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valkyrisffvii · 3 years

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Mithroth Fluff Alphabet

Template by @magical-warlock

Some information about the Myriad’s primary OTP, for your viewing pleasure.

Mithra’s answers are in bolded italics

Sephiroth’s answers are in italics

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Mithra enjoys going on missions with Sephiroth not only to accompany him in SOLDIER service, but to show her prowess on the battlefield as a deadly sniper and master of stealth. Outside of SOLDIER duties, she loves simply having deep conversations with him and relaxing together in their apartment. Sephiroth is often quite busy as the highest-ranking SOLDIER, so she deeply appreciates any time she gets to spend with him.

Similarly, Sephiroth always likes it when Mithra can join him on missions because he feels less lonely. He knows how strong she is, and he feels pride whenever she accomplishes difficult tasks. He often takes her on romantic dinner dates to exotic eateries and follows the meal with walks around Midgar. He doesn’t show it, but he loves it when Mithra braids his hair and gives him facials.

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

It’s no secret to anyone that Sephiroth is a beautiful specimen, but unlike the Silver Elite, Mithra admires Sephiroth’s personality much more than his looks. That’s not to say that she doesn’t appreciate his handsome appearance, however. Like many, she is obsessed with the General’s long silver hair, especially because she’s allowed to touch it. She’s also found herself admiring his half-naked body both at night and in the morning. She finds his strong arms especially handsome because of their ability to both swing Masamune with little effort and embrace her without crushing her.

Mithra is definitely a jewel among the ranks of SOLDIER when it comes to physical beauty, as she’s the only female member. Despite the hard work and fighting that come with the job, Mithra is still able to keep her skin glowing. Sephiroth is particularly fond of her eyes, as they are such a contrast to the mako blue usually associated with SOLDIER: a rich medium brown with golden reflects.

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Sephiroth is definitely someone who will stew in their feelings rather than have an outright mental breakdown. Mithra knows him well enough to recognize when he just needs to be left alone, only taking action if he acts first. She’ll just hold his face in her hands while whispering encouraging words, as well as reassuring him that she’ll always be there for him.

In stark contrast to her s/o, Mithra reacts strongly to different stressors and her way of coping has changed throughout her life. Before she became friends with her comrades, she’d often just hide her emotions in the hopes that they’d go away. After a while, she becomes more open with her personal struggles and cries freely without fear of being ridiculed. To comfort her, Sephiroth will usually just hold her close to him while stroking her hair and letting her cry into his chest or shoulder. He does not need to use words for her to feel his love and support.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

Although she is over the moon in her relationship, the idea of marriage is quite daunting to Mithra for a long time. She doesn’t prioritize marrying Sephiroth, but she still wants to be with him for as long as possible. After the group leaves Shinra, she dreams of living with Sephiroth somewhere where they’ll both be free to be themselves.

Sephiroth knows that he wants to spend the rest of his life with Mithra, but he can’t imagine any other future besides the two of them continuing to work for Shinra due to his sheltered lifestyle. Following their desertion, he also just wants to be with her somewhere safe. He does eventually propose to her, albeit after a few years of fighting Shinra and saving the planet from them.

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

Mithra is definitely the more outspoken and outgoing partner, but her status as a Second Class SOLDIER prevents her from several privileges. She does not have the same amount of authority as Sephiroth even though she is more radical in her beliefs. Thankfully, Sephiroth listens to her and voices her concerns to the higher-ups at Shinra if they are especially concerning.

Even though he’s not the talker in their relationship, Sephiroth’s high-ranking position in SOLDIER allows him to basically have authority over his superiors. He is the one who gets to request to live with Mithra, not the other way around. Outside of official SOLDIER business, Sephiroth is the calmer, quieter partner, except for when members of the Silver Elite try to harass Mithra.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Regardless of their relationship to her, Mithra isn’t the quickest to forgive someone. However, she is not one to play victim and beg for forgiveness, but she instead will just apologize and hope that she’s forgiven. That being said, she and Sephiroth don’t really fight much. If they ever do get into a fight, she’s the loud one and the first one to storm off in frustration.

Sephiroth isn’t one to start fights nor does he hold interest in continuing a fight. He is aware of Mithra’s short temper and tendency to react before thinking, so he never does anything to victimize or aggravate her. He forgives Mithra pretty easily because he knows that she never yells at him purposefully; she just tends to overreact.

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

Mithra is fully aware of what Sephiroth has sacrificed in order to be in a relationship with her. He must deal with jealous fangirls, he can’t just be away for long periods of time, and he has to deal with her on an almost daily basis. She is forever grateful that he chose her, a feral former con artist, as his partner over the millions of beautiful women who adore him.

Sephiroth knows what Mithra has to put up with, not only as a female SOLDIER, but as his girlfriend. From horny recruits to dismissive Shinra executives to neurotic fangirls, she doesn’t have it easy. However, she chooses to remain unbothered about these things because she knows that he’s the one for her, and she knows how hard she’s worked to get her position. He is grateful that she’s by his side despite all the challenges that life as a SOLDIER offers.

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

Mithra is not a woman of many secrets, but the secrets she does have are quite deep and memorable, not always for the better. By the time she and Sephiroth start dating, they’re already good friends who know each other pretty well. She does tell him the backstory of her life in the slums, much to his horror. Mithra continues to be quite open with him throughout their relationship, as she knows that she can trust him and that he’d never spill her secrets.

Sephiroth struggles with secrets of his own, mainly because he is unsure of how to feel about them. He tells Mithra about his lonely childhood, but he doesn’t know whether or not to tell her about his supposed “mother.” He is happy that she is around to love him without judgement, but he doesn’t want to burden her with his personal issues. As their relationship grows, he does become more comfortable telling her what’s on his mind, and this peaks when they become members of Avalanche.

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

Sephiroth inspired Mithra to work hard as a member of SOLDIER. Like many other Third and Second Class members, she admires his battle prowess. On a more personal note, falling in love with him helped her to overcome her original dislike towards men. Before she met her friends, the only men Mithra had encountered were greedy and predatory. This trust towards the opposite sex blossomed into attraction and then love towards Shinra’s greatest SOLDIER.

Before he met and fell in love with Mithra, Sephiroth had always been stoic in nature, fully dedicated to his work and only confiding in Genesis and Angeal. Mithra’s unapologetic attitude and kind personality helped Sephiroth to be more confident in himself as a friend and a partner. She even helped him learn about his background without dropping the ball too quickly, and she reunited him with his real mother. Mithra gives him a second chance at living his life to the fullest, and he is eternally thankful for that.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Mithra doesn’t get jealous super easily, even when Sephiroth’s fangirls approach them on the street. She finds their fanaticism quite amusing and will often try to hide her laughter as Sephiroth annoyedly deals with them.

Sephiroth doesn’t really get jealous either, but he is not fond of guys who try to hit on Mithra. Anyone who tries to flirt with her will get a hard stare from him, and it almost always scares them away. If the stare doesn’t work, the knowledge that he could probably split them in half is very effective and sends them on their way.

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Neither of them had kissed anyone before their first kiss together, but the event was quite sweet. Mithra was running away from Genesis after stealing Loveless from him, and she came across Sephiroth and Angeal. Of course, Angeal has to leave, leaving her alone with Sephiroth. Zack, who doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut at times, leaked Mithra’s secret to him, and Sephiroth took it upon himself to kiss her after she confessed. The two share kisses quite often, whether it be before one of them leaves on a mission or first thing in the morning. Seph is a pretty good kisser; he’s able to completely shock Mithra by pulling her in for a long, passionate kiss. Mithra’s pretty good at kissing as well, and she’ll often surprise him by kissing his cheek while he’s working.

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

Mithra confesses her love after Zack spills the beans about her crush on Sephiroth to the man himself. She thinks that she’ll be humiliated as a result because she fully believes that Sephiroth doesn’t like her back, but luckily she is very, very wrong about that.

Sephiroth manages to goad Mithra’s confession out of her, but not before having unsung feelings for her as well. His response to her confession is pulling her in for a long kiss and then professing his love. He does not even need to ask her out. It doesn’t take too long for them to start living together.

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

Marriage was not even a figment in Mithra’s mind before she began her relationship with Sephiroth. Even as they are dating, the desire for marriage isn’t prominent due to her responsibilities as a SOLDIER. Following the downfall of Shinra, Mithra does think about marriage more. She knows that she wants to spend the rest of her life with Sephiroth, but she’s unsure of how to feel about marriage. However, after Seph proposes to her, she is overjoyed, having secretly been hoping for such for a while.

Similarly, Sephiroth doesn’t really think about marrying Mithra until their group leaves Shinra and joins Avalanche. Both of them have multiple near-death experiences during that time, and once the dust all settles and Shinra is defeated for good, Sephiroth knows that he wants Mithra in his life forever and ever. He proposes to her after a long period of nervousness. He is afraid that she’ll reject him, even after all their years of dating, but his friends encourage him and he pops the question while the group is hanging out in Aerith’s new flower garden, which she made to restore hope to the people of Midgar. Obviously she says yes, and the two of them get married with all their family and friends in attendance. Their married life is much more chill without Shinra, but Sephiroth still does mercenary work with the other ex-SOLDIERs while Mithra does art.

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

Mithra’s names for Sephiroth: Sephy (almost always) My dearest (often) Babe (often) My other half (sometimes) Hot stuff (rarely)

Sephiroth’s names for Mithra: My love/Love (almost always) Beautiful (often) Mi (sometimes; this nickname is also used by Mithra’s other friends) Gorgeous (sometimes)

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

Before she and Sephiroth got together, Mithra was very wary about her feelings towards him. She was unsure of whether she actually loved him or she just felt the same attraction his fans felt. She would silently wrestle with these emotions, only letting them show in the privacy of her home. However, once the two become a formal couple, she explicitly expresses her love for him. It’s quite heartwarming to listen to her talk about him, especially since most people see Sephiroth as a stoic and reserved person. Whenever they’re with the others, Mithra will also give him light touches and sometimes small kisses. She’ll also occasionally do this around other women to show who Sephiroth belongs to.

Sephiroth isn’t as touchy-feely as his girlfriend, but it’s very obvious whenever he’s especially in love with her. He sometimes talks about Mithra when he’s with Genesis and Angeal or other guys, and the love in his voice is very audible. His pupils also dilate significantly, something that Mithra is quick to notice whenever he looks in her direction. When Angeal first started training Mithra alongside Zack, Sephiroth would always ask him questions about her, as he was too nervous to do it himself. As the two of them got to know each other better, Sephiroth also realized that he liked her, and he’d always find reasons to run into her around the Shinra building.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Mithra is humble in nature, so she doesn’t brag about her relationship even if she has every right to. As for PDA, physical touch is her secondary love language, with quality time as her primary. Whenever she and Sephiroth are alone, she’s more than willing to hug and kiss him as much as possible. However, due to the professionalism that’s required as a SOLDIER, she can’t shower him with affection when they’re on duty. Physical affection is reduced to hand holding and occasional quick pecks, but she enjoys it just as much.

Sephiroth was never much of an affectionate person before he started dating Mithra. His job was always his first priority, and he’d never really received the love and affection he needed. Once he and Mithra became a thing, however, he realized how touch-starved he was. He finally had someone who would comfort him, support him, and love him for who he was. As happy as he is with Mithra, he doesn’t brag about his relationship. Even though a fair amount of Shinra executives are aware that their silver general is dating a Second Class, it’s not a big deal, and it doesn’t affect either of their work in SOLDIER.

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

Due to her solitary lifestyle pre-SOLDIER, Mithra is able to keep herself occupied when she’s alone, despite the fact that she’s an extrovert. This is very helpful when Sephiroth is away on long, demanding missions as a First Class SOLDIER. She does miss him when he’s gone, but she knows that he’ll come back to her.

Sephiroth, even though he’s not the most social, is a good listener, and never criticizes or mocks Mithra when she’s struggling. He’s also willing to go out of his comfort zone to adjust to her needs and wants, and she does the same with him.

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

As well as giving him love and affection, Mithra does whatever she can to help Sephiroth relax after long work days. She’ll cook him fresh meals and massage his aching shoulders, things that he greatly appreciates. Mithra’s quite creative in nature, so she’ll often encourage him to try things that most normal people do, such as going shopping or exploring the vast metropolis of Midgar. She likes to throw in a little risk, especially since Sephiroth had been sheltered most of his life.

Unlike Mithra, Sephiroth is a little more traditional in the romantic aspect of their relationship. His perfect date consists of a simple outing at a nice eatery and then a stroll around the city. He’s also sure to get Mithra nice gifts for her birthday and holidays that involve gift-giving, even though she’s insistent that he’s the best gift she could ask for. Some gifts he’s given her include digital art supplies, certain articles of clothing, and fleece throw blankets, her absolute favorite.

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

During their times as members of SOLDIER, Mithra is not sure what Sephiroth’s ultimate goal in life is. He’s so used to his duties as a 1st, that there’s not much room for him to have many ambitions. Even so, she’s very supportive of him, not bothering him when she knows he’s very busy and looking out for him. She believes that he’s much more than his job portrays him as, and she hopes that people can see him that way.

One of the first things Mithra has said in terms of goals was that she wished to atone for all the crimes she committed in her past. Sephiroth was present for this, and he knew that she was a good person with a troubled past. He was actually one of the people that told Angeal that Mithra would make a good Second Class SOLDIER, therefore helping her advance in the program. During their time as a couple, he only continued to support her in her career as a SOLDIER and in her hobbies. He actually buys Mithra several things to help her continue her interest in drawing, partially because he likes it when she draws him.

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

Mithra loves trying new things, whether they be foods, hobbies, or relationship activities. She enjoys doing things with Sephiroth that are outside their norms, mostly because she wants him to be able to experience everything life has to offer. Sephiroth is sometimes reluctant to do such things, but Mithra is quick to remind him that not everything has to be done professionally and with strict plans.

Routine has always been a major part of Sephiroth’s life. Ever since he was a child, his days consisted of training, war, labs, work, etc. This routine does extend to his relationship at first, but with Mithra’s encouragement, he becomes more and more willing to have some fun. That being said, he doesn’t normally appear excited or adventurous on the outside, but Mithra knows when he’s enjoying himself.

U nderstanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Before she started dating him, Mithra knew a fair amount about Sephiroth. She knew what his interests were, his favorite foods, some backstory, the usual things that friends know. However, this knowledge became much much deeper when he started living with her. He told Mithra how lonely his childhood was and how he felt different from other children. Luckily, Mithra is more than able to empathize with him, as she was lonely in the slums as well. People always thought she was weird because she had different interests, and she had no idea who or where her family was. Because of all of this, she’s more than happy to be Sephiroth’s number-one supporter.

Sephiroth’s knowledge of Mithra was equal to her knowledge of him while they were still just friends. Everything changed when he began dating her, though. Mithra had the trust in him to tell him some of her deepest secrets, things that not even her best friend Zack knew. Some of these stories include the harassment she faced from members of the gang she participated in, as well as the horrific story of how she got her neck scar. Sephiroth is even more determined to protect her from harm after gaining this knowledge, and he also understands the loneliness she felt.

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

For Mithra, her relationship with Sephiroth is the best thing that’s ever happened to her, probably. She’s never felt so secure and loved by someone in her life, so having him around has helped her immensely. She’s determined to make the relationship work, and she knows that if she wants Sephiroth to continue loving her, she will have to make some sacrifices. Although, considering how much Sephiroth spoils her, that’s not a big worry. In comparison to other things in her life, it’s pretty high up there. She values her relationship with him equally with her friendships, and she doesn’t let it distract her from her job in SOLDIER.

Prior to his entry into a romantic relationship, Sephiroth’s main priority was his job as a general in SOLDIER. Even though he was close friends with Genesis and Angeal, his work kept him occupied most of the time. Once he began dating Mithra, his entire mindset changed. He knew that he couldn’t just ignore Mithra and focus entirely on his work if he wanted her to stay with him, so he found a balance between his love life and professional life. Even though he does value Mithra more than his position, he makes sure to continue working hard in order to help her.

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

Mithra loves swimming, and she’s always happy when Sephiroth joins her, whether it be at the pool or the beaches of Costa Del Sol. She’s more than happy to massage sunscreen into his back and shoulders and just enjoys hanging out with him in the sun and the cool water. Both of them are skilled at doing flawless, photogenic hair flips and just having great aesthetics. She also likes it because she gets to see him in trunks.

Sephiroth loves watching Mithra draw. She has only gotten better and better over the years he’s known her, and he’s actually the one who suggested that she sell some of her art for extra gil. He always swoons when she creates new drawings of him, no matter what expression or outfit she draws him with.

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

Alongside Zack, Mithra is one of the most affectionate people in SOLDIER. She greets her close friends by giving them hugs and loves curling up under toasty warm fleece blankets. Things get even better for her when Sephiroth moves in because now she has an extra heat source. She’ll often lie on Sephiroth’s chest, her ear pressed against his heart and its calming rhythm lulling her to sleep. Even if she wakes up separated from him, she’s quick to snuggle back up to him, pressing soft kisses on his neck and chest and draping her arm across his stomach. Mithra also loves running her fingers through her boyfriend’s beautiful long hair, braiding it, and combing it. Sephiroth will often let her comb any tangles out when he gets out of the shower, and he secretly loves how careful she is when she braids his hair.

Sephiroth did not realize how affectionate and loving he could be until he started living with the love of his life. Having never gotten hugged in his childhood, Sephiroth loves it whenever Mithra hugs him, kisses him, and cuddles with him in bed. He loves the feeling of holding her in his strong arms and just running his fingers along her arms and in her hair. Once he finds out that Mithra is ticklish, the poor girl can never escape him. He’ll sometimes tickle her side when they’re walking together to get a reaction out of her, and he’ll attack her bare stomach with kisses to wake her up if she’s being particularly stubborn. Her laughter is one of his favorite sounds in the world because it reminds him that he’s not only a SOLDIER General, but a human who can feel love.

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

Being used to loneliness, Mithra can handle herself when Sephiroth is away. She knows how strong he is and that he’ll always return home to her. In the meantime, she’ll hang out with her best friends. Whether it be training sessions with Angeal, pulling pranks on Genesis, or wreaking havoc with Zack and Cloud, Mithra has plenty of things to keep herself occupied when her beloved is not around.

In a similar fashion, Sephiroth is used to being alone for longer periods of time. The first few years of his life were spent under close watch by Shinra scientists and away from most outsiders. However, once he’s with Mithra, the loneliness is different. He looks forward to seeing her again and keeps himself busy with either work-related things or sparring with Genesis and Angeal. He’ll often talk about Mithra to whoever will listen, which makes them in turn wish for Mithra to come back so he’ll stop.

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Mithra is willing to do so many things for Sephiroth, some of them even coming nearly at the cost of her life. She finds information on his past that Shinra had tried to conceal for years, and Hojo, her greatest enemy, nearly kills her as a result. Her willpower is strong, though, and she gives Sephiroth the truth that he’d been seeking all his life. She also locates and rescues Sephiroth’s birth mother, giving him further closure on his family history. Most importantly, she keeps him sane by gently telling him about the misconception of Jenova and the mistakes of Shinra.

After he hears Mithra’s sad and frightening backstory, Sephiroth is determined to keep Mithra safe from anyone who would try to hurt her. One of his first promises to her is that he’ll stand between her and her enemies. Although Mithra is more than capable of defending herself, that doesn’t stop him from intervening. He’s also quick to come to her assistance if she seems hurt. A particularly comedic instance of this happened when Mithra got her period for the first time after he moved into her apartment. Sephiroth was convinced that she had gotten hurt and had a wound somewhere, and tried to drag her to the hospital. Thankfully, and much to his humiliation, Zack gave him “the talk”.

#fluff alphabet #fluff #mithra valkyris #Sephiroth #mithroth #couple goals #final fantasy vii #exposition

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writethelifeyouwant · 4 years

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You Got Iced- Chapter 3

Pairing: Jared x Reader x Jensen

Rating: M

Summary: Inspired in part by the challenge prompt and in part by this convention https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAHS_RJ5Gac (which is fucking hilarious, go enjoy yourselves there). The reader is attending a Supernatural convention during a heat wave and gets her money’s worth out of her ticket that’s for sure.

Word Count: 2288

A/N: Written for @babypieandwhiskey ‘s Hot as Hell challenge. If anyone else wants to be tagged in the rest of the chapters shoot me an ask!

I'm sorry I have been crap at updating this! And I'm sorry for the cliffhanger :p I promise, there won't be a long wait before the last chapter! And there will actually be smut in that one :D

“You’ve never done anything before?” Jensen’s eyebrows made new friends with his hairline at that moment and you got a great glimpse into his faculties for comedic acting. You shook your head no, nervous that this revelation would put an end to the dream sequence you were playing out. “You’re a virgin?” He clarified emphatically, and at your affirmation he downed the rest of his whiskey and left the couch arm for another, taking Jared’s cup from your hands as well.

