#i thought at first i was supposed to read it like they joined the nordic nations in legalizing gay marriage but then reread it

[radmista]

geopolitically estonia is baltic, the estonian language is ugro-finnic; estonia isnt recognized as nordic by anyone, the tweet op probably called them that bc theyre in the north or something, or maybe bc of their bonds with finland

Ooh, thanks for the clarification and information!!

#estonia #i didnt know the language was that. very cool #i thought at first i was supposed to read it like they joined the nordic nations in legalizing gay marriage but then reread it #anon

[darkacademicfrom2021]

The Dark Team (part 10)

<<Previous part Masterlist   Next part>>

(Taglist: @lucywrites02, @louieboo87, @the-departed-potato, @jesuswasnotawhiteman, @idontknow296 , @beksib, @spythoschei, @geekwritersworld , @whatafuckingdumbass, @mysticunicorn7)

Warnings: adorable jerks.

As the sun finally came up (for what it felt like an eternity, a night with seven nights inside of it), you rubbed your eyes and greeted your teammates, who somehow were both already up and having breakfast.

“I was wondering when would you join us”, said Loki, covering his mouth with the manners of a Prince while eating a piece of something. “Barnes made dessert for breakfast”, pointed out more amazed than reproachful.

“Desert?”, you laughed. “A cake?”.

“Yes”, said Loki, very sure of himself, and Bucky rolled his eyes and chuckled, correcting him.

“It’s a pancake, Loki. It’s a normal breakfast in Midgard”.

“Actually, probably just in this country”, you added. “What do you normally have in Asgard?”. As you chattered, you started getting ready and fixing your hair, stealing a piece of pancake from Bucky’s plate. “Wow, I didn’t know you could cook. It’s actually great”, you said, tasting a mouthful.

“Well, as in Midgard’s nordic areas, back home it’s often fruit and bread, or porridge with dried fruits” he recalled distracted, and immediately interrupted himself with “are we not supposed to alert the rest of this?”.

“About Buck knowing how to cook? Yeah, I’m impressed, we should tell everyone”.

“I guess we should’ve told them yesterday, instead of going to sleep”, said Bucky, ignoring you. “Only God knows where that supersoldier is now”.

“I don’t, actually”.

“I didn’t mean... nevermind”, he sighed. “I'm calling Stark and let’s hope we don’t get too yelled at”.

You recalled yesterday’s events. You had so many dreams, you could barely remember being awake at all. First, the bearded man’s nightmare. Then, something about… the compound? Then, you remembered distinctly, Loki speaking Old Norse begging Thor about something. You remembered the phonetic of the words, but they were all gibberish now. Then, a last dream, something about buying rotten apples and being forced to eat them by Thanos. Your imagination surely was active on the nights.

Loki seemed paler than usual as he stared at you, without even blinking.

“What?”, you snapped him out of your head.

“You dreamt with me?”, he muttered, getting up and cleaning his plate with a snap.

"I also dreamt with Thanos".

“Don’t get too attached, I’ll be back to Asgard soon”, he promised, or alerted. Intentions unclear.

“I’m not attached”, you protested. You thought he’d smirk or be the smug idiot he usually was. He didn’t. Instead, he looked unsettled; disturbed even. “I didn’t dream with you on purpose, it was probably because of yesterday’s thing”.

“What thing?”, peeped in Bucky. “Oh no, did you two fuck?”.

“I didn’t let them die, big deal. I was just saving myself the amount of annoyance it would be to have Stank on my neck all week long if your blood was sort of in my hands”.

“Sounds like a lot of deflecting emotions to me, buddy”, said Bucky, and you chuckled.

“He’s just embarrassed he saw himself cry in one of my dreams from last night”, you mocked. He got up and you didn’t get to see his face, but presumed it would hold something near a death threat.

“You two have an intense bonding experience and decide to concentrate on it with more insults? You know, this is why you’re single”, added Bucky.

“It wasn’t a bonding experience”, you said, cutting-glass sharpness in your gaze.

“I’m not single”, corrected Loki at the same time, with an equally whetted voice.

Both Bucky and you looked at him with plate-wide eyes, waiting for him to elaborate. He didn’t. Neither of you asked, but surely shared a fair amount of desire to gossip about it. Oh, how much you wished to be able to tell Bucky about Loki re-reading Hamlet to reminisce about his beloved. But there was a line you wouldn’t cross in there; you knew where to stop.

“Mr. Stark”, you called through the earbud, “you there, sir?”.

“Painfully”, he answered. You connected the earbud to your phone and held it on speaker, so the rest of the team could join. “Tell me more about what I’m gonna yell at you three about”.

As you walked him through (almost) every event in the past twenty four hours, you could feel how his hands traveled all the way up to his face, and had to hold in a few sighs of disgust and utter hate towards… Well, you weren’t sure towards what, exactly.

“Are we grounded, dad?”, spat Loki with sarcasm.

“Listen, Rock Of Ages, if I could, I’d have you in a prison cell still to this day. Don’t push any buttons”.

“Come on, it’s been, what, nine years since he last fucked up something in here?” you defended him, not quite sure why. Loki grew nervous as Tony laughed obnoxiously at him.

“Sure. He didn’t keep fucking things up in here after that”.

“I can assure you I didn’t. How Odin manages his deals with Midgard does not concern me”, explained Loki, and you frowned at the mention of that name. Of course, Loki Odinson. That was where that name resonated from. Besides the Mythology. Though you weren't sure until where those stories were true or not; in there, Loki wasn't even Thor's brother.

“Going back to your current screw up, what happened to the civilians you frightened in the process? I imagine they didn’t realize about the new supersoldiers”.

“They should be extremely blind or idiotic to not have noticed, since the soldier jumped out of nine floors and survived”, answered Loki, looked at you up and down, and kept going “so, no. They have probably slept on it”.

“Wait, what?”.

“What?”.

“Nine floors? Pretty sure Capsicle and Barnes wouldn’t survive that either”.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”, you asked, concerned.

“I’m afraid so. Loki and Bucks won’t cut it, especially when we don’t know the number of new super-supersoldiers out there. And you’re coming back to the compound, directing the mission from the distance”.

“Are you kidding? I’m fine here. I’m all levels of mean, you said it yourself”.

“You’re too young and inexperienced in combat for these kinds of things, and they have special genetic advantages in their bodies, you know, the serum”, explained Tony as you rolled your eyes. But you understood exactly what he meant, and in fact, you agreed. “Do you understand?”.

“Yes; supersoldiers and Gods only”.

“Good kid. Now, Teleporting Popsicle, would you mind taking there with you the rest?”.

With an overly dramatic sigh, Loki vanished behind a party of green lights and reappeared in a matter of seconds in the same spot, holding carelessly Thor and Steve’s arms. Thor, for obvious reasons, was unfazed by the trip. Rogers, on the other hand, seemed about to throw up. There wasn’t anything balance would help with when your cells are reconfigurated inside and out in a fraction of a second. How the hell did he do all of that? You knew it was magic, but it still wouldn’t stop you from being absolutely astonished by it.

Loki arranged his hair behind his ears and locked eyes with you, followed by his typical smugly smile and a “thank you”, as if you were praising him in your thoughts. Oh, wait.

“I didn’t say anything”, you retorted, hoping to maintain at least a drop of pride left.

“You thought I was impressive”. You were going to correct him but realized that absolutely astonished was even worse.

“And since when do you offer gratitude?”.

“In case you wonder, yes, they’ve been like this the whole mission. You’ll get used to it”, said Bucky to Steve and Thor.

They started arranging their things and got updated as thoroughly as they could. Meanwhile, you stood exactly where you were the following ten minutes, absorbed in your own thoughts. Once you snapped out of them, Loki was still staring at you, standing in the same place too.

“What?”.

“I hate to break it to you, but…”.

“What?”.

“I’m your best option”.

“You’re my what?”.

“Your best option”.

“You’re not giving much context”.

“You’re going back to the compound. I figured you’d think about the mission or something about it for the past ten minutes you were zoned out, but apparently you only have room to think about how terrified you’re of that quinjet”.

Your palms got sweaty and a shiver ran through your spine by the only thought of remembering how heights felt under your feet, and how a simple machine wouldn’t stop you from landing on water and drowning, or crushing against a building and being burned to the bones until all you become is dust and…

“Hello? You’re spiraling again”, he snapped you back. “It’ll be just a blink. You won’t even notice”.

“Uh-uh. No, I’m not doing that. I’m waiting for whatever Tony sends to come and get me”.

“You’ll feel terrible”, he said, and he was right. For a moment, you considered accepting his offer. “And I’m the best”. His humble offer.

“I’m sure you are, but it’s not my best option”.

He sighed.

“Will you allow me to teleport you or not?”.

“Heavens, no”.

“Alright, you little stubborn human mortal”.

“Long nickname, you better come up with a shorter one”.

“Like what?”.

“I don’t know, something that bothers you. I’m not the one supposed to make your insults towards me”.

“Let me think”, he said, looking around the room. His gaze landed on the still unwashed plate of Bucky’s breakfast. “Pancake”.

“Not... that’s not an insult”.

“Why? They’re too sugary. They rot your teeth”.

“Yeah, but it’s not derogatory”.

“Fucking pancake”.

“It doesn’t cut it”.

“But what’s wrong with my pancake?”.

“It’s actually a pet name. You know, like the ones we said when we were in...”, but apparently that was all a distraction (of course, he was the God of Lies, after all), and when you were already thinking about how to explain to him why he shouldn’t call you pancake, he stood in front of you and held you by both sides of the arms, surrounding you almost completely, holding you still.

And just as he said, a blink later you were in the compound, perfectly fine. Peter and Tony greeted you as he pulled out and you stood there in shock. So, you really just needed some stabilization to not die in the intricate process of teleportation. Just before stepping away from you, he leaned over your shoulder and his whisper made your ear ticklish, saying “you’re welcome” with a grin. You didn’t look at him.

You started to gather all your stuff; papers, maps, laptops, and getting ready for the planning of the following steps of the mission as fast as you could, until you realized Loki was still there, and Tony and Peter were waiting for you. For what, you weren’t sure.

“Aren’t you going?”, you asked Loki.

“No, I’m staying, apparently”.

“Why?”.

“That’s what Stark was thinking, I don’t know”.

“Hey, Elsa, don’t read my mind, would you?”, snapped Tony. He was about to explain himself, but you kept talking to Loki, cutting his words.

“What’s wrong with you that you read everyone’s thoughts all the time? You know how unethical that is? It’s invasive”.

“You say that because you think slow”.

“Untrue, I’m actually a very fast thinker”.

“How would you know? You’ve never read anyone’s minds so, how could you possibly…?”.

You stopped dead on your tracks, and didn’t listen to what he was saying. That phrase. That exact phrase you dreamt with. The darkness. It was the exact same voice of the darkness, you remembered. It wasn’t darkness, it was his voice. Were you just imagining things? Too suggestionated? Definitely. How could you dream with something you’ve never heard before?

“Sorry to interrupt, you two seem to be having a long, unnecessary and avoidant conversation that could be resumed in three tiny words, as you did all mission long” interfered Tony, sick of listening to you two. Loki was observing you as heedful as he could; your thoughts had caught his attention. You couldn’t read his face. “So, I’m gonna cut it shortly”.

“What?”, you went back to reality. You needed to actively ignore Loki’s gaze on you to actually pay any mind to Tony’s words.

“The rest of the team has another mission, and both Peter and you are technically still kids…” and as soon as you opened your mouth to argue, he shut it “no, don’t interrupt me. You know I’m right. So, I can’t leave you two alone for the entire week”.

“Oh”, you understood. Peter’s innocent eyes shone at the idea. Yours, not so much. “So, Loki is our babysitter”.

“Yes”, said Loki, while Tony answered “No” at the same time.

"What about Happy?", asked Peter.

“I think we can manage perfectly on our own. Besides, what makes you think he’s more responsible than me?”.

“He’s an adult”.

“He’s seventeen in human years, and fucked a horse”.

“Wow, someone has been stalking my mythology”.

“If you two quarrel too much, Peter will tell me and I’ll be back with Clint Barton in charge of you three. So you better behave. Alright, I’m leaving”.

“Wait! What are the rules?”, asked Peter. You grabbed your face and Loki muttered what a damn nerd.

“Eh, don’t burn down the compound, I don’t know, kid”, said Tony getting inside his bright red suit.

“The bar is on the floor. Let’s play macarena”, you whispered.

#loki #loki x reader #loki laufeyson #loki odinson #loki fanfic #loki headcanon #loki fic #fanfic mcu #loki masterlist #laufeyson #loki friggason #loki x gender neutral reader #loki x avenger!reader #loki x y/n #mcu loki #marvel #marvel loki #avengers #tom hiddleston

[furashuban]

As High As The Moon Above

The first work so far of a Hilda AU I’ve written centered around Kaisa and Johanna but as childhood friends (which I’ve titled the Spellbound AU)!  Hope ya’ll enjoy!

Pairing: Sketchbook Ship (Kaisanna)

Words: 5.5k

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33556615/chapters/83380660

Summary: Kaisa must practice casting a new spell before her next training session with her teacher, Tildy. In response, her best friend Johanna, unbeknownst that Kaisa is training to become a witch, offers to take her along on a camping trip outside the wall of Trolberg to help her concentrate.

A cart of books strolled and squeaked through the halls of the Trolberg library. The keeper of the books went about their business reshelving heaps upon heaps of returned literature, glimpsing every aisle they passed with most having little to no visitors browsing the shelves. They eventually spot a girl in a black cardigan and purple dress, complimented by her short black hair, muttering as she struggled to return a single book into a column two spaces above her head. The librarian lets go of the cart to approach the tiptoeing visitor.

 “I can help with that, Kaisa,” they offered warmly. “Please, allow me.”

 “No, that’s okay.” The girl spoke in a heavy Nordic accent. “Almost got it…” She grunted again before successfully sliding her book through the shelf. “There.”

 The librarian noticed a stack of other books carried around Kaisa’s arm as she walked away to the next aisle. Thinking that she would turn down her assistance if she offered again, the librarian simply grinned and nodded, returning to her cart to reshelve on their own.

 Kaisa was now at the second floor with her books. One might think she was merely volunteering to aid in the librarian’s duties, but in truth, she spent half the day at the library to read as many books as she possibly could. Some were finished cover-to-cover, others she only read half way through, but promised to come back for until she was absorbed enough to borrow and reread them home; only in the library could she bring herself to finish a book in its entirety.

She made it to the end of the second floor’s hall where a bookshelf had a column within reach, as well as space between other books, which luckily for Kaisa was meant for all the books on her pile alone, and slid every book into it at once before heaving a sigh of relief.

 Onto the next stack she could gather, thinking to herself. But out of nowhere, a feeling of suspicion coincided with her imagination and stood frozen before the bookshelf. Kaisa began pulling out books slightly and placing them back a second after. She hummed, now peering behind the gap between the walls and bookcase and ran her hand through the edges, all the while someone new was walking towards her direction.

 “…Oh, there you are!” another person’s voice spoke jubilantly behind her. “Almost thought you left already, been looking everywhere for you.”

 Kaisa turned around; the voice was all too familiar. In front of her was a girl the same age as she was, brown hair that tied into a ponytail and wearing a Sparrow Scout uniform. She smiled as she stood, bringing excitement to Kaisa’s heart.

 “You’re back from your badge work!” her whole face lit up.

 “Yep! Just earned my Geology Badge today, so that’s one more to my sash and for the ceremony.” The Sparrow Scout explained proudly.

 “Stolt över dig, Johanna.” Kaisa applauded. “And the badge ceremony is soon, right?”

 “Well, it’s only a month from now.” Johanna pointed out. “Actually, I was hoping you would be able to come and attend, if you won’t be busy, of course.”

 Kaisa reached for the brunette’s hand and held it up with both her palms. “I would not miss it for anything.” She guaranteed excitedly, making her best friend blush and glance away overjoyed.

 “…So, um, what have you been up to?” Johanna asked. “…apart from reading that is.”

 “I was looking for secret doors in the library.” Kaisa explained, turning back to the bookshelf. “There must be whole other rooms with more books hidden in the shelves somehow.”

 Johanna walked closer to the colossal shelf of literature and helped inspect with Kaisa. “Have you tried pulling every book like it was a lever?” she suggested, also wanting to be inquisitive of rooms behind the library walls.

 “Almost all of them, yes.” Kaisa nodded. “Do you think this might be the wrong shelf?”

 “Personally, the library is already kinda big on its own. It’ll take ages to find where the right one is.” Johanna admitted. “But hey, if we don’t find them, you can always add them when you become the future librarian.”

 “You know…” Kaisa turned back to Johanna. “That’s exactly what I’ll do…!”

 Johanna had known Kaisa’s dreams of being the keeper of books for as long as she could remember. She enjoyed visiting the Trolberg library just as much as anyone else, but she never met anybody who treated it like it was their own home the same way Kaisa did. One could write a fairytale of a girl who lived here, she thought at one point, and wanted to be the protagonist adventurer who would come to befriend her. That idea came back to her briefly as she faced an enthusiastic Kaisa, and for that reason, she giggled quietly; the fairytale might actually be true.

 Before the two girls could continue their conversation, a figure stood over and caught their attention. They looked up on a woman suiting a long, sophisticated gray dress and a decorative hat reminiscent to what witch’s wear.

 “Oh, hello Arch Sorcer…I MEAN Tildy…” Kaisa stammered. “What brings you here…?”

 The woman smiled warmly at the girl to reassure her tension. “Nothing much, my dear.” She spoke in a gentle tone. “Just came looking for a book to bring home and all.”

 She peeped over the closest bookshelf and quickly skimmed through it before pulling out a novel that read The Skeleton Whisperer on the cover. “Ah yes, this will do.” she said. “I suppose you’re here continuing extra work on your training.”

 “Yes, ma’am.” Kaisa gave a half smile. “I just finished, but I can continue if you insist that I do…”

 “No need to stress.” Tildy assured. “I know you’ve worked quite hard today. Catch your breath and continue your studies tomorrow.” She turned her attention to Johanna. “You and your friend deserve the time to respite.”

 The sorceress-in-secret kneeled down to Kaisa and whispered on her ear. “Also, I couldn’t help but overhear your suggestions on secret rooms,” she continued. “I think it’s a great idea. We’ll talk about it with the Committee next time we head down the tower.”

 And with her borrowed book, the mysterious woman walked onwards. “Adieu, children.” She said before making her way downstairs with her borrowed book.

 “See you soon madame Pilqu…Tildy, I mean.” Kaisa also bid farewell.

 “I thought you were just here waiting before we could hang out.” Johanna expressed.

 “I was.” retorted Kaisa. “But I tried catching up with some studies, too, for when I meet with Tildy again.”

 “Who was she anyway?” asked Johanna. “She seemed very…enigmatic, sort of, but sweet.”

 “She’s my teacher.” Kaisa answered. “I took up her apprenticeship long ago, but I’m not allowed to talk about it too much...”

 Johanna could fathom; never once had Kaisa talked about any apprenticeship before. She now looked distressed once she saw her teacher was here, stroking down her locks to the point her bangs nearly covered her eyes. The Sparrow Scout could feel her frown forming by seeing Kaisa’s own, now wishing to know much about this part of her friend’s life she had not known previously.

 “Do you not get along with her, Kaisa?” asked Johanna.

 “Oh, she’s actually really nice to me, kind of like my farmor.” she replied. “It’s just that…Well, I don’t know…” she paused, squirming from hesitation. She said it herself, she was not allowed to talk about her sessions with Tildy, whether it was what she was being taught or what she was even learning to become. But she knew Johanna will be left with loads of questions if she did not reveal much about her apprenticeship starting now.

 Kaisa sighed, maybe she did not have to reveal a lot of the truth to Johanna if she really wanted to explain her vexation. “So, look, there’s this sort of… “routine” we’ll call it, that Tildy is letting me practice until next week.” she continued. “As usual, I need to prepare by studying a lot first, but it’s hard to actually practice where I live. There’s not enough privacy to do the routine with my mum around, and if I don’t get it right when I meet Tildy, well, I’m afraid I’ll disappoint her…”

 Almost instantly, Johanna brainstormed the perfect solution to Kaisa’s ordeal. “Wait a sec, Kaisa, I know exactly how you can practice.” she beamed. “But the catch is, I might have to accompany you the whole time.”

 “What do you mean?” Kaisa asked.

 “I’ll be going camping this weekend!” clarified Johanna. “My parents allowed me to go so I can prepare for my camping badge, but what they don’t know is that I plan to settle outside the walls.” she extended her hand and swung it across. “I’m going as far away from the city as I can, remote into the wilderness, and maybe just close enough to my grandad’s old house if I’m lucky. And to top it off, you can come with me!”

 Kaisa’s face went white. “So you’re saying I should I join you…in going outside the walls?”

