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kittyball23 · 9 months

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Branch Has Feelings (a Trolls fanfic)

Summary: As Poppy helps Bridget out with with her wedding outfits, Branch explores his old home, and experiences some emotions…

A/N: I tried giving Trailer 2 a chance to release, but I mean, we’re already about to get into August and there’s still nothing out online… But, like I’m sure a number of us have, I saw it on leak back around the 21st of July, therefore, my oneshots continue :3

Already as I’m sure you know from the new info and stuff that has been released in the past month, some of my theories have already been debunked – the fact that Spruce is married, the fact that Velvet and Veneer do not seem to be Bergens (unless they are a different kind of Bergens), the usage of ‘I Want You Back’ by NSYNC, the fact that the argument seemed to happen because of ONE wrong thing that occurred versus a culmination of stuff over time.

Note that I will not make changes to what I’ve already written, but I may rewrite some stuff as separate oneshots. I feel that making changes to what I’ve already written would kinda mess up the point of this collection of stories, which is, that they are supposed to be predictions and wild guesses before seeing the movie :)

__________________________________________

“We are family!

Get up everybody and sing!”

Troll voices from all six of the musical tribes rose up, loud and strong, mixing in with Bergen voices who were also singing along and causing a lovely melody to fill the air all around Bergen Town. How could anyone not be in a good mood? This was a time to celebrate – it was King Gristle and Bridget’s wedding day! Needless to say, there was much to do, from decorations to food to the seating arrangements and such. But it was not a matter to be worried over. There were more than enough helping hands to go around, and with music to help them groove along, the job was getting done pretty quickly and entertainingly. Attendees of the wedding were dressed down in their fanciest formal attire – tuxes, and gowns, and ribbons, and bows, and glitter were as far as the eye could see! There wasn’t one single individual who was not impressively adorned – at least this is how Queen Poppy of Pop Village saw it.

Poppy herself was looking quite nice that day as well, sporting a lovely green-and-pink glittered dress that had a fluffy, cotton train that ran from the skirt down. Extensions of various colors had been placed in her hair, and she’d even had a light layer of glittery makeup around her eyes. She knew she looked decent, but what made her feel exceptionally pretty was how much Branch had liked it. The way he’d told her she was beautiful, so cute and flustered, was replaying over and over in her head. She of course had immediately told him how handsome he looked, with his iridescent-fishscaled vest and glittery-green shorts. She wished she was looking at him now again, having her pink hand in his larger, warm teal one, but for the time being, the two of them had parted, seeing to different sections of the wedding prep and ensuring that it was coming along. Poppy’s glowbug had helped her fly along towards the castle, where she knew her dear friend Bridget was getting ready. Satin and Chenille were there, too, along with Smidge and Legsly. But all five girls were met with an unexpected sight inside the dressing room.

Rather than a song filling the air here, there was a wail, and that wail was coming from the bride herself!

“Oh my gah!” Smidge squeaked, her hands over her mouth as Bridget sat there, slumped at the vanity in her slip and crying, some of the makeup she had been attempting to apply running down her cheeks in dark streaks.

Poppy sprinted up to the Bergen. “Oh no, Bridget! What’s wrong?”

The twins gasped. “King Gristle didn’t cancel on you – “ Satin started asking.

“- Did he?” Chenille finished.

“Aw, no, that would be awful!” Legsly said, tugging at her orange pigtails in concern.

“You can just leave it to me to talk some sense into him,” Smidge said darkly, her voice deep, a frown on her eyebrows, and her hands busy at cracking her knuckles.

“No,” Bridget sniffled, trying to calm down some. “I… it’s just… I don’t know what to wear!” she blurted out. “This is the most important day of me and Grizzy’s life and… I just want to him to think I look nice!”

Poppy and the girls exchanged a glance of pity among one another. To anyone else it probably wouldn’t seem like a big deal, but in truth it was. They knew just how stressful a wedding could be, as they’d helped out plenty of times before for weddings in Pop Village. To add onto the matter, Poppy knew her friend was probably having doubts with the way she used to be the castle’s scullery maid for such a long time, ignored, with Gristle having been nearly oblivious to her existence. It was obvious to her and the other Trolls that Gristle would not go back to that, but still, her friend probably needed that extra reassurance.

Poppy made her up the vanity and patted Bridget on the arm. “Bridget, King Gristle loves you and thinks you’re beautiful no matter what. He really, really wants to marry you, because you make him happy!”

Bridget looked down at Poppy, like an epiphany had hit her. “I guess I do make him happy, don’t I?” she asked in a soft voice, then blushed.

“Uh, yeah! Totally!” Poppy said. “So even if you go out there with your maiden outfit, he’s still gonna marry you, because he loves you for you!”

The words were getting through to Bridget, and she smiled. Poppy really did know just what to say sometimes!

The twins, however, were having different sentiments. They exchanged a glance with one another and then piped up.

“Uh Poppy, she’s, um, not going to go out there with that outfit though, right?” Satin asked while her sister Chenille peered up worriedly.

“No way!” Bridget and Poppy exclaimed at the same time, and then laughed at the image that it put in their heads.

The twins breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness! It would have been a certain fashion disaster. They turned their attention to the plain, white wedding dress that was laid out on the bed.

“Hmmm,” they both hummed at the same time, mirroring each other with their hands on their chins and sharing the same squinted look at the apparel. “How far can we take this?”

Bridget perked up. “Oh, however far you want! Please! I want everything – ribbons, bows, frills, lace – whatever you wanna do!” She clasped her hands excitedly.

Satin and Chenille liked that answer. They pumped their fists in the air. “All right! Then let’s do this!”

With the help of the four Trolls, Bridget was transformed into a gorgeous diva. The dress was adorned with various colorful bows at the skirt, and was very frilly at the train. Bridget looked at herself in the mirror and gushed, absolutely loving it so far. “Oh, it’s great! But… maybe it needs more.” She paused and thought for a second, and then snapped her fingers. “Ooo! How about flowers!”

The twins gave her a thumbs up. “Flowers – we’re on it!” Soon enough, Bridget’s dress had been modified to include a gorgeous array of colorful flowers, just as vibrant as the bows were, that were stitched onto the blouse portion of the dress.

“Wow!” Legsly said, stretching herself up on her legs to get a better look all around Bridget. “That’s so cool!”

“I know!” Bridget squealed. “Oh! But how about we add little rainbows and glitter and stuff? Oh oh! And can you make my hair bigger?”

Once again, Satin and Chenille hopped in to help. “You got it, girl!” they said, giving her a thumbs up.

Bridget was once more changed, and this time, she looked super extra glamourous!

Well, maybe a little TOO extra glamorous…

Her hair had indeed been puffed up huge with extensions galore – it looked almost big enough to live inside of! Her makeup had been done heavily, with dark, navy-blue eyeshadow, a brilliant scarlet-red lipstick, and deep pink blush coating her cheeks. Her dress indeed had the rainbow designs she wanted – on top of the bows and flowers that were already there. It all was shiny-fied with a layer of glitter, making everything about her glimmer like diamonds. And that was not mentioning the large, hoop earrings that had little gem-like crystals hanging from the ends.

“Oh my gah!” Smidge said again, and this time she recoiled a little.

Bridget gave a little shout of fright when she caught sight of herself in the mirror, also. “AH! Oops… too much, huh?”

Poppy grimaced a little. “Err… maybe juuust a tad,” she admitted. “But you guys keep working on that, alright? You’ll figure something out, and it’s gonna be fabulous!” The Pop Queen gave her friend a reassuring thumbs up and then began to mount on the glowbug that she’d used to ride over to the castle. “I’ll come back in a little bit, I’m gonna just check on a few things in the town!”

“Okay, Poppy!” all five of the girls called back to her.

Poppy shook her head fondly, chuckling as she was brought back to the main town square. Bridget was so excited – so she could only imagine what it would be like to know that you were going to be united with your one true love, to be bound for life in a union that was stronger than the glitter glue that was sold at Sky Toronto’s Fun Factory! Secretly, Poppy hoped to have that experience someday, with the one Troll that had her heart captive, though she wouldn’t admit to him just yet. She knew that said Troll was still probably getting used to the whole idea of even being in a relationship, let alone with the Queen of Pop.

Hmmm… where IS he? she suddenly thought. Poppy flew her bug over to where she saw Prince D and Cooper helping out on the banquet table for the grand feast that was to take place right after the wedding. She grinned, watching the brothers pal around and groove with each other, and, not for the first time, wishing that she, too, had a sibling that she could sing with.

“Hi, Cooper! Hi, D!” she greeted cheerily, waving her hand.

“Hey, Poppy!” Prince D said. “How’s it goin’?”

“Totally amazing!” Poppy replied with a giggle. “Have you guys seen Branch?”

“No, I haven’t,” Prince D said. He then nudged Cooper. “Have you, bro?”

“Uh-huh!” Cooper nodded, helpfully gesturing his long neck over to where the altar was set. “I think I saw him head over for the Troll Tree!”

“Oh!” Poppy said, wondering what her boyfriend was up to. “Well, okay! Thanks!” She gave Cooper a high-five, and Cooper gave his signature goofball laugh as he watched the Pop Queen head off.

“Any time, Poppy!” he called.

__________________________________________

As it turned out, Branch was in fact at the Troll Tree.

Curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he’d gone up exploring the Pop Trolls’ old home. Many pods were, surprisingly, still as intact as they had been before King Peppy had evacuated the town. He could see the old schoolpod, and the large one that was the one for the royal family. Which made him wonder…

Branch scaled the tree, guiding his glowbug to the right places to go, around certain familiar bends, mushrooms, and vines that were there, until he finally reached the spot, stopping short and gaping. There it was. Still in the same spot that it had always been, as timeless as ever.

His old pod.

Well, it had been his grandmother’s old pod, but it had been his home all the same.

The nostalgia hit him hard as soon as he’d dismounted the bug and set foot inside. Not much had changed, really at all. It was the same old carpet, the same old decorations, the same old walls and halls. He remembered how his grandmother would sing to him and play games out there in their living room, and how they’d both snack on delicious treats of all kinds in the dining area. He remembered his grandmother letting him help out in the kitchen making cookies, and when she’d tuck him into bed at night, planting a sweet kiss on his forehead and always reminding him that he was loved. He remembered being thankful for it, having needed that reminder to keep him planted in reality. But most of all, he remembered something else…

His eyes darted to the gramophone at the farther end of the pod, and he remembered how much his grandmother would love to play music on there. He could remember how she would dance with him, letting him stand atop her feet while she toddled them about, the two of them enjoying themselves thoroughly and laughing. They’d had plenty of music to dance with and plenty of records to show for. Though, of that collection, there had been a significant amount of them had not been played. Those particular records caused too much pain for the two of them, yet, it would have been even more painful to simply discard them, and make pretend that they didn’t exist. That’s why they were always right there, tucked behind the gramophone, where it was an arms distance away, but never dared to be played out loud.

On automatic, Branch felt himself move toward the gramophone. He swallowed hard when he did in fact see records still there, tucked neatly behind it. He itched to reach for them, to see the cover of the albums he had so wanted to forget existed. But he wasn’t so sure.

Get a hold of yourself, Branch scolded himself. You got used to the other song, didn’t you?

That ‘other song,’ as he called it in his head, was in fact Total Eclipse of the Heart, the song he’d so gladly belted out when he was a young boy, singing into his flower microphone…

… Providing the soundtrack to his grandmother’s death.

Branch shook his head. True to how that voice in his head had reminded him, he indeed had learned to accustom himself to the song once again. He wouldn’t willingly go out of his way to play it, but he wouldn’t find himself tearing up and feeling lightheaded after hearing it, either. He had learned to keep those emotions in check. Could he keep these in line, too?

Before he could help himself, he tugged the albums out from behind the gramophone. They were a little dusty, but not too bad to where he couldn’t tell what was on it. Because he most certainly could. They were four faces he still had yet to see again, after over twenty years and still counting. The faces of John Dory, Spruce, Clay, and Floyd. Also known as the hit boyband BroZone.

Also known as his brothers.

Branch felt angry at himself for already starting to feel a pang in his chest. This wasn’t even an actual photo of them! The album covers were just little felt, scrapbook-like figures that looked a little silly in their appearance, each brother identifiable by their bright-colored hair – JD a brilliant turquoise, Spruce a rich purple, Clay a bright yellow, and Floyd a serene magenta. Then there was himself – pictured with his crop of blue hair right there with the rest of them, side by side, together.

If only it had been that way in real life…

Branch frowned. What was the use in dwelling on alternative scenarios? He wouldn’t call himself as much of a pessimist as he was in his gray days, but there were still some bits of mottos and self-advice that he’d acquired then that he still used to that day. One of those was the fact that sometimes, bad things happened, and nothing could be done to change them. His poor grandmother, for example. She had been taken by Bergens, suffering a horrible fate. He couldn’t do anything about it now. There was no time machine to take him back to that moment and fix what had occurred. Just like there wasn’t one to help take him back to that other awful day, one that had happened a few years beforehand, and fix the mistake that had happened…

Branch glared at one of the album covers. A few silly songs were not going to get the better of him. He tugged the record out of the case and placed it on the gramophone, adjusting the needle so that it lay on top of it. The gramophone was old, but worked without so much as a hitch, and, slowly, a tune began to warble its way out of it, a little low at first, but then louder, clear enough so he could hear the song that was playing and clear enough so he could pick out just who was singing what part. Branch felt himself freeze when he recognized what song it was, and inwardly groaned. Of all songs, it had to be this one. The one that they’d done right before everything got decimated. He wanted to tear the record out of the gramophone right there and then, but it was too late. He was being taken back to that memory, still feeling so fresh on his mind even after so long…

__________________________________________

There was a packed house that night.

The five boys could hear the loud whoops and cheers from the Trolls that had gathered there to see the show, impatiently hooting and hollering with uncontained joy. They knew it was so much fun to perform, but they also knew how critical it was to get their performance as perfect as possible. That was, if they wanted to win the award.

It was going to be difficult, but John Dory, the leader of their pack, welcomed it. Finally, a chance to share the stage with the greats – like the Sugar Gals and the Chillin' JillyNs, who had already gone on and performed before them – and outshine them! There had been not one single doubt in John Dory's mind that BroZone was the most band-tastic musical group out there. What more, if they'd managed to pull this off, they'd be the youngest talent to ever have won. John Dory was starry-eyed, already imagining just how many pictures he and his brothers would take with the wonderful trophy. He had already cleared a space in their room on the wall, and also made room on one of their shelves for where the trophy would be placed.

He quickly polished down his goggles and then snapped them on his head carefully, checking in the mirror to make sure that they looked extra fly. His other brothers were also getting ready for their performance – Spruce was sprucin' up with a little bit of hair gel and spray, Clay was warming up with a plié of sorts, and Floyd was clipping on the one pearl earring he liked to wear.

John Dory took a deep breath and clapped his hands together once to garner their attention.

"All right, listen up!" he said. "I don't think you really need me to tell ya how important this night is, but, heh, I still kinda am going to." Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and he placed his hands on his hips in a way that made him look very determined. "We are going to make boy band history tonight..." His voice was deep and serious, and the others could get the gist of how critical everything was. Everything had to be flawless, and, luckily, it all was practiced to perfection, so Spruce, Clay, and Floyd didn't really feel so concerned.

Still, though, there was one bro who wasn't feeling up to that particular level of confidence. John Dory didn't notice, but Floyd did, and he wanted to say something about it.

"Bro," he said, approaching JD's side. "You're making Baby Branch nervous."

John Dory peered over to where Floyd was gesturing at. Their youngest brother of the bunch was a few paces outside of the dressing room, standing near the curtain where just beyond it was the large mushroom stage on which they would be performing on that night in just a few short moments. Branch shuffled from side to side on his small blue feet, and had his eyebrows creased with slight worry.

JD dismissed the matter. “Ah, it’s just the usual pre-performance jitters. He’ll get over it!”

“I don’t know, JD…” Floyd said.

“Want me to go talk to him?”

The magenta Troll glanced at his eldest brother. John Dory meant well, yes, but Floyd noticed that sometimes he could be a little oblivious to how his words affected someone. A pep talk that was good for some teens who’ve already put on several shows before might not be so good for a small baby who’d just barely gotten his singing voice. But Floyd didn’t want to go through the trouble of trying to explain this to JD at that moment. “Maybe I’d better go talk to him,” he said.

JD looked slightly confused for a second, before recovering. “Huh? Well, alright, but make it snappy, ‘kay?”

Floyd gave him a quick thumbs up and then walked over to where their youngest brother still stood, perhaps looking even a smidge more nervous than he had a second or two ago. Floyd felt pity for him. Baby Branch was the smallest one of their group, but he looked even smaller now, with how fearful he was being.

“Hey, bro,” he said gently, “everything okay?”

Branch didn’t turn around just yet. His eyes were still fixed on the curtain. “No,” he responded, his voice small, meek, and of course, babyish in its nature. “I feel like I’m gonna barf.” He turned around to look at Floyd, pressing his little hands together.

“Branch, it’s just another show,” Floyd said, keeping his tone light. “It’s just like our rehearsals.”

“But there’s so many people…” Branch worried. He stole another glance from behind the curtain, and whimpered a little.

“Yeah, there is,” Floyd agreed, “but that’s because they wanna see just how great you are on stage. You, and me, and all our brothers.”

Branch’s eyes lit up some. “Really?”

“Yes, really!” Floyd responded, glad to see that his little brother was showing signs of feeling better.

“B-but… what if I mess up?” Branch asked, worry still pricking at him. “They’re gonna be mad…” The blue Trolling peeked over to where John Dory, Spruce, and Clay were at in the dressing room.

“They might be a little disappointed if we don’t win,” Floyd admitted. He knew he would probably feel slightly disappointed, too. “But, hey, remember our motto?”

Branch scrunched his small face as he tried to remember. “A prankster never reveals his tricks?”

“No, I think you’re thinking about Clay’s motto,” Floyd chuckled. “I’m talking about the BroZone motto, the one John Dory came up with?”

Branch thought again and then seemed to get it. “Bros before shows?” he asked, tentatively.

Floyd nodded. “Exactly! And you do know what that means, right?”

Branch squinched up his nose. “I think…”

Floyd kneeled down, and placed a hand on Branch’s shoulder. “It means that being brothers is always gonna be more important than any performance that we do. Okay?”

“Well… okay!” Branch replied chirpily, and then snuggled into Floyd when the magenta-haired Trolling scooped the baby in for a warm hug. Branch was still a little skeptical about their band’s motto. He constantly heard John Dory remind them any time before they performed that that show was “very important.” Oh well, he could get clarification later. At that moment, Floyd had released him and was taking his hand in his.

“Come on, now,” he said, “let’s go back to the others.”

Branch let himself be guided along back into the dressing room, where, sure enough, John Dory huddled the whole team together for one final bout of pep-talking.

“We’re gonna be entering this as band-tastic boys, but we’re gonna be leaving it as bro-dacious superstars!”

