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thechaoticgoblin · 4 days

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My take on the Bayverse Boys MOB!AU

Greetings from the woods!

This is something I’ve been working on for a while but always been unsure on posting. However, I’ve recently understood that we only live once so, why not try this?

Might become a series later on, who knows?

GENERAL

I am taking HUGE inspiration from Jade City and Six of Crows for this part, so stay with me on this.

- I’m team lab experiment. In my view it could very well be kept the way the movie has portrayed them. So, let’s begin with the principle.

- While I can see the turtles being hatched in the lab, I think Splinter wasn’t born there, but rather in a sort of pet shop but his reminiscence on that period in his life has always been kind of blurry. The only thing he remembers is that he was quite old by the time he was bought by a little girl named April and his father, becoming her pet. April has always been loving and careful with Splinter, and that he would always remember.

- At some point April’s father decided to start using Splinter for some of his experiments and that, once more, has been quite a blurry period in the rat’s life.

- The whole ordeal with the lab basically follows the bay!movies quite religiously until a certain point.

- One night, the four brothers ran out of the lair out of curiosity. It was on Halloween, the perfect night for them to get a glimpse of the outer world before being forced back into the sewers. Once out for what should have just been a small stroll out of their home, they all started to find new attraction for the world. The lights, the smells, the taste of the world above the surface was all too much for such small and inexperienced boys; but the most interesting attraction they found was a parade, the classic type you could find in the streets every mystical night of the year, with performers moving from one side to the other of the street. The boys ended up becoming part of it before even realising it. It could have been the best night of their lives, but none of the four boys knew that night would become their turning point.

- But it didn't take much for people to notice that they weren't children in costumes.

- the moment people understood, the boys were assaulted and it took all their willpower and strenght to get out of that situation, crawling back to the lair in tears and with bruises everywhere.

- the worse of them was Raphael, who someone had hit with a broken bottle, leaving a wound on the side of his face. He now has a scar, reminding him of that night.

- Of course, Splinter was furious for his sons' insubordination.

- he gave all four of them a different punishment, something he called the HASHI.

- But the thing is that Splinter learnt quite fast that he and his sons will never be accepted in the world, so he needed to find a way to ensure that, to some degree, his sons would be able to defend themselves. Did he find a book on martial arts in the sewers while sweeping the floor? Absolutely not.

- See, I like to think he came in contact with the Foot Clan by accident, in particular with Shredder.

- Let's say that the man was surveyign some of his men's activity down the docks and walked into splinter gathering food for his sons and himself.

- The man was flabbergasted.

- Now, Shredder isn's stupid. He knew about the experiements Sacks was making in the lab and, seeing a giant rat running around the docks, it doesn't take much for him to put 2 and 2 together.

- So he decides to take that opportunity.

- He approaches Splinter and the two -although with some reluctance on Splinter's side for obvious reasons- start talking.

- Splinter sees right then and there the chance to make himself and his sons not only able to fend themselves, but also a way not to live forever in the sewers.

- It takes a while for him to take a decision but he eventually sides with Shredder, joining the Foot Clan and learning from the man how to deal with a business.

- In a certain way, it was Shredder that introduced Splinter to the world of business.

- He also made sure Splinter and the turtles learnt martial arts

- Shredder is a patient man, after all, he will take what he wants, but he'll make sure that it will be done on his own terms, according to his needs.

- Splinter quickly rises in the organisation, becoming Shredder's collaborator. The old rat would go as far as to say he was friends with the man, much like the 2012 series,

- But I wouldn't be here to tell you this story if it had all ended well, right?

- Splinter finds out about Shredder true plans thanks to Donatello, who had learnt to hack into any computer and database. At first the boy had not understood, after all he had been little more than a hatchling back when he, his borthers and his father had been experimented on.

- but once he shows the rusults of his research to Splinter, boy, the rat is FURIOUS.

- cue fall out with Shredder (that is way too long to write about, but I will in the future. Maybe)

- After that Splinter splits from Shredder.

- His methods, quite different from the leader of the Foot Clan, made many men inside the organisation change their minds and side with him instead than with Shredder.

- So he quickly created his own business, always antagonising Shredder and the Foot.

- Splinter's whole persona changed after that betrayal, he doesn't trust anyone else after that.

- Apart from his sons and April, who he had met once more and with whom he has rebuilt a strong friendship, sometimes even referring to her as the daughter he never had.

- He led the organisation until a certain point before being assassinated by the Foot Clan.

- In his will, he had appointed Leonardo as his heir and successor, which wasn't very unexpected, but in truth the business has been somehow divided between the four brothers, in order to avoid any kind of bad blood between the four brothers.

Leonardo

You’ll never be half the man Splinter was.

- Leo was 15 when Splinter and Shredder had their fall out, at present he's 25 and main Head to the business since the moment Splinter died.

- He was actually the one who _found_ him dead in his office, and he still has nightmares about it.

- He has severe confidence problems because he thinks he'll never live up to the expectations that have been forced upon him, and if someone brings up his father in front of him, he WILL take it as a personal attack.

- His brothers secretly all think he has had it easier because he has always been Splinter's favourite,

- spoiler alert: he hasn’t.

- He had to set the example, being the one the others would look up to, he needed to be a second parent for his siblings, which sometimes led him to act like a dick to each one of them.

- Also, I don't think people point this out enough, but the man has an OCD so terrible he might go insane any moment if something isn't exactly as he wants it to be or if something goes in an unexpected way.

- In his mind, tho, outside he’s perfectly calm and collected.

- He's also the one who will opt for violence as a last resort, because killing isn't really his cup of tea, actually: it's too messy and he doesn’t like the dirty feeling he gets. Like, if a drop of blood falls on his jacket he'll be pissed. He much prefers leaving the reins to Raphael when it comes to it.

- What he DOES do is giving the order. There is nothing in the organisation that happens without his say so.

- Did I mention that he's a control freak?

- Literally nobody moves until he gives his command on an operation, whatever that is.

- He's also kind of spoiled, and he's not used to being told 'no.' He gets what he wants. End of story. And that applies to relationships too.

- Now, listen. He's lowkey the second-top-tear-gangsta-boyfriends, but he will always pick his family over anything or anyone. That is not up for discussions. You okay with it? great. You're not? the door's that way.

- That doesn't mean he doesn’t love, tho.

- I can see him having very few relationships in the past, all of them very serious ones, but he tries his best never to get his s/o into the business, because he knows things will get risky.

- After Splinter's death, he has cut off all ties.

- He can't, for the love of him, fall in love after that. Casual fuck? sure, why not. But love is off the table, because he knows that if he finds himself in the same situation he had been when he had found Splinter's corpse... Let's say that his mental state will only get worse.

Raphael

My kind of rebirth tasted like blood.

- Raphael just turned 25 rn, and while he and Leo can and will most likely bang their heads together in multiple occasions, he doesn’t mind that his brother is the actual lead of the business.

- ⁠He just cares to be respected and to be recognized as important in the business.

- ⁠He’s responsible for the dealing of weapons and in charge of taking care of the subjects that Leo thinks is right to eliminate for the wellbeing of the business

- ⁠Raphael used to have a very conflicted relationship with splinter, being the rebellious child that he is; but when his father died, Raphael developed severe depression and has been on meds for a few years.

- ⁠If you name his father, he’ll probably need to start therapy all over again, so please don’t do it.

- ⁠Anger issues stayed tho, and if anything, they worsened instead of getting better.

- ⁠He argues a lot with Leo when it comes to take action because diplomacy can’t be the solution to everything, sometimes you have to show that you’re stronger than others.

- ⁠But sometimes he takes things a bit too personally

- ⁠like that time when someone cheated on his brother and he wanted to hang them out the headquarters and kill the bastard who they cheated with in the worse way possible.

- ⁠he was told off, but he still managed to get the two involved in a severe accident and send them both to the hospital.

- ⁠did I mention that he’s fiercely loyal?

- ⁠Among his brothers, this man probably would rather die than betray his family.

- ⁠Does that include his s/o? it depends.

- ⁠If it comes down to choosing between his s/o or his family, meh…

- ⁠Blood runs thicker than water.

- ⁠He’s a passionate lover, always present when he needs to be, but it’s most likely that he will have jealous outbursts more times than he’s had breakfast.

- ⁠Fact is, he loves. A lot. He’s like a match burning. So either you understand that, and you burn forever, or he’s going to burn too quickly and the relationship dies.

- ⁠Now, everyone says that he’s in a toxic relationship

- ⁠I think so too, but not in the same way.

- ⁠I can see him being with this girl for something like a month or two and then problems starting.

- ⁠The thing is that this relationship at this point is hanging by a thread

- ⁠a very strong one, actually.

- ⁠They have a daughter.

- ⁠Raphael is the only one between his brothers to have a child (a legitimate one, at least), and he will kill for his daughter.

- ⁠Also, the child was born before Splinter died, and against all odds, he was happy to become grandfather.

- ⁠I think that’s important to mention that it’s extremely hard to have children with a mutant, so ofc everyone was happy

- ⁠but now he needs to figure out his relationship with the mother of his child

Donatello

Suffering feels religious if you do it right.

- Donnie has just turned 25 but his back feels like he’s 65

- ⁠Is actually the one who’s most mad about the succession after Splinter’s death and still feels kind of bitter over it

- ⁠responsible for the IS and trafficking of all sorts of information across the organisation and outside of it.

- ⁠Expert in hacking but also cyber security so he knows how to attack and defend on computing level

- ⁠has contacts all across the globe and can’t be bothered by anyone

- ⁠he suffer from severe anxiety but tries his best to keep it under control, no matter the amount of meds or weed that he consumes

- ⁠But still he will drink more coffee than water

- ⁠He also suffers from severe insomnia (same mate) and honestly? he can’t be bothered about it. (his brothers are trying to make him start an healthy sleeping schedule, tho)

- ⁠He had the most fucked up relationship with splinter and he grew up either being ignored or being mistreated, and that only made him lose more of his sanity than his life already had

- ⁠apart from Leo, with whom he has quite a conflicted relationship at times, he’s in good terms with Mikey and Raph, especially the latter since they are the “middle twins”

- ⁠Donnie is also in charge of the interrogations and torture (if it ever comes to it), but he’s very efficient at both

- ⁠As I said, everyone in the family has a twisted mind but he’s kind of the worse

- ⁠because he’s grown to be very reclusive of his feelings and so he has to let them out in some kind of way, right?

- ⁠Most of all, tho, he worries about the strategical and logical overview of the business and, even though he’s not in the best terms with Leo, he still is his right hand in making decisions that are pivotal to the organisation.

- ⁠Remember when I said that Leo is a control freak? this man too

- ⁠He also has a tendency to be pessimistic and paranoid so he has cams everywhere that he uses to make sure everything is good and all right.

- ⁠Will also do the same in relationships

- ⁠he has very low self esteem so he’ll never believe to be good enough for someone and that his s/o will cheat on him first chance they get

- ⁠so he takes precautions

- ⁠I can also see him being very hard to open up. He’s not shy, he’s just very hard to make him trust someone. He’ll think they want to try to get to him out of something they want and not because they’re really interested in him

- ⁠but when you do manage to get inside his ‘inner circle’ (it might take some time) he’s never going to let you go, be aware of that

- ⁠Still, the same drill applies to him too: will he ever choose his s/o over his family? unlikely.

- ⁠He’s not in a relationship at the moment but he doesn’t mind, he’s way too busy with work and with making sure his brothers stay out of trouble

- 100% has a scheming face (quoting Kaz Brekker)

Michelangelo

This darkness is my light.

- the baby of the family, how adorable

- ⁠He’s 24 and might as well be the one people underestimate the most

- ⁠He’s in charge of the communication department, and this man is good at what he does. Moves around the internal and external communication like a pro and he’s the top person you want to talk to when you have a problem

- ⁠except when he’s not in the right mood.

- ⁠This man can change his behavior in a matter of moments. Might be kind and smiling one moment and the next he’s going to hit someone with a hammer

- ⁠You have to pray he’s in a good mood if you ever want to ask him something

- ⁠The only one who can actually restrain his behavior is Leo. Mikey won’t listen to anyone but him and if you talk shit about his older brother he’s gonna throw fists.

- ⁠Don’t ever say anything bad about his family. He will hunt you down and make you regret your life choices.

- ⁠He’s the most loyal of his brothers. He will choose his family over and over again and there’s no way someone can make change his mind, no sir.

- ⁠He’s devoted to his family and yes, maybe he could make a few mistakes because he’s chatty most of the time, but he’ll make sure to fix everything to protect his brothers

- ⁠also he’s very protective

- ⁠He has ADHD and a dissociative personality disorder.

- ⁠He’s currently going to therapy but it’s not really helping, at least, that’s what he says

- he also likes gambling, he think he’s some kind of god of gamble. Legit.

-Has 100% played russian roulette or the knife game at least once

- ⁠He had a strange relationship with Splinter.

- ⁠His father loved him, and being the little one of the family clearly made him more in need of reassurance and affection, especially from his father

- ⁠But he also was overlooked quite a lot, at least by Splinter

- ⁠hence Leo becoming a sort of second father figure to him

- ⁠So while Leo is daddy’s boy, Mikey is his brothers’ boy

- ⁠Hence him being very protective of his older brothers

- ⁠Mikey has a lot of friends, like, A LOT.

- ⁠he knows how to read people and he knows how to manipulate them in the best way

- ⁠Be ready because this man takes pride in how well he can terrify someone or make them love him

- ⁠as about relationships,

- he suffers from erotomania (a form of delusional disorder in which an individual believes that another person is in love with them), so he’s being deluded one too many times but he’s had a bit of practice.

- ⁠He falls in love easily and hard, so he happens to often find his heartbroken because he can’t tell when someone is after him or after his money

- ⁠hence his brothers trying to teach him how to understand when someone is genuine or not

- ⁠he’s still learning

#tmnt bayverse #tmnt 2014 #tmnt 2016 #mob!au #mob!mikey #mob!leo #mob!donnie #not romanticising mobs #au #mob!raph #tmnt #tmnt headcanons

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locklyle1kanij · 5 months

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I wrote this whole review for good reads but i also wanted to post it here. I’m hoping that someone who either hasn’t heard of the books of hasn’t been convinced to read the books yet will find this!

I wanted to come here and write a review on all the books because i hope at least one of my reviews will convince someone to read these books.

Okay so i’m a pretty big reader and my favourite series before i read Lockwood And Co was Six Of Crows, which is still one of my favs but like i would just say if you read and enjoyed SOC i can almost promise you that you’ll like Lockwood and Co it’s got a lot of similarities like the found family which by the way this book series does amazingly, found family is my favourite trope, tell me a book has found family in it and i’m most likely gonna read it. But the found family in Lockwood And Co is definitely hands down my favourite found family! Like the characters dynamic with each other is just so perfect, and i’m obsessed with, as the series goes on the found family only grows larger!!

