#dancing ice cut short five celebrities forced pull out

[fyexo]

191220 K-Pop Stars EXO Reflect on How Far They've Come — and How Far They'll Go

As Chen tells Teen Vogue, this year has been “a time for EXO to reflect” on their past, present, and future.

Chances are, even if you didn’t know it at the time, you’ve seen the members of the legendary K-Pop group EXO before. Their musical prowess speaks for itself, but even beyond that, their careers have taken over TV, fashion, celebrity culture, and more in the past year.

Maybe you've seen rapper and multi-instrumentalist Chanyeol, 27, shaking hands with Zendaya at Paris Fashion Week. Or perhaps it was breathtaking dancer and rapper Kai, 25, cracking 7th place on British GQ’s Best-Dressed Men of 2020 list. Or singer and composer Lay, 28, becoming Calvin Klein’s first-ever Chinese global ambassador. You might’ve watched rapper and youngest member Sehun, 25, on Netflix’s detective program Busted, or glimpsed leader and vocalist Suho, 28, waving from the red carpet as an honorary ambassador of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao. These are just a few of the places and memories that stamp the proverbial passport of EXO’s lives this year.

It’s been an equally powerful year musically for EXO too. With two members — Xiumin, 29, and D.O., 26, — currently completing their mandatory military enlistment and Lay promoting in China, the remaining six members of EXO have explored their own individual musical identities in 2019. Power vocalist Chen, 27, released two solo albums that chronicled love and heartbreak through mature, heart-warming ballads, while Baekhyun’s groovy solo album, City Lights, broke the highest monthly sales record for a solo artist in South Korean chart history with over 500,000 copies sold. Sehun and Chanyeol teamed up this summer for the debut of EXO-SC, EXO’s hip-hop sub-unit, while Baekhyun and Kai joined forces to “jump and pop” in SM supergroup SuperM.

As Chen tells Teen Vogue, this year has been “a time for EXO to reflect” on their past, present, and future as they reunite to promote their sixth album Obsession.

It’s December 4th, 2019, and the six members are dressed in thick, woollen, neutral-toned sweaters and trenchcoats to protect themselves from the arctic winds billowing throughout Seoul. There’s a warm camaraderie to their interactions as they laugh amongst themselves and take sips of their iced coffees. The atmosphere feels comfortable and familial, born from an understanding of each other’s mindsets and quirks that has been learned organically over the group’s career.

“It’s been seven years since we debuted and we’ll be hitting eight years next year; that’s a long period of time,” Chen says. His humble, calm demeanor is a balm for the rest of the group who cling to his introspective thoughts. “We reflected on our past journey and tried to make improvements in this new album. It’s been a grateful and fun time.”

This desire to continuously push boundaries both musically and creatively has been at the crux of EXO’s identity since their debut in 2012. Originally split into two groups, EXO-K and EXO-M, EXO performed their shared discography in both Korean and Mandarin in an effort to appeal to two major music markets simultaneously. The groups came together in 2013 to release their debut album, XOXO, and the album’s repackage released later in the year saw EXO’s popularity hit a fever pitch with the funky, dance-pop single “Growl.” Since then, each of EXO’s last five albums have sold over a million copies in South Korea alone, earning them the title “quintuple million sellers.”

The group is not only a staple in South Korea but across the globe too. From performing in front of the world at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics to becoming the first K-Pop group to have their faces projected on the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, EXO has stamped their name in the annals of pop history with their devotion toward their music, fans (called EXO-L), and each other. As they’ve matured over the years, that dedication hasn’t wavered.

“In our early years we just played together, whereas now we’ve grown up and matured,” Baekhyun replies. The singer’s personality is brighter than his shining white hair, and he thrives on the reactions to the jokes he makes throughout our chat. “We share a lot about where we’re headed in life, what we want to do for the upcoming album, and discuss how we can come together closer as a team to improve our teamwork.”

That tight-knit teamwork manifested itself in multiple ways throughout this year. From congratulating each other on Instagram like Lay did for Baekhyun’s solo debut to Xiumin and Sehun emceeing Chen’s solo album press conferences, the members have made it a point to support one another with every milestone they achieve, both individually and as a group. It also took center stage as the group embarked on their fifth world tour, Exo Planet #5 – The EXplOration, this July.

Part of the decision to go on tour, according to Suho, is because it makes the fans “happy,” which in turn makes EXO happy; this treasured time spent with fans also one of the reasons why the group worked tirelessly to release their new record in between their jam-packed personal schedules.

“Since the year EXO debuted, we’ve released an album every year. We’ve never skipped a single year,” Suho answers. With attention-grabbing ruby red hair, the leader holds himself with a quiet confidence and classic charm. “Even though it wasn’t a formal promise we made, it’s been a tradition to release an album each year, even if that means we have to make the promotion period short. Everyone’s been having hectic schedules, but it’s very meaningful for us to spend the end of the year with the fans.”

Heavily rooted in the group’s constant state of reinvention, the concept for Obsession sees EXO face off against their evil, superpowered doppelgängers X-EXO. Superpowers have been a common thread that has tied EXO’s music video multiverse together since their debut single “MAMA”, with each member utilizing their own signature power ranging from Chanyeol’s pyrokinesis to Kai’s teleportation abilities. When X-EXO arrives ready to destroy the planet in the group’s music video, the result is an explosive, superhero-style brawl between good and evil that leaves viewers enthralled.

In the lead up to shooting the music video, EXO emphasized the importance for both of their characters to have their own distinct, contrasting identity. While EXO dressed in weathered, straight laced black cargo pants and berets as if ready to march into war, X-EXO celebrated their eccentricities with jewel toned hair colors, white eyelashes, and uniquely cut clothing that bridged the gap between menacing and seductive.

“Our main focus was to draw a big contrast. All of us thoroughly discussed with our makeup and hair artists to bring that contrast, almost to the point of exaggeration,” Chanyeol says. He’s as jovial as his bubblegum pink hair and is openly expressive with his emotions, which light up his face whenever he speaks. “We tried to make X-EXO look very dark. EXO, on the other hand, was the good, righteous EXO like what fans have seen in the past. They came easy and naturally.”

“Like Chanyeol said, we discussed thoroughly with the makeup, hair, and costume team so that you could see the contrast right away,” Kai continues. Conscientious and thoughtful, Kai surveys the older members before answering so he doesn’t interrupt them. “Our attitudes also play a key role because they add to the strong visuals. Since it was a video, we all tried to make our performances convincing. X-EXO showed something that EXO had never done before — something mischievous.”

Amongst the members, X-EXO wins in a landslide over the team they liked the most.

“X-EXO had a stronger visual impact,” Baekhyun explains. “Personally, I wish that we made the plain EXO look cooler. That would have been right, because EXO was supposed to be the revolutionary army against X-EXO! I feel like they were visually weaker; I wish we had expressed more passion as EXO.”

With every album, EXO releases a bold title track that shatters the current K-pop paradigm, like the sinister “Obsession” or the reggae, EDM hybrid track “Ko Ko Bop." The remainder of the tracks on the albums typically allow EXO to explore new genres and make them their own, which range from hip-hop dance tracks like “Ya Ya Ya”, which samples ‘90s vocal trio SWV’s “You’re The One”, to heart-fluttering ballads like “Butterfly Effect."

Kai’s favorite track on the album is “Jekyll," which he loved from the first listen. “It starts off like a sweet R&B song, but the chorus suddenly changes into this shouting, which I think is in line with the duality expressed in the album,” he says. “I immediately thought that we could show a very different type of performance for this song — I can’t wait to perform this on stage and show the fans.”

“I like “Obsession” the most,” Sehun answers. Although under the weather, he makes a point to attend the interview to support his older members. “It was good enough to make the title track, so it’s my favorite.”

Chen picks the dreamy “Groove” because: “I love all the other tracks, but this song made me wonder if I could pull it off when I first heard it because it was such a different genre. It was challenging while recording it, but I love the result. It’s one of the songs that I feel most attached to.”

Chanyeol also fell in love with “Jekyll”, but is also partial to the similarly haunting reggae track “Trouble”. “The song came out to be great; I think we pulled it off pretty well,” he says happily.

“‘Day After Day’ for me,” says Baekhyun. While the other members have been discussing their favorites, he’s been silently exchanging silver rings with Suho. He nicks Chanyeol’s wire-rimmed glasses and puts them up his face backwards, reveling in the laughter he receives. “The song reminds me of a certain type of weather. I like songs that remind me of something — a song with a theme or story. ‘Day After Day’ does that for me.”

“I was going to say the same,” Suho says, shocked. A mischievous grin spreads on Baekhyun’s face. “Stop it,” he teases.

The room is whipped into uncontrollable laughter as Suho jokingly grasps the collar of Baekhyun’s sweater, as if he’s about to wrestle the other singer mid-interview. Suho’s faux fury only makes Baekhyun’s smile grow wider and he lets out a loud ahh, ahh! before Suho lets go.

“It reminds me of rain!” Suho complains, but a smile is working its way across his face too. “That’s because the lyrics have the word ‘rain’ in them,” Baekhyun dryly quips. “Choose something other than ‘Day After Day’,” Kai urges in between laughs. “Day after tomorrow? Two days after tomorrow?” The laughter doubles.

In the end, Suho chooses “Baby You Are." “The song uses band sounds and I really like the sound of the guitar,” he answers, before replying in English: “The intro is the best!” He flashes an assured smile and gives a thumbs up to further prove his point.

“The intro is your part!” Chen lovingly chides. “It’s because you sang that part!”

The most emotional track on the album is “Butterfly Effect," which is a direct callback to the group’s 2013 song “Don’t Go” (which literally translates to “Butterfly Girl”). The song, according to Chanyeol, was selected as a way to thank fans for their unwavering support over the last seven years.

“After viewing the different universes portrayed in EXO’s albums, you’ll be able to see a connection between Obsession and our previous records,” Chanyeol says. “In songs like ‘Don't Go’ and ‘Butterfly Effect’, there are butterflies that resist the Red Force [the canonical evil force mentioned throughout EXO’s music videos] and protect EXO. To us, these butterflies represent our fans, who are always beside us no matter what. They are why and how we exist.”

He continues: “Because of our fans — through their love and support — we are able to overcome any difficulties [we face as a group]. This is probably one of the biggest messages that we wanted to share on this album.”

Prior to their debut seven years ago, the members’ goals for the future were heavily built upon their dream to debut together. Chanyeol recalls that, before they were ever officially called EXO, each member was bonded together by a “common goal to create good music as one” as well as their frequent discussions while training to “work together for a very long time."

“At the time of our debut, we had achieved nothing and everything was up in the air. We talked about working together for a long time, hitting number one on the chart, winning awards, and more,” Kai replies, tone contemplative as he leans closer. “Personally speaking, when we eventually achieved all those goals, I realized, yes, winning awards and being successful is important, but more importantly being able to perform happily as an artist is what mattered the most. There were times when I obsessed over our sales record, stages, and something tangible, but now my goal and dream is to be a happy artist, being satisfied with what I do.”

At the end of Kai’s answer, EXO breaks out into a hearty round of applause. Kai bashfully shines on the encouragement with a soft grin. “He’s like a supervisor,” Baekhyun teases. Chanyeol concurs, “He’s like a CEO!”

Looking ahead, EXO’s goals for the upcoming year aren’t the grandiose, tangible achievements of their youth, but rather to keep the promise they made to each other all those years ago: to make music together for a really long time. “I’m wishing all the members’ health and happiness [in the future],” Chen says.

“Being able to perform for a long time as one, being able to meet the fans for a long time…” Kai reflects. “That’s the most important.”

source: emlyn travis @ Teen Vogue

#exo #suho #baekhyun #chen #chanyeol #kai #sehun #t: info

[dailyexo]

[INTERVIEW] EXO - 191220 Teen Vogue: K-Pop Stars EXO Reflect on How Far They've Come — and How Far They'll Go

"As Chen tells Teen Vogue, this year has been “a time for EXO to reflect” on their past, present, and future.

Chances are, even if you didn’t know it at the time, you’ve seen the members of the legendary K-Pop group EXO before. Their musical prowess speaks for itself, but even beyond that, their careers have taken over TV, fashion, celebrity culture, and more in the past year.

Maybe you've seen rapper and multi-instrumentalist Chanyeol, 27, shaking hands with Zendaya at Paris Fashion Week. Or perhaps it was breathtaking dancer and rapper Kai, 25, cracking 7th place on British GQ’s Best-Dressed Men of 2020 list. Or singer and composer Lay, 28, becoming Calvin Klein’s first-ever Chinese global ambassador. You might’ve watched rapper and youngest member Sehun, 25, on Netflix’s detective program Busted, or glimpsed leader and vocalist Suho, 28, waving from the red carpet as an honorary ambassador of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao. These are just a few of the places and memories that stamp the proverbial passport of EXO’s lives this year.

It’s been an equally powerful year musically for EXO too. With two members — Xiumin, 29, and D.O., 26, — currently completing their mandatory military enlistment and Lay promoting in China, the remaining six members of EXO have explored their own individual musical identities in 2019. Power vocalist Chen, 27, released two solo albums that chronicled love and heartbreak through mature, heart-warming ballads, while Baekhyun’s groovy solo album, City Lights, broke the highest monthly sales record for a solo artist in South Korean chart history with over 500,000 copies sold. Sehun and Chanyeol teamed up this summer for the debut of EXO-SC, EXO’s hip-hop sub-unit, while Baekhyun and Kai joined forces to “jump and pop” in SM supergroup SuperM.

As Chen tells Teen Vogue, this year has been “a time for EXO to reflect” on their past, present, and future as they reunite to promote their sixth album Obsession.

It’s December 4th, 2019, and the six members are dressed in thick, woollen, neutral-toned sweaters and trenchcoats to protect themselves from the arctic winds billowing throughout Seoul. There’s a warm camaraderie to their interactions as they laugh amongst themselves and take sips of their iced coffees. The atmosphere feels comfortable and familial, born from an understanding of each other’s mindsets and quirks that has been learned organically over the group’s career.

“It’s been seven years since we debuted and we’ll be hitting eight years next year; that’s a long period of time,” Chen says. His humble, calm demeanor is a balm for the rest of the group who cling to his introspective thoughts. “We reflected on our past journey and tried to make improvements in this new album. It’s been a grateful and fun time.”

This desire to continuously push boundaries both musically and creatively has been at the crux of EXO’s identity since their debut in 2012. Originally split into two groups, EXO-K and EXO-M, EXO performed their shared discography in both Korean and Mandarin in an effort to appeal to two major music markets simultaneously. The groups came together in 2013 to release their debut album, XOXO, and the album’s repackage released later in the year saw EXO’s popularity hit a fever pitch with the funky, dance-pop single “Growl.” Since then, each of EXO’s last five albums have sold over a million copies in South Korea alone, earning them the title “quintuple million sellers.”

The group is not only a staple in South Korea but across the globe too. From performing in front of the world at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics to becoming the first K-Pop group to have their faces projected on the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, EXO has stamped their name in the annals of pop history with their devotion toward their music, fans (called EXO-L), and each other. As they’ve matured over the years, that dedication hasn’t wavered.

“In our early years we just played together, whereas now we’ve grown up and matured,” Baekhyun replies. The singer’s personality is brighter than his shining white hair, and he thrives on the reactions to the jokes he makes throughout our chat. “We share a lot about where we’re headed in life, what we want to do for the upcoming album, and discuss how we can come together closer as a team to improve our teamwork.”

That tight-knit teamwork manifested itself in multiple ways throughout this year. From congratulating each other on Instagram like Lay did for Baekhyun’s solo debut to Xiumin and Sehun emceeing Chen’s solo album press conferences, the members have made it a point to support one another with every milestone they achieve, both individually and as a group. It also took center stage as the group embarked on their fifth world tour, Exo Planet #5 – The EXplOration, this July.

Part of the decision to go on tour, according to Suho, is because it makes the fans “happy,” which in turn makes EXO happy; this treasured time spent with fans also one of the reasons why the group worked tirelessly to release their new record in between their jam-packed personal schedules.

“Since the year EXO debuted, we’ve released an album every year. We’ve never skipped a single year,” Suho answers. With attention-grabbing ruby red hair, the leader holds himself with a quiet confidence and classic charm. “Even though it wasn’t a formal promise we made, it’s been a tradition to release an album each year, even if that means we have to make the promotion period short. Everyone’s been having hectic schedules, but it’s very meaningful for us to spend the end of the year with the fans.”

Heavily rooted in the group’s constant state of reinvention, the concept for Obsession sees EXO face off against their evil, superpowered doppelgängers X-EXO. Superpowers have been a common thread that has tied EXO’s music video multiverse together since their debut single “MAMA”, with each member utilizing their own signature power ranging from Chanyeol’s pyrokinesis to Kai’s teleportation abilities. When X-EXO arrives ready to destroy the planet in the group’s music video, the result is an explosive, superhero-style brawl between good and evil that leaves viewers enthralled.

In the lead up to shooting the music video, EXO emphasized the importance for both of their characters to have their own distinct, contrasting identity. While EXO dressed in weathered, straight laced black cargo pants and berets as if ready to march into war, X-EXO celebrated their eccentricities with jewel toned hair colors, white eyelashes, and uniquely cut clothing that bridged the gap between menacing and seductive.

“Our main focus was to draw a big contrast. All of us thoroughly discussed with our makeup and hair artists to bring that contrast, almost to the point of exaggeration,” Chanyeol says. He’s as jovial as his bubblegum pink hair and is openly expressive with his emotions, which light up his face whenever he speaks. “We tried to make X-EXO look very dark. EXO, on the other hand, was the good, righteous EXO like what fans have seen in the past. They came easy and naturally.”

“Like Chanyeol said, we discussed thoroughly with the makeup, hair, and costume team so that you could see the contrast right away,” Kai continues. Conscientious and thoughtful, Kai surveys the older members before answering so he doesn’t interrupt them. “Our attitudes also play a key role because they add to the strong visuals. Since it was a video, we all tried to make our performances convincing. X-EXO showed something that EXO had never done before — something mischievous.”

Amongst the members, X-EXO wins in a landslide over the team they liked the most.

“X-EXO had a stronger visual impact,” Baekhyun explains. “Personally, I wish that we made the plain EXO look cooler. That would have been right, because EXO was supposed to be the revolutionary army against X-EXO! I feel like they were visually weaker; I wish we had expressed more passion as EXO.”

With every album, EXO releases a bold title track that shatters the current K-pop paradigm, like the sinister “Obsession” or the reggae, EDM hybrid track “Ko Ko Bop." The remainder of the tracks on the albums typically allow EXO to explore new genres and make them their own, which range from hip-hop dance tracks like “Ya Ya Ya”, which samples ‘90s vocal trio SWV’s “You’re The One”, to heart-fluttering ballads like “Butterfly Effect."

Kai’s favorite track on the album is “Jekyll," which he loved from the first listen. “It starts off like a sweet R&B song, but the chorus suddenly changes into this shouting, which I think is in line with the duality expressed in the album,” he says. “I immediately thought that we could show a very different type of performance for this song — I can’t wait to perform this on stage and show the fans.”

“I like “Obsession” the most,” Sehun answers. Although under the weather, he makes a point to attend the interview to support his older members. “It was good enough to make the title track, so it’s my favorite.”

Chen picks the dreamy “Groove” because: “I love all the other tracks, but this song made me wonder if I could pull it off when I first heard it because it was such a different genre. It was challenging while recording it, but I love the result. It’s one of the songs that I feel most attached to.”

Chanyeol also fell in love with “Jekyll”, but is also partial to the similarly haunting reggae track “Trouble”. “The song came out to be great; I think we pulled it off pretty well,” he says happily.

“‘Day After Day’ for me,” says Baekhyun. While the other members have been discussing their favorites, he’s been silently exchanging silver rings with Suho. He nicks Chanyeol’s wire-rimmed glasses and puts them up his face backwards, reveling in the laughter he receives. “The song reminds me of a certain type of weather. I like songs that remind me of something — a song with a theme or story. ‘Day After Day’ does that for me.”

“I was going to say the same,” Suho says, shocked. A mischievous grin spreads on Baekhyun’s face. “Stop it,” he teases.

The room is whipped into uncontrollable laughter as Suho jokingly grasps the collar of Baekhyun’s sweater, as if he’s about to wrestle the other singer mid-interview. Suho’s faux fury only makes Baekhyun’s smile grow wider and he lets out a loud ahh, ahh! before Suho lets go.

“It reminds me of rain!” Suho complains, but a smile is working its way across his face too. “That’s because the lyrics have the word ‘rain’ in them,” Baekhyun dryly quips. “Choose something other than ‘Day After Day’,” Kai urges in between laughs. “Day after tomorrow? Two days after tomorrow?” The laughter doubles.

In the end, Suho chooses “Baby You Are." “The song uses band sounds and I really like the sound of the guitar,” he answers, before replying in English: “The intro is the best!” He flashes an assured smile and gives a thumbs up to further prove his point.

“The intro is your part!” Chen lovingly chides. “It’s because you sang that part!”

The most emotional track on the album is “Butterfly Effect," which is a direct callback to the group’s 2013 song “Don’t Go” (which literally translates to “Butterfly Girl”). The song, according to Chanyeol, was selected as a way to thank fans for their unwavering support over the last seven years.

“After viewing the different universes portrayed in EXO’s albums, you’ll be able to see a connection between Obsession and our previous records,” Chanyeol says. “In songs like ‘Don't Go’ and ‘Butterfly Effect’, there are butterflies that resist the Red Force [the canonical evil force mentioned throughout EXO’s music videos] and protect EXO. To us, these butterflies represent our fans, who are always beside us no matter what. They are why and how we exist.”

He continues: “Because of our fans — through their love and support — we are able to overcome any difficulties [we face as a group]. This is probably one of the biggest messages that we wanted to share on this album.”

Prior to their debut seven years ago, the members’ goals for the future were heavily built upon their dream to debut together. Chanyeol recalls that, before they were ever officially called EXO, each member was bonded together by a “common goal to create good music as one” as well as their frequent discussions while training to “work together for a very long time."

“At the time of our debut, we had achieved nothing and everything was up in the air. We talked about working together for a long time, hitting number one on the chart, winning awards, and more,” Kai replies, tone contemplative as he leans closer. “Personally speaking, when we eventually achieved all those goals, I realized, yes, winning awards and being successful is important, but more importantly being able to perform happily as an artist is what mattered the most. There were times when I obsessed over our sales record, stages, and something tangible, but now my goal and dream is to be a happy artist, being satisfied with what I do.”

At the end of Kai’s answer, EXO breaks out into a hearty round of applause. Kai bashfully shines on the encouragement with a soft grin. “He’s like a supervisor,” Baekhyun teases. Chanyeol concurs, “He’s like a CEO!”

Looking ahead, EXO’s goals for the upcoming year aren’t the grandiose, tangible achievements of their youth, but rather to keep the promise they made to each other all those years ago: to make music together for a really long time. “I’m wishing all the members’ health and happiness [in the future],” Chen says.

“Being able to perform for a long time as one, being able to meet the fans for a long time…” Kai reflects. “That’s the most important.”"

Photo links: 1, 2, 3

Credit: Teen Vogue.

#EXO #EXO K #EXO M #191220 #exo im #exo k im #exo m im #p:news #t:news #fs:teen vogue #comeback:Obsession

[anboringday]

Tracey x Franklin: Just Friends

Summary: Tracey De Santa, a college freshman, has a crush on the most popular boy on campus, Chad Dillington. Determined to win his heart, she turns to her best friend Franklin Clinton for help. However, she never expected to start developing feelings for her best friend instead...

Word Count: 5.8k 

Tags: Fluff!! And more fluff!! Slow burn. Friends to Lovers. (Post Ending-C)

Read on Ao3 

Franklin barreled through the door of my room.

Carefully applying my eyeliner in the mirror, I glanced at him. Chiseled jaw clenched and hands balled into fists, a frown marred the space between his arrogantly shaped brows. His strong, muscled arms wired tight beneath his white T-shirt, he stood at the ready for battle.

His cognac-brown eyes searched my room from top to bottom for unknown threats. “Tracey? You good?”

“Um, duh. I’m always fine.” I returned my attention to my makeup. “I’m gonna need you to tone down some of that masculinity. It’s totally uncalled for, super distracting, and it’s ruining my good vibes—”

His warm hand came down on my shoulder. I stiffened, his eyes shrewd and accessing as they bored into me. “You sent me a text saying that you were dying, that you needed my help. You sure you good?”

His voice was soft, filled with concern. My gut kicked. Maybe I shouldn’t have sent that overly dramatic text, but desperate times called for desperate measures. I needed help. Badly. Dad was always busy doing movie director stuff, Mom was too preoccupied with shopping and yoga, and Jimmy was a complete idiot, so Franklin was the only person I could rely on.

It’s been that way for months. He picked me up from school, assisted with my homework, helped me take selfies for Bleeter, talked me through every one of my frequent mental breakdowns—he was a life saver, literally. Because he was so selflessly awesome, I decided to keep him around. Mostly because he did stuff for me, but he also had a nice personality to boot.

And we looked hella good together. Whenever we were out and about in the city, people would stop and turn their heads to gawk at our beauty. I was a celebrity after all, the sexiest girl in Los Santos according to my Bleeter stalkers. And Franklin was powerfully built, dark-haired with stunningly amber eyes. He was a man who looked absolutely gorgeous just about every day of his life. It seemed effortless for him, and I would’ve resented that if weren’t besties.  

I confessed, “I lied to get you here, okay?”

“Tracey…” Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “You scared the shit outta me, girl. What were you thinking—”

“Don’t be mad. I’m sorry.” I hugged him.

The tension in his muscles relaxed beneath my touch. I took his hand and flopped down on my bed. He sat beside me, our fingers intertwined. “A’ight, Trace. I’m here now, so what’s going on with you?”

“I have news,” I smiled. “The best news. You’re not gonna believe this, but Chad Dillington asked me on a date!”

He stared at me, his expression blank.

“Well?” I tapped his shoulder. “Say something! Aren’t you excited for me?”

“Who the fuck is Chad Dillington?” he asked.

“Are you kidding me?” Energy thrumming through me, I jumped to my feet. “He’s like the hottest, most popular guy at my university! He’s a quarterback for the football team, a committed member of the Alpha Omega Theta Pi—”

“The Alpha Omega what?”

“It’s a fraternity, Frank! Chad Dillington is a big effing deal, literally every chick on campus wants to bone him. He has the prettiest blue eyes and the cutest smile ever.” I twirled on my heels. “I can’t believe he chose me of all people to go on a date with. This is so, like, amazing!”

“That’s cool, I guess.” He shrugged. “You called me over here just to tell me that?”

“No! If there’s any hope in winning Chad Dillington’s heart, I’ll need support. Your support and guidance, in particular.”

His brows furrowed. “Uh…why?”

“Because you can help me understand him! Guys know what other guys are thinking, right? You and Chad have so much in common too. You’re both around the same age, you both like getting sweaty at the gym, you both like getting high—”

“No offense, Trace, but me and that preppy ass frat boy ain’t got shit in common. I’m sorry, but I’m finna pass on this one. Maybe one of yo’ friends at school can help you.” He stood and took off for the door.

“Wait!” I swerved in front of him, blocking the exit with outstretched arms. “You’re right, there are some stuff you and Chad don’t have in common. Like, for example, he’s way smarter than you and his parents are filthy rich.”

Franklin glared a hole into me, a muscle in his jaw twitched. Yikes. Probably shouldn’t have said that.

“But you’re sane,” I complimented. “Sensible, wise beyond your years, and levelheaded. You’re playing with a full deck, Frank. That’s a rarity in Los Santos, you know? Everyone here is crazy.”