The boys cheered, excited and eager, exchanging rounds of high-fives, fist-bumps, and even a playful smack in the rear (specifically John Dory on Baby Branch).

If only the positive attitude had remained with them for the rest of that night.

Because what was once seeming to be a dream come true on that stage rapidly turned into a Nightmare on Elm Tree. With the fall. And then the vines. And then the humiliation. And then the argument…

If they had been puffalo, they would have certainly careened their way back inside the safety of their pod with their tails between their legs. But they were not puffalo, they were Trollings, who all had a variation of negative emotions radiating from them.

Spruce’s cheeks burned red with a mix of embarrassment and anger. He stormed into the center of the pod and whirled on his brothers. “My rock-hard abs and I quit!” he growled, making a show of tearing his purple vest from his body and ripping it clean in two.

Clay was quick to second that. “I quit too!” he said, despising the way that folks had laughed at him, and not with him.

Floyd was about to speak up, hoping to turn the heat down, but John Dory didn’t want to bother even hearing what he had to say. In less than a minute, they were already two brothers down in their band. He didn’t see a point – Floyd was probably just going to say that he quit, too! He stormed over to the entrance of the pod. “This bro bro’s goin’ solo… YOLO!” JD called over his shoulder, still trying to bust a rhyme even as he headed off, glaring at his brothers and then departing.

Branch stood on wobbly little legs beside Floyd, barely registering his older brother’s presence, his head in a whirl. He felt tears pooling in his large blue eyes, and a whimper in his throat.

“I ruined everything…”

In his eyes, he really did. If he had just practiced more, if he had just been as great as John Dory, and Spruce, and Clay, and Floyd had wanted him to be, then this wouldn’t have happened. Then he wouldn’t have been standing there, watching his family fall apart before his very eyes, watching the band break up, watching their dream be crushed.

This is all my fault. MINE.

I’m the one to blame. Nobody but me.

I ruined our band. I ruined our family.

I wasn’t good enough.

They hate me.

This is MY fault…

__________________________________________

“Branch?”

The Troll gasped, and he jumped right into action as soon as he’d heard the voice of his girlfriend pipe up from behind him. His fingers flew to the gramophone, and quickly removed the needle from the record. Then he turned around, plastering a large, toothy grin on his face in hopes of remaining inconspicuous.

Poppy was standing tentatively at the doorway of the room, a little uncertain, and some concern shining in her fuchsia eyes. “Are you okay?” she asked. “You’re crying and smiling at the same time. It kinda looks like it hurts.”

“It does kinda hurt,” Branch admitted, feeling up his face with his hands. Then he sighed, letting the smile drop and hurriedly wiping away the remainder of the tears that had streaked his face.

Poppy approached him. “Branch? Please tell me what’s the matter…”

Branch rubbed his arm. “It’s nothing, really… it’s just that this place brings back a lot of memories, that’s all,” he said, trying not to let his voice waver.

Poppy nodded in understanding. “This was your grandmother’s pod, wasn’t it?” she asked, though she knew the answer already. A small portrait of Grandma Rosiepuff was on one of the walls near the door, and the types of antiques and such that were leftover in the pod also gave her a clue.

“Yes, actually,” Branch said. “This was where I grew up.” He gestured around the space and felt another lump grow in his throat thinking about his beloved grandparent. “I miss her.”

“Oh, sweetie, I know you do,” Poppy cooed, taking it as her cue to bestow a much-needed hug onto him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her head against his chest. Branch returned the hug, extremely grateful for the comfort.

After a moment, Branch allowed himself to speak again. “Grandma and I did lots of stuff here. We loved to sing and listen to music together before, um…” He trailed off, and Poppy already knew what it was that he was getting at, though she did not force him to have to say it out loud.

Instead, the Pop Queen’s gaze drifted to the gramophone, and the albums next to it. She raised an eyebrow curiously. “Can I take a look?” she asked, gently releasing their embrace and peering up at him with question in her eyes.

Branch felt himself go stiff. NO! he wanted to blurt. But he knew his hard refusal over something so trivial would meet Poppy with confusion, and then have her raise suspicion. She’ll wonder what I’m hiding, he thought. He’d managed to keep his secret under wraps for this long, much to his surprise, and he did not want her to put two and two together and figure it out. But if I show her the album, maybe she WILL figure it out! Branch argued with himself. His blue face was plastered on the cover of the album just as prominent as his other brothers. But then again, I was a baby back then, he reasoned. I mean, I’ve grown up since then. I don’t look THAT much the same now than I did back then… do I?

Branch didn’t want to keep going on this back-and-forth, so he found himself slowly nodding to Poppy in reply. Poppy smiled and went right for the albums, carefully picking them up. Her reaction was just as he’d pictured it. Confusion, and then pleasant surprise.

“BroZone?!” she exclaimed. “Oh my gosh… and they’re original records!” Poppy ran her hand over the cover, her fingers grazing over the felted cover and the little figures of the boys that were featured. Poppy gushed some more. “Wow! I can’t believe it! I mean, I had no idea your Grandma was a fan!”

“Yeah… um… I guess they had universal appeal,” Branch said, very carefully choosing his words.

Poppy sighed, a dreamy look in her eyes. “Yeah, you’re telling me.” Her pupils dilated, and there was a sudden lovestruck quality to her gaze, one that made Branch feel a twang of jealousy. “They’re my favorite band!” she blurted.

“Oh… really?” Branch asked, maintaining his voice to a calm level.

“Yeah!” Poppy said. “Oh, can I please play one song? Please?”

“Err…” Branch swallowed. He’d just tried to listen to ‘one song,’ believing that after so long of being apart from his disbanded family, it wouldn’t have much of an effect on him. But he’d been wrong – very wrong. Heck, he hadn’t even remembered when he’d started crying!

Poppy saw his hesitance, and quickly added, “I don’t have to, it’s okay, you know…” She was saying the words, but Branch could tell she wasn’t fully ready to take on that option. At least not with the way her fingers twitched excitedly on the record, more than ready to place it in to be played. He didn’t want to disappoint his girlfriend… or have her ask any questions out of suspicion.

“No, no, it’s all right! G-go ahead,” Branch said, coughing afterwards to not have her pay any mind to his brief stutter.

Poppy didn’t pay mind. She squealed happily, bouncing twice on the spot, and then placing the record in. The opening notes to “The Right Stuff” began to play, making her bop her head up and down.

“First time was a great time Second time was a blast Third time I fell in love Now I hope it lasts I can see it in your walk Tell 'em when you talk See it in everything you do Even in your thoughts

You got the right stuff, baby Love the way you turn me on You got the right stuff, baby You're the reason why I sing this song!”

Poppy giggled as she sang along, removing the record when the song was done and looking at Branch. “Ahhh, I just love this song! It’s my favorite! How about you? What’s your favorite song of theirs?”

“Well, you see, um, I don’t actually have a favorite song,” Branch said, in a way telling the truth. He hated hearing the songs now, as they only brought him bad memories.

“Oh, I know exactly what you mean! I mean, how can you pick a favorite when they’re all so awesome!” Poppy exclaimed, unaware of his thoughts. Then she paused. “No wait, scratch that, not awesome, but uh, what’s that other word they used… oh! Oh wait, I remember! Bro-dacious!” She snapped her fingers, happy to have recollected correctly. “Yeah! The leader of the band used to say it all the time. Oh, he was sooo cute!”

John Dory! Cute?! Branch frowned. He could think up an hour-long speech with over hundreds of reasons for how NOT ‘cute’ that airhead of a brother of his was, starting with the fact that he abandoned him. But what Poppy said next distracted him.

“Oh who am I kidding – they were all cute! Especially the baby, he was my favorite!”

Branch blinked. “The baby?” he echoed.

“Uh-huh!” Poppy said. “I can’t tell you how many times I wished I coulda pinched his cute little fat cheeks – like this!” She squealed and demonstrated by pinching Branch’s blue cheek between her pink fingers. Now that he had to chuckle at. Boy, if only she knew the irony, Branch thought.

“Oh, but Branch,” she said, suddenly reeling herself back, “None of them are cuter, or sweeter, or more handsome than you are.” She blushed, feeling embarrassed. “I’m sorry if I made you think so… I kinda go a little bonkers about BroZone.” Poppy let out a flustered little laugh and looked down at the ground, like a child that had been caught swiping from the cookie jar.

Branch suppressed the sigh that wanted to escape him. He felt bad for feeling jealous before. It wasn’t her fault. Poppy didn’t know. Poppy wouldn’t ever come to know. She was just like much of their fans when the band was in their prime, fangirling and overly ecstatic at the mere mention of BroZone’s name. And part of him really did wish he could tell her. He didn’t like the idea of keeping secrets from his girlfriend, the one Troll who loved him and understood him so well. She wouldn’t keep secrets from him. And, she would also understand about his past if he explained it, wouldn’t she? But then again, at the same time it would open the floodgates for a whole bunch of other questions. She would never look at him the same way again, that’s for sure. She wouldn’t see ‘Branch,’ she would see ‘Bitty B,’ the small, diaper-clad youngest performer of BroZone. Not only that, but she would want to know every single little miniscule detail about his brothers. She’d wanna know their whereabouts and how she could get a chance to meet them and get their autographs. Those were things he didn’t have answers to, and even if he did, he most certainly wouldn’t want to tell her so that he’ll have to deal with them again. Was telling her worth it? Was what he’d envisioned happening afterwards something that he really wanted?

No.

Branch had to go with his default answer this time around, despite, deep down, his gut feeling telling him otherwise.

What does it matter! Branch argued with himself. There’s plenty of time to tell her. It wasn’t like anything was going to happen to require the explanation to be given. If there was, he figured, it would have happened by now. If his brothers really and truly cared, if they felt remorse in any way for the wrong that had happened, matters should’ve been resolved by now. Long resolved. If they wanted to pretend he didn’t exist, then he’d do the same – he would go on with the illusion that he had no siblings to speak of. A family didn’t abandon one another, so in a way, it was sort of true. He had no brothers.

Branch’s decision settled, he approached Poppy and gently took her hands. “Don’t worry about it, okay? I still love you, Poppifer,” he cooed, using her fun little nickname that he’d invented even before they’d officially sealed their relationship.

Poppy’s blush of embarrassment turned to one of bashfulness, and a sweet little giggle escaped her at once again hearing that this wonderful Troll loved her. She was still swooning when she heard Branch suddenly gasp, looking down at the watch in his Hug Time bracelet.

“Poppy! We’re gonna be late for the royal wedding!” he cried, grabbing her arm in haste. “Let’s go get married!”

The Pop Queen gasped. “Branch!”

Branch glanced at her in confusion, seeing the shocked look she now wore. “What?” Then it had hit him what he’d said. “OH! I – I mean, let’s get Bridget and Gristle married,” he corrected himself, chuckling awkwardly.

Poppy looked relieved. “Oh, okay! Because that would be weird if we got married.”

Branch quickly agreed. “Yes, very weird. Yeah.”

They awkwardly looked away as they continued to bounce agreement off one another, Branch finalizing the point with a seemingly disgusted “bleh” which Poppy copied. By then, the awkwardness had lifted some, and they were ready to make their way over. But Branch still had a lingering thought in mind.

Would it really be that weird if they got married? They had already reached the status of being boyfriend-and-girlfriend, so, logically, if things went well in their relationship, marriage would be the next step. And Branch couldn’t foresee anything going wrong in their relationship. Sure, they’d had a little tiff back when they had only been best friends, after he’d pointed out that she hadn’t been listening very well and that in turn was making her not be as great of a queen as she’d wanted to be. But even that was resolved fairly easily enough, and their relationship only continued to blossom from there.

Does Poppy really think it’s weird, though? Branch wasn’t sure, but right now, he didn’t want to go through the trouble of finding out. This day was not about him and Poppy – it was about their friends, Bridget and Gristle and their marriage. One day, perhaps, it could be about him and Poppy. And boy did he look forward to that day. By that point though, if they were lucky enough to reach that cherished husband-and-wife status, Branch knew that one thing was for certain, and that one thing was making his stomach churn with foreboding, making him think back to the albums that were in his grandmother’s old pod, the way Poppy had glanced at the Trollings on the cover and then at Branch and having not made the correlation.

There CAN’T be any secrets between us.

__________________________________________

A/N: I had to write this after seeing the way the new trailer started 😭 Bridget's wedding outfits scene was an idea used from the leaked pages of The Art of Trolls Band Together. Song used is "The Right Stuff" by New Kids on the Block

Oh yeah, and I had to include the "let's go get married" bit again, because it is one of my favorite things ^_^

#trolls #trolls 3 #trolls band together #branch trolls #poppy trolls #broppy #fanfiction #dreamworks #kittyball writes

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absolutebl · 3 years

Text

This Week in BL

April 2021 Part 3

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Second Chance Ep 3 - this is proper YA, they are dealing with actual high school issues, picking uni, first crushes, online dating, etc... We even got a senior prom trope which almost never happens in Thai stuff (just the freshman uni competition variant). Standard plot pacing means PaperFah’s kiss was too early, might indicate we’re moving to uni in the second half of the series? Tropes included: let me feed you, hand hold, black & white striped shirt, floppy drunk & first kiss.

Y-Destiny Ep 3 - the first MaxNat ep. Such fun to see them playing different characters. This one is enemies to lovers, tutor/student, but it’s using the “poor little rich kid loose cannon” archetype. Nat is doing his best, but it’s leaving me cold. Lots of tropes tho: boyfriend’s closet, floppy drunk, pillow clutch, the loom & water bottle.

Lovely Writer Ep 8 - solid installment, good use of many tropes. I really like the leads and I’m glad there isn’t much side dish action, SibGene gave us: punish, touch your face, boyfriend claiming, kissing, sleep cuddling, symmetry, rooftop, cheek kiss, hand hold, and pillow clutch.

Call It What You Want Ep 3-4 - couldn’t find the subs, don’t really care, will watch if it crosses my radar, otherwise I’m just not into it.

Brothers Ep 11 - the “everyone wants Chol” show continues (but WHY?), he and Tri are cute together, and now I kinda just want Prab to end up with the twins. I’m confused by the teachers, but Boston showed up (from UWMA), and my boys KhunKaow got together (YES!), so I’m ultimately delighted with the episode.

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 2 - the makeover happened, and we go from cute with glasses and braces to cute without them. (I’m reminded of those 90′s Pygmalion teen movies where the girl has glasses + ponytail and then *GASP* does not and *GASP* she’s HOT. This was the BL version.) Meanwhile, writers better be careful with Pi, he’s getting too tsundere to like. Did you see they gave AJ a 2gether music intro & pick up line? Well, it’s actually his brother JJ who plays Ohm in 2g. I cackled. GMMTV - you so cheeky.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 5 - half way point. My poor confused babies. It was a really sweet episode... if what happened before hadn’t happened in the way that it had. Also, these boys have a GREAT friendship but are probably the worst advice givers ever.

Most Peaceful Place (Vietnam) Ep 3 fin - so cute! Our boys confessed and got together. There was an adorable mutual kiss (I love me a mutual, like Ingredients). Afterwards, they actually seemed to communicate with each other about both sex and their relationship. OMG. How original for BL! This was the last episode, so the series is short, but I still enjoyed it very much. RECOMMENDED.

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 1-2 - oh boy this one is rough, we started out with homophobia child abuse and moved on to family drama + drunken dub-con one night stand. But production values and subs are better than normal for Vietnam (You Are My Boy levels) + our queer babies are out & proud + it’s higher heat + I’m weak. So I’m watching.

Word of Honor (China) Ep 25-27 - honestly not much happened, lots of back story. Things are looking dire for the ghosts unless they can turn the Scorpion (I LOVE HIM, he’s my precious deadly baby). Don’t know how they managed to make loosing a battle with an immortal sword god ex-friend cute... but they did. Did some calculations and at 36 eps, mathematically speaking, ep 30 will be the equivalent of a standard BL ep 11. Should I be scared for next week?

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korea) Ep 1-2 - it’s so effing adorbs, soft bois do old fashioned tropes like arranged marriage + evil stepsisters meets the more modern fake relationship + secret identity in a surprisingly comfortable mix. It launched with baby is a floppy drunk, forced proximity, performative I saw you feed him, and some fun gay panic. It’s a lot lighter and faster paced than I was expecting, but this is Korea so I don’t know why I’m surprised.

Stand Alones

K-pop band OnlyOneOf dropped a new MV that is basically BL bait, using many of the tropes we know and love. I promise I’m not trying to lure anyone into K-pop I just thought it was interesting how consciously they’re yaoi dipping.

Spin-off We Best Love Fighting Mr. 2nd, Shou Zhen | the Only Love Letter Once Written (SERIOUSLY WITH THE TITLES TAIWAN?) anyway there’s a something or other 25 minutes featuring Pei Shou Yi and his boy that aired Friday. It’s about 10 minutes of reboot footage with 15 min of new content, mostly set in the past. It entirely rests on Chih Tian Shih’s acting, fortunately for us he’s great. However, it doesn’t substantially change or add to these characters’ arcs from the finale of WBL season 2. I don’t know if there will be more or if this was just an extra footage fan service.

COLOR RUSH GOT ITS MOVIE!!! Okay this is almost the tipping point for me to get Viki Standard. It’s listed at 1:56 minutes long but the original series had only c.120 running time - that is a lot of new content. Although i was disappointed by To My Star’s movie I loved Wish You’s, so I am hoping Color Rush got Wish You level treatment. That said, I feel Color Rush the series is damn near perfect already, hard to improve on perfection.

Breaking News

Close Friend the series got an updated trailer featuring MaxNat (no subs) so if you like them in Y-Destiny or in Why R U get ready for them to play different characters again, this time for a sports romance segment. Like Y-Destiny, Close Friend looks to be another series of vignettes (Original trailer) coming April 22.

2gether the movie (Thai trailer) was intended release April 22 but is now postponed due to a surge in C19 cases in Thailand.

Tell the World I Love You, a Thai BL movie that was supposed to release last week, is similarly delayed.

My Ride has been postponed indefinitely with no airing date.

The Miracle of Teddy Bear got a teaser vid, no eng subs.

Gossip

Thai BL actors Nanon (Bad Buddy), Yoon (YYY), and Mark Siwat (LBC, Bite Me) have tested positive for C19. Press releases stated they’re fine, tho filming has paused fore their various projects, obvs. (No word on whether Nanon’s current project was Bad Buddy or not, although it seems likely given his recent Arm Share episode.)

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

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shreddedparchment · 4 years

Text

A Wife for Thor Pt.02

10/19/2020

No Lies in a Marriage

Pairing: King!Thor x Reader Word Count: 5,150

Warnings: angst, anxiety, panic attack, language

A/N: As I said in the post earlier today, you’ll probably see updates for this story often right now because it’s at the beginning and I know where I’m going pretty clearly and how to get there and it’s kinda just writing itself for right now. Anywho, I hope you enjoy this chapter! I love writing this reader with Thor...but I think it’s just because I love writing Thor. haha If you happen to reblog, thanks so much for helping me spread my work! xoxo

You sit up most of the night after talking to David, staring out your bedroom window at the small plot of land you call your own.