Also another thing i’m obsessed with in this book series is the plot. I don’t like ghost stuff, it’s not my preferred genre, but with Lockwood and Co i absolutely love the spookiness of it all. The cases that the characters take with the ghosts are always so interesting and the way Jonathan Stroud (the author) made different types of ghosts that all have different weaknesses and strengths!! I will never not be obsessed with just the world of Lockwood and Co in general especially since it’s British, I love books taking place in Britain! Also i just wanted to say the books only get better the farther you read into the series, like for me my favourite book of the series in the fourth one. So if you liked the first one but your not sure if you really want to continue this series i would say at least read till the third one then choose if you wanna keep reading.

Okay if your one of those people who feel like they can’t read a book without at least a bit of romance, me too honestly. If someone ever try’s to tell you Lockwood And Co doesn’t have romance in it, send them to me because i’m more then willing to educate them okay. I love books with a good romance sub plot and this book is in no way a disappointment in that. If you like slow burn like i do (Like Kaz and Inej or another fan fav, Percy and Annabeth) i can tell you, your definitely gonna fall in love with Lucy Carlyle and Anthony Lockwood! They’re slow burn is DEFINITELY a slow burn but it’s pretty obvious that even from the beginning that they’re not just friends or even colleges. Even the author confirmed in multiple times and even if he hadn’t i was already confident that they were a relationship that’s gonna last a lifetime. You know when you read books with a cute little romance in them but once your done the book your like, Ya no that’s not gonna be a long term relationship right there. Well this book series is not like that. Lockwood and Lucy are there for each other, always there to protect each other with their life if necessary but not only that, but something i will never get over from these’s books is how even though they’ve been through all they have in life it’s not about dying for each other, but it’s about how they fight to LIVE for each other and you see more of that character growth together through your the series as they grow up into the people that they are at the end of the series, and i just think that’s super beautiful.

Even though this book series was, at least at first marketed to the youth, i think any age can enjoy it. I was worried at first before i read the books (I watched the show first) that i wouldn’t be able to enjoy the books as much as if i was reading them when they first came out but honestly now after reading and rereading all the books i think i can honestly say that i might have enjoyed the books more. Some of the points of the books very lightly skim over some more serious topics that i don’t think i would have noticed if i was younger while reading these books. I’m not going to give any specific examples because i want this to be a spoiler free review but just know that i have actually examples i’m thinking of right now while i’m writing this. So i’m not just making it up on how it, even thought it’s not marketed to an younger audience, does touch on some deeper topics.

If you read this all, first of all wow that’s a lot of writing to read lol. I’m sorry, i’m a pretty big fan girl over this series. But everything i wrote here i believe whole heartily. I would go on for longer honestly, but i’m afraid if i write much more i’ll start spoiling the books so I’m just gone leave it here. Please Please just try out these books. You’ll be doing yourself a huge favour. Also right now a comic book is in the works for this series so you should read the books before that comes out! Byeee thank you for reading my rant!

#book recs #found family trope #slow burn romance #character development #book series recs #amazing main characters #book review #save lockwood and co #british books #READ IT #spoiler free review

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fluffyprettykitty · 2 years

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kate bishop + concert

Pairing: Kate Bishop x g/n reader

Word Count: 300 words

Summary: Surprising Kate with tickets to her favorite band.

Warnings: swearing.

Author’s Note: third ask from the sleepover, you can send any ask till oct 21, hope you will enjoy xxx

Main Masterlist ・❥・Kate Bishop Masterlist

Kate loved concerts. She loved the crows, the hustle and the bustle, feeling the music vibrate through her body and spending her night jumping up and down, screaming the lyrics to her favorite sons. She always seemed to know all the songs, recognize covers immediately, and loudly yelled what the next song is from the first riff.

So obviously for your six-month anniversary together, right in the middle of summer, and no more college exams in sight, what else would be the most perfect gift for her than getting her tickets to a concert?

So here you were on this random Monday morning in her dorm opening the envelope that contained the items.

"Is that?" Kate's eyes widened to look at the two tickets between your hands.

"Yes, it is." You nod your head.

"For tonight?" The way her voice shrieks, you'd think she'd be hurt.

"Yes, tonight. Gates open at four pm so we should be leaving soon."

"ARE YOU SERIOUS???" Kate jumps ahead and grabs the tickets from her hands her mouth hanging open.

Kate holds the tickets in her hands with a puppy look on her face mixed with admiration and some small silver tears.

"Yup. We are going."

She hugs you with another joyful shriek and soon enough you begin trying on outfits, doing your hair, packing snacks, and finally leaving a little later than you wanted to.

The drive feels surreal and the waiting at the concert feels very vivid, like multicolor coming to life. When the band starts, Kate is over joyous and her sheer enthusiasm and pure energy make you full of love for this woman.

When the concert ends she jumps into your arms to kiss you with an abundance of love. She had truly found her half in you.

for updates follow @fluffyprettykittylibrary

#selenewrites #selene answers prompts #1.8 wlw sleepover #kate bishop #kate x reader #kate bishop x reader #kate bishop x you #kate bishop blurb #kate bishop hawkeye #kate bishop x y/n #kate bishop x gender neutral reader #kate bishop imagine #kate bishop fluff

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sissytobitch10seconds · 4 months

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Birdsong: Curses

Fandom: Grishaverse: Six of Crows and Shadow and Bone Summary: Alone, it can feel like an overwhelming burden to carry as much trauma as they do. Together, everything is a lot easier. Warnings: Mentions of sexual grooming, child abuse, and homophobia Word Count: 10,095 Ship(s): Nina Zenik/Inej Ghafa/Kaz Brekker/Matthias Helvar/Jesper Fahey/Wylan Van Eck

Archive link!

Inej liked nights, she did not like mornings.

It as an odd dichotomy in her life since she was often forced to rise with the sun so that she could get her workouts done in time and forced to retire early so that she could sleep enough to replenish her body. If she had her own way then she would have slept until about midday and stayed up well past midnight.

Unfortunately, her schedule was not and never would be her own. Even when she was a teenager she had been forced to sleep when she could while waking up every couple of hours to keep herself safe. She had stayed up late consistently while in college, but a single class missed might have resulted in her losing the tentative scholarship that she had won by a hair’s breadth. Now she worked with a company that required her to be up late on certain nights when they were performing evening shows and up early the next day for group practice.

She enjoyed her work well enough even if she hoped that she could eventually move on to something else. It was the easiest way for her to get her name out there in the hopes that she’d be able to find her brother. Losing him had been the second hardest thing in her life, met only by the loss of both of her parents at the same time. The hope of maybe being able to reunite with him was the only reason that she felt comfortable doing shows in all parts of the world, having to leave her partners for months at a time.

Her job also required her to rise very early that morning, which is why she was reminding herself that it was going to be beneficial to her one day.

She had hidden herself away in her own room the night before since her boys had been up late talking with each other. She preferred the smaller space to the big room with their custom made bed that could fit maybe seven people if they all squished close together. It was more than roomy for the five of them and felt like it was swallowing her whole when she had to sleep in it by herself.

Her room in the Van Eck (now Hendrick’s) estate was styled just the way that she liked it. She had painted the walls a shade of dark blue that was leaning towards navy but not dark enough to make the space feel smaller. Her furniture (a loft bed with a desk, a chest of drawers, and two bookshelves) was painted white wood that helped them pop against the dark of the wood. She had also been allowed to paint the back of the door to her closet and into the hallway and had chosen to do so in the traditional styles that her parents had around her house when she was growing up. Her shelves were full of the books and knick knacks that she had picked up on her travels, though the scroll she had gotten in Japan was hung up in between them. The underside of her loft bed was decorated with soft fairy lights and the work that she had been doing for the few school classes that she was taking as she worked towards her dream job. Kaz had gotten her an indoor flowering plant that rested on top of her chest of drawers, brightening up the room even more. Her bed was a nest with four full-sized pillows, a duvet, and a quilt covering it. She also had a massive teddy bear that Matthias had bought her at the beginning of their relationship when Jesper insisted that they go to IKEA (despite Matthias being from Denmark, not Sweden).

Her partners had been adamant that she add bits of her culture into the rest of their home as a way to stay connected to the family that she had lost, but her room really was her haven. It had a functioning, locking door, which was something that she had never had when she was living with other people. She trusted her partners so deeply and passionately that she never really locked it even if she closed it on her bad days.

Inej pulled herself out of her bed and awkwardly tucked everything back to where it should have been. The pillows had shifted and pushed through the bars of the bed, so they were stuffed back up properly at the head. She then tucked the quilt down around the loft mattress and folded the duvet so that it was prettily at the end. The bear was leaning against the wall and the pillows, waiting to cuddle her whenever Matthias wasn’t there. Every couple of weeks she forced him to sleep wrapped around it so that it smelled like him again.

She dropped down to the ground, not even bothering with the ladder. She had the ability to jump down from very high places without the use of anything to support her because of her job as an acrobat, so going down the ladder would only serve to slow her down.

She tugged her sleep shirt over her head and then deposited it into the clothes hamper so that she could do laundry when she got back. It was actually one of Kaz’s old undershirts that she had taken because it smelled like him and he had been at the Crow Club when she got home the night before. They had all been so busy recently that it felt like no one was ever in the same house with the ability to hang out at the same time. Of course, she had gotten soft moments with Wylan when they were making dinner and she and Jesper had spent Sunday night together, but it wasn’t the same as when they were all together.

She also desperately missed Nina. The other girl hadn’t been by the house in some time. Her band practice had picked up a lot as they prepared to record their full comeback album and prepared for the album tour that their new manager was sending them on. It just so happened that said practice and tour happened in all of the open moments that Inej had in her own schedule.

Inej tried to shake the sadness from her bones as she grabbed her workout bra from the drawer and then shoved it over her abdomen. She changed her panties and put on a pair of bike shorts for her run that day. She nudged the door open with her leg as she began to weave the top of her hair into a manageable braid. The ponytail had worked before she had gotten on a proper diet and her hair had nearly doubled in thickness. Now it had to be contained properly if she wanted to be able to do what her job required of her with a minimal amount of frustration involved.

She finished the last twist so that her hair was in a half braid and loose at the end, rolling the hair tie off of her wrist to make sure that it stayed where it was supposed to. She was going to come back up and grab her shoes, which were docked near the front door, after she finished getting her pre-workout protein shake.

The closer that she got to the kitchen, the more she could smell the rich, dark coffee that Matthias was so fond of. Despite it being almost six in the morning, far too early for even the other natural early riser to be awake, Matthias was standing in their massive kitchen.

“Hello,” she greeted with a soft smile as she walked past him and hopped up onto the counter. She had been on a mission, to get her water and protein shake so that she could go on her morning run, but the presence of her boyfriend pleasantly overruled that.

He made a noise at her that was somewhere between the Danish ‘hej’ and the English ‘hello’ while he focused on the pot of boiling water. Matthias had an intricate system for how he made coffee that was far more complicated than even Wylan’s dripping french press and Kaz’s expensive brand names. She didn’t know how he managed to do it every morning but it was always the best out of all the coffee that her partners offered her.

She chuckled as she realized that he wasn’t as awake as he was pretending to be. He was standing close enough to her that he was able to reach over and drag him over to her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and then guided his head towards her so that his ear was resting above her heart. She let out a pleasant little hum as she wove her fingers through the fluffier part of his hair.

“You’re so beautiful,” he mumbled sleepily. She could tell that he was stifling down a yawn.

“You’re very handsome too, dragul meu,” she purred as she kissed his temple. It was the only part of his head that she could reach from how she had positioned their bodies. “Why are you up this early?” she asked, tentative and a little bit nervous. Inej was sure that he could hear her heartbeat pick up a little bit. She knew that her partners would never snap and shout at her for asking questions unless they were actively in the throws of a panic attack, but years of exploitative managers and shitty foster parents had already done their work in scarring her.

“I wanted to go running with you,” he mumbled sleepily. He shifted so that his forehead and nose were rubbing against her collarbone and the upper part of her running bra. He rubbed his face back and forth there as he draped his arms around her hips. She giggled and squirmed away from him as she felt the scratchy morning shadow on his chin and neck rubbing up against his skin.

“Do you really?” she asked. Matthias was the only other one of her partners that actually enjoyed working out and the only reason that she did it was so that she could work easier. Despite the fact that he actually did enjoy exercise and it also helped him with his work, he never ran. He did cardio exercises other than running, because he hated how sweaty he got in front of so many other people when she dragged him around the neighborhood. She had only done it once or twice when it was clear that he really didn’t like it and wasn’t just complaining in the same teasing way that Jesper did.

He nodded, untucking his face from her body. He let another sleepy hum as he pressed his forehead instead into her neck. “I haven’t been able to spend very much time with you and I wanted to make sure that we could have some time this month,” he finally supplied.

Her heart melted in her chest when she heard that. She was about to go do some shows in another city, which would result in her being away from her partners for some time. Matthias was about to enter into his busiest time of year when he was constantly out building sets and getting Jesper to and from rehearsals.

She tilted his face up so that she was cupping both of his cheeks. “You are quite possibly the most romantic, most handsome, sleepiest catelus in this entire house,” she informed him. She leaned down and brushed their lips together in a soft kiss before she pulled away so he had time to reject it if he wasn’t up for kissing.

He responded by surging forward and capturing her in another adoring kiss, his hands tightening around her to press their bodies even closer together. Somehow, it wasn’t sexual. Matthias never made sexual advances towards her until she had given him explicit verbal permission to do so, which was part of the reason that she had fallen so deeply and aggressively in love with him in the first place.

Matthias eventually separated from her and then got his mug out of the cupboard so that he could pour himself a cup of coffee. He doused it with cream and sugar, and then it was gone.

She could only assume that the ridiculous amount of creamer that he had added that time was to make it cool enough to drink. The rest of the coffee could sit for the time being, especially with how Matthias made it. He turned the burner off and then gave her another soft kiss. “I’m going to go and get ready. I will meet you for our run?”

Her heart melting again in her chest, she nodded. As soon as he had stepped out of the kitchen, Inej dislodged herself from the counter where she had been sitting. She got the water bottle that she always used when she was running and the protein shakes she drank in the morning from the fridge. She placed her hand over the cap out of habit, despite it not yet being open, and shook it to make the chalkiness of it a little more palatable.

She was wandering into the living room while drinking out of it when Matthias returned. Trassel had been removed from his crate and was very excited to be going out with two of his people instead of just released into the backyard. Matthias had changed into a baggy black tanktop with a pair of old basketball shorts from when he was in college.

“Do you think that it would be alright if I brought the speaker with us for music?” he asked, motioning with the aforementioned device in his hands.