“Including you,” he snapped.

“But you love me.” I hugged his muscled arm. “You’re like the ping to my pong, the yin to my yang, the butter to my bread, the chocolate to my milkshake…”

“That was cute until you mentioned the part about chocolate. Now it’s weird.”

“Frank, you have to help me!” I pleaded desperately; my mouth set in a pout. “I’m your best friend, you can’t abandon me when I need you most. It’s not fair! I’ll hate you forever if you do—”

He smothered my mouth with his palm, silencing me. “Fine, I’ll help you on one condition. No more whining and crying like a damn baby, it’s embarrassing. Makes my ears bleed, it’s horrible.”

I smacked his hand away. “Deal. Now shut up and listen.” Standing on the tip of my toes, I spoke quietly into his ear. “Chad invited me to a masquerade ball. It’s a top secret, invitation only party the fraternity is hosting at some old, underground speakeasy—”

“Girl, why you whispering?”

“Because it’s a secret. Mom and Dad can’t know about this, they’ll freak out. Promise me you won’t tell them. You know how overprotective they are, they never let me have any fun.”

“It’s all good, relax. Your secret is safe with me.”

“Swear on it.” I rose my pinky.

“I promise.” His finger curled around mine. “So the most popular douche bag motherfucker in school invites you to an invitation only masquerade ball…”

“Could you refrain from calling him a ‘douche bag motherfucker’, please?” I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, all the cool kids are gonna be there. The party is happening this weekend. Friday night. I only have two days to prepare. This is so short notice, I haven’t even picked out a dress.”

“Hey, you could always cancel.”

“No! A date with Chad Dillington is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can’t back out now. I have to do this.” My stomach grew queasy and my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. I paced the room, my fingers laced taut until my knuckles turned white. “What if I screw everything up? What if he doesn’t like me?”

Franklin appeared in front of me. I jerked to a halt, riveted to the spot as his searching gaze burned into me, glimmering with golden flecks. Lost in the intensity of his eyes, something shifted in the air between us.

As he stared back, he changed…as if the impalpable wall he kept between us began to chip and splinter. His tough, guarded demeanor crumbled before me, revealing a soft vulnerability in his eyes. A tenderness I had no clue he was capable of.

He patted my shoulder and squeezed lightly, affectionately. My skin tingled from the warm, steady pressure of his touch. “Of course the frat boy is feelin’ you,” he said softly. “He’d be crazy not to.”

My cheeks heated. Since when did he become so flattering? “You’re just saying that to make me feel better,” I mumbled.

“Nah. I mean it.” He reached into his pocket for his phone and started tapping away at the keyboard.

I peeked at the screen. “What are you doing?”

“If you’re going to a ball, you gotta know how to dance.” He pulled up a Bleeter video of dancers clad in silk doing the Waltz. “Think you can do that?”

“Uh, I dunno. Last time I tried to slow dance with a guy was at high school prom. I slipped and twisted my ankle in front of everyone. Super embarrassing.”

“Let’s make sure you don’t trip this Friday, a’ight? We can practice together.” He propped his phone on my desk and took my hand in his, the other rested on the small of my back. “You ready?”

Our eyes locked, I nodded weakly, my breath coming in short and fast. The contact was electric, I could feel the edgy energy radiating from him—like a magnetic pull that grew harder to reject by the second. He started moving, his strapping body gliding across the carpeted floor with confidence and easy rhythm. Jeez, when did he get so good at this? He was a natural! My knees wobbly, I followed his lead to the best of my ability.

I felt so small and insignificant in comparison to him, my movement stiff and awkward. And it didn’t help that I was petite, barely over five feet, and he was huge—a tall, deep brown slab of solid muscle and well-exercised strength. The force of his presence was difficult to ignore in a crowded room, and doubly so in an enclosed place like this, so close to me…  

After a few beats, the heat of his direct, prolonged gaze became overwhelming. I lowered my head shyly.

“Chin up,” he instructed, tipping my head upward with a gentle push of his thumb under my chin.

Sucking in a harsh breath from the mind-boggling intimacy, I lost my footing and tripped over my own feet. He caught me in his arms just before I collided with the floor, his strong-featured face hovered over mine. Hit with all that striking masculinity at eye-level, I could only stare. Stunned. His beard was well-groomed, complimenting the hard lines of his square cut jaw, and his lips were like the icing on the cake…the fullness gave his rugged good looks the perfect touch of sensuality.

He helped me to my feet. “That wasn’t part of the dance, Trace.”

“No shit, Sherlock.” Pinching my lips together, I kicked a tube of old nail polish across the floor. “I’m never going to get this right. I’m so screwed.”

“It ain’t the end of the world. You still got time. Don’t give up, girl.”

“I wish I could be as optimistic as you are.” I sighed. “I’m sorry for being a bitch. There’s a lot of pressure on me and I’m taking it out on you.”

“It’s all good. I’m used to you being bitchy. I’m used to the screaming temper tantrums—when you beat yo’ fists against the floor and your legs start flailing like a fish outta water …” He grinned.

My stomach dropped. “It’s not funny.”

His laughter quickly faded. “My bad.”

An awkward silence filled the room. Twisting a finger around the hem of my blouse, I broke the quiet. “I’ve been working on my temperament with Doctor Friedlander. Do you think I’m getting any better?”

He leaned against the wall, his hands tucked casually into his jean pockets. “You haven’t had any episodes recently.”

“Because you calm me down right before I snap. Every time.”

“So why are wasting stacks on therapy, then? You’ve been seeing a therapist for what? Years? And you were still having panic attacks until…”

“Until you came along,” I completed his sentence. “I don’t want to become so dependent on you, Frank. It’s like, totally unfair to you.”

“Shit, I don’t mind. I ain’t going nowhere, unless you want me to—”

“No!” My heart lurched at the thought of losing him. Shocked by the fury of my reaction, I took a careful step away from him. “You wouldn’t leave me. You’d miss me too much.”

He stared at me for a moment, silent and thoughtful, his brow quirked.

I tensed. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Uh, no reason.” He lifted the brim of his black Los Santos snapback to scratch his head. “I should probably bounce. It’s getting late, and you got class in the morning.”

“Wait.” I passed him his phone and gave him a brief good-bye hug. “Do you think you could give me some guitar lessons after school tomorrow? Music class is kinda kicking my ass. I could use the extra help.”

“Yeah. Of course. No problem.” He chuckled, seemingly nervous for some reason. “I ain’t the best with the guitar, but uh, I know a few things so…”

“Are you kidding? You’re way better at it than me.”

“Slightly better.” His teeth gleamed in a smile. “A’ight. I’ll hit you up tomorrow.”

I was a little bummed about him leaving, but he was right. I needed the rest so I could wake up bright and early tomorrow. I returned a smile. “Bye, Frank.”

“Bye, Trace.” He turned to leave but stopped at the door, his gaze shifted to me. “By the way, you don’t have to lie to get me here. You ain’t gotta send no dramatic texts or nothin’ crazy like that. If you need to see me, whatever the reason, just…call. I’ll be here in a heartbeat.” 

A pang struck my heart. I swallowed deep, fumbling for words. Before I managed to find my words, he was gone.

With a heavy sigh, I collapsed on my bed. What was the matter with me? Why were my brain cells starting to fry around Franklin? I had a huge date planned with Chad Dillington, but for some reason, I couldn’t stop thinking about my best friend.

My phone vibrated on my nightstand. I grabbed it and found two new texts from Franklin.

Still thinking bout how tripped over your own damn feet earlier.

Girl, you clumsy.

Oh my god. With an embarrassed grin, I texted him back; Wow. You sure know just what to say to boost a girl’s confidence :P

He responded a minute later. What if I told you that I like when you’re clumsy? I get to pick you up whenever you fall.

I read the message with wide eyes and then powered down my phone, my nerves danced wildly in my stomach. There was an ache in my chest, and I rubbed at it. Jeez. Pull yourself together, Tracey…

Read more on Ao3

#franklin clinton #tracey de santa #grand theft auto #gta #gta v #gta 5 #grand theft auto v #gta fanart #gta fanfiction #trevor philips #michael de santa #writers on tumblr

[kpop-zone]

Knight in shining armor | Momo

Warnings: consumption of alcohol

Genre: (slight) angst, fluff

Wordcount: 3,257

Request: hi! i love your writing ♡ could you do a momoxfem!reader scenario best friends to lovers? angst with fluffy ending in which the reader is the one to confess but momo says she only sees her as a friend but when the reader puts some distance momo realizes that she misses her

A/N: I’ve tried something new in the beginning, but I don’t think I even like it myself lol? So if you don’t like the style, just skip to the paragraph “today”, I think the story should still make sense starting from there :D

Monday, 09/13/2004

You just had moved across country with your parents. You had to leave all your friends that you had known since kindergarden behind and start all over again. It was your first school day and you were nervous beyond belief. Would the other kids like you? Would they be mean to the new kid? You tried to show yourself from your best side and after what felt like 15 hours, you had survived your first day.

Alone.

No one would even spare a glance at you. Your mother could immediately spot the sadness in your eyes and gave you a dollar to buy yourself a scoop of ice cream at the ice cream truck right in front of the school. But some kid shoved you and your scoop fell to the ground, only leaving you with the cone. You were about to start crying, fed up from all the frustration that you had bottled up since you knew you had to leave your home, when you suddenly saw someone transferring a scoop from their cone to yours. You turned your head to see a little girl with a crooked smile on her lips looking at you.

“Hi! I’m Momo!”

You later learned that she was your new neighbor and from this day on, you never had to sit alone at lunch again.

Friday, 07/21/2006

“Momo to Y/N. Are you there? Over.”

Your nightly routine started. The two of you would lay inside your beds, using your walkie-talkies to talk until late at night.

“Copy. Did you hear your parents talk to mine on the phone? Over.”

“Copy. Yes, we’re going camping together! This is going to be the best summer ever! Over.”

And it was. You would run around in the woods all day, imagining a magic world where Momo was the princess and you were her knight in shining armor, having to safe her from the dragon. At night you would lay in your shared tent together, watching the stars.

“Y/N! A shooting star. Quick! Make a wish!”

And you did. You wished to never be without Momo ever again.

Thursday, 05/05/2011

The both of you had grown up. You weren’t kids anymore. With the years, you had developed different interests, but you had managed to hold on to your friendship. Momo had started dancing in the school team and found new friends, but although you didn’t spend every living second together anymore, you still told each other everything. One day, Momo even told you when a boy in school had kissed her on the lips after dance practice. You remembered how happy you were for her, but how your heart grew heavy. You couldn’t explain it back then, but you were hurt.

Saturday, 11/09/2013

It was Momo’s birthday today. The last one you would celebrate as High school students. You knew by now why you couldn’t stand seeing Momo around other people drooling over her. You fell in love with your best friend. Could you tell her? Maybe you had to. After all, you told each other everything. So you decided that today was the day. You would tell her right after her toast, before the courage would leave you again.

“I want to thank you all for celebrating my birthday together with me. Especially, I want to thank my best friend, Y/N, who organized all of this and has been with me since forever and will hopefully always be my friend!”

Friend. It hurt to hear those words out of Momo’s mouth, but you didn’t let it show. You also didn’t let it show how your heart started to flutter when Momo pulled you into a hug, kissing you on your cheek. Maybe someday you could finally tell her, but not today.

Sunday, 08/17/2014

Today was the day you had dreaded for weeks now. Momo and you would both leave for college, only that between your two colleges would be a further distance than just your backyards. You were hugging in front of your car, not wanting to let go. This was your last chance. You had to tell her. Now. So you pulled away from her, but when you were about to speak, Momo cut you short.

“Don’t say anything now, or I won’t let you leave.”

A loud sob left her throat and she buried her face into your neck. Your unspoken words were the only thing that stayed unchanged that day. Everything else changed in a rapid pace. The next years, you would only be able to see Momo on holidays, because she often decided to spend even her vacation with her new friends. You missed her like crazy.

Wednesday, 05/23/2018

Today was finally the day! It was Momo’s graduation and you would start grad school together afterwards. You would finally overcome the distance between the two of you and even start living together. You had already rented an apartment and made a thousand plans. There was a lot of time that you had to make up for. It felt like you had just skipped the past four years. Now you were able to go back to normal again. You couldn’t wait to have your best friend back.

Today

“Momo, I swear to God, if you leave your dirty bowl standing around in the sink for two weeks ever again, I will kick you out of the apartment!”

You yelled from the kitchen, so your best friend could hear you in her room.

“It has been standing there for a maximum of five days... or a little more.”

Momo tried to convince you while shuffling tiredly into the kitchen. She gave you an apologetic smile, knowing that you couldn’t stay mad at her anyways.

“And you wouldn’t kick me out of the apartment, because you love me.”

She said while wrapping her arms around your waist from behind and laying her head on your shoulder, while you washed her dishes. When you took a glance to the side, you saw her giving you puppy dog eyes and a pout. Your heartrate immediately picked up and you decided that you couldn’t lie anymore.

Living together with Momo had been getting harder every day, especially considering that she was quite a touchy person. When you were lounging on the couch, watching a movie, she would just randomly lay on top of you, refusing to get up. Or most nights, she would sneak into your room, coming home late from going dancing with her friends. You always pretended to sleep, but secretly you tensed up under her touch, not wanting to take advantage of your friendship.

“Momo I have to tell you something.”

Momo was slightly startled at your serious tone but looked expectantly at you to continue.

“I think we should sit down for this.”

You dried your hands on a towel and guided Momo to the couch. You shortly considered whether you would regret this later, but then decided that you would regret not telling her even more.

“Ok. I need your full attention now, Momo, because this is not easy for me to say.”

Although your best friend was normally not one to be serious for too long, you could always count on her in moments like this. Her demeanor instantly changed, giving you her full attention. You took one last deep breath to calm your nerves before starting.

“I’ve been trying to tell you this for a really long time now.”

You stopped again, searching for words, chuckling to yourself.

“After knowing it for such a long time, you should think, I would have the right words by now. But I don’t”

You felt like passing out. What if she hated you after you told her?

“Hey, Y/N. You’re beginning to freak me out. Just tell me. We’re going to get through it together.”

Momo had a soft, but also worried look on her face. She was reaching out for your hand now, stroking it with her thumb and giving you an encouraging smile.

“I’m in love with you.”

You just blurted out, not knowing any better way to confess your feelings. Momo looked at you with wide eyes and absolutely no motion in her body at all. Scared, you took the word again.

“I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to. It just happened.”

You were waiting for an answer. Or at least some kind of reaction, but there was none. You were about to speak again, suffocated by the silence, when Momo finally opened her mouth.

“Y/N...”

Her eyes were now nervously looking around in the room and you got the sign. She was uncomfortable. Because of you. Your heart shattered to a million pieces.

“It’s fine. I know that you don’t feel the same. Really, it’s fine. I’m fine.”

You rambled on, just wanting to get out of the apartment as quickly as possible, but Momo grabbed your hand tighter.

“No, stop it ,Y/N. Let me explain. I...I’m glad you told me. I really am. I want you to tell me everything important in your life, because you are my best friend. But... But that’s all I feel for you. I love you, as a friend...”

Momo dragged her words out, trying to convey her message as careful as possible. But there weren’t really any words she could have chosen that would have hurt less. Unless she would have confessed her feelings as well. But she didn’t. You felt tears welling up inside your eyes. But you didn’t want to cry. Not in front of her. So you forced a smile on your face, nodding your head in response.

“Ok.”

You almost whispered, loosening the grip of Momo’s hand with yours. Your ears began to ring, and you felt like you were drunk. Every sound around you felt like a million miles away and your surroundings flew past you like you were on tracks as your world shattered.

“Y/N!”

You could hear Momo’s voice somewhere in the distance. But you didn’t care. You just had to get out of there. So you grabbed your keys, running outside, hoping the cold air would give you a clear head again. You didn’t want to face Momo again today so you wandered around the city until you were sure that she would be sleeping. The next morning you left when it was still dark outside, because you knew that nothing could get your best friend out of bed before 10.

The hide and seek continued for weeks. You would spend more time in the library or take more shifts at your side job, only coming home when you knew that Momo was asleep or at practice. But you needed the time. The time to heal. And after a few weeks you truly did feel better. You actually felt relieved. You were finally able to breath again, after letting go of a breath, you hadn’t known you were holding.

You realized that there were other people in this world. And the sooner you would get over Momo, the sooner you could actually spend time with her again. So you went out with your friends more often. You started to work out and actually even started flirting when you went out at night. Three months had passed since you stormed out of your apartment and you felt ready to meet Momo again like normal friends would do.

“Good morning, sunshine!”

You exclaimed cheerily, when you saw your best friend leave her room with disheveled hair and her eyes half closed. Momo jumped at the sound of your voice, not used to you being home.

“Y/N?”

She asked surprised, not knowing why you were here. She wasn’t complaining though. The past three months had been pure torture for her. She had missed you so much that she actually cried herself to sleep most nights. Did she ruin things between the two of you? It hadn’t been her intention. But she couldn’t have lied to you. She simply didn’t feel the same way that you did. Right?

“I made breakfast.”

You smiled at her, putting down two plates on the table. Slowly Momo moved to the chair, looking at you like you were a ghost. While you were eating, she didn’t even touch her food, staring at you in disbelief.

“You know it’s going to get cold right?”

You laughed, pointing at the plate in front of her. How could you be so cheerful? You ignored her for three months straight and then you just came back like nothing happened?

“What are you doing, Y/N?”

Momo asked, combing her hand through her hair. Of course, you knew what she was talking about. But you still considered to act dumb. You didn’t want to talk with her about it. You knew how your last talk went. Not wanting to anger her though, you sighted in defeat,

“Look, Momo, I’m sorry that I ignored you the past three months, but I needed the time. To heal. To get on my feet again. But I’m good now. I’m ready to be friends again if you take me back. I think I’m finally over you.”

You smiled proudly at her, but Momo slightly flinched at your last words. Why did it hurt to hear you say those last words? Why was she secretly disappointed? She gave you the best smile that she could muster,

“Of course I’ll take you back. I’m glad that you’re feeling better”

She reached for your hand over the table, squeezing it lightly.

You were happy.

You finally had your best friend back. For real this time. Or so you thought. But the next few weeks taught you something different. They awfully looked a lot like the previous weeks, only that it wasn’t you who did the avoiding this time, but Momo. Whenever you would come home in the evening, she would hastily leave the apartment. When you wanted to go to the bar together, she wasn’t in the mood, although you could hear her stumble into the apartment early the next morning.

One night, it was especially bad. You were ripped out of your sleep by a loud bang. When you got up to see what was going on, you found Momo sitting on the floor, apparently after falling over while she was trying to get rid of her shoes.

“Momo?”

You carefully asked, coming over to her. She was giggling now, carelessly throwing her shoes to the side. At your sight, however, her look changed. She started to sniffle and when you tried to extend your hand to her, she swatted it away.

“Why did you give up on me? Why didn’t you fight for me? Where did my knight in shining armor go?”

Tears were streaming down her face now. But you didn’t understand. What did she mean?

“What are you talking about? I would never give up on you, Momo.”

You said silently, kneeling in front of her and stroking her hair out of her face. Her head rolled back slightly, and her eyes were almost closed now. Snaking your arm around her waist, you helped her up, supporting her on the way to her bedroom. You wear laying her down on her bed, changing her into her pajama and tugging her in. Her breathing was steady and she was already fast asleep.

“I’ll always be by your side.”

You whispered, giving her a kiss on the forehead.

It was already past noon, when Momo finally left her bedroom, looking as miserable as you expected her to look after the little incident last night.

“Good morning, sunshine.”

You greeted her with a teasing grin, but immediately pouring her a cup of coffee which she accepted gratefully. You sat in silence for a while until the color had retuned to her face again and you decided that it was time to talk about the words, she had said last night.

“So... About yesterday. You said something and I didn’t know what it meant.”

The color that had just returned to her face, immediately left again and she stared at you with wide eyes over the edge of her cup. But you decided to continue, nevertheless.

“You said something about giving up on you and where your knight in shining armor went. What did you mean by that?”

You furrowed your brow trying to remember the exact words and then waited for her answer. Momo looked torn. You could exactly see that her brain was working in full capacity, searching for the right words.

“Hey, you can tell me. We’ll work though it together.”

Oh this conversation was just too familiar, you thought to yourself. But this time it wasn’t you who fought back the tears. It was Momo, only with little success. The tears started to make their way down her cheek, making her burry her head into her hands in shame. Shocked by her reaction, you immediately made your way around the table, kneeling in front of her.

“Don’t cry, Momo. Whatever it is. It’s going to be fine.”

You wrapped your arms around her shaking body in attempt to calm her down.

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

Momo let out between sobs.

“It’s ok. There’s no need to be sorry.”

You tried to take her guilt away, not exactly sure what she was referring to.

“It’s not okay!”

She suddenly yelled, pulling back from you.

“I broke your heart.”

She said much quieter now in a regretful tone.

“But I love you. I truly do.”

You felt awful. She just looked so broken right now.

“I know that you love me, Momo. I never doubted that for a second.”

You wiped away the remaining tears running down her cheek, but Momo suddenly jumped off the chair, looking frustrated.

“No you don’t understand! After you left me that day, I began thinking about all the time we spent together. And I was so blind, Y/N.”

Her tears were falling at a rapid pace again and you would’ve done everything to make her feel better, so you just let her pour her heart out.

“Every time I was not around you, I was feeling so, so empty. And I tried to fill that void. Making new friends, throwing myself into dance practice, going out every night. But nothing helped. You were all I wanted and that feeling scared me. So much.”

Slowly you began picking up on what she was saying, suddenly feeling dizzy.

“But I love you, Y/N. More than anything in this world. And more than a friend.”

You felt like crying. After all this time. Wasn’t it too late now? You had just gotten over her.

“Please, Y/N. My heart can’t take it anymore. I need to know. Can we work this out together or should we go our own ways?”

Own ways? No. You couldn’t lose her.

You had enough of this game the two of you were playing.

With big steps you made your way over to Momo, crashing your body and lips into hers. Your body was on fire. This was all you had wanted for years. You took Momo’s face in your hands, giving everything you wanted to say into the kiss. You were both not holding back anymore. Hands tugging desperately at each other’s clothes to get the other as close as possible and teeth clashing together while your tongues battled for dominance. When you had to pull back in need for air, both your hair was messy and lips swollen. But Momo couldn’t look more beautiful to you right now. Because she was a princess and you were her knight in shining armor after all.

“So I’m guessing we’ll be working it out together?”

She asked nervously, searching for your eyes, with her head still turned to the floor.

“We always did, princess. Didn’t we?”

#twice scenario #twice #momo scenario #momo #girl group #girl group scenario #kpop scenario

[whattimeisitintokyo]

Somos Familia Ch 38 Birthday Eve

Tomorrow is my birthday, so now I can relax knowing I got this GD chapter out! Hallelujah!

------

“Hola, Coco.” Miguel said happily, leaning in to give his sister a kiss on the cheek.

Coco smiled as she tilted her head to accept it. “How are you, Miguel?”

“Good, now that school is out.”

“Are you excited about your birthday tomorrow?”

“No.”

With a small sigh Coco shook her head and pointed a thumb to the back of the house. “Well go on to your little club meeting then. I’ll ring Papá and tell him you’re over here. You know how he worries.”

Miguel rolled his eyes. “Don’t remind me.”

“Don’t forget the Cokes!”

“Gracias, Coco!” Miguel grabbed two ice cold bottles out of the refrigerator and raced to Victoria’s bedroom upstairs, taking two steps at a time.

Over the years Coco’s house had become a sort of safe haven for Miguel to spend his free time. Yes, he had friends at school that he could hang out with, but nothing compared to how stress-free, homey and normal Coco’s house was. A spacious yet modest colonial style home built near the town’s border, it was the perfect place where Miguel could relax and actually be himself with no fear of his love of music being discovered by his parents.

Never really understanding his father’s unwavering stand on having no music listened to or played in his vicinity, Miguel was forced to keep his passions to himself until his older sister took pity on him and let him listen to dozens of records from her own private collection. He was also joined by his niece Victoria, and their shared secret hobby had led them to becoming each other’s best friend.

His smile faded as he reached the door when he saw another little girl standing in a huff in front of it, her face blotchy from having been crying, and she threw him a hard glare. With a stomp of her foot, she pointed at the door. “Tío, make her open up!”

“You’re not coming in here, Elena!” Victoria’s angry voice called out from the other side. “Get out of the way so Miguel can get through!”

Elena whined and hopped up and down. “Why does he get to come in and not me?!”

“Because he didn’t feed my tutu to your stupid goat!”

“Diego is not stupid! And I didn’t feed it to him, you just left it out!” Hands on her hips, she smiled smugly. “Besides you deserve it. If Abuelito knew that you were dancing he’d be mad at you. Maybe even hate you!”

Not liking how that line in particular made him feel, as well as not wanting to waste anymore time, Miguel held one of the Cokes out to Elena. “Here Elenita. Have a Coke.”

As her eyes settled on the bottle, Elena gasped in delight and reached for it. “Gracias tío!” Tilting it back and taking three large, refreshing gulps, she sighed in satisfaction. “Ahh, delicio-”

*SLAM!*

“HEY!”

Locking the door behind him as Miguel managed to zip inside, Victoria laughed and leaned against it while Elena kicked and yelled from the other side. She was already clad in her leotard and pointe shoes, but sans tutu of course. She nodded approvingly at Miguel. “Very clever Miguel. I’m impressed.”

Miguel chuckled and set the remaining bottle down. “Not that clever. Now we have to share one.”

“I know what you’re doing in there!” Elena screamed at them. “You’re dancing and playing music! Abuelito hates music! I’m gonna tell on you!”

“That’s only when Abuelito’s around, estupida! Mamá says we can do whatever we want with music as long as he’s not here, so you’re not allowed to tell!” Victoria crossed her arms and smiled smugly. “You’re just jealous because your legs are too short and fat to even walk, let alone try to dance.”

There was a moment of silence, before the sound of quick footfalls flying down the hallway and the piercing cry of “Mamá!” echoing off the walls let them know that they were finally alone. For now.

Miguel pulled his guitar out from underneath Victoria’s wardrobe, smiling reverently and brushing his fingers lightly against the crudely drawn skull on the stock. It was an old thing, the wood worn and splintering slightly along the edges despite how much gold paint he had slathered all over it. Limited artistic abilities aside he was quite pleased with how much he made it to look like Ernesto de la Cruz’s famous golden guitar. He just needed to get a Sharpie or something to draw in the final details. It wasn’t the best guitar in the world, but he was too scared to buy a brand new one. The fear of Papá somehow finding out kept him from doing so.

It could be worse though. It could have been a guitar made from scraps, screws and nails.

“So what do you want me to play?” Miguel asked as he tuned the strings to perfection. “Lago de los Cisnes again? Ooh, or maybe El Cascanueces because it’s almost the holidays. I’ve been working on the Russian dance if you’re up to the challenge.”

There was a time where Miguel wasn’t exactly fond of playing classical ballet songs for Victoria to dance to, considering it boring and her dancing to be prissy and goofy. That was until Victoria angrily challenged him to try it himself. He arrogantly agreed, and his one attempt to stand en pointe resulted in a dislocated big toe and a nail split down the middle. He had to lie to his parents about it too, saying that a horse had stepped on his foot. Now he treated Victoria’s dancing with the awe and pride that it deserved. And the songs were good practice for his plucking anyway.

“Not yet Miguel. First… I have to give you these.” Victoria placed a box in front of him, a small yet pleased smile on her face. “Feliz cumpleaños, Tío.”