Your belonging. The only true one you’ve ever had.

It’s a small inheritance, sure but it’s yours. Yours alone. A sanctuary from the feeling of emptiness that you’d once felt wishing for something that felt like home. It’s more than even some will ever have.

You’re lucky.

And now you have to leave it behind?

There’s no denying your own part in this mess. You’d been given a choice and you’d made it, believe this outcome would never come. Yet here you are, betrothed and fated to be Queen of Asgard.

David comes to help you pack because he knows that you’ll be wallowing.

In shock you pack just as asked, essentials only which means for you, only your clothing, your laptop, and a very small collection of books are chosen.

You have no pictures to take with you. No family heirlooms or sentimental possessions. You fit it all into one large suitcase.

Funny. As you pack, you can’t help but imagine the lives your nomadic ancestors had lived. Much like you in these moments as you pack what little you have of your life away; they must have left everything behind over and over in their search for their own belonging.

It only takes you two hours to pack once David arrives and together you lug the suitcase down your little hallway to the front door.

There, a beautiful Asgardian stands waiting, her eyes on your own foggy expression with slight concern as David joins her and they lapse into quiet conversation as you continue to space out, thinking about the life you’re leaving behind.

Really, if you’re honest, it isn’t much of a life.

Yes, you have your routine. This is your house. Your things. But aside from that, there’s nothing here. Nothing but independence and solitude.

That’s enough, some would say. Others would wonder what you do with all your time.

Why hadn’t you found someone to share this life with? Someone who could appreciate the coziness of this place with you.

“Are you ready?” The Asgardian asks, Brunnhilde, her voice smooth but stern, yet not unkind.

You turn to look at her, hair gathered up on her head in a large bun. She’s dressed for the Norwegian weather she’s come from despite it being significantly hotter here.

She’s not bothered by it. Or if she is, she hides it well.

“Would it matter if I said no?”

“No.” She smiles at you, cheek bones so rounded and pretty you almost want to stroke them because you’ve rarely seen anyone so beautiful.

All of the Asgardians are beyond compare when it comes to looks. Even those that are plain radiate a golden aura. Godlike. Thor’s is the strongest and he’s most certainly the most beautiful to look at.

You’d been too afraid to admit it to yourself before because you’d been so decided against marrying him, but Thor is by far the loveliest man you’ve ever seen. Ideal. He’s exquisite.

And you get to marry him. Which doesn’t exactly feel like a bad thing.

Being chosen to marry Thor would be amazing, given the fantasies you’ve allowed yourself to indulge in since the day you met with him, if not for the fact that you know he’s in love with someone else. Someone who won’t marry him. Someone stupid, obviously.

And those fantasies you’d indulged in would never happen with someone else in his heart. So without that, all you have left is duty. Duty to Earth and its people, ensuring their safety and though you honestly don’t think Earth needs it, the assurance from the Asgardians that they will respect humans as the dominant lifeform on the planet.

Yes, the whole Queen of Asgard thing is a little daunting and will probably take over your life, so you can’t blame this mystery woman for not wanting to give up her own pursuits to take care of an entire people. To give up one identity for another? Yours is close enough to blank—your life nearly empty—that for you, this might not be such a great loss and yet, this leaves you wondering what this will do for you career.

Small as it is, you’ve had two books published. Limited releases with not much traction. Still, the accomplishment is your own. One you’re proud of.

Will you have to stop writing?

“There will be a dinner, to introduce you to Thor’s inner circle. Myself, Loki, a few others that serve directly under him.” Brunnhilde is saying, pulling you back to reality.

You look around, having zoned out so thoroughly that you hadn’t even realized you’d boarded a plane and taken off.

“The only one you’ll have to watch out for is Sif. She’s usually pretty nice, but she’s a little miffed about the whole marriage situation. From what I’ve heard, she’s had a thing for Thor since they were children. She’s a fierce warrior. Might want to avoid her altogether if possible. Asgardian women can be a little territorial.”

Lovely, another rival.

“So can human women.” You grumble, already hating the looks of what you suppose will be an onslaught of distractions for your future husband in the forms of beautiful women.

Brunnhilde quirks a brow, raising it high as she considers your words but doesn’t comment further.

“He’s never seen her as more than a comrade in arms. Or so he says.” She sounds unconvinced, but you recognize her attempt to calm you.

You stare, saying nothing more as your world is overturned.

“After dinner, you’ll spend some time with Thor. He wants to talk to you a bit. The wedding will be on Thursday. Thor’s idea. Full of himself, the idiot.” She’s smiling as she insults him, flipping the page of a magazine she’d grabbed from the pocket of the seat in front of her and you realize they must be close friends.

“Did he really pick me?” You wonder, knowing that her personality will only let her answer one way.

Brutally honest.

“Against all our recommendations.” She tells you. “Most of us were pulling for the Hungarian one. She had the schooling and the training. A little too eager for Thor, or so he said. And Loki. Loki was also in favor of you.”

“Loki?!” You gasp, remembering with great detail your chance meeting with the Asgardian prince.

“Oh yeah.”

Why would Loki want Thor to choose you? You weren’t exactly nice to him. Then again, you weren’t really mean either. Just…blunt.

More importantly, after the awkward conversation with Thor and his admission to marrying despite his feelings for someone else, his choice is the most confusing.

“Why did he pick me?” You plead. “Thor.”

“You’ll have to ask him tonight after dinner. I couldn’t tell you other than that he said he wanted someone real. Someone who knew what it’s like to be a normal person. Whatever that means.” Brunnhilde shrugs. “Normal is all relative. Odin, I need a drink.”

The plane ride is over too quickly and the ride to New Asgard even shorter. The village is large but not much larger than the town you’d grown up in. Plenty of houses and public spaces but nothing like a cityscape.

You’re surprised by the more modest choices they’ve made for their homes. Simple houses with wood siding and strong rooftops.

That is, most of the village is modest. Almost at the center of the largest grouping of buildings is a large multi-storied palace.

Just as it did the first time you saw it when you’d been brought for the meeting, you gasp when you see it, admiring the beauty of the structure bathed in afternoon sunlight.

It reminds you of an old Nordic home you’d seen online only on steroids. Four, maybe five stories? All roofs are tall and sharp, parts covered with moss.

Brunnhilde shows you into the main foyer, large and tall room that allows space large enough for people to stand and chat. Here she leaves you and David with a young Asgardian woman. She looks as if she can’t be more than seventeen but from what you know about Asgardian aging, she’s probably hundreds of years old.

She escorts you both to your new room, and you and David gasp at the sight.

Even though it’s smaller than the sitting room you’d been in when you met with Thor before, there’s a large bed immediately to the right, covered in luxurious plum and silver silk sheets. A large dark brown bear skin rug covers the center of the floor. To the left is an extravagant dark oak armoire, beside it a matching vanity with a low cushioned and backless seat.

On the far wall, between two sets of heavy wooden double doors that lead out to a balcony sits a desk and another seat with a black cushion, the same style as the vanity’s chair.

There’s a low hanging chandelier made of intricately twisted wood, reinforced with dark steel. The design of it makes you think there should be candles, but instead you find it furnished with small flame-shaped lightbulbs.

Along each of the walls are beautiful artworks, one of a singular mountain you’ve never seen on Earth. Another a golden palace with a sky of literal space above and behind it. There’s a smaller painting almost right above the bed and the likeness of it is so precise, you gasp again.

David follows your gaze with his mouth hanging open a little but then he chuckles. It’s a throaty sound as he turns away from you and moves further into the room with your bag while you deposit your purse on the bed, eyes glued to the painting.

“These Asgardians seem to be experts at everything.” David says, conversationally. “Their architecture, their music, their wits in battle. It seems even their art is exceptional.”

You’re still too busy staring to reply.

When David speaks again, he’s right beside you, voice dropped in volume.

“It must really look like him, to have you rendered speechless.” He observes.

“Yes.” You agree. “Just like him. Only now he has the eyepatch. He looks the same with two eyes. Less rugged but the same.”

“And he will remain the same, long after you’ve died, I think.” David admits.

“Yeah…” You swallow, looking down at the bottom of the frame.

The thought had only begun to occur to you when you’d been making your way through the city after Brunnhilde had confessed to being over a thousand years older than Thor and Loki.

“For Thor, this marriage will pass in the blink of an eye.” You sigh, feeling a little saddened by truth of that.

You turn around and sit down on the bed, resting your hands on your knees limply as you stare at the floor.

David squats before you, forearms on his knees.

“You’re serving a great purpose.” He tells you. “Ensuring the safety of the human race. You’re the white flag the Asgardians are waving. History will remember you, Y/N. It will not be in vain.”

Your eyes begin to water, and you nod, knowing he’s right.

“I know I just…” Your head gives an involuntary turn towards Thor’s portrait, but you manage to keep yourself from looking. “He’s in love with someone already. And, yeah, I’d never thought about being with someone before. But now that I’m faced with it, now that I know I’ll be his wife—I don’t know that I don’t want him to like me.”

“He may come around.” David consoles. “You’re a pretty girl and nice, even though you bite.”

His teasing draw a small curve of your lips. The levity however is quickly lost at the prospect of your life stretched out before you, never knowing love as your husband covets another woman.

This isn’t what you’d expected. To be fair you hadn’t expected anything, but now the idea of being married to Thor knowing that he’d much prefer if you were someone else hurts you in a way you didn’t know had been possible.

This ache in your chest feels strange and vivid and unbearable.

Your tears flow. David sighs and reaches up to wipe your cheeks, pulling you in for a hug.

Taking his offered comfort, you hide your face against his shoulder, allowing yourself these few moments to really feel the anxiety and sadness this whole thing has brought.

“I’m sorry.” David tells you, his voice steady but sad. “I wish I could give you a better life. I know that this is not what you parents would have wanted.”

You pull back, shaking your head as you gather yourself. “No, David. You’ve been the most supportive person in my life. This is how it’s supposed to be. Otherwise, why would I have the ancestors I have, right?”

David sighs, reaching up to wipe at your cheek.

“Besides, it’s not like I’ll be truly suffering. Not like other people do. I’ll have a good roof over my head, food, money won’t be a worry. How many other people my age can say that?”

David’s gaze becomes skeptical and he purses his thin lips a little. “Is that really how you feel?”

“Fuck no. This whole thing is complete shit.” You argue, then laugh as David chuckles too.

“There’s that fighting spirit. Keep that fire, Princess, and you’ll find a way through this.” He says, and the way the word Princess rolls of his lips makes you feel the way you’d always thought you’d feel had your dad lived to be a part of your life.

“You say that like it’s easy.” You sigh.

Before he can answer, there’s a knock on the door and it opens.

Both you and David shoot up to your feet as Loki walks in.

He’s smiling politely until he sees your face.

“I’m sorry. Am I intruding?” Loki wonders, as you quickly wipe away the tears left on your cheeks.

“No.” You shake your head quickly, voice thicker than when you arrived because of your break down. “No. Of course not. Come in.”

He doesn’t look convinced and his brow is furrowed as he looks you both over then stands with his hands behind his back. He looks neat and exotic wearing a pair of dark pants, a black top with embellishments in stunning emerald, a thin golden chain connecting each side of his high collar to the other.

“I’ve come to make sure that you find the clothing we’ve left for you.” Loki gestures at the armoire.

“I’m-I can’t wear what I brought?” You ask, pressing your hand to your chest, unintentionally sniffing.

“Tonight, you will meet with my brother’s court. It is a formal event that you must attend wearing slightly more traditional Asgardian garb.” Loki replaces his hands behind his back. “Brunnhilde has chosen something she thought would be your color. You have an hour then we’ll send your maid in to fetch you.”

You nod.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Loki asks again.

“You’re surprisingly worried.” You tell him, David moving to open the armoire and get a look at what you’re going to have to wear.

Loki’s face quickly shifts into a smile, his eyes averted as he nods.

“I hear you were the only person other than Thor who chose me.” You sit back down slowly, your hands softly skating over the cool silky sheets. “Why?”

“You were a breath of fresh air.” He admits. “Compared to the other candidates, you seemed the only one with her feet on the ground.”

Looking away from him you pinch the plum sheets.

“Is that why Thor chose me too?” You ask, knowing it isn’t the reason he chose you.

“Whatever the reason,” Loki begins, and his voice is stern enough to draw your gaze. “I’m certain my brother has nothing but honorable intentions. He’s always been the good one.”

“I think that’s true.” You nod, “He has always been the good one, if the stories are to be believed.”

“I make no excuses for who I was.” Loki assures you.

“But I think you and I both know that Thor’s intentions when it comes to me are anything but honorable.” You smile sadly. “I really hate lying. Let’s not lie to each other. We’re family, right? Or will be.”

Loki’s look remains somber, his eyes far away for a moment.

“You’re the right woman for the job. That is the truth.” Loki admits.

“I guess we’ll see.”

Loki nods. “One hour, your highness.”

His words give you a shock, and your left gaping at him as he leaves and shuts the door behind him.

“Well, that sounded strange.” David admits, “But not as strange as this dress. Well, perhaps strange is not the right word.”

You’re still reeling from the your highness as you get and walk to David that it takes your eyes a moment to process the sight before you.

“I am not wearing that.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“I can’t breathe in this thing!” You whine, hooking your fingers into the ultra-high neckline of your dress.

It’s more like a cage, this piece that goes around your throat and shoulders. It connects to a slightly see-through bodice with soft split threads lining the length of the dress, underneath the top, silver layer is a soft pink one that stands pretty against your skin. It gives the dress depth and offers a pleasant backdrop for the waterfall skirt as it fans out around your feet.

The lattice neckpiece connects to the dress’s neckline with four stiff wire connectors wrapped in the same silver fabric as the rest of the dress.

Your hair, your maid expertly gathered atop your head, shaping it to look as much like you as it can but also keeping it contained with several silver Celtic knot-looking clips. She’d added very little color to your face, telling you that Thor had requested you look as much like yourself as possible so that his court could see the real you.

Even so, you’re overwhelmed by what you see in the mirror as you pass a particularly large one as you and David make your way to the dining hall.

“Don’t fret.” David tells you, reaching over to stop your wringing hands. “Just be yourself. That’s why he chose you.”

“So, what you’re saying is to not be myself.” You nod. “Got it.”

David pulls you to a stop, turning you to face him. Your maid, Estrid, keeps walking a bit then stops leaving you both some space.

“I want you to remember something, Y/N.” David says, low and quiet so that only you can hear him. Well, he doesn’t know that Asgardians have better than human hearing, but whatever. “These people, they need you. They need you. More than you will ever need them.

“Without you, they might have to leave Earth because Thor will never turn against the human race. I don’t know why. We’re not that great.” David shrugs, and your mouth pops open as you breathe a pained gasp.

In this moment, with David’s helpful words, you’re provided with astounding clarity.

“She’s human.” You realize, eyes watering.

It happens so quickly, your breath catches, brain in a frenzy, hands shaking, sweating, your tears flow freely.

You’ve never cried so much in your life and you understand now that this will be your new state of being because what else can you do when you’ve knowingly given your life to a man who loves another human woman which only means that she will also only live for a short time and that means that Thor doesn’t have a lot of time with her so, of course he’ll want to be with her until the day she dies, because she’s the one he really wants to be with, and you’re just the tool to use so that he can stay here with her.

What kind of life have you fated yourself to?

“Your Highness?” Estrid asks, concern painting her voice as you shake your head, too panicked to speak.

David moves you towards the wall, pressing you against it to lean as Estrid moves closer to peek at you.

“Might I be of assistance?” She offers and David turns a smile on her.

“A glass of water, perhaps?”

Estrid hurries away giving you and David the hallway.

“Y/N?” He says, voice hard. “Breathe.”

You look at him, focus on the streak of white in his hair as it falls forward to hang across his brow.

It helps and you shut your mouth and breathe in deep through your nose.

He reaches into the pocket of his suit jacket and pulls from it a white handkerchief. With gentle fingers, he coaxes your face up so that he can carefully wipe the tear stains from your cheeks. He takes a bit of the blush they’d put on you, but you don’t care, and he doesn’t either.

“What is it that troubles you? Tell me.” He urges you.

“Um…” You begin, chin quivering and making your voice shake a little. “…I-I-I don’t know how I’m going to be married to him when I kn-know that he really wants to be with s-someone else. I don’t know how…how…how…”

David sighs, shaking his head as he caresses yours. “Then you look elsewhere too. If he sees fit to be with someone else while you’re married, then you deserve to experience love too. Take a lover. Be discreet. No one will know and you will both get what you want.”

“Isn’t that wrong?” You half cry. “I mean, aren’t wives and husbands s-supposed to be faithful?”

David smiles, pulling your head down to kiss your forehead. “Then give him a chance to change his mind. If he doesn’t love you by the end of the year, then he’s a bigger fool than I already think he is. A downright dumbass.”

“I don’t like the idea of someone being with me when they don’t want to be.” You admit.

And David doesn’t need you to explain that this stems from living in the school, waiting for adoption only to never be chosen.

You’ve finally been picked, and this is what it’s for?

“Do you want me to come to dinner? I can insist on it.” He promises. “I’ll even make a scene.”

You shut your eyes and sob once, David pulls you against his chest and once more you hide your face against his shoulder.

Both of you hear her steps before you see her and yet, when you turn to accept your water, you’re frozen as you find yourself face to face with Thor.

He’s dressed beautifully, in black leather trousers, stitched with thick visible charcoal colored strips of more leather. His torso is covered in what you’d consider light armor. More leather pieces in deep gold tones except for the arms which are covered in metallic scales that shine under the hallway lights. His shoulders are draped in a floor length cape, black, thinner than the one you’ve seen him wear before.

A more casual cape, you suppose.

Both you and David are absolutely still, confused by Thor’s sudden appearance.

“I uh…” Thor looks uncomfortable, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he gestures behind him with his right hand, in his left a glass of water. “Estrid looked upset. She said you weren’t feeling well?”

There’s genuine concern in his voice and it surprises you enough to wipe away most of your worries for now.

“I’m fine.” You assure him.

David clears his throat. “I should go. I have my own dinner to eat.”

“No, please. Join us.” Thor rushes to invite him, gesturing back towards the dining hall again.

“No, no. Really.” David uses his hand to refuse, then reaches down to give your hand a squeeze. “Can I trust you to escort Y/N to dinner?”

Your heart swells for David, once again, the father you never had.

“Of course.” Thor nods, smiling at David before moving to you, seeing this as permission to move closer maybe? “I take full responsibility.”

There’s a twinge of bitterness in your chest, a rolling in your stomach as you see David narrow his eyes at Thor.

“I’m going to hold you to that, God of Thunder.” He threatens, and Thor seems to realize it’s a threat because he looks startled. However, he smiles and plays it off quickly, nodding. “Have a good dinner, princess.”

