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littlemisslipbalm · 4 years

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“You Get Me” Pt. 3 (famous!y/n x harry)

Aka “Kissy” 🥺

honestly its really just domestic harry bahaha and I added that they have a slight age gap ?but seriously I hope y’all enjoy the third and final installment of my first ever writings - a little miniseries if you will. I loved writing this part sm, probably my favorite part yet. I linked a spotify playlist that was some inspo (I literally listened to your summer dream on repeat for one part that I wrote, that song is so beautiful) anyways - not really proofread and I tried to break it up more so it was less big chunks to read formatting wise

here’s part 3! read: part 1 | part 2

word count: 4.0k | warnings: makeout sesh, shirtless harry!, nothing graphic tho (I think!)

tag list : @marauderswhisperer, @morgannope, @daddystevee, @kthemarsian, @bi-andready-tocry

playlist for the inspo✨

One Week Later

“Hey, Har...change of plans!” you exclaimed as you peaked through a door in Harry’s house.

You’d hung out together at your apartment once since your phone retrieval visit and the two of you had been texting constantly. You loved Harry’s company and Harry couldn’t get enough of you. Harry had called you late last night, ‘Want t’take you out tomorrow, love.’ his voice was groggy as if he was about to fall asleep. You’d instantly agreed and drove over to his house the next day. He was leaving back to London on Saturday, so it was your last day to see him for awhile.

Inside the door you had just opened, a beautiful vintage convertible sat. You had found the garage. “You are so driving this,” you turned to see the man who held your entire heart in his hands walking up beside you. Harry reluctantly agreed and leaned down to kiss your cheek.

“Ready?” he questioned, holding up the soft blanket he had retrieved for your coastal picnic. You nodded, proudly displaying the little picnic basket you had packed full with food. Simultaneously the two of you reach for each other’s free hands, clasping them together and walking out to the car.

“I’m on aux, you can focus on the road,” you told Harry when both of you went for the cassette device that functioned to allow you to play music from your phone despite the age of the car. Harry loved how assertive you were even if it meant he didn’t always get his way. That was one of the reasons he liked you so much, your strength, your ability to hold your own in any situation, even with him, opposite of how a lot of people treated him in the industry in bids to get in his good graces. You were his match, so similar, yet so unique.

The pair of you started out on the road. Harry wore a white t-shirt with a blue bee slogan, purple trousers, and some clean white vans. His rings and pearl necklace wrapped up the look. His tattooed arms starkly contrasting the crisp white of his shirt. His eyes on the road were covered by large sunglasses, but his hair flew out behind him as the wind rushed over the car. You had chosen high waisted mom jean style denim shorts and a lavender femme top with a mesh white floral overlay, it had ties on the shoulders and it complimented your skin color perfect, tanned in from your life in the golden state. You too had your rings on and a silver necklace with your first initial hidden in the pendant. Even your clothes complemented each other.

The first song to play through the speakers was Joni Mitchell’s “California.” You looked over to see Harry smile and you two began to sing along. You didn’t talk much on the ride, staying silent other than singing along when you pleased, but you always made sure not to overpower the actual song, you didn’t like to do that if the music was there for ambiance. Harry would speak up a little when passing various things, just simply pointing them out. Then, after the first notes of “California Dreamin’” came on Harry couldn’t help buy say, “Y/N, seriously? S’not like I don’t love these songs, but please tell me you didn’t just search up ‘California’ and are playing tha’?” All you did was shush him and tell him this was one of your favorite songs before singing along.

Then, as the Mamas and the Papas voices began to fade out, Harry started again, “This next song’s title better not be fuckin’ California or somethin’ with-” but he stopped as the light quick notes of “Golden” came through the speakers, followed by his own voice. You grinned and gave his shoulder a little push. You had just gotten on the PCH and you remembered his mention of it being the quintessential coastal drive song a couple years ago so you had queued just in time.

A grin spreads onto his features that had been in slight exasperation at your antics previously and shakes his head at you, does a little finger shake vaguely in your direction, “Y/N, Y/N, Y/N.”

You both burst out in song, practically yelling the first chorus, Harry taking little harmony parts that most wouldn’t even notice, but he notices them, he made them. You dance in your seat to the song, taking control of the background ‘da da da’s. Harry is in awe of how well your voice sounds with the track, when you sing along to the second verse, much more seriously than the first one you had screamed together. He glanced over at your moving figure that began to sway at the slowing of the song. You weren’t wearing sun glasses and you had your eyes closed, basking in the shining sun. You looked at peace, yet completely fulfilled and overjoyed. In that moment, Harry knew he wanted to keep making you feel the way you did right now every time you were together. The song ended and your playlist continued, random songs regarding California and the feeling you get with someone you care about - makes you feel sunkissed.

“You’re literally so corny,” Harry laughs to you when ‘California Girls’ by the Beach Boys came on. You throw side eyes at him, “What can I say, Brian Wilson knew, California girls are where it’s at,” you roll your lips into your mouth and then bite your bottom lip.

The drive continued with you giving a rousing rendition of ‘California Gurls’ with Harry as Katy Perry and you as Snoop Dogg as you had insisted. Harry even busted out some minimal dance moves while driving the car, honking the horn at the appropriate moment. You made Harry feel like he was 19 again.

Then, straight into ‘Canyon Moon,’ Harry really was in disbelief of the woman next to him. You got so into the “I’m goin’ home” part of the song. Harry said, “Really like tha’ one, I gather,” after it finished. It was your turn to look at him in disbelief, “It’s my favorite, Har, I remember listening to Fine Line the first time and loving it immediately. Still loved it even after everyone else barely talked about it. Deserved so much more, s’amazing.” You finished with a half smile slipping onto your face. Harry gave a quiet ‘thanks’ and returned the smile.

Harry was finally satisfied with where you had landed along the coast. There had been no set destination, just a plan to drive to a lookout for the picnic. Finding a small parking area, you two gathered your items and set out for the perfect spot. The California coast really is beautiful. You’d lived there your whole life, just further up north, moving down to Los Angeles when you started your music career. You ran ahead of Harry to seek out a little bluff you’d seen in the distance. “Oi!” Harry called, but didn’t run to catch up, he had taken the picnic basket and it had drinks that wouldn’t be great if they were all shaken up.

You were right, it was the perfect spot, a little ways up from the set path there was a flat surface on the edge of a cliff, it was safe, with wildflowers and tall grass around a more bare area. You layed out the large blanket, then stood and watched as Harry made his way to you. His hair was every which way due to the wind whipping through it during the car ride, you subconsciously ran your hands through your hair for that reason. He looks gorgeous, you thought.

When he arrived at your little patch, he sat down the basket and you threw your arms around his neck. You pulled yourself into him and basked in his glow, his warmth and scent. He held you and ran a hand through your hair. The pair of you could have silly fun, but you could also be extremely intimate. In these quiet moments you wished you could stop time and live here forever. To live in his arms would be a wonderful thing. “So happy right now, darling,” Harry whispered, the soft swish of grass and the distant crash of waves the only sounds he had to speak above. You said nothing, but pushed yourself even further into his body, a response in and of itself. In this moment, there was no one else, just you, Harry, and the beautiful nature you stood in. This moment was everything. And you didn’t want to set it free.

Eventually, the two of you parted and relaxed into the blanket. For once, neither of you played music, you talked and ate and listened to the ambient sounds of nature. The melodic waves carried the conversation, when neither of you felt the need to say words. After eating, you let Harry pop the bottle of champagne he had brought along, unbeknownst to you, nevertheless when you saw it you wanted to be the one to uncork it. Still, your protests fell on deaf ears. “Y’seem to be getting very used to getting everythin’ you want, huh? Already a spoiled princess after a couple months of fame,” Harry teased as he worked to open the bottle. You huffed at his teasing and your failed attempt to get the bottle from him, which had caused him to move off the blanket and have his shirt be stretched from you grabbing at the bottle and only getting fabric.

“Whatever, don’t act like you’re not a total diva sometimes, Styles.” You couldn’t deny that him calling you a ‘spoiled princess’ made you feel things, unholy things. Of course you found Harry unbelievably attractive, but this was your fourth time being with Harry and the two of you hadn’t done anything besides heavy makeout sessions. You loved the way he said your name, but you also loved his nicknames for you, but this was a new one that seemed to hold some meaning within it.

Harry liked to see you all worked up, but knew he could get the exact same way, upset when things don’t turn out the way you want them. Frustrating. Finally, he popped the cork and you both cheered for the golden bubbly liquid. You had spent almost about an hour on the road and an hour or two already on the cliff, so the sun was starting to make its farewells to this side of the earth. The sky was beginning to light up with pinks, oranges, and lavenders. You both sat back down on the blanket, this time with you sat up inside of Harry’s spread legs, reclining back onto his chest.

You continued to talk, about the view before you for a little, but then each other. Whenever you were together, the two of you gravitated to the topic of enjoying the other so much. Today was apparently Harry’s turn to share. “When we were in tha car, earlier,” he started as you twiddled your fingers on his thigh, drawing shapes. You looked up into his eyes to encourage him to continue. “Haven’t had tha’ much fun in awhile. You…” he hesitated again and averted his eyes from your stare. You whispered a little ‘yeah’. You really cared about Harry feeling comfortable with you and making him happy, so you knew encouragement was helpful when he was trying to gather his thoughts. “Y’make me feel young...tha’ sounds so dumb, but y’really do,” he finally got out as put his hand over your moving one on his thigh. The two of you didn’t talk about the fact that Harry was a bit older than you. He was famous when you were a puberty-stricken teenager. The age gap wasn’t really an issue, you were both adults, but his statement reminded you that he would be 30 soon and you were still in your early 20s.

You twisted around to sit on your knees and face Harry. You placed both of your hands on his face, cradling his jaw and cheeks on each side of his face. This forced him to look you right in the eyes. You appreciated the beauty of his piercing green eyes for a moment and then went to kiss his crows feet on the sides of his eyes, his forehead lines, his hairline, his five o’clock shadow, and his smile lines, that had cropped up as he giggled at you. You were making exaggerated kiss noises as you loved on his face. “First of all, you are young,” you finally said in audible words. You waited a beat, then you kissed his soft lips that were smiling up at you. He was still smiling when you kissed him so your lips hit a bit of a tooth and you both giggled. But, you stood strong, not pulling away to laugh. Harry kissed you back. He shifted and brought his hands up from the ground where they had been holding him up to cradle your body instead. The kiss stayed chaste, despite Harry’s protests when you pulled back.

“And second, you make me feel alive.” “Alive…” Harry echoed you slowly, “Tha’s a better way to put it. I am young,” He smirked and then winked at you. You moved your hands to sit on his upper chest and could feel his heart beating soft, but strong beneath his skin. You grabbed his arm and moved it from around you. Harry quirked a brow at you. Then you placed his hand above your left breast and below your collarbone. Now he could feel your heartbeat, too. Yours, you thought, was beating a bit faster than his, but you didn’t care. Touching like this, made you feel close to him. Like you could see inside each other.

You finished off the bottle of champagne because Harry had to stop drinking to be able to drive the two of you home safely. You felt very warm from it, despite the sun setting a while ago and your bare arms and legs. Luckily, besides the slight buzz you had, it was summer in California, and the nights stayed relatively warm. You skipped to the car and bent over the convertible to put the picnic basket in the backseat. Harry was right behind you and gave your bum a light pat, you pulled yourself up and flipped around, giggling. You tugged Harry in by his shirt and demanded, “Kissy.” Harry snorted and obliged, but with an open mouthed kiss where his tongue basically slobbered over your lips, mouth, and a bit of your nose. You whined, “You’re fucking disgusting, Har.” “Ya’ love it,” he responded with a faux posh voice before giving you a quick peck to your lips and rounded the car, telling you to get in and buckle up.

The whole ride home, Harry had his hand on your thigh. With it there, you occupied yourself with twisting his rings and and dancing your hand around his fingertips. The champagne had made you quiet, but smiley. The music you played was softer on the ride back home, you knew Harry needed to focus with the dark road and you didn’t want the music to distract him.

One song that was of note was “Lavendar (Take 4)” by the Beach Boys. The recording is somewhat unpleasant, but the song is beautiful. It had reminded you of the clothes you and Harry had worn on your date, the wildflowers that had just surrounded you, and the color of the sky when the sun had set on the scene of you and Harry tenderly kissing each other. The Beach Boys are known for their California, Surf pop sounds, but this sound is soft and filled with lushious harmonies, an ode to lavender, maybe a girl named lavender, but nonetheless it was for lavender. Harry harmonized along with their voices, returning to his original state. It ended and went straight into Simon & Garfunkel’s “America.” Paul Simon’s voice passed through the speakers and whispered to us sweetly. Harry again hummed in appreciation for the song choice.

When you arrived at the house, you helped Harry clean up the dishes and trash in the picnic basket. Then you sat on the couch, it was around ten o’clock and Harry had offered to make a pot of tea. You looked over the back of the couch as he moved around his kitchen. He padded around, putting the kettle on, opening cupboards for mugs and tea choices. When the water was ready, he got the tea ready, choosing a loose-leaf blend he’d found at a fancy restaurant in Amsterdam. “No cream tonight,” you called, still watching him work his way around his home.

Admiration shown in your eyes as he nodded and finished up the tea, bringing it over to you at the couch. He chose your mug tonight. Different from the previous two, his and yours were a matching set with dark blue interiors with tiny cartoon sailboats. You loved his collection of fun mugs, it fit him so well. After handing it to you, he snuggled in beside you and you took a sip, then rested your head on top of his strong shoulder. You turned your head to give a light kiss to his shoulder, and then moved back to staring ahead of you.

“Wanna stay?” Harry asked, his arm around your body, holding you close to him. “Can just drive ‘ome in the mornin’,” he continued. “That’d be really nice,” you sighed. This was so comfortable, how was in possible to be like this with someone you’d known for a little over a week? It didn’t matter to either of you how quick it had happened. But it happened, and it felt right, so you went with it. This, what you and Harry had, made you happy so there couldn’t really be anything wrong with that.

You two chatted a bit more - about your week of tour preparations, Harry’s flight time tomorrow, various random thoughts, - and you drank your tea. At about midnight, Harry suggested that you and he get ready for bed and then watch something on his laptop. You agreed and ventured into an unknown part of his home. You’d started to snoop earlier today when you had found the garage, but had only gotten that far because you got distracted by Harry’s car.

His house was beautiful and perfectly him. It was big, but his decor and things made it specifically Harry, even if he didn’t live here full time anymore. You reached the master bedroom, located in the back of his house, with french doors, identical to those in the sitting room, opening out to the grass in his backyard. His bed. His bed. It was a California King with tasteful bedding and a beautiful wooden headboard and frame.

You ran and jumped onto it, the bed sinking beneath you and the bedding fluffing around you. You snuggled and rolled around in the sheets, “This is so much nicer than my bed in the apartment, it’s only a full…” you trailed off. Harry leaned against the doorway of the room, smiling to himself as he watched you make yourself at home among this life. “You’ll be gettin’ a new place, soon, I reckon?” Harry asked and went to grab you both some clothes to sleep in from his closet. “Yeah, maybe!” you called out to him in the little room connected to the master that housed his clothes.

When Harry returned, he was only in boxers, but was holding two large t-shirts, a pair of sweatpants, and another pair of boxers. “D’ya mind if I sleep like this? I can put more clothes on if that makes you more comfortable?”

You couldn’t keep your jaw from dropping. You’d seen Harry shirtless before, everyone had, but to see him right in front of you, that was something else.

He noticed you staring at his body and smirked, but then threw a shirt and the pair of boxers your way, “Stop bein’ such a perv, love,” he teased. “Rude,” you muttered, “Was simply admiring...but if you don’t want me to look, you can sleep fully clothed,” you scratched your nose and then shrugged your shoulders.

As you worked to slide off the big bed, Harry crossed the room and trapped you on the edge, leaning over you with both his hands landing on either side of you on the bed. You scrunch your eyes and nose up as he tries to make eye contact with you. He goes to kiss you, but you turn your head and your cheek receives a kiss. He stays against your cheek, drags out your name and groans, “s’teasin’ you.” “I know, baby,” you respond and kiss his cheek now. You duck under his arm and run into his en suite bathroom, shutting the door to change. When you re-emerge, Harry’s in the bed, with the sheets pulled back, and his computer in his lap.

Harry calls out to you without looking up from his screen, “S’was thinkin’, y’know, since you’re always saying your apartment is tiny, y’could house sit ‘ere while I’m away?” You tilt you head as you approach the bed as you ponder the idea. “I mean, I guess ‘why not’? It would be a longer commute into the studio, but this place is gorgeous, and I’m gonna start traveling a lot anyway so I won’t need my apartment for much longer…” You continue to think on it as you climb back onto Harry’s bed and snuggle yourself into his body. Harry looks slightly down at you by his side, he’s put on his glasses, “Think you should, I’d also like knowin’ someone was ‘ere, keepin’ things running while I’m away.”

You nodded and move slightly to rest your head on Harry’s naked chest. His sunkissed tattooed body is mesmerizing, you reach your hand up and start tracing the various designs and running your hand along his collarbones and veins as well. Then you flattened a palm and smoothed it over his right pectoral. Harry hummed and pushed himself further down the bed. “Can we not watch anything actually, m’kinda tired,” you whisper up to Harry, your voice the only sound in the house besides the light clicking of a clock in a different room. Harry responds by closing the laptop and readjusting your position in the bed. You and Harry are a tangle of legs and bodies pressed against one another. Everything is calm and Harry says one word, “Kissy.” And you smile and let yourself pull slightly away from Harry to lean up and kiss him one more time before the two of you fall asleep in each other’s arms. It’s soft and chaste, completely closed mouths, but you linger in the kiss, feeling his warm nose brushing besides yours. A hand moves up to his hair and gives it one good run through and then you pull away, “Kissy,” you finalize. The two of you giggle and snuggle even further together.

Your bodies fit so well together and again you were struck with the feeling that you never wanted this to end, even if tomorrow he was flying away, to somewhere halfway across the world. The distance didn’t matter. You knew the two of you had what it took to be there for each other, even if you couldn’t touch or feel the other. Even if laughter over the phone had to suffice for awhile. What the two of you had was greater than all of those obstacles of space and proximity. It was powerful because you were both powerful. Powerful in the way you loved, in the way you worked, in the way you simply were. You fell asleep in Harry’s arms that night filled with contentment. Harry fell asleep with you in his arms that night filled with joy that he’d found someone to share everything with. Someone who was willing to give him all of themselves. Someone who was finally able to get all of him.

love y’all sm 🤍🤍 hope you enjoyed and have a nice day

#harry styles #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x reader #harry styles fluff #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fan fic #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x you #harry styles is domestic #famous!reader #famous!y/n #famous!y/n x harry styles #you get me #kissy #ahhh hope you enjoy #my writings #like i know describing their outfits is lowkey juvenile but its like IMPORTANT to their characters bc they thrive off of fashion

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yostresswritinggirl · 3 years

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100 Followers Special

(And how to participate) you don't need to be a follower to vote ack

~yostresswritinggirl

Hello AGAIN, with your back to back followers special! Exiled here, very tired, as I just closed the requests box for our 50 followers special. I asked for some recommendations and no one helped me so this is what I came up with!

Granted, it's nothing that special, I literally just dumped my notes into this so—

Please make sure to follow the guidelines and read this thoroughly to properly participate!

1. You will be given a long list of fic prompts specific to a character that I've come up with for weeks on end, please don't steal, as I will remove them after this event is done!

2. Voting! You now have the power to influence my writing schedule haha- what you need to do: is to pick three prompts from the list and send it to me; either through reblog tag, a reply, or in my ask box (not anon so we can count fairly, will not publish these answers tho so worry not)! Not in messages tho! It should be in this format:

1. Character - prompt or prompt title

2. Character - prompt or prompt title

3. Character - prompt or prompt title

example:

1. Albedo - Citrinitas

2. Zhongli - Braid

3. Xingqui - Author!Reader

The top three most voted prompt and character will be the next fics I'll publish after I'm done with the current reqs. Speaking of: Voting ends when I finish the current reqs. You'll know it's done once the counter in my blog desc reaches 12/12.

3. In addition to the three prompts, you also get to add your own prompt to it! My prompts list does not include ALL the characters that's why I wanted to give you this option too! Add a fourth number and specify a character, a prompt/idea, and the format of the fic! Format it this way:

4. Character - Prompt/Idea (Format)

4. Kaeya - What's under that eyepatch? (Scenario)

After I pooled the answers, I'll randomly pick between the bonus answers and write them last! So give it your best shot!

4. Tags-list! I thought this would be necessary for this kind of a whim special, so if you wanna be tagged, just put Tag Me! at the end of your vote. Please make sure that you're actually able to be tagged because I just tried and some users are not in my orbit huhu, look here

5. If a pocket watch/series prompt gets chosen, I will only post the first chapter, not the whole damn fic pls. Have mercy,,,

I will post a counter of the top three in my blog description and will be updated as frequently as possible. Any questions, please direct to this post or my dms <3

Without further ado, here is your choice list!

Xingqui - "My liege, would you care to accompany me on my reading break? I've picked up a romance novel and it reminded me of us."

-> Author!Reader: You met Xingqui at Wanwen Bookhouse when delivering a batch of your newly-published book. But as a ghost writer, no one knew it was you that authored such books. Safe to say it was cute watching the noble bookworm fanboy about you in front of you. [FLUFF] [FIC]

-> Headcanons with a reader older than Xingqui who's a close family friend of the Feiyun Commerce Guild. Fascinated after meeting you in a party, the noble boy aspires to become the best man for you despite the difference, promising to be the best suitable partner for you in the future. [FLUFF] [HEADCANON SCENARIO]

Childe - "Hey there, comrade! What a coincidence that we had a break at the same time, care to accompany me for a walk? I promise I won’t lead you to a fight haha... hey, don’t look at me like that!”

-> Antinomy - The 10th Harbinger (You) and the little shit they had to mentor (Childe), this fic enumerates the trials of the 11th before he became a Harbinger under your care. From strangers to mentor to friends to love- Childe made a grave mistake, now you’re once again strangers. [FLANGST] [ONESHOT]

Albedo - "Ah, it's you. I've heard of fleeting rumors that you've been pestering a certain someone just to see me. Next time, just come directly to me, I wouldn't mind the assertiveness."