Jared silently accepted the generous measure of whiskey Jensen pushed into his hands, gulping down half of it before he found his voice.

“How much of a virgin are we talking here?” And you had to hand it to him, that was about as delicately as he could have put it, but you were pretty sure that if they thought you wanted delicacy, they would retract their offer.

“As in, never touched a penis before kind of virgin,” you hoped your voice hadn’t stuttered too much over the word penis. As much as you weren’t shy talking about sex, it was still a kind of gross word, and you were sitting in front of the fucking stars of most of your masturbatory fantasies; you were allowed to be nervous for fuck’s sake.

“Holy shit,” Jared sucked in his breath through his teeth and ran his hands back and forth through his hair in apparent distress. You didn’t know what he was thinking at that moment but if his goal was to draw your attention to how strong his hands looked or how attractive he looked with his hair ruffled, then mission accomplished.

“You know how to fuckin’ pick ‘em Jared,” Jensen’s voice had taken on more gravity, and you weren’t positive it was from the whiskey he’d been downing. You weren’t sure how you were meant to respond to them, or if you were even supposed to, so you sat in silence, letting their brains run whatever laps they needed to to come back to the present situation.

“Hang on,” Jared’s head shot up, eyes wild and bright. “You said yes.” He looked between you and Jensen and then back to you, waiting for someone to tell him he was wrong. “You’re a virgin and you were saying yes to having a dom/sub threesome with us?”

“I am saying yes to having a dom/sub threesome with you,” you clarified. “I just figured you’d want, you know, a heads up that I’m new at this because I might need a little more guidance than you’re used to.” You looked between Jared’s astonished face and Jensen’s carefully passive one. “If, you know, this is still okay with you.” Another beat of silence. “Because, you know, it’s totally okay if it’s not okay anymore. You had no idea I was such a sad sack-”

“No, no hey, that’s not what we’re thinking,” Jared cut in quickly to derail your thoughts, pressing a calming hand over yours, where it had been fiddling with the hem of your dress. With his other hand he brought your face around to look at his, and the sincerity of his gaze startled you. “We would never think something like that.”

You took a breath and gave Jared a small nod.

“I guess, I’m just wondering… why? I mean, do you have a reason you’re still a virgin?”

“Not a specific reason, no,” you shook your head. “I just… haven’t found someone I was attracted to enough and trusted enough to want to go there.”

“And you’re ready to jump right past first time for everything into bed with two complete strangers who are offering you a spot in a kinky-ass threesome?” Jensen was genuinely incredulous.

“Okay, I’m a virgin, not a prude. I have an internet connection. I’ve known for years that I identify as a sub and that I find the idea of that dynamic during sex really fucking hot.” Jared’s eyebrows gave a funny little jump when you cursed. “And having a threesome with two guys is one of my go to fantasies. Did I think that either, let alone both of those things would be involved in my first time? Hell no,” you laughed. “But I’m not gonna be sorry if they are.”

You took a deep breath and looked seriously from Jared’s confused eyes to Jensen’s slowly widening smirk.

“So, my answer is still yes… if me being a virgin isn’t a problem.”

“Sweetheart, you being a virgin is not a fucking problem,” Jensen laughed, brushing a hand over the back of your head and down your shoulder in a surprisingly intimate gesture. From behind you, Jensen gave Jared a wicked smirk and a nod with his chin, confirming for him that he was still super on board if Jared was up for it.

“It’s fucking hot,” Jared breathed, letting a huff of laughter escape him as he brought his eyes up to yours. His hand was still pressed over yours, and he folded his long fingers around your palm, squeezing gently, anchoring you to him. Slowly, incredibly slowly, he leaned closer; close enough for you to count every one of his unfairly long lashes if you had wanted to. And then his lips touched yours, chaste and sweet and so, stunningly perfect. You kissed him back softly, letting the tingling euphoria he had set off in you spread to the ends of your limbs and wrap tightly around your chest.

When he pulled back you gasped, face burning as Jared stared at your eyes, making sure that you were still ready to go through with this. You gave a tiny, jerky nod in response to his silent question and Jared surged forward, kissing you again with no more hesitation.

You made a small noise high in your throat as Jared kissed you thoroughly, forcing you open to him, molding your mouth to where he wanted it. You felt Jensen’s hands settle on your shoulders, squeezing, and then he dragged one to the back of your head, pushing you into Jared. You let him guide you, holding you still while Jared moved in closer, moaning when he sucked your bottom lip between his teeth.

“There you go sweetheart,” Jensen encouraged, brushing his hand over your hair, feeling you melt further into his side. His words lit something inside you that you could not explain, a wave of satisfaction and gratification washed through you and pooled between your legs. A small cry escaped your lips as you broke from Jared’s kiss, falling back against Jensen in shock, trying to catch your breath.

“Such a pretty mouth,” Jared’s voice was hoarse and breathy, and he smiled as he reached a hand up to your cheek, and ran his thumb along your bottom lip, slightly swollen from where he bit it. “I can’t wait to teach you how to use it.” You groaned, the feeling between your legs surging again.

“You’re gonna be such a good girl for us aren’t you?” Jensen asked, standing up from his perch on the arm of the couch and pulling you to your feet, trapping your wrists between his hands. You nodded, your eyes pleading.

“Yes, I promise.”

“Follow Jay, baby girl,” Jared pushed against your back, and you let Jensen pull you towards a door, Jared following behind you, and grabbing the bottle of whiskey on his way.

*************************************************************************************************************

Taking what must have been a service corridor, you followed Jensen into a hotel room with no signs of habitation beyond the two small suitcases standing by the closet. Silently, he pulled you along, keeping a firm hold on your wrists, and placing you on the arm of a wide armchair. Jared went straight for the mini bar when he came in and poured two generous glasses of the whiskey he’d brought from the green room.

Accepting his glass, Jensen took a long drink while his eyes bore into yours, and you sat silently, waiting for them to tell you what they wanted. You felt hot under their gaze, and you realized the room itself was actually much warmer than the green room had been, reminding you it was unseasonably hot outside.

“Where do you wanna start with her?” Jared asked Jensen, almost as if you weren’t in the room.

“There’s so many possibilities,” Jensen sighed thoughtfully. “But I think the first thing I want is to get her out of those clothes.”

Assuming that was an instruction you moved off the arm of the couch so you could pull off your dress but Jensen stopped you. “I didn’t say you could move yet, sweetheart.”

Mortified, you froze and sat back against the armchair. “Sorry,” you breathed, looking to them for forgiveness. Jared quirked an eyebrow at you and took a sip of his drink, waiting for something seemingly. “Sir,” you rushed to add as it hit you what he wanted. “Sorry sir.” Jared smiled.

“She catches on quick,” he nodded approvingly. Jensen moved towards you, setting his drink on a side table, leaving his hands free to brush up your bare arms and into your hair as he leant down to kiss you. It was bruising from the outset. His fingers locked into your hair and pulled, drawing small gasps from your lips which he used as an opportunity to suck and bite.

Instinctively, you reached your hands up to go around Jensen’s shoulders to pull him closer to you but your arms were suddenly being jerked back, and your wrists pulled together behind your back. Confused, you leaned back, realizing Jared had come behind you and was now holding your hands down tightly. “We never said you could touch,” Jared explained, voice amused.

“And I never said you could stop,” Jensen growled and pulled you back into the kiss. It was thrilling, being between them, held strongly in place under their hands, settling in to what they wanted you to be.

Jensen moved his lips from yours and began trailing them down your neck, stopping and biting below your ear, sucking your blood to the surface of your skin. “That feel good baby girl?” Jared asked in your other ear, wrapping an arm around your chest and grabbing one of your breasts with none of the gentle hesitation he had had when he first kissed you.

“Yes sir,” your words came out as a throaty sigh.

“Has anyone ever marked you up before?” Jared asked, kneading this massive hand across your chest.

“Yes sir,” you admitted, recalling the embarrassment of walking into an early morning seminar without having looked in a mirror after rushing out of a boy’s house once, and having the teaching assistant offer you her concealer. Jensen moved to a new spot further down your throat and you groaned.

“Where did he do it?” Jared started kissing languidly down the other side of your neck.

“Just… my neck,” you leant back into Jared’s arms and he pressed himself closer to you.

“Not here?” You jerked as Jared pinched one of your nipples amazed at how good that had felt.

“No sir,” you shook your head.

“Good,” you felt Jared’s smile against your skin as he scraped his teeth on your collar bone. “Another first we get.”

“Please,” you breathed with absolutely no idea what you were even begging for.

“Aw, she’s got such good manners,” Jensen grinned. “Such a polite little girl.”

“Please sir,” you said again, still not sure what you were asking for. Deciding for you, Jensen brought his hands to your shoulders and carefully slid your dress down your arms, so it pooled around your waist showing your bra. Jared hoisted you up from behind so Jensen could finish pulling the dress down your legs, getting your shoes off in the same process. You shivered despite the heat of the room.

Jared moved around to face you, taking in your matching lace bra and underwear, the set you kept for the times when you wanted to feel as confident as possible. You were silently thanking god that you had worn a matching set today.

“I gotta say sweetheart, this here,” Jensen plucked at your bra strap, “looks pretty slutty for a virgin.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Jared mused as he reached for his drink again. “She dressed up for us Jay.” You blushed, because yeah, you had dressed up for them. Not because you ever imagined they’d see your underwear but just because you felt you owed them the effort.

“Y/N,” oh my god, your name sounded so good in Jensen’s mouth, in what was now unmistakably his ‘Dean’ voice. “Any limits you know you don’t want us near?”

You thought about it for a second and shook your head. “I think it will be easier if you guys take the lead and if you do anything I don’t like, I’ll tell you.” They nodded, agreeing that was sensible.

“Safeword?” Jensen asked. The question shouldn’t have caught you off guard considering what you were about to get into but it hadn’t even crossed your mind to think of one, and your mind went perfectly blank.

“Poughkeepsie,” You threw out nervously, then groaned when Jared and Jensen cracked huge smiles and broke down laughing. “I swear it’s the first thing I thought of,” you defended yourself.

“Hey, whatever works for you, it’s your safeword.” Jared laughed, reaching forward for your hand. You went to him, letting him spin you slowly, giving him and Jensen a full view of your ass that your thong did nothing to hide. Jared gave a quick swat to your backside, making you jump forward slightly. “Go sit on the couch, and spread your legs.”

tags: @babypieandwhiskey, @samsgirl93

#hot as hell challenge #babypieandwhiskey #j2 #j2 fic #spn #j2 x reader #j2 x reader fic #Jared Padalecki #Jensen Ackles #jensen x reader x jared #jared x reader x jensen #spn family #you got iced #getting iced challenge #chapter 3

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a-very-fond-farewell · 4 years

Text

The forbidden crack! Untamed prompts: 24/?

CLAMP AU n.3 [chengyu? yucheng? (JC/MXY) edition. don’t...question my taste bruh]: “Somewhere, sometime.”

[tw eating disorders mentioned + tw suicide mention (body sacrifice)]

[ok fam. ok. I get it. I would basically ship JC with a rock if it meant I could play with my crack AUs. but I have solid evidence for this one. I promise you.]

[so, “Kobato” from CLAMP is possibly my favorite series from them. it’s 6 volumes long, roughly 40 chapters (and I only recently found out there was an epilogue...even though it was not there in my published version of the series. bc your local cryptid did in fact buy the entire thing in the flesh, that’s how much I love it)]

[in this AU I’ll change some things for the sake of consistency, but I suggest you read it bc the hurt/comfort and pining is enjoyable...so...if you read my silly AU I’m afraid I will spoil the plot for u :( and that’s the last thing I want to do...I understand if you decide to go read the manga and skip my prompt. it’s ok, I’m fine, go and have fun ;-;]

[if you kept reading, hi :D]

[now. am I uncomfortable with certain common tropes in CLAMP’s work in general? yes. especially the age gaps between some of the characters, some of which are not adults. hence the reason behind the changes in this AU. but! the aesthetics fam. the beautiful drawings. the cute outfits. (*ﾉ▽ﾉ)

do you see these?? how cute would Mo XuanYu look in these fam?? I honestly hc him enjoying skirts and feminine outfits a whole lot, but you can imagine him with pants and they would be just as cute. my favorite one is the second from the left btw.]

(imagine Mo XuanYu like this btw and check out the fancomic by the same op! an anon suggested it to me a while ago and now I’m hooked!)

[other mangacaps bc you need visuals:

yeah. angry boy meets bby with a mission to accomplish, bonding over their inferiority complex. yep. I only love the nicest things in life. that’s me.

also look at my baby girl ;-; so cuTe]

[the title is from the ost from the anime series, “Itsuka dokoka de” (check it out!). the anime feels more cohesive than the original manga, possibly bc the pacing is handled a little bit better (since the manga was cut short and the end felt a bit sloppy, but the emotional engagement was still good). and I remember being 17 and crying like a baby when this song came in. if you don’t have time for the manga binge the anime instead! there are plot holes in both of them and the stories are different but still both very enjoyable if you like soft things and angsty vibes.]

[enjoy!]

When YanLi saw him for the first time in front of her door, at the beginning of spring, she thought XuanYu was too pretty and too young for his own good. Sitting across her on the floor, a tea set between them as he politely answered her questions, the boy couldn’t have looked older than sixteen yet he assured her he was of age and well into adulthood. Which seemed pretty difficult to assess, not with the way he dressed: cute button down, beret slightly askew on top of his pretty head and an old-looking suitcases in hand. She didn’t mention the stuffed black rabbit poking out from the front pocket of his luggage, which seemed more of a comfort thing than a reliable source of company.

Moreover, Jin Ling seemed transfixed by him, toddling his way towards their guest asking for cuddles... something her son had never done in front of strangers.

XuanYu refused to give his last name, nor did he have an ID he could show her, nor did he seem worried about how strange that was. And YanLi knew ZiXuan would have been against it, but she couldn’t leave the kid looking all over Lanling for a place to stay... so she gave him the only available room in their rundown pension.

She only hoped Jiang Cheng would be a nice neighbor and leave the kid alone. Who knew what horrors XuanYu was running away from, after all.

When XiChen heard from YanLi of her new tenant, he would have never guessed the kid to look so naive. Not in a bad way, mind you. But his smiles, for how genuine they seemed to be, looked a little bit too big. A little bit too strained not to be a distraction tactic from his part. Or maybe XiChen had lived too long surrounded by fake smiles and closed off people to not worry.

That’s probably why he gave XuanYu a job when YanLi asked him to look over the kid. More to prove himself there were still trustworthy people in the world than to give the younger man a chance. He couldn’t even pay him a full salary, not with the debt collectors breathing on his neck as he tried to run his late mother’s kindergarten.

But maybe that would have been enough for now. A starting point for something better, something new.

A-Yuan had always known the kindergarten used to be an orphanage back in the days, but now he had reached an age where doubts stuck to his head instead of being forgotten with the passing of time. Wen Qing and A-Ning were always busy -be it in the hospital or in university- and A-Yuan didn’t know if they loved him enough to keep him. Ever since granny had passed away he had wondered, day after day, when his cousins would have left him behind for good.

He was thinking about such things when he first met XuanYu, on the man’s first day on the job as a teaching assistant. A-Yuan was mulling over his sadness when XuanYu had come to his rescue, asking him what was wrong... before enthusiastically praising his cousins for working so hard after hearing they were late to take A-Yuan home. XuanYu stayed with him and they played on the swings as they waited for A-Ning to come pick him up, apologizing profusely.

On the way home, his cousin held him close and kissed his forehead as he asked him if he had had fun with the new teacher. And A-Yuan felt less doubtful afterwards.

After hearing the story from her brother, Wen Qing had made it her job to look into XuanYu and his weird approach to life in general. She took every opportunity she could grasp to spy on the younger man, lunch breaks be damned. She needed to confirm if the kid was a trust worthy person or a runaway child pretending to be older than what he actually was. Well, maybe tailing an unsuspecting young man on the streets of Lanling in scrubs and sunglasses would be considered a bit much, she could admit as much. But it was the thought that counted, no?

Her friend MianMian told her to knock it off and talk to the kid like a normal human being, but the truth was that... well, XuanYu was really too weird to be considered normal. He seldom put himself in dangerous situations without much care, such as picking up a random (and still lit) cigarette from the ground just to give it back to the person who had “accidentally dropped it”. Other times he would cross a road without looking left and right first, risking to be run over by cars at every corner. He never, never, fumbled with a phone and he frequently talked to himself... sometimes even directing his words to that creepy stuffed rabbit of his.

No thank you, Wen Qing felt safer behind light poles and crumpled newspapers held upside down. Even if that made her look sketchy as fuck.

Wen Ning made sure to arrive on time to pick A-Yuan up after that time, often chatting with XuanYu as they waited for his baby cousin to retrieve his backpack and raincoat. It was refreshing to speak with the younger man, no matter how weird he acted sometimes. Like that time A-Yuan asked him to tie his shoe-laces for him and XuanYu didn’t know how to do it. Or that time they caught the man taking a nap on the floor in the middle of the school hall. Or that time XiChen had ordered a cake for one of the kids’ birthday and XuanYu didn’t seem to know how to sing the birthday song.

Wen Ning had no place to judge, after all. But XuanYu’s smiles felt like balm on his heart. And if his sweet voice followed Wen Ning home as he bounced A-Yuan in his arms, well. Nobody needed to know that.

The last thing Meng Yao would have expected to hear that summer day when he called the kindergarten was a voice so different from XiChen’s. Startled, he had confusedly asked if the kid worked there and how so, given that the school definitely couldn’t afford to hire anyone. He ought to know. He was the debt collector.

But the kid apologized, introduced himself, and then explained XiChen had offered him a part-time job out of kindness more than out of need. The idiot. XiChen should have remembered who his money belonged to instead of taking charity cases left and right.

But when Meng Yao said as much to naive XuanYu, the other vehemently protested, surprising the debt collector with strong opinions on how he shouldn’t underestimate other people’s intelligence and kindness in the first place.

Meng Yao laughed out at that, genuinely so.

There was more to that kid XuanYu than what one would have expected.

Nie HuaiSang caught a first glimpse of the mystery man only in late summer, when XuanYu stepped into his cake shop to look at the display. His coworker MianMian seemed to recognize the younger man immediately, greeting him by saying they had a friend in common, namely Wen Qing. The kid merely tilted his head and answered he had never formerly met “Miss. Wen” and that he only knew who she was from what the woman’s younger brother had told him about her.

MianMian shrugged and smiled at him.

To which HuaiSang asked him what they could do for him and XuanYu... just... stopped working. Saying that he had wondered if he could do something for them instead. Apparently, Wen Ning had let it slip they were currently understaffed and needed a hand to deliver their sweets.

Delighted, MianMian set him to work, no matter how many times HuaiSang assured her they didn’t need to force the kid to help them... also because they didn’t actually have the means to pay him in kind. But XuanYu refused money altogether, simply asking them to let him help.

To their amusement (and horror) XuanYu didn’t know how to ride a bicycle, so he insisted on covering the deliveries by foot in the neighborhood instead.

HuaiSang called XiChen on the phone that same evening, asking him to give the kid some slack the following day. And maybe buy him some balm for blisters as well.

Jin Ling was young but he wasn’t stupid. Turning three had made him wiser, he knew as much. So he knew XuanYu was magical. He just did.

His pretty-gege talked with stuffed animals, always wore nice things, and kept in his satchel bag a vial filling up with magical candies every time he did something nice for others. A-Ling had seen it with his own eyes, that time XuanYu had put a plaster on his scrapped knee and blew on it to make the pain go away: the golden candy had appeared in the bottle out of nowhere and XuanYu had asked him to keep the secret.

And A-Ling may have been young, but he wasn’t a snitch.

No sir.

ZiXuan eventually stumbled upon their new tenant even though YanLi had tried everything in her power to prevent it. He was very displeased with her: taking a scrawny kid in, cutting his rent in half merely because he couldn’t afford to pay the room in full. Utter nonsense.

No matter how much this kid XuanYu praised A-Ling’s personality or YanLi’s cooking, no matter how much he smiled and made himself look accommodating and unthreatening. ZiXuan didn’t work pro bono even at the firm, let alone for his wife’s business.

Yet, when he asked to be let inside the kid’s room to formally discuss the terms of his contract (and tell him to pack his things and leave at the end of summer), ZiXuan was left speechless. There was no bed, no table or chairs. The fridge wasn’t humming and the AC wasn’t working. The only things he could see were the younger man’s clothes neatly folded in his open suitcase or hanging by the window to dry. No books, no snacks, no nothing.

