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mirrortouchedsea · 14 days

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(CW for Suicidal Ideation)

Hinata’s breath was heavy as he landed the final move of their act. The tinny music playing from their speakers went quiet and the audience clapped politely. It was always the same song and dance as the crowd moved on with their day. A few of them tossed some yen their way but otherwise it was time for them to regroup for their next performance. Yuta knelt down by the hat with some coins and bills sticking out of it, counting their earnings thus far.

“Hey aniki! We might be able to eat well tonight! There’s like 3,000 yen in here!” Yuta exclaimed. The idea of a filling dinner made Hinata’s mouth water. Oh what he wouldn’t do for even warm noodles not from a cup.

Hinata turned to grab the iPod from its place on the speaker, choosing the next song to play. He put the phone back and turned the volume up a little more to play over the evening rush. The music started and he and Yuta moved in unison around their little stage, taking in the crowd. There were some regulars that Hinata recognized, the businesswoman who was perpetually tired but always stopped for their performances and a few kids who looked up at them in awe as their parents were trying to usher them away. There were always new faces too, of course people traveled across the country all the time or took new trains or moved cities, but there was something different about the boy with the bright red hair at the back of the crowd. His sky blue eyes pierced straight through to Hinata’s heart and made him stumble when their gaze connected with his own.

“Hey, aniki focus! We’re almost done, don't fail on me now!” Yuta whispered, carefully shielding Hinata from the crowd as he regained his footing. Yuta was always so quick thinking. Hinata got back to his position and finished up the routine, eyes looking for that boy he had spotted earlier. He half hoped the boy would come talk to them afterwards while they were packing up for the evening, but when he finally saw that shock of red hair, it was moving away with the rest of the crowd.

Hinata sighed, disappointed. Maybe that boy would come back someday. There was something about him that drew Hinata in.

Someone bumped his shoulder, drawing him from his thoughts. “Hey, aniki, are you alright? You seem out of it today.” Yuta’s hand rested on his shoulder and Hinata couldn’t help but smile. Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around, the older brother checking in on the younger one?

“Hey hey everything’s fine Yuta-kun, don’t worry about me. I was just thinking about that delicious dinner you’re treating us too~” He playfully pushed back on Yuta, the red haired blue eyed boy all but forgotten now.

“Hey! It’s technically our money so I’m not treating you to anything!” Yuta scowled but the smile in his voice was obvious to Hinata.

“Hehe, then dinner’s on me! Say ‘thank you aniki!’”

---

It was a week before Hinata saw the red headed boy in their audience again. He had all but slipped his mind, but those striking blue eyes were impossible to forget. Yuta was introducing their next performance which allowed Hinata to take a better look at the older boy who had made his way to the middle of the audience. He was tall and what Hinata could see of his outfit seemed ill-fitting at best, along with a headband holding his hair away from his eyes.

Hinata scrambled to his position as the music queued up and let his instincts take over. Every so often he found himself glancing at the red haired boy, trying to see what he thought of their performance, but his face revealed nothing.

Why was he so focused on this one boy? It’s not like they didn’t have strangers who watched them sometimes, and none of them had caught Hinata’s attention quite like this boy. He really couldn’t be much older than Hinata, maybe 17 at the oldest. Was he an older brother too? The boy’s eyes made contact with Hinata’s and it took everything in him to not look away.

Once again however, Yuta snapped him out of whatever trance he had been in and everything was forgotten.

“Are you really okay aniki? You’ve been out of it a lot recently…” Oh how it pained Hinata to see the concern on Yuta’s face. Nothing was even really wrong per se, but Hinata was distracted nonetheless.

“I’m fine, Yuta-kun. Geez, can’t your older brother have some peace?” His mouth ran faster than his brain and he immediately regretted it. Yuta’s face flipped through several emotions; hurt, confusion, exhaustion. It wasn’t like him to hide things from his brother, so why was he doing it now? “Whatever, let’s get some dinner. My treat~”

“It’s our money!”

---

The boy continued to make appearances at the twins’ performances on the street, becoming something of a regular but disappearing before Hinata could flag him down. Hinata wasn’t even sure what compelled him to want to talk to the older boy, but he wanted to say something. He had even noticed that the boy seemed happier and his clothes fit a little better, not like they were just the first thing he grabbed out of a donation pile.

Finally, after almost a month of trying to say something to the boy, Hinata saw him walk up to their hat on the ground and drop a few coins into it.

“Thank you!” He said, walking up to the boy. “Hope you enjoyed the performance!”

The boy froze as if he wasn’t expecting to be greeted like that. There was a slight flush to his face. “I-it’s nothing, don’t worry about it. You uh…you were great?” The boy seemed unsure of how to reply, though Hinata was happy with the compliment nonetheless. Maybe…

“What brings you here? I mean--agh, sorry! I just mean…I noticed you don’t have a regular schedule?” The words were practically falling out of his mouth and Hinata wasn’t really sure what they were doing. “Like you show up a few days in a row but then go three weeks without stopping by at all!” He was just digging a bigger grave for himself! Great!

“Ah uhm…I’m not from around here.” The boy scratched at the back of his neck. Maybe Hinata should back off.

“O-oh, yeah of course. Duh. Are you visiting family or something?”

“Not quite. I really should get going though. See you…later?”

“Yeah, see you later.”

“Hey Aniki, are you coming or not? The food’s gonna get cold!”

“Coming!”

