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aphrodite-would-be-proud · 3 years

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I just read the Erwin date scenarios and it’s so hood AGH could you please do one for armin? Plz 😚

You read my mind👀 ngl I think about Armin each time I write something for Erwin, despite them being alike i like to compare the differences and think they have different tastes and love languages.

Erwin strikes me a more act of services and gift giving guy while Armin would definitely go for words of affirmation and quality time.

Type of dates with Armin PT.1 {pt.2 in masterlist}

{ Armin x reader | tw: none | fluff, romance | modern }

{ "in bloom" by Abbott Fuller Graves 1859–1936 }

Ideal dates : these are dates he plans up ahead, makes sure they go smoothly and you're both are having fun. He really looks forward to these dates, they're like an event for him. He saves them up for important occasions like your anniversary, valentine's day, birthday, etc.

1. Spending a full day on the beach: when i say a full day I mean it, he's driving you there really early in the morning while you're struggling to stay awake in the passenger seat. He doesn't even need coffee he's running on 100% pure determination and will.

You'd arrive before anyone there, to get the best spot of course. It's close enough to the sea that you can feel the humidity of the water in the air, yet far enough from the rest of the beach that other people won't bother you.

He'd understand if you were too sleepy to help him set things up, he'd just kiss your forehead before letting you go back to sleep, promising he'll get you something to drink when the stores open.

You wake up to the smell of your favourite hot drink, just around 8am. The sun is up and the air is refreshing, you can hear the quiet chatter of people far away just arriving here. You sip your drink as Armin guides you to the small comfortable space he made, proudly showing off his work.

Please praise him and give him a kiss on the cheek, he will melt.

The rest of the day is spent with you two swimming lazily in the water, feeling the warm sunlight on your skin. Collecting whatever pretty seashell you see, using some to decorate the sandcastle Armin built with you. He takes a pictures of you at seemingly random moments, he promises to show you when he devolps them later.

You help him dry his hair afterwards, he take you to get ice cream. Despite getting you one too, he still ends up sharing his own with you, and if you're up for seconds he'd happily oblige.

When night falls and the people began leaving, the waves of the ocean get a little higher, wind turning colder. Don't worry, Armin thought about that, that's why he brought blankets.

He'd wrap you both in the same one, even holding you close to him, it's for warmth he says and yet he seems like he was looking forward for this. You help him in making a small bonfire, he brought marshmallows.

The rest of the night is spent with you laying against him while huddled in a blanket, looking at the heavens above and the constellation of the stars.

He takes your hand in his, guiding your finger to where polaris is. "It never changes" he says "no matter what" and from that star, he guides you through the formation of the little dipper.

Just right under it, directly under the polaris, begins the big dipper, a close replica to its little sister.

You spend hours like this, looking at the stars as new formations come and go with the time. You were early enough to catch Aries as it was leaving, pleiades, the seven sisters shining brightly next to it.

And just after midnight it was Sirius turn to say goodbye. That's when both of you decided to call it a night, he hugged you close to him, you could feel his heartbeat slowing down, he was oh so warm and tasted just like chocolate and marshmallows when you kissed goodnight.

2. Going on an adventure and trying new things: Armin has the need to try new things and gain new experiences, despite being someone who prefers small groups of friends and getting lost in a book than socialising. It's something that's been a part of him since he was a child, he wants to experience what the world has to offer and won't say no despite how utterly terrifying it can be to him.

And he wants to have those experiences with you, to share his love for the unknown with you, to see your reactions and share his own thoughts. The only thing that's better than going on adventures to him is going on adventures with you.

An adventure could be anything really, it could be going diving underwater or going to that creepy looking supermarket that never closes, you never know. An adventure is an adventure after all. The possibilities are endless.

So don't be surprised when he asks for you to go with him sky diving for his birthday despite knowing how terrfied he is of heights and how even a carnaval ride can make him sick.

Good or bad he doesn't care, he just wants to try and learn everything. He's full of curiosity and surprises that you'd never get bored, although a good thing about him is that he never is unprepared.

Yes he will take you on seemingly dangerous adventures but know that he really deeply thought about this before hand and is prepared for all the different scenarios that could happen, he likes the unknown but he's smart and cautious on how to approche it.

Not to mention that a single adventure can leave him satisfied for a long time before craving a new rush, probably once or twice a year. Just frequent enough to be something to look forward to but not too frequent that it becomes boring or too repetitive, he manages to keep that balance and walk on that thin line.

3. Hot air ballon ride: just imagine, it's early autumn, the weather is just right to wear those cozy yet good looking clothes, the earth seems like it's turning slower than usual as the trees change colours.

Around sunrise or sunset, both of you are high up in the air, the sun clearly in view with the golden clouds surrounding it. The world managing to look so small yet so vast at the same time.

Armin is wearing his favourite sweater and scarf combo, he's holding your hand in his pocket to keep it warm. It's just you and him isolated from the rest of the world like other people dont exist anymore, and strangely he's okay with that, at peace even.

He brings a camera and captures how the sun reflects in your eyes, how the chilly air makes you rub your hands together for warmth and how utterly breathtaking you look.

Beautiful, gorgeous even, these are the only thoughts in his mind at that moment.

And so Armin made a promise to himself that in the far future, when he wants to be even closer to you, to vow his life to yours, he'd propose on a hot air balloon.

But as much as he likes staying up in the air with you being his angel, the process of booking a ride is much more complicated and time consuming than he originally thought. Meaning he doesn't get to enjoy these rare heavenly moments as he wants to.

He needs to make reservations in advance, not to mention how important it is to choose a trustworthy company. Lastly how rides depend on the weather conditions, needing to reschedule if the weather takes a turn to the worse.

4. Visiting the aquarium or planetarium: he's just a boy with oceans for eyes and stars in his smile, can you really blame him for gravitating towards these places? Or for diving too deep in knowledge about the sky above and sea below?

Whenever the weather is too harsh for a beach trip or the sky is too cloudy for a stargazing night, these two places are his to go backups.

He's memorised the place like the back of his hand, no need for a map. Want to see the shark tanks and how they're doing? He'll take you there and introduce to them and the silly nicknames he gave them. Or how about saying hello to the dolphins who'll show off some moves just for your attention, or maybe you miss seeing the adorable penguins wobble around?

He knows endless facts about each fish kind, he makes it seem so fascinating and the way he phrases the information and coats them in milk and honey makes it impossible for you not to engage.

You both could have a slow with few words spoken walk and it still be as interesting, he'd even make special playlists to listen to while walking around and sharing his earphones.

Meanwhile at the planetarium, sometimes in the early mornings you'd run into kids just arriving for their school trip. Racing each other to the solar system panel and looking in amazement when the stars show begins. You and Armin have a nostalgic feeling when watching them, yet when you look at each other you remember how good it feels like to be grown and have someone special.

You never could get bored of seeing the stars, especially not with Armin.

5. Trying a new kind of art: one time you asked him what does he think the meaning of art is, what even is art?

"Art is communication" he said.

Armin has a deep love and appreciation for all kind of art, from classic oil canvas paintings to old greek sculptures. He doesn't pick a side, he likes both the modren and classic.

Music is art, writing is art and even making pottery is a form of art too. He wants to experience it, not for a need to acolmplish something or to rival Shakespeare, but for a need to communicate his emotions in a more subtle and personal way.

Like a secret language only he can decipher the meaning of, after all he was the one to create it.

Whenever he tries a new form of art, his usual fear of failure and absurdly high expectations actually go out the window. There isn't good and bad art, there's just different levels of communication and different styles.

So to him, the act of bringing you both some watercolours and cotton papers to paint on for a date is incredibly intimate, that's his true feelings and emotions he's showing you. But don't worry, he isn't here to take the whole thing seriously, he's actually playful and mellow most of the time.

Or maybe he'd like to make pottery with you, an excuse to put his hands around yours while sitting intimately close, maybe even give your shoulder a couple kisses while you shape the vase you agreed on making.

The next day, you find the finished vase near the window with a sunflower arrangements inside.

It also could be you two sitting next to each other, working together on a page of an adult colouring book or maybe to each one his own book. He'd hog the color blue most of the time so watch out, and don't lend him yours because he will hog it too.

Or maybe as a fun past time, you'd both attempt to make poetry, expect you're getting more and more drunk on the fruit flavoured beer he brought with him. You had fun laughing while reading what you came up with the next morning.

