because in action, I’m hurting them either way. I didn’t want to just shove all of this onto you if I didn’t have to, but this-” Lance points at the space between them, hand staying a measured distance from Keith’s. “-is going somewhere, so I need to. This isn’t some grandiose plot for me to live out some Disney prince fantasy where I whisk you away on some breathtaking journey.”

“So, what is this then?”

Lance takes a deep breath and nods his head in the direction of the kitchen. “I wanted you to be somewhere you’d feel safe and familiar, near a person that has managed to get through your thick skull how validated your convoluted, mullet head is in everything you think and feel. You deserve to steer the course of your life and, if you’re with me, I can’t promise either of us will be in charge at any given time because of my responsibilities and the scrutiny that comes down with it. And like, as much as it would hurt to watch you go...if you don’t want to see me again, I can do that too.”

Keith knows his eyebrows are doing that thing where they disappear behind his bangs, opens and closes his mouth a few times hoping the words would rearrange and settle in his head long enough for him to unpack it...somehow. Shiro with his winning timing and eavesdropping abilities saves them both the trouble with a long-suffering sigh from around the corner.

“Dial it back a bit, Lance.”

The breath Lance sucks in shakes and rattles in his chest, jerks his knee in a disjointed reflex that knocks against Keith’s. “Right, yeah. Promised I would try being less dramatic.”

Keith feels the right amount of sorry for himself - he figures he’s owed that because they’re either breaking up or well, Keith honestly has no clue what the other option means. What it will lead to. What it will do to them. But the aborted laugh Lance tries for sounds wet and his dumb heart twists violently in his chest, tries to drop kick one of his lungs, and beats at his ribs like a xylophone.

Even after Lance has run his fingers through his hair so many times by now that it sticks up at odd angles and his color looks a bit off, there’s still the smart press of his shirt and subtle hints of cologne that Keith would die for at this point. He thought this would have been easy, he managed not to beat around the bush with Lance - even though he was terrified Lance wouldn’t feel the same way and it would grind their friendship into dust. God, the first time they kissed?

The first time Lance ran his fingers through Keith’s hair and brushed his nails lightly over his scalp at the base of his skull?

Earlier that day when everything had still been simple and the only surprise was the full body shudder that caught both of them off guard at the press of Keith’s mouth against the soft corner of Lance’s jaw.

He needs to realize this was never simple, especially for Lance. It means Keith has to deal with a lot of feelings a lot sooner than he anticipated. But now there was this time crunch? Keith needed to either get very serious very fast or end this with Lance.

And he really, really, really did not want to end this.

Keith takes a deep breath, buries a hand in the pocket of the hoodie to ghost his fingers over the familiar stem toy. “You’re giving me an out at any time?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want me to take it?”

“To protect you? Yes. Honestly, though? I can be pretty damn selfish when it comes to you. I want you to stay. I want to work through this so I can take you back home to make out in the huge hall full of period artwork. There’s a pretty comfy antique couch that’s right under this huge painting that was gifted to like my sixth great-grandparents.”

And there was the magnetic energy that had Keith’s fingertips buzzing under Lance’s hooded gaze, just like that.

“I figured we could keep doing this, y’know? We have four more months of the school year left and if we survive finals week, that’d put us at six months of dating. That’d be okay-ish time, I think, to ask my boyfriend of six months to spend his first week of summer vacation with me to meet my family doing cool rich kid stuff to impress the shit out of him.”

That gets Keith to smile, Shiro’s chuckle rounds the corner. “Much better.”

Lance presses their legs together as he shifts closer to Keith. “If my family doesn’t drive you up the walls or run you out of town, then we could do some public outings as a group with my siblings to see how you feel about press and stuff. Then....we’ll see?”

He watches Lance pick at a loose thread in Keith’s jeans, near his knee. Stares the movement down instead of meeting Lance’s gaze and catching his fingers when Lance starts to make the pulled thread longer. He wants so badly to voice his thoughts, communicate his fears and the crushing weight of nervousness on his chest and comfort Lance, but he isn’t that brave or well-spoken. He feels a little bit better when Lance pulls his hand out from Keith’s to wrap his arm around his shoulders and pull him awkwardly into his side, a quiet understanding that neither of them has a clue what they’re doing.

Keith melts into his touch, welcomes the warm fuzz that takes over his brain when Lance begins to brush his shaggy bangs away from his forehead and ghosts his thumb over Keith’s temple.

Lance ducks his head closer to Keith’s to whisper in his ear. “Hm, I do want you to know that I’ll never be sorry for beating your top score in Space Invaders at the arcade, though. Royally handing you your ass will be one of my - if not the - greatest feats on the mainland.”

Things don’t really change all that much.

At least, not yet.

Lance still invites him over to eat ungodly amounts of junk food while binge-watching shows on Netflix and they wind up hopelessly tangled up on the couch after fervent kisses. Rachel still comes back to their shared apartment precisely at times like those and teases Lance relentlessly until he’s burying his flushed face in the crook of Keith’s neck.

Rachel still talks to Keith and they study together for a statistics course they share.

Lance gets onto him occasionally for trying Not To Inconvenience His Royal Highness. For example, he stopped texting or calling Lance in the middle of the night if he couldn’t sleep because insomnia or stress from school because he knows Lance would always drive over to Keith’s apartment, crawl into bed with him and let Keith talk it out or talk to Keith about anything and everything - sometimes in Spanish if Lance was too tired to notice the dialect swap and Keith didn’t point it out. It’s cathartic for both of them, but that was also when Lance was just a tired undergrad like him that enjoyed lavishing physical attention on Keith when he wanted it.