 “Yep, exactly!” Johanna expressed. “Think about it, there will still be time to prepare and see your teacher after you’re done practicing in the trip, and no one else can find you practicing in the wilderness. Besides, it’ll be fun with just you and me in the outdoors!”

 “Oh, I don’t know, Johanna…” Kaisa faltered. “I could…But it sounds a bit risky. And you would still be around when I start practicing, so that’s still a problem for me.”

 “Well, it’s no worries then,” the brunette reassured. “It was just worth the suggestion, but I understand.”

 A bit of quietness befell for the two girls. Kaisa glanced away and envisioned Johanna’s planned escapade outside the walls. Maybe letting her leave while being the only person to know about it was not such a good idea. Anything could happen in the wilderness, and Kaisa shuddered to think what harm would come to Johanna when she could have personally protected her the same way she would if they camped together.

 Kaisa returned to glancing at Johanna. “Promise me you will not tell anyone about my training…?” she said.

 Johanna gasped and smiled all at once. “Don’t worry, you can trust me.” she swore.  

 Kaisa grabbed hold of Johanna’s shoulders. “Johanna, no one can ever know about what I practice.” she continued with visible anxiety in her complexion. “I will get in trouble, and it will be worse for you, and something bad will happen to both of us somehow.” her voice became twice as strained and her grip slowly tightened. “Jag kan inte förlåta mig själv…!”

 “Kaisa, listen, it’s going to be okay…” Johanna’s tone was light and calm, guiding Kaisa’s hands to let go. “Look, I may not understand everything about your apprenticeship or your routine, but your teacher said no need to stress. Well, I’m saying it too.” She elevated her posture. “I promise as your best friend to not only help you, but to also never tell a single soul of our adventure, nor what I’ll see regarding your training during it.” She finalized with a Sparrow Scout’s salute.

 Kaisa grinned, feeling relief course through her mind. “Thank you.” She spoke softly.  “I’ll stop worrying now.”

 “Alright, let’s go then,” Johanna chuckled. “The park’s waiting for us. We’ll talk more about our trip there.”

  Every day went by slowly for Kaisa, but the weekend finally came for her and Johanna to head out into the wilderness. However, even the hours of the day went by just as slowly when she waited for the Sparrow Scout to come by her house. She was in her room filling her pack with her own essential needs that were instructed for her to bring in a camping trip. The only thing not packed in her luggage was her wand with an amethyst pommel, which she kept hidden under her cardigan.

 Whether it was going to be in the camping trip or when they were older, Kaisa knew that Johanna was going to discover she was a witch this whole time. The vague routine she said she hoped to practice was in fact a spell which of course involved her wand, an incantation and some magic. She trembled at the fact that there was no point of return in continuing to hide the truth from Johanna after the library visit. It was not just that there were punishments and compromises to a witch’s identity being revealed, but would her best friend still even want to be friends with someone who is capable of influencing the paranormal like her? Even if she had doubts of her own strength, would just being a witch-in-training be enough to scare her and split their friendship apart?

 It made Kaisa’s head spin and groan every time. If there was one thing she hoped to do as a witch, it was the power to predict other people’s choices and wishes, that way she would never have to endure the pain of overthinking about the company in her present or future ever again.

 Behind her, a knock on the window thudded twice. Kaisa quickly turned to see Johanna on the other side, no longer in her uniform but rather in a red and blue flannel above her overalls while her long, swaying hair spilled down her shoulders, waving her hand with the brightest smile on her face.

 “Ready for our camping trip, Kaisa?” she asked, her voice softened from the glass pane.

  Kaisa rushed to open the window. “Am I supposed to jump out through here?” she asked back, realizing Johanna did not stop by the front door.

 “Mhm.” The brunette nodded. “We’ll be much faster exiting the walls with this route.”

 “My mum’s not even home,” Kaisa pointed out. “It wouldn’t matter as much.”

 “Does she also know you’re heading out today?” Johanna diverted.

 “Yes, of course she does.” Kaisa answered.

 The brunette gestured to leave. “No time to waste, then.”

 Kaisa chuckled and shook her head in amusement. While hurrying to take her pack, Johanna made room for her to climb out and reclose the window, then rushing as fast as they could into the city’s portion of the forestland to avoid attention.

One of the exits out of the walls was just nearby, and the pair made it with nothing stopping their way. No traffic of vehicles driving into the city, no guards surveilling the entrance, just a mere traffic stop standing dormant on the gate to halt anyone from entering and exiting. Quickly, the two girls ran like the wind, hoping they were not spotted by Bellkeepers and citizens in general, finally ending up in the outside world to trek on their own.

 “We still have a long way to go,” Johanna said. “The perfect camping ground should be yonder…”

 Johanna continued walking a few paces, but Kaisa stopped to look back at the gate to Trolberg still nearby. She could feel her eyes welling up and her heart pounding out her chest as every second of her fear grew. Not often was she outside, but the wilderness was a whole new scenario that she wished she prepared more for. She did not want to leave for Johanna’s safety, but it was so easy for her to feel afraid in these surroundings. The Sparrow Scout herself looked back and noticed Kaisa frozen in uncertainty.

 “Hey, we’ll to be okay,” Johanna hurried to comfort her best friend. “I promise I’ll protect you. I won’t let anything hurt us in this trip.”

 Kaisa whimpered and stared back at Johanna. The anxiety etched on her face was contagious to the brunette and stung her heart, but she forced a smile and sneakily grabbed Kaisa’s hand.  

 “I’ll hold onto you the entire time we’re out here, that way we’ll both feel safe,” she entangled her fingers with Kaisa’s.

 Something sparkled in Kaisa’s eyes when she saw her hand grasping her best friend’s. She did not say a word, but a warm smile finally carved on her face and was enough for Johanna to know that she will be okay. The two pressed on, Johanna remained ahead while Kaisa was behind her, their hands still holding and keeping them close together.

 They hiked a chartless trail among the forestlands where the leaves changing color from summer to fall was ever so present, and the sunshine beamed infinite rays of its light through the trees trying to cover it. Kaisa was lost in thought, appreciating the view of the forest; she turned her head in all directions and felt a wave of reassurance with every view, made even more so with Johanna taking the lead as she hummed a tune. Seeing she was still holding Kaisa’s hand, the witch-in-secret recalled what Johanna had said earlier about protecting each other, something she could not stop thinking at all, but wanted to address as casually as she could.

 “Hey, Johanna…” Kaisa called.

 “Yes, Kaisa?”

 “Do you ever think humans could become familiars?”

 “You mean like the ones witches have?” Johanna asked back. “Well, I’m not sure… It would be pretty neat if they could, though.”

 “I agree,” Kaisa said. “It wouldn’t be common, but talking with a human familiar would sure feel like less work.”

 “Yep,” Johanna retorted. “Wait just a minute…” her tone grew wary.

 Kaisa gulped, feeling nervous of what Johanna intended to say. “Y-Yeah…?”

 “Imagine if one us became a witch’s familiar!” Johanna’s eyes lit up.

 The corner of Kaisa’s mouth quirked up and giggled, mostly out of relief. “You’d actually want to become one?”

 “Sure, why not?!” Johanna replied. “Think of all the cool spells you get to help a witch out on. If I was a familiar, I would never ever leave their side, constantly aiding them…kind of like I am with you!”

 The girl behind her blushed. “That’s good to know…” she whispered, hoping Johanna would not turn to see the glee on her reddened complexion.

  Miles and miles of trees and rivers were wandered through by the duo until they grew eventually tired. When both the sun and sky glowed a warm tinge of orange, the time came to build their camp, far away from the nearest residence of Trolberg.

 “Right, this should be good, I think,” said Johanna, letting go of her pack and rummaging through the compartment holding her tent. “Can you help build the tent with me, Kaisa?”

 “Can do.” Kaisa nodded.

 The land which Johanna and Kaisa settled in was a flat and grassy plane surrounded by the corners of the forest in a crescent shape. Beyond the breach of the crescent was more verdant terrain which stretched onto the large gray mountains ahead. It was the perfect camping ground to pick for those beginning to camp out on their own, and both Johanna and Kaisa wasted no time hoisting their tent cloth and holding it together with ropes, stakes and rods.

 Having practiced building a tent back home and during Sparrow Scout activities, along with having Kaisa’s assistance, Johanna finished constructing the tent for the two before the sun was even down.

 “Don’t worry, it will be more comfortable on the inside than it looks on the outside.” Johanna spoke, wiping away a drop sweat on her head.

 “I think it looks comfy already.” Kaisa said. “Well done!”

 “Couldn’t have done it without your help, though.” She pulled Kaisa closer to her, making her chuckle.

 Their belongings and sleeping bags were settled in their tent, and a bonfire was built by Johanna with foliage and twigs to give them warmth. It was as though her retreat needed for her camping badge had already happened if one could realize the adeptness of which she put together the camp, but her days as a Sparrow Scout had in fact prepared her for fun, spontaneous trips in the wilderness.

 Until the sky totally darkened, the two kept themselves busy with conversations of the week they had after seeing each other in the library, which new books they have read, and enjoyed cups of hot cocoa from a tin canister Johanna packed along. With all the goings-on being enjoyed since they left Trolberg, Kaisa almost forgot that she intended to continue her witch training while she was camping with the brunette. The scene in the tent surrounded by the orange light of the lantern, filling the air with laughter and merriment, was all Kaisa and Johanna could ever hope to cherish together, but it was best that the witch-in-secret began her training as soon as she could.

 “Okay, Johanna, I should probably start now.” Kaisa said, rising from her spot in the tent.

 “Alright, good luck!” Johanna cheered. “If anything bad happens, shout as loud as you can to call me.”

 Kaisa stepped out of the tent. Immediately, another wave of fear coursed through her mind and made her quiver in place by the tent’s entrance. She was overthinking once more; what if a Troll was out and near to the camp? What if there was a Barghest on the run? Every monster from every folklore that she had ever read could be out to harm her and Johanna in this hour. She withdrew her wand from her cardigan and clenched it tightly with both hands. Kaisa reminded herself that even if danger was nearby, she would be first to protect Johanna like she hoped she would, and Johanna will do the same if she herself was threatened.

 She took small steps away from the tent, far enough that Johanna would not notice any magic ensuing. A full moon was rising, and Kaisa looked up. It captivated her, and her ability to use magic should be as strong as ever, she thought.

Taking a deep breath, it was time for the levitation spell.

 “Bara fokusera…” she spoke to herself softly. “Gå så högt som månen ovan….”

 Soon, she closed her eyes and opened her palm, holding it upwards by her chest. The tip of her wand glowed a purple spec of light and atop her palm, then twirled it in circles over and over. She whispered an incantation that Tildy taught her, being just one sentence of incomprehensible words to non-witches, and repeated it again until the whole spell was set in motion. As the wand circled more and more, sparkles exuded out from nowhere until a purple aura sheathed the outlines of her physique.

 “As high as the moon above…” she whispered.

 Suddenly, Johanna exited the tent to sit by the campfire. Kaisa was out of sight, but the brunette did not plan on finding her no matter how much she wanted to see this “routine” she was practicing. The concentration and privacy which her best friend said she lacked was all that mattered to Johanna. She spread her hands around the warmth of the blaze, but even before she could fully respite, she heard the leaves rustle in the forestland ahead. The brunette looked up and squinted at nothing but silhouettes and darkness.

 Leaning in a bit forward, she finally realized what was apparently coming forward. It was a large, bulky figure; its eye glowing in a nearly strong luminosity of white. Johanna’s heart was racing, there was no way it could be what she thought it was. But as the figure revealed more of itself among the forestland, it was indeed the worst possible thing for the camping trip: a large Troll rummaging through the wilderness.

 Johanna yelped, but quickly covered her mouth to avoid getting the Troll’s attention. She got up from her seat by the fire and hurried to find Kaisa’s training spot, panickily whispering her name. To her relief, she found her just standing still behind the tent, but immediately froze out of a whole different feeling of concern.

 Kaisa’s eyes remained shut and muttered to herself while a big spark of light glimmered above her hand, holding and swirling her wand evenly. She seemed to be in her own world now, completely detached from the surroundings around her. Johanna failed to approach or even say a word to the witch as she realized how apprehensive she felt towards what was happening. When she thought she had enough to be confused about, she looked over her limbs to realize that a purple aura glowed around her body. Her feet began to rise up slightly from the ground and glanced ahead to see that Kaisa, despite maintaining the same posture, was also levitating; terror now overtook Johanna’s face.

 Then, Kaisa stopped her wand from spinning, and her open hand stretched high into the sky. The two girls continued lifting up ever so slowly from the ground, their feet could reach the tip of their tent, and soon they were as high as the top of a tree. Johanna flailed her arms and legs sporadically when it seemed like they soared upward enough, still too afraid to ask Kaisa what was going on.

 The witch opened one eye to see how far up she was, then the other to realize Johanna in front of her. Her pupils shrank in a state of fright and her jaw went slack. Out of all the mistakes she had expected to make, picking up Johanna with her own spell was the last yet most severe one she could ever think to fall through.

 “Oh no, oh no no no no…!” Kaisa whimpered. “I…I did not mean to…!”

 Johanna shushed and pointed downwards to their campsite. As Kaisa gawked down, her pulse stopped to the sight of a Troll peeking into their tent. It drew back to find out no one was inside, then turned to the fire and stared at it for a while. It finally took a seat, emitting a large thud on the ground like a single-second quake upon resting.  

Kaisa looked back at her best friend in fear, letting her eyes ask what on earth they should do now. Johanna fathomed, nodding to reassure that they were probably safer up in the sky, and gestured both her hands lightly to signify holding them in place with whatever Kaisa was making them float with.

 The witch fought to keep it together. Her breath was instable and the palm holding her wand began to sweat. If she could focus long enough and ward off the wish to descend back on the ground, all the while halting to recite her incantation which helped her concentrate, she could try having her and Johanna stay hovering in the air for as long as she wanted.

 Kaisa’s expression hardened and pointed her wand towards Johanna. She swung her arm backwards in a single quick motion, causing Johanna to gasp as she floated over to the witch. Kaisa gave the brunette a tight embrace, one so warm and protective that it felt inescapable to be let go from.

 “Please, don’t be mad.” Kaisa could only bring herself to plead. “I did not focus that well. I could have done even worse to us had I---”

 The tension felt within Johanna was lost to Kaisa’s voice and embrace, and her eyes closed, hugging her best friend back. “It’s okay, Kaisa.” she interrupted. “Just that…this…is a lot to take in…” the conversations about witch familiars and training with privacy all made sense now.

 “’I’m sorry…” Kaisa nestled her face onto Johanna’s shoulder. She looked back down at the campsite and saw the Troll keeping warm with their fire, motionless like the rock that it was. “We are going to be up here all night…”

 Johanna let go from their embrace so she could face Kaisa, still holding onto her shoulders. “Do you think there is a way we could get the troll to move out?” she asked.

 “I’m not sure if I am able to…” Kaisa admitted. “Not unless we let it know where we are.”

 Johanna looked back down; the Troll did nothing, only seemingly entranced by the fire as it gazed on it. She thought about how she wanted to warm herself earlier, and her eyes dilated upon realizing what the Troll only seemed to want as well.

 “If it’s not the troll we can do something about directly, we’re just going to have to take out the fire.” Johanna said.

 Kaisa caught up with the plan. “I got it.” she nodded. “Leave it to me then.”

 With her wand still at hand, she pointed the tip towards the campfire and concentrated on hitting anything but the Troll or their tent accidentally. The easiest thing she could bring herself to do with magic was release a streak of energy from her wand, and she hoped that blasting the campfire with her specific sort of ammunition could take out the fire and bid the Troll farewell.

 Deep breath…Eyes locked…The light on the tip of Kaisa’s wand glowed purple once more until it grew as bright as a star, then it hurled down from the wand in high speed. Barely a second later, the energy from Kaisa’s magic crashed into the campfire, exploding into a gradient of purple, white and orange, and nothing but a gleaming mist blanketed a portion of the camp. The Troll got up in shock, fists tightly clenched and glaring in all directions to search for what threatened it; Johanna and Kaisa watched from above in hopes it would not look up.

 When the mist quickly dispersed, the Troll looked down on the rubble of wood which used to be the campfire keeping it warm. It hummed a deep, disappointed tone, and stomped the ground so stridently that the two girls in the air could almost feel the tremor. No one appeared to be around it for miles, hence the Troll finally made its way back to the forestlands to search for another source of warmth in the wilderness.

 “Yes, it worked…!” Johanna expressed.

 The witch breathed a sigh of relief. “Do you think it will come back?” she asked.

 “Let’s hope it doesn’t.” Johanna answered. “We’ll leave the campfire be, we still got the tent to keep us warm.”

 With all the exhilaration fully coursing through Kaisa’s mind, the purple aura around her and Johanna faded away. They only had a second to see the spell had worn off before being weighed down by gravity, screaming and falling from the height of a two-story building before Kaisa raised her wand to reactivate the levitation spell. The two of them gnashed their teeth and their eyes shut tightly, just before peeking around to see they were hovering only an inch above the ground.

 Kaisa allowed the spell to cast off, and the glow of her wand and from their physiques dissipated for the last time tonight. She and Johanna dipped onto the floor with their backs flatly lied down, groaning when they picked themselves back up.

 Johanna felt unsure if anything she had just experienced after leaving her tent was even real. She stared at Kaisa hiding her wand away, then at all the leftover mist and sparkles on what used to be their campfire.

 “Kaisa…this whole time…you were a…” Johanna’s eyes lit up.

 Kaisa sighed. “Surprise.” she giggled tiredly. “I’m sorry I kept this secret from you, Johanna. I really could not say anything.”

 Kaisa’s breathing was concise and hasty. All of a sudden, she collapsed on her knees and held the ground to keep her up. To Johanna’s shock, she hurried to carry her back up and wrap her hand over her shoulder. The energy used up to perform the levitation spell took a toll on the witch-in-training. It was unlike anything she had ever accomplished before.

As soon as they entered their tent, Johanna laid Kaisa down on her sleeping bag and pillow. The Sparrow Scout grabbed a canister of fresh water and filled the cap almost to the brim, bringing it over to the witch and allowed her to drink as much as she needed.

 “Thank you.” Kaisa whispered, closing her eyes and lying back down.

 Johanna kept staring upon Kaisa in a near unconscious state, hoping she could still listen to her before she inevitably fell asleep. “Look, Kaisa…” she spoke. “…I know your spell did not work the way you wanted when I showed up, but you did save us from the Troll in the end. I really should be thanking you…”

 A corner of Kaisa’s mouth lifted. However, the soft grin on her face was short-lived, “But now I will never get the spell right on time…” she lamented, feeling the exhaustion overtaking her slowly.

 Johanna had so many questions she was dying to have answered, if only she could ask them now. In any case, witch or no witch, Kaisa was still the same best friend Johanna had since forever, and while she knew she could never make her magic and identity known to others, she could not wait to be there for Kaisa the next time she trained to become a witch.

 “We don’t have to leave after tomorrow,” Johanna said softly. “We can stay out here for as long as we need until you perfect your spell, and I won’t ever leave your side.”

#hilda the series #hilda netflix #sketchbook ship #fanfiction #my works #hilda librarian #johanna hilda #kaisa hilda #tildy hilda #kaisanna #spellbound au

[clavicuss-vile]

25 Days of TES Cheer #17 - Dancing!!!!

@korvanjund !!!! bruh ive been excited for this one since day 3

TLDR: Lisette reminisces on when her and Elisif first met, at a courtship ball for the young prince Torygg.

Notes: This takes place a few weeks after THIS ONE, please read first to know who the characters are <3 Alternative title: Lisette pines for 1500 words straight.

Lisette took one last look at Solitude over her shoulder as she walked down the cobbled road. Katla and Fretr, her beloved wolfhounds, ran ahead of her, barking and skipping happily as if nothing had changed. She supposed she couldn't blame them; they'd barely been allowed around Torygg during his short time as High King, not since the Empire began wrapping their claws around him.

She pulled her thick hunting coat around her and drew the hood. She expected this trip to last months, by the time she returned to Solitude, maybe the palace wouldn't feel so hollow. Like it was inhabited by ghosts. Katla's wet nose on her pale hand snapped her back to the present, and she ruffled the floppy fur on her forehead before pulling a pair of thick fur mittens over her hands.

She thought of Elisif, alone in that palace, and Lisette felt her heart tug. She shouldn't have left, for Elisif's sake, but she could not bare to stay in that Shor-forsaken castle any longer. Every room, courtier, and painting reminded her of her big brother. As she walked, leaving the path and veering right onto the trail that lead to the mountains, she felt herself slip into a memory.