6. Going fruit picking in summer: it's his favourite way to celebrate the arrival of his favourite season, wear something light, pack some lemonade and go enjoy what mother nature has to offer.

You two would walk around in the fields, he's wearing a straw hat to block the sun, he thinks it looks better on you. Both of you looking at the fruits waiting to be picked, choosing the really unique shaped ones, the colourful ones and the especially delicious looking ones.

You might meet some small friends along the way, like a couple ladybugs that were crawling up Armin's arm. Two butterflies dancing in the air and even a frog that's taking a walk from its lake home nearby.

Going home that day with baskets full of different fruits waiting for your use, Armin and you discuss all the different ways you could use them for, like making delicious smoothies, or maybe saving them for baking a pie or cake. Maybe cutting them in small bites and covering them with different kinds of chocolate, maybe just making a fruits salad to enjoy while Armin reads you a book

Or maybe, maybe just washing them and eating them raw. Yeah that option sounds the most appealing after a day of walking through fields in the sun.

He'd feed you some, push them against your lips and smile when your eyes subtly light up at the sweet taste....maybe a kiss after so he could taste it too?

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scarlets-maximoff · 3 years

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of falling stars and crescent moons

a wandagatha oneshot (also on ao3)

pairing: agatha harkness/wanda maximoff

au - gods and goddesses

word count: 3472

In the beginning, there was nothing.

Nothing, however, was already something and, when the Elder Gods looked upon the blank canvas that one day would become the universe, they saw it was good. Life could be nurtured here, they would say. Their children would gasp excitedly, Papa, papa! Will you make me a star too? Ah, she already was. His little star.

Soon, my child, He would answer softly, bouncing his daughter on his knee.

And then, in the blink of an eye and a whispered command-

Nothing became everything.

An explosion. The Big Bang, some of the Elder Gods liked to call it.

Light flashed in unimaginable directions. Colorful waves of matter spread across space with unrestricted power and every once in a while the Gods would hear their rumble reverberating as thunders in the sky. All that was necessary for life to flourish was already coming together.

Nebulas and constellations now decorated the universe like splashes of paint on a black canvas. Stars colliding and galaxies being formed. Upon seeing part of their hearts and souls coloring their creation, the Gods rejoiced. Their creation was good.

But something was missing.

The universe couldn't be left barren. It was not made for that. What was the point of it all if not for life to be created and appreciated? To be lived? They needed a place where life could bloom and grow in all its glory. From birth till death. Where all creatures could exist.

So, hand in hand with one another, the Gods closed their eyes and imagined their second creation: the Earth. A small blue planet, born from the fire and blossoming under divine light. But darkness still lingered there, hiding just beneath the myriad of clouds and thunder. No living beings could settle in such an inhospitable environment.

He looked down on his child clinging to his legs. His beautiful Wanda. Running his fingers through her hair, he knew a decision had to be made.

"My darling, Papa needs to tell you something." His voice was deep but soothing and it reached the little girl's ears as if it were a breeze. She glanced up at him with curiosity gleaming in her eyes.

"Yes, Papa?"

"You're my light, Wanda. You always have been and always will be. But this world needs you to shine on them. To guide them when darkness looms over their heads." Tears threatened to fall but He stood strong. A little hand grasped his in a surprisingly firm hold.

He pulled her up in his arms with a choked sob.

"You need to be their sun, little one." The girl tried to wiggle out of his embrace such was the excitement she felt. "I'll make you a star. Their star."

A tear fell.

Twinkle, little star.

The Sun was created.

—

Wanda sighed dejectedly.

Being the sun goddess was total, utter boredom. She had to wake up early every day to shine on those hideous living beings down on Earth—just a bunch of microbes, for dad's sake— and when nighttime came, there was no one to talk to! Not even a falling star! Asteroids were rude so she didn't even bother with them. It was lonely.

She knew her dad had been right. She knew how important her mission was and how essential for life to exist it was. In spite of all that… Wanda felt unbearably alone. Don't get her wrong, solitude was becoming to her. Even though she was an actual goddess, she only felt like one when she gazed down upon her kingdom. Her planet. And yet-

There was no one by her side. No one to share the sky with her. The days were bright and beautiful; the nights, dark and rueful. And it's been like that for the past 4 billion years. Wanda's lips trembled at the sudden realization.

4 billion years on her own. What kind of existence is that?

When the first tear fell, others soon followed. The night was silent if not for the sorrowful cries of the Sun. Up there, in the starry sky, the morning star wept. For her loneliness. For her family that wasn't there. For her heart, which thundered inside of her just like the rain that fell down on Earth. That night, Wanda prayed.

Her dad didn't talk to her much anymore. Until that moment, she hadn't tried to reach out either. There were no hard feelings between them—'Tis the right thing to do, my daughter— but after years of isolation, they grew apart. Or maybe, she just drifted away from him. A lost star in the endless void of the universe. How fitting.

Still, she prayed. A desperate plea from a chilling heart.

"Father-" Her fiery red hair fell like a curtain around her face. Shoulders heaving with each sob. "Please. Please, leave me alone no more, for I cannot bear it any longer. You said I would shine and bring light to this world. What world, Father?" Between sobs, Wanda screamed at the sky above. Each tear sizzled as they touched her skin. "How can I shine so brightly if there's no one to see me, dad? N-no one to share my light with?" Wanda, the morning star. Lost star. Dimming star.

Twilight in the sky.

From above, her creator observed the scene regretfully. How much He ached to be with her. To hold his daughter again. In an attempt to right what was wrong—Listen to my prayers, Father!— He waved his hand in a difficult motion, eyes swimming in tears that had yet to fall. As you wish, darling one.

"Let there be the Moon."

—

Bleary-eyed, the Moon rises.

What is she doing up there in the sky? It's quiet but eerily so. No star is close enough for her to speak with, only capable of seeing their light from afar. Glancing down, she notices her hands. They are pretty hands. Long fingers stained purple—why purple?— and pale skin. Agatha can almost see the little blood vessels underneath.

It is then that she notices her surroundings. The night is a lilac sky with drops of light in it, planets a million miles away and stars shining so brightly her eyes sting. Agatha herself is glowing. Or rather, reflecting the glow. There is a woman on the horizon. It's too far for Agatha to see what she looks like, but even from far away, she can see how much she shines. A beacon in the dark. Warmth sweeps through her in gentle waves. It comes from the woman too.

In a bout of courage, the Moon waves at her. She has no idea if it will work, given how bright is the space between them. She tries. There's something magnetic in this woman as if she was the Sun and Agatha, the satellite stuck in its orbit. But isn't that exactly what they are? And suddenly, as if heaven itself had illuminated her mind, she realizes that she is the Moon.

Agatha, Goddess of the night and the dark.

Lost in her thoughts, she doesn't notice the Sun wiping away her tears, nor does she hear the surprised gasp the other woman erupts. Father listened!

"Hello?" Wanda calls out, confusion present in her tone. Dark hair flails wildly as Agatha focuses her gaze on her. She is so beautiful, the redhead thinks as she watches her from afar. Raven black mane of lustrous hair gently falling down on lean shoulders; pale, almost silver skin catching the light coming from Wanda in a soft glow. A reflection. Not quite her mirror but her opposite. This is the Moon in all her glory.

“You there!” She has to shout if she wants the other to hear it. “I’m the Sun. Or Wanda, if you prefer.” The star feels ridiculous shouting at someone who’s so far away, almost unreachable in the night sky. “What is your name?” A hopeful smile lights up her face by the time she finishes.

“I’m Agatha, dear.” The Moon smiles back. “Charmed to make your acquaintance. Now, is there any way we can meet up without all this screaming?” As if to make a point, Agatha puts a hand around her own throat. “Give a break to these vocal cords, ya know?” If she squinted her eyes just a bit, Wanda would see a teasing smile gracing the woman’s lips. However, having heard what she’d said, the Sun laughed merrily.

Thank you, Dad.

They talked the night away. What was once a sorrowful evening quickly became a cheerful night. However, when dawn starts to break, Wanda notices the Moon beginning to fade away. She tries to shine brighter, stronger in her light, desperation clutching her heart at the prospect of being alone again.

“Agatha,” The Sun is set ablaze. “Will I see you again?” The Moon is almost gone now. Giving up her place in the sky for the sunlight to shine. It would be poetic if it weren’t for the pain in her chest. How come the Moon missed her already?