David gives your hand one more squeeze before leaving you and Thor to whatever awkward conversation you’re about to have.

Thor waits until you’re both alone in the hallway before he holds out the glass of water he’d brought for you.

“Have you been crying?” He wonders, voice soft and gentle. Deep too, it settles in your chest and makes you feel stupid for liking it.

“Just a little.” You admit.

“Why?”

“I’m nervous.” And that isn’t a lie. “And apprehensive.”

Also, not a lie.

“And I don’t trust you.” You confess, feeling no qualms about the shock that flits across his rugged face.

“What did I do?” He cries.

“You told me you’re in love with someone else who won’t marry you.” You sigh, taking a long drink of your water. “I’m not exactly excited to be marrying someone who already wants to be with someone else.”

Understanding shifts his expression and he nods, reaching up to scratch at the side of his chin.

“I’ll be honest,” He begins, offering you his arm as you lower your glass. “It was never something I expected either. After watching my parents love each other for many years, their marriage was something I hoped I could experience.”

“Then why didn’t you fight harder for this woman you love? Convince your court! She’s human, right? I’m sure the Earth Ambassadors would be happy to have you marry any human.” You reason, still hoping to get out of this even if the only thing you hate about this now is the fact that he’s in love with someone else.

That fantasy marriage you’d painted for yourself has taken over your inexperienced brain and planted a seed within your heart and you feel like a fool for it.

“They were fine with it. Jane is not ready for marriage and I cannot force her to marry me if she doesn’t want to.” Thor laments, truly sounding sad about her refusal.

“Doesn’t she care that you’re marrying someone else?” You wonder, watching his expression as he begins to lead you towards the dining hall.

“In a way.” Thor nods. “She and I want to be together, but Jane is devoted to her work. She could not make the time for the obligations marrying me would entail.”

“Sounds selfish.” You observe, hating Jane a bit because she has what you didn’t know you wanted. Maybe not exactly Thor himself yet, but the love he has for her.

Thor says nothing for a moment, thinking probably. He stops walking and you stop beside him.

“I would not want her to give up her passions. In marrying me, Jane would lose her identity. Which is too important to her to give up. I could never ask her to do it.”

“Because you love her.” You agree.

“Yes.”

“Which is why you find it so easy to do it to me.” You explain, realizing it as you speak it. “Because you don’t care about me. Therefore, my identity has little value. To you.”

Thor’s speechless, staring at you as your own heart pounds. You don’t know where you conjured the audacity to say the words out loud as they came to you, but they’re true. Truer than even you know.

“I do care.” Thor argues softly, looking at your hand wrapped around his bicep.

“You don’t, Thor.” You shake your head, politely disagreeing.

“Yes, I do!” He argues, this time a little more heated.

“What do I do for a living?” You challenge and he stutters, thinking hard.

He furrows his brow, crinkly creases at the corners of his eyes as he ponders.

You observe it’s loveliness. Truly a creature of perfection even with the gold and black metal patch over his eye. If he cared about you, you might actually fall for him. If he gave two shits, you might be a goner.

“Your family left you an inheritance!” He points out, as if this is what you do.

“You don’t remember?” You ask, knowing the answer. “I told you when we met, though I only mentioned it in passing.”

“How am I expected to remember then? If you were not specific?” He retorts.

“If I’d been Jane, you would have remembered.” You tell him.

“No.” He disagrees. “I’m always this inattentive.”

You laugh once, shocked by his candor. “You’re such a liar.”

“I’m not! Ask anyone once we’re seated. They’ll all tell you that I never pay attention or listen. To anyone!” He insists, and you laugh again because he’s being sincere.

His gaze is slight shock as he looks at you, then it softens, and he chuckles with you.

“Why are you laughing?” You ask him.

“I don’t know.” He chuckles again. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, I suppose.”

This sobers you and your laugh dies off.

“Can I ask a favor?” You look at him, trying to read him like you’ve never tried to do so to anyone before.

“Of course.” He nods.

“I know you don’t love me. And I know that the likelihood of you loving me at any point in our marriage is nonexistent, but I really want to try and make this marriage work. I want it to be as real as possible.

“Which means I want you to be honest with me about everything. I don’t want any secrets. I don’t want to think you’re talking to or meeting Jane because you’re acting suspicious. If you have to see her,” And he seems to understand that you mean, if he feels like he needs to for his own sake, because he loves her. “I want to know that’s what you’re doing. Please, don’t make a fool of me, Thor.”

Thor considers you for a moment, absorbing your words as you wait for his response.

Instead of giving you what you want, he gives you a long head-to-toe. “I was right to choose this gown.”

He chose it?

“You look exquisite. Just as a princess should.” He admires. “Come, let’s go introduce you to my friends.”

As he pulls you towards the dining hall, your heart begins to pound again as nervous energy courses through your veins setting your limbs to white noise again. Tingly.

“They’re all very eager to meet the woman who will be Queen of Asgard.”

“I think I’m gonna throw up.” You worry.

Thor chuckles.

“I’m right there with you.”

#king!thor x reader #thor x reader #arranged marriage au #royal au #marvel fanfiction #king!thor x reader fanfic #king!thor x reader fanfiction #king!thor x reader fic #thor x reader fanfiction #thor x reader fanfic #thor x reader fic #thor x you #king!thor x you #marvel au #a wife for thor #a wife for thor pt02 #thor odinson x reader

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harrywritingsbyme · 4 years

Text

Crossing The Finish Line

Based Off Of This Ask

A/N: Hopefully this will make you just as h word, if not more than me when I was writing this. This is also the 4th “installment” of A Series Of Firsts! Enjoy 🙃

Saying that you were inexperienced, would be the biggest understatement anyone could ever make. You tried doing a couple things on yourself but you couldn’t seem to get yourself to the finish line. You tried reading articles online and following their instructions on how to get yourself off but it just didn’t work, and you really wanted it to work. You even tried watching porn, but it only made you even more frustrated and in need of a release. Eventually, after many occasions of trying and trying for what felt like years, you decided to just give up and live the rest of your days being sexually frustrated. It also didn’t help that you were a virgin, and had no clue as to what being pleasured was supposed to feel like or a reference point in what to do.

Luckily for you, your troubles of not being able to release some of the pent up frustration was finally going to come to an end. You and Harry had been together for a little over 7 months now and you two hadn’t had sex or anything past a make out session on the couch (which in your opinion got very steamy at times). Neither of you thought that you two having or not having sex would be the end all be all of the relationship. But even though you two had this resolve, it didn’t stop you or Harry for that matter from having a few (well, more like a lot) explicit thoughts cross your minds. The only difference between you and Harry with this was the fact that he could easily ease the tension between his legs. Unfortunately for you, the same thing couldn’t be said.

Now not only did you have a huge problem in the department of getting off, you also weren’t doing so well when it came to timing. This meant that you couldn’t stop yourself from spilling the beans on your problem to Harry when the thoughts were flowing through your mind. Earlier in the day, Harry had invited you over to cook dinner together at his place. The last thing you were going to do was turn down having dinner with your boyfriend, so when you got off from work you went straight to your place to freshen up a little before going right to Harry’s. While you two were doing your thing in the kitchen, you could feel yourself getting worked up. You didn’t know if it was a “love boner” from being with the man who you could confidently say was the love of your life, or from the way his shirt was practically bursting at the seams. Either way, you were going crazy just from standing near him. It was like your body was pulsating. With you, simply addressing the way you were feeling in your mind only intensified those feelings. Which led you to telling Harry exactly how you felt. A temporary yet comfortable lull fell upon you and Harry, with the only sound coming from the sizzling pan on the stove and the soft hum of the music coming from the speakers. Leaving you to get caught up in your thoughts, which led to you just blurting them out all together.

“You turn me on.” You sigh, leaning against the kitchen counter. In that moment, you didn’t know whether you were hot from the the heat of the stove, or from being sexually frustrated.

“Ditto.” Harry chuckles, keeping his attention trained on the food in front of him.

“No Harry, like m’being serious.” You continue, trying to get your point across while tiptoeing around the center of it all. You didn’t know exactly what you were trying to say. You didn’t know if you were trying to tell him that you wanted him to take care of you where you needed him the most, or if you were trying to tell him that you’d never experienced an orgasm before. You were just going to have to play this one by ear, because you had no idea on where this sudden conversation was going.

“And I’m bein’ serious too. M’gonna have carpal tunnel if I keep hangin’ around you.” He says suggestively, turning his head towards you and sending a quick wink your way.

“Well I don’t have that luxury Harry.” You smartly say back, bringing your glass up to your lips and taking a long sip from your iced water in an attempt to cool yourself off.

“What’s tha’ supposed to mean?” Harry asks with a questioning tone. He stops what he’s doing at the stove to fully pay attention to what you had to say.

“I’ve never gotten myself off before.” You rush out, sitting your glass back down on the counter. When you say this, Harry’s eyes practically bulge out of his head.

“Never?!” Harry asks again. He wasn’t only shocked, but he was a bit concerned. He couldn’t believe that his girl, the one who could make him hard in an instant, couldn’t get herself off.

“Tried it, but never reached the finish line.” You sigh, looking up to take in Harry’s beyond shocked expression.

“That’s not okay.” Harry says obviously.

“Well that’s kinda obvious.” You snap, making sure to roll your eves at him. You didn’t know if it was you, or beast of your pent up sexual frustration talking.

“I’ll just chalk that up to your non cumming attitude speaking.” Harry huffs throwing your problem back at you a little, taking one of the dishes you two made out of the oven.

“M’sorry, I just-“

“Want me t’take care of yeh. Make you feel good?” Harry cuts you off. When he turns towards you, all you could do is nod. At first you weren’t really looking for Harry to take care of your little problem, but now you were the least bit opposed to the proposition. You could feel your core beginning to pulsate and you were getting even hotter than before.

“Please?” You softly beg. Hearing your voice become small, begging him to help you feel good was starting to get Harry worked up.

“Why don’t you go wait for me in the bedroom while I take care of this.” Harry suggests. Without replying, you quickly leave out of the kitchen and you make your way to the bedroom. Once Harry’s alone in the kitchen, he instantly lets out a large puff of air. He drops the utensil that was in his hand onto the counter and he leans against it, taking in the conversation that he just had with you. Unknowingly, a hand drops down to his shorts and he cups himself through the thin material. “Fuck” Harry swears under his breath. Before he got too carried away with himself, he quickly covers everything up in foil. He decides to keep them out because he had a feeling you were going to be a bit hungry when you two were done.

Once Harry was done in the kitchen, he made a b-line straight to the bedroom where you were waiting for him. Before he walked in, he quickly took a deep breath, calming his bubbling nerves. When he walks into the room, his eyes go to the bed where he sees you lying there in your bra and panties waiting for him. In that moment, Harry didn’t know what was going on with him. It was like this from the moment he first saw you. He was constantly being transported back to a time when he was a prepubescent boy who got all bothered from seeing a pretty girl. He was feeling that way now, only this time it was tenfold. Seeing his girl with close to nothing on lying in his bed was beyond enticing and the swelling that was going on below his waist wasn’t going to be stopping anytime soon. Add on to that the fact that he was about to make you cum for the first time, and he had the perfect cocktail for going crazy.

“Are you just gonna stand there or are you going to make me feel good?” You softly ask him. Just because you were very inexperienced, didn’t mean that you had no clue as to what you wanted.

“I’m gonna make you feel things you’ve never felt before.” He replies, slowly walking over to where you were laying. He then climbs up onto the bed, making his way up the bed to you. When he’s face to face with you, he lowers his his head down towards yours. He slots his lips between yours and begins to kiss you, languidly moving in sync with you. As you two become caught up in this kiss, you feel a warm hand fall to your bare waist. Harry begins to slowly move his hand up and down your side, moving all the way up to the side of your chest, and all the way down to your hip. He continues this movement against you until his hand stops right at the top hem of your panties. His tongue stops moving against yours before beginning to leave a trail of wet kisses from your mouth. As he makes his way down your neck, you feel the hand that was at your waist lowering between your legs. When his mouth got down to your shoulder, he didn’t stop. He kept pressing these kisses down your body. His lips makes their way down the center of your chest, stopping to suck on the flesh of the tops of your breasts that were spilling from your bra.

You were a complete mess. Your mouth was hanging open, you were letting out the quickest pants, and the most pitiful whimpers. You’d never had anyone touch you like this before, let alone feel this good. Having him build up to what you wanted was only making you want him to touch you even more. You could feel yourself getting warmer, and you could also feel yourself getting wetter. When Harry’s lips reach your navel, your heart begins to pound against your chest. He’s getting closer and closer to where you wanted and heeded him the most. The hand that was between your legs touched everywhere, except for your dripping center. When his lips reach the hem of your panties he pulls his head up from you.

He then wraps his fingers around the soft and thin fabric for your panties, before pulling them down your legs. As he does this, he can see the strings of your arousal stretching from your center to the damp fabric. He didn’t even have to bring them up to his nose to be able to smell you. It was the sweet scent that he was undeniably already addicted to. He sits them beside him and he pulls your legs apart. His eyes go straight to the sticky area between your legs, before darting up towards you. When he sees you with longing eyes, and your teeth tightly clasped around your lower lip, he knew just how bad you needed him. He lies down against the bed between your legs, his face pointing right in the direction of your center. Harry brings his hand up to your center, pressing two of his fingers against your slick folds. As he does this, your hips lift up from the bed, pushing yourself further against his fingers.

“Relax f’me sweet girl.” He says to you softly.

“Can’t help it.” You whine back. “Feels so good.” You continue through your moans.

“I’ll make yeh feel 10 times better if y’just relax f’me.” When he says this, you drop your hips back down onto the bed and you let him continue. “Good girl.” He praises, pressing a kiss to your inner thigh. He pushes his fingers back up your folds and to your clit. He pushes the two fingers firmly against your sensitive bundle of nerves, and begins to move his fingers against it. While doing this, Harry watches your head tilt back tightly against the pillows and he can see your hands tightly wound around the sheets from you needing something to latch onto. He can hear the weak whimpers leaving your mouth and it only fuels him to keep going. So to make you moan and whimper even more for him, he lowers the fingers back down to your entrance and he lightly pushes a finger past your folds and right against your tight entrance. He didn’t even have to see your weepy hole to know how small and tight is was. He could feel how tight it was simply from the way the tip of his finger was presses against it. He could even feel your tight hole contracting against him. Harry wastes no more time and he slowly pushes the finger into you.

“Fuck!” You cry out to him. Feeling his finger gliding into you felt so good. You could only imagine how good his cock which was way bigger than his finger would feel inside of you. He then starts to move his finger in and out of you, making sure to push into you as far as he could. To make you even more of a moaning mess, he begins to speed up his finger, thrusting it faster into you.

“Want another one sweet girl?” He asks, to which you shout out a loud yes. Harry then slowly pushes a second finger into you, causing you to feel a slight sting from the stretch. You’d only tried to pleasure yourself with one finger (you were a little scared of the stretch), so to have two inside of you felt absolutely amazing. Once you’re comfortable, he begins to speed them up like he did before. Only this time, he wanted you to get a taste of what it’d be like when you let him fuck you. You start to feel him cram his fingers into you, pushing them as deep as they could go. You felt so full and you could feel a tightening/burning sensation forming in your lower stomach. The way Harry was making you feel right now was already a lot to process, but to make it even harder, he attaches his mouth to your clit. Harry swirls his tongue around the entire expanse of the area above your entrance and he pretty much devours you. The feeling of his fingers thrusting in and out of you, along with the amazing feeling of his mouth against you was becoming too much for you to handle.

Harry continues like this until he feels your hips beginning thrash against him. He removes his mouth from you just to look up and find you with your hands no longer gripping onto the sheets, but instead gripping onto your breasts over your bra. He didn’t even realize that a moan fell from his own mouth. This entire time Harry wasn’t simply pleasuring you, he was also pleasuring himself. He couldn’t stop his cock from swelling, he also couldn’t stop himself from digging his hips into the mattress. His cock was so hard that he could cum simply from grinding against the mattress and making you cum. He could hear your desperate cries for him and see the way your body, especially your thighs were trembling. These were the two main indicators that you were about to have your first orgasm.

“Tell me how you feel baby.” He coos, which was a stark contrast from the way he was slamming his fingers into you.

“I feel a burning knot in my stomach.” You cry out to him, feeling the tears of pleasure pooling in your eyes. “It hurts a little too.” You whine.

“That’s your orgasm baby.” He says happily, bringing his free hand up to your lower stomach where he knew you were feeling this tight burning sensation. Without thinking, Harry pushes the palm of his hand into that area, causing you to cry out to him even more.

“What do I do?!” You cry, not knowing how long you were going to be able to hold what back what was still unbeknownst to you.

“Squeeze my hand and just let go baby.” Harry instructs, bringing his mouth back to your clit. As soon as he says this, you wrap both hands around his hand that was pressed into your lower stomach and you let go. It was like an extreme wave of ultimate pleasure just came crashing down onto you. Your eyes completely rolled to the back of your head, and the once pooled tears were falling from your eyes. You not only couldn’t stop your body from thrashing at the amazing feeling of your first ever orgasm, you also couldn’t stop yourself from squirting either. As soon as Harry felt a drop of the the warm liquid splash onto him, he immediately pulled his mouth from you and watched you squirt all over him, and the sheets. At this point, Harry felt like he was about to pass out. He couldn’t believe the sight in front of him. His girl, cumming and squirting for the first time all because of him. Watching this, along with hearing your cries at how good it felt made Harry cum right then and there. He couldn’t stop himself. He could feel his cock erupting in his pants, causing him to let out a string of deep moans in relief. Once the both of you came down from your highs, Harry slowly pulls his fingers from you and he falls back against the bed outside of your legs. He then proceeds to push the two fingers covered in an opaque substance past his lips to clean them. Your cum tasted just as delicious as he thought it would.

“Congratulations on crossing the finish line for the first time baby. You did amazing and m’so proud of you.” Harry hums, giving you a light squeeze. Harry couldn’t stop the feeling of pride from bubbling up inside of him. He couldn’t believe that he got lucky enough to not only have a beautiful girlfriend inside and out that he loved and adored, but to also be the one to make her cum, and squirt at not just the same time, but on her first try too. He couldn’t wait to just recall every last thing that happened tonight with you.

“It felt so good. Can you teach me how to do that?” You slur wearily to Harry, using all the strength you had left in your body to look down at him.

“Once you recover from this one.” He chuckles, giving your thigh a light squeeze.

“M’so tired and hungry.” You sigh, dropping your head back against the fluffy pillows.

“After we get all cleaned up, we can go back downstairs and eat baby.” He says.

“Yay” you cheer softly.

Harry was definitely living up to his word when it came to making you feel things you’d never felt before.

