#finally finished the whole page woohoo!

[makeyoumine69]

Starboy

● PAIRING: Sugar Daddy!Patrick Bateman x Fem!Reader

● SUMMARY: When on one day Mr. Bateman came to your office, you never knew how far it could go.

● WARNINGS: Implied flirt, seduction, small innocent touches, sweet-talker Patrick Bateman himself, minor possessive behaviour.

● WORDCOUNT: 2.6k

● A/N: One more prequel about Patrick and his little Cupcake, I enjoy writing their backstory so much! Btw, I was inspired by this American Psycho edit. As always, I hope you like this chapter!💕

● SONG REC: The Weeknd - Starboy✨

● LINKS: [Sweet like a Cupcake Masterlist] [Main Masterlist]

The days after that “little accident” with Mr. Bateman felt like a horrible nightmare.

You were constantly thinking about losing your job, strolling around your office and watching the sun's rays breaking through the window. What if you just stayed silent and let him ground you into the dirt, soaking up all the shit he was saying–would your boss be satisfied with you then?

The click of the door opening caught your attention before Cindy’s sonorous voice reached your ear.  “(Y/N), we should go get coffee! Our favorite barista finally came back. Woohoo, no more shitty coffee!”

With a dull smile on your face, you tapped the papers on your desk. “I need to finish this by the afternoon.” You looked over the documents again, and then sighed. “Just go without me.”

She whined, disappointment clear in her voice, and when you looked at her, she was already standing in the doorway, checking the time on her watch. “I’ll just rush, so our coffee won’t get cold. Do you want a latte or cappuccino?”

“Dealer’s choice,” you chuckled and took your place at the deck. “Just… Don't spill it… Okay?”

“Alright, alright…”

Then she walked away, leaving you alone in your office again. Back to work.

Leafing through the documents was a kind of meditation for you–it helped soothe your mind, distracting you from obsessive thoughts. 

Your edits were quick, slashing across the page, adding notes in the margin with a well-loved red pen. The door opened again. “What did you forget this time?” you asked, not looking up. “Cindy, could you also bring me a cupcake–”

“Good afternoon.” A familiar, tenor voice caused your whole body to taut like a string. You knew who it was before you even looked up.

Ever hauntingly perfect, Patrick Bateman was standing in the doorway, casting a studying glance at you. You stood up abruptly, anticipating nothing but the worst. He might really be so vindictive to come in person with your termination notice.

“(Y/N), isn’t it?” he asked smoothly, closing the door behind him. 

“Yes, that’s me,” you replied, attempting to sound as confident as you could. “How can I help you, sir?”

“First, call me Patrick,” he gave you his most cocky snow-white smile, roaming around your office and getting closer to your desk. “And please, relax. I’m not here to fire you.”

The corners of your mouth twitched slightly, but that didn’t really ease the tension. His presence here was making you feel weirdly thrilled.

"As you wish, sir, but I’m afraid that a first-name basis breaks the subordination rules of our company,” you pressed the pen against the tabletop, leaning a bit on your other hand. “Penalties are strictly enforced for things like that.”

Amused, Bateman was standing in front of your table, so the smell of his cologne easily hit your nose. “Our previous meeting was… Well, it was horrible as hell,” he said, watching you nervously rap the pen. “I just want to apologize, and I hope you’ll let me take you to lunch, at least.”

With a sharp click, your pen flew away in an unknown direction, but you just ignored that, continuing to act naturally. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. I usually don’t have time to eat, 'cause I’m pretty busy and–” you stammered a bit as only now you noticed you were looking into each other's eyes for over thirty seconds straight.

“‘And’?”

“My boss won’t be happy if I don’t have these reviews done by–”

“Wait a second.” Patrick held up a finger to stop you before he crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m your boss, sweetie.”

Gulping, you had no choice but to turn your face into a friendly expression and grin politely. “With all respect, sir, you’re the boss of my boss. And, I really need to finish these.”

Patrick huffed as he stared at you, his hazel eyes spinning with green and brown, until they were a hypnotizing spiral that sucked you in. “Okay, I think I get it.” He shook his head, smirking all the time from how timidly you were batting your eyelashes. “Now listen (Y/N), in two hours I will be at Four Seasons, the one down here,” he quickly checked his Rolex, and then glanced at you again. “I’ll be waiting for you there. Don’t be late.”

As if he didn’t want to give you a chance to refuse, Bateman turned around and left your office. The silence filled up your ears after the door closed. Your chest was rising and falling so quickly; you couldn’t really believe what just happened. Biting your lower lip, you thoughtfully slid your hand against the tabletop–a creeping panic was growing in your gut, making it hard for you to breathe.

When Cindy returned fifteen minutes later, you didn’t say even a word about what had happened just before she came back, because it would sound completely absurd. And considering her previous reaction to what you told her about Mr. Bateman, she would probably burn with envy. But there was one more problem–how to sneak out from the office without anyone asking questions?

“Erm, Cindy…I’m going on a quick break,” you mumbled as you got up to grab your coat. 

“Wait, wait! Where are you going?” 

“It’s nothing interesting,” smiling sheepishly, you wrapped a woolen scarf around your neck. “Oh, did I thank you for the coffee? It was really nice!”

“Hey! Stop messing around!” she protested, standing up from her seat, with arms crossed. “You usually don’t go anywhere for ‘breaks’!”

Sighing, you took your bag and glanced at your watch. Plenty of time. “I’ll tell you when I get back, okay?” a small bluff wouldn't be an issue–you concluded, watching Cindy sadly pouting. “One of our colleagues asked me for lunch, that’s all, you know. Nothing special…”

“And who’s this cutie pie? Ah, don’t tell me, I think I know who it is!” She clapped her hands, and her voice trilled with excitement. “If you say that it’s that nerd from our computer department, I’m gonna die!”

Humming, you gave yourself a few seconds to think before replying: “Yes, it’s him.”

“Eeeee!” she giggled, shushing herself with a palm. “Oh, my gosh, poor ‘Romeo’ finally made a step!”

“Yeah, yeah,” you chided, holding out your hands to soothe her. “I don’t have much time, and I still need to find the place where we’re having lunch. So, see you later… Oh, and Cindy, if the boss calls, please tell her I’m out for some office supplies.”

On that bright note, you left your office, with mysterious excitement.

It was your first time at Four Seasons, though you heard a lot of positive reviews about this place from the top management of P & P. Once you made just one step inside the restaurant, you met at least three or four good-looking females, all dressed with expensive clothes and jewelry. After a quick examination of yourself, you had to admit—your office uniform was looking unsuitable for this kind of an establishment, but who would care? If one arrogant snob didn’t force you to come here, all restaurant visitors wouldn't have to suffer from your “super luxury look”—you giggled sarcastically to yourself before you approached the maître d' — a young blond lady with a very deep neckline. As soon as she noticed you, she gave you a suspiciously friendly smile and greeted you:

“Good afternoon, Miss and welcome to the Four Seasons. My name is Veronica. How can I help you?”

“Oh, hello!” you smiled back. “There should be a reservation under Mr. Bateman.”

The last words you said made her face change literally before your eyes and now it was not as friendly as one minute ago. “Let me check please,” she was sorting through the pages of the logbook, looking at you from time to time from under her long lashes. “Please, follow me.”

The closer you were getting to the table, the more you felt an uprising fear in your chest and you couldn’t really understand what was really scaring you that much: him, this fancy place, or all of these things together. Wrapped in your thoughts, you didn’t even notice you had already reached the place as the maître d' extended her hand, inviting you to take the seat just across from Patrick, who at that moment was studying the menu, with his face half covered by it.

“Have a good time!” The blonde glanced at you contemptuously for the last time before she strolled away.

“Thanks…” You replied to no one, nervously undoing your scarf.

“Glad to see you again, sit down.” Bateman murmured, putting the menu aside, his brown eyes were exploring your frame like a scanner. 

“I hope I am not late.”

“No, you are just in time,” he smirked as you finally sat in front of him, your hands nervously fixing the sleeves of your white blouse. “What do you usually prefer to drink? Tea, water, maybe coffee?”

“I had enough coffee today, but thank you,” you looked at him more confidently, as your strategy for this lunch was pretty simple–be nice, friendly, and polite. “This place is so lovely!”

“You think so?”

“Uh, yes. Well, I’m not the type of person who goes on lunch to such places,” you paused as you noticed how attentively he was listening to you, raising his right eyebrow. “So, I don't know what to compare it to, but this one looks exquisite.”

You heard him chuckling softly before Bateman took a sip of his whiskey, pointing at the menu with his stare. “Choose what you want to eat.”

With a warm grin on your face, you took the menu but once you saw the prices–you felt your hair standing on edge. “You know, I’m not really hungry.”

“Stop pretending, sweetie,” damn, did he call you like that again? “If you were not hungry you wouldn’t ask your friend to bring you a cupcake, right?”

Stunned by his sudden trick, you hid behind the menu for a second to reflect on what to answer him back. “You have a significant memory, Mr. Bateman.”

“It’s Patrick,” he smiled at you flirtatiously while his piercing gaze seemed trying to catch any little weaknesses of yours. “As you should know, my type of work requires such things.”

“Of course.” You nodded.

“And… I really prefer you to call me Patrick, but on the other hand, the way you say ‘Mr. Bateman’ sounds kinda hot.”

You nearly let out a nervous laugh but you held back yourself as you gave him a confused look. 

Unlike you, Bateman couldn’t help but snigger at your reaction. “Relax, silly. I’m joking.”

“That's what I thought…” You were acting as if nothing happened, desperately trying to suppress an unknown frisson inside your body.

Then, a tall dark-haired waiter got your attention as he came across your table, with a notebook in his hands. “Are you ready to order, sir?”

“Beef Steak with Grilled Vegetables and Sweet Potatoes,” Patrick pointed with a finger, forcing his golden Rolex to wiggle on his wrist. “(Y/N), did you make your choice?”

“To be honest, I’d rather eat something sweet,” you glimpsed at the waiter with hope, because you didn’t even see the dessert menu. “Maybe you can recommend something to me?”

“We have amazing cheesecakes and tiramisu-”

“A dessert for lunch?” Bateman asked in surprise, cutting off the waiter and leaving you a bit embarrassed. “I think Sweet Pea and Tuna Salad sounds better,” he waited for the busboy to take away the menu and then added: “It’s healthier, and it tastes delicious. You are gonna like it.”

Confused, you watched the waiter walking away when you suddenly blurted out: “Actually, you could make an order without asking-”

“I could, but I wanted to give you a chance,” the way he kept interrupting everyone was really pissing you off. “So, how long have you been working in our company? Cause I can’t really remember you,” frowning a bit, he leaned on the back of his chair. “You must be a new one?”

With a cunning smirk, you took a glass of mineral water that was already standing on the table. “Well, you can say that,” you smiled again before continuing: “I’ve been working as an accountant in Pierce & Pierce for two years already.”

Satisfied with how awkward he was looking right now, you made a victorious sip of water, waiting for his next step.

“Two years… Huh, that’s a lot!”

“Yes, but it’s fine we never met,” you stated, meeting his languid gaze more decisively. “Usually, top management doesn’t see any of its workers and it’s okay.”

Bateman nodded, humming something to himself as if the puzzle inside his head finally completed. “Mm-hm, I hope you’re happy with your job and you don’t feel overworked.”

Was it some kind of test? As much as you wanted to lament about all of your grievances, you couldn’t take any risks–how could you even trust the guy who first antagonized you and then asked you out for lunch… in Four Fucking Seasons. That was so weird. 

“I love everything about my work. But of course, it’s not perfect but nowhere is.” You replied confidently. 

“Don’t you mind if I smoke?” Before Bateman asked, he was already having a cigar in his hand.

Even if you did, what would you say? 

“Go on.”

And then you suddenly lost it, as you watched him lighting his cigar after your words, and you could swear to God–never in your life, you saw a man who was smoking sexier than that. Mesmerized, you couldn't take your eyes off of his beautiful features, especially his ideal cheekbones, which looked so sharp–you thought you could cut yourself if you touch them… Touch them?

Meanwhile, Patrick was definitely rambling about something, but you could only see how his perfectly shaped lips curled whenever he was speaking, and damn… His side profile seemed to be forged by a sculptor, as you didn’t really have any other explanations for how this man could be so fine… Wait, what were you even  thinking?

“(Y/N), are you listening?” His concerned voice took you out of your thoughts. 

“Oh, yes… Sorry! I just remembered about my report, which I should finish today and-”

“So, you’re really overworked if you can’t even stop thinking about your job while being here with me.”

Did he sound really offended, or it was just your slightly clouded mind–you couldn’t really find an answer as he added:

“Maybe I should speak with your boss about this?” he puffed on his cigar, giving you a challenging glance. “And guess what? I think we should have dinner.”

“Dinner?” 

“That’s exactly what I said,” smirking, Bateman blew some smoke rings, his dark eyes glowing with excitement. “Dinner, where we can chill a bit and have a proper conversation. Not like this.”

Just as you were about to reply, the waiter brought your meals, how unfortunate–you thought before taking a napkin, and of course, you touched his palm because Patrick was doing just the same thing. As if you were in some romance movie, you took your hand away like from fire, but that only spurred him to catch your palm again, stroking it nearly notably, and somehow, this time you didn’t even make a move—you only gasped. Rising your eyes on him, you could only see a devilish grin of satisfaction on his face and there was nothing really left for you to do, rather than ask yourself if that was really happening.

#american psycho #patrick bateman x reader #patrick bateman imagine #patrick bateman #patrick bateman x female reader #patrick bateman x you #slasher x reader #slashers x reader #slasher x you #slasher smut #patrick bateman smut #patrick bateman headcanon #christian bale smut #christian bale x reader

[gunsli-01]

Alright, let's get this set up in a somewhat digestible format. While also testing the waters. For people looking for more Mikoto info in particular this has some stuff on him within it but mostly gives a clearer idea on my experience with Milgram so far. Along with me being slightly unhinged. Soooo...woohoo...

Here's the set up. The next post will be the beginning of an in depth analysis of the two Celtic spreads found in MeMe. We will not only be analyzing them but delving into visual spin Mikoto put on the classic tarot cards with some insights his changes to them give us on his character.

There are two sets of ten cards. The first post on this will go over the first five cards in the first spread the second will finish off the first and give an overall interpretation of the reading. Then the same will be done with spread two. After we finish that then I’ll be attempting to break down the series of murders shown throughout MeMe.

Lastly, and my favorite part. We’ll finally be going over Mikoto’s character as a whole. Along with me just generally getting to talk about him without putting him beneath a microscope. Which I haven't gotten to do in weeks and still can't cause I'm stuck in tarot hell.

For those who don't read all of this and skip straight to the tarot I at least want to highlight and reiterate one part from here:

The point of Milgram is testing limits at any point these characters can do something that will make even their most devoted fans turn on them and I think the fandom should be open to having their opinions change and develop over the course of this.

So, here's post 1. I will link the beginning of the tarot interpretation here when it's up.

So, when I started writing what has to be the longest character analysis essay, I've ever written... I remember in December when I was like yeah I can crank out a few pages on Mikoto it won't be that difficult I can get this done by new years. I've already gone through the tarot once too what's a second time typed up gonna do? Maybe even before Mu's song.

I was wrong. But back when I was young, hopeful, well rested, and happier. I wrote something of a Preface. Just to explain all of my biases up front and let people form an opinion on if they wanted to take anything I said on this seriously or not. What comes after this part is that Preface.

Okay, so this is going to probably seem insane, but I might as well get it out of the way just to break in the new year putting my best foot forward. Yes, this is my best foot forward. Now Mikoto has a lot of diehard fans and detractors for some reason…How can such a normal guy be so controversial? Really unlucky… Honestly. Because of his popularity I’m a bit nervous to put out anything on him even though he is my favorite. Believe it or not I can get shy when talking about things I genuinely like a lot because I don’t know how it’ll be perceived, and I can get very, very critical when I like something.

It is not a normal like situation. It doesn’t go I like you; you could do anything, and I wouldn’t care. It goes OH, YOU UNLUCKY BASTARD! YOU’VE CAUGHT MY ATTENTION I SHALL NOW EXPOSE YOU TO THE WORLD! IF ANYTHING, BAD HAPPENS TO YOU IT IS LIABLE TO BE BY MY HAND! I well wade through the façade to find the truth I’m seeking knowledge, I’m seeking your identity, I want to dive deeper.

Don’t misunderstand- It’s just natural to want to know everything about the person you like and get all torn up inside because you never can. That’s just love isn’t it~ Ahh it’s an incredibly damning feeling that love, the idea of soulmates all that trite nonsense. Because when people aggrandize others, they usually end up wanting to pull them down to their level. That sort of sadistic thing is just as much a part of love. The adult world is so cruel that way.

As such I’m going to do my very best to tear this man to shreds lovingly, okay?

So, let’s start with some context did I love Mikoto immediately? Was I like innocent he just has to be? He’s just so good looking he can’t fail, lol. Okay, to be honest when I got here, I thought Kazui was so good-looking cause of his broad shoulders that when watching Undercover and seeing the flash throughs with Star I went that’s Kazui I know those shoulders anywhere. Got damn he looks like he gives good hugs those shoulders…

Also, I like sorry cowards my apologies for the disappointment but when I saw Mikoto in MeMe I willfully ignored him. I had a visceral response to his song telling Star I hated it and never wanted to see him or hear it again. While also going he clearly killed three people… in an obviously premeditated way as well. So, yeah guilty. Maybe? I don’t know. I’m just not interested I’ll leave that to the people who are.

I came in around Amane’s first trial… Soooo I very much could’ve voted on Mikoto, but I just did not want to look at him at all. Actually, I still don’t know why that was, but he made me uncomfortable and annoyed. Despite his video involving multiple things I very much love baths, tarot cards, clouds, water, records, baseball bats… Hell even his song was a genre of music I’m partial too. Like jeez in retrospect I really don’t know.

I just did not want to even think about him, so I didn’t. That changed when YouTube recommended me an English cover of his first song, and I was like now hold on… Those Sisters You Know really did a good job on that lyrics wise. Like it just hit different okay. I was listening to that cover every day having first job flashbacks and wondering huh why did I hate this guy again this is a complete mood actually.

After that I fell into an over analyzing loop for several months. Before I had pulled a nothing to see here and once we do that my brain just deletes the information since it’s been deemed irrelevant. Incredibly convenient skill to have. Yet, as it piqued my interest music wise, I was like well hold on…I have to know everything about this specifically now. Something that none of the Milgram characters had managed to achieve at that point.

To an extent I was pretty much like there’s nothing to see here at all when I was dragged into Milgram by Star. She showed me Mahiru’s first trial song like I really just want you to see this one and my immediate response was, “Are you trying to say something about me?!” We’ve been partners for years and this is what you lob at me what are you getting at? To which she had to dryly explain no I just think she’s neat and you love mystery things and putting together stuff so I wanted your opinion on what you think is going on here.

Then I got a rundown of the situation and was like ah okay. Then went through one through six giving all my thoughts on what they did and how I would’ve voted if I was there as she explained the results. I was surprised to hear from Star that none of the things I was saying to her had come up in the fandom as far as she saw.

As Star showed me Milgram my experience was basically

Weakness: Guilty. Committed murder for attention. Next.

Later down the line I asked Star about the reasoning behind Haruka’s trial one Innocent Verdict. It was after we watched Bring It On and she told me about Futa’s verdict. I needed to understand why Haruka was voted Innocent/Forgiven but Futa was not. Weirdly long before Futa asked us that same question in Back Draft. Why did Haruka of all people get a pass when we see him kill directly? That was the first thing that piqued my interest.

However, I was pretty disappointed by the answer Star provided and maybe to some people this will seem like a reduction of the actual reason behind prevailing consensus. Yet, what I gathered from her explanation was that he was voted innocent due to Autism. Particularly, people assuming he had a learning disability the most speculated one being Autism. Now, my response to this information was to go, um…that’s ableist right? Like, just because it’s helpful to him in this circumstance does not mean ableism isn’t present.

That’s just infantilizing and belittling his intelligence. Having a learning disability doesn’t suddenly exempt a person from knowing murder is wrong. It’s the same as using a person’s age as an excuse. Made even funnier that Haruka is treated more like a child than the literal child is. So…it’s not like that interpretation is that far off or difficult to get to. Plus, do people even critically engage with who benefits from these sorts of excuses and when they’re extended? 

 Because they aren���t applied indiscriminately. A perfect example of this in Japanese media in particular comes from something else Star and I were watching when she recommended Milgram. Higurashi Sotsu and the character Satoko a lot of people in that fandom got angry and found the concept that Satoko would become a villain all because she had a difficult time studying insane. Like she should have just studied harder ignoring everything else that occurred in Gou and Sotsu up until that point.

Even some going as far as creating a completely different reason for her actions. Because having trouble focusing, studying, and being ostracized in a new environment after being taken away from the people and things that brought you comfort weren’t good enough reasons. Ryukushi-07 also has a tendency to write about neurodivergent coded characters like Maria in Umineko and Satoko herself can be considered coded that way through sotsu and gou. The excuse extended to Haruka in trial one was definitely not extended to her by the Higurashi fandom.

So, it’s not surprising that same courtesy was retracted in trial 2. Sorry, to rain on your parade but disabled people of color from any minority group are not extended those same benefits of the doubt and rarely have their impairments or age taken into consideration if they even reach a trial. So, this is when I went oh well people are gonna people glad to see some things still haven’t changed. This is what Milgram’s bias looks like. It’s almost a perfect reflection of the performatively politically correct space we live under today and highlights the pervasive biases that continue to disenfranchise many that go overlooked.

All we’re missing is overt ableism, racism, and sexism disguised as feminism and we’d have everything that’s wrong with performative morality. (Star just informed me one of these things is just Yuno.) So, my interest was piqued around here but mostly from a sociological standpoint.

Yet, I was mostly ticked off. Media is supposed to be a form of escapism for many people and I found a lot of the issues that people usually use media to escape from pulled to the forefront in Milgram through its voting system. I came in and was like this series probably isn’t saying a damn thing special. Reluctantly after telling Star I wouldn’t watch it multiple times because well I was a mad at her and she kept asking. I had every reason to hate this series given what was going on around our relationship at the time she presented it to me and didn’t really think taking something lightly could end up saying a great deal about society as whole.

Umblical: Guilty. It was clear to me from the very first video that she attempted to entrap someone in a relationship through the use of a pregnancy then committed murder when that failed. Possibly multiple times.

Later, Star told me people assumed she got an abortion. Because the woman that was clearly in a sector of sex work knew nothing about contraception. That and she may have had family issues. I said oh so they thought she was stupid. That’s insulting and then people continued to think she was stupid. So, some things never change but my opinion of her did. She’s the only person here with a consistent character and seems to be incredibly considerate but not hesitant to go after the things she wants by any means necessary. I find that endearing and respectable and really wish she’d get a 50/50 since regardless of what she did I respect her want for us not to give our opinion on it.

It’s only polite to shut up and say nothing when no one asked you to speak. Yuno not only never asked us to speak but openly asked us not to. Her character description even states she dislikes being psychoanalyzed. She sort of reminds me of Kotono Kashiwaba from Caligula Effect but I can’t really figure out why yet. I haven’t finished the game at this point and right now we’re only up to Ike-P but I just get that feeling.

 Bring It On: Innocent due to lack of information. I haven’t seen a murder. I don’t know what happened here. Having a flop Twitter account and making callouts is not murder or a crime at all. So, innocent. Then Star tells me the actual outcome and the reasoning behind it and this is when I start to get a bit heated.

Basically, went what do you mean guilty on the grounds of his actions allegedly leading to someone taking their own life??? Because they were just involved in someone’s death. It doesn’t say they directly caused them to die which means indirect involvement is on the table. Ha, ha, oh my fucking god that’s rich considering the dude that clearly killed a dog and a child was given a pass. Did that with his whole chest but he’s good. Alright, alright… I literally went back and pointed out all the kills Haruka was directly responsible for in his first mv going but this was passable. At that point don’t even try to justify it just say you don’t like Futa that’s less insulting.

Like I discussed in the part on Weakness I found this way of thinking inherently unfair. The benefit of the doubt and consideration extended to Haruka was completely absent for Futa. A lot of people want to say this is because he didn’t appear sorry. But, what gives others the right to decide when someone is really sorry or not. Futa’s entire voice drama goes into how you can’t tell how someone is feeling or what they’re thinking based on how they behave outwardly alone and that’s all anyone did when it came to him.

Not many people extended that same courtesy or empathy. They didn’t attempt to look deeper because no one cared to and that’s sad. Start didn’t see anyone go hey that’s clearly a kid with anxiety who’s attempting to garner validation through social media possibly due to a lack of external validation in his actual life. Something tackled in the writer’s previous game Caligula Effect Overdose with the character Naruko Morita. Who does the same sort of things Futa does if not worse. Because she literally outs a trans person on social media, takes pictures of people without their knowledge, and looks up someone work application to then go oh they’re not as good looking in real life let’s tell their fans so they no longer like this musician.

Like these are things she does repeatedly throughout the game. She is a terrible person and in the game she’s your teammate. She has a social link and reasons for the way she behaves. She’s obnoxious, annoying, egotistic, inconsiderate, a snoop, has an aversion to criticism, low self-esteem, and is easily dissuaded from doing things she enjoys if it’s not immediately praised or faced with scrutiny.

She goes out to eat popular limited time items at shops just to post food reviews about it after one bite. She doesn’t even post her own opinion on it at times but instead goes by reviews others have left already while giving a little bit of a different perspective but not really. Then if you say no to her being on the team because she basically airs out your entire organization on social media for likes, so everyone now knows who you are, what you look like, your name and all of your teammates information you’re treated like the heartless asshole.

Hm, it’s like she doxed you and it has real life repercussions and makes your life harder. It continues to make the lives of everyone she does this to harder and in instances is retraumatizing for many of them. All I’m saying is if you play this game and end up liking her but still hate Futa then you don’t dislike doxing you just hate men. Point blank. At which point I hope you enjoy Ayana.

After Pain: Guilty, I didn’t and still do not believe she’s sorry. Plus, the person she killed was uninvolved. When Star told me she was voted Innocent. Well, I couldn’t really say I was surprised given certain universal truths but- When she explained it was because people were saying it’s because she’s clearly a lesbian and that person she stabbed told everyone she was which led to her bullying.

I kind of went well isn’t that sort of justifying someone getting murdered or in blunter terms just victim blaming. Even if the victim did do that which I’m doubtful of that does not justify murder. Like people really immediately went we trust Mu she’s a victim now what did this clearly evil girl do to deserve to get stabbed, huh?! I found that kind of odd, I wouldn’t want anyone thinking that about me or anyone I love if they were murdered. Plus, given the circumstances I grew up under it’s very common to see that sort of mindset pushed on specific types of victims of brutal crimes. Just saying; it’s really not interrogated often enough who the whole what did they do to deserve it mentality benefits and hurts.

Ultimately, I found the whole concept kind of cruel. However, I guess as we’ve learned Es is the sort of Guard that abhors a person doing something that may have inadvertently led to someone taking their own life more than very purposefully taking someone else’s life with your own two hands. Taking into consideration the response seen in the English speaking part of the fandom this mindset is showcased twice throughout the first trial with the only noticeable outlier being Kazui.

Throw Down: Guilty he asked to be voted that and I respected it. Also, he was organ harvesting from his patients. Like what? Innocent is this some reverse psychology nonsense well okay at least he already feels bad.

This is how to be in love with you: Innocent due to lack of information. I can’t punish someone for something I do not understand I genuinely don’t know what she did. I assume she poisoned someone since she works as a florist, cooks, and mentioned herbal remedies. However, I just knew too little at the time.

What do you mean they thought she was so clingy her partner committed suicide, so she was voted guilty? I’m sorry so what I’m understanding is stabbing a woman in cold blood is okay but indirectly causing someone to end their life through social error is a irredeemable sin? That last girl stabbed another one purposely and that first guy killed a dog and kid-

Half: Guilty but also- That dudes incredibly good looking and has nice broad shoulders that is certainly an impressive physical build look at him in that uniform- Hears the song oh my god he’s an emotionally unavailable and dishonest coward too just my type! Guilty I know in my heart what he did was fucked up but got damn I’m hoping it’s fucked up at this point- not me literally getting chills at the let’s make it victim and assailant line in Cat like boy howdy don’t say such things oh no. Is this how people feel when Yuno says Come Marco I’ll Polo?

It certainly doesn’t help that Kazui’s demeanor and communication habits remind me a lot of Star and I end up feeling a little bad for him but slightly want to watch him squirm as well. Truly, it’s the emotionally unavailable quiet ones you gotta be careful with. They have such intense emotions but they hold them back to the point they can’t express them and then the right person pushes and boom it’s like a pistol accidentally discharging. People who bottle up their emotions like that for as long as it seems he has well when they blow a gasket it’s like a volcano and I want to be in lava range.

Innocent I- well I’m fine with this you saw that up there you know why I'm fine with it we don't have to talk about it but like why??? Because they believe he’s gay and was in a very loveless and performative marriage while also assuming his actions just led to his partner committing suicide or an accidental death. Wait why is that okay here but with the other two it’s not… It’s cause he’s hot and seemingly pathetic ain’t it? Lol, that dude is not as weak as he presents but have fun with that when it comes up I suppose. Good liar my ass...

Magic: Guilty even asked Star to vote on it. So, I was made aware of how to vote at this time. This was not because I want her to be punished but I didn’t believe anything could be solved through agreeing with her and I honestly don’t think agreeing with her will solve anything now either, but it will maybe stop her from getting jumped. Maybe? Though I’m unsure about that because Kotoko has jumped people who were pardoned before sooo... That and Amane told us not to treat her like a child.