“Darling, you’re the center of the universe.” Her voice is but a gentle whisper in the forenoon. Despite the distance, Wanda can hear it as if it had been whispered right by her ear. “Wherever you go, I follow.” And with sad blue eyes and a wistful smile, the moon Goddess disappears in the aurora.

—

173 days had passed since their first and only conversation. For some reason, on each night they shared, it became harder and harder for them to hear one another. And each time the Sun had to see her friend disappear in the sky, she took a little piece of her heart with her. She knew she was being dramatic. And if Agatha were here she would probably make fun of her too. Now, did she care? No, she didn't.

Wanda yearns for the Moon. Craves her soothing voice and cheeky remarks. Teasing smiles and soft eyes. The Sun felt seen under her gaze. After billions of years with only herself as company, the sun Goddess can't help but feel attached to her. Even though moths still didn't exist and she was the actual flame, Wanda was attracted to the moonlight just the same.

A little voice, however, just hidden in the confines of her mind, tells her that there was a purpose to this. This distance that they always try to close but never do. Yearning for someone she could never hold in her arms. Maybe this is just another way for Father to punish me again, Wanda thinks bitterly. She'd never been so wrong before. This was no punishment.

It was salvation.

Brooding up in the sky, the Sun hadn't noticed when night started to fall. Nor had she noticed when—instead of the Earth blocking her vision of the Moon—the object of her thoughts suddenly appeared right in front of her.

It's during a solar eclipse when they meet for the first time.

"Agatha? Is it really you?" Jumping to her feet from where she sat, Wanda feels her heart skip a beat. Nothing could compare to the Moon up close.

"It is. Come here so I can see you, darling!" A delighted smile curls on dark red lips. The goddess reaches up to softly cradle Wanda's face, a thumb brushing the warm skin of her cheek. "You're really here…"

The redhead leans into the touch. "I am. You have no idea how much I wanted to see you, Agatha. To talk to you eye to eye." The black-haired woman revels in the way green orbs gleam under her light. Their light. "To touch you." Hands to her hips pulls her closer. The Moon buries herself in those arms. It feels like being hugged by the Sun but literally this time. She giggles at her own silliness. A husky voice laughs along.

"Why are you laughing?" Wanda whispers in the crook of her neck. Agatha gives a small intake of breath, and her laughing subsides.

"I just realized the Sun is hugging me. A strange metaphor, don't you think?"

"Perhaps. Do you want me to-"

"No!" Agatha says, startling them both. She speaks quieter, "No. S-sorry, I'm just too silly for my own good. Comes with loneliness, I guess." She gives a bit of a laugh but her gaze finds the ground. A finger under her chin lifts it up.

"Hey," A soft smile spreads across the Sun's face. "It's okay. Maybe we could be silly together?" And as if to emphasize her point, she makes a silly face. Agatha can't help the guffaw that comes out. They laugh together again.

Hand in hand, they walk through the night sky. Talking about everything and nothing, they discover little things about each other, such as Agatha's liking for the sea and her influence on the tides, or Wanda's love for early mornings and summer evenings. Both women feel at home with each other, their past sorrows all but forgotten memories in their minds. Day and night. Light and darkness.

Total eclipse of the Sun.

—

It didn't take long for them to realize that they only had time to meet in person during eclipses. Solar ones, in fact. As such, whenever they got the chance, the two goddesses would always try to get the best out of the few hours they had together. Today is no different.

It was also in each other's company that they discovered the ability to incarnate themselves. In their human forms—Dad needs to create them soon—they would head down to their shared planet and take walks on the small patches of land they could find.

They're laying side by side on the ground. "Dear gods, Wanda, whatever those poor things have done to you? It's just phytoplankton," Between giggles, Agatha tries not to let a full laugh come out as she watches Wanda turn and glare at her, the redhead's own lips twitching as if she too were having a hard time not laughing. "Why do you despise them so?" Agatha is actually curious about that.

"They're just so bland! Father said that He would create mankind when I was little but apparently He forgot." She says grumpily but with a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Photosynthesis is the only thing they do all day. Not to mention under my account too!" Wanda puts on a serious face for a few moments, only for it to fall away as the twinkling laughter of her Moon hits her ears. It occurs to her, like a flash of lightning, how beautiful Agatha looks under the penumbra.

Their human forms came with the inability to display their god-like features, which was why Wanda didn't shine as the actual sun and Agatha didn't reflect her rays.

She is glad for it, really. Mortality looks heavenly on her Moon.

"You're a goofball!"

"Am not!"

"Yes, you are!" Agatha turns fully on her side, arms under her head and tenderness coloring her ocean eyes. Her gaze trails over the woman beside her. Without thinking, her hand finds Wanda's. Their laughter ceases to give space to a companionable silence. There's no need for words right now.

Despite knowing each other for months now—It feels like I've known her for years, they both think—it's at this very moment the goddesses realize how important and vital the other's presence is in their lives. Wanda found a friend in Agatha, something she had longed for as long as she could remember. Solace and understanding the foundation of their budding relationship. Yet, a flame started inside of her chest. It was small at first, barely there. A candle in the dark. Now?

Fire overtook her entire being.

The Sun burns for the Moon's touch and her smile; her azure eyes and sharp tongue, quick wit and soft words-

Wanda, the sun Goddess. The only morning star. The lost star. Once dimming but never giving out. Enters the Moon and she falls. A falling star in the dark night sky. And woe is Wanda, for she hopes Agatha catches her. Never to fade away. Never to let go.

"Wanda?" The hand Agatha holds trembles slightly. "Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine, I'm just- it's nothing, really." There are tears in her eyes but she wills them not to fall. She is my only friend, I can't lose her for this-

"Honey, don't do this. I know there's something upsetting you. I won't force you to talk to me but know that I'm here, Wanda. I'm not going anywhere." She pulls her hand away to run her fingers through soft auburn hair. The Sun feels fire spread within.

"Promise we can still be friends?" Never in her life had she felt so insecure. But she had to know.

"Darling, how could I not be your friend? You're my sun, superstar. But yes, I promise you." Agatha tried to joke around to see if she could bring a smile to the woman's face. It is to no avail.

Wanda rests a warm hand on her cheek. Caresses the skin just beneath her eyes, brushes her nose. Ghosts over lips. With each touch, Agatha's heart plummeted in her chest. A crescent moon, thundering core.

"I've always wanted to be a star. When the Gods created the universe, I was there. I've seen things you can't even imagine. Whole galaxies colliding with each other, the death of a million stars." She closes her eyes briefly, and her voice cracks as she continues. "And when I became one, I felt completely happy. Excited even. I was to shine upon a whole world, the entire solar system. And yet… I was lonely. I was alone for so long, Agatha. But then- Then you came along. I prayed for someone, anyone to come and put me out of my misery.

My light was going out but you brought it back. You are my light, Agatha. You're the reason I still burn and will continue to burn until the end of time itself, if it means you're by my side." By the time she finishes, tears have long started falling. And by the time they fall, the Moon has already pulled the Sun into her embrace.

Black nails into her scalp. Murmured words of comfort in her ear.

The Sun sets and lays in her chest.

"Remember that thing I said on the day we met?" She waits for Wanda to nod, her mane of red hair tickling Agatha's nose. "Wherever you go, I follow. That's the truth, Wanda. Not only am I incapable of getting away from you, I also don't want to. And do you know why?" Green eyes red with crying look up at her. "Because I can't bear the thought of not being with you. The very prospect of not seeing you shine so brightly in the sky saddens me so much that-" Her voice chokes. "That sometimes I can't breathe. But when morning comes and you're up there in the sky being your sunny self," They both laugh tearfully. "I feel alive. You make me feel alive, Wanda."

It doesn't really matter who leans in first.

Day and night find each other's lips in a searing kiss. Wanda might have witnessed many things in her long life, but never had she seen the collision of a satellite and its star. What a spectacle it was. Lucky her for having the pleasure to participate in it.

They are a mess of limbs curling into one another. Not once separating from their kiss, Wanda manages to straddle Agatha with dexterity, her hands pining those of the woman to the hard surface. Tongue against tongue in an elegant and passionate dance. Total eclipse of the Sun, full Moon its only spectator.

Then, coming from the heavens above, a deep rumble sounded.

"No." A whispered command. Father had come back.

And the falling star and her crescent moon were no more.

