#certified weird girl but in different ways than her weird parents | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zutaralover94 · 4 years

Note

For the "Ship and number ask", I request Zutara and either number 4 or number 46 please. Thank you.

This has been in my ask box since the first day! And thank you so much for this request! I had way too much fun writing this... (If you can’t tell by the 10K words)

Read below or read on AO3

Tags: Nanny!Katara, SingleParent!Zuko, Age Difference, Izumi and Lu Ten are Zuko’s children, https://www.familyhomeplans.com/house-plan-41528

Wanted: In house nanny for two children. One is a 10 year old girl; the other is a 5 year old boy. Nanny must drop off and pick up from school. Children need all three meals prepped and cooked for them. Must be willing to do some light housework.

Housing: Provided.

Insurance: Provided.

Wage: $1,500/mo

Katara blew out a breath and sent as many of her good vibes and thoughts as she could as she submitted her resume. College was becoming rough and although her scholarship was paying for the tuition. Her room and books however were drowning her finances.

It was a day later when Katara received a phone call for an interview. She was so nervous that she was almost late to the interview. She arrived right on time outside of a fairly nice house. It looked to be a two story house with a circle drive and Katara could see a peek of the backyard as she pulled into the drive.

Katara blew a breath as she walked up the red bricked pathway. She rang the doorbell and heard small feet running to open the door.

“Hi!”

“Hi,” Katara smiled as a little boy opened the door.

“Daddy and Izumi are in the kitchen,” The little boy grabbed Katara’s hand. “Come on.” Katara slightly stumbled into the house and shut the door behind her as the boy tugged on hand and down the hallway. Katara had to lean in a weird position so the boy could hold onto her hand.

“Lu Ten! Come down, I told you to be ready when the interviewees were here!” A man’s voice filled the entry hallway “Lu Ten!”

“Daaaaad~!” The boy yelled back, and they pretty much ran into a man who was in a white button down that he was rolling up to his elbows. “I’m right here! And she’s here already!” The boy tugged on her arm again and Katara was yanked a little further down.

This was Dad?

Katara’s eyes roamed over the man. He was gorgeous. Tall, dark hair pushed out from his golden eyes, there was a scar over his left eye but… Scars were hot. The man looked strong and although Katara knew he was older. He barely looked 5 years older than her. Hell, he put half of the guys in her class to shame.

Katara smiled to the slightly shocked man, “Hi,” Katara reached out her free hand. “I’m Katara.”

The man shook her hand, “Zuko, nice to meet you.” Katara let go of the man’s hand in order to grab her bag that was slipping down her arm. “Come on, we’ll talk in the kitchen. We’re kind of in the middle of making dinner.” Zuko reached down and scooped up Lu Ten. “Izumi, my oldest, made enough for four.” He turned and winked at Katara. “We’re having grilled cheese and tomato soup. She was in charge of the soup and she used two cans.”

The three of them walked through the living room and to the open kitchen. There was a long bar that separated the living room from the kitchen. And the kitchen was one Katara had only ever dreamed about. It was shiny and well stocked. Zuko and Lu ten circled around the bar to stand beside Izumi who was standing on a chair stirring something in a way too large pot.

Zuko leaned over and gave a big sniff, “Smells great Izumi.” Zuko looked over his shoulder to Katara, who was standing there, slightly awkward, observing the small family. Zuko sat Lu Ten down when he started to squirm. “Why don’t you go get the cheese and let Miss Katara pick out which one she wants?” Zuko leaned over and grabbed a skillet from the cabinet.

Katara sat her bag on the chair at the bar. She followed Lu Ten to the refrigerator and held the door open as Lu Ten opened a small drawer and pulled out multiple packs of cheese. Katara grabbed the butter dish on a shelf and waited for Lu Ten to move before she began shutting the door. She turned and again almost ran smack into Zuko. “Sorry.”

Zuko chuckled, “Sorry. No matter how big this kitchen seems to be, we still run into each other.” Zuko allowed Katara to step by and opened the fridge. Katara walked back over to the stove and smiled to the girl on the chair. She whispered a ‘hi’ to the extremely focused child and began buttering the bread for the grilled cheese. Zuko groaned and began opening and closing drawers and even opened the freezer. “I could have sworn we had butter in here.”

Izumi put a finger to her lips with a small smile. “Don’t tell him.” Izumi whispered. Katara’s smile widened, she already loved Izumi.

“Well, I guess we won’t be having grilled cheese, I can’t seem to find the-” Zuko turned around to see Katara already had two slices buttered. “Butter. Thanks.” Zuko came back over and began making sandwich, he peeked over the pot to make sure the soup wasn’t burning. “So, Miss Katara, let’s talk about your past experiences and references really quick.”

“Right,” Katara moved out of the way and went for her bag. “I have that all here.” Katara placed it on the bar beside where Zuko was cooking.

Zuko just shooed away the papers away with his spatula, “I have already seen and read your resume, Miss Katara.”

“R-right,” Katara pulled the papers back towards her. She looked around the kitchen, Izumi was still holding a whisk over the large pot, Zuko was flipping the first grilled cheese and Lu Ten was putting spoons on napkins in the little breakfast nook table. “I, um,” Katara looked up to see the older man looking at her. “I am currently studying at Ba Sing Se University.”

“Go Boars!” Izumi yelled out and flung the whisk in the air, tomato soup splattering all around.

Zuko groaned and mumbled something about talking to Aunt Toph later. He shook his head and lifted one sandwich out of the pan to replace it with the next one, “What are you studying?”

“My major is in Speech and Language Therapy and I’m minoring in Child Education.”

“Ambitious,” Zuko nodded, “Izumi what kind of cheese for you this time?”

Izumi thought for a moment before turning to her dad, “Pepper Jack and Swiss.”

“My girl,” Zuko winked at her and put down two pieces of cheese on the bread. “What made you decide to study those subjects?”

“I-,” Katara looked down at her paper hoping to get the answer from it, but of course it provided no answer. “I came from a small town and so there were those who were looked after and those who did the looking after. I learned really quickly to be the one who did the looking after.” Katara shrugged, “And I loved the kids.”

“Well that explains the minor in Child Education.” Zuko flipped the grilled cheese. “But why Speech and Language Therapy?”

“Oh well,” Katara bit her lip, “I knew a boy when I was younger. He was older but he had a disability.” Katara looked to the two kids who were watching her. “And no one really knew how to help him, so I did my best to teach him a few things.”

“And how is he now?” Zuko asked as he slid the sandwich onto another plate.

“He,” Katara paused, she didn’t know how Izumi and Lu Ten would react to her saying he had passed away. Zuko looked over his shoulder to her as if he understood her pause. “Learned to read to a fifth grade reading level.”

“That’s great!” Zuko put in a piece of bread for another sandwich, “What type of cheese, Miss Katara?”

“Um, what do you have?” Katara asked looking at the packages of cheese on the counter.

“Anything and everything,” Zuko said as he pulled out two slices of pepper jack to put on his next sandwich. “We went grocery shopping before you came. So, it all well stocked.”

“I see.” Katara pushed over the Colby-Jack cheese.

Zuko nodded and asked for Izumi to start filling bowls with soup. “And if I remember correctly you have CPR training?” Zuko asked as he flipped the grilled cheese over.

“Yes,” Katara nodded and thumbed at the papers in her hand. “Adult and child certified.”

“Haha,” Zuko laughed, “That’s good to know. So, if I fall over one night, I know you will be able to do CPR.”

Katara blushed and turned her head, “Yes, sir.”

“Oh,” Zuko groaned, “Don’t call me sir. It makes me sound old.”

“Sorry,” Katara ducked her head.

Zuko scooped out his sandwich and put in one more sandwich. “Did you bring any more references other than the ones online?”

“Oh,” Katara looked down at her hands. “I have two written letters here and a small list of past parents I have baby sat for.”

“So, you’ve never done a live-in nanny position?” Zuko asked as he placed the cheese Katara picked out on the sandwiches.

“No,” Katara felt her confidence and shoulders drop, “Was that a requirement for this job?”

“No. No, no, no,” Zuko waved the spatula around again. Katara was beginning to see if she got this job that she would be doing a lot of spot cleaning. “I just need to know what we need to go over, if we decide to go with you.”

“Right,” Katara nodded and watched as Zuko flipped her sandwich.

“We’ll go more into detail about that once we actually sit down. What do you want to drink?” Zuko asked as he flipped the knob off on the burner beneath the pot of soup and the pan with her grilled cheese.

“Uh, water is fine.”

“I’ll drink water too, Daddy!” Lu Ten perked up from the table. Katara looked over to see him playing with a small gaming console.

“Do you mind getting down the glasses?” Zuko asked Katara, “It looks as if I have lost my helpers.” Izumi sat down a small bowl in front of Lu Ten and was leaning over his shoulder to watch him play.

“That’s fine,” Katara said as she looked around the kitchen again, “Where are the-?”

“Top cabinet beside the fridge.” Zuko pointed across the kitchen. “Izumi and I will drink water too.”

Katara made each glass and carried them carefully to the table and sat them down as Zuko came around with the plates of grilled cheese. Katara made a mental note that Izumi’s grilled cheese was cut into triangles while Lu Ten’s was cut into squares.

“So, with the live in nanny position, you’ll of course be staying here. The room is just back that way.” Zuko pointed to the doorway beside the kitchen. “It has its own bathroom and everything.” Zuko took a bite and chewed for a bit.

Katara followed his lead but dipped hers into her soup first. She almost gave a pornographic moan as she bit into her sandwich. It had to be the best grilled cheese ever! She let her eyelashes flutter closed and when she opened them Zuko was smirking at her. “This is a really good sandwich!”

“Thank you,” Zuko’s smirk didn’t slide off even after he took another bite. “Anyway, the kids need to be fed and dressed before school, I will also need you to drop them off. Lu Ten’s class needs a snack to be provided at least once a month. And Izumi doesn’t like gummy snacks.”

“No,” Izumi shook her head. “Or gum!” Katara nodded at the information.

“I try to have the kids take their lunches, but I rarely have time to prep for that. Then you will need to pick them up. Except on Tuesdays, Izumi has basketball practice. And then dinner, you and I can arrange that menu, should you take the job.” Zuko continued on. “I’ll do my best to work with your class schedule.”

“Mmm,” Katara swallowed her mouthful of sandwich, “I’m actually mostly online. I only have one class that is 10 to 2 on Wednesdays.” Zuko nodded. “And I will try to keep my schedule around the kids in upcoming semesters.” Zuko raised an eyebrow. “If I get the position, that is.”

Zuko smiled, “There are house rules. No spanking the children.” Katara nodded and Lu Ten let out a loud ‘YEAH!’. Zuko shot him a look. “No bringing in guests.”

No problem there. Katara thought as she nodded her head.

“No drinking or smoking while the children are present.” Katara nodded to that one. She would just have to sneak in her wine coolers on vacation. “I do not tolerate lateness, lies or laziness. I have no problems with letting you go for any of those things.” Zuko said with the sternest face Katara had seen from him yet. She nodded her head. “The wage is $1,500 a month. But I will give you a separate card to use for things like gas and groceries.”

“That all seems reasonable.” Katara nodded as Zuko began eating again. “I just recently took nutrition class, so I have meal plans made.”

“That’s good.”

“It even has a super tasty chocolate chip cookie recipe.” Katara gave a small smile and saw both Izumi and Lu Ten give a large smile.

+++

Katara left feeling great about the position but when she hadn’t heard back from Zuko two days later, she started to doubt herself. She was exiting her class and looked down at her watch. 2:30pm. Katara took out her keys and was walking to her car when her phone started vibrating. She stared at the ‘Unknown’ caller id on her phone for a few rings. Trying to decide if it was just another extended warranty call for her car or someone trying to get ahold of her. She waited on more ring before answering. “Hello?”

“Katara?” The man’s voice was somewhat muffled slightly and Katara’s shoulders dropped.

“This is she.” Katara figured the person probably would have to go through their whole sales pitch before she got to break the news that she didn’t plan on extending any insurance warranty.

“Hey, Katara. Look I’m really sorry to do this. But I need you to pick up Lu Ten and Izumi. Toph can’t seem to get them and I’m still stuck at work.”

“Zuko?”

“Yes, can you do that for me?” Zuko asked almost desperate. “I meant to call you later tonight to let you know you go the job, but I kind of need help, now.”

“Really?! I got the job?” Katara stopped in front of her car and felt herself smile. “Thank you so much!”

“Yes, yes,” Zuko chuckled, “Can you pick them up from school? Lu Ten gets out at 2:45 and Izumi gets out a 3:00. It’s okay if you are a little late. I can let their teachers know.”

“Yeah, I can.” Katara got into her car. “Do you have an address?” Katara looked around her dirty car. She was going to have to stop somewhere and at least dumb all of the empty coffee cups in her backseat floorboard.

“I’ll text it to you,” Zuko paused. “And thank you Katara. I’ll be home around 6. We can come back with you to help collect your things from your dorm or housing.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that…” Katara turned her car on and connected her phone through the car. “I can just grab it. There’s not a ton of things for me to bring.”

“Alright, well my offer still stands to help. I’m going to hang up now and send you the address.” Zuko hung up without a goodbye. Then two seconds later a text message arrived.

Katara sat there in the quiet of her car for a second before bouncing in the seat of her car and doing a happy dance. She had gotten the job! She fist pumped a few times before looking around to make sure no one had seen her burst of excitement. Once she saw the coast was clear, she did one last bounce and put the address info her GPS.

+++

A few weeks later and Katara felt like she had it all down. She would wake up to the sound of Zuko shutting the garage door. Have enough time to brush her teeth and begin breakfast before waking up Izumi and Lu Ten. She would serve them breakfast, make lunch, and then get ready while the other two were getting ready as well. There were a few times that Izumi would go back up and sleep. Those mornings were the worst, because then Lu Ten would start dragging his feet. Katara would take them to school drop Lu Ten off first, then Izumi. Go back home clean up breakfast and depending on the day of the week do laundry, clean the living room and kitchen, or sit on the back porch and study until 2:15. She would then pick up Lu Ten and then Izumi, making sure both have their backpacks and lunch bags. They would make it back home for a small snack and to do homework. Except on Tuesdays when Izumi had basketball practice. Zuko would arrive back home before 7pm and Katara had dinner on the table no later than 7:30. Clean up was done by the Zuko and either Izumi or Lu Ten would help him with the dishes. Both children were in their rooms by 9. And Katara made sure that both were asleep by 10. (Most nights having to take away flashlights from Izumi.)

Katara sat with her legs folded under her and a cup of coffee in her hand as she reread the section in her textbook. She fiddled with a strand of her hair in her other hand, a bad habit she couldn’t remember when she took up.

“You have a test coming up?”

Katara’s head flew up and she looked to see where Zuko was in his robe at his bedroom doorway. There was a bit of his chest showing and Katara did her best not to stare at the gorgeous pale skin. She bit her lip and nodded, looking back down at her book. She heard footsteps get closer to the couch. A shadow covered her book, blocking her light from the lamp.

“Do you realize what time it is?”

Katara looked at her empty coffee cup and then looked around her lap to find her phone. Her back popped as she twisted to her right. She winced slightly before locating her phone under her knee. 1:24am. Katara blew out a breath. “I’m sorry. I’ll be going to bed soon. I have one-,”

“Katara,” Zuko said in his most stern voice.

“More chapter.” Katara pouted and flipped a page in her book. “I promise to go to bed right after this.” Katara tapped the book. She mentally groaned as she looked at the title of the next chapter.

Zuko shook his head, “Alright, but get to bed as soon as your finished. I would hate for Izumi to have to come steal your flashlight.”

Katara gave a small smile, “I promise. Goodnight Zuko.”

“Night, Katara.” Zuko yawned and then turned back to his bedroom.

+++

“Lu Ten you promised you were going to help me mate socks!” Izumi stomped her foot in the middle of the clean laundry.

“No, I didn’t!’ Lu Ten stuck his tongue out. “I told ‘Tara I would help her make the socks!”

“Mate the socks! Not make the socks!” Izumi crossed her arms and then plopped down next to the basket. “You put the two together! Not sew them!”

“I-I knew that!” Lu Ten yelled back and tripped into the living room sprawling across the dumped out socks.

“Would you both quit yelling?” Katara asked as she set down a string cheese and a juice pack for both of them. “I’ll give you each a quarter for each match you make.”

“Yay!” Lu Ten was quick to begin pairing the socks.

Izumi however began eating her snack, “You know a quarter isn’t that much.”

“No, but if you match 10 pairs that will get you-,”

“$2.50.” Izumi cut Katara off. “What could I get with $2.50?”

“Well, you could get-.”

“I found one!” Lu Ten shouted and put the socks together. “I’m going to beat Izumi. Just watch!”

Katara smiled to him and turned to whisper to Izumi, “I’ll give you an extra quarter for every match you have to rematch and $5 for putting away everyone’s socks in their drawers.”

Izumi gave it a moment to think about it before nodding, “Deal.”

+++

Zuko looked down at the clock and began shutting down his computer 30 minutes early. He was packing up his things when Song popped her head in. “Leaving early, Boss?”

Zuko glanced at her briefly before dropping a folder into his briefcase. “Yeah, the nanny has supper cooking already. She told me it was making my favorite.”

“Nanny? Favorite?” Song smirked and raised an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah,” Zuko closed up everything and looked up at her. “I owe her a ton. She’s helped out so much with the kids.”

“Mhmm,” Song still held a skeptical look.

“What?” Zuko grabbed his keys and his briefcase and headed towards the elevator

“And what else is she like?” Song clicked off Zuko’s office light and fell into step beside him.

Zuko chuckled and looked over to her before waving goodbye to Smellerbee and Pipsqueak. “I’m not too sure what you mean by that, Song.”

“Is she pretty?” Song pushed the down button for Zuko.

It was Zuko’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Song-.”

“What?” Song shrugged her shoulders innocently. “I’ve just noticed you leave earlier and earlier. There’s a smile on your face for longer than just after that first sip of coffee. And-”

“I’m doing more work at home. And maybe I was so busy with everything else and making sure that my assistant did her job, that I didn’t have time to smile.” Zuko stepped in the elevator. He pressed the button for the ground floor. “Katara has just lightened the load. Goodnight, Song. Remember the 7:30 meeting in the morning. Don’t be late.”

+++

“Pulling an all-nighter again, Miss Katara?” Zuko asked from the study doorway.

Katara had found comfort in the small room at the front of the house. There was a large desk so she could really spread out and work. She blinked as she looked away from her page, “What time is it?”

“12:49.” Zuko said as he took soft steps into the study.

“I have a final tomorrow at 10.” Katara explained as she tried to take a sip of her empty coffee mug. She frowned down at her mug. “I still have a few chapters to review.”

“Chapters?” Zuko leaned against the desk and looked over her notes. “You’ll have a few hours to review in the morning. Why not just do it then?”