Inej usually worked out in relative silence when she was going on her morning runs. She got tired of music fairly quickly, especially compared to her partners, so she liked to reserve it for when she was doing her personal workouts during her training. That way she could block out the annoying people that she worked with and focus instead entirely on her own body. She knew that Matthias was very fond of music and listened to it no matter what he was doing if he didn’t have the company of one of their partners.

“That would be fine,” she nodded in agreement. She finished her shake and then tossed it into the garbage that they had next to the couch in the living room. She got Trassel’s leash down from the door and attached it to his collar before she wrapped it securely around her hand. He was a very good dog and it was extremely unlikely that he was going to try and bolt away from them, but she knew that there were a couple of aggressive neighborhood dogs on their walk. The last thing that she wanted when she was already struggling so hard mentally was for her to lose the dog that she and her partners adored.

Matthias finished getting ready, which included grabbing a waterbottle of his own and attaching the speaker to his body. He connected it with Bluetooth and then looked at her with the sweetest, stupidest smile that she had ever seen. He was so bashful and shy when it came to any gestures he made towards one of them, even when they were deeply immersed with each other and the mood in the bedroom. “What playlist do you want?”

“Give me your phone,” she replied instead, holding the hand without the leash straight out in front of her.

He did as he was told and forked over the device. He had already opened his Spotify, so she flicked through until she found the playlist that they had made together. The last time that she had listened to it was when she was about to go on her trip to Germany and missed all of her partners despite them still being around her.

Matthias grinned as R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion began to play through the speaker attached to his hip. It was the song that they both felt described them, that united them together in their religious trauma. He had been forced to leave his faith after he realized that everyone practicing it wanted him and his partners to die in eternal flames. Inej had to do her own introspection about how she practiced her spirituality and if her gods would really want her to live as she was when it was causing her so much pain.

“Would you give me another kiss?” she asked hopefully as she stepped closer to him.

“Of course. You only ever have to ask and I will give you whatever you want,” he replied. He placed one of his large, calloused hands on the side of her face and then leaned down so that their lips connected together again. She felt so satisfyingly full of love when he treated her with such care and grace.

Inej loved Jesper and Kaz just as much as she did Matthias, but her relationship with them had been different than hers with him. Kaz had been unable to touch her longer than holding hands or leaning against each other during the beginning of their romance, when the therapy was fresh and new. Jesper was a wild spirit and treated her like she had gotten caught up in his gale, which was exhilarating. She adored being kissed within an inch of her life because he had an idea that he was excited about, or dancing around the kitchen because he had a song in his head and she was cooking dinner. But she cherished the care and patience that Matthias treated her to.

She was beginning to get the same thing from Nina as they both got more bold in their relationship with each other. They had only fully integrated the other woman into their polycule two months ago, but it felt like she had been there from the beginning. She and Inej had spent several nights talking to each other and giggling under Inej’s duvet before they began to work each other apart with careful kisses and touches. Nina’s hands were deliberate and her motions were confident, but she was still gentle. She and Matthias could work together to pull Inej apart at the seams and then put her back together like it was nothing.

They parted ways when Trassel barked at them, obviously upset that he had been promised a run and was not getting it. Matthias laughed as he pet his dog on the top of the head to soothe him, though it did little to make his excitement wain until they were actually on their route.

---

Inej led Matthias through the winding streets of the upper class neighborhood where they now lived. Wylan inheriting the house that he had grown up in left a lot of strange feelings within the polycule. It had felt like a sign for them all to move in together since the estate had more than enough room for them, but it was also contested if Wylan even wanted to keep the house. It was clear that him being left in that part of the will was an accident after everything that had happened with his learning disability and his coming out. Eventually they had decided that it would be a bigger ‘fuck you’ to Jan Van Eck’s memory for Wylan to use a the money that he had been spending on rent to instead change his last name to Hendricks and to move into the house that the homophobe had once owned. In Jesper’s own words: “What’s worse for someone that hates gay people and is vehemently against polyamory then for a bunch of queers dating each other to ruin his house?”

She was glad that they had moved in together because it gave her a home base, something she had never really had, and the time to spend with her partners when she could. If she and Matthias had wanted to run together before they had all moved, then she would have had to have a sleepover with him the night before.

They could be spontaneous in their courtship and dates now, nothing had to be as elaborately planned out as it was before. They all had their own space but they shared a lot of it together, which was a kind of intimacy that Inej had never gotten to have with previous partners and was thriving in now.

The neighbors weren’t too fond of them and they certainly got a lot of harsh stares when they were being flirty with each other outside of the gates of their home. It had been both thrilling and terrifying when they got a call from the head of the Home Owners Association the first time, especially when Wylan got a hold of the phone and began to read him sections from the website that he had memorized. The people that they lived around had tried to get them to change their garden after Inej had planted her favorite types of flowers instead of the wilting daffodils in the front beds and when they had mini pride flags hanging up like bunting on the front gates of the fence during pride month.

Nothing that the HOA or neighbors could do legally would drive them from their home, not when they were already so settled in. It was going to be hard for them to find something that illegal that they could do to drive them out after the plethora of trauma that they had already survived. As long as they had working locks, a steady income for food and the mortgage, and each other, there was nothing that could be done to them that they couldn’t handle.

While she didn’t necessarily condone the types of things that Kaz and Jesper did to piss their neighbors off more, she had to admit that she liked messing with them as well. It would have been harder for her to justify why it was okay to do so if her mere existence didn’t seem to make them gasp and faint. The biggest way that she did it was just to go running when she knew that some of the other suburban moms were doing so as well.

Bringing Matthias and Trassel with her was a rush. She had taken Trassel with her on the days that she thought she could take the breaks he would need to use the bathroom. Having a dog that looked so incredibly similar to a wolf was something that excited children and horrified and confused adults. Apparently Matthias had to speak to several animal control officers, to the point where they knew Trassel description to a fine point, when he brought the dog to parks because people were so convinced that he had an actual wolf for a pet.

Tattoos and scars seemed to be the biggest thing that set the suburban middle class off about her physical appearance. Her darkened skin tone was something that was probably an underlying issue for them, and the same could also be said for Jesper, unfortunately, but it wasn’t what she heard them whispering about.

Inej had a tattoo on her forearm that was very reminiscent of a peacock feather that she had gotten done when she was working under her first manager. She had been meaning to get it removed or covered up for some time since it had been done while she was essentially being hazed, but she just hadn’t found something to replace it. She had another, a crow with its wings spread, on her back so that the beak was pointing up towards the back of her neck. She had two scars on her forearms, on both sides, that had healed messily and left a big scar. They were a point of pride for her, signifying her survival. They scared away the HOA women who had only ever seen the acne scars they made their teenage daughters cover up with makeup.

Inej hated the women with a burning passion, knowing that they would scoff and shun her even more if they knew what she did for a living or anything from her past. They were the type to dismiss her trauma and say that she was lying for attention. If she had any kind of power, she would reach out to their children and give them the out that she had wished desperately to have. She didn’t, though, so she just made sure that they clutched their pearls extra tight when she ran past their house.

Matthias being with her today only made it worse. He had a tattoo of two crows in a diamond on his upper bicep, one that was still flaking because of just how new it was. He had another of a wolf on his forearm. The snapdragon that he had just gotten for her was peaking out on his shoulder whenever he moved a certain way while running. He looked, on the outside, like a nice Christian boys, since that was how he had been raised, so seeing the HOA women connect him to her and his tattoos would have her puffing up her chest in pride for days.

They had arrived back at the house a few minutes ago after a half hour long run. She had to slow her pace a little bit so Matthias could keep up, especially since they had to pause and clean up after the dog. “I do not know how you do that every day,” Matthias shook his head as he opened the front door for her.

“I like getting to have a little bit of time alone,” she explained with a half-shrug. She removed Trassel’s leash from his neck and let him sprint into the house to find the next victim that he was going to maul with all his puppy love. “You’re going to shower, right?”

“Yes. Do you want to join me?” he asked hopefully, not moving to touch her in case the advance was unwanted.

She smiled softly at that. “I don’t think I’m up for that today, I have a whole routine that I’m going over with my company for the upcoming shows,” she sighed. She didn’t need more cardio or physical activity than her manager had given her. If she was about to go do a series of very intense shows, the last thing that she wanted was fatigue plaguing her the entire time.

“Just a rinse, then?” Matthias asked, dropping the sexual advances to instead focus on just being close to her.

“Alright,” she eventually conceded. She left her waterbottle beside his on the table as they wandered upstairs. Inej left him long enough to go to her room and find her work clothes. She chose a pair of comfortable yoga pants and a loose fitting tanktop. She got another sports level bra and a new pair of underthings as well, even if it would all be shed as soon as she had to get into costume for the dress rehearsal.

The master bedroom had gone unused the day before as everyone had slept in their own bedrooms or bunked up with a single other partner, so they were able to pass through the space without waking anyone up. They left their clothing on the edge of the counter. Matthias turned on the water while Inej finished undoing the braid so that she could instead swirl it around her hand and attach it to the back of her head using an alligator clip.

“Is it going to be warm or cold?” she asked as she stuck her hand underneath the tap to test the water. They had installed heaters within the walls so they didn’t have to wait for the boiler to get the water hot before it could come through the faucet.

Matthias laughed, “I did that once!”

“And we’re never going to let you live it down,” she replied snarkily as she stepped inside. The water was at the perfect temperature that she preferred, which was another small gesture he had done for her that morning that made her heart sing. It was hard to be in a relationship with so many people and remember all of the things that made them happy, so it was astounding that he had so many of them locked and ready to go.

He stepped into the shower after her and got under the spray from the other head. They both rinsed the sweat that was sticking to their bodies off and were out within five minutes. He handed her a towel, keeping his eyes above her collarbones so that he didn’t make her feel uncomfortable.

She was always aware of where people were looking at her and how, which was something that she was never going to unlearn. She wrapped the towel around her body as she moved over to the makeup island installed near the sinks. Kaz ventured into it every now and again when he was doing a special thing for their date nights, but she and Jesper were the only ones to use it regularly.

Matthias dutifully cleaned himself off and then left his towel on the hook where it belonged. Inej watched through the mirror as he put on a pair of boxers and then black overalls with a paint-covered white t-shirt underneath. “Are you working today?” she asked, focusing on drying herself off now that she had finished ogling the way that his muscles rippled when he moved a certain way.

“I am. Jesper and I are supposed to stop by the theater until at least lunch,” he nodded. He looked both adorable and dashingly handsome when he wore his working outfit. It made her want to call in sick so that she could sit in the rafters and watch him work, something that she had done before when her company was doing a promotional work with Jesper’s theater.

“I wish we could see more of each other,” she pouted. She had already slipped into her clothes and redone her hair so that it was back in the prim and proper bun she had to use for work.

“I do as well,” Matthias sighed. He looped his arm around her hips to bring her closer to him and then gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead to accentuate his point.

She melted into the touch for a moment before she had to peel away from him. She gathered up the things in the bathroom hamper and sent them down the laundry shoot before she went to her room and gathered the clothing that she had slept in. Matthias promised her a coffee as she walked down the hall and he went for the stairs.

The laundry room was connected to the mudroom, which was useful when she and Wylan had been outside gardening and didn’t want to carry their muddy clothes through the house. They had been working on getting a washer-dryer inside of the master bathroom but it was pricey and involve letting other people in their home, something they didn’t want to do yet. She set the little spinner next to it to her name as she started a load of her own clothing, separating Matthias’ so that it was tidily dumped into a basket.

When she ventured out into the kitchen, Wylan was standing in front of the stove with his headphones on. He was wielding his spatula like a sword as he poked at the eggs while they popped and fizzled within the oil he had used to lubricate the pan.

Inej laughed, folding her arms over her chest so that she could watch him properly. He was the second most competent resident when it came to cooking after her, though Nina excelled far more than they both did. Matthias and Kaz could both cook enough to keep themselves alive and Jesper was an excellent baker, but whenever he tried to make something for dinner it always came out lumpy and burnt.

Eventually she had her fill of watching and walked over to Wylan, wrapping her arms around his waist. She tucked her nose into his hair and breathed in deep so that she was blasted with the scent of vanilla and honey. He let out a surprised squeak and moved his head back and away from her, which succeeded in knocking his headphones off. “Oh, Inej!”

“Didn’t mean to startle you, love,” she replied as she kissed his temple. Their love was something different than with her other partners, something new and interesting that she cherished deeply. She felt the same level and intensity of love for him that she did for the four other people in her heart, but she had never once had the impulse to kiss his lips or be at all sexual with him. In a way, their love was very innocent and light but at the same time dark and intense. She wanted to wrap herself up in him until they were the same, until he was in her very being.

“You didn’t, I just thought that you were Kaz and I don’t think that he’s particularly down for touch today,” he supplied. “I was making you and Matthias breakfast! He said that you went running with him when he came to make more coffee so I figured that you could use some protein. We’re out of breakfast sausage and bacon, so the next best thing was eggs.”

“I was planning on having leftover salad, so this is very appreciated,” she said. She got out two mugs, setting them down on the counter. She dropped a bag of black tea and then stuffed some white tea leaves into the tea ball before dumping that into the mug as well. She filled up their kettle and set it to heat.

Wylan turned off the audiobook that he had been listening to and then began to ask her about her morning. He listened to her intently despite doing something else that required a lot of attention. She enjoyed being able to share her joy about scaring people away after a lifetime of being scared, something he understood better than the others.

She jumped off of the counter and filled both the coffee maker and the tea mugs with boiling water before she set the kitchen timer to the correct steeping time as she continued her story. Wylan plated their eggs and then popped two pieces of bread into the toaster. The timers went off at the same time and they both lapsed into silence as she focused on adding the correct amount of milk and sugar and he got the toast ready to be plated as well.

She took both of the mugs to the dining room where they had most of their meals. She placed one down in Kaz’s place, the one full of white tea that hadn’t been sugared in the slightest, and then placed the black tea next to Wylan. Matthias was already eating one of the breakfast bars that would give him the energy he needed for his day ahead at work, a steaming cup of coffee in front of him and one ready for her.

She sat down and happily ate her breakfast with two of her boys. Inej only broke out of the conversation that they were having when Jesper bounded up to the table and kissed them both dramatically. He was already dressed, wearing a pleated black skirt with a red dress shirt that was unbuttoned enough to reveal the tattoo that he had of his mother’s name on his collarbone. He moved like a tempest to the kitchen so that he could make himself his morning bowl of oatmeal and then plopped himself down on the other side of Wylan.

Kaz was the last one to join them, but he was limping heavily and already dressed, which explained why it had taken him so long. Inej took a moment to assess what he was wearing since it would determine what he was doing for the day. He had a pair of nice jeans and a simple black t-shirt tucked into it with nothing over the top, which meant that he didn’t plan to be working during the day. That increased her chances of being able to see him before he had to open the Crow Club.