—

Wanda opens her eyes with a silent gasp.

Sunlight hits her face lazily as if it had just woken up as well. Agatha sleeps by her side. Looking out, she sees the snowy mountain tops and the woods that surrounded their cabin being grazed by the morning sun.

Her girlfriend murmurs something in her sleep the younger witch can't quite comprehend. Trying to calm her rabbit-heart, Wanda pulls her closer and breathes into her hair. Feels her own breathing slow down. It was just a dream, it was just dream-

"Well, good morning, sunshine." Violet eyes hazy with sleep slowly blink at her. A soft smile on red lips. "What's with the long face?" Agatha taps her nose. The warm breeze coming from outside suddenly feels too hot.

Too much.

"Nothing, I- I just had the strangest dream…"

Up in the sky, the Sun wept.

#wandavision #wandagatha #wanda maximoff #agatha harkness #wandavision au #fics #moon writes

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pinkhairedlily · 3 years

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Last Summer Into the Beginning

Chapter 3 of The Spring He Came Back | 3 of 12

“What does he want me for?” Hitsugaya’s arms were on his hips, and he huffed indignantly at the man in front of him. The professor’s height was like two Hitsugayas stacked on top of each other or two and a half.

Hinamori knew of him. Dr. Byakuya Kuchiki. He secured sequential federal funding for the development of the town, allowing the rise of laboratories, science museums, and research centers on the south hinterlands. He was responsible for the libraries with extensive catalogues in every major district. He was the reason why outsiders gave a moniker to their locality – Soul Society. A-lister faculty and a select roster of students who routinely undergo rigorous training and internships were called soul, figuratively referring to them as “souls of knowledge.”

Members of the core circle of the Soul Society were not selected through the usual entrance exams in regular schools. Present faculty personally chose them or through trusted referrals within their networks. While it was not their intention, this fostered rift across social factions. The rich, the elite, those with well-known family names, and those who have entered competitions were the ones mostly invited. Not the homeless. Not those in the remote, rural parts of the town. Not their kind. So why did he want to bring Hitsugaya to the academy?

“Did you do something wrong, Toushirou?” Hinamori almost yelled. For some reason, her voice was quaking. The implication of the professor’s visit gave her tremendous uncertainty. Hitsugaya defiantly shook his head at her.

Baba placed reassuring hands on Hitsugaya’s shoulders. “Well, you did something that caught Dr. Kuchiki’s interest. Do you want tea, Professor?”

“No thanks, Ma’am. I would like to go straight to the point of my visit.” The professor stepped into the shade of the large camphor tree and ushered Hitsugaya closer. “Now then, would you like to tell me why my thesis calculations were wrong?”

“Shirou!” Hinamori yelled at him. He wrote on the pages despite her warning.

“I cannot ignore it!” He yelled back.

Apparently, the book was the only copy of Dr. Kuchiki’s graduate thesis. The head librarian called the academy to relay the news when they returned the book. How they found their residence must have took a lot of asking on the ground. Hitsugaya explained why he thought the results were wrong. Hinamori felt she was unable to follow him into uncharted territory. The two continued to exchange theories with the professor trying to resolve that, indeed, there were two answers to his research experiment, and no one determined the other one until Hitsugaya. With a hint of satisfaction on his face, Dr. Kuchiki turned to Baba and started to explain his offer to take the kid to the academy.

“His intellect is one of a kind, but his manners and attitude need further honing. He will be a good candidate in the academy,” the professor said. “You need not provide for him. The academy will shoulder everything – his accommodations, food and book allowance, research grants, and a monthly allowance that will be comfortable for a family of ten. This is usually the incentive amount demanded by the other students.”

Hitsugaya’s eyes widened at the figures. Money enough for a family of ten. “That’s….a lot.”

“Well, I believe the decision is up to Hitsugaya himself.” Baba’s eyes twinkled at the newfound genius.

“We will be expecting you at the academy in the coming winter. If you don’t show up, we will take that as your refusal and will cease contact with you or your family members.” Dr. Kuchiki gave a small bow to Baba before leaving.

Baba squealed in delight and ruffled the kid’s silver hair. “I’m gonna prepare fancy meals for us. Who would ever thought Momo’s watermelon would help me pick up a genius kid?” Her laughter rang in the compound.

“But Baba- I’m not even sure if I will accept,” Hitsugaya pouted. “I don’t want to leave you alone with bed-wetter Momo.” That earned him a slap to the back of his head.

“Your attitude really needs honing!” Hinamori echoed Kuchiki’s words, but she didn’t feel the need to celebrate.

That evening after Baba settled down for an early sleep, they escaped to the hill. The moon and stars were fully out in the clear, night sky. Fireflies were illuminating the foothills, green specks of summer dancing in the dark.

Hinamori was resting on the grass, her eyes immediately identifying all the constellations in an effort to not hear Hitsugaya’s words.

“I think I will take up the offer of that grumpy doctor,” he said with a grass tip between his lips. “You’ll probably be happy without me around, huh? No annoying presence at all. You can go to the library anytime without tagging me! No additional laundry or extra food! Hah, think about that Momo!”

His laugh irritated her. “Of course, I’ll be happy! If you can go away soonest, why not?” She wasn’t entirely sure if she was truly relieved.

“Besides, I’ll have enough to give Baba money. She won’t have to work in farms anymore. You can buy everything you need in the market. You can even move closer to the town complex!” Hitsugaya smiled wistfully. “Baba’s life would be much easier. I won’t be your additional burden anymore.”

“You know Baba, Shirou. She’ll never relocate, and she’ll never accept your money.” When clouds started to appear and covered the moon, she stole a glance at his face. The glow from the fireflies accentuated the hard lines. She realized he has been through so much, being thrown out at a young age with his survival threatened daily. He deserved to have the security that the academy offered, but he wasn’t smiling anymore. “She never treated you as a burden. She took you in because she wanted to.”

So that was what he was thinking all along. Hinamori sighed. She never thought Hitsugaya would hide those kinds of emotions behind his strong and sometimes irritated façade. She presumed he was more of a wear-your-heart-on-your-sleep kind of kid.

“Well, should I leave, Momo?” Sometimes, he was exactly this kind of kid. “There’s a part of me that wants to stay and continue living with you and Baba. We’ll always have the library anyway.”

“Why do you need my approval?” Hinamori chuckled at his question. “Aren’t I the most annoying person in your life?”

She got silence on his end. The fireflies were trailing upwards, as if reaching for the stars and sharing their velvet canvas.

“Because you’re my family, and I care for you. So my question is, do you care for me too?”

She was thankful for the darkness because she didn’t want him to see her smile. She never truly answered his question that night despite his nagging. The summer passed by quickly with the finale culminating with a watermelon eating contest. Hitsugaya won, having finished five whole fruits. That also earned him several trips to the toilet.

Autumn followed suit. With the day of his leaving becoming imminent, Hitsugaya rushed to gather the most number of firewood he can to keep the cold at bay in the compound. They spent the remaining days making jam and stocking up their pantry for times they cannot harvest from nearby farms. On his last day, Hitsugaya requested all three of them to sleep together in Baba’s room.

Baba was the fastest to get knocked out. She was also a heavy sleeper so it was easy to always slip out for their nightly conversations, but Hinamori and Hitsugaya preferred to stay with her tonight.

“I’m happy Baba took me in.” Hitsugaya was on the other side of Baba so she really cannot see the display of expressions on his face. “This was a happy home.”

“Silly. You only stayed less than a year here.” It was true. He arrived just short of spring and will be leaving soon. A full cycle of seasons. It was that short.

“And it was more than enough,” he replied. For all the years he was alone. “You know I’ll always sneak out and still go here, right?”

“You dumbass. They might revoke your scholarship. The academy is strict.”

“Well, won’t you come and follow me?”

“I’m not born genius.”

“You taught me how to read, Momo. That’s more than genius.”

“Well, my brain isn’t exactly wired the same way as yours, you know.”

“I’ll sneak out. Wait for me in the daffodil meadow at the end of every three months.”

“Won’t.”

“I’ll bring you watermelon.”

“Won’t.” A beat and a two. Maybe.”

“I’ll still see you and Baba, Momo. Nothing will ever change.”

But everything will change. “Hmm.”

“So, aren’t you going to answer my question? You still have until dawn.”

