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you-are-my-joy · 2 years

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The Return of an Empress | End

Title: The Return of an Empress

Pairing: OT7 x Reader

Genre: Isekai, Angst, Romance, Fluff, Smut, Slow burn

Characters: Empress!Reader, Advisor!Jin, Advisor!Yoongi, General!Hoseok, Advisor!Namjoon, Assassin!Jimin, Knight!Taehyung, Knight!Jungkook

Word count: 21.9k

Summary: After one fateful night, you find yourself transmigrated into your favorite novel as the Empress that shares the same name as you. As a bookworm, most would think you’d be happy, but how could you be happy when the Empress you’ve become is expected to be killed in three months. The only thing on your mind now is to learn how to survive.

Warning: May contain depictions of violence and mentions of abuse throughout the story. Multiple people crying in this one.

Masterlist

<< previous chapter | ♡ | Side Story #1 >>

Morning light comes peeking through the curtains of your window while you remain curled in bed contemplating whether you want to be a productive member of society or not.

It’s been almost a year since you returned back to your world and you’ve never been the same. You tried getting into online dating but no one could ever come close to the seven men you’ve fallen so hard for.

Every man you meet you can’t help but compare them only to get disappointed in the end when they don’t meet your standards. It’s been hard getting used to living here again after living in what you would consider your dream world.

An annoying notification dings in your phone, prompting you to groan knowing you have to leave soon. And so you reluctantly get out of bed, letting out a tired yawn as you stretch your body. You make your way to your closet and grab a change of clothes to start your day.

Heading to the kitchen, you find Seulgi leaning against the counter staring out of the window in a daze. It’s a Sunday morning so she doesn’t have work today.

“Morning,” you say. The girl greets you right back with a small smile.

“Mornin’,” she takes a sip of her tea, taking notice of your clothes, “what’s the plan for today? Going out?” A slight hopeful tone in her voice, pleased to see you’re getting out of the apartment.

You nod your head, “I’m meeting with Adrien over coffee, you wanna join us?” you offer, but she just shakes her head.

“I’m meeting with my brother for lunch, but do tell him I said hi and that I miss him,” she answers, taking another sip of her tea.

You nod your head, you were planning to do that anyway without her even telling you.

“How are you feeling?”

Since the return, she made it a habit to ask how you’ve been, never once missing a day. You’re grateful, but sometimes you aren’t in the mood to be talking about your feelings.

“I’m doing good, you?” you quickly divert the attention away from you and onto her.

She shrugs, “better.”

That was a good enough answer for you to accept. You’ve always been worried about how she’s been coping with the loss. Neither of you have said it out loud, but you two had an unspoken agreement to never talk about Kiara’s passing. At least not around her. And truthfully you weren’t ready to talk about it either no matter how long it’s been.

You move to shrug a light jacket over you, “I’ll see you later then, tell your brother I said hi,” you say over your shoulder. She waves and bids you goodbye as you make your way out the door.

You contemplated taking a taxi to the cafe you agreed to meet at, but figured walking would be better for you since it is a rather good day. You find comfort in the warmth of the sun while admiring the changes that fall brought to the city.

In each and every turn you take, you find people watering their plants out their windows and balconies. Taking this time to admire the trees beginning their transition from green leaves to red and orange ones.

Walking on the sidewalk by the river that runs along the city, you watch as an elderly woman and her granddaughter feed the birds with kettle corn. A small smile forming on your face when the little girl squeals in delight over more of them appearing in hopes of being lucky enough to eat.

You envy the joy she must be feeling over the simplest things.

You feel a light breeze go past you as you wrap your jacket tighter around you. Before you know it, you approach the cozy cafe that you found a few months ago and enter. One that’s decorated with plants all over the place, both inside and outside.

At the sound of a soft jingle at the door, a woman on the counter greets you with a wide smile. You wonder if it was a fake or real one. If it was fake, she sure was very convincing at being cheerful.

“What can I get you ma’am.”

You give her a small smile, “may I have a hazelnut cappuccino with foam milk,” you request.

She nods her head as she writes it down on a cup with ease, having grown accustomed to the job. You give her your name when she asks. “Is that all?”

You peer over the displays of food that seems pretty appetizing for someone who hasn’t eaten yet, “I’ll just have an egg, cheese, and sausage on a focaccia bagel. That’ll be all,” you add before she could ask you again. She nods her head and inputs your order.

After you pay, you make your way to a booth by the window. A good thing about this place is that it’s not that well known, making it the perfect peaceful environment for you with only a few customers scattered far away from each other.

Sometimes you come here to reminisce about the past, other times you just want to have a small escape from reality.

Lost in your thoughts, you don’t notice a very familiar figure approaching until he all but taps the window to gain your attention.

You flinch before giving Adrien a wave to which he returns with a wide smile. Your eyes follow the man as he enters the café, stifling a laugh when you notice that your eyes weren't the only ones trained on him.

There’s no denying that Adrien is a rather handsome man so you aren’t surprised to see the girl by the counter fix her hair and give him an even wider smile than she gave you.

“Hello sir, what can I get for you,” she chirps.

He hums pretending to think as if he didn’t already have an order on his mind, “could I have an americano and a toasted everything bagel with cream cheese?”

She notes it down and inputs it to the cashier. You realized she had given him a discount, Adrien must’ve noticed as well seeing how he gave her a grin. You admire her boldness honestly.

Though you try not to laugh when the girl’s smile falters once she notices him making his way towards you. You want to tell her you two aren’t dating just so you could still come here without making things awkward.

He plops down across from you, giving you a wide charming smile, “long time no see my friend.”

You can’t help but return the smile, “long time no see my friend,” you repeat.

“Y’know you haven’t been answering any of my calls all week young lady,” he nags while crossing his arms, “for a second, I thought you might have canceled on me.”

“Well I’m here.”

He nods his head, “indeed, and I'm really happy you are.”

You two share a smile before basking in the peacefulness of the café.

“How have you been Y/n?” You know he’s not just asking about your day.

You shrug, “fine I guess.”

Adrien says nothing. Looking at you as though expecting more.

“Well what about you?” you ask him instead, “how have you been, King?” but you just laugh when Adrien lets out a tired groan in response.

After the return, Adrien finally took up the responsibility of becoming the ‘king’, taking over his father’s position after finally finding his brother. Since then, you barely have any time meeting up with the man due to how busy he’s become. You honestly think it’s a miracle he even showed up today.

As for Jasper, Adrien had kept him in confinement for everything he’s done. Seeing how important their family is, questions circling around the second brother arose within the community. Though his only official statement was that Jasper has finally returned but will be in confinement until further notice.

You don’t know for sure what Adrien has done to him, partly because the warlock refuses to disclose that information to you and another part is because you could care less about what’s become of the man.

All Adrien tells you is that he’s facing the consequences of his actions. And that’s good enough for you.

“My advisors tell me I need to find a suitable partner and produce a heir quickly to keep the bloodline strong,” he groans as he slumps into his seat defeatedly with his head thrown back, “why must I find someone. Can’t I just pick a kid off the street and call it a day.”

You chuckle, shaking your head with an amused grin, “I don’t know much about warlock laws but I don’t think it works that way.”

“Well it should,” he grumbles. “I’m still young, why must I be tied down to one person now.”

“I never saw you to be such a casanova,” you tease with a raised brow.

But he just scoffs at that, “Y/n, you know me long enough to know I’m anything like that.”

Before he could say anything else in his defense, the employee from before approaches you two with your orders, impressively balancing everything on her arms.

Once she places everything on your table, he sends her a charming smile, “why thank you pretty.”

You swear you can hear her heart swoon over him as she sputters a ‘you’re welcome’ before scurrying back to the counter in a haste.

You raise a brow as all you could do was watch the interaction play out, “we might have to fact check that last statement.”

“Oh hush,” he settles with sticking his tongue out at you before taking a sip of his drink, “don’t go around judging me missy, I don’t see you doing anything with your love life.”

He was expecting you to play along with him but instead he was surprised to see that you’ve gone silent. In shock he places his drink on the table slowly, “don’t tell me you’ve been trying to move on?”

You refuse to look him in the eye, “a few of my colleagues have been trying to set me up with this new intern, and I’ve been meeting with a few people in the past,” you just shrug your shoulders, “it wouldn’t hurt to try,” you mumble, your gaze falls onto the table.

He just stares at you dumbstruck, “I find it hard to believe you’d do that.”

You just let out a sigh, “what else am I supposed to do? Never see anyone again? The world keeps moving no matter what happens to you.”

He purses his lips, clearly not approving of your actions, “I understand but don’t you think it’s too soon?”

“Not at all,” you lie.

You mustn’t’ve been very convincing seeing how he raises a brow, “oh really, then would you mind telling me how those past dates went?” he questions, his gaze burning into you.

You just turn away from him, your eyes looking everywhere but his scrutinizing ones, “I don’t need to tell you all that.”

He just lets out a scoff, choosing not to say anything more as he lets the silence take over.

You keep glancing at the clock, trying to appear to be in a hurry. Your fingers tap to the rhythm of the clock watching the seconds tick by. If you linger longer than you have to, you know he’ll keep throwing questions your way.

“Don’t even think about trying to run away from me.”

Dammit.

He scans your face before letting out a hum, “listen it might not be too late, I’ve been researching.”

Your fingers freeze for a moment before they resume their light tapping on your cup, “there’s nothing you can do about it Adrien, it’s been almost a year already,” you grumble, already not liking where this conversation was heading.

He frowns, “What about the boys?”

You shrug your shoulders, “they’re young and handsome, I’m sure they won’t have any trouble finding someone else,” is what you try to tell yourself but it only causes your heart to feel pain when the words leave your mouth.

“They want you,” he insists.

Though you just roll your eyes at his persistence, “well they can’t have me.”

He just furrows in his brows, not at all pleased by your reaction, “so what, you're just gonna give up? Just like that?”

“I sure am,” you mumble, taking a bite at your food.

“And what about Kiara?”

“Kiara’s dead.”

In seconds, it gets painfully quiet around you, even the woman at the counter glances at you two. “God dammit,” you mutter under your breath as you bow your head in shame.

You can’t read the look on Adrien’s face as he just stares at you with a mix of sadness and disappointment. “You don’t know that,” he mutters.

You let out a sigh, “Adrien you didn’t see what I saw. You disappeared before you could see what state she was in.” You shut your eyes trying to get rid of the image in your head, “I even wrote in the goddamn book about ending the loop. She’s gone.”

But the warlock just purses his lips into a thin line, “until I see it for myself, she’s still alive in my heart.”

“I admire that but I sadly don’t share the same feelings.”

“Y/n-”

“-Please,” you plead, interrupting whatever he was planning to say next, “I haven’t seen you in so long and I missed you, can we not talk about this right now.”

Adrien's eyes soften as he lets out a sigh, “I missed you too,” he reaches a hand to cover yours, “I’m sorry, I’m just worried about you that’s all.”

You send him a grateful smile. If there’s one thing you’re thankful for, it’s for gaining an older brother throughout this whole experience. You don’t see each other often but he always makes an effort to try and reach out to ask how you are.

“I just hope you don’t regret anything,” he adds.

You pause for a moment, “I hope so too.”

You two use the remaining time you have to talk about different things regarding your life. Catching up with everything you’ve missed in each other’s lives.

Though, it didn’t take long for Adrien’s presence to be needed. He gave you a sheepish look but you just wave him off knowing how busy he is. You two bid each other goodbye and part ways once exiting the cafe.

You take this time to stroll around the city. It’s been awhile since you thought about the other world wanting to move on from that life. But everywhere you turn you're reminded of them.

Everytime you pass by a large amount of flowers, you can’t help but wonder if Taehyung still strolls around the palace garden. Or if your advisors aren’t overworking themselves.

You especially worry over Jimin’s, Hoseok’s and Jungkook’s health and how they coped with your disappearance.

Then your mind wanders to everyone else that you’ve met along the way. You can only hope Joy and her husband survived the attack. If so, you wish that she is living happily and doesn’t miss you too much.

Then finally, an image of Kiara pops up. Her smiling face causes your heart to constrict. You wish you could feel as optimistic as Adrien regarding her fate. But you can’t ever let go of her lifeless image. You don’t tell Seulgi, but in the first month of returning, you mourned for her every night, even creating a small gravestone in her honor that sits by your window.

It’s amazing how important they became to you in such a short amount of time.

“Y/n you need to go out.”

You lift your head off the couch as you stare at your roommate, “I went out the other day,” you reply back referring to your meeting with Adrien.

“I meant with me,” she clarifies, “we haven’t hung out since… everything’s happened. I miss my best friend,” she says in a hushed whisper.

“I’ve been here the entire time, Seul,” you defend, finally sitting up straight.

“No you haven’t.”

A beat of silence passes before she’s letting out a sigh. “Physically, yes, but mentally? no you haven’t,” she frowns deeply, “you haven’t been the same, I mean granted neither have I… which is why we should go out. Just the two of us.”

You couldn’t find it in you to deny her wishes seeing how serious she was. Thinking it over, you realize she’s right. Even though you two practically live together it’s like you rarely ever spoke to one another.

And so you nod your head reluctantly because you were so ready to have a movie marathon.

“Let me just go change and get ready.”

Her face lights up before nodding her head and heading to her room to do the same.

It felt weird getting ready and feeling some sort of excitement to go out. You actually made an effort on your appearance for the first time in a while.

She smiles at your attire when you walk out, “you ready?”

You nod your head, “where are we going anyway,” you ask, eyeing the picnic basket in her hand as you struggle to put your shoes on.

“I figured we could have a little picnic.”

You raise a brow taking a quick glance at the clock, “at this time of the night?”

She nudges you, “we used to do this back in high school remember,” she reminds you with a slight smirk on her face.

You scoff, “how could I forget, I still have the scar on my leg from when I jumped the fence trying to sneak out the house,” you mumble while grabbing the picnic blanket that she was struggling to carry.

Seulgi can’t help but burst out in laughter as the memory plays in her head. “I could never forget that.” You just glare at her in return as you follow her out the door.

You two walk along the sidewalk in silence, just enjoying each other’s company. Thankfully you two don’t live too far away from the small park right next to the river that runs along the city. The good thing about living in the city is that you have the lights to admire at night which beautifully reflects against the water.

You two stop at a spot with a good view. You lay the picnic blanket down while she sets the basket down and gets everything ready for you two.

You both finally settle down as you admire the view. Sitting and eating in a comfortable silence.

To be completely honest, you have no idea what to say to strike up a conversation. Thankfully you don’t have to do that as she does it for you instead.

She hums, “this hits the spot,” she sighs dreamily as she munches on her food in her bento box.

You can’t help but agree with her, “we should honestly do this more often.” She happily makes a noise that you can only assume means she agrees with you.

From there, you two engage in conversation like you used to months ago. Going back and forth with talking about your days and how work was for both of you. Eventually you two finish all the food and snacks that you packed. Soon enough the conversation dies down as you two take this moment to admire the view.

“Can I ask you a question?”

You turn your head in her direction, waiting for her to continue but she refuses to look at you.

“They were real right?”

You can’t help but knit your brows together in confusion. You didn’t need her to clarify who she was talking about. “Of course they were real Seul. You and I both met all of them.”

You notice the way her eyes droop, “I’m not too sure if that makes me feel any better,” she admits.

“What do you mean?”

“If they were real, then that means Kiara’s death was just as real,” she whispers in a sad tone.

Your breath hitches. This was the first time she’s ever brought the topic up to you. You can’t bring yourself to look at her. “Seul, don’t say that-”

“It’s true,” she interrupts, “Kiara’s gone from this world and her’s,” she sniffs with one stray tear falling down her cheek, “I never got to say ‘I love you’ to her one last time.”

“I’m sure she already knows how much you love her.”

You successfully gain her attention but she doesn’t say more and waits for you to continue.

“Y’know what she told me before?” you start, moving your body so that it’s facing her, “she said that in her world, it was like a living hell for her, making her want to end her life so many times.” Then you just smile at her, moving a strand of hair out of her face when her eyes begin to well up with tears, “but when she met you, it was like she found purpose in her life again. That’s how much you mean to her, Seul.”

You can see a hint of a smile forming on her face, “she really said that?” The smile now peeking through when you nod your head.

“You don’t need to tell her through words for her to know how much you love her Seulgi, trust me she already knows,” you reassure with a gentle smile, gingerly placing a hand on her shoulder.

She sniffs while wiping a tear away, “I truly do love her,” she pauses, looking up at the night sky, “I wish I got to see her again, and give her a proper goodbye. At least you have that possibility.”

You purse your lips in a straight line when she said that, “no I don’t.”

“The stones-“

“The stones are shattered,” this time it’s your turn to interrupt, “there’s absolutely no way for us to be reunited again, so get that fantasy out of your head.”

You hadn’t meant to say it so harshly, but it’s too late now.

Rather than getting offended she just looks up at you in shock, “you’ve given up?” she asks in disbelief. You just nod your head in response. “Is that why you’re trying so hard to forget about them?”

You freeze, the question completely catching you off guard.

She finally turns to look at you, scanning your face for your reaction, “Adrien called me earlier to catch up and he told me what happened between you two the other day.” She frowns, bringing her knees closer to her body, “I don’t want you moving on if you’re not ready Y/n.”

“I am ready.”

“You’re not.”

“And how would you know,” you can’t help but snap, “you don’t live my life, you don’t know what my feelings are. You and Adrien just go by your assumptions.”

In the heat of the moment, you stand up with your fists clenched, “I know me the best and I know what my feelings are. I don’t need you to tell me.”

Seulgi’s breath hitches as she scrambles to her feet.

“Y/n-”

“I’m gonna go find a bathroom, I’ll be back,” you don’t even wait for her response before you’re walking away.

You know you were being too harsh, and you’ll apologize after you’ve cooled your head.

You curse at yourself, at how this topic still greatly affects your emotions. Ironic for a girl who claims she’s moved on.

“Happy New Year!”

A few months have passed. You’ve longed since apologized to Seulgi and your relationship has gone back to the way it was as if nothing had happened, but you can tell it’s been a little strained.

But alas, neither of you choose to talk about it.

Now, you find yourself at a new years party that she dragged you to.

It took a lot of convincing to get you to go but someway or another you were in a very crowded room in the same apartment complex. You recognized a few people as your neighbors that you’ve grown close with over the years. Some even come up to greet you.

But you can’t find the energy to socialize with anyone

And so you find yourself sitting down by yourself. It comes to no surprise to you at how many people seek your roommates attention considering she was always the more social one out of you two. Her cheerful smile lights up the room immediately.

“Long time no see friend.”

Your eyes dart up to find Adrien smiling right back at you. You can’t help but gasp, feeling your eyes light up instantly, “Adrien!” In seconds you engulf him in a hug. You hear him chuckle before he’s wrapping his arms around your waist.

You pull away with wide eyes, “what are you doing here?”

“I invited him,” Seulgi says, popping her head out from behind him. “I had a feeling you were gonna be alone so I figured I would extend the invite to our dear friend to keep you company.” She pats his shoulder as he nods his head proudly.

You smile gratefully to her knowing she always has your best interests in mind. “You’re the best.”

She winks at you, “naturally.” In seconds. someone else grabs her attention and soon she’s getting whisked away into the crowd.

Adrien whistles, his eyes following her as she moves around the crowd with ease, “our Seulgi seems very popular.”

You shake your head in amusement, “she’s always been very likeable, no surprise there.” This time you turn your attention back to the warlock, “didn’t expect to see you show up.”

He just shrugs his shoulders, “it’s fun to hang loose sometimes,” he lazily plops himself down onto the couch and pats the vacant area beside him, “so anything new?”

You just sigh as you join him on the couch letting out a gunt while doing so, “as far as I know, it’s a no.”