Usually tenants brought their things in right off the bat, their stuff mailed in within a week after moving in. YanLi was very particular about it, she would have not overlooked something like that. But maybe she had been too busy with A-Ling these past few months and hadn’t noticed the kid was actually too poor to even breathe.

And now that he looked at him, XuanYu looked suspiciously skinny.

Was he sleeping on the floor? Didn’t he have covers for the colder season? Was his fridge broken, empty, or -gods forbid- purposely left with no power because the kid couldn’t afford the electricity bill?

“Do you actually live like this?”

XuanYu didn’t answer to that, but smiled anyway. It looked sinister in a way ZiXuan couldn’t explain, afraid of the things such a young man may or may not have endured in the past. And was maybe still enduring now.

The following day ZiXuan gave the kid their spare futon they bought in Japan on their honeymoon. They never had guests anyway and they could afford to pay for a tenant’s electricity bill every now and then, they weren’t poor.

Certainly YanLi would have agreed with him on the matter.

JinGy saw it. He did! He wasn’t lying! Xuan-ge was there, surrounded by darkness and shadows, looking over the children during their nap time, only a sliver of light coming from the door left ajar... casting shadows on half of his pretty face.

And he saw him reviving that stuffed black rabbit he always had on him.

The rabbit just rose on his hind legs and turned his head up and started whispering things to Xuan-ge, who nodded every now and then in deep though.

JinGyi had read about how paper-man talismans had been stuff of legends in the past. His books spoke of ancient times in which even corpses could be brought back to life. How even animals could turn into godly beasts if enough resentful energy polluted them. But he would have never thought magic could actually be real and so easy to play with.

And Xuan-ge had looked nothing but beautiful as he was talking to the stuffed animal, humming softly under his breath.

When Jiang Cheng dropped out of university for the second time, YanLi didn’t say anything and instead welcomed him back in his old room. So much for enrolling in law school at twenty-three, uh? ZiXuan would have been disappointed in him like the first time that had happened in his bachelor anyway, no point in avoiding the man. It was autumn anyway: it was either going back to the apartment complex or look for a new flatmate. But the school housing had rightfully kicked him out after dropping out in the middle of the academic year, so there would have been little hope for him to find a new place anytime soon.

What he did not expect to find was a new tenant living next door.

Sleeping in front of the door, clutching a satchel bag and a fucking stuffed animal on his lap.

Jiang Cheng jolted him awake and took in the sight of his shoulder length hair, his long lashes and sleepy eyes and thought he looked ridiculous. Wearing a silly hat and moccasins, purple shadows under his eyes, a confused expression on his worn out face. When asked what the hell he was doing there, sleeping out of his room instead of inside of it, the younger man said he had forgotten his keys inside that morning.

He was clearly an idiot, so Jiang Cheng walked away and returned to his room after more than a year away. If someone asked him who had rung YanLi to bring the spare keys to help the idiot he would have shrugged at them and shut the door in their face.

He didn’t have time for that, he had to think how to ask XiChen to let him back to work at the school the following day.

A-Qing had seen many things in life, met many horrible people, dealt with the scum of the scum... but she had yet to meet XuanYu.

A menace. A hurricane. A fool. The amount of times she had had to scoop him up from the ground after he had clumsily slipped on invisible bananas and such should have earned her a honorary title for outstanding citizen. It’s been months since his arrival and the kids had already learned to make way whenever they saw him. He inspired fear even in their tiny heads, honestly. What a fellow teaching assistant, really.

She was just there to score brownie points for his electives and internship program to become a social service worker, that was true. But she cared about the kids enough to know she had to do something about that. The children loved XuanYu and they were this fucking close to either worship him like a small deity or criminal and something ought to be done.

The last thing she would have expected to see, however, was Jiang Cheng coming back so soon. Crawling back from university to ask to work there, wagging his tail like the lovesick dog he was. She could easily imagine what the older student would have said to XiChen, something on the line of “you know goddamn well I’m not doing it for the money. I grew up here, I don’t want to see this place crumbling down. I’m definitely not doing it because I’m in love with you and seeing you sad makes me want to gag.”

Well, maybe the last part could be considered artistic license from her part, but judging by what she could overhear behind XiChen’s office door... yep. She had definitely nailed the part about being fond of the ex-orphanage and for the rest... the sentiment was there. The pining bastard.

“Do you need anything, A-Qing?”, XuanYu asked her out of no-fucking-where, startling her as she pretended to dust off the floor very close to a door. Cheek-plastered-on-it kind of close.

“Nothing. Mind your business,” she answered, flustered as fuck.

XuanYu couldn’t be that naive, he knew what he was fucking doing. His creepy little smile so similar to the one the debt collect always had on his face. No wonder XiChen had fallen for such a tricky bitch.

“Then will you help me find JinGyi? He doesn’t want me to help him with his project for the festival and went into hiding again.”

There, that smile and knowing gaze. Judging poser. He looked much older than his alleged twenty years. He knew what he was fucking doi...

“You?!”

Jiang Cheng’s honest-to-gods screech pulled A-Qing out of her thoughts. She turned and had to witness XiChen amiably patting Jiang Cheng on the head as their boss explained him how XuanYu worked there.

“It’s been almost six months now, he’s a very valuable kid and helped out around here while you were studying.”

Jiang Cheng was both livid and red with longing, because his touch-starved ass was all over that hand patting him platonically on the head. He was also angry, which was default for him... but there was something else underneath. Something promising in the way he stared XuanYu down.

Maybe A-Qing could win some candy by betting with the kids about such unexpected turn of events.

ZiZhen believed A-Yi. If his friend had told him the new teacher assistant was a witch then he was right. So they had started researching witches at the school, but only found a couple of colored books on the matter, mostly useless. All but one, telling the story of a nanny called Mary Poppins... some western thing.

But everything checked for the most part. The hat was there, every day a different one, but ultimately never leaving XuanYu’s head. The umbrella was not, but both him and A-Yuan had seen their gege with a parasol once and that was enough. His satchel contained infinite amount of things, from sweets to possessed stuffed animals, like a qiankun bag from the legends! He talked with things as if he could control them.

Well, even the teacher sometimes tried to convince the printer to work with sweet words, gently coaxing it back to life... maybe that was just how adults functioned. Even his dad would ask the fridge where his favorite cake had disappeared sometimes. Adults were weird.

Fuck Lanling. Rain day and night, autumn planning everyone’s demise by flooding every bloody year. Xue Yang was over it.

He took a random umbrella from the rack by the door of the convenience store and left without a second thought, already wondering what he could say to convince XingChen to offer him dinner somewhere new. The man wasn’t married anymore after all, so Xue Yang could technically have his way with him now, right?

“Excuse me!”

Xue Yang was not in the mood for people calling him out on his bullshit that night, but he turned anyway and saw the weirdest thing. A young man roughly his age, maybe a year or so younger, drenched from head to toe after rushing to him. He was panting, clutching a plastic bag full of cleaning supplies from the convenience store Xue Yang had just left.

“I believe you mistakenly took my umbrella,” the other said, pretty face framed by wet hair sticking to his forehead and cheeks.

Amused, Xue Yang shut the clear plastic umbrella he had “mistakenly taken” and held it at arm’s length by the handle, directing the pointy edge to the other like a sword. Hell if he was going to get wet himself, he needed to prove something to the idiot. He could handle a bit of rain for the sake of being dramatic.

“You want it back?” Xue Yang asked, rising his chin and arching an eyebrow at the other. The man nodded, holding his now wet beret in place on top of his head as if he was more worried about it falling on the ground than keeping his crown dry.

“I knew it was someone else’s when I took it.”

“But...?”

“And what’ll you give me back for it? What are you gonna do about it?”

This should have taught him not to mess with him: he didn’t even have to use his business tone to make the other take a step back. Meng Yao, the bastard, had taught him smiles went a long way in dealing with stupid people after all.

“Right, if I take it from you... you won’t have one to go back home with.”

Uh?

“Wait here. I’ll go buy you one at the convenience store. I’ll be back.”

Uh??

The idiot actually run back to the store and purchased him a fucking umbrella. And Xue Yang was twice as stupid because he waited for him to come back, startled as he was. The idiot was smiling megawatt bright when he came back as well, what the fuck?

The sick bastard extended the clear plastic umbrella to him like Xue Yang had done earlier, but he held it by the middle, as if surrendering his weapon. It was fairly similar to the one Xue Yang had stolen anyway, why bother asking for his umbrella back?

“Did your dead mother give this particular one to you or something?”

The bite in his words only mildly deterred the other man, who pressed his lips together before forcing an even bigger smile on his face.

“No. It’s pretty cheap. But it’s mine. It’s the first thing I bought with my money.”

Xue Yang left after that. With the stolen umbrella. Because he was still a scumbag and not a sentimental asshole. But he was very quiet that evening when XingChen treated him to some fancy takeout on his couch while lovingly drying Xue Yang’s hair with a towel.

Nothing made sense anymore.

Qin Su worried over Jiang Cheng. He was her best worker, but she knew for a fact that he had a million part-time jobs in town and she didn’t want to overwork him. She also knew he would give all of his hard-earned money to XiChen anyway. All to pay a stupid debt. The huge lovesick idiot.

Was he the fastest delivery driver? Yes. Was he the most well behaved of his staff? Not even close. But he was respectful enough to work over his issues and she trusted him with doing his job at the end of the day.

So when she found a young man in a frilly outfit waiting for her on the lobby of her shop asking for Jiang Cheng... well, she was pleasantly surprised.

He introduced himself as XuanYu and held a lunch box in his hands, saying Jiang Cheng had forgotten it at home. Which left A-Su properly impressed. How could a man as angry as Jiang Cheng secure himself such a lovely person was beyond her comprehension, honestly.

He was adorable and she wanted to be his sister like, yesterday.

But when Jiang Cheng came back from a delivery, entering the dumpling shop with his helmet still on, he stared XuanYu down and told him off right off the bat.

“Not you again,” he said, to A-Su’s utter confusion, “Can’t you take a fucking hint? I’m already avoiding you at work. I don’t want to be your friend.”

Something akin to hurt painted XuanYu’s feature for a fraction of a second before he could retrieve his smile and point at the lunch box.

“Your sister asked me to give this to you on my way out. A-Ling helped making rice cakes this time and wanted to hear from you if you liked them or not.”

Qin Su could have easily missed the change in XuanYu’s voice at that, that’s how much of a good actor he was. But Jiang Cheng had no face even to feel ashamed for lashing out at the kid like that. How much older could he be from XuanYu, three years? Two? Had nobody taught him some respect?

“XuanYu, if he bullies you again you come here. Am I understood?”

Like hell she was gonna let this gem of a child slip away from Jiang Cheng’s hands.

Not in a million years.

Song Lan breathed in and out. In and out. The clear morning air surrounded him like an old friend, hugging him closely as he clutched the papers for his divorce.

XingChen had signed them in the end. Five years together were now in the past for him.

Maybe they had been too young back then, when they had taken the chance to get married the moment the government announced the change in the law for people like them. How old have they been, twenty-three? Twenty-four? Another lifetime. An existence away.

He wished he could cry. It would have been easier.

But, as he turned a corner, someone stumbled into him and sent the papers scattering on the sidewalk. Song Lan tried to save them from being dirtied on a puddle but was unsuccessful. He didn’t know why he bothered anymore. It felt like the last piece of his lover had left and Song Lan couldn’t even prevent something as simple as that. XingChen’s signature dirtied in a pool, but not enough to be washed away. What a joke.

The young man in front him bowed down, apologizing profusely, trying to save the documents at the best of his abilities. He even suggested finding a public toilet to dry the sheets under the hot air blowing machine, the silly man.

Song Lan smiled instead, reassuring him it was fine.

He was fine.

But the kid accidentally read the first few lines of the agreement before looking up at Song Lan. And where he would have expected pity, Song Lan only saw consternation instead on his pale face. It was so startling to see it, that he had to crouch back down on the ground next to the kid and reassure him everything was fine. It was just paper, it wasn’t important, he didn’t have to feel so guilty about...

“It is important. Your life is important.”

Such a dramatic sentence, uttered so vehemently, should have sounded weird to Song Lan. Especially because he disapproved of such antics in the first place. But it sounded so sincere, so earnest that he felt touched for a moment.

So he helped the kid up on his feet and asked him to walk a bit with him, to keep him company. Reserved as he was, he would have never thought possible opening up to a stranger the way he did that day. But there was something calming about the kid, almost as if he had been put on earth to soothe other people’s existence.

So he told him how his husband had fallen in love with someone else, someone much younger than them. How this had strained their marriage even if Song Lan had known all along his husband had the ability to fall in love with more than one person at a time. But Song Lan was monogamous and would have never justified forcing his lover to suppress his feelings just to please him. So it had been Song Lan himself to call it quits and wish him all the luck in the world.

The kid had started crying at some point, without Song Lan even noticing at first.

“Why are you crying? Please no, I didn’t wan to upset you.”

“So much love. In different ways but... it’s too much. There’s so much of it, of course I’m crying for you and your loved one.”

Song Lan was many things. Too stern, too rigid, too peculiar about who could touch him or not, too cold in expressing his emotions. But he felt warm then, in front of a kid crying for him in the middle of the street, one day of late autumn.

“Thank you.”

***

XuanYu let it slip once with Mrs. Jin how little he remembered of his past.

It wasn’t a lie, he really didn’t remember what it had been of him before he had met her, asking for a room. But the kind woman just assumed he was talking about his past or youth, so he didn’t correct her on the matter.

Knowing the truth would have scared her, after all.

But he still let himself trust her that day as they sat in front of a pot of tea and he pretended to drink and eat the pastries on the low table. He didn’t need to eat or drink. He wasn’t even sure he had a digestive system.

“I only remember... a song.”

“A song?”

“Yes. Someone singing every night before falling asleep. I don’t think it was meant for me to hear... but my body remembers the shivers. The feeling of being loved.”

“The body remembers the weirdest things, XuanYu. You should trust it more.”

He smiled at that, wriggling his hands on the handkerchief where he had hidden the pastries from sight.

“I’m pretty sure that song wasn’t for me. My body was merely there to listen.”

YanLi looked uncomfortable at that, something scary painting her features.

“Maybe I was eavesdropping,” he reassured her with a self-deprecating joke, not sure if that would have made her feel more at ease or not, “Maybe I was listening in, hoping such lovely words could be directed at me for once.”

Mrs. Jin sipped her tea for a long while afterwards, before finding the resolution to look up and stare him down with a serious expression.

“Unrequited feelings hurt, don’t they?”

XuanYu didn’t know what she meant by that, but he nodded anyway.

He heard something rustling in his bag and hid the sweets inside of it the moment YanLi turned to clear the table. If A-Ling heard someone munching their protests away from inside of the bag, he didn’t snitch on XuanYu and retrieved playing with Fairy on the carpeted floor next to him instead.

Lan Zhan was disappointed in him, XuanYu knew that much. They were admiring the sunset from the small balcony in their room, folding laundry.

XuanYu always wondered why Lan Zhan assumed the form of a black stuffed rabbit, of all things, but he didn’t want to pry. He didn’t even know his real name. The other had told him he used to be a human in his past life and that he hadn’t technically reincarnated in this lifetime. That his current form was just a mean to a goal, that he could use it to guide XuanYu and help him better that way without expending much spiritual energy.

He told him someone dear to him taught him how to manipulate paper-man talismans in his previous life. How similar the process had been to move around in a stuffed animal’s body. How convenient.

XuanYu believed he secretly loved it, even if Lan Zhan would have never said as much. He already talked very little to begin with.

“You told her you don’t remember your past.”

“That I did.”

“Don’t do it again”

XuanYu folded the last towel on his lap and then let Lan Zhan take a nap on it. He felt silly having to take showers and pretend to be a normal human being. He hated inconveniencing the Jins with him, accepting their bedding and paid kitchen appliances and so on. But if he wanted to accomplish his mission he had to make an effort to look normal... instead of spirited away from another world or maybe simply another era.

“I won’t do it again, don’t worry Lan Zhan.”

Lan Zhan was disappointed, but he was also patient to a fault.

Sure, it would have been much appreciated if Mo XuanYu didn’t lose him around every other day. This time the younger man had forgotten to pick him up from the floor where he had been reading stories to the children at the kindergarten.

But Lan Zhan was also a stuffed animal now, so it wasn’t like he could move around and risk being seeing by normal humans. His body was a vessel and any damage would have had repercussions on his soul as well.

What to do.

He tried not to panic when he felt someone picking him up from the floor after an hour or so. He silently prayed for them not to be A-Qing: even in this life she was too smart for her own good and he couldn’t risk being found out so soon. Mo XuanYu wasn’t even halfway to complete his mission and Lan Zhan couldn’t...

“I’m sure A-Yu is looking for you, little guy. What are doing all the way back here?”

It was always difficult to hear his older brother’s voice in this life. To see his face, to notice how sad he was even in this new reincarnation of his.

Lan Zhan didn’t move a single muscle as XiChen dusted him off and put him in his apron front pocket as he looked for “A-Yu”.

In order to give a second chance to Mo XuanYu, Lan Zhan had sacrificed any possibility to ever reincarnate until his mission was accomplished. So XiChen didn’t have a younger brother in this lifetime and he would have not had one for a while. Lan Zhan missed him, but they had to wait for a bit more.

They still had three months to fill the bottle the King of Hell had entrusted Mo XuanYu with. Then he would have entered the list for reincarnation once more and everything will have been fine in the end.

Lan Zhan owed the kid his life, so he trusted him.

No matter what.

XuanYu remembered the boy who had stolen his umbrella. He remembered him well enough to recognize him when he found him crawling on the floor, a stab wound in his belly, one winter night.

Panicked, he asked Lan Zhan what they could do as he instinctively pressed the wound with his bare hands. Lan Zhan didn’t dare move not to attract attention on himself. The other man snarled out at XuanYu, asking him why did he even bother, seemingly recognizing him.

“I took your fucking umbrella. Hate me and leave me alone.”

“Ridiculous.”

Lan Zhan would have been proud of him for that remark, but XuanYu was too scared to think about it. He didn’t have a phone and he didn’t even know the number for emergencies. He wasn’t even qualified to be a teacher. How had he survived until then. He was useless and stupid and...

“What the fuck?” Jiang Cheng’s voice came in a whisper behind him.

What a sorry view the older man had to take in that night: a pool of blood staining otherwise clean clothes, a moaning boy on the ground in restless pain, a crying mess of a sad excuse of a human pressing on a throbbing wound next to him.

Jiang Cheng muttered something about the boy being one of Meng Yao’s men, that they should leave him there to die for all he cared.

The man under XuanYu barked back, telling him he had tried to “convince the idiot of the same”. But XuanYu was horrified by what he had just heard.

“People die for nothing. People die for fucking nothing. You don’t leave someone behind just because you fucking hate them.”

XuanYu has never cursed in this brief, borrowed life of his. Maybe spending so much time with Jiang Cheng had rubbed some of his habits off on him in the end.

Startled, Jiang Cheng seemed to agree with him because he fished out his phone and called an ambulance right away.

The stabbed man laughed at that.

Lan Zhan was clutched in XuanYu’s hands as they waited in the corridor of a badly lit hospital. The kid was crying, hard. He must have remembered how his family in Mo Manor had mistreated him in the past, how easily his own relatives had starved him off just out of spite. How already impossibly emaciated he had been when he had sacrificed his body for Wei Ying, to bring him back in a weakened vessel just to seek revenge. Just to let his hatred run free.

Such cruelty had earned him nothing but distrust from the hell judges, who sentenced him to never be reincarnated again. Only when Lan Zhan had ascended to heaven -many centuries after reaching immortality- he had been able to make them relent.

If Mo XuanYu could prove to be a good human being during a trial time of one year on planet earth, filling a vial with good actions in the form of golden gems, then they would have considered Lan Zhan’s proposal. Mo XuanYu would have atoned his sin and be granted a new life, a clean record, and a second chance at happiness.

Seeing someone almost die in front of him must have awaken something ugly in him. His stained hands, the iron stench in the air. All that blood... like the last thing he had most probably seen in his previous life before his body sacrifice. A scarlet array under his feet, another soul replacing his in his own body.

Lan Zhan let himself be held tightly in Mo XuanYu’s hands that night at the hospital.

And hugged back without anyone else noticing.

Xiao XingChen. That was the name of the man showing up at the kindergarten one week later. XuanYu had never seen him before, but the man hugged him in front of the kids, alerting both XiChen and Jiang Cheng.

“Thank you,” the tall man said in between tears, holding him tight.

“I don’t understand. I...”

“You saved A-Yang. Thank you.”

XuanYu pressed his lips together tightly at that, so overwhelmed he didn’t know what to say. His fingertips hurting with sometimes akin to electricity the more he let himself be held so fiercely by the other man.