Masterlist

#Harry Styles #harry styles smut #harry smut #harry styles imagine #harry styles one shot #harry styles blurb #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fic #harry styles fanfic #harry styles x reader #harry x reader #harry styles x you #harry styles x y/n #harry styles writing #my harry writing #concepts of h #harrywritingsbyme #A Series Of Firsts

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liaisun · 3 years

Note

I am begging u tell me more about the streamer bfs au

HELLO KICKS :D thank u 4 asking <3 i ended up scrolling back thru a gazillion messages but it was absolutely worth it. please allow me 2 present the babes

streamer bfs is a very self indulgent kandreil au, pure fluff absolutely 0 plot in here. they live in a Streamer Content House™ with the other foxes. kandrew r dating and neil is in a queer platonic relationship w them !! there's two parts of it right now, the first being just streaming shenanigans and interactions and then further actual relationship development with neil :]

SO BACKSTORY !! we have andrew: a complete weirdo but likeable abt it? just a chill dude doing his own thing while gaming. sometimes he codes too (here is a beloved fic with absolutely feral robot maker/youtuber!drew). his channel name is nyandrew, it never gets Big big but its stable enough that andrew can do it for fun. he has The Cat Ear Headphones which he never acknowledges the existence of but still wears every single stream. king knocked over his camera once and that 10 second clip became his channel trailer forevermore

there's always someone in the back of his streams just . sleeping? it's kinda hard to see, no one knows who it is and andrew never addresses it so everyone just accepts it as another quirk of his lives... until one day andrew streams earlier than normal and halfway through the door creaks open and they hear "...babe? i couldn't-- oh. can i come in" cue absolute CHAOS within the chat bc WHO IS THIS !!!!

this person is the one and only kevin day. he's a college student but lives at the house and usually pops up in the other's vids. he was helping dan (who started this whole operation) with moving in. that day he hung out with the foxes, who convinced him to stay for their first day sleepover celebration and then he never left :]

neil is a faceless streamer and a generally funky dude . he started out with silent walkthroughs/speedruns of puzzle games, and now he plays whatever while keeping up the most bizarre and unrelated commentary. he also runs the foxes' podcast. his 'quiplash/jackbox with friends' vids (prompt game where everyone votes on their fav answer) are his most popular because he always has the most brutal and funny answers and he's in top 3 every single time

he only shows up on camera in the other's streams as a hand or legs but once a week MINIMUM the mysterious neil comes into andrew's room and says "release the roombas" and then u hear meowing (this is also where the channel trailer comes from)

kev's always sleeping on lives because andrew streams at 2am (insomnia things)... kev has night terrors and sleeps better with someone else in the room, but andrew can't really sleep with another person on the bed so this system works 4 them

there's this mythical clip of neil coming in and like collapsing on top of kevin sleeping on the floor. they say something 2 each other and neil laughs and then leaves AND IT HAS TORN THE INTERNET APART FOR YEARRSSSSS nyandrew's biggest career drama is nobody knows what's happening between them

andrew is also generally such a gremlin about answering questions u will never get a straight answer from this man ever . and on this topic he is the Worst. (referring 2 kevin) "who's ur friend?" he's not my friend. "okay. what's the name of the man in the room with you?" very funny guys. that prank won't work there is no one behind me . "u said u were an only child" i never said that. i said i grew up an only child and so on

people make compilations like "andrew minyard (nyandrew) holding his bf for 10 mins straight (ft. neil)" [in which neil also holds said bf and chat exploded] "andrew ignoring chat for 5 mins straight" "5 minutes of nyandrew lifting anything but weights (ft. his bf)"

there's also my personal fav "nyandrew (ñandrew) cursing in spanish for 2 mins straight" yes andrew speaks spanish. the clips are from a stream he did with nicky and when nicky tries 2 mention an embarrassing moment andrew says "ah tienes cojones... él tiene cojones sí mi gente" (you have some balls.. he's got balls right guys) and nicky goes quiet SO QUICK KSJSKDKF. andrew's not Family Friendly but he definitely doesn't curse in english/express himself like he will in spanish (2nd language emotional things<3) and chat is FLOORED

this vid at (6:50-7:50) is drunk kev professing his love then saying "okay let's go :]" trying 2 get them all 2 cuddle and andreil are like . Kevin We Are On Live Right Now. + from 3:00-6:50 is them describing each fox in one word and trying 2 match answers but kevneil start arguing about their answers and andrew purposefully says different ones to rile them up

when neil actually sticks around in a live - he's wearing a hoodie with the strings taut so it covers his face mostly. kev's passed out on andrew, andreil r bantering and flirting. andrew's like "i gotta go to the bathroom" and he just. hoists kevin up and puts him in neil's lap instead and NONE OF THEM BLINK and kev just curls a hand in neil's hoodie, looks up at him and hes like *squints* "ur hiding?" in a sleepy tone and neil's like ":] u don't like the look?" when andrew comes back he brushes neil's neck and all 3 of them keep casually talking LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED and chat is literally unreadable. it is going insane

in regards 2 ur post about lap sitting these 3 are EXACTLY like this tiktok. *caresses head* "can u stay for one game..." like !!!!!!!!!!!! i am gone i am deceased... it is them. kevin is the main lap stealer between them (imagining kev's 6'1 self curling into a ball 2 fit in the chair with either of them. sparks joy) and he is super clingy while andreil have little gestures like neil slinging his legs over andrew's on the couch. he sits upside down and andrew steadies him when neil starts to slide off. neil tries to go for a run at like 5am after staying up all night and andrew catches him in the kitchen, all bleary after a live and shoves him into a beanbag. (if he sits on top of him to make him stay and they have an intense mental conversation with unwavering eye contact then nobody's around to prove it)

at the end of the day (night? morning? what is time to them) they're tired and the walls and online personas are down. they stay up talking or sitting in silence, all squished together on a mattress or sprawled around the tv or listening to low music in the car.

and lastly, first kiss things:

#terrorizing aftg tag with my long post about bf headcanons #i rlly hope u like kandreil bc if not this is gonna b awkward. JKSDJFSKF #aftg #all for the game #kandreil #asks #skunked-up-kicks #streamer bfs au #andrew minyard #kevin day #neil josten #luniaisun

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sharkfish · 3 years

Text

love ‘em, can’t live without ‘em: early-career writers!

[masterpost of rec lists]

new content creators are the lifeblood of fandom, so here i present stories by folks who have five or less destiel fics published (...so far) as of december 2020!!!

please give them some love!!!

under the cut since it got long~

the burden of belonging by Newtondale @soft-klaus (8k)

Dean doesn't know where he's going, he just drives.

He meanders. Takes whatever road he wants without worrying about efficiency or speed. He watches the landscape change around him as he heads east, towards the sea. Sometimes he listens to music, and sometimes he doesn’t. Most of the time he just thinks, the way he has always thought best; with an open road ahead and horror close behind.

Cas always comes back to him. Cas has always come back. Whether it takes minutes, or weeks, or months - Cas comes back to him.

But Cas hasn’t come back. How much longer is supposed to wait? Minutes? Months? How long is he supposed to live like this, like there’s nothing else that matters except the space beside him where Cas should be?

So he just drives.

Dean Winchester’s 12-Step Guide to Inebriated Online Retail Therapy for Fallen Angels and Judgemental Brothers With Bad Hair (Suck It, Sammy) by justholdingstill @justholdingstill (3k)

Alternatively titled Dean Wayne: The Life & Legend

Dean gets drunk. Dean orders things online. Hilarity ensues.

Hang-Ups by anupalya @anupalya (2k)

A slip of the tongue while hanging up a zoom meeting with Castiel leaves Dean in a panic.

****

Jsksdjdjskal

I'm starting to think you're letting Blueberry walk over your keyboard again.

i'm moving to Thailand

?????

I have to

Dean

I have no choice

... so I take it the meeting went well?

dream root & fumbling through the darkness by visionsofyerface @omnishamblegreg (1.3k)

Dean takes dream root for some fun angsty wanderings into Cas’s head, and then actually goes to the Empty, but Cas doesn't believe it's really him.

How Long? by MinxyOne93 @substitutesalt93 (WIP - 37k)

Dean has been going on reckless hunts by himself. Cas confronts him and all those years of unresolved pining come to a boiling point.

"Dean. How long?" The angel said, still quiet but so raw with emotion, eyes still wide with shock.

Dean looked down at the floor and sighed. "Since... always. I knew it for sure in Purgatory. But always." He then added in a near whisper, tears threatening to spill from behind his now closed eyelids, "I'm sorry, Cas."

"Sorry? You're sorry?" Castiel felt dumbfounded. The constant loneliness and longing he had sensed from Dean that seemed to grow worse and worse with the passing of years made so much more sense now.

"Dean," was all Cas could say before releasing his grip on his collar and gently, slowly, deliberately, kissing the corner of his mouth. A shocked gasp left Dean’s mouth of its own accord and he melted into Castiel's tight embrace.

It's The Thought That Counts by oceaxe @oceaxe-ifdawn (3k)

It’s Dean’s birthday and while angels have no birthdays, Castiel has a) been around human cultures for long enough to be aware of the nearly universal customs of celebrating the anniversary of a loved one’s birth and b) has been living with humans for long enough that he’s been included in some of those celebrations. But the art of gift-giving continues to elude his comprehension.

Lucky Winner by natmoose @natmoose (32k)

Dean wins a trip to Paris. In and of itself, that’s an amazing thing, but the problem is: he isn’t in a relationship with Lisa anymore, and the trip requires a romantic partner. The obvious choice is Cas, his roommate and best friend of 3 years, but coming with that are some very very complicated feelings and things Dean absolutely doesn’t want to deal with.

But Dean isn’t selfish and also really wants to give his overworked best friend a well deserved holiday, so the only and best solution is to take Cas to Paris, romantic theme be damned. What Dean doesn’t know is that their whole trip will be documented by a photographer from the company - so to avoid their vacation being cut short, Dean and Cas will have to convincingly play a couple.

Once Upon a Falling Star by GrandestBlood @grumpy-mccat (WIP - 3k)

Alternate outcome for season 5's Endverse where Castiel never lost his grace but he was tricked to retreat back to heaven with the other angels, leaving Dean behind in the refugee camp.

Prompt for this was: The world has ended 500 years ago. You finally went back to Earth and discovered a voice message. You learn a shocking secret about 500 years ago.

Sending A Message by ivebeenpossessedbysatan @ivebeenpossessedbysatan (WIP - 15k)

Castiel Novak didn't expect to be kidnapped. Sure, he'd seen it happen before, but that was all in movies. Just because his mother had married into money didn't mean that someone was actually going to kidnap him and try to ransom him for money.

Only apparently it did, because here he was, tied to a chair in the corner of the most cliché warehouse he'd ever seen.

Why was this is life?

so leave me // at the roadside by LinkInThePark @saminzat (3k)

”This was exactly what he had been trying to avoid. Maybe he shouldn’t have gone out on his own at all, but he was tired of sitting around in the bunker, where the walls seemed to close in on him and the halls were too empty at the same time. Where everything reminded him of what had happened, of the battles they had fought and the people they had lost.

Of the words left unsaid.”

Dean is taking the Impala on a ride, trying to escape everything that's happened... And, in the process, is finally forced to confront his grief. 15x19 coda.

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, but Words Might Get Me Laid by Mrs King of Hell (Slytherkins) @slytherkins (3k)

When Dean's name calling goes too far, Castiel decides to teach him a lesson in manners.

"Take a Sad Song and Make it Better" by Shishquah_CustardTree @shishquahcustardtree (WIP - 27k)

After being bought and abused by Alistair for many years, Dean Winchester finally gets another chance at life and love by the means of a car crash and a bullet.

The One (1) Time Dean Winchester Tried Something New by archangelgabe @3dg310rdsupreme (2k)

What fun is a relationship that doesn't start with the gross misunderstanding that your crush is hitting on your kid brother?

The one where they get heaven-married by mercurialkitty @mercurialkitty (1.3k)

First a quick chat with Sam in the Impala, then it's off to find Cas.

A finale fix-it where Dean and Cas get heaven-married

There'll Be Peace When You Are Done by diaryofageekgirl @diaryofageekgirl (5k)

Somehow, in the middle of severing vamp necks in the dead of night in a run-down barn in Ohio, Dean had a revelation.

Or: nothing stays dead on Supernatural.

This is heaven by madbrilliant84 @madbrilliant84 (800)

“Come on dude! Don’t tell me you don’t know what your legs look like! I bet you could crush melons with those.”

Cas seemed incredibly amused by this. “And that’s something that turns you on?”

Dean smiled while biting is bottom lip. He slowly nodded. His playful tone dropped to something more heated.

“Uh huh. First thing I noticed when I saw you sitting on that bar stool.”

You're Not Alone by Wordsintothevoid @deancas-stan (15k)

Dean has an imaginary friend. Sure, that's weird as hell but he doesn't care. Cas has been there to support him during every horrible thing in Dean's short miserable life and he is not giving up Cas. Sure, Dean may also sorta kinda be in love with him. Oops. And it hurts but Dean will keep it platonic. But then Cas leaves. And then Dean breaks.

We’ll All Arrive in Heaven Alive by invisibledrugs @reasonsweweresinging (1k)

The Winchesters are finally dying, and for good.

But that's okay, because Dean knows what - and who - is waiting for him.

last but definitely not least, @uncastiel doesn’t have any fics yet but is taking prompts!

#sharklist #destiel #rec list

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rpg-elf-girl · 3 years

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Shadows House

I have a lot of thoughts surrounding this particular show, both good & bad.

Allow me to give a quick summary for anyone who hasn't seen/read it!

Shadows House is about 'a faceless family of nobles who all live within this giant manor, the Shadows House.

When a Shadow comes of age they receive a 'Living Doll' to both serve as their face and to clean the soot they emit from their bodies.

The most important rule of the living dolls is "don't fret over trivial matters"

A task which is difficult for the ever curious doll Emiliko.

Watch this tale unfold as Emiliko & her mistress Kate navigate this ever mysterious Manor together.'

For a fan of slow burn thrillers, horror, slice of life, supernatural & mystery series' this has been an absolute blast!

It's not quite the combination of genres you'd expect from a show, but it works really well here!

In fact I was so into the anime that this is actually the first show where I broke down and read the manga!

Unfortunately there's no official English release, but at least there are some people translating the series!

As much as I'd like to go on about the manga, this post is meant to be more so about the anime so I'll (try to) leave it at that.

Though i feel obligated to warn anime onlys I'll likely refer the manga a lot in a spoiler section latter in this post I'll try to be vague but I can't guarantee anything. For anyone worried about that I'll lable it do you can read on until then.

Everything from the animation to the music was amazing & completely fit the mood of the story! I remember a couple scenes where I actually teared up because of this!

The Ending theme is an absolute banger! I've listened to that on repeat ever since I first heard it! And the Opening is also great! It's cool for it to be an instrumental, stuff like that is pretty rare! I also heard the song in the op as a motif in the music throughout the show! It really sets the right mood in each scene it's in! It's amazing for getting into each episode!

In terms of adaptation almost everything from the beginning to the end of the Debut arc was done amazingly well!

Even with the stuff they cut it still holds true to the spirit of its source.

The main important part that was cut is something that could easily be introduced latter if they decide to go for a second season, so I'm not too mad about that.

However! Everything after the debut is a bit of a different story.

There was a lot I liked about the last couple episodes but there were some parts that were immersion breaking for me.

I've been being vague up until this point l, but I'm planning on going into spoiler territory for both the anime and manga after this. So I'll make a quick spoiler free summary of my thoughts before moving onto that.

I really really loved this show but in my opinion the last 3 episodes were the weakest of them all. They went anime only for the ending. I don't mind that on it's own, but it was rushed and the writing was sloppy at times.

Now I'm not telling you to not watch the show! Most of It's really really good, and I can still see people enjoying the parts I'm talking about if they want to give the anime a try. Overall I've fallen in love with this series and I could never recommend it enough.

If what I'm saying is giving you bad vibes the manga is available and doesn't have the issues I've mentioned. You can look for a translation online, it didn't take me long to find one so don't worry too much about that.