"Introducing Lady Elisif the Fair, heiress of noble Clan Farseer of Morthal." The herald of the ball had announced. It was a courtship ball for Torygg, as well as a debutante for Elisif herself. The Wolf-Bloods had always been a close family with the Farseers, and it was only natural that the heirs would be given the opportunity to court, and join the families by blood. All eyes flocked to the young girl, and Lisette took one look at her older brother and knew that she would be the one he would marry. She had never seen him look so star-struck.

Not that she could blame him. Elisif was beautiful. She wore a gorgeously woven purple dress - the colour of her Clan - that seamlessly married a mixture of nordic, bretonny, and imperial dress. It was clear her family had spent their fortune on the gown, not even considering the stunning brooches, beads and hair clasps that drew her outfit together. Her strawberry blonde hair was sectioned into two loose braids that fell over her shoulders, emphasizing her youthful appearance. She was beautiful. Lisette only snapped out of her trance when her mother pushed her gently towards the dance floor; it was customary for a member of the courter's family to take the first dance with a potential partner, and their mother had chosen Lisette to do the honours. As she approached Elisif, the herald began to announce her own titles to the members of the ball.

"Princess Lisette of Clan Wolf-Blood of Solitude, daughter of High King Istlod and Lady Elodie Montriele, sister of Prince Torygg, grandaughter of Queen-Mother Ylara Ice-Tongue." Lisette felt heat rise to her cheeks as she took Elisif's hand and lead her to the center of the room, blaming the excitable crowd, or embarrassment from her introduction. The girls' eyes met and the princess quickly looked away, deciding instead to intently ponder the intricate layout of the desserts table, rather than the girl before her. They waited until the band began, and the room began to slowly dance, filled with the sounds of music and chatter. Lisette noted Elisif gazing doe-eyed around her at every wall of the courtroom.

"I suppose this is much bigger than you're used to." Lisette smiled, carefully placing her hand on the other's waist, just as her mother had taught her in all the hours of dancing lessons. "In Morthal, I mean."

"Yes," Elisif hummed, voice barely heard above the sound of the music. It was just as soft as her appearance. "Morthal is much quieter. Less people... everywhere."

"Oh gods, take me with you. If I have to entertain one more noble-boy's attempts to integrate into my family I may have to disappear into the woods." She laughed, earning a giggle from Elisif. Lisette instantly regretted it, as the sound caused another deep blush to fall over her cheeks. She hoped Elisif would simply put it to the heat of the room.

"Every boy from here to Eastmarch would mourn the loss, I'm sure." Elisif smiled oh so sweetly, tucking a loose strand of ginger hair behind her ear. Lisette wished she hadn't. They twirled in perfect symmetry to the gentle melody, surrounded by the other attendees. Lisette knew she would have to entertain suitors of her own later, but for now her attention was on Elisif.

"Is it true your family see ghosts?"

"Hmm, not quite. Most of us can sense them, but it's little more than a feeling. The Ravencrones can receive messages from them, but not sense them. It's odd. I'm not sure why the gods chose us. Is it true your family founded Solitude?"

"That's how the story goes." Lisette smiled proudly. "The first child of Mara, raised by her own two wolves. He came upon the stone arch, and deemed it the doorway to Shor. Shorengaar, he called it. Built the city with his own two hands. The first Wolf-Blood." The music began to quiet, and Lisette took the opportunity to lead Elisif away from the dance, into a crowd of noblewomen, where her mother was mingling.

"Mother." Lisette beamed with a curtsy. Elisif followed suit.

"Lady Elodie." She said quietly, bowing her head.

"Lady Elisif. What a beauty you are. Are you enjoying the ball? My beloved daughter hasn't scared you off yet, has she?" Elodie smiled warmly, stroking the young Farseer's temple with her finger.

"Thank you, it's beautiful. I've never seen so many people in one room." Elisif giggled, before adding: "And no, not quite yet."

"Good. She's just like her father; take your eyes off her for a second and she'll be running into that forest with the dogs at her heels."

Lisette scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. Elodie chuckled quietly with the other noble ladies. "Why don't you introduce Elisif to your grandmother." She smiled.

"Watch out little dove, Lady Ylara's a fiery one." One of the noblewomen that Lisette didn't recognize laughed.

"She's a Wolf-Blood." Elodie sighed, followed up with a smirk. "They're all like that."

Lisette took Elisif's hand again, drawing her away from the giggling women and towards the dessert table she knew her grandmother would be guarding. She was about to announce the queen-mother just as she had Elodie, but Ylara spoke first.

"Ah, the lady of the hour! Twirl for me, darling." The elderly woman grinned, taking Elisif's hand and spinning her. She admired the purple layers of fabric that made up her gown. "Ah, yes. You Farseers always were a pretty bunch. Fooled around with a Farseer girl myself back in the day." She winked, nudging Elisif with her elbow.

"Grandmother!" Lisette exclaimed, her face turning beet-red in embarrassment. "Elisif, don't listen to a word she says-"

"Nonsense, girl! What good is youth if not to have some fun? You know, I was quite the looker in my time, Elisif."

"I'm sure you were, my Lady, if your granddaughter is anything to go by." Elisif replied coyly. Lisette wished the ground would swallow her up right then and there.

"Oohoohoo! Don't let Torygg catch you saying that. Boy's as stubborn as me. You'll get used to that, Elisif. We're a stubborn bunch, us Wolf-Bloods. Stubborn and proud. We know our history, and we know our blood. Don't you forget that."

"Yes, grandmother. Try not to scare her off before she's even had chance to speak to my brother." Lisette said, ignoring the faint twisting in her gut.

"A girl ought to know her history." Ylara continued. "She'll be joining ours, so she'll be part of that history."

"Um, I don't think Prince Torygg even knows i'm here yet." Elisif interjected, a little awkwardly. Lisette and Ylara exchanged a single-eyebrow-raised glance, and Elisif noted just how similar the two were in their mannerisms.

"Oh no, girl. He know's you're here alright." Ylara laughed loudly, followed by a comment from Lisette.

"With the way he was staring, you'll be in his dreams for weeks." The young princess muttered. The Queen-Mother smirked at her granddaughter knowingly.

"It seems you have a knack for winning my grandchildren's hearts."

"And that's enough." Lisette almost shouted, grabbing Elisif's hand a little too quickly. "Thank you grandmother, I think it's time for her to meet Torygg." The two girls sped off, cackling laughter erupting from the old woman behind them.

Lisette sighed, kicking the snow under her feet. It had been almost three years since then, two since she'd managed to get over her childish crush, a year since her mother, grandmother and father had passed, and only a month since her big brother had been shouted apart in front of her. She was the last wolf standing.

Alone, she kneeled into the freezing snow and let herself sob for the first time in months.

#25daysoftescheer #my writing #tes #writing #tes writing #my ocs #oc: lisette #oc: elodie #oc: ylara #i love that funky old lady #bi to bi communication #elisif the fair #torygg #tesblr #the elder scrolls #skyrim

[sif-the-tsunami]

Ropes and Roses part 4

Summary: Elizabeth Rosehill is a talented dance instructor and a force of nature that beguiles her famous student. Events in her life, however, have led her to search for more creative ways for her to keep herself afloat. What will she do to keep her dreams secure and what will it mean for her blossoming relationship. This is a very adult story about two people who are moderately terrible at adulting.

Warning: Fem! Dom/ Fem! Sub, Bisexual shenanigans, anal play, squirting, BDSM, crying, two people who are literal disasters trying to figure things out, Mentions of cheating, exhibitionism

Word count: 3300 and some change. This update is THICC

A/N: If you read it and like it, it would mean a lot to me if you could say something nice!

The next morning, Elizabeth woke up to the snuffling and snorting of one very bear like dog. He also might have stuck his cold nose right in her face a couple times. The room was unfamiliar, it took her a few moments to put together the pieces of the night before. Henry had put her in the soft flannel shirt he was wearing yesterday, but she didn’t remember that happening. The water and Tylenol were consumed, she looked around the room for a moment.  Her boots from the night before were sitting near the bedside table, placed together. Her dress and other personal affects were sitting on the empty space on the other side of the bed. The air was chilly but her bed was welcoming and warm. She didn’t think that this was his bedroom. Soon Kal was running back and forth between the bedroom and somewhere out in the living room.

Two soft knocks on the open door drew her attention the big man in the frame. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” Her normally luscious voice sounded small.

“How did you sleep?”

“Well enough I suppose. Thank you for the water bottle. How did you sleep?”

“I slept well.” He watched her scoot over a little in the bed, and pat the warm spot she had vacated for him.

“Lizzie, I don’t know. I...”

“It’s okay.” She tucked the blanket back up to her neck. “It is just cold and I wanted to talk to you about last night.”

“We don’t have to, we were drunk and having a good time. Two friends having a very… friendly… you know, make out session. Is there anything to talk about it?” He cringed just thinking about it. What the hell, Henry? He thought to himself.

“What? Oh, I guess not, is there.” Her voice cracked, she coughed to clear it. “Um, if you don’t mind giving me a moment, I guess I’ll just get dressed, and let you get back to your day.”

Henry closed the door to give her some privacy and swore under his breath. Kal whined at the door. He look up at his dad then put his nose right and the door again. He pawed at it a couple times, then very dejectedly laid down. A few moments later, she emerged, everything thrown back together, hair in a sloppy bun. She kept her eyes down and handed the flannel shirt to him.  

“Elizabeth, wait, I didn’t mean it like that.” She looked at him for a moment, all of the joy he worked so hard to bring her last night, that beautifully contented smile she had when she saw him this morning, was gone.

“I’m sure you didn’t, it’s fine.” And with that she left.

****

Later in the afternoon, Kal was resting his head on Henry’s lap when the pup let out a long low whine. He put his book down, “I know mate, I messed up. Do you think I should text her?”

Kal started wagging his tail. “I really should have cuddled with her this morning. Okay, Henry, we can do this, you like her a lot. She clearly liked you until you fucking blew it this morning. 

I’m a fucking idiot and I’m sorry

I hurt you and I would give anything to take that back. You said you didn’t know what you can give me, but I know what I am capable and wanting to give you.

I want to take you on a real date. Would you be be interested in joining me for dinner this Friday?

A couple hours later Elizabeth responded with Thank you for apologizing. I already have something going on Friday evening, I could make time for lunch, if not, I don’t have a free night until the following Thursday after my last class.

“I don’t think she has forgiven me,” Henry was then doing his dishes, Kal laying down in front of the refrigerator. “But she did say yes!”

Kal wagged his head and picked his head up.

Lunch works! What time would you like me to pick you up? He hammered out all of the details with the one he longed for. He sat down to eat an early dinner when Henry heard his phone vibrate again. It was Jeremy.

Hey, Jillian told me about you and your girl going out last night. I need to show you something, it’s important. Get cleaned up and ready to go, I’ll be there in an hour. Dress like you give a fuck.

His friend’s husband was not someone that weighs on other people’s choices, he honestly had mostly been indifferent to Henry and Jillian’s entire friendship, enough so that the text in itself caught him off guard. He showered quickly, put on a black suit with a light gray button up.

“Kal, be a good lad. Hopefully daddy isn’t over dressed.”

Jeremy said little on the way to their destination. It made his passenger a little anxious. They soon were in a dark district of the city, when businesses close for the day it usually was deserted. One dark building front had two men standing in front of it, and a flickering Edison style light bulb. Jeremy gave the man who approached their car a shiny black card, the logo read The Fox Catcher. Soon the doors were opened for them and one of the men outside was valet parking the car. Inside a large gentleman was standing there. He looked like he could crush the skull of anyone who would dare to start trouble.

In a deep Nordic baritone he said “Gentlemen, please grab a mask. The show will begin soon.”

After they had put on ill fitting masks that covered half of their faces, Henry and Jeremy were sat down at a small cocktail table by a woman with impossibly red hair hair that came down to her waist. She wore a tight black leather dress and knee high boots that made her pale skin look like porcelain.  The room was lit dimly enough that he had a hard time seeing the other people but the heat and buzz in the room let him know they were not alone.

Henry tried to make himself as comfortable as possible. Jeremy looked like he was seething with resentment and hostility. They were sitting close to where the performance would be taking place. Henry tugged nervously at his shirt collar.

“Why are we here?”

“You’ll see...” was all Jeremy said.

The light from above the stage clicked on revealed some wooden furniture. A platinum blonde was then lead out onto the stage by what Henry realized was a leash attached to nipple clamps. The man who brought her out was wearing a black mask and dark clothes attached the arms of the blonde woman to a large wooden X in the middle of the stage with her back to the audience. She was only wearing a black thong, but hers was the only face visible. Her skin was pale enough that the light above seemed to bounce off of her.  Soon came a clacking on the wooden stage floor. The unmistakable sound of high heels walking with authority came echoing out and the room fell silent. Out came a petite woman, long hair pulled back into a pony tail, wearing a leather mask with two cat ears on the top, tight pants, a suit jacket and a silver sparkly bralette under. She had blood red lipstick applied perfectly.  The stage was high enough that Henry saw the boots she was wearing as she strut out from the back.  

They looked a lot like the ones he put next to Elizabeth this morning. He bit the inside of his lip then looked over at Jeremy. His eyes were transfixed on the woman in the cat mask.  “Mate, I promise this is for your own good.”

“Good evening, Mistress Bettie.” The restrained woman said. She adjusted herself a little. A slight shuffle that caused the metal of her attachments to clink together softly.

“Good evening. I have been informed that you have been a very naughty vixen, is that right?” He knew that voice. Henry’s guts churned.

No, no, no, no. Please. He thought, his mind was screaming at him to leave. He kept looking over at Jeremy, the hatred he had on his face a moment earlier was turning into a look of smug satisfaction.

“Yes, Mistress.”

“And what do I do to naughty vixens, my darling?”

“You punish them, Mistress.”

“That’s right, so what do you think I’m going to do to you tonight?”

“You are going to punish this naughty vixen, Mistress.”

“Are you ready?”

“Yes, Mistress.”

There was a table next to the tableau, the Mistress picked up a leather paddle and softly pat her open hand with it. She set is down, then picked up a nasty looking leather tool that he didn’t know the name of, she swung it around a little bit, letting the tendrils of leather make whistling noises as it went back and forth. She hit her own thigh intentionally, making a loud thud. The blonde jumped. Lastly she picked up a whip that would make Indiana jealous. Walking to the farthest part of the stage, the domina made the whip crack to either side of blonde woman. She flinched and jumped away each time. The whip was placed down.

“That had better be the last time you move around like that, vixen, or I’ll give you a reason to squirm.”

“Yes Mistress, I’ll be better, Mistress.”

“I think I need to warm you up first, don’t you agree?” Henry watcher her put on some black medical gloves and then proceed to start spanking the bottom of woman tied up. The receiver squealed and moaned. Her pristine flesh turning a hot pink after a couple a good swats. The Domme reached between her captives legs and spanked her thighs. Higher and higher she went until she landed a slap on the cotton covered center point, but gave her a tender rub after. “You liked that, didn’t you? Such a good slut.”

“Yes, thank you Mistress,” her gratitude melted into a moan as she arched her back into the generous hands of her captor.

“Just so our friends are all clear, my beautiful vixen, what is your safe word?” Still massaging the blonde’s sex through the cotton fabric.

“Milkshake, Mistress.” She gasped as the black gloved hands found their way inside.

“Thank you, pet.” She pulled her hand away and had the blonde lick her gloved fingers clean. Henry watched the two of them share a tender moment before the Domme walked away. She then grabbed the  tool he didn’t know about. “Oh no, my little vixen, you are missing something.”

The Domme grabbed a faux fur fox tail off of the table. With the flick of a switch it started vibrating aggressively enough that Henry could hear it from where he was sitting. That poor girl was going to be in for it. He had a mixture of emotions coursing through his mind. He held onto the last shred of doubt that maybe Elizabeth had a doppelganger.

“I think these need to come off first.” and she ripped off the black thong. The Dominatrix ran the plug against the delicious folds of her captive, getting as much of her arousal on it as possible. The plug was inserted, the blonde started moaning and her knees buckled. She smiled at the ashen haired woman, letting her enjoy the moment and then clicked off the remote. “Remember, my darling, you can’t come without my permission.”

The submissive let out a groan and stomped her feet. Then the Dominatrix grabbed the heavy leather flogger and swung it around the blonde artfully. Sometimes it was just the tips dancing across the reddening skin, there were times it was a heavy sounding thud. As uncomfortable as this was making him, however, he couldn’t help but notice that the woman receiving was clearly enjoying herself. She arched her back, moaned and gasped in bliss. The Dominatrix gestured to the man on the stage and he unlocked her just long enough to turn her around. He gave her arms a little rub to get the blood flow back as the suit jacket came off of Mistress Bettie. There is was, plain as day. The roses on her torso that he had become more acquainted with the night before.  He closed his eyes for a moment as a wave of anxiety washed over him. He was not supposed to be here, to see this side of her yet. But there she was in front of him. She looked powerfully sexy.

As soon as she the vixen was situated, Elizabeth turned the vibrator back on and started flogging the fronts of her thighs, her breasts and pubic mound. She was clearly very aroused, her body was glistening and her nipples protruded proudly from where they were. The dominant woman placed the flogger down and came up to her submissive, she ran her hands all over her body. She gave the vixen’s nipples some much needed attention and then slide one, two then three fingers inside of her.

“Do you think you deserve to come, naughty girl.” Elizabeth’s hand started moving faster, coaxing her climax out of her soaking wet pussy.

“Yes please, Mistress.”

“Then tell me what you are.”

“I’m a slut, Mistress, a fucking slut.” Her breath was as shaky as her legs

“Who’s slut?”

“Your slut, Mistress.” The woman’s eyes were rolling to back of her head in pleasure

“Then come for your Mistress you fucking whore. Good girl” Elizabeth smiled at her as the sub came loudly all over her hand and proceeded to squirt. Flicking the fluid at the blissful woman, she playfully scolded the vixen “Look at the mess you’ve made.”

The man in black helped her down and the woman got on her hands and knees before Elizabeth. “So now, pet. You can get to chose your next punishment. We can either play the counting game, or we can play the clothes clip game.”

Still panting, “the counting game, Mistress, please.”

“Alright, catch your breath my dearest,” Elizabeth grabbed a stool. The blonde positioned herself leaning across it, she was facing Henry and Jeremy at this point. She wiggled her fingers in a little hello at them both and settled in. “Last time, we made it to what was it eight? Alright, my vixen, make me proud.”

“Yes Mistress.” Elizabeth turned the vibrator up a little, flipped the tail up her back, and spanked the sub’s bottom. “One, thank you Mistress, may I have another.”

Another very loud thud. “Two, Thank you Mistress, may I have another.”

After six, Henry realized that this was less pleasurable for the blonde than the flogging had been. Tears were running down her face. Elizabeth leaned down and licked one of the tears from her face. She looked down for a second and saw the man sitting in the front. She stopped dead in her tracks.

She mouthed his name, he nodded slightly and she then whispered something into the blonde’s ear. One last spank and suddenly the unnamed vixen burst out her safe word as loudly as she could and started openly crying.

“Oh no, my poor sweet girl.” She gently rubbed the subs bottom, Elizabeth then draped her suit jacket on the back of her plaything, she turned and looked at Henry one last time. “I think I’ve hit her limit tonight. Good night.”

The man in black rushed forward and covered the backs of the women like the proper body guard he was, escorting the women off the stage. Henry then turned to the man who brought him and hissed through his teeth “What the actual fuck was the point of you bringing me here?”

“What, you should be thanking me! I exposed her for the snake in the grass that she is!”

Henry walked away angrily. The room was emptying out as quietly as they had come in, although they could tell that some of the clients were giving the cocktail waitresses a hard time about the show being cut short. The redhead that took care of them that evening was being harassed by an older man. Henry told him off and handed her two of the largest bills that he had on him. He pulled his phone out and messaged Elizabeth. I have really fucked up your whole day, haven’t I? Please call me, I’m worried about you.

“You selfish fucking cunt. I am trying my hardest to not wreck this poor woman’s life more than I have and you decide that this is what you want to do?” Henry was trying to keep himself from yelling. “I like her, a lot. A whole lot. She is the nicest person I have ever met and what part of any of what we just saw would make you think that I would like her less?”

“She’s a whore!” Jeremy yelled.

“And? What is your problem with sex workers? I fucking whore myself for every damn role I do. At least she’s more honest about it! The shit I put myself through is no worse than anything that happened on that stage. Does your wife know about this?”

“No, and you wouldn’t dare!”

“You have until tomorrow night to tell her that you come to clubs like this or I swear to god, I will.” He had never been so riled up before. It was taking everything to not rip the smaller, balding man apart piece by piece. “This would devastate her, and you know it.”

“Gentlemen, I need you to calm down.” The large Nordic man said calmly. Henry adjusted his suit jacked when he felt his pocket vibrate.

I’ll be out in a moment, wait for me?