Katara sat back in the chair cradling the cup in her hands, “I’m a night owl. I do my best work later in the day. It’s hard to focus that early in the morning.”

Zuko just shook his head, “Mhmm.”

“I’ll go to bed soon. I promise.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Zuko crossed his arms. Katara was very beginning to see where Izumi got it from. “Last time, you were up till 3:30. Izumi had to wake you up the next day.”

Katara’s face flushed, “I promise that won’t happen again. I’ll go to bed before that.”

“Alright, but if it happens again, I’m taking away your flashlight, missy.” Zuko wagged his finger at her before turning and going back to bed.

Zuko got up the next morning to see the light in the study still on and Katara’s head pillowed in her arms. A pencil in her hand and a small snore coming from her open mouth. He sighed and gently woke her up, “Come on, Katara.”

“A in neighbor and WEIGH!” Katara jolted up right. “Fuck!” Her back popped and she began shaking out her hands that were still asleep. She turned to see a semi dressed Zuko. His dress shirt was unbuttoned, and his thin white undershirt was like a second skin to his body. For Zuko being 11 years older than her, he definitely could knock out anyone her age with his torso. Or what she could see from it. Zuko’s usually combed back hair was a mess and falling into his eyes. Katara had to grab her hand to stop herself from reaching out to brush the black strands from his golden eyes. “Sorry.” She whispered. She wasn’t sure if it was because she fell asleep in the study or if it was for ogling at him like a double chocolate cake dipped in chocolate ganache frosting.

“You promised,” Zuko tutted at her.

“I did,” Katara laid her head back over on the desk with a yawn. “I’m sorry.”

“So, you said,” Zuko chuckled and nudged her again, “Alright, come on, you go back to bed. I’ve got the kiddos.”

“No!” Katara stood up and began pilling her papers together, “I mean, no. I can take care of them. I’ll just-”

“Let me do it,” Zuko put a hand on her shoulder and she freezes. “I actually kind of miss it. You can go back to bed. I’ll wake you up when we leave.”

“But that’s my j-,”

“No, buts.” Zuko said as he nudged her to go back to bed. “Have a good nap. I expect you to get an ‘A’.”

Katara felt all of her fight leave her, “Thanks, Zuko.”

+++

“Leaving early again, Zuko?” Song asked as she looked up from her computer.

“This again?”

Song gave a soft laugh, “What’s on the menu tonight?”

“Some sort of pasta,” Zuko turned and walked backwards to the elevator. “I’ll see you in the morning?”

+++

“GO! GO! GO!” Katara yelled and stood up in the bleachers. Izumi was dribbling down the court. She was in perfect form as she shot the ball. “YES!!!” Katara turned and gave Lu Ten a high five. She gave another little “Woot!” before sitting down next to the boy.

Lu Ten swung his legs, “Do you have to do that every time, Zum makes a goal?”

Katara looked over at the boy, “Of course. She made a goal! That’s great!”

“Right,” Lu Ten looked out to where his sister was sitting on the bench taking a small break. “I want to play too.”

“Really?” Katara brightened up at that. “That’s great! When we get home, we can look up to see if there-.”

“I want to play with Zum.” Lu Ten shook his head. “Because she wins all the points!”

“Well, if you get really good maybe you can.” Katara smiled and fluffed the hair on Lu Ten’s head.

Lu Ten pushed her hand away, “Do you think Dad would let me?”

Katara sat there for a minute, “Yeah, if you seriously want to play. I think he would.”

“Okay,” Lu Ten looked back at the court. “I want to play.”

The next four goals Izumi shot, Lu Ten was up hollering with Katara.

+++

Katara sat in a lawn chair and watched as Izumi helped Lu Ten hold the ball correctly again. She looked down to her phone and scrolled through yet another picture of some far off destination one of her friends had posted. The school was on a four day holiday and Katara silently wished she could have gone out with her friends.

“Has he made a basket yet?”

Katara looked over her sunglasses to where Zuko was standing just outside the door. She looked back over to the kids and saw Lu Ten flimsily shoot the ball. It hit the rim but didn’t go in. Izumi went and caught the ball. “That was so close! But watch me one more time, kay?”

Katara smiled, “I think he’s getting the hang of it.” Katara looked at the clock in the corner of her phone screen. “You’re home early.”

“Someone at the office reminded me that it was a long weekend. You should have told me.” Zuko took a seat next to her. “I would have let you take off.”

Katara shrugged her shoulders, “I didn’t have any plans.”

Zuko made a small hum. He looked her over. She was in a tank top and a pair of short shorts. Her skin was such a beautiful tan. Zuko was shocked that Katara never asked for time off. He knew she was heavily focused on her studies but a girl like Katara should be going to parties and off spending money she didn’t have on vacations. “Well, if you have somewhere, you’d like to go you can take the rest of the weekend. I can watch the kids.”

Katara pushed her sunglass up and into her hair, “I really don’t have any plans. I was so busy with semi-finals I forgot to make plans.” Katara stretched out and then stood up and stretched again. She looked over to the kids, “But I heard Lu Ten say something about the beach and thought about taking them out tomorrow. If you’d like to join us.”

Zuko nodded and then shook his head, “I should really work on some things at home.”

Katara looked back with small concern, “You should take a break. The kids would be really happy if you joined us.”

Zuko gave a small smile, “I’ll think about it.”

“Ha,” Katara crossed her arms and gave the most humorless laugh. “That’s what my dad used to say. Usually he had already made his decision, but it was never the one I was hoping for.” Katara gathered her things before calling out to the kids that lunch would be ready in twenty minutes.

+++

The next day Katara was holding on to her hat and watching Izumi and Lu Ten run towards the ocean. She turned back to see Zuko tugging out beach chairs and a cooler. She was happy that he came. She had been so nervous that he would back out. But when he woke her up at 10 and told her to get herself together, they were leaving in an hour. Her nerves switched directions.

Katara tugged at the white sheer kimono styled cover up over her white strapless bikini. Maybe she should have worn her navy blue one piece. But then she wouldn’t have gotten to see Zuko’s eyes widen just a smidge as she walked out to the car.

Katara picked out the best spot to keep an eye on the kids as they splashed through the shallow waters. Zuko settled in next to her with a book. Katara lasted about 15 minutes into the silence and watching the kids, “I’m really glad you came out with us.”

“Huh?” Zuko looked up from his book.

“I know you really didn’t want to come out. But I’m glad you did.” Katara stood up and draped her wrap over the chair and her hat under it. “Watch these for me? I’m going to go play with the kids.” Katara did a light jog to the water and only looked back briefly to see if Zuko was watching her. He was. And Katara called it a win for the day.

A little while later Katara, Izumi and Lu Ten made their way back to their spot on the sand. Katara begins pulling out waters and sandwiches from the cooler. Izumi and Lu Ten ate as quickly as they could, ignoring Zuko’s attempts to tell them to slow down or they’ll get a stomachache. Lu Ten asked for the bag for seashells and then begged Izumi to go look with him. Izumi finished off her lunch and got up with Lu Ten to look for shells. Katara made sure they put on another round of sunscreen before heading out.

Katara smiled at the two as they looked around, Lu Ten putting almost anything he found in the bag, but Izumi was being picky and throwing back almost anything she found. Katara reached over and dug through her bag for her nail polish. She removed what she already had for starting with a white base coat for her toes, ring fingers and pinkies. She watched the kids play around again as she waited for her nails to dry.

“You should probably put on more sunscreen too.” Katara shrugged and pulled out the navy blue next. “Don’t just shrug your shoulders at me missy.” Zuko said sternly.

Katara cracked a smile. “Trust me. I’m not worried about it. I used to come to the beach all the time. I know when to put on sunblock. But you should probably think about it.”

Zuko gave her a spectacle look but reached for the sunblock.

Katara painted the rest of her nails navy blue and finished at the same time Izumi and Lu Ten came running back to their spot. Lu Ten held up the baggy “Look how many shells we got!” Katara gave a big smile and nodded.

Izumi was quick to sit down next to her and look at her nails. “I love those colors! Can you do mine?”

Katara looked up to Zuko who was being pulled on by Lu Ten saying over and over how he wanted to go over to the tide pools. “Sure, but maybe ask your dad first.”

Izumi took off after them, tugging on Zuko until he said yes. She ran back to Katara with a smile that was so bright it could rival the sun. “He said yes!”

Katara handed over her nail polish bag and told Izumi to pick one or two. She finished her nails by putting on silver sparkles on her ring fingers and big toe. Izumi changed her mind three times before setting out a neon pink and a neon orange. She sat quietly as Katara finished up and looked over her nails.

“I’ve never painted my nails before.” Izumi said quietly as Katara looked over her picks. “I also want one sparkly like yours.”

“Your mom never did your nails?” Katara asked as she took out a clear glitter polish.

Izumi shrugged and watched Katara pull out another few bottles of nail polish and a makeup sponge. “Maybe she did. But I don’t remember. I was pretty young when she left.”

“Oh,” Katara felt slightly bad. They had never talked about this before.

“Dad still misses her. I know. But,” Izumi sighed. “I’m not sure if I do or not.”

“My mother died when I was younger. So, it was just my Gran Gran, dad, and older brother. My Gran Gran did the best she could while she was alive. But by the time I was twelve I had to learn a whole lot of stuff on my own. Like how to paint my own nails.” Katara said to lighten the mood. “So how about I ombre yours and we can do glitter on all of them?”

Izumi nodded excitedly. “So, you don’t think it’s a bad thing I don’t miss my mom?”

Katara took Izumi’s firsthand and began applying a peel off around her fingernails. “It’s hard to miss something you don’t remember.” Katara watched Izumi wiggle her fingers as she took her other hand and began that one. They sat in quietly for a few minutes, Katara working on painting all of Izumi’s nails white.

“You’re like a mom.” Izumi said after she wiggled her freshly painted fingernails while Katara worked on painting her toes every other toe pink or orange.

“What?” Katara paused over a toe.

“Well, you cook and clean, and help me and Lu Ten. Oh, and you drop us off and pick us up from school. You know how I like my sandwich cut in triangles.” Izumi leaned on her knees to look at her finished toes. “Aunt Toph kind of did that but she didn’t cut my sandwiches and she didn’t stay at the house.”

“I’m sure if you asked Aunt Toph she would have cut your sandwiches.” Katara took out her sponge and began adding on the nail polish. “And that’s what my job is. That’s why your dad hired me. It’s to make sure to take care of you and Lu Ten.”

“So, you’ve done this before?” Izumi watched as Katara dabbed all her nails with the makeup sponge.

“Yeah, kind of,” Katara picked up her other hand and dabbed the nail polish on those. “I babysat before. But I’ve never done the whole living with a family before.”

Izumi nodded at that, “Well I hope you stay with us for a while.”

Katara smiled down at her, “I hope so too.”

+++

A cry stirs Katara from sleep and then a large flash of lightening.

“Daddy!”

Katara was out of her bed and running through the dark living room to the stairs, flashes of lightening glowing the living room every few seconds. Zuko was only a few steps in front of her. Zuko was already cradling a crying Lu Ten by the time Katara reached the room having taken the stairs two at a time. She walked a few steps down the hall to Izumi’s room. Izumi was still asleep as another loud clap of thunder shook the house. Katara shook her head, the child could sleep through anything.

Katara walked back to see Zuko curled up in the tiny bed of Lu Ten’s. His eyes were closed but Lu Ten’s were wide open. Katara stepped in and sat down next to the bed. She reached out and took Lu Ten’s hand. He clasped hers tightly as another flash of light shown through his window.

Zuko let out a soft snore and Katara covered her mouth to keep from giggling with her other hand. Lu Ten still looked frightened. Katara motioned for him to come with her. He reached out for her and Katara picked him up from Zuko’s arms. Zuko only turned a bit more into where Lu Ten had been. “Your sister and dad are one in the same. Come on. I know secret to sleeping with scary storms.”

“Wwwhat is it?” Lu Ten wrapped his arms around Katara’s neck a little tighter. He grabbed her ear and played with small stud in her upper helix.

Katara carried him downstairs, “My Gran Gran used to make something called a thunder cake.” Katara prayed the child had never heard the story before. She turned on the lights in the kitchen and pulled a high top chair into the kitchen. “Can you sit here while I get the ingredients?”

Lu Ten nodded and sat on the chair. Katara could hear him shake every so often as she gathered a few things for a simple chocolate cake. “My Gran Gran was the strongest person I know.”

“Daddy is the strongest person I know!” Lu Ten interrupted.

Katara smiled at him as she grabbed eggs and butter from the fridge. She prayed that Zuko had coco in his pantry. She turned to Lu Ten after she sat the things down on the counter. “I need to go get my phone. Do you want to come with me?” Lu Ten nodded and Katara carried him with her as she took her phone from the charger seeing that it was 2:13. Katara sighed and opened her browser to look for a simple cake recipe. “Now this isn’t Gran Gran’s cake because her cookbook is still at home with my dad. But it’s good.”

Lu Ten hummed, “That’s okay.” Katara was about to set Lu Ten back down but another large boom shook the house and Lu Ten clung to Katara.

Katara petted his back a few times, “It’s okay.” Katara finally got him to sit back in the chair. “So, my Gran Gran used to tell me this story. Do you want to hear it?” Lu Ten nodded.

“Okay but first you have to promise to help with the thunder cake.” Katara held out her pinky. Lu Ten was quick to hook his around hers. ”Alright, now Gran Gran used to tell me that if you see a flash of lightning that you should count slow and when the thunder rumbles you stop counting. Can you do that for me?” Katara waited till Lu Ten gave a small nod. He looked beyond nervous. “Good, alright so if you see lightening count slow. Okay?” Just then lightening flashed in the windows and Lu Ten began counting.

“1-2-3-4-5-6-”

BOOM!

Lu Ten jumped a little but stopped counting.

“That means it’s six miles away.” Katara began by pre heating the oven. She searched through the drawers for measuring spoons. “Gran Gran was never scared of lightning and thunder.” Katara said as she began putting the dry mixture together. She gave Lu Ten a spoon for him to stir the dry ingredients. “She told me that it was because the lightning and thunder were brothers.”

“They are?” Lu Ten interrupted her again.

“Yup, I’ll tell you the story that she used to tell me.” Katara began whisking together the few liquid ingredients. Katara went through the story pausing when Lu Ten began counting when lightening crackled. Katara told him of how the two brothers often fought and told Lu Ten to spoon in the dry mixture while she stirred the wet batter. Lu Ten followed the instructions and listened with wide eyes as Katara told the old legend. He seemed so distracted that by the time Katara was putting the pans in. She watched his eye lids droop.

Katara nudged him at one point as he had leaned his head over on her arm. She was trying to make a frosting for the cake. He only sat up briefly only to put his head back on her arm. Katara put down her spoon and picked Lu Ten off the chair. Lu Ten’s small hand immediately went to her ear. She took her phone and him to her room. She did her best to lay him down and closed the blinds to the storm next to her bed. Katara predicted that this was the worst of it. Lu Ten snuggled into her pillows and Katara draped the messed up bed sheets over him. She ran her fingers through his hair a few times and smiled at the small hand that grabbed onto his ear.

Katara went back to the kitchen a few minutes later to finish the frosting and to pull out the cakes. She set an alarm to let the cakes cool and went back to her room. Curling up on the other side of the bed. Katara pet the little boy’s hair a few more times before her eyes closed.

She woke up a few hours later with a thumb playing with her helix earring. Katara peeked through her eyelashes to see Lu Ten’s eyes still closed but he was waking up. Katara smiled and pulled the blankets back over Lu Ten. Lu Ten’s golden eyes blinked open, he smiled at her before his eyelashes fluttered closed again.

“Do you want cake for breakfast?” Katara whispered to him. She watched Lu Ten’s smile widened before he opened his eyes and nodded. Katara sat up and turned to grab Lu Ten when Zuko came stumbling into her room.

“Kat, have you seen-,” He paused at the doorway to see a sleepy Lu Ten in Katara’s arms.

“Daddy, we are going to have cake for breakfast!” Lu Ten said much more excitedly compared to his sleepy stature.

“Cake?” Zuko asked but gave Katara a raised brow.

“Mhmm,” Lu Ten leaned his head over on Katara’s shoulder. “We made thunder cake.”

“Thunder cake?” Zuko moved out of the doorway as Katara made her way to the kitchen. Zuko looked over his messy kitchen. “When did you make a cake?”

Katara sat Lu Ten back on his chair and went to the cabinet for a plate and knife. Katara pulled the frosting from the fridge and put the cake on the plate before spreading on the frosting.

“Last night during that really loud thunderstorm. Katara told me a story about it!” Lu Ten began retelling the story in pieces and then having to go back and retell it again because he missed a piece of the information. Katara had just about finished frosting when Lu Ten finished his story. “And I’m not afraid of thunder anymore!”

“That’s great, little man.” Zuko said as he got down four small saucers and forks. “So, you made cake.”

Katara cut a slice for everyone and made her way upstairs to wake up Izumi when Zuko started to yell for Izumi to come downstairs. Katara shook her head and gently pulled down the covers from Izumi’s face. “How do you sleep like that?” Katara whispered. She pushed back Izumi’s hair as she began to stir awake from the cooler air of her room. Izumi smacked her lips and golden eyes peeked out before closing again. Katara caught Izumi’s shoulder as she tried to roll over and go back to sleep. “Nuh-uh, come on. Wakey wakey. We’re having cake for breakfast.”

“Cake? Like pancakes?” Izumi whispered still trying to turn over and to go back to sleep.

“Nope,” Katara poked her side and made her squirm as she was tickled. “Real chocolate cake.”

Izumi moved over slightly in the bed to get away from Katara’s tickling fingers. She opened her eyes again, “For breakfast?”

“Mhmm,” Katara smiled as Izumi slowly sat up.

“I’ve never had cake for breakfast before.”

Katara hummed again, “Well we might get to, as long as your brother and father don’t eat our slices too.”

“That does sound like them,” Izumi nodded and began to push the blankets away from herself. “When did you make cake?”

“Last night, during the thunderstorm.”

“There was a storm last night?” Izumi asked as the girls made their way downstairs.

Katara nodded and when they got down to the kitchen, the boys had already finished their first piece. Zuko was poised to cut another slice for himself but set down the knife in a slightly guilty manner when Katara raised an eyebrow at him.

+++

A few months passed when Zuko sat down with Katara for an evaluation.

“I’m very impressed with how the kids are getting along,” Zuko said as poured Katara a glass of wine. “With you.”

Katara felt a little nervous with how this was going to go. She took a small drink from her glass. “Oh?”

“You are doing very well with them.” Zuko drank from his cup.

“Thank you,” Katara said quietly.

There was a silence that stretched between them. Katara straightened out the already straight cutlery.