He raises a brow, “oh really? Cause I could’ve sworn someone over here was ready to move on.” You can hear the mocking tone in his voice as he crosses his legs.

You can’t help but roll your eyes, “shut your mouth Warlock,” you mutter, “not every date you go on guarantees success, y’know.” You try not to cringe at the thought of every failed date, wanting to erase all those memories and leave it behind.

He hums, “it’s probably because you’re not ready, friend,” he moves to poke your nose but yelps and jerks back when you try to bite his finger.

“I said shut your mouth, friend,” you glare playfully at him but he just raises his hands up in the air in defense.

“Just saying how it is,” he takes a sip of whatever drink he acquired on the way to you. He moves to tap your shoulder, “can I ask you something?”

You hum, letting him know you’re listening.

You see him examine the drink in his hand like it was a new specimen that he discovered, “I never understood why you humans enjoy getting drunk so much and how you managed to figure out how to make this.”

“Adrien stop acting like you weren’t born in this world,” you deadpan, barely giving him much of your attention, having expecting nothing worthwhile to come out of his mouth

He looks at you like you were the one asking the strange questions, “I’m being for real Y/n.”

And you hate the fact that you know he was being entirely serious about it.

But like a good friend you are, you indulge in his many weird thoughts.

You snort, sinking further into the couch in hopes it’ll just eat you up, “you know, maybe I preferred it when you weren’t here.” You don’t even turn to look at him, even when he lets out an offended noise.

You hear him continue talking, probably going off on tangents about stupid things. You’re sure he knows you’ve zoned out by now, but knowing him, Adrien doesn’t mind the talking.

For now, you’ve settled on people watching. Seeing old friends reunite and catching up made you feel envious of their relationship. But you do nothing but watch the interactions from where you’re sitting.

Because the apartment was dimly lit, with a few neon lights scattered here and there preventing it from going into complete darkness, everytime the front door opens and the hallway lights come in you can’t help but turn your attention to it.

Watching even more people enter the tightly crowded apartment to have a little fun, while others choose to leave, calling it a night. You wish you could leave early too, but you know Seulgi would worry if you just up and left.

“Y/n, I asked you a question,” Adrien’s voice breaks through, somewhat breaking your trance-like state.

You hum lazily, “yeah? Sorry what was-”

The words die out of your throat however when you see someone turn their head as they walk out the front door. Someone you swore you would never see ever again. Your heart stops beating and the world around you freezes altogether as if everything was going in slow motion.

“Y/n?” Adrien asks, worry laced in his voice as he peers over to scan your face. He watches the blood drain from your face as though you’ve just seen a ghost. He gently shakes your shoulder to try to gain your attention, “hey what’s wrong?”

“Jimin?” you whisper in disbelief so faintly that you don’t think Adrien heard you.

But just as quickly as he appeared, the crowd around you blocks your view of him until finally the door closes. And just like that, it’s like the world went back to normal.

Panic sets in the moment you lose sight of him.

Without much of an explanation, you spring up from the couch and make a dash for the door, pushing past people. You don’t even check if Adrien was following you or not, but you do vaguely hear him call out for you from a distance.

And all you do is run. Even when you harshly push past people, you could care less what happens to them. You hear footsteps following you but you don’t turn around to see who they belonged to.

You roughly pressed the buttons to the elevator but it was running much too slow for your liking. You take a sharp turn and go straight for the staircase, racing down the steps at an alarming speed that one wrong step could lead to a very bad accident.

Thankfully, you land on the first floor without getting hurt but you roughly push against the front door. The cold air hits your skin harshly but you can’t bring yourself to worry about that when there’s only one thought running in your head.

“Jimin!”

Your head turns in every direction, trying to catch a glimpse of the assassin you love. But to no avail, every turn you take you’re just met with emptiness.

You hear the door burst behind you, “Y/n!”

You ignore Adrien’s yell for you.

You choke back a sob, the desperation seeping through, “p-please! I know you’re out there! Please just show yourself!”

You can feel your heart shattering when all you're met with is complete silence and an empty road. You wail as you fall to your knees, bringing your hands up to cover your crying face.

You feel someone drape a jacket over you.

“Is she ok?” you faintly hear Seulgi ask in a worried voice. She must’ve seen you run off and decided to follow you, either that or Adrien must’ve alerted her.

There’s a pause, then you hear the man sigh, “I don’t think so Seul.” The both of them proceed to crouch down and wrap their arms around you. Thankfully, Adrien surrounds you both in heat to make sure you two don’t freeze to death in the cold winter weather.

“He was right here,” you stammer under your breath in a crazed manner.

Seulgi tilts her head, looking around for the person you were referring to, “who was?”

“Jimin.”

Adrien freezes while Seulgi lightly gasps. She tightens her hold on you as she too whips her head in every direction. Only for her eyes to droop down in disappointment. “Y/n dear, there’s no one here,” she whispers in a sad tone. This only causes you to cry out even harder.

You can hear strangers walking by and can almost feel their gaze on you. But nothing in the world mattered to you at that moment.

“You were right,” you let out a pained chuckle as you roughly wiped your tears away, “I’m really not ready after all.” Neither of them respond, they just hold you tighter.

“Honey, you’re gonna catch a cold,” Seulgi whispers after some time. Even if Adrien casts heat around you, there’s no stopping the snow still on the ground.

But you just shake your head, “j-just a little bit more, please,” you plead in a broken voice.

The two of them share a look but all they can do is nod their heads, not having the heart to refuse you.

It’s almost like any progress you made to move on completely disappeared. Now you’ve reverted back to square one and all the emotions come rushing to you like a truck.

Ever since that day, Seulgi has been walking on eggshells around you. Always cautious over what she says, making sure not to trigger you. Even as you laze around on your shared couch, lazily flipping through the channels, she stops herself from telling you to go out.

“I’m going out for dinner with my parents,” she announces, walking out to the living room while adjusting the watch on her wrist.

You hum, “come home safe,” you drone out, your eyes not once leaving the television screen.

You can tell she wanted to say more, but instead she just lets out a sigh and quietly bids you goodbye.

The door closes and it’s once again silent within the apartment.

You let out a groan as the boredom was beginning to eat you away. Normally Seulgi would keep you company, but without her you were practically just an empty shell roaming around the apartment.

Unable to handle the silence any longer, you take it upon yourself to get dressed. You figured getting some fresh air could do you some good. And so, without another thought, you walk out the door.

You hug yourself tighter as you walk aimlessly around the city while the cool breeze dances around you.

Without even realizing it, your feet brought you to the city’s park. You’re in a daze as you plop yourself down on a nearby bench, trying not to flinch at the coldness of the steel parts of the bench.

“Evening young lady.”

You jump at the sudden voice before sending an elderly woman a smile but it feels more like a grimace, “evening ma’am.” You didn’t really want to talk to anyone but you also didn’t want to be rude.

She smiles warmly at you, “a beautiful young lady such as yourself shouldn’t be walking at this time of the night,” she lightly nags like a mother would to her child.

You shake your head, “it’s alright, I just needed to go out to do some thinking.”

”May I join you?” Before you could respond, she’s already moving to sit beside you, “expressing your emotions always helps.”

Your eyes widen slightly, glancing elsewhere to appear in a hurry, “oh I don’t want to trouble you…”

She waves you off, “nonsense, tell me, is it about a bad break up,” she guesses while making herself comfortable.

You let out a sigh, accepting the fact that you don’t really have much of a choice other than engage in conversation, “well it’s a bit more complicated than that ma’am, but overall yes.”

“You broke it off or him?”

“Them,” you correct while facing forward, your eyes remaining trained on the city lights above you.

Her eyes widen comically, “oh their pronouns are they/them? Understood.”

You can’t help but let out a laugh, “oh no, them as in more than one,” you clarify. Still you refuse to look her in the eye knowing polyamory isn’t exactly the norm in this world. You didn’t want to be judged, especially when you were this vulnerable.

But if she feels any differently about you, she doesn’t show it, “I see, tell me about them.” She tries to get comfortable on the bench, indicating she had no plans on leaving anytime soon.

Your eyes soften ever so slightly as the image of them appears in your mind, “they’re the best people in the world.”

Before you know it, you’re practically telling this elderly woman everything about them. From the way they act and how they look. To the types of food they enjoy and to the things they like. Of course you leave out the crucial part of them belonging in a book but she’ll never know the difference.

And throughout it all, not once does she interrupt you, she only listens.

Your head drops as your eyes fall to the ground, “it’s been a year already, and just when I thought I moved on I was terribly mistaken.”

“May I ask why?” she asks curiously, turning to look at you.

“I saw him at a party,” you tell her slowly, because you don't even know if it was real or not.

“Did you speak to him?”

You let out a soft chuckle, shaking your head, “well… No. You see, I don’t think he was real ma’am,” you confess sheepishly, realizing how silly you sounded now that you’re saying it out loud, “I just think it was my mind playing tricks on me.”

She tilts her head, “do you really believe that?”

You pause, caught off guard, “I-… yes? maybe? I don’t know.” You inwardly groan, not enjoying how confusing this was beginning to get.

She smiles as she reads the troubled look on your face, “something tells me you’re trying to convince yourself into believing it wasn’t real to help with the moving on process,” she presumes, “deep down you know it’s real, don’t you.”

You remain silent. Did you believe it was real? Was Jimin really there? Or did you miss him so much you started hallucinating.

She sends you a small smile and gently pats your shoulder, “I’ll leave you to your thoughts, then,” she slowly moves to stand up, “I hope all goes well for you, I know you deserve to be happy. Everyone does.”

“Thank you ma’am,” you reply softly, still looking down at the ground while you were still in deep thought.

She hums, “I’m here every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night, come by whenever you want to talk,” she offers before quietly bidding you goodbye.

And surprisingly, you do visit her, without fail for a week.

You tell this woman everything about your life, from your experiences to your thoughts. And she listens each time, giving you words of advice that you didn’t realize you needed to hear.

You’ve come to find that her name’s Isabella, an elderly woman who often visits this park with her grandchildren. She had told you that you remind her of her eldest granddaughter, which is why she felt so inclined to help you when you looked so down.

You tilt your head back, letting out a sigh in the process as you lean against the bench, “then I snapped at her without meaning to and I regret it everyday. Even though I apologized, I still feel like she doesn’t know just how much she means to me,” you confess.

The moment you had these mood swings, especially towards Seulgi who’s done nothing but love and care for you, you realized just how much this whole situation affected you.

And you needed to do some serious work on making things right.

“I’m sure she understands the emotions running through your head. She stays with you because she loves you,” she reassures, thinking it over, “now all you have to do is tell that to her.”

You still for a moment before nodding your head, “you’re right,” you mutter, more to yourself than to her.

The solution was so simple yet why haven’t you thought about that.

Talking it out was exactly what you needed. You regret not sharing your emotions sooner, maybe then you could’ve spared yourself the pain you’ve felt all this time.

You lift your head up to grin cheerfully at her, “thank you so much for listening to my troubles. It means a lot.”

She just smiles at you in return, “of course.”

You nervously play with your fingers feeling ready to leave, “I’m not too sure how often I’ll be visiting-“

“Don’t worry about a thing dear. Even if this is our last goodbye, I’m happy to have helped you in any way,” she replies back gently.

“I just have one more question,” you ask, “why do you sit here and listen to a stranger's problem?”

“I told you the other day, you remind me of my granddaughter.”

“Is that really all?” you continue to pry.

Her gaze falls to the ground, “actually, I lost my granddaughter about a year ago,” she confesses in a quiet voice, “I was never able to make things right for her. But sitting here, helping you makes me feel like I’m finally fulfilling my role as a grandmother to her.”

You were shocked to find that her eyes began to well up when she lifts her head to look at you again

“I suppose you can say we both did each other a favor here.”

You don’t know how to respond other than hug the woman tightly. Allowing her to grieve even if she was using you to feel closer to her granddaughter.

“Which is why I’m here to tell you, make things right with the people you love now,” she tells you while pulling away from the hug.

“Because you truly never know when it will be your last.”

The next day comes and you’re pacing in your living room nervously like the time you were waiting to see if you got accepted into your dream school or not.

“Do I need to call the police or help you bury a body?”

You jump at the sound of Seulgi walking into the area as she sends you a teasing smile.

You let out a huff of air, “thankfully none of the above.”

You wordlessly follow Seulgi into the kitchen, watching the girl look around the fridge to find any snacks she could munch on, “I actually wanted to tell you something.”

“What is it-” she lets out a surprised yelp when you suddenly engulf her into a tight hug.

“I love you,” you mumble into her neck, wrapping your arms tighter around her back.

Still slightly confused by your sudden behavior, she hugs you back nonetheless, “I love you too Y/n. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m just a bit confused as to why you’re acting like this.” She pulls away only far enough to scan your face.

You frown when you could feel your bottom lip quiver, “I haven’t treated you the best this past year and I apologize for that. It’s not fair for you because you struggled just the same if not more than me,” you say in one breath. It’s a miracle she even caught onto every word.

Her eyes softened, “Y/n, you and I both struggled just the same. We just handled it differently,” she whispers, sending you a small smile, “I haven’t been the bestest friend to you either. I should’ve tried harder to talk to you, to share our feelings. Maybe then there wouldn’t be this weird tension between us.”

You shake your head, “it’s my fault.”

Though she narrows her eyes, “it’s both our faults for choosing not to talk it out, “she argues back.

You let out a groan, “I’m just sorry Seul. I should’ve been more honest about my feelings. I shouldn’t have snapped at you when all you were doing was express your concern-“

“You’ve already apologized for that,” she interrupts quietly.

“Yes and I will continue to apologize for it until the day I die cause I don’t deserve a friend like you Seulgi,” you breathe out.

“Shut up, yes you do.”

“I don’t,” you insist, “I wasn’t there for you when you were grieving over Kiara.”

“And I wasn’t entirely there for you when you were grieving over losing the boys,” her voice rising at each word.

The kitchen goes silent as all you could do was stare at each other.

You watch her offer you a small smile, “see? I told you, we’re both at fault.” For once, you agreed.

Just then, she raises her hand, extending her pinky out, “let’s make a promise, whenever we’re going through a hard time we tell each other.”

You stare at her for a moment before extending your own pinky and loop it with hers, “I promise.” She matches your expression and repeats the phrase right back to you.

“No more secrets?”

You shake your head, “no more secrets.”

And just like that, it’s like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders, already feeling the tension in the air dissipate in seconds.

Seulgi finally steps back, moving over to grab a bag of chips one of you left behind on the counter, “what suddenly made you act like this if you don’t mind me asking,” she asks, happily munching on her new snack.

Your eyes light up, “I met this nice old lady at night by the park.” You ignore the odd and concerned look that Seulgi sends your direction.

You suddenly clap your hands causing her to flinch, “ah I should go and thank her properly and tell her everything worked out.”

Seulgi looks up at the clock and notices the time, “you say at night? You should probably get a move on then,” she nudges you with her hip when she moves past you, “tell her I said thank you as well.”

You give her a salute as you shrug a jacket on and make your way out the door. You don’t know why but you find yourself making a dash for the park, apologzing to strangers when you accidentally brush past them.

You find a figure sitting by the bench you two shared. You excitedly approach the bench, moving towards the front, “Isabella! I listened to your advice and you were right! I told her how I felt and-”

You freeze in your spot the moment you move in front of the bench.

Because rather than seeing the same woman, you instead come face to face with someone you’ve already accepted you lost.

“J-Jimin?” you say in disbelief, staggering backwards in shock.

He smiles at you, unable to stop the tears from falling down his cheeks as he stands from the bench, “hello my love,” he whispers so softly you barely heard him.

Your heart skips a beat, finding yourself slowly backing away from the man, “t-this can’t be real,” you stammer, your eyes stay trained on him as if he would disappear any second now.

Backing away, you find yourself colliding against someone else. Their arms immediately wrap around you, successfully caging you in their embrace. “It’s real sweetheart,” the voice that you immediately recognize to belong to Taehyung.

You feel your eyes begin to well up with tears, your lips trembling as though you still couldn’t believe what was happening before your eyes. Even when the rest of the men come to view, you still refuse to believe in it.

You can’t bring yourself to talk, even when Jin approaches you with a soft smile. “Hello Y/n,” he whispers, his voice cracks as he tries to hold in the tears that were threatening to spill out.

“I’ve gone crazy,” you mutter, “yep I’ve reached my limit because there’s absolutely no way you’re real.”

Yoongi brashes past the older male to gingerly cup your cheeks with his hands, “we’re just as real as you are, love.” He wipes a tear before it falls off your cheek, a gentle smile on his face.

“You’re real,” you repeat in a hushed whisper, finally letting yourself rest against Taehyung as he wraps his arms around you tighter.

With shaky hands, you reach out to touch Yoongi’s cheek, he stays still, letting you do as you please. You flinch when your fingers touch his skin rather than phasing through him like you were expecting.

You take a sharp inhale as you bring both your hands up to cup his cheek, your heart skyrocketing when you realize that he is in fact standing before you, “you’re real,” you repeat once more, this time with more confidence.

His eyes begin to water, his smile still present on his face, “I’m real love,” he whispers, “we found you.”

For the first time in a while, a genuine smile begins to form on your face, “you found me.” When it finally processed in your mind what’s happening you let out an excited laugh, “you found me!”

The men can’t help but smile despite the tears falling down their faces.

They found you.

“Alright Taehyung, stop hogging her,” Hoseok jokes before making his way towards you, extending his arms out to give you a hug. Taehyung losens his grip and you can’t help but jump in his arms.

He hugs you immediately, letting out a sigh when his hands come up behind your neck to hold you tighter, “oh baby I’ve missed you,” he whispers by your ear, leaving a chaste kiss to the area.

You tighten your hold, burying yourself in his embrace, “I’ve missed you more,” you mumble.

He just shakes his head, “impossible.”

Though he reluctantly pulls away, “as much as I would love to hold you forever, I’m not the only one that missed you,” he says, tilting his head towards the other’s direction.

You turn your attention to the others, only to smile when Jin begins to approach you. He engulfs you in a hug, gently placing a kiss on your forehead.

“It’s scary,” he mutters suddenly.

You furrow your eyes, pulling away slightly so you could look at him, “what is?”

“How madly in love I am with you,” Jin confesses, delicately caressing your cheek, “I never imagined myself to love someone so much, yet here I am, traveling to another world just to get to you.”

“I never imagined I would be so in love either, not until I met all of you,” you tell him, bringing a smile to his face.

He wants to hold you longer having missed you so much. But he pulls away from you so you can hug another person knowing how impatient the rest of them are.

Yoongi approaches you next, but he catches you by surprise when he goes in for a searing kiss. You nearly melt in his arms as you return the kiss immediately. His lips molding against yours like it belongs together. He wraps his arms around your back, bringing you even closer to his body.

He pulls away, resting his forehead against yours, “I’ve been dreaming of doing that since you’ve left,” he admitted, staring deeply into your eyes, “and now that I have you back, I’m going to give you kisses till I die.”

As if to prove his point, he presses kisses all over your face. “That tickles,” you giggle, trying to tilt your head back away from the unexpecting onslaught. Yoongi can’t help but laugh with you, one that he didn’t think he’d do since you left.

He pulls away, not before placing one last peck to your lips, and letting you go for the rest of the guys to have their moment with you.

“I know I hugged you earlier but I want a proper one this time,” Taehyung teases as he opens his arms. Before you could respond he takes your hands and tugs you into his embrace.

You let out a soft ‘oof’ before landing once more into his chest. You chuckle, “I hope you’ve been taking care of the garden while I was gone.”

“Oh sweetheart, I've made it part of my daily routine to water those babies,” he boasted, placing a kiss to the top of your head, “especially our flower.”

“Our flower?” you hear one of them say from behind you two, but neither of you pay them no mind.

You beam back at him, “I’m glad to hear that, thank you.”