---

It was almost a month before the boy appeared again. In the time between, Hinata had come up with a million different ideas for what his life was like. Was he a delinquent who skipped school to hang out on the street with gangs (how scary! But he looked strong enough to fit in)? Or was he a runaway from a city far away, somewhere Hinata only dreamed of visiting like Okinawa? Maybe he had a bad relationship with his dad and ran away, a thought that Hinata hated to admit had crossed his mind more than once. Or maybe he just passed through the city on the way to somewhere else. That seemed to be the most likely option, especially if he couldn’t come very often.

When the boy did finally show up again, Hinata had to hold himself back from practically jumping him after the performance. Something looked…different about him though. His eyes seemed more tired? Like he hadn’t been sleeping well. Hinata thought of a fight he had with his dad a few weeks ago that made it hard for him to sleep and thought maybe this boy was the same as him in that regard.

Hinata decided to wave him down after the performance, hat in hand (they had done pretty well! It felt heavier than normal and even without counting everything, they’d probably have enough for breakfast too).

“Hey! You look tired, are you--did you want to get something to eat?” Please say yes please say yes please say yes--

The boy’s mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. Did Hinata mess up? Oh he overstepped and now there really wasn’t any chance of getting to know him. Why was he so interested in talking to the boy anyway? Hinata had been asking himself that for a while now and he still had no answer.

“I…I can’t. I need to go.” The boy turned and ran off before Hinata could ask more. He just kept messing up, didn’t he? Maybe he really was just a burden to Yuta and their dad and the restaurant owner. He shouldn’t have been born and Yuta would’ve been better off--

“Aniki! Sheesh, get your head out of the clouds. How much did we make?” Yuta grabbed the hat out of Hinata’s hand and quickly counted out the coins and bills. “Woah! We could eat a whole five course meal with this…”

“Think with your head a little Yuta-kun. We’ve got breakfast paid for if we don’t blow it all tonight!”

Yuta nodded before handing the hat back to Hinata. “So, my pick tonight?”

---

Hinata signed the note, trying his best to keep the tears from dripping on it and smudging the ink. After his blunder with the red haired boy, he hadn’t shown up to their performances for over two months. Hinata was certain that he had messed up and was too forward. He didn’t even know the kid’s name! Why did he think the two of them could ever be friends?

And on top of all of that, Yuta had become more and more distant from Hinata, as if Hinata just existing was dragging him back from his full potential. Yuta would have been better off as an only child and maybe Hinata deserved this life. Thirteen years living with their father, who had treated them as nothing but monsters, blaming them for their mother’s death and everything bad that had happened since, Hinata had resolved to run away. He’d make his way to the mountains and maybe he’d find someone willing to help him or maybe he’d slip into an endless sleep.

Dear Yuta-kun, the letter had started. I’m sorry that I’m leaving like this, but I know that I’m just a burden to you. I’m sorry for that. I wish I had more to say but I just want you to be happy and maybe father will treat you better without me. I love you.

The other letter, already folded and placed on the table, was much shorter, addressed to his father.

Dear Father, I’m sorry I couldn’t be a better son. Please don’t take this out on Yuta-kun, it was my decision.

The less words he spent on that man, the better. Hinata folded Yuta’s note and placed it on top before quietly exiting through the front door.

---

Everything was cold. Hinata slumped against a tree, head between his knees in a last ditch effort to keep warm. Sleep should come soon and he could painlessly move on, at least that’s what he hoped. He barely registered someone approaching him, but didn’t look up.

“Hey.” The voice was vaguely familiar, but where did he remember it from? A warm hand shook at Hinata’s shoulder.

“‘M fine.” The words were barely a whisper. The other voice grunted before walking away. It was another minute before Hinata felt something drape around his shoulders and a cup shoved in his hand. Whatever was in it was steaming, warming his fingers.

“Drink.” The voice said. And he did, the tea was very, very bitter. That voice…

Hinata looked up, meeting a pair of bright, sky blue eyes. That’s where he recognized the voice from. Did he…live? In the mountains? The boy seemed to recognize him too. He was wearing a headband and what looked like very warm clothes that Hinata wished he had. Hinata finished the tea, trying not to focus on the flavor. It helped at least, in warming him up a bit.

“Why are you here?” The boy finally spoke again. It sounded like he was unsure if he should be mad or concerned, or both, but he offered Hinata another cup of tea, which he accepted if only to warm his fingers up. He pulled the blanket closer around his body.

“I…ran away.” Hinata looked downward, as if admitting this out loud was a cardinal sin. The boy gestured for him to continue. “I guess I just…I was dragging my brother down. I’m not really talented at anything like he is and I’m the reason our dad sees us as monsters. He shouldn’t have to deal with a brother like me.” Hinata wasn’t really sure why he was spilling this so easily. The boy was a good listener though, hanging on every word Hinata spoke. Was he shaking? He’d never admitted this out loud before and it felt oddly freeing to say it to someone.

He waited for a response, anything to chase away the uncomfortable silence Hinata had created with his confession. He really fucked up, didn’t he. He should have just kept that to himself like he always did instead of burdening a stranger like this!

“I…” The boy started, barely audible above Hinata’s racing heartbeat. “I’m glad you’re alive.” He sounded unsure of his words. Was he just trying to be nice? Of course he was, how else do you respond to a kid telling you something like this?

“You don’t have to pretend.”

“I’m not. When I saw you singing and dancing…I think I realized something--” The boy cut himself off, the suddenness of it making Hinata look up. A moment later he heard his brother calling out from the woods behind him.

“Aniki! There you are!” Yuta tackled him to the ground, squeezing Hinata like he might just blow away in the wind if they weren’t careful. “You scared me! I can’t believe you’d do something like that!”

Tears pricked at Hinata’s eyes again. “I’m sorry, Yuta-kun. I’m really sorry.” He buried his face in Yuta’s jacket. His nose started to run, from the cold or the tears he couldn’t tell.