Hinamori was barely a teen, but her sad history of being orphaned and facing uncertainties daily made her learn that if anything was a constant in this world, it will be change. No matter how they fight against the hands of time and fate, the gears will continue turning. It will only benefit those who move with it. She will not be responsible for stopping his gears from turning.

She reached out her arm, wanting to snuggle against Baba, the only familiar comfort she knew will stay for a long time. Her fingers lightly landed on top his hand. She waited a bit, wondering if he’ll stir or remark on how she was intruding his space.

“Don’t go,” she whispered, but he was already fast asleep. The next day, on the first day of winter, Hitsugaya left the compound.

NEXT CHAPTER | 4 OF 12 | GREAT EXPECTATIONS

#hitsuhina #toshiro hitsugaya #hitsugaya toshiro #hitsugaya #momo hinamori #hinamori momo #bleach #bleach couples #is this what you call angst #fanfiction #anime fanfiction #TSHCB

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hollywoodx4 · 4 years

Text

The Dress

Yes hello I’m apparently not done writing about the wedding, I have a lot of soft feelings. Also, Annika and I are meeting tomorrow and I still can’t even believe it, so have a fic to celebrate. -Danielle

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They’ve come on a Sunday morning, Orpheus and Eurydice, to the tiny house on a large plot of land. It’s a lazy sort of day, the drive out calling for old songs on the radio to be sung at full volume, the excitement of the news they have to share on both their lips although Orpheus is sure that their Christmas night won’t be such big news to their audience at all. His Amma’s house feels like a safe-haven; there is an immediate sense of peace when they walk up the path made of mismatched, hand-painted brick, covered in snow that’s been carefully shoveled away. Demeter greets them with unmatched joy and ushers the young couple in from the cold, taking their coats and scarves and draping them along the wooden banister of the staircase. A baby goat romps around, its hooves clicking on the wood, and Eurydice bends down to pet it with a restrained, confused sort of affection. Orpheus laughs.

“That’s Sunny, the new baby.” It’s half an explanation Eurydice accepts, Demeter calling them from the kitchen and wrapping them both in a tight embrace. She looks over Eurydice with careful eyes and the young girl takes the hint, nodding and placing a hand over her stomach in reassurance. Everything is more than alright.

“We have good news!” Orpheus begins before they can even settle, Demeter bringing them cups of tea. Eurydice holds hers gently, feeling the warmth radiate through her mug. Orpheus sets his immediately on the counter, thanking his grandmother before gesturing to Eurydice with pride.

Eurydice sits at the kitchen island, grinning wildly as Demeter takes her hand, examining the flash of the little diamond against the light. Orpheus rambles animatedly, a truly lively retelling of the night just a few days before; “I didn’t know what was happening-she said she had something to tell me and I thought it might be something bad but I wasn’t sure, I was mostly just nervous. And then she told me she was pregnant, and I know that you knew it-you always know-but isn’t it amazing?”

Eurydice chuckles, shakes her head as she watches Orpheus pace around the kitchen, gathering wildly, stopping only to lay his head on Eurydice’s shoulder. He brushes his cheek against hers, gently wraps his arms around her middle.

“Do you like it, Amma?” Orpheus gestures to the ring, a sort of whispered softness to his voice as he looks at it, in awe himself that it’s on her finger. “I bought it from the guy you said-the one who makes his own bands. He was really nice, he said to tell you hi. He helped me pick it out. I was a little lost, but you were right-I knew when I saw it.”

Demeter feels the warmth of her grandson’s words, the security that comes from Eurydice, who basks quietly in his embrace. The newly engaged couple, bursting with silent, intimate pride over the anticipation of the daughter she can so clearly see in their future, spend a moment suspended in this pose. She shows her approval by nodding, squeezing Eurydice’s hand.

“It’s truly wonderful, Orpheus.”

“And he thinks I’m going to let him ‘replace it with something bigger’ when he can. Tell him he’s crazy, please. This is what I want.”

“While we’re here,” Orpheus blushes, diverting the subject as the positive attention, while welcome, becomes far too encompassing for his humble heart. “I’m going to get the eggs for you.”

He unwraps himself from Eurydice and moves to the kitchen counter to grab an old wicker basket, laying an old cloth in it before stumbling nervously out the door. Demeter watches him go-watches Eurydice grin, looking after his retreating figure as he makes his way toward the coop. It’s a task he’s been at since he was just barely able to walk, when Demeter begged for a chance to watch him. Every Sunday morning they’d come, Persephone and Hermes, toting a wide-eyed Orpheus. He’d spend his time trailing after her, running his hands gently along her rows of crops. He’d pluck cherry tomatoes from the vine as soon as they were ripe, popping them in his mouth and puffing his cheeks out.

Getting the eggs was his favorite job-he’d bend to greet each chicken, the toddler singing songs to them about the names he gave them, or even while he was removing the eggs from their nests. “Thank you for your eggs, thank you for your eggs, hi-ho-dairy-o thank you for your eggs.”

It’s a song Demeter can still see on his lips before his figure retreats past their vantage point.

Eurydice shifts in her seat then, a soft smile still engulfing her features in a beautiful sort of peace. She runs her hand gently through her cropped hair, looks around the kitchen with curiosity at the knick knacks that line the shelves, not unlike the strangely sensical amount that Orpheus keeps in his-their apartment. There are little things-the way she seems to speak with the entirety of her heart, the way she makes Eurydice feel immediately at home-Orpheus is surely a product of her in his own way, there is no denying their similarities.

Demeter moves to the space in front of her, catching her attention as she taps her fingers twice on the counter. It’s a gentle sort of gesture, as most of the older woman’s quirks seem to be. She tilts her head slightly at Eurydice, lets out an involuntary hum.

“Do you have any plans for the wedding yet?”

“Not yet,” Eurydice responds, moving her hand to her unchanged stomach. “We want to wait until after the baby is born, give ourselves some time to adjust to it all. Well, he would get married tomorrow if he had the choice. I want to wait-plan.”

“He’s a rare kind of soul-always has been. I really hope that you know that all of this has made him the happiest he has ever been. He can barely contain himself-if it were his choice, he’d have told everyone he knows by now.”

Eurydice laughs-yes, she knows this. She can feel it in the way he dances around her, wakes up with his arms around her stomach, caressing the invisible changes. She feels it in the way he kisses her good morning; lingering, unwilling to leave her side without trying his hardest to procrastinate. And when he tells her he’s proud of her, leans on the bar and sends her copious amounts of seltzer as she studies, takes frequent breaks to sit beside her and ask how she’s doing…Eurydice is well educated on his kindness, even when she finds it hard to believe that this open, honest love is hers.

“Any ideas for a dress?”

“God no,” she laughs. “The more I think about it, the more I think I should wait. I don’t want to choose something when I know what’s about to happen to my body.”

Demeter shrugs, a dimpled lift of her lips and a lift of her hand.

“Why don’t you try one on right now? Nothing major, just a little something I have laying around. Maybe it’ll give you an idea of what you want.”

Eurydice agrees, takes Demeter’s outstretched hand and follows her up the creaking staircase to a tiny, pantry-sized room holding a sewing machine, baskets of yarn, and curtain rods across the walls to store rows of old clothing. She rifles through the mass of denim and bohemian patterns until she comes across a white dress, sheer fabric mixed with smaller, opaque bits. When she moves it from the rod, holds it up to show it off, Eurydice gasps. Intricately sewn into the difficult fabric is a glimmering gold thread-simple, yet absolutely glowing with the reflection of the sun. They are constellations-gatherings of stars and lines into simple shapes, some she recognizes while others feel foreign and wonderous.

She reaches out a finger to trace the threading, mouth slightly agape in wonder. Demeter watches carefully, prods her once more.

“Just try it on-you never know.”

She does know.

The moment Eurydice feels the fabric on her body, looks down at the mixture of pure white and soft gold, she feels a tug in her chest, a slight skip in her heart. She opens the bathroom door to find Demeter in immediate tears, grabbing her hands and holding her at arm’s length.

“It’s yours. I knew it was yours, but seeing it on you…really, it’s something magical.” Eurydice is at a loss for words. She moves down the hallway, an ethereal being, consumed with the feeling of suspension between reality and a dream. When she finds the full-length mirror, Demeter has begun the same sort of rambling often heard through Orpheus’s lips, although hers is lighter and more controlled.

“I’m not saying that It has to be yours-you can make your own choices. I just felt in my heart while I was working on those constellations that this dress would belong to someone special.”