“As a reward, can I get a kiss,” he requests cheekily, tilting his cheek so that it was facing you. This was a request that you have no problem carrying out when you lean in.

You hear the others groan behind you. Again, neither of you pay them no mind.

He grins widely at you, before pulling away and tilting his head in a certain direction. Following his line of sight your eyes land on a very teary eyed Jimin who has yet to move from his spot.

Your eyes soften at the sight of his tears. “Jimin?” you whisper, slowly walking up to him while all he does is just stare at you.

“I was so scared,” he admits, “the moment you left us, I was so scared that it would be the last time I saw you,” he sniffs, his glistening eyes looking straight at you, “I knew I had to accept a life without you, but it hurt so much being apart from you.”

Eventually you’re standing right in front of him, your arms wrapping around his waist, “I’m here now.”

A hint of a smile begins to form on his face, gingerly cupping your cheek, “you’re here now,” he repeats in a hushed whisper, “and no words can ever describe how happy I am to have you in my arms again.”

You feel your eyes begin to well up, “you’re gonna make me cry again.”

“That’s fine,” he rests his forehead against yours, “cause I’m here now to wipe it away and make it all better.”

Jimin for some reason never fails to make your heart swoon.

You chuckle, shaking your head, expecting nothing less from the man.

He then leans in closer, “but there’s one person who’s probably been suffering more than me,” he whispers by your ear. When you give him a confused look he just smiles before turning you around to face Namjoon who was nearly on the brink of crying.

You frown, “Namjoon, what’s wrong?” you ask, concern laced in your voice.

“I’m so sorry my love,” Namjoon’s lips quiver, “I’m sorry for forcing you to return to this world,” he apologizes sincerely.

The guilt of being the one responsible for breaking the stone has haunted him in his dreams ever since you’ve left. Nearly every night, the sight of you screaming for him as you got whisked away was a recurring nightmare that he seemed to never be able to get rid of.

Your eyes soften, wondering just how much he’s suffered in your absence, “I know why you did that. You saved my life, how could I ever be mad at you.” You lean in to place a gentle kiss to his lips, one that he returns immediately, “thank you.”

He can’t stop the tears from falling as he brings you in yet another hug, burying his head deeper into your neck as he tries to calm himself down. He didn’t realize that those words were exactly the ones he was seeking for. Your forgiveness was all he could ever ask for.

You pull away, relieved to see him smiling down at you. You cup his cheeks gently, “are you ok now?”

He nods his head, leaning into your touch, “I will be now that you’re here.” He turns his head to place a sweet kiss to the palm of your hand, maintaining eye contact the entire time.

You blush at the romantic gesture, faintly hearing someone whistle from behind you. You shyly move away, tyring not to look at the smug look on his face.

But before you could move further, you feel your body getting lifted off the ground. You squeal as you look down and hear Jungkook laughing while twirling your around.

“Jungkook put me down!”

He chuckles happily before setting you down. He brings you into his arms, “I told you that we’d come find you,” he looks down at you like you were his entire world, “and I planned to have never broken that promise. Even if it took us 3 years to get here.”

Your eyes wden into saucers, “3 years?” you repeat in disbelief. And just like that, the tears begin to form once more, “I’m so sorry,” you apologize as you take a few steps backwards.

Yoongi comes to view now, “why are you apologizing, love,” he asks in concern.

“You never stopped searching for ways to find me,” you hiccup as you couldn’t bring yourself to look them in the eye, “and yet, I gave up on you.” You choke back a sob, “I’m so sorry.”

You’re so scared to look at them. Afraid that they’d get mad at you even though you’ve just reunited. But you had to be honest with them.

Rather than getting yelled at, you feel hands cup your cheek, gently forcing you to look up. When you do, you’re met with Hoseok’s charming face, “it's alright love, to tell you the truth, many of us gave up in the process of finding you,” he admits.

Namjoon nods his head sadly, “it was so hard in the beginning when we had no way of knowing how to get to you.” He lets out a sigh, “you cannot believe the amount of frustrated yelling that occurred during those times.”

“Or the fights that broke out,” Jungkook adds quietly.

“Even I gave up a few times,” Jimin confesses, sending you a sheepish smile, “it was hard keeping faith when it took so long.”

Taehyung nods his head, “the only one who never once gave up was Yoongi hyung,” he informs you, tilting his head in the older male’s direction.

This comes to a surprise to you as you turn your head to look at the man who was already staring right at you.

“All my life, I’ve never had faith towards anyone I’ve loved even when they needed me the most and it’s caused me more pain than I could ever imagine,” he starts, “but this time, I wanted to put my faith in someone for once, even if it took years or the rest of my life to find you again.”

The corners of his lips lifted into a small smile, “in the end, it worked out this time.”

You bring your hands up to wipe your tears, “thank you for never giving up on me,” you whisper, your lips trembling from yet another crying session. This time, you turn to every single one of them, “thank you for coming to find me.”

“I love you.”

They all smile as they look at you in utter adoration.

“I love you, too,” they repeat one by one.

It was like your life was finally getting back together. You’ve always felt like a piece of you was missing, but now that they’re with you, you were finally whole again.

“I do have a question though,” you announce, gaining their attention, “how on earth did you manage to travel into my world?”

“Cause of Mika,” Hoseok informs you.

“Mika?” you pause, trying to look through your memories to match a face to the name. Your eyes light up when you finally remember the small magical boy, “Mika!”

Namjoon grins, “he’s a rather powerful warlock, he managed to find a way to use all the energy from both the shattered rock, and with the combined energy he created somewhat of a portal between our worlds,” he boasts as if he was a proud father bragging about his achievements.

An arm swings across your shoulder, looking up you find Jungkook smiling down at you, “do you know what that means babe?”

You tilt your head, “we come in and out whenever we want?” Your guess was right when he just nods his head.

“Not just us, anyone can,” Jin clarifies, “this time without a soul being tied to a rock.”

“Does Adrien know about this?” you can’t help but ask when an image of your friend appears in your mind.

Jimin nods his head, “he helped us as well, he was the first person Mika managed to contact in your world and since then they’ve been devising a plan to reunite us together.”

You pause thinking back to a few months ago when Adrien came to you saying he was still researching for ways to bring you all together. All he wanted to do was help and yet you just lashed out at him. You purse your lips in a straight line, taking a mental note to apologize properly next time you see each other.

Taehyung chuckles when he thinks back to the time they first made contact, “yeah we nearly gave the man a heart attack. He thought it was an alien invasion at first coming to whisk him away.”

You snort, totally seeing that happening, “not at all surprised by that.”

“Neither were we,” Yoongi replies back with a short laugh.

“I have another question though,” you add, this time turning your head to look at Jimin, “new years eve, was that you that I saw or not.” You needed to have clarification to know whether you were seeing things or not.

Jimin freezes for a moment before reluctantly nodding his head.

Your breath hitches, “then you saw me run out the building?” again he nods his head. “Then why didn’t you come to me,” you frown, thinking back to the time you were so vulnerable when he was right there the entire time.

He looks at you with his shoulders drooping down, “I wanted to baby, trust me. But I promised the others that our first time seeing you would be together.” He looks at you with sad eyes, “I was so close to coming and hugging you but Namjoon hyung wouldn’t let me.”

This time, you turn your attention to the older male in surprise, “you were there too?”

He nods his head slowly, a deep frown present on his face.

“Alright, have you decided who’s entering Y/n’s world?” A now older teenage Mika asks as he looks at the men in the room. Seeing how Namjoon and Jimin were the only ones smiling amongst them, he can only assume those two were the lucky ones of the bunch.

Jimin happily walks up to the boy, “Namjoon hyung and I will be accompanying you.”

Mika nods his head as he holds the stone tightly in his hands, “I will apologize in advance if this doesn’t work,” he starts shyly, “truly I’m very sorry.” He feels a hand gently get placed on his shoulder, looking up he finds Namjoon smiling down at him.

“It’s alright kiddo, you’ve done so much for us already. This is the closest we’ve ever come to getting to Y/n and it’s all thanks to you,” he reassures him.

The boy’s eyes light up at that before he’s blushing shyly. In the next second, the stone shines brightly in his hand and before they know it, a portal appears before them.

Mika turns to the men, a way to ask if they were ready. When they nod their heads, he motions to them to follow him before walking right into the portal.

Jimin and Namjoon share a look before turning to the others.

“Remember, you wait till we’re all together to approach Y/n,” Jungkook reminds with narrowed eyes, “we made a promise.” The two nod their heads, they’re not entirely sure how much self control they have but they’ll do their best.

“We’ll be back,” Namjoon states, looking over his shoulder.

“You better,” Yoongi warns while crossing his arms, “if you don’t come back in a week or two I’m doing everything in my power to find you and beat your ass.”

Jimin chuckles, “if you say so old man.”

Before he can argue back, Jimin jumps into the portal with Namjoon following closely behind.

They feel their breaths getting sucked out of them as if it felt like their bodies were transcending until they fell into a hardwood floor.

Suddenly, they hear a high pitched scream.

Looking up at the sound, they were half expecting to see a woman only for their eyes to land on Adrien in his bathrobe clutching his chest while panting heavily.

His eyes widen as he looks all over his room at the three new guests. “Holy fuck it worked,” he whispers in complete disbelief.

“Alright, Seulgi informed me that there’s a new years party and I practically begged her to try to convince Y/n to come with her,” Adrien informs the men as they walk along the sidewalk once he finally processed what had happened.

After getting them into appropriate clothing that’s suitable for their world and the weather, he decided to bring them out. Jimin and Namjoon watch the city in awe, staring up at the skyscrapers as it towers over even the tallest buildings in their world.

“Now, Seulgi invited me so I can sneak you boys in but you can’t show yourself,” by now they’ve drowned him out as they look all over the area with curiosity.

“And- are you two even listening to me.”

“Uh yeah, don’t show yourself, got it,” Jimin replies back half heartedly as he continues sightseeing.

Adrien’s lips form into a straight line.

Namjoon laughs while patting his back. “Don’t worry Mr. Warlock, I’ll watch over him and make sure he doesn’t overstep.”

The man looks at him gratefully, “y’know, I would correct any of you into calling me by my name, but Mr. Warlock grew on me.”

“Good cause I wasn’t planning on calling you anything else.”

Soon enough, the three stop at an apartment complex that Adrien knows all too well considering how often you and Seulgi forced him into having a slumber party.

“You know the plan?” Adrien asks, mainly directing this to Jimin as they approach the apartment. The sounds of music grow louder the closer they get.

The younger male sighs, “yes, dad. You distract Y/n so that Namjoon hyung and I can watch from afar and admire her beauty,” he recites his words that he kept repeating on the way here.

Adrien nods his head, “perfect,” he texts Seulgi to inform her he’s arrived. “Keep your hood on,” he mutters, watching through his peripheral vision as they tuck it closer, hiding more of their faces.

The door swings open and suddenly Adrien finds himself getting tackled by the petite girl.

“Adrien! I’ve missed you,” she squeals excitedly.

It takes everything in Jimin’s and Namjoon’s body not to greet the girl and ask how she’s been.

Adrien chuckles as he hugs her just as tightly, “I’ve missed you too Seul.”

He lets go of her, and before she could look behind him, Adrien blocks her view of the two men. “So where’s Y/n?” he asks nonchalantly, gently pushing her further into the room while Jimin and Namjoon sneak through.

The two men maneuver their way through the crowd to a spot that would give them a clear view of you. The moment their eyes land on you, it was like you took their breath away.

Their heart skips a beat at the sight of you smiling and laughing along to whatever nonsense Adrien was spewing to distract you.

“She’s still as beautiful as ever,” Jimin breathes out dreamily, his eyes remaining on you the entire time.

Namjoon can’t help but nod his head in agreement, “of course, what else would you expect. This is Y/n we’re talking about.”

“Hi handsome,” a woman seductively flirts as she approaches Namjoon.

The man panics, if there was a chance that you would see them, he especially doesn’t want you to catch a girl flirting with him.

So he pulls out the only excuse he can find to get rid of her, “sorry, I’m gay,” he coughs out with a straight face and a raised hand.

This clearly catches the girl off guard as her whole demeanor changes instantly. “I- oh I’m sorry,” she stammers with an embarrassed smile. “Um happy new years,” and with that she hastily walks away.

The moment she was out of range Jimin bursts into laughter while clutching onto his abdomen, “‘I’m gay’,” he repeats through his cackles, “that’s the best thing I heard today.”

“Shut your fucking mouth,” Namjoom growls as he looks away, hiding his own embarrassment.

Jimin’s laughter eventually dies down as they're back to admiring you from afar.

After a while, Namjoon could tell he was getting a little antsy, watching the way the younger male was battling the urge to attack you in a hug.

“Hyung,” Jimin rasps, the older man takes his eyes off you to look at him. “This is hard, I don't know if I can do this.”

Suddenly being alert, Namjoon straightens his back, “what do you mean?”

“Holding myself back,” Jimin clarifies, his knuckles turning white from how tightly he was holding onto his arm, “if we don’t leave now, I might do something stupid.”

“Jimin we promised,” he warns sternly, now clutching onto his arms just in case he suddenly makes a run for it.

“Which is why I was kind enough to give you a warning,” he snaps back through gritted teeth.

Namjoon curses under his breath before roughly tugging his arm, “let’s go.”

“W-Wait, just a little longer,” Jimin tries to persuade despite saying he should leave just a few seconds ago. He tries to pull away but Namjoon has a viper-like grip on his forearm.

It amazes Namjoon how quick he was to lose control when you were near.

“Jimin, let’s go,” he orders with authority. “Don’t look at her.”

Jimin roughly tugs at his arm, “hyung it’s been 3 years,” he fumed, “I can’t wait any longer when she’s right fucking there.”

The older male clearly doesn’t listen, he still continues to drag him through the crowd and out the front door despite his constant retaliation.

Thankfully Namjoon was stronger than him in terms of strength, otherwise this scenario would be much different. He can only imagine how much more he would have to struggle if it were Jungkook he was dealing with instead.

“Hyung-“

“No Jimin, let's go,” he dismissed whatever he was trying to say.

“No hyung listen to me,” with a tug he forces Namjoon to look at him. “I made a mistake,” Jimin gulps nervously.

“What kind of mistake?”

“We made eye contact.”

Namjoon groans, “god fucking dammit Jimin!” This time he’s running and dragging his friend with him, “we have to get out of here.”

They ran as quickly as their legs could take them right out of the front entrance of the building. The streets are empty so they can’t blend into a crowd. Instead they make a dash behind a large van parked a little further away from the apartment.

They both try to catch their breaths. “You think she saw me?”

“Jimin!”

The sound of your pained cry has them freezing in their spots and not because it was cold outside.

“P-Please! I know you’re out there! Please just show yourself!”

Namjoon has to physically tackle Jimin to the ground when he springs up at the sound of your plea.

“Hyung, let me go! I need to go to her,” Jimin hisses, struggling to get out of his grip as they both nearly wrestle on the concrete.

“Jimin, we have to wait for the others. We made a promise.”

“Screw the fucking promise!” Jimin snaps, his eyes begin to water, “how do you expect me not to do anything when the love of my life is right there crying her eyes out!”

“And who’s fucking fault is that!” Namjoon growls into his face, this time swinging his legs to cage him, completely preventing him from escaping, “if you had just listened to me, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“I couldn’t help it hyung,” Jimin rasps quietly, losing the energy to fight back, “the moment I saw her I just wanted to kiss her, hug her, talk to her. I needed to tell her how much I love her.”

“I missed her so fucking much,” he sobs, tilting his head back and closing his eyes shut when he could vaguely hear the sounds of your cries.

Namjoon turns away, trying to hold in his own tears, “I missed her too,” he whispers, wanting nothing more than to do everything that Jimin said.

Coming to your world was both a blessing and a curse they both realized.

A blessing because they got to finally see you again.

A curse because they could do nothing about it.

Mika turns his head at the sound of the front door opening. He decided to stay behind thinking it’d attract too much attention for a young teenager to be present at a party filled with drunk people everywhere.

“You found her?” Mika asks excitedly when the two men enter the house, completely oblivious to what transpired.

“We sure did,” Namjoon grumbles while Jimin wordlessly sits down on the couch.

Sensing the mood of the room, the young boy shrinks back into his seat, “w-what happened.”

“She saw him,” Namjoon tilts his head in Jimin’s direction, the man having yet to say anything.

Just then, the front door bursts open revealing an enraged Adrien. “What did I tell you! I said don’t show your face to her!”

“I couldn't help it,” Jimin mumbles, head bowed in shame.

Namjoon sighs, “how is she now?”

Adrien scoffs, “not doing so well, no thanks to you.”

Both Jimin and Mika flinch at the harsh tone.

“It was an honest mistake,” Namjoon defends his friend immediately, “you knew the risks when you brought us to her.”

“Yes well I hoped you two knew it well enough to not let those risks from happening,” Adrien groans as he plops lazily onto his couch right across from them. “It took a whole lot of convincing to bring her back in y’know. But even when we did succeed in doing so Y/n wouldn’t say a word.”

He looks at them with a blank expression, eyeing them carefully, “Seulgi tucked her into bed and told me she’ll take care of her, that’s when I left to come here with the intent to beat your asses.”

Jimin raises his head, officially losing much of his patience, “you have no idea how much self restraint I needed to not go over there and hug her myself,” he barked angrily, “you’ve been with her all this time, always having the option to see her whenever you wanted.”

In the heat of the moment the man stands from his seat, throwing his hands up, exasperated. Namjoon follows suit, ready to take control and ease the chaos.

“We didn’t have that,” Jimin fumes, pointing to both himself and his friend, “so of course you would never understand what it feels like to miss someone you have no idea if you’ll see again.”

Adrien raises a brow, staring him straight in the eye yet still not moving from his spot, “I’d watch my words assassin,” he warns in a low voice, the air begins to grow thick between the two, “you have no idea what I’ve been through.”

But of course, Jimin refuses to sense the warning. He laughs in a taunting way, “oh yeah? Who could you possibly think of that would even remotely come close to what I feel towards Y/n.”

“My brother.”

And just like that, the room goes silent at the mere mention of Jasper.

The older male scoffs, leaning his body off the back of the couch and settling to leaning his elbows against his thighs, “remember the part where I’ve been looking for him for 10 years or did you magically forget everything that’s happened in the span of 3 years,” he harshly spats out the words.

“You finally get the girl after finding her. For me? I finally found my brother only to be forced to accept the reality that I’ve long since lost him forever.”

Jimin can’t bring himself to say anything more, unable to face his narrowed eyes.

“What ever did happen to Mast- I mean Jasper,” Mika quietly asks, as though afraid to hear the answer.

“I stripped away his powers,” Adrien informs, giving him his full attention now, “he no longer has any power in him to do anything to hurt you or anyone for that matter. He’ll be spending the rest of his life in confinement, rotting away in that place so rest assured he won’t come after you.”

Mika can only send him a small smile. He can’t help but feel a sense of relief over that. Even if he turned into an evil person, betraying Jasper was something that haunted him for a while.

Although Adrien was putting on a strong face, the two older males can tell it hurts him to do that to his own blood.

“Adrien, I’m sorry,” Jimin finally relented, his face showcasing his sincerity. “I didn’t mean to say all that I’m just emotional from seeing Y/n after so long.”

The corners of Adrien’s lips lifted, nodding his head to let him know he didn’t take it personally, “I’m sorry for lashing out at you as well, I’ve grown protective over the girls so excuse me for acting so rash.”

The two send each other a small smile, acknowledging both their faults and apologies.

Namjoon lets out a sigh, relieved that he didn’t have to step in and break them apart if a fight occurred. “What do we do now? The portal clearly works,” he motions towards the stone that’s still being tightly gripped in Mika’s hand.