“You aren’t a burden to me. I don’t know what I’d do without you around Aniki!” Yuta pulled back, hands gripping Hinata’s shoulders. “Promise you won’t do something that stupid again.”

Hinata wiped the tears from his eyes, sparing a glance where the boy had been. It was as if he had never been there at all and Hinata had just hallucinated the whole interaction. He looked back at his twin brother. “I promise.”

“Now let's get you home and warmed up. Where’d you get this blanket anyway? It doesn’t look like one of ours.”

“I…” The boy had been real, and he told Hinata he was glad he was alive (even if his explanation was cut short by Hinata’s brother rushing in). “I guess I just found it. There must be people living nearby or something.”

---

The chatter of the night club died down for the night as everyone was getting ready to go home. Hinata’s feet were sore from running around, but it was satisfying to be back in a restaurant like this. It reminded him of his childhood working for the Chinese restaurant with Yuta.

Rinne, the leader of Crazy:B who had wanted to get closer to Hinata, and by extension 2wink, slid a drink down the bar. It looked like a horrible mix of syrups and club soda, but one sip was all it took for Hinata to drink it all down.

“Great job tonight Hina! You’re a real natural at this stuff.” Rinne was washing the other glasses behind the bar now as Hinata finished the rest of his soda.

“Yuta-kun and I used to work in a restaurant so it comes pretty naturally to us!”

“That so?”

“Mhm!” Hinata slid the empty glass back to Rinne, who quickly dumped the ice and washed it before tossing the towel over his shoulder. The entire week they’d been working the club together, there had been something bugging Hinata at the back of his mind. “Hey, Rinne-senpai…did you ever watch our shows?”

“Huh? ‘Course I have, vice prez wants us to work together so I’ve seen a few of ‘em.”

“That’s not what I mean. I mean like…back when Yuta-kun and I did street performances.”

Rinne paused for a moment. “Why’re you askin’?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. You just reminded me of someone who used to watch them.”

“Well I’m sure whoever it was is proud to see you singin’ and dancin’ on stage.” Rinne had come around the bar and stood next to Hinata, ruffling his hair. “Let’s get goin’ or I’m never gonna hear the end of it from Niki-kun.”

#shay writes #enstars #ensemble stars #hinata aoi #yuta aoi #rinne amagi #OKAY ITS DONE I'M NOT THINKING ABOUT THIS PIECE ANYMORE. FUCK MAN #its at least finally no longer a wip. that's all i can say #got one person who said they liked it so to the blog it goes!!!#one less wip to worry about yippie!!!#2.8k words of me being a bit silly. that's what this is.#i probably could have extended the end a bit but augh if i thought about it any longer i would literally pass away #fuck that shit #so here we go. enjoy. i have a whole essay about aoi and amagi parallels i need to write one of these days when i reread mainstory #i'm working on reading boarding live rn i have like 9 chapters left. i'd keep working rn but augh eepy #probably just gonna watch an ep of a3 and go to bed or smth #anyway enjoy!!!! feels good to finish something a bit longer #probably no wip wednesday tomorrow just bc this is all i worked on this week...#also this is a second draft i never do that. well not never i've done it before #and this is i think a significant improvement on the first #okay i'm done tag talking for realsies byeeeeeee enjoy

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l0ganberry · 30 days

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@truelazymaker

For the long wait, I decided to make a mini comic of him having help finding his legs. And then having his sweet angel on helping him reattach his legs. I hope you like this and thank you for the request.

There's a couple left of unfinished requests, but I'll still more if you want to request something that relates to Dogday. You can go to this >post< to put in your request, or send an ask to me.

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nitewrighter · 2 years

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Cindy Part 12

As always, for previous chapters, please refer to the masterpost.

Posting this because the epilogue got too honkin’ big!! Have some ‘Meet the Parents!’

---

Cinderella’s arrival at the castle is very quiet. Like, mostly, everyone is aware how volatile a situation like, “Hey whoever fits this shoe is going to marry the prince” is. So it’s like… 4 gardeners, 3 maids, and the butler see an absolutely filthy girl sleepily slump out of the royal carriage with the prince supporting her in her descent, and they carry about their business. If there’s an announcement, they’ll hear about it later. This is just a perfectly normal instance of some weirdly dirty rando showing up the castle in the company of the captain of the royal guard, the royal valet, and an almost-equally dirty footman who is certainly not the prince in disguise, no sir! Still, a royal messenger is discreetly sent to the king and queen, and they both hurry to the foyer just in time to catch the prince and the supposed shoe-fitter quietly trying to make their way through. In their company is, of course, Gabe the Valet and Guard Captain Brad.

“Chaz?” The queen calls out.

Both the prince and Cindy look up.

“Oh—Mom, Dad, this is Cindy. Cindy, these are my parents.”

“Hi,” Cinderella gives a small wave, “I mean—” she’s been a little thrown off by the whole ‘these are my parents’ thing and remembers this is the literal fucking king and queen and she quickly curtsies, “Your majesties.” She stands up straight again and brushes her hands down her skirts, sending a dusting of ash onto the palace floor. “I—um—“ she stuffs her hand into a fold in her skirts—oh it’s a pocket—and pulls out the slipper, “I have the shoe. The other shoe.”

“Ah,” the queen blinks and she gives a glance over towards the king, who like, he’s not upset, but you can definitely kind of hear the laptop fans whirring on him seeing this girl. Like… Is that a rat? On her head?

“Darling,” the queen places a hand the king’s shoulder, “Do say something.”

“Right—” the word stumbles out of the king, “So… the shoe fits then?”