He started crying in earnest only after the man had left, surrounded by the children who worried and fussed over him. He fell asleep with them during nap time and when he woke up he found Jiang Cheng placing a quilt over him.

Caught red handed, the older man feigned disinterest in the beginning... but then he sat down next to him. Just like he had done in the hospital one week ago.

“Did you see someone die before?” Jiang Cheng asked then, awkwardly scratching the back of his head, “You had such a strong... reaction to my words. It was insensitive of me. I apologize for angering you. I’ll better myself.”

XuanYu didn’t answer at that.

Jiang Cheng would have never understood what it meant to sacrifice yourself to hatred and revenge. How much it had scarred him to be brought back to life, but only as a worn out set of robes on top of someone else’s soul. How distant he had felt when the Yiling Patriarch had inhabited his body and had let himself be touched by someone else.

Jiang Cheng would have never understood what it meant to be touched in the flesh but be utterly unreachable as a soul. Or how much it hurt to become an empty body filled by someone foreign and new. Someone who could wear his skin better than him.

Jiang Cheng would have never understood. And thank all the gods for that.

So XuanYu... Mo XuanYu kept quiet and smiled instead.

Lan Zhan didn’t trust Jiang Cheng. He hadn’t in the past and he wasn’t gonna start now. Wei Ying would have been so disappointed in him for thinking badly of his baby brother, but there was little Lan Zhan could do about that.

Wei Ying wasn’t there to judge him for it.

Mo XuanYu would wake up every morning and wash himself, get dressed and tidy up the room before leaving. He would fix his appearance in a mirror Young Lady Jiang had gifted him in autumn, making sure his hat was still in place.

“What would happen if I were to...?”

“You must keep your hat on... even when you sleep. You know this much.”

“I wear a headband to bed.”

“And what of it?”

“It’s... silly.”

“Nobody can see you in your sleep. Why the sudden worry?”

Mo XuanYu said nothing in response to that, but Lan Zhan knew. The kid had never worried too much about his appearance aside from looking proper and well dressed. He had never fussed over his features, but recently he had taken the habit to walk dangerously close to makeup stores and check various displays at the convenience store close by. Lan Zhan knew Mo XuanYu had remembered his past... how he had quickly realized he was already an adult. With needs and desires.

But now a brand new reincarnation of Jiang WanYin would wait for him every morning to walk to work together. Now Jiang Cheng acted pleasantly enough to be considered kind and doting to someone starved of affection like Mo XuanYu had always been. Which wasn’t planned, it had never been.

Lan Zhan didn’t like where this was going.

He didn’t like it at all.

Nie HuaiSang came to bring a cake for XuanYu one day or so before the end of the year, snow sticking to his hair and flushed cheeks.

“I don’t know when your birthday is... so I’m pretty sure I’m late to the game. But I wanted to thank you for helping me and MianMian that one time. So I made a cake for you. I hope you like strawberries.”

Mo XuanYu had no idea if he liked them or not. He couldn’t even eat.

He started crying in the middle of his room, where HuaiSang had placed the boxed cake on top of his low table.

Panicked, HuaiSang jumped up and out of the room to alert Jiang Cheng next door. But upon seeing the other man’s worried expression XuanYu cried even harder.

“What did you do to him, you bastard?”

“I’m not the one who used to prank people all the time. Grow up!”

“You clearly did something horrible to him for...”

“A-Cheng we’re not twelve anymore. Who do you take me for?”

XuanYu took his chance to stuff his face with cake, gulping it down bit by bit even if he knew he didn’t have the necessary organs to process it without vomiting it all out in an hour or so. He had tried many times to hold food down to no avail. His body rejecting it as if it was poisonous and dangerous.

He had tried so many times... to practice. To be able to appreciate YanLi’s generous cooking, to help A-Ling and the children at school prep their lunches and maybe... maybe to eat with Jiang Cheng every now and then.

Nie HuaiSang hugged him and patted his head, confused but too scared to ask for an explanation. Mo XuanYu smiled at him and lied, saying his cake was the best he had ever eaten. It wasn’t the best. It was simply the first.

He had no way to compare it with anything else, really.

Wen Ning had heard about his “stomachache” from XiChen, who had known all about it from YanLi and Jiang Cheng. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise for XuanYu when he saw the older boy in front of his apartment complex the last day of the year.

But it was a surprise.

“Can we talk for a bit?” Wen Ning asked, holding his umbrella up for XuanYu to walk beside him, protecting him from the icy snow.

They walked to the nearest park, sitting under the gazebo to watch the snow falling down. Their heavy coats keeping them warm, despite the cold.

They used to take long walks back from the kindergarten with A-Yuan after school, since the Wens lived close to XuanYu. Before Jiang Cheng came back anyway.

Wen Ning looked uncomfortable, fidgeting with his fingers as he tried to find the right words. He surprised XuanYu by telling him how, in the past, he had suffered from an eating disorder and had been hospitalized for a while in his teens. How worried his sister and their grandma had been for him, how much they helped him in his recovery. How alone he had felt for years still, no matter how loved he was.

“A-Yuan told me he never saw you eat. So I was wondering if you needed help.”

It wasn’t the case, but XuanYu knew he meant well. Telling him everything was fine would have only worried him more, so he tried to explain an half-truth that could satisfy him. Saying it was difficult for him to process food, that in the past he had suffered from malnutrition and now he had digestive issues.

He was talking about his past life, but he figured that could work as well.

When they parted ways in front of the apartment complex, Wen Ning asked to hold XuanYu’s hands for a bit. He cradled them carefully, as if they were precious. His slender fingers cupping XuanYu’s smaller palms almost reverently.

“I know you don’t feel the same about me. But I’ll ask you to look after yourself anyway. Not out of obligation for me... but out of respect for yourself, if nothing else.”

The moment Wen Ning let go of his hands, Jiang Cheng stepped out of the front door of the building and saw them.

He said nothing and walked away after stepping out of the gate.

Lan Zhan would have very much liked to flip a finger at Jiang WanYin’s forehead. Hard. Wei Ying would have done the same, he was sure.

Wei Ying would have also smacked some sense in his baby brother, forcing him to face his feelings and take responsibility for what he was doing to poor Mo XuanYu.

Who was currently waiting for the other man’s return like a dog by his room balcony, surveying the front courtyard like a bird of prey from above.

Lan Zhan tried to coax the kid inside, reminding him snow was still falling down and that his beanie was slipping away. He tried to be gentle about it, knowing how much XuanYu had grown resentful of the hats he had to constantly wear.

But the younger man simply shrugged, saying he wanted to wait for another five minutes. Just one more. Just to make sure.

Jiang Cheng didn’t come back that night.

And Mo XuanYu cried in his sleep clutching the half-empty vial to his chest.

Lan Zhan spent the night watching over him, singing to him the song he had written for Wei Ying. He snuggled close to XuanYu and made sure his wide headband was covering the crown of his head, before pressing himself to the other’s forehead.

He never stopped singing.

Wishing he could take all the pain away.

YanLi, A-Yuan and even ZiXuan knocked on his door to greet him into the new year, despite how XuanYu should have been the one to pay his respects to his landlords.

But they asked him to visit the funeral home with them instead, to say their thanks to YanLi’s parents with offers and flowers.

He dressed in his best clothes, having never been in what seemed to be a modern version of the ancestral halls of his childhood in a past life. The establishment was fairly sterile, with shelves filled with plaques and pictures instead of wooden inscriptions on an altar. The lot of them bowed and said their thanks, chatting with the late Jiangs almost as if they had never left. YanLi apologized to her mother for Jiang Cheng’s absence that year like any other year, while ZiXuan told his father-in-law how they would have visited the Jin ancestors during Chūnjié to make it fair.

XuanYu looked at them and barely kept himself from crying.

On their way back, YanLi explained her parents had died when she was still twelve and Jiang Cheng was merely six. How they had lived in the orphanage run by XiChen’s mother and made friends with the boy, who was YanLi’s classmate. How the siblings stayed there until YanLi came of age and got custody of her baby brother. ZiXuan’s family of lawyers had helped her pro bono and that was how she had met the man and fallen in love with him. Even if it had taken a while for ZiXuan to notice her at first, preoccupied with university and law school as he had been at the time. But the Jins helped her with the inheritance left by the late Madame Yu: the apartment complex where they currently lived.

Watching them explaining their past in such detail moved XuanYu deeply. Feeling as if they wanted to make him part of their family by filling in the gaps for him.

That was still his older brother after all and those were still his sister-in-law and his beloved nephew and he... he loved them. He had missed them so, so much.

And he was about to leave them again soon.

Wen Qing finally showed herself up one day at the park, when Mo XuanYu was taking Fairy out for an evening walk. She approached him by telling the younger man she had assisted in the surgery Xue Yang had undergone some time back.

Lan Zhan (hiding in the kid’s coat pocket) could see how startled the kid was at the mention of the criminal, but he decided to trust this version of Lady Wen as he would have done in the past.

Wei Ying cared deeply for her, after all.

Whatever truths she was about to entrust Mo XuanYu with, Lan Zhan knew the kid could take it.

He hoped as much, at least.

Jiang Cheng came back only for Chinese New Year. Saying he had stayed at XiChen’s since the winter break allowed them to take it easy and figure some stuff out for the following school year.

It hurt to know where he had been all along, but XuanYu braved a smile anyway. He knew how much Jiang Cheng cared for the older man, how much he wanted to save the school from the debt collector. How much he didn’t love XuanYu back.

So he let himself cry one last time before waking up one morning and deciding he had had enough.

He talked with Lan Zhan, asking him to tell him all about Wei WuXian and their love. If XuanYu’s sacrifice had allowed them to be happy as they deserved in the end. If Lan Zhan hated him now, for forcing him away from his loved one, who was currently waiting for him to come back to heaven.

Mo XuanYu knew the couple had sacrificed their chance at reincarnation to allow him to seek a second lifetime for himself. He knew Wei Ying watched over them from up above, waiting for Lan Zhan to secure a new life for the kid.

They talked all day and then well into the night.

By dawn Mo XuanYu had decided what to do.

XuanYu properly met Meng Yao one day of early spring, when flowers weren’t yet brave enough to poke their way out and greet the sun. The man was dressed in black, his hair cut short, a sigarette between his lips as he waited patiently for the kindergarten to open.

It was XuanYu’s duty to open that morning, so he was the one to greet the man.

Upon hearing his voice, Meng Yao immediately recognized him.

“There you are. I was waiting for you.”

“Me?”

“You’re the kid who answered the phone. And the one who helped my subordinate back in winter, right?”

His dimples were so deep, his face so pleasant.

Mo XuanYu remembered him from another lifetime. He remembered how much he had cared for his older brother Jin GuangYao. How hurt he had felt when the other had lied and accused him of harassment just to get rid of him.

But this was a new life and Meng Yao was just a man.

Who happened to have been married with XiChen for a while before turning to a life filled with crime and gang violence.

Wen Qing had told him Meng Yao had initially tried to live far away from his adoptive father Wen RuoHan. All for the sake of marrying XiChen and keep him safe. But XiChen’s mother still had had a debt to pay for the construction of the orphanage, a price too high for her to pay with her poor health and delicate disposition. A debt that XiChen had inherited from her when she had died.

That was why Meng Yao had left him: to go back to his father and ask him to handle the debt himself, supplicating him to overlook such small issue and let him dry XiChen out of every penny and cent instead.

Wen Qing may have learned this only from the gossiping running in her family, with the Wen Clan being as big as it was, but she was pretty sure of what she had told XuanYu. That Meng Yao had simply faked having fallen out of love with XiChen to protect him from his adoptive father and his cruelty. That XiChen still loved him and was waiting for him to fight alongside him instead.

Mo XuanYu knew all of this.

So now he could act and fulfill his mission.

“I want to pay the debt XiChen owes you.”

“You are full of surprises, XuanYu. And how do you plan to do that?”

“I can do many things.”

“You’re very pretty, you can make good money out of it.”

XuanYu considered his words before shaking his head.

“It’s not something I can do.”

“Then what can you do?”

“I’ll solve everything.”

“I’m all ears.”

“But you’ll have to stop making XiChen worry so much.”

“That’s not how business work...”

“Lie to me. Give your word and I’ll... I will solve everything.”

Meng Yao humored him and nodded.

Then and only then, Mo XuanYu took his hat off.

Lan Zhan had watched the entire scene unfold before his eyes without intervening, trusting Mo XuanYu with such an important choice. He took in the sight of the beautiful spiritual light shining brightly on top of XuanYu’s head like a crown.

His soul in full display, its energy so raw it had slowed down time all around them.

Lan Zhan turned around and looked at XiChen, who had just turned a corner and had been walking towards XuanYu to greet him good morning. Frozen in time, his older brother’s face still looked peaceful... simply because he had had no time to notice Meng Yao’s presence quite yet.

Lan Zhan turned once more and saw Jiang WanYin making his way in a rush towards them, surely to protect XuanYu from Meng Yao. When did he arrive? His features trapped in a perpetual frown, scared for the one he truly loved in this lifetime.

Then, Lan Zhan looked up at Mo XuanYu and saw him taking the bottle only half filled with gold... which symbolized his goodwill and generous spirit.

“Will this be enough to grant a wish, Lan Zhan?”

When XuanYu said his name like that he sounded so much like his Wei Ying, full of hope and love.

“It depends on the wish, A-Yu.”

“I reckon it’s not enough for a new reincarnation, eh?”

“It’s enough to save a life... but not yours.”

XuanYu looked crestfallen, but he persevered still.

The bottle transformed into a bag filled with money and XuanYu made his way to XiChen and left it at his feet before smiling up at his mentor and employer.

“I cannot rewrite the past, but maybe I can plan a better future for you.”

Still smiling, XuanYu slowly walked over to Jiang Cheng and said his farewells.

Then he crouched down and took Lan Zhan in his hands, kissing him goodbye on the head affectionately.

“Erase me well, Lan Zhan,” he whispered then.

Before disappearing into thin air.

***

Wei Ying had agreed with him, suggesting the idea himself.

In the end the King of Hell had granted Lan Zhan’s request and offered Mo XuanYu a second chance anyway. Since this new self-sacrifice had been fueled by positive emotions instead of anger and despair, the hell judges had considered the atonement fulfilled and put the kid’s name back on the reincarnation list.

Twenty years had past and many things had changed.

For starters, the kid’s last name wasn’t Mo anymore, but Nie. The boy had, in fact, born into Nie MingJue’s family and had lived overseas in Japan for a while before moving back to Lanling when XuanYu turned twenty. Nie HuaiSang had met him many times during summer vacations and other festivities, visiting his brother and his wife every chance he had gotten to dote on his cute nephew XuanYu.

Nie MingJue had done a remarkable job in protecting him from harm. So, by the time their little family had decided to move close to HuaiSang, XuanYu had become a well adjusted adult with a brilliant future ahead of him.

Nobody remembered him.

Or so Lan Zhan had thought.

Apparently, he had forgotten to wipe Jin Ling’s memories thoroughly. So, when The Nie family had come to greet HuaiSang’s friends YanLi and ZiXuan, A-Ling almost had a stroke out of incredulity and happiness for being reunited with his “A-Yu”. Even if Jin Ling was now older than the pretty-gege from his memories. Even if he had spent years trying to figure out why nobody seemed to remember the weird uncle living next door to his Jiujiu years back.

XiChen and Meng Yao had solved their problems and had started running the school together right after Wen RuoHan sudden and mysterious disappearance. The man had many enemies after all.

A-Yuan had grown up into a fine young man, someone Wei Ying would have certainly been proud of, working with his cousin Wen Ning at the local botanical garden while his friends still studied in university.

Nie HuaiSang had married Qin Su and opened a restaurant with her.

MianMian and Wen Qing had decided to live together and adopt a bunch of dogs just because.

Xiao XingChen and Xue Yang still lived together while Song Lan had found his way back to them after talking it out with the couple.

A-Qing was probably running some sketchy business in social services to protect kids from horrible families.

Lan Zhan was still, unfortunately, a stuffed rabbit. Following XuanYu in his new life in the most unexpected of ways. In the form of the first present the boy’s uncle had gifted him in childhood. If Wei Ying had pulled a string or two from heaven to make that happen, well, Lan Zhan himself was none the wiser. The only thing he knew was that XuanYu had always taken him with him in all his travels even if he didn’t know he could speak. Lan Zhan had preferred not to reveal his nature and let the kid have a normal childhood. Especially since he had no memories of his past as a tenant in Jiang YanLi’s house. Nor of his life as a cultivator.

Wei Ying had agreed they could wait to be reunited again. The both of them wanting to look over XuanYu for a little longer before getting their own chance at reincarnation. They had all eternity to be together again... they could definitely wait a bit more for the kid.

All was well.

Aside from the other person whose mind Lan Zhan had conveniently forgot to wipe clean of any memory of XuanYu.

In his defense, Lan Zhan had tried to make Jiang Cheng forget. But something about XuanYu must have touched him so deeply... that Lan Zhan had not been able to do much about it. The kid’s smiles and clumsy antics would always linger in the back of the other’s mind no matter how much he tried to ignore them.

Coming back from his job at ZiXuan’s firm, exhausted and vulnerable, Jiang Cheng decided to visit his sister the same day Nie MingJue had brought his family there. So he was particularly weak to the sight of a bright, soft XuanYu when YanLi introduced her younger brother to their guests.

To Lan Zhan’s absolute delight, Jiang Cheng immediately bowed down to a scary looking Nie MingJue and asked his son’s hand in marriage.

Yes, grovel to this precious boy and learn your place.

XuanYu only tilted his head at that weird man bowing to his parents and smiled.

His laughter ringing up to the sky, where Wei Ying was still listening.

From where he would have kept watching.

[I worked so hard on this please reblog]

[kobato means “little dove” I thought it was cute since XuanYu is a magpie! + I wanted MXY a chance at life and for once this is a reversal-sacrifice from WWX’s part and I think it’s neat.]

[JC would be 43 or so... which yikes. but this is all I could do. I don’t like huge age gaps but at least everyone is a consenting adult, okay?]

[the thing that started this was like “what if LXC was an only child and LWJ did not reincarnate bc he’s still in the afterlife or something? then the entire thing escalated so...yeah.]

now I will cry for ages. I worked so hard on this good god D:

#mdzs #cql #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs/au: clamp #mdzs/au: kindergarten #mdzs/au: kobato #mdzs/au: modern #mo xuanyu #jiang cheng #the forbidden crack! untamed prompts #RAREPAIR ALERT #I AM TRASH I WILL SHIP JC WITH A ROCK FOR ALL I CARE #xiyao #tw eating disorders mentioned #wangxian #yucheng #chengyu

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clairekatswritingcorner · 4 years

Text

Love Letters

Word Count: 1,289

Summary: Rhys writes D a special letter to confess all the things he loves about her that are often hard to verbalize. D is naturally quite taken aback by the gesture, not just due to the letter’s contents, but also by the fact that Rhys would bother to do something so nice for her in the first place.

For @robotarmjokes!

If you enjoyed reading this piece, please consider leaving a tip or commissioning me!

*****

He fiddled with the envelope in his hands, unable to suppress the anxious fidgeting tingling in his nerves. Widely known as the man that had spearheaded Hyperion’s downfall and raised Atlas from the ashes in its place, there should have been little that could faze him. But appearances seldom reflect the whole truth, and just like anyone else, he wasn’t immune to everything. Quite the opposite, actually, since he figured he was put off by things more often than most, even his wife. She frequently lamented and berated herself for her shortcomings, the little things that upset or unsettled her that she assumed were mainly inconsequential in the eyes of others. Rhys knew that wasn’t the case as a result of his own experiences, and he wished he could do more to help her understand the validity of her position.

But that persuasive process was going to have to wait; today, she happened to lie at the root of his problems. Not due to anything she’d done or said, since the predicament he found himself in was a rather unfortunately personal and self-inflicted one. Standing outside the door to her workshop, the place where she organized and conducted the majority of her top-secret work and contracts, his gaze flitted restlessly between the knob and the paper that crinkled between his shaking fingers. Objectively, it wasn’t a big deal, and he silently scolded himself as seconds stretched into minutes, knowing deep down that he should have been more than capable of easily accomplishing this task. Perhaps it was just the nature of the act, the risk that came with confronting her so directly, but he’d engaged in other awkward and downright foolish actions in the past and never suffered anything close to the panic and paranoia he was now.