‘If you stop texting me for midnight cuddling, I will literally move into your hallway closet and never leave. I’ll eat all of your snacks and take back my hoodie.’

The only thing that did change that is driving Keith insane?

The floodgates to prince/royalty puns have opened and Keith is this close to never speaking to Lance again because they’re godawful and constant. It takes Keith a few weeks to pick up on a portion of them being to normalize the situation and to remind him that Lance is still Lance.

Oh, and apparently their ‘uncle’ that lives in town is actually a chaperone/bodyguard Joe-from-The-Princess-Diaries type. Keith had met him before and they got along, he liked Keith as far as he knew but now he’s rethinking every single interaction and every possible wrong step he could make because while Joe was wise and patient and kind and supportive - it was apparent he’d cut a bitch for the Queen and Mia.

Keith doesn’t want any trouble.

Weirdly enough, Lance and Rachel will randomly complain about royal things in front of him that he doesn’t really get, but it’s an opportunity for Keith to hit them back with snarky comments about royal life versus his as a mere commoner. Those always have Rachel and Lance laughing at themselves and begin the round of stories of increasingly convoluted social situations they’ve been in or had to witness.

This is the easy part, the calm before the storm, but Keith thinks he’s making great process accepting the fact that he doesn’t actually know a huge chunk of Lance’s life while simultaneously working through the minimal pain of needing to relearn the person his boyfriend actually is.

Their biggest hiccup to date was one night while they were all three crammed into Shiro’s kitchen cooking dinner, Lance asks for some seasoning and Shiro produces it with a cringe-worthy flourish, adopting some terrible combination of accents. “Your wish is my command, Your Majesty.”

Keith is willing to accept that this has to be how Nick felt the first time he heard Gatsby say Old Sport and every thousandth time after and move along with their evening when Keith looks over his shoulder to see Lance’s hand still outstretched for the shaker and his eyes resolutely glued to the floor. A second later, Lance shakes his head to pull himself back into the moment and offers a stilted grin to Shiro in return.

“Can we, uh, not do that? I-uh. Yeah.”

It gets them a free pass at cuddling on the couch, wrapped together like a burrito under Shiro’s good blanket, and Lance’s favorite dessert as an apology. Keith gets Lance to joke in hushed whispers, making up new dialogue or doing bad lipreading over the show they’re watching as he runs his fingers through Lance’s hair.

Things He Has To Relearn About His Boyfriend, A Prince

just because he wanted to go to Disney, doesn’t mean he wants to live there

#klance #laith #VLD #I am posting this by the seat of my pants #I've been awake for over 21 hours #I've gotten to another weird place in my writing so I'm testing this idea out #we now return to your regularly scheduled broadcast #Keith Kogane #Lance McClain #writing tag

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dontjudgemebymykpoptrash · 6 years

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SF9 BOI BIOS

This is originally written for @youngjbambisonyounggyomark but really can be for anyone that wants to know more about SF9, a seriously underrated VERY TALENTED and fun group of boys. First things first! ABOUT THE GROUP!

SF9 stands for “Sensational Feeling 9″ cause there are 9 and they make you feel SENSATIONAL! The fan name is “Fantasy” (which is cute, I get to say I’m a fantasy huehuehue). They’re considered a dance group (you’ll see why when you watch some dance practice videos BOY HOWDY will you) and they debuted in October of 2016.

Now? MEET THE MEMBERS!

YOUNGBIN

Listen I’m not just starting with him cause he’s my bias, I’m starting with him cause he’s the leader. I’ll be honest, when I first started looking up pics of them to learn who they were I didn’t find him the most attractive and then as I started watching more and more videos and vlives I came to realize this hecker had bias wrecked me. I believe the term is Bolmae and he bolmaed the heck out of my life. He is SO good and sweet and funny and he loves his boys so much he’s such a good leader, but the kind of leader that is really laid back. Youngbin is aggressively noncompetitive most of the time. Like he works so hard but when it comes to goofing off he doesn’t really care if he loses at like arm wrestling or something. He does this lil closed eye smile that melts my soul, and he had a minty mullet for their Mamma Mia comeback that also went lavender, silver and blonde WOW so good.He’s in the rapline but an incredible dancer. He says the best feature about him is his hands and they are very good hands. Some people call him stupid but he’s NOT he’s actually pretty smart but he is very TRUSTING and gullible. He takes things at face value and has been tricked easily but that doesn’t make him dumb, if anything it just shows what a sweetie he is.

INSEONG

Now moving on to the oldest, meet Inseong! He speaks English pretty well as he did study in London for about a year. He is fluent but sometimes when he’s put on the spot he’ll forget words and it’s suuuper cute cause he gets so embarrassed. He has dimples that could knock you out, but despite this sweet face don’t be fooled, he’s about six feet tall (most of the boys are at least 5′10″ actually!). The other members consider him the smartest which makes sense cause he’s from a well off family who made sure he had access to a great education. He definitely can come across as a little spoiled but it’s actually really endearing cause it’s really just him putting on an act about getting sulky or offended. The entire hyung line act like goobs together and are the most delightful obnoxious trio. Inseong also has a thing with chairs, he’s either tripping on them, falling out of them or carrying them around which seems random but what some videos and you’ll see what I mean.