With a roll of his eyes, Miguel took the lid off the box. “C’mon, Victoria. Why couldn’t you just wait to give it to me to-… morrow?...”

“Because Abuelito would throw a fit if I gave it to you in front of him.”

“Leather wrist bands!” Miguel cheered happily, throwing the box to the side and slipping the brown leather over his hands. “Just like the ones Tío Nesto used to wear! They actually look like the ones he wore in El Camino a Casa!”

Victoria nodded proudly. “Yep! I worked really hard on them to make it look exact.”

Miguel looked up at her in wonder as he finished fastening the buttons tight. “You made these?”

“Uh huh. I used leftover leather from the old workshop after the museum tour guide finished the shoe demonstration. I’m very good at weaving leather, who would have thought?”

The old workshop, along with the entire Rivera household, had finally run its course. After years of hemming and hawing Héctor had finally conceded that it was time to move into a bigger, safer house for his growing family. Not as flashy as any of Ernesto’s mansions, it was still an enormous complex with enough bedrooms for all the guests that were coming to Miguel’s birthday celebration. With high security walls, a lush garden full of both lovely flowers and fresh vegetables, and a five-car garage with the latest models inside, it was a house that truly showed off the Rivera’s wealth.

The old house had been turned into the Rivera Shoe museum, showcasing it as the origin of Imelda’s business as well as a small monument to the history of the family. There were demonstrations on basic shoe repair with workshops on cutting and sewing leather for tourists to enjoy, a gift shop to buy Rivera souvenirs as well as the usual fittings for their own custom-made shoes that they could order.

That was only during the weekdays. On the weekends it was closed to everyone but the family, and it was also where they would be having Miguel’s birthday party and where the ofrenda would be set up: So Leti could visit her real home.

But over the years the actual holiday came second to Miguel’s birthday. His father put all his time and energy into giving his youngest the best birthday a child could ask for: Mountains of food, games, presents and all his friends at school would come over and have the time of their lives.

Miguel had loved it.

At first.

But as he grew older his father’s exuberance over his birthday became more and more embarrassing. It was his main focus on all the days leading up to it, and on the day of the party he became unbearably chipper and happy.  Never mind the fact that Miguel would soon be turning twelve years old. Papá always acted like he was celebrating a five year old’s birthday. And despite the pleas from his friends parents Papá insisted that he celebrate his birthday on the day of, refusing to move it to another day so the families could also celebrate Dia de Muertos. Also since every party had no music for entertainment they became increasingly boring for all who came.

So eventually his friends stopped coming to his birthday parties, and it just became a family get together. Miguel would have rather just not celebrate at all, but Papá wouldn’t let him. He insisted that Miguel celebrate his birthday, but the boy knew by now that it wasn’t for his sake.

Papá needed to celebrate his birthday. To have something joyous to focus on, so as not to think about the daughter he had tragically lost, nor the day that his best friend and brother had been gruesomely ripped away from him. His birthday was a blessing to his father: the one good thing about Dia de Muertos.

And so Miguel endured it. But as he flexed his wrists and admired the exquisite craftsmanship of his sobrina, it made it feel like it would be easier to do so this year.

“Gracias, Victoria. They’re great! I feel just like Tío Nesto now!”

“De nada, Miguel.” Victoria smiled warmly. “And yes, I would like to try the Russian Dance. Your tempo has been poor lately, I’d hate to see if those wrist bands somehow make it worse.”

“Ha! Yeah right, just try to keep up!” Miguel laughed, and broke out with a loud flourish of his guitar. 

----

“Well I hope you enjoyed your little nap, Héctor.” Vicente grumbled as he and his supposed boss walked down the streets of Santa Cecilia, both munching on street food. “It’s not like quarterly report meetings are that important to your financial wellbeing as well as the thousands of people who work under you. And the board was even willing to come all the way to Santa Cecilia just so it wouldn’t upset your holiday plans.”

Héctor waved him off. “Ah, Chente, I’m just a figurehead for the company. You’re the one who should care about these things, not me. I’m like the uh… I’m the King George to your Neville Chamberlain!”

“It’s Churchill now.”

“Whatever. The point is you take care of the important stuff while I force a grin and wish the shareholders a happy holidays once a year.” Héctor grumbled, taking a huge bite of a tortilla filled to the brim with garlic, onions and fried chapulines. “Mmm… Oh yeah, last batch of the season is always the best… Besides I caught some of it. Especially when old man Tapia suggested we shut down some of the soup kitchens. Can you believe it?! That viejo looks like he’s never missed a meal in his life! He has no idea what it’s like to starve or do a hard day’s work for your food. Do you know what my first job was ever?”

“Catching grasshoppers when you were four years old.”

“Catching grasshoppers when I was!-… Oh, I told you that one, huh?” Héctor mumbled. “Well no matter. My grandchildren are coming in from America for the celebration tomorrow. They’ll appreciate my stories!”

Vicente smiled. “Ah, I haven’t gotten to see the newest one yet. It’s nice that they get to experience an authentic celebration for Dia de M-”

“Miguel’s birthday!” Héctor cut in quickly, his grin stretching a little wider than normal. “Si, it’s nice they get to see celebrate their tío’s birthday. All kids love parties, right?”

Vicente winced a little, nervously thumbing through the work papers in his hand. “… Right. Still I love this time of year. I remember being so excited to get to stay up all night for the festivals in my hometown when I was little. Helping my Papá decorate the ofrenda, sampling all the dishes my Mamá and my sisters cooked. The stories. I’m sure your grandchildren will love it. It’s always exciting to experience it the first time with your family when you’re little.”

“Wouldn’t know.” Héctor grumbled around a mouthful of tortilla, his earlier mirth gone. Vicente could tell he was trying to shoot down this conversation flat. “My parents dumped me in the orphanage when I was a baby, and the nuns thought Dia de Muertos was too pagan to celebrate. Didn’t really join in on the festivities until I moved out with E-…” Héctor paused, a flicker of pain in his eyes, before he forcefully swallowed down a too dry bite. “Until I had a family of my own.”

“Ay, Dios mio, speaking of families! Sorry Héctor I forgot.” Flicking through the pages he pulled out a couple of sheets. “I had this under miscellaneous since it had nothing to do with this morning’s meeting, but a certain Señor Domingo Cavallero approached me with this last evening while I was in the market.”

Héctor stared at the papers and groaned in disgust as he took them. “Domingo Cavallero? What does he want?”

Ever since the late elder Cavallero had brutally lost his position of the town’s mayor and the source of his embezzlement was taken from him, the whole family’s wealth had been steadily decreasing over the years. So set in their old ways they had kept up their lavish lifestyle until the pooled funds had trickled down into a puddle. What was once a proud and dignified family now lay on the very brink of heading off to the poor house. Héctor remembered quite clearly ever since he was a little boy the way Domingo had sneered in disgust at him every so often when their paths happened to cross. Now the former mayor’s son was coming to him?

“It seems that he and his son Ignacio are trying to build a hotel nearby. A family venture, he said, though it’s clear it’s a desperate attempt to reclaim their past wealth. I’m assuming they’ve scrounged up whatever money they’ve got left over to fund it but it’s not enough. They are humbly asking for a donation from you to make their dream come true… Or, rather, as humble as they are capable. I spent two minutes with the man and his son, and it was two minutes too many.”

“’El Dorado.’” Héctor read the description. “Hmph, very original… ‘A glorious extravaganza that combines superb customer service, gourmet meals delivered right to your room, and an astounding décor guaranteed to amaze and excite every guest.’”

“Sí. They’ve included blueprints and an artist’s rendering of the place to further incite you.”

Flipping to the next page, Héctor’s eyes widened as he looked at the illustrated drawing of what looked like the main lobby: Everything was gold. Gold furniture, gold wallpaper, gold plants. The wet bar, the piano in the lounge. Carpet, drapery, every single item nearly the exact same shade of gold. Not one other color to balance it out, not even a white or a brown. Just gold and gold alone.

“…This is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I’ve been told Ignacio came up with the theme himself.”

“That’s not saying much. How much are they asking me to contribute?”

“Oh, roughly seventy five percent.”

“Seventy-five?!” Héctor sputtered, folding the sheets in half and flinging them back to Vicente as if holding them anymore would burn his skin. “Why don’t I just pay for the whole damn thing myself?! Anyone with half a brain cell can tell that that… thing… wouldn’t last even half a year. Well, you can tell them that I am simply not interested in putting my time and effort into a lost cause.”

“Wh-?... Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!”

Héctor looked over to see Vicente with his face in his hand in frustration, and grimaced. “What, you think I should pay money for this basura?”

Vicente looked up. “Huh? Oh, no, I agree. It’s an eye sore. I’m sorry Héctor, but something’s just come up. I need to go to the cemetery for a minute, I’ll meet you at the house for lunch. Adios!”

Héctor blinked, just now noticing that they were in front of the town’s cemetery. As he watched Vicente head straight towards Ern-… The biggest mausoleum in the center of it all, he immediately turned heel and walked away as quickly as he could. All he needed to do was wind through some off the path streets, far away from the plaza, and he would be home. It would take longer, but that was okay. All the more time to plan for Miguel’s birthday surprise tomorrow. Héctor smiled, he was so excited to see Miguel’s face light up when he told him the big news. And he would have to thank Chente afterwards, he gave him the idea after all! He couldn’t w-

“Arf!”

“Gyah!”

Looking down Héctor sighed in relief when he just saw Dante, once again, sneak up on him and scare the living daylights out of him. And he wasn’t so sure if it was purely unintentional on the dog’s part either. “Hola Dante. You’re looking… remarkably well these days, especially for a twenty-year-old dog. No arthritis, vision loss, anything?… Sometimes I think you won’t die until you take me with you, the way you keep scaring me.”

Dante yipped again and gently tugged on Héctor’s pants leg, pulling him back towards the road to the plaza, but Héctor shook free of him. “Stop it Dante. If you’re going to the plaza you can bother someone else there. Because I’m not going. Now go on.”

Ignoring the whine of the dog behind him, Héctor made his way home. He had a party to organize, after all. And a surprise.

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

Walking up the path towards the mausoleum, glancing around to see if there was no one else within earshot to hear them, Vicente approached the man standing at the front gate glaring inside. Wrapped up in a thick poncho and wrinkled baggy pants, he held a cigar to the side before bringing it in for a thick puff. His wild sandy brown hair, thin patchy facial hair and piercing golden eyes made him look like he was a dirty vagabond no different from the ones lounging out in the street of the slums. No one would ever be able to tell that he was actually the head of the entire art department for Rivera de la Cruz productions with several prestigious awards to his name.

Especially not the way he was pouting childishly at the painting of Ernesto de la Cruz mounted high above his crypt and his shiny golden guitar.

“Javier, what are you doing back here?” Vicente asked tiredly.

“Just looking at the artistic travesty that has the power to make every true artist unfortunate to lay eyes on it retch in disgust.” Javier blew out a thick cloud of smoke, sneering all the while. “Look at it. Any child with a broken crayon could have made a better likeness of Señor de la Cruz.”

“Javi, how many times must we do this?”

Javier ignored him, continuing bitterly. “The background is such a slash and slop of blurs that it gives true focus on the face. That ugly horrid face that looks nothing like the man himself. Such cold, dead, expressionless eyes. You can feel it sucking your soul out.”

“Javi-”

“And that chin cleft. Is it a cleft, or did a psychopath just cut into him with a rusty knife? Might as well have given him a Glasgow grin while we’re at it.”

“Javi!”

“The person who made this painting should be drawn and quartered in front of the entire artistic community in order to avenge the death of art itself!”

Pinching his nose as he felt the pain of a headache coming, Vicente growled out. “Javier, Javi, mi amor… For the millionth time, and I don’t know why I have to keep saying this… YOU painted it!”

“All the more reason why I’m allowed to critique it.” Javier smiled widely in a way he knew always made his lover’s inside squirm. Seeing him flush slightly Javier drew his attention back to the painting. “I can’t believe I used to think that this was my masterpiece. You’d think I was the one on drugs at the time, not the other way around... Heh, though I was tempted to add a few white sprinkles on there. Ha ha!... But seriously this thing is un pedazo de mierda.”

Vicente sighed. “Look, if it bothers you so much maybe you can retouch it a little? Or we can put in another painting.”

Javier whirled around, eyes blazing fire and cheeks burning red. “And sully the greatest contribution to society I have ever made?! Commissioned by Ernesto de la Cruz himself, Mi obra maestra, mon pièce de résistance?! Are you loco?!”

Vicente stared blankly at him, then turned to leave. “I give up. I’m going to the house for lunch. Stay here and starve or come and eat, I don’t care anymore.”

“Ooh, comida!” Hopping down the stairs and running up next to Vicente, he flicked the head of his burnt off cigar up into the air, not caring when it landed in an offering dish of one of the graves with a clang. “Gonna get me some carnitaaas~…”

Fighting back a smile, Vicente pretended to glare at him. “You’re hopeless.”

“I’m hopeless?” Javier chuckled haughtily as he attempted to smooth down his flyaway hair. “No, I’m an artist. I live in the now, paint what’s in my heart, love it and then despise it years down the road. It’s part of the package deal, you’ve known that for a long time. No, you are the one that’s hopeless.”

“Me?”

“Sí, tonto.” Javier said. “This hopeless idea of yours: Getting Héctor Rivera to take his little coddled son under his wing and to pursue music with Rivera de la Cruz Productions. The same man who practically hisses like a cat at the mere sound of even a maraca shaken by a baby? Yes, I do think it’s hopeless. Childish even. A fool’s dream.”

“I think it’s a good idea!” Vicente said grouchily, shoving Javier slightly to the side. “And Héctor has always known that Miguel is nothing like his brother in terms of interests. So, while Mateo works with his mother and follows in her footsteps, literally in their case, heh… then Miguel will follow in his father’s! This will give Miguel an opportunity to branch out on his own and eventually and pursue his musical dreams. Maybe a record producer, or a talent agent. He’ll be surrounded by music. I think it will be a nice birthday present for him from his father. And since it was my idea then technically it’s my present to the boy.”

Javier hummed a little at that, worried. “I don’t know… Are you sure you convinced him properly?”

Vicente huffed. “Please, Javi. If I can convince Pedro Infante to record a cover album of the best of de la Cruz at half his normal pay rate, then I can convince Héctor to let Miguel work in the music industry. Trust me, when this all falls into place, you will be bowing down to me in awe and praise.”

“Ooh, that would be a nice change of pace, eh? Usually it’s the other way around.” Javier smiled widely again, enough to wipe Vicente’s smirk off his reddened face, and was shoved away again with more force.

-------

“Mija, I’m coming in.”

“Is Elena with you?”

“Sí.”

“She’s not allowed in, Mamá! I’ve forbidden her!”

“Too bad, I’m overriding you. Come unlock the door. Now.”

With a loud, drawn out groan Victoria unlocked the door and opened it for her mother to come in. Julio was also with her, holding onto Elena’s tiny hand as the little girl sniffled and glared daggers at her older sister. Victoria stuck her tongue out at her, which Elena paid in kind with a full-blown raspberry. Before a full-blown slap fight could break out Coco flicked both girls on the forehead. “Stop it.”

“She fed my tutu to Diego, Mamá!”

“She called me short and fat!”

“No, I said your legs were-”

“I said stop!” Coco said loudly, and when both girls quieted down she stood over them with her arms crossed. “Now, what do I always say when you two fight over silly things like this?”

The two sisters, still glaring at each other, said through gritted teeth “‘Be nice to your sister, because she’s the only one you’ve got’.”

“That’s right.” Coco said. “You’ll never know how precious she is to you until, somehow, she’s gone for good.”

Both girls immediately looked at their mother with wide eyes before ducking their heads in shame, while Julio gently took his wife’s hand for support. “We’re sorry Mamá.”

Miguel had never known his older sister Leti. Despite all the stories he had heard about her over the years, she was a practical stranger to him. He knew how she had acted with Coco and Matty, but the feeling that he had never had his own relationship with her gave him a weird empty feeling in his chest. He didn’t know how her voice sounded, how she laughed, any of her own special quirks and tics. And yet there was a longing deep within him to know what she was like, so strange to long for something that he never had. He knew, however, that his pain was several times less than the ones who actually knew her.

To break up to sudden tension, Miguel set aside his guitar and grinned. “I guess I’m lucky that my brother and sister are too old to fight with. Older than dirt-OW!”

“I’m not too old to flick you too, gordito.” Coco smirked as Miguel rubbed his stinging forehead. “Now Miguel I know you’re never especially thrilled when it’s your birthday, but I think this year will be different.” Coco said, an excited grin threatening to burst out. “Because I have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise?”

Before Coco could elaborate, Elena bounced up and down happily and squealed. “I think I know! Tia Rosita is pregnant again, right?!”

Miguel blinked, completely unsurprised. “Oh, is she?”

Julio snorted derisively and crossed his arms. “That’s not a surprise. That’s becoming an annual holiday itself.”

“Julio!” Coco hissed, glaring at her husband. “That’s not true!”

“She's right, Papá.” Victoria smirked. “Osvaldo and Facunito are only nine and a half months apart.”

“Victoria! Both of you!” Coco sighed in exasperation. “No, Rosita is not pregnant!... I think… Well, she might b- I don’t know! That’s not what the surprise is anyway! This is the surprise!”

A pink sheet of paper was thrust into Miguel’s face, and it took a second for him to focus on what was on it. Decorated with black painted skulls and dancing skeletons, the words ‘Dia De Muertos Talent Show’ stood out in big bold letters. Taking it from his sister’s hands, Miguel looked at it in confusion for just a moment before a creeping sense of understanding and hope started to well within. “The talent show? You mean… I get to go see it?”

“No.”

Miguel sputtered. “Wh-?! What gives Coco?!”

“You’re not going to see it hermanito, you’re going to be in it! I signed you up as the first act and you’re going to play in front of the whole town! Now everyone can finally see how talented you truly are!” Coco cried out, smiling widely and grabbing her astonished little brother into a huge bear hug. “Feliz cumpleaños, Miguel!”

Miguel gaped in awe as his sister let him go, looking at the poster, then his guitar on the bed, then to Coco. Slowly a grin formed on his face and he laughed out loud. “Really?! I’m going to play in the talent show?! I can’t believe it!”

“I want to see that!” Victoria added happily. “That’s so exciting!”

“Gracias, Coco! Gracias gracias gracias-”

“No!” Elena shouted, causing everyone to look at her. The poor girl looked both angry and a little afraid as she clutched her mother’s skirt tightly and tugged it frantically. “No he can’t! It’s one thing to play in the house, but in front of people?! Abuelito will be mad for sure!”

Victoria groaned. “Ay Mamá, why did you have to show Miguel’s secret present in front of el lengua larga? She’ll blab for sure.”

“I won’t blab if he doesn’t go!” Elena cried, and hurried over to Miguel’s guitar. Clumsily she lifted it and placed the large instrument behind her back, as if thinking that if it was out of sight then it was out of mind. “Please don’t perform tío! If you go on stage you’ll be hurt or even killed. Just like Ernesto de la Cruz!”

“That was an accident Elenita. It had nothing to do with music.” Miguel said dismissively. “And what’s so bad about wanting to be like Ernesto de la Cruz? We all used to know him, you didn’t. He was the greatest of all time.”

“You want to end up like him too?! Smooshed flat, and the only thing left of you would be a picture on the ofrenda?!”

Miguel rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “I don’t care if I’m on some stupid ofrenda.”

While everyone else in the room winced at Miguel casual disregard for tradition, Elena gasped so long and hard, her eyes and mouth wide with pure horror, it was almost comical. Turning to look at the guitar in her hands, her brow furrowed, and her face scrunched up in absolute hatred and disgust. Lifting the guitar as high as she could go, and with a warlike cry, the brought it to the ground!

*thunk*

….

*thunk*

Coco sighed. “Elena, what are you doing?”

Straining as hard as she could, Elena brought the guitar down again and again. “Mmph!... Trying to- uuff!... break the- nnyah!... guitar!” She tried and tried again, but the instrument was both too sturdy and too cumbersome to maneuver properly, and she lacked both the strength and the force to damage it even a little. The guitar simply made some light twangy sounds as the strings were slightly squeezed and brushed against, almost as if the instrument was just as annoyed as everyone else by what was happening.

“Stop it Elena. You’re going to scratch it!”

“It’s already scratched Miguel. One more won’t hurt it.”

“Callate…”

Huffing with exertion now and sweating, Elena started to struggle with the large object. “I can do it… Haa… haa… I can do it! Gah! Tío, help.”

“No, I’m not gonna help you smash my guitar!” Miguel yelled angrily, swiping the guitar away from her. “I’m playing in the plaza tomorrow for my birthday. Your Mamá gave it to me as a present, and I’m gonna enjoy it! Period!”

“But-!”

“Elena…” Julio said sternly, getting his daughter’s attention. “You won’t say anything to your Abuelito about this, alright? I know you’re afraid of what he might say, but what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him. And he won’t know if you don’t say anything. Claro?”

“But-!”

“You must always listen to your parents. Please don’t ruin this for Miguel, okay?”

Elena looked at her parents, then her sister, Miguel, and back to her parents. As her face reddened more and more and her cheeks puffed up to the point of bursting, she fled the room in tears and ran down the hallway wailing. Coco sighed as he watched her daughter run off then patted Miguel on the back. “Don’t worry. Everything will be alright.”

“What if she’s right though?” Miguel asked softly, holding the flyer tightly to his chest as if he was afraid that even that could be taken away from him at any second. “What if Papá finds out? Or Mamá? They would never let me go.”

“We won’t let them find out, we promise.” Coco said gently. “Matty, Victoria and I will be there to cheer you on, while Julio will distract them long enough for you to perform.”

“Th-that’s right!” Julio nodded and laughed nervously. “I mean-… I-I can do that! I can… Lie… to my father-in-law and my mo-… It shouldn’t be too hard, right? I can- Sí, I can do that!”

“Sounds like you’ll need all the help you can get, Julio.” A voice suddenly popped up. “And should I be concerned about Elena flailing about on the couch downstairs? She looked like she was starting to turn blue.”

The four turned and smiled to see Wanda standing in the doorway, dressed in a fancy travel suit and holding a suitcase in one hand. Holding onto her other hand was a small boy, smiling shyly and wearing an adorable cowboy outfit complete with tiny Rivera boots. The small ten gallon hat couldn’t hide the dark wavy curls of his hair poking out from underneath and his face was a little dirt smudged. He carried a brightly wrapped birthday present in his other arm and held it out to Miguel. “Happy birthday, Uncle Miguel.”

“Charlie!” Victoria cried out and enveloped the small boy into a big hug, his round face smooshed against her shoulder. “Charlie, mi primo favorito! Oh Charlie, you look so cute! What are you dressed as?”

Charlie smiled sweetly up at Victoria. “The Lone Ranger. I got a plastic gun and bows and arrows in my bag, too. Can we play?”

“We can later.” Miguel said, taking the present from his nephew and knocking on the top of his hardened cowboy hat. “Thank you for the present, Carlos.”

The little boy’s smile faded and he gave an adorable pout. “My name is Charlie.”

“Not here. In Mexico you’re Carlos.”

“Basta, Miguel!” Victoria snapped, and gave Charlie another hug. “Oh, I missed you so much Charlie. You are my most favorite primo ever. So sweet and cute.”

“What about Dahlia?” Miguel asked. “And Margarita? And Anselmo? And Osvaldo, Facunito, and Amapola?”

“I don’t see him every single day of my life, and he doesn’t drive me crazy as soon as he enters the room.” Victoria said. “That’s what makes him my favorite.” Behind her Julio nodded silently in agreement with a shudder, and Coco swatted him with a glare.

“Matthew has already told me the game plan for tomorrow, Miguel.” Wanda said as she placed Charlie’s suitcase full of toys down and began to unpack it for him. “But if this is going to work then Julio, Coco and I should talk about how we’re going to keep your father from guessing what’s happening. Don’t you worry.”

“Gracias, Wanda.” Miguel said, walking over to hug her in gratitude. “Your Spanish has gotten really good by the way.”

Wanda returned the hug and smiled proudly. “Of course it has. That’s what happens after long term exposure, being outrageously intelligent and having the internal drive to learn new things. I mean seriously, did you have any doubts in my ability to learn it?”

“Sí.” “Yes.” “Sorry.” “I, uh-... Sí…”

Wanda huffed irritably at the slight, but brushed it off and bent down to her son to speak in English. “Now you be careful when you play, alright? Your arm is still a little weak, so be extra gentle. No cops and robbers or anything like that, alright?”

“Okay, Mommy.”

“Oh that’s right!” Victoria said, bending down to look the little boy in the eye. “You broke your arm a few months ago! I was so sorry to hear that. Elena even cried when she heard.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry too.” Miguel asked. “Did it hurt? What happened?”

Gripping his left arm slightly, Charlie grinned as if he was telling a funny joke. “Daddy is the one who broke my arm.”

“WHAT?!”

“Matty broke your arm?!”

As the two children gasped and shouted at what they heard, both Coco and Julio winced as they looked at Wanda with pity. Wanda placed her hands over her mouth and sighed sadly, shaking her head wearily. “Charlie, you weren’t supposed to tell anyone that.”

“Oh, sorry.”

Miguel shook his head. “Man, you must have gotten into big trouble if Matty broke your arm-OW!” He rubbed his shoulder where Victoria had socked him hard, but before he could say anything Charlie continued.

“He didn’t mean to.” Charlie said softly. “Mommy says something scared him and he was trying to protect me, but did it too hard. Daddy was very sorry, he cried for a long time. I didn’t know grown-up men cried! My arm was in this itchy cast for a long time and Daddy let me eat ice cream for breakfast every day after that!” Charlie’s smile faded at that, and a slightly nauseous grimace passed over him. “I don’t like ice cream any more…”

“Guys listen.” Wanda said to the two older children in a serious tone. “I don’t want you to let Matthew know that you know about this, all right? It is a very sensitive subject that he feels terrible about, I don’t want him to feel any worse. It’s in the past and we’re moving forward.”

“Is Matty all right?” Miguel asked softly.

“He’s fine.” Wanda said assuredly, holding her son closely. “We’re all going to be fine. Just like tomorrow is going to be fine. Don’t worry. Everything is under control.”

-----

Héctor smiled as he held the whining baby high above his head, puffing out his cheeks and crossing his eyes until she dissolved into giggles. Lowering her down he blew loud raspberries onto each cheek until she squealed before giving her a kiss on the forehead. It was such a treat to see his granddaughter Clara again, not having seen her since shortly after her birth. Living in the United States prevented him from seeing her and Charlie regularly, so he relished the opportunity to see and hold her while she was still so small. He was also happy to see that after five months her eyes still had the same lovely shade of blue as her mother’s, his only grandchild to have different colored eyes. As the baby quieted down again, he nodded to his son. “Keep going mijo.”

Matty nodded somberly, downing his cup of coffee and handing it over for Imelda to refill. He nervously fidgeted with the polished knob of his cane, a necessity for his damaged leg, and shook his head with intense remorse.

“It was an old truck backfiring.” Matty said quietly. “It was so loud and sudden, especially on a quiet street. We were just walking to the park, talking amongst ourselves, and then ‘bang!’… Dios, it took just a millisecond. At that moment I wasn’t in Houston anymore, I swear all I could see was smoke and all I could smell was mud and decay and-…I just reacted.”

“The next thing I knew Charlie was underneath me, and he was screaming… I was frozen, just watching my son scream in pain, until Wanda was shouting ‘Get off of him Matt! Get off of him!’… Wanda rode with him in the ambulance, and she took the baby too, because I couldn’t touch her. I couldn’t touch him for days, I just felt so sick with what I had done to my little boy. Not even five years old and I had broken his arm. I tackled my son, trying to protect him by reflex, and I broke his pinche arm. Dios, Wanda was holding our newborn daughter at the time, if it had been them that I-!”