“You’re not wrong,” Mika mutters, staring down at his own creation in awe, “but I was only able to hold it long enough for you two to enter through,” he sends them a sheepish expression. But his gaze falls onto Adrien who smiles reassuringly at him.

“But now we have Adrien with us and with our powers combined, I'm sure we can find a way,” Mika says with a sense of determination.

Adrien hums, feeling a bit impressed as he eyes the boy in wonder, “Mika, you’re rather powerful for a boy your age,” he comments off to the side, analyzing the young male before him.

The boy’s eyes light up at the compliment, “why thank you sir-“

“Have you ever thought of becoming a king one day?”

The boy chokes on his own spit, “e-excuse me?”

Jimin retells everything that’s happened on your walk through the city while Namjoon explains thoroughly the process in which they took to get to you.

You listen attentively as Namjoon excitedly tells you the tests they took and the spells they had to cast. Even going off by saying how close they were to causing an explosion, a bit too excitedly you noted.

“Yeah he made us scour the entire empire for things they needed,” Taehyung grumbles, referring to him, Jimin and Jungkook. He remembered back to the times one of them or two of them would be gone for weeks on end trying to find some herb that was needed for some reason.

“It was needed for research, Taehyung,” the older male calls out from over his shoulder. “We eventually got to Y/n, are you going to say it was all for nothing?” he challenges.

Jungkook rolls his eyes then, “no never. But why were we always the ones doing the bitch work,” he complains, shooting daggers at the back of his head.

“Cause we didn’t want to do it,” Yoongi replies back shamelessly, ignoring the flabbergasted look that the three youngest sends him.

“It would be nice to hear a ‘thank you’ for our contribution,” Jimin sasses from behind you with narrowed eyes, “can you remind me what you did all these years?”

Yoongi raises a brow, “are you questioning my involvement?”

Jimin maintains eye contact, “I sure am.”

“Must I remind you?” the older male lets out an exasperated sigh as though it pained him to recall, “my job was telling you guys what to do.”

It goes silent for a moment before suddenly you hear a yelp from behind you and a bit of scuffling like someone was struggling. You can only assume this means the younger boys are currently assaulting your advisor. Yet you don’t look back to check.

You can’t help but let out a laugh, grateful to hear them bickering again. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I truly missed your fights.”

Hoseok slings an arm lazily around you, “I’m glad at least one of us is enjoying this. Y’know I had to suffer being in their presence the entire time.”

“You poor thing,” you coo, leaning over to kiss his cheek.

The man tightens his hold on your shoulder, cuddling his head even closer to yours, “yeah well now they’re your problem to deal with.”

You just shrug your shoulders, not at all displeased by that, “no complaints here.”

Hoseok grins, “none here either.” He moves to peck the top of your head as you continue making your way through the city, bickering and laughing along the way with the occasional kisses to your cheek and lips.

You didn’t realize this, but the boys were actually leading you straight to Adrien’s large house. The said man was waiting right outside with a smile on his face.

At the sight of your favorite warlock, you pull away from Hoseok and run up to him. Although he has a slightly confused expression he opens his arms for you to run into him.

“Not the welcome greeting I was expecting but one that I will always accept,” he jokes, rubbing your back.

“I’m sorry,” you breathe out against his chest.

You feel him freeze for a moment, “why are you apologizing?” he asks softly, looking up at the men behind you for an answer but they all just shrug their shoulders, equally just as confused.

“For giving up. You did so much for me only for me to return the favor by getting mad and lashing out at you,” you apologize in one breath, pushing yourself even closer into his embrace, “I’m sorry.”

Finally understanding what was going on in your head, the corners of his lips lift in amusement, “there’s no need to apologize. You didn’t know anythng, I did keep it a secret from you afterall.” He pats the back of your head in a reassuring manner, “I could never get mad at you, Y/n.”

You tilt your head to look up at him, “do you really mean that? Even if I was being a bit of a bitch.”

The subtle upward quirk of his mouth told you he was holding in a laugh, “yes, even if you were being a bit of a bitch,” he repeated, not meaning anything he said, just wanting to play along.

Just then, you get startled when the flapping of a bird's wings can be heard. In the next second, an all too familiar bird lands on Adrien’s shoulder.

Your mood was instantly lifted, “Rue Rue!” The bird chirps excitedly, now landing onto your chest as you happily accept these Rue cuddles, the bird snuggling even more into your embrace.

Your eyes finally acknowledge the boy hiding behind the door frame. Even though he was slightly older looking now, you recognized him immediately, “Mika?” you ask hesitantly.

He exposes more of himself to you, giving you a small smile and wave. But he lets out a gasp when you suddenly bring him into your arms.

“Thank you so much Mika. You’ve done amazing,” you praise sweetly. You don’t notice the way the boy blushes immensely as he freezes in his spot. But soon enough, he melts into your arms and hugs you back. You pull away, happy to see him up and healthy since the last time you saw him was when he was unconscious.

You hear footsteps slowly approach, turning around you find the very men that you’ve fallen for smiling right back at you.

“We ready to head over,” Jungkook questions, clearly showing how impatient he was and wanting to bring you back into their world as quickly as possible.

Jin laughs, brushing past the man as he makes his way up the stairs, “calm down Jeon, we have time.”

The younger one just groans, “that’s too long.” You can only scoff and shake your head in amusement.

But, there was something weighing your mind when you realized you were so close to going back to their world.

“Whatever happened to Kiara?” you couldn’t help but ask.

The men freeze in their steps the moment the words are uttered from your mouth. They all warily looked at each other. Or at something. Anything that wasn’t you.

“I think it’s better we show you instead,” Jin mutters reluctantly, refusing to look you in the eye as his gaze falls on Mika, giving him a slight gesture towards the stone.

Mika, taking the hint, nods his head as he moves to prepare the portal.

“Will I like it?” You finally ask in a small voice.

You notice the way Jimin bites his lips nervously, “most definitely not,” he mutters under his breath dejectedly.

You feel your heart begin to beat immensely fast, “why not?” you slowly approach the man that refuses to look directly at your prying eyes. “Jimin, why won’t I like it?” You continue to push.

“Because she’s gone.”

You suck in a breath.

There it was.

The confirmation you were looking for.

But it’s not the one you had hoped to hear.

Adrien widens his eyes slightly before refusing to look at anyone’s face. He clears his throat, “uh you guys go ahead. I’ll go grab Seulgi and… bring her over if she’s ready.” Without much of a goodbye, he walks past everyone, making his way towards his car, no doubt wanting to spend some time alone.

The rest of you can only watch his back walking further away from them and getting into his car with a harsh slam of his door.

“Will he be alright?” Yoongi asks in concern, watching the man remain frozen in his seat, not seemingly planning to move anytime soon despite leaving first.

You nod your head, “just like you Yoongi, he never gave up on her,” you whisper as you stare at the man who was seemingly in a daze.

“Should someone go after him,” Hoseok asks, the question mainly directed towards you seeing how you know him best out of everyone here.

You shake your head, “it’s best to let him grieve on his own.” You want to chase after him but you know pestering him would worsen things as the warlock preferred being alone.

The man must’ve realized you were all staring, looking up he sends you all a curt nod before finally starting his car. Without another glance in your direction he backs away and disappears into the street.

Mika peers over from the doorway, eyeing everyone’s morbid expression. “Uh, the portals ready whenever you all are,” he announces quietly.

You send him a small smile, walking past everyone and making your way towards the boy, “thank you Mika.”

The boy, not one to say much, nods his head and gestures to follow him.

You all stop by the living room until you see the stone in Mika’s hand begin to glow. In the next second, a large bright portal begins to form before your eyes.

The boy signals for you all to enter, “I will wait for Mister Adrien to arrive back, you all go first.”

You nod your head while taking astep forward, but before you could one hand entwine with yours. Looking up you find that the hand belonged to Taehyung as he smiles down at you, “shall we go together?”

You beam up at him, “we shall.” Together, you walk hand in hand into the portal. The familiar feeling begins forming in the pit of your stomach. The wind causes your hair to go in every direction as the light blinds you momentarily.

The next time you open your eyes, your gaze falls into a grassy area looking directly out at the palace you’ve grown to love. Your eyes were so focused on the majestic building that you’ve missed so much that you don’t even turn around when you hear Namjoon stumble out the portal while Jungkook and Jin laugh at their friend.

Taehyung peers over to study your face, “you ok?”

You send him a smile, a sense of nostalgia running through you, “I just really missed this place.”

Suddenly, you hear what sounds like a watering can fall onto the ground with a ‘clang’. Turning your head to the sound, you let out a gasp when your eyes meet with none other than your favorite maid.

“Joy,” you breathe out.

The girl seems to be frozen in her spot, until suddenly it finally clicks in her head that you were standing right before her.

She finally springs into action, running to you with a wide smile on her face. You can’t help but remain stunned, watching the sunlight glow beautifully on her skin as she runs to you almost in slow motion from your point of view, almost like you were in a shampoo commercial.

“Y/n, honey, remember, the guys you love are still behind you,” someone comments, watching you practically drool over your once lady in waiting.

You ignore whoever said that and rush forward excitedly with your arms wide open, “Joy!”

She laughs as you two practically collide against one another. She pulls away, her hands holding onto your arms tightly, “I thought I’d never see you again,” she whispers, staring at you with glistening eyes as if you would just disappear at any given moment.

You too couldn’t help but feel the tears begin to well up. “Me too,” you whisper back, giving her a tearful smile.

Meanwhile the boys couldn’t do anything but gawk from a distance, watching the scene before them like they were in a romance story.

Hoseok whistles with an amused grin, “it seems like we’ve lost her my friends.”

“I’m just happy Lady Joy’s married,” Yoongi mutters, the rest of the boys couldn’t help but agree.

“Anything new while I was gone?” you question curiously, pulling away far enough to look at her.

Just then, you find her taking a step back and then gingerly place her hand onto her stomach. If you looked closely, you could spot a very slight bump on her stomach.

You gasp loudly, “you’re pregnant?!” you practically scream out. A fresh batch of tears begin to form when she just nods her head with a gentle smile. “I’m about to throw up with excitement!” she exclaims happily.

She looks at you, slightly concerned, “please don’t.”

“It’s just a saying, Joy,” you tease.

She lets out a sigh of relief, “I sure do miss your odd way of speaking,” she says sweetly.

“Alright ladies, you two get any closer and you might end up kissing,” Taehyung jokes as they all approach you.

You shrug your shoulders, “doesn’t sound too bad when you say it out loud.” You two share a look, sending each other a wink.

The knight pauses, an awkward smile now adoring his face, “Y/n, baby don’t joke like that. My heart’s too sensitive.”

You just brush him off.

Suddenly, you hear footsteps, turning to the sound you find the head maid that you recognized as Irene approaching you all. You feel relieved to see her alive as well.

“Your majesty, you’ve been gone for a few days, nobles have been seeking your attendance.”

You were surprised to hear Namjoon respond to her in a loud voice, “and then?”

“I’ve been doing my best to shoo them away, just as you’ve requested.”

He nods his head, pleased to hear that, “excellent work. Thank you, Irene, please inform them that I’ll be absent for the remainder of this week,” he orders with authority, his shoulders pressed back as he stands tall. The woman bows her head in respect before walking away to continue her duties.

You stand there, stunned at what you had just heard. “I’m sorry, did she just call you ‘your majesty’?”

Namjoon blushes, giving you a shy and bashful expression, “because Kiara has no heir, I ended up taking over the position of emperor,” he explains, “I took my advisor work for granted when I became ruler,” he chuckles, not at all looking forward to all the paperwork that’s most definitely been piling up since he’s been gone.

You chuckle, in the end the book truly is going along with the plot. “How fitting,” you mutter under your breath before giving him a proud smile, “you make a great ruler.” Your praise causes the man to blush.

Suddenly, you acknowledge him mentioning Kiara’s name. This reminds you of one of the reasons you came back, “Kiara,” you say out loud, causing the men to turn to look at you, “where is she?” you ask hesitantly.

They all share a look towards each other, getting a tad bit nervous. Joy’s eyes seemingly lose their shine before looking towards the ground.

Yoongi offers you a small smile, “we’ll show you, only if you’re ready my dear,” he replies gently.

Joy clears her throat, “I’ll just let you have your alone time then,” she says, coming up to give you a very tight hug, “I’m so happy to see you again,” she whispers beside your ear.

Your heart skips a beat, not sure if you were mentally prepared to see whatever grave they made for your friend. You stare back at her, not at all pleased to see the sudden look on her face.

Jin extends his hand out for you to take. You gulp nervously, but nonetheless you take his hand. You feel him squeeze your hand, comforting you and letting you know you’re not alone.

Wordlessly, they guide you to where she lays, as Joy couldn’t bring herself to watch.

“We planted a tree where we buried her,” Hoseok informs you on your way to her, “it’s grown rather beautifully.”

Now that was an understatement, because the moment you round the corner, your gaze lands on a large majestic tree overlooking the town below the empire. A tree bigger than any tree that any past ruler planted.

The men look up at the now large tree, engraved with her birth and death date. They remember back to the first day they planted it for her with a sense of nostalgia.

“Every spring, golden like flowers bloom,” Jin tells you, admiring the tree that he and all his friends took turns taking care of.

“Golden,” you breathe out in awe, “just like her eyes.”

“Just like her eyes,” he repeats.

“I like to think it’s her way of greeting us every year,” Jungkook says enthusiastically, thinking positively about the situation, “letting us know she’s found peace wherever she is,” he mutters softly, looking down at you with a small smile.

You’re not gonna lie, that makes your heart feel a little bit better.

Even if just for a moment.

You feel someone nudge you to get your attention. Turning to look, you find Yoongi already staring at you, “she would’ve appreciated you visiting her, I’m sure she would be super happy to see you again.” His hand moves to wipe a stray tear that you didn’t even know escaped your eyes.

You sniff, “you really think so,” you ask, voice cracking in the process.

The man nods his head, “I know so.”

“The day we had to announce her passing was a terrible day for the empire,” Taehyung tells you, his hands in his pockets as he looks at the way the light breeze shakes the leaves of the tree, “everyone was crying when we informed them she died in the attack against the empire.”

“That’s what you told people?”

He nods, “well we couldn’t exactly say a warlock from another world killed her now can we,” he teases.

You laugh softly, moving to wipe your wet cheeks, “no I suppose not.”

“We told them she died from saving someone’s life,” Jimin adds off to the side, “which isn’t far from the truth but it’s not the whole truth either,” he smirks knowingly.

“What the empire doesn’t know won’t hurt them,” Namjoon finally says, placing a tender hand on your shoulder, “she would be so happy to know you’re alive. You gave her purpose,” he whispers.

You chuckle sadly, moving to hug yourself in an attempt to find comfort, “it seems I can’t stop crying since seeing you guys again,” you mumble, staring down at the ground as your tears fall onto the grass below your feet.

The men turn to look at each other with a guilty frown, unable to watch the state that you were in any longer.

Jin, being the closest, clears his throat, gently forcing you to look at him, “Y/n we need to tell you something.”

You sniff, tilting your head up in confusion, “what-“

“Y’know I never knew you to be such a crybaby Y/n.”

In that moment you swear your heart stops at the woman’s voice behind you.

You freeze, physically unable to bring yourself to turn around, even when you look up at Jin for confirmation. He all but nods his head slowly, an encouraging look forming on his face.

You hold your breath the entire time while slowly turning around. There you find a very much alive Kiara grinning right back at you.

“Surprise~”

Your vision gets blurry, bringing your hand up to cover your mouth. Completely in shock at the woman hiding behind a hood, one that you could only assume was a disguise.

“Are you a ghost,” you question in disbelief.

She lets out an amused chuckle, “fortunately not, that'd be a bit concerning,” she wittily remarks, crossing her arms across her chest.

When you remain frozen, she raises a brow, “well are you just gonna stand there or…?”

You let out a joyous laugh before running straight to her, to which she welcomes with open arms. You can’t help but burst into tears, burying your head into her neck. You could barely formulate any words, sobs racked your body as all you could do was hold onto her.

At the sight of your tears, Kiara couldn’t help but let out a cry, hugging you just as tightly.

“You’re alive,” you rasp out, “oh my god I can’t believe you’re alive.” You pull away from her, your hands moving all over to touch her face to ensure she was really right there in front of you. “How are you still alive?”

She beams back at you, “Mika’s a rather very powerful person, he happened to wake up just in time to save the day,” she explains briefly.

Mika groans, slowly opening his eyes, wincing when his ears begin to ring. Sitting up slowly, his ears finally adjust only to hear sounds of crying and someone falling to their knees.

“Jungkook, get a hold of yourself,” Hoseok growls, standing up to grip his shoulders tightly.

“She’s gone hyung!” he screams out loud, thrashing against his touch, “she’s gone! She’s fucking gone!”

“No shit Jeon but we have a bigger problem to deal with right now!” Hoseok, losing much of his patience, turns away from Jungkook and sits beside Kiara.

Taehyung whimpered to himself, his eyes still closed shut with his hands covering both his ears.

Meanwhile Namjoon remains rooted in his spot as though in a daze.

At this point, Kiara was showing no signs of life and Jin was slowly losing all hope.

“I-I might be able to help.”

The men flinch at the sudden voice. Out of panic, Jimin brings his sword aimed at him in defense even if he was both physically and mentally exhausted.

Jin eyes the boy suspiciously, bringing the girl closer to him in a protective manner, “who are you.”

The boy gulps nervously, taking a tentative step back, eyeing the pointy sword, “M-Mika,” he stares down at the pool of blood that’s growing at an alarming rate, “I can help her.”

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” the assassin threatens, pointing his sword even closer to the boy causing him to flinch.

“For god’s sake Jimin, let the boy do his thing and then ask questions!” Yoongi screams out of desperation.

Although he hesitates, the man finally relents and allows Mika to pass. The boy rushes forward crouching right beside what seems like a lifeless woman. But he could feel it, could feel a small sliver of life in her body. Even if it was miniscule, he could sense it. And that’s all he really needed.

The men watch in fascination when his hands begin to glow, not as bright as Adrien’s but it was bright enough to nearly blind them. And before their eyes, they watch the wound slowly heal itself up.

But they just watch in silence, until finally, they hear the girl take in a sharp inhale. Jin almost feels like screaming out of relief as he all but plops down to the ground.

Surprisingly, Mika falls to the ground as well. Namjoon, finally getting out of his trance, springs forward to catch his head before it lands on the floor.

“Is he ok?”

“It seems he just needs a little bit of rest,” Namjoon guesses, “like before when Adrien nearly collapsed after saving Y/n and Kiara.”

“Oh great, another warlock,” Taehyung breathes out, leaning against the wall feeling exhausted.

Yoongi raises his brow, “are you complaining?” he finally turns his head, “cause it seems to me like we might’ve just found a way to find Y/n.”

They all turn to follow his line of sight, their gaze landing on the unconscious boy in Namjoon’s arms.

“He’s incredible,” you breathe out in awe.

Kiara nods, “I agree.”

Just then, a sudden thought runs through your mind. You whirl around to face the men with an angry expression, “you knew about this and you didn’t tell me!”

They raise their hands in the air in defense almost immediately.

“It was her idea,” Jimin confesses without a second thought. Shamelessly pointing directly at Kiara, having no problem throwing his friend under the bus.

Kiara’s mouth forms a straight line, “gee thanks,” the man just shrugs his shoulders, sending her a wink. She sighs, “I convinced the guys to be a part of it, makes the reunion kinda worthwhile don’t you think?”

But you just look at her astonished that she would even come up with such a ‘prank’, “you’re the absolute worst!”

Getting nervous, she shakily laughs while stepping back, “hey now, I’m alive aren’t I?” she attempts but she knew she wasn’t getting through to you when your expression barely changes.

“You’re right, you’re alive,” you mutter, “alive and well so I can kill you!”