Of course

As they walked outside, Jeremy started up again. Fortunately this time they were alone. The valet driver’s were getting his car as quickly as they could. “You can’t turn a woman like that into a housewife, Henry. You saw that she very clearly enjoyed playing with another girl. What will you do if she starts craving pussy? I am not okay with you seeing this bird. She will destroy you, Henry. We were all there after your last big break up. This one will be the worst of all of them. I can see it already.”

“Jeremy, I’ve know her for a few weeks at this point. After this, I wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted to speak to me again. And I probably don’t deserve to. But you do not get to make that call.”

Elizabeth watched from the door way as they yelled at each other.

“She’s literally a whore, she gets paid a lot of money to fuck people. What if she has private clients the same way she took on private dance lessons with you? How many people do you think she’s sleeping with?”

“Firstly, it is none of your business who I’m sleeping with. Secondly, I don’t do private shows, you know that, you asked me for one several time. Each time I said no.” She put her foot down. Henry reached out for her, and she leaned into him.

“Jeremy, I think you should leave. I will make my own way home.”

“You expect me to leave you here… with her?”

“Yes, and you had better tell Jillian or I will.” Henry snarled, protectively hugging Elizabeth. He turned to her and softly said “I’m so sorry.”

“Wait he’s married? And he’s calling me a whore? Hey, fuck you, Jeremy!” She snarled at the man getting into his car. “Well today has been a cluster fuck.”

“That is putting it mildly. Please come home with me, I want to make up for this morning and for surprising you like this, I’ll bring you breakfast in bed, we can do whatever you want.”

The woman smiled gently at him and shushed him with a kiss. “I would like that, but I would love to sleep in my own bed tonight. My place isn’t as nice as yours but you are welcome to be there with me tonight.”

“I would like that a lot.”

#henry cavill smut #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill #fem!dom #fem!sub #bisexual chaos

[boethiah]

Honestly, and I know this is a problem, but I had no idea Almalexia’s marriage being arranged was your headcanon. I’m so sorry tbh. It just seems so likely and it’s so well talked about on Tesblr that I just accepted it as canon. And I think that says something about how people don’t credit you for your headcanons enough.

like i’m not going to get angry at anyone for not knowing and i wouldn’t blame anyone for not knowing. but it’s like. i joined tesblr in 2015. and there was no almalexia content when i joined, people very rarely thought about her beyond maybe her being the jealous wife antagonist in their nerevoryn fics, there were absolutely no consistent headcanons about her backstory or her relationship to nerevar beyond a vague note in uesp supposing that she was a ruler in nerevar’s time. this if you go back and read first council fanfics made before 2015, in the very few instances of mortal!almalexia being portrayed-- you’ll find nerevar/almalexia presented as a rule and headcanons about their romance, you’ll find stuff about her being a powerful merchant’s daughter and other vague guesses about who she might have been.

like again i hate how arrogant this sounds but to my knowledge i was the first person to write in detail about her being a puppet-queen under the nordic occupation, which i elaborated on extensively in a fic called ‘egg of time’. (the  headcanon about her being sotha sil’s childhood friend is also mine.) i also talked a lot on tumblr about how i didn’t think she genuinely loved nerevar and i couldn’t imagine that someone so arrogant would happily agree to marry someone a generation older than her who overshadowed her in every aspect. vivi and other popular artists picked those ideas up, they spread, and they just became taken for granted. which, on one hand, i’m glad that people aren’t just characterizing her as “the bitchy wife” any more, but on the other hand, when people use it as some evidence that she gets preferential treatment, i just roll my eyes, because this is literally all FANON And nothing in canon supports any of this. there’s actually so little canon information on her, i had to invent most of this shit.

[howfarethestars]

somewhere, beyond the sea

read on ao3

Seafoam tickled Thor’s bare feet, a calm breeze brushed his hair back from his eyes, he fiddled with the too-long sleeves of the Baja hoodie he wore. His lungs filled with the ocean air, and he tasted salt on his tongue. The Nordic sea, green as emerald and just as breathtaking, stretched out before him. His steel blue eyes watched the horizon with the peace of knowing nothing was coming to block his view. Time had changed the once restless and arrogant prince of Asgard. His blood no longer called for war and storm, it called for peace and the gentle rains that brought growth.

That peace had driven him to the sea. Asgard was well-off with Valkyrie as king, and the world had new Avengers to defend her. Thor was free to do as he pleased. And what he pleased was to live by the sea.

His home was blue, with a white porch that looked out over the ocean and big windows that let in the sun's light. Inside was small, with just a kitchen, den, and bedroom. Thor liked it just fine. It was warm when it needed to be, shielded him from rain, and did all the other things a house is supposed to do.

Swimming came naturally. Thor slipped out of his hoodie and sweatpants and shivered against the breeze. The real estate lady, Rachel was her name, told Thor this water wasn’t for swimming. Too cold, she claimed. Thor told her she’d only ever had human clients, and he’d be fine. That wasn’t to say the water wasn’t cold. Because it was shockingly so. But it didn’t kill Thor. It just cleared his mind whenever it needed to be cleared and better than the alcohol ever did.

The water was calm that morning, so Thor floated on his back with his arms stretched out at his side. The sky was clear and though the air was cold, the sun was warm against his bare skin. At Bruce and Valkyrie’s demand, his new home was devoid of alcohol and filled to the brim with nutrition, so there was less skin for the sun warm. But Thor was healthy, physically. Mentally was coming, slow as molasses some days, but coming.

Valkyrie drove him to therapy every week. Thor only objected the first two weeks, but after that, as stubborn as he was, he relented. Thor didn’t know if it was working, really. Some days he felt normal, but others he woke up shaking and reaching for bottles that weren’t there. His therapist, a tiny woman named Bonnie who stood at least a foot and a half beneath him but still struck more fear into Thor than any giant or troll ever had, told him he needed a “positive” release for his trauma.

That’s where surfing came in.

It was a strange Midgardian sport, and Thor had simply laughed at the videos Bonnie showed him of it. But she told him to find a board and try it anyway, with a promise that they could try something else if it really didn’t help. Korg accompanied him to the surf shop a few towns over from New Asgard. Thor wished he could’ve filmed the look on the shop owner’s face when he saw the Kronan appear.

The owner, shocked as he was, was very helpful with getting Thor the right board for someone new to the sport. He even gave him a number to call for lessons. Thor left the shop with a number on the back of his hand, and a turquoise longboard with a yellow and orange lightning bolt painted on the middle in the back of Valkyrie’s truck.

As it turned out, surfing was hard. It required balance and patience and technical skill. But lesson after lesson, wipeout after wipe out, Thor tried. Valkyrie came to watch all the time, often poking fun at Thor’s failures, but cheering the loudest when he finally got it right.

Months passed before Thor came to Valkyrie with a proposition.

“I want to teach the kids how to surf,” he said, trailing behind her as she marched through her palace. Her braids swished behind her, as she turned her head down hallway after hallway. The palace was new; Thor guessed she was still figuring out the layout.

Valkyrie stopped, though, and turned to him. One eyebrow arched high on her forehead. “You want to teach them to what ?”

“Surf,” Thor repeated.

“That strange sport you do? With the boards?”

“Aye,” Thor said with a nod, “It’ll be good for them, I think.”

Valkyrie smiled. “I’ll help you figure it out.”

Thor opened his mouth to thank her, but before he could get the words out, she wrapped him in a hug. Her head rested against his chest, eyes squeezed shut as she gripped him tighter. Thor laughed, startled, but hugged her back.

“Everything alright, your majesty?”

“I’m happy for you, Thor,” she said, lifting her eyes so that she and Thor could see each other. “That’s all.”

Valkyrie kept her promise, of course. Within a month, Thor had an armory of surfboards and an army of young Asgardians to teach. The kids were fast learners, and soon enough, Thor was teaching their parents, as well. What had started as a hobby had turned into a national affair. Everyone surfed—young and old. Valkyrie even joined in. It took her awhile to get it, much to her unending frustration. But after countless wipeouts, the king conquered the long and short boards.

And one day it hit him. Just how far he’d come.

Thor was staring at Valkyrie as she rode the whitecaps, her hair billowing and laughter contagious. He was watching a young girl trail behind her, copying Valkyrie’s every move. And it really hit him. That he’d found peace, happiness, health and prosperity.

Thor glanced up, then, at a bright blue sky dotted with pure white clouds. He thought of Loki, of Heimdall, of the Asgard of old.

And just as Thor thought that he’d found the happiness Loki had promised he would, the clouds parted, the sun came out, and Thor smiled.

#my writing #text #long post #fanfiction #fanfic #can be read as #thorkyrie #thor #thor fanfiction #valkyrie #anti endgame #marvel

[imagine-loki]

Ragnarok

TITLE: Ragnarok CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 3: Reunited AUTHOR: traveling-classicist ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine you take care Odin when he was homeless on Midgard (based on the deleted scene from Ragnarok). You take him in and listen his crazy stories about Asgard and Thor thinking he’s just some crazy hobo who needs help. Then one day, Thor and Loki break into your apartment looking for their father. Hela returns in your living room and insanity ensues. RATING: T

AO3 Link: Here

NOTES/WARNINGS: Wow this came out as a big Ragnarok fix-it chapter. These things happen, I suppose. Enjoy, if it’s something that you need. I know some of us feel it.

Also, head to AO3 and please, read the endnote. If you don’t use AO3, I’ll summarize here.

Someone has stolen my material (including this story and my other story, Loki’s Daughter) and every single AO3 authors material and is profiting off of it by marketing an unofficial mobile app called the Fanfic Pocket Library Archive (Unofficial) App. This thing’s been around for several years but as I’m a little new to writing, this is the first I’ve heard of it. I do this for free and receive zero (0) dollars from it. I do it for fun but it’s my intellectual property and no one deserves to make money off of it, especially without my permission.

Please, if you use this app, stop, leave a one star review, report it as inappropriate on whatever store you use (it’s on all the popular ones), and then delete it. This person is hurting fanfic authors like me and many others on this blog! I don’t (and never) encourage sending hate mail to this individual and I don’t recommend you try to contact them directly, please. I don’t know if they know that they’re hurting us but we need to make sure that this app gets taken down.

————————————————————————————————–

Several weeks had passed since Odin had come to live with Theo. They had finally settled into a workable routine. Theo was thankful she could finally work in peace for a full day without Odin bursting into her room yelling about frost giants or the helicopter he thought was an attacking dragon or whatever other mundane event triggered his dementia.

            He was content, most days, with reading in the living room. Theo had gotten him a library card and they went to the library several times a week to keep him set up with books. Theo thought about getting him involved in book clubs or other social events but thought he might need a little more time before he could be with other people again.

            He no longer spoke about the crazy doctor and he did not bring up the incident that Theo had had with him. For which, she was grateful. All in all, he was a good roommate and Theo enjoyed listening to his stories about Asgard and the battles in the Nine Realms. She was concerned by his comments about the Avenger Thor being his son, but she was not sure what to do about them.

She had asked him how long he had been in New York and he could remember being there for about four years. She assumed he had been upset and displaced during the Battle of New York, like herself and so many others had been. She thought, perhaps, this is where his fantasies about Thor and the Avengers had come from. A lot of people had had psychotic breaks after the aliens attacked. New Yorkers could come back from a lot: freak storms, floods, train wrecks, fires, terrorists, spies. But aliens and super heroes proved to be just a little too much for some.

Her attempts to get him to see a real doctor had all come up short. She did not want to force Odin to do something he did not want to do. She still wanted him to have the dignity of being his own person. He was healthy, for the most part, though she had noticed a bit of bodily weakness as of late. She had just chalked it up to the cold weather and old age. She was slowly working on his alcohol habit. He was down to only a few drinks a week now, instead of one a day. She did have to start hiding the booze in her room, though, after she caught him pinching some beer in the middle of the night one night.

She hoped that with a little more time together, he would come to trust her enough to go to a doctor to address his mental state but for now, as he wasn’t hurting himself or anyone else, she was content with him just being content. She enjoyed living with him. She didn’t feel like it was a chore to take care of him. She loved cooking for him and introducing him to new food.

She learned he had something of a sweet tooth so she kept a jar stocked with cookies or brownies or tarts or whatever recipe she could find. He even began checking out cookbooks from the library that had photos of food he thought looked good or familiar.

“Oh, these look like the apple tarts that Idunn used to make for us. Do you think you could make these? Of course, you don’t have golden apples but I’m sure you could find a decent substitute,” he would say.

“Sure! They look easy enough,” Theo would reply. “Check this one out and we’ll drop by the grocery store and pick up the ingredients.”

When they arrived back at her apartment, she unpacked the groceries. To her surprise, Odin came to her side and helped her. He took out the milk and cheese and a few other things and placed them in the refrigerator. She smiled. She’d have to remove the cereal and oatmeal he put in there later but at least he was trying to help.

He placed her cookbook on the island in the kitchen and took the rest of his books to the living room to read. She put on some coffee for him. She had found that he did enjoy a cup of coffee while he read. She set down a mug for him and he thanked her as he pulled out one of his newest books, a book about modern American politics. He went through books very quickly, so he often checked out ten or more books in a single visit. Among them this time were books about the Afghan wars, the Iraqi war, the American revolution, the Civil War, the civil rights movement, another Norse mythology book, and a book about Nordic style knitting.

She returned to the kitchen and started on the recipe for the apple tarts. She started on the dough and made up the apple and cinnamon mixture. She glanced up at Odin and caught him watching her from over the top of her book. When she caught his eye, he quickly looked down at his book again. She smiled and placed the tart crusts in to bake. When they were done, she pulled them out and added the apple mixture on the tarts. When she was finished, she put the tarts back in the oven.

“Okay, those need a little more time and then we can try them out,” Theo said.

“They already smell delightful,” Odin said.

Theo smiled. She enjoyed how happy he had been recently. It was good to see someone who had been so spiteful and angry and confused, be content and happy with life. Even though, he was still rather confused most of the time.

“Nordic Style Knitting?” Theo read, as she picked up one of Odin’s books from the pile on the coffee table.

“Knitting?” he said, taking a closer look. “I thought that said, ‘knighting’. I must be losing my sight.”

“Aw, I thought you were going to pick up a new hobby,” Theo said, a little disappointed. “Knighting? It has a picture of a woman with a knitted sweater on it looking longingly into mid-distance. How did you think this was about knights?”

“Well, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. That’s what the librarian lady always says,” Odin said.

Theo nodded. “Well, I guess that’s true. But if there’s anything about knights in here, be sure to tell me because that would be the plot twist of the century.”

“Hmph, a king does not have time for knitting,” he said.

            “Right, well you’re not much of a King of a the Dumpsters now, are you?” Theo said, smiling.

            “Well, I suppose I’m not king anymore,” he muttered.

            “Are you happy?” she asked. He looked up at her and smiled. His eye shimmered a bit in the light.

            “Most of the time,” he said.

            She laughed. “Well, that’s the goal, isn’t it?” She leaned over the couch and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be in my room for a bit. I’ll be out when the oven beeps.”

            She walked down the hallway to her room and flopped onto her bed, playing on her phone. The apartment filled with the smell of apple tarts. It made her stomach growl in anticipation. She rolled over on her back, phone raised over her face, playing Candy Crush. She completely lost track of time and before long the timer started beeping in the kitchen.

            “What is that! Who’s there?” Odin shouted at the oven.

            The beeping and Odin’s booming voice made her jump. The phone slipped from her hands and landed like a brick on her face. “Ow,” she groaned as she slumped off her bed to get Odin away from the oven again before he started beating it with her rolling pin.

            “Odin, it’s just the timer, remember? Our tarts are done!” she said, removing the rolling pin gently from his hands. She pulled on her oven mits and pulled out the tray. Odin’s hand went straight for one, but Theo smacked it away. He recoiled holding his hand and giving her a sour look.

            “Not now, you crazy! They just came out! They’re still hot,” she said.

            He frowned at her and grumbled as he stalked to the living room and plopped down on the couch again. She smiled and shook her head. She waited for them to cool before plating a few for him and some for herself and walking into the living room to join him. She set the plate down in front of him. When she looked down at him, he had his hands on his head again like he did when he was upset and frustrated. A book was open in his lap.

            “Odin? Are you alright? What’s wrong?” she asked, setting the plate down on the table.

            “Asgard is not a place, I know that, but I have to remember,” he said, hitting his head with his palms.

            “No, no, we don’t do that, Odin,” Theo said, stopping him. “Just take a deep breath, come on.” She picked up the book from his lap. It was the Norse mythology book. He grabbed it from her and pointed to the page he was on.

            “Look, look at her, I know her,” he said, pointing to an illustration of a woman on the page. Theo read the caption, ‘The Goddess of Death, Hela’. She looked up at Odin again. He was clearly in distress.

            “It’s alright, Odin, here have a tart, remember? We were excited about these. They smell really good,” she prompted him with the plate, but he shook his head. He was really distressed if food would not bring him out of this.

            “They’ve got it all wrong. They’ve got it all wrong! Stupid Midgardians. Not you, Theo! Them!” he said, pointing at the book and fidgeting. “She’ll come back. I do not know when, but it feels soon. Very soon. She will kill me.”

            “Odin, no one is going to kill you,” Theo said, coolly, trying to keep a calm tone.

            “No, no, she will. It’s been foretold that she will,” he panted.

            “Odin, those are just stories. No one is going to kill you. Did you see that guard dog of a landlord I have downstairs? He’s not going to let anyone in that doesn’t live here. I promise, no one is going to kill you.”

            “I must speak with my sons. I must speak with them now! I must warn them immediately!” he said. “Asgard is not a place!” He pounded on his head again. “Why won’t they listen! Why can’t I remember!”

            “Odin, please, stop! Don’t hurt yourself!” Theo grabbed both his hands and held them. He stared at her. Beads of sweat had appeared on his forehead. His eye was bloodshot and glistened with welling tears. Theo sighed.

            “Listen. Let me help you. Please,” she pleaded with him, holding his hands. “Take a deep breath.”

            “Theo—”

            “Shut it! Do as I say,” she snapped.

            He sighed and took a deep breath.

            “Alright, now let it out.” He did so. “Again,” Theo said, softening her tone now that he was listening to her. She made him take several deep breaths in and out until he was calm. She held his hands so that he could not hit himself.

            “Okay, I want you to close your eye and focus on your breathing and make all the other little Odin voices stop talking in your head. Frigga too, if she’s in there,” Theo said. “Sorry, Frigga,” she added, quietly.

            “This is silly,” Odin said.

            “It’s not silly, just trust me, okay. Rule number seven, remember?” she said. He opened his eye and looked at her.

            “Fine,” he grumbled, closing his eye again.

            “Good. Sometimes this takes a while. It takes me a while sometimes so just tell me when you have them all shut up.”

            She waited for several minutes when finally, Odin said, “Alright.”

            “Okay, now let’s think about how this started. You were reading your book and you got to this page about Hela,” Theo said.

            “I know her,” he said, quickly.

            “Okay, how do you know her? Is she your friend?”

            “No, no, no, they have it all wrong here,” he said pointing to the book.

            “Alright, alright, well how do you know her? Take a deep breath and think hard about it. Don’t let any of the other voices think over you.”

            He closed his eye and scrunched his brow, clearly concentrating hard on this task.

            “She… She… is my… daughter,” he whispered. “She is my daughter.” A tear slipped from his eye. Theo looked at him, squeezing his hands. He started breathing hard. His eye flicked around and then up at Theo. “She’s my daughter and I forgot about her. I forgot about her!”

            “Oh, Odin,” she said, squeezing his hands. “Don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault,” Theo said, rising up to sit next to him on the couch. She put her arm around him.

            He put his face in his hands. His body shook with silent sobs. “I’m a terrible father,” he whispered. “To all my children.”

            “Odin, I’m sure that’s not true.”

            “It is. I’ve done nothing but push them away and lock them up, punish them for who they are, for who I made them to be. They all hate me. They all think I’m mad and foolish. And I am. I’ve been blind to them.” He collapsed into his hands again.

            Theo couldn’t help her own tears at seeing him cry. She rubbed his back and squeezed his arm, trying to think of something to help him feel better. She knew that sometimes, when people broke down like this – which many of her former roommates had on this couch – it was often helpful for her just to sit with them and listen.

            “I’m sorry, Odin,” she said, softly. “I can’t imagine how hard this is for you, but the fact that you realize that you’ve made mistakes may mean that there’s still time for you to fix your relationship with your children; that you can ask for their forgiveness.”

            “You don’t understand, girl,” he said, shaking his head. “What I’ve done to Hela, to Loki…the eons of torture and brutality I’ve put them through… there is no conversation that can fix.”

            Theo was a little scared by what he was saying now. She wanted to be optimistic for him and supportive, but she had a gut feeling there was something more going on here that Odin was not telling her.