“Shh…” Imelda hushed him, rubbing his white knuckled grip on his cane until his fingers loosened. “But you didn’t. They’re both fine, and so is Charlie. They all know that you didn’t mean to hurt him.”

Matty nodded shakily, smiling at his mother in thanks. “Yeah… Yeah, I know. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that, but my therapist says that line of thinking is normal for someone with my condition. I’m trying to get better-”

“You’re seeing a shrink?” Héctor asked, his brow furrowing to show his confusion and slight aversion to the very idea. “But why? Everything turned out alright, Charlie’s arm is better. It’s fine.”

“No, Papá, it’s not fine. In fact, it hasn’t been fine for a very long time for me.” Matty said. “Over the years a lot of things have bothered me. Certain smells trigger images in my mind, I can’t stand the sound of fireworks, even low flying planes make me freeze up and panic. I’ve been dealing with it for years by simply avoiding it, like not accompanying my family for Fourth of July picnics or other situations where these triggers might occur. But this last incident made me realize that I can’t avoid the unpredictable.”

Héctor still looked uncertain as Matty spoke, but Imelda nodded encouragingly for him to continue.

“Wanda recommended a therapist from the hospital she works at. He’s good, Papá. He diagnosed me with shell-shock, something that a lot of former soldiers get so it’s not just me. But that's not all. He says my triggers go all the way back to Leti’s death, how it still affects my emotions and my interactions with my family to this day. I’m sure you all already know about that, but I didn’t really see it until he spelled it out for me. That I sometimes hurt them, and you guys, unintentionally. That I’m somewhat, well… emotionally stunted. But he’s been helping me a great deal. I feel like I’m making progress so far.”

“That’s wonderful, mijo.” Imelda said, leaning over to kiss his cheek and grimacing at the scratchiness of it. “Maybe your therapist can convince you to shave as well.”

“I can’t.” Matty laughed, running his fingers down his goatee and grateful for the well-intentioned nagging to lighten the mood. “Last time I did Charlie cried for a whole day; thought I was a stranger instead of his Daddy. I’d hate to do that to Clara as well.”

Héctor cleared his throat uncomfortably, then turned his attention back to the baby in his arms. “Sí, well good for you mijo. If you think that’s what you need then I’m happy for you. And this little girl is happy too. Aren’t you, cileita? Look at Abuelito. Ay, que lindaaa…”

As Héctor babbled and cooed at the baby, he didn’t notice that Matty and Imelda exchanged worried glances at each other. He continued until Matty cleared his own throat to get his attention, and his smile faded when he saw the two of them staring intently at him. “What?”

Standing up and walking with the aid of the cane, Matty reached out an arm and gently took his daughter out of Héctor’s hold. “Um, Papá… What I just told you about my struggles… Didn’t that seem at all, I don’t know… Familiar to you in any way?”

Héctor blinked dumbly at that, starting to not like how Imelda was starting to look sad as she stared at him. “No?”

Matty huffed out a sigh. “Come on, Papá. You must see where I’m coming from: Triggers that upset you, make you angry and in turn upset everyone around you? Avoidance of certain stimuli, to the point of outright banning it? Do you understand?”

“Oh… Oh!” Héctor laughed out, relieved. “Oh, I understand what you’re saying now. The music thing. Listen, it’s just not my kind of thing anymore. I know I owe a great deal to it, that the whole family does, but it’s time to move on. There’s more to our business than music, you know. There’s the hospitals, the schools, the canning factories, and of course the shoe business that you have turned into an empire all by yourself, my clever boy. Did I hear that they’re going to be on almost every athlete’s feet in the Olympics next year?”

“Please don’t change the subject, Papá.” Matty said in exasperation. “It’s not like you don’t care for music anymore Papá. You can’t stand it. You’re afraid of it.”

Héctor smiled, again a little too widely, and patted his son’s shoulder. “You think that- Ay yi yi, such a sweet boy, thinking about your Papá like that. Well you don’t have to worry about me, Matty.”

“Papá, you don’t listen to music. You don’t want anyone to listen to music. You’re avoiding it because it’s a trigger! And the thing about triggers is sometimes you can’t avoid them. If you don’t prepare yourself you could end up hurting yourself or worse: someone you love!”

“I don’t have what you have, Mateo. That, uh-… shell-shock, right? No, I don’t have it. I’m not a soldier, this is completely different.”

“It doesn’t always have to be about fighting in a war Papá.” Matty explained. “It can be caused by a very traumatic event that you witness. And I can’t think of anything more traumatic than watching your best friend-”

“I do not… have… shell shock!” Héctor snapped, pointing a finger to both his son and his wife. “We don’t need music, we’ve gone nine years without it, and we’re fine. I don’t avoid it, I just don’t like it anymore. I’m not like you, alright?! I don’t need help! I don’t need a shrink! I’m not crazy!”

“Héctor!”

At his wife’s hissing voice Héctor stopped his tirade in shock. Clara was crying in her father’s arms, deeply disturbed that the sweet old man who had held her before was now loud and scary. And Matty looked at his father, jaw clenched and eyes downcast. His throat bobbed a few times and Héctor saw his lips tremble a little before he looked up to glare at his father.

“You think… I’m crazy, Papá?”

“No!” Héctor gasped, placing his hands gently on his son. “Oh no, not you mijo, no… You’re uh… a special case. You have a condition, si? Happens to soldiers all the time, like you said right? If it makes you feel better than I’m all for it! You go to your shrink, and-”

“It’s therapist, Héctor.” Imelda said harshly, glaring at him as she moved to stand next to her son. “Not shrink. You say it like it’s a disease.”

Héctor sagged, not looking either of them in the eye anymore. “Therapist, right…”

Not liking how the fun visit with his son and granddaughter had turned so toxic and claustrophobic so fast, Héctor inched his way out the door to make a hasty retreat. “Listen, I think we need to just forget about this, so I’ll just leave for a while. I’m gonna go to the house- I mean… the museum. Get it all ready for the party tomorrow. That’s why you’re here, right Matty? Gotta make it a special day for your brother! Okay, I’ll see you later!”

As they both watched Héctor race towards the garage in an effort to get as far away and as fast as possible, Matty soothed his daughter back into an easy slumber and mumbled softly. “I’m here for my sister too… Guess he’s avoiding that as well…”

“I’m so sorry, Mateo.” Imelda hugged her son close and rubbed his back. “He didn’t mean to upset you. I know you tried to help, but he needs to want to be helped, claro?”

“He’s only getting worse Mamá.”

Imelda shook her head. “He’s not usually this bad. He has his good days more than his bad. It’s just that this time of year is so hard on him, you understand right? It was a terrible day for all of us, but even more so for your father. It nearly destroyed him.”

“I just wanted to help him. Help all of us… At least I tried.”

“Yes you did. It will be alright, mijo.” She smoothed back his hair and took the sleeping baby from his arms to give her a kiss. “Let’s change the subject, sí? I want to know all about your plans for Helsinki next year! How many pairs of shoes are we talking about?”

Matty smiled softly at his mother, letting her drag him into a boring, yet calming, conversation about shoes once again to soothe the pain of his father’s words. As he and Imelda talked about the Olympics next year, the upcoming winter catalogue, the demand to not smoke in the kitchen, and the vague plans of expanding to include a clothing line in the upcoming future, things seemed to fall back into a relative peace. There was still hurt there in Héctor’s heart, but nothing they couldn’t overcome as a family.

Things couldn’t possibly get any worse, right?

-----

As Victoria put away her pointe shoes into it’s shoe box she looked up to see Miguel staring at the contest poster.

Again.

For probably the billionth time within the last hour.

Her Mamá’s surprise had really put a damper on their little practice session, and soon even Charlie had grown bored with the lack of guitar playing from his tío and had gone off to play with Elena instead. Miguel just sat and stared at the poster with that dumb grin on his face, tracing the letters and illustrations with reverence like he did with all his other de la Cruz memorabilia.

But even if she felt like she didn’t get enough practice in, Victoria found that she didn’t really mind it in the slightest. She could see Miguel already going through the performance in his head, his eyes closing momentarily as if basking in applause that only he could hear. Then he’d continue to look at the poster and the process would repeat.

It was dumb, but Victoria was glad. It was about time Miguel was excited about something for his birthday. She couldn’t wait to see the performance herself. And maybe, hopefully, this would be a stepping stone for her. Maybe she would one day get to perform on stage, maybe even get a real teacher. Share a stage with her ballet idols. It was exciting to think about, but for now she would just be happy for Miguel.

“So, musico…” Victoria hummed, smiling when Miguel dumbly broke free from his trance to look at her. “What are you going to play tomorrow?”

With an excited grin, Miguel looked at the poster again and nodded to himself. Confidently. Assuredly. “Definitely Remember Me!”

Victoria sighed. “Why did I even ask?”

#somos familia #coco fanfiction #miguel rivera #Hector Rivera #mama coco #mama imelda #pixar coco #coco pixar #why did it take so long to write this? #because it was mostly exposition for what's to come #and that always sucks

[therookieking412]

She was so, very much in love. She loved every inch of him, his soft eyes, his pale hair, his strong dance. She had been with him for two years and never thought their love would end. They had married straight out of high school and went to a hotel for their honeymoon because they had no money. It didn’t matter where we spend it, she thought, as long as we’re together.

Her friends had warned her, “Careful, if you move too fast, you’ll fall over.”

She didn’t listen. 

She had gone to college and came home from classes to his loving face, he kissed her and they were happy. They struggled in debt, “We’ll be okay.” He promised, “Once you get a job, we’ll have two incomes and we can pay it off.”

He danced their troubles away in the kitchen to the sound of the dishwasher and the low hum of the television. 

Two years out of college they had a child they couldn’t afford and were left swimming, but they were in love and that baby was theirs, a beautiful child with pale hair and blue eyes, everything she thought their child would look like. They went to the park, to half off ice cream shops, to coupon zoo days; any way to give their child a good childhood without making themselves broke. 

They had a cat, a little thing with a cream belly and purple top, he wasn’t much trouble, but they only had him because their baby waned a dog, and the cat was the closest and cheapest thing. He was thin from running away from small children and only eating twice a day. He was apart of the family though, a member so when it came down to it, they didn’t have the heart to give him up and instead sold one of their cars.

They lied to their children, said everything was fine while buying a cheap cone to shut them up. They borrowed movies from their friend, a woman who lived a wealthy life as the daughter of a millionaire, still unmarried and building her own fortune. She was so kind hearted. They ate cheap popcorn and laughed at animated cartoons and for a moment everything was okay.

They had too many fights. It felt like they argued every night, a different battle, each one directed towards an all out war that ended in discontentment or a forced peace because their children needed them. 

He didn’t even dance anymore. She would try to draw him into the steps but he would pull away, “The dishes need to be done.” 

“The children will want to get the movie going.”

“The cat needs to be fed.”

“The phone’s ringing.”

He loved to dance with her. 

When she first read of the scandal she couldn’t believe what she was reading. She thought it was a dream.

HEIRESS SCANDAL REVEALED

THE NEXT OWNER OF HER FATHER'S COMPANY CAUGHT WITH A SMALL TOWN HUSBAND

“What’s that mommy?”

“Nothing!”

She closed the paper and burned it, dipping the edges into the stove’s fire. She knew it was useless, she had ran into a marriage too quickly. She should have given it more time. She should have seen the love fade from his eyes. She should have- 

But she didn’t.    

The divorce was messy. Papers and lawyers and the grey hairs grew from stress and she never thought she’d miss the color of her hair. She kept the house and the children, he got the car and whatever he bought with his own money. She didn’t care about what he wanted she just never wanted to see his face again.

She never got what she wanted.

COMPANY HEIRESS MARRIED

COMPANY HEIRESS AND HUSBAND PREGNANT!

COMPANY HEIRESS AND HUSBAND RENEW VOWS ON FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

He was everywhere, he lived in the pocket of the richest woman in the country. Their friend, their dear, dear friend, a bitch if she ever knew one. She stole him away from her, from their marriage. 

He hadn’t even waited a year to marry her.

She cut her hair short. It was too much of a hassle and it wasn’t pretty anymore. Just a dead grey. It mocked her when she woke up, a sheer curtain of steel surrounding her face, a prison she put herself in, bars that keep her from ever moving on, from ever loving again. 

“Just dye it, mom.”

She did, it was strange, the color was wrong on her head, it wasn’t the same as it was before all the stress, when she was young and free, still in love and unconcerned about the next tomorrow. 

Oh how he ruined her.

She went to ice cream shops, took trips to the zoo, and walked through the park; she didn’t have to wait for coupons or cheap days anymore. But nothing was beautiful anymore. It was so grey, or the color of her hair, so bright but still somehow off. 

He was amazingly happy and his wife was amazingly beautiful, that was the life they were meant to have. A happy marriage with perfect children with the brains of philosophers. And every weekend when he came to take the children off her hands, his eyes always widened, surprised at the horribleness she became, expecting the pretty young girl he married to be there to greet him. The first time he saw her short hair he seemed confused but didn’t point it out.

He was too polite, a gentleman, a man of his word, a cheater; a whore and he was the one who lived a happy life. 

She had been good, too. She had been supportive, a good wife, a good mother, and what had became of her? She became death on earth. A hollow woman with no meaning. She wasn’t even fifty yet.

How could that be? Wasn’t that what she had been taught? That people reap what they sow? So what did she plant that would lead to this? 

She cursed the earth for its bad harvest and drank.

And drank.

And drank.

And drank.

Soon, she began to go out, she’d order a drink and tell the bartender to “keep it coming” until she got too drunk to see and a kind man offered her a ride home. Somehow, that man was always there at the same time as her. He noticed too, and made sure she didn’t drink too much, telling the bartender to just top the vodka glass off with water, she wouldn’t know. He memorised her address after he took her home more times than either could count. 

It had been a year before she saw him somewhere besides a bar. She gave him an embarrassed smile and a shy wave. 

“Didn’t think you’d go anyway outside a bar.” Were the first words she’d heard come from him that weren’t drunken slurs, or ones she’d forget from being so drunk. 

She replied with a retort and so did he, a playful banter that had to make her think of what to say next instead of just letting words fall off her tongue. She’d felt- 

Revived.

Then he left. He was throwing a party for an old friend and was just getting food for a barbecue. 

Every week she went back at the same time, on the same day, hoping to see him, and she did, she always saw him, always in the same aisle, one week it was a block party, the next was a picnic, and she soon caught on that he was in the same aisle every week to catch her, just as she was there to catch him.

His eyes were bright and full of life and tragedy, but it was obvious he didn’t let his pain control him as she did. 

He invited her to one of the parties and she was happy to attend, a wonderful event filled with friends and family. He introduced her as “The moron that doesn’t know when to stop drinking” that had earned him a slap and a hearty laugh from those listening and she realized she didn’t mind, she felt the giggle bubble out of her throat before she could stop it.

They accepted her in and made her family before she knew it, they had taken her and wrapped her up in their affairs and activities and everytime she saw him there. It almost pained her when she realized she loved him, she tried to stop herself because she couldn’t go through what had happened to her again, but then she looked into his eyes and knew she couldn’t let her tragedy hold her back. 

They wasted no time getting married, “We’re too old to wait around” he joked. Planning didn’t take long for she had done it all before and everything was perfect the day of, a small wedding with every last one of their friends there, and there were no sides to pick because everyone they knew knew the both of them. 

Their honeymoon was a trip across Europe, a stay at a beautiful hotel with a pool and a spa, destinations that were beyond her imagination, and her love at her side. 

They bought a dog, “We’re too old to have kids” he said and bought her favorite breed the next day. 

One morning, she read the paper, a headline mention the heiress of the most productive company and her husband throw a charity event for the homeless. She read it. Their old friend was doing some amazing work to help the people, and her husband was doing just as much. She didn’t cry and she didn’t care, she read the article as if these people were two of the richest people she didn’t know, celebrities she could never fathom meeting. 

She smiled, maybe her tragedy wasn’t as awful as she thought. Her husband kissed her on the head, yes, if it lead to this, it was all worth it.  

#fakiru #ahiru #fakir #mytho #rue #this is a few years old but i still like it #just a little treat for being weak and not writing anything for #Friday Spin Class #fanfiction #august 24th #august #2019 #writing

[marchm-langdon]

Resurrection

Plot: Emma comes to stay at the hotel for James grand opening when things done go as plan with her boyfriend while staying at the hotel

Word count: 4,902

Warnings: mentions to abuse, small bit of blood and gore, smut, murder

Note: I do not condone or try to seem like I know everything about abuse.

August 23, 1926 this grand hotel, The Hotel Cortez, had just been announced to open, and the word was getting out amongst all the ladies where everyone ended up hearing about the handsome bachelor that was James Patrick March. The word was that he was opening, and inviting everyone to the various parties he was throwing there for the future. Basically everyone was invited to these parties and all the girls wanted to go to meet the bachelor in the hopes of ended up catching his affections.

This short, small, blonde haired girl, with emerald eyes, was walking into the hotel with a guy by her side. She was smiling, wearing a dress that was a bluish green color with matching heels, holding onto the guys arm. She seemed happy besides him, but, secretly ,wasn’t at all. The guy besides her was a tall, well dressed man with black hair, and ocean blue eyes. He was a long time friend of the owner, James Patrick March, which meant he had come to celebrate the opening. He walked Into this large room that had a table with several bottles of alcohol such as gin, champagne, and scotch to name a few with a big chunk of ice for anyone who wanted some with their drink, and a record player on a table besides the couch that was in the room near the entrance slightly. There wasn’t music playing since everyone was chatting amongst themselves in the big room some making small talk while others was talking about business matters.

The girl looked around not leaving the males side as the male went over to the famed owner. He smiled, “ ah the lovely mr. March. It is a pleasure to finally see that you have opened your marvelous hotel. I know it was years in the making for this to come into light as you have wanted it.” The lady besides him didn’t say a word. She looked down a bit then looked up to look at James. James looked nodding to the guy, “ ah! I am very proud to see that you, are here and, like it as much as i do.” He smiled bending down and taking the girls left hand pressing a gentle kiss to it as a hello, “ it is lovely to meet you. I am James Patrick March.” The girl looked, “ Emma. It is very lovely to meet you also.”

Emma smiled some, as she courtesies to James letting go of her arm around the guy she was with. She moved seeing a friend and quietly asked, “may i talk to my friend, Pandora, you’ve met her before?” The guy nodded, barely giving Emma the time of day, as Emma went over to a friend. Pandora whispered to Emma, “ is this not an amazing hotel?” Emma nodded, “ yes.” She bit her lip and pandora teased her some, “you like Mr. March.” Pandora smiled then Emma blushed and shook her head, “ He is attractive, but you know I am with-“ pandora nodded, “ I know. It is such a sad thing when you could find someone better and richer.” Emma shook her head, “ I can’t…”

only having one friend who she’s known for ages they spoke for a bit; As quietly James spoke to the guy more for a second, “ why do you not stay here for a couple of days? I can set up a nice room for you both to stay near me if you wish?” The guy nodded, “ we would love that. I am very glad you invited us to come to this astounding place.” Her boyfriend moved to look back at Emma before back at James.

James looked at Emma, “ please do stay for dinner. I would enjoy it gratefully.” The guy nodded, “sounds wonderful we will stay.” James looked, “ please give me a minute.” The guy moved, going back over to Emma, to let James talk. James grabbed a glass of champagne that was on the table. He grabbed a drink stirrer, that was made of glass, to get everyone’s attention tapping it against the glass of champagne. Immediately everyone went quiet looking at the handsome man. Emma looked at the brown haired male before looking at her significant other. James had given his speech thanking everyone for coming and talking about the circumstances of which why they were in this room. At the end of his speech he got a bottle of champagne then shook it; opening it letting the foam spray on him and in his mouth. Having his eyes dead set on the blonde in the room, not being able to keep them off of her.

after the speech people were talking and enjoying the party some moving downstairs to dance. Emma, Pandora, Em’s partner, and James was still in the original room. Pandora was still talking to Emma about some various stuff like dresses, various clothes, some make up, but pandora had ended up getting up excusing herself to leave to go downstairs for her to leave. Once Emma knew she was alone with her partner and James she just tensed up the air showing it a bit being a stuffy feeling almost around Em and her partner.

The room was already cleaned, having the dinner table set, and James could sense the air in the room, especially around them, so decided to try to help the situation, “you two must be starving. Why do we not eat? The food should be ready pretty soon. If you wish to join.” Emma smiled opening her mouth to say yes, but the guy nodded cutting her off before she could say anything, “ we will.” Emma got up going to a chair and James pulled the chair out for her. She sat in the chair as James pulled her up close to the table; the guy sat down as James did also before sipping some scotch. James was close to Emma without really thinking about it. Her partner sitting a bit away from them getting a bit angry that she sat near his friend.

The girl kind of had a moment of thought. What would happen when she was alone with her “boyfriend,” and what would happen if she was? She was thinking about all of this trying to keep herself calm with all of this going on with who she was with, and what it would do to her. She kind of ended up eating quietly letting the men talk. Not paying attention at all, but over hearing James talk about some various stuff about the hotel. After dinner was over, which having Emma barely eaten today, she got up looking at James, “ May you escort me to my room?” James nodded getting up, “ Please, give me a moment.” He walked out of the room before Emma could ask if she could come or what was happening. James went down to the lobby to get their keys for them. Emma looked at the male she was with shaking some now.

Her significant other looked at “his girl” as he stood up walking over to her and whispered to her, “ you better be astounding for while we are here. If you think about whoring yourself out to my friend I will make sure you do not think about it again.” Emma looked at him nodding looking down being a bit scared again it only growing more. Starting to shake she whispered, “ I will not-“ she couldn’t say another word before she was silenced hearing the door knob turn. The door opened as moving away from the boy the girl simply just tried to seem like nothing was happening. Hoping she wasn’t failing in all of this.

She wanted to cry, but pushed back some tears. James opened the door walking in; handing the key to his friend while still holding Emma’s to open her door for her, having separate rooms, as he turned on his heels to show them where they were to stay. Leading them down the hall as James walked he felt a weird sense of energy coming from Emma. He lead her to her room, which was right next to James, and opened the door. The guy however was a bit away from Emma and James. Emma walked in but was way too scared to say anything but give a simple, “ I wish you a good night.” Not looking at James as she heard the door close. Playing and hoping that HE would not do anything to her tonight.

After changing and doing her normal routine. It felt like eternity she had been in there, and would feel even worse in the moments to come. Pulling the sheets back she stopped a force telling her to stop and hide. She almost did it, thinking about how easy it would be, instead of that she just opened her door to see where a knock came from as the guy she was with standing in front of her. Gulping she looked up at him. A gust of fear over came here making her be paralyzed almost. Wanting to flee but didn't have the ability to. A loud noise was heard from the next room as James was about to get changed for bed in his undershirt and underwear only thinking nothing would happen. He didn’t feel like killing tonight or so he thought it would be like normal, but the walls were Thin on this side of the hotel. James stopped listening hearing some small, faint, yelling with noises of someone being hit as well. Feelings like he had to do something he walked out of his room. Marching to where he heard the noise.

Pausing for a second before listening again. The guy was slapping Emma for several things that didn’t even make sense or reason as to why. The guy always thought Emma was more than what she was since she never even did anything before; Hell this was her first “boyfriend” for that matter. So why would she do anything terrible? Some thoughts racked up in her mind doubting what she could or even would do. She felt like she couldn’t do anything like even breathing without being yelled at.

Getting on top of Emma she yelled at the guy, “ get off me!!” James had to do something, realizing it was from Emma’s room, as he busted into the room. He pulled the guy off her before getting a knife of his. Slicing the guys throat open he gushed blood it getting on Emma. James smiled having more satisfaction then he thought he would from killing someone he thought of as a friend; the female shook more but not screaming a little bit of joy sparking in her. She had dealt with this for almost five months; being use to him doing this every night they were near each other.

James wasn’t going to stand for this behavior; Being disgusted by the behavior he held the knife moving to let the body fall on the ground. With a thud he laid lifeless bleeding out a little bit. Something about her spoke to him when she wasn’t screaming about watching him kill. He looked at Emma, “ are you fine?” Emma glanced at James from looking at the dead body. She nodded some but couldn’t speak or even say a word. All her emotions were stopped being just astonished by all of this, and the man standing in front of her holding the bloody knife in his hand with blood on the floor, it also dripping from the knife, bed and her. Making herself stand she looked at James then shakingly walked over, without going near the blood on the floor, and hugged him. She was thankful to him for finally doing something she needed to get rid of. Being surprised by the girls reaction James just looked at her for a moment then hugged her back after tossing the knife to the floor for now. Not caring what happen to it knowing it would get cleaned up.

Letting go from the hug after a few moments Emma sat on the bed closing her eyes, exhausted from the situation, and being weary of the blood and knife on the floor. Still not knowing what to do anymore about this situation. An onslaught of feelings came over her without saying a word she sobbed a bit. Not knowing what to do anymore and knowing She now couldn’t go back without the guy with her. She would be shamed for it and probably disowned. March moved wiping her tears away, “ please do not cry. It will be fine; do you need to stay here?” His voice was calm and caring wanting to make sure she was alright. A silence fell between them as the blonde gathered herself together. A part of her was scared, but knew how things had to be done for her to feel safe. Hopefully happy also.

“May we talk in your room after I clean up?” She said then James nodded, “ I can have the body cleaned up.” As Emma nodded she went to the bathroom. Cleaning up, showering to get the blood off of her. While in the shower she got side tracked her thoughts wondering about what did and could happen. Would she be happy living here? Could she make a life here? Once out she put on a clean night gown then something over her to make sure she was modest in front of James. Walking out of the bathroom she looked at the empty room then walked out of hers to James right next door. Knocking she looked around. She knew how this looked to everyone else, a young girl going to a mans room late at night, but she partly did not care. James went over to the door opening it letting her in. As she walked in the door, James closed it locking it to give them privacy. Some that they would need in this moment.

Emma sat down in one of his chairs crossing her legs. She looked at the man before looking down. Was it right to do this after HE was killed? Why isn’t she freaking out about this? Could the man in front of her give her more of a future? All these thought ran through her head. She kind of fell Into herself but remained proper. James walked over to her sitting down near her, “ what will happen if you went back?” Emma straightened up in her seat, “well...” pausing for a moment to think about it, “if I do go back I will have questions to answer. People might think I did something....or we called it off. I will get blamed for it being over.”

James paused then nodded, “will it make it better if you did not come back and married me instead?” Being thrown for a loop she looked at James, “ you would...marry me? Why?” James nodded, “ I can tell you are a kind girl, and you did not do what most people would do if they saw me kill someone in front of them.” Yeah Emma didn’t freak out, but how could she when she was getting punished for everything she did? He released her from the prison she was in. She was grateful for all of this. Especially then wanting of him to marry her. Was she that special?

After thinking about it for a moment she knew it would be the best idea but wasn’t all the way in, “ will it be done in private?” Nodding in agreement he asked, “ is that a yes?” The girl titled her head then getting up walking over to James, “let me think about it, please?” She basically had no other choice inside, and he was attractive but was going to think about it. James smirked then nodded getting a ring he had made for when he was to marry; giving it to her to keep while she thought about it. Going back to the room for the night she couldn’t get the proposal out of her mind. Did he like her at all or was this just a last minute option? She couldn’t grasp why he wanted to do this. Sitting in her room on the bed sighing some falling asleep on the bed holding onto the ring. When she awoke in the morning to a knock at her door; she got up, sitting the ring that was now on the bed on the nightstand, answering the door. She looked around not seeing anyone, but when she looked down she saw a tray of food with flowers. Bending down picking it up she took it inside closing her door. There was some eggs, toast, and bacon on the plate. They were a mixture of roses and lilies in the thing of flowers. She smiled then blushed some seeing a note tucked under the flowers. Getting the note she read it. It was a heartfelt note from James hoping she was okay, and that he wished to make her comfortable while staying here even if she does not wish to marry him.