-> Refer to these three as well: Albedo Fic Ideas [FLUFF/FLANGST/FLANGST] [ONESHOT/ONESHOT/SERIES]

-> “You’re Enough”: A year into being the new Chief Alchemist of Mond, Albedo finds himself holed up in his room in the dead of night, haunted as he continuously comes out empty on his research to bring his master back, feeling inadequate. So you reminded him of what he’s capable of. [FLUFF?] [ONESHOT INSPIRED BY You Are Enough - Sleeping At Last]

-> Under the Artificial Sky: Michaelangelo Scenario focused on Albedo’s sketching aspect. Grand Master Varka and Acting Grand Master Jean figured Albedo needed a break and a change of scenery, and sent him off under the guise of a commission in Liyue. What he didn’t expect was another artist from Fontaine accompanying him in this big project.(Albedo and Reader are tasked to paint the new Jade Chamber within 7 days) [FLUFF] [SERIES - 7 CHAPTERS]

-> Albedo SMUT: I had this idea while laying wide awake at 3 AM. The alchemist had been trying all remedies to shake off the stress and fatigue in his system and they all seemed to fail, no amount of sketching or discoveries can pull him away from it. So when you offered a solution he hasn’t heard, he’d jump at it immediately. “You know, some people say having intercourse with someone is a good stress-reliever.” “Intercourse? If it’s true, then please, I wish to have intercourse with you.” “Wha- wait Albedo, do you not know what that is? It’s only done between lovers!” “Convenient, I love you, anything else?” (Two virgin dumbasses do the thing to relieve stress) [SMUT] [ONESHOT]

Xiao - “I’ve taken care of every threat around this area, you can relax now, I made sure of that.”

-> What is it with you and Qingxin flowers? The Traveler had once heard of Xiao’s affinity for Qingxin flowers, and they’re flying companion boldly asked this lingering question to the adepti himself. His pupils dilate and sharpen before Paimon could finish her sentence. (An origin story about his favorite flower, and his favorite person) [SLIGHT FLANGST] [ONESHOT]

-> Just how harmful is adeptal energy to normal humans? You both found out in the worst way possible: silently, deadly. (Slight spoiler: you fucking die) [ANGST] [ONESHOT]

-> Nightmares Taste Horrible: He’s seen that look in your eyes and the ancient soul within it; you’ve lived long ago, and the only thing your soul carried now was the nightmares of a macabre timeline. Was it him or was it demons that brought you that fear? No matter, he’ll protect you even from yourself. (eating the nightmare of a dead soul reincarnated to you) [FLANGST?] [ONESHOT]

-> Go for the throat: The seal that marked you had made it all too late for him to remedy. Bleeding eyes, growing fangs, it’s just another demon to vanquish just like he’s done for centuries. What makes it different was it was sealed in you. (Inspired from Melanie Martinez’s song uhu) [ANGST] [ONESHOT]

Zhongli - “Mortals are capable creatures that evolve and adapt for means of survival, but they advance in ways that changes the world around them. This retirement, may be harder to me than it is to them.”

-> “In human history, there’s a certain noble and powerful connotation to rulers who braid their hair.” Convince to braid his hair using some historical braid trivia; that long hair behind his back should not be ignored for any longer. [PURE FLUFF] [DRABBLE]

-> History has its eyes on you: A traveling theatre hailing from the land of entertainment finds its way to Liyue for their last caravan. A certain Geo Vision man seems to resonate with your newest script: fighting and protecting your land, building up its nation, before being forced to let go of it. He resonates maybe a little too much. (Musical!Reader with heavy references to Hamilton hehe) [FLUFF] [ONESHOT]

Venti - "Can you hear the symphonies of the wind as it sings to you? That's me, guiding you and protecting you! Whenever you hear it, know that you're safe and sound under my protection!"

-> the one the bard once loved: like actual bard, you are the archer or smth, loved by Venti and Barbatos. Yandere!Barbatos undertones, very unhealthy relationship. This hurts the kokoro. [PURE ANGST] [ONESHOT]

-> The Caravan: (related to the Zhongli and Musical!Reader up there) Your caravan stops at Mondstadt for a whole week before it reaches its final destination. This new fanfare pulled in a peculiar bard who now wants to tag along for the fun of it. "I have no more responsibilities in this free land!" Just what kind of responsibilities does a broke bard have in the first place? [FLUFF] [ONESHOT/HEADCANON]

Diluc - "You look weary, and you still managed to pull yourself here. Here, a fresh and cold glass, on the house. A relieved smile should be enough payment."

-> Abandoned by The Altar: A timeline oriented story focused on your once perfect childhood relationship as Diluc's bride to be, soon becoming estranged after the death of his father and his neglect. You only wish now that he looks at you the same way he did when you heard you were supposed to be together forever when you were young. [FLANFF] (The ending gets better pls; Inspired by Still Into You - Paramore) [ONESHOT]

-> There are No Laws Against Homelessness in Mondstadt: My favorite title out of all of this ahahhaa- who says adventurers can't be broke? You're the living embodiment of that. (Good boi Diluc with a broke ass reader) [FLUFF] (Warning: homelessness) [ONESHOT]

Scaramouche - "Let's go already, the sun is setting and we're nowhere near our destination. If you wanted to linger just to spend more time with me, I would have indulged you behind closed doors anyways."

-> Scaramouche Finally Does the Fandango: Have you ever wondered how Scaramouche is like working with other people? His first assignment was to accompany you in your main region and he sees you in your natural habitat, entranced. [I dunno how to tag this, NORMAL?] [ONESHOT/SHORT]

-> Skincare bitch, how I headcanon Scaramouche as someone actually conscious and always tending to their skin. Look at that smooth skin, cute cheeks, let me pinch, eyeliner glory�� In which case, that hat has more purpose than being a frisbee. (May or may not include reader. (based from a reblog convo with chels-void) [GOOD VIBES] [HEADCANONS]

-> Once Supreme: Before Scaramouche, there was someone else higher than him. Before Balladeer there was just a young man fighting for his beliefs and her Majesty. Before Mondstadt, his smile wasn't just for deception. "Someday, someone would take advantage of that smile, Scaramouche. It's not appropriate in this work environment." The day you break a man. (Harbinger!Reader again, and lots of HCs for Scaramouche, same format as Antinomy) [I also do not know how to call this, eventual ANGST] [ONESHOT]

Kaeya - "What are you doing out here in the dead of night? Citizens like you should be cozied up in bed and leaving the patrols to us Knights. Come, I'll accompany you back home."

-> Honey Whiskey: A mysterious band of dancers from Sumeru visits Mondstadt and its taverns to offer a night of alluring dances. What was supposed to be a night of drinking for Kaeya and his troops ended up becoming a tipsy surprise mission when the main dancer steps down from the stage— and ignores him?! How scandalous! (Slightly suggestive themes/You're a bad guy) [COOL?] [ONESHOT] [slightly inspired by song with the same name]

General:

-> A Musical!Reader but with a scenario with every other character, most probably headcanons master post.

-> Genshin Food prompts: From that one post, I ended up making a whole storyline of oneshots related to their special dishes. Oneshots connected to a bigger picture. By impulse you've ended up leaving your normal life behind to pursue your cooking career, starting from Mondstadt, to learn all the cuisines to establish the first ever international restaurant. With the implications of magic and peculiar customers, your simple dream turns into a harder goal. [GOOD SHIT] [SERIES] [CANON-COMPLIANT]

-> God of Time!Reader that hails from Fontaine. Do you wish to know more about their origins and their purpose in this world? [CANON-COMPLIANT] [HEADCANONS] (General since it deals with all the characters/interactions)

▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱▰▱

Tagslist-for-my-thirsty-homies:

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annonmaly · 3 years

Text

Ok, It's Not Red. So What? (continuation)

Noé and his left eye

At this point, I'm wondering why I decided to do this. At first, I just saw this official artwork collection, and I'm like: "These are cool, let me post something short about what I think (cos' I got a lot of time). Some of these ideas may already be out there. But still, I may drag someone else in this 'what if' hole I'm in". I meant this to be one post with 500 words only. But lo' and behold! I'm now on the fourth part of this thought dump. My lazy brain is so proud of me right now.

These posts could be read separately. But if you have some minutes to waste and have nothing better to do. Check out the previous parts here:

Part 1: Regarding some of VnC Artwork

Part 2: Oh, It's Not Red

Part 3: Ok, It's Not Red. So What?

No promises that it's worthwhile tho'.

Hopefully for the last time, a friendly reminder that best in writing is an award I never received. I'm not the person who could analyze, explain, or theorize things. Please bear that in mind while reading. Photos are not mine, of course. Also, spoiler alert to be safe.

Now that I said everything I want to say. Let's finish this thing. This would be the last absurd idea that I want to share.

I read this theory a while ago that Noé's left eye was partially blind. This was the result of his injury during his childhood. As proof, Noé always received an injury on the left side. I totally agree with this theory. There's something wrong in that left eye of his. What if Noé's left eye lost its original power? Or What if it's not his eye to begin with? Sounds farfetched? Yeah, it is, but give me a break here. This was on my head for a long time now, and this needs to be out of my system.

Ok, first, let me tell you why I think his left eye is suspicious.

1. Noé had an eye injury when he was a kid. But after a while, it healed as nothing happened. This could easily be explained. It was healed totally by his vampire's power.

2. How and when he received that injury is questionable. (Actually, that whole story is suspicious) Did he receive it before or after being kidnapped? I don't much about slave trade in VnC world. But, if you're going to sell something you don't want it to have visible damage, right? (Sorry if the comparison sounds offending)

3. This may be for artistic purposes. However, there are panels where Noé's left eye was hidden by his hair or something. Most of them are when he is emotional. Or, more precisely, when it's about Vanitas. This is not always the case, and maybe I'm just reading to it more than necessary. But let me give you some examples:

(I had a hard time in this cos' I'm confused about what is left and right)

Let me briefly explain the picture from left to right

Bal Masque Arc: (It is not noticeable in this arc, actually. But when Noé is scolding Ruthven, we can't see his left eye.) The image above is when human Vani told Noé to leave him alone Then the one beneath is the moment when Noé declared that he will stay with human Vani.

Catacombs Arc: This is the time when Noé forgot to cut his hair. His left eye is hidden at about 90 percent of this arc. I only saw it again when Noé got angry with the weird doctor because he keeps calling human Vani by number "69". Even after the conclusion of this arc, his left eye is hidden.

Pre-Gevaudan Arc: We all know what happened the night before this. In the panel above, his eye was hidden when he was expressing his guilt. Then when he's being honest, Mochijun-Sensei showed his left profile.

Misha Arc: I know it's still fresh in your memories. To make this short, they are fighting to the death. The above panel is when Noé's reevaluating the events that happened. Then below is when he realized that he did not look at human Vani properly.

I'm a VaNoé shipper so I could go on all day, but I think I already get my point across. There's a pattern here when human Vani and Noé are having an issue. Or when Noé can't understand the former, his left eye is hidden. After they kiss and makeup Mochijun-sensei shows Noé's left eye.

I think I already established that Noé's left eye is weird, so let's move on. If you encountered my prior post, I assumed that Luna and Noé are twins. Let's ignore that notion. For now, I will settle with the idea that the blue vampire and Noé are related. They could be siblings, parent-child, or kinsmen. I'll believe that Noé is related to the blue moon vampire until Mochijun-Sensei says otherwise.

So, I emphasized Noe's hidden eye a moment ago. Who else out there that we don't see her left eye? Yup, the vampire of the blue moon. (I already mentioned this on my previous post)

This is not related but look at these panels:

After hearing human Vani's childhood story, Noé and Luna both asked the question about hating the vampires. Take note that Luna is on the right, the eye that was she's not hiding. Noé on the left profile, the hidden eye at times. I don't know if there's a meaning in this or what, it's just interesting.

Going Back,

If Noé is related to the blue vampire and the cursed book. (I think Grandpa DeSade won't ask him to observe the book without reason, he possibly be the real owner). Maybe at some point, his eyes are blue. Or maybe one of his eyes is blue. The left eye, perhaps?

So far, we only saw Noé gazing at the blue moon in the first chapter.

Left profile, left eye, interesting. (I'll say this again and again, Sensei is shady. Even that smile)

Well, it's his right eye. However, it's his left that noticed the moon first.

Next...

The whole sentence is "and see for yourself with your own eyes..." Is it just a coincidence that the panel with the words "with your own eyes" was a close-up of Noé's left eye? (He's still looking up the blue moon here)

Now, assuming that his eyes are blue before. What happened? As I said earlier, maybe he lost the power of his left eye or just transferred it to someone. Is there someone heterochromatic that is always with Noé? Oh, yes, Murr.

So, in a nutshell: What if Noé has the power of a blue and red moon vampire before the series' timeline started? (He's kind of special since it would only show when he's using his vampiric powers) Then, something terrible happened that we don't yet. And they had no choice but to transfer that power to Murr?

At one point, I imagined that Noé and Murr exchanged eyes, but dismissed it since I thought that Murr's eyes are red. But now that I changed my mind about Murr's eye color, I think this could still be a possibility.

I'll leave it up to your imagination as to how everything happened. This is just a half-boiled theory I had that needs to get out of my mind. I'll try to expound it furthermore when I found out more (or maybe I would already change my mind)

This scene would negate my thousand words post entirely. Because the injury Noé had is shown when he met Sensei for the first time. This means he should still be heterochromatic here. The old man knows that he's a vampire. So, it's either, Noé told them, or the couple saw his vampiric characteristics. They would tell Noé that his eyes was strange, right? But it looks like had no idea at all.

(I'll just copy and paste from my previous post)

I believe that Mochijun-sensei is keeping the timeline vague since it would reveal too much information. I mean, we don't know how long time passed from the day Noé was found by the old couple to the day Sensei brought him to the castle in the forest. Keep in mind that the vampire's growth differs for each person, as well. Also, is the story the Noé and Sensei told trustworthy? As far as I could tell, Sensei is shady, like really. Besides, Noé's memory is also not reliable. After all, someone out there may have the ability to manipulate memories. What if Noé was was born ages ago and was induced to sleep for a long time for whatever reasons?

(Copy Paste ends here)

I really love Noé and Murr. You see, the title of the series is The Case Study of Vanitas, but I'm more curious about Noé. My guts tell me that he would unexpectedly surprise us in the future chapters. Do you have any ideas or thoughts you want to share about VnC? tell me, I'm so bad at digging gold here.

That's the end folks, I warned you this might not make any sense. I'm just a person who has a lot of time on hand got bored waiting for the next chapter. Still, I had fun writing this. It's entertaining to crack our heads with the possibilities of what would happen in the story. But remember to always respect the authors. It's their work and art.

Note: I wrote this to indulge my over-thinking self. This is just a random theory, thoughts, assumptions, and/or head-canons. Thank you for taking the time to read and understanding if I made any mistakes or post whatever it is you don’t agree on.

#thoughts about vnc panels

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wpbaes · 4 years

Text

okay i didnt proofread any of this and this is a brain dump and i s2g i wont dump all these charas at once but i love them all already so deal WITH IT lmfao

HAVE FUN!!

Ari’s Characters:

Carter Crane - Alex Fitzalan FC - 21 - College Senior/Aspiring Actor

Still a #richbitch

Still has a booked gig w/ THE Thalia Nasri and is the younger half brother of Georgie Banks. Its a recent development but he’s kind of thriving

His parents just left and got divorced. Basically everything is the same he’s just still in college and younger

He and Eleanor just started dating too but it’s a lot newer and she only recently broke up w/ her Ex who’s a dick and wont leave carter alone

Realistically only likes about a total of 3 people

Still a partier and that will perhaps lead to plenty of bad choices

#helovethecoco

will learn his lesson eventually..maybe

he still gonna get that degree tho!

Ella Cooper - Crystal Reed FC - 31 - Cannabis bakery owner & skate park enthusiast

still that bitch

gay af + stoner af

still bffs with cass #rideordie (will they end up married? let’s find out! lmao)

grew up in willow park but left for some years to ny and got her bachelors in english and political science/got her mba at NYU.

she moved back to town a few months before anna killed her husband and has been home since.

she still has her little doggies zeus & franky

she opened Dazed & Confused Bakery last year after dreaming it up with Cass one night one their couch and with the help of her sister. They’re a smaller venue at the moment but very popular and always featuring a new special baked good. They’re a big fan of mixing munchie cravings and genuinely good food.

On weekends they hold an open mic night and do a few more menus items that go along with the munchie theme. lots of grilled cheese, vegan and non. Big hit w/ the hipster and 55+ population.

She’s been in therapy for two years now and doing a lot better after breaking off her engagement and leaving behind a fiancee in new york. She also ended an affair she was having with a married woman a few months ago

Shes been trying to get herself back on track and make less dumbass choices.

Still the biggest flirt and making heart eyes at every woman who walks her way

she’s been working on building a skate park near the bakery but has been having issues with the zoning

in the meantime you can find her skating all over town/at the small skatepark that does currently exist.

Andy Asal - Alia Shawkat FC - 28 - Baker

Pronouns: She/Her/They/Them & occasionally He/Him

Cake Decorater/Baker @ Sinfully Sweet for the past five years

Originally from portland, moved to Willow Park for a new adventure/has loved the little family they’ve found

Bffs with Sofia Miller and has a lowkey (highkey) crush on her

general cinnamon roll/generally oblivious when someone is flirting w them

big on friendship

also big on good food and staying in/not a big drinker or partier

still a proud member of grace ko’s book club

Grace Ko - Lucy Liu FC - 50 - Author & Professor of English & Women and Gender Studies

has been in willow park for seven years, originally from queens, NY

Has been divorced for a year and a half and has managed to find a civil co-parenting relationship ground w/ Alana

Hasnt told anyone that she and Alana have recently started to hook up but refuses to talk about it

Just finished their book tour for their now fourth NY times best selling book

has a 8 year old, 14 year old and 17 year old

lives in a bigass house where they host a lot of dinner parties, they’re very involved in local government and their kids PTA board

They teach at the local university and also instructs a few online courses

Has become someone a lot better with casual hook ups though they have a tough time not consistently offering to make someone a meal.

still a surrogate parent to rebecca

a very proud aunt to annisa

#bigmomenergy

Hector Fuentes - Clayton Cardenas FC - 33 - Cartel Member/Mechanic

a willow park lifer

the biggest hypeman

was born raised and will die in willow park and he has no issues w that

has an older sister and three younger brothers

u know the deal the fuentes fam be on that queen of the south shit

but a lot of their work is way outside of willow park

he still lives in an apartment by himself.

he has two kids and both of them have different baby mamas. he doesnt have full custody but he he pays child support and gets most weekend with them. he has a son and a daughter.

his son is name Angel (3) and his daughter is name Maribel (5)

He has a decent relationship with both baby mams but i imagine Maribel’s mom really loves being petty w/ him and Angel’s mother is more likely to try to seduce him every time they’re together

He lowkey thrives on the drama

and he LOVES being lil Theo Cooper’s godfather, he still is the best dad and just tries his damn best

lowkey emotional/hella protective/still checks up on anna every damn day

his day job is as a mechanic at the local auto body shop. he can mostly be seen getting around on his motorcycle.

Levi McCoy - Jesse Lee Soffer FC - 30 - Willow Park PD Officer

willow park native,big angel energy

younger brother of Chase McCoy

spends a lot of time at the barcade maintaining his pacman high score

was a volunteer firefighter for a long time and got his associates degree at willow park community college

only became a cop after his brother started to get into legal trouble

has no ambition to be a detective and enjoys cruising around in his patrol car

he coaches a middle school basketball team of all genders and places on the police departments rec league though sometimes he wishes he was still playing with the firefighters

lives in a cute lil apartment downtown, a pretty neat and clean guy, v focused on his health and just having a simple life

hes not at all curious about his biological parents and he’s just happy his brother is out and doing better, chase is basically his number one priority

turns a blind eye to a lot of things, especially when it comes to the fuentes cartel

Ultimately he’s committed to keeping people safe but not to throwing people into prison just for the hell of it

Kareem Salia - Kofi Siriboe FC - 21 - College Junior/Basketball Player

originally from new jersey

star basketball player at willow park university(which I have decided is division I lmfao) he’s a point guard

such a charmer and he knows it. he’s v flirty and somewhat cocky but he plays it off well

knows what he wants and goes for it

nothing will get in the way of his potential NBA career and he’s aiming to get drafted before graduation though his father has a few words about that

was raised by a single dad back in Newark and has an older brother who’s in the Marines

He’s been in Willow Park since he started school three years ago and is fairly well known around town, especially during basketball season

V committed to his work out routines (workout buddies wassup)

lives in an off campus apartment with a few of his teammates/tries to stay out of trouble but isn’t always successful

bi bi bi

def has a few baes on campus and off

perhaps w someone slightly older??

hes a fun time and a hell of a talent

Reagan Tucker - Lizzy Caplan FC - 35 - Stylist

abortion tw

originally from westchester, NY

a mess of a human but boyy do i love her sm

has never gotten along w/ her parents. its as if they had a child just to have one not to actually raise one

so she grew up with a p rebellious crowd, never had great boyfriends or people in her life who actually gave her great love aside from her one best friend since childhood

went to college in NYC to study fashion/has always had an eye for fashion

as a kid she found her solace in large stacks of vogue and cosmo magazines, dreaming and studying, knowing one day she’d get to be a part of that world

it didnt happen as easily as she wanted to but it she eventually found her way into the industry

when she was a junior in college she found out she was pregnant with her then on and off’s boyfriends baby

he was p shitty about it and she ended up getting an abortion that she never talks about/still thinks about often

shes the most non committal, she hates the idea of relationships mostly because she had no idea how to let herself be loved anymore

has left a lot of people in the dust

which is partly why she left ny and moved to willow park

she wanted a fresh start and already had a couple of high end clients. she still travels for work but shes found herself a nice af apartment in willow park that she feels is her safe haven. even if it mostly serves as a place for her to kick off her shoes and sleep before she gets up and goes out and makes more bad choices

never on time

borderline alcoholic but will never admit that

#hotmessexpress

but i love her v much shes v near and dear to my heart

Simon Walker - Ryan Gosling FC - 36 - CEO of Sanders Corp.

willow park native

the oldest of two, his family has been in willow park since it’s founding. his father is a fairly prominent politician and currently serves as a US senator.