Also! if you're an anime only who's finished the series and want to know where to pick up the Manga I'd recommend at least skiming through the beginning. I know it might not be what you're looking for but there were a bunch of small scenes that either got cut or were merged for adaptation purposes that I think are super cute & give more context to different aspects of the setting. However! Pay close attention during the "night watchers part" something important got cut .

~~~Now for spoilers!!!!~~~

I don't want to make it sound like I'm some manga purist who hates the very thought of the slightest change from the source. I'm anime only for a lot of different shows and I've always despised it when that type of manga reader reared it's ugly head.

While I'll admit some changes did bother me I won't make a fuss about the smaller stuff.

With that said!

I hinted earlier in this post that I didn't have a big problem with Robe-same being cut. That was because without them there it does make for a more complete story if they only get one season to work with.

If there is another season they can easily be introduced latter on. Like maybe Emiliko & Shaun can meet them when the Debutant class reunion is going on before they talk on the roof (or right after that) I actually think that would be the perfect time to introduce them (other than the time they were supposed to appear, but I digress)

Louise teaming up & being friendly with Kate can be explained with some dialogue changes at the first Debutant Class Reunion. Louise can say she was just trying to show off or that she just wanted to get back at Edward and that she isn't interested in helping Kate with her problems. Things can then go on as they did in the manga.

Kates being reckless & telling everything to John can be explained by her being extremely panicked when Emiliko went missing, as long as there are some lines of dialogue adressing this it's fine. Though I do wish she tried to keep some stuff a secret but couldn't because Shaun tries to interfer because he's still brainwashed, or something along those lines. It felt a bit weird after she just told Emiliko to keep that stuff between them. Still that could be explained by how panicked she was.

There are other things, but I don't want to drag the post on too long. Most of the issues can be fixed with little changes here & there.

I never had a problem with the idea of them going in an anime only direction. I just want to have a good time with the show.

Unfortunately I can't 100% vouche for the direction the show went in. There were elements that I can't excuse, even viewing it as it's own entity instead of an adaptation.

My main complaint with it is how they handled the brainwashing of Ricky & Lou. They didn't say a word when the Debutants were talking badly about Edward & even went along with a plan to go against him. It makes absolutely no sense!

Shaun freaked out when John only suggested that he didn't have to be loyal to the house. These guys were flat out rebelling against an adult! It felt like Ricky & Lou didn't have a purpose & were just there to be there.

The whole point of the coffee is to influence shadows against doing stuff like this. It makes the coffee seem pointless and the adults seem dumb for relying on it to control the kids.

I haven't even brought up the fact that both of their brainwashings were broken by something as simple as a few kind words. It straight up contradicts the rules established by both the Anime and Manga.

This becomes very apparent when you consider all the trouble John & Kate went through to free Shaun & Emiliko.

This was my biggest complaint, but I have some other issues as well.

The next big one is how they handled Edward.

1. Why on earth would he even consider kidnapping Emiliko when he had complete control of the childrens wing? Before this point he was depicted as being a lot more crafty than this. He could easily have Kate monitored or something.

2. Why didn't he use his powers to stop them like what he did to Maryrose & Rosemary when they fought back being taken to the adults wing? He's already shown off his power at this point, why not?

3. Why did he reveal his soot powers at all!? Especially while using his face in front of the kids! The whole unification thing is one of the biggest secrets of the house for good reason! There's no way he wouldn't get in huge trouble for exposing it to children!

Here are some other related questions.

Why didn't Kate, Emiliko, & John react to Edward using soot powers? They shouldn't know about unification yet so why didn't they act shocked, or say anything about it?

Is Edward being banished even an option in the Shadows House? Wouldn't the third floor lords just dispose of him rather than risk letting him leave?

How did John even get a veiled dolls outfit? Louise had to use her powers to get Kate one & she left a long time ago.

I can't think of much else at the moment, but I think you get my point.

Please don't take this as me saying that I hate the show because of these episodes. Even if I consider them the weakest of the series I still found a lot of parts to be very enjoyable!

Like I thought it was adorable When Edward was attempting to interrogate Emiliko & she kept being her sunshine self pretending to eat & falling asleep.

Barbara getting to tell off Edward for breaking the rules was great!

I loved seeing Shaun hatch the plan to get Kate into the adults wing to save Emiliko.

Seeing John (attempt to) sneak around the adults wing had me rolling!

The ending scene of Shaun, Ricky, & Lou singing gave me the chills.

(Though I wonder how they'd handle Shaun & Emiliko being brainwashed again since they already used the scenes where they're freed)

Kate & Emilico being propelled by John back to the children's wing was absolutely amazing! I found Shaun & Ricky running over to catch them to be super sweet! (Not to mention the way that scene was animated was absolutely gorgeous!)

Getting hints to what was supposed to come after the debut was nice, at least the groundwork is there in case this gets a season 2!

To (try to) wrap this all up while there were a lot of things I loved and disliked about this show I still had a really fun time watching it!

I kinda hope there's a season two just to see if they can tidy up the mess that the last few episodes created.

Regardless of whether that happens or not I came out of this with a series I absolutely adore.

Heck I could make a whole other post about the manga. (Hopefully one that's less ranty)

Anyway! I won't take any more of your time.

I hope you all have a wonderful day/night! And I hope to see you in my next post!

(Sorry if this one was a bit of a mess!)

#Shadows House #Shadows House Review #Shadows House Anime #Shadows House Manga #anime #anime review #seasonal anime

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pixie88 · 3 years

Text

Christmas Shopping

Chapter 3 - Addicted to you.

A/N: It felt so weird writing/editing this chapter in the middle of summer, but that’s how their timeline worked out! I can’t remember the last time I released a H&L chapter or wrote one to be fair, I think after this I have 2 more in drafts. Better get back to it! I hope you like it 😘

Tagging those who asked to be tagged but if you want to be added let me know!

Read previous chapters HERE!

Warnings: Fluff & NSFW

Songs: Kelly Rowland - Commander, Rihanna - Only girl, Magic - Rude & Wyclef Jean - Perfect gentleman.

Word Count: 2673

Pairings: Laila x Harry

Enjoy! 😘

A couple days later.

"So what are you going to get Harry for Christmas?" Nikki asks her as they had taken a break from shopping to have some lunch. "I have no idea what to get him!" she sighs. "I'm sure he'll be happy with you in some sexy lingerie," Nikki winks at her Laila lets out a loud laugh making people turn to look at her. "Or you can get him a Santa costume?" she laughs.

"What are you getting Stu?" Laila changes the subject. "He wants a new aftershave, I can't remember what he normally wears. What does Harry wear?" Laila has a think "Erm...a few different ones really Paco Rabanne One Million, Davidoff cool water, Boss Bottle that one what's his face is in the advert....the guy that plays Thor. Is one he smelt recently and liked but he didn't get it because they sold out and only had the sample bottle."

"You can get him that! I might have a sniff to see if it's something Stu would wear too!"

After lunch, they are walking through the shopping centre, Nikki ended up getting Stu some aftershave. Laila was still unsure what to get Harry, so Nikki drags her into Ann Summers. "What about these??" Nikki holds up some fluffy handcuff, Laila snorts. "We already have some, but without the fluff!" Nikki puts down the cuffs "What about cock ring? Closest Harry will get to sticking a ring on it!"

"We have that too," Laila blushes. "Crotch less knickers?" Laila nods signalling she has those. "Weighted love ball?" she asks and Laila again nods. "Feather tickler?" nod, "Blind fold? Riding crop?" Laila again nods, "Jeez, it would be easier to ask what you haven't got!" the pair laugh, "What? It has been eight years remember!" Laila winks at her.

"What about anal beads or ball gag?" Laila pulls a disgusted face "Finally! What about nipple clamps?" Laila laughs, "Only if they're being used on him!" she laughs. "God! Just think 6 months ago you were a born again virgin...now look at you! Getting more action than all of us put together!" Nikki giggles "Just over 7 months actually!" Laila corrects her.

Laila's phone Pings.

"Nikki! Look what Harry has done to Mabel!" she hands her the phone. "Awwww! Laila how adorable do she look!" the pair coo over the photo. "Has she met her new dog walker yet?" Nikki asks as she hands back the phone "She's met her, she's actually taking her out today." she smiles.

They ended up leaving the shop with some Christmas theme lingerie.

Later.

Laila arrives home all the lights are out "Harry?" Laila calls out. "I'm in the living room!" he calls back, she hangs up her coat and makes her way across the hall. When she opens the living room door the room is lit with tea and fairy lights, there are blankets and cushions on the floor in front of the coffee table. On the coffee table there is a chocolate fondue with fruit and marshmallows next to it "Aww Bear! What's all this?" she wanders over to him on the floor. "Where's Mabel?" she looks round the room as she sits next to him.

"She's gone to bed, Nessa took her for a 2 mile walk today!" he cups her face pulling her in for a soft kiss. "Aww, are they getting on OK?" he smiles, "Yeah, I've booked her in for Monday to Friday this week coming about lunchtime, so you'll met her this week."

"Right, enough about this dog walker. Are you going to let me feed you?" she winks, he leans forward grabbing a strawberry and hands it to her. She dips it into the chocolate and guilds it towards his lips, he's just about to take a bite when she redirects it to her mouth and takes a bite. He laughs and reaches over and pulls her lips to his. His tongue swirls with hers tasting the chocolate covered strawberry, he pulls away "That was amazing!" he grins at her.

She grabs another strawberry covers it in chocolate and traces it against his pulse line. Her tongue follows the same path, he groans and his breathing hitches as she pulls away she places the strawberry against his lips, he takes a bite. His lips brush over her finger tips making her every nerve ending stand on end. He knows the affect he has on her "How was that?"

"Tasty!" he grins and winks at her "Your turn." he picks up a marshmallow covers it in chocolate holds it out for her to bite into it. "Hmmm..!" she smiles at him "Did you get all your shopping done?"

"I need to order a couple of bits online, but after that..I'm done."

"Christmas day, what are we doing?" he asks.

She sighs, "I don't know how we are going to split between them all!" she leans against him and his arm comes around her. "I have an idea....as it's our first Christmas together, what if we did Christmas day just me, you and Mabel? In bed in our PJ's? I'll cook us Christmas dinner. Then Boxing day we do a buffet for both families?" she sits up to look at him "So, a lazy Christmas day? In bed?"

"Yeah...PJ's, snuggles in bed and a Harry Taylor roast. What more could a girl ask for?!" he winks waiting for her answer. "I love it!" his face lights up "Really?!" he questions her. "Yeah, Christmas day in bed with my hunky boyfriend, but I have one alteration....no pajamas!" He raises a brow to her, "Noted!" he jokes. "Instead Christmas jumpers!!!" this wasn't the answer he was expecting.

She giggles "Your face! But I want matching Christmas pajamas!" He chuckles "OK, but no photos my brothers will rip into me!" she sighs "Oh! Come on, one photo? Just to make me happy?" she pouts. "Fine, if it makes you happy." she claps getting her own way, "I think you owe it to Mabel after today!"

He chuckles "She looked cute!" "She did! Oh are you working Saturday?" she asks. "I don't think so?" he questions. "Every Christmas we do a friends Christmas party, kinda like a blow out before the family stuff. Nikki has planned it for Friday night and she has found somewhere that is having a 90's to 2020's night"

"Sounds good, who's going?" he asks. "Remy, Alec, Nikki, Stu, Alene, Daniel and now us!" she smiles. "I'm guessing we get completely smashed then?" she laughs.

Friday evening.

They arrive at the club Nikki found, Laila and Harry are the last to arrive.

Laila notices Stu and Nikki at the bar, she sneaks up behind her Stu spy's her, but Laila puts her index finger to her lips signalling him not to say anything. As she reaches Nikki, she wraps her arms around waist, making Nikki whip round with a face like thunder until she realises it was her friend "Laila, I was just about to...whatever. Glad you guys are here." she shouts over the music.

"Sorry, Mabel's walker got back late. Where are the others?" Laila calls back, Nikki points over to a table where the rest of the group are sat. Harry leans in, "Shall we get a drink first?" Laila nods "What you guys having?" Stu asks. "I know Laila's drink, Harry what ya having?" Nikki asks.

After they make their way over to the others "Hey!!" Laila call out as she takes a seat next to Alec, who hugs her and Harry. They are sat for a few minutes when Kelly Rowland - Commander begins to play Nikki jumps up, grabbing Laila's hand dragging her to the dance floor.

Nikki starts to sing along.

"From here on out

I'll be your commander (I'll be your commander)

No fear no doubt

I'll provide the answer

Right now I command you to dance"

She points to Laila, who starts to sing along with her. The pair are dancing on the edge of the dance floor in view of the table, laughing, their bodies swaying to the music the pair attract a couple of strangers, who slowly move closer to them waiting to make their move to become their unwanted dance partners.

Completely oblivious to the unwanted strangers, the song switches to Rihanna - Only Girl they continue to dance. Suddenly both girls feel someone behind them as they turn they saw Stu and Harry, Laila looks up at him confused "I thought you don't dance?" she laughs. He wraps his hands round her, swaying her as he leans in, "I don't, but those blokes behind me were inches away from trying to dance with you two."

She looks behind him "Oh, you didn't want me dancing with a stranger?" she laughs, he shook his head and they continued dancing away.

The next song was Magic - Rude as it starts up Laila starts singing it to Harry when she gets to the chorus he joins in.....

"Can I have your daughter for the rest of my life?

Say yes, say yes, 'cause I need to know

You say I'll never get your blessing till the day I die

'Tough luck, my friend, but the answer is no!'

Why you gotta be so Rude?

Don't you know I'm human too?

Why you gotta be so Rude?

I'm gonna marry her anyway

Marry that girl, marry her anyway

Marry that girl, yeah, no matter what you say

Marry that girl, and we'll be a family

Why you gotta be so Rude?"

Both grinning and smiling, he cups her face pulling her in for a kiss.

A little later back at the table "Laila, Boxing day....is it OK to bring Melissa?" Alene asks, Laila looks over to Rem. "Is Rem OK with that?" she looks to Alene who nods "If it's OK with Rem it's OK with me." when she looks up Rem mouths "Thank you." to her.

Daniel comes over from the bar with a tray of drinks "Sex on the beach anyone?" he passes them around the group. "Damn Daniel at least buy a girl a drink first!" Alene teases him "Sorry Len, but you aren't my type!" he winks at her, the group laugh.

A little later Perfect Gentleman - Wyclef Jean starts playing a tipsy Harry pulls Laila away from the bar and onto the dance floor. He spins her before pulling her close to him swaying them together. "Hey, you are a liar!! You can dance!" Laila giggles as she wraps her arms around his neck.

"My moo....ves only get bet...ter after I've add....a few." his words are slurred, his hips move with hers. He spins her round again, her body collides with his "I think you need to get drunk at every party or night out if it improves your dance moves!" he smirks before claiming her lips. As they sway with their lips locked, Laila can feel him begin to stiffen against her hips "Hmmm....someone seems to be enjoy themselves a little to much!" She winks.

He looks round checking no one is near, his lips brush against her ear "Can we head home? I got some other kinda moves I want to show you!" she giggles and bites her lip, "Let's go!" they say their goodbyes and head for the tube.

10 Minutes later.

Their underground train arrives empty, he sits and pulls her onto his lap. He captures her lips, the kiss becomes heated, Harry pulls off his coat and places it on her lap. His hand creeps under his coat snaking into her jeans "Bear, not here!" she whispers, he smirks against her lips continuing his trail. He lets out a soft growl. He reaches her hidden jewel, her head rolls back as his lip pepper down her neck.

She bites back a moan as he works between her slick slits.

Through the speaker they hear the next station is their stop, they both groan with disappointment. "Come on, we can continue this at home!" she gets up as the train pulls into their station.

2 Weeks later.

It's the day before Christmas Eve, Laila has just finished her last day until the new year, she wanders into the kitchen, "Oh, Harry! You're home early!" she was sure he mentioned he was training Stu tonight.

He's leaning against the kitchen counter with a whiskey in his hand, he looks over to her "I canceled Stu's PT session....Laila, there's something I need to tell you..."

He looks as if what he's about to tell her is tearing him up inside, her minds goes into overdrive....Was history repeating itself?

"Bear?" she looks at him concerned, he takes a deep breath "When I came back today to take Mabel for a walk at lunch....I bumped into Nessa." she laughs, "What is she annoyed we didn't get her to take Mabel out today?" he silently chuckles, but it quickly fades. "She was walking another client's dog, she asked if she could join Mabel as I was taking her over to the fields. We were just sat on a bench talking...she asked me about work and us. Then this afternoon she turned up at my work for a PT session, I didn't even know she booked. I was giving her a tour of the gym and she tried to kiss me..."

Laila's cheeks burn, but soon drain cold "What?!" was all she could conjure up from her lips. "Laila, I promise you as soon as she leaned in I stepped back. I was just as confused as you are, I asked her to leave after that." she can see he's just as shocked as she is "Laila? Please say something!" he softly pleads with her.

She sighs, making her way over to him cupping his face "Looks like we need to find a new dog walker." she laughs, he rolls his eyes at her. "Hey, It's not the first and probably won't be the last time a client tries to make a move on you....I remember a client making some more steamier moves on you about 7 months ago," she grins at him. He laughs, "Those were wanted moves!" he reminds her. "More than wanted...just look at what happened that night...but I'm glad you told me about Nessa." she pushes up on her tiptoes to kiss his nose.

"I've never given another woman a tour of the changing rooms since." he laughs before continuing "That is how and why we work because we are honest with one another!" he kisses her nose. "OK, can I be really honest..Bear?" he nods, "You stink!! Did you not shower before coming home?" Laila baits him. "Oh, I do? Do I?" he raises a brow to her.

With that he throws her over his shoulder "Harry?! Put me down!" she screams between her laughter. "Sorry, my love that's a no!" his hand strikes her arse cheek as he begins to climb the stairs with her over his shoulder. "Harry!!"

Later.

Cuddled up on the sofa watching a film "Bear?" he hums in response. "Can I be the one to sack Nessa?" she giggle, he starts searching her hair, "Harry, what are you doing?" she asks. "Looking for your devil horns," he chuckles, "But if it makes you happy...Yes, you can sack her.... to be fair, it means I don't have to deal with her," he starts to stroke her hair back down "Now how to do it? Mwahahaha!!" she fakes an evil laugh, "You really are the devil!" he smiles at her "Oh, you've seen nothing yet, Bear!" she winks.

@aussieez @secretaryunpaid @lem-20 @irisofpurple @khoicesbyk @txemrn @wombatsxkookaburras @beautifuluknownvoid

He pulls her onto his lap, so she's straddling him, he cups her face "Why don't you show me?" his lips crash to hers.

Chapter 4

#aty #Addicted to You #harry x laila #ATB #Original Work #original writing #original character #pixie88 original #original story #@pixie88

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kyotakumrau · 4 years

Text

2020.08.23 sukekiyo talk event at Nakano ZERO - report

There were 3 long tables on the scene with 5 seats behind them, seats were quite spaced out. The louder music signaled the event will start and then the band members were walking on the stage (from the left side) and took seats.

From the right to left: utA, YUCHI, Kyo, Mika and Takumi, who also became the moderator of the talk event.

Takumi asked everyone about their thoughts of the DRIPPIN' tour, the event was held in place for the cancelled final show.

Mika said that now the idea of the standing show with people squeezed together going hard feels unreal. The tour was interesting.

Kyo said that as usual he doesn't really remember the shows, he was performing A LOT, sukekiyo right after dir, he felt his body got weak and he would become breathless easily, so he quit smoking, he can breathe much easier now. Then, talking about stay at home period, he said that when he is busy he has many things he wants to do, but then when he is not busy he just doesn't move. His day would be like 'game, game, sleep, wake up, game, forget to eat, game, eat something, sweets, game'. And his body is weak because he doesn't do any training, his breathing is not good. But he doesn't feel like moving, he only moves in the game.

Yuchi said tour was fun, they were very lucky with the timing, almost got it, just the last show in Shibuya got cancelled. As it was only one last show he felt shocked when it got cancelled.

utA: ....can't remember anything... but I remember eating good stuff with everyone. ... (silence follows)

Takumi (trying to help): we were playing new songs and so on?

utA: Ah but the mizutake in Kyushu were great!

He also said he regrets that Tokyo show didn't work out.

Next, Kyo told us a funny story. At the venue in Fukuoka (Tsukushikaikan) the smoking area backstage was located somewhere higher and he could see fans from there. He also told us that he went to eat shrimp tempura for lunch (Kyushu is famous for seafood), he was really looking forward to it. He couldn't remember the shop name, but it was a type where you get freshly fried stuff one by one, like a course. He enjoyed everything and then the main, the shrimp, but then a squid came last and he was like 'wth?' (because shrimp was the main). He got irritated, but that squid turned out to be delicious. He said that Fukuoka is 'イカの街 - the town of squid'😂 and after that lunch he was watching fans from the smoking area.

Takumi said that he feels sad as Tsukushikaikan in Fukuoka is closing down, his hometown is near so he has many memories there. He also felt the tour was very good, the atmosphere and new songs, especially last Nagoya was good.

Kyo: Ah but the ZARAME donuts (donut shop in Nagoya) I wanted everyone to eat were sold out, the bacon ones, so I got irritated, really felt bad. And then the tour finished with that...

(not being able to get the donuts he wanted...)