“I hope this dinner is enough to show my appreciation.” Zuko said with a smile and looked around the restaurant.

“Yeah, I’m sure it will be great. Thank you.” Katara shook her head after saying thank you, again. “This is like super fancy.”

Zuko turned to look at her, “Oh! I figured you would like a night out and somewhere nice. We could-,”

“No!” Katara covered her lips at the loud outburst. “Uh, no, it’s totally fine. I’m enjoying this.”

“Really?” Zuko raised his eyebrow. “Your straightening of the place setting says otherwise.” He nodded to where her hands were playing with her plate.

Katara looked down and placed her hands in her lap quickly, “Sorry.”

“Why are you nervous?” Zuko picked up his glass again.

“I- I actually love this job. And I really hope that I can continue working for you.” Katara lifted her hands to mess with the plate again. “So, I want this to go well.”

Zuko smirked at her and Katara felt her heart hammer in her chest. “You’re not going anywhere. The kids would lash out if you decided leave.” Katara smiled and reached for her wine glass. “Which brings me to my next question, when would you like to take a small leave? You’ve not asked for a vacation yet. And a girl like you should be out having fun.”

Katara shook her head, “I’ve been so concerned about the kids and school. I haven’t had time to think about a vacation.”

“Well, you should.” Zuko smiled as he watched Katara take a drink. “Toph or I can take the kids. We’ve done it for years. So, you let me know here in a couple of weeks when and how long you plan on being away.”

Katara bit her lip before taking another drink, “I haven’t gone on a vacation since my family and I went to the islands.” Katara shook her head, “All I feel like I remember is this really bad play.”

Both laughed, “So they still do shows?” Zuko shook his head, “I remember those being bad when I was young.”

“You're not that old,” Katara smiled and put down her glass.

Zuko huffed out a laugh, “You’re keeping your job. So, there is no reason for flattery.”

The rest of the dinner pasted by with small jokes and talking about Katara’s school and Zuko’s work. It was so pleasant that it continued with a small walk down the pier, a small bundle of flowers bought for Katara and Izumi, a small stuffed animal for Lu Ten and maybe a few butterflies in Zuko’s stomach.

+++

Katara gave a laugh at the story Lu Ten was telling when he broke out into a laugh. Katara wasn’t too sure what she was laughing about as she wrote out the formula to another math equation.

“I’m home!”

Katara did her best not breathe a sigh of relief when Lu Ten let out a squeal and ran to the front door. She bit her lip as she finished up the first part of the equation. She stood up from the table and smiled to Zuko as he walked into the kitchen.

“How was everyone’s day?” Zuko pulled at his tie and sat down his work briefcase.

“I got an A on my spelling test.” Izumi says from where she was finishing a science worksheet.

“I ate three applesauce at lunch today!” Lu Ten tugged at Zuko’s jacket.

Zuko gave his son a questioning look before shaking his head deciding he did not want to know. He looked up to Katara who began to pull things out for dinner. “And what about you?”

“Hmm?” Katara pulled out a pan from the cabinet.

“How was your day?” Zuko picked Lu Ten up and the two watched Katara move about the kitchen.

“The normal,” Katara shrugged. “Help the kids get to and from school. Scream at the computer for about two hours before finally breaking down and actually doing the homework assigned. Wait for you to get home and now I’m cooking dinner.”

“What happened with your computer?” Zuko sat Lu Ten down as he started to get wiggly.

“The same old thing.” Katara waved her hand around to dismiss the concern. “Takes forEVER to come on. And then a century for anything to load. I’m sure it has something to do with how old it is. But it still works. It will be fine.” Katara rinses off the rice before pouring it into a pan and slowly adding water. Katara dipped her finger in before covering the rice and pushing it to a burner on the back.

Zuko finally sheds his jacket and rolls up his sleeves. He pulls out a cutting board and begins to chop the few vegetables Katara has placed out. She gives a small grateful smile. He pretends his heart doesn’t skip a beat. “You can always log into the computer in the study.”

“Thanks,” Katara turns back to prepping a pan for the protein. “I might just take you up on that offer.”

When they finish dinner Katara moved to the study to work on her assignment. Lu Ten came in to give her a goodnight kiss on the cheek and went upstairs to bed. Izumi handed Katara her homework for Katara to look over before Izumi went to bed too. Katara was on her last two equations when Zuko entered the study.

Katara always did her best to maintain the employee/employer professional attitude. But when Zuko wore his robe, all thoughts of being professional went out the window. Katara’s mind would go to fantasy land and refused to return until Zuko was out of sight. And sometimes not even then. For instance, last week when they got home from their “meeting” date. Katara had dreams of being pushed against the door and smothered with kisses and sneaking into her room to finish what they started on the porch.

So, when Zuko stepped in and sat down in front of the desk, all her hard earned concentration went straight to Zuko. He was in a tight t-shirt and sweatpants, his robe was open and Katara could yet again see how un-dad bod Zuko’s dad bod was. Katara wasn’t sure when he actually worked out. Maybe he went before work when Katara was still asleep or when he left for the day, he stopped by the gym on his way to work?

Katara looked back down to her textbook. Her pencil tapping on the notebook in a nervous habit. The numbers on her page only seemed to stare back at her. She had no idea what she was even looking at anymore. Katara groaned and put down her pencil. She stretched her arms over her head and looked up at Zuko.

Zuko was already watching her over the rim of his coffee cup. “Understanding everything?”

Katara blinked a few times before lowering her arms, “Um, yeah. It’s just extremely time consuming.”

“Mmm,” Zuko took another drink from his mug. He stood up and leaned over his desk, looking down at Katara’s textbook. “I haven’t worked on a problem like this in years.”

Katara gave a soft laugh and turned the book to him. “You are more than welcome to figure out the last two problems.” She sat back in the chair and took in all of her boss.

“Ha,” Zuko picked up her pencil and notebook. “You’ll probably get these two wrongs.” He sat back down with everything to work on the equations.

+++

Zuko adjusted his tie and walked to the kitchen to get his first coffee. He paused in the living room. Katara was laid over on the couch a textbook open and sat at the edge of the couch waiting to tip over.

Zuko sighed and placed the textbook on the coffee table. He took the throw from over the arm of the couch and placed it over Katara. His fingers moved on their own to brush the hair from Katara’s face.

She looked so peaceful.

Zuko’s fingers slid from her brow to her ear down her jaw. His thumb rubbed over a soft, pink bottom lip. A soft sigh came from her lips. The warmth against his thumb made him pull back. He swallowed and leaned back from Katara.

The warm fluttering in his stomach erupted again. It was such a new feeling. He really wasn’t sure what to do with it.

Katara moaned and rolled onto her back. Zuko moved to recover Katara with the throw. He paused at the sight of tanned skin that peeked between her t-shirt and sleep shorts. He snatched his fingers back from where they reached for the smooth looking skin.

What is wrong with me?

Zuko placed the blanket back over Katara before moving around to get his coffee.

His mind seemed to keep replaying the scene in his head for the rest of the day. Zuko rubbed at the headache forming between his eyebrows as he thought about Katara again. He was really thankful for her. She was great with the kids. She did her job and completed her schoolwork. Katara was smart and funny. He enjoyed her company. Hell, Song had even noticed not too long after Katara had started working for him that there was something different. And the only logical change was Katara.

There was a small bit of warmth and nerves that developed low in his stomach again from just thinking about her.

Maybe with her upcoming vacation she had finally requested, Zuko would be able to work through this. Whatever this was.

+++

Katara went through her list as she packs her small bag. She was only going to stay with Yue. Suki said she was going to try to come see her but likely wouldn’t be able to. She closed up her bag and turned to see Zuko in the doorway. He had been very kind in taking a half day to drop her off at the airport.

Katara gave him a small smile and handed him the bag as he reached out for it, “You know if I need to move my vaca-.”

“Nope, Toph and I have it covered.” Zuko shook his head before she could even finish her sentence. He escorted her to the front door. Katara picked a few things along her way.

“I know,” Katara sighed as she looked around the house. It was clean. Katara had spent the last two days making sure everything was in order before her week vacation. “But if I need to come back early or an emergency happens. You can just-.”

Zuko opened the front door and took Katara’s hand, “We won’t need you to come back early. If an emergency happens. You will be the second person I call. I swear.” He fumbled with his keys as with the one unoccupied hand and opened the passenger door before opening the trunk. He let Katara get inside before closing her door. He places the bag in the trunk and moved around to the driver side. “I want you to enjoy your trip. You’ve earned it.”

Katara nodded and tugged at the hem of her hoodie as the car started. “I will. I just want to make sure you and the kids are doing okay.”

Zuko gave a small smile as he pulled the car out into traffic. “I’ll make sure to give you daily updates. Or Izumi will.”

“Thanks,” Katara said quietly.

Zuko reached over and patted her knee. “It’s only a week. Then you’ll be back.” Goosebumps erupted along her legs as Zuko’s hand gave a small squeeze to her knee before he returned his hand back to the steering wheel.

+++

It was only three days into the trip that Katara got a call from Izumi begging her to come home.

“Aunt Toph still can’t remember that I like my sandwiches cut in triangles!”

Katara shook her head and took a sip of her margarita. “Zum, I’ll be home soon. You can eat a few square cut sandwiches, right?”

Izumi huffed, “I really miss you.”

“Me too!” Lu Ten calls from the background.

“I really miss you both too.” Katara gave a small laugh. “I’ll see you soon okay? I’ve got to eat dinner.”

“Okay.” There were two small sighs. “Goodnight. I love you.”

“I love you both. Goodnight.” Katara hung up the phone with a deep sigh.

“Aren’t you just too cute.” Yue set another margarita glass in front of Katara. “You sound so domestic.”

“Really?” Katara sighed as she picked up the new glass.

“You really seem to like the kids. And your still in school. I’m really proud of you.” Yue took a drink from her glass. “Now, tell me more about this ‘Dad’.”

Katara shook her head with a laugh, “Zuko.”

“Oooh, that’s his name?” Yue leaned against the bar.

“He’s great,” Katara felt a small flush but decided to blame it on the alcohol. “And cute. But mostly good. He’s some bigwig business man that loves his children. I can tell he wishes he could be home more with them.”

“Awe, he sounds sweet.”

“He’s really cute too.” Katara took another drink from her glass. “But I think he only thinks I’m his nanny.”

“Kinky.” Yue giggled.

Katara rolled her eyes, “I just wished I knew if I even have a chance.”

-*-*-

“Why don’t you grow a pair and ask?” Toph rolled her eyes at Zuko.

“Toph!” Zuko reached over and put his hands over Izumi’s ears.

Izumi blinked up at him before stirring the soup.

“What?” Toph shrugged. “You should just ask her out officially if you’re feeling this way.”

Zuko shook his head. “What do I have to give someone ten years younger than me?”

“That’s ten extra years of experience anyone her age has.” Zuko glared over his shoulder at her. “What? That was vague enough.” Zuko uncovered Izumi’s ears in order to flip the grilled cheese as Toph continued on. “Obviously, she loves the kids. I mean who would stick around with this little troublemaker.” Toph rubbed at Lu Ten’s head as he walked through the kitchen on his gaming consol. Lu Ten slapped at Toph’s hand.

“Plus, she makes the best pasta. And we don’t have to eat grilled cheese every night.” Izumi grumbled as she stirred the soup.

“I thought you liked my grilled cheese?” Zuko gave a small pout.

+++

Katara rolled her suitcase down the small hallway. Zuko had texted to let her know that he was waiting for her near baggage claim. Bit her lip and thought of what Yue had told her.

“When you see him next, pull up your big girl panties and tell him you think he’s hot! Or you know just kiss him.” Yue filled another glass for herself. “If he pushes you off. You know he doesn’t feel anything.” Yue shrugged her shoulders. “Now let’s really drink.” She placed a vodka bottle on the bar.

Katara muttered through what she would say when she saw him during the whole plane ride. The man next to her kept giving her strange looks. She thought she had it down. Until she rounded the corner and saw the sign.

Will You

Be My

Girlfriend?

Katara stopped mid-step as she read through the question held up by the three most important people in her life. Lu Ten was shaking so much the ‘Be My’ was almost hard to read. Izumi waved at her wildly. Zuko stood still and golden eyes took her in.

The man that was sitting next to her scoffed as he walked by. “He beat you to it.”

Katara stepped up to the small family, “What’s this?”

“We were all so excited to see you!” Lu Ten broke first and wrapped his arms around her.

“We missed you!” Izumi wrapped her arms around Katara too.

Katara pat the children’s heads. She looked up to Zuko, “And?”

“And,” Zuko stepped up to her. “I’ve done a lot of thinking. This week was so lonely without you. You are not allowed to take another trip like that.”

“Yeah! We had grilled cheese three nights in a row.” Izumi said into Katara’s sweater.

“And Dad doesn’t know how to make thunder cake.” Lu Ten pouted.

“Ahem,” Zuko cleared his throat as he put his hand over Katara’s in Lu Ten’s hair. “I was doing a lot of thinking. About how well you are with the kids. And keeping us all together.” Lu Ten and Izumi stepped back. “Which made me think that maybe, if you want, that you’d be okay with being my girlfriend?”

“I-,” Katara gave a small smile. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Zuko chuckled. “Only if you’re okay with that.”

“Yes.” Katara gave a large smile and nodded. Zuko smiled too and wrapped her in a hug. Two other sets of arms wrapped around her as well. “I’d be very okay with that.”

#zutara #zutara fanfiction #thanks for the request #single parent zuko #nanny katara #nanny/single parent au

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cynicaldesire · 3 years

Text

I am constantly worried for a friend of ours that he doesn’t have a healthy relationship with this wife, or that his wife is somehow not... healthy for him. Like he seems happy and I don’t talk to him or them enough to have a good understanding, but the limited view I do have is setting up a bunch of red flags. My husband keeps reminding me that I need to relax and it’s not really my problem and like... they both seem to have trauma that they are trying to ameliorate and, like, fine, no therapy works the same for everyone and just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it isn’t actually good.

I didn’t want to make this a long post, but I’m thinking about it, so I’ll post what I want to feel less crazy about and then Read More the rest.

He was talking about how he needs a job because they can’t really survive on her income alone. He said he didn’t want to get a job doing something like driving a truck because it’s hell on your body and you run the risk of getting in late. The example he used was he doesn’t want to get in at like 6am and not want to wake up his wife because she has to get up and go to work and she needs her rest so he’d have to sleep on the couch so he doesn’t bother her.

I have been going over this scenario repeatedly trying to figure out why this was.... one of the issues with it and like... my husband even asked on my behalf if the scenario was from our friend’s own compassion and not his wife’s idea of how that would go down. He was cool about it, which I thought was weird, and said of course, it’s his own compassion.

As a military brat and my father having driven a production truck, I cannot fathom the idea of being angry that my husband came home and woke me up to get into bed after a long, harrowing drive. I cannot comprehend the concept of not welcoming my husband into bed, cuddling and kissing and getting him warmed up in winter, spooning, and going back to sleep with my partner. It doesn’t make sense to me. And that our friend’s wife doesn’t also say WTF, babe, just come to bed! boggles my mind.

I’m paranoid, of course. Because we drove about an hour after this conversation to Costco and my husband told me, after like the 4th time I had talked this over with him, that I was something odd. I asked what he meant and he said I was a pretty consummate military wife/brat. I didn’t understand what he meant but, I mean, I watched my parents deal with both military and trucking.

But I guess how paranoid am I?

I said it would be short, Haha.

But like, our friend quit his job a couple years ago at the behest of his wife who said he should become a personal trainer. He got certified in it and everything. He quit before he had a new job despite our protests and then was unemployed for a while, turning to try to become something of a streamer while he was job hunting. Because even though she encouraged him to quit his job with his Tr*mp-supporter boss, they can’t really afford their lifestyle on just one salary. But also trying to be a streamer wasn’t happening so he was forced to be the only white guy at a construction job provided him by his abusive Tr*mp-supporter father. He got let go from that due to COVID and has been mostly unemployed since, after a brief stint as a face character at Six Flags. And now he’s learning code so he can get a job doing code because she doesn’t want to work and finish her degree and would rather just do her job that involves monopolizing his time and his computer. Her job requires some graphical work and his desktop is the only one powerful enough to help her do it, so he just... works on his shitty laptop doing minimal stuff on the internet like learning code from codecademy.

Where this ties in to my own personal traumas and I think I’m projecting onto him, is where my family would demand I get a job because, they said, they worried I would be able to make it in the world without them because I had no skills, no job, nothing and I would probably end up under a bridge if they ever died suddenly. Or maybe I wasn’t doing enough around the house, didn’t do the dishes often enough or didn’t keep the house clean enough and therefore I needed to do something to earn my keep because family of 5 fats can’t work on 1 salary and whatnot. So when people start demanding I get jobs, the only time I ever really looked for jobs was in A State after a big fight with my parents. I get like... triggered now whenever my husband is like Hey, maybe if we teach you Japanese you can get a job in Japan! Just immediately want to panic, get angry, and/or cry. So I worry that our friend’s wife is giving him a different kind of complex about jobs and work. Especially after she’s the one that encouraged him to quit his job, since she’s now pissy about the fact that he doesn’t have one.

But then there’s the small things like her being a manic pixie dream girl like coming over while he’s on a discord voice chat with us to say my husband is a Cheeto. When my husband is understandably confused, says he is like the Essesnce of Cheeto. Or when Classic WoW first dropped, our friend was trying to get back into it with us because it’s a bit of a unifying nostalgia game for our friendgroup, she kept showing up and being annoying in the background like showing up with their cat in a dinosaur costume. He even sounded mildly annoyed and asked her to stop because he doesn’t get to spend much time with us.

Which, you know, isolation from friends is classic abuse. But he has access to other friends that are not us. So its possible that she just doesn’t approve of his video game hobby when it involves us. Which, our friend isn’t a big fan of me personally, so I assume she might just be trying to save him from hanging out with me. I have achieved low self-esteem lately, having the clarity to replay interactions and say Ah, I was sounding real aggressive and bitchy, maybe that’s why people hate me. Or, in the middle of telling a story when I am met with silence, my brain works fast enough to say THEY CAN’T EXTRAPOLATE, YOU GOTTA FINISH STRONG, so I do and I get the laughs and I say I did it, I won, I’m going to get a good grade. But my sister also monopolized my time in a way that made it impossible for me to make or keep friends, and even got pissed when I was trying to make new friends because the friend I was trying to make was a guy that she was trying to fuck and my presence was a cockblock. Story for another time.

Or the time that our friend, because of his construction job, worked very early in the morning and thus was very tired in the evening. But his wife wanted to go to a screening of The Room and rather than let him stay home or maybe just don’t go, they went to this screening and our friend had to stay up for like 24hours. She’s the one that encouraged him to quit, pushed him into getting a new job, and then still asked to go to the movie knowing he was exhausted? Like... I wouldn’t have even considered it a possibility or I would ask a thousand times if he was sure or if he wanted a nap or something.