It wasn’t like this was his first time giving her a gift. Well, he supposed it was the first time he’d given her something like this, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was about this specific kind of gift that made him feel like he was sinking in a tsunami of self-doubt. It was almost as if he’d regressed back into a helpless pining schoolboy, nervous yet resolute in his mission to make a good impression…clinging to the hope that his crush would give him even a sliver of a chance to prove himself. But this was his spouse he was talking about! The person he’d married, his better half who’d made everything from the proposal to the ceremony the best moments of his life. Their relationship hadn’t exactly been smooth sailing from the start, but few worthwhile relationships are. With the combination of a spark and a lingering will of dedication, almost anyone can withstand even the harshest storms together…at least that’s what Rhys had learned from his time with his darling D.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, raising a hand to knock and hesitating just a second more. Was he worried she was going to laugh at him, or reject him? Was he scared of this act he’d poured his heart and soul into falling flat, and the crippling disappointment that would surely follow? If D could manage to push through her insecurities to do better for him, the least he could do was give her the same courtesy. Rather than plunging headfirst into the unknown, though, he opted to employ a more cautious method, slipping the unassuming looking note under the door. He retreated after knocking a few times, her irritated demand to know who’d come to interrupt her following him down the hall. He figured he’d use the extra time he’d gained to properly prepare to face her reaction, regardless of how wonderful or terrible it turned out to be.

As the hours ticked by, he found himself starting to regret his decision to flee. The sound of creaking hinges and approaching footsteps snapped him back to reality, and the moment he laid eyes on her his breath was taken away. She didn’t necessarily look much different than usual…but he could tell she’d been both flustered and crying, taken aback by the honest and heartfelt nature of his modest offering. A letter detailing some of the things he loved about her, how she’d improved his life since they’d met, how much happier he was now that she was in his life. Without her, he never would have been able to achieve the happiness he had now…and his life would never be the same because of it. He hoped he’d managed to make her feel at least a fraction of the same way.

“What’s the meaning of this?” she demanded, although he could tell she wasn’t asking in a derogatory or disgruntled way.

“I just wanted to give you a little something to show I care,” he explained, stepping across the room to close the gap between them. “I mean, I know it’s not much, but…”

“Why did you make me something like this?”

He was more interested to know how she felt about receiving it, but he supposed he could humor her questions a little longer. “Well, you’ve said before that gifts make you uncomfortable. Maybe you didn’t use that phrasing exactly, but I know you’ve mentioned that getting something like a letter, a more sentimental and subdued expression of thanks or admiration, is easier for you to accept. I’ve had a lot on my mind about us, about you, especially with our anniversary coming up. So, I decided to put some of those feelings on paper…and give that paper to you, hoping that maybe it would, I don’t know, help brighten your day or something.”

She had to remind herself not to clench her fist and subsequently crumple the precious pages in her hands. Multiple paragraphs of passionate prose that clearly reflected his struggle to translate the cornucopia of feelings that fueled his affection into something coherent. Even if some parts of it were confusing or failed to make sense, the one thing that had made it through crystal clear was his ardent and abundant love for her. She’d felt similar sentiments flood her chest as she’d read this ode to his emotions, taking in his adoration and gratitude for their relationship and everything about her in general. She knew sometimes the hardest thing to do was simply putting thoughts into words, and this must have been one of the most taxing attempts he’d ever made. She couldn’t think of a more complicated topic to parse.

“This was very thoughtful of you…and very kind,” she finally confessed, setting the papers down on the nearest surface. “It’s the first time anyone’s ever done something like this for me. The first time someone’s actually bothered to remember me saying something like that, too…something so small I can’t believe you bothered paying attention.”

“Nothing’s too small to pay attention to when it comes to you,” Rhys insisted, coaxing her a bit closer before tenderly kissing her neon fringe of hair. “You’re the most important thing in the whole universe to me. I know I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, many more times…but it’s just something I really don’t want you to forget.”

“Sometimes I just don’t know how you can mean it—”

Cutting her off with an unexpected, spine tingling smooch, he settled his arms around her waist, joining his hands above the small of her back. “You’ll just have to take my word for it.”

She flushed and struggled to fish out enough words for a suitable reply. “From a silver-tongued snake like you? That’s asking a lot.”

He chuckled, amused by her embarrassed, overly defensive response. “Don’t worry, I promise I won’t ask for much more than that.”

#self insert #selfinsert #self ship #selfship #oc x canon #self insert fic #self insert fanfiction #selfship fic #selfship fanfiction #self insert commissions #selfship commissions #my writing #claire writes #one shot #robotarmjokes #commission

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kurtty-drabbles · 5 years

Text

Coraline au (intermission)

N/A: Based on a cool idea Marvel did. What if Dazzler was Galaticus´s herald? and yes, in that story it was just to laugh at Dazzler, but, hey cool concept and I´ll use it.

@djinmer4 @dannybagpipesarecalling @discordsworld @bamfoftheundead

"Space the final frontier!" the voice carries a mock tone of importance as well fake intellectual prose to make the scene even more ridiculous. A woman with long wavy blonde hair is gazing upon the final frontier itself with boredom on her now white eyes( her forehead is divided by two long blue scars that travel among her face) and a microphone necklace. Those are the trademark looks of Dazzler and those are also the looks of the newest Galaticus´s Herald.

“Uhm. Still doing jokes” Galaticus´s voice is too powerful to be ignored even if he wishes for that. The Herald is taking a ride on his shoulder, a small reward for an exemplary job done and this small reward is not exactly soothing her spirits.

“Of course, to survive in this job, I need a sense of humour otherwise…I wouldn’t be me” Dazzler explained with a forlorn expression now. Silver Surfer and Dazzler made a similar deal with Galaticus and both must live up with this decision.

( When Outer Gods wanted to be merciful is so hard to tell)

The reply is delivered with such a carefree attitude that almost seems genuine. Dazzler is a famous singer, not an actress. For a moment, the woman thought Galaticus would go full "Disney´s villain" yet all the Outer God speaks is one line. "I see, is a good strategy so far"

There´s no manual to help navigate through this impossible job. As Galaticus is well feed, thanks to Dazzler´s efficiency, is in a higher mood and Dazzler resolves to make some questions.

"Galaticus...how many more of you, Outer Gods, I mean, exist?" Dazzler asked confused as Galaticus rarely if ever talks about his own kind. Again, he didn´t go "Disney´s villain" and did respond to the question as a courtesy to Dazzler.

"That´s actually a simple question. There´s not many of us, mindless gods? Yes, but, Eternity, destroy them all" Galaticus has a somewhat sadness in his tone now. "Now as for Outer Gods, uhm, there´s me, Death, Eternity, Pheonix as you know very well and ..." now his face frown at this. "and there´s Chaos, the vilest and malicious entity out there...if I must us a name, then, let´s call IT Knull"

"The God of Symbiotes?!" Dazzler exclaimed surprised. She did work with Shield once and know they have a record of "Carnage" but the name Knull was thrown once or twice as a mystical creature.

"Yes, Knull has many faces and I suggest you, Dazzler, to be far away from IT, while, he is weirdly polite about rules, he´s not above breaking if you disturb its plans" Galaticus advice and Dazzler nods unsure on what she can say here.

"Wait, one last question" Dazzler replied back and Galaticus, in a really good mood seems to want to indulge her curiosity, "Does Knull have a Mrs Knull?"

"Well, that´s something odd to ask, but, NO. Knull has no mate, no love and if you caught the word on what the cats are trying to accomplish...let me tell you something, is futile. Knull has no mate and will never have one."

Dazzler has nothing else to ask and her time as Herald is finsihed for now. ____________________________________________________________

Normalcy and the X-men have a conturbed relationship. Sentinels now working to protect mutants(Senator Kelly did throw a hissy fist to the point is a meme) Magneto being an ally and enemy at the same time, Emma Frost helping the X-men (some speculation points the root of this newfound goodness to be a rivalry to be better than Jean Grey) and the seniors X-men are doing something mundane with extraordinary powers.

However, Longshotis is gazing at the pool. Not swimming yet. No, he´s at the bay of said pool admiring the liquid state as if is a treasure.

Suddenly, the tranquil water gets small waves forming gentle. Longshot´s eyes meet with Dazzler hovering the pool. There´s no question or confusion, just an understatement as Dazzler falls deep into the pool water. "Hi, Dazzler, welcome back!" his tone is joyful

The water removes Dazzler´s cosmic makeup, crazy outfit and glamorous hair, now, she´s just Alison and she´s glad to be home.

“One of the perks of being a Herald” Dazzler jokes as now she sits next to Longshot. And her boyfriend offers a towel(his power work by luck, literally, so, if he really wants a towel...one will appear in his hand) as he asked calmly. “Hard day at work? Wanna talk about it?”

“Yes, but, not now. Right now, Dazzler has a plan" she has a smirk on her face as Longshot is amused.

"I see, the X-men are part of the plan?"

"Yep, but, to be fair, is not my plan, is Pheonix´s plan. Well, the hierarchy here is big, but, well cosmic deities have a plan"

___________________________________________________________________

A normal day is a blessing for Kitty Pryde and a curse. Dagon is gathering more difficult and suicidal missions and each successful mission Dagon is collecting the fruits as its own.

The Prydes are doing a fantastic job in adapting to a life where talking dogs and cats are what separate life and death. Really, Terry Pryde is doing a remarkable job in pretending this is normal.

"So, how the food guys?" Terry asked the dogs and cats and they are eating the food with much gusto (as one of the dogs elaborated) and she has concluded her life is off the trails and might as well enjoy the insanity.

Cameron is explaining Marmaduke to the dogs and cats and is not doing a stellar job in showing the comedy.

__________________________________________________________________________

As today is a free day, of sorts, Kitty is taking the time to read Doug Adam´s books and is enjoying the quirk and witty humour. If space was like that it wouldn´t be so scary.

Jupiter is curling himself like a ball and sleeping in his basket. Cosmo is looking at Kitty intensely for a moment, until, he asked. "Hey, Kitty, have you found the question?"

Kitty blinks and smiles once getting what´s his question truly is. "not yet, you know, when I was a little girl before meeting Jupiter here" she points to the now awake cat "I was often seeking for the question. Well, I did want to see who could answer the question"

Cosmo takes this into consideration as he asked again. "And what´s the question?"

"What´s life?"

And Cosmo goes to Kitty and his head gets caressed gentle and Cosmo speaks again with a crestfallen tone. "I feel I´ve failed you, somehow, Kitty"

"What? No one failed me. This is not your fault and no, is not Jupiter's fault" Kitty said giving a look to the said cat who is bashful.

"Still...I´ve have found you before...who knows..."

"No one, Cosmo, no one, lamenting about what could have been won´t help us. Got it?" Kitty asked and this seems to lift his spirit.

"I wish to stay here longer, but, I´ve to do something in my hometown, I´ll be back, Jupiter, look out for Kitty" Cosmo order in a mock-serious way and make Kitty giggles and Jupiter is bemused at this. Dogs have an odd sense of humour.

The dog is walking to the portal(he summon with easy, something the cats have certain envy of the dogs) and before stepping in, Jupiter asked in a hissed tone. "You´re plotting, no plotting. Only I plot"

"Well, there´s the first time for everything, Jupiter"

Jupiter is pouting. Cosmo is amused.

________________________________________________________________________ In the pure essence of nothing. Knull rules and Knull watches amused as the cats are still speaking about his future mate. Meanwhile, his Herald arrives to give the news.

"The universe of Pandora is gone," Knull said with maniacal glee. The Herald steps back and gulps as he lying to Knull is never wise.

"Well, is not so dead anymore," the Herald said in a panic. "Gaia´s last work before, uhm, taking a vacation, was to refill that spot and is now full of life"

Knull blinks. One time. Two times and Three times.

"Where is Gaia?"

"No one knows"

"Of course, no one knows..." his tone is pensative and tentacles emerge from the soil. "I think I´d not like this answer"

#coraline au #lovecraft kurt #knull is here #Cosmo the dog #jupiter the cat #Kitty Pryde #Longshot/Dazzler #taking a joking what if serious

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yukiwrites · 5 years

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Love Behind the Mask

Thank you so much for your support, @fseffect! This was somehow challenging and accomplishing to write, so I hope you like it! ;D

Summary: Marth wasn’t supposed to land in Askr. She had a mission; she had to prevent her terrible future from happening -- so why... why was she now wishing to extend her time in this strange world? She found someone she would love to spend time were it all peaceful. Was she allowed to feel like this, despite the weight of her mission?

Commission info HERE and HERE!

Sometimes, the quiescent calm in that world woke her up from her light sleep. She would come out of her room in her usual disguise, ready for a battle to break in only to find that the night was stagnantly going forward.

That calm terrified her.

"I mustn't dawdle in this world, and yet..." she said in a low breath as though the well-taken care of walls could hear her, looking back at the living quarters.

She clutched her chest, suddenly wanting to be free of her mask if only for a moment to gaze upon the starry sky appearing before her as she strolled to the garden. One hand reached out to the mask, but she stopped it.

No.

'Marth' must still be hidden. In this strange world, anyone from the past she was supposed to go to could appear -- and if they recognized her, she could ruin their future as well.

'Marth' must still go on. 'Marth' has unfinished business.

Of course, so does she, the one behind the mask. She took it upon herself to jump into a portal leading back in time so as to save her family, friends and the whole world, really.

"Falling here was a complete misguidance, though I'm yet to learn if Naga planned for this or if another being go in the way during the ceremony..." Once again Marth realized she was talking to herself, an habit she inherited from her Mother, most likely. "I am pressed to leave, and yet... oh, and yet..." she once again felt the tingling in her chest, her eyes itching under her mask.

Inadvertently, her feet made her turn from the garden back to the castle, quickly walking towards the dormitory.

"Yet I have found her here," Marth's voice was soft with fondness, her face and chest warm with love. She needn't worry about the dimly lit corridors for she knew the way by heart.

A most adored door reached her limited field of vision, her feet almost running towards it. Without a second's hesitation, she knocked on it. "... Sakura? Are you there, my lady? The moonlight was so beautiful tonight I had to come to get you..."

A little bit of fumbling and a lot of hurried steps before a very eager pink-haired princess opened the door, wrapping herself with her thick sleeping hakama. "Luci- um, Marth! I-I didn't, um, I didn't think you'd stop by tonight, so I was about t-to go to you in-instead... the starlight looks g-great from my window..." The princess shyly looked down, her cheeks turning rosy from excitement as well as embarrassment.

'Marth' never lost her smile, somehow surprised with herself for actually knocking on someone else's (Sakura's, no less!) door in the middle of the night for something as, should she even say that, mundane as watching the stars.

But the doomed future she came from bore no stars -- the skies were always covered with ash, shadows and clouds. Being able to see so clearly here, in this foreign land, alongside someone who turned out to be so special to her... it was a blessing, truly.

She was going to live it to its fullest until the end.

"My lady, the view is even greater from the hill beside the dormitory," Marth extended her hand to her small and beloved princess, enjoying how she eagerly yet awkwardly took it. "Allow me to escort you there."

Sakura squeezed Marth's hand, almost forgetting to close the door behind herself before they left. She stuck closely under the guise of being cold, when in reality she truly just wanted to be even closer to the woman she loved.

How sneaky, Sakura, She thought as she rested her head on Marth's shoulder, I didn't know i could be like this. But maybe... This isn't so bad. She closed her eyes, snuggling closer to her beloved, allowing herself to be led.

Marth's heart raced in a way it never had before -- the sight and proximity of Sakura so close to her own body made her want to simply hug her and take her away from there, to someplace far, far-away from their worries.

She would never, of course, as the future of thousands relied upon the success of her mission; but in the world inside her head, whence everything was peaceful as there were no more fighting, she and Sakura danced in the open, their hairs down and their faces bare.

Oh, how she longed for such a day! To be able to openly be herself and hold Sakura close in front of whoever might be watching.

"... Lucina?" Sakura's quiet voice took Marth out of her deviations, the place she had told her beloved about standing right before them. "Is this it?"

"S-Sakura...!" Alarmed, Lucina looked around. "You mustn't say my real name-"

"I-I know, I'm sorry. But you were so distracted; that was the only way..."

Lucina took her cape from its clasps and placed it on the grass right under a tree. "Forgive me, my lady. I was lost in thoughts of you when I should have been enjoying your presence..." she looked down in distress, forgetting to invite Sakura to sit.

The princess did it anyway, holding both of Lucina's hands close. "You were t-thinking of me...?" She took those hands to her cheeks, wanting the both of them to be even closer.

Lucina pressed her forehead with Sakura's, finally allowing herself to take off the 'Marth' mask to face her beloved as herself. "As I always do. The thought of you brings me a solace I never thought possible." Their breaths intertwined.

Ahh, even her lips tasted like cherry blossoms.

During the day, calling Lucina as such was utterly forbidden -- only Sakura knew of her secret, after all. Even the matter of Marth being a woman in disguise was only known to her, Marth's beloved.

Still, they were drawn to each other often. Because Sakura was usually by herself due to her shy and inward nature, the sight of the mysterious masked Hero hanging around by her side caught the eye of many an attentive people.

Sakura's sister, Hinoka, for one. Princess Camilla of Nohr for another.

Even though both older sisters had differing bases for their interest in Sakura's and Marth's relationship, they were both adamant to know more.

Hinoka, fiery as only she was, meant to confront Sakura head on. She would ask who that Marth fellow was and what was he doing hanging around her little sister like that as well as what his intentions were.

But Camilla, cautious and capricious, stopped her fast-friend. "Why, and spoil the lovely atmosphere they have going on, dear? Let them enjoy themselves!"

"Absolutely not!" Hinoka shook the hand Camilla had placed on her shoulder. "Sakura's quiet and doesn't speak her mind very often. Although she can be stubborn whenever she wants it, she's too gentle and easy to take advantage of -- I don't want any random crook hanging around her without making sure he's not bad news!"

Camilla blinked, placed one hand over her cheek and let out a lady-like giggle. "A 'he' you say, darling?"

Hinoka frowned, following Camilla's line of sight to something behind her own back. "What do you mean by- oh, there they go! I'm gonna go ask her now-"

"Shh, darling; let us see what they do for now, yes? Look at how careful they are in looking at their surroundings! If only they could see us this far down the hill..."

"They're doing something in secret!" Hinoka hissed, her chest burning, though she didn't know if of rage or embarrassment.

The two women carefully followed, though Camilla never lost her amused smile. "I wonder if little Sakura knows the lady under this 'Marth' mask! Ah, to be young and bright!"

The hoshidan princess stopped on her tracks. "Lady? Isn't Marth a man-"

"Why, did that poor deep voice and flat chest deceive you, darling? That's a woman through and through. She must have had a reason to hide her gender, so let us not spread this around, hmm?"

"Well, if she's a woman, I'll feel more relieved, actually-" Hinoka breathed out at the same time she gave the last step towards the hill, immediately spotting Marth and Sakura holding hands, their faces inches from each other. "HEY, YOU'RE KISSIN-"

"My!" Camilla almost clapped, then laughed when both women jumped almost ten feet into the air and away from each other.

"B-b-b-b-big sister!! A-and Lady Camilla t-too!" Bright red, Sakura covered her face with both hands, crouching down so as to become one with the ground. "I'm- Um, we- I!"

Marth didn't have her mask, her hair, usually short, was flowing through the wind like the ocean, its deep and long blue contrasting with the deep red of her face. "Y-you're my lady's- Sakura's- sister- I, um, forgive this secretive behavior, we're, um--" she panicked, no knowing where to look.

Equally bright red, Hinoka huffed with protectiveness. "What have you been doing to my sister? Why are you lying to everyone about your gender?! This- you're- kissing- even I haven't done that yet- But my little sister-"

Marth widened her eyes, her face turning into a deeper shade of red. "F-forgive me once again, my lady, I simply love-"

"Oh, my dear, no need to be so ashamed!" Camilla wrapped one arm around Hinoka's shoulder, making the shorter woman almost fall on her face, "little Hinoka here is feeling somewhat dishoriented, but I am sure we can all get along, hmm?"

"Hey- get off me-"

"Why don't we go have a nice and long chat under that shade? I'm sure you both have a lot to tell us, yes?"

"Don't ignore m-"

Sakura ran to Marth's side, hugging her beloved's arm with everything she had. "Um- big sister! P-please listen to us! I- I want to tell you a-about our r-r-r-relationship..."

"Relationship..." Hinoka hissed, losing the strength in her legs. Camilla kept her up by holding onto her shoulders, though.

"This is going to be utterly adorable! Come now, little Hinoka. I'm sure your sister has a lot to say."

Still fuming with something akin to rage or jealousy, Hinoka failed to notice how Marth trembled slightly, though still securely held Sakura's hand in her own. Camilla smiled softly at their young love, guiding them all to a nearby shade.

The nohrian princess knew her friend well; she would come along in a while. Hinoka loved her little sister more than anything, after all. There would be no way she wouldn't accept her love, as fleeting and young as it were.