JAEYOON

Gaw this group is FULL OF VISUALS and Jaeyoon is leading the pack. More dimples and a smile that would melt a glacier. The other members consider him the manliest of all of them and I think everyone can acknowledge he got the best booty of all (I’ve got more pics, I can share). He seems like a pretty laid back guy and doesn’t get shaken easily but actually he IS SO SCARED of roller coasters and haunted houses n stuff it’s precious. One time in a haunted house he got so spooked he accidentally begged the ghosts not to hurt them cause they’re FNC’s newest girl group - which isn’t far off cause Jaeyoon is excellent with girl group dances! As part of the hyungline that I mentioned before this boyo is hella prankster and is always being silly and loud.

DAWON

This hecker was my original bias before Youngbin wrecked me away. I have a soft spot for clowns and Dawon goes above and beyond. He’s not afraid to pull faces and he’s a great speaker often taking the role of “MC” since he’s so engaging and fun. BUT the thing that really won me over is that for the Mamma Mia comeback he had locs and fans were pretty upset about it. At first he wouldn’t budge because he thought that fans didn’t like the look cause they thought it was ugly and he didn’t want to cave for such a superficial reason (Had that been the case I applaud the mentality!!). However, a fan spoke to him at a meet and told him about cultural appropriation and THIS GUY. LOOKED IT UP. AND CHANGED. HIS HAIR. Like that is so unusual for people to do let alone celebrities and I’m STILL impressed what a rad dude forreal. Despite seeming like a total goofball he can actually be pretty chic, and he pretty much does whatever he wants. That includes showing off tattoos while parading around shirtless, and sharing the wifi password for the FNC building while on vlive so fans without enough data can stream!

ZUHO

You know that “looks like a sinnamon roll, actually a cinnamon roll” thing? No one fits that better than Zuho. There’s Fantasy’s that believe him to be a big tough hardass cause he’s tall and has a deep voice (like really deep, hot damn). But they don’t come softer than this guy. He can be quiet and reserved but he has a heart of gold and frankly I would personally fight anyone who hurts his precious feelings. Whenever one of the other members is upset or sad, this lil lion baby is first to comfort them. He’s even chastised Youngbin for making Hwiyoung cry in practice by criticizing his dance too much. Another time a member lost part of their meal to a rock paper scissors game, Zuho not only refused to take any of his food but then SHARED his food and it led the others to share more as well. Legit will cry when you watch it if you have any heart. One factoid about him is one that’s brought up fairly often and it’s that he has TERRIBLE sleeping habits. Apparently he’s a big time snorer/sleep talker/sleep walker and shares a room with managers cause it’s so disruptive to the others. Zuho is also the most friendly of the group, he is always social and making friends with anyone he comes across, even Chanyeol from EXO promoted their Narcissus comeback because they’re friends! OH! He also composes music and had a song each on their Sensuous album as well as their Narcissus album! WHAT TALENT.

ROWOON

Speaking of visuals, Rowoon is CLASSIC VISUAL. Tallest in the group at 6′2″ when I first saw him I was kind of blown away, it’s kind of unreal how flawless this guy is. Because he’s so good looking he already does a lot of acting and has separate schedules from the others but when he is with them he is SO MUCH FUN??? Especially his relationship with the maknae Chani. He’s always showering him with affection and attempting skinship (Chani resists) and it’s GOOD. Rowoon does a lot of promoting for the group too, he really does love all his members. Rowoon can be the mom of the group when looking after the others. He’s the best cook apparently, and when Chani was scared of a roller coaster he made sure the maknae got to sit close to leader Youngbin (the dad). He’s not as loud and rambunctious as the hyung line for sure but still fun. He is usually very sweet and respectful in interviews and pretty straightforward in acknowledging that he is good looking which is refreshing.

TAEYANG

Once again this guy is deceptively tall, I was super surprised when I learned that he’s almost 6′ tall. He’s also a killer visual and even better HE KNOWS IT. He knows that he’s a total babe but still manages to be SHY. He definitely has his stage personality and his offstage personality. He has KILLER vocals and even amongst a group of dancers stands out as one of the best dancers. It’s kind of unbelievable how talented and skilled he is. Taeyang is certainly the sunshine child of the group and a precious lil babe but if you aren’t careful he will knock you out with his sexy moves, especially in the Sensuous and Narcissus eras. But really he is still a baby underneath it all, to the point that he happily plays with the other maknae’s at a trampoline park with abandon, and sings alongs to kids show songs in public despite being shamed by the actual makenae Chani.

HWIYOUNG

This boy. This good and pure child. This sweet little (tall, again) angel baby. This lovely, darling, etc etc. The trampoline park I mentioned earlier? His idea. ((I SAID THIS DURING MAMMA MIA ERA:He still has a youthful appearance but I have no doubt he’s gonna be one of those guys that very suddenly grows OUT and into a stud)) TIME FOR THE UPDATE? Ya this boy SHOOK THE FANDOM in Sensuous era with some long heckin hair and some killer dance moves. He SHONE as front and center and the look is so good it continues to thrive into the Narcissus era. He came in and wrecked a whooooole lotta Fantasy’s. He can be a total sweetie but he absolutely has a mischevious streak, especially when he’s with Chani. Those boys together are Trouble and can get away with MURDER. This dude has a hella deep voice and is a killer good rapper like damn. That being said he does sing on a couple tracks and is quite good at that too?