Inherited the family company from his grandfather

They started out as a small ad company and grew into one of the biggest advertising conglomerates in the world (think modern day don draper and the plot of succession lmfao) now they’re a huge media company but focus a lot on ad revenue and represent some of the biggest companies around

one of those companies that kind of have their hand in everything

Simon has been a big part of making them more current an inclusive. made a lot of brows raise when he fired half of his board and brought in a ton of women, especially women of color and some of his old new york buddies to help him bring some diversity into the company

his father is a democratic senator but his grandfather is republican so thats where the split kind of forms

his father is still a bit of an asshole though and wants simon to be in politics but simon refuses

his passion is art and always has been and he sometimes gets a little too involved with the graphic design aspect

he has a room at home where he paints and keeps all of his work, its really just a hobby now

has a 4 year old son that he adopted after an ex lover of his overdosed and left the baby with no family. his own family wasnt happy with his decision but he refused to let the kid go into the system

is generally friendly/likes to keep up a good image

is happiest at a baseball or basketball game or at home painting while his son naps

loves to hold big ol barbecues in the summer and his family throws a huge 4th of July event every year

his face is on a lot of ads around town and he’s currently involved in helping his father’s re-election campaign

Shawn Pearson - Jacob Elordi FC - 20 - College Sophomore

originally from california

grew up in foster care/always caused a lot of trouble

lowkey genius which is how he got into willow park U with a full ride

he’s definitely the broody/silent type

v rude and v bad at having healthy relationships

only really knows how to use people for what he wants

definitely will crumble to pieces once someone makes him face his feelings enough

definitely has the whole “i have no one” mentality

excels in mathematics and really just wants to use his skills with numbers to go make big money so he can buy a house where no one will bother him

mostly goes to parties to hook up and find a bed to sleep in for the night

spends most school breaks working, he’s a delivery boy and does some illegal bookeeping. anything to keep him fed and going. while his tuition is paid he doenst really have much going into his pocket

hes based off an older chara of mine i just made him a lot younger and slightly more impressionable

probably only has a couple people he counts as actual friends but generally likes to keep his distance, sure that everyone is out to get him

knows he has a brother he was separated from in the system but has never looked for him/barely remembers him since he was a newborn when their parents dropped them off in front of a firehouse.

picked willow park because it had a good finance/accounting program and because he wanted to go anywhere that wasn’t california.

Viola Lancaster - Aly Michalka FC - 37 - District Attorney

originally from Northampton, MA - twin sister to Micah

(yes im a sucker who loves to make rosa’s dreams come true lmfao)

originally from chicago (go cubs!) but spent a substantial amount of time in NYC

Went to Smith College for undergrad and Harvard for Law School

a boss ass bitch

not one to be messed with and is v protective of her brother

she and micah lost their brother when they were teenagers, he was kidnapped and killed, it was a big national story. neither of them ever talk about it

very gay, shes my og lesbian character. so VERY near and dear to me

has probably been in willow park for a couple of years and took the job as DA to really beef up her portfolio. doesnt really see herself settling down there but she likes it so far

can often be found at her office or at the bar having a glass of merlot

v active/always goes for morning runs and very big on yoga and meditation

ugh i just love her ok lmfao

Devon Reynolds- Milo Ventimiglia - 40 - Construction Worker

willow park native

recently released from prison

unknowingly shawn’s older brother, he always knew he had a younger brother but a lot of the documentation is blacked out and he hasnt had the resources to find him until now

he was adopted when he was 6 by a fairly loving but very strict family

was framed for murder that he didn’t commit

used to be willow parks start quarterback until he injured himself and got addicted to his pain meds

arrested at 20 and spent the next 20 years of his life in prison

his adoptive parents basically turned their backs on him and have since moved out of willow park

So he was released and really started from zero. lived in a homeless shelter until he was able to save up enough for a shitty apartment in the shitty part of town

he just tries to make his curfew and not fuck up his parole

recovering addict and alcoholic

spends way too much time w his toxic ex

got a decent job as a construction worker but is always doing odd job/hard to find people who hire formerly incarcerated folks.

just #doinghisbest

#about muses #LONG AF #intro post

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the-swedish-shortsnout · 5 years

Text

One hundred percent

Fandom: Harry Potter | Marauders

Summary: A small little story about the marauders in the end of their fourth year, planning their final steps towards becoming animaguses that I thought I would share. Focuses on friendship and banter. Might expand the story some day

Characters: Marauders Sirius, James, Remus and Peter along with Lily Evans, Snape, Avery and Professor Slughorn

”Come on guys! We've been studying for this for nearly 3 years.” James belted out in frustration. They’d been going through how to apprehend the mandrake leaf the entire evening and yet their plan was nowhere near being finished.

”Homework’s too difficult for you, Potter?” Lily Evans voice spoke smugly behind them. She leaned over mockingly, her red her brushing over his shoulder in the process. James blushed. Sirius however, still level-headed instinctively slammed the Animagi book shut, hitting James hand in the process. Of course the covers didn’t say The book of Animagi any longer but one could never be too careful.

”Aoutch!” James yelled irritably, retracting his hand. Sirius ignored him.

”What are you boys making anyway?” Lily asked sounding somewhere between taunting and curious. “Terms nearly over you know, so starting to study for your exams is a little late.”

”It’s a love potion.” Peter said quickly to everyone’s surprise.

”A what now?!” Lily looked at James with disgust stepping away from him at once.

”It's not for you of course!” James said at once, slightly red in the face and aiming a kick towards a petrified Pettigrew that hit Remus instead. Lupin ignored it, thinking he somehow probably deserved it.

”It better not be Potter, or I'll make sure to have you expelled!” Lily snapped and strode off, nose in the air and with an expression of pure disgust on her face. James gave her a painful look as if torn between running after her to apologise or taking his anger out on Peter. He chose the latter.

”You IDIOT!” he shouted. ”Lily is going to think that I'm trying to poison her now.” He pulled his hair in despair. This evening was not going to plan at all.

”Well, at least she doesn’t know what we're actually doing.” Remus said quietly but the boys heard him all the same. He was worried about his friends and what could possibly happen to them if they got caught trying to become illegal animaguses or worse, if something went wrong during the process. Surely he wasn’t worth all of this trouble. Still, he appreciated it never the less.

”Coming to think of it, that was actually some quick thinking from your side Peter.” Sirius said sounding rather impressed, although he mainly did so to tease James. His friend let it slide. ”Maybe I should make you carry the leaf in your mouth for a month during the school year after all.” James said cruelly. ”That way you wouldn't be able to come up with any more clever ideas. It's very out of character for you Peter. Someone might get suspicious.” Peter winced.

”As tempting as that sounds..” Sirius butted in before Peter started to take actual offense by James lady frustrations, ”having an actual reason not to speak to my family all summer is too good to give up.” He tossed his black locks of hair out of the way with and threw Remus a reassuring smile as if to tell him that he was actually up for doing this. One hundred percent. ”I’m looking forward to it.”

“Well the rest of you better come up with some good exudes.” said Remus anxiously but he returned Sirius smile. ”Not that I’m forcing you to.” he added quickly.

”Lupin.” James interrupted, his focus finally back where it belonged. ”We're doing this mate. One hundred percent.” Peter nodded enthusiastically. ”Even If my future wife disowns me before we're even married.” Everyone sighed loudly. ”you're worth it mate.”

”Besides” Sirius butted in before James started going on about Evans again for the billionth time. ”I could just tell her that the love potion is for my brother, trying to make him fancy our house-elf or something.” He grinned and the others laughed, thinking for a second that that might not actually be such a bad idea after all. Lily didn’t like Rugulus , so that she probably wouldn’t mind.

“Alright.” James said finally dropping all thoughts of Lily. “Let’s go over the plan once again.” They all huddled together. “Peter, before the diversion you need to sneak into Professor Slughorn and nick the leaves. Do you know how many pieces you need to get.”

“Yes, six. Once each and then one backup just in case. I do remember that you know, since you told me like a hundred times.” Peter said irritably. “I still don’t understand why I have to be the one to do it. I get so nervous when stealing stuff.”

“That’s probably a good thing.” Remus muttered but they all ignored him.

“It has to be you, since you’d be the only one he’d believe if you told him you got the wrong thing out of the cupboard, getting mandrake leaves mixed up with snakeskin.” James interrupted.

“Sorry Professor, they’re both sooo shiny!” Sirius said mockligly.

“I’m not that stupid!” Peter protested but laughed with the others all the same.

“We know.” James assured him. “But considering how your potions exam went, old Slughorn’s bound to think so.”

“I misread the instructions.” Peter muttered. “It wasn’t my fault that my cauldron exploded.” he said bitterly.

“What we need to focus on now is what kind of distraction to use.” Sirius interrupted before James lost his focus again. This was a serious mission. They couldn’t mess it up. They needed good cover if something did went wrong but nothing too obvious to be remembered by. He looked at Remus. Full moon had not been that long ago. This was important. Their most important step so far.

“We could just hex Snivulus.” James suggested. “One needs to use the opportunity, soon we won’t see him every day after all.” Sirius laughed loudly.

“I don’t think that will get you back into Lily’s good book.” Remus pointed out.

“Alright, alright, here’s what we’ll do…”

“Lily, please!” Remus begged her. “We’re partners, we need to co-operate or we’ll never finish in time.” She remained silent, making it very obvious that she’d refuse to talk to him for the rest of the class. “Oh, come on. Are you really going to let me stand in the way of you getting a perfect mark?” She sighed.

“It’s just hard for me to believe that you would agree to this.” Lily said sternly.

“Well, James isn’t that great at potions.” Remus couldn’t help himself. He liked Lily. Not the way James did, although considering how he behaved a part of him hoped that he never would fancy anyone that way anyway. She was always very kind to him and could be quite funny and she was definitely a more brilliant potions partner than Peter had ever been to him. She’d helped him loads this year. “It’s funny!” he explained. “Cos, you know he's family are really famous potions makers after all. Being good at potions is supposed to be in his blood.”

“Well I wouldn’t really know about that sort of thing.” she muttered, obviously still angry and threw in some more dragonroots into their cauldron that nearly made its content splatter over them.

“You know that’s not the thing I was talking about.” Remus gave her an endearing look. Surly she knew that her blood status wasn’t something that would ever bother him. She sighed.

“Stir a little more please.” she finally gave in. Remus did as he was told. He checked his watch. Seven more minutes until distraction time. His task was to distract Lily, just in case, as she might be clever enough to figure out that they were up to something and he had made it his personal mission to make her like him again.

“Look, I know you’re not going to believe anything positive I’d say about James...” he began carefully, not bothering to dance around his friends supposed mistake any longer.

“That would be correct.” Lily replied coolly.

“But he wouldn’t try to win you over with a love potion. That’s not his style.”

“It’s awful, just like he is. See how I made those two connections.” It was awful, he thought to himself as he hadn’t quite thought about it before. Being forced into fancying someone with no power to say no didn’t seem like something very pleasant. Suddenly he felt for her for being so upset.

“It’s not James’s style.” he defended his friend, though thinking he’d use him for curse practice if ever would be. “He’d want to win you over properly, so that he could boast about how his charm finally one to everyone that would be near enough to hear. Not cheat with some potion. It wouldn’t count.” He explained. “I’m not saying that that’s a great thing.” Remus added quickly. Lily laughed, finally.

“You’re such idiots.” She concluded. “I think you can stop stirring now.” She added. “It’s supposed to simmer for a little bit.” He did as he was told.

“So what are you boys up to if you’re not planning to poison me then?” she asked sternly.

“Well.” Remus leaned towards her. “we were planning to play a little prank on Sirius younger brother, as punishment for him being such a pureblooded git, by making him fancy their house elf during the summer.” Lily giggled. “Of course, it’s turning out to be tricky since they’re not the same species. Not that he’s too worried over something going wrong.” They both laughed.

“They’re really scary, his family, aren’t they?” Lily asked, lowering her voice.

“Can’t say, I’ve never really met them properly. He’ll be fine tho.” He threw Sirius a look. Sometimes he did wonder just what kind of horrors he had to endure back home. He was always so sarcastic whenever he spoke of them, but as Remus knew all to well himself sarcasm could be a good defence mechanism.

“Well I make sure to avoid them.” She admitted. Their eyes met and he noticed that she actually looked quite worried. “I know that’s not very Gryffindor like of me, but in times like these you can’t be too sure, considering what my parents are and so on.” Remus understood what she meant. Scary things we’re going on outside the walls of Hogwarts. “I think it’s brave of you to act on behalf of what’s best for them.” he told her honestly. “I don’t think you’d have to worry too much about Sirius’s parents tho. They’re not the type that would enjoy getting their hands dirty. Not that you are.” Remus added quickly. Lily gave him an reassuring look. It must be difficult for her, he thought to himself. If something were to happen, if they came, not that they would, but if they did her muggle parents wouldn’t being able to help defending her and defending them would be entirely up to her. Of course nothing would happen. Not yet at least. “I’m sure you’ll be alright.” Lily nodded.

“Interrupting something?” Sirius asked teasingly. Lily sighed.

“Don’t let James hear you use that kind of talk.” Remus looked at his watch again, cursing himself for worrying too much about Lily’s deatheater problems to remember to keep track of time. Sure enough, he could see Peter sneaking off towards the ingredients storage just like they had planned.

“Mind if I borrow these?” he said before snatching Remus’s newly cutup roots right in front of him.

“Are you serious?” Remus said annoyingly. He’d spent a long time cutting up those. His arm aced from an ugly cut his other self had obtained the previous full moon and hiding it from Lily had only been possible do to her efforts to ignore him.

“I am Sirius.” he answered. Both Remus and Lily rolled their eyes. “Please, I need them to rescue our potion before Peter shows up and destroys the entire thing again.” He nodded towards their table. “He's off getting more snakeskin since the last piece he tried to add accidentally caught fire.” Sirius said rather loudly. Their potion would be the distraction but only because Sirius had gotten the permission from James to complain loudly about it so that it wouldn’t affect his grade.

“It took me ages to cut up those!” Remus protested, stretching after the roots as Sirius quickly jumped out of his reach winking at him.

“What happened!?!” Lily almost shouted. Remus looked confused. Then he realised that his sleeve had slid down, exposing his wound.

“Oh, nothing.” he tried to ensure her. “I just injured myself.”

“Yes, I can see that.” Lily said sarcastically. “Here, take my roots. I prepared them last lesson, but I was too mad at you to not let you chop your own.” she said looking rather sorry about that now. “It looks really bad.”

“It’s nothing, Remus said uncomfortably, checking to see where Slughorn was positioned simultaneously. He found him far away from Peter, standing bent over a classmate’s cauldron in the opposite end of the classroom. It’s content had started producing thick, yellow bubbles that kept floating up in the air, which Remus was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to be doing. “I got smacked by the Whomping Willow practicing quidditch with James.” Remus explained vaguely. It wasn’t the first time he had used this excuse. “Sirius was in detention.” he added. “Apparently the tree a great substitute for bludgers.”

“Apparently you’re not very great at avoiding them.” Lily said. “Here. Add these and stir clockwise whilst you do.” she handed him her roots. “I’m gonna go find you some sap for your wound. Slughorn won’t mind when it’s me asking.”

“Thank you.” He said and truly meant it, although deep down he knew that there where nothing in this world that would ease the pain caused by a werewolf injury. Those simply had to heal by themselves. He watched her whilst adding the roots just like she’d told him. She passed Snapes table two rows in front of theirs. He stood up as she passed him, bumping his knee on the table.

“I’ll walk with you.” he said, turning slightly red. Remus wondered why he always had to put his nose in things it doesn’t belonged, worried that he would eventually find out the truth about him. The thought made his stomach turn unpleasantly. Peter remerged from the storage and slipped something to James as he passed them. No one had seen. Remus took a deep breath and went back to watching Lily who, for some reason seemed to enjoy Snape’s company. Maybe their little distraction wouldn’t be necessary after all?

“Practicing muggle studies, Severus? Watch out or you’ll get dirty.” another Slytherin student called Avery shouted as he passed him and Lily talking to one another. A roar of laughter erupted. Then three things happened very quickly. Lily grabbed a nearby weighing scale standing on the table in front of her and smashed it over his face with all the force she could fathom. Remus winced at the sound of bone breaking. He knew it too well. Simultaneously James, who of course was always watching Lily, fired a curse that hit Snape instead which resulted in him flying into Avery. They collided so harshly that Avery fell into the yellow bubbling cauldron Remus had watched before. Snape, rather taken aback managed to shout PROTEGO just in time to keep him and Lily, who was still holding the brass measuring scale in a tight grip from getting splattered. Avery screamed in terror and pain, trying to get the essence of potion off him.

“Now, NOW, children!” shouted Professor Slughorn, obviously destressed over the sudden chaos that had erupted in his classroom. He made the potion vanish with a quick swish of his wand. All of Avery’s hair in the areas it had touched seemed to have fallen off. The hairs that remained sprouted the same yellow colour has the bubbles had had. Everyone in the classroom started laughing at his distressed reaction to this. Lily sat back down next to him.

“Are you alright?” he whispered. “That hit was nothing less than he deserved.”

“They’re going to expel me.” She whispered sounding very distressed. “I can’t believe I just did that.”

“They most certainly won’t. Besides, Slughorn loves you, he’ll make sure you stay the victim of this. Anyway, I think that hit was brilliant!” Remus told her reassuringly. They both winced at the sound of Avery’s nose being fixed.

“Can’t believe it all worked out!” James said happily. The four of them were chilling back in the boys bedroom. “And I even got to hex Snape without getting into detention.” He smiled brightly. “Poor Lily tho.” his smile faded at once thinking about her. “That Avery fool didn’t get nearly as bad a punishment that he deserved.” He muttered bitterly.

“She can fend for herself, clearly.” Sirius pointed out. They’d been talking about the events during potions class all throughout the day and he didn’t feel like relapsing on the topic, even though he of course agreed that what’d happened had been awful.

“And I got the leaves!” Peter added excitedly. “And we didn’t even have to sacrifice my potion.” He added, happy with the outcome.

“Well then.” James said, handing out the leaves, two to Peter and two to Sirius, keeping two to himself. One to use and one for backup. “We all know what to do. Keep the leaves in your mouth for one month without anyone noticing. You can’t take it out, bite it or swallow it or it won’t work. Is that clear?” he asked them both, but mostly looking at Peter, who started to seem nervous. “Timing that with the date we go back to Hogwarts. As soon as we arrive, we sneak over to the screaking shack using the invisibility cloak whilst everyone else is busy getting to the castle, putting our leaves directly into the potion that we’ve prepared. After that only a few steps remain until we become the youngest animaguses in recorded history!” he smiled excitedly. Peter winced.

“And, making us able to be together every day of the month.” Sirius added and grabbed Remus by the neck. “Like true brothers should!” Lupin blushed as his three best friends clinked their stolen butterbeers together. He knew they were being silly but yet his eyes started feeling a bit watery all of the sudden.

“For Remus!” Peter said.

“For Remus!” James and Sirius joined in and the three of them howled together.

“Guys! Someone could hear you…” Remus protested, although somewhat amused. All this time Sirius hadn’t let go if his shoulder.

“We’re with you man. I’m Sirius.” he told him.

“Booooo!” shouted James and Peter together. It was nothing but reflex for them to do so nowadays whenever he told them that joke. Sirius grinned and shook his shoulder.

“One hundred percent!” Remus smiled right back at them.

“One hundred percent.”

#harry potter #harry potter fanfic #remus lupin #james potter #sirius black #lily evans #the maruaders #harry potter fanfiction

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beautifulspacegays · 6 years

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marketplace au (cont.): part 2 y’all I’m sorry this prompt is a MESS. I’ll post to ao3 when it’s all said and done. Still need to finish writing part 3, but for now, welcome Keith!!!!!

The first time Shiro brought him a cinnamon bagel from Lance’s bakery, Keith was lying on the floor of their new apartment surrounded by unpacked boxes and crumpled newspaper.

He continued to lay motionless as he heard Shiro’s footsteps approaching their unit from the outside hallway. He didn’t stir when he heard the click of the door unlocking, or when Shiro walked inside. It was only when Shiro nonchalantly tossed a warm package across the room, landing on top of his stomach and square above his bellybutton, that Keith turned his head to look at his brother.

“Breakfast.” Shiro shrugged, responding to Keith’s raised brow. “I also brought you some tea.” He watched as Shiro weaved through the maze of piled boxes the movers had carelessly placed, easily reaching the kitchen counter and setting down the steaming cup. Being a firefighter had its perks, one of them being the ability to move and coordinate a large, muscled body with inhuman grace. “You’re lucky that I remember to feed you, or else you’d starve.”

Keith huffed, sitting up slowly with a long, drawn out breath. He stretched his arms up high above his head, letting the paper bag roll down his stomach and fall into his lap as he straightened. He flinched as a strip of unexpected morning sunlight caught his eye, vision turning spotty. They’d both spent the entire night unpacking, but only Shiro had managed to keep track of the time. How Shiro was always able to remain awake and aware was beyond Keith, and he’d stopped trying to understand his brother’s innate and God-like ability to completely Have His Shit Together™ long ago. Which is why he didn’t question him any further as he reached for the package in his lap, heavy lidded and in a sleep deprived haze. He shivered as he took the paper bag in his hands, its absence leaving his lap feeling empty and cold. With clumsy fingers he unwrapped his breakfast, and without pausing to question what it might be, took his first bite. Immediately, his eyes fluttered wide. A warm flush of pleasure crept up his neck and warmed his cheeks as he began to chew.

“Oho,” Shiro cooed from across the room “Looks like Mr. Picky actually likes his breakfast.” Keith scoffed, crumpling up the bagel wrappings and launching them across the room. His aim was perfect, but so was his brother’s ability to dodge. Shiro side stepped the throw and caught the empty package with ease, shooting Keith a cocky grin that he returned with a scowl. Shiro answered with a light-hearted laugh, grabbing Keith’s tea and heading over to join him at his makeshift newspaper picnic.