I believe it’s a bit unfair or shortsighted of her to ask us to respect her agency in her own life, that she chose to make these decisions, and yet at the same time ask to not be held accountable for them if we feel her behavior was wrong because she answers to a higher power. Her mindset on her killing and being considered a murderer highlight her immaturity to me. Those aren’t two separate things but childishly and stubbornly she attests that they are. Being an adult is recognizing that regardless of if you had a good reason, or a higher law you abide by other adults don’t need to care about those things when judging you they can just objectively judge the actions you took. It truly is that simple. To me it just seems like she didn’t really know what she was asking for when she said that. Like she equates being an adult with gaining respect but it's more than just that.

Amane’s situation really reminds me of that song by Maaya Sakamoto More than Words, particularly these lines, “Isn’t freedom painful? I’ve become an adult, haven’t I?” “Isn’t freedom painful? I’m now alone, aren’t I?” “Isn’t freedom painful? Endlessly so…” Because a lot about being an adult is being able to stand on your own by the decisions you choose. The respect you get from others is fickle at best and never really equates to understanding or empathy. In a way as we age, we become more and more emotionally isolated when it comes to social communication and consideration. Because the patience and consideration that is frequently extended to children is not given to adults since they’re meant to know better by then and not need that sort of care.

Adults have the freedom to make their own choices and have that agency recognized. However, many times that agency we yearned for so badly is weaponized against us in small and insidious ways. Causing adults to become more emotionally closed off, socially defensive, or calculating. An adult would never ask to have their choices looked at while taking into account that they chose to do those things they’d simply tell the person accusing them to figure out why they did it or take into consideration their circumstances. Not pull a don’t judge me and I won’t judge you. They would know that their main focus should be endearing themselves by any means necessary like Mu attempts to do or lean on their legal rights.

So, I really feel like Amane was her own worse advocate during trial one and it ended up biting her in the butt. Also, another song that I feel properly exemplifies that feeling of emotional isolation one faces with age but isn’t as somber I think is “Love I need” by The Living Tombstone.

MeMe: Abstained due to a vague sense of hatred. I literally told Star to never show this to me again and not to bring him up I don’t have an opinion, I don’t care, I’m glad that’s over was my immediate reaction to MeMe. [Star: She said that she didn’t like the song, him as a character, and it was obvious that he committed several murders. So, there was nothing left to look into.] Afterwards I promptly deleted the information from memory until finding that cover song.

Harrow: Guilty she literally did the same thing Futa did just in a more direct way. She also seemed to jump people who had already been put on trial and had a decision on their actions handed down. Even openly said apologizing meant nothing. I’d rather give a pass to the person who says just say sorry then the one who goes lol it doesn’t matter if you try to make amends now no second chances ever once a bad guy always a bad guy.

I put all this to show that even before I was actively posting Milgram stuff on here. I did have opinions on all this that have only developed over time. As much as I came out swinging in the oh I really like Mikoto camp. I really did not want to see this dudes face when I first saw him. Like I feel as though I’m being a bit of a broken record. I said the same with Haruka. Yet, with Mikoto there was a bit of hatred there. Like a knee-jerk reaction that I couldn’t even pinpoint and didn’t want to interact with. Something, I still don’t really have an explanation for.

Even still before this I was spending months talking to Star over the phone sifting through the music videos reading the conversations and literally burning out all my investigative skills on it. Something I believe she knew I’d do when she brought it to my attention and asked, “What do you think happened here?”

Now here I am trying to churn out an entire essay on the guy. Certain characters can grow on you. However, with Milgram there’s this feeling that such a fondness like that can be broken. The point is testing limits at any point these characters can do something that will make even their most devoted fans turn on them and I think the fandom should be open to have their opinions change and develop over the course of this.

I feel like being shut off, isolated or just stubborn about one’s own opinion is unfair to the social experiment aspect Milgram is trying to pursue. That’s just me personally. I really hope that by the end of this there is interesting data collected. We can vote any way we want at the end of the day. Not everyone has to take into consideration what the characters did or how bad it is objectively.

Yet, for people to trick themselves into believing the vote doesn’t matter, this is all in good fun, and no one will be held accountable for the outcome in any way is negligent and blatant denial. The verdicts have a direct impact on the sort of place Milgram is currently and could become. It's a direct reflection of the will of the fanbase. If we vote a certain way the creators take that into consideration. They seem to not just take the winning verdict into consideration but pay attention to responses from both sides overall. They’re paying attention. So, it’s incredibly short sighted to assume our collective judgement regardless of how you vote or if you chose not to doesn’t reflect on the entire fanbase in some way.

I’m not saying this to be a Debby Downer or go really interrogate why you’re voting this way. I’m saying all this to get one point across if you’re going to vote seeped in bias the least you can do is express what those biases are in your own unique way. That’s what will make this all the more fun for everyone. I don’t care if you choose to vote guilty, innocent, or abstain, but at least vocalize why that is. Especially for people choosing to abstain since that’s more difficult to gauge since it is just not an option and the closest thing to abstaining would be attempting to get a fifty/fifty.

I know not everyone is willing to be that out there with their feelings and that sort of thing isn’t fun for everyone. Though even just discussing it privately with friends, people you trust and feel comfortable around is enough. All I want personally is for people regardless of how or why they vote to look at these characters for what they are and give them the opportunity to surprise you outside of your personal opinions like with actual people. All these characters will probably disappoint someone at a point but I feel like if you keep a healthy sense of realism and treat them in an unidealized way that will help in not causing resentments towards the series or the people who work on it down the line.

Some of these resentments are already present in the fandom and being used to create a reflection of the writer that could be wholly inaccurate. Personally, I don’t find that sort of approach to be fun or fair. However, it very well could be to some. Yet, at times I find it incredibly disheartening to see. My hopes in writing all of this and thoroughly attempting to analyze my fluctuating feelings on Mikoto may tackle why that is in some way. Even if the problem isn’t firmly rooted within the interpretations around his character but extends to the entire cast.

Though it’s like Jackalope said he certainly did cause a bit of trouble.

I hope this has been a good prelude of what’s to come and helped whoever may have read this far better understand my personal perspective on Milgram. This post didn’t focus on Mikoto as heavily as I would have wished but served to properly build an understanding of what one may be getting into when it comes to my analysis of his character.

I hope by displaying my biases and feelings on all the characters that one can decide whether reading what comes after this is for them or not. Regardless of if you continue to read or go back to this post from the ones that precede it, I appreciate you reading my ramblings.

#milgram #kayano mikoto #yes it's in parts i'm sorry

[flowofexistence]

Hello folks, been forever.

So, what's up with that?

Well, three things.

I actually, y'know, finished up my education and got a job. Woohoo! (I guess that "I'll try to be consistent but school sucks" that I had in this Blog's Description isn't quite true anymore)

A general desire to work on my art a bit, y'know, develop my art style a bit, experiment, stuff like that. (Spoilers: It didn't go THAT far.)

WE HAVE A WEBSITE NOW BABY!

THAT'S RIGHT!

FLOW OF EXISTENCE IS NOW AVAILABLE, ON ITS OWN WEBSITE! MADE WITH LOVE, DUCT TAPE, AND BASIC HTML/CSS/JS KNOWLEDGE!

Oh, you're still reading?

Well alright, I guess I do owe answers to a few other questions.

Q: Why?

A: Well, other than it being something I...kinda wanted from the very beginning- As much as I love Tumblr, and as much as I am gonna shoot myself in the foot by being able to reach as many people through tags or whatnot. I wanted to have more freedom in customizing everything! I now have the ability to give each act a custom theme, or multiple themes depending on its current setting! You can now swap through pages with the arrow keys! You can save your place in the comic with the help of cookies! Generally, making the switch allowed me to have a lot more fun with things, and it's finally possible due to me actually making enough money so that I can AFFORD IT!

Q: Well, what about this blog?

A: Don't you worry your sweet little head, I will still be using it, so don't unfollow just yet! I'll probably just use it as a place to post about updates to the comic, urging y'all to go read it on the new website. Or maybe I am now able to use it for even more, like, showcasing fanart or something, if that ever should happen, haha.

Q: What's next?

A: Well HOPEFULLY, more consistent updates, the thing is, I've just switched from being busy with school, to being busy with work. But I will make time when I can, trust me!

Q: Is this an April Fool's Joke?

A: lmao no

Q: Didn't you make this Website in October 2023? Why are we only NOW hearing of it?

A: Uhhh, well you see, I wrote a whole post about it on the Discord Server (shameless plug), which has pretty much the same things in it as this post. I then WANTED to make a post on Tumblr...and forgot about it.

Q: New Pages when?

A: Today.

#flowofexistence #webcomic #comic

[iwantyouloveidonefriends]

https://pleasantsims.com/sims-2-mods/

LISTA PARA EU BAIXAR

Mootilda’s Hood Checker – This is a tool and not really a mod, but it’s necessary to check your hoods for corruption. Read all documentation on the download page.

No Corrupt Death – Suppresses the corrupt death memory.

No Unlink on Delete – Game no longer partially destroys sim file on deletion of tombstone. May resolve potential random tombstone losses when moving tombstones to community lots resulting from shredded character files produced by unlinkage.

Select Your Cemetery – Sims dying on apartment lots are no longer sent to a random cemetery. You can now choose the cemetery to send them to. Sometimes the game sends these graves to lots that don’t exist, which can cause problems. This mod alleviates that issue

Autonomous Casual Romance (ACR) – Allows your Sims to autonomously woohoo, try for baby, make booty calls, and perform a whole host of romantic interactions. Gives your Sims more freedom to make their own romantic decisions and creates a lot of drama and fun in your neighborhood. Highly recommended!

Anti-Redundancy – Eliminates spawning of unnecessary redundant NPCs

No Sim Loaded – Removes the “Sim Loaded” token and others every time you load a lot, preventing lag, and also prevents and fixes the Super Duper Hug Bug

Freetime Cribs Animated – Enables the animations on the two cribs that came with Free Time. Finally your Sims wont stick their arms through the railings anymore

Business Mod – Fixes a lot of issues with Open for Business. Recommended if you intend on playing Sim-owned businesses in your neighborhoods

No Lame Hires – Non-townie sims with jobs >= L6 or who are already working in a user business are no longer considered eligible hires and will not clog the hiring pool, nor be available with the “hire” option unless they quit. Sims will never want to hire anyone who already has a job.

Townie Budget Mod – Townies can no longer buy items they can’t afford at businesses, eat at restaurants if they have no money, etc. Does wonders for realism. No more endless money for townies.

Auto Do Homework – Calls all children and teens on the lot to do their homework at 7:00 PM. They will quit if fun gets too low, so no risk of everyone having straight A’s

Faster Homework – Finish homework in 15 minutes instead of an hour

School Mods – This mod fixes problems with the way a sim determines which friend to bring home from school, makes it so that private school students leave school earlier than usual, and makes it so that your household needs to pay 100 simoleons per each child/teen studying in private school

Lower Wages – Reduces salaries for Uni, Seasons, and Free Times jobs to match the base game jobs

Salary Bonus – Rewards Sims for long service, in addition to pay increases from being promoted. Sims who remain at their current career level (pay grade) will receive pay rises as their days worked at that level increase

Exercise Bike Fix – With this mod, sims stop using the Exerto Super Exercise Bike when they’re in bad mood, hungry, sleepy, feel uncomfortable or need to go to the toilet, as if they were using other skill objects. Originally sims don’t care about their needs at all while using the bike and they can die for that reason.

Extended Family Treated as Family – Allows the game to recognize second cousins, first cousins once removed, great grandparents, great grandchildren, and great aunts and uncles as family members. No more dating distant relatives!

Fire Mod – Fixes a lot of issues with how Sims interact with fire. Sims who study fire safety will now behave as intended by attempting to put out fires

No Sim Loaded – Removes useless “sim loaded” tokens and other garbage that slows down your game and causes lag.

Random Calls Fix – Fixes problems related to the random phone calls your Sims receive.

Shadow Fix – Fixes the black boxes that appear under Sims in some games and restores correct shadows.

Simply Leftovers – Allows you to store leftovers as single plates so Sims don’t have to take out the group-sized plate every time they want leftovers.

Smart Beds – Forces the bed ownership system in the game to actually work. Sims will autonomously use the bed they have the most ownership of.

Smarter Lights – The purpose of this mod is to automatically turn the light on and off, depending of the type of the lot, the time of the day, and what the sims are doing.

oung Enough for Pregnancy Fix – Fixes the problem with adults nearing elders being seen as too old for pregnancy when they really aren’t

[jungshookz]

cee!!!! please please give us advice on studying/techniques u use when u study for ur finals and stuff!! here’s a kiss while i’m here :*

as a matter of fact i just finished one of my finals a while ago and i have another one later but i’m taking a break from studying because i simply: cannot 

to be HONEST i am a big dummy so i don’t want to pretend i know what i’m doing when in reality i don’t :’)) and also since i’m a literature major it’s less about memorizing and more about being able to form a proper argument and analyze and write three full essays in two hours so i’m not even sure if my tips would be helpful but here are some that usually work for me!!!! 

highlighting!!! this seems like a pretty obvious tip but i’m telling you about it because it works for me :D when i’m reading through my textbook i use different colours for different things - yellow is for things that sound pretty dang important and could be useful for the exam, blue is for terms and definitions, and pink kind of goes with yellow because i use it to highlight follow-up information if that makes any sense?? also sometimes i like to scribble symbols and arrows and little notes next to certain lines so that when i go back to review i’m not just looking at a page with like fifteen highlighted lines with nothing next to them :’)) 

write write write!!! i know that typing out your notes on your laptop is sO much easier and more convenient and faster than handwriting them on a notebook but i personally find that i’m able to absorb the information more when i’m writing because i’m actually taking the time to write out and read each word compared to when my fingers are flying across the keyboard!!! also when ur copying notes from your textbook to your notebook don’t just directly copy and paste whole sentences because.,., why would u do that.,,. ur basically just regurgitating the same thing and what’s the point if u have the textbook right there.,., so i like to break the sentence down into an easier to understand bullet-point and then i’ll do additional bullet-points underneatH the first point for extra info i need to know! also you get to practice your handwriting which is always nice :’) no chicken scratches here!!!!! 

word pairing game!!! this one takes a little more time to prep because it’s a study game but basically i’ll write one word/concept on a card and then on a separate card i’ll write the bullet-points that are associated with that word/concept and u do that for as many topics you have to memorize and then you shuffle them up and spread them out neatly on the table and then you have to pair the right word to the right bullet-points!!! it’s nice because it doesn’t force you to memorize a huge chunk of info word for word!!! as long as you have a good grasp on the basic concepts relating to the topic you’ll be able to soRT of know what you’re talking about when it comes to the exam >:-)) AND you can reward yourself at the end if you get all the pairings right :D this is actually very fun and u can play with your friends to find out who’s paying the most attention in class B-) 

put your dang phone away!!! i used to think this was silly and didn’t matter but i’ve noticed that if i have my phone sitting next to me (even when it’s on silent) i always pick it up and i end up scrolling for two hours straight SO when i go into study mode i usually leave my phone in my room and go to the living room to study there instead!!! you will be mucH more productive this way because when u want to grab your phone you’ll realize that you have to trek all the way back to your bedroom and.,.,., eventually you’ll be like ah forget it because ur too lazy to go :D also remember to turn off ur notifications on your laptop so you don’t get distracted >:-(( 

good luck with finals!!!!!! woohOo you can do it :D 

#answered #ask cee

[daydream-believin]

Recipe For Disaster 2: Electric Boogaloo

Summary: Jim is NOT happy about his sister’s boyfie. (not a part two despite the confusing name)

Warnings: swearing, a gilmore girls reference, divorce kids got daddy issues

Word Count: 5560, my longest yet woohoo

A/N: here it is im finally done with this. i- im tired. i love jim he was my favorite until doux came along but he can be a little bitch boy sometimes. and the word of the day is giggle im so sorry

tags: @alovesongshewrote​ hope i can deliver now that you have expectations lmao

It was a good Saturday. The trollhunters trio had gotten an early start on training, and thus Blinky had released them for an early lunch. It was a particularly successful day, with Claire really getting the hang of the shadow staff, so they decided to not make poor Jim cook for once and go out for a treat. And Toby really wanted a sandwich from Benoit’s.

They opted to walk to downtown instead of biking, as a way to cool down. Plus, it would give them time to digest their food on the walk back, before they returned to training once again. Although that was more of a problem for Jim and Toby, since Blinky wanted Claire to start reading a certain book this afternoon. She’d be in the library, quietly sitting while the boys go back to running around and fighting. The spring flowers had just started returning to Arcadia Oaks. The flowerbeds that decorated town added a cheery air to the day. Happily, Jim ran up in front to kick a pebble as they came up towards the bistro around the corner. He stopped in his tracks.

“Is Y/n’s boss flirting with her?”

The other two teens came around Jim to see. Y/n laughed at Douxie’s dumb joke and put her hand on his shoulder.

“And is she flirting back?” Jim asked incredulously.

Claire didn’t take this the same way Jim did. “Aww, that’s so cute.”

“No it’s not. It’s weird. And wrong.” Jim asserted.

“What are you talking about,” Claire lowered her brows with an annoyed tone.

“No, no. he’s right. Y/n doesn’t flirt. Or date. I’m not even sure she crushes.”

Claire shook her head, “That can’t be true, TP. She’s like, old. You two just didn’t notice it.”

“Oh, no, we noticed it. She went to every school dance alone, even senior prom.” Toby added. “It was kind of sad to be honest.”

“Remember that time that big movie star came into town? He was the prettiest guy I’d ever seen, and Y/n was just like ‘eh he’s okay, I guess’. We literally had a fight over that one.” Jim chuckled.

“I literally can’t imagine Y/n in a relationship. She’s just too all over the place.”

Claire rolled her eyes and gestured her hands towards the scene in front of them. “Well, she seems to be doing just fine now.”

Jim didn’t know why, but this made him a little huffy. “Whatever. It’s just a crush, anyways. She’ll get over it soon enough.”

Douxie leaned over to give Y/n a quick peck goodbye before he headed into Mr. Benoit’s to start his shift. He had swapped shifts with one of his coworkers for the day, so he could have the evening off. Y/n headed back to the bookstore. She tucked her hair behind her ear as she left, smiling to herself. The three trollhunters still stood right where they were, staring.

“I don’t think it’s just a crush, Jimbo.”

Jim was outraged. How. How was this happening. He could understand her not telling her family, their mother could be a bit nosy sometimes when it came to her daughter’s personal affairs. But his sister had often said she didn’t have enough time to pursue a love life whenever their mother probed her. There was no way she just started having said time. Right? It was curious, too, that out of all the people she could have chosen in Arcadia, she chose Douchey. That guy had girls fawning over him wherever he went. There was no way Y/n was into that.

Come to think of it, Y/n had been acting really strange ever since she had gotten that job at the bookstore. It was so easy to make her laugh now. She was actually wearing her hair in different styles instead of her signature. She actually enjoyed Barbara’s cooking. Or at least complimented it a lot now. Still a baffling action nonetheless. It was if she was experiencing the side effects of something. And that bookstore reeked of magic. Magic had the power to drive people out of their minds. He’d had plenty of first-hand experience with that. This whole situation was fishy.

“Well, I think it’s so cute they’re together now.” Claire said cheerily. He loved her but she wasn’t exactly the best when it came to making judgement calls. Hell, the fact that she was dating him after all he’s put her through was enough proof of that.

“Well, I think its magic.” Jim deadpanned.

“What.” Claire snapped.

“He’s got a spell on her! Some sort of enchantment. A charm!”

Toby was too tired from training today to deal with this. “I’ll agree, he does have charm, have you had him as a waiter? But not the kind of charm you’re implying here, Jim.”

“Douxie is my magic teacher, Jim. I promise, he’s a really nice guy.”

“Nope. There’s no way my sister would be into a guy, let alone a guy like,” He tried to find the right words but just sputtered, “Like that!” he motioned to poor Doux, who was changing the specials sign out front. Douxie was one of those bistro employees who always got asked to draw up the sign because his calligraphy was so good. Doux had to admit, his handwriting was messy compared to Merlin’s standards, but to Mr. Benoit’s he was a calligraphy god.

Toby looked Doux up and down. “I don’t know man, Y/n is kind of alternative.”

“Yeah, who do you think helps me dye my hair all the time? And sneaks me into concerts?” Claire added.

“Okay. I get that. But he’s just not good enough for her.” Jim said through gritted teeth.

Toby sighed. “Then who is?” he asked wearily.

Jim got defensive. “I don’t know! A prince, maybe. One that’s in line to be king. Not one of those waiting-for-a-brother-to-die ones, but a real one.” He nodded his head like any of that was realistic. “Definitely not just some wizard who works in a bookstore.”

“She’s just some wizard who works in a bookstore, though.”

There was no getting through to Jim. “Think about it guys, my sister, suddenly getting cozy with a magic man? Bushigal. She’s under a spell. I’m going to fight him.”

“No, no you’re not,” Claire asserted, “You’re going to have lunch like we planned AND you’re going to be civil.” Claire and Toby both grabbed one of his arms and dragged him towards the bistro.

***

The hostess guided them to the table. Claire sat across from Jim and Toby. They were handed the menus. Claire showed interest in the lunch specials while Toby flipped to the sandwiches. Jim just brooded while he stared unblinking into the first page. And by chance, and by the fact that this scene would be boring and or pointless if not, Douxie was the waiter for said table. After handing off the check to one of his other tables, he waltzed over to the trio, happy to see his protégé.

“Ello lads, how’s it going? How’d that test go today, Claire?” Douxie ruffled her hair. Jim narrowed his eyes at the sight.

“Horrible! I bombed it for sure!”

Toby rolled his eyes, “You say that about every test, Claire, and then it turns out you aced them.”

“No I mean it this time, TP. I didn’t even finish the last three questions. It was so bad!”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Douxie chuckled. Oh to have the problems of these youngsters. Claire and Toby got into some sort of glare match where they both just made more and more aggressive funny faces at each other. Both finally conceded and they fell into giggles. Douxie was glad to see Claire having so much fun, but he noticed someone else at the table who was not having said fun. His apprentice Claire’s boyfriend, his master’s champion, and his darling Y/n’s brother, looking like his dog ate his homework, or whatever teenagers got angry about these days.

“Cheer up, lad.” Doux grinned at Jim, “Hangry? I get that. You look like you could use a good meal.”

“Well strangely I am in a cafe”

Claire kicked Jim under the table. He tried his best to stifle the grunt of pain. “Don’t mind Jim, he’s a tad grumpy from a bad training session. And we’ll take waters all around.” She smiled. Doux hurried off to go get their glasses.

In the end, Toby couldn’t pick a sandwich. He had three favorites and couldn’t decide between them yet. Jim and Claire had his back. They both got one of them and he got the third. Then they would all share the halves. A good plan. And it was a delicious one. Toby was thankful for his partners.

***

After finishing up training and walking Claire home, Jim and Toby went their separate ways. Toby had promised his Nana he’d go with her and her boyfriend to see a play in the next town over. Jim had promised his mother he’d be home for a family dinner. He wasn’t able to be home in time to cook, so this was going to be a roulette wheel when it came to food. He was betting on Y/n. As he came to the front door, he cracked it first and smelled the air before going inside as to make sure his candid reaction wouldn’t be bad. The aroma coming from the house was heavenly. Alright, Y/n. Jackpot.

Jim swung the door open wide as he strutted in. Everyone was in the kitchen, it looked like. He put his bag up and called to his family that he was home. Which was met with the two voices he had expected, but one he hadn’t. And it was a voice he didn’t want to hear right now. Douxie. Hisirdoux fucking Casperan. In his house. In his kitchen. In his territory.

Jim immediately felt his muscles tense up. He took a deep breath and put on his best fake smile before heading into the kitchen. Y/n was sautéing something over the stove. Barbara was stirring something which meant that she had insisted on helping and Y/n had done the equivalent of giving your younger sibling a game controller that wasn’t plugged in. The offending wizard was leaning over the bar counter from the other side, chatting away as if he had any reason to be here.

Once Y/n caught sight of Jim, she bubbled. “Jim! How was hiking? You three have fun?” she knew where he actually spent his Saturdays but they had to keep up the rouse for their mom. While Y/n particularly didn’t care for the lying, she also agreed with Jim that some things are best kept from worrisome mothers. Barbara gave her enough shit already for her frequent homecomings from bars and shows in the wee hours of the morning with scrapes and bruises. If their mother knew about Jim’s marginally more dangerous late-night escapades, she might actually have a nervous breakdown.

“Oh yeah, it was great. We saw a deer. It had a baby with it.”

“Majestic.” She turned and gestured to the man at the counter, “You remember Douxie, right?”

“Of course,” Jim said through gritted teeth forced into a smile. “In fact we just saw each other at the bistro earlier today.”

A timer went off. Y/n expressed her delight that something in the oven was done. Barb got some plates out of the cabinet, while Y/n pulled the main course out of the oven. She handed Jim the plates and silverware and sent him to go set the table. Jim supposed this was better than having to talk to Douxie. Until Douxie insisted on helping him. Great.

“So, Jim, I’ve heard a lot about you-”

“I’m sure you have.” Jim cut him off. Douxie was a bit confused, but figured he was still grumpy like he was earlier at the bistro. He’d leave the moody teen alone then. Perhaps he be in a better mood after getting some food in him and spending time with his family. Doux would try for conversation again then.

Jim did not get any less grumpy, to Douxie’s dismay. And Y/n’s. Y/n really needed both her family members to like her boyfriend. They were all each other had, and any strife would put a strain on their tiny closely-knit family unit. Y/n loved Douxie, and she wanted Jim and Barbara to love him to. To accept him. It would help put a validity to her feelings. If they liked him then she had made the right choice. She could never be with someone her loved ones hated. And as a bonus, it would be nice if she could give Douxie the family he never had. He deserved as much.

Luckily, Barbara had taken quite a liking to Arcadia’s most charming waiter. Jim however, was subtly hostile. Or at least he thought he was being subtle. It was very apparent to the other three at the table. As Douxie was animatedly telling Barb some story that she was laughing very hard at, Y/n turned to glare at her brother. Jim tried to feign innocence. Y/n rolled her eyes and put some more salad on her plate. Jim noticed the bracelet on her wrist. Funny, she had never been one for jewelry before. But she started wearing this one everyday right around the time she started working at the bookstore. Interesting.

Douxie finished up his story and turned his attention to Jim. He’d try once again to engage the trollhunter. He knew how important this was to Y/n. Douxie was going to make this little man like him if it was the last thing he did.

“I saw the school play you were in a couple weeks ago, Jim. You were quite the actor, and I know Shakespeare’s tough. Have you ever thought of going into it professionally? Claire’s told me she wants to. You two could be one of those celebrity power couples.”

Jim just offered a short thanks that was less hostile but not exactly enthusiastic either. Well, at least Doux was getting somewhere. It’s a start. Y/n was content with this. Jim would warm up to Douxie eventually. It didn’t have to be right away, even if she would have liked that.

After the dinner conversation had died down and the food long gone, Y/n set out to clear the table and clean the kitchen. Barbara also went to help her, but Douxie assured her he’d take care of it. He was a world class waiter after all. He stacked up the plates as Y/n grabbed the dinner dishes. And so the two set off to the world behind the wall, to clean or canoodle or whatever. Jim wasn’t too keen on thinking about it. His mother pulled him into the living room to sit on the couch and preceded to ask him twenty questions about Claire. He was almost happy when the lovebirds came back.

And then his mother made them all play some card game for three hours straight. All while the lovebirds flirted away right in front of them. It was like they had no shame. This guy just had to have Y/n under a spell or something, Jim was sure of it. There was no other explanation. As she giggled at another one of Douxie’s stupid jokes that weren’t even funny, Jim felt sick.

Finally it came time for that douchebag to leave. Jim rolled his eyes at his mother and sister fawning over Doux as he made his way to the door. He slinked over behind them to watch the guy leave and make sure that he left. As Douxie went through the door he gave Y/n a quick peck and said the stupidest line Jim had ever heard. Who does this guy think he is. Once the door was shut and Doux had indeed walked away, Jim scoffed.

“Bet that guy has a bank of pickup lines he’s memorized. There’s no way he came up with that on the fly.”

***

Jim was furious. He fought like a madman during training. Draal was just making it worse by encouraging it; he really liked the kid’s fire today. Draal had no idea what was up with him right now, but Jim was giving it his all. The trollhunter was rarely this aggressive. Blinky looked on as Jim growled and shouted with every strike. He hadn’t seen his son frothing at the mouth like this before. It was glorious. Keep this up and Angor Rot won’t know what hit him.

Claire and Toby were also training, with Arrggh, albeit with not even half as much gusto as Jimbo. They were also a wee bit distracted, trying to wind Jim down from said gusto. He came over to where they were to get some water. Taking this opportunity, Toby tried appealing to him once again.

“Dude, give it a rest, this is just like how you got all pissy about your mom dating Strickler.” Toby was exasperated.

“Y/n can’t date guys, my mother can’t date guys, no men should be frequently invited into our household! No boys allowed! Me and Toby are the only boys allowed!” Jim growled. He stormed off across the keep to go land another hit on Draal.

Blinky blinked. He was taken aback at the hostility from his charge. “So, do either of you have any idea as to what that was about.”

“Right now the winning theory is that this is like, about how heartbroken his mother was when his dad left, so now he doesn’t want that to happen again or something,” Claire sighed. Her teacher really was a good guy. Lonely too. Just like Y/n. They were going to be good for each other. Her boyfriend should be happy for them. Jim took a particularly dirty swipe at Draal. Toby grunted in sympathy. “Or maybe Douxie just poked Arcadia’s most possessive bear.”