CHANI

And we finally reach the maknae, the only one in the whole group under 5′10″ (5′8.5″). Also the opposite of Zuho cause he looks like a cinnamon roll but is actually a sinnamon roll and will kill anyone who mildly inconveniences him. A classic evil maknae. He is VERY cute and VERY good at aegyo and like Taeyang is VERY aware of it but is SAAAASSSSSYYYY AF about it. He’s a total brat and it’s a blast cause the others don’t let it stop them even a little when harassing him and to be honest I think he likes it too even when this little baby is telling off his hyungs to act their age while in the same breath stealing their food. Tsundere AF. It’s never not fun having Chani around (except when he suggests a game and then proceeds to disappear while the others play cause he is TAkiNG a NaP WHAT A BABYYYYYY CUTE AH). He starred in Sky Castle which also drew a lot of attention to SF9 which is awesome!

SUGGESTED VIEWINGS!

Okay first things first if you haven’t seen Click Your Heart it’s a kdrama and it stars Rowoon, Dawon, Zuho and Chani and it’s really cute and interesting and I like it a lot. All the boys have at least bit parts in it which I didn’t realize until the second watch through and there’s not that many episodes but definitely recommend checking that out!

For sure check out their dance practice videos, I prefer a lot of them to the MV’s cause the dances are... wow. Dang. Wow. So sharp. So good. But one of my favorites is the a great funny version of O Sole Mio and I’ve watched it like twenty times and it really is what made me fall in love with Youngbin

“sweet version” of Fanfare (second video) is rly cute and makes me feet warm and cuddly.

I’ll add more videos later because it’s taken me a very long time to get this far but I definitely have some funny compilation videos to share as well as just some cute stuff they’ve posted <3

youtube

#sf9 #learn to love SF9 #STAN SF9 #please they deserve it #they're so good #ask me anything #I LOVE THEM AND WANT THEM TO BE SUCCESSFUL #updated

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i-write-shakespeare-not-disney · 6 years

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How to Raise a Venus Flytrap- a Klance fic

Read on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/13640370

Hope Less Romantics-

For many, love at first sight was real. Though, in turn that meant hate at first sight was real too. Having that pass between the same two people? Well that was just life being a cruel bitch, as usual.

The day Lance and his band came in to perform at the café just a block away from the college he attended, he’d laid eyes on the most beautiful person he’d ever seen. He was slender, with a sharp jawline, a light outline of muscles along the sleeves of his shirt, and a mess of black hair just long enough to make a ponytail at the nape of his neck. His eyes were angular and he had beautifully defined cheekbones. Ever the romantic, Lance could only describe the feeling as love at first sight.

He was standing behind the counter, taking orders and offering insincere smiles. His eyes had flitted over to where he stood with the others, his eyes falling to the instruments around them. Lance had watched as a dark eyebrow arched curiously before he returned his focus to the drink he was making.

Pidge was setting up her drums and twirling her drumsticks with her fingers, not even worried about the performance. Hunk was fixing him amp and tuning his electric guitar. Matt, Pidge’s brother, was chugging a bottle of water and humming under his breath. Lance was the only one who seemed to be nervous about the performance. And it wasn’t just because of the cute barista.

He gripped his bass and took a deep breath, going over the songs in his head. The café was usually full of teens and college students, so he figured the punk rock would go over well. And maybe he could impress that barista enough to get his number.

It was about time he moved on from Nyma. They’d broken up six months ago, but Lance still found himself writing songs revolving around her, part of him wanting her back, part of him hoping she burned in hell like the she-demon she was. He groaned and ran a hand through his hair, clearing his head.

He looked up and saw the barista smirking mockingly at him before rolling his eyes. Lance felt his face turn red, but he brushed it off. So much for coming off as the cool bassist.

“Come on dude, we only get an hour to perform,” Matt said, nudging him toward the platform at the corner of the café. “Did you do your vocal warm-ups?” Lance nodded even though he hadn’t. “Sure you did.”

Pidge repositioned her glasses to rest at the top of her head and sat at the drums with a sigh of relief. “Home sweet home,” she said with a smile. “Hey, Lance maybe you’ll get some numbers today. Everyone’s into band members.”

“Something tells me Matt’s going to be the one getting all the numbers.”

“And here I thought we were doing this to get the band recognized, not for dating,” Hunk said with a snort.

“Okay, hey everyone! We’re going to be performing some original songs for you today. I’m Matt, that’s Hunk, Lance, and Katie.” There were a few whoops from some girls for Pidge who smirked triumphantly. “We hope you like the songs. We’re Worshipping Wednesday and this first song is called Better When.”

Lance took a deep breath and listened to Pidge counting a beat with her sticks before he felt himself narrow in, focusing on the strings of his bass and the rhythm of the song. He sang along with Matt, his fingers moving out of memory rather than thought.

When the song was over, applause filled the café and Lance looked up to see a few impressed expressions. There were a few girls whispering and glancing at them as Matt introduced the next song, which somehow fueled the excitement in Lance. When the next song started, he could help but smirk when he caught one girl biting her lip as she watched him. He winked and watched her blush, turning to her friends. The nervousness was gone, and it was quickly being replaced by a sense of belonging.

He was on stage just like he’d dreamed of being when he was little, jumping around on his bed to Guns N’ Roses songs. And if he was totally honest, he loved the attention. It made him feel… almost powerful. He felt confident and at ease.