She got the ring from the night stand looking at it. She sighed some then looked back at the note; it felt normal to her strangely enough; James made her feel that way and loved already even barely knowing him. She went back near the plate, pulling it closer to her, holding the note. Keeping the ring on the nightstand for now.

Emma was warmed by the thought that he wanted and cared for her so much, but right now she was starving so ate her food almost inhaling it. Once finished she looked at the flowers. Setting them on her nightstand besides her. Around the middle of the day, she went to find James. Going to his room first but to no avail; so went around looking for him. Hearing something in a room on another floor that she didn’t even know existed she walked in. Seeing James whip this girl with barbed wire type of whips pounding into her dead body. Emma paused finding herself frozen not knowing what or how to feel about this. Finally getting the courage she ran out of the room before James noticed hoping he wouldn’t , but he did notice hearing her footsteps run away from the room. He stopped fixing himself running after her. He was wearing his mask and his bottom half, it being undone some, grabbing her hand. Emma stopped looking at James. Shaking not looking at him having nothing to say to him. James couldn’t say anything for his actions, and she couldn’t say anything about her emotions them being a tangled mess in her mind. Suddenly she took the mask off, “do you normally do these kind of things?” Giving a small shameful nod to Emma looking at her.

Em looked down then mumbled, “if we marry will you kill like that ever again? The whole…” she couldn’t say the words. He shook his head, “ no I will kill, but not do that stuff while I do it.” Nodding Em kind of came to the realization she was mostly alone. Having it hit her that she did need to marry James. Being shaken up still about what all has happened while staying in the hotel. Maybe her thoughts was quick and being a bit rushed, but she thought she had to do it having adrenaline in the moment. Barely knowing him couldn’t stop her. Was it right to do this? Would she regret this if she did this? Should she live to the fullest not being scared of anything?

However at dinner she sat there picking at her food. Sitting at the end of the table with James. It was a quiet evening as either of them still felt a bit bad in their own ways. Putting down her silverware she spoke up, “ James, May we speak for a moment?” James looked up at Em nodding, “ why yes. What is it about?”

Changing her mind of what to say she asked, “ May I stay in your room for the night?” Nodding james mumbled, “ why yes you may. Are you alright?” Not answering him she let the silence fall. After that they then retired to James’ room for the night. Being quiet this evening Em ended up excusing herself to her room for a moment. While in her room she held onto the bed frame after grabbing the ring. She closed her eyes then whispered, “ just say yes. There is no reason to not say yes.” James got worried so walked in on her saying that hearing it partly. He walked over to her taking her hand hearing the ring drop to the floor, “if you wish to take up my offer-“ Emma cut him off saying it really fast without thinking,”I will!” It wasn’t a yell just too loud for the both of them being so close to each other. A silence falling between them for a second before James made Em look at him. “Are you sure about this decision? I do not want for you to do something you regret.”

Emma nodded it being a spur of the moment decision, “ I’m sure…” swallowing hard after then she moved to walk out then James held her wrist, “ please, do stay for the night in my room? You should not be alone. I am afraid of what might happen if you are.” Em looked at James, as he was picking up the ring from the floor, then nodded, “if it is alright just nothing for now till we are married as if we are courting.” Having James nodded in agreement, putting the ring on her hand, She knew she had no reason to not trust her soon to be husband, but thoughts of that night and what did happen lingered in her mind. How could it not being so fresh and freeing being away from him? If anything happened she would not hold back. Even if maybe it was weird for the whole situation and sudden in what was happening.

Getting a bit closer to each other over the course of the time, having spent a month almost together in total. Shaking Emma knew the wedding was tomorrow basically today since it was so early in the morning. Whispering to herself, “god what if he calls it off? What if he does not like me anymore?” Laying there not being able to sleep at all that night as when it was about eight in the morning she looked at the time. Getting up walking shakily, still, to her dress in the closet.

Putting it on by herself managing it somehow. Emma waited not eating at all; when it was time for her to walk down she got her bouquet. Wearing an ivory long sleeve dress, with lace all over. Her veil had lace all over it also, fixing it to cover her face, as she walked down to the lobby where James was and the priest. It was only them and the priest not even letting her friend know she was doing this. Being scared of what she or others might say if they knew. Seeing the time she rushed down to the stairs scared she would be late. Stopping near the stairs so she didn’t seem like she was rushing.

Walking going down the stairs she looked at James. Getting to the end, after taking her hand, James held her hand being able to tell she was shaky. He was smiling holding her hand tighter to hopefully make her feel more comfortable as the minutes went by. She did find some comfort in this calming down slightly.

As the wedding was ending she kissed James then he picked her up taking her to, now, their room. Once in the room James laid her down as she started to shake bad again being nervous. Making out with her; she followed him feeling his hands undoing her dress. She took her veil off, tossing it to the floor, undoing his clothes as well as fast as possible. She felt like she couldn’t take it off fast enough having a rush of lust overcome her, but she paused realized now she was naked in front of her new husband, him also being naked now. Her bruises were showing, for the first time, now she had on her body from HIM. Her cheeks grew hot and red looking away. James stopped looking at them, “ did you and him ever consummate?” She shook her head, “ no. He never even kissed me or fully courted me. All I had was an ask then to stay near him.” Nodding he ran his fingers over the bruises. Putting her arms around his neck he kissed every bruise on her body, “ I will make sure this does not happen again to you ever.” kissing her neck some after saying that. She closed her eyes some whispering, nodding, tiredly, “ do as you wish...” James nodded, “ yes mrs. March.” Kissing down her neck then moving, pulling her closer to him. He rubbed himself some before just ramming into her. Out of a reaction she hit him somewhat hard. Instinct came over her moving her hand.

A small chuckled came from him before Emma grabbed the gun from his night stand. Placing it to his head she smirked some, “ now that hurt Mr. March...” James had a mixture of shock and a smirk on his face being turned on more by this. He took the gun from her with one hand the other slightly pleasing her, “ now pointing a gun at me is not such a good behavior. Especially considering that it is loaded, dear.” Emma bit her lip managing a mumble, “ can’t handle a gun to your face?” James shook his head, “ I can, but you do not want to be a wife and a widow in one day?” Emma nodded realizing his point even if it was fun to be dangerous. She kissed his neck as he continued again not really showing mercy. She knew he killed it wasn’t a secret to her, and walking in on him doing it wasn’t hiding it from her at all. she was fine with it as long as he didn’t get caught.

Em moaned loudly arching her back. Getting through the pain just feeling amazing now, and better then she had before having James inside her made her feel loved and wanted for the first time in her life by a man. James held her hand as she held his back. Smiling not caring what happened to her; he had came in her and pulled away then kissed down her stomach to her clit. Giving some attention to it as he wanted to make sure she felt better then before. As she did feel amazing her moans filling the room. Almost screaming at some points so loud she felt the hotel could hear it all.

After a night full of passion and lust she held onto him falling asleep as he fell asleep also being in a happy state and peace of mind for once. Waking up early though he had that itching feeling and needed to kill. Knowing it won’t go away til he did he got up, getting dressed in a suit, then found someone that was staying by his hotel, who was a beggar, brought them back. He was thinking how to kill them, but decided to just hit them with a hammer then cut them up letting their bodies grow into nothing with acid.

There wasn’t screams but James was covered in blood cutting up the body trying to hurry back to Emma. He got the body to just bone with the acid and went back to Emma. She had just woken up when James walked in. She covered herself up sitting up. She saw the blood then got up and walked over to him. She made him look at her for a second. “Please tell me you got rid of the body.” She almost sounded like she was begging but was still demanding in the tone. He nodded then went to the bathroom. She stood there and sighed a little bit. Her mind now worrying he would get caught. Would he get caught a week after their marriage? Could she handle losing him already? Pushing away the thoughts to lay back down in the bed.

After getting out of the shower he walked out to get dressed. She got up, still unclothed, knowing if she only worried it would end bad for their marriage. Swallowing hard she helped him, tie his tie, before he put his hands on her waist pulling her close. She giggled moving putting her legs around his waist carefully to not mess up his suit. He moved his hands to her ass taking her back to bed. She whispered, “ we have to eat.” He shook his head, “it is not ready yet. But it is very impolite of me to be the only one dressed here. I think we might have to fix that. Don’t we, dear?” They were interrupted by a knock on the door before they could do anything else or she could nod as a yes. She looked, quickly covering up, as James got up going to the door opening it.

#ahs #american horror story #ahs hotel #james patrick march #james patrick march x emma #james march #james #james x emma #james x oc #oc #my ocs #fanfic #im genuinely anxious about this post #I really hope people like this #mr march #mr. march #uhm this fanfic might not even go well #this hopefully will be more than one part

[killingmebtob]

Until Next Time // Lee Minhyuk

Author: @killingmebtob // Sara

Title: Until Next Time

Characters: Minhyuk and Reader

Summary: It was supposed to be my rest day but I’m being asked to go and babysit.

Author’s Note: This was requested quite recently so I tried it to give myself a break from all the NSFW requests and my current writing project. Er... Might be a little lame but I hope it’s okay. :)

--

Your name: submit What is this?

--

It was supposed to be my rest day this weekend. I had the entire Saturday and Sunday planned for myself and that included a bed, a television, a bunch of DVDs, numerous bowls of popcorn, and a tub of my favorite ice cream. I even changed my bed covers into my coziest comforter just so I would feel like I was being embraced by the clouds.

All week I had been looking forward to it. Each day after dance practice, I would think that I was one step closer to my weekend getaway in my apartment.

Well, unless you have a sister who likes to ruin things with last minute favors.

I had to force a smile on my face as I stood outside her door on Friday evening with a backpack filled with clothes that would last until Monday. She had kindly asked me over the phone to stay with her little girl for the weekend because she and her husband were going on some kind of trip and they couldn’t take her.

I suggested that they hire a nanny because that’s why people do these days. Not that I know of. I mean, I live alone in the comfort of my own small, tiny, yet cozy apartment. No boyfriend, no pets, and no kids too because who doesn’t keep it safe nowadays?

I’m kidding. I’ve never done anything too.

That’s probably also why she got me instead of a nanny. She wouldn’t have to pay me because she would stock up their home with food and she knew that I didn’t have plans for the weekend. By plans, plans with other people. She always emphasizes that my solo plans don’t count as weekend plans.

Yeah? Okay, sis.

It was almost like I could hear her in my head.

You’re part of a dance troupe that performs with celebrities and you’re telling me that you have no plans at all? By plans, I mean with people and not with your bed and your television.

I sighed as I rang the doorbell to her home. Well, at least now she can say that I have plans this weekend. No thanks to her.

The familiar scent of her sophisticated perfume wafted into my nose the moment she opened the door and wrapped her arms around me. I smiled as I returned the gesture. My sister always smelled like home. Even if I diss her or roll my eyes at her, she’s the only one I have left.

“I missed you,” she whispered.

“Me too, Minnie,” I responded.

“I’m so happy that you’re here,” she smiled as she pulled away. “It’s been such a long while. Your niece has been asking when you were going to visit again the moment you left the house last time,”

Ah, my niece who looked so much like my sister. They had the same loose dark brown curls that fell beautifully on their shoulders. It was pretty similar to mom’s hair. I was stuck with pin straight hair that was always in a bob cut the fell above my shoulder. I got that from our dad.

As if she had a detector for when I was near, the sound of running footsteps echoed from inside their apartment along with excited calls of my name. “Is that auntie?! Auntie (Y/N)!”

Auntie always made me feel old but… I could only shrug.

“Chie~,” I called out in the same small tone.

I crouched down as the little girl rounded the corner. My sister stepped aside, completely aware of the routine the child and I have. The little girl launched herself into my arms, her short arms circling my neck in an embrace before I stood up to carry her and twirl her around.

She was laughing so cutely into my ear.

“You’re here~ You’re here~,” she chanted in that small voice of hers.

“You’ve grown a lot. You got prettier too, just like your mom,” I told her as I observed her face. “But heavier. I don’t think I’ll be able to lift you up like this next time,”

“No,” she whined. “I want auntie to carry me like this every time,”

I just chuckled at her childishness. Yeah, sure. Like, tell me that again in five years. You’d probably be crying for me to put you down because it’s embarrassing.

“Okay,” I smiled at her nonetheless.

I went in the house with her still in my arms. Minnie kept on reminding me about the things that I have to remember about Chie’s schedule like bedtime and bath time and meal time. But I knew it all by heart given the numerous times she had me babysit her daughter. Then again, it’s not like we follow it.

“Yeah, okay, okay. You’ve said this to me for about a hundred times now,” I reminded Minnie. “Calm down and enjoy your weekend getaway to the island you mentioned earlier,”

“Bali,” she reiterated.

“Okay. Bali,” I repeated after her. “Enjoy your time in Bali and I’ll take care of little Chie here. No need to worry about her. With me around, we’ll just stay here in your apartment,”

“Did you not hear what I said earlier? She has her an appointment with her pediatrician tomorrow,”

“Yeah, I heard that,” I dismissively responded. I certainly did NOT hear that. “So, who and where is this pediatrician?”

--

Chie was animatedly talking about how she was excited for her appointment today as we walked to the clinic that was only a few blocks away from their home. She even wore her favorite clip, saying that the doctor told her that she looked really cute with it.

The kid was even blushing when she said it!

I was amused because it took a great deal to make Chie comfortable with a stranger. My sister picked a good clinic to go to.

The wide smile on my niece’s face grew even more, if possible, when we went in the clinic. She was hopping around like a cute little bunny.

“Chie, calm down,” I told her as I held her hand. “Should we go get ice cream after?”

Her eyes sparkled. “Yes, please! Auntie, let’s go to the ice cream parlor we sneak out to,”

I shook my head, a teasing smile on my lips. “Oh, look at this kid. Talking about sneaking out with her auntie. It’s our secret, okay?”

Chie giggled as she nodded.

“We’ll go if you behave,”

“Okay~”

She had stopped jumping around but I could still feel the joy and excitement radiating from her. What kind of pediatrician is this? Did he or she make her drink some kind of potion or concoction to make her this way?

“Hi, we have an appointment today for Dr. Lee…?” I was unsure. Stupidly, I forgot to note down the name when Minnie told me the name last night before they left. She even repeated it thrice.

“Oh yes,” the receptionist smiled. “Chie, right?” She smiled at my niece who nodded vigorously. “Okay. You’re just in time. Dr. Lee’s just attending to another patient and then you’re up next,”

“Thanks,” I smiled at her before we settled on one of the small waiting chairs.

It was my first time to bring Chie to her pediatrician so I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do or say. All my sister said was, “Hey, bring Chie to the pediatrician tomorrow. Thanks.” It was like throwing me into a den of wolves with just a twig to defend myself. Of course, that was an exaggeration.

The clinic had a small pharmacy and about four offices for each doctor.

“So what’s this Dr. Lee like?” I asked Chie who was swinging her short legs.

“He’s really nice,” she beamed. “He has these candies that he gives me when I visit. He always makes sure that I get my favorite. He’s my favorite!”

“Oh? More than auntie?”

“No, no! Auntie is my favorite but Dr. Lee is also my favorite,” she giggled.

I pouted. I was about to tease her about it but someone had called for Chie. She perked up at the sound of her name and before I knew it, she was already out of her seat and running towards who called her. Of course, I called after my niece as I turned around. The sight had me smiling.

Chie was in the arms of a young-looking doctor. Her smile was so bright that it could light up an entire city. Her eyes were sparkling too as she talked to the pediatrician. Meanwhile, the doctor was also radiating the same towards her. There was a fondness in his eyes as he spoke to her animatedly.

Even with just this scenario, I knew that he has a way of connecting with children. Chie, who was extremely picky when it came to people, was fond of him and that’s not an easy thing to do. I felt like he has a knack for being a children’s doctor. He gave me that vibe.

“Oh, who’s this?” He smiled at me when I went up to them.

God, he looks beautiful. I mean, I’ve never seen a man as beautiful as him. To be honest, he looks a lot younger than I am but at the same time, there was this mature vibe coming from him.

“Auntie (Y/N),” Chie smiled.

“Ah, the infamous auntie,” he chuckled.

Oh man, even his laugh sounded like music.

How can a person be this perfect?

“That’s me,” I grinned. “I’m (Y/N),”

“Dr. Lee,” he nodded. “But Minhyuk is fine,”

“Ah,” I blushed. Why in the world are you blushing?!

The doctor chuckled. “It’s fine. The parents of my patients often call me by my first name. It makes the whole environment more casual,”

“I see,” I nervously laughed. Geez. Way to go girl! I rolled my eyes at myself.

“Shall we?” He gestured towards his office. Dr. Lee, I mean Minhyuk, went in with Chie still in his arms.

As he was preparing his equipment, he was making small talk with me. He asked me about my profession. He was surprised when I told him that I work in a dance company. Minhyuk asked about where I’ve performed before and about what was my favorite performance.

In return, I also asked him about his career. Chie would sometimes comment too about what we were talking about. Once he was done preparing everything and checking Chie’s past records, he went to work.

The rest of the time was a blur. I sat on a stool at the side as he did his usual check-up routine with Chie. It’s not that I wasn’t paying attention but I was paying attention to something else. Instead of listening to what he was saying to Chie, and probably to me too, I was listening to how his voice sounded. I was observing how fluidly he moved—he looked so sure of himself in what he was doing.

It made me smile, seeing a person do something they’re passionate about. For me, it was dance. For him, it was looking after these children to make sure that they’re well and healthy.

Of course, it didn’t slip from my eyes how his back looked nice. For a doctor, he sure looked like he went to the gym a lot.

Oh geez. What the hell am I thinking about? This is my niece’s doctor, for crying out loud!

But it’s illegal to look that handsome, my mind argued, It’s not your fault.

“You’re really healthy, Chie,” he cooed as he gently patted the head of my niece. Oh crap, he was done and I didn’t even hear anything! My sister is going to be mad at me.

“Yes! I follow what Dr. Lee tells me every time,” she proudly grinned. “I want to be healthy like Dr. Lee,”

“And you will be if you continue to drink your vitamins and sleep early. Be good to your auntie,” he said. Geez, his speaking voice was nice too. And when he told Chie to be nice to me, I almost melted.

Help. Mayday. Mayday. This is a red alert.

Several tiny versions of me were running around in my head in panic.

“There’s really nothing much that I can say,” Minhyuk turned to look at me. This time, I gave him my 100000000% attention. At least, I could get something from this and tell my sister. “Chie’s vitals are good and she’s healthy. Just continue with the vitamins and the balanced meals,”

“Okay,” I smiled at him. That’s good. At least I didn’t have to deal with any kind of technical term that I was unfamiliar with. “Is there anything else?”

“Let me write a note about the next appointment so that they wouldn’t forget,” he stated as he went around to sit behind his desk.

Chie, on the other hand, walked to me and climbed on my lap. I couldn’t help but scrunch up my nose as I pinched her cheeks. She looked so cute as she pouted at me.

“Did Chie do good?” She asked me, peering up at me with her doe eyes.

“Of course,” I cooed, making her smile proudly.

Minhyuk, who was probably listening, cracked a smile and let out a soft laugh before he spoke, “Here’s the schedule. The next check-up will be a month from now. It’s been set to be a monthly thing. Just no one would forget.”

He handed me a folded paper from his prescription pad.

“Okay,” I nodded as I patted Chie to stand.

“Before I forget. Chie’s favorite candy,” he warmly smiled at my niece as he handed her a lollipop.

“Thank you~” Chie was beaming as she took it.

“We’ll head out then. Thank you,” I said as I took Chie’s hand.

“Have a good day. And I hope to see you again some other time,”

My heart leapt at the smile he showed me. It was almost like he was trying to make sure that I’ll go again next time. Oh man, I must be crazy. I just shook my head and went to the reception area to pay the fee. While I was waiting for the change and receipt, I remembered the piece of paper in my hand.

I opened it and saw the date of the next appointment. I took note of it.

I was about to keep it but there was something else scribbled at the bottom. My eyes widened when I realized that it was a cellphone number. Under it were the words,

Until next time.

He even drew a winking emoticon. It was cute because the smiley had a mole on the side of its mouth just like him. I couldn’t help but smile as I tried to contain my giddiness.

Next time, I nodded and kept the paper in my bag.

Once I got my change, I turned to my niece who was eating the lollipop. “Ice cream?”

Chie beamed, “Yes, please!”

#btob #minhyuk imagines #lee minhyuk #kpop imagines #minhyuk fluff #btob fluff #lee minhyuk imagines #minhyuk scenarios #btob minhyuk #btob minhyuk imagines #kpop fluff #lee minhyuk scenarios

[straightnewsonlinecom]

Dancing On Ice cut SHORT after five celebrities forced to pull out

Dancing On Ice cut SHORT after five celebrities forced to pull out

Dancing On Ice has been cut short after five celebrities were forced to quit due to injury and coronavirus, show bosses announced on Friday. It was confirmed that the show’s finale will now be taking place on Sunday March 14, instead of the original date of March 21. A spokesperson for the show said in a statement: ‘ITV have taken the decision to move the final of Dancing on Ice forward by one…

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[silverblogxyz]

Dancing On Ice cut SHORT after five celebrities forced to pull out

Dancing On Ice cut SHORT after five celebrities forced to pull out

Dancing On Ice has been cut short after five celebrities were forced to quit due to injury and coronavirus, show bosses announced on Friday. It was confirmed that the show’s finale will now be taking place on Sunday March 14, instead of the original date of March 21. A spokesperson for the show said in a statement: ‘ITV have taken the decision to move the final of Dancing on Ice forward by one…

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[figureskatingsecretsanta]

to: @twizzletwizzletwizzle from: @missmarakate

Five Times WeaPo Celebrated Christmas

This is an AU where Kaitlyn and Andrew met as children while learning choreography for their rink’s Christmas Show and were each other’s first and last ice dance partners.

“Hi,” she grins, gliding to a stop in front of him. “I’m Kaitlyn.”

The boy grins back. “I know. I’m Andrew.”

She giggles. “I know.”

“Oh,” he responds, sounding slightly taken aback. “Good, then. Where’s Coach Paul, do you know?”

She shrugs. “He told me to go talk to you and he’ll be right here.”

“Okay. Is this your first time doing ice dance?”

“Yep! What about you?” She asks.

He nods jerkily. “Mine too.”

“Well, it can’t be too hard, right?” She asks.

“Probably not. We have to figure it out by the Christmas show and that’s not too far away.”

“Ohh, you’re right.”

“Hey, you two,” Coach Paul skates up behind them. “Are you ready to learn some Jingle Bells?”

The both nod enthusiastically.

“Great! Now. First things first. I want you to take each other’s hand.”

Andrew’s mitten-clad hand wraps around her own.

“Perfect. Now I want you to just stroke around the rink. And try to keep your strokes in-sync, okay?”

They nod.

“You want to start with our weight on our right leg?” He asks.

She nods, and they start their trek around the rink, Coach Paul following behind them.

“Good,” he says. “Good, good. Kaitlyn, straighten your leg a little, and Andrew, lift yours a little higher.”

They take his corrections, and Coach Paul, now skating in front of them, grins. “Great! Good job, both of you. Now try it going backwards.

They start skating backwards and Coach Paul nods. “Good. Good. Alright, now I’m going to teach you the Kilian hold.”

They nod excitedly, both grinning from ear to ear.

“So. Here, Andrew, you stand right here, and Kaitlyn, you stand...” He positions her properly. “Good. Now,” he places their hands where they’re supposed to go. “This is the hand hold for the Kilian. You think you can remember that?”

Faces focused, they nod.

“Alright. Let go.”

They drop each other’s hands.

“Now get back into it.”

Kaitlyn giggles, and they return to their Kilian position.

Coach Paul adjusts Andrew’s hand a little bit, but is overall satisfied. “Good.”

They spend the rest of the lesson learning the other holds and how to skate in them.

When they’re done, they follow Coach Paul off the ice, and Kaitlyn whispers conspiratorially to Andrew, “We didn’t learn any of the dance.”

He laughs softly, making sure Coach Paul doesn’t hear them. “You’re right. We have another lesson on Wednesday though, so maybe we’ll start it then.”

“I hope so!” She exclaims excitedly. “I’m so excited for the show.”

“Me too,” he grins.

They put their guards on when they leave the ice, and she takes his hand, tugging him toward her mom. “Come on, you have to come meet my mom.”

“Okay, Okay,” he laughs. “I’m coming, you don’t have to pull my arm off.”

“Oh. Sorry,” she grins. “Mom, this is Andrew. He’s my ice dance partner for the Christmas show.”

Kaitlyn’s Mom shakes his hand. “Nice to meet you, Andrew. I’m Kaitlyn’s Mom, but you can call me Jackie.”

“Nice to meet you, Miss Jackie,” he grins. “Thank you for letting Kaitlyn skate with me.”

“You’re welcome, and thank you for letting Kaitlyn skate with you.”

“No problem. She’s lots of fun!” He exclaims.

“It’s just the Christmas show, Kait,” Andrew rolls his eyes, the epitome of a stereotypically moody teenager. “It doesn’t have to be perfect.”

“It’s important!” She insists, with all the enthusiasm of a twelve-year-old. “Please, Andrew?”

“It’s more important to be ready for Challenge and Nationals.”

She scowls. “We are ready for Challenge, and Nationals is still more than two months away.”

“We can do it after Challenge,” he counters.

“We can do it now.”

He sighs. “Why do we have to do it now? We both know we can pick up choreo in an hour and be perfectly fine.”

“Because.”

“Oh, real mature.”

She immediately pivots away from him and starts skating toward the exit.

He skates after her. “Seriously, Kaitlyn. What’s wrong?”

He grabs her hand and spins her around, surprised to see tears streaming down her face.

“Whoa, hey,” he pulls her into a hug. “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to make you cry. If it’s this important we can do it now, yeah? Yeah? Come on, Kait, don’t cry. What’s got you so worked up?”

“It’s nothing, I’m sorry!” She cries.

He sighs. “It’s obviously not nothing.”

She takes a shuddery breath. “But it’s silly.”

“I won’t laugh.”

She rolls her eyes. “Fine. Today’s the anniversary of the day we became partners and I got you a gift and you seem to have forgotten entirely.”

“Wait,” he stops her, confused. “It’s the 10th? Are you sure?”

“Um. Yeah.”

“Oh no. No, no, no. I thought it was the 9th, Kaitlyn, I swear. I have something for you, too, but it’s at home because I thought it was the 9th!”

She blinks in surprise. “Really?”

He nods. “Yes, really. Why don’t you ask your mom if you can drop by my house when we leave, okay?”

She nods, a grin forming. “Okay.”

“Good. Now that that’s solved...Christmas choreo?”

She huffs in mock annoyance. “Andrew! Why’d we have to go through this whole argument?”

“Because I wanted to do it on the 10th! As it turns out, it is the 10th.”

She laughs. “Alright, fine, I believe you. Now let’s get to work.”

They call Coach Suzanne over to see what they’ve come up with and she coos when Kaitlyn kisses Andrew’s cheek on “I’m just gonna keep on waiting underneath the mistletoe”.

Andrew rolls his eyes again, but continues until the end when he dips her and they point their fingers at each other.

Coach Suzanne claps her hands together. “Perfect. This is adorable, and the audience is going to eat it right out of your hands.”