But, you know, I’m biased. I have a hard time being friends with women that are significant others of our friendgroup. I want everyone to be supportive and kind, into the same hobbies, willing to engage, maybe not be super weird. But I think I just want that in everyone. Which is probably my I have so few friends myself. I have high standards. I’m trying to lower those by being aware of them. Which means people like Amber are now counted among my friends.

Point of this post, though, is to ascertain my level of incorrectness. How wrong am I about their relationship? Lemme know.

#about me #delete later #i have some concerns

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springday-aus · 4 years

Text

Lifeguard!AU with Kuanlin

moodboard link

Group: solo / [formally] Wanna One

Member: Lai Kuanlin

Genre: fluff, romance

part of the Odd Summer Jobs!AU ⤗ introduction to the Summer Boys!

check out the others on the au masterlist!

Type: Bulletpoint AU

Word Count: 1.7k

A/N: check out the other odd summer jobs!au on the au masterlist!

Kuanlin is the next Summer Boy!

so, he works as a lifeguard

picture this: a lanky and gangly boy with too long of legs in some bright red board shorts with lil fire emojis on them and a lil waterproof lifeguard bag with a first aid emergency kit

he’s CPR certified

(luckily he hasn’t had to use it yet)

anyways

this kind of works a bit more differently than others would think

like he isn’t an official lifeguard of a pool or beach or something

but rather, he’s basically hired to supervise pool parties

which are most typically children birthday parties

he’s mainly hired by the moms that throw the parties and the adults are too busy getting drunk or something

either way, he’s there to make sure no one drowns

it’s not a hard job tbh

he actually really likes it

bc all he does is get invited to pool parties, eat cake and chill with the other kids

at first, when the other boys proposed the idea

he was hesitant

like who needs someone to watch their kids swim like some type of creep

turns out lots of parents do

well, at least in their neighborhood

Chenle, at some point: “the Karens just needed someone to make sure they could get loose”

it all turned out better than he originally thought

which is a good thing, but it was just... unexpected

anyways

he gets along with all ages so

whoever is at the party, he easily gets along with

ofc he’s keeping an eye on the people swimming and stuff

(luckily nothing drastic has happened, it is children pool parties)

but he’s also chatting with other people and just vibing with them

so his friends list is kind of insane

one time he was out with Jihoon and Hwiyoung

and some fourteen year old from a birthday party had went up and started a conversation with him, catching up and all that

it was super funny

especially due to the look on their faces like

they were so confused

honestly, they haven’t even seem him, like, work?

like they clearly know what he does, but they’re also confused as to how it looks

Sanha: “so like. you just chill on the side? is there a lifeguard chair?”

Kuanlin: “not exactly”

Jihoon: “have you ever even had to save anyone?”

Mingi: “isn’t it a good thing if he hasn’t?”

speaking of which

while most of the boys are working to save up some money

he’s kind of just doing it for fun

you know what that means?

low rates lmao

you know what rich people like more than money?

being cheap

(which is how Kuanlin gets clients but like whatever)

so, while there are some downsides to the job

(primarily the parents that give him shit)

he does actually really like his job

there’s interesting people and interesting events that unfold at all these pool parties

(apparently Becky next door is trying to homewreck the Andersons and… some shit unfolded during her son’s birthday pool party… tea)

okay, so I can’t talk about Kuanlin and NOT mention his looks

tbh, most of the moms ask him to work for the parties, right?

but, like then see his face… and then ask him if he does pool cleanings too

it’s just to look at him, let’s be real—have you seen him?

because of the sudden demand for pool cleaning, Kaunlin also does pool cleanings

(for a higher price, obviously)

so this has become every bored, suburban mother’s wet dream in the neighborhood

you come into the picture when your family threw your cousin’s birthday party who’s turning like

five? six?

(in your defense, it’s hard to keep track of those things)

anyways, it also happened to be a pool party

so Kuanlin’s doing his thing and you’re just chilling on the side

but then a kid falls into the pool

it’s not a big deal because the kid’s got like floaties and stuff

and like Kuanlin calmly goes into the water and swoops the kid up

the kid is out of the water and the mother is scolding them, saying how they needed to be more careful and all that other parenting stuff

but doesn’t get you isn’t that he just came in and helped the kid

(because that’s… his job)

(but also bc you lowkey don’t remember that kid lmao)

what does get you (and nearly everyone else in close proximity) is how good he looks coming out of the pool

the water droplets run from his fingers to his hair and down his face, dripping down his chin and….

hmm, yup

he’s got your attention now

after he gets out, he heads towards your direction….

plopping down on the empty spot next to yours and wiping down the water with his towel

and you wanna say you were subtle with your staring

but you were absolutely not

like dude

have you seen him?

anyways

he’s just chilling so you try to make conversation

You: “nice whistle”

you point to the little pink whistle that’s on a little necklace chain

Kuanlin: “thanks, it was a gift”

You: “pink?”

Kuanlin: “yeah, I picked out the color”

You: “you know, if you looked hard enough you could probably find someone to customize it”

from that, you two hit it off

and when the party was over… you and him may or may not have left with a new number on your phones

you both kept in contact

and you’re both having a good time talking to one another and having good conversations

Kuanlin… he enjoys your company, even without you physically present

it was just like a super slow burn for anything to even really happen

bc most of the time, it was texting

like you’ll see each other sometimes in the neighborhood

he was doing his thing and you were doing yours

what changes is when you and him meet…. with a third party

that third party being…. no other than the Summer Boys!

you ran into Kuanlin as you were leaving the convenience store

y’all do the little greetings and play catch up and stuff

and some of the boys are just like

Kuanlin, honey—who is this

meanwhile the others (like Jaemin and Chenle) are like

HELLO, ANY PARTNER OF KUANLIN’S IS A PARTNER OF—wait that isn’t how that works

at some point in the introductions and chaos, Jisung and Taehyun are apologizing for the chaotic atmosphere

it’s fine tho bc you got the message

but like you didn’t see the flush on Kuanlin’s cheeks when you didn’t deny it

but like also…….. he didn’t say anything either

like neither of y’all did…. even as y’all went the entire day together

window shopping

movies

ice cream

all that fun stuff you in the summer—hanging out together was different from phone communication and y’all were definitely feeling it

even with the boys present

but like they just kind of fueled it bc

they thought y’all were already dating

like they spend a good chunk of time with Kuanlin and he looks so content as he chats with you

it’s like he’s able to talk about a lot of things with you

so when you were like, hello it’s me c:

they were like

so YOU’RE the one on the other side of the phone

and let y’all have more moments together throughout the day

with the occasional interruption

at the end of it all, he walks you home

Kuanlin: “I’m sorry if our presence kind of overwhelmed you”

You: “no! not at all! it’s been nothing but fun”

You: “you guys are very entertaining though”

Kuanlin: “it’s all fun and games until you’re banned from a movie theater”

You: “have you been banned from a movie theater???”

Kuanlin: “......that is a story for another time”

it’s kind of a short walk from where you were, but you and Kuanlin have deliberately walking slower……

eventually you get to your door and he kind of just lingers

and so do you

Kuanlin: “I guess I’ll just see you around?”

You: “yeah, and we can plan for next time?”

Kuanlin: “yeah”

he smiles, his teeth shining and his cheeks with a light blush

You: “hopefully….. it’s just the two of us next time?”

his cheeks flush to an even darker shade and silently nods

after that, you two did make some plans to hang out……………………. alone

movies

dinner

a walk in the park

all that good stuff

but it feels different from last time……… a good different

and after that…….. these dates just continue

Kuanlin is an interesting boyfriend

bc he’s kind of shy… but also not really?

he’s got a weird balance

and it works

bc he’s friendly but also not

it’s just weird to explain

this also means you have to take the initiative

sometimes he will but half of the time he’ll also back out of it

(unless you encourage him ofc)

anyways

dating lifeguard!Kuanlin means you being a horrible flirt and asking if he can do cpr on you

You: “help, you took my breath away” ;)

Kuanlin: “why are you like this”

kidding

but not really—he loves it, but he’s also super embarrassed whenever you use those cheesy lines

he still kisses you tho

also he likes to act super cool

we all know he’s a cutie

(he does aegyo for you when you ask, but he’s not anyone else exploit that)

(but we know he’s got that natural aegyo)

anyways

after the pool parties and such, you basically come to pick him and help him dry off before y’all go off on one of y’all’s dates or something

or sometimes you tag along with him

it’s interesting to really observe him and he’s really just chilling with a bunch of other kids younger than him

you also manage to make a couple of new friends at these parties too lmao

just a side note tho, for one date you two DID go out to get his lil pink whistle customized

(it’s got fire emojis to match his swimming trunks)

honestly tho, just the image of Kuanlin with the little sunscreen on his nose and bag is just so adorable

you have many candid photos of him on your phone and took two hours deciding which one would be the wallpaper vs the lockscreen

(there’s one where he’s in this matching floatie with this little girl, he’s trying to help her swim in the pool………………. super cute)

anyways

your dates are almost always interrupted by one or some of the Summer Boys

completely unintentional and intentional at the same time

it’s not a bad thing that you get along with them, but…..

when Kuanlin told them you two were officially dating……..

Lucas: “CALLED IT”

Jihoon: “you couldn’t hold it off a couple more days? I had a bet going with Jaemin—sTOP HITTING ME YOU TREE”

it’s okay, you don’t mind it because it’s all fun to observe the chaos that your boyfriend finds himself in

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sparklydreamies · 4 years

Text

Best Shot~ Ch 2

Group: Stray Kids

Genre: Fluff

Word Count: 5800+

Summary: Han Jisung, certified quiet boy, has never really understood the hype about love and romance. That is until he has to step out of his comfort zone and onto the basketball court to impress that one person he can’t stop thinking about.

Main Themes: highschool!AU, basketball!AU, internalized homophobia, friends-to-lovers

Chapter 1

MASTERLIST

A/n: so here’s chapter two!! Thank you to everyone who takes their time to read this, it really means a lot to me <33

CHAPTER 2

Unknown: Hey, it’s Minho, I hope you don’t mind me getting your number from Hyunjin lol

Unknown: I just wanted to make sure you were doing well after last night

Unknown: Text me when you get this!

Jisung stared down at his phone for several moments. He was trying to remember why he would be getting texts from Lee Minho, when the only words he’s ever spoken to the boy was probably “Do you have an extra pencil?”

Then it hit Jisung like a missile. Minho was the one who took care of him the night before. Jisung felt a wave of nausea again at the memory.

Oh no... I threw up... in Bang Chan’s bathroom...

Jisung felt his stomach drop down through the floor. So much for not embarrassing himself at his first big party.

“Ji, are you okay?” he heard Chaeryeong say, “you look really sick,”

Jisung waved her off and sat back down in his chair. It was okay. Practically nobody would have even noticed him in that state except for Minho. And Hyunjin, who apparently drove him home. This whole situation sucks.

“Okay well I’m going to go take a shower, I’m meeting some friends today,” she announced before taking off up the stairs to the bathroom.

Jisung thought about how he should respond to Minho. On the one hand, his chest felt warm and he felt appreciated when he thought about Minho helping him, but on the other hand, he felt embarrassed that he let himself be seen like that by any human being- especially Lee Minho.

He opened the chat for the unknown number, and began to type.

Me: Haha, yeah I’m alright.. thank you for helping me yesterday, I’m sorry that you had to see that

Jisung hit send. He sighed and brushed his hair backwards, feeling the slight fever that came with his hangover. Almost immediately, he felt his phone vibrate with a response.

Unknown: Omg no, it’s okay! I’m happy you’re feeling better :))

Jisung smiled at the message and shoved his phone back in his pocket. This was actually kind of nice. Minho has always had this reputation of a dumb jock that plays with girl’s hearts because that’s what the stories and rumors about him had people believe. Now that Jisung thinks about it, he has only heard about these things from a guy who heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy. Maybe Minho isn’t what people perceive him to be.

Coming back to reality, Jisung knew that going to the party was a dumb move. He should have just stayed home and studied for biology, like his mom wanted.

Jisung’s mom and dad were out working today, which didn’t surprise him. His mom barely got any time off, and when she did, she spent it doing other things that didn’t involve interacting with her children. Sometimes Jisung felt like her only purpose in his life was to nag and yell at him about his schooling.

Jisung moved to refill his water glass, which seemed like the only saving grace from his current physical situation. He also grabbed whatever medication he could find in the cabinet above the stove in the hopes of curing his hangover.

Just then, he remembered about the two idiots that got him into that situation in the first place. Felix and Seungmin! He had completely forgotten that he was their ride to the party, and he was supposed to be their ride home.

He fumbled through his pocket to pull out his phone. He quickly opened Felix’s contact number and hit call.

The tone dialed and rang, and he waited for his friend to pick up. After a few moments, Jisung was sent to voicemail. Either Felix was still sleeping, or he was ignoring his calls.

Jisung filed through his contacts again to find Seungmin’s number. Hitting call again, he waited through the ringing.

“What’s happening?” he heard Seungmin answer on the other end.

“Oh man thank you for answering, Felix didn’t,” Jisung told him, slightly relieved that he knew Seungmin was good.

“Let me put you on speaker,” Seungmin said, “Felix is here too,”

“Jisung, I dropped my phone in Chan’s pool last night,” Felix admitted. Of course he did.

“Felix, that’s like the third phone you’ve broken this year,” Jisung nagged.

“Don’t scold me, it wasn’t my fault,” Felix defended, “and besides, I’m not the one who should be disciplined here! Where the hell were you last night? Seungmin and I were looking around for like half an hour to find you!”

“It’s true, we were worried sick,” Seungmin said. Jisung sighed and apologized to the other boys.

“I don’t even remember coming home last night,” he admitted, “I was a little drunk. But how did you guys get home?”

Felix laughed a bit. “You know that girl I was talking to?” he asked.

“No I don’t, because you ditched me,”

Felix scoffed. “You would have ditched you too,” Seungmin laughed at that. “Anyways that’s not the point. She is a college student, and she drove Seungmin and I home,” Felix said, in a teasing, flirty type of voice, implying that driving them home wasn’t the only thing that college girl did.

“Oh is that right?” Jisung asked, “and?”

“And-”

“And...” Seungmin cut Felix off before he could answer with any details, “when she was driving us home, Felix stumbled over his words and instead of saying ‘do you want my number’ or ‘thanks for the ride’, he said ‘do you want ride’, which she took in a very weird way, leading her to kick us out of her car three blocks from Felix’s house where we got rained on at four in the morning,” Seungmin finished, and Jisung could hear Felix punching the other boy in the arm over the phone while Seungmin laughed at him.

Jisung was also laughing. Even though he felt guilty for leaving his friends at the party alone, he was relieved that they made it safely back to Felix’s.

“Moving on,” Felix insisted, “how did you get home Jisung?” Felix asked, and Jisung scoffed.

“Hwang Hyunjin apparently drove me home after I passed out in Bang Chan’s bathroom”. Maybe it was the thought of Jisung passed out in a basketball player’s bathroom, maybe it was the thought of him being driven home by his ex friend, maybe it was still because of Felix’s thing, but the other two boys were laughing so hard.

“Wait, does that mean that your car is still at Chan’s place?” Seungmin asked once he stopped laughing.

Fuck.

“Shit, I guess it is..” Jisung mumbled. How the hell was he supposed to go pick it up? Both of his parents were at work, and neither of his friends could drive him. “Ah, this day can’t get any worse,”

“Don’t you watch movies?” Felix warned, “when the protagonist says that, the day always gets worse,”

Jisung scoffed at him. “I’m honored that you think of me as the protagonist.”

“Why can’t Hyunjin drive you there?” Seungmin suggested. Jisung thought about it. Nobody else he knew had a car and could drive him back to Bang Chan’s. Plus, Hyunjin only lives about four houses down from Jisung. This would involve asking a favour from his old ex friend, and a really long and awkward car ride.

Jisung groaned audibly. “Seungmin, I don’t think Jisung likes that idea,” Felix stated.

“Fine.” Jisung said, and when the boys started laughing again, he hung up the phone. Would you look at that, Jisung’s day managed to get even worse!

Felix and Seungmin knew about how Jisung felt about Hyunjin. When two people who were so close drift apart because of high school social status, things get awkward. Jisung never really blamed Hyunjin for it, he knew how things worked. If anything, he blamed himself for not getting involved in things like sports.

Jisung dragged himself back up the stairs and into his bedroom. Would Hyunjin even be home? Would he want to help Jisung out? There’s no way Jisung should be asking this of Hyunjin after he drove Jisung’s blacked-out ass home from Chan’s yesterday. But then again, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe Jisung could actually have a conversation with Hyunjin and they could become friends again. Ah, but that’s so unlikely. Jisung imagines that Hyunjin probably changed a lot during high school, he seems different than he used to be.

But then Jisung thought about Minho again. Minho wasn’t what he seemed to be at all, so why should he believe Hyunjin is either?

Jisung made up his mind to ask the boy for help. It was only one car ride. So, with a heavy body, Jisung dragged himself to his closet and grabbed some clean clothes. When Chaeryeong got out of the shower, Jisung took his turn to wash up and brush his teeth before getting dressed and heading out towards Hyunjin’s house.

The air outside was surprisingly warm for October weather, which Jisung didn’t mind since he was only in a t-shirt. The sun was also unusually bright, which Jisung didn’t like as much, seeing as he was still battling a major hangover. He passed by a couple people on the street, which makes sense because it was a beautiful day.

When Jisung got to Hyunjin’s house, he hesitated. He didn’t know if asking for Hyunjin’s help was a mistake or not, but it didn’t matter at this point. He knocked thrice on the door.

Jisung heard the familiar bark of Hyunjin’s dog, Kkami as he waited on the front doorstep. The door opened, and Jisung saw the little dog being held back by Hwang Hyunjin.

“Go on, go away,” Hyunjin talked to the dog, and finally settled on scooping him up in his arms.

Jisung always loved that dog. Back when Jisung and Hyunjin were still friends, they used to take Kkami on walks together and use that time to talk about people in their class, and girls, and things that young boys normally talk about.

Hyunjin raised his eyes to see Jisung standing there awkwardly, a nervous smile on his face. Hyunjin was surprised at this, but smiled back anyways.

“Jisung,” Hyunjin greeted, and Jisung gave a small bow to the other one.

Why are you so awkward he asked himself.

“What’s going on?” Hyunjin asked. Jisung brought his hand up to rub the back of his neck.