“The shoe fits,” the Prince says.

“Here—I can—” Cindy slings an arm around the prince’s shoulders as she stubs her heel out of the shoe and puts the slipper on again, once again extending her leg, though this time it’s less of a toe-pointed ‘ta-daaaa’ gesture and more of a foot-flexed can-can kick.

“I… see,” the King says slowly.

“You can try it on other feet if you need to,” Cindy pipes up.

“Seeing as the other shoe…” Gabe starts and isn’t really sure how to finish that sentence.

“You know what?” The queen clasps her hands together in front of herself, “I know this whole slipper search has been an ordeal, so we’ll have some apartments made up for—for our most distinguished guest, and you can tell us all about it once you’re a bit more…settled.”

“Just so, Dearest,” the King agrees, desperately thankful for an opportunity to compose himself a bit more but now eying the old-as-balls dog sitting on its haunches just behind Cindy.

“You will have my report on the events that transpired surrounding the shoe, sire,” Gabe dutifully places his hand over his heart.

“And my debriefing as well, your majesties,” Brad bows from the hips.

“Good—good…” the king says blankly.

—-

So that night, both the king and the queen are in bed, and the king is wearing a fancy, kingly little nightcap and the queen is reading in bed next to him.

“I’m glad he found her,” the king says firmly, as if trying just as hard to convince himself as he is the queen.

“Mm-hmm,” the Queen turns a page.

“And she seems very nice and it’s clear he’s quite taken with her and—and you know him! He’s odd! He’s picky!”

“Mm-hmm,” the queen nods.

“But the state of them both—”

“Darling, they hardly looked any worse than we did when we first met,” the queen glances up from her book to lovingly brush her thumb over his sideburns.

“Well that was different! When we met, they were asking me which finger I would prefer they cut off to send to my parents, and that was—” he catches himself, “My god, you don’t think he found her in such a state?”

The queen thinks for a few moments. “No… no, I don’t think so. But there is a lot we don’t know about the situation.”

“I know, I know—there’s the reports and the debriefs—and I’ll be doing my own research as well.”

“Oh I know you will. That’s where Chaz gets it, you know,” the queen kisses the king on the temple.

“Mm,” the king responds.

“That’s an ‘I’m turning off the light’ kiss,” says the queen, turning off the lamp next to the bed.

“Mm,” the king murmurs again.

There’s the soft settling of pillows and sheets as the queen snuggles in for the night.

“…the rats are a bit of a hard-sell,” the king says after a few long beats.

“The rats are a little weird,” the queen concedes.

——

“I don’t think they like me.”

It’s late in the afternoon and early in the evening the next day. Cinderella is fidgeting with her fingers as she and the prince are walking through the garden. She’s wearing one of her nicer Frankenstein gowns, still too nervous to take any of the beautiful dresses in the wardrobe within her apartments. The prince just watched her plant the hazelnut she took from her family estate in a bare, quiet patch of the royal gardens.

“They’ll like you! They will! Just… things need a bit more time to get settled, that’s all,” the prince is holding Chauncey’s leash. This dog is old as balls so they’re both stuck walking very, very slowly, “Everything came together so fast…” he trails off briefly. “And.. I have a lot of questions, but I don’t know how to ask them, and I don’t know if asking them will undo everything—”

“What do you mean ‘Undo everything?’”

“Well… there’s the shoe. I know the shoe isn’t a normal shoe because I wanted to have glassmakers create a hundred replicas of it to expedite the shoe-fitting process but they couldn’t come up with any consistent measurements or fittings and—”

Cinderella pressed a single finger to his lips then, quieting him.

“It’s not a normal shoe,” she confirms, “But… I’m not really in a position to tell you more about it. All I can tell you is that the shoes, the dress, the carriage, everything, were lended to me by a very dear friend, and I had to give them back at midnight. And I’m not in a position to discuss this friend’s identity or resources—only that… they were acting out of a kindness that… is very rare in the world, and even if they’re a little snippy, they mean the best. Do you understand that?”

Her finger still pressed to his lips, the prince nods.

“But also, like you, I’m scared of kicking a hornet’s nest I can’t really see, so… I’m just going to take the good. And you’re the good. And I just hope I’m the good, too.” She withdraws her finger from his lips.

“You are,” he says quietly. He glances off for a second. "I—look, I should say this—about the ‘intended bride’ thing…” they pause under the willow near the reflecting pool that the prince threw himself into a few days earlier. There’s a little bench there and Chauncey takes the opportunity of this slight pause to lower his bad dog hips to the ground and lay down. “I—” the prince glances down and looks at her, “You don’t have to.”

“What?”

“You don’t have to do the thing. The marriage thing,” the prince offers a hand to Cindy so that she can sit down on the stone bench beneath the willow, “I mean, you can if you want, but I know it’s a lot. I know they’re a lot. And I know I’m a lot. And—“

“You’re not a lot.”

“I’m not?”

“You know, you seemed a lot more cocky at the ball.”

“I was a jerk at the ball. Everyone was… pulling out all the stops for me, doing all this stuff, and it wasn’t even about me, it was about their families! Their livelihoods! But all I could think about was how uncomfortable I was and…”

“Well you’re not livestock!” Cindy throws her hands up.

“I mean, yeah but—“ the prince’s jaw tenses, “Just… it was nice that there was someone who… didn’t see me as… that? For just a little while? But that’s not how things are, and it’s not fair to pull you into things just because I like you—I mean, I really like you—but it seems like you care about lots of things so—”

“I’m not the same person you thought I was at the ball either!” Cindy blurts out, “I do care, I do, I’m just… I’m scared, all the time. I’m horribly, awfully scared that everything’s going to collapse on me at every second, and I cry a frankly unreasonable amount, and—and—the only reason why I acted the way I did was… I figured everyone would forget about me… Like they’ve always done.” She blinks a few times and it kind of hits her that she actually hadn’t thought that much about the impact she would have on people after the ball—that her initial concern was about being recognized.