The second time Shiro brought him a bagel, he set it down next to him without a word. The small action startled him, tearing him away from his work and bringing him sharply back to reality. It took Keith a moment to adjust, vision blurry from staring for too long at his laptop.

“You haven’t eaten yet today.” Shiro stated, matter of fact.

“I…what?” Half of Keith’s focus was still swimming in the colours and swirls on his computer screen, hands still poised to draw. He’d spent the entirety of the day working on overdue art commissions, completely sinking into his work and losing track of time. He leaned back in his chair, taking a moment to adjust to his surroundings. The sun, which had been high above the horizon when Keith had started work, was now setting, painting the room with vibrant pinks and reds. He slowly came back into his body, the hunger that was once distant now clawing at his stomach, desperate in its chance to finally be heard. Keith turned his attention to his desk, eyes travelling to where Shiro had set down a small, familiar brown package and peppermint tea. “Oh,” he stammered, the full reality of the situation finally hitting him “Thanks man.” They let the silence grow for a few moments, Keith taking the opportunity to unwrap his food.

“His name is Lance.” Shiro finally spoke, leaning against the side of Keith’s desk as he did. Keith paused, bagel in hand, mouth gaping around the ghost of what was going to be his first bite.

“What?” He spoke after a few moments, drawing out the silence. He must have looked completely bewildered, as his expression had Shiro laughing within seconds.

“The owner of the bakery.” He said, smile still etching his features. Keith blinked twice, utterly lost. Shiro held in his laugh this time, eyes travelling to the bagel and back to meet Keith’s. “Where I keep getting the bagels, Keith. Jesus.” Keith’s expression quickly turned skeptical, questioning. He let his eyes linger on his brother for as long as his hunger let him, but it was only a matter of moments before he shifted his gaze and took his first bite. He was immediately contented as the warm pastry settled on his tongue. He could feel Shiro’s eyes on him as he chewed. “First man I know who’s been able to win over your taste buds on the first go.”

“I’m not that bad!” Keith snapped, forgetting that his mouth was full, words cascading out sharp and messy. A blush quickly spread from his neck to the tips of his ears and he shot up a hand to cover his mouth. He refused to look at Shiro, who kept his eyes trained on him and watched in quiet amusement. Mouth still covered, he took a few moments to chew and swallow properly. Afterwards, blush still bright and patchy, he cleared his throat. “I mean… I’m not that picky.”

“Whatever you say.” Shiro straightened, deciding to let Keith eat and resume work in peace. “All I know is that I’m grateful to the man, he’s making my life a lot easier.”

This time, the crumpled bagel package caught Shiro on the side of the head as he turned to leave the room.

Every time Shiro brought him a bagel thereafter, it came with new information about Lance.

The third time, after Shiro had placed the bagel directly on top of Keith’s keyboard, he’d said: “Lance looks like he’s about your age.” When Keith responded with a gruff “What does that have to do with anything?” he’d simply shrugged, turning out of the room with a casual “Oh nothing, just an observation.”

The fourth time, he learned about Lance’s business. “He took the business over from his father, isn’t that interesting?” Shiro spoke from where he sat next to him on the couch. He’d just returned from picking Keith up his now go to meal, and was binging on some Chinese takeout himself.

“Mhm,” Keith hummed, mouth full and attention glued to the TV in front of them, buzzing with the evening’s news. He felt an elbow dig into his side, quick and abrupt, causing him to choke on a piece of bagel.

“Runs the whole place by himself. Seems like he’s doing pretty well.” Shiro continued a little too casually, prodding the contents of his takeout container with his chopsticks as though he hadn’t just elbowed Keith in the ribs.

“Shiro, why do you keep telling me all of this stuff about that baker? Last time I checked, you and Allura were in a long-distance relationship.” He drew out the last word for emphasis, knitting his eyebrows in frustration as he looked over at his brother.

“Yes, and a happy one at that.” Shiro continued to prod at his food, withholding eye contact. “Also, his name is Lance.”

“Alright. Why do you keep telling me all of this stuff about Lance, then?” He huffed in frustration, the conversation beginning to feel like pulling teeth. Shiro looked up at the mention of Lance’s name, a coy smile playing at his lips as he popped a piece of broccoli into his mouth. Keith stared, utterly lost.

“Just seems like an interesting guy is all.” He ate with a cheeriness Keith couldn’t place, like he was up to something. But for the life of him Keith couldn’t figure out what it was, and he had his upcoming commissions to focus on, so he let it go and continued to eat. If he had to listen about Lance in order to keep eating his bagels, he resigned, it was a small price to pay.

Keith leaned back in his chair, locking his fingers and stretching his arms far behind his head. He proceeded to rub his eyes, which were, again, overworked and tired from the strain of looking at a computer screen all day. He’d finally finished his work, and as usual, was having trouble adjusting to the reality that now surrounded him. The sun was almost below the horizon, the only light that remained in the sky burning like an ember about to go out. He didn’t know exactly how long he’d been working, but he did know that when he sat down to start, it was just after lunch. He put a palm to the back of his neck, stretching his muscles and cracking his tired bones. Now that his focus was shifted away from his work, his stomach had turned indignant, nagging and nagging to be obliged. He sighed, reaching into his pocket to grab his phone.

Keith: Where are you? 6:47p.m.

Shiro: Still at work, what’s up? 6:51p.m.

Keith: Can you bring your favourite brother a bagel on your way home? Haven’t eaten since lunch… 6:52p.m.

Shiro: Won’t be home for another hour or two, you’re on your own kid 7:00p.m.

Shiro: Also… you gotta start taking better care of yourself 7:00p.m.

Keith: I know I know 7:02p.m.

Keith: I don’t know where the place is tho… 7:03p.m.

Shiro: It’s in the indoor marketplace about a block away on 5th, fourth store to the right. Can’t miss it – but hurry, he closes at 8 7:05p.m.

Keith: I can’t believe you’re making me go outside 7:06:p.m.

Shiro: Tell Lance I said hi ;) 7:14p.m.

Keith had been in an art haze for days. He’d been able to take complete advantage of it, as Shiro was usually home early, but they were starting to trust him more at his new job, which incidentally meant more work and longer hours. He shuffled around his room in the dark, spying a bright red hoodie among the wreckage that was his bedroom floor. He sniffed it quickly, deemed it okay, and threw it on over his t-shirt. He tied his hair into a messy bun, swapped his pajama pants for a pair of dark jeans, and grabbed his leather jacket, keys, and wallet before heading out the door. He was a bit of a mess, the bun being a necessity to contain his second day hair, and his clothes wrinkled and disheveled after having spent God knows how long crumpled on his floor. His skin was pale from lack of sunlight and his eyes were heavy lidded and tired, but, he thought casually, swinging his keys on one finger and walking out onto the street, it’s not like he had anyone to impress around here anyway.

Part 2/3. Previous | Next

#klance #keith #lance #shiro #vld #voltron #shallura #broganes #text #pea writes #prompt #artist!keith #baker!lance #marketplace au #part 2 #oh keith #you poor oblivious soul #peawrites

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intim3ate · 6 years

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In the Eye of the Storm

Sombra has been keeping an eye on McCree for some time now. Long enough that she's starting to wonder if maybe he's started keeping an eye on her, too.

Commissioned by @mccreespree. If you’re interested in commissioning me, check the link below!

Enjoy. <3

AO3 Link

Commission Info

Buy me a Ko-Fi?

The first time they meet, it’s in a bar.

She’s followed him for quite some time now. Online, on the news, on security feeds, from the higher-ups of Talon themselves. He’s interesting. Intriguing. Jesse McCree has been everywhere and done everything, both behind the scenes and plastered all over wanted posters.

He’s a mystery. A puzzle. And she’s never been able to resist a puzzle.

He sits in a booth at the back of the bar. She’s at a table nearby, watching him. Waiting. He looks around, eyes darting from face to face like he’s looking for something. When his eyes fall on her, she lifts the rim of her margarita glass to her lips, grins as him, and drinks. He watches, but looks away, dismissive.

No matter. She isn’t here to be noticed, anyway.

Hours pass. He chats up the bartender and the waitress every now and then when they bring his drinks over. He drinks more than he should, but Sombra had a feeling he would. It’s a wonder he can stand up without swaying and walk in a straight line to and from the bathroom, but somehow, he manages it, while Sombra starts to feel tipsy after two drinks. McCree has had double that and more.

It’s almost time for the bar to close when the man McCree has been waiting for appears. She recognizes him from the wanted posters, but doesn’t get the chance for a close look in the ten seconds it takes for McCree to stand up, put a bullet in the man’s brain, and leave the bar.

She puts her glass down, half-empty, and leaves the bar just the slightest bit smitten.

-----

He bar-hops.

Sombra goes back to the same bar the next day, and the day after that. It isn’t until nearly the end of the week that McCree shows up again. When he does, it’s even quieter than the first time. No shootouts, just amicable chatting. She isn’t close enough to hear what he’s asking about, but the way the barstaffs’ eyes dart around nervously tells her everything she needs to know anyway.

He doesn't show up the night after that, so she moves onto another bar, and then another, hoping to find him. A cowboy should have been easy to find in this day and age, especially this close to the border, but it's surprisingly tricky. Sombra finds herself cursing Gabriel Reyes and his thorough black ops training more than once over the course of her search.

But she finally finds him.

McCree is alone again, nursing a half-empty glass of Bourbon. Sombra sits nearby to watch him. Based on the way he stares through the drink, eyes hazy and unfocused, this is far from McCree’s first drink of the night. She wonders what he’s thinking – or if he’s even still thinking. He looks pretty far gone, but…

He doesn’t even finish his drink before passing out.

Sombra knows she isn’t getting anything out of him tonight, so gets up and leaves (but not before she makes sure there’s a glass of water at his table for when he wakes up).

-----

She finally works up the nerve to talk to him almost three weeks into her “investigation.”

They’re at the first bar again. She arrives first, and McCree hardly fifteen minutes later. Sombra watches him take his usual booth and she stands from her table to follow him to it.

“Buy you a drink?” she asks. McCree looks up from the cigar he had been about to light and watches her for a moment, curious, as if trying to figure out any ulterior motives. She doesn’t blame him.

“Sure,” he says at last, and finishes lighting up. He waves the burning tip of the cigar at the spot opposite himself. “Might as well take a seat then, if that’s what you’re after.”

She does. Sombra flags down the bartender and orders them each a whiskey on the rocks. McCree’s brows raise and he moves the cigar from one end of his lips to the other, puzzled, but he doesn’t ask how she knew his order. Instead, he asks, “You live around here? Been seein’ you a lot lately.”

Sombra shrugs. The bartender sets their drinks down in front of them and she wastes no time in taking a sip. “You could say that.”

The ice cubes clack together in McCree’s drink as he swirls it. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sombra laughs. “It means what I said. I used to live around here. Years and years ago.

McCree flicks the end of his cigar onto a napkin. “What brings you back, then?”

“Business.” She doesn’t feel the need to elaborate, so she quickly deflects. “I take it you’ve been here a while then?”

“A few weeks,” he admits. Sombra smiles. She already knew that.

“Vacation?”

“You could say that.” The answer is accompanied by a cheeky smile. She returns it as she takes a drink. He takes one too, mirroring her. Their eyes lock and neither of them blinks. It’s like a challenge.

Sombra isn’t quite sure who’s winning.

There’s a moment of comfortable silence where they drink, and McCree smokes. They chitchat, make small talk, and get two more rounds, both of them on Sombra. It’s almost fun. Sombra can’t remember the last time she had a chat like this with anyone, let alone someone as interesting and strange as McCree. She could talk to him for hours, and it feels like she does just that. But even so, she knows it can’t last forever. They both know that.

And so, hours later, their evening comes to an end. McCree stands up slowly, almost reluctantly, when he eyes the clock on the opposite wall. “It’s gettin’ late,” he says. “Best be goin’ soon.”

“Mm.” Sombra down the rest of her last drink, but doesn’t move. She simply watches McCree as he gazes down at her, looking from eye to eye, down to her lips, and back again. She smirks.

“Say… what’s your name, anyway?” McCree asks suddenly. There’s something intense in his gaze that wasn’t there a moment ago, something that pierces through the comfortable alcohol-haze that’s beginning to form. “Don’t feel right not knowin’ who it is that bought me all those drinks.”

Sombra smiles. “Luna,” she lies. “And yours?”

McCree smiles. It doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “You can call me Joel.”

Sombra grins and takes a step back. “Well then, Joel,” she says, “Nice meeting you. Maybe I’ll see you around?” She knows full well she will.

“Here’s hopin’.” McCree tips his hat to her as he turns around and walks out. She smiles to herself as he exits the bar and leaves her behind, trying to tell herself it’s just because she’s one step closer to picking apart the mystery of Jesse McCree.

-----

She cycles through the bars. He cycles through them, too. They keep running into each other and Sombra starts to wonder if he’s following her too, but she knows better. He’s here for a reason. And that reason is, ultimately, why she’s here.

But that doesn’t mean she isn’t having fun.

Nearly a week after their first real encounter they’re on their third. They’ve moved past small talk and onto bigger topics. “Joel” tells her all about a childhood spent playing in parks without supervision, and his many summers working in a grocery store as a teenager. He doesn’t mention anything about gangs or guns or anything, and when she asks how he got so good with a gun, he tells her his mother was a crack shot and he learned from the best.

“Is that so?” she asks, stirring her cocktail. “You sure that’s it? Only you look an awful lot like that Jesse McCree from all the wanted posters. You know, the one that runs with the Deadlock gang?”

McCree doesn’t miss a beat. He drinks with a smile on his face and looks her right in the eye. “You know, I do get that a lot. Maybe he’s some long-lost relative of mine.”

Sombra laughs, but doesn’t press it. McCree is a lot less talkative after that.

-----

She’s a little more honest with him. It’s their fourth date (when did she start calling these meetings dates?) and Sombra catches him drinking alone, as usual. When she joins him, they waste no time in getting right to it.

“So,” McCree starts, “I told you all about myself last time. You got anything for me?”

Sombra leans in and grabs his drink from him, shooting the entire glass of whiskey right before his eyes. McCree’s brows shoot up. His smile is awed and maybe just the slightest bit irritated. “Looks like you’ve got quite the tale,” he says. Sombra slams the glass down and chuckles.

“Podrías decir eso.”

McCree signals for another drink and orders one for Sombra too. “Go on, then. I got time.”

She tells him about growing up an orphan after the Crisis, about how that wasn’t unusual where she comes from. There were lots of kids without parents -- most of them ended up in gangs or in unhappy foster homes, but she managed to get by just fine. It wasn’t an unhappy upbringing at all, and she makes sure to emphasize how much that life helped her out.

“Not surprised,” McCree says. “You seem like a lady who knows how to get what she wants.”

Sombra leans in and purses her lips. “Oh, you have no idea.”

She doesn’t miss the way McCree’s eyes dart down to her mouth. But he doesn’t move forward; he just takes a puff of his cigar. She licks her lips and backs up. No idea, indeed.

She continues her story, leaving out any and all mention of her hacking. When McCree asks her about her “enhancements” -- a jab she’s sure is just in retaliation for questioning his identity -- she tells him they’re integrated into her nervous system to keep her up and moving. She lies about an accident she suffered from the Crisis, and she doesn’t think he believes her, but he doesn’t push the matter either.

“I could show you, if you like,” she teases. McCree laughs, but it takes him a few good, solid seconds before he politely declines and excuses himself.

-----

One night, he isn’t alone.

He’s at a table with a man she doesn’t recognize and doesn’t care to get to know. They flick the ashes of their cigars into a shared ashtray on the table as people nearby frown at them. Nobody dares to tell them they’re not allowed to smoke indoors, though, not with the guns both of them keep a hand on under the table.

She expects another shootout, but it never comes. Instead, they shake hands.

McCree gets up to leave and his eyes fall on her for a moment. She smiles at him. He turns his back and walks away.

-----

Sombra doesn’t know how to leave well enough alone.

She looks up the man McCree had been talking with and finds out he’s with some kind of state security agency. It’s a little flashier than most of McCree’s usual ‘business’ dealings, even if all the correspondence between the two men has been heavily encrypted. The pay seems right, though, and the man seems to be on the up-and-up, having contacted McCree about helping shut down a weapon smuggling operation. That seems more his usual forte.

She smiles to herself as she scrolls through the last e-mail. How long has she been following him to know what his usual job preference is?

It doesn’t matter. She finds where the weapons are being stored and tucks herself into bed. She’ll need her rest for tomorrow.

-----

She stakes the building out all day. Sombra knows it’s more likely McCree’s lone-ranger raid will happen at night, but he’s been known to be brazen enough to march right into trouble in broad daylight before. She doesn’t want to risk it.

While she waits, she pulls up blueprints and security. She finds all the most likely points of entrance and rotates between them, hoping to catch a glimpse of something interesting happening. But no, it’s all guards walking their patrol routes, all humans and omnics checking on the weapons and packing them away. It looks like they’re planning to ship out soon.

She sits at her perch on the roof, flicking through holographic security projections. She’s so bored and so used to seeing nothing that she almost misses it when it happens.

A split-second flash of light and a guard crumples to the ground. More flashes, one after another after another. People are firing. Something runs into the field of view of the security cam, and Sombra isn’t surprised at all to see McCree pull his gun and start shooting.

She watches gleefully as he downs guard after guard, soldier after soldier. Their numbers are overwhelming, and yet somehow not a single one can put a scratch on him. It’s amazing.

Sombra bites her lip; takes a deep, steadying breath. She stirs, suddenly tense and excited. She can’t drag her eyes away.

The fight continues. Soon, McCree is the only one still standing. She knows there are more guards outside, though. Waiting for him. He probably knows, too.

But what he doesn’t know is who else is waiting for him.

Sombra watches him leave the camera’s view. She stands up, engages her thermoptic camo, and leaps from the edge of the roof.

-----

McCree is cornered when she finds him.

Four omnics crowd him against the wall, guns raised. McCree lifts his hands above his head with a grin, revolver still in his right. “Looks like you got me,” he says. He can’t see Sombra, but she can clearly see the smirk on his lips. He has a plan.

But she has one, too.

Her camouflage falls. She reaches her left hand out, her right gripping her pistol, and hacks all four omnics at once. They fall to the ground, twitching and sparking and convulsing, and McCree shoots them before he even really registers what’s happening. When he looks up from them, Sombra is already disappearing.

His jaw drops. “You’re--”

She laughs and winks at him. “Later, amigo.”

And with one last wave of the hand, she disappears.

-----

This time, he finds her.

She’s in the first bar again, half-expecting to spend the next few hours alone. But when she hears the heavy footfalls of boots and the jingling of spurs, she knows she’s in for a treat.

“Hola,” Sombra says, without looking up.

“Buy you a drink?” McCree asks. No preamble, no small talk. No ‘fancy seein’ you here’: he’s all business. Sombra just shrugs and pretends she isn’t interested, but she’s pretty sure he can see through the act, because McCree pulls out the chair opposite her and sits down without waiting to be invited.

“You were at the warehouse,” he says. She looks up, still feigning disinterest.

“So were you.”

McCree grunts. “Smartass.” She looks up at him. There’s the slightest hint of a grin playing at his lips. Good. “That ain’t where I’m goin’ with this and you know it.”

It takes a moment for Sombra to break the silence that grows between them. She sighs and says, “Right. About that drink....”

She waves the bartender over, orders herself a beer and waits for McCree to say “Whiskey, two fingers” to speak again. Sombra leans back in her seat and watches McCree carefully. “You want to know why I was there?” she asks.

“The thought may have crossed my mind.”

She shrugs. “Same reason as you.” It isn’t exactly a lie.

McCree raises an eyebrow. He isn’t buying it for a second, and she doesn’t blame him. “Right. Fine, then,” he says. “Let’s start at the beginnin’.”

“Go right ahead.”

A waitress places their drinks in front of them. Neither of them make a move to grab it. “Your name ain’t Luna.”

“And you’re not Joel.”

His eyes narrow and she smirks. McCree picks up his glass and drains all of it in one go, and she takes a long, generous swig of hers. “Look, McCree,” Sombra says, placing the glass down again. “Why don’t we take this somewhere a little more private and I’ll tell you everything? Now that you’re onto me anyway.”

His eyes drop. Sombra wonders if he’s checking for weapons or checking her out. Probably the former, but she likes the idea of the latter, so for now she’s willing to let it slide. When he doesn’t see her hiding anything, he nods slowly. “Fine. But we’re goin’ to my place.” “Of course,” she says. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

-----

He brings her back to a dingy motel room with faded wallpaper and musty carpets. Sombra opens her mouth to say something, but she doesn’t have time to make a snide remark about the accommodations before McCree’s revolver’s in her personal space. She looks down the barrel and raises her hands slowly.

“You sure know how to treat a lady,” she says.

McCree doesn’t laugh. “Who are you?” he demands.

Sombra takes a step back. She lowers one hand slowly, reaching around to her back, and McCree steps forward, bringing the gun ever closer to her face. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing, nothing!” she insists, just as she gets a hold of her translocator and rolls it along the floor. Right as he turns to it, Sombra disappears and reappears where it lands. She reaches for his gun and pushes it down to aim at the floor at the same second he shoots it. It burns her hand and the shock of it stings, so she waves her hand around to try to ease the pain.

“¡Buen tiro! You almost had me there!” Her fingers wrap around his wrist and squeeze, trying to hold him in place even though she knows he could overpower her in a heartbeat. “Look. I’m not trying to cause trouble here, okay? And if you shoot again, you’re gonna bring a lot of it down on both of us. Is that what you want?”

McCree’s eyes don’t leave hers. The gun doesn’t move. “Thought so. Relajate, McCree.”

She lets him go slowly. Just as slowly, he holsters his gun. “Fine. But not until you answer some questions.”

“Sure,” Sombra says. She grins as she walks backwards, still watching him as she takes a seat on the edge of the creaky motel bed. “First question was about who I am, right? You can call me Sombra.”

Something flashes in his eye. Recognition, maybe. He knows of her. “Next question?”

“What were you doin’ at the warehouse?”

“Didn’t you already ask that?” She pouts.

“You never answered.”