“Oh, well um..” Jisung started, “I wanted to thank you for driving me home last night...” Hyunjin chuckled a little bit at Jisung, “I know it was probably a burden for you,”

“No, it was alright,” he assured. Jisung felt a small weight lift off his shoulders, “but how’s your mom? She seemed pretty upset when I brought you home, I hope everything’s okay,”

“Yeah, don’t worry about that,” Jisung waved off. There was a beat of awkward silence between the two boys before Jisung realized Hyunjin was waiting for him to explain why he was standing on his doorstep. “Yeah, oh well... I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind doing me a small favour,” Jisung asked, and Hyunjin nodded his head. “You see, I left my car at Bang Chan’s place yesterday, and I sort of need it back, but I don’t have anybody that could drive me to get it...”

“You want me to drop you off at Chan’s?” Hyunjin supplied, and once Jisung saw the genuine look on Hyunjin’s face, he gave a relieved smile.

“I mean, if you don’t mind.. it’s okay if you can’t, though,” Jisung was tiptoeing around what he wanted to do.

“You have to ask me properly,” Hyunjin teased. If there was one thing about Hyunjin that Jisung remembered from when they were younger, it was that he was always big on teasing.

Jisung laughed a little bit because even though Hyunjin was playing with him, it reminded him of how they used to act with each other when they were younger.

“Fine, Hyunjin will you please drive me over to Bang Chan’s house so that I can pick up my car?” Jisung replied, leaving Hyunjin looking satisfied.

“That’s much better,” Jisung rolled his eyes at the taller boy, “let me just go grab my keys”. Hyunjin turned around and closed his front door behind him, leaving Jisung on the doorstep.

Why had Jisung been so nervous to talk to Hyunjin? He hadn’t changed at all. This whole high school social status thing is so overrated. Hyunjin still had the ability to make Jisung laugh, even after months of being separated. Jisung felt happy for the first time that day. Maybe the day wasn’t so bad after all.

Suddenly, the door opened again, and Hyunjin was backing out of it, talking to his dog. “No... no... stay there... good boy!” Hyunjin praised, closing the door and separating himself from Kkami. “Ready?” he asked, and Jisung nodded, making his way over to Hyunjin’s car.

Hyunjin’s family was pretty well off, financially. Hyunjin didn’t have to worry about how he was going to pay for college like the majority of kids their age did. He didn’t even have a job. Not to say that he was necessarily “daddies money” or anything like that, but being the son of a lawyer definitely had its perks. For example, this beautiful car that Hyunjin’s dad bought him when he was sixteen. Of course Jisung was a little bit jealous, Hyunjin was definitely more popular with the kids at school because of it.

That being said, if someone from the outside were to have a normal conversation with Hwang Hyunjin, they would see that though he was very financially secure, his personality didn’t show it. Jisung always assumed that it was the fact that Hyunjin’s mother grew up in a poorer neighborhood without much to live by. When Jisung used to go over to Hyunjin’s house, occasionally she would tell the boys stories about how she used to live with only her mother and brother, each child working at least two jobs by the time they were thirteen. She would use these lessons to remind the children about how fortunate they were, and how not everybody is able to have the opportunity to live a comfortable life like them.

Jisung opened the passenger side door and slid into the car. Jisung had never actually stepped foot inside Hyunjin’s car, he had only seen it from afar. It was every bit of cool on the inside as it was on the outside. There were even leather seats that could be heated in the winter, and cooled in the summer. Jisung thought he was experiencing what living in the lap of luxury would be like.

“Buckle,” Hyunjin reminded before he started the car, and Jisung complied, pulling the strap across his chest and clipping it in place. The car started with a gentle hum. Much nicer than Jisung’s car, that started with uneven sputters and coughs, if it even started at all.

The boys pulled out of Hyunjin’s driveway and down the street towards Chan’s place.

“This car is insane,” Jisung complimented, and Hyunjin chuckled a little bit.

“Thanks I guess,” Hyunjin said awkwardly. For a few moments, the boys drove in silence. Jisung felt the nervousness and stiffness creep back into his system, and he knew that he had to start a conversation to keep himself from being weird.

It seemed like Hyunjin had the same thought because just then, Hyunjin said “So I guess you had fun last night, huh?”

Please, anything but this.

“Uh.. yeah, I guess for a bit..” Jisung blushed a little bit when he remembered he was probably being propped up into this very seat he was in last night, except he was passed out drunk. On second thought, they probably just shoved him into the backseat, which was somehow even worse.

“Someone said they saw you with Im Nayeon, is that true?” Hyunjin asked, taking a right. Jisung remembered the pretty girl from last night with the sparkly eyes.

“People are talking about that?” he asked.

“I knew it was true!” Hyunjin exclaimed, smiling like an idiot. “Good for you, Jisung! She’s so hot,”

Jisung was trying desperately to change the subject. “Do you have a girlfriend, Hyunjin?” Hyunjin smiled a little bit.

“No, not right now, but there are some girls trying,” Jisung didn’t doubt that one, “but I don’t know if I am interested in any of them,”

“Oh, a man with standards,” Jisung teased. Hyunjin laughed and nodded.

“You don’t have a girlfriend, Jisung?” Jisung shook his head. “What about Chaeryeong? Who is she with?”

Jisung felt his heart stop out of surprise “not you, so don’t even try,” he warned, stifling an awkward laugh.

“What? No I didn’t- no I swear I didn’t mean that for me!” Hyunjin spoke in an obviously panicked tone, and Jisung laughed at him. Hyunjin really hadn’t changed.

“Whatever man,” Jisung shrugged. There was no way he was going to tell Chaeryeong about what Hyunjin asked, it would make her think she should pursue him further,

“I don’t know why we don’t hang out anymore, Jisung.” Hyunjin admitted. “I missed talking with you,”

Jisung knew exactly why he and Hyunjin drifted apart, but he wasn’t about to spoil the good mood by bringing the politics of high school status into the topic.

“Yeah I don’t know either,” there was another beat of silence.

“So where are you thinking about applying to next year?” Hyunjin asked. The conversation from there was pretty average for teenage boys. They talked about school, they talked about Hyunjin’s basketball and how he’s hoping to get a scholarship, they even talked about television shows, which seems like pointless small talk, but it isn’t when Jisung could see Hyunjin was clearly very obsessed with Stranger Things. Jisung had only bothered to watch a couple episodes of it, but he still participated in the conversation because he enjoyed seeing Hyunjin so excited.

When they turned onto Bang Chan’s street, Jisung saw that his car was still parked on the curb where he had left it.

“That’s it right there,” Jisung said. Hyunjin pulled into the driveway next to the car, and Jisung unclipped his seatbelt. “Thank you for the ride again, Hyunjin”.

“It was nothing, I was happy to help,” Hyunjin said with a warm smile. Jisung returned the smile, and said goodbye. “I’ll see you at school on Monday!” Hyunjin called out before Jisung closed his door. Maybe he might just be able to rekindle an old friendship.

----

Jisung knew he was fucked when he turned onto his street and saw his mother’s car in the driveway. He forgot that she gets off early afternoons on Saturdays.

Jisung pulled into the driveway beside his mom’s car. He turned the car off, and sat for a moment. Should he even bother going inside? Maybe it would be easier to take off again and hide at Felix’s place so that he didn’t have to face her.

Don’t misunderstand, Jisung loved his mom. Jisung knew that she only scolded him because she wanted him to be a good person, but sometimes it was too much. She was never satisfied with him. And he knew that a mistake like last night’s would be hands down the worst thing that he has done in his seventeen years of living.

Jisung didn’t know how long he sat in the driveway, debating his options before he got a text from Chaeryeong.

Chae: Jisung I know you’re in the driveway, get your ass inside before mom takes her anger out on me!!!!

Jisung sighed and hit his head against his steering wheel. That helped make up his mind that he had to face his mother. So, with a heavy body, he stepped out of the car and made his way inside.

The house was quiet when Jisung walked in. Jisung gently walked into the kitchen where he knew his mom was likely to be sitting, drinking coffee or tea and reading a book.

Sure enough, there she was: still in her nursing scrubs, graying hair disheveled as it had most likely just been pulled out of a ponytail, and a tired expression on her once lively and bright, now worried and exasperated face.

Jisung felt himself cower away from her like a dog when his owner yelled at him, and he made eye contact with his sister, who was washing dishes by the sink. She gave him a shrug, but her eyes were sorry.

“Jisung, sit.” his mother commanded. Jisung obeyed, and sat across the table from her. “I work all day. I come home tired every day. You want to give up your academics for a stupid party, and when I say yes, you come home at three in the morning, unconscious, waking everybody up, making your sister and myself worry, and making me lose sleep before I have to go back and work another hard shift at the hospital, is that right?” Jisung felt his head pounding and his chest tight with regret. He slowly nodded his head. “And then, when I come home, you aren’t even here to take my lesson like a man, is that right?”

Jisung wanted to tell her that he was just going to pick up his car from Chan’s, but he knew that it was no use trying to redeem himself. So he nodded again.

“Jisung wasn’t avoiding you mom, he went to get his car because he didn’t drive home,” Chaeryeong defended, and Jisung knew she shouldn’t have bothered.

“Was I asking you to speak, Chaeryeong?” his mom asked, and Chaeryeong opened her mouth to protest again, but was cut short. “Go start a load of laundry. This is between me and Jisung.” Chaeryeong sulked as she walked out of the living room to do the laundry.

Jisung felt his cheeks burn up.

“I mean seriously Jisung, I am trying my best to raise you right, but this kind of behavior makes me feel like it’s all in vain,” she complained, and Jisung laid his eyes on the floor. How could he look up? “I am not trying to make you upset, I just don’t think that you are making good life choices, and I will not raise a son that throws caution to the wind and doesn’t give a care in the world about his future or his family. Think about how your father and I feel about this.”

“I’m sorry,” Jisung said, knowing it’s the only thing out of his mouth that his mom would want him to hear.

“What if someone had seen you? What if friends of your father and I saw that our only son was spending his prime academic, adolescent years drinking and disappointing us like this? Your actions reflect badly not only on yourself, but on your father and I.” she finished, “Now. Go study.” She returned her attention back to her book.

Jisung stood up from his seat and moved to walk away. He saw the worried lines on his mother’s face, and the disappointment in her features. Jisung wanted nothing more than to be a proud son, but it was impossible to be both a good child to his parents, and a person that is in control of his own life.

Jisung had pondered the idea of going to school in America or Canada multiple times. He was good at English he thought, and he could be far away from his mother, but it was expensive.

Jisung sat down on the edge of his bed when he entered his room.

“What if some friends of your father and I saw that our only son was spending his prime academic, adolescent years drinking and disappointing us like this?”

That was what bothered him most. Hearing his mother call him a disappointment hurt more than any insult any bully had ever given him. Maybe if he was more proper and friendly like Hyunjin, or more athletic and charming like Minho instead of being anxious and quiet like himself, who's barely able to spend over half an hour at a time studying.

Jisung believes firmly that his mother is only treating him the way that mothers are supposed to treat their sons if they want to motivate them into living good lives.

this situation wasn’t even worth worrying over. Jisung will just get over it the same way he normally gets over things. By outliving the stress.

----

Monday came quickly to Jisung, and before he knew it, he was walking through the pull doors and into the over crowded hallways of his high school.

The sound of people talking was somewhat deafening for Jisung, who hated being in crowds of people with a passion. So, he put in his earbuds and listened to whatever music played on his playlist first.

Jisung’s classes were all the same. Nothing new ever happened at school, no matter how badly the antsy teenagers wished for a little bit of excitement. Jisung never really liked change, but he couldn’t help but want something around him to, just so that he could make sure he wasn’t living in a loop.

His moment came directly to him on that day.

Jisung had convinced Felix and Seungmin to find another ride home from school that Monday, since Jisung had promised his mom he would stay late to practice biology. He was okay with this plan, because that gave him time to talk to his favourite bio teacher.

Everybody has their own form of emotional support high school teacher. Some people enjoy ranting to their English teachers, some people make jokes with their history teachers, some people just use that teacher’s class as an escape from the rest of the hellish existence known as high school.

Jisung had Mr. Kim for science in grade 9, biology in grade 11, and biology again senior year. Even though Jisung hates to admit it, even to himself, he sometimes subconsciously thinks of Mr. Kim as the parent figure he has always yearned for in his life.

Mr. Kim knew Jisung as the “quiet kid” when he came to the school in grade 9. He was seated close to the teachers bench, so every day before class, Mr. Kim would start conversations with Jisung. Jisung appreciated it greatly, since he didn’t really have anybody else to talk to before the bell.

Slowly, Jisung began looking forward to that class everyday. Some people didn’t like Mr. Kim for whatever reason, but he was funny and always listened to what Jisung had to say.

On that Monday, Jisung went to the extra help room and took the desk that he usually occupies whenever he goes for extra help. Jisung enjoys the subject of biology a lot, and he has even considered pursuing a career in that field. His mother would be very happy if her son ended up being a doctor or a biologist. Or maybe he could go into teaching and be like Mr. Kim.

Jisung opened his biology books and began to answer some of the practice questions Mr. Kim had assigned, but before Jisung knew it, it was already 5:00 and he had to head home. So, he politely gave Mr. Kim a thanks and a bow. He still wasn’t confident that he could get over 80%, but what was he supposed to do about it now?

Jisung made his way back to his locker to grab a textbook when in an instant, his high school life earned that interesting change that Jisung had been silently yearning for.

Jisung opened his locker and grabbed his books. All of the sudden, he heard loud voices and the sound of a basketball being dribbled on the freshly cleaned hallway floors. Jisung remembered about how the basketball team had after school practices every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Jisung cringed at the thought of facing Minho after what had happened the Friday before.

Jisung closed his locker and began walking away from the sound, hoping to god it was somebody other than Minho. He would rather talk to Hyunjin. Actually, he would like talking to Hyunjin.

It seemed a lot like the universe was out to get him because once he heard the boys come around the corner and begin down the hallway he was on, he heard his name being called out.

“Jisung!” Jisung winced. It was certainly the confident voice of Lee Minho. “I’ll catch up with you guys later, tell Hyunjin I’ll be a second.”

Jisung turned around to see that Minho was walking with Bang Chan and Seo Changbin, who nodded at him and kept walking away. They never stopped dribbling the basketball between them.

“Jisung, wait up,” Minho called, jogging slightly to catch Jisung. It was obvious that Minho had just come from practice. His hair was slightly sweaty, his usually fair cheeks were tinted soft pink, and he was wearing the ugly school basketball uniform, which somehow made Minho look more handsome than Jisung thought it should. “Hey man, how’s it going?” he asked once he got within earshot of Jisung.

“Hey Minho,” Jisung greeted, “I’m fine. Did you just have practice?” he asked. Maybe he could steer the direction of the conversation away from their encounter on Friday night.

“Yeah, but Jisung, I mean... how were you after Friday? I wanted to check up on you again, but I got distracted,” Minho confessed. Why the hell was he so worried about Jisung? It’s not like he ended up in the hospital.

“Oh that, yeah don’t worry I’m fine,” Jisung said, “Saturday kind of sucked for a while, but other than that...” Jisung trailed off. Minho laughed a little bit at that. Jisung noticed a few things about Minho at that moment.

The first thing was that Lee Minho had a beautiful laugh. Jisung had never really thought about people having nice laughs, but Minho’s was just so light and bubbly that it made Jisung smile. Secondly, Jisung realized that Minho was very pretty. Not that Jisung was attracted to him, but he noticed that Minho had very sparkly eyes, and very nice skin. Minho was pretty like a girl, Jisung thought.

Jisung snapped himself out of his own head. “I wanted,” Jisung started, “I wanted to thank you, for taking care of me on Friday.. It was really nice of you, and you didn’t have to do that,” Jisung said, suddenly feeling embarrassed and shifting his gaze away from the other.

Minho smiled at him. “You know you don’t have to thank me,” he said, “you would have done the same,”

Jisung nodded his head. “I’m about to head out,” he said, and Minho answered.

“Oh, well I’ll walk with you”

The two boys began walking away towards the school parking lot. “So how is your team doing this year?” Jisung asked. Maybe if he were to make conversation, he wouldn’t feel so stiff next to Minho.

“Well, we’ve won three games and tied one, but there’s a long way to go until championships,” Minho answered.

“Well winning three games right at the beginning of the season seems pretty good to me,” Jisung said, and Minho nodded. “Then again, what do I know about sports,”

They turned the corner and opened the glass doors that led to the student parking lot. “Yeah, I guess so. You don’t play any sports, Jisung?” Jisung audibly laughed at that. “What, what’s funny?” Minho asked.

“I haven’t played any sort of sport since t-ball when I was seven,” Jisung admitted. “I guess I’m not really the athletic type,”

“I bet you could do it if you tried,” Minho said. Jisung blushed a little bit at that. Why did he blush? Jisung felt happy when the other boy praised him. Maybe it was just nice to be encouraged by someone.

The two boys arrived at Jisung’s car, but neither of them ended their conversation. Jisung leaned up against the driver side door while he talked to Minho.

“Ah even if I wanted to, I’m sure that I couldn’t handle both school and a sport. How do you juggle your studies and being the team captain?” Jisung asked, “it can’t be easy,”

Minho smiled, but he looked a little bit sad. Jisung was confused. They weren’t talking about a sad topic, so why was Minho sad? “I love basketball,” Minho admitted, “It wasn’t my choice to be captain. I’m not saying I don’t appreciate it, but...” Minho trailed off and sighed. “you see, I don’t know if you know this, but our school has won the board championships six years in a row. The boys voted me captain this year, and I’m actually pretty scared that I’ll end up letting them down. I don’t want to be known as that captain that broke the six year winning streak, you know?” Minho began to actually look sad now. His handsome face had very faint lines of worry, much like Jisung sees in his mother.

Jisung understood the other boy’s feelings. That was the moment that he began to truly understand these people. These jocks that have their reputations to uphold, the kids that nobody really knows, but everybody thinks they know. Jisung felt a little bit sorry for Minho.

“Anyway.. I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this,” Minho started to brighten up again, like he just flipped a switch inside his brain. Jisung thought that being able to switch from being sad to being happy like that must be a skill. He also wondered how often Minho might actually be sad underneath the charming and confident exterior he always wears. “I guess you’re just very easy to talk to,”

Jisung smiled. “I like talking to you too, Minho,”

Just then, there was a loud honking noise, and both of the boys turned their attention towards the nice, white car that Jisung knew belonged to Hwang Hyunjin.

“Shit, I guess they’re waiting for me,” Minho said, “Jisung, maybe we could do something some time? Would you want to?”

Jisung was a little bit shocked that Minho wanted to spend more time with him, he didn’t get why the other boy would bother. Still, Jisung liked talking to Minho. So, he nodded a yes, and Minho smiled at him.

“Great! I have your number, I’ll text you!”

“Okay,” Jisung agreed, and Minho made his way over to Hyunjin’s car, where Jisung saw about six other boys were crowded in. Jisung thought that the car must smell like sweat and feet with those boys in it.