Then he saw the barista behind the counter with earphones on. Lance frowned and focused on singing, occasionally looking over at the guy who seemed unfazed by the music, bobbing his head along to whatever was playing in his ears instead. And Lance only knew that because between songs, the guy would still be mouthing words and nodding his head, stopping only when someone went up to order something.

Once their hour was up, Lance soaked up the applause and whistles that filled the café. He watched as people started to leave, having stayed to hear the music and felt even better. One girl went up Matt and he heard Pidge snort when the girl started twirling her hair and blushing. Meanwhile, she and Hunk started packing up their things.

“You guys want a coffee or anything?”

“I could go for a green tea,” Pidge said.

“I’m good,” Hunk answered.

Lance nodded and went to the counter, frowning when he saw someone new taking over while the other guy took off his apron and started to leave the café with a two fingered salute at the new guy taking orders.

The performing became a weekly thing. By the third week, Lance was determined to talk to the cute barista, partially because Pidge kept teasing him for staring, but also because the guy seemed unreachable. He’d watch them setting up, but Lance never got a chance to go up to him, because Matt had them perform immediately, and when it was over, the guy was leaving.

Fueled by the two girls that had previously given him their numbers, he decided that for the fourth time, he’d get there earlier and talk to the guy. There wasn’t a very long line, so he walked over and waited patiently for his turn.

Lance leaned against the counter and smiled brightly at the guy. “Hey. The name’s Lance.”

The guy blinked once and nodded. “I know. I had you for rhet and comp two last semester. Where’s the rest of your crew?”

“Ah, I decided to get here a little earlier. Get a chance to talk to the cutie behind the counter.” He narrowed his eyes and Lance felt his breath stop when he realized this guy had… violet eyes. What kind of Elizabeth Taylor fantasy…? He cleared his throat and tilted his head. “You got a name or a number?”

The guy scowled and Lance stood up straight. There was a slight possibility this guy wasn’t into guys, but Lance had based himself solely on the rainbow colored bracelet around his pale wrist. “Keith. It’s on my name tag,” he answered. “Are you ordering anything or are you just going to keep dishing out shitty one-liners?”

“Alright, easy,” Lance said. “Didn’t mean to piss you off. Sorry if I assumed.”

“That’s not the problem.” Lance sputtered, but Keith huffed and glared at him. “If you’re not ordering, get out of line.”

“A caramel frap,” he answered back, just to have the last word.

“Size?” Lance smirked, and Keith took a sharp breath. “Jesus Christ. Forget it, that’s $5.89.”

Lance handed over six dollars. “Keep the change, Mullet.”

Violet eyes flashed angrily, and Lance would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy that just as much as he would’ve enjoyed getting his number.

Pidge, Matt, and Hunk came into the café while Lance waited on his drink to be called. It wasn’t called, but Lance saw it on the counter and scoffed at the pettiness of the barista. He went to get his drink and saw Keith raise an eyebrow almost daring him to comment. Lance smiled and nodded, taking his frap.

This could be a fun game.

The next week, Lance got there early again and leaned against the counter with a smirk, much to Keith’s annoyance. “Hey, Mullet. You in a better mood today?”

“That depends, are you going to be less annoying?” he snapped.

Lance pouted and winked. “Can I get an iced white mocha? With your number on the side of the cup like those rom com movies?”

“Fuck off,” Keith muttered. He charged Lance and ignored him after that.

When Lance went to get his drink, he noticed Keith searching his pockets with frustration. “Whatcha looking for? Pen for your number?”

“You wish,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “I usually have earphones to block out your shit music, and I don’t have them.”

Lance hummed at the insult, but brushed it off with a smile. “Don’t worry, Mullet, I’ll put on an extra-special performance for you.” He winked in response to the middle finger Keith showed him.

Sure enough, Lance sang with teasing vigor and sang directly to the barista, ignoring the way he seemed to scoff and make fun of the lyrics. He actually snorted and covered his mouth at one line in a song that said, “I’m incapable of love but I’ll give you the next best thing.”

When the song was over, Keith grimaced and shook his head, pointedly mouthing, seriously?

Lance rolled his eyes. He wasn’t sure if this was Keith’s way of bickering flirting, but despite his poking fun at his lyrics, he couldn’t seem to take it to heart.

It wasn’t until the next song that he felt his mood slip. He remembered writing this song for Nyma just before they started playing at the café. He was especially heartbroken when he worked on it, and each time he sung it, he missed her a little more.

“It’s been six months since I heard from you, thought I’d drop a line-” Lance cut off, letting Matt finish the line.

Suddenly, he was remembering those moments with Nyma. The way her flirting was sort of like Keith’s- if that’s what it was. She always teased him and soothed the sting with kisses. God, Lance wanted to hate her. He wanted to stop caring about her, he wanted to stop looking for her. And wh the hell did Matt decide to even play this one? He knew how Lance got with this stupid song. He sang the chorus through clenched teeth, hating how accurate it still was.

She still appeared in his dreams, and he still relished those moments of distant, dream-fuzzy kisses even though when he woke up, he wanted nothing more than to forget her.

It’s been seven months. Why couldn’t he move on?

Because he hadn’t been prepared to lose her. He hadn’t been prepared to let her go. He hadn’t wanted to.