#sakura #lucina #feh #hinoka #camilla #fanfic commissions #my writings #yuki's commissions

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skiller0dani · 5 years

Text

Lost in Love | Part Eight

Summary: You’re Hank Anderson’s daughter, Claire- and you have an obsessive nasty ex fiance, Gavin Reed. A police officer at the DPD whom you’ve been seeing for a few years. He can’t stand the fact that you fell in love with an android of all things. But no matter what he does, leaving him feels like the best decision you’ve ever made. Claire is the source of the humanity that grew in Connor, she showed him how to love- and how to feel.

Pairing: Connor x Claire Anderson (OC)

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings: Detroit Good Ending Spoilers, Violence, Abusive Ex, PTSD, Almost Sexual Assault (Very Light, Not Graphic at all),

A/N: READ TEXT BELOW. IT’S VERY IMPORTANT TO THE STORY.

SO! Connor is my favorite and this precious baby boy deserves a small fic c: enjoy! The bold word at the top of every part is the corresponding chapter in the game this chapter takes place in. This fic is going to have Connor’s chapters only, and the dialogue will be altered- this isn’t supposed to be exactly like the Game. It’s my adaptation of the story, with my own personal additions added to it. Some of the story will take place after the game’s end.

Also the whole mood for this Part is Everytime We Touch by Cascada. If you wanna listen to it while reading I 10/10 recommend.

Part 7 Part 9 Masterlist

Meet Kamski

Claire sat on her couch nervously, waiting for Connor. What if he wasn’t going to come? She can’t lose him- she can’t. She picked at her nails and watched the door, listening to the maddening ticking of the clock. Claire sat, and waited for what felt like hours when the handle of her door began to turn. Claire sat up with a smile growing on her face and the door swings open and- “Gavin?” Claire says, the disappointment clear on her face. Gavin closes the door behind him and there’s this look in his eyes, a look that makes Claire’s hands begin to shake. Claire sinks back on the couch as Gavin takes a few steps towards her, “Gavin what the hell are you doing here? I think I’ve made it crystal fucking clear that I don’t want you.” Claire snapped. Gavin gritted his teeth, “yeah I know. You want that- that fucking thing.” Gavin spat, his face etched in anger. ‘I’ll even bet-” Gavin leans closer to Claire, causing her to freeze in fear, “-that you’re waiting for that prick right now.” Gavin hissed, leaning in closer to her.

“Connor is more of a man then you’ll ever be.” Claire whispered with a shaky voice, causing Gavin to chuckle. Gavin’s hand find’s it way to the hem of Claire’s shirt, toying with it. Claire shoves his hand off but he grips her waist, forcefully dragging her to him. “Gavin- stop!” Claire cries, tears welling in her eyes. He only grins, his eyes hazy with alcohol. His hand slides to the button of her jeans, with Claire squirming and trying to fight him. “Let her go.” Connor demands, standing in the doorway. He has his gun out, pointed directly at Gavin. Gavin’s eyebrows raise in amusement as he shoves Claire to the floor, her head smacking the corner of the coffee table. A cut splits Claire’s forehead, blood dripping down her face. Claire’s vision blurs as everything begins to spin, and her ears ring. ��What are you gonna do Connor? Shoot me?” Gavin says, trying to egg Connor on. Connor pulls the hammer of the gun back, his finger on the trigger. “Leave. Now.” Connor says, his voice tight.

Gavin saunters to the door, “it’s okay. I’m done here, I’ll be back baby. Just wait. You’ll come crawling back to me.” Gavin says matter-of-factly as he closes the door behind him. Connor flicks the safety on before rushing towards Claire, “are you okay?” He asks, worry on his face. He examines the wound before lifting Claire to his chest and carrying her to the bathroom. Connor grabs a soft towel and wets it with water before dabbing the blood away. He grabs a bandage and places it on the wound, using medical tape to hold it in place. Connor shines a light in her eyes, “you’re slightly concussed.” He says, helping her to her bed. “See?” Claire laughs, “I need you.” She smiles, leaning back against the bed frame. Connor however doesn’t laugh, “Gavin is becoming a threat Claire- he’s hurting you to get to me.” Connor says, frustration evident in his tone.

Claire grabs Connor’s hand, pulling him beside her. He sits next to her, leaning against the bed frame. “He wants to hurt me. I- I didn’t even do anything to him...” Connor trails off, his hands resting on his stomach. “Neither did I, and when he lived here...he hurt me. He found it amusing somehow, he loved that I was afraid of him. He was hungry for the power that he had over me, he loves being the one in power. You’re stronger than him Connor, you...you always beat him. He hates you, because he’s not the one in control of me anymore.” Claire tells him and Connor looks over at her. “If he’s not the one in control of you, then who is?” Connor asks and Claire smiles, “I am- and I choose you Connor. And that drives Gavin crazy. He thinks he’s better than you. He hates that I want you and not him.” Claire smiles and Connor leans forward to press a kiss to her cheek.

“I was wrong Claire.” Connor tells her, looking away from her. He needs her as much as she needs him. Being away from her, it killed him. Connor needs to be around, her. “You’re safest...with me.” Connor tells her and Claire feels a garden of flowers erupt in her chest. She leans her head on his shoulder and Connor feels...at home. Like this is where he needs to be, he’s different now. He wants things, and he- he feels things. “I love you.” Claire whispers and she doesn’t expect Connor to answer but he’s smiling softly. Connor sits up a bit to shrug his jacket off, and he tosses off the side of the bed. He unbuttons his sleeves and rolls them up to his elbows. “You really seem like a Human now.” Claire comments, and Connor looks at her. “I...I feel like one.” Connor admits and Claire smiles.

“I’m starving.” Claire says into the silence and Connor stands up reaching for her hands. Claire places her small hands into his and lets him lead her to the kitchen. He opens the fridge and pulls out spaghetti and meat sauce. He smiles, and Claire watches him move so naturally around her kitchen. He opens the spaghetti while Claire puts the meat sauce in a saucepan. Together they cook dinner, giggling and moving around together like this is how they’re supposed to be. Together. They sit down at the table, and Connor has even gotten himself a plate. “I thought you didn’t need to eat?” Claire asks with a smile and Connor places her silverware in front of her. “I can still taste food, and I want to eat with you. Like a date.” Connor tells her and Claire swears her heart is going to explode. Connor sits down across from her after dimming the lights a little.

When dinner is finished and the plates are cleared away they find themselves laying in Claire’s bed again. Claire has long fallen asleep and Connor has found his way back out the balcony. He gazes up at the stars, leaning against the railing, the wind feeling cool on his skin. He never felt temperatures before, never felt hot or cold but he actually feels a little cold. Goosebumps rise on his skin, and Connor watches in confusion. What’s happening to him? “Connor? Come to bed...” Claire mumbles sleepily and Connor turns back inside, locking the balcony doors. He lays in bed next to Claire, and he feels his eyes droop as he succumbs to sleep.

The next morning they meet Hank outside Mr. Kamski’s house. Connor has his arm hanging loosely around Claire’s shoulders and Hank smiles to himself. They really look like an actual couple. “Ready to go in lovebirds?” Hank teases, chuckling when a blush burns across both of their cheeks. Claire follows Hank, with Connor’s hand intertwined with hers. Connor feels relaxed, more relaxed then he’s ever been. A ring of the doorbell and a blonde Android answers the door with a smile and ushers them into a waiting room. There are two chairs, one of which Connor offers to Claire. She sits while Connor observes the large painting of Kamski. “So how you feel Connor? You’re about to meet your maker.” Hank says, and Connor blinks. “I-I have no idea.” He says honestly. “Wish I could meet mine. I’d have a few things I’d like to say to him.” Claire says, looking up at Connor.

“Mr. Kamski will see you now.” Chloe says, leading them back to a pool of red water. Kamski emerges from the water and glances over Connor and Claire. “We’ve come to ask if you know anything about Deviant’s Mr. Kamski.” Claire says politely, and he smirks. As though he knows something they don’t. “I think you’d know more than me Ms. Anderson. You’re standing next to one.” Kamski says looking at Connor. “I’m not a Deviant.” Connor insists, his voice tightening. “No? Chloe would you come here for a moment?” He asks and Chloe approaches him and Kamski gently pushes her to her knees. He hands Connor a gun and points it at her head. “If you shoot this Android, I will tell you everything I know. If you don’t then you will leave here without having learned anything from me.” Kamski says, walking around Connor.

“That’s enough! Connor let’s go, sorry to get you out of your pool.” Hank snaps but Connor doesn’t move. “If you’re not a Deviant, then shoot her. Shoot her and you will accomplish your mission.” Kamski says, egging Connor on. “Connor, don’t.” Claire begs, standing next to Hank. Connor’s grip on the gun tightens before he lowers it, releasing a breath. “Funny, humanities last chance...is itself a Deviant.” Kamski concludes, smiling at Connor. Claire reaches forward and pulls Connor towards the door, following Hank. “I always leave an exit in my programs.” Kamski says, gazing out the window. They exit the house where Hank raises a brow at Connor. “Why didn’t you shoot her Connor?” Claire asks him, “I don’t know...” He trails off, looking as though he’s going through an existential crisis. “You’re always saying you’d do anything to accomplish your mission.” Hank adds, a smile on his face. “I don’t know okay! I just, I looked into her eyes and I couldn’t do it!” Connor gasps and Hank smiles a little wider.

“Well..maybe you did the right thing.” Claire tells him, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the car.

#detroit become human #connor android #connor and hank #gavin reed #android #connor android imagine #gavin reed imagine #hank anderson #dbh connor #dbh gavin #dbh markus #dbh hank #dbh kara #dbh #connor android x reader

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petite-neko · 6 years

Link

Chapter Characters: Law, Luffy, Sabo, Doflamingo, Koala Pairing: LawLu Rating: T Warnings: Swearing, Universe Alteration, angst, canon-typical violence A/N:Okay. So this is a longer chapter. Mostly I wanted to get Dressrosa just out of the way. I am sorry if this chapter is clunky and jumpy and doesn't flow well but I hope it's okay >< Do let me know guys.

.xxx. > Time/scene skip

.+++. > PoV change

(Wanna buy me a ko-fi? Link in blog description!)

Chapter 13 || Chapter 14: Saviour || Chapter 15

Koala was going off about stuff they had already been over about a dozen times.

Sabo, of course, was only half listening to her - his mind still mulling on the strange occurrence from this morning and afternoon. A newspaper and ships...

It had been chaos - it was chaos - before life had... simply returned to normal. It was disturbing - an echo of his past - to say the least. Disturbing to see just how much control somebody like Doflamingo had over his people. How much they depended on him… How much they trusted him...

Certainly, he couldn’t rule out the possible that they just feared the man...

(But that - this - wasn’t their mission here. They were not here to investigate the possible corruption of this kingdom. Not even if Sabo could feel vibes that things weren’t quite right. Vibes that reminded him of a place he once called home. Of the nobles dealing with the trash. No, they were here about illegal weapons, about chemical warfare, about the fate of several countries.)

“Gezz Sabo! You’re ignoring me again, aren’t you!”

When he glanced up at his partner, her cheeks were puffed out as she wore that huffy expression that she always wore around him...

“You just finished stressing the importance of how we need to stop the import of weapons to ensure that the wars in the North Seas ceases...” He knew he sounded bored but he didn’t care. “...Or something along those lines...”

Her angry expression made him grin.

“That was five minutes ago Sabo! You really need to start--”

She really needed to stop. He held up his hand to interrupt her and took a big bite of his lunch. “Li-b-n K-la.” He sputtered around the food and then swallowed. “There’s something going on in this country...” He knew it wasn’t their mission but, it was what his gut was telling him. “And it’s not just the black market deals.”

And, if there was one thing Sabo always trusted, it was his gut.

“Damn you Sabo - get back here!”

.xxx.

One of the things he had heard being discussed was a tournament. Well more specifically a prize. Perhaps Hack knew more. There was quite the buzz about it.

While he knew it might not lead anywhere - Sabo knew how slimy governments tended to work.

When he finally ran into the fishman, he got the answer to his question:

A Devil Fruit.

“But - that isn’t the main reason challengers from across the New World are flocking.” Hack continued. “There are whispers that it could even be the Mera Mera no mi.”

“What?!”

(A smile flashed in his mind. A freckled face and mischievous eyes. And then the war: the cries of pain and so much red. Of a dark storage room and bandages and tears and Ace you’re burning me!)

He found his hands trembling. No! No! He would have known right? Ace couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t! No, it would have been all over the news. Trafalgar Law and Mugiwara no Luffy’s efforts in vain... The son of Roger almost escaped death! Or... Or did he die during his recovery? Did something go terribly wrong...? Ace was still in bandages and hurt and.... He forced himself to calm down as that last memory resurfaced before he remembered: He had Ace’s vivre card. That was how he got there in the first place.

He let out the breath he hadn’t known he was holding.

There - there it was. Tucked away as usual. There and intact and bigger than before. Ace was alive. Ace was alright. Ace was thriving. Ace was getting better.

“Lies.”

Perhaps this was a lead after all...

“But why?” Just what did Doflamingo have to gain by insinuating that he had the devil fruit of the son of Roger? Did Doflamingo know they were here? Did he suspect anything between him and Ace because of the war? Or... perhaps was he trying to mock him for his supposed failure. Of how he had tried and ‘failed’ to save Ace from Sakazuki’s attack? Trying to say: Ace died and I have his Devil Fruit.

Out of all of those scenarios, really the last one was the only one that made sense. Doflamingo couldn’t know about their kinship. He didn’t know back then. He only found out afterwards... After hearing Dragon mutter words he had once said to him so long ago.

And even then, only the Army knew. Only Ace. Perhaps, maybe even his crewmates. Nobody else knew. Not even Luffy of all people.

But then again, nobody really knew where his little brother was except on some island covered in snow....

Allied with Torao of all people....

.+++.

“Luffy is attacking the castle!”

Ever since the bastard had shot him Law had been having difficulty staying conscious. The last thing he truly remembered was Luffy crying out his name. However, after hearing those words his spite had given him a surge of energy to keep him awake. It was amusing as he thought about it now... As he saw Doflamingo’s plans fall apart one by one.

Of course, considering Ace’s absence from the limelight, Law almost couldn’t blame him.

Almost - but the bastard prided himself on his fool-proof plans.

(Didn’t he know Luffy and plans just didn’t fucking mix?)

“Then who the hell is battling in the coliseum?!”

Law forced his eyes open to glance at the scene painted by the snail on the wall, to see the horrible alias of ‘Lucy’ battling fighting fish. Oh. No. That wasn’t Luffy at all. No, he recognised that stance anywhere.

That was Sabo.

Law couldn’t help it - he laughed even if it hurt.

“And just what is so hilarious Law?”

His plan was so obvious now. Doflamingo had expected Luffy to abandon him. Abandon him for his not-dead brother’s not-Devil Fruit. Law was just some ally who had saved his life. Certainly his brother’s devil fruit meant more to the pirate than him.

Oh wrong - just how wrong Doflamingo was.

Instead what he had received was both of Ace’s brothers’ (because that’s the only reason why Sabo would be in there, fighting for Ace’s safety or honour) wrath. Received Luffy’s fury at injuring and kidnapping his idol. (Still, a foolish notion.)

“I’m Luffy’s nakama.” He coughed out. “Did you really expect him to abandon me after seeing the stunts he pulled in Ennies Lobby and Marineford?”

Of course, he, too, had. Or at the very least, expected Luffy to not realise until Doflamingo had already killed him. (And he had not expected Doflamingo to keep him alive and torture him in front of Luffy either.)

“Well, I figured since you failed his brother once...”

Oh. Oh that’s was Doflamingo was fucking trying to do!

Law could only laugh more.

Of course, he got kicked in the gut for that one.

.xxx.

Luffy was screaming his name as he battled up the castle. Of course. Of course that idiot was.

While - yes - Law was irritated that Luffy had abandoned his duties - he should have known...

You were all that he wanted to talk about.

Does this mean Torao’s leaving?

You know, you’re somebody that Luffy admires.

TORAO!

The idiot cared about him. He admitted that much to Joker. Law knew he did, even if he still had trouble wrapping his head around it.

Perhaps, if Doflamingo hadn’t made such a display in front of Luffy, the idiot would have remained in the coliseum, battling for Ace’s supposed devil fruit, and him stuck chained to the heart chair while the bastard interrogated him for shit he had no idea about. Oh, and probably for his own devil fruit’s abilities...

At the very least - Luffy being here really didn’t set plans back simply because the idiot wasn’t doing his damn job in the first place. Perhaps, in the end, it was a good thing Joker’s ego had gotten the better of him...

.+++.

He had won the psuedo-fruit, but now what?

”Just what are you planning on doing with the fruit Luffy?”

“Sabo!”

...Why the hell was the idiot crying?

“I-I don’t know...”

Oh - for fuck’s sake! Right, Luffy was a fucking gullible idiot! He sighed before yanking off Luffy’s hat and grabbing the piece of Ace’s vivre card.

“I bet you forgot about this didn’t you Luffy?”

Luffy obviously didn’t have any plans - especially since he had thought Ace had somehow died without him knowing. But was he to keep the contents of this fruit still a secret? Still pretend that Ace was dead? That he held the fruit of the deceased son of Gol D. Roger? Ace had still been recovering the last he had seen him. Still had bandages on his body. Stuck inside of a storage room.

And to be honest, the memory hurt. It hurt because of that one day they spent on the cliff. Of when they yelled out their dreams for the sea to hear. Ace wanted to be infamous. Luffy wanted to be the Pirate King.

And he wanted to be free.

And yet - yet - just how could Ace accomplish his dream stuck in a damned storage room?

He swallowed before looking at the fruit.

“This is not the Mera Mera no Mi!” He cried out to the skies. “Portagas D. Ace is alive and well!” And then he smiled before catching the princess of the kingdom.

“Here.” He said, offering it to her. “I know not what powers this bears, but you may have it if you want.”

.+++.

“You know... I’m not even surprised anymore...” Law said with a sigh, looking up at the sky as they rode on a charging bull.

Luffy had recounted to him just what had occurred in the coliseum after Doflamingo had left with his unconscious body. About the plan with the toys. About Big Mom. About Sabo.

And the fact that the idiot had forgotten he had Ace’s vivre card.

But now the fact that Ace was alive was out now. Sabo had announced it. And no doubt it would spread like wildfire - well... if they got out of this damned cage...

Luffy had asked about Cora-san. Of course, Law had not recounted much. Just the basics. Just that Doflamingo had killed Cora-san.

He didn’t tell Luffy that Doflamingo was the man who he wanted to kill. He didn’t tell Luffy that Doflamingo was why he left. That Doflamingo wanted to use him for immortality. That Cora-san saved him. That Cora-san was the only reason he was alive today.

That Cora-san was why he ended up in the Marines in the first place.

He did say Doflamingo was his prey.

Hopefully Luffy thought it was because of what the bastard did to him.

…Well, recently.

.xxx.

“Nakama. That’s what Law said you called him.”

They were standing there now, in front of him.

“I suppose it all makes sense now, just why you would abandon my trap.”

Law was glaring at Doflamingo. Just what did he have up his sleeve?

“But, just who will you choose now? Word on the wind is that he is your nakama too...”

Bellamy charged at them.

.xxx.

“Why do you stop me?” Doflamingo asked when Luffy’s foot stopped his. “Why do you fight for him?”

“He saved me.”

And Law, Law could feel it as their Haki’s clashed above him.

“And, Ace too.” Joker chuckled darkly. “Yes, the whole world knows now. Such a pity that will all go to waste...”

Luffy shook his head. “He saved me.”

And even though, yes, that was driving Luffy - something deep down told him that was not the only reason. No. It wasn’t Marineford. It never was. It wasn’t what Doflamingo thought it was. It was back then. Back in the Marines. With Luffy screaming. With Luffy stealing his books. With Luffy demanded that he play with them.

When he had become the idiot’s hope.

And yet now - just how the tables had turned....

.xxx.

“Torao...” Luffy coughed and smiled.

Despite himself, Law scooted closer to the idiot. A soft laugh escaped the battered body and a rubbery hand grasped at his sleeve, fingers toying with the edges.

“We did it Torao.”

Law felt his gaze wandering over to where Doflamingo fell and he shook his head. No. He didn’t. He had a chance - had multiple chances - and he failed. It wasn’t him. No. It was Luffy. Luffy who defeated him. Luffy who defeated his ghosts. Luffy who avenged Cora-san.

“No Luffy-ya, you did it.”

Not him.

“No Torao. Your attack... I couldn’t have beaten him if you didn’t do that. It hurt him more than he wanted to admit.” Luffy was coughing again and winced, grasping at his side with his spare hand. “We did it. We defeated Mingo. Together.”

Law looked away. “...That wasn’t the original plan Luffy-ya...” He started slowly. “You were supposed to-”

Luffy’s fingers halted and his grip on his sleeve tightened. “That wasn’t what you wanted.”