“I told you, same thing as you. I was following you.”

“Why were you followin’ me?”

“I think you’re interesting,” she says simply.

McCree stares, brow furrowed. She can just about hear the gears turning in his head. Sombra takes this chance and pushes herself back further on the bed, right to the middle of it. She pats the spot where she had just been sitting: an invitation. His eyes dart from her to the bed, uncertain at first, but he comes over and sits down anyway.

“Interesting, huh?” he mumbles. She nods and scoots closer to him.

“Lone wolf bounty hunter, former gang member and Blackwatch deserter? What’s not fascinating about that?”

“And it has nothin’ to do with Talon?” he practically spits. Sombra flinches, and for a second her composure drops, but she shakes her head.

“I couldn’t give less of a shit about what Talon wants,” she says. “Yeah, maybe they asked me to dig up some dirt on you. But even if I did find anything, it doesn’t mean I’d tell them.”

“And why not?”

The question hangs in the air a moment. Sombra bites the inside of her cheek as she thinks about the best way to answer. “Well, first of all… you’re actually a pretty boring man, McCree.”

“Excuse me? Weren’t you the one what just called me fascinatin’?”

“Sí, pero… You’re pretty much exactly what I expected. But more than that…” She shifts over and presses herself against his side. Sombra’s arms wrap around his neck and she leans in close. “Maybe I just want to keep everything for myself.”

McCree inclines his head, pressing closer to her. She wonders if he realizes what he’s doing, but she isn’t about to stop him. “And what everything is that?” he asks, voice low and husky.

She smirks, teeth bared just a little bit, and plays with the tips of his overgrown hair. “Not much. Like I said, there isn’t much more to you than what I can already see. Even with all the lying.”

He grins right back, the echo of a laugh on his breath as he exhales. His hand slides over to rest lightly on her thigh. “Sorry to disappoint. Think I could make it up to you?”

She tries to ignore the way her heart pounds in her chest, the way her skin prickles and tingles with goosebumps at his low tone. “What did you have in mind…?”

She doesn’t get an answer. Not verbally, anyway, because at the same moment they both lean in, pressing their lips together. Their first kiss is hungry and urgent, forceful and breathtaking. Her hands tangle in his hair and his come around her waist, pulling her close. She presses into him. He presses back. She falls, back hitting the bed, and McCree twists his body to follow her down.

They pull apart to rearrange themselves, Sombra twisting into a more comfortable position and McCree holding himself above her. Her legs come up to wrap around his hips and she uses her foot to nudge his back and push him down, closer to her.

“Is this your way of making things up to me?” Sombra asks, arching her back to press herself against McCree again. He laughs and brings a hand around her to hold her in place against him.

“Figured I might as well show you somethin’ you don’t know, seein’ as that’s the whole reason you’ve been stalkin’ me. Or are you tellin’ me that suddenly you ain’t curious after all?”

“It’s the one thing I’ve been dying to find out,” she deadpans, but not even her dry tone can mask the way she shivers in his hold. She can deny it all she wants, but he’s right: she’s curious. Dangerously so.

“Dyin’, huh?” he asks. “Well, I’ve never been one to keep a lady waitin’. And I ain’t about to start now.”

Sombra chuckles and leans up to nip at his lower lip. “Then shut up and kiss me, vaquero.”

He does. She meets him halfway and they collapse onto the bed, her underneath him and grinding up against his hips. She feels the bulge in his jeans and her mouth practically waters. She moans involuntarily, and McCree swallows it down, coaxing her mouth open and slipping his tongue inside. Sombra meets it with her own, pushing back just as hard as he is and licking at the inside of his mouth.

McCree groans and his grip on her tightens. It’s a surprise to Sombra when he pulls away, and she’s got a protest ready on her lips, but it dies when he moves to kiss her jaw, her ear, her neck. She inhales deeply and lets her head fall back to give him more room to work. The whole time, her hips roll into his, and she nearly whines when he pulls away from her once more. But he tugs on the collar of her coat and Sombra sits up, following his movement eagerly.

He slides the coat down her shoulders. As he sets it aside, she lifts her arms and slips her shirt off over them. As soon as her chest is bared, McCree dives back in to kiss and nip at her now fully-exposed neck. His hand slips under her bra and she reaches behind herself to unclasp it. She peels off her gloves for good measure, too, before she tangles a hand in his hair to keep McCree in place. She relishes in the feel of it between her fingers, in the way his beard scratches lightly against her skin as he moves further and further downward.

Sombra shivers as he reaches her collarbone and cries out when he bites down. Her head falls back again and she squeezes her eyes shut, lost in the sensation. “A little rough there,” she says, breathless and desperate, and McCree laughs against her skin. It sends the smallest vibration through her, and she can feel it tingle all the way down to her cunt. She’s already wet - has been for a while. She doesn’t even notice how bad it is until she feels McCree’s hand drop down to rub between her legs.

“Somethin’ tells me you can handle it.” He grins at her, far too smug for his own good.

“Try me.” Sombra rolls her hips, trying to force more contact. To prove him right or to prove him wrong, prove that she can take even more than this, she isn’t sure, but the result is the same: McCree doesn’t miss a beat. He crooks his finger, gently stroking her through her leggings in time with the movement of her hips. But it isn’t enough, and they both know it.

“What is it, sweetheart?” he asks, tone way too light to be innocent. He knows full well what he’s doing, and Sombra hates it.

So she retaliates. She reaches down between her legs to grab McCree’s wrist and yank it away from her cunt, and although she immediately regrets not having something firm to rock against, she sticks to her plan and brings McCree’s hand to her mouth to kiss the palm of his glove. “I want this off now,” she says, and before he even has a chance to peel it off, she takes the seam of a leather-covered fingertip between her teeth and tugs, just enough to loosen it.

A puff of air falls from McCree’s lips. His eyes are wide with awe as he moves his hand down, freeing it from the glove as Sombra pulls it off with her teeth. It dangles there for a moment and McCree just stares, taking it all in. But the moment soon passes and he’s back on her, tearing the glove from her mouth and smashing his lips against hers, forceful enough to push her over. She wraps her arms around his neck more out of instinct than anything else, but it works out in the end, since it gives her a chance to tangle her fingers in his hair again and hold him to her.

Her tongue slips past his lips and his hand comes back between her legs. His fingers rub her through her leggings once again, more insistent now, and even though she still can’t feel enough, it’s still something -- still better than with the glove on. Sombra rolls her whole body into him, hips into his hand and chest against his. It’s uncomfortable with his chestplate on, though, so she slides her hands from his head down his back to clutch at it, but all she gets is a few fistfuls of serape. “Come on, take it off already,” she whines into McCree’s mouth. He laughs, a sound short and breathless and way hotter than it has any right to be, but he does as she wants and reaches around to undo the latches.

She shifts under him and lets go just long enough for McCree to tug off his serape, discard his armor, and set it aside. The second it’s out of his hands, Sombra sits up and goes to work on the buttons of his shirt, undoing them as quickly as she can. Her long nails make it only the slightest bit inconvenient, but when she slips and accidentally scratches McCree’s chest, Sombra finds she doesn’t care anymore: the guttural moan that tears from his throat makes it more than worth the wait.

But it gives her an idea. Sombra slides McCree’s shirt from his shoulders and lets him shrug out of it. As he does, she threads her fingers in his hair again and pulls, hard, forcing him to look at the ceiling. And there it is again, that perfect sound, half-swallowed by the way his throat is stretched out long and pretty for her. Sombra smirks and brings her other hand down to rest between his legs, cupping the very generous bulge in his jeans. “Shouldn’t be surprised you like it a little rough,” she says, and she surges forward, sinking her teeth into his neck and sucking a mark into his lovely sun-kissed skin.

McCree jolts under her, thrusting his hips up into her hand unthinkingly. Sombra can feel his dick twitch under her palm. It makes her mouth water.

Impatient now, she presses the heel of her palm down and curls her fingers inward, holding him just that little bit tighter. McCree gasps. And that’s it, Sombra decides. She has to get these pants off him now.

She lifts her hand off his crotch and lets go of his hair so she can make quick work of his belt, button, and fly. As she does, Sombra moves around McCree, kissing down his neck, across his collarbones, up the other side. Her chest pressed against his, and she can tell he delights in it just as much as she does. McCree isn’t loud, by any means, but it’s clear his control is slipping a little. Sombra grins; that’s exactly what she wants.

Pants open at last, McCree shifts so Sombra can tug them and his boxers off. She wastes no time in taking hold of his exposed cock, squeezing it and pumping it slowly. She relishes in the feel of it, hard and thick in her hand.

“Oh…” she sighs. Sombra looks down to watch herself. She misses the way McCree grins and leers at her. He hums to himself and curls his body inward, close enough his lips can come to rest on the shell of her ear.

“Cat got your tongue?” he teases. Sombra swallows hard, ready to tell him ‘Never,’ but McCree doesn’t give her time to answer. He nips at her ear and laughs, sending a shiver all the way through her. “‘Bout damn time.”

“Hmph. Didn't see you complaining before,” she says. “But if you really want to shut me up, I’m sure you could find a way.”

McCree’s eyes widen, then narrow. He practically growls at her before he moves away again, shuffling back so he rests against the flimsy headboard. He beckons for her to follow him, but Sombra is already moving, already back on him, kneeling between his legs as he pulls her in for another long, desperate kiss.

Sombra sighs into the kiss as McCree’s flesh hand squeezes her breast. He flicks her nipple with her thumb and she moans quietly, shuddering with delight as he lavishes attention on it. At the same time, his metal hand roams up and down her back, slipping lower with every cycle of movement. It isn’t long before he’s running his fingertips along the curve of her ass, and when he does, she pushes back into his hands. He laughs, a harsh breath of air through his nose. He grabs her roughly. “Like that?” McCree murmurs against her lips, and Sombra nods frantically. She can feel his teeth against her lips, exposed in a cheeky grin.

“Good,” he says. And then he kisses her again, tongue licking into her mouth, and when she pushes back McCree slips his fingers underneath the waistband of her leggings to tug them down and expose her. Sombra shuffles to get them further down her legs, and soon they’re off, kicked away and forgotten. She can feel his hands now, flesh and metal both, tracing over her ass and groping it lovingly. Sombra gasps and breaks the kiss, mouth falling open and hair falling into her eyes. But it’s still not enough.

… Until, suddenly, it is. McCree lifts one hand from Sombra’s ass to thread in her hair while the other slips around to her front, right between her legs. At the same time it slips between her labia and lightly presses against her clit, McCree presses down on her head, forcing Sombra to come face-to-face with his cock. She licks her lips. He strokes her hair. With a quick, deep breath, Sombra opens her mouth wide to take in the head of McCree’s cock.

She feels him twitch beneath her, stretching his body out and arching his back. Sombra isn’t sure if it’s instinctive or if he’s purposely trying to give her better access, but the result is the same: the movement forces his cock deeper into her mouth, and she takes it gladly, pushing herself even further down onto it. It’s only when she almost reaches the base that McCree seems to remember what he was doing, and he starts to move his finger back and forth, ghosting over her clit over and over again until he decides to slip his finger into her pussy. He pushes it in and out of Sombra slowly and deliberately, feeling her out until he’s ready to add another. When he does, Sombra pops off his dick and moans loudly, allowing herself just a moment to recover.

“You good down there? Not too much for you, am I?” McCree asks, and she looks up to see him smirking down at her. But he doesn’t look nearly as composed as he thinks he does: McCree’s face is flushed a dark red, his hair is even messier and more disheveled than usual, and sweat is beginning to bead at his temples. Sombra can hardly handle it, but she knows she wants to see more, see him even further gone than he is.

“Like hell,” she says, right before she dives back down onto him with renewed fervor.

McCree jerks his hips and crooks his fingers. Sombra grunts around him. She breathes in deep through her nose and clenches her eyes shut, trying to adjust to the feeling of his thick fingers inside her and the head of his dick pressing against her palette. She feels so unbelievably full right now. It's breathtaking – intoxicating. She isn't sure she’ll ever get enough.

So she tries for more. Sombra takes McCree in all the way to the base of his dick and swallows around him. The choked groan he lets out is music to her ears, and she wants to stay, hold him right where he is, but she’s close to choking herself, so she pulls up a bit, hollowing her cheeks to suck on him as she moves up and down.

“Fuck!” McCree thrusts up into her mouth without thinking, and the hand in her hair comes up to his mouth. He bites down, trying to distract himself with some pain, and Sombra looks up at him from under her lashes. She smirks around him right as he looks down. Their eyes meet, and he quickly has to pull her off of him.

“Shit, Sombra…” His breathing comes hard and heavy. He can hardly get the words out. “I…”

She sits up and pulls herself off of his fingers. “Te callas,” Sombra says, clapping a hand over his mouth. He stares at her with hazy, unfocused eyes, and she smiles at him, toothy and wicked. “Do you want to come or not?”

He nods, but she’s already moving, not giving him time to answer properly. McCree just watches her, not quite comprehending what she’s doing until she spreads her legs, resting a knee on either side of his body. She looks down at his dick, smudged with the last remnants of her lipstick, and licks her lips. When she looks back up at McCree, his eyes go wide. He knows what’s coming, and Sombra relishes in it. She winks at him and lets herself go, sinking down onto his cock slowly.

McCree’s head falls back. His hands come around her and he grasps her hips lightly, almost as if he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Sombra can barely comprehend it, either; McCree is big, and he stretches her out and presses against her in all the right ways. It’s almost overwhelming. But she wants him too much to stop now.

She clenches down around him, trying to adjust, and McCree’s hips jerk upward, driving his dick even deeper into her. Sombra cries out and puts a palm on his chest, splaying her fingers against it. “Wait,” she says. McCree squeezes her hips. He kisses her palm and she lifts it from his lips.

“You okay?” he asks, suddenly shockingly tender. Sombra looks up and grins at him.

“Of course,” she says. “Just… wasn’t expecting that.”

McCree laughs. “Neither was I.” He squeezes her again. It takes a second, but once Sombra adjusts enough she’s sure she won’t just come on the spot, she lifts herself up and slowly lowers herself again. McCree’s eyes flutter shut and he breathes deeply, finally letting himself get lost in the feeling of being fucked.

When she finally finds a satisfying rhythm, Sombra leans in and kisses McCree again. He groans against her lips and she slips her tongue past his, already eager and desperate for more. She speeds up her pace and the kiss gets sloppier; the faster she bounces up and down on his dick, the harder it is for her to pay attention to what her mouth is doing, so she just ends up panting and whimpering into his mouth. She can feel herself getting close. Judging by the way McCree’s thrusts get shallower and clumsier, he must be getting close too.

“Fuck!” She hisses, pulling away from McCree’s mouth and biting down on her lip. McCree’s grip tightens on her hips and he starts to move her, forcing her up and down faster and harder. He lifts his hips and she pushes down on him, one two three more times, and that’s it -- she’s coming, clenching down around him, every muscle in her body tightening. She digs her nails into his shoulders and keeps rocking her hips, trying to ride out her orgasm even further, to get everything she can --

He pushes her off of him suddenly and she clenches around nothing, writhing against the sheets and very nearly sobbing from the loss of his cock inside her. But he’s there again quickly, over top of her now, and slamming back into her. Sombra practically screams as he continues to thrust into her, harder than ever. She comes again, toes curling and fingers nearly tearing the sheets beneath her. Sweat drips from McCree’s forehead. He grits his teeth and groans one last time as he pulls out of her. Sombra lifts her head to watch as he comes, spilling himself in small spurts all over her stomach.

McCree collapses beside her, eyes closed and chest heaving. Sombra lies there, trying to catch her breath too, turning her head to watch him. McCree cracks an eye open and grins at her. She smiles back.

They lie there for a few long minutes, each still coming down from their post-coital high. Sombra reaches for something to clean herself off and comes up with McCree's shirt. He watches and gives her a half-hearted shrug, and she goes ahead and crumples it up, wipes the cum off her skin, and tosses it away. McCree laughs and sits up, reaching over to the bedside table to grab a cigar and a lighter. He lights up and falls back onto the bed, taking a deep drag and blowing out the smoke in a dark, billowing cloud. Sombra shuffles up next to him, plucks the cigar from his mouth, and takes a drag herself.

McCree says nothing about it. He just watches her smoke until she puts the cigar back between his lips. The rest of it is finished off in silence.

He stubs the cigar out in the ashtray next to the bed, then rolls over to face Sombra. His eyes dart down to her lips. The question burns in his eyes, but he doesn’t bother to ask it: he just leans forward and kisses her. She lets him, smiling into it and wrapping her arms around his neck.

McCree hums into the kiss and moves to straddle her. Sombra doesn't quite let him; she lifts her legs and wraps them around his waist. McCree cups her cheek with his hand, and she leans into it. The pads of his fingers are a little bit rough against her oversensitive skin, but she loves it. Sombra's mouth falls open on a quiet moan and McCree’s tongue slips into it, sliding against hers.

She feels McCree's metal hand trace down her side, cold enough to make her shiver both in discomfort and delight. His fingers curl around her hip and he lifts her up just enough that he can run his finger along her slit. Sombra gasps into his mouth and he pulls back, teeth bared in a smug smile.

“I ain't finished with you yet,” he says, and all too late Sombra realizes he's starting to get hard again. He rolls his hips into hers and slips a finger inside her. No buildup and no preamble, but it does exactly what he wants anyway: Sombra arches her back and presses herself closer to him, already eager for more. It doesn't take much to get her wet again - a few well-timed strokes of his fingers inside of her and she's shaking in his grasp.

“Wasn't expecting to go again so soon,” Sombra says, voice strained with her heavy breathing. “Maybe you do have a few surprises left in you after all.”

“That's what I’ve been tryin’ to tell ya.” McCree grins, completely unperturbed by her teasing. He reaches down between his own legs and pumps himself quickly, bringing himself back to full hardness. Sombra licks her lips as she watches. It's barely been twenty minutes, and she's already dying to have his dick back inside her.

“Hurry up already,” she chides, rocking against his fingers. McCree chuckles and pulls his hand out only to flip her over onto her stomach.

“Greedy little thing, ain't ya?” He leans over to kiss down her back, one two three four and one more to the base of her spine. He lines the head of his cock up at her entrance and pushes in, torturingly slow. Sombra’s breath shudders as it leaves her. She clenches her fists in the sheet and pushes back against him, taking him in deeper. McCree laughs and gives her exactly what she wants before she can ask for it: he starts up a quick pace, moving in and out of her smoothly.

Sombra turns her head to watch him. He catches her eye and grins down at her before thrusting in sharply, adjusting the angle just enough to make her see stars. Sombra bites her lip to stop herself crying out, but to no avail; McCree slams into that spot over and over again, and she can't stop the noises she makes in response.

“Ahh! Fuck, McCree, please-” She rolls her hips, grinding back against his pelvis while she still can. Sombra can hardly see him through her lashes, but what she can see is McCree's mouth pressed shut, his face lined in concentration. He's going to come soon, she can feel it, and-

Her own orgasm takes her by surprise. Sombra cries out one last time, back curving, and McCree keeps thrusting into her, stuttered and haphazard, trying to hold on until she’s finished coming, and he only just manages to do it; he pulls out right as the last wave of Sombra’s orgasm washes over her. She hardly registers the feeling of something splattering against her ass and thighs as she collapses down onto the bed. McCree follows her half a second later, rolling onto his side so he can face her.

Sombra looks at him, not completely comprehending what she’s seeing until he reaches out, touches her face, and laughs. He pulls her to her, apparently not caring about the mess he’s made, and nuzzles into her damp hair.

Sombra yawns and presses her back into his chest. “Just couldn’t get enough, huh?”

McCree hums. A hand comes up to cup and squeeze one of Sombra’s breasts. “Been a long time since I’ve felt like this,” he says. “Wanted to make it last.”

Sombra swallows and slaps McCree’s thigh, but with no real force or heat behind it. She can’t believe he just said that -- it’s stupidly sweet and she’s so, so glad he can’t see her face right now, because she’s sure it’s bright red. “¡Te callas!” she hisses. But she quickly settles down when he squeezes her tighter to him.

“Sure, sure,” he mumbles, voice thick with exhaustion and contentment. “Just… lemme enjoy this for a bit, will you?” He yawns and kisses the back of her neck. Goosebumps prickle along her arms.

She takes a deep breath. “...Yeah. Okay.” Sombra closes her eyes. She can feel McCree slowly relaxing against her, and when his breathing steadies and deepens, she finally lets herself relax.

She turns in his arms and kisses his forehead. “Never took you for a cuddler,” she mumbles, knowing she won’t get a response. But it’s okay -- she’s fine with this. It’s just one surprise after another with Jesse McCree, it seems. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sombra yawns and closes her eyes. She doesn’t know if she’ll still be here with him in the morning. But for now, she’s content to just let him hold her as she drifts off to sleep.

#Overwatch #sombra #jesse mccree #mcsombra #fanfic #r: e #commission

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chmergess4ever · 6 years

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Only Forever (Part 3)

Hi Guys!! The response to the second chapter made me so happy so I decided to make the third chapter extra long for you! Fourth part is almost done, hopefully posted tomorrow! Enjoy! Don’t forget to like/reblog and leave feedback so I know if you’re still enjoying the story!

Their relationship had dwindled down rapidly. They went from never leaving each others sight to almost nothing as time passed. They had lost contact after the Dancing with the Stars was placed on a Hiatus. Something that they never thought, would happen-did. Val thought back to the Tour Bus Confessions Video that he filmed for the We Came to Dance Tour, when asked who he would keep in contact with in 30 years he said “Sharna”, and somehow after only three years they were no longer talking. They hadn’t had a falling out, everything was perfectly fine.

Now he was 34, Newly Divorced, with a 1 year old baby. He had married Jenna shortly after his Confidential Tour and the two had a baby almost instantly. As their marriage hit the two year mark it became more and more evident that they were not happy and weren’t going to get much happier, mutually they agreed it would be better for the both of them to part ways. He decided to not let the divorce get the best of him, he was going to raise his child as peaceful as possible and He was going to live his life the way he wanted to live it. Except he felt like something was missing-The love that once filled his heart, the love of the woman he loved in return for the love he gave her. It was the one thing that was missing.