“How could anyone ever forget you?” The question comes out of the prince, incredulous, as he bends to look at her. Literally every staff member or guest at the ball remembered her for some good deed or kind word or the impossible speed with which she could scarf down celeriac tarte tatin. He’s almost looking for an indicator that that was a joke, but he studies Cindy’s face for a few seconds and he realizes that no, it’s not a joke. His eyes flick downward. “Cindy?” He says, not making eye contact.

“Yes?”

“Everything I’ve gone through these past few days to find you has been… the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done in my life. And I know that’s stupid—I know it’s nothing because you and everyone else is working so hard all the time while I’ve been off… fucking reading! Or horseback riding! Why am I better with horses than people? They’re the most fucking paranoid animals on the planet!”

“It’s not nothing—” Cindy starts.

“But I’d do it all over and over and over again a thousand times over or however many times it takes if it meant making sure you have a home with people who love you and value you.” The prince has been bent over the bench, but now his back is starting to hurt, so he drops down to one knee to maintain eye contact with her.

“Is.. is that here?” Cinderella’s voice is brittle.

“If you want it to be,” the prince glances off, “This… was also supposed to be a conversation where I give you an out. In case.. I don’t know… you have way cooler things going on. There’s so much I still don’t know about you, so much I want to ask but I’m… honestly scared to ask.”

“I know,” Cindy interlaces her fingers in her lap, “But… I don’t know how much I can tell you about it right now without sounding completely mad or without making things very complicated for the friend who helped me. But as soon as I can—if I can—I will. I promise. And—and I don’t have anything cooler going on. I do want to stay here. Very much so.”

“I mean, of course you could still stay at the palace—like… just… as an advisor. I can deal with it. I can be cool about it. I swear. But like, I mean as far as official titled jobs go, I think… you’re.. really… well… qualified for um. For the whole ‘princess consort’ thing?”

“So you’re giving me an out but this is also… a proposal…” Cindy says slowly.

“Well, yeah if you want to get really intense about it—” the prince huffs a little then realizes he’s on one knee, “I mean… Yes. Yes it is.”

Cindy snorts hard.

The prince presses his lips together. “I mean there are people out there— I can see that now—I… I can be with people, and I can be okay—”

“Prince—” Cindy starts.

“And I know that sounds stupid and completely removed and selfish of me, but… you’re the person who really made me see that. I mean, also people made me see that because that’s the whole point—”

“Prince…” Cindy starts, a bit more softly and affectionately this time.

“And I really do like all your ideas! I really think we can hammer some stuff out that can make things so much better for—”

“Prince!” Cindy suddenly cups his face in her hands.

“Yes?” His cheeks are a little smushed with the gesture.

“I get it,” Cindy smiles.

“Oh. Good. That’s good,” says the prince. A pause passes. “Is this a ‘Yes?’”

“Yeah, it’s a yes.”

The prince’s hand comes up and clasps around one of hers, still on his cheek, holding it tight to him. He squints his eyes shut for a few moments, just feeling the warmth of it. He seems to catch himself and his eyes flick open,

“In case it wasn’t already abundantly clear, I’m not nearly as cool as I was at the ball,” the Prince is staring into her eyes.

“Neither am I,” she says before kissing him.

——

The king has been poring over numerous documents pertaining to the estate where the prince’s soot-covered partner emerged from as the queen looks out the window with a chilled glass of white wine in her hand. She’s watching the whole ‘whoops-it’s-a-proposal’ unfold in the garden below, and like—this is really nice wine that you do want to take your time with (Is it new? When did they get wine this nice??)—but she does take a slightly larger gulp at seeing her precious baby boy who is just as deranged as his father get down on one knee to a girl who was covered in soot and rats just yesterday. Like, yes, she knows she and the king had their own very unique situation, but it’s like, there’s you, and then there’s your kid, you know? You want things to be better for your kid and you don’t really know what this whole deal is yet so she’s counting on the King’s nerd ass to figure this mess out.

She glances back at the King who is still flipping through different documents at his desk alongside Gabe.

“Well?” The word comes out of the queen a bit thick. It’s not clear if the king heard her. “Darling?” She turns away from the window.

“Mm?” The king blinks several times as if breaking out of a trance.

“What were you able to find?” The queen clarifies.

“Oh…” and the king seems to get distant for a few seconds, “Do you remember a Lord Ashcroft?”

The queen thinks for a second. “Oh!” She says after a beat, “It’s been a very long time but—yes. Charming fellow. Hammered out some amazing textiles deal with the east a long while back, didn’t he?”

“Yes! And we sent him that bottle of port when his daughter was born!” The king perks up with the memory.

“Oh yes—such an adorable, chubby little girl—and of course Chaz was fussing and miserable throughout the whole christening—” the queen’s face drops, “Oh god—don’t tell me that’s—”

“It’s… her,” and that distant look settles back on the king’s face.

“But surely she would have been announced at the ball!” The queen briskly approaches the king’s desk, “Her father—”

“Died,” the word comes out of the king as a flinch, “When she was 12. Only a few months after he remarried.”

Something dark flickers over the queen’s face and the King blurts out, “Appendicitis! Appendicitis! The doctors ruled it as appendicitis! And grief, probably? Heart and gut.. couldn’t take it…”

“Grief,” the queen repeats, unconvinced.