Even when he walked into the apartment they’d shared just off campus and he’d seen her pressed against the wall in some other guy’s arms. Even when the first thing out of her mouth when she realized he was there was, “Lance, you’re supposed to be in class!” Even when he sort of already knew she was messing around with someone else.

He still hadn’t wanted to let her go. Because he loved her and she was supposed to be his one and only. She’d met his mom, for crying out loud.

When the song was over, Lance unstrapped his bass and hopped off the stage, heading to the bathroom without a word. He heard Matt say they were taking a break. He splashed his face with cold water and tried not to think of Nyma.

When he went back out, the band was packed and Pidge was looking at him with a reassuring smile, while Hunk looked at him with more of a worried expression. He looked at Matt and scoffed.

“What the hell, man? You didn’t even warn me!”

“I didn’t think it’d bug you! I’m sorry.”

Lance rolled his eyes and ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah. I’m gonna get out of here.”

“Lance, I’m sorry-”

“Yeah, it’s cool. Whatever.” He grabbed his things and walked out, heading for the apartment he now shared with Hunk. He’d been the one helping him with his broken heart after the break up, and Lance didn’t have the heart to send Nyma packing. Partially because he didn’t want to do that to her, but also because he couldn’t fathom living in the space she’d cheated on him in.

He left his guitar and his amp, then left again, walking around the neighborhood, journal in hand and a pen tucked behind his ear. The sun was still setting. Lance knew he had some homework, but he was ahead enough that he didn’t have to worry about that just yet. Instead he went to the bus stop nearby and started jotting down couplets and quatrains for a new song, scratching out words and phrases and scribbling in new ones, using arrows to relocate and shift them. His first drafts were always messy.

Occasionally, he’d leave a small doodle to base some lyrics off of. A pair of eyes, a disproportioned hand, a flock of flying birds, a silhouette of some unnamed person, sometimes Nyma’s name. He particularly enjoyed scratching her name out. And drawing horns on top of the block of scribbles. Bitch.

Finally, with a song that went nowhere and a page filled with more scratched out lines than usable lyrics, he slammed the journal shut and pulled his phone out to listen to music.

Maybe it was stupid and pathetic. But for the last seven months, stupid and pathetic seemed to be all Lance could do. So he couldn’t bring himself to stop the tears that filled his eyes.

The following week, Lance made a detour to the library on campus for a research paper he had to do. While he was searching through bookshelves for the right section, he heard a bubbly laugh, a little too loud for a library even though it was relatively empty anyway.

He looked over and raised an eyebrow when he saw Keith in normal clothes. Well, sort of normal. He was dressed in all black and had a red zip-up sweater open over a black Bon Iver shirt. He was talking to one of the student library helpers, waving as the former walked away.

“Wow, I almost didn’t recognize you with that smile on your face,” Lance said, walking over to him.

Keith turned and scowled when he saw Lance. “Yeah, I almost didn’t recognize you either. Your mouth was shut.”

Lance scoffed and gave him a cocky smile. “That hurts, Mullet.”

“Really? Why don’t you go write a song with cheesy metaphors about it?” Lance frowned and crossed his arms. When he was quiet for too long, Keith looked over at him and smirked. “What?”

Lance stepped closer and smiled when he saw Keith’s smile falter as he pressed closer to the books behind him. “I really get you all riled up, huh?” Keith scowled up at him, violet eyes dark and angry. “You know, if this were a movie, this would be where I kiss you and make you acknowledge the huge crush you have on me.”

“That’s pretty cocky for a guy that looks like a Mexican rag doll.”

Lance stepped back, grimacing. “I’m Cuban.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, did my assumption offend you?” Keith turned away, grabbed a book, and then left Lance to stand alone like an idiot.

Okay, so it wasn’t flirting.

He left the library, feeling slightly off put, but unable to really bring himself to give up on Keith. Maybe the guy did hate Lance, but….

Lance didn’t hate him. Even if all of their interactions had been filled with Keith insulting him…. Maybe Lance was a masochist. Maybe he had a humiliation kink. What else could be the reason behind his pining after people that made fun of him and had the potential to make him feel like shit?

Still, there was something about Keith…. Something in the solemn, wary look in his eyes. And honestly, his laugh was such a nice sound, and Lance wanted the chance to be the reason behind it. It was obvious Keith wasn’t a dick to everyone he met. He was polite to the strangers that ordered at the café, and he seemed to get along with the library helpers. It was just with Lance that he seemed to have no mercy or regard for feelings.

That should’ve put him off, but instead, it made him more eager.

He left the library after getting what he needed, and soon found himself scribbling lyrics into the margins of what were supposed to be his notes. For once, they weren’t heartbroken or lovesick. They were playful and light, and… Lance thought they had some serious potential. He highlighted them to remember to jot them down in his journal, then tried to focus on his homework.

During one of his breaks, he went online checking his newsfeed. His family was watching a soccer game. His friends from high school were posting pictures of their babies or of their nights out drinking. His current friends were sharing articles from Buzzfeed or promoting the Fall play.

Then there, in the margin, was a familiar face. Unable to ignore his curiosity, he clicked on Keith’s profile and hummed when he saw a lot of basic information was available to the public. He had a blurry profile picture where he seemed to be drinking at SXSW. His banner was a landscape picture of some place with several European looking building, mountains, and bright green trees. He’d have thought it was a screensaver default if not for the detail that Keith was standing on something and staring out at the scene in the middle of the picture.