***

Jim and Toby were walking downtown, enjoying their free time after a trollhunting mission on this fine Sunday afternoon. That is, until they came in sight of the bookstore. Jim felt that bitter feeling in his stomach again. He knew Y/n wasn’t working today. Douchey would be all alone. Now was his chance to confront this and end it before it got any worse. Toby noticed the malice in his eyes as he stomped towards the bookstore.

“Woah dude, what’re you doing?”

“I’m just going to have a little chat with Mr. Casperan that’s all.”

Toby threw his head back in exasperation. “There no talking you out of this is there?”

“Nope”

The bell jingled as they walked in. The bookshop smelled like Christmas. And Jim was about to try and talk politics with his racist uncle at the dinner table. Douxie came over and greeted them cheerily.

“Good afternoon, lads. Looking for any book in particular?”

“I’m not a part of this. I just happen to be with him physically.” Toby quickly asserted. Douxie quirked a brow at the odd statement. Jim pushed forward aggressively. Doux had the sense to back away from the boy.

“I’m onto you, wizard. Just what did you do to my sister? Did you slip her a love potion? Is that bracelet she’s been wearing charmed?” Jim growled. Toby cringed on the sidelines.

Douxie blinked. “Excuse me?”

“There’s no other explanation for your ‘relationship’. You’ve got to be magicking her. And I won’t just sit here and let it happen. That’s my sister and it’s my job to protect her from creeps like you.”

Douxie took in the boys words, and a deep breath. He tried his best not to sound too defensive and provoke the kid further, “Okay, wow. That’s quite an accusation there, friend.” He moved away from where the boy had backed him into a bookshelf. “You know, out of all that you just implied, the part I think I’m most offended by is the fact that you’d think I’d mess with Y/n’s free will like that.”

Douxie straightened some books on a nearby display. “You know Jim, when it comes to love-” Jim stormed out of the bookstore before Doux could take his lecture any further, grabbing Toby by the arm so he’d follow. Toby mouthed a big ‘I’m sorry’ to Doux as he was pulled out of the store.

***

Jim’s pencil felt abused. He was furiously scribbling the answers to his homework with a heavy hand. He still had a lot of pent up rage, even after accosting poor Doux. After snapping his lead for the seventh time in the hour, Jim decided that switching subjects to Spanish instead of math for a bit might help him calm down. He moved to his bed to start the assigned reading. He laid on his stomach, propping up his head in his hands to see his textbook. His blue eyes perused the paragraphs punctuated by cheesy cartoons. He was halfway through the third page when a knock came at his door. Taking a deep breath, he called for whoever it was to let themselves in. His sister stepped into view.

Jim ran a hand through his dark hair. Here comes the scolding. He didn’t even have to ask if Y/n had heard about what he’d done today. If Douxie himself hadn’t told her then Tobes certainly did. Jim wasn’t proud of it, now that it was all said and done. He knew he deserved whatever Y/n was about to dish out. He sat up and crisscrossed his legs. She pulled his desk chair over and sat backwards in it so that she was facing him on the bed.

That’s it. No scolding came. She just sat and looked at him, neutral faced. He squirmed at the nothing. She lifted up the coffee mug in her hands and took a slow sip, not breaking eye contact with him. Jim began to sweat. He tried to avoid her gaze by looking down at the floor, but he could still feel her eyes upon him. Sighing, he had to admit defeat.

“Okay, so I do feel bad about what I said to Douxie today.” He looked back up to meet Y/n’s eyes. She raised a brow. “It was wrong of me to jump to conclusions like that, I’m sorry.”

Y/n appeared to be satisfied by that. A smile spread across her face and she nodded to him. She stood up, and ruffled his hair on her way out. Still refusing to break her silence, she motioned for him to follow her downstairs.

***

Y/n set her coffee cup down on the table. She pulled another mug out of the cabinet for Jim. Grabbing the coffee pot from its nest under the coffeemaker, she filled Jim’s mug and topped off her own. Sliding the mug across the table to Jim, she sat down. Jim could smell the aromas of the several colorful dishes baking that he could see through the screen of the oven door. Strange, it was already half past nine. There was cinnamon in the air, so at least one of those dishes contained dessert. Jim’s stomach growled at the thought.

“You know I’m not the one you should have to apologize to, Jimbo.”

“I know, I know,” He looked at the ground, “I’ll go talk to him tomorrow after school.”

Silence filled the kitchen again. Y/n took a sip of coffee. This conversation was going to be hard. She wasn’t particularly looking forward to it. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped. She took yet another long sip of coffee to figure out a good enough way to word this. She took a breath.

“So, uh- listen Jimbo. I- I know it’s tough, ya know, with it just being us. And our family’s tight because of it. But you can’t get so protective that new people can’t join it. Or even try.”

Jim took a breath, “I know it’s just, I-, what happens when we, when you, get so attached to him, and he decides that he doesn’t care for you anymore. When he turns out to be bad. When he just disappears. Like- like they do.”

“Oh, Jim,” She reached across the table for his hand. “That’s my risk to take, Jim. I fully recognize that what I’m doing is hazardous and I could get hurt really bad. But I still chose to do it. I choose it every day. We all do, when we fall in love.”

Jim took a sip and lingered, staring into his cup. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” He chuckled, “I know I’d be devastated if Claire ever wizened up and left me.”

“Look, you gotta trust me okay? Douxie isn’t dad or Strickler. I promise. He’s kind. I trust him. After you apologize, I think you really should start to make an effort to get to know him. If not for me, for Claire dude. And I think you’ll really like him. Promise you’ll give him a chance?”

Jim sighed in defeat. “Alright. I promise.”

She stood up and stretched out her back, making those stretching noises that people do. She checked the food in the oven. The buns were ready, but the quiche still needed a few minutes. She took out the pans and put them on the cooling rack. After fanning them for a few seconds, she turned to Jim, “So you want a spinach bun or a cinnamon bun?”

“How is that a question?” Jim laughed.

“Spinach bun it is then,” She teased as she tossed him the cinnamon one.

“What’s all this for anyway?” He gestured to the oven and the buns.

“Oh, uh, its actually for a date tonight?” She looked warry of how he’d react.

“Okay,” He guessed now would be as good a time as ever to start letting this go, “You crazy kids have fun.” Y/n laughed, relived.

Douxie had just finished up the sweeping and was ready to close up. As he headed to towards the front doors, he took one last look around the place to make sure he didn’t miss anything. All clean and tidy. Whoever opened tomorrow would appreciate it. He flipped the neon sign from open to nope and started locking up. Which is when his girlfriend pounced on him and almost gave him a heart attack. She just appeared out of thin air to tackle him into a hug. Scared the living daylights out of him. Y/n apologized profusely when she noticed him freak out but was still snickering between sorries so she probably didn’t mean it. He asked her just what the hell she was doing here and she picked up a picnic basket that was on the ground to show him.

“I just knew a certain wizard hadn’t eaten yet tonight.”

***

Y/n felt the ground beneath her back through the picnic blanket. The new spring growth had made them a cushion of sorts. Her head rested in the crook of Douxie’s shoulder as his arm was wrapped around her. It was nice here. Comfy. She could smell his hair and feel his chest move as he breathed. Their heartbeats made a nice rhythm to accompany the cricket song and the noise of the trees swaying. The stars were so lovely tonight. Stellar.

Douxie broke the quiet. “So I brushed up on my astrology.”

“Oh yeah?” Y/n quirked her brow. Astrology was one of her biggest interests. She’d loved it since her grandmother had given her a book about it when she was small. It was a well-worn, well-loved book. Her grandmother had handwritten things in the margins too. She’d been talking Douxie’s ears off about it during work earlier that week. Something was just so fascinating about how there were gorgeous balls of light in the sky that could tell you the future. There really was magic embedded in the fabric of the universe. It was sweet that he would care enough to learn about her interests. Very sweet indeed. The fact that he went out of his way just so he could talk to her about something she loved? Tooth-rotting. She wasn’t sure if her heart sped up because she was excited to talk about astrology or because of the sugar rush he just gave her.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve needed to look at constellations, we do have GPS now, but I think I remember enough,” He pointed to the sky, “That’s Pisces, right?”

“Yes!” Y/n couldn’t stop herself from smiling so wide her cheeks hurt.

“And that’s Aries, which marks the beginning of spring,” He looked back at Y/n who nodded to him, “oh, and look! We can see Venus tonight.”

“Hey Douxie, I love you. And You’re really making me want to kiss you right now.”

He chuckled and wiggled his eyes brows teasingly, “Ah, yes, I am aware of the effect I have.” She rolled her eyes and put her hand on his face to push him away. If he saw the blush creeping up on her, he’d just get flirtier. She wasn’t sure she could handle that. Something caught her eye and instantly stole her attention.

“Look! A shooting star! Make a wish Doux.” She pointed to the streak of light that flashed.

“I don’t need wishes when I’m here with you, Love.” If her face was pink before it was bright red now.

Y/n hid her face in her hands, “No! You were supposed to say something silly,” She came back up to look him in the eyes, “not something that makes me want to kiss you even more.”

He leaned his head in closer, “Well, what’s stopping you, Y/n”

Well, that was obviously a dare. She couldn’t not kiss him now. So she did. They melted into it instantly. At first it was sweet and slow, but they got a bit hungrier, and the kiss got a bit sloppier. Douxie smelled like the bookstore, Y/n loved the smell of the bookstore. It was everything safe in her life. He was everything safe in her life. Her best friend. He brought his hand up to cup her cheek. He loved how her lips just fit together with his perfectly. Y/n Lake was everything he’d been waiting for all these years. Soft and kind, with such a beautiful heart. Not to mention, a badass. Yet, even with all his ancient baggage, she still cared for him. Made him feel like new again. Out of all the wizards of Arcadia Oaks, she chose him. He still couldn’t believe it. They pulled apart way sooner than either of them wanted, but they did have to breathe, so it had to be done. Locked in Douxie’s gaze, Y/n broke the intensity to giggle.

“But really, I was setting you up for a joke. You know what you could have done with that, Doux?” She teased.

“I’ll remember that for next time, Love.”

“Ah, they’re super rare. This is the first time I’ve ever seen one in all my stargazing years.”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of time to see the next one. And the next one. All the shooting stars you want. Only seeing them every few decades could make them a special little thing for us.” He said so nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t just implied that he expected their love to last for countless decades. As if it were a given. Suddenly it hit her. She could live thousands of years by his side. She would live thousands of years by his side. This was it. She wasn’t even sure humans could turn this vivid a shade of red. Y/n’s heart was gonna pop if it beat any harder.

“Stars, are you just hellbent on making me combust tonight? It too hot out here for this.” Douxie just laughed, a twinkle in his eye. She focused on her beloved stars to calm her down. She sighed, “The stars really are beautiful tonight.”

“You know what else is beautiful?”

“Me?”

“You- aww, you’ve heard that one.”

Y/n’s snort rung in the air. So, he does just have a bank of pick-up lines he’s pulling from. Interesting. Guess it must be tough having to be Arcadia’s most charming waiter. They stilled again. The comfortable silence embraced them. And they could have basked in it all night, if Douxie had not a burning question he had been waiting to ask his beloved.

“So- uh,” She looked to him expectedly, “Do you think there’s life out there?”

Y/n tried not to laugh too hard with Douxie’s very serious tone, “Yeah, yeah I do.”

Now it was Douxie’s turn to smile so wide his cheeks hurt. “Really?”

“Yeah,” She said, “I think it’d be kinda arrogant to assume that with all that vastness up there that we’re the only ones who exist.”

“That’s a really good point.” Douxie said excitedly. He pulled her tighter into his embrace and snuggled. “I think I’m going to use that on Zoe next time she tries to tell me that I’m crazy and aliens aren’t real.”

“Yeah Babe! Win that argument!” Y/n encouraged.

She peppered his face with kisses. That big smile stayed on his face as he closed his eyes in delight. He repaid her with a nose kiss. And she repaid that by starting another snogging session.

***

Little did they know that shoot star was really aliens akiriddion spaceship crash 3below wait shit the akiriddions landed in like season two and ive set this in one ugh just pretend like this makes sense hfhadhiufs

#douxie x reader #hisirdoux casperan x reader #hisirdoux x reader #douxie imagine #douxie casperan x reader #hisirdoux casperan imagine #hisirdoux casperan #douxie casperan imagine #lake!reader #toa douxie #douxie #douxie casperan #my writing

[a-force-dyad-in-space]

After roughly 20 hours of painting, I finally finished woohoo!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Okay, backstory: So, @byallaccountsitdoesntmakesense and I were talking about NingXian (or rather, since I'd gotten sucked into NingXian Land through the two fics I wrote, I needed someone there with me and spammed her with NingXian moments from the drama to trap her with me 😛) when she suddenly brought up the thought that Wen Ning is one of the only people who could calm Wei Wuxian down when he's in full-on Yiling Laozu mode, since he's so strong as a fierce corpse.

And then. AND THEN she has the audacity to bring up the scene from Avatar The Last Airbender where Katara calms down Full Avatar Mode Aang, which OF COURSE put some NingXian pictures in my head! 😤

Originally, I was just planning on one painting, but you know, your creativity takes things to a whole other level sometimes without you intending it to, so what was supposed to be just one painting became a four-page comic. 🤪

My thought behind it was, what if at the final pre-timejump showdown in Nightless City, when Wei Wuxian is going off the rails and plays the flute, Wen Ning (whom he presumed dead) is imprisoned in Qishan and hears the flute like he does 16 years later in ep2, and breaks free? He rushes to Wei Wuxian and, well, you can see for yourself what happens. Hope you like it. 😊

(Reading direction is left-to-right)

They love each other, Your Honor. ♥️

Would it have changed anything? Would JYL still have died? Would WWX still have jumped off the cliff? Who knows. 🥲

#as i was working on this i kept thinking 'i could be doing this in black and white without anything fancy so WHY AM I COLORING IT???' #this took so long 😭😭😭😭😭 #i'm so happy it's done 😭😭😭😭 #ningxian #wei wuxian #wen ning #the untamed #my untamed posts #jengarts #where is lwj in all this you ask??? #either rescuing a'yuan or on his way to nc #either way he's not here (yet)

[s-n-a-k-e-p-i-t]

okay so I finished the ember in the ashes series

and it actually was pretty good. 

SPOILERS BELOW  :) 

Okay so I thought the first book was pretty cool. Gave off very much Hunger Games meets Game of Thrones vibes, which I had literally zero issues with. As with my book report on the first book (I didn’t write them for two and three because I just kept going) I liked all the character development and I also appreciated that the main couple (Elias x Laia) were occupied by other potential romantic interests and they weren’t immediately with each other... Though I immediately regretted that once Elias became The Soul Catcher and literally could not be with her.. But anyway, I loved Helene’s character and I honestly shipped her more with Elias than Laia at first. Sue me. But they were both hardened people and understood each other and it felt like it just worked. 

Anyway, the second and third books kinda meshed together in my mind. There was a lot of traveling and scheming, etc, and I felt like it was dragged on a bit too much. I blame Keris’ whole “I want to rule everyone mwahaha I’m working with The Nightbringer, you’re all beneath me” shtick, because holy shit I wanted her dead more than anyone. And honestly the redeeming quality in those for me was Helene and Harper. I power read through every POV to get back to them, I thought Elias and Laia’s story was taking a while? Ha! Helene gave that boy NOTHING until she gave him everything. But wow, I loved them so much. 

I would easily say Helene was my favorite character in this series. Homegirl watched her whole family have their throats slit just to watch her sister be essentially sold to a fucking dipshit of an Emperor? After losing her best friend she was in love with? And having to hunt him? And control all military? Literal queen. Honestly. She was a fucking badass. And then Harper? Being the only one she could really trust and open up to? AND THEN HE DIED???? I was like please god NO let her have SOMETHING. I mean not that I’m opposed to her whatever it is with Musa. 

Okay, maybe Musa is my fav. No Helene is, but he and Darin are a CLOSE tie for second. 

Anyway, the last book? I didn’t think I’d finish it today after starting it after lunch. But alas, here I am. Woohoo. The last book really surprised me. Being the longest and historically speaking last books always suck, I thought it would take me a day or two, but holy moly, I tore through those last 200 pages like I hadn’t eaten in days and it was a fat juicy steak in front of me. DAMN. The Nightbringer’s whole exposure and binding, Helene finally destroying Keris with her story (which was WOW by the way, I mean I had a feeling but shit), the maelstrom. Ugh. My heart. And Laia keeping her promise and telling the story of the Nightbringer at the end at the Moon Festival. I just really appreciated how it all came full circle, how this story essentially started and ended in the same place. 

I totally called Cook being Laia’s mom when I was reading book 1, but honestly, the surprises came more from her actions. Killing Keris after everyone thought she was dead. Taking over as The Soul Catcher so that Laia could have Elias in her life. Cook could easily fit in with Musa and Darin as #2 in my favs. 

I think it was really interesting as well how the POVs expanded as the story went on and I really liked how the side characters were (imo) more intriguing than the main one’s (87% of the time). And counting Helene as a non main character. I mean I guess she is. I guess she accounts for most of that percentage. Idk it’s late and I suck at math and my heart hurts. 

Ultimately, while certain parts dragged, there was just enough in this series to keep me wanting to know what happened. Though I wasn’t consumed by the fire of loving a story with so much of myself, I still found versions of it in the first and last books and was still invested enough some of the characters to keep reading. I also am hesitant with significant time jumps so there’s that lol. But overall this was good. I’m glad I read it and I’m satisfied with the ending. 

As always I am here to chit chat if you’ve read the series as well. Next on the list is Throne of Glass. Get ready because I am!

#an ember in the ashes series spoilers #an ember in the ashes #a torch against the night #the reaper at the gates #a sky beyond the storm #an ember in the ashes spoilers #a torch against the night spoilers #the reaper at the gates spoilers #a sky beyond the storm spoilers #elias x laia #harper x helene #darin of serra #darin of serra my literal king #musa my literal king #helene aka the love of my life #cook was cool too #emily reads #emily reads books #emily reads books and apparently still writes book reports

[kayr0ss]

Welcome Home

[LWA, Diakko, domestic, family, baby?, cute happy shit]

Akko and Diana are still settling into this new life, routine, and responsibility. But coming home to this...? It was the best thing that ever happened to them.

—–

Diana clicked at the button of her retractable pen, eyes moving rapidly from left to right and back again. She paused, humming softly to herself while she appraised yet another essay on how ‘the advent of big data and analytics is a turning point in the synthesis of magic and artificial intelligence technology. She scribbled her remarks on the paper’s margin:

‘Revise – provide suggested guidelines and security measures for magic-infused data-driven machinery.’

Now, it may come as a surprise to many, but Diana never really considered herself a traditionalist. In fact, her on-going tenure at Luna Nova’s higher-education learning center is heavily decorated with progressive and future-minded research and perspectives. This idea, however, simply sounded a little too much like… Croix—and she wasn’t going to pretend that kept her at ease. But Diana also believed that very few people fall far beyond redemption, and Prof. Croix’s appointment as the Head of the Magical Engineering Ethics Board was the perfect example of redemption if there ever was one.

‘As we’ve learned historically, aggressive technological progress should be done under the guiding hand of ethics and humanitarian agenda,” she jotted down. She spared a quick glance to the office clock her before diving back down into the paper.

05:17:PM

Still early, she thought to herself, I could probably finish this stack before going home and—

“Quarter-past-five!” she suddenly exclaimed, forgetting that her former working hours of until well-past-eight were no longer applicable. Recent events had turned her entire world… upside-down.

“Grading will have to wait until tomorrow,” she hurriedly—but meticulously, of course—tidied the papers into her drawer; the pile on the left for marked papers, and unmarked papers on the right. Her keys jingled while she put her belongings back into her handbag, and the hurried clacking of her heels signaled the other professors of her early retreat back home.

--

Diana Cavendish rarely rolled her eyes, but by Jennifer the traffic was horrendous on the north-bound lane. Which she wouldn’t even be on, had she not forgotten the towels she was supposed to buy earlier in-between lectures. Akko reminded her thrice that morning (each time answered with an obedient, “yes, dear.”) Diana was once again reminded that one of the most surprising—and amusing—things she discovered since her marriage to the brunette witch was that between the two of them, Akko was ‘wife-zilla’.

06:13:PM

And there was extra-emphasis on the ‘zilla’ part lately. Traffic be damned, she was going to get those towels.

--

“Eep!”

The sharp whistling of a boiling kettle startled Akko out of the sports magazine she was so deeply engrossed it. Shit shit shit—she clumsily shut the glossy pages closed, darting towards the kitchen and—kami-sama, why did Diana think it was a good idea to have doors everywhere? “Stupid door,” she groaned, anxious to silence the whistling lest it disturb their special guest.

She lunged towards the stove, snapping the burner knob closed. “I could have done that with magic,” she flicked herself on the forehead, old habits from a magic-less childhood kicking in during the oddest moments. She blinked, scanning the kitchen counter for a small box before realizing that she left it back at the living room. “I’m almost as bad at this as I was at transmutation spells!”

About five minutes later, she was jogging back towards the dining area balancing a warmed tumbler in one hand, and several plastic utensils in another. She narrowly avoided tripping over the carpet (“Fuck!”), and was unfortunate enough to hit her shin across the low coffee-table, warranting an impressive parade of crisp, native-to-Japan curses. Thank Kami-sama it was Friday, she thought with relief. Diana would be taking over evening household duties by Monday and she damn well needed a break; even if a break meant more hours working.

She tipped the warmed tumbler over and let a few drops of its content spatter at the back of her hand.

06:37:PM

It was still too warm but should be just fine by dinner time.

--

[Capitalism is a predator, but I’m nearly home.]

Diana hit ‘send’, letting her wife know that she was around 2 blocks away while waiting for the last stoplight to turn green.

[As long as u got the towels lol. Tnx, luv u :-*]

Diana smiled at Akko’s reply, turning her attention away from her phone screen when she saw the soft glow shift from red to green. Yes, she had the towels—and maybe a full set of Reuven-Eilhart designer night pajamas. Or three.

She also brought home new ‘friends’—she saw that the store had recently released a set of ‘We There Bears’ themed products. Diana remembered Akko raving about them; they were apparently quite the in-thing as of late. She was immediately drawn to the pure-white polar bear with an interestingly unreadable expression. “That un’s ‘Nice Bear’,” the clerk supplied. “But if y’gonna get ‘im, you gotta get the whole gang else he’d be lonely.”

And so she did—because if Diana ever did anything she never did it half-way done. Frizzly Bear and Fanda sat snugly beside him in the backseat.

The blonde witch pulled up into their driveway, sorting out her belongings before stepping out to unload her shopping bags from the back. She opened the door and couldn’t help but laugh at herself.

“What has become of me,” she smiled, wondering how to bring three bears and several frilly-looking things into their house without painting herself as silly.

06:53:PM

Warm, yellow light flooded through the dining room curtains, and the familiar sound of their car alerted Akko to Diana’s arrival.

“She’s actually home on time,” she remarked to a little fellow seated at the end of their dining table, pulling on an exaggerated expression of being impressed. But Diana’s arrival always makes her smile, so she walks towards the front door so she can giver he wife a hand and—

She paused, taking a strong sniff of something which was coming out of the kitchen.

“Oh, no.”

The pizza! There was pizza burning in the oven! She bolted back towards the kitchen for some damage control, relieved to find that the pizza was only beginning to blacken at the crusts—easily salvageable.

“Mou, Diana’s gonna give me an earful,” she whined in defeat. She could hear the sound of their door unlocking, followed by footsteps through their dining area and the rustle of shopping bags being unloaded.

To her surprise, Diana had no drop of sternness in her voice. “I’ve missed you,” she cooed.

Akko broke into a grin, turning to face Diana. “Missed you to—”

She bit back her words, fascinated at the sight of her wife, looking weary from a long day, cradling their beloved Sara with all the fascination in the world. Their daughter giggled up to her mother, hands reaching for her face, prodding at Diana’s nose (which scrunched up adorably) and pulling at her platinum curls before squealing in delight.

“I may have missed you, as well.” Diana teased, tossing a smile to Akko’s direction.

“That’s hardly fair!” Akko tried to pout, walking towards the two people she loved most in the world.

Diana nuzzled against Sara’s forehead, running her fingers softly over the thin patch of light-brown hair beginning to grow longer. Sara perked up immediately when Akko came into her field of vision.

“I think she likes me better,” Akko whispered before kissing Diana’s shoulder. She wrapped an arm around the pair and tickled at Sara’s nose.

“Not a chance.” Diana leaned her head against Akko’s, watching as Sara grabbed onto Akko’s finger with a chubby little hand.

“Did you buy her another hundred sets of pajamas?” Akko raised an eyebrow.

“Only three,” Diana tried to hide her defensiveness. “And... several room accessories?”

Akko laughed, “pretty soon we’re going to run out of space in her room. This little lady has got you wrapped around her finger!”

There was no use denying it, so Diana simply rolled her eyes.

“Come here,” Akko smiled. “Welcome home.” She moved up to her tiptoes, and Diana turned her head to meet the brunette half-way for a small kiss. She appreciated the way Akko’s embraced tightened around her torso and warmed her chest; the way it made her family feel so... whole.

Akko pulled back, but Diana chased after her to steal another quick kiss, amused at the way Akko would still blush whenever she did that.

“So,” Diana gave her wife a look, “burnt pizza for dinner?”

“Mou, Sara! Your mother is such a bully!”

--

A/N: Woohoo finally churned another one out! I’m feeling a bit sick, and it’s early in the morning, so hopefully there aren’t that many typos/errors. Anyway I’m doing fine, hope you all are too! I’ve been re-reading Appointments over and over so I can get a feel of the writing style and flow I used to have for it and finally finish the next chapter. I do feel out of touch from how I was back in 2018; so I really need to do a lot of fanfic reading. You guys have any suggestions?

ALSO - meet Sara! Her name means vivid blossoms; it’s Japanese but also western-sounding so win-win for both moms. A homage to ‘Botany’, with the flowers and everything. She was originally meant to be Leia, because I’m a big Star Wars fan, but hey! I saw Sara and instantly thought it was the best fit. Hope you enjoyed. :) [Also, I’ve noticed I tend to switch between past / present tense a lot and I’ll be working to actively fix that moving forward!]

#Diakko #Dianakko #Diana x Akko #diana cavendish #atsuko kagari #kagari atsuko #Akko Kagari #Akko #LWA #Little Witch Academia #Fanfic #Yuri #Femmeslash #Fluff #Family #cute #wholesome #family fic

[cilldaracailin]

We Are The Champions

Hello my Tumblr Lovelys,

Happy Tuesday. I got to register for my first COVID vaccine this morning. Woohoo! No idea how long it will take before I get it but its finally a step going in the right direction.

Anyway, sorry for the gap in posting on this but I promise it will be worth it :)

Thanks again for all the lovely comments, notes and reads.

Suze xx

As always, here is the disclaimer. I don’t know Taron or his family and this is all fiction.

8

“Do more of what makes your soul happy.”

When Taron woke the next morning, he immediately noticed a difference in the temperature in the room and looked to his left to see the fan turned off.  “Ugh why?” He moaned.

“It was freezing in here.”

“That is a matter of personal opinion.” Taron lifted his head and used his right hand to rub his eyes. “Bloody heatwave.”

“Someone is cranky in the heat and morning.”

“I am not cranky. Just…” Taron turned his head on the pillow and had to move so he could open both his eyes. Leaning against the door, Robyn was very much awake and dressed in attire for the heat and beach day. In a black string dress with light pink flowers and green leaves, he was glad he was laying down on his stomach. Her hair had been pulled back in plaits and she stood barefoot very casually, just smiling at him.

“Just…” She coaxed when he didn’t finish his sentence.

“Just warm. The fan?”

“I could see goosebumps on your skin this morning so turned it off.”

“Shouldn’t I have been involved in that decision?”

“And wake you from your precious slumber? I don’t think so.”

Taron dropped his head back onto his pillow and hoped his body shift was seen as getting comfortable on the bed and nothing more. “What time is it?”

“After ten. I made breakfast if you are interested.”

“Just once I want to wake up before you and do nice things for you.”

Robyn laughed a little. “I have only been up about twenty minutes.” She fluffed out her dress. “Easy to get ready for the beach. Swim wear and then a dress. Not much effort at all.”

“And breakfast?”

“Erm eggs?” She said with a half unsure smile. “And m&m’s. You really didn’t have much food. Seems to be a thing with you.”

Taron chuckled. “Catering and mams.” Snuggling into the pillow he yawned. “What time are we heading at?”

“Whenever you want.”

Yawning again, Taron buried a little lower into his bed. “Eggs can be re-heated?”

“Sure.”

“I might just lay here for a while.” He felt the bed move and knew Robyn was beside him.

“You’re quite tired this weekend. You feeling ok?” She ran her index finger over his forehead that wasn’t hidden by his pillow.

“Just catching up on some lost sleep.”

“The sun burn probably hasn’t helped. Take as long as you want.”

“Ten minutes is fine. We will make a move then and the beach…”

“The beach will still be there in an hour or two.”

“Mari and Rosie…”

“Will be ecstatic no matter what time you arrive at.”

“Mam…”

“Shut up Taron. Sleep if you want.”

“Just ten more minutes.”

His ten minutes turned into two hours and he felt so guilty as he dragged himself from his bed, Robyn still sitting beside him, a word search in her hands. He apologised as he headed into the bathroom, his green swim shorts in his hands, closing the door behind him. When he came out of the bathroom, Robyn was missing and he grabbed a white t-shirt from his drawer and was pulling it on as he walked into the kitchen, the beautiful scent of coffee hitting his nose as he straightened his top out.