            “Well,” she said, her voice a little shaky. “We can only try. For right now, let’s just have a few tarts and try to calm down. Maybe, you can think about what you would want to say to your kids if they were here.”

            He sighed. “I would want to tell them I love them,” he said. He wiped away the tears from his face and took a tart.

Theo looked at him sympathetically. She tried not to cry herself as she took a tart too. She took a bite. She was impressed with her baking. They tasted really good, immediately improving her mood.

            “Mmm,” Odin muttered. “My sons would love these. Frigga, too. They loved Idunn’s apple tarts.”

            “Do I do them any justice? Even without the golden apples?” she said, bumping his shoulder with hers.

            “They’ll do,” he said with a little smile. He looked up at her. “Thank you, Theo.”

            “Oh, you’re welcome,” she said, standing to get a drink from the kitchen. As she walked, there was a sudden pounding on the door. “Now, who’s that?”

            She walked back towards the door, but the pounding got louder. “Hang on! I’m coming!” she said, shoving the rest of the apple tart in her mouth and swallowing it in one bite. She could hear muffled voices outside. There was a loud bang on the door that made Theo jump.

            “Hey!” she shouted. “Knock it off!”

            There was another bang and the door heaved inwards. Theo jumped back and reached for the coatrack. The door gave one last shudder before shattering into a million pieces across her entryway floor. Theo slammed against the wall beside the coatrack, as two men casually walked into her apartment: Thor, the Avenger and Loki, the alien that attacked New York. She reached into her coat pocket on the coatrack and pulled out a handgun, pointing it at Loki’s head.

            “Do not come any closer. What the hell are you doing in my house?” she shouted at them.

            “Father!” Thor said, stepping over the broken pieces of door to Odin who was standing by the coffee table.

            “Thor! My son!” Odin said, putting his hand on Thor’s cheek. “Oh, my sons! I love you!”

            Theo did not take her eyes off Loki, nor the sights of her gun. Her hand was steady, though her heart was racing. He was looking at Odin with brows raised in shock at his adoptive father’s admonition upon their arrival. He looked back at the Theo with her gun pointed at his head. He raised his hands slowly and gave her a gentle look.

            “I apologize for my brother murdering your front door,” he said, slowly. “Please, allow me to fix it.”

He waved his hand and the splinters of the door began to reform on the broken hinges. Theo felt a wriggling sensation under her foot. She looked down to see a large chunk of the door wiggling to get free as if pulled by a magnet towards its comrades. She lifted its foot and it replaced itself, making the door whole again.

            Loki stepped over to it and tested it, swinging it open and shut. “There, good as new,” he said. Theo still had the gun trained on him. He turned back to her. “Please, put that down. We’re just here for him.” He pointed to Odin with his thumb.

            “He… He was telling the truth… All this time? And I thought he was crazy…” Theo said.

            “Well, you’re probably not completely wrong. I’m pretty sure he’s crazy,” Loki said.

            Odin ran over to them and grabbed Theo’s arm, lowering her gun.

            “Theo! You’re breaking rule number five, young lady,” he scolded her. “No weapons!”

            “It’s my house. They’re my rules. And I get to break them when GIGANTIC ALIEN MEN COME TEARING DOWN MY DOOR!” she shouted, pointing at the brothers.

            “I do suppose that’s fair,” Loki said, looking at his brother.

            “No weapons?” Thor said. “What kind of house is this?”

            “Thor, don’t be rude,” Loki muttered.

            “A safe one!” Theo snapped. “Now, explain yourselves right now!”

            “My name is Thor, and this is Loki—”

            “I know damn well who you are! Why on earth would you leave your father here to become homeless? Why would you say you would come for him and then just leave him here with no way to contact you?”

            “That’s a good question,” Thor smiled at Theo. “You want to answer that one, Loki?” he growled at Loki.

            “Homeless?” Loki said. “I didn’t leave him homeless here. I left him in a home. For old people. A retirement home. Where he could play bingo and mingle with old Midgardians and tell war stories and be cared for day and night their healer nurse-doctor people or whatever.”

            “And that retirement home went out of business,” Theo said, standing on her tip toes to be eye level with him. “I guess they don’t have a mailing address for Asgard, do they!”

            “So, what, they just turned him out on the street?” Loki asked.

            “Yes! They had nowhere else to put him!”

            “What kind of place is this? Just throwing your elders out like trash?”

            “Welcome to America, sweetie. You don’t have the money to pay for yourself, you go out on the street.”

            “Thor, this is not what I intended,” Loki said, addressing his brother. “All I did was strip him of his memories so he wouldn’t rouse the Midgardians’ suspicions, but I did not do this.”

            Thor shook his head at him and rolled his eyes and turned to Odin. “I’m sorry that this happened father—”

            “No, I am sorry, to both of you,” Odin said.

            “What?” both the brothers said in unison. Loki stared at him with surprise, thinking he had heard him wrong. Odin turned his attention to him.

            “I am sorry for how I’ve treated you, Loki. For the lies I’ve told you. For blaming you, when I should have blamed myself. Your lawless nature, these storms inside you; you inherited from me. And I would never wish that on another soul,” Odin said, tears in his eyes. “You are my son. I just hope that you can forgive me now after all that I have done.”

            Loki stared at him, taken aback by his words. He had no words of his own. He looked at Thor and then to Theo. She crossed her arms, gun still in hand. He stared blankly at Odin, unsure of what to do or say or even what to think.

Thor too was in shock. He looked back and forth between his father and his brother.

            “Father, I think you broke him,” he said, chuckling a little, putting his hand on Loki’s shoulder.

            “I… I…I do not know what to say,” Loki said.

            “That’s alright,” Odin said, putting up his hand. “I don’t expect forgiveness right away. Now, Thor, I must speak with you too.”

            Thor wiped his nose with the back of his hand, trying to disguise his man-tears. Theo scoffed. Loki was still searching the room for something that could help him respond. He stepped closer to Theo while Odin spoke with Thor.

            “What’s in those tarts?” he asked, suspiciously.

            Theo turned her head slowly to glare at him, shooting daggers. “Apples,” she said, feigning hospitality. “And a bit of cinnamon and brown sugar. You’re welcome to one if you want,” she said, though a bit scornful. “And you didn’t answer my question. Why did you leave him here?”

            Loki looked uncomfortable. “It’s a long story.”

            “Start talking,” Theo said.

            “I was not expecting this apologetic Odin. He’s never been this way before. Several years ago, Asgard was dealing with an unexpected war with the dark elves. My brother abdicated his right to the throne and Odin was, well, unfit to rule after our mother died. He was willing to sacrifice every Asgardian warrior we had to defeat the elves just uphold some old family grudge. So, I did what needed to be done and removed Odin from power.”

            “Jesus,” Theo said, rolling her eyes.

            “I brought him here so he would be safe. I removed his memories with a spell so as to disguise his existence. To keep him safe not only from Midgardians but other powers in the universe that might want him dead. I wasn’t expecting them to throw him out on the street!”

            Theo shook her head, not meeting Loki’s eyes.

            “But I am grateful to you, Theo, for taking him in. Thor is too, though he may forget to say so.”

            “Mmm,” Theo grunted. “How did you even know where to find us?”

            “Pfft, that crazy second-rate magician that lives on this island too.”

            “Oh no, not him,” Theo whined, as a sparkling portal began to appear in her living room behind Loki. Doctor Strange and Wong stepped through.

            “I know, right,” Loki continued. “What a knob. He made me fall through one of his stupid portals for thirty minutes while he tried to figure out where you two were. Man’s not a sorcerer. His magic’s more suitable for children than… he’s right behind me…”

            “Hello again, Loki. Theo,” the doctor greeted them. Theo cocked the gun in her hand.

#Loki #Lover #God of Mischief #Submitted fic #submission #ragnorok #traveling-classicist #chapter 3

[skruttet]

I flicked through the Tuula Karjalainen book and read bits and pieces of it already and there’s this one section about homosexuality in it that I found really interesting so I thought I’d post it here, even though it’s a bit long oops, in case any of y’all were interested in reading it! Like, I never knew Tove had a gay cousin whom Tove was supportive of in terms of her lesbian identity and whose partner wrote a dissertation on Tove’s books?? So fascinating! Also was not expecting the sentence “The Hattifatteners resemble a wandering flock of penises or condoms”; usually they’re referred to more subtly with words like ‘phallic’ but not here xD

OPEN AND CLOSED

Many researchers have looked for references to homosexuality in Tove’s writings. Although she did not talk about it in public, she made no attempt to conceal it either, and her relationship with Tuulikki Pietilä was known to everyone. The two women took part in official state events such as the President’s Independence Day ball, where they were clearly the first to attend the event officially as a lesbian couple. Their relationship was so open and obvious it was that it was not newsworthy. It was hard to build a scandal on something that everyone knew - even the press, which liked to chase stories of that kind.

Psychological explanations of various kinds often have a chapter of their own in the analyses of Tove’s books, and sometimes unusual views have been expressed. The Swedish scholar Barbro K. Gustafsson earned her doctorate in 1992 from Uppsala University’s Theological Faculty with a dissertation on Tove’s books for adults. She made a special study of The Doll’s House, Sun City, ‘The Great Journey’ and Fair Play, and although her thesis also covered the Moomin stories, they were dealt with more briefly.

Perhaps surprisingly, Tove agreed to be interviewed by Gustafsson during her research work, and even participated in it actively by attending Gustafsson’s dissertation defence. The fact that Tove was prepared to do this may partly be explained by a family connection: Gustafsson was the partner of Tove’s beloved cousin Kerstin. When Kerstin, from a religious family, had realised that she was lesbian, Tove had been extremely supportive. Tove and her friends also helped Kerstin with many issues related to her lesbian identity.

Tove refused to give any public interviews about the dissertation defence, and did not want to talk about her private life or relationships. She returned to Finland as soon as the defence and the celebrations for Gustafsson’s Ph.D. were over, though she did issue a press release. In it she followed convention, thanking Gustafsson for the clarity of her book and her extensive knowledge of the subject - she had, Tove thought, succeeded in uncovering a rarely explored area of the unconscious. She also said that though much was written about authors, it was perhaps best done after their death, if at all. As if to soften the blow, she stressed the degree of trust between herself and Gustafsson. She said that following the progress of the research had been like an adventure, and that it had almost allowed her to see herself as a pioneer.

In her study, Gustafsson focuses on a dream that Tove had in the 1930s and found strangely threatening. In it she had seen large, black, wolf-like dogs on a seashore at sunset. A psychologist had explained to her that the dream was about repressed drives and forbidden sensuality.

In her thesis, Gustafsson is perhaps prone to detect elements of homosexuality too easily in very ordinary matters connected with the sea and archipelago life. She also discussed the wild animals that Tove often returned to both in the Moomin books and in her works for adults. In Moominland Midwinter the dog Sorry-oo wants to join the wolves and learn to howl like them. The story concerns the desire to leave the species into which one has been born, something that proves impossible. In The True Deceiver, the wolfhound plays a central role in the power relationship between the two women. Numerous readers have seen allusions to homosexuality in the comic strip about a little dog that falls in love with a cat. It realises that the love is wrong and becomes depressed. In the end the cat turns out to be a dog in disguise. This time the problem has a simple solution.

In Tove’s books there are repeated descriptions of people or Moominvalley creatures becoming ‘electric’, and this is clearly an important theme in her writing. The Hattifatteners resemble a wandering flock of penises or condoms - in thunderstorms they become electric, and then burn anyone who gets close to them. It is very easy to imagine that the electrification is an allegory for oestrus. The Mymble is also able to become electric - with her countless children she is the most sensual character in Moominvalley. The Whomper Toft in Moominvalley in November is the master of thunder and lightning. He lets the Creature out of a locked cupboard, and all that remains is a smell of electricity. The Creature runs away and grows even larger during thunderstorms, when lightning fills the sky, but is too big, angry and bewildered to be so big and angry. In ‘The Doll’s House’, electrification brings about a drama of jealousy between three men that leads to violence. There is a similar outcome in ‘The Great Journey’, where the mother feels the electrifying presence of her daughter’s female friend, whereupon the daughter becomes jealous.

Fair Play is a book about the relationship between two women in their seventies who are set in their ways, and their daily life together. Gustafsson uses the narrative to examine their mutual roles in the light of the old custom of categorising lesbians either as ‘femmes’ or ‘butches’, the latter having more masculine traits - a way of seeing a relationship between two women as a copy of a heterosexual one. Jonna and her prototype Tuulikki correspond to the ‘butch’ profile. Tove also portrayed Tuulikki as Moominvalley’s Too-ticky, a rather burly, masculine figure who keeps a knife in her belt.

Quoting Lord Alfred Douglas and the line of verse that was mentioned at the indecency trial of Oscar Wilde, Gustafsson writes that homosexual love is the love that does not dare speak its name. Although the time in which Tove lived was quite different from Wilde’s, there were similar prejudices and tensions in society - and, of course, they influenced her writing. Over the centuries women were not expected to write blatant erotic descriptions, but had instead to express themselves in allegorical terms. It was supposed that they did experience such feelings - and even more so when they were the result of unlawful love.

Tove’s books contain no openly erotic episodes or writing of a sexual nature and in this her writing is typical of women’s literature of her time. Sometimes it feels as though the characters in her books have to some extent been freed from sexuality. Their relationships are based more on understanding and friendship than on ardent passion, though their jealousy can sometimes take violent forms. Many things are veiled in highly metaphorical language. In the books that Tove wrote for adults, male and female couples are portrayed interchangeably without particular emphasis. In many of her books, as in her life, homosexuality was so natural that there was no need to make a fuss about it. While it was not to be denied, it was not to be given a high profile either. It was almost as though she backed out of dealing with her sexuality too openly, and in fact she forbade her biographer to write about her love affairs. Since the biography was written for children, this kind of advance censorship was possible.

In the story ‘The Great Journey’ (’Den stora resan’), two women in their seventies, Rosa and Elena, together with Rosa’s mother, live a life of humdrum joys and sorrows and work on their creative tasks. Among all three, physical love is a taboo subject. Elena asks Rosa: ‘What does she know, in any case? Nothing. She doesn’t know anything about such matters.’ The two women are unable to show their feelings for each other if Rosa’s mother is present. They plan a holiday together, but Rosa changes her mind and goes away with her mother instead. She remembers the promise she made in the nursery: ‘I’ll take you with me, I’ll steal you from Papa, we’ll go to a jungle or sail out on the Mediterranean... I’ll build you a castle where you shall be queen.’

Organisations that promoted sexual equality in Finland and the Nordic countries gave Tove awards for her pioneering work on behalf of sexual minorities, and she has certainly been an extremely important role model and author in the gay community. She had the ability to be completely open, yet at the same time quite private - as in the case of the dissertation, when she gave Gustafsson interviews and took part in the defence, but would not agree to answer questions from journalists who were interested in her private life. In relation to her lesbian identity, as shown by this very situation, she sometimes came out of the closet, and at other times she concealed the truth.

Tove’s homosexuality inspired a great many researchers and readers to look for the most varied interpretations. Perhaps her slightly sardonic attitude to this excessive interest can be seen in her song ‘Psychomania’ (’Psykofnattvisan’), written in 1963 for the revue Krasch and set to music by Erna Tauro. The song is like an obscure parody, in which psychoanalytic terms form a wild, cacophonous reality all of their own. It is as though she is drifting among people who are intently looking for something and who begin to see the signs of it everywhere. In fact, they can no longer see anything else because their heads are filled with ‘psychomania’. The song is a lengthy one, and operates on many levels. It also demonstrates that its author was familiar with the psychological terminology of the day - Tove had always been fascinated by interpretations of the human mind and she knew the terminology back to front, so well in fact that she could play with it:

I pore and pore and where I pore the symbols gather more and more I sink right through the floor into depression and tendentious apperception...

-Tove Jansson: Work and Love by Tuula Karjalainen

#tove jansson #moomins #LGBT+ #krasch #work and love

[precipi-nation-blog]

Scenario: The cup clattered to the floor... (Nordics)

Warning: Swear words

Denmark:

... As you rushed to the sink to wash your mouth out.

“What the hell was that?” You spat between heaves of the awful concoction that Matthias had offered to you.

“An Irish car bomb?” Your reaction had turned his otherwise exclamatory phrase into a question, whilst he moved to rub your back. You finally coughed the last of it up, and used the spray nozzle of the sink to wash the remaining taste out of your mouth. Once the offensive taste had retreated, you raised your head from the basin of the sink to glare at Matthias.

“That was not an Irish car bomb! What’d you put in it?” You demanded, and the once-bold Nordic fiddled with his collar in response.

“Well, I didn’t have any of that Irish beer, so I substituted some of mine. And I couldn’t find any cream stuff either, so I put in coffee creamer.” He explained, looking at you through his eyelashes in hopes that you’d go easy on him.

You weren’t entirely sure that you wanted to know what his other stand-in was, but your mouth moved before you could get ahold of it.

“What ‘some of yours’ did you use, then?”

At this, Matthias smiled proudly.

“Only the best there is: Pilsner!”

Matthias’ smile was quick to flee the premises when he saw your face drop into one of disbelief.

“You used Pilsner? You used a Danish pale lager, instead of an Irish black stout, such as, I don’t know, Guiness, the only beer you’re supposed to use to make an Irish car bomb! And don’t get me started on the fact that you used coffee creamer instead of Baileys! Do you not realize that Baileys is just another alcohol? Just because it’s a cream alcohol doesn’t mean you can just dump some sugary garbage into a shot glass and make an Irish car bomb out of it!”

While he only paid about half an ear to your rant, Matthias lent both eyes to the passionate luster in your own and was quickly enveloped in the fire they possessed, warming him down to his bones with affection for you. Quick to stop you before you could rant for another half an hour, he reached a hand out and cupped one of yours.

“Want to go out so I can treat you to a real Irish car bomb?”

“... Sure.”

Finland:

... As opposed to the garbage can, where it was supposed to go.

You sighed in disappointment and got up to put it in its place, unwilling to litter in such a beautiful area. Padding back over to where Tino waited with an amused smile, you grumbled a half-hearted demand for him to hush before continuing on the path with him.

The silence, pierced only by the noise your boots made as they beat down the snow underfoot, went unbroken by purposeful sound. It was a little ironic, Tino thought to himself- The whole point of getting out of the house was that you two wouldn’t make noise and rouse the others from their slumbers, seeing as you both had happened to get up early. But now that you were outside, the two of you were as quiet as was nearly impossible in the house.

It was anything but unwelcome to either of you, though. And without sharing a single word, the two of you came to agree on that fact, and allowed the hushed air to continue its rounds undisturbed with your own waves of sound.

Perhaps it was because of this respectful pact with nature that it granted you sight of things typically hidden from those outside of its residence. Your walk was punctuated with appearances of all walks of life, from gray owls preening themselves high in the evergreens, to a family of deer picking out the sparse greenery hidden in the folds of white. The most that either Tino or yourself did, though, was motion to it with a smile. There was something pure, some kind of sanctuary here, and neither of you were willing to invade it.

Along the way, your head ended up propped against his shoulder. Wordlessly, Tino capped it with his own, and on you went to experience the magic of the forest together.

Iceland:

... And shattered against the tile.

“Shit!” You shouted under your breath, frozen where you stood. Emil rolled his eyes at your behavior and grabbed a broom from a closet, quickly returning and handing it off to you.

“It’s not a big deal, just clean it up. I doubt you woke anyone up anyway, they all sleep like logs.” More annoyed by the noise you produced than anything, Emil leaned back against the counter, staring out the gap between the curtains in the kitchen window.

“Hey, you’re the one who wanted to do a midnight raid for hot chocolate,” you offered, trying to escape the blame while sweeping up pieces of what was decidedly your mess.

“You’re the one who suggested it in the first place!” Your companion shot back, crossing his arms.

Unable to find any kind of comeback for the blatant truth, you sighed out the last of your indignation and threw the shards of the mug into the trash can.

“Sorry for breaking your mug.” You looked guiltily back at Emil, tapping the dustpan against the bin to get the last bits of ceramic out of it. 

Emil’s eyes flicked over to you, frosted back over with his usual composure.

“It wasn’t even my mug.”

“Oh.” You returned. Lacking anything to say, and having finished your task, you set your tools down and joined Emil in slouching against the counter. 

After about fifteen seconds of staring at the white curtains, you ejected a “Hold on,” moving forward to push them out of the way of the chilled glass.

Emil watched silently as you did this, as you opened up a portal to a vast, unending nebula of stars, accompanied by a peeking sliver of the just-past-new moon.

And just as silently, when you settled back at his side to join his vigil, he slipped his hand in yours.

Norway:

... Along with the rest of your careful stack of dishes. You dragged a hand through your hair in irritation, bending down to pick all of them up, biting back a choice word or two for the loud- but thankfully unbroken- glassware. You had just gotten the last plate into the sink when you heard the kitchen door swing open, and you knew exactly who it was.