Jungkook laughs as he swings an arm around your waist to prevent you from attacking his friend even if you were just joking. Kiara yelps, hiding cowardly behind Jin who was conveniently next to her.

She peers over, giving you a cheeky smile when all you do is scowl at her. “Listen, I know you’re mad at me, but I need to ask you something,” you just grunt pettily, “h-how’s Seulgi.”

You pause for a moment, the anger in you dissipating almost in an instant.

“She found someone new… I’m sorry.”

“You’re lying aren’t you.”

“Absolutely.”

Kiara gapes at you, “Y/n!”

You roughly shove Jungkook’s arm off your body before stomping up to her, “don’t Y/n me! You just made me believe you were dead!” You let out a grumpy huff of air, “I should’ve lied even bigger and say Seulgi got into a car accident and died or something,” you mutter under your breath.

Kiara lets out a sigh of relief, “alright fine, I’ll stop with the pranks. But we needed to make you believe I was dead,” she urges.

You give her a puzzled look, “what do you mean.”

“Nobody knows I’m alive,” she reveals in a hushed whisper, pulling the hood closer to her body,

“The empress life just wasn’t for me I guess,” Kiara finally says, giving the palace a long look. “It’s funny because here I thought that all this time I would find happiness in becoming ruler. Turns out, all I wanted was to end the war and live a normal life.”

“So you faked your own death.” She nods her head.

“The good thing about having warlocks in your life, is that they could manifest a realistic looking dummy to pretend to be dead me,” she tells you, “it worked pretty well seeing how they ‘buried’ me right here.”

“It’s honestly really strange seeing yourself in a coffin,” she mutters, more so to herself than to anyone else.

“Then Namjoon hyung was crowned king after many deemed him worthy for the role,” Jungkook adds proudly.

Kiara smirks, “thankfully, Namjoon had no problem taking over. It was a pretty smooth transition, a much better ruler if you ask me.”

The said man just chuckles, “personally I think Y/n was the best amongst us.”

Now you’re beginning to understand the situation a little bit better.

But before you could ask any more questions, a blur passes by you and nearly tackles Kiara to the ground in which she falls down with a rough thump.

“You lying sack of shit!”

Kiara gasps, feeling the air get knocked out of her after the unexpected attack, only to look up to find her assaulter with tears brimming his eyes.

“Oh hey Adrien, I didn’t take you to be much of a crier either,” she says softly with a gentle smile, wiping his tears with her thumb.

His lips quiver, he doesn’t say more. He stands up, extending his hand out for her take. When she accepts the gesture, he tugs her to a standing position and brings her into a tight hug.

“I know damn well this little prank for shits and giggles was your idea but I’ll hug you now and kill you myself later,” he mumbles against her head.

“There’s a line,” you comment off to the side, but your words get muffled towards the end when Yoongi’s hand comes to cover your mouth.

Kiara laughs cheerfully, hugging him just as close, “Listen, I promise there was a reason for this that’s not for ‘shits and giggles’ as you say.” She grins, “I missed you, Adrien.”

He laughs, moving to pull away to wipe his tears, “missed you too empress.”

“Actually, I’m not the empress anymore,” she says slowly, nudging her head in Namjoon’s direction to which he just smiles brightly at the man. “That’s mainly the reason for me being ‘dead’,” she bends her fingers in the air to represent quotation marks.

“Well you can explain that to me another time, because I think someone else missed you even more than I,” he whispers to her.

Stepping aside, he reveals a stunned Seulgi on the brink of tears with Mika standing beside her with Rue comfortably perched on his shoulder. Kiara gulps nervously, before feeling someone give an encouraging nudge to her back to step forward.

The girl takes slow and calculated steps towards the girl of her dreams. “Hey.”

Seulgi scans her face, making sure she’s not seeing things, “you’re alive?”

Kiara nods her head slowly, “I am.”

The moment they’re standing right in front of each other, without a second thought they share a passionate kiss. A kiss that expressed everything they’ve been missing from one another.

Everyone else gapes at the two.

“Why don’t we give them some privacy lady and gents,” Adrien teases, smirking when you all but cough and clear your throat, looking away bashfully. “Actually on that note, why don’t I give you all some privacy,” he sends the boys a wink, causing them to blush even more than they already were.

Your eyebrows knit together in confusion, “what’s that supposed to mean?” But rather than answering your question, Adrien just shrugs his shoulders with a smirk before walking off. You then turn your attention to the rest of the men, who seemingly can’t bring themselves to look you in the eye.

“Well hyung,” Taehyung asks, looking directly at Namjoon, “you gonna say something or…”

“Why am I the one to say it?”

“You’re the emperor,” he scoffs, as though it was the most obvious answer.

“Ok but you love her just as much as me.”

“Can we please get to the point,” you call out impatiently.

Jin sighs tiredly, “sometimes there’s things only the oldest can do I suppose,” he mutters under his breath. He clears his throat, looking at you with utmost adoration, “Y/n, we’ve done some thinking, and we were hoping you could listen to what we have to say.” He takes this time to lok around at his friends, seeing that although they were still nervous, they started getting confident.

“The moment you left us, I thought I could accept your disappearance if it meant you were alive,” Jimin starts, “it made me realize just how much I love and adore you.” He sends you a sheepish grin.

“Nothing in my life has ever gone to plan,” Yoongi starts next, “all I’ve ever done was hurt the people I love. Even you,” he points out in a sad tone. “But I want this to be different with you. So I’m going to do everything in my power to make this work.” There was no hiding his sincerity when he was looking at you with determination.

“We’ve decided that there is no way for us to choose who gets to be with you. We love you equally and we know you love us just the same,” Namjoon continues, taking a step forward.

“We all want to be with you, to live and grow old with you just like your grandparents,” Taehyung smiles, “and then we can walk through the gardens until our skins all wrinkled.”

You laugh through the tears at that, envisioning you growing old with them. Already loving the idea even if it's a long time away.

“And we can eat everything the empire can provide,” Jungkook cheers before his stare turns into a softer one, “well truthfully we want to do everything with you Y/n.”

“We want you to be the first person we see in the morning, the only one we want to kiss goodnight,” you could find a look of fondness and warmth when you look up into Hoseok’s eyes. HIs hand came up to wipe your tears away before he’s tenderly raking his fingers through your hair.

At this point, no words could be uttered out of your mouth when all you could do was cry.

“So Y/n,” you hear Jin start, gaining your attention while still in Hoseok’s embrace.

Taehyung peers over, “will you make us the luckiest men in this world and…” The men took at each other, a few of the more emotional ones on the brink of letting the tears fall.

“Will you marry-”

“Us,” Namjoon finishes, cutting Jimin off as the male turns to him briefly with a pout.

You’re not sure what made you cry more, their proposal or the way they were looking at you like you meant the entire world to them.

All you could bring yourself to do was nod your head, your vision was getting blurry that you could barely see the small but relieved smiles on their faces.

“Yes?” Yoongi breathes out, feeling as though his heart stopped for just a moment.

Again, all you could do was nod your head.

Jin chuckles, letting the tears fall freely now, “honey, say it, please.”

You laugh excitedly, the tears falling uncontrollably but you didn’t care to wipe them away, “yes, of course it’s a yes!”

The boys couldn’t help but all burst into tears, feeling as though their life was finally whole again.

Jungkook was the first one to run up to you, pulling you into a passionate kiss, holding onto your head both tenderly and firmly.

“Alright Jungkook,” Taehyung sniffs, moving to wipe his tears, “don’t steal all her kisses now.”

One by one, each man happily takes their turn, giving you a kiss that shows you just how much you’re loved by them.

Jimin lets out a sigh of relief, stretching his arms into the air, “I was so nervous I was about to throw up.”

“I was about to faint honestly,” Jin retorts. You laugh at them, finally calmed down enough to stop crying.

“How is this going to work,” you ask after some time.

“Well we were kind of thinking of crowning you as empress,” Hoseok informs you, “that way you and Namjoon could be rulers together.”

You won’t lie, the thought of being empress again did get you excited, “and what about all of you?”

“Have you ever heard about consorts?” Jin asks you.

The only consorts you know of are with emperors having them.

“I can have consorts?”

Jin shrugs his shoulders, “I don’t see why not,”

“Well in my world, at least in the old times, it was always the males who had consorts, not their wives.”

“I’m not sure how it works in your world, but here the emperor and empress are viewed equally,” Namjoon explains to you, “theoretically speaking I could have female consorts, but the only woman I want in my life is you.”

“And you’re fine with me having consorts,” you ask, tilting your head.

His eyes crinkle in amusement, “the rest of them would kill me if I said no my dear.”

“Yeah we will,” Jimin calls out with a smug look.

Just then you feel someone wrap their arms around your shoulder, “it must be nice to have a wedding,” Yoongi grumbles, unable to hide the jealousy of you and Namjoon being officially married.

You raise a brow, tilting your head to look at him, “you do realize that you would all be my husbands, correct?”

He groans, “it’s not the same. Only Namjoon would hold that official title.” He pouts cutely towards you that you couldn’t help but want to pinch his cheeks.

Instead your hands cup his cheek, you nearly coo when he leans against your touch, “we don't need an official document to know what we have is real Yoongs.”

He stares deeply into your eyes for a moment before sighing, “I know, you’re right, I'm sorry,” his hand coming up to lay on top of yours. “I still get insecure that the others are better than me but I’m learning to get better at it the best I can.”

You smile, “and that’s all I ask for.” Your smile widens when he turns his head to kiss the palm of your hand.

Suddenly, you can’t help but bite your lips nervously.

Jungkook notices this immediately, “I know that look,” he comments, the corners of his lips lift, approaching you and can’t help but squish your cheeks together. “What’s gotten you looking so upset my dear?”

“What if they don’t like me?” you mumble quietly, but they heard you loud and clear. You can’t forget how the staff stared at you when you were last here.

“They will trust me,” Taehyung answers without skipping a beat. “If you treat them the same way you did in Kiara’s body, they’ll love you in no time.” And he meant every word that he said.

“And if they don’t we’ll just kill them,” Jimin replies back just as seriously.

You’re not at all surprised to find the rest of them nod their heads in agreement.

“Please don’t kill people on my behalf.”

“My dear empress, we’ll do anything for you,” Jin tells you with utmost sincerity.

“I’m not the empress yet,” you remind him with a lopsided grin.

He just laughs, “didn’t I tell you before Y/n?” he sends you a charming smile, “you’ll always be my empress.”

Your heart soars at that, suddenly feeling flustered by their stares.

You hear someone whistle, “so am I looking at a new empress or not,” Kiara teases, slowly approaching while holding Seulgi’s hand. Adrien and Mika were following closely behind.

Yoongi chuckles, “you sure are,” he then smirks in her direction, “are we looking at an engaged couple or not?”

You gasp loudly, “you proposed?!” You exclaim with your jaw wide open.

Seulgi beams back at you, right before lifting her hand and showcasing an impressive looking gem on her ring finger.

You admire the rock on her finger, feeling immense happiness for your dear friend, “it’s beautiful!” You lean back with a pout towards the men, “hey why don’t I get a ring,” you complain.

Hoseok grins at you, a glint shining past his eyes, “things work differently here my dear. But if you want one so badly I’ll happily provide you the rarest, most beautiful gem this empire has to offer.”

You chuckle, “I was only joking,” you tease, nudging his arm with your elbow. He just smirks however, already thinking about visiting many jewelry stores, while Jin was already planning to make appointments the next day.

“Where will you be staying?” Adrien’s question directed towards Kiara, curious to know her next move.

The girl pauses for a moment, thinking carefully about her decisions, “I know I have so many memories here, but I think it’s time I get a new fresh start where I don’t need to hide my identity,” Kiara tells you all, swinging an arm around Seulgi’s shoulders, “I was thinking of staying in the other world.”

Seulgi turns to look at you, “I’m going to assume you’ll be staying here,” already expecting you to nod your head.

You could almost feel the burning gaze of the men behind you. You have half a mind to say no, but you don’t want to give them a heart attack so early on in your reunion, “of course.” You don’t know who, but someone lets out a sigh of relief.

Kiara approaches you, taking your hand into hers tenderly, “I know it hasn’t been easy getting to this point, but I’m so thankful to have met you throughout it all.” Her eyes sparkle while gently but firmly squeezing your hand, “my story will never have a happy ending. I realized that, and I thought it would be like that forever, but then I met you and came into your world, and found real love and a new family."

She briefly looks behind you, sending the men a smile, "and so did you."

The eight of them send each other bittersweet smiles. Although they know they would never receive their happy ending, they’re just relieved that the girl they once loved is happy elsewhere. Afterall, they were able to meet you, and they wouldn’t trade that for the world.

Your expression softens, “meeting you was one of the best things to happen to me,” you tell her, causing her to smile widely, “I know your story here didn’t end very well, but I know you’ll finally find the happy ending that you deserve.”

Suddenly, she pulls you into another tight hug. Who would have thought you’d ever become best friends with your favorite character.

“Well, are we celebrating tonight?” Adrien suggests, a hopeful glint shining past his eyes as he turns to look at everyone.

Kiara frowns, “would I be able to attend?” She was concerned that her surprise appearance might cause a bit of chaos within the empire.

“Kiara please, you have two capable warlocks here who can disguise you,” Jimin reminds her with a cheeky grin, pointing towards Adrien and Mika who you know would have no problem making it happen.

“Then I guess we’re celebrating,” Kiara chuckles happily. Adrien cheers with his fists in the air, the motion so quick it startles Rue.

“Two proposals in one day? We’d be crazy not to celebrate that,” Taehyung smirks, already looking forward to getting drunk and letting loose.

The tree behind you all dances along with the wind, the sun peeking through the leaves as it shines brightly against you all. A smile adorns your face as you stare at the seven men who gave you a new purpose in life.

Just when you thought you could never find that happiness again, here you are, sharing this beautiful moment with the people you love, the memory will forever be ingrained in your mind.

Words will never be able to describe how thankful you are for this experience as you give a longing and loving look towards the very people you will cherish for the rest of your life.

Jungkook grabs your hand, leaning in to kiss the back of it, “we’re also going to be celebrating your return, y’know the return of an empress in this world.”

Yoongi moves to grab your other hand, “welcome back love,” he says, kissing your cheek lovingly.

Your eyes close in content, smiling at everyone in front of you with utter adoration.

“I’m back.”

“The end.”

An old woman says as she dramatically closes the book, grinning when the kids at the library give mixed emotions. Some groaned at the end while others swoon over the love story.

“What happened after,” one of the kids asks, their eyes shining in curiosity.

The woman hums, “well there was a rather large ceremony when crowning Y/n as the new empress, it was hard in the beginning but the citizens of the empire soon found themselves falling in love with their new empress. She and Namjoon grew to become one of the most well loved and respected rulers the empire has ever seen.”

“Grandma, you're an awesome story teller!”

She smiles happily, “am I?”

They nod their head almost immediately, “tell us another story!” one girl eagerly pleads.

She smiles once more, finding their excitement at her story telling rather cute and amusing. She hums, a sparkle shining in her eyes, “maybe another time my loves. Your parents have places to be, I'm sure.” She can only chuckle when they all groan in unison.

“Is it real, granny?”

She tilts her head to look down at the boy, “hm? What is?”

“The story,” he clarifies with wide and curious eyes, “is it real?”

She chuckles softly as he looks up at her in wonder, “Yes it is actually. Do you believe in it?”

“Of course,” he asks without hesitation, a serious look on his face now.

She chuckles, “then it’s as real as you believe.” He beams back at her, grinning from ear to ear.

Another young girl appears before the woman, having questions of her own, “since Y/n was the protagonist, does that mean she has to live her life over and over again like Kiara?”

The woman shakes her head, “no not all, remember how I said whatever you write in that book it becomes a reality?” They both nod their head as they give her their full attention. “Well Y/n wrote something down to make it so that they live that life only once.”

The girl tilts her head, “are they still alive grandma?”

At this question, her expression softens, “unfortunately they passed away long ago. You see time moves by much quicker in that world than it does in here,” she explains, “but I made a promise to never forget about them with a blue flower.”

The young boy furrows his brows, “flowers?” At this point, many of the other kids leave along with their parents.

“Forget-me-nots,” she informs, “a very good friend of mine taught me all I needed to know about flowers, he was a rather enthusiastic man however. Imagine how confused I was trying to pronounce ‘hydrangea’ at the age of 7.” She thinks back to the way the man would constantly repeat his words for her to understand.

“High- what?”

“My point exactly dear.”

“Liz, I see you’re still telling that same old story,” a younger man in his 20s approaches with an amused smile.

She narrows her eyes, giving him a pointed finger, “your great grandfather would have sat in this very crowd excitedly listening if he were still alive you know.”

He scoffs as he maneuvers past her, “that’s cause you make him sound like a superhero,” he mutters so only she can hear while patting her shoulder.

“That’s because he is. Now get back to your studies, your highness and leave this poor elderly woman be,” she hisses back quietly knowing the real reason the man was here.

The boy laughs, throwing his head back. “Oh yeah by the way, Grandpa’s makin’ dinner and he’s extending the invite to you.”

Her eyes light up, “tell Mika I'll be right there.”

He gives her a thumbs up before walking away, a book already in his possession.

“Where’s the original book?” The ever so curious boy asks, successfully gaining her attention.

Liz winks at them, “only I know where, one of my moms didn’t like me sharing this story but I can only on the condition I never share that secret to anyone.” They both pout, slightly disappointed but nodding their heads.

Before either of the two kids can bombard her with even more questions, a man approaches the three. “Come along now Nari, Jisung, your parents will rip me to shreds if I don’t get you home on time.”

Not having recognized the man, the elderly woman raises a brow when someone other than their parents picks them up, “may I ask who this is and what relationship you have with these children.”

Nari beats him to it, “oh he’s Mr. Kim, he’s our neighbor,” she explains excitedly, “don’t worry we know him.” She reassures, knowing what she was worried about.

“Can you tell us another story next time we visit?” Jisung asks hopefully, with his sister wearing the same expression.

She presses her finger to her chin as though in thought, “hmm, well I do have this other story, about a siren being trapped for her abilities but handsome men ended up rescuing her. I will say though, it’s not a very happy story,” she warns.

Nari’s eyes light up, “I like sad stories.”

“Do you now? It seems you and I have shared interests my dear.” She sends the little girls a smile, pleased to see her return it right back.

Nari and Jisung stand from their sitting position, moving to hold onto Mr. Kim’s hand. They bid the elderly woman goodbye with happy expressions.

She smiles gently, watching them walk away. She’s been working at this library for so long, telling the same old stories, yet not once does it get old for her. The elderly woman turns her head at the sound of books tumbling to the ground.

“Oh god I’m so sorry I wasn’t looking where I was going,” a woman she can only assume was fresh out of college was seen frantically picking up her belongings while the male she bumped into doesn’t hesitate to help her.

“No worries! It was my mistake,” he reassures, grabbing onto her items in a hurried manner. The curious man can’t help but peek at the title of the folder in bold letters ‘final draft’.

“Hey are you a writer or something,” he bluntly asks, handing her the folder.

The girl blushes before nodding her head shyly before taking it from his hands, “yeah, I write fictional stories here and there, mostly having to do with fantasy.” She was waiting for him to make fun of her, but instead he grins at her.

“That’s sick!” he exclaims excitedly, much to her surprise, “I’m a musician, in a band with a few of my friends. I enjoy coming here to read, it helps me find inspiration when writing songs,” he explains to her, “maybe reading your books could help me out too.”

She blushes, “oh I’m not that great of a writer,” she mutters shyly.

But he shakes his head, “nonsense, I’m sure you’re amazing,” he compliments. A smile forming on his face, thinking how cute she looked with a bashful expression.

Just then, the boy shyly looks at her with a sheepish grin, “we’re actually about to perform tonight if you wanted to check it out?” at her stunned silence he can’t help but get anxious, “u-unless you’re busy then that’s totally fine too!”