His likes were available, advertising lots of bands Lance hadn’t heard of and nonfiction books. The page listed his birthday, his relationship status (single), his job (Jo’s Café), and his education (graduated from a high school in Houston that Lance recognized and attending the same college of course).

Okay, this was verging on stalker territory. The question in small font at the top teased Lance. Do you know Keith? To see what they share with friends, send them a friend request!

Lance wondered if the them was a generalized them or if Keith was non-binary or something. He also knew that sending a friend request now would be stupid, because there was no way Keith would add him back. Not to mention, he’d probably wonder how Lance had found him. And it’s not like Lance would have the chance to say Hey, we go to the same school, so you came up on my People You May Know list!

Well, he could, but then it’d show he was trying to hard or cared too much. And he was trying not to let Keith know that.

Instead, Lance took to checking out the bands Keith seemed to like.

Granted, with the way Keith carried himself- themselves?- indie music was the last thing Lance expected to connect with Keith. He’d figured Keith would be more into rock- either classic 80s or that alternative stuff like Green Day and Fall Out Boy. Did those count as alternative? Whatever.

The point was… these songs were a lot softer, filled with deeper metaphors and gentle sounds and free-spirited lyrics. They were the kind of music you could have in the background without it bothering you or the kind you could spend hours listening to over and over to decipher. It was interesting to say the least.

Lance saw Keith around campus a few more times during the week, but never close enough to start a conversation. So he waited until the weekend when they were supposed to perform again. This time, Matt had gone over the songs with Lance, who gave him the thumbs up.

Just as he was about to leave for the café, Pidge and Matt came into the apartment.

“Why do you always leave earlier?” Matt asked.

“He’s hitting on the barista, that’s why,” Pidge answered, smirking at Lance. “Have you gotten anywhere with that?”

“It’s complicated,” he answered.

Hunk snorted and shook his head. “Dude, I have the guy for class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He’s a nice guy. Just go for it.”

“He’s nice to you?” Lance questioned. “All he does is insult me.”

“Could be playing hard to get?” Matt offered.

“Uh, no,” Pidge answered. “No one this day and age acts mean to play hard to get. Especially if a person is inherently nice. I’ve gone into the café to study and he’s completely polite to me.”

“Then what gives?” Lance whined.

She rolled her eyes and looked at him in exasperation. “Maybe consider the obvious? He probably just doesn’t like you.”

“That’s harsh, Pidge,” Hunk said.

She sighed and shrug. “I’m not gonna sugarcoat it! Just forget about him.”

But Lance felt agitated now. “No. I mean, I didn’t do anything to him. Why would he be such an asshole to me and nice to everyone else? I didn’t do anything to make him not like me!” Lance thought of the backhanded insults he’d been given and felt even more defeated. It wasn’t fair. He deserved answers.

“Alright, why don’t we go ahead and head over? I could use a hot chocolate anyway,” Matt said, patting Lance reassuringly on the back.

When they arrived at the café, Lance looked over to the counter and saw Keith making three drinks at once, moving quickly and efficiently. He walked over and stood in line, waiting his turn. He saw as Keith’s polite smile fell the second he saw him.

“You’re like clockwork,” he muttered. “So what’s it going to be today? Save the shitty one-liner.”

“I literally haven’t said anything,” Lance pointed out.

“It’s a precaution.”

Lance huffed and pulled out six dollars. “Raspberry Italian soda with cream.” Keith nodded wordlessly and Lance walked away, feeling put off and confused.

Later, once they were performing, Lance could actually feel the anger washing over him after every soft, polite smile Keith gave the strangers that ordered. Each one was met with a smile. It wasn’t real- not like when Lance found him laughing in the library. But it wasn’t an exhausted scowl. It made Lance antsy.

He was a nice guy. He talked too much sometimes, and his jokes weren’t always the best, and yeah he used really cheesy one-liners, but he didn’t think that warranted such vicious behavior from a guy he barely knew.

Once their hour was up, Lance started packing up. Then he saw Keith leaving the café, and he left his equipment alone, letting Hunk know he’d be back.

He rushed out, tugging on his jacket as he followed after Keith. “Hey!” Keith turned, and Lance heard him groan. He didn’t stop walking, ignoring Lance. Lance jogged to reach him and called his name again. “Dud, what gives?” he snapped.

“What are you talking about?” Keith asked, turning to fix him with an aggravated expression.

“I’m talking about the fact that everyone says you’re this nice guy, but you’ve been nothing but a dick to me.”

Keith’s mouth fell open and he scoffed. “You’re joking right?”

“No! I don’t get it. Why do you hate me so much? I never did anything to you, and all you’ve done is insult me. I thought it was some quirky way of flirting, but then you just….” He shrugged, letting his hands fall to his sides. “I don’t get why you have to be such an ass to me.”

Keith stepped closer to him and looked him in the eyes. “You’re serious,” he noted. Lance rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “You want to know why I’m such an asshole to you? Because the first thing you do when you talked to me was hit on me. You couldn’t even bother to ask me my name properly. And you just kept up this ridiculous faux confidence player act! You didn’t know when to quit and you were cocky and so fucking full of yourself. You gave a shitty first impression. So yeah, my immediate response to you is to say what it takes to get you to leave me the fuck alone.”

Lance stepped back, feeling hurt and… stupid. “I just wanted to get to know you.”