“You can make more than one trip between the sink and the dinner table, you know,” Lukas started.

“It’s faster this way,” was the utterance with which you chose to defend your actions, as you plunged your hands into the soapy water and began to scrub.

“Not when you spend ten minutes every time picking up all the dirty plates, cups, and silverware that you drop all over the ground.” The man who was apparently deemed the backseat dishwasher quipped.

You didn’t bother continuing the argument, knowing that he would win one way or another. Instead, you huffed into your shoulder, scratching your chin against it in place of your wet, occupied hands.

Reading the mood like the book he had set down moments ago, Lukas decided to drop his very one-sided debate as well, instead walking over to join you at the sink. Rolling up his sleeves, he set to work on rinsing the dishes that you had scraped clean.

“It’s not your turn to do the dishes,” you pointed out. With a wry smile, you added, “And it won’t get you out of your next turn if you help me.”

“I know,” he replied. “I just wanted to help you.”

“Weren’t you reading, though?” You turned to him with this question on your lips, and he looked over at you once he saw your pivot in his periphery.

Taking one look at you was all he needed to confirm his decision to abandon his novel on the couch. With just a glance, he found every story he’d ever want to read written on your person.

He nodded, and turned the plate in his hands under the tap, washing the suds off the back.

Sweden:

... Once your arm jerked to the side to stretch. Your tired eyes could barely keep up with the speed that gravity lent the mug, but it definitely had your attention when the coffee inside of it spilled out.

“Ah, damn,” you muttered. “I’m sorry, Berwald.”

The man sitting across the table from you simply set his own mug down and moved to grab some paper towels, quick to sop the dark sepia tones up from the lighter wood of his kitchen floor. Not needing to be asked, Berwald poured you another cup of coffee, mixing with it just what you liked before handing the fresh brew off to you.

“Thanks,” you mumbled into the rim of your cup, rearing your upper lip to blow at the surface before taking a sip.

“You can go back to bed,” the introvert suggested as he settled back down, picking up his own mug and disrupting the still surface of the coffee with his own long draft.

“No, I want to stay up with you,” You protested, rubbing an eye and sitting up straighter as if to prove to him that you could.

“You said that fika is an important thing in Swedish culture, and if it’s important to you, it’s important to me. Plus, I looked it up, and you’re not supposed to do it alone. If...” You trailed off to look blearily behind you in an attempt at reading the microwave. “... 3:30 is when you want to fika, I’ll do it with you!”

Berwald gave your drowsy figure a long stare, while thoughts poured over his internal dialogue like your previous cup of coffee over his clean floor.

“I’m glad that you care enough to get up early and fika with me. And you look very cute, almost falling asleep into your coffee like that. Should I say that? ... No, too embarrassing. I’ll say it later.”

In the meantime, though, he afforded you a small smile, and that was better than any dream you had missed.

#aph #aph denmark #aph finland #aph iceland #aph norway #aph sweden #aph imagine #hetalia imagine #hetalia imagines #hetaliaimagines #hetaliaimagine #hetalia x reader #denmark x reader #finland x reader #iceland x reader #norway x reader #sweden x reader #denmark scenario #finland scenario #iceland scenario #norway scenario #sweden scenario #aph denmark x reader #aph finland x reader #aph iceland x reader #aph norway x reader #aph sweden x reader #hetaliascenario #hetaliascenarios #hetalia scenario

[starcunning]

17. Shy kiss - Malcolm/Jay/Vaughn go go go!

I’m not saying this is canon but I wouldn’t mind if it were. It’s probably best summed up by this meme Sars made:

I hope this is some comfort (or torment?) to those I shipwrecked.

It hadn’t been an easy sell. For most people, a road trip across America sounded like a dream summer vacation—or at least the plot of a decent movie—but, because it was her, Vaughn had taken some convincing. He hadn’t come at all at first, actually, and Jacinth had taken Malcolm to see Cape Cod and up to the Maritime Museum in Maine alone. By the time they were headed to New York City, he had repented of the idea, and she had picked him up at the airport.

Vaughn’s luggage was full of books. That had made her laugh—it really seemed far more like an Alfred thing—but eventually he explained that he had intended to spend the summer reading through the Griffin’s library in the hopes of figuring out the planeswalking that Acacia had mentioned.

That had stung a bit—echoes of the same old regret that had pricked her when Vaughn had asked why she couldn’t have broken her news while the portal to Naribran was still open—but if he had wanted to stay well clear of her, he had had that opportunity.

And given it up. Had left New Hampshire so that he could join them on this road trip. Jacinth hadn’t been entirely sure what to make of it; she had no idea what any of it meant except, perhaps, that she was selfish.

When she had mentioned it at confession—at the cathedral in Philadelpha—she had been quickly absolved. It was not a sin to desire the companionship of others, the priest told her, nor to delight in their company. When she told him she was tempted to seek a second opinion, he had laughed gently and told her that Saint Liguori directed the faithful to trust in their confessor, for to accept his judgment was to follow the direction of God.

She had left Philadelphia gladder for it, and for Vaughn’s companionship, even on long, landmarkless days where he stretched across the back seat, reading from the Griffin’s notebooks aloud. Malcolm would provide context and commentary from time to time, teaching them more about his world even as they introduced him to Earth.

It was hot in Flagstaff, though not nearly so much as one might have expected in the Arizona summertime. It was the elevation, she supposed, and the cloudless night. From Mars Hill she could look down on the city below and see only a few lamps illuminating crosswalks and service stations. Most of the rest had been extinguished around 9, when they had left the bar where they’d eaten a late dinner.

Tomorrow, the Grand Canyon waited. For now, there was the quiet forest of Mars Hill and the Lowell Observatory atop. Even without the aid of the telescope they had come to see in the after-hours, the night sky was brilliant overhead. Malcolm’s hand rested in her own, and they both gazed upwards. His awe was naked on his face—and more so still when the attendants had directed his view toward Pluto—discovered at this very observatory all those years before. He had asked a thousand questions, and although the astronomers seemed amused by the enthusiasm he showed, they had gamely answered each.

And now they stood in the dark night, watching the moon peek through the treetops. Vaughn was a little ways away, his gaze turned upward too, hands thrust into the pouch pocket of his maroon sweatshirt.He cleared his throat. “I’ll get the car,” he offered. “Jay?” He held out an expectant hand, waiting for her to toss him the keys.Malcolm nudged her ribs with his elbow, and she glanced over to find him smiling. She smiled back, raking a hand through her hair—grown a bit shaggy on the road, tickling at her neck now.“Actually,” she said, letting go of Malcolm’s hand, “I’ll go with you.”“You sure?” Vaughn asked.“I’m cold,” Jacinth told him, drawing abreast of him.Vaughn looked at her, shoulders bare in her tank top, and then over at Malcolm, who was little better off in a tee. His runic tattoos peeked out beneath the short sleeves. Vaughn sighed, peeling out of his sweatshirt and thrusting it at her. “Here,” he said.

Jacinth murmured her thanks, shrugging into it. It smelled like him—not just hotel soap or the splash of cologne he wore, but like him in a way that nothing else ever would, and the fabric was soft and warm against her bare arms. He watched her as she lifted the hood and let it fall, toying with the drawstrings, and there was a private war going on behind his eyes she could see only in the set of his lips—as though he was trying too hard not to smile.“I’ll meet you out front in a minute,” Malcolm said.“Come on,” Jay urged. She wanted to reach out and take him by the arm, but that seemed like a transgression.

When it was Vaughn’s turn to drive, sometimes it was Jacinth in the back seat, stretched out and dead to the world. Acacia came and went as she pleased, but wherever she was, Jay could reach out and speak to her. It was kind of nice to have a faerie godmother, if a bit surreal, and since Wyoming, she had relied on her guidance more and more.

“So,” Vaughn said. “Where to next?”“The Grand Canyon tomorrow,” she said. “After that, I guess I was thinking Vegas? We have about a month left of summer before we should get back east.”“Don’t they card you in Vegas?” Vaughn wondered. “My roommate was going to go sophomore year, but they wouldn’t let him play. Be a problem for Malcolm.”Jacinth flinched. “Maybe not, then.”“Well,” Vaughn said, “unless you think we could pass him off as Alfred.”She laughed, and it echoed off the stone path underfoot. “Sure,” she said, “just some light identity theft. It should be fine.” She sighed. “Honestly, I haven’t figured out what to do about that. Sooner or later it’s going to be a problem.”Vaughn shrugged.

Soon they passed the rotunda and were headed back toward the visitors’ center. The parking lot waited just beyond, and that hardly seemed an appropriate place. “Hey,” Jacinth said, stopping short.Vaughn stopped too, turning back to look at her. “Yeah?” he said.“I’m glad you’re here.”He gave her a funny sort of look. “I’m glad I came, too, in the end.” It wasn’t an unalloyed happiness.She took a deep breath. Mars Hill was covered with pine trees, and she could smell them on the night air. “Do you still like me?”He seemed dumbfounded by the question. “Of course I still like you. You’re still a good person,” he was quick to say.Jay laughed, nervously, and felt her smile dimple her cheeks. “No, not … this is awkward,” she said after a moment. “I don’t think there’s a way around that. Just … since Yellowstone, Malcolm and I have been talking. I think he brought it up back in Chicago, but … Anyway, so, the thing is …”“Jacinth,” he said, in that firm, grounding way that he always had when her thoughts ran away with her in Naribran.“Are you still in love with me?” she asked instead.Vaughn looked pained, and then turned his face up toward the heavens, as though the Milky Way contained the truth of the matter in its smear of stars. It was a long moment before he said, “Yeah.”“That’s what I thought,” she said. She reached out to take his hand, but he tugged it away.“Things with Malcolm not working out?” he wondered. There was no bitterness in his tone that she could detect.“Things with Malcolm are fine,” she said, feeling her cheeks grow hot. “It’s just …”“Just what,” he said.

Jacinth sighed, trying to tuck her hair back behind her ears. It didn’t work—how often had she forgotten she didn’t have long hair in this body? “I never felt nothing for you,” she said. “I just wasn’t in love with you. I didn’t really have time to figure that out before you died, and I couldn’t really figure it out after. But now you’re alive, and you’re here. It’s still really confusing, but I’ve started to figure some things out.”He regarded her warily. She knew that look—had worn it a few times herself, guarding against hope in the assumption that would protect against disappointment later.“Do you remember,” she said, “when we were negotiating with the Nordics and Volkepf was explaining how things worked in their band?”Vaughn’s brow furrowed. “Yeah,” he said. “I didn’t think you’d want to. Wait, are you trying to set me up with Malcolm?”Jacinth laughed. “No,” she told him. Then she cleared her throat and said, “This isn’t about you two, uh, sharing honor or whatever their euphemism was. It’s more about the part where I said that in my homeland, men couldn’t marry men, and he said that where I came from sounded really … not oppressive, that wasn’t the word, but what he meant was that people should be free to just be whoever they are and pursue who they like?”Vaughn nodded, but he didn’t relax. “Where are you going with this, Jacinth?”

She glanced skyward a moment, then turned her gaze on Vaughn once more. “I wanted to walk back with you because I wanted to ask you a question.”“So this is just, what?” he teased. “Opening arguments?”“Sort of,” she admitted. “Malcolm knows about my feelings, and he supports them, so I wanted to ask …”He waited. There was no impatience in his body language.“We’re not breaking up,” Jacinth hastened to add. “Malcolm and I, we’re still going to be together, but if that’s alright, I wanted to ask: would it be alright if I kissed you?”

Vaughn looked at her a long moment, dumbstruck. She couldn’t help but feel exposed—not to the night air, but to him. His examination of her and her feelings; his judgment. It was only a moment or two, but it felt like a thousand stars rose and died overhead in that instant. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah.”

This was not something she could just throw herself into, so she reached for him, cradling his face in her hands. She could feel the day’s growth of stubble against her palms, and she smiled. He wrapped his arms around her in turn, and Jacinth leaned in, tipping her head to one side.

His lips were warm and soft against her own, and although this was not a deep kiss she lingered over it, breathing in the scent of his skin, and the warmth of him; the safety she had always felt in his presence.

When she drew back, she couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her. “I’m really glad you’re here,” she said.“Yeah,” Vaughn said, smiling. “Me too.”

#kiss asks meme #naribran #jacinth #the ghost that haunts my inbox #Anonymous #asked and answered #starcunning writes

[hecohansen31]

Not Of Age: (Duncan Shepherd+Reader)

A/N: Hello there, lovelies!

How was everything?

I am a bit stressed out for various thing, but also… you know what would help a lot? FEEDBACK (please if you have a minute of your time spare it to either heart this fic, comment on it, or reblog it, only if you liked it, obviously) (+you are always welcome to tell me what went wrong, what went right, in either my messages or in my asks, I am always happy to get one so…).

Also this is all inspired to something that happened to me (no I sadly don’t know any Duncan Shepherds in real life), since I get a lot mistaked for younger than I actually am (and I know it might sound strange but it is something I am insecure about, because people don’t take you seriously).

(Plus: one of my photos of the collage is actually mine, because I am wearing the dress, I described in the fic, so you can see it better+I don’t know I love the way that dress is one me…so) (Also i censored my face, because I was without make-up+I was wearing a very obnoxious flower crown).

Plus, before this gets controversial, Duncan in this fic is not interested into Reader because she is younger and might not seem of age, but he is more attracted to her “potrayal of youth”.

As always… I talk too much so I shall leave you to appreciating the fanfiction (let me know if you want a sequel because I mgiht be working on something right now!).

SUMMARY: You don’t show your age, and this got you in so much troubles, such as the one you got into after an unexpected visit on a Saturday’s morning, in an extra meeting with Duncan Shepherd

WORDS: 2,3 K.

WARNINGS: Just Duncan being flirty, and mostly kissing (no smut), also Older! Man in a relationship with a younger girl!

She had always been the girl, who looked much younger than her true age .

Both for her terrible childish manners (not only she still had the that naivety which was only seen in children, but also a brattish character that sometimes got her in trouble, mostly in relationships) both for the fact that her appearance was juvenile and much more belonging to a teen than an actually woman, who was 25 years old, which prompted many awkward and weird situations.

Such as the typical bar patron who asked her ID after she ordered alcohol, alongside a few of her partners on internet picking her up just because she looked much younger or mumbling something as “are you legal?”, when they saw her.

And although many people thought that it was an advantage, it was something she personally found annoying, mostly when people reminded her of it as it meant she was somehow shallow and not worthy of being taken seriously.

Many of her friends had also by now a kid on the way and were already married (although some settled for the first one that came through the window and it showed), so being the only single friend, not only sucked, but meant that apparently she was less trust worthy than a pregnant woman, alongside the fact that she didn’t seem to belong at all whenever a wedding was mentioned or a baby shower, and she just stared at the wall till they all giggled together, joining her friends there.

That day she seemed young not only because she wasn’t wearing her usual heavy make-up, which helped a lot with making her feel not only more confident but also a few years older, but she was dressed in a pretty sundress she had wanted to wear to the typical brunch her friends had on the first day of summer, setting themselves in a park in order to talk a bit.

The sundress was a perfect solution for the warm weather which coated her body in the form of sweat; but also she honestly loved the way the dress fit on her body, giving her a pretty hourglass figure, with its 50’s style..

She had bought the dress something like ten years ago, it had been her first dress ever, and although it was a bit ruined by the excessive washing she still felt comforted by wearing it and it still looked pretty amazing: its organza skirt bore a flowery pattern, her favorite!

She hadn’t worn make-up, stopped by the terrible hotness of the day, choosing to hide herself from the eyes of her friends and the sun with sunglasses and a straw hat, brought back from a very old journey, but which gave her a “Heiress on Vacation” kind of look.

The last touch of the look would have been sandals, but she had to go for sneaker since her boss called her at work for an emergency reunion, ruining her entire day of the brunch.

She hadn’t had enough time to change into something more “work appropriate” so she had just to go with her sundress and sneakers, hoping nobody would notice the terrible match.

The hat had been gently discarded to the secretary, meanwhile she “helloed” her and her boss made her a sign to move onto her office quickly, where she plumped down on her turning chair and checked into a mirror the state of her hair, after she had walked (more like ran) to work, sweating like a pig, (to hide it, she applied a generous amount of the extra-deodorant she had in her office for emergency such as this one).

She knew nothing about what she was supposed to be expecting.

Her boss had just mumbled something about “a very important client cancelling a meeting and asking for another on Saturday morning” when she wasn’t supposed to be working, but her boss had asked for a favor, alongside a promise of an extra on her paycheck to take the job.

“It will only last an hour maximum, I just need you to make him sign the documents and nobody is answering me…” because the offices were supposed to be closed on Saturday, and knowing this no clients were allowed in the building on Saturday…. alongside the fact that many people at 8 A.M. of Saturday were still sleeping with their phones off, meanwhile she had had to wake up, since not only she had had to get ready but the park for the brunch was two hours away from her.

“Ok… I will take it, but please… sign it as extra-work” she had mumbled, before sending her friends a message on how she would be sadly missing at least the first part of the brunch and to leave her something to eat, since she would come an hour later than she had programmed.

And maybe even more…

Because after what seemed like half an hour after the appointment had been set, she stilll saw nobody and she had even tried to ask the secretary (also extraordinarily there) if she had known something about the “mysterious man”, just to get a shake of head and a whisper on how much she hated that job (on which she agreed).

She was halfway through painting her nails, the one she had accidentally scratched on her way to the job, when she heard a knock on her door, surprising her enough that she almost painted her dress of the same teal color of her nail polish.

She mumbled a “please enter”, meanwhile she meticulously hid the nail polish’s bottle and breathed hot air on her nails to get them to dry quicker, not wanting to leave signs on the poor man’s hand.

And meanwhile she did all this, a man walked in her office, a very handsome and known man, whom she knew because of all the “Vanity Fair” ’s covers her boss had in her office, practically worshipping the self-made man, Duncan Shepherd had become after his exit from jail.

And not only did he look better in reality than on magazine cover, but he looked at her with two of the prettiest eyes she had even seen, preying on her as if she was some kind of water in a sandy desert.

She felt immediately the bush rising to her face, regretting not having taken a jacket with her, leaving her cleavage exposed since the dress had a deep “v” neck, which prompted a lot of skin to be shown and although it was pretty breathy for the summer, it didn’t mean that it was appropriate for the workplace.

Although to be stared like that by such a powerful man…

It wasn’t the “I want to make you feel like a piece of meat” stare so many frat boys gave her, but it was the “I will have you on your desk in five minutes, if you are interested”.

-Ehm… I think I have the wrong office, I was looking for Mrs (L/N)- he mumbled, thinking her to be the wrong person, but she just mumbled a shy “you are in the right place”.

-… I am Mrs (L/N), but you may call me (Y/N)- you knew it was highly unprofessional to share your name with a client, mostly somebody who was here just to sign but you tried to make it all seem a bit more relaxed, more for yourself than for him, who would look at ease even in a Nordic climate -I am sorry for my inappropriate state, this meeting was scheduled at last minute and I was on my way to a friendly brunch-.

-I am extremely sorry for the meeting at this hour and day, but I had a problem with the scheduled appointment, and I wouldn’t be back in America till a month… so…-.

-Don’t worry, Mr Shepherd, I am more than happy to make an exception for you- she didn’t mean to make it sound so flirty, mostly because she wasn’t used to try her luck with guys like him, not to talk about the fact that her childish naivety scared away boys, but this one, stayed, interested, staring at her.

-Well thank you very much, then- he mumbled, matching her flirty tone, meanwhile coming nearer, where she showed him the chair, raising up and showing a bit of her legs, which made him lower his gaze on them, and she faked not noticing although she raised a bit on her toes to show much more -… give me a pen and I will be out of your hair soon-.

He smiled brightly at her sudden goofy attempt to grab a pen, just to grasp simply air, making an awkward figure, to which he giggled, till she offered the pen, and moved the contract for their agency in his hands, meanwhile their hands bumped just a bit together, electricity shooting through her veins.

She even lowered herself a bit, the cleavage appearing more evident and he caught it with his eyes as they lowered upon the papers, meanwhile she simply dropped on her elbows and her ass shot up, which got her in a very explicit position.

He read the papers, or at least appeared to be reading those chewing the pen, before setting it down and smile at her as he caught her looking at him, nibbling her bottom lip.

-I didn’t think that you were Mrs (L/N) because you seem so much younger- he mumbled, taking time, clearly, meanwhile she settled swiftly back a bit, embarrassed by how freely she had acted with him, although he had given her clear indications he was into her and was trying his best to flirt her up.

But he was still a client till he walked outside the door.

-Oh, believe me but a lot of people think the same- she giggled, trying to breathe out her embarrassment.