Takumi: food is so important.

Yuchi said something about Nagoya becoming the tour final even as it wasn't planned like that.

Kyo: Where were we supposed to play in Tokyo? (others tell him Shibuya) Ah I wanted to take you so we could eat Nabe Jiro in Meguro. So irritating. I wanted everyone to try.

Takumi: So what was everyone doing during 'stay at home' period?

(he asked each member starting from the right, utA)

utA: watching TV.

Takumi: what did you watch?

utA: stuff I recorded. He also said he was eating and gaining weight and got worried about that. Especially now he's getting older so it's easier to gain weight. He was also working on music.

Yuchi said he didn't do anything special, he was working on music etc. He said they have enough material for an album.

Takumi asked him about his RR interview and they talked about the photoshoot. It was held around May, when it already started to get warm. Takumi said that photos are quite striking.

Takumi: then Kyo, you said you were playing games?

Kyo talked more about Fortnite, playing with 4 friends and how he gets killed really quickly, even if he waits for the number of enemies to decrease before he comes out. I didn't understand all of it tbh. But he finished saying he also was cooking and watching movies.

Mika was of course working on music, but other than that he's also into some retro games, the type young people don't know/play. PC engine mini, GRADIUS and R-TYPE. When not working on music he was playing those games.

Takumi finally took care of all the things he was always leaving for later. He wanted to organize and declutter his equipment, he was writing reviews and selling a lot of stuff online. But them he also ended up buying some new stuff 'not sure if I can use it with sukekiyo but I always wanted to try this', so in the end he didn't really downsize his equipment. 😂

Then suddenly came a question from Kyo: does anyone here play Fortnite?

(there were maybe like 5~6 fans who raised their hands)

Kyo continued telling us about Baobao (??) and special skins Chuka manju, there are 4 types and on his team everyone is using the Chuka manju skins (Chinese buns). (there was another bit here I didn't get about those skins)

Takumi asked him how long does he usually play, Kyo said it's not decided but if longer sometimes he can start at 8pm and finish after 2, but not everyday. He doesn't always play with his team, he often plays alone, then he plays with kids and gets roasted because he's so bad😂

Takumi: anything new you want to try as sukekiyo in this situation?

Kyo said sukekiyo shows are not so different from the event, as everyone sits down and stays quiet. He does think about releasing new music, like 2 or 3 songs, being mean all of them on cassette tapes. He asked us if we can listen to the tapes like he was hoping we can't😂

Yuchi said there might be some things they can try. He loves making music so he's hoping to release something new. He talked about how band and music is changing during the tour, the progression how songs grow?

utA: the weird me wants to continue making hentai (abnormal) songs.

Takumi: we're looking forward to those.

Mika (something about unreleased footage)

Takumi talked about the digital release of their music, getting new people to listen to their stuff, of course getting some money as people play it. He also talked about editing the songs, he likes their old songs but said he doesn't like his own sound in some of them.

And suddenly we heard a LINE notification from Takumi's phone😂 Manager Takabayashi reminded them the times is running out, but Kyo told us he wanted to make the event longer.

He said many people came for the event in such situation (pandemic), so he doesn't want to finish so early.

He asked us again: anyone came from outside of Tokyo area (地方 local areas)? Ah that's bit tough. But at least shinkansen should be almost empty now... and for people in Tokyo it is tough as well, there are so many people it's like cockroaches.

(😂)

If we play a seated show (hall show) would you come?

(all of us started to nod, clap and so on)

Well... if you don't it's not like we would do it again (ever??😱), I just can't trust people to come...

(Oh, Kyo, we would come, I'm waiting for the show announcement like my cat listening for the sound of the opening tuna can😆)

And again came a sudden change of topic😆

Kyo: I really love omochi (rice cake), always have, especially during New Year. I would always eat so many, but then only my face gets fat when I stuff myself with them. So it's better to be careful.

Yuchi remembered Kyo warned them about omochi when they were playing at Countdown Japan (2013), it was very close to New Year.

Takumi asked Kyo what's his favourite way of eating mochi. Kyo explained that 砂糖醤油餅 (rice cake with sugar and soy sauce) is the infinite way to eat mochi, you will never stop. Because it's salty and sweet, you add sauce and grill it, add sauce and grill it, eat on repeat. Kinda like eating chocolate and potato chips, salty and sweet, on repeat.

In the end, Takumi asked all members for a message to the fans.

utA thanked us for coming in this situation and said he hopes they will be able to do something. He will be happy if we can come to the shows.

Yuchi thanked us as well. He said that since Nagoya in February there weren't any events like this, where we can meet and both fans and band members get more energy. They are doing their best now creating new songs.

Mika thanked us for coming and said that seeing so many people come even in this situation he felt it was powerful. He's hoping for something exciting for them and us and said they will try to look for the possible options.

Takumi said it was the first time their show got cancelled so it was a big shock, it was hard to find a way to handle it and decide what to do, what to do for fans who couldn't come and so on.

Kyo:

... I don't really have a message... we had something like that with DIR EN GREY, it was the same. You all (members) said the good things. But, the fans who came and the fans who couldn't, decided not to come, who were scared, how do we decide which way is right? There are so many stressful things, it's not like anyone is wrong. Live the way you believe is right. People are following the rules, a year passes, and when we will look back, it will be like it's empty, this is the hardest. No one else can do it for you, you have to decide for yourself what to do, the time passes quickly. You will be watching Chibi Maruko-chan and then feel like you were watching Chibi Maruko-chan just the day before (but it was last week), so make sure every day is important. I'm not feeling happy usually, and when you're just staying home things start to get weird (mentally), but seeing everyone here as so many of you came, I'm simply feeling happy. I really want to play live soon.

知らんけど・...I guess?🤷‍♀️

#sukekiyo #kyo #京 #匠 #takumi #mika #yuchi #uta #tour2020 drippin'#talk event #translation #attempt at live report

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tooyoungngolden · 4 years

Text

Prompt:

Imagine person A lightly tracing “I love you” over and over again on person B’s back, assuming that person B is asleep. When person A is lying on the back, getting ready to sleep, person B moves closer and wraps their arms around person A, whispering softly “I love you too,”.

Bonus if it’s the first time that person A has ever declared their love for person B.

Nearly 3.4K words!

—————

Being best friends with some one like Harry Styles means that there are some things that you don’t do as a person. Constantly being around Harry Styles means there are definitely some things you don’t do. Ever.

There are little things, like make a fool out of him in public, play fighting where you’d leave marks- which half the time they do- posting things online, going out when they shouldn’t, pretty much anything. Then there are the slightly larger things which were clearly outline for Y/N when she and Harry had first became friends. Big things like, no holding is hand, or kissing. They weren’t aloud to mess around with each other or get together as a couple. One thing that Harry’s management team had made very clear to her was that she wasn’t aloud to fall in love with him. She didn’t have a clue if they gave the same warning to Harry.

That clearly didn’t work for her.

Harry and Y/N had known each other from when they were teenagers. They’d met a little while after Harry had auditioned for the X-Factor. She’d done the same thing, but had gotten through where as Harry had to be brought back with the other boys. They’d met, an instant connection had occurred and they were best friends. They grew together for the period of time that they were together, getting to know each other as well as Harry’s other band members. She loved ever single one of them. When she was eliminated from the competition she stayed, of course she was upset. She wanted to win, wanted the opportunity to work with record labels and actually go somewhere with her music career- and she did, she was signed not long after she left- but she hadn’t one. But she stayed. She stayed for Harry and the other boys, watching them as they very quickly climbed to the top and won over every person in the audience.

When they hadn’t won it broke Y/N’s heart, they were the best. They were the group of people that she though deserved to win. She wanted them to win. And in a sense they did win, they got the ‘deal’ of a lifetime, they’d produce and write and sing as much as they wanted. They got to tour the world and do something that they loved. Y/N was doing the same thing of course, she just wasn’t as famous as the boy band that the world came to know and love as One Direction. She was there though, writing her own music, producing and releasing things that she and her fans loved. She got what she wanted, and she also got the friendship of a lifetime to go along with it.

With One Direction touring all over the world Y/N didn’t get to see her best friend as much as she wanted to. And whenever they had a small period of time where they weren’t busy, Y/N was. Their timelines never seemed to match, they were touring or writing, they’d get a break and then Y/N was touring or writing and then she’d get a break and the boys were already back to working again. They’d see each other though, even if it was for small periods of time, they always, always made time for each other. As much as they possibly could.

And then 2015 happened. Zayn left the band and everything went to absolute shit. Harry was a little less Harry. He was still her Harry but he wasn’t as happy as he once was. So she took a break, she stopped writing and working all the time. She stopped spending so much time away from him. She finished her tour and took time off. She went to see Harry, she stayed with him. All of the time. She toured with the rest boys while they were still working, helping where she could, making things a little better than it was.

And then a year later the boys took a break, a ‘small hiatus’ they called it. 18 months of doing nothing. She got her best friend back for 18 months and it was absolutely heaven. They spent so much time together, at his house, at hers. They spent weeks doing nothing. And then days where’s they went in road trips, they had fun. They went on holiday and spent 3 weeks in Spain where they both worked on their solo work, Y/N had never been as proud as Harry as she was in those movements.

And then the boys decided that they didn’t want to come back, they decided that they wanted to stay apart for a little while longer. They were all working on their own music and were enjoy it way to much to stop. So they stayed apart, the other boys doing what they wanted to do and Harry do what he wanted, each of them being signed to different labels and getting new management. He finished writing his first album, he’s first solo album. His. That he’d written by himself, it was all his music. And he couldn’t believe it.

So he released his first album. He finally let the world hear the music that he’d been working on for the better part of a year- and they loved it as much as he did. Pretty soon after he released his first album he was back to touring, going places that he hadn’t visited in a long time, revisiting memories that included both the boys and his Y/N.

They went back to seeing each other on their breaks, they’d get time off and they’d spend it with each other. Harry was touring the world and Y/N was working on her second album, always making sure that Harry was the first person that heard any of her music, and he did the exact same.

Harry’s first solo world tour was finished, he been and don’t everything he needed to. He’d done the interviews and the shows, done all of the extras and finalised all of the recording that he needed to. And he was off again. Not working for him was sometimes something he loved, he loved not having to work, racking his brain for things to do however was less fun. Harry had pretty much started working on his second album as soon as he had finished the first one. As soon as the words on the pages were finished and the songs were recorded he was writing again, getting more words down in pages that he could make into something more.

When Harry had told Y/N about his ideas for the second album, her heart swelled. She’s never thought that she would get to where she is now. Never thought that she would have the kind of fame that she did now. She would have never had thought that she would get to share that with someone, someone that actually understood where she was coming from. Someone like Harry.

She’d never been as proud of the both of them in that moment when he told her about the songs, the names. Everything. She’d never been filled with so much love in her whole life.

Lights up was the first thing he released from the album. The second first thing he’d done by himself. It was the first thing that the world saw of Fine Line. It was the first thing that Y/N had seen of the album as well. Harry had shown her the songs, they always did that with each other. But she never heard the notes, never heard the lyrics sung. Until she did. And she fell in love with him a little bit more every time she listened to the song.

Song after song was released after that. The world quickly falling in love with the album as much as she did. The whole thing was released in December, and it was kinda like the Christmas present she never knew she wanted.

Fast forward a few months and here they are. Harry was doing interviews and going to meetings and loving every second of it. His second album was loved by everyone. He’d never been filled with so much pride. And neither had Y/N for him. They were spending more time together before they both had to leave for their tours and it was weeks before they saw each other again.

——————

“Come on, Harry!” Y/N groans, moving so that she was laying back on his bed. She honestly didn’t want to move anymore than was absolutely necessary. She lifted her head slightly, looking over at where Harry was standing by the unit on the other side of the room, moving something around.

“I just wanna go to bed,” she whined, trying to get Harry to join her where she was wrapped in his duvet. They’d been out all day and her body ached. All she wanted was a cuddle off her best friend as she drifted off into what could quite possibly be the best sleeps of her life. But Harry was getting in the damn bed.

“I’m nearly done,” he mumbles back, still facing the counter not bothering to face Y/N. He wanted to climb in next to her, wanted to wrap his arms around her and honest never let go. But that was illogical. She didn’t want him that way and he’s been doing a pretty good job of actually hiding how he felt for as long as he could remember. Harry sighs, finally finished on the laptop he closes it down, pushing it back so it wasn’t near the edge, he turns to face the bed. Watching Y/N as she stared at the ceiling.

“I can feel you staring at me H,” she smirked, lifting her head back up to look him in the eyes. A quick and not so subtle flush rushes across his cheeks. He looks down, shuffling over to the bed, he reaches out. Pulling the duvet up so that he could slide in next to her. It wasn’t the first time that they’d shared a bed, it probably wouldn’t be the last if he was being honest.

“Stop…” he groaned back. Moving down the bed he lifted his arm so that Y/N could slide across the bed and snuggle down into his side, her head resting gently on his chest.

Harry sighs, body finally relaxing as he lies next to Y/N. He’s always relaxed when he’s around her. Always confident and happy. She’s everything to him. Even if she wasn’t aware.

Y/N settles down, moving so that her head was pressed against Harry chest. Her ear pressed right up against his skin, she’s fully able to hear his heart beat, loud and clear. Even through the T-shirt she listens, loving the warm body and the sound of life beneath her.

Harry had comes to rest against her back, gently running his fingers along the skin her body shivers in response to the caress.

“Sorry love,” he whispers, moving his head down to rest his chin on top of her head. Y/N shakes her head back to him, pulling his fingers away in responce to her body.

“Don’t stop,” her body shivers again as Harry pulls his fingers away, “feels good,”

Harry laughs, his body gently shaking as the sound works it way past his lips. The laugh causes his chest to vibrate, Y/N’s head moving alongside the movements- her own laugh slips past her lips, it developing into a small sigh had Harry starts running his fingers back across her back.

Harry starts tracing small patterns on her skin. He starts with small shapes, a circle, square, some random squiggles before he moves into actually tracing words. He starts with lyrics from his favourite songs, and then some from hers. Once he’s pretty sure that she seconds away from falling asleep he starts tracing the words ‘I love you’ into her skin. He’s definitely not brave enough to do that when she’s aware of what he’s doing.

She however, is fully aware, she’s sleepy. She’ll admit that, openly admit the fact that she’s tired. But she didn’t want to miss what Harry was doing. Didn’t want to miss the shivers that danced along her spine whenever Harry’s fingers brushed a particularly sensitive spot. Didn’t want to miss the flush that filled her whole body.

She’s aware when Harry stops making shapes, she can feel when he stops making random marks and goes onto making specific letters. She doesn’t quite get it when he’s writing out the lyrics, he moves a little too fast for her to figure out the shapes. She definitely gets it when he moves into writing out ‘I love you’. It takes her a minute, she tires to guess the letters that he’s writing out before she traces his fingers in her mind, her heart begins racing as soon as she figures out what he’s writing.

She doesn’t move. She waits, wanting to see what Harry will do. She wants him to say something to her, she needs him to say something to her. Going by the small sigh that works it way out of Harry she doubts that he’s going to be confessing any time soon. She feels him gently stop the movements on her back, his hand just resting there.

Her minds as mess, her thoughts completely racing. She wants to say something to him. She wants Harry to know more than anything in the whole entire world that she loves him too. She wants everything that he could possibly offer her, she wants him. Just him.

Harry sighs again, he’s chest rising and falling with the noise. Y/N makes her mind up in that moment. Knows that she wants him, knows that she wants him to know she wants him.

Y/N moves her body, turning so that she can face Harry, his arms tense around her and his whole body tenses under where she’s laying.

She looks up at him, his eyes are closed, clenched shut as he brings his bottom lip into his mouth and bites down on the skin. She knows he’s awake, she knows that he knows, she knows what he was doing. Knows that she can tell what he was writing.

She moves further up the bed, pulling out of Harry’s arms so that the could wrap her arms around him. Bringing one hand up to his face she pulls his bottom lip out from between his teeth, running her thumb across the skin to soothe the ache that she’s pretty sure he’s feeling.

She looks at him, his eyes are now open. Staring at her as she gazes at his face. She doesn’t know how she’s supposed to tell him, doesn’t know how to work those three little words into a casual sentence. So she doesn’t go for casual, she goes outright.

“I love you too,” she confesses, moving her eyes up so that she’s looking Harry in the face instead of looking down at his lips.

Harry’s eyes widen slightly, his mouth opening slightly as he listens to the words that have just spilled out of his best friends mouth. That have just fallen from the mouth of the woman that he’s been in love with.

“I love you,” Y/N repeats, her voice absolutely not trembling as she says the words for a second time. Harry doesn’t say anything back to her, his hands are at the back of her back, clenched in the top that she’s wearing.

She looks at Harry, her nerves becoming a little more noticeable as Harry doesn’t respond to her. Y/N doesn’t have a clue what to do? She doesn’t know how to make him say anything back.

“Harry?” She questions, her voice shaking.

He nods, looking at her. Still not saying anything.

“Are you going to say something?” She tries again.

She gets another nod. Slower this time, Harry opens his mouth, trying to actually get words to come and and talk and reply back to the love of his life.

“You don’t have to say it back,” Y/N starts, trying to take the words back now that Harry hadn’t said anything back to her, tears prick at her eyes as she continues, “I just thought that because you were tracing it on my back, it doesn’t matter. I didn’t mean anything, I’ll just…”

“I love you,” Harry cuts into the middle of her rant, stopping her from continuing on with what she was saying, stopping her for taking back words he’s waiting so long to hear come out of her mouth.

Harry grins, it’s not the first time that they’ve said I love you to each other. They’ve been best friends for over 10 years, they’ve seen each other at the worsts and at their bests. This however, is the first time they’ve confessed it in a situation like this. Cuddled together in bed, body heavy with sleep as Harry traces the words into the skin of her back. That part was new.

Y/N looks at him, her eyes still filling with tears- this time for a completely different reason that the first time they pricked at her eyes.

Harry sees that her eyes were getting watery and tenses, he hates when she’s upset, hates it even more when he’s the one that made her feel that way.

“Oh no. No, no, no, no,” Harry repeats, moving to sit up in the bed, pulling Y/N with him so that she was straddling his lap, her arms moving up that they’re wrapped around his shoulders,

“Please don’t cry love. I didn’t mean to upset you, I really didn’t,” he starts, it’s Y/N’s turn to into cut Harry off before he can finish his sentence,

“Didn’t,” she starts, moving her head back from where it was resting in the crook of Harry’s neck, out into space where Harry can clearly see her face. Her eyes red and a smile stretched across her lips, “I’m jus’ so happy right now H,” she lifts her hand up, moving to rest it against Harry’s cheek.

Harry smiles back at her, stretching up so that his forehead was resting against Y/N’s, he looks down at her. Her eyes already connecting with his as soon as he moves his head.

“Can I kiss you?” He questions, eyes not leaving hers.

Y/N nods back at him, moving her head back so that she’s move comfortable. Harry moves his head down, eyes locking with Y/N’s as his lips connect with her. Their eyes slip closed as compete and utter bliss fills both of the minds and bodies. Harry deepens the kiss, bringing his own hands up so that they grip and Y/N cheeks, keeping her in place and he pours everything into their first kiss.

Y/N pulls away first, panting she grins at him. Her mind and heart are racing a million miles a minute and she cannot for the life of her string together a full sentence. So she sets for grinning at him, bringing her moth back down so that their lips connect again. Her initiating their second kiss.

Her heart flutters in her chest as they pull away again, both of their cheeks are flushed and their eyes are completely glazed, pupils blown wide as they stare down at each other. Harry’s the one that speaks up first, repeating the words that got them to where they are now.

“I love you,” he whispers to her, pecking her lips gently as they look at each other.

Y/N smiles, her heart as full as it could possibly be in this moment.