“Then ask to be my friend! Talk to me without hitting on me or looking at me like I’m something to eat!” Keith scoffed and shook his head. “And that condescending little thing you do, where you make it seem like getting hit on by you is the best thing that could happen to someone? Stop that. You’re feeding into the stupid male bravado-”

“Alright, I get it! Jeez. I didn’t even…. I didn’t realize I was coming off that way.” Keith grit his teeth and stared at him. “I’m sorry. I really am. I didn’t know I was making you uncomfortable or… acting like a stupid frat boy.” He sighed and held up a finger. He turned away from Keith then turned again to face him. “Hi. I’m Lance. What’s your name?”

Keith regarded him. He stayed quiet for a moment then sighed. “I know. I had you for rhet and comp 2 last semester. I’m Keith.”

“Cool.” He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and smiled. “So what did you think of the band?”

Keith smiled, relenting and looked away. “A little generic, but pretty good. Catchy songs.”

“Oh, cool. I write the lyrics. You wanna meet the others? They’re my friends, they’re pretty cool.” Keith hesitated and Lance smiled. “If you have somewhere to be, that’s cool. Maybe next time?”

Keith looked at him with a surprised look. “I’ve got time.”

Lance broke into a full smile and Keith scoffed and looked away. Lance led him back to the café and led him over to where the others were sitting, drinking coffee. Pidge looked up and raised her eyebrows, looking shocked. “No fucking way.”

Lance gestured to them each in turn. “That’s Hunk, my roommate. That’s Matt and Katie- we call her Pidge- they’re brother and sister. Guys, this is Keith. We just met.”

“Wait, what are you talking about? He-”

“No, no, we just met. First time talking and everything,” he insisted.

Pidge looked confused and Keith gave her a smile. “He got a do-over,” he whispered. Pidge nodded, as if that made total sense. “Nice to meet you guys.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Hunk answered with a smile. Matt chuckled and nodded in agreement.

Lance turned to Keith and tilted his head questioningly. “Better?” he whispered.

“Much better,” he answered. Lance smiled triumphantly and Keith chuckled. A smile directed at Lance! “I need to catch my bus, so….��

“Do you want some company while you wait?”

Keith looked at Lance and shrugged. “Sure.” Lance followed him out and over to a bench a few feet away from the café. “So you don’t have a car?”

“I do. But the bus saves me money.” Lance nodded. “What are you studying?”

“English Writing. Don’t ask me what jobs I can get with that, I have no idea.”

Keith laughed, tilting his head back and Lance felt warm inside. “I won’t ask,” he assured. “You like writing, then?”

“Yeah. Song writing. Poems a bit. I’ve always wanted to write a book, but… I don’t really have any ideas.” Keith hummed and nodded. “What about you?”

“Psychology. Minor in French. I also have no clue what jobs I can get with that minor, but I had the credits halfway done.”

“French, huh? Fancy.” Keith snorted. “Why psychology?”

“It’s cheaper than paying to see an actual psychologist.” Lance looked at him in confusion and Keith smiled. “I’d explain, but you have to reach a level four friendship to unlock my backstory.”

“You stole that from the internet.”

“I did.” Keith smirked and shrugged. “So what made you start a band?”

Lance hummed and shrugged. “We’ve been friends for a while and I needed a distraction from heartbreak.”

This time, Keith looked at him in confusion. After a beat of silence, he asked, “Level four friendship?”

“Level four friendship,” Lance confirmed, keeping his details to himself. “But, I dunno, I’ve been told I use too many cliché metaphors in my lyrics.”

Keith groaned and it morphed into a pained chuckle. Then he seesawed his hand and shrugged. “Maybe a bit. They’re a little cheesy. What’s that one line…. Give them your bullets, they’ll hurt less when they throw them back? Yeesh.” Lance scoffed and felt himself blush. “It’s just… it’s a good song! There’s just…. Okay, you like poetry a little, right? It’s like using the whole, love is like a rose thing too much. You gotta… make things strange again. Look at them in a new way instead of the way you’re used to seeing them. You’re used to the love-rose connection. So step away from it. Find something else to connect it to. Maybe… hate is like a rose. Or maybe love is like a Venus fly-trap.”

“Huh,” Lance mused thinking those similes over. They did make a little more sense. And they were different. “I like that. Maybe you could help me on a song then. Help me… make it a little deeper. Different.”

“I’m not much of a song writer, but I can try,” he said with a smile. Smiles looked nice on him. The sound of an engine cut through the evening and Keith stood up. “That’s my bus. I guess… I’ll see you around campus, then.”

“Yeah. I’ll be sure to say hi. In a normal way.”

Keith smiled and his eyes sparkled in the setting sun. They left Lance kind of breathless. Then he turned to face the bus as it screeched to a stop. He got on, and Lance stood up, waving goodbye before going back to the café.

He slumped into a chair and sighed in content. His friends looked at him in confusion.

“Are you going to explain what that was all about?” Matt asked.

“Did you get his number?” Pidge asked. He shook his head.

“Did you ask him out on a date?” Hunk asked. He shook his head again. “So… what happened?”

Lance smiled and rested his chin in his hand. “I made a new friend.”

His friends shared uncertain expressions. Hunk patted his shoulder and Pidge shook her head mumbling something about how Lance has finally lost it. Matt just sipped his drink and shrugged it off. Meanwhile, Lance scribbled onto a napkin.

hate = rose

love = venus flytrap

purple = warmth

#klance #multichapter #fic #keith and lance #voltron #au #college au

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