Once Hyunjin drove the other boys away, Jisung got into his own car. It was then that he felt the way his heart was beating so fast. He felt really weird after that conversation with Minho, it was hard for him to describe. All he knew was that he loved the feeling, and he wanted to be Minho’s friend really badly.

Jisung couldn’t stop smiling the entire car ride home, or for the rest of the night. He couldn’t even figure out why.

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bitternessbitesback · 4 years

Text

Magic

AO3 FFN

Miraculous Ladybug

Summary: Magic AU, pretty straightforward, no miraculouses. Something short and sweet.

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Felix (Not Agreste/Graham de Vinily [I don’t have a last name for him I’m sorry])

Magic was not a very common trait in the modern world, thanks to the witch hunt that took place during the 18th century that had significantly depleted their numbers, and very few people even realized they actually had powers. Many people usually just went on with their lives and ignored things they couldn't explain. Marinette was not one of these people, though her parents stressed the importance of not showing off her powers in public. As much as they supported her in all her endeavors, they didn't want harm to befall her should the wrong people find out what she was.

Thankfully, her parents also possessed magical qualities, and were able to help train her in controlling her powers. Marinette had first started showing signs at the young age of six, squealing in glee when her drawing came to life, and eagerly showed off this to Sabine and Tom. Since then they focused on the dangerous influence the girl's emotions could hold over her powers, and helped in the process of learning to control ones emotions. Of course they didn't want their daughter to shut off her emotions, they just wanted her to understand that if she felt something strong enough her powers would respond to it if she wasn't properly taught.

Although, whether for good or bad, there came a point when not even Sabine and Tom Dupain-Cheng could no longer do any more to aid in their daughter's training. Marinette did have exceptionally well control over her powers, and was a quick learner, though she was much stronger than either of her parents by the time she reached 13. To say they were proud would be an understatement in comparison to what they felt for their daughter. And they knew she would be safe if anything ever happened thanks to Sabine cultivating her daughters natural athletic ability in many different forms of self defense.

Felix thought that Marinette was an almost boring and ordinary person when he first met her at 16. She seemed like someone who could easily be overlooked, if you weren't looking. As far as he knew, she was just an aspiring fashion designer that mostly kept to herself. Though was Felix looking for something, he just didn't quite know yet what it was. Then it became considerably harder to ignore her as she seemed breathed life in to every single room she stepped into, and the air around her would seem to almost vibrate with anticipation when she got inspired. Most people seemed not to notice this though, and the blond boy briefly entertained the idea that he was going crazy.

To be fair, he had mostly just filed the certified idea away for a later date, but after what he just experienced he wasn't quite sure how far off the thought had been. Only two years since they first met, when his only friend and confidant turned 18, saw a very plastered Marinette practically hanging off of the stoic blond. He should've known what a lightweight she would be, considering how small she was, though he thought she would've at least had a drink before she was legally able to. Turns out he was wrong as she was every bit the goody two shoes she presented herself to be. If he had known before hand, he wouldn't have taken her out to a bar, but thankfully he was able to hold his liquor.

Though an inebriated Marinette proved to be quite the problem as he took her back to his own apartment, not wanting to face her parents. He quickly found the person he had quietly pining for a couple years now was very clingy when intoxicated, and found himself simultaneously in heaven and hell. She was also somehow more emotional than she was sober, which surprised him. Unfortunately that wasn't the only thing that surprised him that night as he dropped his near unconscious friend on the bed while he went to get her some water. She was mumbling something when he came back in and suddenly a bright pink light enveloped the room. Floating right in front of his face was some weird ladybug type thing he couldn't identify and they simply stared at each other for a moment before the creature started to talk... and Felix promptly dropped the glass on the ground.

"Oh I didn't mean to scare you!" The thing hastily apologized while Felix idly wondered if he finally lost it, "I'm just really excited to finally meet you! Marinette's told me so much about how you helped her and everything, though she hadn't called on me for quite some time so to be honest I'm as surprised as you are to be here. I'm Tikki by the way!"

Tikki, as the floating bug like creature called itself (herself?), talked a mile a minute, easily overwhelming the poor boy with information. He couldn't really process any of it though as he was still stuck on how she got here in the first place. The lanky 19 year old looked at his friend lying on the bed and wondered how much he really knew about her, tuning out Tikki's rambling. The creature said she was excited to finally meet him and that Marinette spoke of him, but perhaps this was all a dream? Maybe he really had had too much to drink back at the bar and he just didn't remember going to bed...

Looking at the glass splattered on the floor, he decided that there was a very slim possibility that this was real, and Marinette had conjured life out of thin air while sloshed and half asleep. His friend, whom he thought to be one of the most normal people around, just used magic. In any other situation he would completely dismiss the notion, but this didn't feel like a dream, despite the absurdity of it all. Kneeling down, Felix cleaned up the glass, not caring if he got pieces stuck in his hand. Tikki had stopped speaking to him upon realizing he was in shock, and the logic based man simply went through the motions of tidying up the mess he made. He returned with another glass for the girl on his bed once more, some aspirin, and set them both on the side table. He took off his friends shoes threw the covers over her. Grabbing a blanket and pillow for himself to use while on the couch, Felix decided Marinette would have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow morning.

#miraculous ladybug #ml fanfic #fanfiction #My writing #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #felix #felinette #tikki #sabine cheng #tom dupain #short story #one shot #bitternessbitesback

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twoidiotwriters1 · 4 years

Text

Prologue of Written In The Stars (Harry Potter xFem!Oc)

A/N: Suprise! This is totally self-indulgent so if any of you read it that’s a win (but do let me know if you like it) this is only the prologue but I still don’t know the title of the whole series so yeah... be ready for a long, long, ride.

Words: 2,307

Series’ Masterlist

Chapter One

Stories tend to be told like they were made for the people in them.

It's our job to understand a simple thing: that's not how life works. The world is much more complicated, it's years of history piled into little actions that collide in one end, people are born so others can change the world, this is why we can't live without the other.

This story is about a girl with remarkable power, a baby that grew for war, and a bond far more stronger than any magic.

And it all started with two kids on a train.

But first, a little bit of background story:

Emily Sultens was the daughter of a Magizoologist and an Auror, both in their late forties when they had her, but always loving and caring, they gave her the best of the best. Emily grew up surrounded by all kinds of magical creatures and spooky stories from Dad's work. It was easy to say that Emily couldn't wait to have her own adventure, and when she got the letter from Hogwarts in 1971, she was ready to prove her value.

Matt Dumbledore, on the other hand, was the only son of Aberforth Dumbledore. His mother, a humble witch who lived in a small village, died at the moment of birth. His uncle, the famous Albus Dumbledore found him and took care of him for most of his life, Matt lived in Hogsmeade during his childhood prior Hogwarts with his father, but Aberforth never addressed him as his son for reasons that only him and his brother knew.

Matt grew up in a quiet, dusty home, He inherited his uncle's traits, a clever mind and infinite patience to get the things he so desperately wanted. Matt wouldn't allow anyone to compare him to his family members, he was his own person, and he'd create his own path.

The Daily Prophet watched his every move, being the only heir of a long-lasting family known for their incredible talent, and the rumors surrounding his birth (many believed he was actually Albus' son) Matt grew up with thousands of rules he was ready to break.

On September first, 1971 Matt and Emily met, and after a few years of friendship, they fell in love and had a kid: Mel Dumbledore.

Emily had spent the whole night watching over her daughter, she knew something was wrong when Matt didn't arrive.

When Dumbledore appeared on the doorstep holding Mel... well, she just knew. She was prepared for it, after all being an Auror, especially on times like this, wasn't easy. What she hadn't expected to hear was that only one survivor had been found: Harry.

Remus came to her as soon as he heard, both with a sense of betrayal since it was no one but their friend Sirius the one who told the Dark Lord where his friends were. She held Mel tight against her chest, the only logical thought being 'She's alive, she's with me' until Dumbledore appeared again the next morning.

And of course, he had a plan. One that involved Emily and her daughter moving miles away from their current home. Emily accepted, she could only think of the thousands of memories she had of Matt in that house, and the ones that would never come.

Harry had an aunt, who was married and had a kid the same age as him, all she had to do was to move next door to keep an eye on the boy, make sure no Deatheaters would appear since things were still dense in the wizarding world. She had to make sure Harry would live to turn eleven.

Why she accepted, she didn't know. Maybe part of her thought it was cruel to pull apart the babies. Even if they were too little to remember, they shared a bond. Harry was her best friends' son. She couldn't turn her back on him, she would never.

So Emily packed her bags and that same afternoon she moved over to Privet Drive Nº5.

The young woman gave up on magic, she kept her wand safely hidden in her bedroom and raised her daughter in the muggle world, away from all the things that could hurt her. She knew that at some point Mel would find out, on her eleventh birthday to be precise, but it was all just too complicated. How would she tell the little girl that her father died in the hands of a murderer? How could she tell her that the boy living next to them was a legend from where they came from? No, she'd wait. Then, once Mel had her letter, she would explain everything.

"Was that everything, Mily?" Remus asked, putting the last box in the living room.

"Yes," Emily covered Mel's little body with a blanket, she then poured two glasses of firewhiskey and gave one to Remus.

"To the Potters," She raised her glass.

"To Mel... and Matt," Remus added.

She stopped for a moment, remembering the news article she read that morning.

"To the boy who lived."

Both of them finished their drinks in a matter of seconds.

What now?

Six years later after that quiet morning when Petunia had found Harry at her doorstep, things hadn't changed much on Privet Drive. Same bushes, same houses, same people. Time had gone by though, even if you didn't see at plain sight.

Mel was now seven years old, and she was a curious kid. She enjoyed playing in her room or her backyard, always keeping herself busy. Her mom never allowed her to leave the house unless it was for school, so whenever Mel wanted to feel accompanied, she always peeked through the neighbors' fence.

And every time without a fail, she would see him.

A scrawny, black-haired boy with damaged glasses. Always doing chores.

She was tiny, so when the boy got closer to the fence she wasn't able to see him anymore. So Mel went back to her house, grabbed a small stool, put it in front of the fence.

She stood on her tiptoes... and fell to the other side.

"Ouch!" The boy quickly squirmed away and looked at her, frowning, "W-What are you doing?"

"Ugh," The girl rubbed the back of her head and pouted, "Nothing! I... I live next door and I heard noises, so I wanted to see what you were doing"

She looked up to the boy, the first thing she noticed was his bright, green eyes hidden behind dirty old glasses, his hair seemed to be disheveled even though that day wasn't so windy and his smile was tiny but had a mocking undertone.

He also had a scar on his forehead.

"Are you alright?"

"What'd you think? I hit my head..." She groaned.

"You shouldn't spy on people"

"I wasn't spying! I just... I always see you out here," She shrugged, "I got curious, that's all"

"I know you," He replied, "you go to my school and get in trouble a lot, like me"

"It's not my fault," She grumbled, "Should we introduce ourselves? My mum always does it when we meet new people... I'm Mel, I'm seven and I've lived here since I was a baby"

"Nice to meet you," The boy hesitatingly reached for her hand, "Uhm, I'm Harry and I'm also seven, I've lived with my Aunt and Uncle since I was a baby"

"Oh, they aren't your parents?" She asked with genuine surprise.

"No," Harry shook his head, clearly displeased, "my parents... died when I was little"

"I'm sorry," Mel felt her cheeks sting from embarrassment, she let go of his hand, "I didn't know"

"That's alright," He scratched the back of his head, "What about your parents?"

"Just my mum. My dad... he's gone."

"We're not so different then," Harry smiled politely.

"I guess not"

They sat against the fence, one next to the other.

"Dudley is your cousin then? Not your brother?"

"We're not that similar are we?" He made a funny disgusted face.

"Not at all," Mel grinned.

"Why are you always inside your house?"

"My mum says it's safer, and I don't have tons of friends, my classmates think I'm weird cause I always have odd accidents"

"Me too!" Harry's eyes widened, "It happens whenever I'm upset about something"

"It's the same with me!"

The children stared at each other in amazement. They knew there was something between them, far beyond the mutual understanding.

Suddenly, a voice pulled them out of their thoughts.

"Boy, have you finished with those bushes?!" Screamed Harry's uncle.

"Mel, time for lunch!" Announced her mom from the kitchen.

Both of them stood up quickly and said in unison:

"I have to go!"

The girl started to walk away, to circle the fence. Harry waited until she was on the other side. Mel peeked through one of the cracks between the wood so she could see him one last time.

"See you Harry, I hope we can be friends"

"See you," He smiled, "I do too"

"BOY!" Harry jumped, rushing over to the back door of his house.

Mel went into the kitchen, excited to tell her mother all about Harry.

"Careful, it's hot," Her mother put a plate of soup in front of her, sitting beside her.

"I met our neighbor today," Mel said cheerfully, "his name is Harry"

"Oh," Her mom raised her eyebrows, "did you? How?"

"Uh, I talked to him through the fence," She lied, "He's nice and we decided to be friends now!"

"Oh," Repeated her mom, wasn't she happy for her? "that's nice, love..."

She got up from and walked over to the sink, feeling her heart beating harshly against her chest.

So Mel had finally met Harry, she was hoping it would happen soon, considering how much time did the kids spend in their houses, but now that it was happening, she felt scared. Why? Maybe cause time was running out, and she still wasn't ready to tell the truth.

Yet, a distant memory made its way back, the day she'd met her best friends:

Emily walked nervously through the hall, looking for an empty compartment where to sit. Suddenly, laughter erupted from one of them: four boys where inside, but only one of them caught her eye.

Matt Dumbledore, she knew that he was about to start Hogwarts just like her, (she heard her father talking about it the night before) and knew that wherever this kid decided to be, she'd be there as well, the mischief was certified.

"I know you!" Was the first thing the little girl said once she opened the door to the compartment, "You're Albus Dumbledore's son!"

The boys looked at her in surprise, staying deadly silent.

"Ah," The boy blushed lightly, "he's not my father, he's my uncle... uh, nice to meet you?"

The girl giggle, a bit embarrassed as well but too excited to actually worry about it.

"Sorry, it's just that I knew you'd be here and I was excited to meet you, your family is a legend!" She looked around to the rest of the boys, "Oh, right. I haven't introduced myself. I'm Emily Sultens, and you are..?"

One of the kids raised his hand, amused by the outburst of the girl. He had messy, black hair and a funny smile.

"I'm James Potter, nice to meet you," The boy shook her hand and then moved the trunk from the seat in front of him so she could join them.

"I'm Remus," Said the boy next to the window, he had dark circles under his eyes and small, thin scars covering his face.

"Sirius," The last boy sitting in front of her talked. He had pretty eyes and the darkest hair she'd ever seen.

"And I'm Matt," He leaned in to shake her hand, "but I guess you knew that already..."

"Yes," She replied smiling, "the newspapers mention you all the time"

She eyed him up carefully, he had clear blue eyes and light brown hair. She liked his smile a lot.

"Of course you know him!" James exclaimed, "he's the son of the coolest wizard that's ever existed! Aberforth Dumbledore: the guy that turns people into goats..."

"Actually," Remus spoke up, "that title belongs to Merlin. Uhm, the one about the greatest wizard, not the goats"

"Yes!" Sirius threw a fist in the air, "you'll be the smart one of our group"

The boy hugged Remus so fast he accidentally dropped the books he had on his lap. Matt picked them up and put them on top of a trunk.

"Thanks," Remus grunted, pushing Sirius away.

"No problem," He smiled.

Emily and the boys kept talking for a while, after a few minutes a little girl with bright, red hair and a quiet boy with funny clothes joined them. James had an argument with the small kid, and the redhaired girl joined the fight.

"Let's go, Severus" Said the girl, standing up and walking away in outrage.

"Oh sorry, we didn't mean to hurt your ego, I'm sure you're used to be treated like royalty" Emily huffed.

The boys laughed, but the girl glared at her, clearly upset.

"Look who says it, Miss pretentious," She turned around and grabbed Severus by the arm, pulling him away from their compartment.

"See you, Snivellus!" Replied Sirius between laughs.

'Four years' She thought, 'only four years left.'

"Mum, are you okay?" The little girl asked, worried about her mother's strange behavior.

"Yes," She took a deep breath before turning around, smiling like nothing had happened, "I'm just a bit sleepy, that's all. Eat now, before it gets cold"

Mel nodded and complied, eating in silence.

Emily knew it was only a matter of time before she found out. And Harry... well, as closer the better.

Next Chapter —>

#hp fanfic #harry potter fanfiction #twoidiots writing #harry potter xoc #Harry Potter #harry potter x y/n #WITT fic

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beautymercurydragon · 4 years

Note

Other than Lila with her kids, are any of the other parents in your AU struggling with a strained relationship with their kids?? What are the parenting styles of the original gen and how do their kids feel about them?

Okay, this is actually the best question I’ve ever received about the next-gen. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve gotten so many great questions on it and enjoy answering and seeing them all, but this is actually super good for the lore, backstory, character development and personalities.

Although I might reblog this later with another part (or a few); as for now, I’m only doing Adrienette, DJWifi and Lukagami.

Let’s start with Marinette and Adrien. We know they’re both had different upbringings, as she grew up in a very loving and supportive household with great parents, while Adrien had his mother and... Him(TM). After they defeated Hawk Moth and it was revealed he was Adrien’s father, he was very depressed for almost two years afterwards, and didn’t open up to anyone until around after seven months, and it was actually to Alya.

Soon enough, everyone else within their ‘main’ circle found out, but not until after Marinette was secretly taking him to therapy. He was afraid they’d judge him for his mental heath issues due to Him(TM)telling him boys aren’t allowed to feel sad/be depressed/not be okay (aka another reason for us all to hate Him(TM)lol). The other guys paid visits to their house more often and went to see him and overall were like brothers to him, considering they saw it as a way to pay him back for doing so many good things for them and to help him through his hard times. This was after they’d returned from living in New York so Marinette could begin her fashion career, which was for two years (ages 23-25). Chloe kinda picked up on it based off of Adrien’s behavior, considering both they’ve known each other for a long time and she’s dealt with it in her lifetime too. Adrien was also teaching at him and Kagami’s fencing academy before he revealed his struggle, so he used his occupation to try and mask it considering he loves fencing so much.

Long story short, he finally became fully okay when he was around 27, and was completely happy and content with his life and everything in general, and even more so, as it was just around the time he and Marinette found out they were going to have Maddie. Tho, he did have to work more often as a fencing teacher considering Kagami was out on leave as she had Jade around the same time. (But she came back three months after giving birth and wore her in a carrier strapped to her chest while teaching, lol.)

But to be safe, he went to therapy once more in the timespan of Marinette’s pregnancy just to be fully positive - as he didn’t want to end up like Him(TM). Lol.

When Maddie was around six months, he started taking her out as Chat Noir and would sing the ‘little kitty on a roof’ song from Chat Blanc and Felix to her on the rooftops or sitting at her grandmother Emilie’s statue. And of course, the song ends with the little kitty being found and having his own family. (I love sappy protective Dadrien so much!)