Blood rushes to his face when all she does is laugh.

“I can spare a few minutes,” she replies while smiling up at him.

He nearly lets out a sigh of relief, finding his confidence once more, “well I hope that a few minutes turn into the entire night.” He doesn’t mention this, but ever since he saw her a month ago, he can’t seem to get her out of his head.

After collecting her things, he grins widely at her, “shall we get going? I can give you a tour of the venue,” he offers, a bit too excitedly.

She laughs which causes his smile to widen, “sure but before I run off with a complete stranger, may I ask for your name?”

The man nearly facepalms himself, “oh shit sorry, I didn’t realize I didn’t introduce myself.”

He extends his hands out, “my name’s Taehyung, and you are?”

The girl smiles, extending her own and clasping their hands together. “Y/n.”

The two remain frozen in their spots, staring at each other while their hands remain together.

When he smiles softly at her, she gets out of her trance-like state and shyly pulls away, “nice to meet you Taehyung.”

“Nice to meet you as well Y/n,” he replies back just as shyly.

“You don’t mind me inviting my older sister do you?” Y/n asks in a hopeful tone.

He shakes his head, “not at all. I can add her to the list, you’re just gonna have to tell me her name.”

She smiles, “it’s Kiara.”

He sends her a thumbs up, “sounds good. Shall we make our way to the venue Miss Y/n?” moving his arm for her to take

She chuckles in amusement at the gesture before looping her arms around his, “we shall Mister Taehyung.”

He laughs along with her as they make their way out the library, “something tells me we’re gonna be great friends.”

she smiles brightly up at him, “I have no doubt in my mind about that.”

The two don’t notice the woman watching the interaction even as they walk out the front entrance. With a small smile on her face as she clutches the book in her hand carefully. Flipping through the pages until it leads to the very end of the book.

There at the end, lays two blue flowers pressed into the book to be preserved forever.

And right next to it is a note written in neat handwriting.

Our love is too strong to only spend it with you in one lifetime, so we will love you again in another. Whether it be through here or a different world. We will find you and we will keep falling in love all over again just like the last.

And as the legend goes, everything written in the novel becomes true.

The End.

A/N: well, that’s it folks

Did I insert myself in my own story? I sure did.

This is my first ever long series fanfic and it’s honestly crazy how much attention it’s received. I’ve always been a very imaginative person who tried to experiment by writing one chapter of one of my many scenarios running in my head.

Who would’ve thought that one chapter would turn into 26.

Honestly speaking, I was very close to deleting the story and ending things until I saw someone liked the chapter and after a few days, I saw that there were comments asking for more.

I was stunned because it was then that I realized people actually wanted to hear more about this little story. Even if it was just one or a few people, I decided to keep writing for them. I never expected that one person would turn into more than a thousand of you but here we are haha.

This one story brought me all of you and I’m so very thankful for everyone and all the friends that I've met along the way. Thank you for everything and for giving me a reason to write this story.

I hope to see you in yet another one of our adventures.

Love you always, Liz

Tagslist: (those in bold, I’m not sure if it worked for you, I’m really sorry, I’m not sure how to fix it) (I also apologize if I forgot to add someone)

@reallysparklychaos @unknownsageking, @casspirit0705, @fangirl125reader, @silscintilla, @xxqueenwxtchxx, @diamonddia-mond, @vishhakhas-world, @purelyecstacy, @resticou, @woopetals, @magicsweetener, @splaterparty0-0, @daydreambrliever, @strangeobjectmaker, @luna-xial, @m0chilattae, @celaenaelentiyavox, @layzfeelit, @songtiddies, @sonnymii, @moonssuga, @kassandravictoria, @galaxyflab, @midnight1199, @yessii-i, @protontippens, @borahebangtan, @missseoulite, @handsupanddropthepotato, @oh-i-am-so-ready-for-it, @ggukkieland, @sbroces, @whateveritis616, @nnessworls, @totallynoanalien, @kaithezaftig, @seok-jinnies, @just-me-and-myselfs, @writingdust, @queenc22x, @plutoneu, @sofivv03, @ayoo-bangtan, @toughbook, @btsbabby, @luzaroon, @sugamonster22, @iloverubberduckiez-blog, @call-me-delilah-uwu, @caramoop, @danishninjawarriorofdoom, @honeyspillings, @tinykpoponanime, @greezenini, @bangtan-noona, @bangtan-army, @brielle-in-the-galaxy, @buckybearlewis, @lapv99, @vintageroses10, @squishymochiuwu, @yoonchrisgull, @horanghae18, @wayward-student-philosopher, @namjooningelsewhere, @cait-with-luv, @sunflower-hoe, @hey-syia, @syhh1310, @bangtaniboo, @a-noona-mous, @bunzom, @username1509, @wonder-and-wildflowers, @h0bi-c0re, @lvpersona, @kawaiikook, @fluffyydumplings, @dablubeeyeets, @sharkbb, @ator1213, @reveusecherie, @sehun096rainbow, @midnight-storm, @krystal-cole, @pixievelour, @rae-sparda, @mangminnie, @lynniac, @blimpintime, @insfirebunny, @noir-et-blank, @someonekeepstakingmyusernames, @420seoks, @yuuji1core, @bag-of-peanuts, @biggiecheesewantsyoursoul, @shakes0peare, @xyahrinx, @tigerosy, @bt21chim, @ohmyomelas, @dollpoutzz, @nissss, @everynamehasbeentaken, @zae007live, @dprssdgal, @jjeon-jpg, @thedarkwinterrose, @maerawrrr, @ohmyomelas, @mageprincess7, @lolalee24, @lachimolala22019, @readers-posts, @beckysworld7, @just-a-little-teapot13, @maddypool31, @djasheyash99, @tinyoonsblog, @ceoalpaca, @kookiewhtaee, @minbeatriz16, @agustdaf, @potaetopic, @canarystwin

#poly!bts #Poly BTS #bts x reader #ot7 x reader #isekai #bts au #bts fanfic #jin x reader #yoongi x reader #hoseok x reader #namjoon x reader #jimin x reader #taehyung x reader #jungkook x reader

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bloobluebloo · 12 days

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Happy six sentence Saturday!

(Or Sunday in my case)

Tagged by @hot-flippin-mess to post 6 sentences from one of my wips.

I’ll give you a bit of your favorite boys for this one my friend 😘

“You have no reason to stay here, or let me live for that matter,” the Demon King pointed out, his hand waving over the rest of his body. “Not to mention, I am far too familiar with what an appreciative gaze looks like.” The king paused, watching the deity intently, as if daring him to refute his claim. The god remained quiet as Ganondorf leaned back, relaxing the pressure on his forearm, his silken robe sliding off his shoulder as if he was satisfied with what he had seen in the deity’s silence. “Besides, I am presenting this as an offer,” the king continued. “Do your ilk not revel in offerings presented to you by mortals? Is my offering not one that would leave others green with envy, from a Demon King to a Demon God?”

Tagging whoever wants to give this a shot, feel free and tag me if you do it 👀

#ganonthots #this is sfw enough ;)#for posting like this I mean

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bunnakit · 3 months

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happy papang Sunday!! That new photo he just posted huh????? Damn 🥵

FRECKLLLLLEEEEESSSS.

i will say freckles becoming something beautiful and something to envy has really helped my self image. i'm COVERED in them, my face, my shoulders, arms, etc. i grew up very self conscious and to see people actually ADDING freckles to themselves or just taking photos to highlight their own natural freckles has done a lot to undo all of that, so thank you Papang my beloved.

anyway!! here's a random Papang for you on this fine Papang Sunday!

#papang sunday anon do you know how much i love you?#the fact that you come into my inbox every sunday like clockwork is so sweet #bunn asks #papang sunday anon my beloved #papang phromphiriya #bunnaqueue

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chaiiitime · 1 year

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“I feel that if I'm to get back on the grid, I honestly believe I'll be a better version of myself. A more mature, experienced, complete version."

Daniel loves Monaco.

He bloody loves driving here - the bumps, the thrill, the unforgiving walls, the low grip, the risk. He loves how it demanded complete mastery because there is no room for mistake at Monaco - you miss and you’re in the wall.

He’s had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows here. He doesn’t think anything will ever compare to winning here. The fucking elation, the sheer disbelief that he’d done it as he had nursed his car over the line, that feeling of invincibility as he’d stood on the halo of his car - yeah, he doesn’t think he’ll ever feel that way ever again.

You needed to be ballsy to win here, and at one time, he used to have the balls to get closer to the wall than most others dared. What was it that Vid had texted him before the race last year? You were once wild here. Don’t let them tame you.

Yeah right, he hadn’t only been tamed but he’d been beaten into submission, stripped raw to the bones. Monaco last year was when things pretty much went to shit. After that crash, he’d realised things were getting away from him and McLaren, they weren’t really interested in helping him out.

He's happy now, he repeats to himself. He doesn't stay up all night thinking about what he could have done differently anymore. He's made peace with all the what has beens and all the could have beens, but today standing at the back of the Red Bull garage, all the coping phrases his therapist has given him feel pretty meaningless.

Because as he watches the mechanics put the cars through the final checks, Max and Checo standing off to the side, race suit hanging off their waist, listening to whatever their engineers are saying, all he felt was jealousy.

That should have been him. That should have been him.

You shall not covet your neighbour's house, that's what he had learnt a long time ago in Sunday school. Yet he can feel the jealousy, the envy run hot through his veins, bubbling like lava, corroding his flesh away, leaving a pulsing gaping hole inside of him.

He misses that moment of clarity he used to get before a race, that brief moment just before the lights go out, when he is alone in the car and the constant noise in his mind would stop. He craves that rush, that high he can only ever get from racing. Like an addict in withdrawal, he's convinced that the trembling in his limbs would stop if he can just get in the car again. Maybe, maybe, if he can just get in the car one more time, he'll feel whole again.

He wishes he could turn back time. Go back to 2018, with Simon in his ear, coaching him as they picked cars apart one by one with the clinical precision of a sniper. He wants to be that Daniel again, the one who could come from a long way back and still make the move stick. He yearns for that feeling he used to get when he would make an overtake. He yearns to feed on the terror of the other drivers when they used to see him in their mirrors.

Daniel thinks that's how predators feel like when they sink their teeth into their prey and the warm blood gushes out - sustenance, breath of life, a necessity to survive. That hunger now made the muscles in his belly spasm, like if he doesn't feed it soon, the chasm inside of him will deepen.

The hand on his shoulder felt heavy. Christian.

That's another thing Daniel wishes could go back to how it was in the past, his relationship with Christian. Daniel doesn't know how he should feel towards him. He is grateful that Christian basically created this role for him, but he is also resentful of him. He hadn't been golden enough for Christian to fight for back then. Hadn’t been perfect enough. Hadn’t had what Max apparently had. Maybe if Christian had taken his side against Helmut, had fought for him to stay, he would never had left Red Bull and he would never had ended up at McLaren.

Daniel can sense the concern in Christian's gaze. Has he somehow let on about what he's been thinking? People rarely look beyond the smile, but if there is someone who knows him better than himself, it is Christian.

"We've had some bloody good races here, haven't we?" Christian looks back at Daniel, and the smile on his face is knowing, almost calculated.

Daniel licks his dry lips, almost tasting the metallic taste of blood. He looks on as the cars left the garage to line up on the grid.

Next time, it will be him in that car.

He turns back to Christian, his head tilted up as if to say I'm ready. He smiles, not his usual sunny smile but the one that Christian knows belongs to the Daniel who once punched a hole in the wall of his driver room.

"Yes, we have."

#daniel ricciardo #ficlet

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darklydeliciousdesires · 2 years

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From Blood, Love and Courage - Chapter Nine.

Well, there’s going to be a change with how this story is shared, guys, and that change is as follows. I’m now putting YOU in charge of its future with an unlocking system. If you want the next chapter, then this one has to reach a minimum of 25 notes to automatically unlock the next, which will be posted on Friday as usual if it reaches that number by then. Your likes, comments and reblogs will assist in building this, to what I feel is a very fair number.

If not, then it’s simple. It doesn’t get continued until it reaches the minimum notes target. Your interaction is what is needed to keep it going, and I hope I shan’t be disappointed, but you must understand that I devote time, focus and energy to my writing, and to receive so little recognition for that is soul destroying, and my desire and love of writing is suffering because of it. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve more of less decided this will be my last ever full length story, such is my sadness that engagement is so low. If there was ever a time to be kind to your author when she needs it, it’s now.

I hope I can count on your support :)

Previous chapters - One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight

Words - 4,589

Tag list - In the comments, please message to be added/removed

Warnings - Mentions of rape and the associated trauma of such to come in future chapters. While I do not plan on detailing these overtly graphically, there will be detailing of such and conversations surrounding the subject, so if this is a trigger for you, you’d be best not to begin reading the story. 18+ content throughout, minors DNI!

“Woah!”

“Oh, my fucking god!”

“Damn, girl!”

The clubhouse was a buzz as Angel streamed the fight from his phone onto the TV, everyone watching Lily do her thing in the octagon.

“Look at you, absolute powerhouse,” Taza spoke warmly, wrapping an arm around her shoulder before wincing. “Jesus, fuck! The power in that... what do they call that?”

“Spinning back fist,” Lily confirmed, her friend still cringing as the guys all roared at witnessing the footage of her then going in for the kill, Gabriella’s nose shattering across her face.

Taza raised his eyebrows. “It messed her up for sure. As did you. Told you you’d hand her ass to her; you should try listening to me more.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she conceded, snuggling against him as he hugged her a little tighter. Taza really was becoming like the father she’d never had, Angel seeing that clearly too, glad for her that she’d found someone who so purely adored her just as much as he did. Well, there was a hell of a lot of sexual there for Angel too, but he knew that didn’t exist for Taza. He’d also managed not to let envy override the rational part of his brain when EZ had greeted her with a big, congratulatory hug and swing around in his arms upon their arrival earlier in the evening, knowing that to truly move forward, he needed to put such reactionary behaviour behind him.

He was learning to settle into happiness. True, he might stumble again where jealousy was concerned, so might Lily, too, but they’d work through it together rather than reverting to toxicity. What they had, they knew already was just too good to ruin.

“So, when’s your next fight?” Riz questioned a time later, him, Lily, Angel, Taza and Coco all moved to a table to sit and continue enjoying the little celebratory Sunday night for Lily’s win.

“That all depends on Larry, but sometime within the next twelve weeks, I should imagine,” she replied, her hand curling over Angel’s thigh as she gently scritched him with her nails.

Riz nodded, licking his lips, looking contemplative. “Feel like having another tap around?”

Angel’s head virtually swivelled off his shoulders with the speed he turned his neck. “You ain’t asking my girl to fight you. Nah, not even you’re that dumb, bro.”

“I don’t want to sound like I’m being sexist,” he began.

“Before you say something completely sexist, brother,” Taza interrupted, Riz lifting his chin defiantly.

“She couldn’t take me down.”

Lily shrugged, eyeing him up for size. “I managed with EZ, and I’d guess he has a good twenty pounds in weight on you,” she began. “What do you weigh?”

Riz thought for a moment. It had been a while since he’d stepped on a set of scales. “Hmmm, about one ninety-five, or thereabouts. What are you, one sixty?”

“One seventy, most of that being muscle weight.”

“The booty is at least forty pounds by itself!” Angel piped up with a grin.

“Yeah, I could take you down,” Lily told him with confidence, a few of the other guys strolling over.

His eyebrows rose, chuckling softly. “I remain confident. You couldn’t, carina.”

“This I gotta see, man. Yo, Riz, you got a screw loose,” Coco began, pointing at Lily. “She’s fucking scary, homes!”

“Feel like putting your money where your mouth is?” Lily proposed. Her challenger immediately looked interested.

“Two grand says I beat you.”

Lily swallowed hard. She didn’t have that kind of cash, Angel knowing it, leaning close and whispering in her ear. “If you lose, I got you, baby. You won’t, though. Go knock him down.”

“Done.” She was out of her seat in a flash, shoes off, grabbing the hair elastic from around her wrist and tying her hair up tight, Riz looking on at her with smugness, shaking his head.

“I apologise right now if I hurt your girl, Angel.”

He grinned widely. “Don’t say you weren’t warned.”

Bishop snorted, pointing at the now black TV screen. “Seriously, you watch that and your response is to want to fight the girl?” he exclaimed, sinking his bourbon. “Really?”

Riz got up, removing his kutte and shirt. “Ain’t had a good fight in weeks.” While Lily went to her car, ducking behind the hood to put her sports bra on, the guys all filtered over to their fight cage, Riz heading in, everyone giving him shit as Lily walked over, stretching her arms and legs as she went. Once their hands had been bandaged, it was on.

“Come on, baby, fucking knock his ass down!” Angel shouted swigging from a bottle of tequila, glad Lily was on driving duty that night. They circled one another, every single one of the guys cheering Lily on, Riz eyeing her before he surged forward, making the kind of rookie mistake that most people Lily was pitted against knew better over; he left his body wide open, Lily ducking his punch before her shin hit him straight in the ribs, unsteadying him, prime to then receive her fists to his face, two punches, thud, thud, Riz swinging again, Lily neatly ducking under before her leg hit his thigh.

He stumbled, and she could have been on him like a tiger taking down its prey, but she went easy on him. “Come on, Riz! I expected better!” she goaded him with playfully, Riz tightening his lips as he came for her again, this time managing to catch the side of her head and not stop, hitting her cheek with a strong punch, but oh, those were the only two he landed. He felt something hard hit him atop his head, Lily driving her elbow down onto his skull, pushing him back, her fists then connecting with his face in quick, unrelenting succession before pivoting off her left foot and sending a spinning round kick straight into the side of his head with her right, Riz feeling like he’d just been hit by a truck as he crashed down to the dirt.

As he lay there dazed, his brothers all cheering his defeat, he had to laugh. At himself, for being so stupid. Fuck, she hit hard.

“You okay?” Lily asked, offering her hand.

He blinked a few times, sitting up on his elbows. “Ouch.” he began, his eyes finally focusing as he took her hand, Lily hauling him up. “I er... yeah. Never making that mistake twice, you fucking beast.” He looked a little dented in the pride, but gave her a big hug all the same, taking the two grand he had in his wallet and handing it over. Fair was fair, and she had won very fairly. “Your shins must be permanently black with the force you kick people with.” he then mentioned as they walked out, Lily rolling up her leggings to show him the purple bruises she had forming after her fight against Gabriella the previous evening.

“Yeah, you could say that.” He shook his head, receiving a barrage of banter from the guys at his expense, while Lily sank into Angel’s embrace and wondered what she was going to spend her quick cash on. One thing sprang to mind immediately, her girl’s night she was having with Angie, Jodie and honorary girl Carlos the following Saturday. They were heading to Santo Padre’s most tolerable bar/club, The Troubadour, Lily throwing some serious cash at the bar to cover a running tab.

“So, are you getting drunk, or are we calorie counting?” Jodie asked, Lily pouring out margaritas from the large pitcher she’d just ordered. “It had better be the former.”

“It is, girlfriend. It is,” she confirmed, Jodie applauding. “I won two fights in twenty-four hours, believe me, I’m celebrating!” Her friends gave her an inquiringly perplexed set of faces. “One of Angel’s guys from the club bet I couldn’t knock him down, so I did. Easiest two grand I’ve ever made!”

“Honey, I’ll drink to that!” Angie exclaimed, toasting her with the others, Lily taking a big gulp of her drink. It went down entirely too well.

“So, speaking of Angel, you guys have met him, but because of one thing or another, I’m yet to do so!” Angie spoke, Lily checking her phone, seeing she had a message from the man himself while Jodie and Carlos did some filling in.