Val walked through CVS trying to find the aisle for Men’s body spray. Once he found it, he turned down focusing his attention on the options and looking for the one he usually used. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he may have seen her. He turned his head looking to the right. He looked back to the spray. Sure that it was just his mind playing games on him and then he heard her chuckle. His heart stopped as he knew exactly who was in the next aisle. He turned and walked to the right slowly. He turned to his right and then peaked around the aisle to the right. He saw her and he could feel himself tense up. He took a deep breath and then turned walking into the aisle.

“Still loving those snacks, Huh Burgess?” He put his arms out as he smiled.

“Oh my god! Val!” Sharna dropped the bag of snap peas she was holding and ran to hug him. She pulled back resting her hands on either side of him. “How are you? Oh my god.” She pulled him back in for another hug.

He grasped her tightly, embracing in the moment. “I’m good. How are you?”

“Better now!” She released him and stepped back. “Look at you! It’s been a long time.”

“Too long.”

“How’s Jenna? And Jake?” Jenna and Sharna also grew apart when the show ended. They weren’t overly close but it still surprised her that someone she was once very close to, just went away.

He assumed she knew about the both of them from facebook and social media.

“Jenna and I actually split up.”

Sharna felt her heart thump and her stomach flutter when he said it.

“Oh I’m so sorry.”

“It’s ok. We’re dealing and we’ve got a wonderful little boy who we adore. How about you? How’s everything going?”

“It’s going! Nothing too significant.” Sharna clicked her phone to check the time. “Listen, I actually have an appointment but I would really love to catch up with you. Are you free anytime for dinner?” “I’m free tonight.”

“Sounds perfect. Pick me up at 7?”

“Same place?” “You know it. Living the life!” Sharna laughed. The laugh he loved so much. He pulled her in for another hug before they separated.

After paying, he got into his car and smiled, taking a deep breath. He didn’t know what did, but something felt different and he loved it.

Later that night they were out at what used to be their favorite pub. They were 2 hours into their time together but it felt like they could sit there for ages.

“Yea, so that was a one and done thing.” She was in the middle of recounting a story of one of her past flings.”

“He really said that to you?”

“Yeah, he was a gigantic ass.” Sharna took a sip of her drink as she laughed.

“So you haven’t dated anyone?” He said in disbelief.

“Nope.” The awkward silence set upon them as they both knew it was because of what she told him that night at the bus. “Only Forever.” Repeated in her head. She cleared her throat and took a sip of water. “So tell me about you.”

“Well, Jenna and I became increasingly unhappy. I think it’s because we rushed into everything those years ago. It was just so intense, so fast.” Val fiddled around with his beer bottle.

“Sorry.”

“No, No. It’s good. I’m happy.”

“And Jake?”

“Jake’s great. He’s a little over two now so he talks a little bit. Best little guy ever tho! He can definitely make you laugh when you need it.”

“Maybe I can meet him sometime?”

“Of course you can.”

A moment of silence dawned on them and Sharna decided to break the ice, “Val?” “Mhm.” Val lifted his head to look at her.

“What happened to us?” “What do you mean?” “We used to be best friends. I used to be best friends with your sister-in-law and good friends with your wife. And then everything just fell apart. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Life got in the way.”

“Yeah it did.” Sharnas smile dropped.

“What matters though, is we’re back together now and we’re going to make the most of it.”

The next weeks flew by. Val worked at the studio, while Sharna continued to work on her website and clothing line. They had stayed in contact, talking everyday more than once a day. It was like they had never separated. A couple of nights ago, Val had taken Sharna to see Peta. The two screamed, and jumped up and down, and it seemed like everything was back to normal. Sharna had gone over to Val’s a couple of nights a week and they had eaten dinner and watched their favorite TV shows together. They also watched some of their favorite dances from dwts together.

It was now a month since they had reunited and Val decided it was the perfect time for Sharna to meet Jake. He had invited her over for dinner as he had Jake for the night before Jenna picked him up later on. Sharna arrived at 5, just as Val was finishing cooking dinner. He opened the door giving her a kiss on the cheek and threw the kitchen towel over his shoulder. “I’ll just go get him from his room.”

Sharna silently clapped. Val left and returned minutes after carrying the baby on his side. He had both his arms wrapped around Val’s neck and his head tucked into his shoulder. As they approached Sharna, he lifted his head.

“Jake, This is Daddy’s friend, Sharna. Can you say “Hi Sharna.”

The baby was silent.

“Say “Hi Sharna”

“Hi Sha”

Sharna laughed. “Close enough.” Sharna tickled his belly. “Your so cute. You know that? And you’re Daddy loves you very much.”

The baby reached his arms out for Sharna to take him.

“You want to hold him?”

“Are you sure?” “Of course.” Val carefully handed Jake to Sharna. Sharna bounced up and down as the baby smiled.

“He looks just like you.” Sharna called to Val, who was now in the kitchen.

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.” Val laughed.

“It’s a very good thing.”

Jake pointed to one of his toys on the floor. “Ball!”

“You want to play?” Sharna looked back at Val. “Is it ok if he plays?” “Sure.”

Sharna sat down with the baby in her lap and handed him the ball. Val walked over carrying two glasses of wine. He handed one to Sharna. “You’re great with him.” “I love kids. Always have.”

“I know who to call when I need a babysitter.” Val teased. “Ok, he should nap before his mom comes to get him. She’ll be upset if I give him back when he’s tired.”

Sharna rolled her eyes and handed Jake to Val. “He’s yours too.”

“I know. Just sometimes it doesn’t feel that way.” Val carried the baby back to the nursery and then returned a few minutes after. “Shall we eat?”

He grabbed Sharna’s hand pulling her up off the floor. They ate the dinner that Val had cooked engaging in pleasant conversation and then moved to the couch to continue talking as they drank their wine. Val had the baby monitor attached to his back pocket. “So does it all seem real?” Sharna asked him as she pointed to the baby monitor.

“What? Having a kid?” “Yeah.”

“It took some getting used to but im adjusted now. It’s great. It’s like if something in my life goes wrong, he makes it ok. Cause I know he’ll be there.”

“That’s sweet.” Sharna swallowed and then asked what was on her mind, “So you don’t miss the romance at all?”

“Everyday. I miss the feeling of loving someone like that. It’ll happen again. Just have to wait”

“I want that so bad. It just seems like it won’t happen.”

“Any guy would be crazy not to want you.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. We have been together, ya know.”

Sharna hit him playfully and then looked at him as he looked at her. They could both feel the atmosphere and what was about to happen. Val looked from her eyes to her lips and she did the same to him. He leaned into her and as their lips were less than a centimeter apart there was an abrupt knocking on the door. Val’s shoulders dropped and he sighed. Sharna scrunched her nose and cleared her throat.

“Come on Val, I know you’re in there.” There was knocking again.

Val got up and walked to the door. He opened it and saw Jenna. “Hi.”

“You look flustered.” Jenna walked in and saw Sharna. “Sharna?! Oh my God! Hi!” She walked over and have her a hug, but then quickly noticed the atmosphere, Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was interrupted a date.” You could tell she got uncomfortable.

“You weren’t.”

“You weren’t” Sharna said in unison with Val.

“Sharna wanted to meet Jake so I invited her over.” “I didn’t even realize you guys were still talking.”

“We lost touch but we recently reconnected.”

“Oh.” Jenna stopped talking. “Well,I guess I’ll just take Jake then.”

Val walked into the nursery and returned with Jake and a little napsack. “He ate already and I changed his diaper not too long ago.”

“Ok. We’ll, I’ll see you later then. It was nice seeing you Sharna. We should get lunch and catch up one time.”

Sharna smiled as Jenna left. Val looked at Sharna. “Well, that was awkward.”

“I can tell.”

SIlence filled the room and Sharna spoke. “I should go. I have to be somewhere early in the morning.”

“Oh. Ok. I’ll talk to you tomorrow then?”

“Of course you will.” Sharna gave him a kiss on the cheek and then left. Val moved to the kitchen to begin cleaning when he heard a knock on the door. He went to get it and saw her standing in the doorway. “I’m sorry. I’m not letting you get away with it.” Sharna spoke to him. “With what?”

“I waited for you, like I said I would. It’s the least you could do.”

“What?”

“Kiss me, you ass!” Sharna yelled.

Val smiled and pulled her in his house. She stood on her tip toes and he craned his neck down to kiss her. The delicacy of the kiss made it all the more special. And for the first time in a long time, Val felt the missing piece of the puzzle fit perfectly into his heart.

#chmergess #Chmergessfanfic #chmergessfanfiction #sharnaandval #valandsharna

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couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name · 7 years

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Thoughts from the Tony Awards

(that I forgot to post last night whoops)

Okay so the opening number was...cute, but I feel like it just went on for a little too long?? Idk idk

“Gee, Whoopi, how long have you been in the closet?”

I feel like Stephen Colbert emerging from a bed dressed as a groundhog is something that’s definitely happened before in my life

Honestly the best parts of the show was when the camera would cut to Ben Platt in the audience for some reason and he always looked vaguely afraid for his life

I’m just putting this out there but Josh Groban...is more powerful than he appears. I truly think Josh Groban is just a cover-story for an ancient deity that just wants to sing these days.

My mom, upon seeing Christian Borle with no hair: “He looks like that little animal from that Kim Possible show you used to watch!”

Listen Andrew Rannells and (goblin king of my heart)Mike Faist both deserved the Tony but...I truly forgot Gavin Creel existed for a bit and seeing him win had me so over come with emotion so like I can’t complain I’m proud of my man

I’ve never been a fan of Miss Saigon and I have no idea who that girl performing was but like...we’re getting married and she’s serenading me at our wedding reception this is cannon

Come From Away like...I’m sorry. I feel like it’s trying too hard to be #Edgy or something?

“Dicks out for Falsettos” - Andrew Scott Rannells, 2017, the Year Of Our Lord

It was a great performance though like 1) Put Tracie Thoms in anything and I’m a fan and 2) I never knew I needed to see Christian Borle and Andrew Rannells as Sporty Boyfriends(tm) but now I can’t imagine living in a world without it and 3) everyone was so talented don’t touch me

Lmao they finished their performance and my mom’s only comment was “That Andrew boy has great legs”

THE DEAR EVAN HANSEN WRITERS WERE SO FLIPPING CUTE WHEN THEY WON OMG

“We’re gonna announce this next performance as the cast of Dear Evan Hansen, but the gag is....it’s actually a solo performance by Ben Platt(tm)”

I mean was I sobbing the whole time??? Yes. I still would have picked a different number idk. ‘Waving Through A Window’ is great but it’s getting overplayed at this point

Lmao the second he finished his performance and me, and the rest of the audience both live and watching elsewhere, were freaking the fuck out- my mom just calmly took a sip of her wine and said “Oh, he won the Tony.” 😂

Okay listen...I truly think Spacey gave it his best. He wasn’t awful. I did notice something that didn’t exactly help though- He really went for the impressions. Like, whatever, but most of the other Tony’s usually involve the hosts having some singing skits???? Why did none of that happen?

I don’t know who the hell the guy singing from Groundhog Day was but like...that was a VOICE.

Leslie Odom Jr. and Cynthia Erivo. Nice.

Ben’s reaction to the Hilary Clinton email jokes tho

“All award shows have to give out food these days!”

Hello Dolly’s weird one-man performance was apparently caused by Bette Middler refusing to perform in the theater where they host the Tonys??? Like she wanted it pretaped???? Wild.

My mom refused to accept it all night like for the rest of the show she was like “When’s the Hello Dolly number” and I kept telling her it already happened and she was like “No that was Kevin Spacey in a wig it was a bad joke when is Bette going to sing” omfg

“You’re not even Christian Borle, you’re the understudy!”

When Colbert came out to present an award he had more stage presence in two minutes than Spacey had all night so I’m not saying Colbert for Tony’s 2018 but like....#Colbert4Tonys2k18

“My edible nephews”

Honestly Ben Platt’s entire acceptance speech quite literally cleared my skin and healed my soul that beautiful boy is so gentle and pure and I do not understand how I can feel so proud of him when he’s never even graced me with his presence

Also- Ben Platt, barely holding back tears, declaring “I’ll fight you” on national television: Big Mood.

Bette Middler’s speech...what in the fuck

Like no???? You cannot just tell them to shut the music off???? If everyone else can keep their speeches short than you damn well can too??? Everyone in that room is talented???? You aren’t The Special One there???? There’s people trying to make a show run smoothly and there’s time constraints???? Just say thanks and get off the stage oh my GOD. Also what the fuck with the ‘Hello Dolly never went away because it’s always in our hearts’ bit like find me ONE person who can unironically say Hello Dolly is their favorite show??? It’s a lame show high schools perform a lot because the script is cheaper calm down.

My mom, who had finished her fourth glass of wine and fallen asleep 15 minutes ago: *jolts wide awake the second she hears Lin-Manuel Miranda’s voice* “Finally.”

When Spacey came out doing the president gag like...Lin truly looked like he hadn’t been warned about it beforehand lmao like I’m sure he was but the poor boy looked so confused 😂😂

I know there was a lot of debate but personally I was not shocked Dear Evan Hansen won best musical and I was pretty excited about it lmao

(The Great Comet had a cool performance though I hope I can see that show someday; Also, since I realize I forgot to type it earlier in this list- Falsettos was robbed)

The big finale number he did with Patti felt...too lowkey. Idk. Just a very mellow ending to the award show like I’ve already forgotten what they sang.

All in all: There have been worst award shows but this was not as lively as the Tony’s have been in recent years. For all the jokes about NPH and Corden not being there, like...it just calls attention to the fact that they did in fact host way more entertaining shows??? That kinda backfired on him. I’ll give it like a 5/10. Can’t wait to see what this upcoming season/next years awards will hold!

#tony awards #tonys 2017 #broadway #musicals #ben platt #molly mumbles

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uniquejennyessays · 7 years

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Greek Myth In Contemporary Society

For years I have been liking Rick Riordan (Rick)’s works, it seemed like I have not written a review on it yet. So, here’s one on my favorite book series of all time.

HOW AND WHEN DID I START ON THIS SERIES?

It all started during my first year of high school, when I had a fixation on Greek Mythology. I admired the humanized personality of different gods, the adventures of heroes with their tragic end, and the inconsistent romance (either a happy or a miserable end). The passion led me to discover the first series of the Chronicles, Percy Jackson and the Olympians (PJO). I think I borrowed the first two books from the school library and bought the rest from the bookstore. I pretty much spend most of my time reading these novels forth and back.

Then it came the Heroes of Olympus (HOO) series, which Rick introduced Roman Mythology. With a set of new characters and old friends, I was even more absorbed into the series throughout my high-school years. I waited anxiously whenever a new installment was published, and was really content when I got to know the continuation of their adventure (which the author is a troll for cliffhangers, just like how they do for Attack on Titan Season 2). The Blood of Olympus (BOO) was published during my fourth year, which the moment I read it I had a mixed feeling of joy and sorrow. The ending was extremely shocking, from Leo’s plotted death to his revival (He’s the Percy Jackson’s Jesus), I nearly wanted to punch the author. But then, Rick created many mysteries inside the book itself. For example, Apollo’s punishment, the prophecy Ella recited, Nico and Will’s relationship, and Leo and Calypso’s whereabouts. These unexplained mysteries just made me go ‘What the hell’ at the end of the book. There were conspiracies that Rick would make a new series, with all these hints. Yet I fulfill all my needs through fanfictions, seeing what people predicted the future ‘book’ will happened.

Good news rained down on me in my last year of high school. During his tour for Magnus Chase series in 2015, he announced his new Greek Myth series, Trials of Apollo (TOA). The Hidden Oracle (THO) came out when I was studying my A-Levels, I went to the bookstore on the day when it was published. Since shipping required an amount of time, I was informed that the book will arrived one week later. Eventually, I waited patiently, and finally I received it. The book was still amazing as ever, with a God as the narrator and the main character. The other main character, the daughter of Demeter (which I predicted accurately) who can perform badass sword-fighting at the age of 12, sometime out of the ordinary Demeter child people would imagine.

During my A-Levels period, my taste has turned to Victorian classics. Besides, I have started on anime. Thus, my need for the series had lessen. Even I bought the Dark Prophecy (TDP) months ago, I managed to finish it. However, this does not stop me from loving the author’s style of writing and sense of humor.

(Additional note: I have finished TDP on Percy’s birthday.)

(picture of the troll)

WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT?

After pouring all my love for the chronicles, so what are the series all about? Americanized Greek Mythology in the modern world. These demigods live in training camp named Camp Half-Blood (another word for demigod) during summer or for the entire year so they can prepare themselves for the dangerous outside world full of monsters. Since it has 3 different plots for each series, I need to introduce them in detail separately.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2005-2009)

The gateway to the demigod universe. It started off with the Lightning Thief (TLT), through first-point of view of our beloved hero, Percy Jackson. He discovers himself as the remaining demigod son of Poseidon, the Greek god of sea. Due to a great prophecy predicted one of the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon and Hades) children will bring to the fall of Olympus, his presence was a threat to the Gods. He was also set to vanquish Kronos, King of Titans who is under the aid of another demigod, Luke Castellan.

The five books of the series described his journey to be a living legend, with an amount of betrayals, deaths of his trusted partners, slight romance and awesome fighting scenes. His humorous jokes and comments presented Rick’s unique style of writing, giving the readers memorable images.

The final book, The Last Olympian (TLOl), is the greatest among them all. brings up another prophecy which is the key to the next installment. No matter how much Luke is a villain, his devastating childhood stories and his anger towards the Greek Gods made the readers understand his resentment and yearning for a familiar love. Besides, it also revealed another prophecy, which is the key to the next series.

Heroes of Olympus (2010-2014)

The sequel of the previous series, narrating seven demigods on a quest to defeat an ancient deity in the ancient grounds of Greece and Rome. They meet challenges from the worst monsters, mortals and deities, sailing to stop the wrath of Gaea, the Earth goddess.

This series, is my favorite series among the three. It does not focus on a main character, or written in 1st person point of view. Instead, we got a third person omniscient from 9 different people, who are the seven main demigods (with Nico and Reyna in the last book). We do not get our beloved son of Poseidon in the first book, but we were given a new set of characters with different background. We also discover the Roman Version of Camp Half -Blood, Camp Jupiter, a rigid military-like camp full of Roman demigods and their descendants. The series narrated two parallel sides of the Greco-Roman Mythology working together against a common enemy.

Unlike the previous series, this brought up many backstories of characters even more tragic than Percy’s. The narration was still amusing, yet there’s a sense of seriousness inside. There was an obvious character development when the series goes on. For example, Piper McLean, who refuses to recognize herself as the daughter of Aphrodite, later accepts her identity and able to use her own inherited powers. Frank Zhang, an insecure demigod with a bad reputation, turned into a confident Roman praetor.

The thing I would like to complain about is the final fight scene in BOO. It was a few pages long with Piper, Jason and Leo putting Gaea back to her slumber. It was not as majestic as people expected it would be. It could be as fantastic as TLOl!

Trials of Apollo (2016-?)

The latest sequel for the previous series, which feature the sun god Apollo as a powerless mortal, finding his way to gain back immortality. Rick had converted back to the first-person point of view style, with the sun god as the narrator. His choice of narrator gives us an insight to a deity’s mind and opinions, how he sees the world compared to how mortals, having an ephemeral life, perception on their life. It’s a philosophical matter which discuss about life and death, and living an eternal life.

In THO, readers could see the improvement on Apollo’s personality. From the arrogant and narcissistic god who cannot accept on his ‘ugly’ condition, finally learns how to be humble and trying to see the world as how mortals would. We also witness the psychological abuse of Nero on Meg McCaffery. Letting her believe her abuser is another person from her adoptive father, but what she does not know Nero and the ‘Beast’ are the same person.

The second book, TDP, probably is my least favorite of the series. There was not much Leo-Calypso endearing moments that I expected it should be. The first half of the book narrating Apollo doing various pet tasks, and remembering his ex-lover, Emperor Commodus. However, I am pleased that Rick put a lesbian couple in the story, which I had no idea that even same-sex relationship is prohibited as well for the Huntress of Artemis. There are old friends from the previous books, which I am delighted to see again.

The third book, The Burning Maze (TBM) will be released next year.

Companion books

As much as the companion books are light and consisted with short stories, I explored the little things that were never mentioned in the main series. Besides fillers, there were information on the demigod world, giving readers a clearer sight of the Greek Mythology and Percy’s world.

The Demigod Files (TDF), narrates how Percy assisted Clarisse on her Ares rite of passage; the discover of the bronze dragon (which later Leo named him Festus); and the children of the Big Three Gods finding the newly forged weapon of Hades (Gods do like causing unnecessary trouble and giving quests to their half-blood offspring).

The Demigod Diaries (TDD), explains the adventure of Luke and Thalia in a trapped mansion, finding Annabeth on their way; the task given by Hermes during Percy-Annabeth’s one-month anniversary date; Leo and his friends’ encounter with the drunken followers of Dionysus; and an extra story written by Rick’s son, with impressive writing style for someone diagnosed with dyslexic and ADHD.

Camp Half-Blood confidential (CHBC) is a collaborated guide ‘made’ by the campers, due to the horrible orientation film directed by Apollo. Poor Nico is the only one who suffered from the film and accidentally humiliates himself in public.

Percy Jackson’s guide to Greek Gods and Greek Heroes are separate two books as a guide introducing to Greek Gods and Heroes. People could actually score Greek Mythology with these two non-boring lecture books.

Rick also made a crossover on Percy and his Egyptian Mythology counterpart, Carter Kane. They work together to defeat Setne, an Egyptian magician who thirst for divine powers. It was like an official crossover fanfiction.

Diverse Demigods with Dazzling Characteristics

I love the characters in the series, they were just full of animation and so on. I’ll state my top 10 favorites and that one character I truly despise.

First come with my favorite characters of the series:

(art by viria, she makes the old official arts belongs to the pit of Tartarus)

10. Frank Zhang

One of the cinnamon roll of the series, and the tamest among Mars/Ares children. I’m glad that Rick put a Chinese demigod in it. His Chinese name, Fai Zhang, probably based on Zhang Fei from the Romance of Three Kingdom. He is the only demigod who can read and write normally. He has shape-shifting abilities, inherited from his ancestors, is adapted from the Monkey King from Journey to the West. Like the Greek hero Meleager, his life is depended on a wooden stick, showing his pyrophobia.