Kaitlyn looks surprised. “So our choreo was actually good?”

Coach Suzanne smiles. “Well, there are a few things I’d like to tweak, but for the most part, it was a great job.”

Another five years, they’re Junior World Champions and in Toronto, training with Shae-Lynn Bourne, who has been Kaitlyn’s role model since she started ice dance.

They’ve got a cute Christmas show program choreographed to “Let It Snow”, and they’re headed to their second Grand Prix assignment in two days.

But someone has decided to hang sprigs of mistletoe all over the rink. By the boards, in front of the change rooms, in the lobby, everywhere.

And Kaitlyn and Andrew have a habit of walking everywhere together, so she’s not quite sure how many more times they can kiss each other on the cheek without accidentally kissing on the lips.

She rolls her eyes, then rolls them again upon noticing the mistletoe above them. She rises up on her toes to kiss his cheek, just as he turns his head to kiss hers.

They immediately spring back, blinking in shock.

Kaitlyn forces herself to smile. “You know, I was just wondering how many more times we could get stuck under the mistletoe before that happened.”

His laugh is strained, and she quickly escapes into the women’s locker room.

She changes quickly, then sneaks out to the front office, where Shae-Lynn is.

“Shae!” She exclaims, when she spots the woman who’s become like a big sister to her. “Shae, Shae, Shae, what do I do?”

“Kaitlyn, whoa. What did you do?”

“I kissed Andrew. Or he kissed me. I don’t know. We kissed each other. What do I do?”

Shae closes her eyes, breathing deeply. “Okay. Why did you do that?”

“Have you not noticed the invasion of the mistletoe?”

“Yes, I have. But you know you don’t have to kiss him on-” Kaitlyn cuts her off. “I know that, but I turned to kiss him on the cheek and he turned to kiss me on the cheek, and what do I do?”

“Well, what did you do after that happened?” Shae questions. Kaitlyn blinks. “I made a joke and ran away.”

Sighing, Shae-Lynn shakes her head. “Right. Okay. And how do you feel about that?”

“Obviously not great!” She exclaims. “What was I supposed to say? Could we maybe try that again so I can actually have a good first kiss and not a mistake?”

She claps her hand over her mouth.

“Please make me stop talking,” she mumbles into her hand.

Shae laughs. “Sorry, Kaitlyn. No can do. So you want to kiss him again?”

“No!” She exclaims. “I don’t know. Maybe? A little? Yes?”

“Then I suggest you talk to Andrew about this, not me.” “Oh. You’re not going to try to talk me out of it?” She asks hesitantly. “Do you want me to?”

She shrugs. “Not really, just…”

“I find it’s better when you two feel like you can talk to me about things. Heaven knows I couldn’t stop this from happening if you wanted it to happen, so it’s better to have transparency from the start. Just be sure to be safe.”

Kaitlyn makes a face. “I just had my first kiss, Shae-Lynn, geez. I’m not ready for that yet. But I do think I’m ready to talk to him.”

Laughing, Shae tells her, “Alright. Go talk to him. Maybe do that at home, though, and not in front of all the CanSkate kids.”

“Alright,” Kaitlyn giggles. “We don’t want to scar them.”

She closes the door to the front office and finds Andrew standing there.

“Oh,” she says quietly. “Hi. I had to talk to Shae about some...stuff. Girl stuff.”

He nods, his smile not quite reaching his eyes.

She sighs. “I know we have some stuff to talk about, but can we wait until we get home? Please?”

“Yeah,” he murmurs. “Okay.”

They walk out to his car in silence, setting their skating bags in the trunk before climbing into the car.

Andrew immediately turns the heat on and Kaitlyn, shivering, grins appreciatively.

It’s a short drive to their shared apartment, but this time, it seems an hour long in the deafening silence.

As soon as they’re in the door, they say, in unison, “We need to talk.”

They laugh nervously, and Andrew says, “You go first.” “I’m sorry for running away and not talking about it immediately. I know that’s something I need to work on.”

“I’m sorry for...kissing you, I guess. I didn’t really mean to, and it wasn’t really what I’d planned to do eventually.”

“Eventually?” She blinks up at him hopefully.

“Well, yeah. When we’re ready.”

“Okay,” she nods. “Do you think we’re ready now?”

He shrugs. “I’m not really sure, so maybe...not? I don’t know. Do you feel ready?”

She mimics his shrug. “I’m not really sure. I mean, I want to kiss you again, but I don’t really want to risk our partnership and our friendship for the sake of me wanting to kiss you.”

He chuckles lightly. “I know the feeling. So our relationship stays the same?”

She hesitates, but nods slowly.

“It’s for the best,” she says, not sure whether she’s trying to convince him or herself. Maybe both.

Five years later, they’ve been to the Olympics, been Senior National Champions, and won a bronze medal at the World Championships.

“Hey Andrew?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you remember that one year we accidentally kissed under the mistletoe?” She asks.

He looks at her. “Yeah, why?”

“Do you remember that I said I wanted to kiss you?”

“...yes…? Why?”

“Well, you’re standing in the kitchen in just your pajama pants, fresh out of the shower, making me breakfast, and I’m finding it kind of hard to suppress that urge right now.”

He laughs, then grabs something out of one of the designated ‘Christmas boxes’ they’d pulled out yesterday.

“Do you...need an excuse?” He asks hesitantly, holding the sprig of mistletoe over his head.

She grins, bouncing over to him and placing a comforting hand on his arm. “Perfect.”

Their lips meet, and the spark that was there five years ago still exists, stronger than before.

She smiles against his lips, murmuring, “This is probably a bad idea.”

“Probably,” he responds, lips still moving against hers. “But do you care?”

“Mmm,” she hums, closing her eyes and threading her hands through his hair, keeping his lips pressed against hers. “No.”

“Good,” he replies, tugging on her bottom lip.

They kiss slowly, thoroughly, until Kaitlyn yawns and Andrew pulls back chuckling. “Am I boring you?”

“No!” She exclaims, grinning and shaking her head. “No, never. It’s just pre-7 a.m., so I’m still waking up.”

“I know,” he smirks. “Just teasing you.”

She smacks him gently on the chest, before leaning against him and wrapping her arms around him. She breathes deeply when his arms return the favor and closes her eyes, resting her head on his shoulder.

“We’re going to be okay, right?” She murmurs softly.

“Of course. Nothing has to change. Or...we could change. If you want to. Either way, I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“Mmm,” she hums into his neck. “I think we’ve already changed. I couldn’t forget this if I tried. I think we should try it out. But keep it just us for now, yeah?”

“Hmm,” he makes a face, pretending to seriously consider it. “I think that sounds like a perfect plan.”

“Good,” she smiles. “Now. You should probably make sure breakfast doesn’t burn.”

He chuckles. “You’re probably right.”

Kaitlyn sets down her fork and grins.

Andrew chuckles. “You ready for Christmas Eve presents already?” He asks, eyes sparkling with mirth.

Her grin grows wider. “Yep! You get to go first this year,” she informs him for the third time in the past hour.

They clean up the table, then head into the living room to unwrap a gift each.She hands him a gift, and he lifts it up and down, trying to determine what’s inside. Maybe a scrapbook or framed picture. They have a habit of giving the most sentimental gifts on Christmas Eve, saving more practical gifts for Christmas Day itself. He unwraps it slowly, carefully, watching her bounce up and down in anticipation. It must be a good one. He grins when he sees what it is, looking up at her.

“It’s perfect,” he murmurs, looking at the collage of pictures from every Christmas show they’d ever done, from their very first Jingle Bells to Let It Go at the most recent Christmas On Ice in Japan.

He points to the first picture. “Who’d have thought that these two kids would grow up and be doing Christmas shows in Japan?”

She giggles. “You like it, then?”

He nods, opening his arms. “I love it.”

She hugs him tight, then backs up, sitting on her heels. “My turn!”

“Hang on one second,” he tells her, putting his phone on the counter to film her reaction.

He then picks the gift atop her pile of present, taking special care to make sure it’s the proper gift.

It’s a small box, and he watches Kaitlyn try to figure out what’s inside.

“Jewelry?” She asks.

He shrugs innocently, and watches her rip open the paper.

As she takes the top off of the sparkly box, he pulls another box out of his pants pocket and gets into position.

“It just says ‘Look up,’” she says, before looking up, eyes wide. “Oh.”

He pops open the black velvet box, then starts, “I think I’ve known since you took my hand when we were babies. I know I’ve known since the first time you kissed me when we were teenagers. I love you. I don’t know what’s going to happen after the Olympics,” he says. “But I know I want to do it with you. Do anything with you. Do everything with you.” “Me too,” she breathes. “Me too, Andrew.”

He smiles. “Okay, good. So, uh, I love you, obviously. Will you marry me? Please?”

“Yes!” She exclaims. “Yes, of course. You sounded so nervous, what, did you think I’d say no?” She giggles.

“Well, no, but it’s still kind of nerve wracking, babe.”

“Here, come here, let me see the ring.”

He scoots closer and she gasps in awe. “It’s perfect, Andrew. I love it. I love you. Put it on me?”

He slides the ring onto her finger, and she tears up. “Perfect. It’s perfect. You’re perfect. Everything is perfect.”

“Not yet,” he grins, and leans in to kiss her.

She laughs into his mouth, then pulls away slightly. “You’re right. Now everything’s perfect.”

#fs secret santa #fic gift

[writingart21]

BTS Scenario

Boyfriend and bestfriend dont get along.

(This isn't edited and kinda drawn out but i got bored💕💕requests open🌹🌹)

Jin

Your bestfriend had been through culinary  school in vegas back home in the states, she could make nearly anything but when she outcooked your boyfriend Seokjin and you said she was the best cook ever the wide gap between the two grew wider. Your bestfriend simply didn't like him. You had grown up together and were like twelve when you bought your first leather jackets together always living life to the ultimate edge never liking baby pink or teddy bears but blood red and grizzly bears, motorcycle riding six inch high heel wearing bestfriend didnt think he was tough enough for you, and well he didn't like her cleavage bearing t shirts, knee high stilettos and idgaf attitude he thought she was a bad influence on you and couldn't imagine you acting like her twin.

You sat on the couch together as he expressed his distaste for her attitude looking through old pictures of you and her wearing similar clothes and the same bright red lipstick back to back in most, your short hair that brushes your collar bones was waist length in the pictures the same as hers now the glasses that sat on your nose now were missing in the pictures as you flipped the camera off your rebel days were long gone no longer filled with teenage angst. The day started out on memory lane but ended with you and Seokjin fighting. You left crying and calling (y/f/n) as you walked home not even an hour later she came home early from work to your shared apartment bringing your favorite ice cream and candy at first it was you crying and venting to her as sappy rom-coms played in the background you both makeup free and wearing pajamas sitting in your bed eating ice cream waiting in the pizza delivery when the doorbell rang (y/f/n) went to answer it slipping her unicorn slippers on she opened the door to see Seokjin instead of food  "Your not pizza." She went to close the door but Seokjin caught it looking her up and down he took in her appearance black oversized hoodie and shorts and black square framed glasses all the way down to the unicorn slippers no makeup and most tattoos covered she looked almost docile "I'm sorry, to both of you, please let me come in, Ahh i have cookies!" He said and when she heard cookies the door opened all the way letting him step in seeing you standing behind her his first thought was to hug you, second to apologise and third to give the cookies to your bestfriend staring him in to oblivion, "You know what Seokjin, I like your cookies." (Y/f/n) said as she sat down on the couch cookie tin in hands any sign of attitude banished by food "I'll give you the recipe if you give me your brownie recipe deal?" His voice echoed over your head as you were still enveloped in his chest your friend shouted "deal" as she walked back in to your room for the ice cream. "Do you think she still hates me?" He asks as you pull him towards the couch you couldn't help the smile on your face as the words came out of your mouth "If theres one thing she loves more than being a hard ass and me, it's food. Keep being cookies and she might just propose to you." (Y/f/n) head popped out of the room almost whispering "This is true." His windshield wiper laugh filling the room with her snort like laughs  following.

¤

Suga

You laughed as your bestfriend and boyfriend joked back in forth (y/f/n) was picky when it came to people and she liked your boyfriend this wasnt a first since she liked your middle school boyfriend they played football together on the weekends but since then she stayed out of your relationships as much as possible your boyfriends were not quite her favorite type of people to be around your friend was definitely one of a kind as she danced like a fruitcake in front of the toy store with Yoongi on the way home you guys went to the arcade with the rest of the boys Yoongi splitting from them to walk you both home even with their shenanigans you got home fairly quickly kissing Yoongi goodbye before jogging up the stairs behind (y/f/n) she was in a rush to get home waiting on a call from her parents back in the states time zones affected them both her father had been in and out of the hospital with a blood clot since last week this wasnt the first time since this happened to him you wish it was the same result as last time but this time it was fatal you still here her mom's words ringing in your head "Honey it reached his heart and he reacted to the medicine incorrectly we've lost him baby" her voice breaking as she tried to be strong enough to tell her only daughter he passed away two days ago and her mom just got home from staying with yours, you watched as she cried and she packed a few things (y/f/n) was sleepy and broken hugging her goodbye was the hardest thing you had to do she got on the plane the next day back to your home state. You couldn't leave because of your job threatening to fire you, missing the funeral was almost a relief to you since your grandmother's left a bad impression with you.

When she came back two weeks later she was nearly a different person she wanted to be free of troubles she wanted to go out and drink and live her new lease on life was freedom.

So you went out with her she acted like she was seventeen again dancing under the lights not like her twenty three year old self who was responsible and predictable her hips swung against some guy she was dancing with she had stars in her eyes and a smile on her lips but she was also drunkenly numb you thought that was enough for tonight the guy she was dancing with wasn't even attractive and looked sleazy as you dragged her away from the dance floor and out the door you laughed with her walking around the corner to your shared apartment once her drunken happiness turned into a hangover the next morning she was angry at you for taking her home last night, from the guy she was dancing with, she started the fight but you said the first insult "You wanted to stay with some sleazy slime ball, of course you would you've lost your mind" saying the later part under your breath but with her super freak hearing she snapped back "Sorry not every one can be as perfect as Yoongi." Slammimg her empty coffee cup on the counter your face dropped "What is that even supposed to mean (y/f/n)" your eyebrows knotted together "Oh you know what i mean your perfect boyfriend perfect personality perfect looks hes just fucking perfect" she sat her head down groaning as she raised her voice hiding in the oversized sweater "You like him." Was the only thing out of your mouth of course she liked him you saw the way she was around him "I'm sorry." Her voice shaking as she cried into her arms "It's fine, just forget about it. Do you want more coffe?" Brushing her confession off and wiping the counters down for the third time.

Three months later after she had calmed down and even started hanging out with you and Yoongi again. You guys were at the dorm half celebrating half partying you had entered a rap battle against Taeyhung and (y/f/n) vs you and Namjoon, Suga and Hobi playing as the judges. It was obvious to anyone in the room thats you were drunk it was also obvious that Tae and (y/f/n) had slaughtered you and Joonie, JHope high fiving her followed by Yoongi doing the same you had never been good at losing you even put yourself with the internationally known rapper seeing her smile and Yoongi on her side laughing with her opening another drink and passing it to her jealousy filled you and you went and sat beside her opposite from Yoongi "You like the attention your getting from him don't you." You said whispering well what you thought was whispering was more like talking at normal volume when both her Yoongi knotted their eyebrows looking at you "What are you talking about? (Y/n)." Her voice actually a whisper "Im surprised your not trying to get all the attention from them. Are you still in love with that sleaze ball from the club?" You laughed at your joke the boys all looking towards you, your friend tried to play it off as she hid her face in her hands "I was wasted (y/n)" she giggled Yoongi reached over her lifting your chin not saying anything making eye contact was enough "You weren't wasted when you kept talking about how perfect that guy was, what did you say, oh yeah personality, hair, voice. Maybe you should've slept with him before he got a girlfriend, but thats not gonna stop you right the fact that he's not single" your voice deepening each time you mentioned him. Alcohol never mixxed to well with you, you avoided it like the plague for this exact reason. (Y/f/n) looked at you, face serious "Stop, please (y/n)." Her voice even and deep with warning "Why, we both know the guy were talking about isnt that slime ball from the club." By the time this left your mouth everyone was looking at you and her waiting her reaction Taeyhung stepped foward "Wait are you gay (y/f/n)?" Shock in his voice as he looked at her "What, no.Tae why would you even ask that?" She replied sobering up from the confrontation she was facing Taehyungs eyes lit up as he stepped back "I thought she was trying to out you." Before she could reply you did "She's not gay, she practically hoped off a-" Out of all people Yoongi cut you off "You need to stop." His voice rang out stopping you from continuing your insult only to start another "Ofcourse you'd stand up for her shes probably sleeping with you, 'That guy' is you moron." Not only insulting her but him too you watched as your friend reached over and slapped you with so much force your head turned "Fuck you." Her voice rang out before she practically jogged to the door slamming it behind her you ended up sick and staying the night with Yoongi he was still angry at you but took care of you. After your hangover was half way gone you walked home. Yoongi was angry at not only you but (y/f/n) too. Opening the door to your shared apartment seeing your friend on the couch with a red puffy face because of you she was just getting over her fathers death and finnally stopped crying only to start again because your drunk mouth you didnt even have to apologize as she wrapped her arms around you when you sat next to her but that didn't stop you from begging her forgiveness "You probably still feel like shit... so its okay, karma" her voice lead off with laughter you looked at her nodding "trash is how i feel, i was a bitch to you and Yoongi is probably done with me" your head resting on her chest she let out another laugh "Ice cream?" Her voice promising a happy frozen neverland.

Yoongi showed up later that day seeing you two cuddle up on the couch with enough ice cream for a soccer team you each had a spoon digging in and watching reruns of family guy on Netflix He put distance between himself and (y/f/n) sitting at the end of your feet on the couch it was quiet for about six minutes before you spoke "I'm sorry, I dont want you to be uncomfortable around each other." Looking at both of them seeing their reactions (y/f/n) smiled at you Yoongi reached over and pushed your hair back "It's good we're good." Her voice rang out "But i have a question." Worry hit your face "did I really say I loved that weirdo from the club?" You relaxed and laughed nodding your head vigorously almost choking on your laughter her face bunched up as she whined out an eww before laughing with you Yoongi looking at you both like you lost your mind "Look, you dont understand he was like and Italian looking rat" she said towards yoongi tears in both your eyes from laughing to much.

¤

JHope

Dancing with your boyfriend and your best friend was supposed to be fun but not when your best friend and boyfriend hated each other. Complete opposites that didnt attract, JHope was happy and energetic and sweet, (y/f/n) was quiet and sleepy and slightly rude but in a loveable angry fuzzy little bunny kind of way they clashed when y'all would dance together not agreeing on a song not even a genre but when they did it was beautiful like woah mystical unicorn beautiful they danced perfectly in sync with the music flipping on the exact same beat as the music ended "Oh (y/f/n) you did well!" Jhopes voice echoed in the practice room you watched as she nodded towards him before slinging her bag over her shoulder bidding farewell to the boys gathered in the corner as soon as the door shut Jhopes voice rang through "Ah jagiya why is she so mean" he looked at you with sad puppy eyes you laughed at him slightly before hugging him  "She's not mean." Looking up at him his eyebrows knotted "Why does she hate me then?" He was joking but also literally asking before you could answer Sugas voice broke the air "Let go eat." Smiling as you pulled Hoseok behind you out the door.

You would take that day over and over again rather then today Jhope was being himself maybe a little extra and (y/f/n) wasn't having any of it what so ever you sat back on the couch stunned as she screamed at Hoseok insulting him and being over sarcastic as her hands reached to her hair she let out one final blow "I can't believe my best friend is stupid enough to like someone as fucking gay as you"  her voice rang through the room loud and clear making suga and namjoon cringe with the volume Hoseok wasnt the type to be confrontational but today was different as he insulted her right back "Yeah you would know gay because your so inlove with your danm self, yet your self esteem is so low, your such a bad friend to call her stupid, your such a bitch." He ended the fight as soon as he was done your best friends seething anger was gone her voice was calm and only a decimal above a whisper "Your right im a bitch, a bad friend and have low self esteem, you wanna know what else im bad at forgiving, go fuck yourself both of you." Her voice may be calm but her aura was deadly as she grabbed her phone off the table you were gonna stop her but as soon as you got arms length her voice shaky and thick she breathed out "Dont fucking touch me." Turning away from you and walking out the door Hoseok still standing in the same position nobody understood what she said like you did you were the only person she had ever forgiven you made mistakes and hurt her unintentionally before with your last boyfriend maybe that was another reason she didn't like Hoseok you couldnt stop your tears they were warm on your cool cheeks Hoseok hugged you, you grew up together she was your rock she would protect you with her life but today might have ended it all, you looked up at him tears in your eyes you didn't know what to say this was all your fault you could of stopped the fight before it escalated to this your best friend was gone and your boyfriend was holding himself back from crying with you he apologized over and over again but it didnt register in your mind. Who would've thought Hoseok would propose three months after that you contacted (y/f/n) through out the months only receiving a cold shoulder until tonight you went ro your shared apartment to pick up the rest of your stuff walking through that door seeing her leaned up against the wall bottle of liquor in her hands another a few feet away prescription pills spread out on the floor tears streaking her red face her head slumped up against the wall eyes closed music blaring she disnt move when you opened the door you walked towards her Hoseok turning the speakers down drowning put the heavy rock music your hand shoved at her shoulder lightly trying to wake her again saying her name shoving harder smacking her face trying to wake her up your voice rang out to Hoseok begging for help as you started crying shaking her now slumped over form on the floor she wasnt responsive ending up at the emergency room she didnt wake up even after her stomach was pumped they had to inject her with adrenaline to get her faint heart beat back it grew louder over the time she was transferred to ICU with a seventy two hour suicide watch as they did multiple test on her heart in the end you and Hoseok saved her life just in the nic of time you moved back in with her and shes helping you plan the wedding you and Hoseok switch back and forth on taking her to therapy once a week. She apologized and forgave Hoseok the moment her eyes opened in the ICU and asked you for some odd reason if you would take her to the beach you didnt explain what happened she already knew.

¤

Rap Monster

You opened the door to see your bestfriend, you greeted her with a bright smile and surprised hey as she walked in past you "Look, Monnie my girl is your girl. In two differnt ways so put your heels on were going out." She stated walking towards the navy blue couch he comfortably lounged on he looked up at her holding her gaze before letting a sigh out standing slipping his trainers on it was waste to fight a fight you knew you were gonna lose, She linked arms with him tugging him towards the door "I love you Y/N"  she said turning the door handle before he could make up an excuse "I love you too, Bye baby love you." You said knowing that you couldnt change your best friends mind as her red bottomed heels sounded across the cement outside the door "I love you kitten" your boyfriends voice rang out before the door closed behind them. You sipped your tea wondering what she had planed for him.

They sat down at the sports bar across the block the bartender greeting (y/f/n) by her last name "You betting tonight?" The bartender asked as he threw the hand towel over his shoulder pouring drinks for both of them "Nah, not today Mark" her red lipstick rimmed the glass of whiskey as soon as the words left her mouth Mark looked down and shook his head "That's a shame dear. Your sitting with a genius man word of the wise, don't bet with her" leaving them with a smile and tending to other customers Namjoon drank in silence next to her until the game was over and five or six drinks gone it was late maybe two in the morning when the conversation picked up on a deeper level, Astronomy turned to the philosophical meaning of life as the night got later stumbling inside giggling like school girls at five in the morning wasn't their smartest move as soon as they slipped their shoes off they were hushed by you and Suga the only other person who was still up surprisingly still working on a saturday night / sunday morning your bestfriend looked at namjoon standing up straight acting like it wasn't her laughing like Seokjin made her favorite dad joke again Namjoon straightened to looking at her with wide eyes before they both broke out in giggles shushing each other stumbling towards the couch together it took about ten minutes before they crashed sleeping propped up on each other you thought to yourself that this was your moment as you took your phone out snapping picture's  (y/f/n) mouth open slightly sitting sideways her headleaning awkwardly on Namjoons shoulder and his up against the back of her hair both letting out snores. They might not be buddy buddy but they were hangover homies the next day.

¤

Jimin

Ballet dancing was your bestfriends life well that and being the life of the party one of her boyfriends joined you and Jimin for dinner tonight, after an awkward dinner you ended up at a club with her dragging you out to the dance floor hips grinding and bodys smashed together her eyes had the streak of wild light as the rooms energy tried to catch up to her the thumping bass speakers matched the rythm of her hips as she directed you, your body joinig her. The explicit lyrics falling from her plump lips as her energy enveloped you, your lips whispered the words in match with her your hips following hers dissconecting from the world for a moment as Jimin's eye's lingered on you your's showing the wild streak just like hers the purple and green strobe lights reflected back to him off your wild orbs dragging him in as he pulled you off the dance floor he was no longer having a good time but you didnt notice the guys watching you and (y/f/n) slowly closing in like predators, He did. He pulled you out to the parking lot behind the club before speaking "Let's go home, Im tired." His eye's staring back at you looking puppy-ish, You had a stressful day no week at work and wanted the release, needed the release "Tired of (y/f/n)?" You asked rolling your eyes at him attitude clear in your voice he tried to explain but you cut him off before he could continue "You know what im tired of, You both hating each other." You were angry most likely induced from the alcohol in your bloodstream his voice kept ringing in your ears but at this point you weren't listening until (y/f/n) stepped in the glow of the neon sign her voice laced with venom "Slut!" She scoffed stumbling toward you "If that's what you think of me why let sweet little (y/n) around such a dirty whore" slurred insults passed her lips you dont know if it was the drinks or the commotion but tears started running down your cheeks dragging black mascara smears along with them falling faster after each insult they through back in forth at each other, you were full out sobbing now as you spoke "Stop, Both of you, Acting like children, do you both hate me." You cried as you leaned against the dirty wall about to fall to the ground both Jimin and (y/f/n) rushed to help you. "Just take care of her Park." Her voice thick as she kissed your head and turned walking away from you, you would of replied or kissed her cheek and told her to be safe if you knew that was gonna be the last time you saw (y/f/n).

It had been four months you called her voicemail answered everytime and went by her apartment called her work but she hadnt shown anywhere walking in from work you slipped your shoes off reading the text from Jimin asking you to come eat with him and the boys sending a quick reply slipping in to something more comfortable before heading to the dorm when Namjoon opened the door and stepped aside allowing you to see straight past him your eyes widened and throat closed you froze seeing a makeup free bestfriend not even a trace of mascara she always caked her face she was a prima ballerina it was just in her nature her hair tied up and lips chapped she still held the same wild energy in her eyes as her smile stretched rushing in to your arms Jimins voice rang out "Surprise." You ended up circled around the couch together with the boys for a story time Jimin and (y/f/n) told you about her visits to the rehab center, therapist and Jimin going with her to her AA meetings.

¤

V

"Y/N" your best friend whined out throwing another gummy bear at you she was on the floor infront of the couch you and Tae were cuddled up on she wanted to go out instead of sitting inside since it was the first sunny day after a week straight of grey skies and rain but your warmth wasnt from the sun outside but from the slightly annoyed hooded man behide you she threw another one geting you out of your daze as it hit you on the cheek bouncing off and hitting Taeyhung in the face he pushed you off him "Go and take her with you" He picked up the gummy bears and threw them on the floor your freind picking them up let out a sign "It was an accident don't get your panties in a twist and stop acting like a dick" she stood grabbing her jacket before leaving you both in shook at her abnomal outbreak as the door slammed behind her your bestfriend was the most innocent gummy child you had even known turning towards him qeustioning him without speaking "It's just a tantrum, she's being childish (y/n)" he rolled his eyes slightly smacking his shoulder signing in dissapointment as you got up slipping your shoes on they were both being childish it seemed to you Taeyhung tried to hug you from behind and appoligizing "Save it Tae, I'm Going home." you slung your bag over your shoulder Suga opening the door before you could walking in as you walked out you heard him ask Tae what happened...