“Dearest—”

“I know—I know…” the queen lets out a shaking exhale and then does this calming, pincer-like gesture with her fingers with another steadying breath, “Just… instincts and cultural differences…”

“I know,” the king touches her arm.

“So this… remarriage…” the queen starts hesitantly.

“Well… on paper it seems respectable enough—but then there’s fact that they didn’t even pay for an obituary—for Lord Ashcroft! I would say that’s a bit suspect. And I had Gabe look into some expense records registered for that estate with the local merchants and bankers… all these heirlooms sold immediately after his death compared to the actual costs of the funeral… I suppose we all grieve in our own way, and its difficult keeping the things of a lost loved one around after they’ve gone but one would think they’d at least keep the some of the objects on here for his daughter’s sake—”

“But as a young girl, she wouldn’t have a say in it,” the queen’s voice is brittle.

“Not with the stepmother being the acting executor of the estate…” the king rubs his brow, “Granted, there’s still a lot we don’t know."

“Chaz said the poor girl was locked in a basement. I don’t think we need to extend a lot of the benefit of the doubt here, darling,” the queen’s voice is terrifyingly icy.

“There were murmurings at the ball about that family as well…” the king muses.

“I need to talk to her,” the queen says firmly, “This situation requires a woman’s touch.”

The king kind of gives her a look then.

“What?”

“Are you saying ‘This requires a woman’s touch’ as in you’re going to kill someone or—”

“No! No, of course not! Probably not!”

“Probably—?”

“I can be sensitive! I’m sensitive!”

“Of course, dearest.”

——

Cinderella’s been at the palace for a few days now. Honestly between the tour of the grounds and the ins and outs of her own proper quartering and getting to know the staff, it’s all been a bit of a blur.

“You can come in, dear,” the Queen is squeezing some lemon into her own tea before leaning back in her seat.

Cindy edges into the room. She’s been scrubbed head to toe and has been laced into maybe the first new, not-made-by-herself, not-made-of-magic dress she’s ever worn since she was 12.

“…would you like to sit down?”

Cinderella shuffles over to the couch and sits down a bit stiffly.

“Here,” the queen pours another cup of tea, “Sugar? Cream? Lemon? Honey?”

Cinderella’s eyes flick across the tea set like it’s a bomb she needs to defuse.

“No wrong answers,” the queen settles back into her seat.

Cinderella gingerly spoons a little bit of honey into her tea and the smallest splash of cream. The queen watches her hands, the scuffs on the knuckles, the brittle nails clipped to the quick, before Cinderella raises the teacup to her mouth and sips.

“It’s delicious, thank you.”

“Mm,” the queen nods, and there’s a few beats of silence.

“It’s… it’s an honor to be here,” Cinderella says, forcing herself to make eye-contact, “I—I promise I’ll learn everything I can to be a good princess consort. I’ll read more, and—um—I know I’ve been throwing the servants off, but I really am used to making my own bed! It’s not because I don’t think they can do it, it’s just… I’ll figure things out. I promise. I—“

“It’s all right. Breathe, dear,” The queen is refilling her own teacup, squeezing more lemon. “Do you know the story of how the King and I married?”

And Cinderella blanches for a second like ‘Oh shit I didn’t know there was going to be a quiz.’ She really doesn’t know how the king and the queen came together. She’s read what she could, and she’s decently smart because her stepsisters would sometimes make her do the homework that their tutor gave them and she would be forced to learn what they hadn’t been bothered to paid attention to in one fourth of the time, but these were mostly subjects tailored to the running of a house and the cultural refinement of a lady, like etiquette, poetry, a little bit of law, and some arithmetic with a focus on finance and expenses. History and science? Not so much. But the queen is just swirling her tea in its cup, not quite looking at her.

“The royal historians downplayed a lot of the… ugliness that came before it,” the queen says, and Cindy eases up in her seat a bit thinking ‘oh thank god it was a rhetorical question.’

“You see…” the Queen gently sets her teacup and saucer down on the table and primly folds her hands in her lap, “The country I grew up in—that is, technically, it wasn’t quite a country as I was growing up—but it was… oh, how to put this politely? A flaming death pit full of murderous power-hungry petty tyrants all with delusions of grandeur and no care as to how many soldier and peasant lives they needed to ruin or end to gain one more acre of land.”

Cinderella blinks at that, and doesn’t really know how to respond to it so she just sips her tea while maintaining eye contact.

“I grew up the daughter of one of these petty tyrants, then as a political hostage, to secure my father’s alliance with a neighboring lord,” the queen’s gaze has trailed to the window, now, “And then my father and brothers were killed, in one of many stupid, pointless battles, for this bridge or that mountain pass or some other such nonsense…From there I saw two clear paths laid out for me: Either my foster-lord would have me killed so he could snatch up my father’s lands, or, more likely and far less pleasant, he’d marry me to one of his brutish sons who were at least twice my age to, again, secure my father’s lands. I was lucky enough to have a handful of retainers from my father’s house to help smuggle me back to my own family estate where I could regroup and see of my own forces and resources but…” she sighed, “From there…It all kind of blurs, to be honest. A part of me became just as merciless as everyone I fought against, but at the same time I hated them so much, so I hated me so much—I couldn’t bear the thought of just… becoming one more of them. And looking among the people that were my responsibility to protect…” she trailed off, “I wanted a better life for me. For them. For all of us. But I didn’t know what that looked like. I was terribly stubborn about the idea of marriage, you understand. I imagined myself having some… passionate torrid affair with some battle-scarred Samson, and then naming whatever bastard came of that my heir to continue the fight when I inevitably died in one more stupid battle for this bridge or that mountain pass.”