Frank started off as shy with low self-esteem. He was raised by his military mother and his strict grandmother who told him various tales of their ancestors. His mother died in a war, giving him a start to train himself as a Roman demigod. In the Son of Neptune (SON), we first see him doing tasks that are undesired by the other campers. He is officially welcomed into the centurion of the fifth cohort, after he was claimed as the son of Mars. His first quest to Alaska causes him slowly gathers courage and discovers his family power. The funniest makeover he has was in the House of Hades (HOH), when Triptomelus rewards him with a buffer and taller figure, saying goodbye to his chubby self. Finally, he is upgraded to praetor.

The dynamic between Leo and Frank plays a vital role. Frank, who is initially afraid of Leo because of his fire power while the latter keeps making fun of him. We can see in the Mark of Athena (MOA), his act of jealousy towards Leo due to his similarities with ‘Sammy Valdez’, Hazel’s first love. As the series continues, Leo gives him a fireproof cloth for him to keep the wood, as a baby step for Frank to give him trust.

I heard that he will be in the subsequent book, as the Dark Prophecy stated him as the ‘changeling lord’. I might see him as a mature praetor on duty alongside with Reyna.

9. Hazel Levesque

Another cinnamon roll in the series. Despite being a daughter of Pluto/Hades, she is the less miserable version of Nico. Originally, she is known to have the abilities of controlling metal and valuables. Her magical abilities in controlling the mist is known in HOH, becoming another useful weapon. Like any child of Hades/Pluto children in the series, Hazel was from the pre-20th century. Her mother, Marie was hungry for wealth, causing her daughter having a cursed ability of attracting metals. Despite Hazel resented her greedy mother, she saved her from raising Gaea. Her heroic deed gave her a token to Elysium, yet she gave up her position to refrain her mother suffer from eternal punishment. As the child of death, she wandered around Asphodel for decades. Until her Greek half-brother discovered her and brought her back to life, giving her another chance to live again, in the 21th century.

In SON, it is revealed that Hazel’s half-brother is Nico. Originally, he wanted to bring his biological sister, Bianca back to life, seeing that the Doors of Death was opened. It was hinted Bianca had chosen a new reincarnated life than staying in the Underworld. Eventually, he learnt about Hazel’s presence and decided to take her back instead. Initially, we thought Hazel as a replacement for Bianca, judging Nico as a selfish person. Slowly, he shows brotherly affection for her in HOH by kissing her forehead, something he would not simply do. In BOO, he accepts Hazel’s relationship with Frank and teases them. He even comforts Hazel when she cries for Leo. It’s a coincidence that their mother almost shared the same name.

As she lived in an era where colored-race were low-key discriminated, with her unusual ability, she was a target of bullying. Her only comfort among these mishaps was Sammy Valdez, who sees her as a diamond. As Leo shares the same looks and last name as Sammy, believing as his reincarnation, she has slight romantic fondness for him. Later, they discover Sammy is Leo’s Great Grandfather. She finally settles down with Frank, treating Leo as her friend.

Her curse, which will be washed away by a descendent of Poseidon/Neptune, which readers are not sure if it is Percy or Frank. Besides, she probably learns some interesting 21th century stuff she had never seen before. Hopefully she does not craze for fidget spinners (those things are just all over the place!).

8. Annabeth Chase

The Brainiac of the group. Our favorite Wise Girl who is Percy’s love interest and strategist. The architect of Olympus. Someone you would choose as your girlfriend. After meeting her, you will change your views on blonde hair people.

No matter how beautiful and smart she is, she has her own fears and flaws. She has Arachnophobia, based on the feud her mother and Arachne had. In MOA, she faces her greatest fear, mother of spiders Arachne. With her clever trick, she easily defeats Arachne, possibly the first Athena demigod to do so. In SOM, she reveals her fatal flaw is hubris, believing her intelligence and power are beyond the Gods.

She ran away from home at 7, believing that her father and stepmother had disliked her part god status. On her way, she met Luke and Thalia, who presented her one of her signature weapon, the Celestial Bronze dagger. They were like a parental figure to her, and the first demigods she encountered. In the beginning of TLT, Percy figures Annabeth develops a crush on Luke, who turns out to be a backstabbing traitor and a threat to Camp Half-Blood and Olympus. Her feelings towards Luke varies in the PJO series, we see compassion, sympathy, love, respect, hatred, and regrets. In TLOl, she settles with having a sibling love towards Luke, choosing Percy over him.

The Percy-Annabeth relationship is one of my favorite hetero fictional couple. They treat each other as equal, rather than having Annabeth as his personal sidekick. With her, as the intelligent girlfriend; and him, as the brave puppy-dog boyfriend. We surely remember the first thing she tells Percy in TLT is ‘You drool when you sleep’. Even the rivalry between their parents, Annabeth still treats him as a friend, with one or two disagreements. Of course, I shipped them before they are officially together. In the Titan’s Curse (TTC), we get hints on Percy starting to fancy Annabeth, with Aphrodite’s appearance and her teasing. Next, there was the infamous kiss scene in The Battle of Labyrinth (TBOL), confirming the start of Percy’s romance journey, which becomes true in TLOl (that underwater kiss is so romantic!). After dating for months, Percy is swapped place by Hera/Juno, without any previous memories except for Annabeth. In MOA, she gives him a judo-flip (I laughed at that scene for hours) and spend a night with him in the Argo II stables (Frank does not deserve to see this ‘intimate’ moment).

Besides, do you know that she has a Norse Demigod cousin? Check out Rick’s Norse Myth series to find out.

7. Luke Castellan

You would probably ask why I place him as Number 7, for someone like him as a traitor who almost destroy Olympus and the host for Kronos. He is the anti-hero in the first series, but I like the fact that Rick created someone like him.

Luke is not an entirely a bad person. Normally, he can pass as a protective older brother, a swordsman mentor, or that mischievous and charming friend you want to hang out with. His ambitions to destroy Olympus and feeling of resentment the gods, due to the injustice of the Olympians to their demigod offspring, makes him an antagonist in PJO. He is one of the demigods who can see the flaw of the lawful system, the one who questions the authorities.

Luke constantly seeks for familiar love which his parents failed to give him, with him living with an insane mother and an absent godly father. After he ran away, he was paired with Thalia and Annabeth, giving him a new meaning of family. However, Thalia’s death added as a fuel of his bitterness. His became the head of the Hermes Cabin, leading his half-siblings, but his anger had not fully stopped, with Kronos’s constant impure motivation. He also feels compassion towards minor godly children who have no place in Camp Half-Blood, which most of them serves him during the Titan War.

For most horrible deeds he has made in the PJO series, he finally died as a hero, oppressing Kronos who possessed him. Inspired from his wish, Percy refuses his eternal life by demanding fair treatment for every demigod child.

I ship him with Thalia, which they share a few romantic tensions in a short story in TDD. He is the reason why Thalia declined her offer as a hunter in the first place, and also the reason why Thalia settles down as the lieutenant of Artemis in TTC.

6. The Grace siblings (Thalia and Jason Grace)

It’s a tie. Yes. I could not separate them like how Juno/Hera does. The Grace siblings are the improvised version of their father. We see their father as a womanizing, dramatic and disloyal King of Gods. They showed his best qualities, like leadership. The siblings are very loyal to their partners and masters, like Thalia to Luke and Annabeth in the beginning and Artemis in TTC. Jason, a loyal and supportive friend to his Argo mates and his girlfriend (He did admire Reyna before, but thanks to certain goddess).

Thalia Grace is that cool-looking sister in punk. Her name is from Thalia, one of the Muses. The irony is that she has a great fear of heights, but she can control lightning. Like Percy, Thalia was destined to be the child in the prophecy. She fought the monsters sent by Hades to her death, protecting Luke and Annabeth. Then, she is reborn in the Sea of Monsters. Luckily in TTC, she joined the Huntress. She also been through a rough childhood, with taking care of her baby brother and her irresponsible mother, then with the disappearance of Jason. She had to take the role that her parents failed to perform, yet the Gods accused of her existence before Percy showed up. It’s pretty much Zeus/Jupiter’s fault for not stick with the oath. Not once, but twice! Worst of all, he named his son Jason, like the mortal hero, so he can make his wife happy! Best Dad award for him!

Her brother, Jason, with blonde hair and blue eyes, the typical American boy. The ‘perfect’ boy with duties and leadership, he could live a perfect Roman demigod life in Camp Jupiter. Then, Hera/Juno interfere again. From the Lost Hero (TLH) to BOO, we can see a few changes of him. The rule-following golden boy to a slightly laid-back person with nerd glasses. Most fans expected Percy and Jason had a death-match against each other in MOA, with Percy replaces his position as the praetor in SON and Jason, the legendary son of Jupiter. Unexpectedly, they become best buddies on first sight and gang up against Octavian (We also got that one scene with them fighting while being possessed by eidolons). He also has the most passed out scene in MOA (hence the birth of Brick x Jason). His sympathetic character cares for Nico when he is forced spit out his crush on Percy (who does not have a crush on him, I mean, it’s obvious to fall in love with the greatest hero). He does not question or having a prejudice on the boy’s sexuality. At the end of BOO, him and Piper sit on the roof, remembering his ‘dead’ friend Leo.

These polar-opposite blood-siblings are a unique element of the series. I would like to see more of their interactions, or Thalia spilling out more embarrassing stories of Jason.

5. Leonidas ‘Leo’ Valdez

I called him the second Percy Jackson, with that same level of humor and that friendly attitude. He has a pair of magical hands that can create things and repair broken stuff. In TLH, he modified a simple paper into a small flying helicopter. Leo was partly raised by Hera/Juno, who makes him do dangerous tasks in his childhood (This woman is nuts!). When he was eight years old, Gaea made him believe he caused a fire that kills his mother in her workshop, leaving a scar in his heart.

Leo probably knows himself as the third-wheel, constantly the one being left out. There was a period of time he is jealous of Jason’s charisma and excellent leading abilities, while he is a low-profile mechanic, with no one cares about him. Otherwise, he is a good friend to people who are nice to him. In BOO, Nike/Victoria predicts either Frank, Hazel, Percy or Leo will die in the war. Leo, helping the idea of getting the Physician’s Cure while secretly plotting his own death and his chance of survival.

This guy has a tough time catching the girls’ attention, he keeps falling for the wrong person. In the beginning, he has the hots for Khione, the cold snow goddess who side with the Titans. Next, he falls for Jason’s sister Thalia, who tries her best ignoring him. He has a small chemistry with Echo, a camouflaging nymph who is cursed to repeat people’s sentences (I feel hurtful when Echo disappears). Hazel mistakes him as her first crush Sammy, who happens to be his great-grandfather. Finally in HOH, the Titaness Calypso despise his sudden appearance on her island, later they find themselves being attracted to each other. He is also the first hero who can return to Ogygia and claim Calypso as his girlfriend, and the first demigod known dating an ancient being.

I need more interaction of Percy and Leo, which was rare in HOO. I expected them to be joking buddies, but in MOA Percy yells at Leo for setting New Rome on fire, not a good start for best friends. Leo also dislike Percy for abandoning Calypso behind, which turned out to be a misunderstanding. I finally get a scene of them making Nike and Adidas joke they made in BOO.

By the way, Team Leo for the win.

4. Piper McLean

I do not get why people would dislike someone like her. There are several fans disliking her characteristics, including an ex-classmate of mine. They think her as the most useless and bland character. I love Rick’s arrangement of her characteristics! What is the point of making her the main character if she does not contribute anything? I mean, she singlehandedly defeats Khione and the Boreads in HOH. When Khione degrades her, she confidently argues with her, proving her strengths.

People stereotyped daughter of Aphrodite as living Barbie dolls, who do nothing but looking into their reflections and gossiping. Sometimes, they either pair people up or break others’ hearts. She breaks that idealistic view as a tomboyish girl who cares less of her look or fashion. She is one of the boldest Aphrodite child who fights for people she loves (the other one is Silena). She is very down-to-Earth about her father’s job as a Hollywood actor, until she is cornered by others. She is also the first person who dauntlessly challenges the cabin leader and oppose the Aphrodite’s rite of passage of breaking other’s heart. Piper is not a dumb-beauty, she already has an abundance of knowledge on Greek Myth and Cheeroke legends which play extremely useful information to other.

That ex-classmate told me Piper is possessive towards Jason. For me, it is very normal for her to be possessive to her ‘boyfriend’, or someone whom she loves, as long as it’s not Yuno Gasai level (see Future Diary for references). Besides, Jason is not the only one she cares about. There is Leo, and her father who is captured by the Giants. There are people dislike her because in MOA, she thinks Percy as cute, but average. Everyone has their own opinion, not everyone fancies the greatest hero on Earth. I really adore her and Percy as best friends, rather than her being another Percy’s admirer.

I would say she has the second-best character development. In TLO, she has the image of an insecure girl. Her adventure as a demigod makes her grow, mending her weaknesses. I love her chemistry with Annabeth in BOO, when fear and phobia prevent Annabeth’s logical reasoning from functioning properly, her feelings guide her to overpower them.

3. Reyna Ramiez-Arellano

Most of the major female characters are taken (except Thalia, the huntress and Rachel, the oracle), she’s the only major female demigod character in the series without a romantic partner. She made a minor appearance in the Sea of Monsters (SOM) as Circe’s apprentice, but soon

Her first appearance in SON gives a dignified and mysterious aura, we barely know her last name and such. She is fearless in battle and a wise leader. In fact, the last book reveals her fear towards ghosts, leading to her haunted childhood of physical abuse. She has moved from home to home, and settles as a praetor in New Rome. Her former sin for patricide might lose her power and trust in New Rome, thus she never speaks of it to anyone except for Nico.

I am really entertained with the fight between Orion and Reyna. Orion, being the male chauvinist, comments the greatness of male dominance. Reyna proves herself that she can perform as well as a man could do, defeats him by herself while avenging the fallen huntresses and Amazon warriors. ‘You will die at the hands of a girl’, that sentence literally gives me the chills.

She has a successful career, blessed by two divine beings, and having an excellent characteristic. One thing that she does not own is romance, just like Aphrodite/Venus tells her that she will never find romance in half-blood. There might be a chance for her having a mortal lover, or catching the eye of an immortal being.

2. Perseus ‘Percy’ Jackson

He is the key character for us to fall in love with the demigod world with Greek Gods and monsters. He was not only charming, but having a great sense of humor. The dark hair and green eyes of his makes him fall into the category of the stereotypical hot-blooded protagonist with a tragic backstory and secret powers, like Eren Jaeger from Attack On Titan, or Hyakuya Yuuichirou from Seraph of the End. The character is based on Rick’s own son, Hayley Riordan, who suffers from ADHD and dyslexic. Rick used to tell him Greek Mythology as his bedtime stories, until the child gave him the inspiration to create his world with Greek Myth as the base.

In TLT, he is shown as a troublesome child who gets kicked out of school frequently. He has an abusive stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, a nasty gambler. He does not have any friends except for Grover, who has difficulty in walking, and stands up for him. He nearly loses his mother from a Minotaur. His unfortunate past changes when he knows of his identity as a demigod. From SOM to TLO, we can see improvements in his mortal life, such as gaining a new stepfather, Paul Blofis, able to attend high school, and getting loyal friends. In TOA, it is known that he will have a baby sister.

Besides his heroic acts and his brave deeds that we all know, he is pretty goofy and sarcastic. We all know of his personality through that first-person point of view about his views on others and the description of his adventures. He is moderately smart and observant, but he can be oblivious in simple stuff around him, like his own romantic encounters. He needs years to realize he is in love with Annabeth, which most of the readers get the clue before him. Reyna confesses her feelings to him in SON, which Percy needs minutes to figure it out. In BOO, when Nico opens up to Percy, Annabeth already gets the point right ahead, leaving him still in a daze.

Percy, despite being the best demigod alive, he acts quite modest and selfless. Most Greek Heroes we all know are portrayed as prideful, arrogant, womanizer or ungrateful. Him, as the son of Poseidon who technically saves the world, he never looks down on anyone. He barely sells himself, except when it’s needed, or in a very sarcastic way. He makes friends with everyone, including non-humans. In SOM, he is a little ashamed that his half-brother is a Cyclops, in the end he accepts him as his brother. The most significant moment is in TLOl, when Zeus offers him immortality. He considers at first, but then realizes the price of it, and turning it down. Instead, he asks for minor deities’ equal rights to claim their demigod children, including Hades, who is not welcomed in Olympus. If I were him I would probably do the same thing, except I might face the wrath of the King of Gods.

**Before revealing my top favorite character, here’s some honorable mentions:

Zoe Nightshade, Bianca di Angelo, Will Solace, Charles Beckendorf, Rachel Dare, the Stolls brother, Ethan Nakamura, Grover Underwood, Tyson, Blackjack, Chiron, Silena Beauregard, Gleeson Hedge, Clarisse La Rue, Calypso

Now here comes my favorite character:

1.Nico di Angelo

I am so sorry, I must put him at number 1 because of my personal bias.

This character has the most noticeable character change and development. He is debuted in TTC, which he is portrayed as carefree 10 years old boy who loves Mythomagic and very curious about everything. The death of his sister, his only known blood relative, caused him fall into despair. Soon, he learnt about his parentage, separating himself from the other demigods.

Despite him as the serious, angry son of Hades with depressing background, he gets a few hilarious moments. He is turned into two types of plants; the Spiderman referenced quote ‘With great power…comes great need to take a nap’; his imagination of Percy joking about farturas; and his confession to Percy.

His personality is mostly seen from other demigods’ views. In TTC, Percy sees him as an annoying little brother and full of curiosity of the demigod world. He seems excited with everything he is involved in, and very eager in participation. He also shows concern for his sister Bianca, asking Percy to protect her. His twist of personality comes in when Percy brings the news of Bianca’s accidental death. In BOTL, he becomes the gloomy, antisocial, and angry child who seeks for revenge and performing necromancy. He also crowns himself as the Ghost King, which the name sounds very Chuunibyou-ish (Chuunibyou is a Japanese term for people who acts like a know-it-all adult and look down on real ones, or believe they have special powers unlike others, see the anime Love, Chuunibyou and other Delusions for more info). In TLOl, he tricks Percy into his father’s lair, which makes Percy angry. He is one of the important ally who aids Percy gaining his Styx River immortality and convincing Hades to fight the Titan army.

There are more demigods involved with his description of personality and people’s opinion of him in HOO. Hazel, seeing him as her savior and brother, showing an amount of respect and admiration. Annabeth, doubting him having a crush on her (which he does not), only sees him as a younger brother. Leo is scared of his necromantic skills, trying to avoid him as best as he could. Frank shows respect and fear to his ‘brother-in-law’, but unexpectedly sharing the same interest in Mythomagic. Jason, originally suggests abandoning him to the Titans while proceeding their main task in MOA, receiving many objections from the other crew members. In HOH, Jason has a sense of sympathy to Nico when Cupid forcefully make him spill out his feelings. He approached the younger boy to befriend him. We also have Reyna, who forms a big sister instinct towards him, and also feels his pain.

We get Nico’s own point of view in BOO. We could not help but to sympathize with his old memories and feelings. We can see his unrequited feelings towards Percy, his moments with Bianca, his hatred towards the Hunters, his intense feelings with his father and the most importantly, his concern towards other demigods. He is not entirely a cold-hearted, unemphatic person like others believed him to be. The way he describes Will, it definitely sounds like a typical boy meets boy fanfiction. Using comparison to other demigods like Jason and Octavian, he has a sense of fondness to the child of Apollo. The Percy-Nico-Will mirrors the Luke-Annabeth-Percy relationship. Both Luke and Percy are the heroic figure to Annabeth and Nico, they are years older than them (technically Nico is older), and they the first demigod they encounter. Annabeth had a love-hate relationship with Luke due to his betrayal; while Nico hates him for breaking their promise and admires him at the same time. Annabeth bickers with Percy like how Nico argues with Will, and they are opposite attractions. In the end of the series, Annabeth tells Luke she sees him as a brother and starts to date Percy in PJO; Nico confesses his past crush towards Percy and sets his eyes on Will, which they end up dating.

I am glad that Riordan arranged Will as his boyfriend. There is a slight change of his personality after they are dating. For example, in CHBC, him and Percy team up and tease Annabeth. In THO, he becomes more participating in camp activities, and willing to socialize with other campers. Plus, he gives an excuse for himself to sit with his boyfriend in the Apollo table. Nice job kid! The loophole of two demigods of the opposite sex cannot stay alone in a cabin gives them a nice chance to spend nights in Hades Cabin, doing stuff.

The character I despised the most, is none than other:

Octavian

He is purely whiny and annoying, like a fly. I knew he was up to no good when I first know this person. I do not care if he is the descendant of my favorite god (Apollo), this puny auger is terrible. In SON, he reminds Percy as Luke Castellan. In BOO, Nico describes him as a watered-down, unhealthy version of Will Solace. Leo also states he has a girly screaming voice. These descriptions give reader an image of an undesired person, also adding humor in the series.

Octavian is extremely xenophobic. He immediately dislikes Percy, insulting him as graecus scum. He does not show any sign of welcoming to the arrival of the representatives of the Greek camp. Ironically, he fears for Nico, who is a powerful Greek demigod. He discriminates Rachel Dare, Apollo’s chosen oracle, believing she is a fraud who practice sorcery.

His sadistic and prideful side is portrayed in many scenes. For example, he rips off stuffed animals as an offering to the gods. He hopes Percy feel the pain of getting his new SPQR tattoo. When he is in charge as Pontifex, he picks people who are brutal like Bryce Lawrence and strong like Mike Kahle. He casually tells people that his family is wealthy in New Rome and he is a descendent of Augustus.

In the end, his own pride and lust for fame and power blinds him, giving him a death sentence. His death is graphic and funny. He might receive eternal punishment in the Underworld. My favorite scene of him is when Piper, Jason and Percy tells him to shut his mouth in MOA.

(I almost forgot Gabe Ugliano, who happens to be the worst parent and husband in the fictional world. This man is gone for good!)