“He’s so nice! He always gives me a kiss and asks how I’m doing whenever he visits her at work, actually takes a genuine interest too. And he cleared tables for me once when we were slammed and El Chupacabra had left early,” Jodie started, Lily snorting with laughter. Angel’s name for Carol had well and truly stuck with the staff at Renegade Coffee.

“Angie, girl, the man is walking sex,” Carlos began, fanning himself.

“I’ve seen pictures, yes,” she confirmed.

Lily joined in then, slipping her phone back into her bag. “Walking sex with be here with his brother in an hour. They’re just visiting with their dad.”

Carlos’s eyes almost fell from his skull. “He has a brother?” His yell made half the bar turn around.

“Who’s also straight.”

“Oh, I don’t mind that. Just means I get two bits of hot to look at!” His assertion had the girls laughing, Lily sipping her drink and feeling a little pit of worry dent her stomach. She knew Angie wasn’t entirely approving of him, because of what he was, so she just hoped she could see past that, to who he was instead; someone who made her sublimely happy. Of course, the lady in question picked up on it, letting Jodie and Carlos fall into conversation as they moved to a table when it became available.

“Listen, mami. I know I was hesitant when you first told me about him, but regardless of the scary profession, I want to give him a chance, I truly do. I can’t ignore how happy he seems to make you for one thing, so if he’s sticking around, I should put my big girl pants on and just suck it up,” she vouched, Lily reaching to squeeze her hand.

“Thank you, that means a lot to me, because I do plan for him to be around for the foreseeable, so you two getting along matters to me.”

Angie reached for her cheek, giving it a soft pinch. “I’m looking forward to him arriving.”

Lily leaned in close, her mouth tilting into a smirk. “Not as much as Carlos is; he has the hugest crush on him.”

“And how does Angel handle it?” Angie began, sipping her drink. “We both know how frisky that boy gets.”

“All in his stride.” Carlos happened to be in the men’s room when he and EZ arrived, Angel greeting the ladies with a kiss each, EZ following suit, his eyes lingering upon Jodie.

“Is the cute blonde single?” he whispered while greeting Lily.

“Very much so.”

This was news he was pleased to hear. “You just made my night, Lilypad.” He took a seat at the other end of the table, engaging Jodie in conversation immediately, Angel seating himself between Lily and Jodie, Angie about to begin a conversation with him when she was distracted by Carlos, sneaking up behind him.

“My boyfriend is right behind me, isn’t he?” Angel joked, noticing Angie trying not to laugh as she kept looking over his shoulder, Carlos still sneaking low before wrapping his arms around Angel’s neck, grinning widely. “Hey Tinkerbelle, how you doing?”

Tinkerbelle. It’d been Angel’s name for him since Carlos had taken very badly to having some guys hurl a barrage of homophobic abuse at him one evening at the coffee shop, Carlos vaulting the counter at being called a fairy, screaming that he was, as he put it, ‘Tinkerbelle who’s gonna knock your damned teeth right out your mouth, you homophobic motherfuckers!’ and thusly scaring away the high school guys who had not expected such a reaction.

“I’m great now you’re here,” he cooed, rocking Angel back and forth in a hug, Angel taking it in his stride as usual, EZ raising an eyebrow as he leaned around Jodie.

“Oh, you wore the tight, black vest just for me, didn’t you? Shows off your chest definition, and these big arms, oooh la la!” he continued, squeezing his biceps, Angel laughing as he pinched the bridge of his nose and knocked back one of the tequila shots he brought for the table. He and EZ had basically told the bartender to pour from the rest of the bottle until it was empty, wanting a good night that didn’t involve not drinking, leaving their bikes at their father’s and getting an Uber there.

“What’s it gonna take for you to put me down, Carlos?” he asked, the girls in hysterics as their friend beamed, still squeezing onto Angel’s arms.

“Gimmie a little of what you give Lily!”

He considered his options, grinning suddenly before grabbing Carlos by the head and promptly licking his cheek. “There. Happy now?”

“Angel, you’re so gross!” Jodie cried, laughing so hard her sides hurt.

“What? I gave him what he wanted!” he protested with an expressive shrug, the whole table in hysterics at the look of utter bliss on Carlos’s face, who seated himself again with a huge grin.

“I’m never washing this cheek again, papi,” he began, picking up with drink and winking. “Lily, damn you’re a lucky girl, getting a tongue that wide all over your chica business.” he then continued, pointing at her crotch. Further laughter endured.

She bit her lower lip, smirking. “Oh, I know.” Angel just sat there grinning, loving the attention as always before he turned his focus to Angie, who was perhaps the most important of Lily’s friends, and yet the one he didn’t yet know. He asked all about her and her life, adding little pieces of information Lily had spoken of her, Angie impressed at his memory for such details since she knew they likely didn’t spend a huge amount of their time as a couple engaging in discussions about her.

She’d be lying if the fact that he was an outlaw wasn’t still a concern for her, but she found him to be exactly as Lily had described, nice, charming, funny, maybe a little full of himself at times, but in a way that was amusing rather than obnoxious, but what struck her the most was how in love he was with her bestie. She could see it so clearly, that Lily had met a man who utterly adored her, and that went a long way to smooth her fears.

“So, I’m walking through the warehouse, calling out for her, can’t see shit because we turned out most of the lights, so there’s only what was shining in through the big windows between the warehouse floor and the trade counter coming through,” Angie began regaling the table with a story from their time working at the automotive parts warehouse. “And I’m thinking, ‘where the actual hell is she?’ as I walk. She’s shouting that she’s ‘over here’, wherever that was because she’s really muffled, and so I round a few other corners, still calling out for her when suddenly, the top of a box bursts open, and out jumps Lily with a flashlight in one hand and her cell in the other, and I screamed so loud I sounded like I was being murdered...”

“And...” Lily pressed, shaking her arm to force the confession.

“I really needed to go to the bathroom anyway, and she scared me so damned much, I peed my pants!” she finally admitted, hiding her face as everyone exploded with laughter. “And that’s the story on how I became a viral video just over ten years ago!” Yes, back in the days of Vine, Angie and Lily had shared many pranks on one another for the scare cam trend, and the ‘damn you, Lily, I peed myself!’ video had gotten well over a million hits.

“Do you have the video?” EZ inquired, Lily grabbing her phone and scrolling through the video folder until she found it, holding it out so everyone could take a look. As he leaned around to view it, EZ very smoothly slipped an arm across Jodie’s shoulders, Lily and Angie exchanging a look with her, Jodie flashing a quick, discreet grin. The attraction was entirely mutual, it seemed. It also meant that the three women took a visit to the ladies' room together once Angie had died of embarrassment at her viral video being laughed at quite as loudly as it had, much preening and hair fluffing going on as they checked their appearances in the mirrors.

“You and EZ are looking very cosy, mama,” Angie spoke, giving Jodie a little nudge.

She smirked, adding a little more definition to her eyebrows with the aid of a dark blonde pencil and combing them through. “I’m hoping I’ll be keeping a certain part of him very cosy once we leave here.”

Many giggles followed. “You’re so bad! You young girls and your wild sex lives, and here’s me, feeling old and married!”

“You’re forty-one! That isn’t old!” Lily scoffed, dabbing tinted balm upon her lips, noting that it was time for a filler top up. That’d be a week of pain for the following week, in for an adjustment with her chiropractor, getting her lips done and having Hank start her new tattoo, too. “Besides, didn’t you tell me about a certain night that involved handcuffs recently?”

Angie beamed, laughing at the way Jodie’s jaw dropped in delight. “It’s probably tame, compared to what you two likely get up to. Or will do for you, Jodie. That man might be all sweet smiles and polite nature, but I sense there’s a demon lurking in there!”

“Right? He’s probably just like his brother in that respect,” Lily confirmed, Angie clearing her throat.

“Oh, mami. I know I only just met your guy, but really, Angel’s demon is on full display.” Her words prompted raucous giggles, the girls spritzing themselves with perfume before heading back out, Lily not making it through the hallway with the others, halted by two arms sliding around her waist.

“Not yet, mi amor,” Angel whispered in her ear, pulling her back against his chest. “I have plans for you.” He checked that the coast was clear before pulling her straight into the men's room, the stalls both free, turning back and advancing on her with a hungry growl.

“What, in here?” she began, his hands yanking up her dress, smacking her bare ass before his fingers hooked beneath the tiny, black thong she wore, pulling it off and stuffing it in his pocket. “Anyone could walk right in, Angel!”

He rumbled a laugh of pure sin, hands stroking at her delicate neck as he kissed her hungrily. “That’s the point, mamacita. Didn’t you tell me once that the thrill of possibly getting caught was a turn on for you?”

Oh yeah. His demon really was on full display, the thrill of it arrowing right to where his fingers skimmed, her folds dewy, stroked even slicker as they shared rough, urgent kisses. Her breath hitched as his fingers pushed within her, curling, dragging at her, Lily whimpering softly, biting his lower lip before their tongues swirled again, a feral desire settling low in them both, coils of uncontainable tension beginning to wind sharply as they panted against one another.

He turned her around roughly, pulling her dress up until it bunched at her waist, the top yanked down to expose her bare breasts, his mouth ravenous at her neck as he unfastened his jeans just enough to pull his cock out, lifting her leg to rest beside one of the sinks and plunging it into her. “Yeah, that’s right, querida. You’re gonna watch me fuck you, and love every last second of it.” The heat that rose through her at hearing those words was indescribable, a magmatic surge that only grew in ferocity as he wound her long braid around his fist and pulled her head back, kissing her neck, focusing on their reflection, the sight of his thick cock splitting her tight cunt wide making his insides jolt.

Her lungs felt heavy as she panted, her eyes fixed upon the mirror while she was hyper-aware of the door to the left, her heart hammering at the prospect that at any given moment, it could open. Anyone could walk in, hell, somebody probably would, and god, how that caused her nerves to fizz with anticipation. The punch of his cock had her gleaming, sending fire and frost through her veins, her hair pulled again as his teeth clamped onto her neck, Angel rumbling a low, predatory growl of arousal. “God damnit, you look so hot when you’re getting fucked, baby.”

Just then, the door swung open, a man of about fifty walking in. “Holy shit!”

“Occupied,” Angel barked, the guy just standing there staring. Letting go of his pinch on her nipple, he pulled his gun from the back of his jeans, pointing at him. “Either join in or get the fuck out, homeboy.” He turned and left, Angel putting his gun down at the side of the sink, hand moving to her throat, teeth nipping her earlobe.

“See, you had to know this braid was gonna get you in trouble, baby girl,” he spoke, pulling harder, Lily’s breath catching in her throat as she watched his fat cock sliding in and out in an effortless glide, transfixed by the sight.

“All the trouble I wanted. Is it wrong that seeing you pull a gun on someone turned me on even more, though?”

Angel shook his head, a deep rumbling chuckle echoing through her ear. “Nah, mamacita. Guns are sexy, but nowhere near as sexy as you.” His words burned through her like freefalling embers, Lily turning her head, kissing him with wild desire, moaning into his mouth, his cock rutting her deeper, sending a blaze of stars glittering up her spine as she felt herself ascending sharply.

Adding a little more speed to each dragging thrust, he began to stoke the bonfire of her pleasure, flames crackling, Lily feeling unmoored entirely, her cunt flexing in appreciation of his assailing, the girth of him igniting her with the delicious stretch as her cunt fluttered on him, crying out, his grip at her throat and in her hair tightening. Something within him broke at hearing her shrill wails, Angel pounding into her with unmatched ferocity, giving her all that she craved, his deep groans intoxicating to her ears.

“Look how good you take it. Mmmm, yeah. You're my dirty girl.”

Everything was wild, fervid, uncontained and magmatic, both of them spiralling headlong into the kind of release that had their moans and groans filling the air along with the sound of their skin smacking together, an undoing of all-consuming magnitude shooting like lightning over every throbbing nerve ending, leaving them absolutely shattered to pieces, breathless, but fuck, so drunk on one another, swimming in heavenly tingles.

They straightened up quickly, standing and indulging in some hot kisses afterwards, two guys walking in and immediately throwing some humour their way.

“No fucking in the restroom, y’all!”

“Too late.” Lily snickered, kissing him once more before they exited arm in arm, their laughter escalating before suddenly, he halted her.

Wrapping his arms around her, he rested his forehead to hers, his mouth upturning into the widest, happiest smile. “You know something? I know it’s only been ten weeks, but this is the best relationship I’ve ever been in.”

She was touched by his statement, stroking his arms. “Why, because I let you fuck me in a public restroom?”

He threw his head back, laughing loudly. “Well, that was fun, but it’s everything. You, you’re just... I’m having the best time ever with you. You make me insanely happy. I meant it too, after I nearly fucking wrecked everything. I’m not gonna be that guy any longer, I’m not. I need for you to understand that, although I know it’ll take time for me to win your complete trust back. It’ll be worth it, proving that I’m good enough for you.”

Even though it had only been a week, she’d seen the effort he’d been putting in, the way he affirmed everything, constantly acknowledging his wrong, promising her that he would prove himself worthy. She believed him, too. Something on a deeper level than communication alone told her that he wasn’t going to ruin things, that he meant everything he’d told her. “I love you, querida.”

Kissing him, she squeezed him tightly, her insides sparkling. “Ditto, honey. Come on, I think I still have a couple of hundred behind the bar. Let’s go dent it.”

And oh, how they did. So much so that when they awoke the next morning, it was to pounding heads. They ate, drank back two pots of strong coffee, showered and brushed their teeth, but still, felt absolutely no better.

“Back to bed?” Angel suggested, Lily nodding. “Hold on.” Walking over to Charlie’s cage, he opened it, tapping his shoulder, the bird scampering out.

“Bro time!” Charlie shouted, dancing happily, his comb risen in delight.

“You got that right, little man. You want some grapes?”

“Now!”

“Erm, where’s your manners, homeslice?” he asked, picking up a few of his toys.

“Grapes...” he paused, beginning to dance when Angel grasped his favourite toy, the small Tigger plush. “Please!”

“Good boy. Alright, let’s go get your snacks.” Lily stood there smiling, loving how much her two favourite boys got on, Angel rifling through the fridge for Charlie’s food, grabbing him a few almonds as well before they went back to bed, the bird bouncing around across Angel’s legs on top of the covers, throwing his Tigger plush around and chattering pure nonsense, coming back every so often for a little more food.

“He’s like having a toddler, isn’t he? Yells but doesn’t make sense, food motivated and loves toys,” Angel observed, passing Charlie another almond and watching him bounce away again, perching on his knee to eat it.

“He really, really is. A toddler that’ll never grow up either!”

He laughed, agreeing. “So, where do you stand on actual kids, then? You want any someday?”

“I do, yeah. I want two, maybe three. How about you?” Her revelation delighted him, since having a family of his own was something he definitely saw in his future.

“Same. I want that little unit, you know? Somewhere that’s all mine, something good I created for me and whoever the lucky woman is to bear my beautiful offspring.”

Lily grinned, stroking where his beard met his neck, the dark growth making a scratchy noise against her nails. “If we have kids, damn, they’ll be so fucking cute.”

“Yeah, they will.”

She raised an eyebrow. “That sounded very decisive.”

He leaned to kiss her, nuzzling her softly. “That’s because it was. I mean, it’s too soon right now, but way into the future, yeah. I can see it happening for us.”

Well, if there was one thing she could be on board for, it was having Angel’s babies one day. They were young and in love, why not? Until then, though, getting in a lot of practice for that eventual conception was where they were both at, Charlie taken to his day perch out in the lounge after an hour so they could enjoy doing just that.

#angel reyes #Angel reyes fanfiction #Angel reyes x ofc #mayans mc #mayans mc fanfiction #mayans mc fanfic #mayans mc smut #angel reyes smut #clayton cardenas #clayton cardenas fanfiction #clayton cardenas smut #clayton cardenas x ofc

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betweentheliving · 1 year

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warm sun at dusk.

I’ve pondered, maybe the gods envy you. Maybe they have envied the way your lashes curled up like unfurling eons long history of ancient wars. Perhaps, they wanted to gouge your eyes out and crochet it inside their eyelids—force it out, and they will heave a sigh upon realizing no weaving could ever copy how your eyes were akin to every metaphor written inside an old 80s love letter. You are the wine that filled the empty chalice inside my bloodied church of yesterday’s anguish. You, who opened stars inside my decaying body. As if I arose on the third day from the dead. Indeed, the gods envy the holiness of your soul as if it was carved out from the bible; for what glory it is to look as lovely alike to a blooming flower, even in gloom. You are the crimson of amaryllis, and you are the calming melody of a moonlit sonata. The angels carry your breath with their haloes, and your shoulders carry a thousand old stories I wish to burn into dust. Maybe, it was your slender fingers that drove the gods to utter insanity, fingers that can sculpt an ocean wave on my dainty waist; enough for their envy to rot in their bones, and spend their Sundays praying to the heavenly father to create more of you, and take all of those away from me, for in here, I offered you my hands that will not harm you. And I would tear apart each saints that would ever come across you if it means your happiness; I would even turn myself into a god you may worship once faith has failed you.

Even before your knees touched the very floor; I had belonged to you. I loved no one but you. You had this glorious laughter that made everything make sense to me—my soul yearns for you, nothing but you. For you look like every sonnet written by my grandfather, like every sketch my uncle has made; bonny and incarnate. As if god was not god if it weren’t for you. You look like the rest of my life intertwined all together.

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riversofmars · 1 year

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Happy Sunday! As promised, the next chapter. Action is about to kick off...

Chapter 23: Point of View

I think a large part of facing any problem is accepting that there is no way around it. People have a tendency to avoid things, to procrastinate and put things off given half the chance. Why approach unpleasant things when the need isn’t pressing? Some people would say: to avoid the problem getting bigger and make things easier in the long run, but they’re merely better at recognising and accepting the inevitability of a task.

Helen and I had worked our way towards acceptance of our circumstances and towards facing our demons. It had been a long process, drenched in tears and accompanied by many a promise, but it was what we needed. We were finally able to face the last hurdle of this adventure with clear heads and determined hearts.

“Ready to go?” River prompted and of course, I wasn’t, but I recognised the necessity of it and was able to put aside my feelings. Things would be alright. They had to be. They always had been before and this would be no exception. I reminded myself that if I hadn’t seen one possible future, I wouldn’t be nearly as reluctant and that’s all it was: One possible future. One that we knew to avoid.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I told her and focused my eyes on Helen who reached to grab and squeeze my hand.

“Come back alive,” she told me firmly, and she, too, seemed to finally be able to focus on the task at hand. There was no way around it. It was time to be brave and she was.

“You too,” I replied and pressed a kiss to her cheek. We had said our more intimate goodbyes already, nothing else remained to be said or done.

“I’ll bring her back in full working order,” the Doctor promised Helen and his older self stepped up as well, putting her arm around her shoulder.

“Likewise,” she promised, then cast a glance at her wife. “You be careful too!”

“Yes, Ma’am,” River winked. “And you be careful, too.” She gave both her spouses a stern look and the Doctors answered in unison:

“I shall do my very best!”

“Well then, let’s get going!” Kate announced and we made our way out of the underground base, back to the tracks where we went in opposite direction: The blonde Doctor and Kate led Helen and the Doctor’s companions in the direction of Camden Highstreet where the TARDIS would appear and our Doctor, River and I headed towards the Tower of London.

---

“River, can I ask you something?” We had been walking a while and my mind was going in repetitive circles.

“Of course,” she answered pleasantly with a curious glance over to me. “What’s on your mind?” The Doctor was a fair few paces ahead of us, impatient as he always was, so it felt like a private conversation which I was glad for.

“You have seen all the time loops we’ve been through… In how many of them did Helen and I work things out between us?” I asked.

“It depends on the length of the loop, of course when there is less time…” She answered, noncommittally, so I pressed on, I needed an answer.

“How many, River?”