...What? He found himself turning towards the other.

“’Course, I didn’t realise right away but....” the idiot was looking him right in the eyes now, “he’s why you left the Marines right? You wanted revenge.”

How? How had this damned idiot who couldn’t even follow a fucking plan figure out his deceptions to fell Joker? How?

Law felt himself trembling.

“When he shot you, when you called out to Cora-san.... when he said you were his subordinate...” The hand let go of his sleeve now - but it moved. Moved on top of his own hand and rested there. “You never wanted to beat up Kaido.”

Why? Why was he so damned intuitive and fuck!

“Shishishi, it’s okay Torao. I’m not angry. If anything I’m happy. I’m happy I helped you. We’re nakama after all!”

Why? If it weren’t for his self control, he knew he’d be gaping. He lied to Luffy. He used him! And yet - yet - this fucking idiot was okay with it and smiling and happy!

Still, still those words rung in his head:

You know, you’re somebody that Luffy admires.

And even that - that was no reason to go through all of this. Was no reason to get so worked up and injured and almost fucking dying over. Was no reason to dismiss lying and deception. Was no reason to be so god-damned happy over it.

He had just left because he was a selfish bastard on a selfish mission.

Law couldn’t understand it.

(Just like he couldn’t understand Cora-san’s efforts.)

“I didn’t ask for help.”

And now that hand - it squeezed. Squeezed his and held it firmly. And that damned idiot only shook his head.

“Mmm, no. You did. When you asked to be allies Torao - you asked for my help.”

He hadn’t asked for help! No he asked for...

...He would just never understand. Idiocy was not his forte.

“...Will you tell me about your spots now?”

And that request - it just snapped something in him that probably shouldn’t have snapped.

“Just because you decided to go off on your own and do whatever you wanted to does not entitle you to mmph-!”

...

That fucker just---!

“Luffy-ya!” Law didn’t yelp. No, he didn’t. No all he did was push Luffy away and raised his voice.

That was all.

And - of course - there was that fucking, god damned smile on his face and...

Was he...

Law groaned.

He was.

Great. Just fucking great. Luffy was fucking unconscious. Just what was he going to do with this idiotic bastard now?

(The next thing you know he’ll decide that he’ll kidnap Law into the sleeping quarters. Yup. Maybe it was a good thing he decided to sleep outside on the deck back on the Sunny. Good god, couldn’t the idiot have at least remained conscious to see whether or not he--)

Maybe that was for the best actually...

(But seriously though - you don’t just go kissing people and just pass out. There’s a fucking thing called manners!)

#monkey d. luffy #trafalgar law #lawlu #portgas d. ace #sabo the revolutionary #one piece #fanfic:boyhoodblues #petiteneko:story #onepiece #tlaw #luffy #sabo #ace

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ewutai · 7 years

Note

Yuta, 32 and 23?

drabble game: 32. walking home late at night & 23. “I know you might not think so, but you look really good right now.” + song rec

If it goes, it comes| YUTA

Genre: royalty!au| the greatest thief!reader | 100% fluff

Pairing: Yuta / Reader

Word Count: 2 327 it’s longer than i wanted i am sorry!!!

A/N: Thank you so much I am B L E S S E D. I love writing with Yuta lmao guess why and I really hope you like it!!

It was obvious when someone fromthe Royal Family appeared in town. The scentof their skin was pretty much different from the plebeians around, you couldfeel it; their bodies emanated an aura you weren’t able to describe – and evenknew if there were words to tell how magnificent those people’s presence was.You wondered if they indeed felt empathy and sympathy by the commoners;considering they were so untouchable – and not very modest – you really doubtedthat the nobles could at least feel something.

You shrugged the thoughts away,sliding your hands in your pockets – inside the jacket you were wearing – and inyour bra, looking for any sort of equipment that could help you in yourmission. The important thing in the moment was concentration, as you had to accomplish your task and receive youresteemed prize. Earlier in the morning a note was delivered to you, a simplerequest written with the most perfect handwriting you had ever seen. Your eyesstared at the paper for a moment, while you read

Steal the Prince’s new crown; it’s on the ‘Masquerade Jewelry ’, in thecenter of the city. If you succeed, you get six hundred coins. Leave it in thedocks and soon you’ll have the money.

You smirked, asking yourself how someonecould be vigorously reckless like that. Anyhow, six hundred coins was a lot of money and could be pretty muchwelcomed. You pondered for some minutes, deciding if the pros and cons could bebalanced somehow; merchants knew you, and also knew you parents, which meantthat they’d never distrust on you. Adding to that, the Masquerade Jewelrybelonged to someone close to you – a long distant sibling, you’d define – and stealingthe Prince Nakamoto Yuta’s crown would be as easy as kiss a hand.

The endless search for a deviceended when you realized that you could simply use your hair clip to open theemporium’s back door. You took the black object of your hair, causing somestrands to fall down onto your forehead and the back of your neck. You blewthem away from your face, cleaning your vision and finally opening theentrance.

Your gaze moved from one side toanother, examining every single corner of the room. It’s easy to tell where thejeweler kept his works – and also where the most important pieces of hiscreations were. You smiled at their silliness, mostly at the Queen and King’s.Why, in all earth, would they order a crown right there; would ask to someone with doubtful security and extremelycheap budget to do such a delicate work?

And that’s when you got thepoint.

Loudly, your laugh echoed on theroom. You crossed your arms and began to put things together, like it was apuzzle. The handwriting was tooperfect to be just a gangster or a pirate who did, the place where they wanted you to be was a common ambient for bourgeoisor anyone else who wanted cheap bijou, and, of course, the amount of coins you’d receive was too generous to be from a simplethief. It was a test, after all.

You asked yourself if it was somenoble who tricked you, or even if it was you father investigating your actions.You snorted; whoever it was, they almost gotyou.

From all matters, you left theplace, calmly walking out and reaching the streets like nothing happened. Youreyes, although, noticed all sorts of movements – by your side, in front andbehind you – capturing every person’s face around. The smile on your facepermeated for a long time, the thought of getting caught and fooled made yourheart race; the percentage of adrenalin in your blood increasing at the sametime your will to unmask the person who sent you the note grew in your chest.

But suddenly you were cut off ofyour daydreams when your body clashed with someone else’s.

An arm embraced your waist,stopping you from falling. “Careful.”

You gazed the boy, his scent was unquestionable. “I apologize,your Majesty.”

“Are you all right?” He asked; his touchleaving your body.

“Yes, of course.” You kindlysmiled.

And then you waited. You waitedfor an order, for him to allow you to leave; though he didn’t. You blinkedrepetitively in a vain attempt to clean your vision and be sure you weren’t hallucinating. Actually, you werecompletely sane.

His gaze was extremely deep andyou could tell he was reading you, maybe even disturbing your worst fears. Youshook your head, glaring the surroundings, looking at the people in the fairsaround – and definitely trying to ignore the royal presence in front of you. Asmall cough echoed in your ears, bringing your gaze back to the boy’s eyes. Hedidn’t say anything, but his bodyguard did.

The man held the sword-hilt. “Iguess she is the one, your Majesty.”

You chocked. “What do you mean,sir?”

“He means you’re a thief.” Theboy said.

Internally you were laughing,your muscles contracting violently while you held the will to giggle.Externally, although, you put a startled expression on your face; you showedthem how upset you were to be called a thief. The Prince gently held your hand,as an apology for his unkind words.

It’s not that you really wantedto be a thief; it’s more like a rebel phase of your life. Your parents keptsaying how much they were happy with their money and how good it was to be nearly a noble. You, on the other hand,felt disgusted by those comments, only wondering what would happened with thepoorest part of the reign, where people didn’t have the money to buy even asmall bread. And that’s when you started stealing.

You’d go for small things atfirst, like rings or earrings, and then exchange them for gold bars in otherdistrict of the kingdom – where no one were aware of what has been stolen inother cities. When you had the gold, you’d go at banks and change them tocoins, so you could finally help the humblest people.

And six hundred coins were theequivalent of stealing an entire collection of silver tableware.

“We didn’t mean to offend you.”The Prince’s voice called you back to reality; the smile he sent you killingyou inside.

You shrugged your shoulders. “Ididn’t feel offended, Prince Yuta.”

“I also apologize, milady.” Thebodyguard said, his voice tone showing sincerity.

You nodded your head. They weredistracted by the small conversation and that was the moment when you got thechance to not leave with empty hands. A long time ago, in one of the villas youvisited, you heard a story about the Prince Yuta’s golden bracelet. It was wortha million coins, and it could make anyone rich enough to leave the realm and become a noble in any other regality.You smirked, your perception too great to be true.

All you needed was a biggerdistraction.

“Oh, wait a minute.” You said; yourvoice velvety and addicting. Both of the personas in front of you held theirgaze on your figure. “You mean you thought I was the girl who ran away fromthat jewelry?” You released your wrists from Yuta’s hold, then pointing out toMasquerade.

Instinctively, the bodyguard ran.He knew what he had to do: catch the thief. The Prince, however, remained byyour side, only watching his subordinate disappears into the crowd. You tiltedyour head, contemplating which the best manner to steal the aimed object was;with a better vision of where the bracelet was, you became sure it’d be easierthan expected. The jewel had a simple tie holding it together and securing itonto Yuta’s wrists.

Nevertheless, there’s always a but. The Prince Nakamoto Yuta wasinvincible; he knew all types of martial arts and could effortlessly defeat agirl like you. And, on top of all that, no one should know you were the oneabducting people’s belongings.

It should be smooth and graceful,so he wouldn’t perceive something was missing – not so soon.

You sighed. “If you excuse me,Prince.” You slightly tilted your head, mentioning you’d leave.

“Ah, wait!” He held your arm –exactly what you wanted. “Can’t you wait until my bodyguard is back?”

“I thought you were a warrior, Prince.” You voice tone was accusative,but you required his attention. When he had eyes on you, it’s time to act.

You softly positioned your handon top of his hand joint, and then gradually squeezed it; like this, Yuta wouldnot feel when the bracelet was no longer with him. You pulled it, making sureyour hands replaced the pressure the golden bracelet exercised. When your touchleft his body and you had the jewel on your palm, it was time to go – it’d nottake too long to realize that it was just a trick and Prince Yuta had beenstole.

You grinned. “I am joking. But unfortunatelyI have to go.” You turned on your heels, suddenly vanishing of his eyesight.

Yuta’s pace was controlled; thespeed of his steps was so regular that it looked like he was calculating it. Hesighed, blaming himself for being assaulted. Even if it’d been weeks, he’d walkaround the palace’s garden asking how he could let his viewpoint ignored justbecause the girl in front of him was… deadly beautiful.

He yelled, angry with hismisperception.

And you heard when you cautiouslyclimbed the palace’s walls. You were overwhelmed by these noble’s confidence,they weren’t afraid of anything and anyone but what they didn’t seemed to know,though, was that the borders isolating the castle from the center of the citywas, to define in some words, completely unsafe and indisputably week. If you,someone whom doesn’t even have a clue of how to place a hand and a foot whileclimbing, could make it then anyone – a grand thief, you’d say – can accomplishit, easily.

You had pants on, and they gotscratched by the spikes on the wall. Also, to say the least, you found amusinghow you could transform yourself from presentable to total disaster. Yousighed, soon being brought back to reality when you spotted the Prince walking,alone, in the garden.

With fast steps, and trying tocontain the noises of your feet, you reached Yuta and put a hand on his mouth.His reaction, thought, was as fast as your attitude, and he grabbed your wrist,twisted your arm, obligating you to be on your knees. You held the scream onyour throat, swallowing all the pain.

“Was it all needed?” You managedto say and Yuta laughed.

He let go of you. “You are completelyreckless. I am calling the–”

“You are not calling the guards.”You put a finger on his face and – you were surprised – he smiled.

“It’s pretty brave, I have toadmit.” Yuta shrugged his shoulders. “But, sweetheart,it’s my territory.”

You smirked. “The street alsowas, and you got fooled still.”

He scoffed. “Smartass.”

“Anyway, I came to give it back.”You handed him a small jewel; a golden bracelet.

“Why?” He asked, not believing inyou.

You tilted your head. “It meanssomething to you, doesn’t it?”

He didn’t answer. Prince NakamotoYuta wasn’t a true blood son; his mother was a servant and his father was theKing. He was nothing but a bastard, but few people knew. You were one of thembecause you had ears everywhere, as you were a bandit anyway. The Queen allowedhim to stay just because she couldn’t develop a healthy pregnancy, sent thetraitor servant to another kingdom and then sort of ‘adopted’ Yuta as her son.

She didn’t hate him, it wascrystal clear, but she also didn’t love him like a child of her own. His realmother gave him the bracelet, and you felt you heart breaking into piecesbecause you stole from him more than an object, a memory.

“I am sorry.” You said; you voicesounded like a whisper. You cleaned the part of your pants that touched the ground,taking the dust away, and started walking to the colossal tower you’d have toclimb again.

But a hand on your shoulder heldyou back. “Stay, just for a minute.” Yuta politely asked and you couldn’t sayno.

You never imagined you’d bewalking a prince home, especiallyYuta. Obviously, you heard the stories about his temper and how rude he waswith people out of his league but it felt unreal.He was kind with you and explained why he became a prince, even against hiswill, when he could visit his real mother and how the other servants treatedhim like a god. You, too, felt like sharing some parts of your own story.

The reason behind your attitudesseemed futile for you, because you were just imitating Robin Hood and trying todo the difference, but Yuta kept smiling at your words, complimenting your actsnotwithstanding if was against the laws.

“I’ve got something to say.” Hesaid.

“Say it, your Majesty.” Youmocked him.

Instead of feeling peeved, Yutasmiled. “It looks like I’ve known you my entire life.”

“Well” you sighed “I have acommon personality, I guess.”

He laughed. “No, I don’t thinkyou do.”

“Well, maybe a common fa–” youshook your head. “No, let’s not talk about looks today. I am a disaster, yourMajesty, so I apologize.” You bowed, joking with Yuta’s position (of a veryimportant persona).

“I know you might not think so,but you look really good right now.” He smiled. “Even with the dust in yourcheeks.”

And you didn’t know whatsurprised you the most: his words, his deadly smile or the odd sentiment that youtwo would share lots of stories together.

#hey there ARE MISTAKES I DID NOT CORRECT IT!!!#but i hope you like!!#yuta #yuta nct #nakamoto yuta #yuta scenarios #yuta fluff #yuta angst #nct scenarios #nct fluff #nct fanfic #nct 127 scenarios #less than 5k #drabble

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rose-of-pollux · 7 years

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The Cat’s Cradle Affair (MFU oneshot)

Title: The Cat’s Cradle Affair Rating: G Summary: When the office cat Baba Yaga ends up expecting kittens on Illya’s birthday, it allows Napoleon to plan a surprise dinner right under his preoccupied partner’s nose. Notes: This is a ficlit I wrote on the occasion of David McCallum’s birthday today. Thanks to @ksturf for plot help!

It is also available on both FFN and AO3, if you should prefer reading there.

It had been a long several weeks since Illya and Napoleon discovered that their cat, Baba Yaga the Egyptian Mau, was expecting kittens. The first reaction, after noticing her increased weight and appetite back in July, was to rush her to the vet, who gave them the confirmation, leaving the both of them—but Illya especially—flabbergasted.

“How did this happen!?” he had exclaimed on the way home, holding the surprisingly serene cat in his arms.

“Well, Illya, when two cats love each other very much…”

“Shush!” Illya had chided his partner. “I know that! I mean, who is the other cat? And how did that other cat find Baba Yaga!?”

“Well, it stands to reason, it must be one of the other cats in the U.N.C.L.E. animal facility,” Napoleon had said. “When we take Baba Yaga home, she never leaves the apartment—so it has to be some romantic encounter that occurred during her work as the Office Cat.”

Illya considered this.

“Then it stands to reason that the father is still in our headquarters,” Illya had said. “We have not lost or transferred any of them in the last month.”

“Well, sure,” Napoleon had replied. “But, as I understand it, cats generally do well as single mothers.”

“I am going to find the father,” Illya had declared.

“Illya, I just said--”

“I will find him.”

“Illya, I know Baba Yaga is like a daughter to you—she is to me, too. But what exactly do you hope to accomplish by finding the father? I hate to break it to you, but Baba Yaga is the only Mau in the office—these kittens are going to be mixed breeds no matter who the father is. And even if she’d had an affair with another Mau, the kittens most likely can’t be shown since we have no way of proving Baba Yaga’s pedigree. I mean, we can’t exactly go to a cat show and say that I made a wish to Bastet and she gave us an authentic Egyptian Mau kitten.”

“I will find him,” Illya had repeated again, an edge to his voice.

“Ahh, I see; this is a matter of principle,” Napoleon had realized. “So, what are you planning to do—hold a shotgun wedding?”

Illya had given him a look.

“Are you not the least bit curious as to who is responsible for this?” he had queried, after a while.

“Well, naturally,” Napoleon had replied. “But I think we should be concerning ourselves more with our little mother-to-be.”

And Illya had conceded that Napoleon’s point was correct.

It did not, however, stop Illya from searching for the father of the developing kittens as the weeks went on—though his plans to play detective, however, had been thwarted multiple times by Waverly, who was unsympathetic to the situation. Waverly had reminded them that they had brought Baba Yaga to the office to escape their landlady’s wrath, and so were to blame for not taking the proper precautions to prevent such an occurrence. As such, they had to continue with their missions as usual during Baba Yaga’s gestation (all the while fielding requests for kittens from their coworkers), and it was only as her due date drew nearer that Waverly finally granted them the time off.

Napoleon dryly noted that Baba Yaga’s longer-than-normal gestation seemed to prove that she was a pure Mau after all; it was well into mid-September by the time she finally started searching for a place to nest, and as Napoleon and Illya both went out of their way to make her comfortable and provide her with a place to nest, sneaking her back to their apartment so that she wouldn’t have to deal with curious onlookers. And Illya also took whatever time he could to go over the U.N.C.L.E. cats one by one to see if he could narrow down who the father was. He was quite invested in this endeavor, in addition to seeing to Baba Yaga’s comfort. In fact, he was so absorbed in these tasks, Napoleon began to suspect that Illya had completely forgotten that his birthday was rapidly approaching.

Napoleon had always gone out of his way to make sure that Illya had an enjoyable birthday; Napoleon’s presents were usually large and lavish gifts that Illya would get embarrassed about for a while, but then end up appreciating them.

He had already selected a gift for Illya this year—a set of imported blue silk pajamas that he was sure Illya would appreciate once the kittens were born and he had the opportunity to rest and relax again. Illya never poked around to find out what his presents were beforehand, but Napoleon found it rather amusing that he was able to walk right into the apartment with a wrapped box under his arm and not even get a double-take from Illya, who was gently stroking Baba Yaga as she snoozed in her nesting basket.

And so, Napoleon decided to see how much he could get away with in regards to planning a large, gourmet dinner for Illya right under his nose. He also wanted to help with Baba Yaga’s birth, of course; in order to do that, he would have to get a bit of help in preparing the meal.

And so, the morning of Illya’s birthday, as Baba Yaga seemed to grow more restless and Illya had stopped off at the office to go over the likely suspects once more, Napoleon opened the apartment door for his mother, Cora Solo.

“Thanks for coming by to help, Ma,” Napoleon said, as he hugged her. “I think Illya could use a big meal like this.”

“Oh, and I’m only happy to help; you know I’m very fond of him,” Cora said. “Your father sends his love, of course; he wanted to come, but someone had to look after the, ah…” She cast a glance over at Baba Yaga. “D-o-g-s,” she finished. “And don’t worry; I did a load of laundry and these are all fresh clothes—I didn’t want to have any of their scent on me while I was around Baba Yaga.” She stopped by the cat basket and gently cooed to her. “How are you, you little thing?”

“A nervous, first-time mother-to-be,” Napoleon said, as Baba Yaga purred back.

“Please, I wasn’t nervous when I had you,” Cora scoffed. “Anyway, where is Illya? I would have thought he’d be here.”

“Oh, he’ll be back,” Napoleon said. “He’s trying to ferret around and figure out who the father of the kittens is.”

“…Why?”

“A matter of principle,” Napoleon said, with a shrug. “Even though Baba Yaga can handle it on her own.”

“Oh, of course she can handle it on her own,” Cora said, giving the cat a scritch behind the ears. “The only thing your father did when you were born was give you that ridiculous name!”

“…So you’ve told me.”

“I wanted to name you Albert!”

“OK, ah, as fascinating as this is, today is about Illya’s birthday, not mine,” Napoleon reminded her.

“Right. Still, he’s going to figure out what’s going on,” she said. “The moment he sees me, the cat will be out of the bag.” She flinched at her choice of words and apologized to Baba Yaga.