Groovy Gods of Olympus

The Greek Gods in Percy Jackson’s world rules the world, which all of them have humanistic personalities. Greek Gods mirrors human’s behavior with their vice and virtues, like Hera’s jealousy, Hephaestus’ diligence, Zeus and Aphrodite’s lust, Hestia and Artemis’s chastity, Zeus and Ares’s wrath, Hestia’s kindness and Dionysus’s sloth. They moved their base from empires to empires, until they found their spot in United States, the world’s superpower nation. Olympus is based on the top floor of the Empire state building, while the entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles. These settings probably make us never see those things the same way again. The gods, adapted to the 21st century lifestyle, with their area of power matches the modern professions.

Rick still sticks to the original description of the gods, with Athena’s greyish eyes of wisdom, Aphrodite’s changing beauty (depends on different people), Ares’ ruthless behavior, Apollo’s flashy and handsome looks and Hephaestus’s unappealing image. Not all the gods are divine as they should look. Dionysus/Mr. D in PJO series acts as a sluggish camp director. He is banished to Camp Half-Blood due to his flirtatious manners on an off-limit nymph. He does not contribute much to the camp, except for having naps or playing poker with Chiron and a few satyrs. Apollo, the prideful and narcissistic sun god, turns into a mortal by his father in TOA series. He has lost his former glory and powers, leaving him a mortal identity and body to live on Earth. Hestia, the former Olympian in the appearance of a young girl, is easily neglected due to her status.

I would admit that Greek Gods does not make excellent parents. Zeus forbids the gods from visiting their mortal children, except in a few occasions (he is also the douche who broke the oath twice and have 2 demigod children, and he passes most of the blame to Poseidon). Hera, expecting an ideal family, abandons her child Hephaestus because of his ugly appearance. In TLOl, Hades openly declares he prefers Bianca over Nico. However, some gods do care of their children. Poseidon in the series acts as a caring father to Percy (we barely see his angry side like in the myth). Hermes, who has multiple jobs, and countless children, he cares deeply for them. He even kisses Luke on the forehead before the Fates carry his body away. In BOO, it is revealed that Hades has a deep affection for his children, which most of them do not have a happy life. The antisocial and awkward god has difficulties in showing fondness, thus he provides his children gifts (Pluto gave Hazel colored pencils on her 13th birthday while Nico gets a French zombie chauffer).

Usually, gods conceive children like normal human beings. In BOTL, children of Athena are born in a unique way. I was curious at Annabeth and the other Athena’s children birth since their mother is a virgin goddess. There was a story in Greek Myth which she and Hephaestus had a child sprang from her handkerchief (of course they do not have any intimacy). It is told that children of Athena are born from the mind and pure love, not through intimate love and pregnancy. In THO, the daughter of Apollo Kayla Knowles has two fathers. I had to stop and reread that part, and it is true. I still do not get how demigod children are born from same-sex parents. Subjugate mothers? Or maybe like Athena children, sprang out from something. (I need to stop thinking about this or else the complexity will burn my brain cells).

Controversies

There’s a few controversies I have heard around.

Similarities of Percy Jackson and Harry Potter

This one was all over the place. People keep comparing Percy Jackson to Harry Potter. Some complaint that Rick copied the characters Rowling owned. These are the examples people brought up.

1.Percy has green eyes and black hair, living with an abusive parent. He does not know of his parentage. Harry, who has green eyes and black hair, living with abusive relatives.

2.Annabeth plays the smart one in the first trio. She is constantly compared to Hermione, the brightest witch in the Wizarding World.

3.Grover is the timid person of the trio, and the first supporter and companion to the main character. Another character in Harry Potter with the similar personality, Ron Weasley.

4.Chiron, the knowledgeable and caring mentor in the series, like Dumbledore in Harry Potter.

5. Luke, blond hair, the anti-hero. Draco, the anti-hero to Harry.

6. The mischievous Stolls brother, who keeps pranking on people. The Weasley twins, pranksters duo of Hogwarts.

7. Camp Half-Blood that is invisible to mortal’s eye, a haven for Greek demigods to learn defensive skills. Hogwarts, unknown to muggles and where young witches and wizards lean magic.

Maybe the author was not stable with the characterization in the first place, he might get references from the series itself. However, Rick has not confirmed that his characters are based on the Harry Potter series. The characterization became better later.

To be frank, I prefer Percy Jackson than Harry Potter. I love the diversity shown in the book, with good humor in it. Otherwise, Harry Potter gets the best language form.

The Percy Jackson movies

Movie adaptations are barely good, this is one of the examples. Even Rick himself acknowledge that the movie is horrible. I watched both movies, the plotline itself is good, but it cannot satisfy us fans.

The producers casted young adult actors for the roles than 12 years old. They could actually make the actors grow up with the movie, just how they did for Harry Potter. I’m alright with the Percy Jackson actor, I have no prejudice over Movie Grover’s race, Luke’s actor is fine (where’s the scar). I just have problems with the casting on female characters. Firstly, Annabeth Chase. In the first movie, she’s a brunette with blue eyes. I legit thought that’s a random daughter of Aphrodite. Where is the blonde hair and blue eyes? It does not mean I dislike the actress herself, it just her signature curly blonde hair with grey eyes are gone! This mistake was soon corrected in the 2nd movie. In the SOM movie, the Clarisse’s actor looked like a Victoria Secret Super Model, rather than the buff, mean-looking leader of the Ares Cabin.

There is a stark difference from the movie settings and the book settings. Instead of having cabins based on their godly parentage, each member has their own cabin. What is this? Luxury camp for the godly children? There is also no rule on camp clothing, where’s the orange camp shirt? The worst of all, why do they have advanced technologies? It is said that technologies attract monsters, which is unusable for demigods.

All of these flaws made me prefer a sophisticated anime adaptation than a real-life movie or TV-show.

LGBT+ characters

(whoever made this edit deserves a thumbs up)

This is a recent controversy after the publicize of THO. Mostly from parent readers, they complained on the god’s sexuality and Nico and Will dating. I understand that some parents don’t want their children to knowing much about human sexuality at an early age. What makes me feel mad about the people who complained about having same-sex couple or characters in the LGBT+ spectrum does not realize that homosexuality is accepted in the ancient times.

It is true that Apollo is bisexual, who has countless affairs with women and men. Other gods are not 100% straight, even Zeus fancied Ganymede. (I know, Greek Myth is one hell of a messed-up pit!)

Besides, I have nothing against Nico and Will dating (Solangelo shipper here!). Rick does not use words like ‘gay’, ‘queer’, ‘homosexual’ to identify their sexualities, which he does not want to label them as a specific identity. In Ancient Greco-Roman, same-sex relationship is highly encouraged in the army to strength the bonds between teammates. Also, as someone in the LGBT+ spectrum, I appreciate Rick’s decision to take the risk and promoting diversity. One thing I am mad about him is the vagueness of Nico and Will relationship. There are so many gaps in between BOO and THO which there’s no description on when they started dating, who confessed first and how do they get together! I need to know more about their relationship! I will be glad if there’s a side story of them. Also, Kayla’s mysterious birth from same-sex parents.

I love the fact that Rick does not give a dam (I simply just put a pun here) about the people who complained. He straight on inserted a kick-ass elderly lesbian couple in TDP.

How the series made an impact on me? My hopes on the franchise.

It is one of the reason why I took the path of writing. The story, and the writing-style had inspired me to be a writer myself. Looking at the vivid image of modernized Greek Gods brought some magic into my dull high-school life. I would also like to cosplay those female demigods in the future. As an anime fan, I hope this series can be created into an anime series, just like how they did for the Powerpuff Girls back then. I also hope I can meet more PJO/HOO fans in my country.

Jenny (14-21 Aug 2017)

Author’s Note: My first essay describing on a fictional work I like. I tried to avoid any grammatical mistakes and add as much vocabulary as I can in it. The one week of writing this essay gives me neck pain (from looking too much on my laptop), and a better insight to the character and the story. I took a hiatus in the PJO/HOO fandom since I started on Hetalia and other anime. The day I decided to write this fic, I realized there are so many details I have forgotten, thus I need to check the Wikia and the books for references. This is a pleasant experience for me to start on writing reviews and simple creative writing. I might write more reviews or analytical essays for other book series and anime.

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blahblahblippyblah · 7 years

Text

Magnus Chase and a Plotless Hogwarts Fanfiction

Chapter 14: Nightmares of the past

Summary:

Blitz worries about Hearth patrolling the castle without him.

Hearth has a nightmare and tells Blitzen about the day his brother died.

Warning this way get very sad for most readers.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11429727/chapters/26485791

Blitz POV

Blitz awoke in the middle the of the night. It took him a few seconds of reaching over the other side of the empty bed to remember Hearth was on duty tonight. Blitz rolled over to Hearth’s vacant side, his face down into Hearth’s pillow. He closed his eyes and breathed in the sent of pine needles and wood smoke from the down. He tried to fall back to sleep but his brain was clouded with anxiety inducing thoughts. Ever since the night when those men who worked for Hearth’s father had shown up Blitz found himself waking up at least 4 times a night in a slight panic. He would turn over to make sure Hearth was still sleeping beside him. Once he realised it had just been a dream he would fall back asleep only to wake up a couple hours later. Tonight was the first night since then he had slept alone.

Since that night Sam wanted at least 2 or 3 staff on duty just in case. Blitz got to do most of his patrolling nights with Hearth so he could keep an eye on him but Saturday night Hearth had with T.J. He fought the urge to get out of bed and join Hearth on his rounds anyway to keep a look out on him. What kept him in bed was the fact that Hearth didn’t appreciate being treated as such. Hearth was powerful. Expensive private education, curtosey of his stuck up father, had ensured that. Hearth was also tough and didnt like to be treated like a child. If anyone could take care of himself it was Hearth and he didn’t appreciate Blitz being so protective.

Blitz couldn’t help it tho. His father had sent his men after Hearth twice. They could get into the grounds and no one had figured out how yet. This made him particularly nervous. Even with more than one person on patrol he still rolled in the bed of edge. If something happened to Hearth and he wasn’t there he would never forgive himself. After a few more minutes of tossing and turning he gave up. He threw the blankets back and slid out of bed. He pulled on a wool jumper over his t-shirt and slipped on some socks. He quickly fixed his hair in the low candle light of the sitting room and put his shoes one. He walked down the fourth floor wondering where Hearth would be on patrol at 2 in the morning.

He made it all the down the 12 floor north corridor and sent two 7th year Gryffindor students who had been hiding in a portrait hole to go back to their dorm. Eventually he happened to pass a window and looked out to the grounds. The night was still and dark. The moon was dark in the clear sky. The stars were shinny very brightly in the dark sky. Then an idea went through Blitz’s head. He had an idea where Hearth and T.J. might be hanging out between rounds. Blitz turned around and headed to the astronomy tower.

Just as he suspected he found Hearth and T.J. atop the astronomy tower. Their backs were to the staircase he had come up. They were leaning on the railing. Hearth was pointing to something up above while his other hand appeared to be spelling out something to T.J. Blitz cleared his throat.

“Good night for star gazing.” He said out loud to announce his presence. Hearth obviously didn’t hear him but T.J. nudged Hearth as he turned around.

“Hey Blitz. What you doing up. Its not your night on duty?” T.J. said and Blitz walked over to the two of them.

“Uhh I couldn’t sleep… had too much coffee.” Blitz lied. Beside T.J. Blitz saw Hearth roll his eyes obviously not fooled by his lie.

“Anyway what are you two looking at?” Blitz said changing the conversation and leaning against the rail with them.

“Uranus is just barley visible up over there. It’s kinda poking out by the head of the bear” T.J. said pointing slightly north high in the sky.

Blitz looked up and saw nothing but bright stars blanketing the sky.

“I don’t see it. But I was always rubbish at astronomy.” Blitz said, signing so Hearth knew he was talking.

“I was terrible at tranfiguration. Mcgonagall was teaching when I took it. She said she would pass me as long as I promised not to turn another classmate into a weasel. Unfortunately I accidently turned my examiner into a weasel out of nerves during my OWLs.” T.J. said smiling with a big yawn.

Blitz smiled wide at the story.

“Hey T.J. if your’re tired I can take the rest of the shift” Blitz said.

“Sure, actually that would be great. If your’re ok with it. I mean if Hearth’ s ok with it too?” T.J. said signing the last bit to Hearth. Hearth shrugged unconcerned with his usual blank expression on.

“I got it T.J. I cant sleep anyway.” Blitz said. T.J. Thanked him and turned to head down the stairs.

Blitz turned back to look out to the grounds from the railing with Hearth. Once the sounds of T.J.’s footsteps had long gone Hearth turned to him.

“For me it was potions” Hearth signed to Blitz in reference to the conversation they had been having about the classes they weren’t good at.

“Really?” Blitz signed with a raised eyebrow. He had always thought of Hearth as well skilled in all aspects of magic not just reading ancient runes. He had seen him do some pretty spectacular things. Potions was not something he could imagine Hearth being bad at.

Hearth nodded in reply. “I could never figure out how to do things right. I always messed up somehow. Forget ingredients, added the wrong things, I could never cut things properly. Once I set the room on fire by accident. My tutor didn’t have the patience for my screw ups. But father would force me to practice more than my brother hoping I would figure it out and stop embarrassing the family. I haven’t touched a potions set in years.” Hearth signed out.

Blitz smiled at Hearth. They stood looking at each other for a bit before Hearth raised his hands to sign.

“You don’t need to watch me. I can take care of myself.” Hearth’s face was still blank but his eyes looked serious. Blitz just grabbed his hand and turned back towards the window.

Usually Hearth would tell him off for ignoring him but Hearth didn’t seem up for it tonight. He just squeezed his hand tighter and gazed down toward the forest edge of the grounds.

The night was silent. Only the occasional sound of a bat flowing up to the rafters broke through the calm.

At 3 hearth motioned that he needed to do rounds of the castle. They lite their wands and headed down the stairs. The castle was quiet. They didn’t run into any more wayward students. A cat jumped out of a suit of armour and gave Blitz a fright which Hearth thought was hysterical, but nothing more exciting happened.

They got to the dungeon and did the usual loop around past the Slytherin common room, and to all the places around it that students liked to sneak off too. Finding nothing they headed back to the entrance hall.

“1 hour until the last round. What do you want to do until then?” Hearth signed.

“We could go up to the staff room.” Blitz suggested. Hearth nodded and led the way up the stairs.

The staff room was empty but the fire was still going thanks to the house elves of the castle. Hearth collapsed in the couch right in front of the fire and Blitz went to join him. As soon as Blitz sat down Hearth moved and laid down. He put his head in Blitzen’s lap, and his legs dangled over the side of the couch. Hearth’s hands clasp to each other over his chest as he stared blankly into the fire. Blitz’s hands absent mindedly through his blonde hair. Sitting by the fire warm and cozy he smiled to himself. This was what true happiness was.

Hearths POV

Hearth didn’t know when he fell asleep. But given the warm of the fire and the gentle feeling of Blitz’s hand running through his hair he was pretty sure he fell asleep quickly.

Unfortunately he fell into a nightmare. Growing up he always had nightmares. Before he ran away he couldn’t remember a time he had a regular dream. The first happy dream he remembers having was the night he ran away from home. He slept in the alley between a coffeshop and a public library. It was a warm night so he curled up on some foldeded cardboard. It was a wonderful night, which may seem unbelievable. But Hearth didn’t know that sleeping could be so uplifting when you weren’t having nightmares. Unfortunately the nightmares came back slowly into his life. They were a part of his life like his deafness was.

But he hadn’t had a nightmare in quite some time. The last one he had had was the night he first kissed Blitzen. Before he had headed to Blitzens he had dreamt about his brother and the day he died.

This time he had the same dream. He was himself as a child. He was sitting crossed legged in the moss and roots of a tree in the forest by his house. He had a pile of stones laid out on the bed of moss and was carving some ancient Nordic runes into them. He had read a book about the ancient language and wanted to practice the alphabet. He had always been interested in rune language. Wizards long ago thought the runes could do magic on their own. Hearth dreamed of one day figuring out how that worked without a wand.

His brother was playing on the shore of the nearby river. Hearth was only a year older but he was suppose to keep a close eye on his younger brother. But Hearth wasn’t paying close attention to his brother. His brother walked along the shore practicing sword swings with a giant stick and occasionally stopping to try and skip rocks across the river. Andrion was brave and bold. He was pretty good at taking care of himself. Plus they always played in the forest. Hearth wasn’t worried about his brother getting into trouble.

He turned back to his stones and continued to carve runes into them. Once he was finished the last one he piled them all up in a pyramid shape. He was about to knock it down and lay them out when he felt something hard smack him on the back of the head. He looked behind him to see the smooth river rock that had hit him. He quickly looked up and instantly froze with terror. A large blue furry beast was slowly rising out of the water. It remesemled a lion and a wolf but had large horns coming out of its bear like head. Andrion was backing up slowly. Another rock in his hand and a giant pointy stick in another. Andrion turned his head and shouted something, but there was nothing but silence in his ears. He tried to make out what Andrion was shouting but he was too far away.

He got up shakily and began to run towards his brother. But Andrion turned and shouted at him again. His face fixed in a determined expression. This time he could make out some of the words on his lips.

“RUN HEARTH!”

Andrion started forward towards the creature. Hearth began to run forward towards his brother as the beasts reared its head back in an unmistakable roar. It’s eyes glowed yellow and fixed on Hearth running down the other side of the beach toward his brother. It turned it’s attention to him it’s feet sinking into the sand now. It’s claws as long as curved butter knives. Hearth slowed down but didn’t stop. He needed to get to his brother. The beasts started towards him and he veered to the side onto the thin forest line hoping to lure it after him instead, away from Andrion. Then a rock flew out of nowhere and hit the beasts on the back of the head. The beast stopped and roared once more. It turned. Hearth could see Andrion standing legs spread an poised holding his pointy stick aloft like a javelin thrower. Hearth could see Andrion shouting at the beasts. He couldn’t make out the exact words but the look in his brothers eye sent the message, ‘Leave him alone.’

The beast slowly turned and crept toward Andrion. Hearth ran forward but he was still too far away. He saw his brother’s eyes fixed on the large blue bear/wolf/lion creature. Andrion lurched forward. The creature lowered itself ready to pounce. In one last desperate attempt to save his brother he tried to let out a scream. He didn’t know if it worked but he saw Andrion turn in his direction just as the creature pounced. He watched in horror as it landed on his brother. He saw dark red luiquid fly through the air as the giant clawed paws came down on his brothers chest. He didn’t know if he was screaming in his head or for real now. He turned and ran into the forest as quick as he could. He needed to get help.

Hearth awoke with a start. He was soaking wet with sweat and was burning hot. The room was dark except for a low glow from the fire. He had half fallen off the couch. His feet were still on it but he had thrashed so hard his torso hung off the side. The only thing keeping him off the ground was Blitz’s strong hands holding his arms as if he had been restraining him. Blitz’s looked down at him fear and concern on his face. His eyebrows knit the way they do when he fusses over the way Hearth usually dresses or when he is hurt. Hearth sees Blitz speak.

“Are you ok? You were screaming and thrashing around like you were having a nighmare” Blitz says helping lift him back up on the couch.

Hearth sits himself on the couch and hugs his knees to his chest. The way he use to do when he curled up on his bed at home. He can see Blitz looking at him concerned out of the corner of his eye. Hearth waves his hands quickly to tell Blitz that he’s fine. He stares into the fire for a few seconds absent mindedly clasping at his candy cane striped scarf. He breaths in trying to slow his heart rate and control the terribly terrifying images of his brother being ripped to pieces out of his head. He feels Blitz’s hand on his shoulder. After a few minutes he’s collected himself and his emotions enough.

He turned to Blitz and signs. “Sorry. I haven’t had a nightmare since that night I came to get my scarf back. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Dont be sorry. That was pretty scary, I’ve never heard you scream before, but I’m more worried about you.” Blitz says.

“Dont worry about me. I’m use to it. I’m more angry that they seem to be coming back. They completely dissapeared these last few months.” He signs.

“ So you’ve had these nightmares before?” Blitz asks.

Hearth nodded. Then signed “Ever since I was small. Always the same ones.” He then hesitates holding his hands aloft unsure if he should continue. He trust Blitz more than anything in the world. Blitz has been the only solid loving thing in his life since Andrion. But all his instincts from growing up with his father fight him still, telling him to push down his vulnerabilities. He was always taught to never show your weaknesses or they will be used against you. But he had to share with Blitz. Blitz deserves to know after all he’s done for him.

“I told you that my brother died when I was younger right? And that my parents blamed me?” Hearth signed. Blitz just nodded his head.

Hearth had given Blitz the gist of his story but not the exact details. He didn’t want to tell Blitz. Why? He didn’t know. Maybe it was because talking about it was too painful. Maybe because he didn’t want Blitz to treat him different or think of him differently. Maybe it was because he was taught never to trust anyone. Or maybe it was because he was a coward. But this time he wasn’t going to hold back. He trusted Blitz and needed to share this with him.

He spent a long time signing everything about his nightmare. He told Blitz everything about the night his brother died. He shared his guilt and how much he missed Andrion. He talked about how his father made him skin the beast all night in the cold dark forest alone. He told Blitz about the wergild his father gave to him to complete. By the end his eyes were red and itchy but he managed to keep in the tears. He was exhausted. But blitz sat there clamly listening, his face unreadable. By the time he was finished the sun had turned the morning sky out the window deep red.

When he was done Hearth felt himself collapse with grief and exhaustion. Blitz grabbed both his hands and squeezed them tight. Hearth looked down at them. Their skin contrasted beautifully. Hearth’s pale white skin made Blitz’s more warm and dark. He felt Blitz give him a kiss on the top of the head.

He looked up but Blitz didn’t say anything. There was no need to say anything. Blitz’s warm hands and comforting kiss said everything he needed to hear. Blitz pulled his hands back and signed.

“Come on you’ve been up all night. Let’s sleep in today so we can be rested for Monday.”

And with that Hearth followed Blitz out of the staff room.

#blitzstone #blitzen #hearthstone #magnus chase #mcga #magnus chase and the gods of asgard #harry potter crossover #blitzen/hearthstone

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