He sat down in front of his tea and sipped at it, holding the top to pick it up like he always did. He was silent despite the chatter coming from Jesper and Wylan as they discussed what they were planning on doing with their days. It was only when he had finished drinking his tea that he spoke up, “Inej, are you working today?”

“I am,” she replied. She wanted to reach out and take his ungloved hand, but she hadn’t had the chance to check the group chat to make sure that he would be okay with that.

“I would like to drive you to work,” he supplied.

“Is your leg going to be able to handle driving today, baby?” Jesper asked, immediately pulled out of his conversation like he had some kind of boyfriend-distress sensor built into his hardware.

Kaz looked a little put out at being asked the question. They were still working with him to reassure him that he could tell them when he was having a bad day, that they wouldn’t judge him for his disability and pain, but it was going to take longer than the year that they had been doing it to unlearn years upon years of judgment and ableism. He shook off the thoughts, visibly, and said, “I think that I’ll be fine. If I’m not then I can simply tell Matthias to help me.”

“He’s right,” the other man nodded solemnly. There was very little in the entire world that he wouldn’t do for his partners, he was the most loyal man that Inej had ever met. That was part of the reason that she resented his family for casting him aside for something so small that he couldn’t control.

Kaz driving her to work might aggravate his injury just a bit, but it also meant that she would get to spend more time with him. If she had it her way, she would spend almost every waking minute wrapped up in her partners and some unconscious minutes too. Inej beamed as she finished her last bit of food and said, “I would love it if you could drive me to work. Just let me go get my lunch packed and then we can go.”

Next to her, Wylan’s head snapped up to look at her, “Oh, I packed your lunch. I already had to make one for myself so I just looked at the meal plan on the fridge and then made what you had scheduled for the day. I hope that’s okay.”

Another wave of warmth flooded through her, her heart nearly bursting with how much she loved the people around her. The only thing that would have made the morning better was if Nina had slept over and was there to cook waffles, like she apparently did every morning. “That’s more than fine,” Inej assured him. “Thank you very much for doing that for me, Wylan, I really appreciate it.”

“I love you,” he chirped in reply. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, which she mirrored before she walked off to the kitchen to get her lunch.

The morning had really begun at that point, all of them having finished their morning meal and moving onto the bigger part of their day. Wylan grabbed his own lunch and then kissed each of their boys before he got in his car to head out. Jesper and Matthias said goodbye to the remaining two and then left themselves so that they could go to their morning portion of work. Inej took her lunch from the fridge and then made sure that Trassel had enough food and water before she walked with Kaz to the car.

While they were driving, he was mostly quiet and brooding as he always was, but he reached over and took her hand so that their fingers were woven together. She relished in the rare bit of skin-on-skin contact that she was getting in that moment. When they arrived at her work, she leaned over and gave him a chaste kiss before she picked up her lunch and bag and disappeared into the huge building.

---

Her day consisted of going between working with individual people and working out by herself. She did her morning warm up on her own without music since her coworkers were still trickling into the space. When she had finished, she changed into the outfit that she was going to be wearing during the performance and they all moved to the silks and hoops that they’d be using.

The first couple of run throughs went about as well as they could have expected. Each person moved to their own favorite practice items when they were going over their own part of the performance. Usually she was paired with another dancer or two, but this time she was the focus and was going to be working mostly alone.

Despite that fact, she had been getting interrupted all day. She didn’t mind it when it was some of the newer dancers that were asking her for help with their own routines, but she did mind when it was Arken coming to demand more things from her. She wished that he would just realize that she knew what she was doing and leave her alone. Heleen had done a lot of horrible things to her, but at least she had been treated like an adult when she was with that company.

She was winding down and doing the last workout of the day when she felt a final person tap her on her shoulder. She wrenched her headphones off and then whirled around, upset that she wasn’t going to get the same zen that she always did when she got to do her final yoga pose. “What?” Inej snapped, furious.

“If I knew that exercise was going to get you so feisty then I would have suggested we do it together sometime,” Nina replied, an easy smirk landing on her face. Inej could see the worry and panic that was resting in her girlfriend’s eyes as she wondered if she had done something wrong.

“Nina?” she asked, the anger melting away until it was replaced with sheer adoration and excitement. She lurched forward so that she had wrapped the other woman up in a hug and then peppered her face with kisses to rid her brow of the worry lines there. It worked a charm and she was met with that wonderful tinkling laugh that never failed to make her feel special. “What are you doing here? I thought that you had work,” she asked.

“I did, but I finished early. We got the whole album recorded,” she beamed. She leaned forward and pressed their lips together in an adoring kiss. Inej didn’t even care about how many of her coworkers were watching her in the private moment with her girlfriend as long as she got to savor it for herself.

“Really? That’s amazing!” Inej beamed.

“I was thinking that maybe we could go out and celebrate, if you’re up for it,” Nina suggested.

Another rush of endorphins flooded her mind and she nodded. “Just let me shower and then we can go, alright?”

“Okay,” the other woman nodded. “I’m going to wait outside for you, this place is a little intimidating.”

Inej laughed and detached fro the other woman. She gathered up her personal workout gear and returned everything she had been using back to where it belonged. She removed her clothes and got into the shower faster than she ever had before. Her after-work outfit was a comfortable ocean blue maxi skirt with a black tanktop tucked into them. She let her hair down so that it was loose, trailing against the back of her arms and falling over her shoulders to hide her collarbone. She didn’t bother to remove the makeup she had been dressed up in for the rehearsal since it was stuck on there with enough hairspray to kill a lesser woman.

She and Nina met up outside of the gym and walked hand in hand back to the car. “So why were you so upset in there?” Nina asked once they were in the privacy of the vehicle.

Inej finished sending her text to the group chat to let Kaz know that she was going to be out with Nina and wouldn’t need to be picked up. She felt her face flush when she saw that he immediately responded with a short ‘I know’ followed by a black heart. She stuffed her phone into the back of her bag as she finally answered her girlfriend, “My manager is a control freak that thinks I need to be talked down to like a child. I saw him do it to the other stars but for some reason I thought that he would just pass over me. I was clearly wrong, based on what he was doing today.”

She quickly shook the thoughts away and then reached out so that she could place a hand on Nina’s shoulder, “I promise that I wasn’t upset at you, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that you were the one interrupting me this time.”

“I was a little worried that you were going to be upset because you weren’t out to your company,” she replied, that self-conscious expression flickering over her face.

“I technically wasn’t. I believe they think I’m some sort of harlot since they see me with all of our boys. You’re the first girlfriend that I’ve had since I started working with them,” she explained. “I don’t care what they think of me, I barely even want to be there. I like being able to kiss you whenever I please.”

“I like that too,” Nina admitted shyly. When they pulled up to a red light, she darted over and gave Inej a sweet kiss on the lips just to seal her point.

The car started up again and Inej asked, “You said that you had finished recording your album?”

“Yes! We’re going to send the raw recordings off to someone who can mix them and fix any notes Alina and I messed up. If it turns out that we need to re-record something then it’s back to my little padded cell,” she sighed forlornly. “I did enjoy being able to do this. I had recorded things for Kirigan and by myself, but nothing I did with The Fold felt like it was really going to go anywhere and the things I did by myself were done in the back of my closet.”

“They were incredibly polished for doing that,” Inej laughed. She had listened to more of her girlfriend’s music than she had when she first got together, and some of her favorite songs from Nina were from her Heartrender era. She adored the things from Shadow and Bone as well, but it wasn’t really her flavor. Matthias and Wylan preferred the more classical sound while she and Jesper leaned towards classic pop.

“Thank you,” Nina preened under the compliment.

Inej loved hearing her girlfriend talk about her music. Her favorite part was the way that her eyes would shine as she talked about her favorite songs or something that she was particularly proud of. “What did you say that this album was, again?” she asked, trying to get more of that wondrous excitement from her girlfriend.

“We’re calling it Crooked Kingdom. Most of the songs on it are about Alina and I’s experience with Kirigan and The Fold. It’s going to be kind of controversial if that gets leaked,” she winced. “I don’t know how I feel about people finding out that I kind of helped her get ensnared by him, but he was doing the same thing to me. It’s going to be good for us to get those thoughts out of our minds, for sure.”

“Did Zoya and Nikolai not work for him?” Inej asked. She knew bits and pieces about what had happened to the other woman when she was signed with the first production company she had ever worked for and the trauma that she still carried with her about it. Alina was far worse for wear, to the point that she and Inej had just barely begun to form a friendship with each other despite having known each other for six months and them near constantly being around each other. Nina enjoyed dragging her partners with her whenever she could, and Inej liked to be dragged.

“No, they both escaped it. Nikolai’s parents had enough money that he was able to produce music with his own recording company. That’s what Mal took over,” she explained. “I went through him for a bit too, but it just wasn’t working out.”

They went quiet for a bit as they approached the place that Nina had picked out for their date. Inej got more and more excited the closer that she got to it. It was a hole-in-the-wall cafe that with rich red brick and green painted trim as the exterior. The inside was a warm honey color, decorated with pressed and fresh flowers. As soon as they stepped in they were greeted with a short line that led up to the cash register, but there was a booth with wall plugs to the right along with a myriad of tables. The cafe was relatively busy but not enough that either woman had to worry about getting overwhelmed.

The menu hanging above the register held a list of all the drinks that they made, where Inej immediately spotted her favorite chamomile tea blend. They had a massive spread of pastries as well, which made her smile warmly. She reached down and grabbed Nina’s hand as she asked, “Did you come here so that you could get sweets?”

“While you may be the sweetest thing in my life, I need to sate this sweet tooth of mine,” Nina replied, bringing their interlocked fingers up so that she could press a kiss to the back of Inej’s hand.

The other woman flushed and giggled as she leaned into the touch of her girlfriend. She had heard Wylan describe Nina as everything that she wasn’t, once, and she couldn’t help but agree. They fit into each other and filled out spaces that their partners and the other needed. It was wonderful to finally have the missing piece that she hadn’t realized was even needed finally slotted into her life.

They slowly moved up the line while deliberating about what they were going to get. When they got to the front, the cashier gave them a kind smile and asked, “Hi, what can I get you?”

“Can I get the chamomile tea and a cheese danish, please?” Inej asked. She didn’t usually have sweets but she was indulging herself because everything smelled so good that her lunch felt like a blip on the horizon that she was rapidly speeding away from.

He nodded and then logged those into the register before him before he pointed himself towards Nina. “Hot chocolate and a box,” she said. She gave him a second to write down the drink before she listed off what she wanted in it. She picked out a variety of donuts and a couple of croissants. Inej noticed that the last thing she tossed in was a cheese danish.

The cashier finished putting everything they wanted into the system and then read off the total. Nina was a second away from getting out her wallet when Inej stopped her. “I’ll pay for it, love. As thanks for surprising me.”

Nina looked at her with what could only be described as pure love and adoration. It mirrored the feeling that was already shining through Inej’s chest, so she could understand it fully.

They paid and then moved to one of the tables towards the back. Nina ate one of the donuts from her box and sipped at her hot chocolate. Inej had finished her tea within the first fifteen minutes with a note to herself about buying the blend the next time she did the grocery store run. They talked about their days, their art, their partners, and a couple of stories from their childhoods until the day began to grow closer to evening.

---

Nina reluctantly brought Inej home, making sure that she spent extra long in the driveway while saying goodbye. As soon as Inej stepped into her home, she took in where each of her partners were to make sure they had all made it home safe. Jesper and Wylan were singing badly to each other in the kitchen, Matthias was showering and Kaz was reading in the living room.

She placed her hand on the edge of the couch and leaned over so that she was hovering above him but not quite touching him yet. “That was very clever, what you did.”

“Nina and I thought so too,” he replied as he closed his book and pecked her on the lips. “I got to spend more time with you so it was also a win for me.”

She rolled her eyes affectionately and moved away from him. She went and scrubbed the makeup off of her face in the bathroom near her bedroom and changed into a set of comfortable clothes. By the time that she had finished, dinner was ready and she joined her partners in the dining room. They talked about their days, just as she had with Nina, and she desperately wished that she had the confidence to ask the aforementioned woman to move in with them.

She and Jesper were about halfway through after-dinner cleanup when Matthias ran into the room, his phone open in his hand as he said, “Nina’s apartment flooded would it be okay if she came and stayed with us for a while?”

They glanced at each other and then back to Matthias. “Are you seriously asking us if we want to have our girlfriend in our house? The answer to that is always going to be yes,” Jesper laughed.

That was all it took for another whirlwind to happen. Matthias and Wylan drove over to her apartment to help her bring some of Nina’s things to their home while hers was fixed by her landlord. She was settled into one of the spare rooms that they hadn’t had the chance to renovate yet, which brought Inej thoughts and ideas of what it might be like when Nina finally moved in for real.

She allowed herself to daydream until she had to go focus on her schoolwork. The presence but lack of proximity of her girlfriend made it nearly impossible, so she packed up all of her things and brought them down to the living room where Nina was practicing. Jesper and Matthias had turned in early and Wylan had already disappeared off to his office to finish up some work. Kaz had to open the Crow Club and wouldn’t be back for another half hour at least.

“Do you mind if I study with you?” Inej asked, holding out her laptop and textbook to demonstrate what she meant.

“As long as you don’t think that I’m going to be too distracting, go ahead, sweetness,” Nina replied easily.

The two women made space for each other. Inej was positioned on the ground with her back against the sofa and all of her schoolwork splayed over the table. Nina was perched on the edge of the footstool with her guitar in her lap and a notebook full of lyrics next to her.

Inej melted into her work as she listened to her girlfriend hum notes and words. It had been about thirty minutes of them coexisting around each other before she heard Nina well and truly begin to sing. She kept up the facade of her studying while she listened intently to the beautiful notes and collaborative words coming form the other woman’s blessed lips.

“There's a fire in my brain, and I'm burning up. Oh my, oh my. Keep running for the sink, but the well is dry. Oh my, oh my. Every word I say is kindling, but the smoke clears when you're around. Won't you stay with me, my darling? When my walls start burning down, down, down, this house says my name like an elegy. Oh my, oh my. Echoing where my ghosts all used to be. Oh my, oh my. There's still cobwebs in the corners, and the backyard's full of bones. Won't you stay with me, my darling? When this house don't feel like home? When this house don't feel like home? Oh ashes, ashes, dust to dust. The devil's after both of us. Ooh, lay my curses out to rest, make a mercy out of me. This tired old machine is a-rumbling. Oh my, oh my. Singing songs to the secrets behind my eye. Oh my, oh my. All my aching bones are trembling and I may yet fall apart. Won't you stay with me, my darling? When the war starts in my heart? When the war starts in my heart? Oh ashes, ashes, dust to dust. The devil's after both of us. Ooh, lay my curses out to rest, make a mercy out of me. Oh ashes, ashes, dust to dust. Tell me I am good enough. Ooh, lay my curses out to rest, make a mercy out of,” she abruptly cut off the song.