“So sorry.”

“Will you stop?” Robyn threw a tea-towel at him. “You obviously needed the sleep. I love it when I wake early and then just fall back asleep for a couple of hours.”

“Yeah, but we had plans. You wanted to get some sun.”

“Taron, I have the whole afternoon to get some sun.” She handed him a cup of coffee. “You know I like watching you sleep.” She saw him smile into his cup. “And it hasn’t gotten too weird that I keep saying that to you yet.”

“Not yet.” He agreed. “Thanks for the coffee.”

“Welcome. I threw out the eggs.” She told him. “I forgot about them and they got burnt. I also owe you a saucepan.”

“It’s ok.” He looked to the sink where the saucepan was sitting full of soapy water. “Really?”

“I was watching you sleep.” She shrugged. “So, seeing as how you don’t actually have anything that can qualify as breakfast food, I can offer you m&m’s or cookies.”

“How about I stick to my coffee. We can make our way down to beach when I am done?”

“Sounds like a plan. I will go and get my bag ready.”

Taron watched Robyn as she walked away, titling his head, biting his lip as she headed for the bedroom. “Robyn?”

“Hmm?” She turned around, her dress swirling around her.

“I really like that dress.”

“Thanks Taron. It’s nice to get to wear some summer stuff.”

Still with his head tilted, Taron drank some more of his coffee and was suddenly very thankful for the hot weather and suddenly very excited for the beach day. He quickly finished his drink and washed the cup, leaving it upside down on the draining board, making his way back to his bedroom, giving the door a rattle before he went in.

“Come on Taron.”

At her case, Robyn was filling a large brown straw beach bag, making sure she had everything needed for a day at the beach and probably more than she actually needed but she was extra prepared. When she went to the beach on holidays her bag was pretty light just bringing sun cream, some music and a book. Now she had added a few extra bits, making sure the box of flapjacks was on the bottom of her bag and kept flat.

“You camping out?” Taron asked coming to crouch beside her.

“Just being prepared.”

“You won’t need all that stuff.”

“Yeah, and what are you bringing?”

Taron stood up and picked up a towel from his bed, throwing it over his shoulder. “Done.” He just about caught the bottle of sun cream Robyn threw his way. “Oh, ha ha!”

“Nothing funny about it. You need that.” Robyn lifted her bag and placed it on his bed.

“Factor fifty?”

“You want sun burn on sun burn?”

“Factor fifty?”

“Yes.” Robyn answered firmly. “You can use something different on the rest of your body but that is needed for your shoulders and will have to be reapplied three or four times and after every time you have a swim.”

“Seriously?”

“You want sun stroke? It is not nice.”

“You’ve had sun stroke?”

Robyn nodded. “Hard lessons learnt. Sun cream. You only bringing a towel?”

“All I need.” He shook the bottle of sun cream at her. “I have my cream too.”

“Water?”

“Can be bought on the way.”

“And you will buy it with?” Taron pulled his wallet from a pocket in his shorts, taking his phone from another pocket. “So, you are all set then.”

“Seems so.”

“Want to head then?” Robyn asked picking up her bag and hooking it over her shoulder.

“Absolutely.” Taron picked up his sunglasses and hat and followed her to the front door.

“You want to grab your keys too rocketman?” Robyn waited for him outside the door, grinning at his face, as he turned around and picked up his keys from the coffee table. “Sure you have everything now?”

“Hope so.” He closed the door

Walking toward the beach, the streets of Aberystwyth were very busy with people out and about enjoying the sunshine, making the most of the beautiful weather the weekend was providing and as Robyn waited outside the shop for Taron as he bought some water, it seemed everyone else in the town had the same idea for a beach day. The locals were out in force and every family or group of friends had set up their own little area on the beach and it looked crowded and so very busy, bright colourful umbrella’s covering the long shore.

“Here we go.” Taron came to stand beside Robyn, two large bottles of water in his hands but saw Robyn staring out to the beach and hadn’t noticed he was there next to her yet. He held the two bottles in one hand and gently touched her shoulder. “Robyn?”

She turned to him with a smile. “Looks busy.”

“Always the way when the weather is nice. You ok? You were staring off into space there.”

“Yeah I am good.” She saw his mouth twitch and immediately knew he was waiting for more. “You think there are any photographers lurking about?”

Taron slipped his sunglasses from his face and led her away from the door of the shop. It was the first time she had ever mentioned the press willingly outside of one of his organised events and could see a little apprehension in her eyes. “Tell me what you are thinking?”

“Just us together on the beach. Makes people think things, plus it’s your weekend off and your private life and you will be with your family and if they are milling around, it’s a complete invasion of your privacy and those kinds of pictures shouldn’t be spread across the showbiz pages of a newspaper tomorrow and…”

“And breathe.” Taron wrapped his free arm around her and gave her a hug. “It’s possible. I can’t promise you it won’t happen but the local press are really good here. They do have a lot of respect and hopefully the other mainstream press think I am in Belfast, so won’t be sneaking around and if they do happen to take photos, they are going to be more than likely of me on the beach, not of you and don’t forget, I have a wonderful woman called Lyndsey who works wonders. Don’t let thoughts of that ruin your day. I know it’s the first time we have really been out in the open in Aberystwyth together for a whole day but I think we will be fine chicken.” Taron gave her another one-armed squeeze. “You feel uncomfortable at any point and we can disappear for a while for a coffee in one of the cafés on the beachside.”

“Thank you.”

“You haven’t needed a press pep-talk in a long time.”

“Like you said, we have normally been inside.”

“Please don’t worry Robyn. I understand it comes with being my friend but I honestly think we will be ok. Now let’s go and find my family. I am sure my sisters are complaining that we haven’t arrived yet.”

With a nod Robyn offered to carry one of the bottles but Taron slipped her bag from her shoulder and put the two bottles in her bag and swung it over his own, trying to keep his wince at bay as the bag handles rested on his sore sunburn and reached for her hand, giving it a very encouraging squeeze. They headed for the pedestrian crossing, making their way safely to the other side of the road, Taron saying hello to those who acknowledged him and once on the ramp that led to the beach, Robyn let Taron take the lead.

“We have a spot we always go to, same spot since I was kid and Mam brings the girls to the same one. Just this way.”

They wandered through little groups, passing families set up for the day on blankets, children digging through the shingles, buckets of water beside them, parents lashing sun cream onto pale boys and girls who had arm bands and inflated rings around them. It reminded Robyn so much of her own childhood when she went to the beach with her parents and cousins and as they walked a bit more, she heard the excited shouts before she saw Mari and Rosie and Taron let go her hand and placed her bag on the ground just in time as his sisters came running towards him.

“Taron!”

“Hello Mari, Rosie.” He gave them a tight hug.

“You were ages coming!” Mari said as she let her brother go. “We’ve been here for hours!”

As Taron did his best to explain why he was so late getting to the beach to Mari, Rosie came over to Robyn to greet her with a hug and smile.

“I love your dress.”

“Thank you Rosie. Your suit is lovely. I have a blue stripped one too but the stripes go the other way.”

“Are you wearing it today?” Rosie asked.

“No today no. I have some flowers on my suit today.”

“Mari’s suit has flowers on it and Mam’s but I liked the stripes.”

“Me too.”

“Robyn!” Mari side stepped around her brother, somewhat pleased with his explanation and gave Robyn a hug. “You are going to have so much fun today.”

“I bet.” Robyn grinned, ignoring Taron’s face over his sister’s heads.

“Let’s go and find your mam and dad.”

Both of Robyn’s hands were taken and the girls led her towards their spot, leaving a slightly deflated Taron behind as his sisters once again took Robyn’s attention. He picked up her beach bag and followed a few steps behind. When he caught up, Guy was giving Robyn a hug, while his mam was trying to quieten down two excited girls. He carefully put down Robyn’s bag and gave his mam her own hug and kiss on the cheek.

“Why didn’t you call me?” He looked at the six deck chairs they that had been set up in a semi-circle, two umbrella’s in-between them, along with two large beach towels on the stones and two very heavy looking ice boxes. “I would have helped you.”

“Like I was going to do that.” Tina glanced to Robyn who was in full conversation with her husband. “We drove the car down.”

“What time have you been here since?”

“Not too long.” Tina saw Taron half smile. “Just after ten which actually turned out to be a great idea. An hour later the beach was packed.”

“Very busy.” Taron agreed.

“How was your morning?”

“Yeah good.”

“You been sleeping?”

Taron grinned. “Robyn was awake pretty early. I woke half an hour after her and I had only planned on taking ten minutes extra sleep but it turned into two hours.”

“Don’t tell Mari and Rosie that. Nearly had Guy up at yours knocking on your door to get you up. I am not surprised though. You had a busy day yesterday.”

“Have the girls been wired?”

Tina nodded. “They have been warned that today will not be like yesterday. I know how important this weekend is for you and Robyn too and I know you love being home and with them, but you need some space to spend time with her too.”

“Thank you mam.”

“The two chairs on the left side are for you and Robyn. We have another umbrella if you want it and I also brought some sun cream for your shoulders.”

Taron chuckled. “Robyn has that covered already. I have been ordered to wear factor fifty. She bought it with her.”

Tina grinned. “I adore her.”

Tina went to walk away but Taron took her hand. “You haven’t seen any press lingering around, have you?” He asked her quietly.

“Not that I have been actively looking but no. Haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary. You worried?”

“More so Robyn. A press event is so very different to a day out in my home town. She’s a little concerned. I have told her not to worry.”

“It’s a difficult part of your life.” Taron nodded, looking to his feet but feeling his mam’s hand on his cheek, looked to her. “I have seen her with the press love.”

“Oh, I know she can handle herself. It’s just not fair for her to be photographed.”

“Don’t think too much about it. We are having a family day out that she was invited to.” Tina gave his cheek a little kiss. “Enjoy the day. Relax, take a swim, eat some food and walk the shore with her.”

“Thank you mam.”

He picked up Robyn’s bag and placed it on one of the deck chairs his mam had left for himself and Robyn, then made his way over to greet his step-dad, his sisters still chatting Robyn’s ear off.

“We have already had a swim twice, built four sandcastles and had a walk.” Mari said to Robyn who was patiently crouched down with her.

“Well you have been busy.” Robyn smiled.

“Our sandcastle fell over though.” Rosie came to stand with her sister. “The stones kept toppling over.”

“We were going to try and make one with sand at the water. We have buckets and spades. You can use mine if you want.” Mari said to her.

“And as I explained to you both last night and this morning, Robyn and Taron are here to have a break and rest. They won’t be spending all day building sandcastles with you.” Tina stepped in behind her daughters, a hand on each shoulder. “And we need to top up your sun cream. Let’s go girls.”

Even though they were clearly unhappy about being torn away from Robyn and even more so about the sun cream, Mari and Rosie followed their mother to one of the beach towels that was shaded.

“So I think me and you should go and find a quiet little spot way over there.” Taron pointed with his arm to the right. “Way way way over there.”

Robyn stood up and grinned. “Or we can go and sit on the seats your lovely family have provided for us. They are excited. Give them time and they will settle and you can lay down and relax.”

“You are not going to build a sandcastle with them. You’ve only just gotten here.”

“No I am not. I am going to go and get sorted and get some sun cream on.” She pulled his hat from his head and placed it on hers. “Then I might go and build one!”  

Skipping away from him, she moved to where he had left her bag and opening it up, pulled out a large beach towel with a dolphin on it, laying it flat on the loose beach stones in front of one of the spare deck chairs. She emptied some things from her bag on the towel and slipped her dress over her head, folding it neatly and popping it back on her bag.

“Put your eyes back in your head son.” Guy watched with a smirk as Taron’s eyes followed every move Robyn made, how he licked his lips as Robyn stripped to her swim wear. “There are young ones around.” He grinned as Taron turned to him with a scowl. “Just saying.” Guy held his hands up. “Gonna be a long day if you are going to stare at her like that.” He jumped backwards as Taron went to swipe at him.

“Shut up Guy.” Taron half stormed away from his step-dad, around the deck chairs, pulling his t-shirt off as he went, throwing it down onto the stones, mumbling to himself. He picked up his stripped towel and flung it on the ground, grumbling when as it folded over on itself. “Ugh for goodness sake.” He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder, seeing Robyn beside him.

“You ok?”

“Yeah sorry.”

“Want some help?” She pointed towards the towel.

“Please.”

With the towel sorted, Taron plopped down onto it, crossing his legs and running his hands over his head. A bottle of water came into his eye line and he took it gratefully, opening it and drinking the cool liquid.

“What’s up?” Robyn moved to sit on his towel beside him.

“Just Guy.” Taron shrugged his shoulders.

Robyn grinned. “Just let it go.”

Her words made him laugh and he looked to her. “I like your swim costume but we really need to talk about this matching thing.”

“Thought you liked it when we matched.” Robyn lightly pulled at his swim shorts.

“At events, it’s our thing. We are not at an event.”

“I didn’t know you were going to wear green.” Robyn answered to him. “And thank you.”

“For?”

“The compliment on my suit, though it’s not a suit. It’s a two piece.” She lifted the slightly flared bottom part of the top of her swim suit, Taron seeing the slightest bit of skin. The strapless green bandeau with ruffled edge matched the white bikini bottoms which had tropical leaves and flowers on them and Robyn chose the strapless design so she wouldn’t have to worry about dreaded tan lines but also because she knew it was different to what she worn before with her one piece. “Nice to change it up after you saw my blue one.  Men have it so much easier. Swim shorts and done.”

Taron chuckled. “That is very true. Not much effort. Sorry for being grumpy. Guy just got on my nerves a bit.”

“No need to apologise.” Robyn reached for his hand. “If you ever meet Claire again, Guy’s teasing will be minor compared to what she has to say. I get it daily. Now breathe and relax. I know you have been looking forward to today all weekend.” Robyn moved a little and stretched and picked up the bottle of sun cream. “Now you need this before you get settled.”

Taron took the bottle from her. “You are insisting on this then?”

“For your shoulders, yes.” Robyn said firmly. “I am not taking any chances and you are back to work tomorrow.”

Taron slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Always looking out for me.”

“Always.”

Taron was still giving Robyn a sideways hug as his sisters walked over. “Can we do your sun cream?” Mari asked coming to sit on Robyn’s towel. “I am so very good at it.”

“Me too.” Rosie sat beside her sister. “Mam has ours done, again.”

Robyn chuckled at the tone Rosie used, so clearly not impressed at being creamed up once again. “Well I am glad. It is very hot outside and you don’t want to get sun burnt.”

“That’s what our mam said.” Mari answered.

“And your mam is absolutely right.”

“So can we do yours? And Taron’s?”

Robyn moved away from Taron and picked up her factor twenty. “Tell you what, you can do mine.” She handed Rosie the bottle of cream. “But because Taron had too much sun on Friday, I am going to do his. Just to be extra careful.”

“Girls what are you up too?” Tina walked over, a slight concern on her face.

“Sun cream.” Mari held up the bottle.

“Sun cream?” Tina questioned.

“Sun cream.” Taron and Robyn said at the same time, holding up their own bottles of sun protection, Tina giving into the smile she felt.

“You sure you know what you are doing?” She looked to Robyn.

“Absolutely.”

“Ok then.” Tina walked away but looked back over her shoulder. “Robyn?”

“We’re good.”

With a nod, Tina walked the few steps back to her chair, sitting down in it beside Guy who was happily enjoying the sun on his face. “Everything ok?”

“I think so. The girls are doing Robyn and Taron’s sun cream.”

“They what?” Guy opened his eyes.

“I am leaving them to it.”

“Tina…” Guy went to move but felt a hand on his knee.

“I trust her.”

“Robyn yes but…”

“You know that thing that parents do where they watch their children but pretend they aren’t doing that?” Guy nodded. “I am doing that.”

Guy settled back into his chair and looked to his left but felt his wife take his chin and gently move it back so he was looking at the ocean.

“Out of the corner of your eye.” She whispered to him, casting her eyes to the left but keeping her face straight ahead. The little group had re-arranged themselves so Taron was sitting cross-legged at the top of the towel, Robyn on her knees behind him and her two daughters behind Robyn.

When Tina left, Robyn could see Taron’s shoulders move as he laughed and gave his legs a light smack. “Be nice.”

“So sun cream?” He asked with a wide smile.

Robyn got everyone to move, keeping Taron in front of her and the girls behind her. Any other day, she would have let the girls look after their brother’s sun cream too but she wouldn’t risk it at the moment with his still red skin and heated sun burn. He needed proper coverage as he sat in the sun and as much fun as the girls would get out of rubbing her sun cream in, she couldn’t chance letting them do Taron’s.

“Ok girls, cream away.”

“You sure about this?” Taron looked at her over his shoulder.

“You want the girls touching your sun burn? You know they won’t use the same delicate strokes that I will and if this…” She placed her palms on his shoulders. “Is not protected properly, you are going to feel worse.”

“And you are ok with them doing yours?”

Robyn nodded. “Of course.” She took her hands from his shoulders, but moved a little closer so his back was against her chest, speaking quietly into his ear. “But you might help me after just to be sure they didn’t miss a spot?”

Taron pulled his glasses from his face and grinned. “I would be happy too.” Turning back to look out towards the ocean, his view partially blocked by a coloured umbrella in front of him, Taron left his sunglasses beside his legs and let his chin drop a little. When he felt the little tap on his shoulder, realised he was still holding the bottle of factor fifty sun cream, so handed it over to Robyn as she looked for it. He needed to remember to keep a straight face and try not to make too many appreciative noises. When he was alone with Robyn, he knew she understood his little noises but in front of his parents, he needed to try and keep tight lipped. He jumped though when the cold cream touched his shoulders and hoped his mam wasn’t watching as Robyn placed the tiniest of kisses on the back of his neck as an apology for not warning him. He quickly got used to the feeling of the cold sun cream and as expected, Robyn was nothing but gentle with him and he was actually suddenly relieved Robyn had insisted on doing his shoulders herself because even with her delicate movements, his torched skin was still very sensitive and he flinched a couple of times, Robyn soothing the slight pain away so softly.

Robyn had taken Taron’s hat off and left it beside her legs and before she had started on Taron’s sun cream, she had given the two girls her bottle of factor twenty, smiling at how excited they were at rubbing in her in her sun protection. She didn’t mind in the slightest. They were old enough to understand what to do, but it meant it gave her time to prepare for when Taron came to inspect his sister’s handiwork. Thinking about her upcoming little massage Robyn just found herself smiling widely and was very much looking forward to it as she knew Taron wouldn’t just check all the blobs of cream were rubbed in but actually physically make sure they were. Her last massage had been wonderful from him and this time, she could really take advantage of needing a constant sun cream top up to get a few more in during the day, asking Taron to do it each time.

While she made sure Taron’s red skin was properly covered, twice, Mari and Rosie covered her visible back and shoulders, her arms and a sneaky bit of skin on her lower back which made her jump as she wasn’t expecting it. As the girls continued to rub her sun cream in, Robyn closed the bottle she was using and looking over her shoulder had to laugh at the faces the girls were making.

“Think you had loads now girls. Can I have that bottle please?”

“Sure Robyn.” Rosie handed the bottle over. “We are just done.”

“You need help with your legs?” Mari asked.

Robyn laughed deeply and turned around to the girls. “I think I can manage my legs myself girls.”

“Well your back is done then.” Mari said triumphantly.

“Thank you girls. I know you have done a wonderful job.”

“Mam said we could go swimming in a while. You can come with us if you want.” Rosie asked.

“We might just do that. I am going to finish Taron’s back. Why don’t you go and head back to your mam and dad, have a play. Enjoy the beach.”

“Sure Robyn.”

With the girls making a move back to their parents, Robyn turned back to Taron who was grinning her way. “What?”

“Nice move in getting them to go.” He saw the shock on her face. “No I didn’t mean it like that. I know Mam has spoken to them but you were so nice with your words and they listened to you.”

“People generally listen when you are nice to them.” She said smiling. “And I am pretty sure your mam did have words too. Now…” She held up the bottle. “Want me to finish you back?”

“Please. God made it so we can’t reach our back just warn me first. The sun cream is bloody cold.”

Giggling Robyn nodded. “I realised that I never told you I was starting before I did your shoulders. I will let you know.” Opening the bottle, Robyn squeezed what she thought would be enough to cover the rest of his back and warming it very lightly between her hands, nudged him with her elbow. “Good to go.”

“Next time I want a backless swimming costume so I can return the favour.”

Robyn chuckled as she tenderly placed her hands under his shoulder blades, moving her whole hands in careful circles. “Never going to happen.”

“I promise I won’t tickle you.”

“But the sun cream application will be tickly.” Robyn moved her hands lower down his back, letting her thumbs graze the soft skin at the waistband of his shorts. “And backless swimming costumes are not really my thing.”

“You wore a backless dress.”

“I was nearly sewen into that dress and there was a load of secret support you didn’t know about. Swimming costumes are not as forgiving.” She palmed her way back up back, traveling back down letting her fingers circle his sides and waist. “Like I said, much easier for a man.”

Taron turned spun around, Robyn taken aback at how quickly he moved, holding her hands up in defence as he stared at her, his previously bright eyes dark and almost furious. “Don’t say another word unless you want a handful of sand on your newly rubbed in sun cream.” He moved so he was kneeling in front of her. “And you know I will follow through with that threat.” He reached his right hand out so he could dig through the hot small stones and pick up a handful of tiny shingles, letting it slowly trickle from his hand. “Sure it is easier for a man, but my goodness a man very much appreciates the effort a woman makes and as a man, I can stand by that fact.” He saw an immediate blush rise to her cheeks. “This was one of the first things you ever chastised me for and I have no problem returning the favour. It’s a conversation we have had and Robyn, we have been swimming together before. Trust me…” Taron gave her a tiny shy smile. “It’s perfect. Backless or not.”

“I am going to hug you know.” Robyn said determinedly to him, trying to stop herself from flinging herself at him.

Taron grinned at her response and opened his arms. “Ok.” Tight and warm, it was a hug he was sure she needed and also one he knew would have lasted a lot longer if his family wasn’t around but hoped the tighter squeeze and discreet kiss to her left shoulder was enough to make her see she was talking nonsense. “So you done with my back? Can I check your sun cream now? Make sure there was no area missed that can get a sneaky bit of sun?”

“Sure.” Robyn nodded into his shoulder. “Let’s swap places.”

Places swapped, as Taron was distracted, getting himself settled behind her, Robyn took a quick look to the right and silently chuckled as she caught Tina and Guy looking their way, their heads turning much too quickly for them to have been doing anything but staring her and Taron’s way. She needed to remember to be on her guard during the day with Taron. Having been so used to just being by herself with him, it was so easy for her to take his hand, kiss his cheek or hug him for an extra-long time, now with so many people around she really had to remember to stop herself before she touched him for any reason.

“Dammit.”

Hearing Taron curse, Robyn looked over her right shoulder to him. “What?”

“They actually did a really good job. All the sun cream is rubbed in.”

“You can still double check though.” She turned back so she was facing forward. “In fact, you definitely should double check.” She handed him the bottle of sun cream over her shoulder. “I don’t want to end up with horribly burnt shoulders like yours.”

“Whatever you say chicken.” He took the bottle and while he squeezed some out onto his left palm, could feel the stare coming his way, so quickly glimpsed to his right giving his mother what he hoped was a stop it look, turning his attention back to Robyn. Rubbing the cream between his two hands, he slightly shook his head as that same fruity scent from the after sun hit him. “Really need to invest in scent free sun cream Robyn.” He smiled as he lightly placed his hands on her shoulders. “Once again I smell like a tropical island.” His smile grew as he felt Robyn’s shoulders shake as she laughed.

“I believe you told me a long time as I prepared a bath for you, that you didn’t mind if you smelt like a tropical island and I happen to like the scent of this sun cream.” Came the reply.

“So you like how I smell?” Taron chuckled.

“Always.” Robyn replied glad she could use the heat to explain her deep red cheeks.

“Guess it will have to do then.”

“Guess it will.”

Still smiling, Taron very carefully and gently covered every inch of Robyn’s exposed skin on her back and arms, chancing to slip his fingers over her shoulders, circling her collar bones and lightly up her neck, going over her shoulders once more before he took his hands away. “And done. No chance of sunburn with that great job.”

Turning around so she was sitting opposite him, Robyn thanked him. “Now just to cover everywhere else.” She picked up the sun cream bottle. “Your mam probably has non tropical sun cream if you want it.” Sitting as she was, Robyn started to sun cream her legs.

“I… I…” Taron stammered as his eyes were drawn to how Robyn ran her hands up and down her calves and then the front of her legs, using the same motions with her hands as she did when she massaged his back, his eyes widening as she moved over her knees, straightening her legs out to reach her thighs. “I think I will go and grab one off mam.” He managed to get out, his voice shaky. “It’s different for the after sun before I go to sleep.”

“Still going to have to smell it Taron.” Robyn looked to him as she got some more cream.

“Yeah that’s fine.” He quickly got to his feet. “I think it suits a woman more than a man.” With a rushed step, Taron moved over to where his mam was. “Sun cream?” He asked her.

“What’s wrong with Robyn’s?” Tina asked him, seeing the redness on his cheeks, how guilty his eyes looked.

“Just, can I have it?” Taron asked with a little more force than he meant. “Please?” He added.

“Sure love. Of course.” Tina reached into the bag she had brought and took out the white bottle. “Take a breather.” She advised him as she handed it over.

“Sorry mam.”

“It’s ok. She’s not doing it on purpose.” Tina gave Taron a sympathetic look.

“I know but Jesus…” Taron let out a long sigh, looking to his left, Robyn now making sure her arms were properly covered in sun cream. “It’s sun protection. It really shouldn’t…”

Tina chuckled at her son. “You didn’t think this very through, did you?”

With a huff Taron pulled the cap of the bottle open and squirted sun cream into hands, dropping it by his feet. “It’s not like we haven’t done this before. Back at hers in September, we did this twice and nothing.”

“September was a long time ago Taron.” Guy offered kindly.

“I know but just…” He roughly creamed his arms. “Sun cream?” Tina and Guy both nodded at him. “Fucks sake.” He muttered, bending down to pick up the bottle again, getting his face, chest and both of his legs done quickly.

“Top of the feet too.”

Taron lifted his head to see Robyn beside him. “Sorry?”

“Don’t forget to cream the tops of your feet.” She repeated, taking the free seat beside Tina. “Sorry being a bit of a mammy, aren’t I?”

Using the surplus cream on his hands, Taron bent down to do as Robyn suggested and as he straightened up, handed the sun cream bottle back to his mam. “Thank you.”

“You are welcome love.”

“Now if you excuse me, I am going to plonk myself on that towel for at least two hours and not move.” Taron strolled away as he said, dropped onto his back on the towel he had laid down, his arms by his sides, his eyes closed.

** I had a picture of Robyn’s sundress dress too but forgot to add it into my story chapter photo so I am just going to add it here**

#Taron Egerton #Taron Egerton Fanfiction #Taron Egerton Fanfic #Taron Fanfic #Love #Friendship #Family #Beach Days #Feelings #Excitement #Emotions #Bubbling Feelings #Robyn and Taron

[artemisegeria]

Giving Thanks

A/N: Woohoo! I finished a holiday-themed story on time. I actually started this last year but wasn’t able to finish. In honor of Thanksgiving Day in the US, I am grateful for everyone who continues to read and/or leave comments or kudos on my work. I hope you enjoy.

“Alright, everyone. That’s it for today. Reminder that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Everyone’s tasks are listed on a sign-up sheet in the kitchen. Sam and I are taking part in a Turkey Trot in town tomorrow morning if anyone wants to join us.”

Vision raised his hand as his teammates began to stretch and rise from the table. “Captain, I have a proposal.” His words were met with a few muffled groans, but Captain Rogers merely nodded encouragingly. “I was researching activities that are popular around the Thanksgiving holiday. One idea I found charming is for everyone to write something that they are thankful for on a slip of paper, anonymously. Then, we all take turns reading them out.”

“I think that sounds like a great idea, Vision.” There were several more mutters, but everyone recognized the mood that their leader was in, that nothing would change his mind. Rhodes expressed regret that he was missing dinner at the compound, but Vision could not help but think that he was not being sincere. He left almost immediately after the meeting broke up to attend Thanksgiving festivities with Tony and Pepper.

Sam took the lead with the cooking, as he was the one with the most experience in modern American Thanksgiving traditions. He delegated certain tasks to Steve, Natasha, and Vision, but kept the majority of the work to himself. Vision heard him muttering under his breath that this was one of his favorite days of the year and he wanted it to be perfect. Vision also noticed that Wanda became more withdrawn as the Thanksgiving preparations progressed. She completed what was asked of her, but shortly disappeared. Vision was still learning about boundaries and could not think of a way to broach the subject with her.

Still the next day and a half passed quickly. By dinner time the next day, they had enough food to hold the team for 2.5 weeks if Vision’s calculations were correct, which they doubtless were. He was concerned about the possible waste, but the team assured him that they would save the leftovers, not throw anything away.

When the turkey was carved and all the side dishes were plated, they all sat down at the table. Sam said, “Let’s get this party started!” He rubbed his hands together with glee. Everyone agreed that he should get first taste of the turkey because he did most of the work.

Sam, Steve, and Natasha ate with relish. Vision was tempted to try some of the dishes, but it still did not feel right, as he did not require the nutrients to function. Wanda also appeared to have little appetite. No one commented because that was not unusual. After completing two or three platefuls of food, they stretched and let conversation flow between them.

After some recovery time, Steve, sitting at the head of the table, announced that it was time to complete Vision’s suggested activity. He read the first slip. “I am grateful for second chances and a new family.” He then passed the box to Natasha.