“You-you made these?”

“I did, a long time ago.”

The day is beautiful; mid-spring, the weather just turning to warmth and continual sunshine. The winter’s snow has long since melted, making way for canvas shoes and well-worn sandals. Birds chirp thankfully, and a few soft clouds paint the sky in picturesque beauty. These days are her favorite; Demeter, who walks with an ambling gait down the old dirt road connecting bits of her small town. There is a purpose, but time is not a battle in this life, merely a reminder of when the day will turn dark and the chickens will need feeding.

The girl, young in the softened features of her face, runs her hand absent-mindedly over her protruding stomach as she reaches the center of town. She isn’t too far away-a spring baby is what she’ll have-the first day, when the earth reaches the point of equity and evenness. Having the comfort of both knowledge and belief in her soul helps the pregnancy pass peacefully helps Demeter connect with the baby that will become her magnificent little girl. It’s been a strange journey thus far; she hadn’t been brushed off by the people in this small community, but she’s been asked, time and time again, exactly what she’s going to do as a single mother.

“Easy,” she’d reply, with her well-known grin of boundless optimism. “I’m going to live.”

Living has been simple-peaceful. In the time since she’s known she was pregnant, Demeter has gotten to know herself as more than a single entity, falling into the path she was meant to take. She feels whole, new. The aching in her bones serve as a reminder to her that this is real-that the yearning and the waiting are about to be repaid in a lifetime of unparalleled love. It helps her move forward, sit with the choice of a life without the family she’d grown up with; the mother back in the city, unwilling to move past her own comfort zone and living to shame her for making the same mistake that she’d made. But living this pregnancy at nineteen years old is not a mistake to Demeter-neither is her move to the rural town, or the new command over the tiny farm she’s learning to manage through her nana’s thorough journaling.

Today, Demeter walks through town with the confidence she’d gained upon meeting its people, making herself known as someone who enjoys the slower pacing of life. She comes across the same thrift shop she’s frequented since she moved to town-tiny, indistinct apart from the racks of clothing brought outside its entrance, meant to draw people in. Demeter doesn’t need the draw-she finds herself here at least once a week, leafing through clothing and books with careful precision. She chats with the owners-an older couple who’d been good friends with her grandmother and in turn take care of Demeter, her spitting image. When she enters the shop, an overwhelming amount of peace surrounds her. She settles herself in it for a moment, humming softly to the baby in her protruding belly, and begins her journey.

It doesn’t take long for her to find it.

There’s a dress hanging between a woolen trench coat and an old army jacket, a delicate sort of thing against two harsher fabrics. She feels the light weight of chiffon, sheer and magnificent, and holds it between her fingers as if it will break. She brings the dress out to hold it in front of her, examines the way it falls so gently from its hanger. It’s simple-pure white, flowing sleeves and only a slight bit of shape at the waist. Once Demeter holds it in her hands, however, she can’t seem to let it go.

“Found something you like today?” The older woman, with white hair braided behind her head, brings a finger to the dress in her hands.

“There’s something…special about this dress.” She can’t quite place her words, brought to a stunned silence even more so by the simplicity of it all. To her plain eye, it��s just another white dress. But to her heart, there is more within it that she’s yet to place.

“Why don’t you take it?” The shopkeeper grins, closing both her hands over Demeter’s. The young girl’s eyes widen, and she shakes her head. But before she can say much more the dress is folded and placed in her canvas bag, and she’s back outside the shop. “I’m sure you’ll make use of it yet.”

The words of the older woman ring through her mind as she continues her errands, the light weight of the seemingly magical dress feeling heavier with the knowledge that it is there. She stops to gather a few more things; nails for the garden bed, feed for the chickens. When Demeter returns home, she finds a small parcel on her porch-a little box, wrapped in cloth and addressed to her with only a card from her neighbor, thanking her for bringing over a small assortment of her own crop.

“We thought you might be able to make use of this-it doesn’t really have a place in our collection.”

Sitting on the porch, Demeter opens the box to find the sun shining down on some glimmering gold thread-beautiful, unique. It captures the light and keeps it within itself, radiates its warmth. She holds the spool, turns it over in her hands, entranced by the softness of it all. Where it could be a flashy show of overpowering glimmer there is simply a glow about it-something special, something different.

She thinks about the spool of thread as she finishes her day’s work-repairs a row of stakes in the garden, feeds the chickens and collects their eggs. When the day is done her feet are aching, her back pinching from the combined weight of the physical labor and the work of growing a baby. She starts a small fire in the woodstove and makes a cup of tea, reflecting on the day at hand. In her lap, she holds the white dress from the shop; there’s no way it will fit her now, not in this state. Looking at it, she knows that it’s not meant for her-no, this dress is not her style, her taste. But the pull toward it was not mistaken, this she believes in the same way that her soul told her she was meant to have this journey of joyful solitude in the country.

She remembers the gold thread.

Demeter rises from the couch, still feeling the aching in her bones, and gathers her supplies in a peaceful sort of hurry. The day has fallen so neatly into place, so carefully, that she begins to understand that coincidence has only ever been a disguise for truth in her life. So she sits, dress in hand, and threads the gold through a small needle. She decides to begin at the heart, looking around for inspiration.

And there, open on the rickety, hand-made side table next to the couch, is the book she’s been thumbing through, open to the last page she’d been reading before bed the night before.

Demeter finds an immediate release of the soreness of her muscles through this gentle exercise, through the patient work of embroidering tiny stars and lines. She finishes the night by tying off her thread, admiring the handiwork she could still use a bit of practice at. At the heart of the dress, from the inspiration of the latest book she’s gotten from the thrift shop, the Orpheus constellation stands out amongst the white.

“I would love to wear this dress.” It’s an immediate decision; Eurydice turns in the mirror, the gold constellations-more than the Orpheus it had started with-stand out as stories to be told. “Are you serious?”

“Of course I am-it was made for you. I don’t believe that pattern over your heart was put there by accident.”

Eurydice is not one to cry openly-has never been. The show of emotions has been seen only as a sign of weakness throughout her life, and she’d become very good at storing everything away. Since Orpheus, however, that visage has been harder to keep. Whether it’s the feeling of loving and being loved or the hormones within her body, Eurydice finds herself tearing up as she stares at her reflection in the full-length mirror. She can barely look away, doesn’t want to spare a moment away from the reality of it all.

“Demeter, I.”

“-Hush, flower. You know you can call me Amma.”

“Amma,” Eurydice corrects herself, soft alto stumbling over the familial intimacy of the name. “I can’t thank you enough. It’s beautiful.”

The months come and go in a blur; Eurydice is a victim of time, organizing her life with careful detail so that she does not fall behind on any aspect of her work. Demeter lives slowly. The young couple comes to visit once a week, Eurydice taking in every bit of Demeter’s child-birthing knowledge as she attempts to teach her grandson some skills in handiness. She helps Eurydice find her footing; describes birth plans and various options, keeps an honest forum of open questions that the young, occasionally frightened girl uses often.

In the summer, just before Melody is born, Demeter offers her house for a wedding venue.

“It may not be what you’re looking for,” she shrugs, pouring glasses of lemonade for Orpheus and a very pregnant Eurydice. “But it’s home.” They’re sold on this, Demeter bringing up a pad of paper and a pen to draw out ideas for the yard, little ways they can spruce it up to make it fit their needs.

When Melody is born, their weekly visits to Amma’s turn into time spent at their own home, Demeter making the trek into the city to watch lovingly as Eurydice holds her chubby-cheeked daughter in her arms, cradles her and kisses the top of her head, feels that motherly love driving her to keep her eyes trained only on the baby. The older woman talks her through the little things; taking care of herself, making meals to freeze from her latest harvest so they don’t have to worry about cooking. She’s the visitor who stays; who uses her knowledge as a doula to be sure that Eurydice remains physically healthy, who answers her questions with a sort of truth decipherable through her own sort of cosmic, fate-driven speech.

It’s the second Sunday after Melody’s birth that Demeter asks Orpheus to run out and get something at the store-she isn’t even sure what it is, or if they truly need it, but he leaves without a second thought. Demeter sits herself next to Eurydice on the couch-the young mother, not much older than she was when she’d had Persephone, looking exhausted yet bubbling over with love for her child.