Inej resisted the urge to clap. During some part of the song, she had turned so that she could watch Nina perform. She had come to a couple of Shadow and Bone’s shows before, so she knew what it looked like when her partner was up on stage, but the song that she was singing was so new and raw. Her face had scrunched when she sang a particularly insightful lyric, like her heart was pouring out through her mouth.

“What was that?” she asked, despite herself. She had to know, it was a burning need inside of her. Something in that song had reached out and touched her very soul.

“It was a song that I was writing for you,” Nina admitted. A blush formed over her cheekbones and highlighted her splattered of freckles. Inej climbed up onto the couch next to her and gave her a kiss on either cheek and then one on her nose.

“It sounded lovely,” she murmured as she grabbed Nina’s free hand. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“There’s not much to talk about other than what’s already in the song,” she shrugged. “My entire life I’ve always felt like I was cursed. My adopted parents loved me but they got divorced when I was young, which was so messy since the adoption hadn’t even officially gone through. And then the whole business with Kirigan started after I had found my one and only friend. I got attacked by Ivan, my bandmates and I got in a fight right before I met Matthias, my apartment flooded. It feels like everything in my life is bad other than you, that you all make it so much better than it was before.”

She was quiet for a bit as she took in what her girlfriend had told her. She had to admit that she was familiar with that sentiment. Her life had been total Hell before she had gotten the support that she needed from Kaz and Jesper that allowed her to pull herself to a better place. Nina was going through that period in her life, and Inej vowed to make that process as smooth as she possibly could. “You’re not cursed, Nina,” she whispered. “You’ve just had a string of bad luck. But that ends with us, alright?”

Nina sniffled wetly and then wiped at her face. “Promise?”

Inej leaned forward and kissed away the tears marks. She was a hair’s breadth away from kissing the other woman on the lips as she murmured a soft, “I swear it.”

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juhbebbie · 5 months

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Shadow and Bone cancelation is not at all surprising (I was literally talking to my roommate about the show the other day and I said there's no way we're getting another season) but seeing it confirmed still sucks. The literal ideal cast got screwed over by some terrible writing decisions. Either that, or they already knew they wouldn't be getting another season, which is why season 2 was... like that

I do think it's a combination of both. They knew people cared more about the crows so they tried to have scenes from the books in there, as well as try to wrap up the Grisha trilogy asap. At the same time, with Netflix's track record they probably knew chances of a renewal were slim. But I can't help but wonder if they shot themselves in the foot by trying to fit as much as they did into this season, causing it to get a lukewarm reception and kinda ruining any chance of it getting renewed again. Like don't get me wrong, if it's between getting the odd, kinda lame versions of the crooked kingdom scenes put in there or no crooked kingdom seasons at all, I prefer what we got. (Trying to give the showrunners/writers the benefit of the doubt here😭)

But there is NO EXCUSE for what they did to my boy Matthias. If they knew (or were at least sure enough) that season 2 would be their last, WHY WOULD THEY LOCK HIM UP AND THEN FORGET ABOUT HIM FOR THE WHOLE SEASON. WHY DID THEY SEND THE CROWS ON RANDOM SIDEQUESTS THAT MADE NO SENSE. In season one the way they fit them in felt very natural. We knew what their stake in this was. In season two they literally went on a whole ass world tour and still managed to find time for a tragic backstory acid trip, all for a sword that got used like once

I wish they had just committed to going one way or the other. If this is our last season, let's give the fans what they want and make sure all the crows are together. Let's not change the nice ending that Alina and Mal got and separate them again and then do a cliffhanger so we can keep Alina around for longer (which I would've been cool with honestly, I love Jessie Mei lee)

Or, let's try really hard to make this as good as possible so we get another season. Sure, okay, combining siege and storm and ruin and rising is fine, although I would have happily watched a third season with Harshaw and his cat. Let's give the crows something worthwhile to do, even if it isn't directly related to the grisha trilogy storyline. Maybe set up the status quo we have at the beginning of six of crows. Have Matthias hellgate scenes but yknow. Don't jump the gun by putting some of the most emotional scenes in with exactly zero of the lead up, making them kinda fall flat. Build up that tension so that fans are even more anxious for another season or spinoff.

But don't land somewhere in the middle where you expect this season to be the last but still write most of it like there's gonna be another. I would assume they wrote that cliffhanger to leave the door open for a plot just in case it did get renewed, but by that point all the other, much more preferrable doors had been closed shut

#once i saw the bathroom scene i was like. ah last season then #because why would they do that unless they knew this was gonna be it #but if they knew this was gonna be it WHY WASNT MATTHIAS THERE.#it makes no sense #k rant over #shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #shadow and bone season 2 #six of crows #sab season two #sab season 2 #shadow and bone season two

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lilithfreya · 9 months

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Six of Crows/Shadow and Bone Modern College AU's

Finally, is Genya and David time. Let's go!!

Genya:

She had a difficult childhood, until she was adopted by a rich and adorable couple who never had children, she goes to fashion and design college and has a promising future with her private atelier that for now only exists on her instagram and when she uses her friends of models for their looks and posts the photos that make hundreds of thousands of people want their clothes. Her best friends are Zoya and Alina, but her best crime duo is Nina, they love to get together and talk about their love lives and play matchmaker, why can't alina not understand like her best friend keeps staring at her and stops everything he's doing to hang out with her and help her always. In addition, there is also Zoya who for months has not stopped talking about this spoiled prince who keeps irritating her, and because of this she goes to investigate, I mean check her friend's well-being and is even more intrigued when she sees him talking to the nerd cute guy from the engineering department, who helped her once with her cell phone and who she likes to talk to when I feel like everything is too heavy or just because she really likes him a lot and he's so cute talking about his inventions. One day she decides to ask him out on a date and he gets all red and stutters but he agrees to go out with her and when they start dating he gives her a bracelet he made himself. She loves hanging out with him in her workshop creating different pieces of clothing and watching him work.

David:

He had a pretty quiet childhood, (I like to think David is neurodivergent and has a hyper focus on building things physically or digitally and that's why he doesn't like to be touched or hugged by strangers), his parents were very good with technology , perhaps being scientists, love hypothesis felings, and supported him when he chose to study mechanical and computational engineering. He doesn't have many friends at the beginning of college, just the lab guys and every now and then he ends up helping people who have problems with their electronics because he likes to figure out what went wrong. And that's how he meets Genya and Nikolai, he thinks Genya is very pretty when he sees her for the first time but I don't quite understand why she keeps coming back to talk to him even without having any real problems and he can't believe it when she finally asks him out that this is for real and he really enjoys talking to him or more hearing about her dreams and goals and she respects him and his needs as well as his time so he is more than happy happy when he realizes that she might like him the same way he likes her. Then one day he meets Nikolai, it was before Genya, he helps solve a lost file problem on his computer and since then Nikolai has been trying to talk to him about the company he's forming and how david would be paid very well and get everything that he wants there, but he doesn't feel that way, he was almost recruited by a company that wanted him but didn't accept his time to work and limited his curiosity so he doesn't know how he felt about it. Until Genya helps both of them and makes a contract that everyone is very satisfied with the norms and legal stipulations, so he signs and ends up meeting very interesting people and ends up getting close to several people like Nikolai and Wylan, he likes their ideas and thinking about how to put them in his creations, and also Alina and Mal, who always when Genya gets too busy with one of his projects keep him company and remind him to eat and take a walk around campus and not get stuck with his inventions in the laboratory. with the money he went on to earn he finally manages to make a wedding ring for Genya and on graduation day he proposes to her with a ruby ring he designed and they live happily ever after.

this turned out a little longer than i planned but with college that wa the best I could do by now on vaccation I have more time, I think the next chapter will be the last so, stay turned for Kaz and Inej part, xoxo.

#six of crows #modern au #shadow and bone #genya safin #david kostyk

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cecewarlock · 1 year

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Okay so I finished season 2 and I have thoughts™️ but the main one is the same as the one I had in season 1

It's very obvious to me the showrunners do not want to be making a S&B story

As a Crow stan I am both frustrated and sympathetic at S&B fans.

The crows storylines were rushed sure and Matthias was barely in it but I am 90% sure that if Matthias had not been part of SOC his story would have been removed all together. Only mentioned in the background.

There is a plot line where some of the characters meet a 400 year old Shu Saint. Now you would think that character should have been paired with Alina because, you know, she's a Shu Saint grappling with her power and immortality but nope! The crows get to meet her.

Who wields the magical sword to defeat the shadow monsters? Alina? Nope! Inej gets the honor. I'm surprised the crows did not kill the Darkling themselves lol.

The final s&b battle last like 20 min in the beginning of the last episode. The last Crow struggle (Taking down Pekka) takes almost a whole episode and it's taken beat by beat from the books. The music swells the lighting is in full production. Contrasted with the Darkling death scene it looks and feels better.

All the crows get what they want ( although in a rushed and muddled way. I am presuming Nina gets to rescue Matthias at the beginning of the next season if we get one). The s&b characters weellll, they get endings for sure. The finale even implies that they're going to make a soc plot the main story of the series lol

This is not a s&b x soc show. It's a six of crows fanfiction

#six of crows #inej ghafa #kanej #kaz brekker #jesper fahey #nina zenik #shadow and bone #wylan van eck #matthias helvar #alina starkov #darkling #i made a joking post saying I wanted to skip the S&B parts #sad part is that I feel the writers wanted to skip it too

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bohemian-rhapsody-in-blue · 8 months

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SIX OF CROWS DOLLS!

So, at the beginning of July, my mom and I were shopping at a local used bookstore when we found an adorable little Nikolai Lantsov plushie (originally from this Illumicrate box), and I immediately fell in love. I furiously Googled to see if any other Grishaverse plushies existed and was disappointed to see they didn’t—so we decided to take matters into our own hands.…

Almost two months, several late nights, and many trips to craft stores, Dollar Tree, and Wal-Mart later, all six of them are done!!! My mom, a fellow Six of Crows fan and a ridiculously talented crafter, worked really hard on them, adding little details to make each of them true to their canon counterparts. She made them all from scratch, not using any pre-existing patterns or tutorials—she'd never made dolls before and sort of figured out the process as she went.

The dolls themselves fall somewhere between figurines and plushies—they have weighted boots so they can stand on their own, but they're made from soft material (felt, chenille yarn, velvet, etc.) that makes them perfect to snuggle, cuddle, and hug, which I've done in spades. I’m so happy to have these one-of-a-kind dolls, made with love, to call my very own. 💖

Photos of each individual doll and couple are under the cut! If you guys are interested, I’ll also make individual making-of posts for each doll, with photos of each of them in progress—let me know in the notes if that's something you'd like to see!

First we have the Bastard of the Barrel himself, Kaz Brekker! He sports a snazzy tailored suit and tie (made from a ribbon), with some rakish locks of chenille yarn hair falling over his eyes from underneath his impeccably-groomed velvet ‘do. His gloves are black duct tape over his hands, and they even have five individually cut-out fingers! (He does not yet have a cane; we’re working on that. The man needs his mobility aids!)

We decided early on that we wanted all the plushies to smile—I wouldn't really want them to scowl at me while I snuggled and hugged them. I imagine Kaz has some serious schemes being brewed up in that soft little head of his, though...

Next we have Inej Ghafa, the Wraith! She was actually the first doll we made (and was originally much shorter than Kaz and Jesper; her legs became longer when we duct-taped them for stability!). The top of her hair is black felt; the braid is jumbo strands of chenille yarn, braided together. Her cowl (purple felt, held in place by a matching purple pipe cleaner) provides the perfect cover for spying on dark Ketterdam streets, and her boots have beautiful silver trim—well-suited for hiding a knife. Her top has some similar trim, though it's hard to see in these pictures, with a subtle dash of magenta tulle to make her extra glam.

Kanej together—Ketterdam’s ultimate power couple 💖 I love that their height difference was maintained; this was sort of accidental when we made the dolls, but it ended up being a really nice canon detail!

As a licensed Toy Therapist (a profession I made up—I'm sure half a bachelor's degree in English and psychology is enough for me to qualify for licensure; after all, I AM the licensure board!), I have, through many intense sessions, successfully cured Kaz and Inej of their touch aversion—so they have both been the recipient of many, many snuggles and hugs from me. At one point, my mom told me, "You've probably given these Crow plushies more hugs in the past week than the characters have had in their entire lives"—which almost reduced me to tears. One thing I love about these dolls is that if I'm ever rereading the books and thinking, "[insert character here] needs a HUG," I can just reach over and give them one!

Now, here’s Matthias Helvar! His luscious golden locks are made of individual strands of chenille yarn (pulled back into a queue), and his scarf is hand-knitted. Also note the boots, with thick soles and “fur” lining to withstand the toughest Fjerdan winters. In the second picture, you can sort of see some blue “fur” around his collar—this was actually made from a blue glove, with fuzzy lining, that was part of a Cinderella costume for Halloween that I had when I was 6!

Mom and I imagine this is Matthias post-series, after having gotten into a relationship with Nina and overcoming his Wizard Racism, so instead of a serious, brooding expression, he has more of a happy smile. (Because as we all know, nothing bad ever happens to him, ever.)

Nina Zenik, Heartrender extraordinaire! Here we see her in her lovely red kefta with gold trim (the same gold trim used for Matthias' suit—fun fact: it was also part of an old Halloween costume, specifically Belle when I was 5) and some lovely golden boots with flowered trim—maybe the ones she was flirting with in a shop window? Fun fact: she originally had some green staining on her face from a mishap when we tried to use a marker to make her eyes look more green—but then Mom took a darker marker and turned it into eyeshadow. And now this doll has better makeup than me.

Helnik! They look very happy together, if you ask me. Matthias' right arm permanently sticks out at an angle, as you can see—a consequence of the duct-taping we did to his body for stability (it also makes him feel very solid and buff when I hug him, which is nicely in-character). This either means he's constantly reaching out his arm around Nina's back (awww) or he's constantly sticking out his arm to hitchhike and get himself far, far away from all the crazy people in Ketterdam.