Natasha read, “I am thankful for having the power to protect.”

Sam took the box next. He read, “I am grateful for a new purpose.”

When the box reached Wanda, she picked up a slip. Vision felt his muscles tense. No one had read his slip yet, and there would now be only two left. He watched Wanda carefully as her mouth formed the syllables of his response. “I am grateful for the friendship of the team.” He had had to temper what he was grateful for for anonymity’s sake. He knew that his teammates were likely to be more laconic than was his tendency. It was difficult to be truly anonymous among a team who were becoming so close, especially when there were only five of them, but he hoped to leave some degree of doubt.

Wanda passed the box to him, but it was empty. Everyone was looking at him expectantly, and he didn’t quite know what to say. “Ah, well, that is all. Perhaps one slip was misplaced.” He held out the empty box in demonstration. Vision did not think that anyone believed that, but they all tacitly accepted it as they began the clean-up process.

Everyone attempted to look around the table surreptitiously, trying to gauge who was squirming the most. But more congenial conversation started when Sam complimented the turkey to much general agreement around the table. After the whole meal and dessert was consumed, Rhodes and Natasha began to clear the table. Vision noted Wanda slipping away among the bustle of the clean-up.

After the kitchen was immaculate again, the team sat down to a football game. Sam and Rhodes seemed to enjoy it the most, hurling teasing abuse at each other because they were cheering for opposing teams. Steve shook his at all the changes in the game since his time. Vision winced every time a player was tackled with what seemed to him more than necessary force. He could not quite understand why so many people obtained such pleasure from watching the infliction of so much pain.

Eventually the game wound down, and everyone went their separate ways. It was nearly midnight when Vision was passing by a window on the lower level and saw Wanda sitting outside on the frost-covered grass. She was dressed in the same outfit she had worn the day he was created, her clothing grossly inadequate for the freezing temperature outside.

He quickly grabbed a thick blanket from a hall closet upstairs and went to meet her outside. She continued staring straight ahead when he came up beside her. “Wanda, it is very cold out here.” She did not startle when he spoke, but merely shrugged.

“You know, when we lived in Sokovia, before HYDRA, I only had a couple changes of clothes, none much warmer than this.” Vision was uncertain of the purpose of her non sequitur. He crouched down and handed the blanket to her. Wanda took it, but she made no move to wrap it around herself. “Pietro and I would huddle up for warmth, and comfort. Even after the experiments, we would sometimes sneak out of our cells and go outside late at night to remember where we came from, what we were fighting to escape.”

“I am sorry that he is no longer here to share the night with you.”

She raised her hand, sparking with her powers, and looked into his eyes. The faintest sliver of a smile curled her lips upwards. “Thanks.” They remained in silence for a few moments. Though his synthetic form allowed him to crouch indefinitely, he settled fully on the ground next to her. “I’m sorry your game got messed up.”

“Oh, it is of no importance.”

Wanda’s stare grew more searching. “It was me who didn’t write anything down in case you were wondering.”

“I calculated that there was a 66.23% probability that it was you.”

“I didn’t mean to spoil it. It just felt wrong to say that I’m grateful for anything this year.”

“Because your brother is not here to share those things with you?” She nodded. “I am sorry. I did not consider that when I proposed the idea.”

“You don’t have anything to apologize for.” She began shivering, her teeth knocking together. Finally conceding to the weather, she unfolded the blanket and wrapped it around herself. “I know Pietro would want me to feel happy and grateful, but I can’t help feeling disloyal. He would want me to move on.”

“I am certain that he also would not want you to feel guilty about still experiencing grief. It is perfectly natural, and it has been less than a year.” Wanda nodded again. She wrapped the blanket more firmly around herself, and Vision increased his body temperature in the hopes that she would absorb some of the ambient heat, as she showed no sign of returning indoors.

“Maybe.” Wanda fell silent as she thought. “And it’s not only Pietro. I left my home and I’m here, the place I hated so much for most of my life. So many people lost everything. Somehow I get to have all this.” She gestured around the spacious, well-manicured grounds and high-tech luxury of the compound. “I helped bring the destruction, but I escaped unharmed.”

Vision pondered this for a moment. “You did lose the person closest to you.”

“If that’s supposed to be my punishment, it’s still not fair. Pietro didn’t deserve to die for my crimes.”

Vision was at a loss. He had read many treatises on grief and cosmology and philosophy, but all those thousands of pages seemed utterly inadequate at this moment. “I am sorry. I do not believe I have anything to comfort you with. There is a great deal of disagreement as to whether there is any ultimate meaning in this universe or any sort of cosmic justice. I do not know enough to know whom to believe.”

“It’s okay. I wasn’t looking for an answer. I guess I just needed to say that aloud.”

“I am always here to listen. And I know that you are doing everything within your power to make amends for the past.” Wanda merely nodded and leaned her head on his shoulder, apparently out of words. A contemplative silence wrapped itself around them until some time later when Wanda finally rose and declared her intention to go to bed.  

The next morning Vision found a piece of paper slipped under his door. I am grateful for a warm blanket on a cold night.

#fanfiction #wanda maximoff #vision #scarlet vision

[just0nemorepage]

Ashes || Laurie Halse Anderson || Seeds of America #3 || 298 pages ------------------------------------------------------------------ Top 3 Genres: Historical Fiction / Young Adult / War

Synopsis: Freedom for one, freedom for all?

That’s the question that burns in Isabel’s mind as she and Curzon forge on through chaos and fear toward the dream that’s kept them alive for so many years: freedom. But her dream of living not as a “runaway” but as a free person with land and a family of her own seems impossibly far away. That dream hinges on one thing: finding her little sister, Ruth. It’s been years since Ruth was stolen from her. Is she even alive? And if Isabel can find her, how will they make it safely through the war between the Patriots and the British that rages on as dangerously as ever, while bounty hunters try to kidnap them at every turn?

In the American Revolution, one must pick a side in order to survive. But how can you care about a nation’s freedom when the very same nation has kept you in chains?

Finished: December 12th, 2019.

Progress: 13 / 15. 86.6% complete.

My Rating: ★★★★☆. [4/5]

My Review: [Under the read more - NOT SPOILER FREE]

First things first – I finished this way faster than I thought I would! Woohoo!! Thank you, quiet days at work lmao. I may finish my challenge yet.

Okay so. This book gave me thoughts.

It had been about.. oh, 6 years? since I read the last book in the series, but luckily just about all of it came back as I was reading this one. It was a very easy read, the language flowed well, it was paced nicely, I could easily understand the historical terms, the historical accuracy was on point and hella fascinating, and I flew through 300 pages in 6 days. The character development is phenomenal – Ruth is totally autistic!! – and it was interesting how the book’s blurb seriously was covered in just about the first two chapters. The entire REST of the book was a blank slate.

Now: grievances. First and foremost, while the character development was naturally paced and very well done, it waited until the last third of the book to blossom into anything positive at all, and until quite literally the LAST CHAPTER to fully wrap up. You have to put up with characters being bull-headed and mean and stubborn and not communicating well the entire rest of the book, and it gets exasperating. Isabel herself, until she checks herself, is QUITE unlikable. Like – very. She does redeem herself and get over herself in the end, but, yeeeesh. I can still enjoy unlikable characters, though – it wasn’t anywhere near enough to abandon the book over.

And then there’s the more complicated issue of how freedom and hypocrisy and differing sides are portrayed. I think it really did a wonderful job accurately illustrating just how hypocritical the patriot side of the Revolutionary war was, in that it was fighting for freedom against the British, but still was VERY pro-slavery. That they let black soldiers fight in the ranks, but still returned other black folk back to slavery who had already liberated themselves. The book truly did a great job getting across how difficult and muddy it could be to “choose a side”, when neither side gives a rat’s ass about you or your people. But I think it chose the right path to try to explain how you could choose a side anyway, particularly the patriot side – you do it to do what’s right, to not necessarily succeed freedom for yourself, but for those who come after you. To set the groundwork for those who follow in your footsteps, to go further than you ever could go. It’s a fool’s hope to think any progress could come of such a fight at the time, but to fight for the future – that’s valid, and honorable.

While I believe it did a decent job getting all that across, something about it truly felt off. Perhaps it was that the characters in this book, while not spared from various threats or fear of re-enslavement, were the highly romanticized and best-case-scenario version of what normally happened to black people at this time. People seemed entirely too accepting, and entirely too polite to Isabel and her companions for the entirety of the story. Things seemed to go entirely too much in their favor. It very much felt unrealistic, and it doesn’t sit well with me that this was portrayed as a “normal life” when, in fact, it is a very, very VERY fortunate one, to the point where it doesn’t feel real. I think the combination of this and my other aforementioned grievances are what docked off a star from my final rating.

Overall, this is a very good series, though. I don’t think I liked it as much as I like Laurie Halse Anderson’s other books, but it’s up there, and I did enjoy the whole series! I’m glad I finished it, and will happily recommend it to others.

I remember the day I started this series on a whim, back in college, when I just happened to spy the first book on a shelf lol. Now here I am, probably about 8~ years later, finally done with the trilogy.

Oy. It took me long enough.

#book reviews #ashes #laurie halse anderson #seeds of america #★★★★ #historical fiction #young adult #war #realistic fiction #racism #library book #print book #series book #jomp original

[lifemuchgreener]

Brothers Trust - Day 2

STORY SUMMARY: You enter the Brothers Trust contest on a whim, not expecting to win. But what happens when you do?

CHAPTER SUMMARY: You’re fascinated by everything on the set of Spider-Man: Far From Home but you start feeling a little insecure after taking an awkward photo with Tom. Zendaya boosts your confidence in the bathroom because women helping other women is the best. 

WARNINGS: Once again, nothing in this chapter. But there will be some warnings in the future, trust me!

WORD COUNT: 1567

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Got this up a day later than I thought I would, woohoo! 

Read the prologue here and chapter/day one here!

You wake up to the sound of your phone’s alarm and immediately panic a little because you don’t recognize your surroundings. It takes several moments for you to remember that you’re in London and that today is the day you’re going to the set of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

You grin to yourself as you change out of your sleeping clothes and into one of the outfits you packed. You brush your teeth and head to the lobby for a quick breakfast.

You’re feeling significantly less nervous now than you were last night. Everything went well with Tom and because of that you feel confident that everything will go well with his friends and co-stars too. You’re also super excited to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes of such a big movie. You imagine that you’ll learn a lot more here than you would have if you were back home attending your first day of class.

The driver pulls up to the curb of a rather unassuming brick building. You knew that the building where they filmed wouldn’t be painted in blue and red with spider web designs and the words Spider-Man: Far From Home plastered everywhere but this place looked like any other boring building. You wonder how many little boys and girls have walked past the structure wearing their Spider-Man t-shirts with no idea that a movie starring their favorite superhero would be filmed there.

Someone saying your name distracts you from your thoughts. You look in the direction of the voice but you already know who it is, because who the hell else would it be, and you’ve watched countless interviews of him so you’re pretty familiar with the sound of his voice.

Tom beckons you closer with a wave of his hand, his free one clutched around a cup of coffee.

“Welcome to the set,” he says with a smile that makes your heart melt. “This is Harrison.”

Harrison, who is standing beside him, raises his hand in greeting.

“Do you want any coffee before we start? Harrison can go get you some. That’s essentially what he’s here to do,” Tom teases.

You shake your head, not wanting to be an inconvenience to anyone.

“Then let’s get started.”

You’re blown away by the whole thing. There’s not one step in the whole process that doesn’t leave you completely in awe of how talented each and every person on set is at their craft. Transforming Tom into Spider-Man is tedious but you watch what everyone is doing with fascination. When the filming finally begins, you stand off to the side and observe as Tom and the other actors do their magic.

“You know, he thinks you’re pretty,” Harrison says, approaching you from your left. “He told us in the groupchat last night.”

You look at him out of the corner of your eye. He seems serious.

“Tom’s a sweetheart,” you say. “He’s the kind of guy who could find beauty in any girl.”

“He is,” Harrison agrees. “But he really thinks you’re pretty. And just a good person to be around.”

“He’ll forget about me once I go back home.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

Harrison walks away leaving you with only your own thoughts to keep you company as you silently watch the rest of that morning’s filming.

Tom has just finished doing an amazing stunt all on his own when someone calls for a lunch break. He carefully pulls off the mask and comes toward you, wiping away beads of sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand.

“That was incredible,” you say, unable to tone down your excitement.

He smiles at you. “Thanks. So, you ready for lunch?”

“Wait!” Nikki says, coming up to both of you with a camera in her hands. “Let me take a picture while you’re still in costume.”

Tom hands his mask over to Harrison. There’s a brief moment of awkwardness where you look at each other, unsure of what to do.

“Put your arm around her, dumbass,” Harrison says, whipping the mask across Tom’s upper arm to get him into motion.

He does so, his hand gently settling on your shoulder as if he’s nervous to fully touch you. Thinking it would be weird to just have your arms dangling at your sides, you move the hand between your two bodies to rest gently on his back. You smile, hyper-aware of all the places your bodies are touching: his hand on your shoulder, yours on his back, and your leg up against his as Nikki snaps a few photos.

She goes through them on the small screen of the camera and nods her approval. “Lunch is already in your trailer.”

You drop your arm back to your side as Tom does the same, his fingertips brushing your back as he does so.

“As I was saying,” he continues. “You ready for lunch?”

“Can I use the bathroom first?” you ask. You don’t really care what he says -- you need a moment alone to collect yourself.

“Yeah.” He points in the direction of the bathroom and you hurry off. There’s two stalls but you’re glad to find that you’re alone when you fling open the door and close it behind you. You stand in front of one of the sinks and douse your hands in cold water.

The door opens and you keep your head down and stare at your fingers as you wait for the stranger to go into one of the stalls. When she doesn’t, you glance over at her to find that she’s looking right at you.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she says, taking a step closer. “I’m Zendaya.”

You remove your hand from the stream of water to extend it to her for a handshake. Of course it’s dripping wet so you immediately turn the faucet off, grab a paper towel, and thoroughly dry them. Then you extend your hand again.

“I’m Y/N,” you say as she shakes your hand. “And it’s nice to meet you.”

“Fan of Tom?” she asks, leaning against the other sink.

You nod. “And you, too. Everyone, actually. You’re all incredible.”

She smiles at you. “Harrison wasn’t lying, you know.” When you look a little puzzled, she adds, “about Tom talking about you in the groupchat.”

“How many damn people are in this groupchat?”

“There’s multiple chats, actually,” she explains with a laugh. “There’s one with Tom, his brothers, and Harrison. The one I’m in has Tom, Harrison, and Jacob, but then there’s also one with just those three. Harry kept sneakily taking photos of Tom looking at you during the dinner you had with his family last night and sending them to their groupchat. Harrison then screenshotted the pictures and sent them to the groupchat with me so I could give my female opinion.”

It took you a moment to wrap your head around her story.

“And I told Harrison that Tom seemed to be looking at you in a different way than he looks at other people,” she continues. “And then after dinner he kept sending texts about how sweet you were and how excited he was to spend a couple more days with you.”

You look at her, speechless.

“I just thought you should know,” she says. “I can tell you’re nervous and there’s no need to be.”

Are you really getting a pep talk from Zendaya right now?

“You’re beautiful. You’re smart. You’re funny. And you’re going to go have lunch with Tom in his trailer right now,” she says, determined.

You really are getting a pep talk from Zendaya right now.

She opens the door for you. You blink at her.

“Thank you,” you say, feeling pretty lame, but you’re not sure what else to say.

“No problem,” she pats you on the shoulder as you walk through the door.

You find Tom in the same spot where you left him.

“Let’s try this again,” he laughs when you approach him. “Are you ready for lunch?”

You nod and follow him as he guides you to his trailer, feeling more confident than before.

That night you’re relaxing in the bathtub, reflecting on the day when you suddenly

remember that you haven’t checked your phone since the early morning. Everything was so busy that it slipped your mind. Sitting up, you dry your hands with the towel that you put near the tub and reach for your phone. It has less than half of its battery life left which you find odd since you know haven’t touched it all day.

A quick glance at your Instagram page tells you everything that you need to know.

The battery is so low because of your phone screen constantly lighting up from all the new notifications. You have thousands of new followers, hundreds of comments on all your posts, and seemingly every Tom Holland fan account has reposted and tagged you in the photo that Nikki took of you and posted to the Brothers Trust Instagram account. People are sliding into your DMs left and right but you don’t bear to look, knowing how crazy the fans could sometimes be. You decide to temporarily uninstall the app. You’ll deal with your newfound and hopefully temporary popularity when you get home. At the moment you need to get rest for your last full day in London tomorrow.

Taglist: @deadlyaffairs, @strrwberries, @le-papillon-chatoyant, @smexylemony, @carolborges890, @ineedsomemoremetime, @loxbbg, @mac-demarco1, @howdycharlie, @rebekahs-worlds-blog, @parkersvinyl, @ballerinaphan, @lovesdeath

#tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland smut #tom holland fanfiction #marvel smut #marvel x reader

[yourcoolfriendwithallthecandy]

Magic and Miracles Chapter 2

Woohoo! Since Tumblr keeps being awesome and keeping this under a cut, I’m gonna keep going. I would like to first, apologize to Toni Mahfud for using his likeness for Andrew Izunia, Ardyn’s son. I wanted a guy who was so RIDICULOUSLY GOOD LOOKING, the kind of hot everyone questions their sexuality when faced with that because they’re so ridiculously hot and good looking, people suddenly don’t care that you’ve turned into a monster. Not saying Toni is, I’m sure he’s awesome in person, this is just for a fanfic. I just felt the need to say that. 

So as always here’s the AO3 link, chapter 1 here and chapter 2 below. 

Magic and Miracles

Chapter 2

The Ulric siblings had gotten up earlier than they normally would have. Their parents had left for work and it was up to them to get the house as clean as possible for their company. Nyx spent a considerable amount of time on his own room. Just in case Luna should venture in it. He practically displayed his art supplies. Luna had adored the little picture Nyx had drawn her earlier in the week. Nyx had wanted to draw her something else but wasn’t quite sure what to draw her.

Unknown to Nyx, Selena had seen Luna write poetry on the back of the little drawing. What the picture itself had inspired from her. Luna had taped it into her journal and would often turn to it and smile appreciatively at it. Luna had wanted to reciprocate but had little idea of how.

Luna spared a glance to the back seat where a crock pot was bundled along with a container of sandwiches. She had requested to bring lunch, because she did love to cook after all. She had worried about what to make them. So she went safe with a beef stew she had made from scratch, and brownies, chewy fudgy ones that had caramel swirls in them and were always a favorite whenever she had made them before. The weather was still quite chilly so she imagined that they would stay indoors. Selena had said something about playing video games. Ravus liked to play video games but they were always single player and he wasn’t too keen on showing her how to play them himself so Luna’s familiarity with them was a bit limited.

Luna called Selena to tell her she was only a few minutes away and Nyx and Selena got their shoes on to help bring in the food.

“You made it!” Selena cheered as she opened the front door.

“Finally, I may have taken two wrong turns, I suck at directions,” Luna admitted as she got out and gave Selena a hug since she was the first one out to greet her. Luna then opened her back seat and handed Selena the pan of brownies.

“These smell so good!” Selena praised as she held them closer to her face and breathed in deeply.

“Thank you,” Luna smiled before Nyx came over himself. “What can I bring in?” Nyx asked before Luna turned to him, she was wearing makeup again, goodness gracious were her eyes the most stunning ice blue. Nyx tried not to stare at her but then she walked in front of him and he could smell her perfume on the breeze, it was similar to the one she had worn earlier in the week but not the same, still smelled divine though. She had her hair braided in the front so that it looked like she was wearing a head band while the rest of her hair was pulled into a clip in the back. It was a good look.

“The crock pot,” Luna suggested as she went around the car to unbuckle the crock pot, finding the handles from underneath the towel she had used to swaddle it. “Please, please don’t drop it.” Luna pleaded like the crock pot was a baby.

“I won’t,” Nyx assured her as he walked back to the house with it securely in his arms. Luna smiled and went back around and gathered her other container of sandwiches and a small cloth grocery bag that had her sandwich sauces before she locked the car and followed Nyx into the house.  

“Thank you so much for inviting me,” Luna thanked them as she wiped her feet on the mat inside the door and handed her things to Selena, who had already put the brownies into the kitchen, to hold while Luna took her shoes off. “Thank you for bringing lunch,” Selena mirrored.

“I just hope you like it,” Luna laughed nervously as she took her coat off and hung it on the coat hooks along the wall by the front door, not really realizing she had hung her coat over Nyx’s. But Nyx was not about to tell her that, he hoped that some of her perfume would permeate his coat.

“Oh I’m sure it’s fine, the way Luche went on, you would think you were a gourmet chef.” Selena flattered.

“Yeah that’s what I’m afraid of, not meeting such high expectations.” Luna muttered as she set everything out as Selena and Nyx got dishes and silverware out and set the table. There was a whine at the back door that made Luna’s head snap toward the sound.

“Do you guys have a dog?” Luna asked excitedly.

“Yeah, he’s a rescue,” Selena explained.

“But we are keeping him in the backyard because he is a shameless beggar and jumps up on people.” Nyx explained.

“Oh, I don’t mind, I have two dogs myself, and Ravus has a cat. What kind of dog is it?” Luna asked.

“Pit bull mix,” Selena informed her, half expecting Luna’s eyes to widen. Pit bulls didn’t have the greatest of reputations.

“Aww, I love pit bulls! They are just really big muscle-y marshmallow babies! I know lots of pit bulls and they are the sweetest dogs,” Luna gushed.

“Well after lunch, we’ll let him in.” Nyx grinned.

They sat and ate and Luna could tell that Nyx didn’t love the sandwich, he ate all of it though so as to not offend her. He loved the stew though and was already on his second bowl of it.

“Not your cup of tea?” Luna guessed.

“What?” Nyx asked, his spoon almost to his lips.

“The sandwich,” Luna specified. “It’s ok, I’m not offended or hurt or anything if you didn’t like it.” Luna assured him.

“No, it was fine,” Nyx tried to smooth over. “It wasn’t my favorite sandwich, but it wasn’t bad.” Nyx insisted.

“Ok,” Luna nodded before Selena and Luna broke into the pan of brownies.

“What piece do you want?” Luna asked as she got Selena an edge piece.

“Don’t care,” Nyx shook his head.

“Corner,” Selena specified.

“More or less caramel?” Luna asked as she pointed to different corners.

“More,” Nyx answered sheepishly and watched with eager eyes as the caramel stretched from piece of brownie that was lifted from the pan to a plate. His stomach suddenly found an empty pocket to stow it away into.

“Thank you,” Nyx smiled as Luna handed the plate to him. He moved his bowl of stew over slightly to center the plate in front of him, picking up the strand of caramel and putting it into his mouth. It was sublime and decadent. He picked up the brownie and took a bite. It was just...so damn good. Luna could tell by the expression on his face that he loved it. Nyx tried his hardest not to moan, he tried, and failed.

Thankfully Selena moaned louder than he did to help mask the sound.

“OH. MY. GOD.” Selena said over her mouthful of the treat. “How?! How did you make this? What kind of dark forbidden magic did you practice to make this?” Selena asked as she tried to slowly enjoy and savor it. “It’s so good,” Selena made a show of pretending to cry that made Luna laugh as she ate it.

“I just want to inhale the pan, inject this into my veins, like between my toes, I would walk across broken glass,” Selena went on. “Lord have mercy,” Selena shook her head as she finished the rest of her piece in one bite before getting another.

“I second all of that,” Nyx agreed.

“Yay! I’m so happy you guys like it,” Luna cheered.

“No, not like, love,” Nyx quickly insisted while his brain added ‘you’ in his head as he got up another paper towel to wipe his face before he poured himself the largest cup of milk he could find, gulping it down to help cut the richness of it. Luna couldn’t help but stare at his throat, watching his Adams apple bob with every swallow while not so innocent thoughts suddenly popped into her head. Selena saw this and simply smiled wider as she took another bite of her second brownie before getting Nyx to get her and Luna their own cups of milk too.

Nyx got them their cups of milk, his fingers grazing Luna’s as he did so, before he got himself another piece of brownie. “I need the recipe, if you’re ok with sharing it,” Nyx insisted as he took his seat back at the table.

“I would be more than happy to share it,” Luna agreed before going to her purse to get her journal, flipping toward the back to find an empty page before pulling up the recipe on her phone to copy it down for him. Nyx noticed his picture that he had drawn for her in her notebook and couldn’t help but smile when he saw it. She liked it enough to keep it in her journal, now he really had to draw her something else.

Luna carefully ripped the page out and handed it Nyx.

“Did you want a copy too?” Luna asked Selena.

“No, that’s ok, I love to eat food, not really into making it though, Nyx, however, he is all about that, everything he cooks is good.” Selena praised.

“Not this good,” Nyx argued as he took another bite of brownie.

“Practice and the proper tools.” Luna countered as she finished her own piece of brownie.

“So what kind of dogs do you have?” Selena asked, changing the subject.  

“Oh I have a husky/Spitz mix named Pryna and an Alaskan Malamute mix named Umbra and even through they are both fixed/neutered, they are madly in love. Both of them are rescues too.” Luna answered as she pulled up pictures on her phone of her dogs to show them. “And then Ravus has a Persian long haired Siamese cat named Duchess. She is beautiful, she knows it too,” Luna laughed as she swiped through her photo gallery to find a picture of the cat too.

“Aww, they do look madly in love,” Selena fawned when she saw pictures of the dogs. “Wow she is pretty,” Selena complimented when she saw the picture of Ravus’ cat.

“I’ll let Charlie in,” Nyx said as he got up and opened the back door.

“Hi Charlie!” Luna greeted excitedly to the large dog that came barreling into the house. Charlie’s tail wagged so hard his whole body shook as he greeted Luna, he jumped up to put his front legs on her lap and licked her face as she pet him. “Oh it’s so nice to meet you too! Who’s been a good boy? Huh? Who’s been a boy?” Luna cooed to the dog as she scratched behind his ears and gave him a hug.

“Charlie, down,” Selena laughed.

“Oh it’s fine,” Luna waved off as she continued to pet Charlie enthusiastically as Charlie began to sniff Luna. “You smell my babies? Huh?” Luna laughed as she began to give Charlie butt scratches.

“So what were the plans for today?” Luna asked as she continued to pet Charlie who had calmed down considerably under Luna’s affection. Instantly falling in love with her.  

“Well we have a Wii,” Selena offered. “Awesome,” Luna smiled as they got up and put their dishes in the sink before going back to the living room.

“You know how to play?” Selena asked.

“Yeah, well sort of, I don’t have one but my friend Rachel does,” Luna answered as she was given a Wii remote and made her little avatar before they chose Mario Cart.

“Oh you bastard,” Selena laughed when Nyx chose rainbow road and chose Yoshi.

“I get Toad,” Selena chose.

“Princess Peach please and thank you,” Luna giggled before they started the race.

“Cheater!” Selena accused as Nyx cut her off and sent a turtle her way, causing her to crash.

“I got you girl.” Luna soothed as she got a blue spiked turtle and sent it Nyx’s way.

Nyx however slowed down and let himself be passed by one of the other racers so that the blue spiked turtle hit it instead.

“Oh, you tricky...” Luna trailed off as she bumped him with her hip in retaliation since they were all standing in front of the TV.  

“Hey! Personal fowl.” Nyx laughed as he sped off into the lead with the help of a star.

“Unsportsmanlike like conduct!” Luna countered with a hearty laugh of her own.

“Hey all is fair in love and war and racing sweetheart.” Nyx crooned. “Maybe if you guys weren’t such sore...” Nyx started before Luna passed him in a corner and placed a banana in his path which he slipped on.

“Losers!” Nyx yelled before he growled in frustration as he tried to catch up with everyone with Selena and Luna cackling evilly.

“Get it, get it!” Luna cheered as Selena almost crossed the finish line before Nyx fired a turtle at Selena. But Luna, making the self sacrificing play, swerved behind Selena to intercept so Selena could win. “Yes! In your face bro!” Selena cheered as she did a victory dance with Luna. “Thank you for saving me back there,” Selena thanked Luna.

“You’re welcome,” Luna smiled victoriously.

“Best two out of three,” Nyx requested.

“Now who’s a sore looser?” Selena stuck her tongue out at her brother.

They continued to play, loosing count of who won or lost until Nyx’s phone rang.

“Yeah,” Nyx answered as he tried to talk on the phone and play at the same time.

Selena and Luna paused the game so Nyx could concentrate on his conversation. “Yeah man, let me make sure it’s ok, call you back.” Nyx said before ending the conversation.

“You guys ok if the gang comes over?” Nyx asked Selena and Luna.

“Um, who’s all in the gang?” Luna asked cautiously.

“Oh it’s just Libertus, Crowe and Pelna,” Nyx answered and mirrored her smile of relief when he didn’t say Luche’s name.

“Oh, yeah, that’s fine with me.” Luna nodded her agreement with that.

“The more the merrier, ooh, Luna have you ever played Cards Against Humanity?” Selena asked.

“No,” Luna shook her head.

“Ever played Apples to Apples?” Selena asked Luna.

“Yes,” Luna nodded.

“Same thing, only for the morally ambiguous person, like Apples to Apples- South Park and Family Guy edition,” Selena tried to explain.

“Ooh, yeah sounds fun,” Luna nodded.

“Ok, but just to warn you, there’s a bunch of swearing.” Selena warned.

“Ok,” Luna nodded in understanding.

“Tell Libertus to bring Cards Against Humanity.” Selena told Nyx.