-… it isn’t a bad thing- he mumbled, meanwhile looking at her and smiling at her flushed cheeks -… I wish I looked younger! People nowadays ask me if I need glasses to see-.

She laughed heartedly, meanwhile he looked at her through his lashes as if to say he was serious.

-You look amazing, Mr Shepherd- this got him to puff his chest even further almost as a proud bird, which got a genuine smile from her -… and I mean it is nice to know you can somehow age slower, but also… a lot of people tend not to take you seriously if you don’t look mature enough, plus, guys are not interested into younglings…-.

This got her a shocked look from him, which changed swiftly in an outraged look.

-… boys tend to have that kind of thoughts- he mumbled, shooting her a serious glance, that went through her entire body -…men don’t-.

And he was a man, probably ten years her senior, although she had heard he was much older than what he seemed with a pendant for a new girl on his arm each week, much younger than him, so she knew what was going on, although she was not his usual supermodel.

-Thank you, I will set my mind onto dating only men from now on- she mumbled, shyly, before tapping at the paper, to remind him what was going on, shooting him a knowing look; she couldn’t because of so many reasons, although she wanted.

-You are very welcome- he muttered, before setting a last glance on her body and swiftly signing the paper -Then is it done? -.

-It is- she replied, moving to accompany him to the door, as a way to let him even further know that she sadly couldn’t.

-Then we are not a client and a professional, right? – he asked.

And with her typical childish naivety, not fully understanding his motives she answered.

-… yes-.

And he swiftly closed the door, behind them, before pulling her against the door with a sudden roughness she found herself liking, and left her legs trembling, before diving on her lips, with his, with much more gentleness than the push against the door, a bit dipping her as they did in the movies.

He was far gentler than what he had promised her with the “door movement”, getting her wondering what would come next… a kiss or a slap…

But he was careful with her now, probably after the yelp of pain he got from having pushed her back against the hard wood, before pushing her towards another kind of “hard wood”, much more human.

And this got a moan of pleasure transferred from her mouth to his, opening herself to his tongue and a languid caress from it, before it moved back to trace, as if to know them by heart, her lips.

When he separated himself from her, much more due to the lack of air than because he wanted to, he still kept her against him.

Her sundress had risen up a bit, and now her thighs were even more exposed, meanwhile her cleavage was widened up by the rushed tries and friction of her dress against his crisp elegant shirt, rigorously back, whereas hers was beige, matching their respective personalities.

He moved his eyes from the ground to her face, just to cup it and keeping the stare till their lips were near each other and then he closed them, as she did, but nothing but dry air went through them and when she opened them he had disappeared, which left her to wonder whether or not something had happened, till she saw the signed paper and felt the little ticket hidden in the cleavage of her dress, with an address from an hotel in Italy written on it and a number on the other side.

She wondered about what it meant, why her and how he managed to slip it in her dress without knowing why…

But now apparently she had a way to find it all out.

#duncan shepherd #duncan shepherd reader #duncan shepherd x reader #house of cards #duncan shepherd image #duncan shepherd fanfic #duncan shepherd fan fic #fanfic #fan fic #heco writes #duncan shepherd fluff #older duncan shepherd

[darkacademicfrom2021]

The Dark Team (part 4)

<<Previous part Masterlist   Next part>>    Join the taglist in here

The cold chains immobilizing your whole body were the thing you first noticed once you woke up. When your eyes finally opened, you observed your surroundings carefully, silently. Barely opening your eyes, just in case. Your teammates were equally tied up by your sides, and Bucky was unconscious. Loki, on the other hand, was looking around less confused than he should have.

“Oh, you did this”, you spat suddenly, realizing what was going on. Of course he would betray the team; it was all you knew about him, and history did not disappoint.

“What?” he asked, now confused. “I certainly did not. I’m trying to figure out where we are”.

“Yeah, and you want me to blindly trust you on this one? What did you do to Tony? A dumb potion or…”.

“He doesn’t need me and my magic to act idiotic, he manages that himself”, he said. Once he actually got to talk, he wouldn't stop, would he? “But if you need me to, I can try to make him even dumber, then he would have some idea to form a Dark Team. Oh, wait”, said sarcastically.

“Be free to give us your input on the crew, come on, don’t be shy”.

While you two argued, Bucky was gaining consciousness again.

“Look who decided to get up from his nappy”.

“Shut up”, he managed to say, looking around. He quickly realized where you were. “Fuck. I know this place”.

“Do enlighten us”.

“Loki, I swear to God, shut up or I’m gonna shove my metal arm through your…”.

“Where are we, Buck?”, you interrupted impatiently.

“This is a Hydra base”.

“Oh fuck”.

“Great”.

You started making escape plans in your head in record time, but then you realized; maybe you shouldn’t escape. Maybe you should arrange some plan to make the mission done from the inside. The chances of the stick being there were bigger than somewhere else.

“That’s a better idea”, resonates Loki’s voice in your head. You screamed, not expecting his magic. So he has telepathy, you thought. You looked at him amazed, and he smiled smugly. You realized, if he can access your head, then he could’ve heard…

“Oh yes, I’ve heard it all, dear. But don’t worry, I’m used to it. Many people find me... how did you say? Extremely attractive?”.

You blushed and looked uncomfortably to the roof, trying to get the plan straight, ignoring his mockery. But he kept going.

“Comparing me to a british mortal man, though… I don’t appreciate it. A Nordic God is way better in every sense”.

Your blush turned to bright red paint all over your face, and he chuckled. Bucky was observing the interaction fascinated. For him, you were two idiots who looked at each other weirdly and reacted to that. But as much as you tried to avoid him, he kept talking in your head.

“It’s alright, darling. I like to be praised, even at the strangest moments. Can’t believe you went for a plain ‘hot’, though. I think I’d be worth at least a ‘so hot my brain is melting at his only sight…”.

“Oh my God, shut up!” you shouted, interrupting his egocentric rant.

“What the… he didn’t say anything” said Bucky, even more confused than before. You were quite a pair.

“Yes, y/n, I didn’t say anything. Are you hallucinating? Did they poison you?”.

“I’m gonna choke you with those chains as soon as I get my hands free”.

“I would love to see you trying”, he challenged.

“Guys, can you pleeeeaaassseee focus?”, said Bucky, losing his patience.

“I’m trying to focus on making a plan,” you whispered. “It would be much easier if you two shut up for the love of God”.

“How could you not predict our ship would get hijacked? Aren’t you the brainy of the team?”.

“James, don’t make me spit on your face”.

“I’d suggest whatever ‘plan’ you’re thinking that would get us out of here, do it faster, because I don’t think they’d leave us here alone much more time”, said Loki.

“What? You afraid of some little mortal kidnappers? I thought, for a God, it wouldn’t be so hard to take them down. Unless you’re full of crap. You know, once in my life I finally think I’d be alright being on charge of the mission, you two had to be here, ready to ruin...”.

“Are you still planning on choking me? Because that would do wonders to my ears, to finally stop listening to you”.

“Can you two stop flirting?”, interrupted Bucky. “I didn’t think the worst thing about getting kidnapped by Hydra would be not being alone".

"But here we are”.

Bucky ripped the chains off him and freed you too, leaving Loki tied. The God didn't complain, and instead made the chains dissolve with a spell. You looked around again. A plan started to form in your head and you followed your instinct through it, knowing it’d lead somewhere good at some point. After a few minutes of complete silence, you finally have it all figured out.

“Tiny genius has an idea”, announced Loki, who apparently was reading your mind the whole time. You looked at Bucky and he nodded, as he made his way through the room, destroying every camera and microphone he was able to find.

“We’re listening now”.

“Alright. Look”. You took out of your pocket a whiteboard marker and started scribbling nonsense on the tiles of the wall. Loki and Bucky shared a concerned look. You explained the whole plan, head to toes. It included explosions, illusions of dead bodies and infiltrations of high risk throughout the building. But they didn’t seem fazed at the difficulty of the idea. “Any questions?”.

“Yeah. Do you always carry a whiteboard marker or just on very dangerous missions?”, asked Bucky.

“Oh. No, always. Anyways, what do you think of the plan?”.

“I think you’re nuts”, said Bucky. Loki was paying very little attention and you doubted he even heard your plan. You sighed.

“Look, Barnes. My poor self preservation instincts are what got me in this Stark internship in the first place, so if you’re gonna insult my nuttery consider how far it got me”, you answered, pointing at him with the marker. “And you, did you even hear it? What do you think?”.

“Oh, yes. I think you’re out of your mind”.

“Are you kidding me, Loki? You did worse things”.

“But I support your idea. It 's madness. It’ll work”, he added, and you smirked.

“Well, it’s better than the alternative, at least”, accepted Bucky. “So, we have an escape plan, but we don’t have an actual plan to get the mission done, you realize that?”.

“We can figure it out once we’re out of sight from the Hydra toys”.

“You know, I don’t know what is it with you, Steve and Sam, but you guys never have plans, and it gets on my nerves”.

“I have a plan, I always have a plan, Buck. That’s my part of the job. Just… trust me, okay?”, you asked.

“You’re getting kinda hard to trust”, he said crossing his arms.

“I trust you”, added Loki after long seconds of painful silence. You felt the need to ask him why on Earth would he trust you, when not even your best friend trusted you on this one. But he looked at you with a glimmer of certainty in his eyes, and you didn’t want to push it, or make it vanish.

When everything was already set, Loki made the highly realistic illusions of your dead bodies (it even gave you chills, but you wouldn’t admit that, of course not). Bucky ran his hand through the pavement floor at the same time that you threw your watch against it, causing an explosion. You three flew away from the impact. You realized you haven’t thought this part very thoroughly, since they could obviously take the impact (a God and a supersoldier, why wouldn’t they?), but you were a mere human mortal with no superpowers or super suits.

You couldn’t look around as you fell from the building, since the remains of the room were falling apart, and the smoke and fire from the explosion were overwhelmingly close to your eyes, but you could sense you still had enough time to find the button on your suit to get the parachute on. You just had to find the damn button, that it was…

Loki grabbed you instantly, covering you with his whole body before the impact, making sure you didn’t even get a scratch. Then you realized you maybe didn’t have the parachute back-up plan under control, after all.

“Well, that was bigger than I had anticipated”, you said, getting up from Loki’s tired body and brushing off some ashes. He stayed there and sighed. “Now we know where we were. 5th floor, apparently”.

“And now we’re not even inside the building, as we needed. Great. Smart”.

“You know, I’d say this is a win. We’re not being held hostage now, and we have enough time to recalculate the plan from the outside. Less risk of getting…”. But you were interrupted by the cocking guns of the seven guards surrounding you.

“No, please, let them finish their sentence”, said Loki sarcastically, still laying on the smashed floor. “getting caught, were you gonna say?”.

“Well, yes. But I think, given the current circumstances, that you’d differ”.

“What could possibly make you think that?”.

“Not the time, guys”, cut Bucky, getting up and knocking down two guards. You fought with one of them. Loki didn’t even bother in body-to-body combat, and casted them away, fading their bodies into thin air.

“Where did you take them?”, asked Bucky.

“The explosion”.

“Are you stupid? They’ll notice the bodies are fake!”.

“No, not the past explosion. The current explosion”, he explained, and behind him you heard a building collapsing in the distance. You didn’t even ask. What for. Honestly.

After a while of walking around and not really getting anything from it, Bucky finally asked:

“So, the watch. Is it normal for you to keep explosive reactive components in there, or was that just part of a very premeditated plan we weren’t aware of?”.

“Oh, it was just a precaution I have. In case of emergencies”, you explained. They decided it would be better to not ask you why and how could you possibly keep pulling weirdly necessary things in the strangest moments. Why would they bother. Honestly.

You touched your earbud, trying to communicate with Stark. He was supposed to be in the line at some time around that, but, well, you didn’t have your watch with you anymore. Gladly, he answered. He said he was getting the coordinates to a hotel room, and he’d take you three to a different place than the anticipated, far away from that Hydra base. You needed time to establish, refill energy and make a better plan. Better than blowing things up. You had some time to spare now that you were temporarily presumed death.

#loki #loki x reader #loki headcanon #loki x gender neutral reader #loki fanfic #loki fic #loki laufeyson #mcu loki #loki odinson #loki x y/n

[nonbinarysasquatch]

I decided this time to just copy my review of The Dragon Reborn straight from Reddit rather than copy my not really detailed Goodreads review:

I'm back in the saddle again!

Yeah, my one week to finish this turned out to be a month. Oops. But it sure wasn't because I didn't enjoy this book, oh no.

As a reminder for the final time: I read New Spring first and if you are a fellow new reader who hasn't read it that might be something to keep in mind. That said, I'm not planning on referencing anything to it in this review as I don't feel it has any bearing on my thoughts for this one.

Overall thoughts on this book:

Woo, this series just keeps getting better. Even though this book is the shortest yet it really felt like so much happened. Jordan is really getting a feel for the story he's telling. This felt in many ways like the culmination of a lot of things from the first two books. Rand is the Dragon Reborn and is now embracing that role.

Do I have any complaints about this book? You know, not really. Well, beyond issues with one character which I'll get into below. This was a really solid entry.

Character thoughts:

Egwene: Egwene is starting to fight Nynaeve for being my favourite. I loved how much more brash and harsh she's become. It feels a bit like she's mirroring Rand in terms of becoming more powerful and becoming less nice. She's not at his level yet but she's showing herself to be comfortable with, even enjoying, torture. It's a dark turn but I like it. Complex, flawed characters are always more interesting than safe characters who never make mistakes. I am surprised by how fast she, Elayne and Nynaeve are moving up the ranks in the Aes Sedai but it's not super shocking since if they all spend a decade moving up the entire plot would have to be put on hold which would kill the dramatic tension.

Perrin: OK, I guess, saying that I'll admit Perrin isn't that complex, but I still continue to love him. He's also kind of mirroring Rand, at least in terms of power. I loved the wolf dreams (and all the dream stuff in this in general, I'm weak for dream stuff.) Unfortunately, Perrin's plot has a mark against it but I'll get to Faile further below.

Mat: Heyyy, Mat actually got to do stuff. He's evolved being a foolhardy prankster to being a gambler with luck on his side. I'm a little unclear if it's literal magic luck or just general good luck from being ta'veren. I liked Mat in this one. He's not my favourite but he's fun.

Rand: Sir Barely Appearing in this Book. I thought keeping Rand to a minimum in this book was an interesting choice. It gave the other characters more room to breathe and I also think it highlights how he's changing. And boy is he changing. Rand using the one power to make a bunch of corpses kneel before him is pretty eerie. I also thought it was interesting exploring the effect he's having on the world and those around him by simply existing instead of focusing on how the changes happening are affecting him. This book felt more about the world than it was about Rand.

Nynaeve: Still my favourite for the time being. She did get overshadowed by Egwene in this book.

Elayne: I'm not really super certain what my feelings are on Elayne at this point. I like her but don't have strong feelings about her yet. I just like reading about the friendship between the three ladies.

Moiraine: Moiraine really upped her intensity in this one. Whatever niceness and patience she had before are getting shed. I do feel like the characters should start putting more faith and trust in her. She's saved their lives a whole heck of a lot at this point and been right about basically everything, that should earn her something.

Lan: Not much development for Lan in this but he was great as always. Even the Nynaeve romance only got little mentions here and there.

Loial/Thom: You know, I like both these two but I'm starting to feel like they aren' that important to the plot? Granted, maybe there was just not much for them to do in this book. Thom definitely could've been cut from Mat's plot without losing much. I'm glad he wasn't since I like Thom but I'm not really clear what his and Loial's places are in the overall narrative.

Min: I was hoping I'd get more of her beyond the opening bits. We haven't gotten that deep of a look at her yet. I guess she must've arrived at the Tower at some point.

Siuan: Glad we got a fair bit of her in this. I feel like her fishing metaphors increase with every appearance haha.

Faile: I'm always really reluctant to be negative about a female character. I've noticed in pretty much every fandom I've ever interacted with the female characters tend to... get more negative attention for doing less wrong than the male characters. A flaw that adds complexity to a male character will be seen as something unforgivable when given to a female character.

That said, hooboy, Faile has really tested me. Faile stalks Perrin, forces herself into their group, forces her way into their plans, is inappropriate and creepy with Perrin the entire time, is given numerous opportunities to bail but sticks around because she wants to be part of a good story but then complains the entire time like she's being put-upon even though literally no one forced her into this and then for some reason at the end I guess she and Perrin are in love now? And the saddest thing about that is its somehow the best-developed romance these books have been given so far.

My guess is we're supposed to find all her inappropriate behaviour charming? Perrin's the sweetest, kindest character in these books, what'd he do to deserve this? Hopefully, this is just a rocky start and she'll be toned down in the next book. I can honestly deal with harsh and not necessarily nice characters but Jordan's choices with her are really strange. The way she acts just isn't earned. There's no good reason for her to demand to be a part of this then complain about it as if she were a child.

Apologies to anyone who loves her. Just remember I didn't care for Mat at first either haha.

Ba'alzamon: Well. I'll admit, I'm confused at what the point of this character was. Rand kicks his ass 3 times then we find out he was just a pretender who was this other bad guy that seems to have been built up but now he's dead. It's particularly odd since I didn't think he was the Dark One in the first place. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Robert Jordan's plans for this character may have changed along the way. Perhaps in EOTW he was meant to be the Dark One or possessed by the Dark One but decided that the series was growing longer and having Rand beat the main villain several times would cheapen him in the long term. I'm hopeful that the next book will clear things up since Moiraine didn't have much time to explain things at the end.

Some broad stroke thoughts:

I'm starting to feel kind of numb to all the different inns and innkeepers. I know some of them may come back and be important but 3 books in there really have been a lot of them. I can't really blame Jordan for giving them all names and descriptions but I don't think my brain can really retain that much information haha.

I felt a similar thing with all the different captains in this book. He goes into so much detail about the ships and the captains but it just kind of blurs together. Also, I missed Domon in this book. Kept expecting him to show up. Alas.

I really would read an entire series of books just about the Aes Sedai. I want to read about all the inner Tower politics and the nuances between all the different Ajahs. It's a shame there aren't enough female leads so that we can have one character joining each Ajah. I'm looking forward to seeing which Ajah Nynaeve, Egwene and Elayne will join. Elayne does seem to be leaning green. I do hope they all go for different ones just to get the different looks.

The entire climax was so great. For every book the climax has gotten better than the last. Just so many cool pieces with Egwene trying to get them out of the cell, Perrin trying to save Faile, Mat trying to rescue the ladies and Rand being an absolute beast and taking down not one but two forsaken. I love a good magic sword. They might be cliche but Callandor is still pretty rad.

Ohhh I haven't said anything about the Aiel. I'll admit having desert people look Nordic is definitely different. I thought the characters in this were interesting and I'm glad that we're seeing everyone's preconceptions of them being proven false. Given the ending, I assume the next book will have a lot more of them (and at some point Rand will need to dig into his past.)

Adaptation Talk:

Even though this is the shortest book so far, I really feel it's the one I'd want to see given the most episodes. You can easily squeeze the first two books into a ten-episode season but this one might be tough to fit in if you try to put another book in there. But it's hard to say what they should do without having read the next one (and hooboy, TSR appears to be the thickest yet.) I hope the show at least gets a second season so we can get the visual feast of the Heart of Stone battle.

Ranking:

The Dragon Reborn

The Great Hunt

New Spring

The Eye of the World

So far no stinkers. TDR was very, very good with my only real complaint being Faile in general. Starting the Shadow Rising this evening and I actually already have The Fires of Heaven waiting at the library because I just want to keep momentum going and not get sidetracked like I did this time haha.

#wheel of time

[randomnessunicorn-imagine]

Hello again! I once got shipped with Norway for Hetalia and I greatly liked it so I was wondering if I may have a dating scenarios if you wouldn't mind? To recap: I'm a tall brown haired female with blue eyes. I'm a very shy and quiet person with some intellect. Even when I open up I'm quiet. But secretly I'm sarcastic with a dark sense of humor. Also I have low self esteem. I love reading and I'm often seen doing that. (And thank you and I'm sorry if I'm being annoying with all the request!)