Marinette is more of the kick-ass mom who’s kind AF but would snap a bone if anyone threatens/hurts her children, and she’s a great babysitter too. (Might be from her experience as Jade and Kara’s shared godmother, haha.)

Long story short, both Marinette and Adrien are capable, protective and great parents in general and their kids all love them. Also, Adrien is so sickeningly lovey-dovey with her around their kids so he can show them examples of how to treat your partner right. Lol. Certified Good Father(TM). Gabriel could never.

Onto Alya and Nino.

Alya is, out of the main Team Miraculous ladies, the most experienced and naturally-accustomed of them all to be a mother.

We’ve seen her helping Nino with Chris in season three (such as Chrismaster and Stormy Weather 2), along with helping Marinette with Manon in the original Stormy Weather and Prime Queen, and of course, her two little sisters. So, I feel she’s the most calm, levelheaded, and of course experienced in the field.

The same thing applies to Nino, as he’s an older brother to Chris and Alya’s sisters (including Nora) see him as pretty much a part of the family, like in Stormy Weather and Miracle Queen.

So, Alya and Nino already do have experience with kids, but that absolutely does not mean they’re perfect at being parents. But they were gloating and prideful for the right reasons when they realized Kara was pretty much both of them, as she’s hyper-productive like Alya: She’s a theater singer, TV actress, comedienne, harpist, flutist, and writer/amateur author. As for her traits shared with Nino, she makes up lots of weird words and sayings. Heck, one time, she walked into Marinette and Adrien’s Christmas gala in a multicolored glittery outfit and said ‘bonjour, y’all’. Maddie and Lilli were super embarrassed lmao.

Finally, for Kagami and Luka.

Kagami doesn’t have a healthy relationship with her mother as she grows older - when it was revealed Tomoe was a bit of an enabler to Gabriel, she felt really betrayed and unsafe in her own home, so she escaped from her home by getting emancipated with the help of Chloe, Sabrina and Roger. Not to mention, one of the reasons she and Adrien broke up was because their parents kept putting pressure on the other, so while she and Adrien would have been a healthy relationship, their parents could have held a candle to the danger of making it unhealthy with their controlling behavior and pushiness towards their future child-in-law and actual kids.

She lived with Luka ever since then (they got together shortly after she was emancipated), and she considers his family hers and vice versa. Especially Juleka, considering she was actually one of the first members of the Girl Squad to befriend her after Marinette introduced her to the others (they were friends even before Kagami began a relationship with Luka, lol). The same applies for Rose.

Moving on - with her anxiety and trauma with her own mother, she went to therapy before having children so that when she’d actually have her own, she wouldn’t be her own mother towards them.

And it worked out perfectly.

She definitely did become more sensitive and softer when she became a mother, as she’s afraid of saying the wrong thing one day or being flat-out cold, cruel and mean to her daughter(s).

Luka, however, is an entirely different scenario.

While he didn’t have a father in his life and his mother is kind of... wacky, per se, he had to mature for both himself and his sister, so he’s pretty good with children for that reason.

She’s more of the disciplinary role while he’s the chiller, selfless one (not to say she isn’t), and while they have many of the same strengths, they each play different roles as parents and are generally amazing at what they do.

Thanks so much for the ask! I’m sorry this took a while to answer, but I hope you enjoyed what I had to respond with!

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cruzrogue · 5 years

Text

Lame Party

#Fictober19 @fictober-event

————————————————————————

for fanfiction:

Prompt number: 14 “I can’t come back.”

Fandom (AU if applicable): #arrow fanfiction #olicity

Rating:PG

Warnings/Tags: Fluff

Summary: As the chapter name suggests Felicity leaves a lame party. Meets Oliver sometime latter and saves him from ever going to that party.

Notes:Fluffy college kids meet for the first time and its seems that they're destined to remain in each other lives forever.

~~~~~~****~~~~~~~~sp@ce~~~~~~****~~~~~~~~

Lame Party on A03

“The party is so lame, I’m out of here.”

Oliver is driving towards the party house. He needs to get his mind off his impending doom of expulsion. He’s grades suck. Turning a corner, he sees a girl who seems to be sitting on the curb of a nice parking space. “Hi.” He calls out.

“Hey back.”

“Are you saving a spot for someone?”

She looks around and then at the car and sways her head no. “You want to park here?” Seeing that question doesn’t need an answer gets up from her spot and she waves her hand to have him parallel park into the spot.

“Yea, like to go to that party at that red house down the street.”

“Oh, just left it, lame party.”

“Really?”

“Yea, music sucks.”

He looks at her goth look and wonders how true it is. “How about you go back with me and if it truly is lame, I’d take you home.”

“I can’t come back.” She gives him a serious look and he is able to coax her in coming back even without stepping out of his car.

“It’s surely is better than sitting on the sidewalk on a chilly October night.”

“I guess, and you don’t need to win me over I said I’d go in with you.”

He looks at the feisty girl, he shouldn’t be super surprised her goth outfit screams spirited and gutsy packaged in nice velvet leather and lace. It is her eyes that got his attention. He loves how light pale blueish they seem with the heavy eye makeup.

“Come on, I’m Oliver by the way.”

“Megan. So what school do you go to?”

He groans loudly. He really doesn’t want to talk about it. Now that he is out of the car he notices how short she is.

“Wait! You’re not one of those guys who just goes hangs at college parties without being in one just to pick up girls?”

“What no!” He just standing there rigid as he looks down at this petite head banger. “I’m still a college student.”

She gives him a weird look. “What do you mean still?”

“Ah! You know what, I don’t need to be grilled hence why I’m going to a party.”

“A lame party.”

“So you say. You probably only listen to metal. I’m good with all other types of music.”

“Ouch.” She places her hand to her heart. “Mr. preppy pants is frustrated.”

“This might be my last party because I’m just gonna give up so let me lick my wounds and go enjoy whatever type of party this is.”

“Wow, that just so sad. A last hurrah because you give up? I mean yea I don’t know you but I think you should expect more out of yourself.”

He can’t believe he is having this depressing conversation on a sidewalk somewhere in South Boston. Yet, he is totally interested in talking to this non-sunshine on a cloudy day girl. She’s kind of rocks this darkness that he internally feels but when she talks she’s strangely bubbly for her getup. He can’t help but look her over again. Yea he may go to this party now and look for a hookup instead of just getting smashed.

“Hate that I can see how you are processing. Hence you’re failing out of school and your objective is to party.” He shrugs. “What you need is to study and get yourself a good tutor and stop with the mopping it’s so unbecoming.”

“I’m not mopping.”

“It’s so cute that you don’t even know you are doing it. Some call it brooding but with your baby face and shaggy preppy floppy hair I’ll stick to the yuppie version.”

“You think you are so smart…”

“I’m actually a certified genius but we aren’t talking about me.” She gives him a devilish smile.

“No doubt maybe we should circle around and talk about you.”

She shrugs she’s bored and sitting outside waiting to see if her friend will finally leave and take her back to their dorms.

“What would you like to know Oliver?” Emphasizing the last syllable of his name.

He closes the small gap between them and he can feel her shiver. Her hot looking outfit leaves a lot of gaping holes where the chilly air seeps through to her very porcelain colored skin. “How cold are you?”

“Hey I have a warm heart. I’m not obnoxious.”

“Never said you were; I’m asking how uncomfortably cold you are on this chilly night?”

She now notices that she is shivering, “Oh! I’m kind of cold.” They’re really close now and just whispering to each other

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this but…” He waits until he has her full attention. “If the party is that lame maybe a good tutoring session by a genius could help me?”

“Hmmm. That sounds interesting? What would I get out of it?” His face descends bringing his lips closer to hers and she takes the intuitive and closes the gap. It takes a car horn down the street to have them break apart as both are left breathless.

~~~~~~****~~~~~~~~sp@ce~~~~~~****~~~~~~~~

“That is how I met your mother.”

“Can you believe that your father went on to continue his education to get a masters in core courses of a postgraduate business degree.” She kisses Oliver. “My super sexy smarty pants.”

“Awe gross!” Their kids whine out loud.

“That is why we want all of you to do your best. Education is no laughing matter. It not only opens up your mind but when you’re out there in school the bonds you make with others can carry you in a lifetime journey that one day you’d share with your children, my grandbabies.”

“As excited as your mom is… no babies! You three are still way to young.”

Felicity rolls her eyes. “Oliver? Doubt that they even had those thoughts of adding to the family our eldest is now turning to a preteen in a few months.”

“Well it’s never too early to instill that they should live full lives. It took us years after of we got married to add to the family.”

“Yes, our choice they may want to start earlier…” She looks at Oliver’s terrified face. “Honey. Their still kids but I want them to know no matter what they make their own choices.”

“Okay but let’s not push them to grow up so soon.”

The kids are just watching the yoyo conversation between their parents. It takes the eldest to distract them. Listening to this particular story which they’ve heard many times over with different slight versions. Like this time, they learn something new and their eldest has picked up on it.

As their eldest son asks, “When did mom tell you her real first name?” They have always known their mother as Felicity Smoak Queen.

“Well that is its own little story.” He looks to his wife as those sweet memories fill his mind.

#fictober19 #felicity smoak #oliver queen #olicity

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fulcrum-agent · 5 years

Text

Dysphoria

I’m going to talk about some things that I need to get out there a bit more than I generally do. So today, I’m going to discuss my gender identity, gender dysphoria, and what it’s doing to me emotionally and mentally. Before I end up falling into a repeat of March.

People on both sides of the fence in regards to gender and sexuality (meaning both the LGBTQ+ community and the “straights”/”cis” world) aren’t going to like everything I’m about to say here. But the past few days and weeks, I’ve been feeling the same kind of horrible pressure I had largely freed myself from a year ago, some of it is almost as oppressive as when I was a teenager.

It’s not just going to be anecdotal information, not just “feels” - I involve science in everything.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why the LGBTQ+ community can get upset about the use of science with gender identity and sexuality. A lot of really bad science has been done in an attempt at erasure and vilification. But that shouldn’t lead to discounting the good science that is starting to make its way into the fore.

All that out of the way, let’s get started.

Taking a trip in the Way Back Machine, when I was in utero, mum wasn’t keen on getting ultrasounds. It wasn’t something that was well covered by her insurance, and she had issues with the gel they use for them. So the doctors were more heavily relying on other methods to determine gender, and the few ultrasounds mum could afford weren’t very conclusive due to positioning. This was back in the late 70s/early 80s, and the tech wasn’t as good as it is now.

The vast majority of markers pointed towards the concept that I was a baby boy. The pregnancy and much of the social stuff surrounding it were treated like I was going to be a boy. There was a stupid amount of pastel blue involved.

As it turned out, not only were their predicted due dates off dramatically (an entirely separate story there), but physically, I was a female baby; it was so expected that I’d be male, they had no female names handy, so they used the name of the type of piano they bought for me (spoilers: I’ve always hated my birth name because of this).

Essentially, I’ve had gender issues since birth. One of my doctors expects that I’ve had PCOS nearly my entire life, possibly even before puberty, since my testosterone levels even in utero were higher than they should be.

While I personally had almost 0 concepts of gender and the societal bullshit around till around puberty, it still affected me all the damn time.

I was almost immediately labelled a tomboy, because I was physically active - climbing trees, playing sports, wanting to do martial arts, and I also liked things like GI Joe and He-man while having an obsession with dinosaurs and science. However, people who viewed me as a tomboy would get confused by the fact that I also liked dance, music, My Little Pony (this was before bronies), and dolls like Jem and Barbie.

Back at the dawn of the 80s, things were rather black and white when it came to gender norms.

Despite the people around me having issues with my “gender weirdness”, I was perfectly fine till around 11, when puberty started.

Much to my distress, my body became extremely feminine. Before I was even 12, I was more than an A cup, and I started getting curvy hips and rear. For some reason, I really just did not like the way my body was starting to look, yet I had tonnes of people telling me how “lucky” I was, and how I should dress to compliment my form.

I also was absofuckinglutely not okay with menstruation. It was beyond the typical uneasiness about this new thing, about learning how to manage it - there was visceral hate I didn’t understand. It didn’t help that having my period made me ill, something that only got worse and worse as I got older. Between the dysphoria related anxiety/depression and the actual physical problems, I wanted nothing to do with menstruation and decided I wanted a hysterectomy even before I had my first procreation systems problems. I also realised before I was out of high school that I really wanted a breast reduction; increasing back and shoulder problems were what I thought the root of it was, but I realise now I actually just wanted a more androgynous body, even back then.

Throughout part of junior high, and all of high school, my friends who were female were always being pushy about making me dress like a girl, and to weaponise the body I was “so lucky to have”. At the start of junior high, I dressed like a goth skater boy - in part because I was slowly building a gothic wardrobe, and in part cus men's clothes were just super comfortable. And cheaper - most of the stuff I was buying with saved lunch money, so buying boy’s/men’s clothes was also something of a financial strategy.

Despite often feeling awkward about my body, by the time high school landed, I had just given in to the pressure. I dressed like a little goth princess, I wore push-up bras (even though I was already a D cup at that point), most everything I wore either accentuated my breasts by being tight or super low cut. On one level, fashion was always fun for me, I nearly became a fashion designer before realising how horrid that industry is, so the putting together outfits and such was fun - it was when I was actually wearing them that I could feel super awkward.

Once I moved from Salt Lake to San Diego, I was able to ditch a lot of that. No one knew who I was, I didn’t know anyone else, and SoCal was a lot more chill about things than Utah could ever hope to be. I still would sometimes dress the goth princess, but my default style swerved back towards skater/raver in cuts. I wore rave pants and tank tops with men’s graphic button downs.

While I was in San Diego, I met a transman and transwoman who were both chill with explaining gender transitions to me. I suspected someone I knew in SLC was along those lines (I was wrong, they were intersexed, and parents made terrible decisions for them). While I was aware that I didn’t want to transition entirely to being male, I knew there was something along those lines that I needed. Sadly, I didn’t meet any non-binary people, and no one really ever brought up the concept to me while I was in SoCal.

About ten years ago, after I had gotten sick and had to move back in with my mum, on the Eastern Seaboard, I met an incredibly knowledgeable transwoman who pointed out to me that androgyny isn’t just an art style but also was gender. She was the first to explain to me what being non-binary was the full spectrum of non-binary - from being gender fluid to androgyne to flat non-binary.

For once in my life, I felt normal as far as gender was concerned. I wasn’t some weird tomboy, I didn’t have to conform to what I’d been told to while growing up, I wasn’t weird for having certain previously odd dreams. It all made sense.

At this point, I’d already done a lot of research on what all transgender, the emerging science behind it, the process of transitioning, chest binding. But at that point, I did a lot more research into non-binary aspects of gender; there’s not nearly as much as there is on MtF/FtM transgenders, but there was a fair bit.

Since I was having problems with depoprovera actually helping with the PCOS and nixing menstruation, I decided that I wanted to do low dose HRT. It took a lot to get to a facility to do so, but I managed to start that in 2015. I was also hoping that if I was right about my hunch, that a number of other medical issues I have could be affected for the better. There’s a lot of emerging science pointing to the fact that transfolk have chemical imbalances - their chemical make up doesn’t really match that of their birth gender; about how HRT helps move their different hormonal chemicals to the range their body actually needs; how many times transfolk feel better physically once their HRT reaches stable levels, and how often times being on HRT reduces or eliminates different chronic medical issues.

Locally, there was no facility that could manage HRT. Even with the hard science in my hand, local doctors couldn’t wrap their heads around it, so I couldn’t even “cheat” and have a mainstream endocrinologist manage it for me. Most didn’t even want to look at the science. I still have to go to Philadelphia for HRT, and half the science I take with me is still relatively new to the Mazzoni Centre.

Getting HRT was the lesser struggle. Although I had started addressing the need for a breast reduction clear back in 2012, insurance coverage in general on reductions is trash. A certain amount of mass has to be removed for them to cover it, which often times cannot be accurately gauged before the surgery; much of the time, a person needing a reduction would go under, get mass removed, only for it to be too little for insurance coverage, leaving them with a $7,000 bill.

The only surefire way to have them cover it entirely for almost the entire decade I was working on this was a full mastectomy, whether or not it was related to cancer. For a while, I was very on the fence about a full mastectomy, because I didn’t want to transition to being male - I wanted a body that was just a hell of a lot more boyish than mine’s been since puberty.

Eventually, I came to be at peace with the idea of this, thanks to people like the fabulous Elliott Alexzander, who promote non-binary fashion and are also male-bodied. Seeing someone who had absolutely no breasts rock women’s fashion helped immensely.

I did finally luck out, however. By the time I was okay with the concept of having to have a full mastectomy to get insurance to cover the surgery, a WPATH certified surgeon had moved into the area. With his help, I was able to get what he termed a hybrid top surgery, 100% covered by my insurance, due to gender dysphoria.

While recovery was rough, as it became painfully apparent that the boyfriend who lived with me at the time had massive issues with all of it, despite having been warned back in 2013 that I was going to be doing all of this. He’d always been lowkey abusive, often in ways that evaded mum seeing him be so, but that escalated rapidly after the surgery, to the point where even mum could see it; I had an HRT check up not long after the surgery, and the nurse who roomed me asked if I was okay, or if I needed help - the abuse had become that apparent, and constant. (Yes, the relationship was terminated, though it took 3 or 4 more months for him to find a place and move out.)

For most of the time since the top surgery, I’ve not had my dysphoria trigger all that much; at most, I have a lowkey fear of some crazy, conservative, Christian redneck here is going to decide they don’t like how I look, and try beating me up - or worse. This has already happened once since the surgery: some loon was sitting on his porch at like 2 AM, and I was out on a walk; I had my headphones in, and music on, so I couldn’t hear everything he said, but caught something about how I was a vile dyke, and he started coming down off his porch at me - I ended up just looking at him as if he were less than a gnat, while continuing to walk, and he backed off. The power of looking like you don’t give any fucks.

Recently, I’ve been having more and more dysphoria, due to people just not getting that I as a person am non-binary. I have pronoun preferences. Ignoring them isn’t okay. I actually have to have my characters all have small breasts still because I get the same sense of dysphoria I’ve had for my entire life when they’re much past an A cup. I’m not going to wear a dress when I don’t want to, and I’m not going to wear an a-shirt/muscle shirt when I don’t want to. I’m not going to forgo mixing and matching men and women’s clothes for someone else’s comfort.

Generally, I’m not one to get aggressive about this stuff, because I don’t believe that aggression helps the LGBTQ+ community (or any community) considering its aggression that creates the situations we find ourselves in right now. I’m more about educating someone politely, giving them time to adjust, to remember that for me as a person, it’s They (or Xe) and not She. Let those who know me offline adjust to the fact that no, you can’t use my birth name, you have to use the name that I go by (even though that’s about as variable as David Bowie during his early musical career). You can prefer people with more curves, but you can’t tell me that I can’t be okay when you want me to be curvier, in a game or out.