“Well mom and dad haven’t signed off yet,” Nyx reminded her as he called his dad. “Hey Dad? Is it ok if my friends come over? They said they would chip in for pizza.” Nyx asked and waited for a reply. “Ok, yeah, uh huh, ok, bye.” Nyx finished before he hung up and called his mom. “Hi Mom, how’s your day going?” Nyx asked sweetly. “So, Libertus called and him and Crowe and Pelna wanted to come over and we would get pizza, is that ok?” Nyx asked. “Thanks mom, love you, bye.”

“I better call my mom and tell her I’ll be staying longer,” Luna said as she retreated to the kitchen to call her mom, still being relieved that she didn’t hear Luche’s name. Because if she had she may have bolted.

“Hi Mom,” Luna chirped. “Yes, everything is going great, um so I’m having a really great time, could I stay longer? They’re talking about getting a pizza for dinner,” Luna requested. “Yes I promise to be safe, ten o’clock, got it.” Luna assured her mom. “Thank you thank you thank you, love you bye.” Luna bid her mom goodbye before coming back into the living room.

“I have to be home by ten,” Luna informed them.

“Sweet!” Selena cheered.

Nyx grinned as he called Libertus back. “Hey man, yeah, it’s ok, come on over, Selena requests you bring Cards Against Humanity again.” Nyx grinned, chancing a look at his sister before looking away as Libertus continued to talk. “We’ll talk about it when you get here,” Nyx suggested before he hung up.

Nyx and Selena sat on the couch with Luna between them with Charlie sprawled out across all of their laps as they watched TV waiting for everyone else to join them. While Nyx inwardly debated if he should make a move or not. Now that they were alone save for Selena, it was ideally the perfect time but he was feeling so insecure again and his insecurity zapped his courage.

“So what’s Ravus up to?” Selena asked casually, recalling how Ravus seemed particularly nice to her last night, nicer to her than he was to his own sister and was almost charming, but that didn’t sit well with her. The way he treated his sister bothered her deeply and she found she had no respect for him because while he looked handsome, his personality was hideous so far.

“Ravus invited his own friends over today so it really worked out that I could come here.” Luna answered.

“Do you not like his friends?” Selena inquired.

“Um, most of them are ok, a few of them, make me feel very uneasy, like I don’t think they would try and pull anything just...” Luna trailed off.

“So your brother still hangs out with them even though they give you the heebie jeebies?” Selena asked with another disgusted frown.

“Yup because ‘they are his friends and he’s not going to stop hanging out with them just because I’m overly sensitive and misconstrue everything’,” Luna recounted as she rolled her eyes and sighed.

Nyx frowned at that and leaned forward to look at Selena. “Selena, if any of my friends ever, in the slightest, make you feel uncomfortable in any way, tell me and I will stop being their friend for one and two make sure they never come near you.” Nyx insisted.

“I know,” Selena smiled appreciatively. “I’m sorry you don’t have a brother like mine,” Selena said to Luna as she rested her head on Luna’s shoulder. Luna smiled and rested her head on Selena’s.

“Me too, could I borrow him from time to time?” Luna joked.

“Anytime,” Nyx answered. “I’m serious, if you ever find yourself in that situation or whatever, call me,” Nyx insisted.

“Thank you,” Luna smiled appreciatively in turn as she almost asked him out already because she was trying to give him time to ask her out but she felt like their window of opportunity was starting to close.

But just then- Libertus, Crowe and Pelna came through the door.  After eating pizza and devouring the rest of the brownies, they decided to play the notorious game.

“So you’ve never played this?” Crowe asked of Luna as Nyx dealt out the white cards and Luna shook her head ‘no’.  

“No, I have never even heard of it until this afternoon but Selena gave me the run down.” Luna answered as she picked up her cards that were dealt her. “Oh. My. God. What?!” Luna stared at her cards as she tried not to burst out laughing. “Oh Jesus,” Luna snickered as she looked through her cards. “What the hell?” Luna laughed, finally succumbing to her laughter.

“We haven’t even started to play,” Libertous laughed along with her.

“I know, it’s just, wow,” Luna replied before looking at Selena. “You were not kidding,” Luna said, trying to stifle her laughter and try to regain her composure.

“Ok the first card is, drum roll please,” Nyx announced as he picked up a black card as they drum rolled on the empty pizza boxes. “Why won’t you make love to me anymore? Is it- blank?” Nyx asked as he laid the card down face up so everyone could see it.

Luna bit her bottom lip as she looked from one card to the other before picking one and laying it face down on top of the other cards that the others had tossed in.

Nyx smiled as he leaned forward and shuffled the cards before reading them out loud. “Is it...Sudden penis loss?” Nyx read as everyone started laughing. “Is it..Unsheathing my massive horse cock. Hey man, it can’t be helped.” Nyx remarked wryly as everyone continued to laugh.

“A My Little Pony toy horse kind of cock,” Libertous teased which only earned more laughter.

“Fuck you dude,” Nyx teased with a laugh back before he continued to read on. “Is it...setting my balls on fire and cartwheeling to Ohio? That’s just painful,” Nyx remarked. “Is it rabies?” Nyx laughed. “Yeah man I would think so. Or lastly, Crying and shitting and eating spaghetti?” Nyx and everyone roared with laughter. “Wow, ugh, it’s a tie between- Crying and shitting and eating spaghetti and my massive horse cock, I’m going to go with horse cock.” Nyx decided.

“Thank you,” Luna laughed as she took the black card from the middle and placed it in front of her crossed legs.

“That was your card?” Pelna asked, astonished.

“Yeah,” Luna giggled before it was her turn since she was sitting right next to him and they were going clock wise.

“Ok, so- Come to Dubai, where you can relax in our world famous spas, experience the nightlife or simply enjoy- blank-by the poolside.” Luna read off as she laid the card down and eagerly awaited the group’s answers.

“Everyone put in a card?” Luna asked as she took the cards and haphazardly tried to shuffle them before she cleared her throat. “Ah, hem. Come to Dubai where you can relax in our world famous spas, experience the nightlife, or simply enjoy..throwing stones at a man until he dies.” Luna read off with a light chuckle. “Well you’re not wrong,” Luna grimaced. “Enjoy..breast feeding a ten year old.” Luna laughed, scrunching her nose up in such a cute way as she heartily laughed. “Oh dear god, ok, enjoy...cute boys, yeah, I do like to people watch, next, enjoy...peeing into a girl’s butt to make a baby.” Luna squealed with laughter, as she leaned back but lost her balance and fell back, continuing to hold herself as she rocked with laughter as Nyx and Selena tried to help her sit up again as everyone laughed too. “Shit, that was good.” Luna wiped a tear from her eyes. “Or, enjoy...two whales fucking the shit out of each other.” Luna roared with laughter, laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe, she just convulsed, her mouth open wide as tiny squeaks and huffs of air managed to escape her before she squealed and snorted causing everyone to erupt in harder laughter as Luna went into a full blown giggle fit as she fell over again. “The last one,” Luna managed to get out as managed to try to regain a normal breathing rhythm but was having a really hard time doing so. She crawled over to her purse and got out her inhaler.

“You ok?” Selena asked, worried once she saw the inhaler. Luna nodded yes as she took a puff from it and tried to hold her breath to let the medicine get into her lungs before exhaling out of her nose and crawled back to the group, inhaler in hand.

“I haven’t laughed this hard in years,” Luna admitted as she wiped the tears from her eyes, in an effort to keep her mascara and eyeliner from running as she settled down.

“You have asthma?” Nyx asked, concerned for her despite laughing along with her. “Sort of, not bad, just enough to be inconvenienced.” Luna waived off before she sniffed and wiped at her nose, blood appearing on her hand. “Damn it,” Luna groaned as more blood started to come out of her nose.

“Come on,” Selena urged as she got up and helped Luna get to her feet as the two girls made it to the bathroom only to have laughter spring forth from their location a few moments later.

“I dare you to go out like that,” Selena joked.

Selena came out with Luna following her with twisted toilet paper coming out of her nose.

“Look I’m a walrus!” Luna joked as she clapped her hands together like they were flippers which only got the group to laugh more.

Luna sat back down next to Nyx crossing he legs again but sticking her tongue out to move one of her ‘tusks’ with the tip of her tongue. “Hell of an oral fixation right?” Luna joked, looking toward Nyx who blushed crimson as she did it again as everyone continued to laugh.

The group of them continued to play until Luna hit 10 black cards, Nyx was in second with 9 with the rest of them having various numbers of them.

“Beginners luck,” Libertus gently teased.

“How about a round of truth or dare?” Crowe instigated, wanting to get to know Luna better herself.

“You mean interrogation or humiliation?” Luna rephrased with a smile. “Yeah sure,” Luna shrugged from her spot.

“Ok, Luna, truth or dare,” Crowe posed.

“Truth,” Luna chose.

“How flexible are you?” Crowe asked. “Cause I’ve seen you do the splits in gym and good night nurse, I wish I was that limber.” Crowe explained.

“Me too,” Libertus agreed with a shit eating grin as his arm hung around Crowe’s shoulders.  

“You jerk,” Crowe swatted playfully at his chest.

“You love me anyway,” Libertus pointed out.

“Besides the point.” Crowe rolled her eyes but a smile still placed firmly on her own lips.

“This feels more like a dare.” Luna grinned. “But ok, so,” Luna stood and stood next to the couch, holding onto it for balance as she leaned over to the side and lifted her leg until her toes were pointing at the ceiling before stretching further. Everyone’s eyes went wide as their jaws dropped.

“That’s just unnatural,” Selena grimaced in pain as she brought her knees to her chest before Luna returned to a standing position.

“Yeah most ballerina’s can do that though,” Luna shrugged as she sat back down in the circle.

Luna enjoyed herself as she sat and listened and watched as the others were dared or had to tell the truth before it was her turn again.

“Truth.” Luna chose.

“What is the pettiest thing you’ve ever done.” Selena asked.  

Luna laughed at the question. “I paid $100 to a doorman to not let my ex into a club he had waited for four hours to try and get into.” Luna answered.

“This sounds like a hell of a story,” Selena prodded.

“Oh it is.” Luna grinned victoriously.

“I dare you to tell the story,” Crowe challenged.

“Ok, fine. If I tell this, you all have to swear on your lives that you will not breathe a word of this to anyone, it does not leave this room got it? Pinky promise? Ok, so my ex was really into all things French, which I am French on my father’s side of the family and so for like the two months we dated, I made only French food, got a beret which I don’t look good in hats but whatever. So for his birthday I decided I was going to give him the time of his life, so I made plans for us to go to a really upscale French restaurant and a club that he had been dying to go to and then give him his real present on the way home if you know what I mean. And so I got hooker heels, like five inch stiletto leather boots, black fish nets, a black leather mini skirt, the whole nine yards, because for one night, I’ll be his edgy French dominatrix, because that was his fantasy. I got tips and tricks from a Dom I know and strip tease lessons and lap dance lessons choreographed to Partition by Beyonce from a dance instructor who used to be an exotic dancer, which to this day I can’t listen to that song without getting...emotional...so anyway. So I did all of this work and I have this whole night planned as a big surprise and he dumps me, the day before, for a French runway model. So I, instead of canceling everything like a sane person, I decide, fuck it, I’m just going to have dinner and go to the club with my best friend Noctis because Andrew was always so jealous and super possessive and Noctis would never make things romantic or uncomfortable and we would just hang out for the night and go dancing and it would be great. Now I did not wear the outfit I was going to wear for my ex but I did wear this red silk number that had everyone staring, including my ex because he tried to get into the club that night but because he didn’t have reservations or me to get him in- he was having trouble getting in. So I paid the door man $100 to not let him in either because I’m petty.” Luna explained. “But on the plus side I became really good friends with the girl who gave me the lessons.” Luna shrugged.

Everyone had to pick up their jaws from the floor. Nyx having to do so the most because HOLY SHIT that blew his mind, she came off as this sweet innocent ‘pure’ girl and he...he loved this about her? And was delighted by it. Like it was thrilling, truly, and his brain gave him image after image of her in this notorious outfit and he instantly had a boner which wasn’t noticeable thanks to his baggy jeans that were currently pulled taught because he was sitting cross legged too.

“Damn girl,” Crowe said as she raised a hand to give Luna a high five. “Go big or go home,” Crowe congratulated.

“I’ll bet he was sorry he dumped you.” Selena concluded.

Luna shook her head no. “Not that I’ve seen, well, when he’s sober, he acts like it was no big deal and that he’s better off without me and has said...as much…” Luna delicately explained with a very pained expression as she recalled how brutal he had been, that had everyone looking at her with sympathy. “When he’s drunk, which, is often, it’s the opposite. Although I’m quite happy and relieved that he did dump me and I do my best to stay as far away from him as I can be.” Luna professed.

“How long ago was this?” Nyx asked as he realized that must have done a real number on her and that he realized he would need to be careful with her and around her. She would need him to be if he was going to be in her life.

“Only like, a couple of months ago, closer to three months. We only dated for the beginning of summer just May and June.” Luna answered. “So, I guess fairly recently.” Luna shrugged as she tried to stamp down and push out of her mind all the memories of the horrific experience before Selena quickly changed the subject and they continued to play for a little bit before Luna had to go home.  

“Thank you for inviting me over today.” Luna said as Selena and Nyx helped her put her things back into her car.

“Thanks for coming and bringing lunch, we need to hang out again soon.” Selena smiled.

“Agreed, I have a performance next Saturday though,” Luna sighed.

“Ooh, could I come?” Selena asked.

“Sure, it’s at the Performing Arts Center, it’s at 4pm,” Luna explained.

“Can I come too?” Nyx asked hopefully.  

“Of course,” Luna smiled excitedly.

“How much is it to go?” Selena inquired.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, you’ll be coming as my guests, it’ll be free.” Luna assured them. “Just um, kind of dress up? Not like formal formal, not like tuxes but just nice dress clothes?” Luna shrugged.

“I think we can manage that.” Selena smiled.

“Ok, I gotta go before I break curfew.” Luna said as she gave Selena a parting hug before giving Nyx one as well even though part of her was screaming at her to just kiss him already. “Thanks again for tonight, it was awesome.” Luna repeated before she got in her car. Both Selena and Nyx waited outside to make sure Luna’s car started and waived as she drove away, Luna waiving happily as she left.

“She’s so nice,” Selena smiled as she turned and walked back into the house. “And hot,” Selena added giving Nyx a look over her shoulder. “Go ahead, disagree with me, I dare you.” Selena winked as she laughed as the two walked back into the house where Libertus, Crowe and Pelna had stayed behind with giddy smiles since they had watched the interaction from behind the blinds.  

“Dude!” The trio cheered.

“Shh,” Nyx shushed as he pointed to ceiling where his parents had already gone to bed with one hand while he gestured at his own throat making a cutting motion.

“She likes you!” Libertus insisted but Nyx gave him an unsure look.

“She shoved you every time you won a black card, she kept touching your arm, and your knee and when she laughed she leaned your way.” Crowe pointed out as she counted on her fingers.

“She likes you, I’ve been trying all week to gently nudge her your way.” Selena revealed.

“So what’s holding you back from pulling the trigger?” Pelna asked.

“We just met! This is the first time we’ve hung out, I want to give her a chance to get to know me and maybe I want to get to know her more too?” Nyx reasoned.

“If you don’t pull the trigger, Luche will,” Pelna pointed out. “He’s been trying to buddy up to her and her brother all week, I mean, he’s hanging with her brother, as we speak.” Pelna explained.

“How do you know that?” Libertus asked.

Pelna gave him an unimpressed look as he pulled out his phone and showed all the pictures Luche had been sending him.

“Wow, they have a really nice house.” Crowe assessed.

“Luche says that they have a game room/den, that’s where they are spending the evening. That game room has a bar too.” Pelna informed them.

“Great,” Crowe droll-ed sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

“He says the place is a palace, they have an indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs and tennis courts and shit.” Pelna went on.

Nyx hung his head, feeling completely out of her league. There was no way he could ever give her any of that if they had a romantic relationship with a realistic future.  

Luna came home and saw the cars parked along the sides of her driveway, mentally putting names and faces to the cars as she put together who was in her home. She saw two cars she didn’t recognize but one looked oddly familiar but she couldn’t place where she had seen it. Luna shrugged it off as she parked in the garage and came into the house, Pryna and Umbra eagerly waiting by the door for her.

“I’m home,” Luna called out to Ravus, knowing her mother had mostly likely already gone to bed before stopping to let Pryna and Umbra sniff at her legs and her hands and every surface Charlie had touched. “Oh I know, I pet another dog other than you,” Luna cooed as she knelt down to pet them and give them forehead kisses.  

“Den!” Ravus called back as he noted the time on the phone.

“K!” Luna called back as she put her purse down before she went back out and got her things from the car, Pryna and Umbra on her heels.

“Need some help?” Craig asked as the portly fellow suddenly appeared in the door way, taking up most of it with his towering frame.

“Yes, thank you,” Luna smiled as she waved him over. Being relieved it was him. Craig was the only friend Ravus had that Luna was friends with too. Because he was practically a big teddy bear and was a general sweetheart and had always been nice and sweet and respectful to her.

“How have you been?” Craig asked as he took the now empty but clean crock pot from Luna, nearly tripping over her dogs as he did so.

“Good, you?” Luna asked as she got the rest of her things.

“Fine, I got a new car,” Craig smiled.

“Oh yeah? Was it the black BMW or the black Mercedes?” Luna smiled as she followed him into the house, shutting the garage door and door to the garage as they stepped inside.

“The black BMW,” Craig grinned.

“Nice, moving up in the world.” Luna appraised as they made their way to the kitchen.

“So who have you spent the evening with?” Craig asked curiously, having thought she would have hung out with them but was relieved she wasn’t home because of Ravus’ other ‘company’.

“Oh, new friends I’ve made at Lucis High, Selena, who’s a junior like me, her big brother Nyx who’s a senior and his friends, Libertus, his girlfriend Crowe, isn’t that a cool name for a girl? And Pelna.” Luna listed off.

“Cool,” Craig nodded in approval.

“We actually played Cards Against Humanity, it was so funny, I laughed so hard I went into an asthmatic attack, thankfully I had my inhaler, but after I used it, I got a bloody nose so then I did the ‘walrus’ and they thought that was funny, so yeah I had a great time.” Luna smiled fondly.

“It’s great to hear that.” Craig smiled, genuinely happy to hear she was happy and doing better. “So what can you tell me about Luche?” Craig asked as he folded his arms and leaned against the counter next to her. Luna mirrored his actions as she racked her brain to think of what she could answer with.

“Oh, um, Luche and Ravus are in the same AP courses, I think they bonded, might have a bromance going. He’s nice, he’s on the same football team that Nyx- Nyx is the quarterback, Libertus is a linebacker/guard, Luche is a running..back? No, he’s a wide receiver, I think that’s the term oh and get this, Crowe, Libertus’ girlfriend, is a running back, Lucis has three girls on the football team, it’s awesome. You remember my friend Noctis and his friend Gladio right? Gladio is a linebacker/guard too so they all play sports. Luche’s really good, I saw him play last night.” Luna informed him.

“Awesome.” Craig nodded.

“So you both have football in common.” Luna shrugged. “He’s been “pursuing” me awfully hard.” Luna muttered lowly under her breath with an eye roll and a huff and that got Craig to bark a laugh.

“What?” Luna asked as she turned to look at him curiously.  

“I’m just really happy you can see that. He’s been asking me about you for most of the night. He’s really interested in you.”  Craig informed her.

“Well it’s not mutual.” Luna assured him with an adamant shake of her head.

“Good,” Craig nodded as he felt his own hopes soar. Having had a crush on Luna himself for years but always being too timid to say anything or make a move. Hoping that if he just befriended her that their friendship would someday grow into something more one day.  

“Luna! Grab me another two liter of Coke!” Ravus requested from the den.

Luna and Craig both rolled their eyes.

“Like he can’t get up and get it himself.” Luna muttered as she went to the pantry to grab another 2 liter of the beverage.

“Let me take it to him,” Craig said as he moved away from the counter.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Luna waived off.

“But-” Craig tried to argue but Luna was already walking quickly toward the den. Craig hung his head in defeat as he walked behind her.  

Luna walked down the hall to the den and saw Andrew among Ravus’ friends and froze, her eyes going wide as she found herself barely breathing. Having avoided him for the last few months after the last ‘incident’.

“Ravus?” Luna called out, only halfway down the hall.

“What?” Ravus answered from his spot on the couch.

“You have two hands and two feet, you come get this,” Luna requested. But when Ravus got close she could smell the booze on him as she watched him stagger a little. Which meant he was drunk.  

“You’ve been drinking,” Luna remarked as she handed the bottle to him in the middle of the hall.

“And you’re judgmental,” Ravus countered irritably as Craig passed them to sit with the rest of the group.  

“I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just...” Luna began to stutter before lowering her voice. “Why is Andrew here?” Luna whispered angrily.

“You need to get over it,” Ravus reprimanded her. “Seriously, you guys broke up like months ago, he’s still my friend, so stop over reacting and treating him like he has the plague every time he just happens to look in your direction. Everyone is staying over, but we’ll all be on this end of the house, so you’ll be fine.” Ravus defended before turning away from her and rejoining his friends.

Luna clenched her jaw and tried to take a cleansing breath but when she opened her eyes. She saw Andrew staring at her, looking her up and down like he used to, like he was undressing her with his eyes and that same smug half cocked smirk he always had when he drank and Luna felt her stomach churn. She turned on her heel and marched back to the kitchen. She paced a little as she tried to come to grips with the situation and the possible variables as Pryna and Umbra laid down on the mat in front of the sink.

“Hey Luche,” Luna called out again, remembering that she saw his car in her driveway.

“Yes?” Luche answered.

“Could you help me open this jar?” Luna asked, figuring that was a safe way to get Luche away from the rest of them so as not to cause suspicion as she went to the fridge and got a jar of jelly out.

“Sure,” Luche agreed as he joined her in the kitchen.

“Thank you,” Luna thanked him before re-tightening the lid herself and put the jar back in the fridge.

“Why...” Luche began before Luna cut him off.

“Listen, Luche, I’m going to ask you a question and I need you to tell me the truth, has Andrew been drinking tonight?” Luna whispered.

“Yeah, we all have,” Luche answered slowly.

“Ok, I need you to keep an eye on Andrew for me and keep him away from me, ok? Andrew is my ex and he can become a very...dangerous person when he drinks and he’s vindictive and spiteful even when he doesn’t drink, I just, make sure he doesn’t sneak away, especially in my direction, run interference for me, please Luche, please,” Luna pleaded quietly as she took his hands into her own and squeezed them anxiously, hoping the physical contact would induce Luche to do as she asked.

“Absolutely, I won’t let him out of my sight.” Luche agreed instantly as he realized how genuinely scared, not scared, terrified, she was and started to worry about her as he realized the golden opportunity he had just been given, he could be the hero and save her from her ex. Something he could definitely do for her. This would prove to her once and for all how much he liked her and if he could do this for her, she would give him a chance and he would win her over.

“Thank you,” Luna smiled feeling some relief in that but the anxiousness still wouldn’t leave her.

She went back into her room, Pryna and Umbra joining her, laying down on their shared bed and watched as she paced.

‘Shit, shit shit’, Luna thought to herself as tried to think of anything else she could do before a thought dawned on her. She got her phone from her pocket and called Selena.

“You make it home ok?” Selena asked from her bed when she saw it was Luna calling. The rest of their friends had already left so that the Ulric siblings could get to bed at a decent hour.

“Yeah, um, it’s just that,” Luna stuttered as she fought to control the anxiety whirling in her chest.

“Luna, are you ok?” Selena asked, sensing something was very wrong.

“No,” Luna shook her head as she continued to pace her room.

“What’s going on, talk to me,” Selena urged.

“I’m scared, my ex, Andrew is here and I’m freaking out,” Luna blurted.

“Ok, how can I help?” Selena asked.

“I need to ask a favor of Nyx but I wanted to run it by you and tell me if it’s crazy.” Luna suggested.

“I’m all ears.” Selena told her.

“Ok, so Andrew has been drinking and he’s...he can be really dangerous when he does. Luche is here also and he said he would run interference but I don’t know if it’s going to be enough. Do you think it would be ok to ask if Nyx could come and spend the night, with me, in my room, pretend to be my boyfriend because Andrew will leave me alone because he’s a douche who won’t respect my boundaries but might respect another guy’s’.” Luna requested.

“Absolutely,” Selena nodded as she jumped out of bed and marched to Nyx’s room, knocking quickly and forcefully as she did so.

“Yeah?” Nyx answered from his bed, taking his hand from his cock, having been trying to jack off to a fantasy of Luna, irritated by the interruption.

“I need to come in, Luna is in trouble,” Selena said through the door.

“It’s open,” Nyx said as he instantly sat up in bed and wiped his hand off on his bedding and pulled his pajama bottoms up to further conceal it.

“Here, she’s on the phone, she’s freaking out, like almost panic attack, you need to go spend the night at her house,” Selena said as she turned on the light and thrust her phone into Nyx’s hands as she went to his closet and began packing an overnight bag for him.

“Luna?” Nyx asked as put the phone to his ear as he swung his legs to the side to set his feet on the floor.

“Nyx, oh thank God, I know it’s late, I’m really sorry to bother you but I need the biggest of favors. My ex, Andrew is here, he’s at my house and he’s staying the night apparently with the rest of Ravus’ friends, and he’s been drinking and I don’t have the safest of locks on my door and I don’t trust him to stay away from me and my brother keeps telling me not to worry and Luche is here and he said he would run interference but I am still scared, I’m scared it won’t be enough. Will you please come over, please, normally I would call Noctis but the last time Andrew was like this and saw Noctis it got ugly. Please Nyx, please,” Luna pleaded, tears escaping her eyes.

“What’s your address?” Nyx asked as he went to his desk and got a pen and paper as Luna gave him the address and directions to her house.

“I have one more favor to ask you,” Luna requested, biting her nails nervously. “Name it,” Nyx answered.

“When you get here, I’m going to kiss you, I need you to kiss me back and make it look real and authentic, I need you to act like you’re my very steady boyfriend ok? Andrew might respect that kind of boundary.” Luna asked, her features blushing hard.

“Yup, got it, understood,” Nyx agreed with a gulp as he tripped over himself again and wanted to face palm himself. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Nyx assured her.

“Thank you, I owe you, see you soon, bye.” Luna breathed before she hung up and breathed out slow and measured as the anxiety finally started to leave her. She would be ok, Nyx would be here soon and she would be safe. She got dressed in her pajamas before she put her clothes back on over them and put a robe on over those as well and got her room and bathroom ready for a guest. She sprayed Febreeze on most of the carpet and furniture as she picked up her room, making sure it was clean and orderly before her own company came.

She left her room to see Andrew coming down the hall but Luche was only a few strides behind him. Luna still froze at the sight of Andrew.

“Mon Cherie,” Andrew greeted smoothly as he strode over to her purposefully caging her with his body as he put a hand on her door behind her.

“Hi,” Luna greeted back with a forced calmness before looking up over Andrew’s shoulder at Luche as she grasped the door handle to her room, ready to open it and unleash Pryna and Umbra on Andrew if he touched her again.

“You lost?” Luche asked Andrew as Luche came up behind him with his arms crossed over his chest and a determined stare.

“Just looking for another bathroom.” Andrew answered, his nerve temporarily faltering as he stepped away from Luna.  

“Right back here,” Luche directed as he pointed to the door behind him. Andrew glowered but turned and went to the bathroom.

‘Thank you,’ Luna mouthed to Luche once Andrew turned away from her. Luche winked at her once Andrew passed him.

Once the bathroom door shut Luna blew out a breath of relief and opened her bedroom door to let Umbra and Pryna out again. “Bed time guys,” Luna urged them before they trotted back to their food and water bowls in the kitchen.

“See what I mean?” Luna whispered to Luche as they walked back out of the hallway.

“You weren’t kidding,” Luche shook his head, sad that he hadn’t been just a few seconds quicker coming to her rescue. He had wanted to make sure Andrew had come nowhere near her and he didn’t quite succeed and he inwardly berated himself for it.  

“So I called Selena and Nyx is coming over and posing as my boyfriend, so just, go along with it ok?” Luna requested softly as they walked to the front door.

“...ok...I could have done that, posed as your boyfriend I mean,” Luche offered.

“Aww, thank you, that’s so sweet, but it’s ok, so keep doing what you’re doing, you’re doing great, thank you so much I owe you big.” Luna smiled appreciatively before Luche’s cell phone rang.

“Speak of the devil,” Luche said into his phone.

“Is Luna with you?” Nyx asked as he drove over to Luna’s house.

“Yep, she’s right next to me, we’re hanging out by her front door, waiting for you apparently.” Luche answered as he spared a glance at Luna who was looking at him curiously.

“So she told you?” Nyx concluded.

“Dude, I caught the guy cornering her outside her own room which is like on the other end of the house that everyone else is hanging out in, real creeper,” Luche informed Nyx.

Nyx’s features flashed rage as his foot dug into the gas pedal. “I’ll be there as fast as I can. GPS says 10 more minutes, I’ll see if I can make it in 5.” Nyx said as he passed a car.

“Tell him to be careful and don’t get a ticket.” Luna cautioned softly as she went and sat down at the bench by the door.

“Luna said to be careful and don’t get a ticket.” Luche repeated as he took a seat next to her on the bench.

“I will do my best,” Nyx grinned. “Don’t leave her side.” Nyx urged Luche.

“I won’t.” Luche assured him. “See ya when you get here,” Luche said before he hung up.

“Thank you,” Luna said, squeezing Luche’s other hand that wasn’t around his phone.

“No problem,” Luche grinned as he squeezed back, opting to hold her hand.