Jesper Fahey, decked out in all the Barrel flash! He's rocking the green and gold look with a plaid jacket, tailored pants, and a tulle ascot. His hair is jumbo chenille yarn and it's SO ridiculously soft, oh my god, I cannot even properly convey to you guys how good it feels to nuzzle my cheek against his soft little head. His shoes have tiny laces, and it's hard to see here but his belt buckle has a tiny "F" for Fahey. 🎵 'Cause every girl (and boy)'s crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man! 🎶

And finally...Wylan van Eck! This was the last doll we made (we finished him in the wee hours of this morning), and Mom seriously went above and beyond with him. His hair is red chenille yarn—it turned out to actually be the least curly/kinky of all the yarn we used, but Mom sewed it in specially to make sure it curled on his head. He carries a little messenger bag made of duct tape; inside is some rolled-up sheet music and plans for explosives, tied together with twine that you can see sticking out from inside the bag. (It also has a sticker with the initial W for Wylan—just like the sticker with Jesper's initial on his belt!) And in the second picture, you can see that he has tiny safety goggles! They're made out of duct tape and the plastic packaging of some bobbins for the sewing machine.

A funny quirk: because Nina, Matthias, and Wylan were made after the first three with a different and more standardized body mold, Wylan ended up being the biggest of the three...by a lot. He's a lot bigger than his boyfriend, that's for sure! You can see this height disparity in the first pic. My theory is that one of his chemical experiments went wrong and ended up acting as some sort of growth serum for him. Mom's theory is that he was jealous of being so much shorter than his boyfriend, so he asked Nina to Tailor his height, but Nina got distracted during the process and accidentally made Wylan a LOT taller than he was supposed to be and now can't figure out how to change him back.

Or I can just pose them in photos so that Jesper is standing on a box or something—like in the second pic—so he looks just as tall as he's supposed to be.

And finally, here's a picture of all six of them with the Nikolai plushie that started it all! He looks happy to have so many new friends.

And that's it! I love these guys so much and can't stop looking at them, cuddling them, and kissing them on their soft little foreheads. I'm so happy to have embarked on this project with my mom over the summer—we learned a lot, bonded over crafting and our love of the Grishaverse, and had a lot of fun! Let me know in the notes if you'd like me to post individual making-of posts for each doll—with behind-the-scenes pictures and explanations of how some of the features of each doll were made! NMNF 🐦

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spellboundspectre · 2 years

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under his skin--chapter two

suguru getō x female!reader; 18+ only, minors do not interact

content: taking a bath together, slightly intoxicated reader, wedding night sex, multiple orgasm, squirting, over-stimulation, praise kink, slightly mean dom suguru, domestic fluff at the end, slight dubcon (just to be safe)

word count: 6.6k

a/n: thank you so much to everyone who read, reblogged or responded to chapter one, it means so much to me! i hope y’all continue to enjoy chapter 2.

previous chapter | masterlist

You never wanted to get married.

It was too permanent, too volatile and far too terrifying for you. Years of providing for your family had taught you that no matter how much you trusted someone, they could still stab you in the back.

It’s not like it mattered anyways. On the rare occasions you tried to date, you only made it past three or four dates before you never heard from them again. Baggage has a way of scaring people off.

So many times you told yourself it was for the best.

Falling in love was appealing, there was no denying that. But after the way you watched your mother fall apart after your father died, you were afraid of loving someone so deeply.

When he first died, months would stretch by without her leaving her bed. Seeing a woman who was ordinarily so independent become a shell of her former self terrified you. You weren’t the eldest child, it shouldn’t have been your responsibility, but you were the only one who stepped forward when she needed help.

At first she was grateful, overwhelmed with pride that one of her daughters would step forward to take care of him. But as her coping mechanism turned to more and more addictive substances, her gratitude turned into entitlement and your siblings followed suit.

Often, you told yourself you didn’t mind. You loved your six siblings, you loved your mother.

But you were so fucking tired.

Raising your siblings was grueling, ungrateful work. Keeping your mother on track with all her various obligations was tedious. Difficult conversations often fell to you. Instead of a loving older sister, your younger siblings saw you as an old crow who loved to say no.

It was fine, you reassured yourself.

The world always seemed to take from you. Long after you had anything to give, it would take.

Take, take, take.

So of course something like this would happen. How perfectly ironic that just after your youngest sibling graduated high school, just as you were beginning to entertain the idea of living your life for yourself, something would get in your way.

Every time you think you’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, it was just another train coming to run you down.

It was just perfect timing that your cursed energy ate through the first ring your father gave you. There was another, stashed away for an emergency hidden in the depth of your closet. It was only an afternoon, five hours at the most you cursed energy wasn’t masked. And it was just the amount of time needed for the clan elders to track you down.

And then you met Suguru, and for once, someone offered something to you.

While his demands gave you pause, what he offered was too valuable to pass up. It wouldn’t bring your father back from the dead. It wouldn’t give you back your childhood; but it would make all your suffering worth it.

That was good enough for you.

Suguru had equal capacity for clueless and kindness. Previously he mentioned having two young daughters, and judging by the way they clung him through the reception, his daughters loved him very dearly. At least if you had a child with him, they would be well taken care of.

That being said, you didn’t think he would want to try for one right away.

“So shy,” he whines as he presses another kiss to your neck, ”Do you want to take a bath first? Relax a little?”

Your voice catches in your throat.

“I–” you gulp, “Yes, actually. A bath sounds nice.”

“Good thing I booked us at an onsen. And our suite has its own private bath,” he points to the balcony door. “I’m going to get some sake, and then I’ll join you.”

A firm suggestion and a subtle hint. He wants you naked by the time he arrives back. With a nod, you make your way outside.

Suguru is only the third man who has ever kissed you, as you’ve never had the time or interest to pursue anything more. The experience you do have is extremely limited and your stomach twists and turns with anxiety.

At least the view is nice, you think as you begin peeling away the layers of your uchikake.

Stones the color of a stormy sky are stacked in one corner of the enclosed yard. Water noisy trickles down them and flows into a koi pond with pale pink lily pads sprinkled on its surface. Paper lanterns on strings hang from four posts in each corner of the yard, and their glow gives the back patio a picturesque feel.

More stones create a ten foot rock wall surrounds the back patio of your suite, protecting you from any would-be peeping toms. You fold your garments and set them on a stool, it’ll have to do until you can get back home and return them to the box in your mother’s closet.

The water is pleasantly warm when you test with the tip of your toe. Even more so when you submerge yourself down to your shoulders. The onsen is far enough from the city that light pollution doesn’t drown out the twinkling of the stars in the sky. In mesmerizing fashion, they illuminate the sky with a glow that rivals that of the moon. They almost look like millions of pin pricks on black paper.

“Enjoying yourself?”

He seems to be in no rush as he digs a carton of cigarettes from the sleeve of his haori.

Languidly, he pours himself a drink of sake without offering you any. You make a face without realizing it and Suguru chuckles softly. A menu is presented to you and your husband opens it to the dessert section.

“You’ve drunk enough on an empty stomach,” he says as he lights a cigarette, “Eat something if you want to drink more.”

Your brow arches in confusion.

“It’s our wedding night,” Suguru reminds you between drags of nicotine, “I want it to be memorable, and that can’t happen if you’re too drunk.”

The small gesture of kindness is enough to warm your cheeks. You hide your face behind the menu and hope he doesn’t notice.

“The cheesecake looks nice,” you mumble after looking over your options for a few moments.

Suguru hums as he plucks the menu from your hand and gives it a once over. In a few strides, he returns to the suite and you can hear him ordering over the trickling of the water. He waits for a few minutes before room service knocks at the door.

When he returns, you avert your gaze to give him privacy as he disrobes. You don’t look up again until you hear the splashing of water and feel him close to you.

Suguru tuts as you reach for the spare fork, electing to feed you himself. His eyes are transfixed on your lips as they drag over the length of the fork.

“Is it good?” your husband asks.

You nod as the creamy texture of the cake spreads across your tongue.

“Get a strawberry, too.”

He presses a berry to your mouth. Your lips open brush against his fingers as he places it against your tongue. His tongue darts out to lick the faint trail of your saliva from his finger.

“Is it good?” he asks as you’re mid-bite.

Dumbly, you nod as the tart flavor of the berry mixes with the creamy texture of the cake.

When you finish, he offers you a warm smile a cup of sake. It only takes a small sip to reawaken the rest of the alcohol in your belly, and you’re grateful he made you eat something before drinking more.

Suguru drinks silently beside you in the relaxing waters for a bit. You don’t mean to, but you can’t help but admire how handsome he is.

At least your kids won’t be ugly.

Another sip of sake has you feeling bolder, and more aware of the fact that you know next to nothing about your husband.

“How old are you daughters?” you ask.

“Thirteen.”

“They didn’t seem to like me,” you sigh.

Suguru chokes on his sake.

“They’re at an age where they don’t like anyone,” he says in a pained voice, “It’s not just you.”

You take another sip and nod.

“So what am I supposed to do now?”

Suguru turns to face you, “What do you mean?”

“We have to give the appearance of a proper couple, to make sure no one asks questions,” he says, “Unless you’d like for you mother to come prying in our business.”

It’s your turn to choke on your drink.

“Yeah, I’ll take that as a no,” he says as your try to clear your throat.

“No, please God, no,” you beg.

“Then we’ll have to give a convincing act,” he teases, “You should always call me darling, or dear.”

“Ok,” you say, too tipsy to really focus on anything he was saying.

“Kiss me before I leave for work every morning,” he asks in a low voice.

You slowly nod in the affirmative.

“Do you understand?” he presses.

“Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes, darling,” you reply with a dopey smile.

After finishing the last bit of your drink, Suguru takes your cup and places on the edge of the bath. He scoots a little closer to you.

“Can I kiss you?”

The request catches you off guard. In your drunken state, you struggle to reply elegantly.

“I—I uh,” you stutter, “If you want to you.”

“I do,” he insist as he cups your jaw.

Suguru closes the distance between you with unshakeable confidence as your stomach does somersaults inside of you. His lips are soft when they touch your, his kiss is delicate and you sigh against his mouth.

Instinctively, your arms wrap around his neck to pull him closer. His arms seeks out your waist. He breaks the kiss and you whine.

“I think it’s time we got out,” he says, staring at you ravenously.

He wastes no time in removing himself from the bath, and with ease, he lifts you by your underarms and places you on the ground beside him. Long legs close the distance much faster than yours, and you have to almost jog to keep up with his pace.

Suguru drapes himself on the futon and pats the spot next to him. You try to conceal your naked form from him as you sit next to him, and he tuts at you again.

“Why are you hiding from me?” your husband whines, “I want a good look at my wife.”

His hand latches behind your neck and pulls you in for another kiss. You melt against him, and Suguru wastes no time taking things further.

His kisses grow more fevered as he travels down the column of your neck. Each one is hotter than the last, his tongue sneaks out a little more to lap at you. You can feel the pressure of his teeth against your flesh, dull sensations until he grows restless and he begins to nip at you.

The bite of his teeth isn’t exactly painful, but it’s enough to make you gasp. Suguru immediately pulls you closer, coils his arms around you tighter. Gingerly, the pads of his fingers glide down your stomach until they reach the patch of curls that grow between your legs.

He sighs in your ear when he finds how wet you are. Gathering your juices on his fingers, your husband spread it along your labia. Suguru hyper-fixates on every breath you take, each little sigh and flutter of your lashes. Your legs inch wider and wider as he continues to play with your pussy.

“Does that feel good?” He whispers in your ear.

His warm breath tickles at the shell of your ear and you nod slowly in response.

“Huh?” your husband whines, his fingers slowing, “Well if you don’t speak up, I’m going to assume you don’t like it.”

Suguru teases you in a sing-song voice, and by the time he’s finished speaking, his hands have left you entirely. A whiny sigh leaves you and the curse user laughs.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Touch me,” you urge.

Suguru coos at you and strokes your hair.

“Where?” he asks innocently.

You bite your lip in frustration and raise your hips to draw his attention back to them, but still he doesn’t move.

“Touch my pussy,” you plead in a hushed whisper, “Please.”

He seems delighted at your request, long fingers seeking out your cunt the moment the words leave your mouth.

“Was that so hard?” He mocks.

Suguru’s fingers curve along the swell of your pussy lips, pressing gently at first to gauge your reaction. A small gasp leaves you and you maintain eye contact with your husband, a silent plea for him to keep going.

Slowly, he works his fingers inside of you. Suguru starts with one, savoring the way your walls cling to his digit and coat it with your slick. When he thinks you’re ready he pushes another finger inside, and another. Your husband stares at the sight of your stretched out hungrily. His cock is twitching against his stomach with need.

All the while, your cunt is fluttering around him. Your back arches painfully against the futon as your breathing grows more and more ragged. Each minute is better than the last, each touch feels more pleasurable. Suguru plays your cunt with expert precision, knowing just where to touch, where to linger to have you on the verge of orgasm.

Broken cries and breathy moans are all that pour forth from you.

His thumb gathers some of your juices before pressing against your clit to rub tight circles and you shatter in seconds.

“You look so cute when you cum,” Suguru praises.

How? You think as you wail obscenely. Your eyes roll into the back of your head and you have to blink several times to rid your vision of little white stars.

Hunger getting the best of him, Suguru doesn’t let you ride out the full length of your orgasm. As soon as your breathing is more steady, he slides down your body and latches his mouth to your spasming pussy.

Suguru laps at your cunt wildly as you writhe beneath him. Already your back feels almost uncomfortably arched, your legs spread as wide as your body will allow so that he can lay between them.

Your husband's hands hold your thighs open. Each trail of his tongue through your lips sends sparks through your brain. Your clit is still overloaded from your previous orgasm, and even though his tongue hasn’t touched it, you can still feel faint tremors of pleasure.

Suguru moans against your sex as he slurps the slick from you, growing louder and louder with every passing moment. Obviously, he’s enjoying himself. So lost in giving you pleasure that he drowns in his own.

At first you think you’re imagining it, even when pleasuring yourself you could never have two orgasms back to back. By the time the tip of his tongue is prodding at your clit, you’re already halfway to your next climax.

Your husband gives you a few teasing licks, letting his tongue hand from his mouth as he does. Suguru only gives you a few seconds to adjust to the sensation before he latches his lips to your cunt and sucks.

The back of your head digs into the futon as you let out a high pitched moan. You can feel the corners of Suguru’s lips curl in a smile.

Your fingers claw into the sheets as your pulse races between your ears. He’s trying to kill me, you think, he’s trying to give me a heart attack and kill me.

Your body squirms and twists under his hold, but for every bit you tremble, the curse user is quick to mold himself to you. He presses himself so closely that for a moment, you forget where he ends and you begin.

The coil in your belly snaps before you even realize how tightly it’s been wound. The haze from your previous orgasm hasn’t yet cleared and yet your husband’s tongue submerges you in ecstasy all over again.

Your breath stutters in your chest, lungs failing to remember how to function. Pelvis arching against Suguru’s mouth, you cry out. He lets you ride out your climax on his tongue, the once rapid licks now slowed to a gentle lap.

By the time he finally pulls away, you’re a boneless heap. Your chest rises and falls almost steadily, with the occasional shaky breath. All you can do is gaze at him dreamily.

“You good?” your husband asks smugly.