Initial microaggressions are fine. Persistent ones after the fact aren’t.

If I ask you to stop doing something because it’s causing dysphoria, you don’t get to shrug it off, and just continue to do it. You don’t get to ignore the fact that what you’re doing is harmful to me, just because opening your eyes to who I actually am is inconvenient to your current world order. You don’t get to invalidate me as a person because you think your religious doctrine is against who and what I am (spoilers: nearly every religion on the planet preaches love as its highest law - and doing any of this shit to anyone violates that tenant of your faith).

You don’t have to entirely understand the why of all this. You don’t have to be savvy on all the different points on the gender spectrum. You don’t have to know the science behind it.

What you have to understand is that your actions are harmful and that if you want to be a better person, you have to stop those harmful actions. Not just because they’re harmful to me, not just because you care about me, but to just be a better person overall - to avoid doing this to anyone and everyone.

If that’s asking too much, well:

EDIT: It occurs to me that I should probably mention that it doesn’t bother me when people refer to my characters by their gendered pronouns. Ashe, Claire, Fia, and Vaylin can be referenced by she/her while Rel, Saber, and Kym’a can be referenced as he/him. Vieno will probably lean more towards they/them. The only one it’s a hard must be they/them with is Dwynd, because when I made her, it was an outlet for being completely out of the non-binary closet when I couldn’t yet be RL.

#A Moonlit Original #ashe.txt #personal #admin #long post #thanks for coming to my TEDtalk #gender #gender dysphoria #transgender #non-binary #non-xiv #non-ffxiv #non-final fantasy #non-ff

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xreachfortheskylarx · 5 years

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[ MUSE #64 ] ●● is that MEG DONNELLY? no, that’s just SKYLAR OAKLEY, the 16 year old FEMALE who is a HS JUNIOR. some say they’re detached & oversensitive, but their family and friends will swear they’re cooperative & loyal. when i think of them, i think of pastel notebooks, fairy lights strung expertly on the walls, and warm drinks clutched in cold hands. i wonder if their family know that SHE is hiding that she was part of a group that bullied others at her last school. ●● (C && GMT && SHE/HER)

So Skylar here is based off an old muse of mine, and is a certified mess tbh. Even she doesn’t understand herself, literally this gifset right here. If anyone wants to plot, just hit that heart or slide into my dms. Now onto explaining my little messy muse.

Her full name is Skylar Noelle Oakley, though she will answer to Skye. (ooc I was listening to the bring it on musical soundtrack when coming up with a name)

Born 25th December 2002 – Hence the middle name Noelle. For the first few years of her life, Skylar was every parent’s dream. She was a shy, reserved kid who never made a fuss over anything.

When the normally well-behaved child started day-dreaming during class, she claimed that she’d already finished the work and was bored, something that began to happen more often than not, which lead to her skipping a grade, something she loved initially but ended up being the route of most of her problems growing up.

Once she hit her teenage years, the need to fit in became so much more important to her, and she felt she was already at a disadvantage being the youngest of her classmates. And to a thirteen year old Skylar that meant one thing – acting like the popular crowd to fit in with them. It didn’t happen overnight, but eventually she began to find her place within the popular clique blatantly ignoring whatever guilt she felt for leaving her actual friends behind. What was a little guilt, if your life was what every movie and tv show aimed at teenagers said you should want?

Skylar wasn’t stupid – even if she now acted like she was - and she knew that while her new friends had many people who claimed to like them, most of the school seemed to hate them, and with good reason. They’d constantly pick on others about every little thing, and she’d stand off at the side not participating while they mocked others, but doing nothing to stop it either. Everything in her was screaming at her to do what was right, but she couldn’t let go of the life she’d built – one where she wasn’t just that weird kid who reminded the teacher they hadn’t given out homework.

That was until the past summer where she was at a party with her new group of friends, and her old friends happened to be there too. Almost like some kind of late initiation, her new friends prompted her to be the one to mock her old friends, to point out they didn’t belong there and should go home. And despite knowing she should tell her new friends they could go to hell – she complied with what she wanted, watching as her old friend’s gazes turned to ones of hatred. It’s a moment she regrets, and she’s certain she always will, but one she knows she can’t take back.

When the news came out that her family was moving, Skylar was… Not happy to say the least. Her life may not be perfect, but she had everything that she wanted. She had a spot on the cheer team, a large group of friends (okay frenemies but same difference), invites to the best parties and she was not amused at the prospect of giving that up. There were definitely a few ‘I hate you’s’ hurled her parent’s way, before she calmed down and offered an incredibly lacklustre apology.

Now she knows she has a chance to start over. To go back to being the bright girl with a good future ahead of her, and not the dumb blonde people stereotyped her as before – the only problem is, she isn’t ready to let go of her ‘ideal’ life. This time she figures she can do better – fit in with the right crowd, but not partake in being the reason behind anyone else’s pain. It won’t be easy, but she reasons she’s smart enough to find the balance with some time. After all, the world loves a pretty face more than a brilliant mind.

Never leaves home without a hairband or ribbon in her hair, a la early gossip girl!Blair.

Connection ideas

Other cheerleaders: One of the first things she did upon arriving in Ashcroft was try out for cheer, and she’d try to be as friendly as she could to fit in.

Best friend: Someone she genuinely clicked with, and doesn’t feel the need to constantly pretend or look over shoulder around them.

Frenemies: Because… She’d had a few probably.

Sceptic: Someone who doesn’t quite buy into the dumb blonde thing and keeps calling her out.

Mentor: Someone who’s older and trying to shove her towards the right path in life.

Mentee: Someone she sees about to follow the same path as her, and she wants to talk them out of it. Or just someone she thinks is too nice for their own good and wants to shield them from everything.

Shoulder to lean on: They don’t always have to be friends, but one day they found themselves opening up to each other and now they’re just… there when the other needs to talk.

Enemies: They just… Do not get along at all, and they haven’t really tried to.

Sugar and salt: these two on paper seem like they’d be a mess, they have very little in common – but somehow they managed to bond and become surprisingly good friends. they’re not sure how they work, but they do and that’s all that matters.

Pamper buddy: time at the spa, movie nights with facemasks, going to the salon or beauty parlour… these two spend most of their time treating themselves and hold no guilt about it.

Platonic soulmate: because who says your soulmate has to be romantic?

Friends with benefits: Because who needs feelings?

Accidental crush: Whichever muse never set out to actually like the other but it happened, and now it’s weird.

Co-workers: She got a part-time job as a waitress, so anyone who would work at the restaurant with her.

Online friends: They could know each other or not, maybe they used alias and have no clue they’re now in the same town, she would have definitely been nicer online than irl.

The unneeded tutor: She could ace her classes if she wanted, but her teachers don’t seem to think so and paired these two up together and she’s not the most receptive considering she knows she doesn’t need it and it’s a complete waste of both their time.

#ashcroftintro.

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talesofealdancynedom · 3 years

Photo

Andromada Rosethorn, in faux fairy robe armor. best of both her parents.

Tale 17: Calliope Cwenfyre, Amadeus and Andromada Rosethorn (chapter 3 - Andromada 3/5) part 3. Stories of True Love

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Though they were only freshly graduated, Scarlet and Amadeus desperately wanted to start a family. Thus, the fact Amadeus had no interest in intimacy presented a problem. Ever since figuring out, everyone, including him and scarlet, accepted and respected that part of his identity; until they were in a situation where it might matter. They loved each other; Scarlet would not leave Amadeus’s side, and was nothing but respectful of his boundaries. Amadeus would also never leave her, as he and his inner fey adored her. It was wholesome cuddling, and charming daily life that made them close. Scarlet cared not for Amadeus’s wealth, or status; Amadeus’s mother had indeed made a wonderful match. However, as much as they wanted a child, that fact remained that cuddling does not result in offspring, and creative troubleshooting was needed. It wasn’t only Scarlet who was becoming stressed by pursuing a family; Amadeus was also pressured to make an heir to Rosethorn manor, and was inspired to be a loving father by his best friend, Morgan’s, brand-new family. He couldn’t wait to be a parent. It was not long before the two lovebirds where cooing, while rummaging through his inheritances for hand down nursery supplies. There is something special about being with your partner, while you go through first albums, and find their baby shoes and blankets. It made them feel warm and fuzzy.

finally licensed magic users, two years after they decided to settle, Scarlet and Amadeus at last eagerly anticipated their daughter. Andromeda was born the same year as Morgan’s daughter Calliope, but in the fall. She was to be the only child Amadeus would have, and inherit the Rosethorn wealth. Which only occurred to him after she was born, while holding her in the middle of the night. Making her had caused so much emotional chaos, Scarlet and Amadeus decided one was enough, and were incredibly happy just to hold her. Once Amadeus realized how Andromada would he the only heir to Rosethorn, like him, it bothered him. Years before Andromeda was born, Amadeus’s mother had died suddenly, and Amadeus became the new owner of the manor and assets, before he even graduated from the magic academy. He was an internship away from being a certified paladin, and not quite a legal adult. He had life tragically put on him far sooner than he had expected. Amadeus had to grow up fast; which on top of his other motivators, resulted in him starting a family early. Amadeus was privileged of course; he had the family support, love enchantments, and financial resources to do it. Unlike Morgan, whose family was materialized from magical intervention and prophesies, years before he thought he’d be ready. Amadeus lived in fear that his risky job may cause the same thing to happen him or his daughter. He feared the same thing would happen to her. While raising Andromeda, Amadeus avoided his mother’s tactics, and instead focused on nurturing Andromada’s individual dreams and joys; instead of smothering her in future responsibilities.

As a result of his overzealous encouragement and love, Andromeda became her father’s biggest fan; she wanted to be a paladin just like him. This is something she shared with Calliope; Aspiring to be the good they saw in their fathers. Andromeda was carefully taught business and family history, to better take care of and love the manor; as well as how to care for the tree children and lovingly prepare orders of magic herbs. Unlike his mother, Amadeus chose to make Andromeda interested and invested in Rosthorn manor, by inviting her to do these things with him as a family activity. Which resulted in him loving it more as well. Amadeus avidly avoided grooming her into and ideal candidate. He would make her future ditties, an appreciated facet of her identity, instead of the whole picture. However, it turned out Andromeda was bursting with passion for her heritage, and grabbed onto her destiny like Velcro. Scarlet thought it was adorable. Amadeus didn’t need to do anything to promote Rosethorn manor; she already enthusiastically learned swords and sang off tune to plants. She loved it the day she first did it with her father at two years old.

Andromeda originally looked like her mother Scarlet, but once she got in a fight at the magic academy, she went dark, causing her to now look like her father. In fact, Calliope was there when it happened, in the swordsmanship gym module. Calliope had gone dark herself years prior, and had her python familiar Heracles at that point; but it was still shocking to see it happen to someone else. The uncontrollable spells and flow of magic coursing through another person, was scary up close. No matter the change in colours, Andromeda was a prodigy paladin, and had an unconventional sort of radiance: Athletically built for battle, equally tall as Calliope, while still retaining the best feminine features. Andromeda went home sick from going dark, and would be gone from school for a week. However, seeing the dignity and talent Andromeda possessed drew Calliope in. Andromeda had become an intrusive thought. Calliope realized that day, that she had developed a special affection for her childhood acquaintance. Her father’s best friend’s daughter no less. When she came home, and saw cousin Reggie, she asked her gay aunt if she might like Andromeda. Reggie married a stone princess, and would surely give an accurate expeirianced second opinion. This gave Reggie vast amounts of amusement, as she listened to Calliope rant about Andromeda. It felt shocking to Calliope; Ralizing she had fallen for a girl she had known her whole life. Turned out as the years went by, Andromeda and Calliopes paths just wouldn’t diverge. Resulting in a near daily awkward encounters.

When Andromeda graduated, she was accepted to apprentice her father. Two years accompanying a certified magic user in your field, after graduating from an academy, was necessary to be licensed. Amadeus, though her father, was the closest and highest-ranking paladin available to take on a graduate. Andromeda’s first international mission would be with her father; and was to accompany seers on a quest to gather population and behavioral data on golden eyed green dragons, in Isfisceard in the Northlands. Andromeda gleamed when she read who else was on the research team.

“I picked this mission, because Calliope is on it. It’s her first international quest as well. I want to make sure she’s safe.” Amadeus said. Protecting loved ones on quests was his ambition after all. It wouldn’t be too different then going off with Morgan, Amadeus thought. Protecting Morgan’s carbon copy felt nearly identical to helping the friend he was indebted to. Then he noticed Andromeda’s expression; She was smiling widely, in a dazed sort of state. She was imagining the adorable smile Calliope got when she learned something new, and how soft her floral pink dresses must be on Calliope’s slight frame, if Andromeda ever hugged her. Then she recalled the weird cups Calliope always showed off with genuine excitement, and her obnoxious yet romantic rose perfume, and….

“Why are you smiling? Happy to be with friends too?” Amadeus said sitting next to his daughter. Andromeda squeezed the document into a crumple while blushing. Amadeus paused a moment after the words ‘friends’ left his mouth.

“I see. It’s like that. Well, I guess you also have a special place in your heart for Calli? Maybe not the familial variety as me, but still. Morgan will happy to hear his daughter of summer will return home safely.” Amadeus said, trying to be encouraging. But Andromeda had almost stopped breathing, and had become flushed. He didn’t want to influence his daughter and Calliopes relationship; yet he also really did want to make them happy together. Realizing he made Andromeda uncomfortable, Amadeus scraped his brain to change the subject.

“How about a haircut? You keep asking for a more butch haircut to be intimidating? You’ll look good for your first big mission! Even though your mother loves your hair being as long and nearly white like mine. It makes you look like her, I must admit. But as you put it: Long hair is something your opponent might grab. Between us, however, mine never got in the way of my badassery.” Amadeus proposed, running his fingers through his long platinum hair. Andromeda was still frozen. Calliope also had nice long hair… Why would my father do this to me? Andromeda thought.

On the journey, Amadeus went from protecting the child of his friend by oath, to wanting his daughter and Calliope to have a happily ever after. They were both failing at being calm around each other, and were in a state of being unable to express their feelings. It was frustrating to watch. Amadeus wondered how they even got through school without saying anything. He failed to realize, the girls had been playing a game of small talk, and awkward avoidance, because they were emotional teenagers focused on building their futures. It is also possible they were experiencing the crushing fate of true love, that effects people of magic houses. Love effects housed people differently; wizards and mages tend to spark a love that burns faster, hotter and longer than fluoride. It is a literal uncontrollable spontaneous spell.

After a day on the train, the research party began hiking to their final destination; Amadeus let Calliope and Andromeda go ahead together, while he debriefed with the team leader. Calli and Andromeda were alone far in front, together, in silence, unable to make eye contact. They were supposed to be lead guide and guard.

“I only thought only your father was coming. Its’, ah, nice to have you here too,” calliope murmured. “Also, I like your new hair…it suits you.”

“Oh. Thanks. My dad cut it… Which is weird because my maternal grandparents run the village salon. He was keen on doing it himself for me.” Andromeda vacantly rambled. “Anyway, moving on: I was also pleased to come on a mission with you, and Heracles, of course. Father probably took the job because he cares so much about Morgan, and you have all his best qualities… And so, we can keep you safe; It’s isolated on those sea cliffs. And there are dragons and such…” Andromeda nervously replied.

“We grew up in a magic forest, Ann; You know fey are not inherently dangerous right? You’re not going to hurt them, are you? your too nice…”

“Oh, oh, um, of course not. I just meant I wanted to ensure you are-” Andromeda panicked; they were interrupted by Amadeus bursting into laughter behind them. It caused such dissonance from his calm formidable reputation, that the whole troop went silent. The girls uncomfortable exchange seemed so funny to him at the time.

“Didn’t know he could laugh.” Calliope said, as she looked to Amadeus at the back. Andromeda looked away into the sea of to the side, to hide her face, and shrugged.

At the top of the cliffs, where the dragons where, Amadeus set up a tent while Calliope ran off and began interviewing the dragons. Andromeda cautiously tagged close behind, scared Calliope might fall. If she learned anything of seers, it was that they would easily forget fear, upon noticing something of their interest was within immediate grasp. Andromeda knew very little Old English, aside from what Amadeus taught her to sing to the Rosethorn garden; but nodded slowly while not taking her eyes off Calliope. Calli was entranced and didn’t notice Andromeda’s gaze, or Amadeus silently following.

After three hours of talking with fey, andromeda and Calliope headed back to the camp, and Andromeda noticed her father was at the tent, appearing to have been painting in his journal the whole time. In reality, Amadeus had only just returned, having dashed back to camp before they noticed him. His enfeyment with a moon serval gave him good stealth, tracking and speed. Amadeus had been watching them the whole the time, as was his job, but didn’t want them to know.

“FATHER.” Andromeda yelled; furious he wasn’t working. “Paladins take watch while on quests, not paint.” She scolded. Amadeus remained calm, as he actually had been doing his job.

“I’m sorry, Andromeda. You looked like you had control of the situation. I should add, now that I have your attention, that we are a tent short. You and Calli have to share one; Is that ok?” Amadeus responded casually, blowing on the gauche to make it dry faster. “Don’t worry, Ann. Calli will be up all-night filling in her journal. She’s a chip right off the old block.”

“Wait! What did you say Father?” Andromeda exclaimed. Calliope had so much fun talking to dragons, she had only just returned to reality, in time to hear this exchange. She realized instantly there was no way she was going to be able to journal notes, while sharing a tent with Andromeda. If she did stay up late, it would be from fluster.

In the past, anytime they saw each other, it was for an hour at most, and in a class or a party where they didn’t interact much. Being in a small town meant you knew everyone, but you had the choice not to spend every waking moment with them. Or sleeping moment in this case. Amadeus had already pitched the tent, and thought himself clever. He was happy he wasn’t as serious about things as he had been when he was younger. At best this was a nudge or joke, and worst a jerk move. Calliope and Andromeda did not make eye contact the whole evening, went to bed early, and pretended they were asleep until they actually were. Amadeus could sense they were still awake, when he woke at dark from his enchanted sleep schedule. Moon serval sleep four hours at dawn and dusk; guaranteed eight hours of hard-core sleep, but up at awkward times of the day and night. Convenient for night shifts. While making rounds, Amadeus crouched down to Andromeda and Calliope’s tent, and listened with his keen ears to ensure they were asleep. Instead, he heard their racing hearts, as they lay still and quiet in the dark spacious tent. It made him wonder if he had made a terrible mistake, by rooting a little too hard from the sidelines.

NEXT--->

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#art #tales of ealdan cynedom #fantasy #short stories #story 17 #calliope #scarlet #morgan #amadeus #andromeda

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