The next morning you walked in to your favorite coffee shop the scent of esspresso filling your lungs as you took a deep breath even for the begining of spring its was unusually cold your eyes scanned the room and (y/f/n)'s hair caught your eyes sitting with Taeyhung out of all people neither of them were answering your text this morning you just thought it was too early for them they waved you over smiles on both of them Taeyhung spoke "do you have plans today kitten?" you sat still shocked at the sight shaking your head no "Good then you can join me and (y/f/n) at the cemetery today" Tae finnished reaching for your hand to hold, your eyebrows knotted up in confusion "Yesterday was Goldies birthday how could you forget so insensitive" Tae joked sucking his theeth in between scolding you, you looked at your best friend why would they be going to the ccemetery to celebrate her gold fish's birthday then it clicked Goldie had been flushed out to the big blue and (y/f/n) outburst yesterday was based on the demise of her tiny finned friend "First, we have to stop and get flowers." you said grabbing your friends hand linked between both of them you left. The entire way there Tae tried his best to cheer up (y/f/n).

¤

Jungkook

One word to describe two people who were oh so dear to you 'Competitive' the games between your bestfriend and boyfriend never ended and when they did it was never good it felt more like a fight then a game both Jungkook and (y/f/n) would get harsh sometimes vulgar. You sat between the two on the couch as they played overwatch yelling at eachother for no apparent reason Jungkook jumped up off the couch claiming the win with a victory shout "Your such a child." Your friend sucked her theeth putting the controller down Jungkook looked past you to her beginning another argument "Don't be a sore loser, take it back, child." His voice taunting her if it wasnt for their completely different looks you'd think they were siblings they insulted each other back and forth starting a pillow fight hitting each other until your voice rings out "Your both children." They stopped as you raise your voice Jungkook looking at you his hair in every direction "He started it, he's the freaking child." (Y/f/n) voice broke as she stood up hitting her knee om the table sucking in a breath you rushed over to her helping her to the couch checking if she was okay you three ended up watching a movie you picked instead of letting them fight over which one two movies later and Jungkook was getting antsy as you and your cuddle buddy giggled at the whispered jokes "I feel like the third wheel when (y/f/n) is here." Jungkook whined "Loser." Your friend joked back at him his reaction told you enough tou didnt need to hear the whispered insult directed back at her as he stood up and ignored your pleas walking off to his bedroom slamming the door behind him your friend rolled her eyes slipping her shoes on and leaving but not before letting one more whip out "Is he your child or boyfriend?" She didn't slam the door just shut it and left leaving you to clean up the mess walking in to Jungkook's room "Is she your friend or your child" he mocked (y/f/n) as he pulled you down to lay with him "Kookie, why?" You relaxed into him he knotted his eyebrows together "Why lay with me, Jagiya?" He tried to be cute, your eyes stern but heart skipping a beat "She gets under my skin" his voice muffled by pillows the door swung open showing Hoseok with (y/f/n) over his shoulder laughing like maniacs "I found her in ths parking lot!"Jhope laughed as he threw her on Jungkooks bed she laughed her way up towards the pillows laying on the other side of kookie the only free room left after half an hour of silence (y/f/n) spoke "Hey kook, I'm the third wheel okay." Her voice mouse-y almost you liked there bickering and play fighting but you loved when they got along his arm wrapped around her shoulders before falling asleep with you on his chest and (y/f/n) on his arm.

#kpop writings #kpop reactions #kpop #kpop requests #kpop scenarios #kpop icons #kpop recommendations #kpop rapper #korean #writing #long reads #bts #bts v #bts jimin #bts jungkook #bts scenarios #bts jin #bts rap monster #bts rap line #bts vocal line #bts suga #bts jhope #bts jeon jungkook #jeon jungkook #min yoongi #yoongi #hoseok #jhope #kim seokjin #park jimin

[queenofmahishmati]

Meeting The Stars - PRABHAS  &  RANA

From the moment I got back home after watching Baahubali: The Beginning, I wished to meet the entire team behind the Epic because one, they were ideals in my mind for attempting something of such an impressive magnitude and coming out successful; and two, they seemed so fun to get to know after all their interviews together despite the heights of their fandom. It was indeed a dream team and my dream to meet them got a lot more stubborn after watching The Conclusion.

So last May, on a fine Friday morning, I came across a tweet about a contest regarding Baahubali the Lost Legends—the animated series of the franchise on Amazon Prime India twitter handle. It promised two sets of winners, the first three would get to meet the stars and the next ten would win certain Baahubali merchandise. My eyes zeroed in on the promise of those gifts cause I consider myself as a bit of a collector. I decided to give my best shot at it hoping to win at least one of them goody bags. I answered all the nine questions about the animated series. They promised to announce the winners that night and I almost forgot all about it until after dinner. When I did though, I rushed to see who won the goody bags and didn’t find my name so made peace with the thought that it just wasn’t meant for me. And not 5 minutes later, they announced the 3 winners who will go on to meet the Baahubali stars on top of getting the merchandise as well and my name was right on top of it—and I’m pretty sure I kept blinking owlishly at my mobile screen for 10 minutes straight. I legit couldn’t believe my luck and I thought it was a prank until everyone assured me it wasn’t. With what one would term a Cheshire grin, I danced around my place and kept shoving my mobile at everyone’s face (the ones who made the mistake of listening to me, that is). Friends who had me as their whatsapp contact were subsequent victims to my excitement as well. However, my mum and brother were an exception as they tried to tease me, mercilessly might I add, about my pintsize and how either Rana or Prabhas might have to lift me up so that I was in the same frame as them in the pictures—tried being the key word. It still had zero effect on my delight and I eagerly waited for the day that I would meet the team. (rest under the cut bc its super long)

Two months later, the day finally came. It was a Friday once again. On the morning of 21st July, I flew to Hyderabad with all my excitement swapped with a sense of restlessness. The moment was finally upon me and you can’t blame the jitters. I was all— What would they be like? What should I tell/ask them? How long was the meet and greet for? Should I write down the questions I had for them? And yada yada yada. Five minutes after touchdown at Hyderabad, Cheryl (from Amazon) called me to tell me that the talents were coming earlier than planned and I should be on my way to the hotel ASAP. The day before, she had informed me that I was going to meet Prabhas & Rana. So, instead of slowly wandering like originally planned, I rushed out of the airport and thankfully found the cab driver who was waiting to pick me up under ten minutes and we were on our way.

Now, I have a habit of striking up conversations with taxi drivers to fill in the silence (because of all the Ubers I’m used to back in UK). As soon as I get in the car, I start with something neutral like ‘Where are you from? How long have you been here? How much you like the place?’ and the talk just flows after that. It always leaves me with a gratified feeling when I step out of the vehicle and thank them genuinely before bidding goodbye. I couldn’t resist and asked the driver all these questions in the little Telugu I could manage and he started speaking about the city, its uniqueness and all the special places to visit. Once he knew I was an architect by profession, he went on to explain the construction history of the intercity elevated expressway we were passing over that moment. And by the time we reached the hotel, I was pretty much convinced that Hyderabad had one of the best infrastructures in the nation and forgot all about my earlier jitters from the flight. He informed me he’d come to pick me up the next day as well to take me back to the airport for my return flight and I happily waved him away before ambling inside the hotel lobby in search of Cheryl. Thankfully, she found me and after a quick check-in, whisked me away along with Sagar (one of the other two winners) to the place where we’d be meeting the stars. There we were joined by the third winner Abhishek and a tiny amount of waiting later (barely ten minutes tops), by the two men themselves.

Until then, I swear by all Gods, the gravity of the moment hadn’t sunk in to me. I was in a calm and happy daze till I heard their cheerful hellos in the next room. My excitement doubled, but my voice turned to that of a squeak (like my mum often says) as I lost my calm and all the restlessness from the flight returned back full force. Abhi and Sagar were in a similar state as me while the organizers took a minute to explain to the two stars about the contest and more, before I was ushered out to go meet them first (bakra feeling, anyone?). Introductions happened in a blink and all I could do now is picture myself slowly toddling into the other room like a lost little sheep blinded by the spotlights set up by the filming crew. However, I’m certain that my flummoxed look turned into a grateful smile when I saw Prabhas standing up first with his hand held out in greeting. Bless that man, my respect for him instantly soared sky high. “Hi,” I piped up meekly as I placed my hand in his and a tiny stutter later, “—I’m Sharme.” He was a darling though, just like his nickname and with a generous smile shook my hand as he replied, “Nice to meet you Sharme!”

My next stop on self-introduction train was Rana, who was standing right behind Prabhas. Now this guy is something else altogether okay, but in a good way. He is a sweetheart and undoubtedly a big goof ball, who can pull you out of your edginess with few simple words (unconsciously on his part I guess). I shuffled towards him with my hand held out and repeated the exact same thing I told his friend. Without missing a beat, he took my hand and warmly stated, “And hi, I’m Rana!” I blinked up as I thought, yeah right Captain Obvious! Despite the sarcasm, I couldn’t control my bubbling laughter and straightaway forgot all about my earlier concerns. What an effective way to break the ice as well as the barriers between celebrity and their admirers, right? Extra brownie points for Rana-man!

Also, I need to mention this here — I might have very well introduced myself as, “Hello, I’m tiny!” because I had my neck craned up high throughout the exchange. Wearing my flattest shoes was both a blessing and a curse. I didn’t fall flat on my face thankfully, but I felt dwarfed standing there between them both for a picture and although I had prepared myself to tell them many things, the first to slip out of my lips was, “Oh God! I’m so tiny next to you guys!” I even suggested that I climb the couch behind us but they laughed it off saying they’d rather sit down than let me do all of those stunts. Such fine gentlemen at their cheeky best, yep. It must be in my fate or something cause I always end up getting teased every time I meet a celebrity. (pout)

Couple of pictures later, we were joined by Abhi and Sagar as well, and thus more chatting/teasing ensued. All three of us were kind of stumped for words as our brains had probably short circuited and was still on its way to mend, so when Rana started speaking we were more than happy to tag along. The very first thing they asked us was how much we liked the movies and of course we had to gush about it and I said I watched it six times for which with a nifty smile, Prabhas was like “Why just 6 times?” — what would you answer that honestly, other than vowing to go back home and watch it over and over again?

Then they asked us about the animated series and how much we liked it. The reply was obvious — for the incredible backstory it was providing about the two princes of Mahishmati, a past we never got to see in the movies. And of course, how much we loved Bhallaladeva, which made Rana look all pleased. By this time, I was totally back in my element and I couldn’t stop myself from stating, “Oh but he kills his best friend in the very first episode!” The room dissolved into laughter while I was reassessing the distance between the couch and the door to make a quick getaway. But that guy is way too good, to a fault. He yet again surprised me by saying, “Well, that’s what makes him the cooler brother no?” I had to smile and nod at that cause damn, he’s too good with persuasion too. What I never expected was Prabhas’ voice on my other side answering his question: “I actually thought of playing Bhallaladeva too. Why stop with just two when I can play three no? But then I felt I should give chance for upcoming heroes like Rana… so we went ahead with it!” He can go toe for toe with Rana-man undoubtedly. But his partner in crime always has an answer, “You killing yourself twice would have looked weird though!” Again laughter rippled throughout as I mentally shook my head at these two dorks, no one is safe from them—I repeat, no one is safe around these two.

Then we spoke about Rana’s new show No 1 Yaari, and how Abhi wished it would come subtitled and he was promised that the team was working on it. It also brought on the topic of whether we knew Telugu and we spoke about our journeys: Sagar lived in Hyderabad so of course he was well aware, Abhi started watching Telugu movies after Baahubali and my interest began after watching Magadheera with my Uni friends. So in a way, it was all because of Rajamouli sir. We had to ask why he didn’t come along with them for which we were assured he was working on something important once again. Ah ha! But the focus on languages continued and I remembered how Manu mentioned she preferred the German dubbed version over watching it in Hindi with subtitles and I told them so. They seemed amazed that it got dubbed in German as well, especially Prabhas. And then Prabhas had to leave so they gave us all our goody bags individually (guess who got lucky enough to get from them both, ME.) Once more pictures were taken of the moment, Prabhas left with a shy wave and Rana went to shoot a small promo video for the Lost Legends with the team in the other room and we were left to talk amongst ourselves. It was then that I was more or less whining about not getting the poster signed by them both and a good-hearted gentleman from the Wizcraft team ensured that my Rise of Sivagami book was sent up to Prabhas’ room to get it signed from him. And when Rana stepped out of his shoot-mode, he was charming enough to sign the posters for us. While he wrote best wishes for the two guys with me, he wrote lots of love on mine and I was like, yep you have been spending too much time with Arya man (another south actor). But it was fun and I enjoyed every minute of it, especially when he handed it back with a “there you go sweet lady!” I had to make a conscious effort to not melt at his adorableness. With all the promotions done and another fabulous movie on his list, I hope that precious man gets his rest!!

His last parting words were, ❝ Do keep the franchise alive, will you? ❞  And we all swore in unison before parting with a wave. Little does he know we have most certainly pledged our lives to do just that!!

After another shoot of us three recapping the entire experience, we bid goodbyes to the team as well and made our way to our rooms. And I came back home the next morning. Now as I think about that day, it feels as if I lived some kind of dream and I wish I could relive it again. Heartfelt thanks to Amazon Prime Video and these two fine gentlemen for making it a beautiful memory!!

—s

ps. if you want to have a look at my crazy pictures with them or the even crazier video, ping me off anon or pm me. I don't bite :)

#baahubali #rana daggubati #prabhas #baahubali the lost legends #real life baahubalis man #i don't know what to tag this post as #personal rant? #sharme's adventures #ignore all kind of typos cause i don't even have the strength to read through it #i hate being sick

[caseyvalhalla]

despite what you’ve been told (pt 6)

so, I realize that this interpretation for the ‘commemorative photo’ scene has been disavowed via Word of God, but it’s what I was working with from the start so I’m just gonna roll with it; enjoy your Yurios, only one more installment after this!

Read Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Bonus | Part Five

Yuri Plisetsky’s life is suffering.

The most frustrating things he’s discovered as a teen is 1) the world he’s grown up into doesn’t meet any of his expectations, and also 2) the adults he used to admire turned out to be actual human beings capable of failure and emotion and being hopelessly pathetic and unreliable.  They do things like let him down, forget his existence, make promises they have no intention of keeping, and shut themselves away in bathroom stalls to cry.

Yuri hates it, more than anything.  He hates that vulnerability because his idols and role-models are supposed to be past that--beyond fallibility, beyond breaking, beyond childishness.  But they’re not.  Yuri feels betrayed.

He stomps out of the bathroom and goes to find Victor, not because Victor will prove himself to be any more capable or reliable than the blubbering mess in the toilet stall but because at least he’s a familiar disappointment, and at least he’s capable of pretending.  Victor surrounded by flashing lights and microphones is the very impression of competence, oozing sound bites and sex appeal, another effortless success, a champion carved out of marble.  The moment Victor notes Yuri’s presence suddenly he’s drawn into the circle of attention and celebrity, grumbling until Victor’s blithe scolding convinces him to answer a few questions about his advancement to Seniors, cold but mostly genial.

He’s started to see the cracks in Victor’s mask, though, even at times like this.  At practice, when the only eyes on him are his coach and his rinkmates Victor is as silent and cold as the siberian tundra--on the ice he’s as refined and elegant as ever but his mouth tilts down in frustration, eyes focused on something distant over Yuri’s shoulder whenever he tries to get Victor’s attention.

Yuri wants to stay mad at him, wants to wash his hands of the World Champion of Assholes and never speak to him again, but he can’t, and that just pisses him off more.

When Victor finally waves off the press and they make their way to the exit, he predictably starts criticizing the step sequence in Yuri’s FS program and Yuri groans through his teeth, head dropping back dramatically, more to ensure that Victor gets the full force of his grimace than for any other reason.  “Who cares?  I won.  Quit nagging me.”

Unfortunately Yakov is just close enough to hear him and launches into a lecture the moment they’re in earshot.  Yuri stops listening after less than a second, stare wandering past Victor’s shoulder--and there he is, the latest disappointment in Yuri’s life, staring at the three of them with a dumb expression behind his stupid nerd glasses.  Yuri scowls but he doesn’t seem to notice, and that just frustrates Yuri more.

Look at me!  Pay attention to me!  You’re a pathetic loser and the second I get home I’m taking all the posters of you off my wall and burning them.  I’ll never watch your YouTube videos again.  I hate your guts.  Look at me, Katsuki, stop staring at Victor like an idiot.  You failed me and I’ll never forgive you!

Japan’s Top Failure won’t look at Yuri, though; he just stares past him with that same limp, miserable posture and expression until Victor finally stirs, feeling eyes on him, and turns.

And Victor is the biggest idiot on the planet, because he immediately pulls up his movie star expression and says, graciously, “Commemorative photo?  Sure.”

Victor is still smiling when Katsuki curls into a ball of abject misery and slithers away without a word, and that smile gradually melts into a blank stare while Yuri feels enough rage build up in his stomach that he thinks he might literally explode.  He tries to pay attention to Yakov for a few seconds, just to distract himself, but Victor’s sense of self-preservation has never been in top form, so when he turns back he has the gall to mumble, “What was that about?” to himself, one finger curled against his lower lip.

And Yuri can’t take it anymore.

“Oh my GOD, what is your PROBLEM?  That was YUURI KATSUKI YOU DUMB FUCK!”

Victor stares down at him, mask summarily out of place, vague like he thinks he knows the name but can’t quite place it, and it’s like a microcosm of everything that’s been wrong with Victor since last season.  Distracted, listless, able to pretend he’s still inspired with his feet on the ice and cameras in front of him, fickle and directionless anywhere else.  Before now, Victor would have been the one telling Yuri the names and careers of every single competitor at every event they go to, right down to their Junior division base scores and personal training regimens.  But this Victor doesn’t seem to know anyone, doesn’t pay attention to anything, can’t keep any information in his head for more than a few hours.

Yakov has been making noises, occasionally, mutterings that sounded like it’s happening again and has long arguments with Victor behind closed doors that never seem to resolve anything.  Yuri doesn’t remember it very well because he was too young, but he knows there was a break, an undefinable period of absence after which Victor reappeared in St. Petersburg, hair cut short, tired and world-weary but smiling in a way that made eight-year-old Yuri feel relieved even though he wasn’t sure why.  Maybe just because it seemed to make Yakov feel relieved, in his own disgruntled way.

He assumes this is what those mutterings and arguments mean, but Yuri still doesn’t know why Victor was gone to begin with, and nothing pisses him off quite like his own ignorance.

“Yuuri Katsuki,” Victor echoes, eyes narrow and turned to the side like he can see into his own memory if he peers hard enough, and Yuri grinds his teeth.

“Japan’s top skater.  He wins his Nationals every year.  He came in 6th, weren’t you watching?”

“I was talking to the press.”

Victor can’t possibly understand the depths of Yuri’s feelings about this, how eager he’d been to see Katsuki perform in person, only to watch him fall and stumble all over himself like a newborn foal.  Victor couldn’t understand how unfair that was, how Katsuki had let himself down, let his fans down, let Yuri down even though they’d never spoken before Yuri broke into his toilet stall and screamed his own disappointment in Katsuki’s face.  He was supposed to be better than this.  Victor was supposed to be better than this.  The adults in his life weren’t supposed to let him down.

And now Victor is lost in thought, somewhere out of reach for the rest of the day, for all of the following day through the exhibition where he skates as flawlessly and beautifully as ever, right up until the banquet.

Yuri refuses to discuss the banquet.

He’ll discuss how idiotic Victor is during the banquet, how every time his conversation lapses into silence Yuri follows his line of sight and invariably sees Katsuki in his lame department store suit, sucking down yet another flute of champagne.  He’ll discuss how gross it all ends up being, because there’s a stripper pole and partial nudity involved and he can never, ever admit to how well Katsuki owns him at his own preferred style of dance even though he’s drunk enough it’s deeply improbable how well he keeps on his feet.  He’ll discuss how appalled he is when Katsuki wraps his champagne-soaked, half-dressed self around Victor, babbling in a drunken mixture of Japanese and English, begging in a delighted sing-song for Victor to coach him.

What Yuri won’t discuss is later, after Victor dances with him, smiling like he hasn’t in more than a year or maybe ever, when Yuri catches a glimpse through a part in the crowd, Yuuri Katsuki in Victor’s lap and the two of them laughing, murmuring, arms sliding around each other.  Lips touching.

It’s not fair.

Yuri wonders, sometimes, if he knew what would happen after that--if he knew that one day he’d be in a backwater town somewhere in Japan on the ice with these two bumbling grownups, ready to stomp his feet and scream because they can’t take their eyes off each other, can’t stop clinging to each other, because I’m here, too!  Pay attention to me, too!  I need your love, too!

He wonders if he knew that, knew how disgusting they would end up being, how unimportant he would end up being to them, if he would have sent Victor the link.

Yuri sort of knows, in that moment when he’s watching the YouTube channel he swore he’d never look at again, curled on his bed surrounded by the posters he swore he was going to burn, when the internet suddenly explodes with Yuuri Katsuki.  Would Victor even notice?  Victor, who never notices anything anymore, especially not Yuri Plisetsky, even when Yuri Plisetsky is standing right in front of him, yelling in his face.

Without inspiration you’re as good as dead!

But maybe if Yuuri Katsuki is the only thing Victor will notice, the only thing he wants to notice, then maybe that’s better than him not noticing anything or anyone at all.

Yuri figures he’s going to regret it for the rest of his life, if he copies the YouTube link into this text message to Victor.  He’s right.

He does it anyway.

And maybe one day he’ll admit to someone he trusts to never, ever repeat any such thing that he wouldn’t take it back, even if he had the chance.  Even if he had a million chances, he’d press the send button every time, teeth grit in a scowl, ready to fling his phone into the sun as soon as it goes through.  It’s selfless and unconditional and what pisses him off the most is that Victor knows, weeks later.  He looks at Yuri and says agape like he’s already read everything in Yuri’s heart, like his love is an open book for Victor to peruse.

And Yuri will never, ever forgive either of them.

...

Except he does, this time.  And every time after.

#yuri on ice #victuuri #viktuuri #victuri #vikturi #so many victories #hahaha #i enjoyed this little yurio interlude #even though i kinda made myself sad #he'll be ok though #casey writes fanfiction #despite what you've been told

[latestnews2018-blog]

For IGTV, Instagram needs slow to mean steady

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/for-igtv-instagram-needs-slow-to-mean-steady/

For IGTV, Instagram needs slow to mean steady

Instagram has never truly failed at anything, but judging by modest initial view counts, IGTV could get stuck with a reputation as an abandoned theater if the company isn’t careful. It’s no flop, but the long-form video hub certainly isn’t an instant hit like Instagram Stories. Two months after that launched in 2016, Instagram was happy to trumpet how its Snapchat clone had hit 100 million users. Yet two months after IGTV’s launch, the Facebook subsidiary has been silent on its traction.

“It’s a new format. It’s different. We have to wait for people to adopt it and that takes time,” Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom told me. “Think of it this way: we just invested in a startup called IGTV, but it’s small, and it’s like Instagram was ‘early days.’”

It’s indeed too early for a scientific analysis, and Instagram’s feed has been around since 2010, so it’s obviously not a fair comparison, but we took a look at the IGTV view counts of some of the feature’s launch partner creators. Across six of those creators, their recent feed videos are getting roughly 6.8X as many views as their IGTV posts. If IGTV’s launch partners that benefited from early access and guidance aren’t doing so hot, it means there’s likely no free view count bonanza in store from other creators or regular users.

They, and IGTV, will have to work for their audience. That’s already proving difficult for the standalone IGTV app. Though it peaked at the #25 overall US iPhone app and has seen 2.5 million downloads across iOS and Android according to Sensor Tower, it’s since dropped to #1497 and seen a 94 percent decrease in weekly installs to just 70,000 last week.

Instagram will have to be in it for the long haul if it wants to win at long-form video. Entering the market 13 years after YouTube with a vertical format no one’s quite sure what to do with, IGTV must play the tortoise. If it can avoid getting scrapped or buried, and offer the right incentives and flexibility to creators, IGTV could deliver the spontaneous video viewing experience Instagram lacks. Otherwise, IGTV risks becoming the next Google Plus — a ghost town inside an otherwise thriving product ecosystem.

A glitzy, glitchy start

Instagram gave IGTV a red carpet premiere June 20th in hopes of making it look like the new digital hotspot. The San Francisco launch event offered attendees several types of avocado toast, spa water and ‘Gram-worthy portrait backdrops reminiscent of the Color Factory or Museum of Ice Cream. Instagram hadn’t held a flashy press event since the 2013 launch of video sharing, so it pulled out all the stops. Balloon sculptures lined the entrance to a massive warehouse packed with social media stars and ad execs shouting to each other over the din of the DJ.

But things were rocky from the start. Leaks led TechCrunch to report on the IGTV name and details in the preceding weeks. Technical difficulties with Systrom’s presentation pushed back the start, but not the rollout of IGTV’s code. Tipster Jane Manchun Wong sent TechCrunch screenshots of the new app and features a half hour before it was announced, and Instagram’s own Business Blog jumped the gun by posting details of the launch. The web already knew how IGTV would let people upload vertical videos up to an hour long and browse them through categories like “Popular” and “For You” by the time Systrom took the stage.

IGTV’s launch event featured Instagram-themed donuts and elaborate portrait backdrops. Images via Vicki’s Donuts and Mai Lanpham

“What I’m most proud of is that Instagram took a stand and tried a brand new thing that is frankly hard to pull off. Full-screen vertical video that’s mobile only. That doesn’t exist anywhere else,” Systrom tells me. It was indeed ambitious. Creators were already comfortable making short-form vertical Snapchat Stories by the time Instagram launched its own version. IGTV would have to start from scratch.

Systrom sees the steep learning curve as a differentiator, though. “One of the things I like most about the new format is that it’s actually fairly difficult to just take videos that exist online and simply repost them. That’s not true in feed. That basically forces everyone to create new stuff,” Systrom tells me. “It’s not to say that there isn’t other stuff on there but in general it incentivizes people to produce new things from scratch. And that’s really what we’re looking for. Even if the volume of that stuff at the beginning is smaller than what you might see on the popular page [of Instagram Explore].”

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom unveils IGTV at the glitzy June 20th launch event

Instagram forced creators to adopt this proprietary format. But it forget to train Stories stars how to entertain us for five or 15 minutes, not 15 seconds, or convince landscape YouTube moguls to purposefully shoot or crop their clips for the way we normally hold our phones.

IGTV’s Popular page features plenty of random viral pap, foreign language content, and poor cropping

That should have been the real purpose of the launch party — demonstrating a variety of ways to turn these format constraints or lack thereof into unique content. Vertical video frames people better than places, and the length allows sustained eye-to-lens contacts that can engender an emotional connection. But a shallow array of initial content and too much confidence that creators would figure it out on their own deprived IGTV of emergent norms that other videographers could emulate to wet their feet.

Now IGTV feels haphazard, with trashy viral videos and miscropped ports amongst its Popular section alongside a few creators trying to produce made-for-IGTV talk shows and cooking tutorials. It’s yet to have its breakout “Chewbacca Mom” or “Rubberbanded Watermelon” blockbuster like Facebook Live. Even an interview with mega celeb Kylie Jenner only had 11,000 views.