“What are you two doing?” Andrew asked as he walked past them and stopped once he saw the two. Luna instantly pulled her hand out of Luche’s to fold them in her lap as she sat up straighter and more rigidly. Her whole body becoming tense.  

“Waiting on her boyfriend.” Luche answered evenly before Pryna and Umbra came back, both sitting in front of Luna and keeping their eyes on Andrew, the way they had been doing all night.

“You got a new boyfriend?” Andrew asked Luna, his eyes narrowing a bit.

“Yeah, he’s a good friend of mine, captain and quarterback of the same football team I’m on, hell of a guy,” Luche answered for Luna so she didn’t have to, keeping his focus on Andrew even though, in his peripheral vision, could see Luna smiling proudly at him which only made him smirk.

“Huh, I’m going to have to meet him then,” Andrew said as he came forward and sat in a chair opposite of them. Luche and Andrew had a stare off as Luna found refuge in her phone, going through her social media feeds as they waited in awkward silence.

True to Nyx’s best estimate, he was there within 6 minutes. Luna practically jumped up and went to the door, staring out of the glass on the side of the door as she eagerly awaited for him to walk up to the front door. Pryna and Umbra mirroring her as they cautiously wagged their tails. “Excited to see Nyx too?” Luna cooed to her dogs. “Nyx is awesome isn’t he, we like Nyx, yes we do.” Luna continued to baby talk to her dogs before their tails began to wag more.

“There’s my knight in shining armor!” Luna greeted excitedly as she opened the door wide, revealing Luche right behind her and Andrew right behind him as Pryna and Umbra went out to greet Nyx.

“Hey Pryna, Umbra,” Nyx greeted, thankful he had remembered their names. Pryna and Umbra wagged their tails some more, giving him a few curious sniffs before sniffing at the grass to relieve themselves.

“Sorry it took so long Princess,” Nyx smiled as he carried a duffle bag in one hand as he walked up the steps to her front door. Luna couldn’t wait for him to cross the threshold, she took the few steps that separated Nyx from herself and met him halfway there. She stood on her tip toes and kissed him firmly. Nyx dropped his duffle bag and framed her face with his hands as he kissed her back as she held onto him desperately. Something they both had been dreaming about all week but now that it was happening, they found themselves wishing it was for completely different reasons.

“My hero,” Luna grinned up at him as she sighed partly in happiness, partly in relief.  

Nyx smiled in turn, giving her another quick kiss before leaning over and picking up his dis-guarded bag as Luna stole into his side and placed his arm securely over her shoulders.

“Andrew, meet my boyfriend Nyx,” Luna introduced proudly as Pryna and Umbra passed them to go back into the house and back to her room.

Andrew tried and failed to keep his disdain out of his expression as he gave Nyx a once over. “Hey man,” Andrew finally greeted as he held out a hand for Nyx to shake.

“Hey,” Nyx nodded as Luna took his duffle bag from him so he could shake Andrew’s hand so Nyx didn’t have to take his arm off her shoulders.

The two shared a forceful handshake, both partly trying to break the other’s hand in the hand shake.

Andrew turned his attention and said something to Luna in French that had Luna staring at him in outraged shock as her cheeks flushed even more than they were.

Luche didn’t know much French but he got the gist of what Andrew had said and glared at Andrew who only smirked in response.

Luche fished his wallet out of his pocket, pulling out two condoms and handing them to Nyx. “I only have two, they might be too tight a fit though.” Luche said as he passed them to Nyx who had to take his arm from around Luna’s shoulders to take them.

“Thanks, I brought plenty,” Nyx replied with a grin, catching onto Luche’s heavy hint as he put them into his pocket.

Luna smiled victoriously and handed Nyx his bag back before she led him to her room.  

Once inside her room Luna locked the door and hugged Nyx as tight as she could. “Thank you, thank you so much for coming,” Luna murmured into his chest. Nyx hugged her back, just as tightly. This poor girl, the lengths she just went through to keep distance from her ex. He must have been a real asshole. But he was happy to have her in his arms again. A place he felt keenly that Luna should always be.

Luna smiled before she pulled away and took her robe off and carefully let it pile up on the floor.  “Oh and Pryna is the white beauty and Umbra is the mostly black handsome man,” Luna clarified as she continued to arrange her robe on the floor.

“What are you doing?” Nyx asked as she then took her shirt off, revealing her pajama top underneath as she carefully placed the shirt on the floor.

“Making it look like you’ve been undressing me,” Luna answered as she stood in front of him and took off her jeans, making them pool at her ankles before stepping out of them. She went over to her dresser and pulled out a black lace thong and a matching black lace bra and strategically placed them on the floor as well.

“If you wouldn’t mind, could you do the same to your clothes, you can change into pajamas in my bathroom.” Luna suggested as she motioned to the door to her bathroom.

“Wait, why are you doing all this?” Nyx asked as he gestured to her clothes on the floor.

“Because, the last time this happened, I had Noctis come and Andrew broke into my room in the middle of the night in a drunken rage and when he saw that Noctis and I had no sign of being intimate he accused me of...just really horrible things and it just got ugly.” Luna explained, pained by the memory as she pulled out one of the hideaway bed underneath her own, on the other side of her bed that couldn’t be seen from the door that she had used for sleepovers and went to the other closet in her room where extra bedding was stored as she made the bed for Nyx.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Nyx countered as he dropped his bag to the floor, holding his hands out in a stopping motion. “This is your house, this is your room. It should be the one place you feel safe and secure and no one should have access to this space without your permission and consent. If he so much as touches that door I will kick his ass into next year and he will need an ambulance by the time I’m done with him. This is ridiculous! Your brother needs to step up and never let this guy within two thousand yards of the house, you should get a restraining order, you should not, under any circumstances feel like you need to do any of this just to keep him away!” Nyx protested as he gathered her clothes off the floor and handed them back to her. “I’ll still stay in here with you and I’ll play along out there but it has to stop somewhere.” Nyx insisted.

Luna blinked at him in surprise before dropping her clothes and hugging him fiercely again, crying into his chest. Nyx held onto her again, even though he wanted to kick Ravus’ and Andrew’s asses. He felt so sorry for this girl in his arms, crying into his chest and holding onto him so tightly, that it was getting a little hard to breathe. Nyx wrapped one arm securely around her and stroked her hair with the other. Soothing her the best way he knew how.

“You’re right, you’re absolutely right, but I can’t...” Luna sniffled into his chest. “I can’t make Ravus see that. It’s like he can’t look at anything outside of himself anymore.” Luna revealed.

“Well I’m going to have to make him see it then,” Nyx replied.

“No, not tonight, he’s been drinking and it’ll just make things worse,” Luna pulled back so she could look into his eyes as she shook her head adamantly and clung to his shirt, tears welling up and streaming from her eyes. “Tomorrow when he’s sober and Andrew has already left,” Luna suggested. “I just don’t want another confrontation. Not right now,” Luna pleaded.

“Ok,” Nyx allowed. Luna tucked her head back down into his chest and they held onto each other as Luna slowly regained her composure and she basked in the feeling that because he was here, she would be safe, he would keep her safe. It was going to be ok.

“Not exactly how you planned on spending your Saturday night huh?” Luna mumbled into his shirt, a small smirk on her lips.

“No, but I’m glad I’m here.” Nyx allowed a small, gentle smile to grace his lips, his head still to top of hers as he started to worry about what Andrew must have done to her to make her this way and instantly knew he had a mortal enemy in Andrew and while Nyx and Luche had been discretely competing for Luna, at least Luche was still cool enough to have his back and come through for Luna.

“Me too.” Luna whispered softly before she was able to pull herself back together and regain her composure.

Nyx unpacked his things from his bag that his sister had packed as Luna continued to get ready for bed in her bathroom. He looked around at the room, looking at the white walls, white carpet with all kinds of art, mostly watercolor paintings all over the walls before he saw that she had an art corner by her bay window in her room that also had a bench and several cushions and pillows that Nyx imagined she read in and the thought made him smile softly. She also had giant windows that currently had the shades drawn on and several skylights in the room as well. She had a regular desk that he assumed was for homework with a closed laptop on the surface against one of the other walls and her own mini living room in her room. She also had a vanity by the bathroom, half of which was covered with perfumes and lotions and a few makeup bags. He saw the keyboard with a bench on the other side of the bay window. Her room was freaking huge, it felt like three times the size of his living room. He then noticed her book shelf that took up the corner on the other side of her art corner by the bay window and walked over to it curiously. He turned his head to the side to read the spines of the books. A lot of them were about psychology, which would explain how she had managed to win at Cards Against Humanity, a book about reading people’s handwriting, medicine, sports medicine, massage, physical therapy, holistic medicine, essential oils. Then an entire shelf dedicated to cook books then a whole shelf dedicated romance novels, the science of sex and attraction and poetry. Nyx shook his head at the romance novels but tried to take a note of the other books. But then a whole shelf dedicated to art books. He looked closer, smiling appreciatively at the different ones.

“You can you look at any of those if you want.” Luna offered from the doorway to her bathroom, still rubbing in her nightly moisturizer as she walked over and took her favorite one off the shelf and handed it to him. He could see from the paint stained fingerprints on the cover and on most of the pages she must have used this as a reference.

“Did you remember a charger?” Luna asked as she went to her bed and plugged her phone in. “I don’t think I did.” Nyx shook his head as he looked up and noticed when she had turned around that her hair was down, the hair towards her face was in waves while the hair in the back was slightly curled from being twisted into the clip. Goodness was it pretty.

“That’s ok, I have extras, I-phone or Android?” Luna asked as she opened her bedside dresser drawer.

“Android.” Nyx answered.

“My kind of guy,” Luna grinned as she pulled out a spare charger and plugged it into the wall for him. “I should probably warn you, I do talk in my sleep so if that freaks you out, I’m sorry.” Luna informed him as she got into bed.  

“I snore,” Nyx shrugged as he closed the book and put it back on the shelf and walked over to the light switch to turn the lights off.

“I won’t notice, I listen to music as I fall asleep, helps me have lucid dreams,” Luna smiled softly as she put one earbud into her ear.

“Does that really work?” Nyx asked curiously as he plugged in his phone and got into the hideaway bed that was next to hers and noticed that it was way more comfortable than even his own bed at home.

“Sometimes, I have really, really intense dreams so when they are good, they are spectacular, when they are bad, they are...brutal and horrific and make me never want to sleep again.” Luna revealed lowly.  

“I’m sorry about the latter.” Nyx grimaced.

“Well, you’re here, so I should be just fine,” Luna assured him as she settled into her bed further.

“Nice nightlights,” Nyx smiled as he saw a few of them in her room, one by the bedroom door and one by her bathroom door which was on the side of the room he was on, his bed coming between her bed and the bathroom and then another on the side of the room where the mini living room was, along with the moonlight coming in from the skylights.

“Thank you,” Luna smiled in the darkness, at least he didn’t tease her or make fun of her for being afraid of the dark. “Although, if you prefer to have less light I have a sleeping mask you could borrow.” Luna added.

“Nah, I’m good, good night Luna,” Nyx bid her as he rolled away from her and tried to fall asleep, even though his body begged for rest but his brain told him to stay awake to stand watch over her.

“Goodnight Nyx, thank you again for coming.” Luna replied softly as she rolled away from him in turn and selected her sleep music playlist.

It had to be the middle of the night when he woke up to the sound of her moaning and suddenly his dick sprang to life. ‘Go. Away.’ He inwardly told it and rolled onto his stomach, hoping that with sad thoughts he could make his erection go away. Luna gasped softly in her sleep as she rolled onto her back as she sighed happily. Nyx buried his face into his pillow as he ground his pelvis into the bed, halfheartedly hoping she would stop soon while his imagination was set to record any sound that escaped her to fuel future fantasies.

Her breathing changed, got more labored as little cries of ecstasy escaped her lips as her hands clawed at the bedding as she writhed, fisting them before letting out a silent scream as her whole body tensed. Soon however her body slacked and her breathing soon returned to normal.

Nyx, for all of his self control, couldn’t help but watch, lifting his head and looking at her face, grateful for the soft light that had been emitted from those blessed night lights and skylights. His eyes had adjusted and witnessed the tortured bliss on her face, had seen her hands squeeze the bedding and had watched her writhe in bliss. God help him.

Nyx huffed in defeat and carefully and silently got out of bed and found refuge in her bathroom, carefully shutting the door and being ever so relieved to see she had a night light in there too so he didn’t have to turn a light on and risk waking her up. He took a seat on her toilet seat and pulled out his aching shaft from his pajama bottoms and boxers.

He closed his eyes as his imagination went into overdrive. He imagined Luna in that outfit she had described earlier in the night, imagining the sharp contrast of black leather and fishnets against the paleness of her skin. Her bright, ice blue eyes staring into him as he would put his hands on her thighs, feel the fishnets snag just a tad on the calluses of his hands as he felt the heat of her skin beneath his palms as he would slide his hands up those scorching hot legs of hers. He fantasized that those fishnets would only go thigh high. His hands would go to her ass squeezing the bare flesh he found there as Luna would strip for him. What he would give to tease her, to see that pretty mouth of hers hang open as she panted and moaned as she would spread her legs wide on his lap, revealing everything to him. He fantasized what shade of peachy pink her feminine lips would be, if past experience had taught him anything it was that a girls lips on her face tended to be the same shade as her nipples and her clitoris, nature was funny like that sometimes. He would delve into those folds with his hands as he made out with her. Then when he had her on the brink of release he would pull his hand away, watch her lips pout as she begged for more. Then he would ease her down onto his shaft and watch as he filled her. Watch her head lull back and her mouth open wide as another moan came from her throat. She would ride him, as hard as she wanted to as he held her close, capturing her pulse points on that regal column of her neck with his mouth, biting and sucking until she was bruised all over, claiming her as his for everyone to see. She would start to pant as she got closer. She would start calling out his name as a prayer as she clung to him. His hands would roam her, squeezing her breasts, giving her amazing cleavage before pulling at them and rolling her nipples between his fingertips, what a beautiful contrast they would be to the rest of her flower petal soft skin, a real feast for the eyes. He would try to suck on them as she continued to ride him. She would be so wet because he would make god damn sure she was good and aroused. His hands would go to her hips, helping her, guiding her as she would rock back and forth against him, feeling slick walls start to constrict around him as her cries grew louder as she got closer. She would hang onto his shoulders and the back of his neck for balance, her fingertips digging into the flesh there as her face would wear that beautiful tortured bliss expression again. He had almost forgotten how amazing it was to watch a girl orgasm, to come apart and back together again, to be given the highest of joys and ecstasies. And the satisfaction of knowing that he was the one to give that to her, to make her feel that way if she wanted it was the best kind of natural high. He wanted her, in every way she would have him.

He blew out a shaky breath as he finally came himself. His semen rocketed out of cock and splashed all over the marble floors of her bathroom. He cleaned himself and the floor up, chancing a flush of the toilet with the soiled toilet paper and washed his hands of any evidence of his actions. He was drying his hands when he heard her gasp again, but this one, while soft, was not like her gasps before, there was an edge to it, a hiss to it, like she was in pain.

He opened the door to see her facing the bathroom, her face twisted into a pained expression.

“No,” Luna muttered.

Nyx took one step toward her and she curled in on herself. “Andrew, no!” Luna whispered harshly. Nyx froze in position as his eyes left her to scan the room, making sure Andrew was not in fact there. His eyes quickly traveled to her door and made sure it had stayed locked. His ears strained in the silence, listening for breathing, for movement of any kind other than Luna’s.

Luna’s wrists came together and went above her head, like they had been tied together before she started to silently scream again. She was having a nightmare. She kicked the covers off as she kicked wildly as she continued to silently scream.

Nyx’s heart twisted painfully as he crossed the room in an instant and fell to his knees on the hideaway bed as he knelt next to her bed and grabbed her by the arms, bringing them back down from above her head as he tried to gently shake her awake.

“Luna,” Nyx whispered softly. “Luna wake up,” Nyx urged.

Luna tried to fight him off before her eyes snapped open as she sat up in bed, gasping for air as she clawed at her wrists, scratching them in the process before she realized she was awake and safe and sound in her own room.

“You ok there?” Nyx asked softly, still on his knees on the side of her bed as he gently rubbed soothing soft circles into her back as she caught her breath.

Luna turned to him and flung herself at him and clung to him before practically dragging him back down to the hideaway bed.

“Oh-ok,” Nyx muttered as he laid there awkwardly, not quite sure what to do. Luna, for her part had already mostly fallen back asleep.

Nyx took a deep breath and squirmed to bring his arm up and lifted her head slightly to push his arm through the space under her neck and adjust their now shared pillow before reaching up with his foot and hooked her blanket with it to bring it down since they were laying on top of his and managed to cover them both with it before resting his other arm in the crook of her waist. He couldn’t help but gaze down at her beautiful face and smiled bittersweet-ly as she seemed to be at peace now. His eyes drew heavier and heavier as he slowly blinked at her, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, his lips lingering there before finally succumbing to sleep himself.

Luna awoke in the morning, feeling at peace as she could feel a pair of strong arms around her as one of her own arms wrapped around someone in turn. Luna frowned as she realized that there should not have been a pair of arms around her and she shouldn’t be holding onto anyone. She opened her eyes and saw Nyx’s chest and recognized that it was the same shirt he had worn to bed last night, and then looked up curiously to see Nyx’s neck, then that glorious jaw of his, then finally his handsome, peaceful, restful face and could not stop the smile that played on her lips as memories of the night before began to wash into her mind. She had dreamed of him, dreamed of Nyx making love to her and it had been AWESOME. Oh god then she had a nightmare, of Andrew, he had managed to tie her up and was torturing Nyx before coming back to her and she was fighting him off then she remembered that she had woken up from said nightmare, gasping in a cold sweat, and...and Nyx had been there, he had been awake, he...had he tried to wake her up? Bless his soul if he had. She remembered practically gluing herself to him and feeling so much relief, comfort, peace and a deep sense of safety when she did. She must have fallen asleep that way. She noted her blanket laying over them and figured she must have dragged it down with her. For Nyx to make such a big deal about consent and personal space, she sure did invade his personal space a lot, with or without his consent. She would have to apologize for that when he woke up. She should be withdrawing from him, she should...but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t bring herself to pull away from him. Heaven help her.

Soon however she could sense him wake up. But still, she did not move. Instead she stayed still and let him wake up.

“Good morning,” She greeted in a voice so small she couldn’t quite believe her own ears.

“Morning,” Nyx groaned sleepily as he pulled his arm away, that had had been resting on her waist, his hand splayed possessively and protectively on her back, to roll onto his back and stretch out. Luna could feel the arm beneath her neck tense as it stretched in unison with the rest of him before it relaxed again.

“Thank you, for helping me through last night.” Luna thanked him softly.  

Nyx smiled sleepily as he rolled back over to face her but he folded his arm in front of him, trying to respect her personal boundaries, even though she had made no move to get off his arm, or move away from him. “No problem,” Nyx told her, shaking his head a little as he did so as he slowly blinked his eyes open in the bright sunshine streaming into the room.

“So how bad did I talk in my sleep?” Luna inquired, grimacing as she did so.

“You didn’t, I mean you said ‘no Andrew’ in your sleep but you didn’t say much of anything else, or at least if you did, I didn’t hear it.” Nyx shook his head, choosing to keep part of the truth to himself to save her any embarrassment.

“So hardly at all, good, good,” Luna nodded. “Sorry I invaded your bed.” Luna apologized.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m not going to complain,” Nyx shook his head again, as he could feel the corner of his mouth tug into a smile.

“I just..I mean..I just...” Luna started to stutter and trip over herself as she fought to collect her thoughts again. She grimaced again as if waiting for Nyx to sigh exasperatingly but when she opened her eyes, all she saw was patience tempered with curiosity. “I feel safe with you.” Luna blurted as her cheeks stained rose.

“Good,” Nyx nodded in agreement. “I hope I never make you feel unsafe,” Nyx added.

Luna’s heart melted at that, all she could think of was how bad she wanted to kiss him again as she nodded with him. But she tried to exercise self control. She had to try.

“So...um...so have you...” Luna struggled with forming a coherent sentence.

“Have I...?” Nyx asked after a beat, careful to keep his tone gentle. He had to be gentle.  

“Favors, have you thought of how you wanted to be repaid for this favor?” Luna blurted super quickly before she hid her face into the pillow, embarrassed by her stuttering. “Me and English are not getting along this morning,” Luna muffled into the pillow with a self depreciating laugh.

“Sorry,” Luna apologized as she pulled her face from the pillow to face him again.

Nyx was shaking his head again. “Don’t worry about it, you don’t owe me anything,” Nyx insisted.

“I can’t accept that answer.” Luna shook her head in friendly argument.

“No, I’m serious, you don’t owe me anything,” Nyx repeated emphatically but Luna still shook her head no.

Nyx rolled his eyes before placing his hand on her face and gently grabbed it and shook her head yes for her which earned laughter from both of them.

“Yes Nyx, I don’t owe you anything,” Nyx repeated in a girly voice, a gentle teasing sarcastic imitation of Luna’s voice which only got Luna to laugh harder.

“Ok, I give up,” Luna laughed before Nyx pulled his hand away from her face. “Here, how about this,” Luna suggested as she reached around him and began scratching his back through the fabric of his t-shirt.

Nyx couldn’t help the gravely moan that escaped his throat as he rolled back over to his stomach to give her more access to his back.  

“May I?” Luna giggled as she dipped her fingers under his shirt to scratch at the skin there.

“By all means,” Nyx invited, taking the shirt off and fully laying on his stomach. Luna smiled as she sat up next to him and began to scratch his back.

“Lighter? Harder?” Luna asked as she scratched softly.

“You could scratch a little harder.” Nyx told her before she put more pressure into her scratching.

“Oh yeah, just right,” Nyx groaned in pleasure as he enjoyed her attention. Soon her scratches alternated into rubs and massage. The moans that escaped his throat had Luna biting her bottom lip because damn was his voice sexy. It was extra deep because of sleep and lord have mercy, it was turning her on.

“Could I try something?” Luna felt embolden to ask.

“Absolutely,” Nyx agreed. She could have her way with him and he would happily comply.

“But I would probably have to sit on you, like your lower back or your butt.” Luna clarified as she withdrew her hands from him to get a book on her headboard and flipped through the pages to find the diagram she was thinking of. She straddled and sat on his ass and suddenly Nyx was very aware of her hot core against him and he was so grateful she couldn’t see his erection that was hard enough to fuck through steel at the moment that was pinned between his body and the mattress. And then she was running her knuckles up either side of his spine and his eyes nearly rolled back into his head. Oh god, she was massaging up and down his back and then her hands went to his shoulders and then his neck and all over again. This was heavenly.

“You can keep going...for like hours if you want, I won’t stop you,” Nyx gently teased her.

“Can I now?” Luna all but purred as she continued to massage him.

Holy shit she was flirting with him and Nyx’s cock was in desperate need of relief again. It was taking every ounce, every molecule of self control not to give into his desires.

She continued to massage his back until her stomach started to growl.

“I didn’t ask you,” Luna laughed as she talked to her stomach. But the scent of breakfast that was wafting through the house.

“It does smell good.” Nyx had to admit.

“Pause on this for now?” Luna asked as she gently caressed up and down his back, giving him goosebumps everywhere.

“Sure,” Nyx agreed, he couldn’t bring himself to even disagree.

“Ok, I’m gonna go to the bathroom and get dressed and stuff, feel free to shower or whatever when I’m done ok?” Luna suggested as she lowered herself to lay on his back, giving his cheek a quick kiss before getting off of him and going to her closet to get some clothes to change into. Nyx stayed put until Luna had gone into the bathroom. When she had retreated to the bathroom and shut the door, he rolled over to his back, he rubbed his face as his erection tented his boxers and his pajama pants, precum soaking through both layers of material but thankfully not really spotting the sheets. Thank god.

Nyx tried to ignore it as he got up and put Luna’s blanket back on her bed and folded up the bedding from the hideaway bed, putting it back into the closet where he saw her take it from before he pushed the hideaway bed back under hers, appreciating the cool design of her bed frame, how it had looked like just a bed long drawer underneath her bed.

He dug through his bag and got the outfit Selena had packed for him and grabbed the stick of deodorant Selena had thrown in and went ahead and got dressed quickly before Luna came back out, thankfully his boner had gone down some and he could hide the remainder of it in his jeans without it being too noticeable.

Luna came out not long after that and stopped when she saw that not only was the hideaway bed put up but that his bedding had been folded and put away. None of her friends ever thought to be so damn thoughtful or considerate.

“Aren’t you just amazing?” Luna cooed smiling appreciatively at him as he passed her to use the bathroom himself.

“I try,” Nyx smiled.

Luna quickly made her bed and waited for him because there was no way she, a princess, was going to leave her tower without her knight in shining armor.

It only took a moment for Nyx to reappear.

“Ready?” Luna asked as she stood from her seat on her bed.

“Yup,” Nyx nodded.

“Follow me,” Luna gestured as she stood up and made her way to her bedroom door, unlocking it and opening it for them before Pryna and Umbra weaved between them to walk out of the room as well.

Nyx politely closed the door behind them. However when they turned toward the hallway again. They found they were not alone.

“Mother,” Luna greeted a bit louder than she should have, as panic seeped into her chest once again at the sight of her mother coming down the hall toward her room. Shit, she forgot about the dragon.

#Magic and Miracles #Magic and Miracles chapter 2 #Lunyx #Lunafreya Nox Fleuret #Nyx Ulric #FFXV #Final Fantasy 15 #RaeLena #Ravus Nox Fleuret #Selena Ulric #Pelna Khara #Crowe Altius #libertus ostium #Crowe and Libertus #Luche Lazarus #Andrew Izunia #Sylva and Regis #Sylva Nox Fleuret #Regis Lucis Caelum #Ignoct #ignis scientia #noctis lucis caelum #gladiolus amicitia #prompto argentum #I think that's everyone

[fatestemptress]

Paramount Remembrances - Chapter 7 - Part 1

Summary: Dean Winchester has reached a point in his life where he doesn’t have many firsts left to fulfill.  Except maybe falling in love.  This is the story of how he got there.

Warnings: Smut. Lots and lots of smut.  Oral (male & female receiving).  Dry humping.  Backseat sex. Teaching/Guiding.  Some Angsty Feels. 18 Plus ONLY! 

Pairings: Young Dean x OFC, Dean x OFC, Dean x Reader (We finally made it!  Woohoo!)

Word Count On this Chapter: 5,180 

A/N:  Sooooo, the Dean x  Reader part kinda got away from me and I realized that I was over 8,000 words in, rambling my way to the conclusion.  So, I decided to break it up.   Good new is, the second part is almost finished.  :)   Again, thank you so much for all the likes and re-blogs.  I’ve had a blast writing this and I’m glad there are those out there enjoying it.  I’ve strayed away from exact canon time periods as I’m not following it as closely as some awesome writers do, however, for purposes in this chapter, this portion is set sometime in Season 7.  Lisa is in Dean’s past and Sam has his soul back with no memories of his experience in Hell.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dean was thirty-one when he fell in love.  And it scared him shitless.

Over the years, he’d had more sexual partners than he could count, his job never affording him the opportunity to stay in one place for any extended period of time.  He never led any of them on, always left them satisfied, always making sure they both were on the same page as far as the non-status of their relationship would be.  

Dean didn’t want to be labeled as a fuck ‘em and leave ‘em type but apparently those rules of the road his father had spewed out to him so long ago held some substance.  

Too much tragedy followed him everywhere he went, and he found he’d rather leave ‘em than have any of the women in his life physically hurt in any way shape or form.

Cassie had been the closest he had come to the word ‘love’, and while he had been hurt so badly by her rejection, he realized when revisiting her years later, it had been too easy for him to walk away from her when she finally knew who he really was for him to believe it had been anything more than maybe a puppy love in its most pure form.    

Lisa was his most recent and the last mistake he would make in believing that he could have ‘normal.’ That whole relationship had quickly gone to shit and while he had cared for her and Ben deeply, love was never a word that he uttered out loud because he had never truly felt that he could love a woman the way they deserved.  Especially, when he spent his days and nights in constant fear that something could happen to her and Ben, coupled with being restless living an ‘apple pie life’.  It didn’t help that he had eventually realized that she had been a poor substitute for the aching hole the temporary loss of his brother had left behind.

So, Dean had resigned himself and made himself believe that one night stands were the way to go.  

Unless of course there was a woman that came along that could, surprisingly, kick his ass.

And when that happened, well, the world seemed to tilt on its axis a little bit.

Dean never thought of himself as a true masochist.  A dominant? Yes.  A submissive?  At times. But one day when a long leg shot out and kicked him in the stomach before bending down into a sweep that dropped him onto his back with a groan….

Well…he was reminded why.

The reason people and, yes, sometimes even he, embraced pain and put it hand in hand with pleasure.

He’d gladly take another kick to his solar plexus if it meant he could look up at her and see her for the first time over and over again.

Long straight dark hair and light brown eyes looked down at him as one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen stood above him with a gun pointing at his face.

And his gut twisted in more than just pain from that well-placed kick.

“You move, you die.  Now, who the fuck are you?” She said between clenched teeth.  

Dean lifted up his hands in surrender, “Dean.  Dean Winchester.  And you might be?”

Instead of answering, she cocked the gun, “None of your damn business.  Get up.  Slowly.”

Dean complied, his eyes unable to stop drinking in her form.  Black leather jacket over a black tank top and skin tight black jeans tucked into calf high combat boots, rolling over toned curves, her hands and eyes steady as she followed his movements with the precision of a well-practiced fighter.

She was gorgeous.

She was also still pointing the gun at his chest.

“The Winchesters have an anti-possession tattoo.  Show it to me.”