“I have something to show you,” She says, pulling the long white dress from inside of her bag. Eurydice gasps; the wonder of the dress she’ll wear in just a few months has not yet worn off-she’s not sure it ever will.

“I’m not going to do any alterations yet, but I did make a little change.” Truthfully, she’d added the masterfully stitched shape a while back, the day that Eurydice had tried the dress on and she’d known the soul of the chubby-cheeked infant still inside of her. She’s stitched it on the hip of the dress, a placement unmistakable to the bond the first of their children will have with Eurydice.

The young girl runs her fingers along the artfully-made constellation, tipping her head in an attempt to understand just what it might mean.

“Leo,” Demeter explains, putting a thin, delicate hand on Melody’s back. “For her. This little one, attached to your hip, the way it was meant to be.”

There’s a moment of silence-of natural pause, adoration as Eurydice fully admires the hard work that has gone into each pull of thread through difficult, sheer fabric. Then, it comes to her-swiftly, easily, somewhat surprisingly against the lack of tradition in her own heart. With this family-with the feeling of love surrounding her without pause-there is no better time to begin honoring the things she never thought she’d have.

“Will you walk me down the aisle?” She’s not unsure of the question, but her past holds back the tone of her voice, mutes it to a wobbling sort of whisper. “Persephone already is, but I just-I think I want everyone to know how much you both mean to me, everything you’ve done for me. I didn’t have a woman to look up to for most of my life. I didn’t get that privilege. Now, I have two. And I want my daughter to live with these examples of women who’ve spent their lives lifting other people up-the women who found me and guided me and let me into their family with open arms. I need Melody to know that her family might seem a little makeshift on the outside, but that you all mean so much more to me than blood ever could.”

Demeter, tiny freckled body and a head full of wild curls, shakes her head yes before wrapping herself around Eurydice and Melody, kissing the cheek of her grandson’s soon-to-be wife and holding the back of her head. This moment-the tender stillness of it all-is something she never saw coming, and something she will never forget.

#hadestownmodern #hadestown #demeter #eurydice #orpheus #orphydice #wedding

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dat-town · 6 years

Text

Made of stardust and moonlight

Characters: space pirate!Sungjin & You

Setting: space au, apocalypse au, kind of soulmate au*

Genre: angst with cheesy happy end

Summary: He lost you and now he’s searching for you in every corner of the universe because he can’t sleep without seeing you in his dreams.

Words: 3.2k

* I combined Koi No Yokan (The sense one can have upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall in love. Differs from “love at first sight” as it does not imply that the feeling of love exists, only the knowledge that a future love is inevitable.) & the Japanese belief that if you can’t sleep you are awake in somebody’s dream.

Dedicated to @httpsung! As your day6writers secret santa I wish you a very merry Christmas, Jae! ♥

Somewhere far away, in a galaxy full of stars with names unknown to Earth-beings, there’s a lonely a ship, a bit ragged but well-lived in, called Silver Starlight. Behind the bulletproof glass windows, only an arm-length away from the control room there’s a young man standing, looking out to the million constellations dotted on the picturesque canvas of universe.

“Can’t sleep, Captain?”

Still deep in his own thoughts, Sungjin’s head snaps back at the sounds of his commander’s approaching steps and sighs resigned as he answers.

“Not really,” he shakes his head massaging his aching temple. He should be used to travelling by light speed by now but somehow a migraine always finds its way back to him. Or maybe he’s just missing that herbal tea you made for him from leaves that only grow on that flat land of Earth.

As if he was able to read his mind, Brian speaks again:

“Don’t worry. You will find her,” he prompts patting Sungjin on the shoulder but the encouraging words don’t ease the bitterness in the captain’s heart. His fingers mindlessly play with the necklace hidden by his collar...

Yeah, you may meet again… but when? He has been looking for you for what feels like eternity. Why can’t he find you again? Why did destiny tear you apart leaving you both longing for the other so sweetly? Because yes, he knows you think of him just as much as he does of you. He feels this connection between you tugging at his heart and it’s driving him crazy: that you are out there waiting for him but he can’t hold you, can’t whisper sweet little nothings into your ear. Yet he can’t fall asleep to put his thoughts to rest, oh no, you won’t let him easily because he sees you everywhere and he’s missing you dearly from the moment you parted ways. You are like lost stars colliding in the vastness of universe that become merely specks of stardust and moonlight.

You met once and it almost feels like a dream, like it didn’t really happen. Sungjin and his crew were on a bounty when out of nowhere the ship’s engine broke down and they had to perform an emergency landing on a planet they knew nothing about. There were so many variables and factors but the two of you met, so Sungjin is sure it wasn’t coincidence. It couldn’t be. It was written it the stars for you to meet… and then to lose each other again.

“It’s okay,” you said, voice honey and sugar but the goodbye pained his heart.

You were the one who insisted that he should take the kids first and then come back for the rest of you before the ground beneath your feet shallows you up in whole. It was what you asked for in exchange of your help and hospitality when they landed their spacecraft with the breakdown engines on your farm's backyard. From your reaction, Sungjin and his crew quickly gathered that none of you had ever seen anything like this. The thought of existence outside of your own little planet was unheard of.

"Our scientists believed in life somewhere beyond the borders known to us but then the meteor impact happened and nobody cared anymore," you told him beside a fire lighted in the middle of nowhere when he asked about it. He was eager to know about you and your kind because he has never seen this place on the map of universe and you were happy to explain everything to him. You would have done anything if it meant, he would help your little community leave this place before everything dies. "The Earth, our planet moved closer to the Sun which caused a lot of troubles. The temperature got hotter drastically, the desertification process quickened, icebergs melt, the sea levels rose and we don't have much time left."

You shrugged like it didn't even matter to you. Like you had already accepted your fate and didn't even try to change it. The life you had known once no longer existed yet you didn't give up. That's why you still had that farm you called yours and which you cultivated with a few people who joined you for shelter. Your community grew until around thirty people lived and worked together to make the most out of the rest of your days on this Earth. Sungjin and his men looked around in awe, seeing the long forgotten technology you had and tasted the simple but delicious food you shared with them.

It had been a while since they were welcomed so earnestly in a foreign culture. Most planets’ inhabitants were quite suspicious and not without any reason. Space pirates with their worn clothes and weapon belt were bad news everywhere. However, you didn't seem to know of them or simply didn't care about their job. About how they steal and kill if they were paid for it. Or that they were wanted by authorities in different galaxies beyond the Milky Way. You all welcomed them with open arms and trusting smiles. For all you knew, they could have killed you and took your every belonging but Sungjin's crew wasn't made out of monsters. They weren't heartless or ungrateful. The Captain even liked to call himself a businessman so he offered you a deal.

"If you help us fix our broken engine and let us stay here in the meantime, we can take a few of you to the neighbourhood galaxy so they can ask for a rescue team and come back for the others," he offered and who could have said no to that? It was your best option even if it meant, you could only send the third of the camp first and the rest had to wait for another ship to save them from this hell.

The ship couldn't take more than ten extra people in safety. Or even if it did, there wouldn't have been supplies for everyone so you had to choose. Children were the first, everybody agreed and a few teenagers and a pregnant woman joined them. There wasn't much dispute about it even though everybody knew that nothing guaranteed they would be still alive when a rescue team returns.

“Aren’t you afraid?” Sungjin asked you on another hot night standing on the porch of the rundown house with a cup of water in your hands looking up at the bright night sky. The moon being closer than ever was so huge it almost felt like collapsing onto you.

“Of dying?” you mused out loud and hummed while thinking. After seeing so many deaths around you and all the disease that broke out after the floods started, your own mortality didn’t scare you anymore. Waiting for death helplessly did. "No. It's inevitable. It would be useless to be scared of something that will happen either way. When I go, I just want to be able to say that I did everything I could and I lived the best way I could."

It's such a rare approach, the Captain thought, A lot more people were afraid of death itself than the insignificance of their lives. Sungjin considered himself one of those who lived for the day without thinking of the long-time consequences of his actions so he respected you for looking at the bigger picture instead of survival instincts. There was something admirable about you staying so strong even under such cruel circumstances. It would have been a lie to say he wasn't surprised. He didn't expect this from a girl. He had been travelling around the universe yet he hadn't met anybody like you. Somebody who could smile so sincerely at him after all the hardships, but being so smart and kind at the meantime. Every conversation he learnt something new. Not just about your beloved Earth and what it was like before the apocalypse started but about you too. He quickly became enamoured by your little things. The way you tucked your hair behind your ear whenever you were embarrassed or how you never hid your mouth when you laughed. You were so genuine and honest, a light in the darkness and he wondered how the cosmos could want you dead? Such a bright phenomenon should live.