You mumble in the affirmative and the corners of Suguru’s eyes crinkle as he laughs.

His hands roam along your thighs, stroking your heated skin until you relax completely in his grasp. Your husband allows you to catch your breath, waits for the blood to drain from your cheeks.

You’re nearly half-asleep when he pats the outside of your thigh.

“Ready?” your husband inquires, “You didn’t think we were done yet, did you?”

Sheepishly, you shake your head.

Of course not.

Suguru is quick to slide his fingers back into your wet heat. The pads of his fingers rub against your sweet spot without mercy. Unsatisfied with the way your eyes roll into the back of your head, he decides to fasten his mouth to your cunt once again and firmly strokes your clit with the flat of his tongue.

Panting wildly, your hips buck against his face and Suguru pushes you against the futon with a firm hand to your belly. Not only does the motion keep you still, but it intensifies the sensation of his fingers stretching you open.

It’s so much harder to contain your moans this time. Your entire body burns with embarrassment at the thought of the staff listening in as Suguru ravishes you. The idea doesn’t linger though, when Suguru realizes you’re not completely focused on him, he bites at the junction where your thigh meets your hip.

“Pay attention to me,” he whines, “It’s my wedding night, too.”

Once your eyes return to him, so does he return to your cunt. He’s definitely enjoying this, you realize. Perhaps it’s lust, or even pride, either way, the things he’s doing to you feel absolutely divine. An ironic choice of words, considering the severed heads that lie only a few feet from your sweating bodies.

You should probably be scared of him, maybe you should even be plotting a way to escape him. Instead, you weave your fingers through his hair and push his head even closer to your cunt. Again, he groans against your flesh, his tongue growing even more rapid in its assault.

Your orgasm builds and builds, it blurs your vision with tears, it tells you to grit your teeth until finally it bursts.

Suguru stares at your drenched cunt in awe.

“I’m sorry,” you sob, “I’m so sorry, that’s never–” you hiccup, “that’s never happened before.”

Embarrassed, you cover your hands with your face. Your husband scrubs his hand down his chin, gathering the drops of your orgasm in his palm before licking it clean.

“Can you do it again?”

You peek at him through your fingers.

“I don’t know,” you squeak.

He palms at his cock to alleviate the way it aches.

“You want to find out?” he asks cheekily as he gives his length a few short strokes, “Don’t you think I’ve earned a little fun for myself?”

He doesn’t wait for you to answer. He’s restrained himself all night, and he can’t wait a second longer.

Suguru manipulates your body into position with ease, his hands rest behind your knees as he pushes them back until you’re nearly bent in half. He keeps you that way with one hand, using the other to stroke his cock before lining it up with your cunt.

Violet eyes are transfixed on your pussy, the tip of his tongue peeks out from behind his lips.

The butterflies in your stomach are going wild with anticipation that even after how much Suguru has stretched you out, it’ll still hurt when fucks you for the first time.

Lucky for you, your husband can see the worry behind your eyes; and while he’d love nothing more than to rut into you like an animal in heat, he’ll force himself to be gentle.

Well, gentle enough.

His cockhead slaps against the lips of your cunt, making you flinch. He rubs it into your skin, coating the head with a mixture of your juices and the pre-cum that’s been steadily leaking out of the tip of his cock. This continues until Suguru notices you leaning into his motions, moving your hips in time with his cock.

“Not quite done yet,” he says in a soothing voice when you cry out at the stretch.

He waits for you to moan, waits for you to whine for him, waits for you to want it as much as he does.

You tilt your hips and catch his cockhead in your folds and it’s all the invitation Suguru needs to start inching his cock inside of you. His thrusts are shallow at first, only penetrating you with his head and pulling right back out.

The slow, methodical way he works himself into you has you hungry for more. The leg that he isn’t holding back coils around his waist to pull him closer to you. By the time he’s fully worked his cock inside you, you’re a panting mess, on the verge of your next orgasm.

“You’re taking me so well,” purrs your husband.

Suguru can tell the signs without you saying a word–not that you could, you’re in a fuck-fueled stupor. Your moans rise an octave the closer your bodies get until you’re wailing mess. Cunt gushing around his cock, you soak his pelvis with your juices.

Proud coos flow from his mouth and dance around your ears, the edges of your mouth curling into a dopey grin. His arms cage around each side of your head as he shifts his weight to better pound your pussy.

“You’ve got one more left in you,” he growls, “Give it to me.”

His lips never more than graze yours. Instead, he uses them to coax your mouth into staying open and releasing a steady stream of whimpers and moans.

Suguru thumbs your clit harshly as he inches his cock inside of you. Biting his lower lip, he presses more of his weight into his hips, pushing his cock into your velvet walls until at long last, your hips meet. His thumb leaves your clit, only to be replaced by the bone of your pelvis.

As he grows closer, his lips brush against yours. The huff of his laugh has air brushing against your face and you taste the faint remnants of sake in the air.

“Feels so good,” your husband breathes into your mouth.

Suguru drinks up every little noise that spills from your lips. They start off as chaste kisses. His lips never stay on yours for more than a breath. As he works his cock deeper inside you, his lips begin to linger.

His tongue explores each inch of your mouth. The hands holding your body in place begin to travel up your body until his fingers interlock with yours. He gives a gentle squeeze to make sure you’re still lucid, and you squeeze his hands back in return.

Between heated kisses, puffs of his breath fan over your face. Despite the heat of lustful coupling, the amount of skin you have exposed has you feeling cold. Without thinking, you lean into him further in the hopes that more of his warmth will sink into your bones.

His cock feels massive inside you. It stretches out your cunt in a way that should be painful, but yields nothing but pleasure. There’s a vein on the underside of his cock. It drags so deliciously against your walls as Suguru ruts into you.

Never do his hips cease their rhythm. Not yet.

You can barely breathe with how much his cock stretches you. As he pulls out, you manage to catch a few shallow gulps of air. His fingers could never prepare you for this. Such an addictive type of ecstasy you know he’s ruined you forever.

The more he pumps his cock into you, the more your cunt pulsates around him. You can’t tell if it’s the end of the last orgasm, or the start of another. All your nerves are overshot, overloaded with lust.

And it feels so damn good for Suguru. The motion of his hips begins to stutter as his cock pulsates inside you. With each time he drags his cock from you, Suguru winces, as if he’s in pain.

Suguru’s almost disappointed when his balls start to rise with his impending orgasm. But then he remembers he booked this room for a week. He’ll have plenty of time to enjoy you.

As many times as he likes.

With a final thrust, Suguru empties his cock into your pussy. The way he moans, his jaw slack and eyes squeezed shut makes your heart flutter. His arms tremble as he holds himself above you as he lowers himself gentle as not to crush you.

“You did so good for me,” he pants into your ear.

For a short while, the two of you catch your breath. There’s no strength left in your body when Suguru finally pulls out. The two of you hiss at the loss of contact, but it isn’t for long.

Your husband flips you onto your stomach and pushes that cum that leaks from you back into your abused cunt.

“Ready for the next round, darling?”

By the time you check out of the inn, you’re walking with a slight limp. The staff are polite enough to avert their eyes, and you’re grateful for the small kindness.

Suguru is eerily quiet on the drive back to Tokyo. Not that you handle conversation at this point, anyways. You can’t even glance at his profile without being reminded of the filthy acts you took part in less than twenty four hours ago.

Much like the drive there, you spend the drive home in and out of sleep. The lurch of the car shifting into park coupled with the absence of the engine’s rumble rouses you from your nap. Suguru unfastens his seatbelt and is quick to navigate to the passenger side of the vehicle to open the door for you.

“Feeling more rested?” He asks cheekily.

“I–,” you bite your lip as heat rushes to your face in embarrassment, “Yes, thank you.”

Your husband cocks his head, waiting for you to finish the sentence properly.

“Thank you, darling.”

A traditional home, you think as you walk closer, somehow it suits him.

The shoji doors open to reveal his–now yours too–daughters peeking at the two of you behind the lattice frame. You can tell from their body language that they’re ecstatic to see their face again, but far less sure of how they feel about you.

“Nanako, Mimiko, we’re home,” Suguru says as he walks up the driveway with you on his arm.

“Welcome home,” they mumble, their eyes never leaving you.

The first few weeks in your new home aren't as easy as you hoped it would be.

You always thought you’d feel an overwhelming sense of relief when you finally escaped your family. Or content, maybe even remorseful.

But instead you feel nothing.

As much as you didn’t want to admit it, Suguru was right about you. You were angry. Angry at your family, angry at your clan, but mostly you were angry at yourself for letting it all happen.

If anything, you feel lost.

The people responsible for ruining your life are dead, the people who leeched off you for years were far from you. Still, your anger persisted, and with no outlet, all you were left with was confusion.

After a few weeks, Mimiko and Nanako are no longer convinced you’re an intruder in their home and have moved on from their previous hostility to mostly ignoring you.

Small progress is still progress, right?

Every now and again, they take you up on your offer to drive them to school, but only on mornings when it's raining. It’s probably meaningless, driven by their desire to stay in dry clothes and not any urge to spend more time with you. You take it as the smallest measure of acceptance.

There’s little variance in your days, each day begins and ends the same.

Like the first night, you prepare dinner as your daughters work on their school assignments in their rooms. Suguru arrives home and you eat in silence as the girls tell their father about their day. Your husband is the only one who speaks to you or asks questions about your day.

Once finished, Suguru helps you clear the table and you all retire to your rooms for the evening. Unless of course, it’s a Wednesday night and you and your husband spent an hour–usually two–trying to expand your little family.

While the girls are in school, you have the house to yourself. At first, it’s liberating to have so much time to yourself for the first time in years. But after reading every book you’ve been meaning, after watching every show you’ve heard good things about, after cleaning every nook and cranny twice a day, you’re still left with a sinking feeling in your stomach that creeps up to your throat.

The acrid taste of loneliness.

You’re too old to cry over hurt feelings, so you tuck it away. Push it down until it’s easier to forget.

No matter how much time you spend in this place, no matter how much you try to burrow yourself into this new life, deep down you know this isn’t your home. Suguru seems to be the only one who wants you here and it’s only because of the deal you made.

So you cling to him. You cling to the role you have accepted for yourself. Wife and mother. You kiss your husband when he leaves for work, you make bentos for your daughters even if they come home just as full as they were when you daughters left for school.

Still, the taste lingers.

That’s why you’re caught off guard when Nanako approaches you after school as you’re preparing dinner.

“Hi,” she says timidly, her hands shift picking at the edges of her cardigan and crossing over her stomach.

“Hi..” you reply, you try to make your voice sound approachable, but it sounds like you’re trying to calm a wild animal.

“Are you busy? Tomorrow?” She stumbles over her words.

You let out a small laugh, you’re never busy and she knows this.

“I think I can find some time for you. What’s up?”

Nanako’s features contort to display a range of several emotions from relief to panic. Her brows raise then fall, her mouth twists into a tiny shape as she realizes she has to explain the situation to you.

“Ok, so it’s going to sound a lot worse than it actually is. And I just want to preface this by all by saying, I don’t think I didn’t anything wrong and this girl–this–”

You set down the vegetables you’ve been preparing and give her your full attention. She freezes immediately.

“I–,” her breath catches in her chest as she tries to speak again, “It’s just–”

“Nanako, what happened?” You ask calmly.

Nanako takes a deep breath before launching off like a bullet train.

“This annoying girl in my class is always starting the worst rumors about me and Mimiko and telling people about how awful I am and now she’s lied and said I’m this horrible bully and I’ve never done that, I’ve wanted to, but I don’t. And now she’s got the whole school thinking I hit her, when I didn’t, and my homeroom teacher freaked out and told the principal. But not a single one of them will even listen to me when I try to tell my side of the story.”

Each word comes out faster the last until they all blend together in a flurry of hysterics.

“Ok Nanako,” you raise your palms to her to try to calm her down, “Let me think for a second.”

“Ichinose made fun of us, Nanako said something back, Ichinose hit her, and Nanako made it a quick fight,” Mimiko says as she walks past the both of you to get a drink from the refrigerator.

“Thank you,” you say under your breath. “So you need a parent to come speak with the principal and the teacher and the parents?”

Nanako nods, avoiding eye contact with you.

“Ok, what time?”

~*~*~*~

Years of speaking to teachers on behalf of your siblings has you feeling cool-headed as you make your way into the school. Nanako, unfortunately, isn’t feeling nearly as calm when you find her waiting in the hall outside the principal’s office. Sweat has formed on her brow, her legs and arms are crossed, wrapping around her body. Anxiously, she chews her bottom lip and stares at her knees in hopes that no one will see her or speak to her.

Across from her are two women whom you assume to be Ichinose and her mother. As you get closer, they both throw you a sour look. You force a clipped smile in response and take a seat next to your daughter.

“Hi,” she groans.

“Hi,” you reply.

It’s quiet for a bit, nothing but the hushed tones of her classmate talking to her mother and far-off droning of a teacher giving a lesson.

“Thank you,” Nanako says, breaking the silence. She uncrosses her arms to pick at a string coming loose from her cardigan. “For coming here. I would have asked Papa but….”

She trails off without finishing the thought, not that she needed to; you both know how intense his reactions can be.

“Don’t worry about it,” you assure her, “I’m kind of glad you asked.”

“What? Why?” Nanako’s brows knit in confusion.

“It’s nice,” you shrug, “Makes me feel included.

Nanako blinks before realization sweeps over her features. Her body weight thuds against your shoulder and she rests her head against you.

“It’s hard adjusting to a new home,” she mumbles.

A huff of a laugh slips out and you bite your lip to muffle it.

“Yeah,” you sigh, “But yelling at some prick parent and their prick kid? I don’t need to adjust to that, it’s very much in my wheelhouse.”

Another five minutes go by and the four of you are called in. Nanako’s classmate and her mother say nothing to you as they pass by, and you’re polite enough to ignore the comments you hear them exchange.

As you walk into the cramped office, Nanako is at risk of suspension, possibly expulsion. By the time you walk out, Nanako’s teacher and principal have assured you her classmate’s teasing will be dealt with appropriately in the future, and Ichinose will be taking an “absence” from classes.

“Holy shit,” Nanako breathes as the two of you leave campus. “You—I.. Are you a witch or something? You knew everything to say to get them to back off. It’s like you were inside their heads.”

“Like I said,” you toss your arm over her shoulders as you walk to the car, “I’ve got plenty of experience. I have three younger siblings who have gotten into much worse trouble than you and I got them out of it, every time.”

Nanako pauses for a bit.

“You didn’t have to do any of that though. You’ve only known me for a month, and I,” she sighs, “I haven’t exactly been welcoming to you.”

Shrugging, you fish the car keys from your purse.

“It’s fine,” you say.

“No, I’ve been an asshole,” Nanako says sadly.