Instagram wants to put the focus on the author, not the individual works of art. “Because we don’t have full text search and you can’t just search any random thing, it’s about the creators” Systrom explains. “I think that at its base level that it’s personality driven and creator driven means that you’re going to get really unique content that you won’t find anywhere else and that’s the goal.”

Yet being unique requires extra effort that creators might not invest if they’re unsure of the payoff in either reach or revenue. Michael Sayman, formerly Facebook’s youngest employee who was hired at age 17 to build apps for teens and who now works for Google, summed it up saying: “Many times in my own career, I’ve tried to make something with a unique spin or a special twist because I felt that’s the only way I could make my product stand out from the crowd, only to realize that it was those very twists and spins that made my products feel out of place and confusing to users. Sometimes, the best product is one that doesn’t create any new twists, but rather perfects and builds on top of what has been proven to already be extremely successful.”

A fraction of feed views

The one big surprise of the launch event was where IGTV would exist. Instagram announced it’d live in a standalone IGTV app, but also as a feature in the main app accessible from an orange button atop the home screen that would occasionally call out that new content was inside. It could have had its own carousel like Stories or been integrated into Explore until it was ready for primetime.

Instead, it was ignorable. IGTV didn’t get the benefit of the home screen spotlight like Instagram Stories. Blow past that one orange button and avoid downloading the separate app, and users could go right on tapping and scrolling through Instagram without coming across IGTV’s longer videos.

View counts of the launch partners reflect that. We looked at six launch partner creators, comparing their last six feed and IGTV videos older than a week and less than six months old, or fewer videos if that’s all they’d posted.

Only one of the six, BabyAriel, saw an obvious growth trend in her IGTV videos. Her candid IGTV monologues are performing the best of the six compared to feed. She’s earning an average of 243,000 views per IGTV video, about a third as many as she gets on her feed videos. “I’m really happy with my view counts because IGTV is just starting” BabyAriel tells me. She thinks the format will be good for behind-the-scenes clips that complement her longer YouTube videos and shorter Stories. “When I record anything, It’s vertical. When I turn my phone horizontal I think of an hour-long movie.”

Lele Pons, a Latin American comedy and music star who’s one of the most popular Instagram celebrities, gets about 5.7X more feed views than on her IGTV cooking show that averages 1.9 million hits. Instagram posted some IGTV highlights from the first month, but the most popular of now has 4.3 million views — less than half of what Pons gets on her average feed video.

Fitness guides from Katie Austin averaged just 3,600 views on IGTV while she gets 7.5X more in the feed. Lauren Godwin’s colorful comedy fared 5.2X better in the feed. Bryce Xavier saw the biggest differential, earning 15.9X more views for his dance and culture videos. And in the most direct comparison, K-Pop dancer Susie Shu sometimes posts cuts from the same performance to the two destinations, like one that got 273,000 views in feed but just 27,000 on IGTV, with similar clips fairing an average of 7.8X better.

Again, this isn’t to say IGTV is a lame horse. It just isn’t roaring out of the gates. Systrom remains optimistic about inventing a new format. “The question is can we pull that off and the early signs are really good,” he tells me. “We’ve been pretty blown away by the reception and the usage upfront,” though he declined to share any specific statistics. Instagram promised to provide more insight into traction in the future.

YouTube star Casey Neistat is less bullish. He doesn’t think IGTV is working and that engagement has been weak. If IGTV views were surpassing those of YouTube, creators would flock to it, but so far view counts are uninspiring and not worth diverting creative attention, Neistat says. “YouTube offers the best sit-back consumption, and Stories offers active consumption. Where does IGTV fit in? I’m not sure” he tells me. “Why create all of this unique content if it gets lower views, it’s not monetizable, and the viewers aren’t there?”

Susie Shu averages 7.8X more video views in the Instagram feed than on IGTV

For now, the combination of an unfamiliar format, the absence of direction for how to use it and the relatively buried placement has likely tempered IGTV’s traction. Two months in, Instagram Stories was proving itself an existential threat to Snapchat — which it’s in fact become. IGTV doesn’t pose the same danger to YouTube yet, and it will need a strategy to support a more slow-burn trajectory.

The chicken and the IG problem

The first step to becoming a real YouTube challenger is to build up some tent-pole content that gives people a reason to open IGTV. Until there’s something that captures attention, any cross-promotion traffic Instagram sends it will be like pouring water into a bucket with a giant hole in the bottom. Yet until there’s enough viewers, it’s tough to persuade creators to shoot for IGTV since it won’t do a ton to boost their fan base.

Fortnite champion Ninja shares a photo of IGTV launch partners gathered backstage at the press event

Meanwhile, Instagram hasn’t committed to a monetization or revenue-sharing strategy for IGTV. Systrom said at the launch that “There’s no ads in IGTV today,” but noted it’s “obviously a very reasonable place [for ads] to end up.” Without enough views, though, ads won’t earn enough for a revenue split to incentivize creators. Perhaps Instagram will heavily integrate its in-app shopping features and sponsored content partnerships, but even those rely on having more traffic. Vine withered at Twitter in part from creators bailing due to its omission of native monetization options.

So how does IGTV solve the chicken-and-egg problem? It may need to swallow its pride and pay early adopters directly for content until it racks up enough views to offer sustainable revenue sharing. Instagram has never publicly copped to paying for content before, unlike its parent Facebook, which offered stipends ranging into the millions of dollars for publishers to shoot Live broadcasts and long-form Watch shows. Neither have led to a booming viewership, but perhaps that’s because Facebook has lost its edge with the teens who love video.

Instagram could do better if it paid the right creators to weather IGTV’s initial slim pickings. Settling on ad strategy creators can count on earning money from in the future might also get them to hang tight. Those deals could mimic the 55 percent split of mid-roll ad breaks Facebook gives creators on some videos. But again, the views must come first.

Alternatively, or additionally, it could double down on the launch strategy of luring creators with the potential to become the big fish in IGTV’s small-for-now pond. Backroom deals to trade being highlighted in its IGTV algorithm in exchange for high-quality content could win the hearts of these stars and their managers. Instagram would be wise to pair these incentives with vertical long-form video content creation workshops. It could bring its community, product and analytics leaders together with partnered stars to suss out what works best in the format and help them shoot it.

The cross-promo spigot

Once there’s something worth watching on IGTV, the company could open the cross-promo traffic spigot. At first, Instagram would send notifications about top content or IGTV posts from people you follow, and call them out with a little orange text banner atop its main app. Now it seems to understand it will need to be more coercive.

Last month, TechCrunch tipster Jane Manchun Wong spotted Instagram showing promos for individual IGTV shows in the middle of the feed, hoping to redirect eyeballs there. And today, TechCrunch researcher Matt Navarra found Instagram getting more aggressive by putting a bigger call out featuring a relevant IGTV clip with preview image above your Stories tray on the home screen. It may need to boost the frequency of these cross-promotions and stick them in-between Stories and Explore sections as well to give IGTV the limelight. These could expose users to creators they don’t follow already but might enjoy.

“It’s still early but I do think there’s a lot of potential when they figure out two things since the feature is so new,” says John Shahidi, who runs the Justin Bieber-backed Shots Studios, which produces and distributes content for Lele Pons, Rudy Mancuso and other Insta celebs. “1. Product. IGTV is not in your face so Instagram users aren’t changing behavior to consume. Timeline and Instagram Stories are in your face so those two are the most used features. 2. Discoverability. I want to see videos from people I don’t follow. Interesting stuff like cooking, product review, interesting content from brands but without following the accounts.” In the meantime, Shots Studios is launching a vertical-only channel on YouTube that Shahidi believes is the first of its kind.

Instagram will have to balance its strategic imperative to grow the long-form video hub and avoid spamming users until they hate the brand as a whole. Some think it’s already gone too far. “I think it’s super intrusive right now,” says Tiffany Zhong, once known as the world’s youngest venture capitalist who now runs Generation Z consulting firm Zebra Intelligence. “I personally find all the IGTV videos super boring and click out within seconds (and the only time I watch them are if I accidentally tapped on the icon when I tried to go to my DMs instead).” Desperately funneling traffic to the feature before there’s enough great content to power relevant recommendations for everyone could prematurely sour users on IGTV. 

Systrom remains optimistic he can iterate his way to success. “What I want to see over the next six to 12 months is a consistent drumbeat of new features that both consumers and creators are asking for, and to look at the retention curve and say ‘are people continuing to watch? Are people continuing to upload?,’” says Systrom. “So far we are seeing that all of those are healthy. But again trying to judge a very new kind of audacious format that’s never really been done before in the first months is going to be really hard.”

Differentiator or deterrent?

The biggest question remains whether IGTV will remain devout to the orthodoxy of vertical-only. Loosening up to accept landscape videos too might nullify a differentiator, but also pipe in a flood of content it could then algorithmically curate to bootstrap IGTV’s library. Reducing the friction by allowing people to easily port content to or from elsewhere might make it feel like less of a gamble for creators deciding where to put their production resources. Instagram itself expanded from square-only to portrait and landscape photos in the feed in 2015.

“My advice would be to make the videos horizontal. We’ve all come to understand vertical as ‘short form’ and horizontal as ‘long form,’” says Sayman. “It’s in the act of rotating your phone to landscape that you indicate to yourself and to your mobile device that you will not be context switching for the next few minutes, but rather intend to focus on one piece of content for an extended period of time.” This would at least give users more to watch, even if they ended up viewing landscape videos with their phones in portrait orientation.

This might be best as a last-ditch effort if it can’t get enough content flowing in through other means. But at least Instagram should offer a cropping tool that lets users manually select what vertical slice of a landscape video they want to show as they watch, rather than just grabbing the center or picking one area on the side for the whole clip. This could let creators repurpose landscape videos without things getting awkwardly half cut out of frame.

Former Facebook employee and social investor Josh Elman, who now works at Robinhood, told me he’s confident the company will experiment as much as necessary. “I think Facebook is relentless. They know that a ton of consumers watch video online. And most discover videos through influencers or their friends. (Or Netflix). Even though Watch and IGTV haven’t taken the world by storm yet, I bet Facebook won’t stop until they find the right mix.”

There’s a goldmine waiting if it does. Unlike on Facebook, there’s no Regram feature, you can’t post links, and outside of Explore you just see who you already follow on Instagram. That’s made it great at delivering friendly video and clips from your favorite stars, but leaves a gaping hole where serendipitous viewing could be. IGTV fills that gap. The hours people spend on Facebook watching random videos and their accompanying commercials have lifted the company to over $13 billion in revenue per quarter. Giving a younger audience a bottomless pit of full-screen video could produce the same behavior and profits on Instagram without polluting the feed, which can remain the purest manifestation of visual feed culture. But that’s only if IGTV can get enough content uploaded.

Puffed up by the success of besting its foe Snapchat, Instagram assumed it could take the long-form video world by storm. But the grand entrance at its debutante ball didn’t draw enough attention. Now it needs to take a different tack. Tone down the cross-promo for the moment. Concentrate on teaching creators how to find what works on the format and incentivizing them with cash and traffic. Develop some must-see IGTV and stoke a viral blockbuster. Prove the gravity of extended, personality-driven vertical video. Only then should it redirect traffic there from the feed, Stories, and Explore.

YouTube’s library wasn’t built overnight, and neither will IGTV’s. Facebook’s deep pockets and the success of Instagram’s other features give it the runway necessary to let IGTV take off. With 1 billion monthly users, and 400 million daily Stories users gathered in just two years, there are plenty of eyeballs waiting to be seduced. Systrom concludes, “Everything that is great starts small.” IGTV’s destiny will depend on Instagram’s patience.

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[technicalsolutions88]

Instagram has never truly failed at anything, but judging by modest initial view counts, IGTV could get stuck with a reputation as an abandoned theater if the company isn’t careful. It’s no flop, but the long-form video hub certainly isn’t an instant hit like Instagram Stories. Two months after that launched in 2016, Instagram was happy to trumpet how its Snapchat clone had hit 100 million users. Yet two months after IGTV’s launch, the Facebook subsidiary has been silent on its traction.

“It’s a new format. It’s different. We have to wait for people to adopt it and that takes time,” Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom told me. “Think of it this way: we just invested in a startup called IGTV, but it’s small, and it’s like Instagram was ‘early days.'”

It’s indeed too early for a scientific analysis, and Instagram’s feed has been around since 2010, so it’s obviously not a fair comparison, but we took a look at the IGTV view counts of some of the feature’s launch partner creators. Across six of those creators, their recent feed videos are getting roughly 6.8X as many views as their IGTV posts. If IGTV’s launch partners that benefited from early access and guidance aren’t doing so hot, it means there’s likely no free view count bonanza in store from other creators or regular users.

They, and IGTV, will have to work for their audience. That’s already proving difficult for the standalone IGTV app. Though it peaked at the #25 overall US iPhone app and has seen 2.5 million downloads across iOS and Android according to Sensor Tower, it’s since dropped to #1497 and seen a 94 percent decrease in weekly installs to just 70,000 last week.

Instagram will have to be in it for the long haul if it wants to win at long-form video. Entering the market 13 years after YouTube with a vertical format no one’s quite sure what to do with, IGTV must play the tortoise. If it can avoid getting scrapped or buried, and offer the right incentives and flexibility to creators, IGTV could deliver the spontaneous video viewing experience Instagram lacks. Otherwise, IGTV risks becoming the next Google Plus — a ghost town inside an otherwise thriving product ecosystem.

A glitzy, glitchy start

Instagram gave IGTV a red carpet premiere June 20th in hopes of making it look like the new digital hotspot. The San Francisco launch event offered attendees several types of avocado toast, spa water and ‘Gram-worthy portrait backdrops reminiscent of the Color Factory or Museum of Ice Cream. Instagram hadn’t held a flashy press event since the 2013 launch of video sharing, so it pulled out all the stops. Balloon sculptures lined the entrance to a massive warehouse packed with social media stars and ad execs shouting to each other over the din of the DJ.

But things were rocky from the start. Leaks led TechCrunch to report on the IGTV name and details in the preceding weeks. Technical difficulties with Systrom’s presentation pushed back the start, but not the rollout of IGTV’s code. Tipster Jane Manchun Wong sent TechCrunch screenshots of the new app and features a half hour before it was announced, and Instagram’s own Business Blog jumped the gun by posting details of the launch. The web already knew how IGTV would let people upload vertical videos up to an hour long and browse them through categories like “Popular” and “For You” by the time Systrom took the stage.

IGTV’s launch event featured Instagram-themed donuts and elaborate portrait backdrops. Images via Vicki’s Donuts and Mai Lanpham

“What I’m most proud of is that Instagram took a stand and tried a brand new thing that is frankly hard to pull off. Full-screen vertical video that’s mobile only. That doesn’t exist anywhere else,” Systrom tells me. It was indeed ambitious. Creators were already comfortable making short-form vertical Snapchat Stories by the time Instagram launched its own version. IGTV would have to start from scratch.

Systrom sees the steep learning curve as a differentiator, though. “One of the things I like most about the new format is that it’s actually fairly difficult to just take videos that exist online and simply repost them. That’s not true in feed. That basically forces everyone to create new stuff,” Systrom tells me. “It’s not to say that there isn’t other stuff on there but in general it incentivizes people to produce new things from scratch. And that’s really what we’re looking for. Even if the volume of that stuff at the beginning is smaller than what you might see on the popular page [of Instagram Explore].”

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom unveils IGTV at the glitzy June 20th launch event

Instagram forced creators to adopt this proprietary format. But it forget to train Stories stars how to entertain us for five or 15 minutes, not 15 seconds, or convince landscape YouTube moguls to purposefully shoot or crop their clips for the way we normally hold our phones.

IGTV’s Popular page features plenty of random viral pap, foreign language content, and poor cropping

That should have been the real purpose of the launch party — demonstrating a variety of ways to turn these format constraints or lack thereof into unique content. Vertical video frames people better than places, and the length allows sustained eye-to-lens contacts that can engender an emotional connection. But a shallow array of initial content and too much confidence that creators would figure it out on their own deprived IGTV of emergent norms that other videographers could emulate to wet their feet.

Now IGTV feels haphazard, with trashy viral videos and miscropped ports amongst its Popular section alongside a few creators trying to produce made-for-IGTV talk shows and cooking tutorials. It’s yet to have its breakout “Chewbacca Mom” or “Rubberbanded Watermelon” blockbuster like Facebook Live. Even an interview with mega celeb Kylie Jenner only had 11,000 views.

Instagram wants to put the focus on the author, not the individual works of art. “Because we don’t have full text search and you can’t just search any random thing, it’s about the creators” Systrom explains. “I think that at its base level that it’s personality driven and creator driven means that you’re going to get really unique content that you won’t find anywhere else and that’s the goal.”

Yet being unique requires extra effort that creators might not invest if they’re unsure of the payoff in either reach or revenue. Michael Sayman, formerly Facebook’s youngest employee who was hired at age 17 to build apps for teens and who now works for Google, summed it up saying: “Many times in my own career, I’ve tried to make something with a unique spin or a special twist because I felt that’s the only way I could make my product stand out from the crowd, only to realize that it was those very twists and spins that made my products feel out of place and confusing to users. Sometimes, the best product is one that doesn’t create any new twists, but rather perfects and builds on top of what has been proven to already be extremely successful.”

A fraction of feed views

The one big surprise of the launch event was where IGTV would exist. Instagram announced it’d live in a standalone IGTV app, but also as a feature in the main app accessible from an orange button atop the home screen that would occasionally call out that new content was inside. But in essence, it was ignorable. IGTV didn’t get the benefit of being splayed out atop Instagram like Stories did. Blow past that one button and avoid downloading the separate app, and users could go right on tapping and scrolling through Instagram without coming across IGTV’s longer videos.

View counts of the launch partners reflect that. We looked at six launch partner creators, comparing their last six feed and IGTV videos older than a week and less than six months old, or fewer videos if that’s all they’d posted.

Only one of the six, BabyAriel, saw an obvious growth trend in her IGTV videos. Her candid IGTV monologues are performing the best of the six compared to feed. She’s earning an average of 243,000 views per IGTV video, about a third as many as she gets on her feed videos. “I’m really happy with my view counts because IGTV is just starting” BabyAriel tells me. She thinks the format will be good for behind-the-scenes clips that complement her longer YouTube videos and shorter Stories. “When I record anything, It’s vertical. When I turn my phone horizontal I think of an hour-long movie.”

Lele Pons, a Latin American comedy and music star who’s one of the most popular Instagram celebrities, gets about 5.7X more feed views than on her IGTV cooking show that averages 1.9 million hits. Instagram posted some IGTV highlights from the first month, but the most popular of now has 4.3 million views — less than half of what Pons gets on her average feed video.

Fitness guides from Katie Austin averaged just 3,600 views on IGTV while she gets 7.5X more in the feed. Lauren Godwin’s colorful comedy fared 5.2X better in the feed. Bryce Xavier saw the biggest differential, earning 15.9X more views for his dance and culture videos. And in the most direct comparison, K-Pop dancer Susie Shu sometimes posts cuts from the same performance to the two destinations, like one that got 273,000 views in feed but just 27,000 on IGTV, with similar clips fairing an average of 7.8X better.

Again, this isn’t to say IGTV is a lame horse. It just isn’t roaring out of the gates. Systrom remains optimistic about inventing a new format. “The question is can we pull that off and the early signs are really good,” he tells me. “We’ve been pretty blown away by the reception and the usage upfront,” though he declined to share any specific statistics. Instagram promised to provide more insight into traction in the future.

YouTube star Casey Neistat is less bullish. He doesn’t think IGTV is working and that engagement has been weak. If IGTV views were surpassing those of YouTube, creators would flock to it, but so far view counts are uninspiring and not worth diverting creative attention, Neistat says. “YouTube offers the best sit-back consumption, and Stories offers active consumption. Where does IGTV fit in? I’m not sure” he tells me. “Why create all of this unique content if it gets lower views, it’s not monetizable, and the viewers aren’t there?”

Susie Shu averages 7.8X more video views in the Instagram feed than on IGTV

For now, the combination of an unfamiliar format, the absence of direction for how to use it and the relatively buried placement has likely tempered IGTV’s traction. Two months in, Instagram Stories was proving itself an existential threat to Snapchat — which it’s in fact become. IGTV doesn’t pose the same danger to YouTube yet, and it will need a strategy to support a more slow-burn trajectory.

The chicken and the IG problem

The first step to becoming a real YouTube challenger is to build up some tent-pole content that gives people a reason to open IGTV. Until there’s something that captures attention, any cross-promotion traffic Instagram sends it will be like pouring water into a bucket with a giant hole in the bottom. Yet until there’s enough viewers, it’s tough to persuade creators to shoot for IGTV since it won’t do a ton to boost their fan base.

Fortnite champion Ninja shares a photo of IGTV launch partners gathered backstage at the press event

Meanwhile, Instagram hasn’t committed to a monetization or revenue-sharing strategy for IGTV. Systrom said at the launch that “There’s no ads in IGTV today,” but noted it’s “obviously a very reasonable place [for ads] to end up.” Without enough views, though, ads won’t earn enough for a revenue split to incentivize creators. Perhaps Instagram will heavily integrate its in-app shopping features and sponsored content partnerships, but even those rely on having more traffic. Vine withered at Twitter in part from creators bailing due to its omission of native monetization options.

So how does IGTV solve the chicken-and-egg problem? It may need to swallow its pride and pay early adopters directly for content until it racks up enough views to offer sustainable revenue sharing. Instagram has never publicly copped to paying for content before, unlike its parent Facebook, which offered stipends ranging into the millions of dollars for publishers to shoot Live broadcasts and long-form Watch shows. Neither have led to a booming viewership, but perhaps that’s because Facebook has lost its edge with the teens who love video.

Instagram could do better if it paid the right creators to weather IGTV’s initial slim pickings. Settling on ad strategy creators can count on earning money from in the future might also get them to hang tight. Those deals could mimic the 55 percent split of mid-roll ad breaks Facebook gives creators on some videos. But again, the views must come first.

Alternatively, or additionally, it could double down on the launch strategy of luring creators with the potential to become the big fish in IGTV’s small-for-now pond. Backroom deals to trade being highlighted in its IGTV algorithm in exchange for high-quality content could win the hearts of these stars and their managers. Instagram would be wise to pair these incentives with vertical long-form video content creation workshops. It could bring its community, product and analytics leaders together with partnered stars to suss out what works best in the format and help them shoot it.

The cross-promo spigot

Once there’s something worth watching on IGTV, the company could open the cross-promo traffic spigot. At first, Instagram would send notifications about top content or IGTV posts from people you follow, and call them out with a little orange text banner atop its main app. Now it seems to understand it will need to be more coercive.

Last month, TechCrunch spotted Instagram showing promos for individual IGTV shows in the middle of the feed, hoping to redirect eyeballs there. And today, we found Instagram getting more aggressive by putting a bigger call out featuring a relevant IGTV clip with preview image above your Stories tray on the home screen. It may need to boost the frequency of these cross-promotions and stick them in-between Stories and Explore sections as well to give IGTV the limelight. These could expose users to creators they don’t follow already but might enjoy.

“It’s still early but I do think there’s a lot of potential when they figure out two things since the feature is so new,” says John Shahidi, who runs the Justin Bieber-backed Shots Studios, which produces and distributes content for Lele Pons, Rudy Mancuso and other Insta celebs. “1. Product. IGTV is not in your face so Instagram users aren’t changing behavior to consume. Timeline and Instagram Stories are in your face so those two are the most used features. 2. Discoverability. I want to see videos from people I don’t follow. Interesting stuff like cooking, product review, interesting content from brands but without following the accounts.” In the meantime, Shots Studios is launching a vertical-only channel on YouTube that Shahidi believes is the first of its kind.

Instagram will have to balance its strategic imperative to grow the long-form video hub and avoid spamming users until they hate the brand as a whole. Some think it’s already gone too far. “I think it’s super intrusive right now,” says Tiffany Zhong, once known as the world’s youngest venture capitalist who now runs Generation Z consulting firm Zebra Intelligence. “I personally find all the IGTV videos super boring and click out within seconds (and the only time I watch them are if I accidentally tapped on the icon when I tried to go to my DMs instead).” Desperately funneling traffic to the feature before there’s enough great content to power relevant recommendations for everyone could prematurely sour users on IGTV. 

Systrom remains optimistic he can iterate his way to success. “What I want to see over the next six to 12 months is a consistent drumbeat of new features that both consumers and creators are asking for, and to look at the retention curve and say ‘are people continuing to watch? Are people continuing to upload?,'” says Systrom. “So far we are seeing that all of those are healthy. But again trying to judge a very new kind of audacious format that’s never really been done before in the first months is going to be really hard.”

Differentiator or deterrent?

The biggest question remains whether IGTV will remain devout to the orthodoxy of vertical-only. Loosening up to accept landscape videos too might nullify a differentiator, but also pipe in a flood of content it could then algorithmically curate to bootstrap IGTV’s library. Reducing the friction by allowing people to easily port content to or from elsewhere might make it feel like less of a gamble for creators deciding where to put their production resources. Instagram itself expanded from square-only to portrait and landscape photos in the feed in 2015.

“My advice would be to make the videos horizontal. We’ve all come to understand vertical as ‘short form’ and horizontal as ‘long form,'” says Sayman. “It’s in the act of rotating your phone to landscape that you indicate to yourself and to your mobile device that you will not be context switching for the next few minutes, but rather intend to focus on one piece of content for an extended period of time.” This would at least give users more to watch, even if they ended up viewing landscape videos with their phones in portrait orientation.

This might be best as a last-ditch effort if it can’t get enough content flowing in through other means. But at least Instagram should offer a cropping tool that lets users manually select what vertical slice of a landscape video they want to show as they watch, rather than just grabbing the center or picking one area on the side for the whole clip. This could let creators repurpose landscape videos without things getting awkwardly half cut out of frame.

Former Facebook employee and social investor Josh Elman, who now works at Robinhood, told me he’s confident the company will experiment as much as necessary. “I think Facebook is relentless. They know that a ton of consumers watch video online. And most discover videos through influencers or their friends. (Or Netflix). Even though Watch and IGTV haven’t taken the world by storm yet, I bet Facebook won’t stop until they find the right mix.”

There’s a goldmine waiting if it does. Unlike on Facebook, there’s no Regram feature, you can’t post links, and outside of Explore you just see who you already follow on Instagram. That’s made it great at delivering friendly video and clips from your favorite stars, but leaves a gaping hole where serendipitous viewing could be. IGTV fills that gap. The hours people spend on Facebook watching random videos and their accompanying commercials have lifted the company to over $13 billion in revenue per quarter. Giving a younger audience a bottomless pit of full-screen video could produce the same behavior and profits on Instagram without polluting the feed, which can remain the purest manifestation of visual feed culture. But that’s only if IGTV can get enough content uploaded.

Puffed up by the success of besting its foe Snapchat, Instagram assumed it could take the long-form video world by storm. But the grand entrance at its debutante ball didn’t draw enough attention. Now it needs to take a different tack. Tone down the cross-promo for the moment. Concentrate on teaching creators how to find what works on the format and incentivizing them with cash and traffic. Develop some must-see IGTV and stoke a viral blockbuster. Prove the gravity of extended, personality-driven vertical video. Only then should it redirect traffic there from the feed, Stories, and Explore.

YouTube’s library wasn’t built overnight, and neither will IGTV’s. Facebook’s deep pockets and the success of Instagram’s other features give it the runway necessary to let IGTV take off. With 1 billion monthly users, and 400 million daily Stories users gathered in just two years, there are plenty of eyeballs waiting to be seduced. Systrom concludes, “Everything that is great starts small.” IGTV’s destiny will depend on Instagram’s patience.

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