"What about you?" you tore the canvas of silence into pieces with your lovely voice and Sungjin's head turned towards you immediately.

"Huh?"

"Are you afraid of death? That's why you carry those with you? Is the outer space that dangerous?" you pried curiously pointing at the gun attached to his hip. You hadn't pointed it out before but now he realized you knew all along, you weren't stupid.

"For some of us, yes, it's dangerous. But I'm good at protecting myself. Though, it's more for an idea rather than out of fear," he answered pouring emotions he never called names into words.

"An idea?" you furrowed your brows not quite understanding the concept of it.

"Yes, like you know like you and these other people are working hard to stay alive, it's the same for us... we just... sometimes we need to fight for that. The crew is like a family. We protect each other and what's important for us."

You nodded like you understood and he appreciated the sentiment. He didn't take his eyes off of you as your gaze shifted back to the stars.

"How does it feel like to look around up there? Do you ever get lonely?"

Damn, why you always had to ask the questions that hit home? Sungjin chuckled. It was like you have already known him so well. Sure, in the middle of never-ending and vast outer space everybody got lonely from time to time. Even if you had people by your side, looking out to the stars left and right, the universe feels so enormous and you feel so tiny and alone.

"Yeah. Sometimes," he admitted shyly, merely a whisper above the sounds of the night but you didn't mock him for his childlike insecurity.

"That's what I'm afraid of. That when I leave this place, the Earth I call my home no matter how messed up it is, I'm afraid of being left alone in an unknown place among strangers," you mumbled so lost and so vulnerable, Sungjin's heart ached.

He didn't know why but felt the urge to comfort you, to hold your hand and tell you that everything would be alright. He wanted to promise that you won't be alone but he stopped himself on time. It was such an impulse and reckless thought. With the kind of life he led, he could never promise anything like certainty to you so he just muttered something like "You shouldn't be afraid."

The Silver Starlight and its crew were on the Earth for only a week and as soon as the engines started working, they took off. They overstayed their welcome, the commander said apologetically but still it felt like they bid goodbye too soon. When it was time to leave, you ran up to Sungjin one last time.

"I... I know it's stupid and probably just some Earth-being habit as you call it but... I wanted to give you something because I'm grateful that you are helping my people. And to remember us... and me," you were rambling which he found cute and then you pulled off a necklace with a wing-shaped pendant. When you wanted to hang it around his neck, he protested right away.

"I'm not worthy of that," he shook his head that made you giggle.

"I don't know how gifts work in your galaxy but here there's nothing like 'not worthy', please take it," you urge him with a pleading look until he gives up and lets you put your accessory on him.

"I don't have anything to give you," he whispered but you didn't care, you just smiled wide.

"It's okay... Give me something next time we meet," you said light-heartedly with the careless promise of meeting again and then stepped back so the spacecraft could begin its launching.

That was the last time he saw you, through the glass window, with your messy hair in the wind stirred up by the engines and your huge, brown eyes following the metal bird until it disappeared among the stars.

It's been a long time because his ship might be one of the fastest but safe space travel still needed time. Also, the closest authorized organisations didn't think that a dying planet with life on it was worth of saving, especially if they had nothing to offer. That's why Sungjin decided to go back himself. He offered his crew a way out, he told them they didn't need to come with him for an impossible mission for some humans who they barely met but none of them protested, none of them complained, not even when they were running out of supplies because the search was pointless. They couldn't find you.

It should have been easy. A quick in and out. He noted every coordinate on the way back from your Earth but despite following each instruction, your galaxy seems empty as if a black hole swallowed up it whole, like the planet became one with the Sun. He has seen a lot of things before, being an excellent navigator, but he has never experienced anything like this.

How can a Solar System exist that is not in any of the records? How many light years away can you be? he wondered and wished you could answer. You surely would have something wise to say to make him feel at ease. However, without you, he could only hope the stars will shine bright showing him a map leading to you.

Your mother used to tell you that if you can't sleep, you're awake in someone's dream.

She was a wise a woman, a very smart one in this man-ruled world so you never doubted her words. However, since the symptoms of your insomnia started, you think of this belief more and more. Whenever you look at up at the dark skyline, you’re searching for a face among the stars, a twinkling light promising he’s coming to get you, to save you from this dying planet.

Before he crashed into your life, almost literally, you were okay with the inevitable doom. You thought of it as a humans' punishment for using the Earth selfishly. Even the scientists gave up after they found out that the Earth’s orbit has been spiralling around the Sun and in a few years, they will collide making an explosion that could destroy the rest of your galaxy. Of course, everybody would die before that could happen because of the heat scorching the planet. But if it's a punishment, then Sungjin's arrival was the salvation itself giving you the kind of hope you haven't felt since your mother passed away.

Waiting is something you have always hated but now you have nothing better to do. Waiting for death or a rescue team, it's all the same: you don't know when they come. But the latter gives hope, maybe a false one but at least the people of the camp seem happier for the first time in a long while.

Days pass, getting shorter and shorter and you find yourself gazing at the burning stars every chance you get. You imagine one of them as the spaceship that's coming to get you. Despite knowing it won't be Sungjin's anymore, it doesn't stop your daydreaming about seeing him again when they set a foot an Earth once again. You cherish the memory of his smile and the glimmer in his eyes and you find yourself wishing for him to do the same. Maybe that's why you find solace in the wishful thinking of him dreaming about you but you would never dare to admit it out loud.

"You are looking at the sky again," a boy not much older than you remarks casually as he slumps down next to you onto the rotten bench. "You do that a lot lately."

You flinch at his sudden appearance but can't find it in you to be mad at him. Wonpil is a hard-working member of the community and a good listener, he has helped you a lot to deal with this many people around. He used to play a lot with the kids, so he probably misses them.

"Yeah," you nod because it would be in vain to make up some lie about how peculiar the sky looks now that you are getting closer and closer to the Sun. You don't like to lie anyway.

"Don't worry. A rescue team should arrive soon," he says and you only hum in acknowledgement. Though, time is one thing you don't have the luxury to have much and everybody knows it. Even Sungjin warned you that time is counted differently up there so he couldn't tell you how much time it would take for another team to arrive. It can be weeks or years, based on their technology you cannot even imagine.

"I know," you sigh with hope tingling in your chest.

He promised and you believe him: they will send someone, you are sure of it. So you just sit there watching the stars every day, waiting.

It takes six more months of struggling to stay alive on a planet incapable of living when you start to forget, losing hope. You almost persuade yourself it was just a dream but all that proof doesn't let you so it makes you sad instead. You miss a man you barely know and only see in your hazy dreams. Like the one you are having when you are rudely woken up.

"Wake up, sleepyhead!" somebody shakes your shoulder gently but you just grunt tiredly.

"Ah is it morning already?" you pry your eyes open slowly. There's nothing but darkness around you and the endless possibilities scare you. You're afraid of an attack or somebody dying because of the urgency in Wonpil's voice but there's a hint of smile on his face that makes you confused. "What...?"

"You will see," he drags you out of the bed and leads the way. You are going out, you realize and still yawning, you freeze on spot when you catch a glimpse of the monument in the middle of the corn field close-by. The metal craft is as beautiful and elegant as you remember and the moonlight is dancing on its silver wings. Under the brighter than ever stars, a young man is walking down the ramp towards you with a secret smile playing on his ethereal features.

You take a step, then two and three until you run into his arms like a kid. He doesn’t disappear when you touch him and it feels like a real wake-up call.

“You came back,” you whisper still in awe, blinking at him wildly, not believing your eyes. He's here, really here, not merely in a dream, dissolving into thin-air like a mirage.

“Of course. Sorry it took so long to find you,” he says as if it goes without saying and you know you will fall in love with him. You are not there yet, only edging on this sweet feeling with tentative touches and shy glances but eventually you will tip over and fall.

Right into the black hole. With him, happily.

#i hope you like it jae <3 #day6writersnet #kkreationsnet #stories #day6 angst #day6 oneshot #sungjin angst #sungjin scenario #space au #apocalypse au #soulmate au #fantasy au #(a friend told me just bc it's set in space it's not sci-fi)

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