{ Hello~Sorry if you waited so long, I hope you will like it-! }

@seven116​ x Lukas Bondevik  ( APH Norway )

💙 FIRST MEETING:

It was a serene morning of November, the winter was just around the corner and so many things were going to happen. This year still deserved new surprises that none could even imagine!You were directed to the library, one of your favourite place, since you loved reading so much and you were sad for all those people who were unable to appreciate a magnificent activity like reading. They had only their life to live while a true reader lived million and million lives, all different and fantastic. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” said George Martin and it was the truth. You have lost the count about all the lives you have already lived. It was never enough!The library was a calm and silent place where persons could enjoy the true meaning of the existence. You were exploring, with your vigilant and curious eyes, all the volumes that were exposed on the shelves. You ended up in an area you have never visited and it was very strange, maybe they had only incremented the choice of the books. There were different volumes about Nordic Myths and History, they seemed very interesting, and some of them were illustrated with fascinating and artistic pictures you found so amazing that you were already flipping without realizing. You did not even notice the thin and silent figure next to you since you were so absorbed in your thoughts. This person was so pale and thoughtful; he seemed a young man, he had two pair of glacial eyes, and he wore a weird navy hat on his blonde head. He did not seem a talkative person and he was limited to observe the books with an apathetic expression. You could not say if he was truly interested and bored, or if was able to move because he seemed immobile and static like he was a statue. A frozen statue.You realized you were staring at him a little too much and it was not so polite, so you looked at the same books he was observing. Maybe you should have read one of them so you raised your hand, reaching one of those volumes. In that moment, the time stood still because it seemed the mysterious man has already grabbed your book so you retired your hand. You just wanted to cheek so you did not care, keeping on looking around. You have not found the perfect book today but that desire of curiosity remained in your mind, and it was because of that cold and enigmatic young man.

💚 SECOND MEETING:

Another month was passed and you have never seen that mysterious person in the library as if it was a sort of apparition, a ghost. He was so pale, almost transparent, maybe…Ah, it could not be truth, it was illogical and he was just a normal guy who did not frequent that library very often like you. Anyway, he left you with a bad taste in your mouth you could not explain. It was like… Discontent with an aftertaste of curiosity. You truly desired to know that person, it seemed he came from a romance, he was just one of those sinister character’s books you could never understand or predict. You wanted to read his mind.Christmas was coming and you were doing your shopping in a mall, this place was full of euphoric people. You had to buy some presents for your friends but you were so unsure so you were looking through the storefronts without caring so much until a group of people caught your attention. They were five and they seem so different from each other. There was one who screamed and laughed a little too much, a cold man with glasses who had a scary look on his face next to another euphoric man, a cold teenager and then… Your eyes went wide open when you noticed that he was there. The mysterious person of the library was there but he did not notice you since his stare seemed contemplating another dimension and galaxy. Nevertheless, chasing after people was not so polite so you decided to return to your business, searching for some gifts for your friends. You entered in the supermarket where there were some Christmas sales. While you were looking for decorations and stuff you met them again, and you found the mysterious man that was observing some fairy and troll’s statues with the same indifferent face of every time. Maybe he was not a happy person even if it was almost Christmas and it was a shame someone could be displeased during this period. You got closer pretending to be interested to those statues and you, after taking all your courage, spoke to him, «Oh, you truly like those things, uhm…? ». Actually, you would have never talked with a person so openly but your curiosity won this battle, this time.His only answer was a nod, a simple nod. He was truly a person of few words and you felt embarrassed. It was still an answer, so mute and cold but an answer! You smiled feeling like an idiot and you wanted to disappear, but you had to say something to him. «Those fairies are really beautiful, they seem like the ones I saw in those books…», you took one of those statutes. Being concentrated to something else, and not to his icy eyes, could help you to gain some calm because the temperature was becoming colder. He was like the winter, glacial and impenetrable.When the situation was becoming difficult, luckily one of his friends came to save you from this embarrassment. Another blonde guy (actually, they were all blonde) appeared and, for the first time, you have noticed a hostile glare in his eyes. The new man was a very tall and noisy person, he posed his hand to Norway’s shoulder speaking, «Oh, Loki, who’s this pretty girl? One of your friend? I’m surprised, I didn’t believe a snowman like you could have a friend.», then he started laughing and you presented yourself telling your name and that you were not exactly his friend, you met Norway only one time in the library, and you found him here for a coincidence. «Anyway, my name is not Loki. It’s Lukas! », it was the first time he spoke and his voice was so soft and cold just like a snowflake. He seemed so angry with the other guy for reasons unknown for you. «My name is Mathias, it’s your pleasure. », the other man said and then he turned to Lukas, asking, «Why don’t you invite your special friend at the Christmas Dinner? If she’s free, I think Tino would be happy. More people, more fun~», Mathias declared starting to laugh and you blushed a little for the way he said “special friend” like you and Lukas were dating but this was the second time you saw him.Then, you met all his family and all of them seemed glad Norway found a friend and they were surprised about it. You were right thinking he was so cold and mysterious, he appeared so solitaire and smart and now you were more curious than before and you had no other choice to accept their invitation to join them at Christmas. You could pass to say hello and your parents would have not been so angry if you would have presented a little late to the Christmas Party.

💛 DATE:

After some days, you found Lukas in the library and you were so surprised to see him there. You could not think he was there for you but he approached you. His posture was still rigid and steady. Then, he started spoke with a softer voice than the harsher one he used with Mathias last time and he lost that hostile glare. He returned calm and polite like his usual.«I am mortified for the unappropriated behaviour Mathias got, he’s just a problematic child. », he meant he got some mental problems but it was clear Lukas did not like so much Mathias. «Oh, don’t worry… He was kinda funny, I didn’t feel uncomfortable. », he seemed shocked by your answer and you noticed one of his eyebrows rising for the confusion. He just nodded and maybe it was your time to start a conversation because he was not going to speak again. Then, you asked him some information about those fairies and if he found them interesting or if he believed in them. You said the first thing crossed your mind but it seemed it was an argument he found interesting and he spoke more than his usual, and he was so informed about it so you asked him if he could give you some advices about some books you could read and he suggested you some Nordic’s authors. After some while, you understood that it was not the perfect place to speak, even if you were the one who spoke the most, so you asked to Lukas if he wanted to take a coffee with you to continue the conversation. This person was too elusive and maybe you would not have another occasion to spend some time with him. Like always, he nodded and you felt the luckiest person of the world. It was just a nod but it was something and he appeared to be a sincere guy, he would have said “no” if he did not want to stay with you so you were acting good. You did not know if you should have considered it like a true date since you were not sure about his feelings and it was a miracle if he saw you like a friend and it seemed he did not like having people around and he was too much introvert. Anyway, this almost date went better than you supposed and the two of you talked about so many arguments. Actually, you were the one who communicated the most and he nodded every time, but you found his way to nod so cute so you did not complain.After that day, you met Lukas more often in the library and the two of you keep each other company reading together, it was so funny and relaxing. Sometimes, you lost yourself studying his fascinating and placid form while he read, and you kept having the same sensation in your heart. The same sensation when a person found itself in front of the mystery of the world.

💜 CONFESSION:

This winter brought to you so many new things and surprises and you kept dating Lukas. It seemed he appreciated your company and even his family was surprised seeing him less solitaire and he went outside a little more but the places you and he visited were the calmest and quietest because he did not like noisy and crowed environments so most of your dates took place in the library or in the park. One time, he brought you to skating, you remained enchanted by his talent, and he moved with the same grace and agility of a flying bird. The other guy, the one Norway disliked so much, that Danish man, called you as “Luka’s girlfriend” despite the Norwegian kept defining you like a friend and nothing more but he was not an affectionate guy and he cared a lot to know well a person before he could define someone in an intimate way. Mathias said you have worked a sort of miracle because Lukas was more alive than before and he always appeared like a piece of ice. Despite his coldness, you felt so comfortable with Lukas because he was very polite and respectful. He always treated you with kindness and care in his glacial ways, and it was perfect for your shyness because you were sure he was not going to be rude or weird. Then, he did not speak too much and he was the perfect listener even if he did not give you advises because he thought you had already the solution of your problem but you have not found it yet. Then, you could not live without his nods and you were sure he always paid attention to your discourses and he never lied. He talked not so much, but he always told the truth, and, because of his calm and low voice, even the cruellest truth appeared so harmless and placid if it was pronounced by his mouth.These were all the reasons why you truly loved him but you have never confessed it for not ruining the actual relationship. One day, it was snowing and the atmosphere was so magical and spectacular, you and he was watching this natural show and the snow posed on your nose. It was cold and beautiful just like him, but you preferred to stay in silence. After some while, you felt something. Lukas was holding your hand, this gesture was so sweet and unexpected. Nothing has been told but you already knew. Sometimes, those little gestures told so much more than a thousand mere words.

#randomnessunicorn-imagine #seven116 #ask #date game #axis powers hetalia #hetalia #aph #aph norway #lukas bondevik #reader x norway #boyfriend scenarios #hetalia boyfriend scenario #romantic scenarios #hetalia nordics #aph nordics #norway

[daedriclorde]

Krent Mon Do Akatosh Humble Beginnings; A Series of One-Shots

Markarth

(Scroll down for a second one-shot, I’ve Got You)

“I need another pick.”

“Another? Divines, lass, are you a thief or not?”

“Divines, lad, I’m just not as good with the locks as you!”

“Shor’s Bones. Get out of the way.” Brynjolf gave Aerisif a playful shove as she made room in front of the locked door.

“Fuckin’ hurry up, Bryn, the guard will be back any second.”

“We’d be in already if you knew how to pick a damned lock properly!” he taunted.

“Or if you had just picked the lock like I had asked in the first place, instead of insisting on making this a learning experience.” Aerisif rolled her eyes at him.

The satisfying click of a lock answered her.

“Let’s go.”

The pair of thieves slipped into the Dwarven structure. Bronze Dwarven metal plated the more ornate carvings in the entryway, not uncommon in the wealthy dwellings in Markarth.

Two shadows silently made their way across the stone floor. Bryn reached an arm out to stop Aerisif. He pointed across the hall, to where a jeweled flagon sat proudly on the mantle. Aerisif nodded, and wordlessly padded into the shadows.

Her lockpicking needs work, but gods, I’m standing next to her and looking right at her and I can’t see or hear her, Brynjolf thought proudly.

Only when she passed by a flickering candle did Bryn see the light dance on her ebony hair. A dark, leather clad arm reached up to the top of the mantle and snatched the gem crusted flagon from its place of pride.

A moment later, the thief was back by Brynjolf’s side. She nodded at him and they made their way back out the heavy stone and metal door.

“Well done, lass!” Brynjolf clapped a hand on her shoulder.

Aerisif beamed. “That did go pretty well, didn’t it?”

Gods, that smile. “You are turning out to be more and more of an asset to the Guild, lass.”

She nodded, distracted. “It’s a bit strange to be here with you in Markarth. It’s like my worlds colliding a bit.”

Brynjolf looked around. The sun was starting to rise on the stone city, painting the gray rocks with gentle pastels. He had been to Markarth plenty of times in his life, pulling jobs here. But he had never considered that this was Aerisif’s home, where she grew up and learned the basics of the trade. Brynjolf’s only childhood memories were of Honorhall and Riften.

Aerisif had a sort of sad, nostalgic look on her face.

“Sun’s rising,” Brynjolf said, trying to distract her. “Best we’re out of the city once this bastard realizes we stole his trinket.”

She nodded again. What’s gotten into her?

***

Aerisif and Brynjolf retrieved their horses from the stables and were well across the bridge when the sun fully rose. They rode in silence. Aerisif had been pulling flowers off of the trees as they rode by, making a bouquet of sorts. They approached a large boulder and Aerisif pulled her horse to a stop.

“Can we make a detour?”

Brynjolf was about to decline when he saw her face. It looked strained, like she had some heavy load she was bearing.

“Of course, lass,” he said, surprised.

She lead them off the main road onto a small trail that Brynjolf would not have noticed otherwise. The horses walked single file.

The sun was high above them when Aerisif pulled her mare to a stop at the top of a hill. There was a cluster of trees at the bottom, and some overgrown fields adjacent.

“What is it, Aer? Where are we?” Brynjolf searched around him for an answer.

Aerisif slid off her horse and started to walk down the hill.

“Where are you going lass?” Brynjolf was concerned. He jumped off his own horse and followed her down the hill.

Aerisif walked past the cluster of trees and out of sight. Brynjolf’s heart beat a little faster.

“Aer! Wait up!”

Brynjolf made it around the trees and his breath caught in his throat.

Hidden behind the grove was a burnt down house. Moss covered its shattered bones and grass grew within, nature reclaiming the land. Through the fresh foliage Brynjolf could still see the charred wood.

This was a farm, he realized, now identifying another structure as the remains of a barn, and noticing rusted farm tools lying near the field.

Aerisif was walking silently through it, placing her hand on the walls that still stood. She wandered to a back room, one that Brynjolf imagined was once a bedroom. Aerisif knelt in one corner, murmured something, and gently placed a flower on the ground. Brynjolf watched in silence as she repeated this ritual in every room, finishing with a flower placed where the doorway once was.

She held three more flowers in her fist. With hazy, dreamy eyes she floated over to where two rocks sat. Brynjolf followed silently, caught in whatever magic seemed to hang over this place, but stayed a respectful distance away.

Aerisif knelt in front of the rocks. She repeated her murmurs here, Brynjolf still too far away to hear the words she whispered. She placed a flower in front of both the rocks.

After a while, Brynjolf found himself drawn to her side. Kneeling beside her, he could see the rocks had words etched into them. One read “Kjolti”, and the other “Gardamor”.

“These are my parents,” Aerisif mumbled, breaking the silence.

Brynjolf felt a pang in his heart. Aerisif had never mentioned her family.

He watched as she placed the final flower, a small blossom that had barely bloomed, in between the graves.

“For the little girl they left,” Aerisif whispered. “May their bones nourish the earth, may their souls dance with the ancestors, and may their memories live forever with their descendants,” She chanted the Nordic burial rites.

As silently as she came upon the place, she rose and walked back up the hill. She hid her face from Brynjolf, but he could hear her sniffling.

They reached the top of the hill. Aerisif was about to mount her horse again when Brynjolf’s arm caught her arm. She turned around.

His emerald eyes were round and thoughtful. “Lass,” he began.

She surprised him by falling into his arms. He caught her in the embrace and held her tightly.

A moment later she pulled away. Her silver eyes glimmered with tears again. “Thank you, Bryn.”

He smiled back, daring to stroke her hair. “Of course, lass.”

I’ve Got You

“Don’t step there,” Aerisif warned.

“Lass, I’m a proper thief. I can spot a damn pressure plate.”

“You haven’t spent nearly as much time in Dwarven ruins as I have. In Markarth, you can’t spit without hitting a Dwemer ruin. I learned how to sneak in them, cut my teeth by surviving them.”

Brynjolf’s cloaked figure raised his hands up. “Fine, fine, lass, you reign supreme in knowledge of all things Dwemer. But I saw the damn pressure plate.”

“Stop.”

Aerisif’s whispery tone changed from playful to serious in a heartbeat. Brynjolf heard the sound too, frozen in his tracks. A moment later, a Dwarven Sphere rolled across the end of the bronze hallway the thieves were sneaking through. It hadn’t yet detected the pair.

Aerisif notched an ebony arrow on her Nightingale Bow. She steadied her breath, and let the arrow fly down the hall. Brynjolf released an arrow not a second after hers.

The twin arrows collided into the automaton with two piercing crunches. The metal beast recoiled from the impact, then turned to fix its lifeless gaze on the intruders. It began to race down the hallway.

It never made it. Two more arrows pierced its bronze shell and the automaton crumbled and shattered.

Aerisif kept a third arrow on the string, while Brynjolf crept closer to the ruins, ebony sword drawn. He peered around the corner, then sheathed his blade in an indication of safety.

Relaxing the bow, Aerisif hustled to the remains of the Dwarven sphere. She recovered an amethyst and a mostly full soul gem, and pocketed them before padding down the hall to join Brynjolf. Around the corner lay another large Dwarven chamber, with many smaller chambers adjoining it. Her partner stared off into the massive chamber.

“Are you sure it’s in here, lass?” Brynjolf studied the maze ahead.

Aerisif nodded. “I’m sure. Enthir was confident that the dagger was sealed in this city.”

The rogue ran his hand over the black leather hood cloaking him and sighed. “Then I suppose we ought to press on.”

***

Silently, the pair crept on through the labyrinth of rooms and halls. They paused often along the way, one picking the lock on a gate that seemed to promise riches while the other kept watch.

Their packs laden with treasure, they carried on deeper and deeper into the ruin. The pair of Nightingales finally came to a colossal bronze door, intricately carved with perfect angular lines in Dwarven fashion.

Aerisif breathed in deep, feeling the pressure difference heavily so far under ground. “It’s through here. I just know it.”

“Aye lass, I would hope so. We’ve been down here for ages now.” He grumbled.

“What, a little Dwemer ruin got you down?” she grinned at her pun, but found her mirth was not returned.

“There’s nothing little about this gods damned skeever hole.”

Aerisif turned to her partner, pulling down her hood and cowl for a better look at him. “What’s the matter, Bryn?”

The other thief pulled his hood and cowl down in frustration. “The matter is that we are wasting Guild resources on this wild goose chase. We’re fragile enough as it is right now, and you’ve got the two of us, highly talented thieves both, scuttering around this damned rat maze in the dark looking for a myth.”

Aerisif was taken aback.”Is that how you feel about these ruins?”

“Aye.” Brynjolf’s expression was dark and clouded.

She blinked, her wide silver eyes catching the eerie green lights of the Dwarven ruin. “I didn’t realize you felt that way,” she said in a small voice. “I could have brought someone else. You didn’t have to come.”

Brynjolf locked his emerald eyes with hers. “Are you mad?”

Again, Aerisif was shocked. “I don’t know what you mean—“

“Lass. I’m not letting you out of my sight. After everything you’ve been through, after Irkingthand, after Snow Veil, after what Mercer—“ his voice choked up and he paused while he collected himself. “I was not about to let you put yourself in danger for the Guild again while I sit in the Cistern shuffling papers.”

Aerisif felt her features soften at his words. She stepped toward Brynjolf, and she placed a gloved hand on his stubbly cheek. “Hey,” she pulled his chin so that she could look him in the eyes. Those damned eyes. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. You’ve got me.”

Brynjolf closed his eyes for a moment, leaning into her hand, before reaching out and grabbing Aerisif’s face in his own gloved hands. He stroked her cheeks, and finally his features relaxed into tenderness. “Aye lass, I’ve got you.” He whispered.

***

The pair of Nightingales stood at the edge of a field of pressure plates, punctuated with spouts that undoubtedly, judging by the charred ends of pipes, would spit fire. In the center of the room was a tall pedestal, upon which sat the jewel encrusted dagger the thieves sought.

Hoods and cowls once again covering their faces, Brynjolf and Aerisif stood with arms crossed, assessing the situation.

“We could try—“

“No, it’s too far.”

“Right.”

Still as statues they stood.

“What about if we…”

“Isn’t that how Vex got busted?”

“Shit, yeah.”

For as much talent as there was between the two thieves, they had no idea how to proceed.

Aerisif snapped her fingers, though the sound was almost entirely muffled by the enchanted leather. “I’ve got it.”

“What’s the plan, lass?”

The shadow cloaked Guild Master rummaged through her pack. “I’ve got one potion of resist fire in here that I nicked on my last bedlam job. I’m gonna take it and run across.” She pulled her cowl down to expose her mouth.

“You’re mad if you think I’m going to let you,” Brynjolf warned.

But Aerisif had already uncorked the bottle with her teeth. “Then I’m mad!” She threw her head back, slammed the tincture, and smashed the bottle on the stone with a wicked smile.

“NO!” Brynjolf reached out and tried to grab her, but the tail of her cape just evaded his fingers. He held his breath as he watched his love go up in flames.

The shadowed thief danced across the floor, laughing as she narrowly missed the searing jets of fire, and yelping when she didn’t. A moment later she was on the other side, and pulled the heavy chain to deactivate the traps.

Brynjolf sprinted across the floor, the idle traps clicking under his weight. He rushed to Aerisif’s side, where she sat slumped against a wall.

“Shor’s bones lass, I swear,” Brynjolf shook his head. “Mad as Sheogorath.”

Her skin red and shining from the flames, Aerisif grinned. “Only mad as? I guess I’ll have to try harder.” She chuckled and opened her fist.

The dagger was flawless. Diamonds were set into the Dwarven blade, and gold and emeralds ornamented the hilt. Crafted perfectly, the blade balanced beautifully in her palm.

The sight of it distracted the pair from both anger and pain for a moment as they were captivated by the joy of theft.

Brynjolf stroked her hair. “Come on, I need to get you back.”

Aerisif winced as she tried to stand. “More importantly, we need to get the dagger to Delvin.”

Brynjolf shook his head again. “More importantly? I love a good heist as much as you lass, but I think you’ve got your priorities mixed up, little Sheo.”

“Not sure how our new Mistress feels about you comparing me to another Daedra,” Aerisif teased through labored breaths.

“Oh just shut up lass,” Brynjolf laughed as he easily picked her up, cradling her in his arms as he strode off toward the lift that would take them back to the surface. She cried out involuntarily as he hoisted her.

“Shh, lass, it’s okay. I’ve got you.”

#Skyrim Fanfic #OC: aerisif/kjolti #KMDA #f!dragonborn x brynjolf #thieves guild