“I love you too,” she kisses him back, mumbling a quite “more than you’ll ever know,” against his lips.

Harry grins at her. His own heart seconds away from bursting out of his chest.

This is everything that he’s ever wanted. Everything that he’d been dreaming about for years.

And they were finally getting it. They were finally getting each other. Forever. Or as long as they wanted each other. And for both of them- that was forever.

———————

Another fluffy one!! I love writing these ones, they make my heart a little happier each time I write something like this!

Let me know what you think! I love hearing from you guys and support and feedback is always appreciated and wanted! I love it when you guys answer!

Request something! I need some new things to write and really want you guys to ask! My requests are always open to pretty much anything that you want!

Be nice and treat people with kindness!

Love, Dari🌻

Ps. Pls pls pls request something. I need new ideas

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mattbflatt-loves-starset · 3 years

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The Live *Acoustic* STARSET Experience

As you have gathered by now, this whole blog is a collection of my analyses on STARSET’s music, as they have been my absolute favorite rock band since I was a pre-teen. Through the years, the music has always spoken to me on a spiritual level, and dissecting their music for an audience has been an absolute joy so far. However, this post is going to be a lot different, and in a very good way. I’m going to share my experience with the band LIVE, as they kicked off live performances post-COVID with a series of intimate acoustic events, and oh lordy Jesus it was a fantastic experience.

The performance as a whole was fantastic, but there are things about the performance that continue to remind me how special of a band STARSET is, not only in their music making, but in other facets as well. We all received raffle tickets, which I thought was kind of strange at first, but it made sense when they revealed a wheel that had the titles of roughly 50% of their music. If your raffle number was called, you got to go up and spin the wheel, and whatever song the wheel stopped at, STARSET would play a brand new acoustic cover of the song, which was DOPE. THE WHOLE SET WAS RANDOMIZED. They were only supposed to play eight songs, but they were having so much fun that they just kept going, calling numbers and playing great music. I heard acoustic covers of “Bringing It Down”, “Down With The Fallen”, “Ricochet”, and the super special song that started it all for them “My Demons” as a closer (This was the band’s choice and not on the wheel, but hot damn it was a great choice). Roughly 12 amazing covers later, every single human being in the pub was in a fantastic mood. The entire experience so far was very special. Normally, one would probably expect the experience to end their, but like I keep telling my audience, this is the best fuckin’ rock band that currently walks this earth, so this review is far from over.

Example of an acoustic cover: STARSET - WHERE THE SKIES END (Live Acoustic Demonstration) | HardDrive Online

After the performance, the audience got lined up to take a professional photo with the band, and while that happened, they started playing UNRELEASED MUSIC. Remember two posts ago when I talked about their new single “THE BREACH”? I heard that song A MONTH AND A HALF before it was released, along with others that STILL AREN’T OUT YET. You can’t sit there and tell me that this isn’t fan service, they care deeply about their fans and know how to make them happy. I looked around the huge line of STARSET fans, and it was really special seeing them absolutely losing their shit over this new music, because not only was the hype through the roof, but the music was good. Like, REALLY good. Hearing the music coming out now, I’m remembering some of the tracks that I heard, and let me tell you, there is something very special about that.

As a preface for this next part, the digital ticket we all received said that there was going to be a “meet and greet” after the performance, which to me seemed like a very short shake-their-hands-get-something-signed-and-get-the-hell-outta-the-way kinda deal. I am so happy to tell you that I was very wrong, the experience was so much better than that. The floor we were on was cleared and the members of STARSET were just... casually walking around talking to the audience. Holy motherloving shit, you could just talk to them for as long as you want about literally anything, and they were just chillin’ for like 3-4 hours after the performance. Myself, along with the group I was with, spent roughly 20 minutes with EACH member of the band just talking about the music industry, how they got to where they are, all of their musical backgrounds, and just casual back and forth talk. Not only was it good conversation, it was eye opening, and they taught me a whole plethora of things about how to be a musician in this day and age. I took everything each of them said to heart and I will use it to market myself and show the world everything I have to present as a musician myself. Holy shit, what an amazing experience. The ticket was $100, and it was well worth it.

I think the coolest thing about this is that this was only an acoustic event, NOT a normal live performance. I looked up videos of their live performances and I legit could not believe what I saw. They weren’t just concerts, they were whole ass experiences, and I know that’s such a flat thing to say, but I am saying it as genuinely as possible. Before you die, go see a live STARSET concert, whether it be an acoustic event or a normal concert. It will undeniably change your life.

ALSO, check out their newly released single “LEAVING THIS WORLD BEHIND”: STARSET - LEAVING THIS WORLD BEHIND

Link used (in order):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUEThT67EgQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Od_dO3ENJo

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dustedmagazine · 2 years

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Listed: Dummy

Dummy, from Los Angeles, is a five-piece band situated somewhere between Stereolab and No Age, which is to say, their sharp guitar riffage is submerged in a warm amniotic bath of buzzing drone. In her review of Mandatory Enjoyment, Jennifer Kelly observed, “Their songs offer a weird, intoxicating mix of judder and solace, like Clinic on a micro-dose.” Here all five members kick in a couple of cultural artifacts that make them happy.

Joe

The White Vault Podcast

I've been super into a couple cosmic horror podcasts recently, this and The Phenomenon have been favorites. The White Vault has four seasons, and is currently airing the 5th, and final season. The care in the production value with the voice actors, sound design and script are fantastic. The first season's opening credits get me every time. The story is kinda hard to explain, but it's very Lovecraftian, you care about the characters, and the reveals are all intriguing. I listen to this when I'm in bed getting ready to fall asleep. I just love it.

Time Wharp — Feel No Pain

I've found myself really drawn to Time Wharp's music recently, between the recent singles on Leaving records and her album Feel No Pain. The Leaving singles have been leaning more into the kosmische realm which I'm super into and very excited for an album length release of this vibe. Feel No Pain is much more ambient, new age and mellow. My husband (Alex, Dummys drummer) and I listen to it in the mornings while drinking coffee, but I've also listened on solo drives and walks. It's a beautiful, peaceful and contemplative listen. The textures and sound design are cosmic and very easy to let envelop you in bliss.

Mark

Ithaca — A Game For All Who Know (1973)

youtube

This album was created by a group of friends at their home studio where they produced records by their semi fictitious bands for the fun of it. Together Peter Howell, John Ferdinando and Lee Menelaus wrote A Game For All Who Know as Ithaca. A Game For All Who Know flows stylistically through baroque pop, folk and psychedelic rock with apocalyptic theming through a DIY soundscape. I find myself coming back to these recordings during wintertime in Los Angeles.

Mark Tester — Super Hiss (2020)

Mark Tester's Super Hiss is a delightful trip through home recorded psychedelic soundscapes akin to Kraftwerk's Ralf & Florian. Super Hiss is perfect for cleaning your room, organizing your belongings or just to sit and listen to. No matter how many times I put this on I always find new textures and patterns that jump out and resonate with me.

Emma

PBS Eons YouTube Channel

I’ve gotten into a habit of watching the videos on the Eons channel lately as I’m winding down for bed. It feels good to watch something genuinely educational. Paleontology and Biology have always been fascinating to me, but past high school, I had never taken it upon myself to educate myself more on those subjects... save for the occasional nature documentary. The hosts of this show have a wholesome, genuine, teacherly quality and the content doesn’t seem dumbed down. There is so much content out there specifically designed to entertain, or to make you laugh, but I think every single person on earth could stand to be a little more educated.

CathodeTV

For anyone into bizarre foreign films, B horror, found footage, lesser appreciated gems, etc. This is an online TV channel that live streams all of the above and more, continuously, 24/7. They often curate their days of programming around a single theme. Today, for example, is Time Travel. I’ve discovered a lot of cool things on this channel, and it’s just nice to know it’s always there. We can’t help it much now, but I’d rather not let algorithms curate what I watch. I trust CathodeTV to show me new and interesting things. Highly recommended.

Final Fantasy 7 OST— Nobuo Uematsu (1997)

youtube

JRPG soundtracks hold a special place for me. I believe this one is the most precious. I grew up playing through this story a few times and would always find myself passing time in different scenes blissed out to the music. The soft midi sounds and beautifully emotive compositions blend perfectly to match this story of this eco-terrorist group trying to save the world. A beautifully depressing masterpiece.

iPod Touch by Apple (2007)

Earlier this past year I found myself more annoyed and disconnected than I've ever been with how I keep and listen to music. I had been brainwashed by the Spotify corporation to listen to playlists they'd curate for me every week and I noticed myself falling into a deeper hole of unappreciativeness from all the terrible songs I'd heard. I ended up getting an iPod from Joe's stash and began a new chapter in my life. It really helps me keep music separate from the monotonous feeling of cell phones and the attachments we have to them.

Alex

Inoyama Land/Takashi Sekiguchi — Heart (2000)

youtube

I had never heard of this album before listening to it, stumbling on it while listening through the Inoyama Land catalogue. I don't know much about it. There's very little to find written about it online. Only ever released on CD, no reissues. And yet it's one of the most stunning ambient works I've ever heard. It floats effortlessly between glistening FM synth-scapes and ethereal organic strings and mallets. I've returned to it so much over the last couple years. I highly encourage you to find this and listen to it, and enter the dreamworld.

Solange — When I Get Home

youtube

When it originally came out, I felt somewhat underwhelmed by this record. But I had a funny feeling that I was missing something about it. So, when I put it on earlier this year after not hearing it for months, I was blown away by its deliriously surreal tone. This record does not hold your hand, it just opens the door for you to enter its murky, intimate world. Melody circulates through the songs but the understated instrumentals offer little popification. Instead, abruptness and dynamic shifts are embraced. It's a brilliant musical vision and it cements Solange as one of the greatest artist working in music today.

#dusted magazine #listed #dummy #the white vault #time wharp #ithaca #mark tester #PBS eons #cathode tv #final fantasy vii #inoyama land #takashi sekiguchi #solange

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baconpal · 3 years

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talkin bout fuckig manga

hey it’s me, haven’t had internet for over a week and i’ve been sick and uni and blah blah blah time for a rant about manga

this time its about "Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru", tl;dr, good manga read it idk

lots of bullshit below the cut

Before anything I say gets too confusing or I go off on an insane tangent, just know my recommendation is that you read "Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru". It's not very easy to find online since it has an official English release (which my recommendation extends far enough to suggest I might pick up in the future, just to have it, but I am very stingy), but there's an alright torrent of all the volumes on your local anime torrenting website, and is at the very least worth the trouble of reading as such. There is also an anime that gets better as it goes, but the manga is my primary recommendation. Beyond this point I'm not gonna give much regard to what I write, so get ready for anything, read the manga and see if you agree with me, or don't and see if I care:

BOUT THE ANIME: The SoreMachi anime is one of those rare comedy anime you find where the animation and overall production is just really extra the entire time. Hopefully you know what I mean because I won't really be able to explain it any other way, it's simply one of those shows where the jokes are decent and it's a fun time for the most part. Unfortunately, the anime makes a couple of critical missteps that kept me from getting far into it when I first tried watching it about a year ago, and in retrospect seem even less reasonable.

Starting with the good, as an adaptation it does a good job with most chapters it covers, it properly sources where each chapter comes from incase you intend to read the manga and skip around to catch up, and the anime adapts some sections to have additional jokes that fit very naturally in to the story. It also covers up some of those problems only manga can have like having a concert segment without any actual music involved, until they invent mp3-paper it's just something we'll have to live with. Translation work was pretty good (I watched the [WhyNot] release for those who care), which is extra important for something as difficult to translate as jokes from another language. The set of episodes they chose to end on was very good, and was expanded to be a lot more impactful in the anime. If it wasn't for the last episode being as strong as it was I may have given up on finding the manga when I saw it wasn't super easy to read online.

As for what the anime fails in, some episodes feature some really blatant over-acting that doesn't really help make characters believable, and there's this obnoxious gag that continues the whole where through where most scenes have a few seconds long line from what is essentially a forced mascot character, which usually mean nothing and only serve to harm the pacing of many episodes (there isn't even any sort of equivalent bit in the manga so I really don't know why they did it, most of the anime original jokes are pretty good so I just really don't get it). The biggest issue the anime faces is that the source material is about 140 chapters, while the anime is only able to cover 24 chapters. This comes with a LOT of problems, the first being what I'd call the "required reading". SoreMachi is not a 1-note simple comedy where you can skip to any chapter and be completely okay; There are many small but meaningful subplots lying beneath, and characters have a fair bit of development throughout. What this means for the anime is that the first 3-4 episodes are just the first few chapters of the manga, which are a bit rough and not as good as the majority of the work, which is true of a lot of comics (god fuck I promise there will be more than a first chapter of my comic I promise it'll get better fuck). In terms of the anime by itself, I'd say episode 1 is decent, 2 is middling, and by 3/4 their still taking a while to introduce members of the cast, and I didn't immediately want to finish it. I put the show down for a long time until my internet started dying and I wanted to watch something fun. Slapping it back on at episode 5 I immediately had a great time and watched the rest of the show pretty soon after. While I understand the reasoning behind doing this, the anime does not pay off this structure, as beyond the first few episodes, the chapters start being presented out of release order and out of chronological order, kind of destroying any consistent throughline. This decision in and of itself isn't the worst, since the comic isn't always chronological, and the volume ordering is a bit different from the release ordering, but the inconsistency makes the first few episodes feel lessened without reason. The other large failure that comes with only animating about 1/7th of the entire work is that many themes and concepts that are core to the manga are not represented in the anime well at all. One of the biggest is the rare but unnerving supernatural chapters, of which only one is animated, and not a particularly good one. In order to talk about these themes I'll have to transition into talking about the manga itself, since they aren't part of the anime.

DA MANGA: So one last recommendation that you read the manga, the whole damn thing. Cus we're gettin into themes and character moments that take a long time to pay off, and obviously is all part of my interpretations, so if that stuff means anything to you don't let me ruin it for ya.

The title of the manga is, in essence, the entire manga's "punchline" in that every chapter could meaningfully end with simply the text "And yet the town still turns..." (My translation of the title, fuck "And yet, the town revolves" or "But the town moves"); by this I mean most chapters end in an anti-climax where a mystery is left unsolved, or a mystery is solved and undercut by the realization that life simply keeps on going without much change. This is used to essentially force your eyes open to all possibilities when reading, as the main character spends her time acting like a detective, and these mysteries end up as either misunderstandings, secrets, riddles, and sometimes something out of the ordinary happens that makes you unable to pin anything down firmly. Similarly, these endings aren't always read-and-forget scenarios. Several chapters come back in the form of a continued joke, a continued mystery, or contribute to some greater purpose later. Readers are properly rewarded for keeping everything they can in mind, while also tormenting such people with loose ends.

I enjoy Hotori as a protagonist due to her character being defined not in flaws and strengths, but in mindedness. Hotori seems like a simple "haha she's dumb" character to start, but consistently throughout she proves that her strengths are in memory, observation, and deduction, while lacking in some more common sense and abilities. Her brain works in strange ways that some people may or may not understand, such as her need to think through even the most trivial fictional scenarios, which I relate to deeply.

The art and paneling throughout are wonderful. Ishiguro Masakazu is one of those artists who draws very simple characters, but knows how to use details and depth to breath so much life into the artwork. He also clearly uses the occasional supernatural happenings as an excuse to draw what he loved, as all sorts of artistic depictions of the supernatural come out that simply look satisfying. These parts obviously meant a lot to him since he's been working on a primarily mystery-action manga that has a lot more of that stuff in it. (Also, as hindsight is 20/20, if you've read any of his new work you'll notice that the main character of it is eerily similar to a character who shows up very late in SoreMachi that the author obviously fell in love with, cus she just keeps coming back and even ends up with a really unsettling end to her character arc despite only being introduced as a component in a harmless mystery. Feel free to call me out for the same shit 30 years from now when I'll probably do the same shit)

I'd like to get into some of the major themes of this work, as a lot of them hit very close to my mind (which I guess is true of any theme you recognize for yourself, you wouldn't really "get it" if it didn't mean something to you...).

The simplest theme, again, comes from the title. The main character, Hotori, expresses a desire that the town she lives in continues going on, unchanged forever. This is obviously a fear of change, which ya know, same, but also an exploration of what it means to fear change. Hotori actively tries to keep businesses from closing down, keep friends from leaving, and keep relationships from changing, while simultaneously making all sorts of new relationships and solving mysteries. Hotori even comes to realize that simply learning the truth about something changes the world through your own perspective, and that such changes can't be undone. In spite of this, Hotori mostly gets her wish, any time she fears that a large change will impact the town, its resolved about the same as any other issue. Whether its a message that even time can't keep you from your loved ones and that change isn't worth fearing, or a concession that large changes to the setting would be a bad idea in terms of humor, I can't really decide. This theme reaches it's conclusion in what is one in a series of "ending" kinda chapters at the end of the series. Hotori is faced with a supernatural ethical situation, save her town from destruction at the cost of her existence, or live through the disaster, knowing her town and the people in it will forever be changed. While the actual result is that nobody disappears and nothing is lost, and the event may have simply been a strange dream, Hotori confidently decides that sparing the people in her town from a life altering event is worth giving up her memories with them. A kind of bold spit-in-the-face to the idea that change is okay, where we find that Hotori didn't fear change for herself, but rather for the people around her.

There's another major idea in this manga, which takes a very long time to pay off, and completes its arc at the very very very actual end of the series, the idea of "leading someone to be something". A character that rides that line between main and side character, Shizuka, is a writer of detective novels, who feels the best person to judge her works would be a version of herself without the bias of being the author. She tries to achieve this by leading Hotori to be interested in detective works (including her own) and generally be just like her, starting from a young age. The end result is a young girl dead set on being a detective herself (or at least another novelist), while Shizuka keeps her identity as an author secret. She then uses Hotori as a scapegoat for herself, attempting to see how she would solve various mysteries and use that as inspiration, and this is depicted as though Shizuka were some sort of villain, which she may feel like she is. The end result of it all, though, is that Hotori was likely already a detective-minded person, and that even if Shizuka pushed her down that path, it was Hotori's decision to continue down it, and the very end of the manga is a scene revealing that Hotori figured out Shizuka's secret at some point, and even still respected Shizuka and aspired to reach her, and the two accept each other for who they are. I enjoy this ending a lot, since as an artist I've worried that some of my love or aspirations for and from other artists came with an ulterior motive of wanting a better community for art to exist in, but people are people and will make their own decisions, and some day everyone may be able to become equals in a truly meaningful sense, where everyone is inspired by and guiding each other together.

So that probably didn't mean shit to nobody and I didn't even really talk about anything in the comic like most of the main characters or any of the shit goin on but ya know fuck you go read it, and thanks for reading this.

#long ass post #also gonna have finals on my birthday this week so awesome #im having a good time this year h-haha

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