You glance up at her from your bag and see she’s on the verge of tears.

“Oh sweetheart, no, no,” you say soothingly as you rush to wrap your arms around her. “I’m a stranger in your house, it’s ok if you take some time to warm up to me.”

Sniffling, she nods against your bosom.

“We’re family now, right?” You ask, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

Again, Nanako nods and squeezes you before letting go.

“What do you want for dinner?” you ask, unlatching the door handle.

Nanako uses her sleeve to wipe away the tears and snot that have settled on her cheeks before responding.

“Can we get take out?” she says meekly.

The energy of the house changes dramatically. Instead of the hushed sounds of dishes clattering, Suguru returns to a home filled with the sounds of laughter and chattering voices. You’re regaling the girls with a story about the time your brother thought it would be a good idea to fight his teacher.

Seamlessly, Suguru slips into the chair next to you and rests his hand on your thigh for the duration of the meal. You can feel the warmth of his hand through your thick, winter tights. The heat radiates from his palm and flows into your skin.

You manage to feign a cough to hide the giddy laugh that bubbles up. A sip of water to clear your throat, a bite of fried chicken to chase. Suddenly, that taste at the back of your throat is less potent.

Nanako and Mimiko insist on helping you with the dishes.

“Will you make me lunch tomorrow, please?” Nanako asks from the hallway, “And thank you for today.”

“Yeah,” you say in a clipped voice. “I can do that.”

“Okay, thank you,” Nanako says heading upstairs, “Goodnight.”

You mumble out a goodnight in return before throwing your hand over your mouth to muffle the sobs that spill forth.

When was the last time someone told you thank you?

As you lay in bed, you replay the moment over and over again in your head. Just as your eyelids are becoming too heavy to keep open, a knock sounds against your door.

“Are you still awake?” asks your husband in a low voice.

You shoot straight up and grab the nearest article of clothing to cover yourself, “Yes!”

“Just a minute,” you call out.

The sight of him nearly makes you gasp. Hair undone and still damp from his bath. Judging from the way his cheeks are tinged red, you wonder if he sat in the hot water too long. The dim light of your lamp illuminates his features in the most dramatic fashion; emphasizing his long lashes and plump lips.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” the edge of his lip turns up in a smile.

He seems to tower over you even more in the low light. One of his thick arms is braced against your door frame, the other rests against your sliding door. Despite having your whole room to your back, you feel caged in by him.

“Oh, for dinner? It was actually Nanako—”

“No, for what you did for her,” he corrects.

Blood rushes to your face and you avert you gaze demurely.

“You don’t uh,” you coyly chuckle, “you don’t have to thank me.”

“But I want to,” he insists, “May I come in?”

You cast a glance over your shoulder at the mess of your room.

“Um, it’s a little—” you groan, ”Cluttered at the moment. I haven’t finished unpacking.

“I don’t mind,” Suguru says warmly.

“And..”

“And?” he repeats.

“It’s not our usual night,” you say, “darling.”

He smiles at the pet name.

“Does that matter to you?” he teases, “If you don’t want my company, you can just say so.”

“No,” you implore eagerly, “I wouldn’t mind at all.”

#🧄.musings #getou suguru x reader #suguru getou x reader #reader x geto #jjk smut #geto suguru x reader #suguru geto x reader #getou x reader #under his skin

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ephemeralgalaxies · 1 year

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Shadow and Bone s2 spoilers

also some Six of Crows spoilers, so if you've watched s2 but still don't wanna know anything more yet about the crows than what the show has already given us, beware cause this will involve (probable) future spoilers

(once again, Wylan edition (and a lil jesper. but mostly wylan). but this time it's about the soundtrack that plays during a certain scene in episode 4 iykyk) (most of my meta posts will probably be about him. he's a cool character. and he's me but that's beside the point) (me as in ND with tics, sass, and way to much random fact info than is for his own good but sometimes actually proves very useful but not in the way you'd expect. usually in a quite disturbing and confuzzling way)

last warning for spoilers under the cut bc I am absolutely picking apart as many frames as I can

OK OK YES THIS IS ABOUT THE KISS SCENE BUT SPECIFICALLY THE MUSIC THAT PLAYS BEFORE/DURING. Bear with me here, this is gonna be quite the trainwreck as I am running on adrenaline from sleep deprivation and also like two oreos.

To start off, the song for this scene is The Night We Met composed by Joseph Trapanese (spotify link).

Alright, first, the way this song just blends so nicely from the scene with Pekka Rollins in the cemetery to this one just *chef's kiss* (ofc we get quite the gap in soundtrack between the end of that scene and once this song starts playing, but they still arch together pretty well) In fact, I almost thought they were the same, or at least same motif (it tries to be a major key song with lots of accidentals/minor-falls/glissandos to make it more angsty dramatic). Which, shouldn't mean that much from a distance... but oh boi does it make my mind stir.

That song (labeled by Netflix CC as "dramatic music" lmao) surfaces when Pekka Rollins and his crew are scouring the Black Veil Cemetery in search of his son, Alby Rollins. Ofc, he finds him safe and well just as the police(?) take Rollins under arrest for the murders he's just admitted to (holy shit, Kaz works fast). Like, with the beginning of The Night We Met, these are the same songs in different fonts. Which,,, may not be on purpose but is absolutely brilliant anyways bc of how much Alby and his father mirror Wylan and his father (if that mirror had shattered into a web design and had been left to collect dust and mold for decades).

(summary context just in case we do have some ppl reading this that don't know about Wylan's family and want to: his father is Jan Van Eck, a very wealthy merchant from Ketterdam. Like, Pekka Rollins "rules" the Barrel, but Van Eck (and capitalist co) run the country. But he's a shit person and an even more shit father, disowning Wylan on the basis of him not being able to read and therefore "useless as an heir" so,,, Wylan ran away ofc)

So right before this very emotional scene for Wylan, we get Pekka Rollins, absolute dumpster fire trash of a man, be a good father. aND EVEN HAVING THE MUSIC DO A HARSH FADE FROM WHEN ROLLINS NON LONGER CAN SEE HIS SON TO WYLAN ASKING JESPER WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE FREE?

im screaming so much it was perfect

So with that in context, we lead into the scene in Wylan's workshop. It's quiet now, hopeful even. You're already forgetting about abandoned sons and desperate fathers. The world is "full of possibilities." There's no music anymore, just the fizzling and clanging (Wylan, wtf do u have clanging in your workshop???). And the silence stays as Jesper talks about what he'd like to do now that he can roam the Barrel free again. How he'd like to do that... with Wylan.

But Wylan's acting weird. He should be in his element here; laid out, an open book. But he's hiding. No literally, he ducks under the table. And even after he's explained that he's feeling strange bc he was so sure Jesper wouldn't want anything more with him, there's silence. It's only when Jesper starts to back away, when he seems hurt by the idea that Wylan doesn't think Jesper would like him, that the music picks up. And I love this so much because throughout this entire scene, Wylan is interacting with the music. As if he can hear it. Jesper floats along it, fitting everything so perfect within pauses, but Wylan actually feels it. Like each little violin arco pull or harp chord is another thought in his head.

So here: the music starts. Just gentle harp for now (I think that's a harp. Or something of the variety. I'm gonna be so embarrased if it's just like an acoustic guitar or smth). And Jesper backs up, hurt, and Wylan realizes oh shit wait this actually means something to him, I've just hurt him, I have to fix this. I need to clarify. Let him know it's not like I wanted to leave, but "better to cut my losses." (and my god I love Jack Wolfe's little "I... huuuuuh" that he gives like I love it so much it's so awkward and accurate like Wylan has so much he wants to say but can't figure out how to actually get it out right).

And we keep with this pattern, just gentle (almost melancholic) harp chords of one two three four pause... one two three four pause... BUT IT'S A SORT OF ARPEGIO. BC once Jesper says "my reputation isn't entirely unfounded," the camera pans back to Wylan for the next set of notes that reach a little higher, a little different, little more noticeable. And with this frame, we get a nod and a small smile (not reaching his eyes, ofc, Wylan seems to smile as a signal a lot more than in genuine) -- this feels like confirmation to him. He's correct, his assumptions from that night are valid. Someone like Jesper wouldn't want anything more (from someone like him).

Then we stay on Jesper again, how he likes "the gamble of Barrel life" (sobbing for Wylan thinking that Jesper won't like him anymore when he finds out that Wylan isn't "Barrel life" (not really, he thinks. Not like the rest of them). We even get the more overt and dramatic lil "yeah there you go, ofc, I get that" hand motion with another nod and smile before he avoids Jesper's gaze (and the camera) again by walking off to the end of the table. He's put more distance despite being more accessible now; they're not looking across from each other anymore. Jesper has to move to keep engaging.

And he doesn't at first. He lets his eyes follow Wylan, but then drops them again shortly as he thinks on it all. He's losing Wylan here, he knows it. He needs to change this pattern up before Wylan disappears into that quite chord progression entirely. "I may very well have left you first..." Wylan looks up again, smiles and nods, still tinkering away. He's trying to engage the conversation but only as little as possible. He wants this over with, he's got his confirmation. It's all up to Jesper now.

AND OH BOI DOES JESPER TAKE THAT CHANCE.

He starts walking towards him. "But that..."

Wylan stills, looks back at him, shakes his head and looks back down. Like for a moment it was maybe maybe maybe then pushing that hope back down bc that can't be what this is.

"...was before I got to know you." THE "what wtf hold on" ON WYLAN'S FACE IM SCREAMING. THE HARP IS STILL ALONE, HE'S STILL NOT TRUSTING IT. HE'S LISTENING BUT WON'T DARE ENGAGE YET. HE NEEDS MORE.

"I can't make you any promises." VIOLIN!!!!

"Or predict what might happen between us" VIOLINNNN!!!

"But I can tell you that..." quieter violin as Jesper hesitates

Wylan realizing oh shit oh shit oh shit right along with that muddled lower violin arco note mixed with the harp chord. It's not clean like the others. The harp is catching up to the violin.

"I'd like to find out." Another weird chord (forgive me im tired and can't tell if it's an accidental or just a deviation entirely into another key but it sounds like a different key for a sec) with the harp and a beat of silence. Then the violin follows it...

AND WYLAN SMIRKS. LIKE I SWEAR TO GOD THIS WHOLE POST STARTED BC WHEN I FIRST WATCHED THIS SCENE ALL I COULD THINK OF WAS HOW IT LOOKED LIKE WYLAN REACTS TO THAT VIOLIN NOTE AFTER JESPER SAYS HE WANTS TO TRY SOMETHING MORE WITH HIM. He hides his face from Jesper, and it hits him with the arco note. The guy he likes actually likes him back. This incredible, cool, gunslinger that has his back and doesn't care or judge him for his quirks also actually likes him. more than friendship, more than sex, there's another shared thing here. Wylan can be more. But the harp here slows down, a ritardando only it actually feels the effects of bc the violin has already done its job. Jesper is worried now, he's said what he said and all he can do is hand control over to Wylan.

and then ofc my favorite "hey bro pls respond" like after that arco note that seems to be just for Wylan, like it's his own lil secret realization music, Jesper sits in silence (literally, there's only ambient background, no more actual notes) and when Wylan realizes he hasn't actually responded, that Jesper also needs confirmation, dear god he's gonna give it to him.

But the music doesn't start up again once Wylan begins to walk (run. Like he's sprinting into this kiss) to Jesper, it starts again when Jesper realizes what Wylan's doing. That he's responding. And he's responding very positively.

Now the violin is confident, steady, forceful. There's no more of that careful sliding on the bow, this is borderline staccato. And it's joining the harp. THEY'RE PLAYING TOGETHER NOW!!! THEY'VE CAUGHT UP!!!!!!! Like they've literally caught up, the two characters and instruments melting together in a new melody of the same key but with energy and passion and giddy joy. IT'S LIKE FIREWORKS, LIKE A GUNSHOT.

Then the roaring ocean, violin switching from a long-short combo to straight 16th notes fast and ready and dear god I love it. There's still that whisper of the more hesitant violin in the background, but the faster one is taking control of the piece now. It knows what it wants, has a clear direction. And saints, if that doesn't perfectly mirror Wylan in this scene. This music piece is a beautiful conversation not just between the two characters (and respective separate instruments) but also with that haunting past Wylan carries with his confidence. He knows his worth, knows he's useful. He just can't think that others would recognize this as well. A violin is not a gentle instrument (I'm sorry, but there's a reason I chose the cello). It's higher pitches are harsher, sharper. It can be beautiful, yes, but it can never have that subtlety of a cello or viola (at least lower strings of a viola). The violin is the 1st chair, the main melody carrier, the gem of the orchestra. Sure you need the others, but everyone knows the violin. Wylan knows his worth to a sharp, unsubtle point. But he hangs back like a 2nd violin position -- letting someone else take the reigns until he finally has the space (the safety) of exploding (hehe) into sound. He trusts Jesper now. Wylan's gonna play with the force of his bombs now.

At least until Jesper learns about his history. Which, I think might be another reason why we still have that 2nd violin position sound even at the end. He's encouraged, but he knows there's something he's still gotta hide. And it won't be pretty when it all spills out.

TLDR: the music nerd obsesses over the fictional music nerd way more than anyone asked for (which is at all. no one asked for this. why do I keep doing music-based metas. because I love them and can't sleep until I do them that's why). Wylan is a violin apparently but he can't decide whether he's playing along with the cellos/violas or if he's taking the reigns and filling that conductor's right-hand man spot (is it the right side? hold on. wait shit no it's the conductor's left side. whatever. that 1st chair violin thing that's really special but idc bc Im a cellist and my director switches our section arrangements all the time to play with sound). Also apparently Jesper is a harp which does kinda make sense considering it's a pizzicato sound and Jesper is very ticky ticky like most of the soundtrack songs he's in the scenes of have some kind of ticking. so,,,,,,,

#shadow and bone netflix #shadow and bone s2 spoilers #sab s2 spoilers #s&b s2 spoilers #wylan hendriks #wylan van eck #wylan van sunshine #jesper fahey #wesper #wylan x jesper #jesper x wylan #six of crows #soc #music meta #soundtrack #ost #I will never stop obsessing over soundtracks in media and how they and the film crew understand so much more about the show than producers #sometimes #most of the time #look they don't have much to work with. their whole job is to take abstract and make ppl feel smth specific with it #I am sad about the lack of crow songs actually listed on the spotify album for s1 and s2 #like i know there are some really cool dRaMatiC MuSic moments with the crows #but give those moments credit aaaaaaah #I would listen to that music when pekka searches for alby so many times. it's so good and such a perfect example of character foils #like with what pekka means to kaz and what alby means to wylan and those foils on their ends and THEN the foils of kaz and wylan just #my god im gonna write another post #not now though. it's 3am #mutuals i am so sorry

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