“I wouldn’t be too sure, Ma,” Napoleon said. “I, personally, think he’s actually been too preoccupied with the soon-to-arrive kittens to keep track of what day it is.”

“Really, Napoleon, I think you’re exaggerating…”

Cora trailed off as the key turned in the front door, and Illya entered the apartment with his notebook.

“Good news! I have narrowed it down to two…” Illya trailed off as he noticed Cora there. “Mother! What a pleasant surprise! What brings you here?”

Cora blinked and then shrugged slightly as Napoleon gave her a “told you…” look, and then she turned back to Illya.

“I’m here to help with the kittens,” she said. “I know you two look after Baba Yaga well, but I’ve had experience with breeding puppies, after all. It was all Napoleon’s idea that I come by.”

Illya looked to Napoleon in gratitude.

“Thank you,” he said. “I would not have thought of it!”

“There seems to be more you’re not thinking of,” Napoleon murmured in quiet amusement as Illya now went through his notes again.

Illya didn’t hear him.

“As I was saying earlier, I have narrowed down the father to either the American shorthair or the Russian blue,” Illya finished. “It seems that all of the other tomcats were on assignments, so it must be one of the two!”

“…You realize the irony of that, right?” Napoleon asked.

“Da, I do,” Illya replied, rolling his eyes. “But I will know for certain which one it is once the kittens are born—the American shorthair is orange.”

“I think you’ll probably find out before the day is through,” Cora said, observing Baba Yaga’s obvious discomfort. “But what do you intend to do once you’ve found out who the father is?”

“I will determine that later,” Illya said, sitting on Baba Yaga’s other side. “Right now, I think she needs my attention more than anything.”

“You are absolutely right,” Napoleon said. “Hey, Ma, we haven’t had a good talk in a while; why don’t we hang out in the kitchen? Illya will let us know if anything starts happening—won’t you, Illya?”

“Da, I will,” the Russian said, gently stroking the cat under her chin.

Cora whispered a “good luck” to Baba Yaga and then headed into the kitchen with Napoleon.

*******************************

Not even the scent of preparing food in the kitchen was enough to jolt Illya into the realization that Napoleon and Cora were preparing a birthday meal. They had decided on a seven-course gourmet meal (“Lucky seven,” had been decided almost instantaneously between the mother-and-son card sharks).

Throughout the day, Napoleon and Cora took breaks from the cooking to spend time with Illya and Baba Yaga, and it was around 4 in the afternoon, with most of the cooking finished, when Baba Yaga suddenly started to yowl loudly, in a tone that neither of the agents had ever heard before.

“What’s that? Is she in labor?” Napoleon asked.

“Well, she’s not trying to sing an operetta!” Cora scoffed.

The three of them sat by her, trying to comfort her as best they could, and, over the course of two hours, four kittens were born—two black like their mother, and two silvery-gray. An exhausted Baba Yaga was soon in a well-earned catnap as the tiny kittens greedily nursed from her.

“She did very well for a first-time mother,” Cora said. “…Better than I would have done with quadruplets. Napoleon, thank you for being an only child.”

“Ma…!” Napoleon facepalmed.

“Not a trace of orange fur on any of them…” Illya noted. “The father is the Russian blue! I shall be giving him a nice, stern talk.”

“And then a lot of fish because you won’t be able to stay mad at him,” Napoleon predicted.

“…Perhaps,” Illya said, noncommittally.

“Incidentally,” Napoleon said. “When you were at the office today--”

“I didn’t go to our office; I went straight to the animal facility and out,” Illya said. “I wanted to get back here as soon as possible.”

“Ah, so you wouldn’t have seen your desk…”

“Why, what would be on my desk?” Illya asked.

“Oh, a whole bunch of these,” Napoleon said, taking the wrapped box of pajamas out from behind his back.

Illya stared at the box and blinked, and then looked to Cora, who had gotten up and had casually placed a cake on the table as she whistled nonchalantly.

“…Today’s the 19th, isn’t it?” Illya realized.

“Took you long enough!” Napoleon said, drawing an arm around him. “Happy Birthday, Illya!”

Baba Yaga woke up and let out a chirrup as she looked up at them.

“Well, yes, of course, Happy Birthday to your little brood, too,” Napoleon added. He turned back to Illya. “I figured I’d take you out on the town tomorrow since we were all a bit preoccupied today, but the banquet can be thrown tonight.”

Illya could only stare as he saw the rest of the seven-course meal all laid out on the dining table.

“Is anyone else…?”

“No, it’s just the three of us,” Napoleon said. “I know you don’t like parties, so this was a little something that Ma and I came up with. Actually, part of the motivation was seeing how much we could do under your nose before you noticed.”

Illya gave a good-natured shrug, but he was smiling.

“Did I amuse you?”

“Oh, yeah,” Napoleon said, grinning. “Come on; you can open this after dinner. For now, let’s eat!”

“Gladly,” Illya said, suddenly hungry now.

And as they sat down to the meal together, Illya had to reflect on how this had definitely been one of his more favorite birthdays: a quiet day with family—a family that had grown in size by four.

#Napoleon Solo #Illya Kuryakin #the man from uncle #mfu fic #Happy Birthday David!#napollya

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sefruado · 7 years

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Synthesis

The mystery of God extends into the way he has called us and has affected our lives. We believe that as our existence comes to place, so is our innate mission to find meaning with that very existence. We are people who are in constant search for one’s own purpose. Once we have lived to realized that purpose can we only call ourselves to have ultimately lived. Growing up, we only considered marriage as a rite of passage. It is just a turning point in our lives, just as we do when we celebrate our birthdays or graduation days. It is simpler to treat marriage that way. The final course of theology delves into a break of that perspective. Despite the fact that we associate responsibility in the marital institution, TREDFOR calls us to look into marriage in a heavier light. It is an appreciation of marriage as a vocation and as purpose we can integrate with ourselves. Marriage, as well as other vocations like priesthood/sisterhood and single-blessedness, as a purpose we must realize to fulfill the call of God.

Realizing the Reign of God As part of the community founded and united in the name of Jesus, we are called upon to be disciples of Jesus. From the first Christians who established the community we regard as the Church, we are taught to share the mission of Christ in ascertaining the Reign of God. From Jesus Christ, we learned that love emanates through the Father and that very love from God is what we ought to experience and share towards our neighbors. For Jesus, it is important that He preaches the extreme importance of love in the context of the Kingdom that the Father wishes to establish. Hence, He become the living embodiment of that love through His words and deeds.

Jesus’ message of love represented through the Gospels are greatly echoed in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. From that parable, we are invited to see the Christian life we should model our lives to. How is that exactly the life we must live? It is simply abiding the one, great Commandment which centers heavily on the call to love unconditionally. It is about a love with no doubts. It is a love that continuously overflows. Jesus shows us that the will of God is not only about equating it to laws but in living a life of love, mercy and compassion. In the same way, we are called to look through the vocations of marriage, priesthood and single-blessedness as a part of that call to pour out our unconditional love for others, in an aim to be a part in the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom.

Commitment is the Key From that call of Jesus to obey the will of God through living a life of love, we are, in turn, called to be committed to the life that God provides. From Him comes the mortal life or bios and from him will come the purpose we seek. In the aspect of marriage, we are invited to crash the disillusionment that it is an easy task. In an age wherein some may see marriage, or simply even relationships, as something that has always an easy way out, the Church continuously reminds us about its sanctity. Couples are always called into commitment. In the sense of Christian marital commitment, we are invited to cultivate a relationship founded in a commitment that are in: a) faith, b) total and faithful, c) accepting, d) exclusive and, e) continuing. From these alone, we can see that entering in the institution of marriage is not simply to be taken for granted. We can see the heavy requirement we must check within the comforts of our relationship before we can say that we are ultimately ready for it.

Establishing commitment to a partner, a responsibility and, especially, to the will of God is something that seems to take a long time to accomplish. It is a long process of coming to terms with oneself and one’s partner. It might be grueling but it is necessary. From the preparation we undertake, we are opening ourselves to a much bigger perspective in our mission of partaking in the reign of God.

Is Marriage for Me? Phase one of marriage preparation delves into the conscious effort in knowing and acknowledging where we are an individual and, more importantly, as partners. Phase two deals with educative counseling. Assessment for readiness of marriage allows us to confirm, postpone or, temporarily or permanently end a relationship. This may use certain tests like the marriage expectation inventory. Basically, we are called to assess different areas in our life and relationship.

Is our love authentic? What is authentic love? As M. Scott Peck mentioned, it is “the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” We have to take note on the word “will” because it highlights a responsibility for partners. From the word “will,” we can see that love is not effortless. There must be a burning desire, dedication and perseverance for both partners to cultivate a loving relationship. It is about building oneself and making oneself as the person worthy for marriage. Once we establish our love for ourselves, then we can profoundly create a love for our partners. Authentic love requires us to be effortful and to put on actual work.

Aside from asserting one’s authenticity for love, we also look into our maturity and values as individuals preparing to be united in marriage. How is this crucial? It is highly important to assess if we are mature enough to undergo a marital life. Oftentimes, people enter marriage without ascertaining their maturity and becomes vulnerable to crisis they haven’t resolve in different stages of their lives. Erik Erikson’s Eriksonian Framework digs into the different stages we encounter in different points of our lives. From there, we figured that it is at the adolescence stage that we start to figure our who we are and what we want in life.

Maturing for us is somehow hard because of the indifference we feel towards it. Sometimes we feel that we couldn’t let go of things we are used to. We always have that struggle in growing up. However, a person intending to marry must realize that maturity is a part of the foundation as we build ourselves and, eventually, the life in marriage we will commit. Maturity, therefore, is an act of risk-taking. When we are mature, we are willing to take risks and abandon our comfort zones. We let go of feelings such as over-dependence, “neurotic competitions”, control and hard to outgrow ideas of life. We are then more open to enjoy the fullest of life and take responsibility of ourselves, and later on for the decisions we take in married life.

Sensuality, Sexuality, Spirituality The topic on sensuality and sexuality brings about the understanding of our responsibility to harness it and use it in its truest purpose. It highlights our need for oneness and the desire to complete ourselves as we have each other. The history of sexuality comes from its harsh days wherein it is entirely taboo and repressed until we reached the present times where there is blatant display of it all over. The challenge, therefore, is to create an integration. It is about finding a balance wherein there is enough room for expression and respect for the act and human dignity. Sexual intimacy is barring it all for one’s partner. From this act, we wholly submit and connect ourselves to our partners. As André Guidon puts it, our desire to connect with God must be like the abandonment of oneself when partners are intimate. It is about bringing ourselves closer to God with our burning desire and passion.

Conclusion TREDFOR reiterates Jesus’ message of love. Throughout the term, we heard nothing but love. We learned nothing but love. And, to me, that is something profound that needs to be appreciated. As human beings, love, like God, remains to be a mystery. It is a mystical phenomenon. We continue to be intrigued by the nature of love and that basically springs of these many theories about building relationships. But to know and acknowledge that there is more to love than being just a phase in our lives is something amusing. From here on, we are expected to not treat love, relationships and these Christian vocations loosely. As we move on from TRED, we carry a renewed understanding of what it’s like to enter into these different paths of life. When we aspire to be married or be single or enter into priesthood, it is always to enact the commandment of unconditional love that is essential to us.

#tredvp

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usnewsaggregator-blog · 6 years

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Museum of the Bible faces revelations, controversy as it opens

New Post has been published on http://usnewsaggregator.com/museum-of-the-bible-faces-revelations-controversy-as-it-opens/

Museum of the Bible faces revelations, controversy as it opens

In the beginning, there was Hobby Lobby president Steve Green and his first purchase of a biblical artifact in 2009 that launched the Green Collection.

What Green has accomplished since then is a full-fledged museum dedicated to the “Book of Books” in Washington, D.C.

After nearly three years of construction, the Museum of the Bible will open its 40-foot tall, bronze doors — the Gutenberg Gates — inscribed with Genesis’s first chapter in Latin to the public today.

Taking a page from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture that opened last September, the Museum of the Bible will provide guests free admission and timed tickets as a way to control the crowds.

The museum is 430,000 square feet, features a 140-foot LED display mounted to the ceiling that show images like stained glass, a grand staircase with glass railings winding up as if to reach to the heavens, a glass galley that offers a view of the Capitol and the Washington Monument, an outdoor Biblical garden on the rooftop, and a massive 472-seat theater that will host the Broadway’s Amazing Grace musical production until January.

Artifacts include the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, first edition Bibles and Torah scrolls, and other artifacts on loan from the Vatican Library and Museum and the Israel Antiquity Authority.

To go through the entire museum, viewing every exhibit and video, would take nine 8-hour days.

A conservative Christian known for winning his company’s 2014 Supreme Court case against Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate, Green and the other leaders have stressed that the museum is nonsectarian and is an invitation for visitors of all faiths to engage with the Bible.

The exhibits’ contents are devoid of hot button issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, officials say.

The opening gala was held Thursday night at the Trump Tower, the Washington Post reported.

Zeiss said his hope is that President Donald Trump would visit the museum and that “every president would come at some time.”

In 2010, the Museum of the Bible was formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with the intent, according to IRS tax form files pulled from ProPublica, “to bring to life the living word of God, to tell its compelling story of preservation, and to inspire confidence in the absolute authority and reliability of the Bible.”

The nonprofit’s mission statement changed on its 2012 tax form: “We exist to invite people to engage with the Bible through our four primary activities: traveling exhibits, scholarship, building of a permanent museum in DC, and developing elective high school curriculum.”

Green told reporters that “the intent had always been to be a nonsectarian museum.”

Candida Moss, a University of Birmingham theology professor and co-author of the book “Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby,” called it a “good faith effort” from the museum to be nonsectarian.

It has been “external criticism that has pushed them towards the museum that they have,” she said.

The museum has included a section devoted to the Hebrew Bible and a few references to the Quran, though Green stressed to reporters this is a museum of the Bible.

Moss also argued that the museum is being billed as a “Christian Smithsonian” which is misleading to visitors, and it’s “difficult to say you’re a nonsectarian museum and have people signing faith statements,” which Green confirms is asked of all members of the museum’s board of directors.

Dan Barker, the co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, said the Greens have a “very specific evangelical motive” that they’ve tried to present as objective.

“When I visit the place I’m going to be looking for signs of proselytizing. If there are none, then I’ll applaud that,” Barker told ABC News.

Moss and Barker both intend to visit the museum.

“There’s been a lot of people that have argued that … we’re going to be proselytizing or be an evangelical view or protestant view,” Green said. “I think of a movie reviewer that reviews a movie they’ve not even seen. So how much credit can you give to someone who’s not even been in the museum?”

Professor Christopher Rollston, a George Washington University professor who’s an expert on the Old Testament, said “the museum is currently walking a fine line” on being nonsectarian, but noted that they have donors and may have visitors who might expect the museum to push a more religious framework to its exhibits.

“But they’re trying to be quite historical in the wordings of the displays that they have,” Rollston said, adding that, “They have made it clear that they’re willing to listen to scholars’ critiques.”

“At this point, I’m reasonably pleased with most of the wording in the exhibits and with most of the displays,” said Rollston, who’s toured the museum in September and November. “…I’m hopeful that the ways in which the museum has been responsive to scholarship is something that will continue. And I’m hoping to that the willingness of the museum to listen doesn’t end after the opening.”

Rollston said he’s going to remain “vigilant” about the museum’s exhibits and the display language used to see if it continues to be “historical in nature and not sectarian.”

But Rollston pointed out that it’s a private museum, so the museum’s leaders are going to do as they please.

Green added, “If we wanted to espouse our faith, we could, but we’re choosing not to. And so we invite visitors to come in and decide if we’ve done that job well.”

Besides combating the criticism that his museum is evangelical propaganda, Green has had to answer for the $3 million settlement Hobby Lobby paid to the U.S. Justice Department this summer for illegally importing Iraqi artifacts, which his company also forfeited.

“We should have exercised more oversight and carefully questioned how the acquisitions were handled,” Green said in a statement at the time.

Green admitted to reporters Tuesday that “mistakes were made early on and we learned from those mistakes,” and assured the authenticity of the artifacts in the museum from his collection.

He also argued that acquiring artifacts was a new area for them at the time, they didn’t have a lot of expertise and there’s liabilities when you import items.

“We’ve paid the fine. We’ve moved on. You learn. It’s a new area for us. It takes a lot of expertise,” Green told ABC News in an interview Tuesday. “We are acquiring and bringing together the best team of experts that we can to help us in that process.”

One such piece on display is the Dead Sea Scrolls fragment. A plaque card titled “Are these fragments real? Research continues” accompanies the display and reads “scholarly opinions of their authenticity remain divided.”

Rollston, who was a witness in the 2012 Israeli “Epigraphic Forgery Trial,” said he has some concerns about the authenticity and provenance, or history of ownership, of some of the Green Collection’s artifacts shown in the museum.

But he said he was “particularly pleased” that the museum chose to be “honest” about the scrolls because museums are not generally candid about artifacts potentially being forgeries. Rollston argued that it’s important for all museums to display forgeries or potential forgeries so the public is aware it’s an issue.

The nonprofit opened a traveling exhibit “Passages,” in 2011 that has been to the Vatican City, Cuba, Israel, and soon after purchased the Washington Design Center for $50 million in 2012 as a home for a permanent museum.

Because the museum is in part a historical building, the museum and its team of 500 to 600 onsite construction workers daily had to be careful in demolition and renovations.

Keeping with their nonsectarian mission, private events can be hosted at the museum with a donation. The events, though, that have been booked almost a year before the museum opened, have the Bible somewhere as the core of their presentation, according to the museum’s president’s Cary Summers.

“So we haven’t figured out all the rules of the game yet. Who do we invite, who don’t we,” Summers told ABC News. “And we’re learning through this pre-opening what has worked well and what hasn’t.”

Part of the third floor is dedicated to an exhibit, “World of Jesus of Nazareth,” that attempts to transport visitors to first century Israel during the time of Jesus Christ.

Lorelei Mah and Sammy Mah, two of the founders to the museum, recently returned from a trip to Israel to find that the exhibit “immediately transported us back.”

“Close your eyes. Takes you back,” Lorelei Mah told ABC News.

The museum also has technology that’s never been used anywhere else in the world, according to Summers. “Washington Revelations” is a flight stimulation, Disney-esque amusement ride, pointing out “the Bible’s presence in inscriptions, place names and monuments in our nation’s capital.”

The Bibles of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry Truman and George W. Bush’s family Bible are also featured in the museum.

Green said that he hoped that once the museum is open, more individuals and institutions might be inspired to donate or loan artifacts.

However, what Rollston wished the museum focused more attention on is Thomas Jefferson’s “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,” also known as the “Jefferson Bible.”

America’s third president and one of the nation’s founding fathers took from the Gospels of the New Testament but omitted the Bible’s miracles, like Jesus’ resurrection, to create a piece of work that’s a combination of enlightenment thought and Christian beliefs.

Rollston said it’s important in a museum about the Bible to highlight the Jefferson Bible because the Enlightenment view of the Bible was the “predominant view of the Founding Fathers” and Jefferson was such an important figure in American history.

The museum also features modern cultural references.

In the museum’s Impact of the Bible exhibit, Elvis Presley’s Bible is displayed a few steps away from mannequins donning Dolce & Gabbana outfits with religious themes.

Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” and Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” can be heard in the music section for its lyrics’ biblical references. The exhibit also has a small science section of bronze statues of George Washington Carver, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton as attempt to provide proof science and religion can co-exist.

Lee Leibold, who calls himself an “incurable collector,” and his wife, Beth, had visited “Passages,” the temporary exhibit which Hobby Lobby opened in Oklahoma City back in 2011.

Hearing of Green’s intent to build a permanent Museum of the Bible, Lee wanted to find something he could collect and contribute.

He donated two pieces: Woodrow Wilson’s personal church pew when he became president and the original letter written on White House stationery signed by Wilson that accompanied each of the one million New Testaments given to World War I soldiers.

While the church pew is not on display, as Lee was told it would be featured in traveling exhibits, visitors can see the original letter from the president that urges American soldiers to read their personal pocket Bibles.

“The Bible is the Word of Life. I beg that you will read it and find this out for yourselves, read — not little snatches here and there — but long passages that will really be the road to the heart of it,” Wilson’s message reads.

On Tuesday, Lee and Beth traveled from Texas to tour the museum, excited to see Wilson’s letter displayed.

Stepping into the museum as “very moving and a little overwhelming” and was pleased that the museum incorporated the Hebrew Bible, Beth Leibold said.

“It’s open to everybody to get a really unique perspective, whatever their viewpoints are and [to] learn,” she said as she toured the “Impact of the Bible” exhibits.

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