Cinderella is kind of thrown off by the bastard thing, like ‘You can do that? That’s allowed?’ But then Cindy has the reasonable assumption that probably no one told the queen she couldn’t do that, and if she had done it, no one would really try to tell her after the fact.

"But then I met the king,” the queen goes on, “He was just a prince himself, then. The poor fool was traveling through our lands as part of some… diplomatic mission when he was captured by one of my remaining enemies. I didn’t even know he was in that keep, I was just… there to take down one more scourge. And I took them out right before I found him.” Her eyes get a little distant then. “I must have looked monstrous the first time he saw me…” she’s quiet for a few beats, then she seems to catch herself and she smiles a little, "Once I found out who he was, I more or less bullied him into our match. I was of high enough birth, after all. I thought he was so agreeable because he was afraid. But… I soon came to learn that there are many different kinds of bravery. Which… brings me to my point, dear,” the queen leans forward from her own seat, “Between what I saw of the king, and what I saw of my own people… I know what it means to have to be brave far longer than anyone should have to be. Something happens in the eyes…” the queen extends a hand and Cinderella unconsciously shrinks back in her own seat. Cindy’s mouth opens to apologize on reflex, but the queen is drawing her own hand back, fingers curling in. “What… I want to tell you is that… we want this place to be a home for you. I know what it feels like when your home… isn’t your home. When what remains of your family—” she catches herself again. “I’m sorry. I’m overstepping. This all must be so much on its own—“

“It’s— it’s fine—“ Cinderella is still tense in her seat, “It’s—it wasn’t nearly as bad as you think it is—I—I was never in a war—”

“It doesn’t have to be a war,” the queen says gently.

“Well, yes, but my stepsisters calling me stupid and ugly and saying I smelled bad all the time isn’t a war—”

“They called you stupid and ugly and told you that you smelled bad all the time?”

“But I did smell bad because I was cleaning out the chicken coops or the stable, or shoveling from the compost heap, or hauling laundry around, or because I had smoke pouring over me from the hearth and I got ugly muscles in my legs from going up and down the stairs all day—”

“They were making you do all that and they weren’t helping?”

“But that isn’t a war!”

“But you’re afraid of them,” the queen says softly and Cinderella flinches at the word ‘afraid.’ “Even now, even here, you’re afraid they can still make you hurt like all the times they hurt you before.”

“I—I—” CInderella stammers.

“Am I scaring you now?” The queen asks, not accusing, but genuinely concerned.

Cinderella’s knuckles are white around the handle of her little teacup. She’s gone deer-in-the-headlights again.

“It’s so hard to turn off…” the queen says softly, and Cindy isn’t sure if she’s talking to her or to herself. “And when you can turn it off you just feel so silly for thinking that way, but then something happens and it comes back all the worse…”

Cinderella’s half-come out of what would be called ‘tharn’ in Watership Down enough to sip her tea a little bit. The teacup rattles a bit in its saucer as she sets it down.

The queen gestures at the little tiered cookie trays. “Um… macaron?”

Cindy takes one and munches it down in barely a bite and a half, eager for the gap in conversation chewing affords her.

The queen huffs and slumps back in her seat. “Chaz was right about you. One really does feel like they can tell you anything and you don’t know if you’ve made a fool of yourself until after you’ve said it.”

“Is that… good?” Cinderella is picking up her teacup again.

“I think it’s good,” the queen says, taking a cookie herself and taking a bite out of it, “People are cynical, you know. It means a lot to inspire that kind of confidence. You managed to make quite the impression on a number of the palace staff the first night you came here.”

“Because I crashed the party…”

“Because you were kind. And helping seemed to be your first instinct about, well, anything. So this is what I’m saying—with regard to.. your previous living conditions, regardless of the abuse put upon you, there is only a limited degree to which the crown can respond. But I can assure you we will find every means we can to—”

“I don’t want to punish them,” Cindy blurts out, tense in her seat.

The queen’s gaze flicks up to her.

“What they did to me…” Cindy starts, but then stops and glances off, “I don’t think hurting them further than how they already are will help. I don’t know what will help them. But all I know is that I don’t want them anywhere near me. And I don’t think they need to hurt to know that.”

“…exile, then?” The queen munches a macaron and Cindy blanches.

“No,” Cinderella says quietly, “That doesn’t feel right either.”

“Well… we have a whole library and dozens of legal experts at your disposal, dear,” the queen smiles, “I trust you to be a far more merciful person than I’ve ever been.”

Cindy stills in her seat, full deer-in-the-headlights mode.

“…that’s good,” the queen says, reaching forward and putting a hand on Cinderella’s knee.

“Oh!” Cinderella eases up, “Th-thank you.”

And so, over the next few days and with much discussion with many royal lawyers, the first restraining order was invented. Granted, if you look up legal history as we know it, the modern restraining order popped up in like, the 1970’s, which is… really fucked up and you’d think it would pop up sooner. But also people are terrible so it makes sense that it would take that long. But we’ll just assume this was kind of like the whole ‘sometimes people act like Don Quijote was the first novel and not Lady Murasaki’s Tale of the Genji just because Don Quijote saw wider distribution,” and also an instance where something was so unusual for its time we wouldn’t really see its implementation until a long-ass time later situation. And also I made up the country they’re all in so fuck it. They invented restraining orders. Which is what Cindy deserves.