He considered trying to be funny, but the way she held her gun let him know she knew how to use it, so instead he raised an eyebrow, pulled down his t-shirt from his collar and waited as her eyes roamed over the pentagram.

It was only then that she put up the gun and slipped it back into its holster at the small of her back, “Well, Winchester, looks like your reputation precedes you.  Unfortunately, you swaggered your ass into what was supposed to be a trap for the werewolf in town.  So, if you don’t mind, if you could just mosey your way back to wherever you came from, that’d be awesome.”

Dean pursed his lips at her blatant dismissal, “Apology accepted.”  He said sarcastically.

“What the hell do I have to apologize for?  Kickin’ your ass?  Ain’t nobody told you to come here.”

He stepped forward, his eyebrows scrunched together in annoyance, “I’m here for the same reason you are, lady.  To kill a werewolf that’s eating people’s hearts.”

“Well, I got this.  So, you can go.”

And that’s how Sam found them, engaged in a screaming match over who had the biggest balls.

They had known each other for exactly fifteen minutes and already Dean hated her.

Well, he actually kind of liked her too.

When she got really angry, her eyes lightened dangerously, her voice got lower instead of higher and she poked him in the chest with her finger.

Dean wanted to break that finger so bad.  He also wanted to put it in his mouth and suck at the tip until she melted underneath him.

Needless to say, the first six months of their friendship had been frustrating at best and downright tumultuous at worst.  

Mostly because Dean couldn’t figure out if he wanted to smother her in her sleep or kiss her until she made that low moan in her throat that came out when she tasted something delicious.  

He also had a hell of a time trying to just figure her out.  The layers of who she was hidden deep underneath a gruff exterior and smart mouth leaving him dumbstruck when she gave a soft smile and kind eyes to a grieving family or when she turned into a protective mama bear and practically growled when a child was involved in any of their cases.    

It didn’t help that her and Sam got along like two peas in an annoying pod from the moment they met. It had taken Sam six seconds of puppy dog eyes to get her name that day.

Y/N.

Beautiful, breathtaking, annoying Y/N.

And now?

Whenever the three of them joined up on a case, Sam and Y/N spent hours researching the shit out of them and wallowed in long silences where neither of them needed to speak to one another but they still seemed to know what the other was looking for.  

Meanwhile, whenever Dean and Y/N were in the same room it was as if a fire was lit under their asses and instead of putting it out they spent their time trying to find as many leaves and dried kindling they could to keep it at its hottest temperature.  

Their constant arguments could be as serious as who was going to save the world tonight or as ridiculous as what was better than sex.  

Pie or Y/N’s weakness: Chocolate.

The correct answer was neither.  

But they were both so stubborn they refused to come to an agreement on the subject.

And while he would fight anyone who tried to convince him that his pie obsession was uncalled for, he still managed to pick up her favorite candy bars at various rest stops, making sure to always keep a secret stash in his duffel bag if only to torture her with them as he waved the chocolaty goodness at her from the farthest corner of whatever room they happened to be in.

And when she shrugged as if she could care less before distracting him with a well thrown book, pillow or elbow and tackled him on the ground, wrenching the chocolate triumphantly out of his hands, Dean tried not to think too hard on the way his body buzzed the minute her curves made contact with him.

Or the way he stared at her as she gave him a middle finger and bit into her prize.

She was so ridiculously annoying.

And then, there was the……moments.

Moments of something palatable that rolled its way over the two of them and made Dean feel like there was almost something tethering them together, tightening with each deep breath, each sigh of frustration and each smile that he managed to get out of her.

In fact, if Dean really wanted to be honest, there was one moment that stood out more than the rest.

The three of them had been searching for a Wendigo in a forest outside of North Dakota and they had set up camp around the perimeter of where multiple attacks happened, hoping to draw it out instead of traipsing through unknown forest and getting their asses lost.

It had been unseasonably cold that night.  Sam was up keeping watch wandering around the base of their camp jumping up and down to keep warm.  Meanwhile, Dean and Y/N were in separate sleeping bags laying by a fire that hadn’t been enough to keep Y/N from shivering in her sleep.  Dean had stayed in his sleeping bag for twenty minutes contemplating how hard she would hit him in the nuts if he decided to lie down next to her and try to help her stop shivering.  The decision was made for him when she rolled onto her side and her teeth started audibly clattering and he couldn’t take it anymore.  

Grabbing up his blanket and sleeping bag, he laid his sleeping bag next to hers and wrapped her body under the plaid wool of his blanket.  He lay on his side against her back and after hovering his arm over her this way and that he finally said fuck it and wrapped his arm around her waist, bringing her body flush against his.

She woke up immediately and tensed and he swore he could feel her reach for her gun that she had kept next to her.  But before he could say anything, he heard her take a deep breath through her nose as if sniffing the air, then she visibly relaxed into him, saying nothing.

It was ten minutes later, as his nose was in her hair and he was trying to not make it obvious that he was trying to figure out the scent of her shampoo, (Oranges?  Mangos?), when she finally spoke up.

“What are you doing, Winchester?”

Dean tensed against her and tried to surreptitiously move his face out of her hair, “Trying to make sure you don’t freeze to death, what else?”

She hesitated before answering him and to his surprise moved her body even closer to his, moving until her ass was right up against his now very interested cock and burrowed even deeper under the blanket he had thrown over them.  Dean let out a silent curse as he felt himself swell even more when her delectable backside rubbed against him and he tried his best to picture and name the ugliest monsters he had seen to date in an effort to get his dick to stop being an asshole.

He had finally gotten himself to relax some when he heard her clear her throat, “Thank you.”  She whispered, “This…this is a lot better.”

Dean closed his eyes against the warmth that amplified in his lower belly and took a deep breath, “Yeah, well, the Wendigo aint gonna want no frozen meat, so, gotta keep his dinner warm somehow.”

Y/N let out a harrumph but didn’t move from her position against him, “Moron.”

A half smile graced his features as he felt his body settle into something he hadn’t felt in so long, if ever.  Despite their current circumstances, despite the fact that they were on a hunt and could very well be dinner, he felt….safe. Warm.  Content.

And before he could talk himself out of the feeling, he felt his heavy eyes finally drift closed and he fell asleep.

The next morning, found him still alive.  

And hard.  

Sometime during the night, he had rolled onto his back and Y/N had rolled into his chest with her arm wrapped tightly around him and her face buried in his neck. Her leg was bent and thrown over his waist, and either Y/N was deliberately trying to get him off or she was having a very good fucking dream because her hips were undulating against him slightly causing her calf to move against his very interested, throbbing cock.

Dean blinked a few times and desperately tried to hold back a groan but he was unsuccessful.  Y/N’s head sleepily popped up and she looked up into his eyes.  He watched as unnamable emotions flickered through the light brown depths as she stared at him, her hair adorably sticking up haphazardly, and he would have bet money she was going to kiss him.  Except his asshole dick chose that moment to twitch in interest and her eyes clouded before she reared back, sat up and hit him in the chest.

“Really, Dean!  We’re being hunted by a monster and yet you still can’t control yourself?”

He hid his disappointment by bringing his arms behind his head as he grinned up at her, seemingly unrepentant, “It wasn’t me rubbing all up on you, Sweetheart.  If you’re gonna offer it, he’s gonna take it.”

Y/N gave him a disgusted look even as she blushed, “What the fuck ever, Dean.  Aint nobody offering nothin’.”

He winked at her, “Sure, Darlin’.  Keep telling yourself that.”

“UGH!”  

And with that, Y/N threw the covers back and quickly made her way to Sam where he was standing at the edge of camp giving them extreme side eye.

While Dean was sure they had killed the Wendigo, the who, what and when’s of it was a blur.  

Because the only thing he could focus on from that moment in time was that split second when her eyes were clear and the guards were down and he saw….something in their depths.  

Something that made him both exhilarated and fucking terrified.

From that trip on, the fire that burned was slowly turning into an inferno and the tension was at an all-time high.

But they still had each other’s back.  Still steadfastly protected one another in dangerous situations, taking hits when it meant they could distract would be bad guys from hitting the others; from hurting the team they had built on a precarious platform constructed from frustration, sarcasm, smirks….and that something else.

He would be damned if admitted how much he missed her when she was gone, on her own, hunting the bad guys on her terms.  

But he did.

And it made him even angrier when he felt it. That something missing, gnawing at his belly and deep inside his chest.

He wouldn’t even touch the emotion he felt when he saw her name pop up on his or Sammy’s phone or the rush of elation when he saw her truck pull up beside them on whatever no name highway they agreed to meet on.

However, it was during a particularly stressful case, where they couldn’t agree if it was a God or a Djinn causing havoc that apparently Sam had finally had enough.  

Enough of them and their unnecessary arguments.

Enough of the yearning dance they had perfected as they circled around one another.

“I’m soooo glad Dicky Dean is coming out to play today.”  Y/N growled as she threw a pillow at his head, the movement of her arm making her breasts jiggle slightly in her tight red tank top.

Not that he noticed.

Dean ducked just in time before casually sitting back in the motel chair and taking a drink of his beer as if he didn’t have a care in the world, “Why am I a dick?  ‘Cause I don’t agree with you?”

“It’s not that you don’t agree with me.  It’s the way you don’t agree with me.  All high and mighty with that cocky grin.”  

Said grin slid across his lips and he shrugged, “I’ve been told I have a big reason to be cocky.”

“Yeah, well, people lie to spare our feelings all the time, Dean.”

“Facts don’t lie, Sweetheart.”

“For the four millionth time, don’t call me Sweetheart, you ass.”

“Sorry, Baby.  I’ll try not to.”

“Dick.”

Sam stood up, “All right! Enough!  You two are driving me to drink.  As a matter of fact, that’s what I’m gonna go do.  Go to a bar and get a drink and maybe it’ll muffle the sound of this nonsense and we can go back to actually solving this case.”

“Wait, Sam,” Y/N said as she stood up next to him and grabbed a jacket, “I’m gonna go with you. I need a drink too.”

Sam threw his hands up in the air and walked to the door, “Whatever.  Let’s just go.”

Dean blew a kiss at Y/N as she gave him one more glare before sticking her tongue out him and the door closed behind them.

Childish?  Yes.

But that tongue?  He could imagine it doing any number of things to his body and the thought made him groan deep in his chest.

Pretty soon the silence of the room started to grate on his nerves and when he noticed himself pacing over the same space over and over he finally gave in, grabbed his jacket and headed to the bar down the block from the motel.

The music was loud but not too loud and it was fairly crowded for a weekday.  There was any number of available conquests waiting for the kill but his eyes automatically gravitated to the one person who made his blood boil for so many different reasons.

She had discarded her jacket somewhere and was swaying to the current song, standing in front of the digital juke box, vodka club in hand, as she perused the other music selections.   Her round ass encased in her skinny jeans had the attention of most of the bar and if she continued to shimmy it for much longer, she’d have a line of eager suitors ready to roll.  

Dean’s feet started making their way over to her before he had to physically stop himself.  

What was he doing?  Let her annoy someone else for the night.

He made his way over to where Sam was keeping an eye on Y/N from the bar, beer in hand.

“Was wondering how long it would take you to make your way over here.”  Sam said in greeting.

“I got bored.”

Sam smirked at him, “Uh huh. And I’m sure it had nothing to do with Y/N.”

Dean gave him a look of disbelief, his eyes following Sam’s stare to where Y/N was laughing with some random male stranger over who knew what, “Why would it have anything to do with that pain in the ass?”

“You guys fight like cat and dog.  And the tension keeps building and building…”

Dean raised a hand at the bartender and deliberately turned his back on Y/N’s form across the room, “There’s no sexual tension, Sammy.  She just makes me want to choke her out.  And not in the good way.”

A sly smile slid across Sam’s face as he leaned against the bar on one elbow, “Who said anything about sexual tension, Sigmund?”

“Shut up.”

Holding his hands up in surrender, Sam shrugged, “Okay.  Okay, Dean. So, then, uh, I want to ask you something.”  Sam shoved his free hand in his pocket, a sheepish expression sliding over his face, “Ummm, if you’re really not interested, then, uh, you wouldn’t mind me going for it, right?”

Dean stilled as he stared at his brother’s face in shock, “You’re not serious….are you?”

Sam shrugged, “She’s hot. And she’s smart and brave and can tell your ass off as fast as she can sew you up after getting hurt.”  Sam’s eyes flicked over to her, watching as she picked up a cue stick and started playing pool with the random guys she had been speaking to earlier, “And she has the nicest ass I’ve seen in a long time.”

“Sam!”

“Oh, please.  Don’t start.  I’ve seen you checking it out plenty of times.”

“Yeah!  Cause I have eyes!”  

The bartender finally made his way over to them, “What can I get ya?”

Thanking the bartender silently for the interruption so that he could gather his thoughts, Dean replied, “Whiskey.  Neat. Thanks.”

The bartender nodded and made his way back to the other end of the bar as Dean took a deep breath and raised his gaze to Sam’s, “Look, things like this can get complicated, Sammy. She’s independent as hell and prefers to work alone.  Making a relationship like that work would be hard.”

Sam scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, “Who said anything about a relationship?”

Dean shot Sam a confused look his own, “Huh?”

“We’re both adults, Dean. Sex doesn’t have to equate to a relationship.”

An anger that Dean wasn’t sure he understood shot through his body and he felt his jaw involuntarily clench as he turned his body toward his brothers’, “You sayin’ you just wanna bang her and act like nothing happened after?”

Sam’s eyes scrunched further, “Dean…I’m not sure what part you’re not understanding.  If there’s anyone who could comprehend something like this, it’s you.”

Dean threw his hands up in frustration, “Yeah, Sam!  With random chicks that know the deal and are okay with having a one night stand that’s not gonna amount to nothin’.”

Sam bit down on the inside of his mouth, his lips quirking slightly before he turned it into a frown, “And if I tell Y/N what the deal is and she’s okay with it, what’s the problem?”

With a growl, Dean tossed back the whiskey that had appeared in front of him and wiped the side of his mouth before pointing at Sam, “The problem is that she’s not just some random chick, Sam.  It’s Y/N! She’s our friend and she deserves more than just some random fuck and a ‘See you around sometime.’.”

“So you do care about her?”

“Of course I fucking care about her. It’s…she’s….SHE DESERVES MORE DAMMIT!”

Sam finally let that quirk at the side of his mouth slide into a full-fledged grin as he drank the last of the beer in hand, “Then why don’t you stop being a dick and tell her how you feel already.”

Dean blinked at Sam, momentarily thrown at his change in demeanor and his mouth opened and closed like a fish as he realized just how telling his words were, “Wha-?”

Slamming the empty bottle on the bar, Sam rolled his eyes, “Get out of your perpetual hole of denial and go get the girl you’ve been in love with for months already.”

Dean stubbornly ignored Sam’s last statement, “Soooo, you don’t want to bang her?”

Letting out a scoff of disbelief, Sam rubbed at his eyes in frustration, “God, please give me strength. No, Dean. I don’t want to bang her. I would never, ever get in the way of what I’ve seen between you two.”  He grabbed at Dean’s shoulder and tightened his grip forcing his brother’s eyes to his, “It’s okay to love someone, Dean.  It’s okay to love her.”

Dean stilled and stared at his brother as he bit the inside of his lip, a million thoughts racing in his mind.  The most prominent one being the nonononononononono that was echoing in his brain bouncing around like a pinball against the memories of all he had endured.  Every moment in his too short/too long life that had changed who he was before to who he was now.

He didn’t love her.  

He couldn’t love her.

He still had so much darkness in him.  Guilt. Pain. And he struggled every day to put those feelings of inadequacy into a small corner of his mind until they reared their ugly head at night when it was too quiet to drown out the memories.  

Everything in his world ended in tragedy and tears and so many had been hurt or died because of him.

He couldn’t risk it.

His eyes flicked over to where he saw Y/N raising her hands in victory before holding her hand out to the poor schlep in front of her.  She playfully curtsied in thank you as the money was slapped into her palm with a grumble. As she smiled, she turned her gaze towards the bar and met Dean’s eyes with her own and waved the money at him with a smirk and a wink, before letting the smirk drop into a frown as the intensity of his stare seemed to burn her from across the room.

He couldn’t risk her.    

Dean swallowed thickly as she gave him a concerned face.  Y/N brushed off the guy currently trying his best to earn his money back and pushed her way through the crowd to them.

He could feel Sam watching him from his perch “Moment of truth, Dean.  She’s making her way over here and since she’s seen you go pale as a ghost, she’s gonna wanna know why.”

Flicking his eyes everywhere but at her, he felt his heart start to pound even faster and panic quickly set in.  He reached into his pocket and flung some money on the bar before making his way to the door.

“Shit!  Dean!  Dean, wait!”

Ignoring Sam’s calls, he opened the door to the bar and disappeared into the night.

He wouldn’t risk her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  

“Oh my, God!  It’s a Wednesday.  Why is it so fucking crowded in here?”  Y/N muttered as she finally made her way to the bar where she saw Sam standing by himself, his mouth set in contemplation.

Grabbing his arm none too gently, Y/N pulled his attention to her, “Hey!  Where’d Dean go?”

Sam let out a soft sigh and shrugged, “Not sure.”

Ignoring the disappointment in her chest, she pulled up the empty stool next to him and sat down, “What do you mean?  He was just here and he looked like he was gonna puke.  Is he okay?”

Sam let out another sigh and motioned to the bartender, “I, uh, may have said something that he wasn’t ready to hear yet.”  He lowered his head to the bartender when he appeared, “Another beer and a vodka club, please.”

Y/N stared at Sam’s profile and took note of the hard clench of his jaw, “Sam, he looked physically ill. What could you have possibly said to make him react that way?”

The ridiculously tall hunter’s eyes flicked over to hers before looking away.  He rubbed his hand over his face and then he suddenly shrugged and threw his hands up, “You know what?  I’ll tell you because I honestly can’t take much more of this.”  

“Sam?”

He placed his hands on Y/N’s shoulders and lowered his head to look into her eyes, “My brother is head over heels, madly, insanely, in love with you,” Sam squeezed her shoulders tight, “And at this point I’m convinced, he will never tell you.”

Y/N blinked up at Sam as her mouth dropped open.  She let out small sounds of disbelief before she swallowed hard, shook her head and let out a loud laugh, brushing his hands off of her, “Get the fuck outta here!  No, he isn’t.  Sam, you’re outta your mind.”  She plucked the vodka soda out of the bewildered bartenders hand before he could place it on the bar and quickly swallowed two large gulps before turning her attention back to him, her hands trembling slightly, “Did he…did he tell you that?”

Sam gave her an indulgent, gentle smile, “He didn’t have to.  There’s no one in this world I know better than my brother.  So that means I also know he’s drowning in a denial pool and with each day that passes, he keeps going deeper and deeper and he’s gonna drive both you and I crazy until he either drowns or runs away.”  

“Soooo, he didn’t tell you this himself?”

Sam groaned and slapped himself on the forehead, “Do you two ever listen to anything other than what you want to hear?”

“This isn’t what I want to hear, Sam!  Do you know how stubborn, how controlling, how much of a pain in the ass that man is?!”  Y/N let out a growl, “H-he is constantly trying to tell me what to do.  He’s always challenging every thought I have,” She threw back the rest of her drink; “He’s always nagging me about every move I make.  Make sure to check your six, Y/N.  Make sure you don’t hesitate, Y/N.  Make sure you watch Sammy’s back, Y/N.  Why didn’t you say you were cold, Y/N? Like, what the fuck?!  When we’re in the same room it’s hard to breath as is and he just makes it so that I feel like I’m suffocating when he…when he…”

Sam let out a small laugh as he watched her struggle, “When he what?”

Y/N wiped at the side of mouth, catching a stray droplet of liquor before whispering, “When he teases me and then nudges me trying to get me to smile at him.  When he waves coffee under my nose trying to get me to wake up in the mornings.  When he steals the bacon on my plate because he already finished his and then he fucking winks at me and….and…”  Y/N closed her eyes and swallowed deep, “When he looks at me….with those eyes of his…..”  

Oh, God.

In the months that she had known him, Y/N had pushed whatever she might be feeling deep into the caverns of her heart because she knew, she fucking knew, Dean was never going to address the proverbial elephant in the room.  She would watch him, watch her out of the corner of her eye and would see…she would feel this utter sense of loss coming from him.  

At first, it confused her. But then the nights she was forced to share a room with them, she would hear him struggling in his sleep, whimpering as memories of pain assaulted his senses and she understood.

Dean Winchester couldn’t afford to feel anything.  

Because everything that mattered was eventually taken away from him.

And Y/N understood.

So, she left it alone. And she ached.  But she left it alone.

She was a proud, stubborn woman and she wasn’t going to force herself on anyone.  

No matter how much she loved him.

Fuck!

Now what?

A whimper left her mouth and she banged her head on the bar top in front of her and groaned, “Why did you have to tell me that, Sam?  I was just fine doggy paddling in my own damn pool.”  

His large hand rested on the top of her head as he affectionately ran his hands through the strands of her hair, “No you weren’t.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 7 - Part 2

@akshi8278 @curly-haired-disaster @chook007 @scorpiongirl1 @pisces-cutie @winchesterbroys

#young dean winchester #dean winchester #dean x reader #dean x you #dean x y/n #dean x ofc #thesex #first time #first love #spn #supernatural #supernatural smut #smut #sam winchester #denial #angst

[mxlxdroit]

i finished oathbringer!

yay! *confetti*

i can now unblock the oathbringer tag! woohoo!

it took me a month and a half to finish this book, all 1200-odd pages of it, and unfortunately, i’ve gotten a bit of book exhaustion. i enjoyed reading it, but it’s like reading a long trilogy of books in a very short amount of time, so i’m probably going to wait a while before tackling another cosmere book so i can get a breather and read some other stuff.

first off, i liked this book a lot! so much happened i’m not gonna go back and recap too many specific points right now, but there are a few things that i think were particularly important.

TL;DR oathbringer was good and had a lot of cute and funny stuff but it dragged a bit and got a bit too heavy for me a few times. i’m now shakadolin trash, Dalinar’s like fifty and he finally storming learned how to read, Lopen and his spren flipped off the Stormfather, and there are lots of good messages about agency and responsibility. oh, and lots of people stabbing each other

thematically, a lot of oathbringer is about choosing to take responsibility for your actions (or not. looking at you, Moash). this is most clear in Dalinar’s case, as his main character development is confronting the evil he did in his past, including killing his wife and burning thousands of people to death along with her. he has to admit what he did and take responsibility for it within himself in order to be able to resist Odium (speaking of which, What Is Up with Cultivation? i feel like i know so little about her. since Honor and Odium have spren and surges and all that jazz does Cultivation have them, too? D: i don’t know). Adolin has to admit to killing Sadeas, Venli has to realize that bringing back the Fused was a bad call, and the entire human race have to figure out what to do when they learn that they are the Voidbringers and invaded Roshar (i’m sure this is going to be a prominent theme in Stormlight 4, because it’s a huge deal and they barely talked about it). Not only do the characters have to confront their pasts and the truths there, however unpleasant, they have to decide what to do next. the story doesn’t end with a big reveal. life goes on, and they have to decide what steps to take and what future they want. the most important step a person can take is the next, if you will. in many ways, that is what the Ideals of the Radiants are for- life sucks, so what are you going to do to make it a little less terrible? and therein lies the connection between responsibility and agency. Moash’s internal dialogue about how nothing he regrets is his fault also means that none of the good things he’ve done belong to him. he gives up ownership over his life and himself and gives away his agency. he won’t be able to make meaningful decisions about his own life because he doesn’t want to anymore. Dalinar, on the other hand, accepts all of his past as his, including the good he has done, accepting his own agency over his actions and allowing himself to use his experiences to inform his decisions in the future.

on a kind of related point, honesty also leads to forgiveness. Shallan has to forgive herself for things that weren’t her fault and find a way to acknowledge the horrors of her past without letting them consume her. she isn’t all the way there- i don’t know if she’ll ever be able to be fully comfortable in herself, but i don’t doubt that she is going to continue getting better throughout the rest of the series. Kaladin has to forgive himself for not being able to save everyone, though he’s been figuring that out since book one, so it wasn’t a big part of his story in oathbringer. Teft comes to a kind of reconciliation with himself and is able to let himself start moving forward.

overall, it’s a “forgive, but don’t forget” kind of thing. don’t deny the bad stuff you’ve done or that has been done to you, don’t blind yourself to the truth, and act accordingly, but also don’t let your past hold you back or decide that you aren’t worthy of becoming a better person. it’s some important stuff

smaller-stuff-wise, uhhhhhhhh

-the scene in hearthstone was adorable i love Kaladin’s family and Kaladin being happy and getting to see his baby brother it was such a sweet part of the book

-Dalinar and Navani had the most dramatic wedding imaginable. they’re Kholins

-Shallan and Adolin! i’m so happy with how sanderson handled their whole pseudo-love-triangle thing (although this book turned me into shameless shakadolin trash (everyone has a crush on kaladin stormblessed 2kOathbringer) so that’s a thing and also since Veil isn’t gone i don’t think Shallan’s whole ‘wow Kaladin’s hot’ thing is gonna be totally gone) and their wedding was sweet

-Elhokar. wow. i didn’t see that one coming AT ALL and it’s really sad! i’m glad Gavinor’s okay though. a+++++ job to Skar and Drehy and Shallan’s guardsmen for remembering to keep him safe

-i love Wit. he’s fantastic. he’s obviously kind of an asshole but some of his scenes (the ones with Shallan and the epilogue) show that he can be very kind “Sadeas counts twice” yep pretty much. also we got two new names for him? and he bonded a Cryptic. this man

-Lopen flipping the Stormfather off... perfect

-Shallan recreating an entire play that she saw as a child... and doing it again later... i could imagine it so vividly and it was beautiful

-Kaladin’s suffering is just... never going to end. branderson just enjoys making him sad all the time and i resent that because he’s my favorite character in SA

-Venli is going to save the listeners and i’m so ready for it. it’s going to be a long, tough journey but i believe in her she’s so strong

-hmmmmmm interesting that branderson was like “HERE’S A GAY CHARACTER AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” when a bunch of his characters are written (even if it’s an accident) to be Bisexual(tm)/Polysexual(tm)

-Lift and Szeth are a good team. i’m gonna draw him ice-skating at some point

-Adolin, Kaladin, AND Jasnah insulting Amaram... good... also Jasnah marrying Amaram is a terrible thought. both of them would be miserable even if Amaram wasn’t openly working for Odium. also is Jasnah supposed to be under the ace/aro umbrella or is she allo but not interested?

-people have been calling Jasnah a queen for ages and now look at what happened! long live queen Jasnah she is one of the most qualified leaders alethkar has ever had or will ever have

-i like Nightblood a lot. wanna destroy some evil today?

-Kaladin picking up a rock at the end of the battle :’)

-Rock firing a shardbow was surprising. i found the parts he narrated interesting because he knows a lot more than he lets on. i’m excited to see more from him in SA 4

-some of the heralds still think ishar is sane but he is NOT

-Moash straight-up stabbed a Herald! he takes the cake from Kelsier. punching gods is no longer enough

-sanderson is making Kaladin’s depression more explicit and i think he’s doing a good job. knowing that his parents are alive and safe helps, and being around people he loves helps, and having a purpose and path in life is really important for him, but his depression is still there, just like Teft’s addiction is still there, and Dalinar’s tendency towards alcoholism is still there, and Shallan’s tendency to repress trauma is still there. he still gets depressed during the Weepings and when he is forced to question the ideals that he has chosen to follow, and that’s very realistic, which is good

-DALINAR IS LEARNING TO READ! FINALLY

-and generally gender roles getting smashed is good. Lyn and Malata and Shallan and Jasnah and the other female Windrunner scouts all fighting and Dalinar learning to read and even little things like sanderson letting Kaladin cry over his baby brother were wonderful to read

-also everyone’s gotta stop making fun of Renarin for being a scholar and start paying attention to stuff instead

-Evi. Evi. Evi.

-Adolin and Shallan being the PDA couple of this series and disturbing the Good Alethis around them

my main criticism of oathbringer overall is that it was really heavy compared to the rest of the stormlight archive. the battle scenes were REALLY LONG and full of lots of main characters getting stabbed, and the philosophical weight of the decisions they all have to make is just getting heavier and heavier. there are definitely funny moments, especially in bridge four sections and a lot of the character interactions in non-conflict scenes. and every bird being a chicken. and the boots thing. how many pairs has kaladin lost now? anyways, almost every scene felt like it existed to serve a specific purpose and move the plot along, which is part of why i got book fatigue. there weren’t enough breathers, which usually isn’t an issue in sanderson’s pacing, so i’d assume that it won’t be a big issue going forwards? maybe it’s just me trying to leach as much meaning from every sentence as i can and if i just relaxed and enjoyed the book then it wouldn’t be so exhausting

also, this post (btw thanks op that’s a great summary) says that the stormlight archive (and i think by extension the cosmere as a whole) is anti-grimdark. while i mostly agree, i think some of the moral relativism and “you’ve been accidentally evil the entire time!”s in oathbringer have leaned it a little more towards (sometimes gratuitous (looking at u, mr. stormblessed, u, ms. lightweaver, and in this book, especially u, mr. dad kholin)) angst, which is another reason for the book fatigue. it’s not unnecessary, and it leads to character and plot development, but it got to be too much for me sometimes. then again, i’m a teenager and these books are written for adults, so maybe that’s a factor- moral relativism might be hitting a bit too close to home for me

ANYWAYS! i’ll probably write some more, smaller posts about OB but this is what i have for now! cfsbf, y’all

#oathbringer #stormlight archive #mine #book review #thoughts #cosmere #wowee #gotta rant to audrey about this when i see her #audrey