“All of them, given time,” she answered at last and gave a soft smile. “Some people are just meant to be together…” There was a wistfulness to her voice, something that gave me pause and in the semi darkness of the underground, I noticed she looked tired, if not to say spent.

“And how are you?” I asked, realising I had been so wrapped up in myself and my own worries that I had never bothered to inquire about her well-being.

”Hm?”

“I’ve been so preoccupied with all the things going on with me, I never stopped to think… This must be quite something for you,” I observed but she just shrugged and waved it off.

“It’s complicated.” I followed her eyes that found the Doctor who was stalking ahead. We couldn’t be far from Tower Hill now.

“To be in the same room as your wife and husband? I suppose so. That would be a fun night,” I tried humour but to no effect.

“I do envy you, Liv…” River hummed at last and I frowned, utterly dumbfounded.

“Me? Why? What could I possibly have for you to envy?” I questioned, bewildered. River Song had adventure, success and comfort. She was a beautiful woman that never seemed to age and had more spouses than one could shake a big stick at. People admired, respected and wanted to be like her. I couldn’t compete with her - not that I would try to - so her observation made little sense to me. She just gave a wistful smile as she explained:

“You and Helen are so in tune with each other. Yes, of course, the initial timing malfunction of it all, and yes, perhaps Helen needed a little bit longer to work things out for herself, but… in the end, when it matters… whenever you turn around, the other is right there,” she observed something I couldn’t deny. Regardless of the state of our relationship, Helen was always right there with me, steadfast and reliable. “And of course the Doctor is always there when I need them, they never refuse my call but… it’s not the same. We are always out of sync, always just that little bit too late or too early. And we run out of time. We’re always running out of time...” Her voice trailed off and slowly, I was beginning to realise the toll loving the Doctor took on her. She looked so tired then, a far cry from the woman with boundless energy and enthusiasm I knew. It felt like a rare glimpse behind a carefully constructed mask.

“I feel like that right now…” I mused, kicking my feet. With nothing much to occupy my mind as we walked, it was all I could think about.

“Liv, this is not the end, I promise you,” River offered gently and I wanted to believe her.

“Okay…” I nodded. “And what will you do when all this is over?” I knew she wouldn’t be able to stay with us and spend time with our Doctor, he couldn’t know her yet and we would have to alter his memory of these events somehow, but I’d seen how she was with the other Doctor. Their reunion had been heart-warming. Surely they could-

“I’m both too early and too late,” she retorted and while I didn’t understand what she meant by being too late, I had to believe her.

“I’m sorry,” I gave back but River didn’t answer, she picked up the pace as the Doctor had stopped up ahead, examining something to the right side of the tunnel.

“Here we are: Tower of London,” he announced once we caught up with him and I raised my eyebrows.

“Got to say this for UNIT: They don’t do things by halves.”

“This access tunnel should take us to an underground hanger,” River observed enthusiastically and assisted her husband in prising the door to the tunnel open. “We won’t have to venture above ground at all.” I noted how her confidence had returned and her optimism. She had put her walls back up and was focusing on the task at hand. I decided it was about time I did the same.

“Utilising the underground really was a good idea,” I commented as I followed them into the small, dark tunnel. The Doctor was using his sonic screwdriver as a torch.

“Providing it hasn’t been discovered and destroyed,” he added rather more glumly but defeatism wasn’t something that would do us any good right about now.

“Fingers crossed,” I hummed.

“I think we might be alright,” River commented, stalking ahead with a torch of her own. She waved us along and at the end of the tunnel, it opened up into a large space. My eyes were immediately drawn to a skimmer that sat in the middle of the hanger. The professor seemed to have followed my gaze as she smiled: “Think you can fly that, Liv?”

"Oh I most certainly can,” I burst into a grin. I have no idea how UNIT had gotten their hands on that ship, but it was exactly the sort of thing I had done my training in.

“Right, let’s get to work!” The Doctor clapped his hands together and we made for the glider.

---

“Oh yeah, this’ll be fine,” I hummed, taking a seat in the cockpit. I scanned the controls, getting acquainted with them while the Doctor had immediately taken to making adjustments to the engines. Adjustments that he promised would not only get us through the force field but also guard our approach more effectively than on our way to and from Africa.

River joined me in the cockpit not long after.

“We will have to see about opening those shutters. For all we know, there is debris on top…” She mused, casting a glance out the front windscreen into the underground hanger.

“I can do it from here,” I answered when I found the appropriate controls on the dashboard. The glider seemed well suited to a quick get away. It had everything we needed aboard, including weapons. If needed, we would be able to shoot our way through the Daleks…

“How are you getting on, Sweetie?” River called to the back of the small shuttle when a slamming sound announced the engine compartment being shut.

“Exceptionally well, we just need to wait for the signal. We are ready to go!” The Doctor called back, sounding awfully pleased with himself. He came to join us at the front of the plane as well, using a handkerchief to wipe his fingers clean of engine grease. Meanwhile, River checked the time on her Vortex Manipulator that was use for little else right about now.

“If our calculations are correct, you should be materialising in only a few minutes,” she revealed and with every passing minute after that, I felt oddly relieved. If memory served me right, my alternate self had been injured and eventually killed in an explosion just as we arrived so as I was safe and sound, it seemed that was not a fate I would suffer. It was reassuring, at least until a splitting pain ran through my skull.

“AH!” I gasped and nearly knocked my head on the dashboard as I hunched over. It was as if all my nerve endings were firing at the same time, igniting an overwhelming storm of red hot pain. My head was spinning and River’s concerned voice seemed to come from very far away.

“Liv? Are you okay?” She demanded and her hands were on my shoulders easing my back in the pilot seat.

“I don’t know-” I rasped as the pain eased for a moment like a wave, like the tide going out to sea again, but it returned just as quickly, and more painful than the first time around. I couldn’t see. I could think.

“Liv?” The Doctor was there too. “Liv, it’ll be okay.” It was as if my mind was being split in two. Suddenly, my head was full of images, ideas, beliefs, things that I knew to be true contorted into vague shadows and new memories, things I was sure I had never lived, broke open existing structures. I realise I might not be the most stable, most level-headed person around, but I had always known my own mind. Until then.

“It’s like- It’s like I’ve got two sets of conflicting memories, it hurts, it really bloody hurts!” I whimpered as the tide went out again and I could make myself blink. Focus was elusive, but there were two figures hovering in my field of vision.

”River, what’s happening?” The Doctor’s voice was strained and I didn’t need to see clearly to recognise he was in pain as well. Whatever was going on was affecting him too!

“What do you remember?” River was a whole lot calmer and I could feel her hand on my cheek, offering gentle assurance and she brushed my hair out of my eyes.

“What?” I winced, willing my eyes to focus on her. That was not the response I had expected and in my dazed state, it took me far longer than it should have to realise that she knew what was happening to us.

“About the time you first came to see this future,” she explained calmly and the pain eased a little when I understood what the images were that were flashing before my eyes.

“I died,” I whispered, as I recalled leaning over my own body with Helen there, sobbing desperate tears. And then, an image of Helen smiling as she waved to us upon opening the TARDIS door. “No, I- I didn’t, I wasn’t there but I was-” My mind was a jumble.

“This is important, Liv. I’m sorry this hurts but it is important. Tell me what you remember. Did you manage to get the TARDIS. Are you using it- did you use it - to influence the shield?” River tried to get me to focus. She grasped my face and made me look at her. She looked worried but also determined.

“I don’t know- It hasn’t happened yet. Or is happening,” I answered as best as I could, trying to work out what I was seeing. All I could recall was the splintered image of Helen and the blonde Doctor inviting themselves into the TARDIS after we had arrived to discover this future. “God, River, I don’t know-” It was too much to comprehend and keep straight in my head.

“Calm down, you can do this,” River told me. “Cause and effect, it’s all in flux. The memories won’t appear until they have happened,” she explained.

“Did you know this would happen?” The Doctor spoke up, visibly struggling as well. He was kneeling next to my seat, holding on to the armrest with his knuckles turning white from the tension.

“I had theorised as much. But it’s all uncharted territory,” his wife answered ruefully and another flash of memories forced itself upon me. One in which I could remember Helen buckling over in pain as well.

“Helen. She was in pain- She is in pain, and the Doctor-” I grasped for his hand, almost to reassure myself of his present.

“Will be fine. Was fine,” he answered with a groan of discomfort.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry but this is our only hope,” River told the both of us and her face was a picture of regret.

“This will work,” the Doctor agreed, as if to reassure himself as well.

“It better be, River,” I panted as another flash of pain shot through my head and for a moment all I could see was Helen collapsing into her other self’s arms. “And Helen better be okay!” I growled.

“River, can I have a word?” The Doctor clambered to his feet beside me.

“Now, Sweetie?” River protested but her husband was insistent.

“Yes, now,” his voice was surprisingly sharp. “Clearly we won’t know what is happening for a little while. They’ve not even broached the subject of the bubble.” His mind was likely a little clearer than my own as he regained composure. The pain lessened again for me as well and I cradled my face in my hands, trying to catch my breath and preparing for the next onslaught that was sure to come.

“Fine,” River answered. “Liv, we’ll be right back.”

I nodded and gave a wave, as I was more concerned with massaging my temples. I tried to focus and discern the memories from each other. Theoretically, I knew how to tell them apart, but practically, it was much harder as they all felt as real as each other. Off to the back of the glider, I could just about make out the Doctor and River talking in hushed voices.

“River, what the hell are you thinking?” The Doctor hissed. He was angry, which is an emotion you rarely see him exhibit as plainly, but I imagined his composure was strained under the influence of what was happening to our minds.

“This is our best chance,” River gave back calmly but her husband remained confrontational:

“Your presence here is breaking everything apart!” He stated accusingly and I was finally beginning to properly put all the pieces together when she countered:

”That’s the idea. It’s the only way to unmake what has happened here. The destruction out there, do you want that to be permanent? This whole time-line needs to be erased, not just the loop,” she shot back in a whisper.

“You are breaking time apart,” he growled and the effects of which were all too present in my mind with a rush of fresh pain.

”Of course I am. It’s the only way to fit the pieces together again afterwards. Sometimes you have to cut away the surrounding tissue to make sure the cancer is truly gone.” Rationally, I understood what she was saying but in my compromised state I don’t think I quite grasped all that would mean.

“And what if you break us too?” The Doctor snapped.

“You will be fine, you have always been fine, I have met so many future versions of you-” She tried to put him at ease but that was easier said than done.

“And what about them? Liv and Helen? What if this breaks them!” He carried on and I could virtually hear her shaking her head.

“It won’t,” she insisted but he remained steadfast:

“You can’t be sure.”

“I’ll make sure of it, okay?” River was growing more and more agitated herself and seemed eager to put an end to the matter. “Now, let me get back to Liv.”

“River, I can’t lose them!” The Doctor told her firmly and she tired to appease him once more.

“You won’t.”

“And they can’t lose each other,” he carried on and that was just that little step too far as she snapped:

“Do you think I don’t know that?!”

While I was touched by their concern, I couldn’t maintain my focus any longer as new memories flashed before my eyes. Things were moving on. Had moved on. Will move on. They were getting to work.

“River-” I called as I knew we had to make a move as well.

“Yes Liv?” It was the Doctor that answered and I fought a wave of nausea as things started happening.

“They’re doing it- They’ve done it- The forcefield is destabilising,” I pointed out, which I’m sure he would be realising right about now as well. I turned my attention to the flight controls and switched on the ignition. We were out of time.

“And that’s what will keep them from being able to flick the switch. We have to go. It’s working,” River confirmed enthusiastically and hurried to join me at the front of the ship again. “How is everyone else?”

“Alive. For now,” the Doctor answered and he joined us as well.

“I’m opening the shutters,” I told them both and transmitted the remote control signal. There was a loud creaking sound outside.

“Can you fly?” River asked, her hand coming to rest on my shoulder as I grabbed tight hold of the yoke while the engines warmed up.

“Don’t really have much of a choice, do I?” I gave back, concentrating as best as I could and blocking out the pain. There was no time to argue now as the shutters retreated and rubble started tumbling down the slowly widening gap.

“That’s a lot of debris…” The Doctor pointed out as huge chunks of rock started slamming to the ground not far from us. Not long and the roof would have retreated past where we were. There was no time to lose. I pulled the glider into the air. The hanger was plenty big to manoeuvre in with such a small craft but the falling debris was getting closer. “Looks like we will have to shoot our way through. Hold on!” I told the others and shot upward.

As instinct kicked in and adrenaline took over, my fracturing mind shrunk to a single focus. A sort of tunnel vision as I slammed the trigger and blast of energy ripped through the falling rubble. We had to get out of there in one piece. Otherwise our mission couldn’t fail before it had even really started.

Only the whirling sound of the sonic screwdriver somewhere off to the right gave me indication of the Doctor’s helpful involvement. The retreating shutters stalled, halted and stopped more rubble from falling. The gap was plenty wide to get through. I fired at another piece of concrete and pulled the craft around, sideways past the chunks of stone, some of which slammed into the hull and bounced off without leaving too much damage from what I could tell. In a matter of seconds, we shot out of the underground bunker and into the open sky above London.

I gave a joyful laugh of relief and suddenly, the pain returned, the worst wave yet, taking my sight and moments later, my consciousness.

---

“How long do you think we will be asleep for?” Bron asked nervously, fidgeting as I tried to attach the electrodes with which the computer would be monitoring our well-being while we were asleep.

“Until we have found something,” I told him patiently and eased him backwards to lie down in the cryo pod. We had been preparing for this moment for months and yet, it seemed the young comms-tech was still not ready. I suppose it was in his nature. He was the insecure sort and no amount of preparation could undo that.

“And what if we don’t? What if we never find anything?” He jabbered on.

“Then I suppose we will drift for eternity,” I hummed in response, struggling to keep my sarcasm in check. It was Vi that interjected more sharply.

“We will drift until the systems reach their limit which will happen eventually,” she retorted impatiently as she was waiting her turn. “We will wake up.”

“Unless something goes wrong…” Bron started again and this time, I interrupted:

“If there is an issue with the systems, we will also get woken up,” I told him. “See you on the other side, Bron,” I gave him an encouraging smile and started the stasis process before he could get himself into more of a tizz. It was for the best.

“I don’t know why he has to come along,” Vi groaned, annoyed, though I suppose the fact that her snarkiness was reaching new heights had something to do with her trying to mask her own insecurities. I didn’t respond. I simply hooked her up to the systems as she was visibly eager to get on with it.

“Have a good sleep, Vi,” I said as she lay down. “Sweet dreams.”

“It’s not sleep, it’s stasis,” she huffed. “And you don’t dream in cryo!” The lid of the pod slid shut and she closed her eyes, drifting into unconsciousness.

“Can we just enjoy the peace and quiet for a moment?” Dal joked as the cryo pod retreated, taking Vi with it. It was just the two of us now.

“You’re next, Captain,” I told him, trying my best to keep my own nerves in check. “How is the flight path looking?” We walked to the third pod.

“The autopilot is set, sending us into the far reaches of uncharted space in less than ten minutes. Mission control will activate it as soon as we’re all asleep,” he explained as I gathered together the electrodes.

“Status report Orpheus,” a voice sounded across the intercom and we both looked up.

“This is the Captain speaking. Kruger and Kell are in stasis, I’m about to head to sleep myself,” Dal reported.

“I will be putting the captain into cryo, then start the auto launch sequence on myself,” I added as I attached electrodes to Dal’s temples and he gave me a smile as he perched on the side of his cryo pod.

“Understood. Carry on,” came the confirmation across the intercom. “We will be monitoring your progress and be ready to launch.”

“See you there, Liv,” Dal gave me an encouraging smile as he lay down.

“See you then,” I smiled, even though I couldn’t be sure if there was another side, how long it would take or if my body would even be able to be revived, but I held out hope. I engaged the controls on the pod and Dal’s features relaxed as his body surrendered to the stasis.

“Right then… here goes nothing…” I mumbled and made for the final pod, then spoke up: “Going into stasis now, Mission Control.” The system was easy and intuitive, I could do the preparations myself and set it going without needing outside assistance. All the systems were set up like this. In the depth of space, we wouldn’t have back up either.

“Understood. Godspeed Orpheus,” the response sounded just as I hit the button to engage the system. I lay down and closed my eyes for the next nine-hundred years.

---

“What just happened?” I mumbled, blinking against bright light above when I came to. I felt as though I had been hit by a bus. The splitting headache remained just as bad. I was flat on my back in the glider and light was streaming in from the windscreen as we were climbing higher and higher.

“You lost consciousness,” the Doctor said, leaning over me. “The side effects of the temporal fall-out are much worse than anticipated.” He helped me sit up slowly.“Maybe it’ll get better once we’re out of the bubble…”

“Nearly there,” River announced from the pilot’s seat. “I would like one of you to take over. Up is fine but evading the Daleks, not sure my skills stretch to that.”

“Just get us out of the force field,” the Doctor instructed, his voice strained, and I felt another shot of pain too.

“Oh God-” I heaved, putting my head between my legs, wishing the spinning would finally stop.

“Liv, try to stay with us,” River called from the front.

“I am, I am, I just-” I winced. “It’s just so disorienting, whenever I so much as blink I’m right there.” And I really was, as I was looking around, it wasn’t the glider I saw, it was the TARDIS and everything I presumed was going on far below us on the surface of the planet. I could see everything my other self was experiencing.

“It should get better in a minute, they’re about to leave-” The Doctor tried to reassure me, casting a glance out of the windscreen.

He was right. I could see it too. And then I was back in the TARDIS.

“The Daleks are coming!” Kate stuck her head into the TARDIS and it was as if I was really there. I looked from her to the Doctor - two Doctors - the blonde one and our Doctor from the past and then to the two Helens side by side who I could only tell apart by the clothes they were wearing and the way one of them was far less measured with the affection she regarded me with.

“Fingers crossed the others are getting a move on. This place is not the full shilling…” the blonde Doctor observed looking around the TARDIS. “Still safer than anywhere else though and we must continue the run interference.”

“How will we know if we’re successful?” The other Doctor frowned and his future self answered:

“I guess we will have to wait and see. We likely won’t know at all…”

“Helen, what’s wrong?” I heard myself saying as I’d noticed her eyes swimming with tears.

“Nothing it’s just-” She started and temporal dissonance shot through me and - I presume - through her and the Doctors too as we all winced in pain. Time was becoming increasingly unstable.

“What?” I asked regardless, worried by her distressed state. I don’t know how to best explain the turmoil of emotions and the strange feeling of being disconnected from them all the same. There, then, I’d already been in love with her - of course I had - but my feelings lay buried and while I was concerned for her, it wasn’t the same visceral sensation I was also experiencing up in the shuttle craft. It was a terrifying push and pull and every version of me struggled under the burden. And reality around us struggled under the paradoxical nature of it all.

And then Helen, my Helen, said something that shook me to the very core, more painful than any of the temporal side-effects of our actions. She had voiced something that thus far I hadn’t fully figured out:

“If this works, if we succeed- None of this will have happened, you and me, we will still just be-” Helen looked to her other self who remained a quiet, confused but visibly pained observer. I have no idea to what extent those versions of us would have become aware of our experiences, but even if they didn’t at all, she was about to find out. “I love you,” Helen told my other self through tears and I felt like she was talking to me. “You must know that. Even then I loved you. I just couldn’t show it, not yet. Please give me time. Please don’t give up hope. I don’t want to lose this, not when I only just-”

My eyes widened in shock. Suddenly, I was in control of my senses again, as we broke past the forcefield into open space. The pain stopped and I was able to think clearly again.

“River, what will happen to our memories? Will everything just be wiped away?!” I exclaimed when I realised what our success would entail.

#doctor who #fanfiction #eight doctor #liv/helen #liv chenka #helen sinclair #a numbers game #big finish #river song #action/adventure #whump

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