Oh god. like, I would hate being in the presence of the stepfam in any situation, but what I wouldn’t give to be in the room when the royal messenger shows up at the stepmother’s doorstep. Like the stepmother would totally think she’s receiving a ‘guest of honor’ invitation for the royal wedding despite the Prince’s absolutely harrowing look at her, and she’s like ‘Finally that little rat of a girl is proving herself useful.’ And there’s the royal messenger on the doorstep like, “Good afternoon ma’am, I have the distinct honor of issuing to you this royal decree that you and your daughters are not to come within 800 paces of the Princess Consort-to-be. As well as this fruit basket.” (The palace had never issued a restraining order before and as such wasn’t really sure the proper means of delivering it, and the fruit basket was Cindy’s idea so that they might ‘part on good terms.’ Cindy’s never issued a restraining order before either, and she also has a very inflated opinion of the power of gifts and fine food, so go easy on her.)

“…I suppose… the seating for the wedding will accommodate?” The stepmother says a bit blankly.

“Oh—Madam, unfortunately, I have no invitation for this household. But! You will observe that this fruit basket does indeed have a pineapple! So let that be a symbol of the crown extending all the hospitality it can extend in line with this decree.”

“Ah. Yes. A… a pineapple,” the stepmother says, blinking several times.

“Oh, yes, and also this sack of gold to cover any additional medical expenses with regard to the…” the palace messenger clears his throat, “Toe incident.” The messenger unceremoniously plops a roughly coconut-sized sack of gold onto the fruit basket. “Ladies,” he says, tipping his hat before leaving.

The stepmother snatches the gold sack up right quick but then she and the stepsisters are stuck staring at this pineapple for three days in utter befuddlement. Both the pineapple and the gold are enough to take their minds off of the increasingly large groups of starlings gathering in the hazel tree on the side of the house… for a while at least.

#love at first sight exists #but only in the sense that I consider that part of skyrim where you watch farkas turn into a werewolf 'love at first sight'#POV: You've been taken captive and you watch the hunter from Bloodborne carve a bloody path through your captors #like how can your brain NOT go 'wife' in that context???#what I'm saying is... Queen--it is fine he was absolutely INTO IT #cinderella #'also we've just tanked your entire social future but here's a pineapple byeeeeee'#Common sense: Hey you know you probably could make the epilogue one big chapter if you left out the queen's backstory #me: NO FUCK YOU I'M KEEPING IT

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reliablejoukido · 3 months

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Someone just gave me a shit sandwich comment on a fic and it’s like… don’t do this. Don’t do this to me and don’t do it to other people.

#now I’m going to be thinking about this comment forever—thanks person!#no I didn’t get the character ‘wrong’… I just wrote them in the way I wanted oh my god #I’m just going to keep adding tags to this until I feel better about it #I’m looking online at the definition of shit sandwich and I wish there was a more accurate way to describe this kind of comment #it’s the— I love this but you are wrong but this other part was nice #like bro I’m not wrong????? but now I’m going to second guess myself???#even though there’s no such thing as being wrong about a fictional character that you are writing a fanwork about #because you are allowed to interpret that character however you want #sorry friends I should probably delete this #it’s just one comment #except actually it’s not. the person has been reading my fic all day and commenting on chapters as they go #and some of the other comments have been like ‘you should change this thing actually because it makes more sense the way I say it does #like LORD how do I respond nicely to this person?#I’m dreading the couple chapters they have left

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666writingcafe · 4 months

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Barbatos' Birthday Surprise (Part One)

"...for more details on how to win tickets to see Severa at the Hell Dome on August twenty-fourth, visit our website www.wdbl.com and click on 'Contests'."

I turn off the radio as quickly as I turned it on. I originally was just going to listen to some music as I relaxed in my room at the House, but as soon as I heard the announcement, I knew I had to move quickly. While I don't know much about the band Severa, I do know that they specialize in metal music, and I happen to know someone that's really into that genre. Plus, it would make for a nice present for him, provided that he's okay with taking some time off.

Opening up my laptop, I go on the station's website and do as the announcer instructed. I'm then greeted with the following question:

Why do you want to win these tickets?

A simple enough question. I can imagine the radio station wants to weed out scalpers and scammers and give these tickets to someone that truly wants them and will go see the band in concert. Cracking my knuckles, I proceed to type in the empty text box accompanying the question.

I want to surprise a dear friend of mine with some time off. He works day in and day out with little rest, and although he will never admit it, he's starting to get tired. I can see it in his eyes. The two of us have bonded over our love of metal music, and we've spent time comparing and contrasting what it sounds like in the human world versus the Devildom. I hope by winning these tickets and attending the concert that we continue to grow close. He's a kind, caring man, even though his job requires him to be rigid and uptight, and I want to reward him for all his hard work.

As I fill in my contact information, I begin doubting my efforts. Surely a superfan will get the tickets over me, right? I mean, they would know more about the band than I do. Plus, I didn't name the person I wanted to get the tickets for. If I did, I'd probably would get the tickets right away. But, that would be cheating, and I want to win honestly.

So, I take a deep breath and hit the submit button.

~~~~~

"Oooh, MC's got mail!" Asmo teases lightly as I enter the living room. A while ago, Lucifer set up a table right outside the room so that he could easier sort the mail that the House received. Each of us has a basket, although mine's usually empty.

Except for today, when a thick, sturdy white envelope awaited me.

"Calm down, Asmo," Satan replies, glancing up from his book with an annoyed look on his face. "It's not like they're not allowed to receive any correspondence."

"What if it's from a secret admirer?" Asmo wonders, seemingly ignoring his brother.

"Do either one of you know who Jazzon M. is?" I ask, reading off the name on the upper left corner of the envelope.

"He's one of the radio DJs for WDBL," Satan responds as he closes his book.

"I see." My throat tightens up, and I feel my heart begin to beat faster. Grabbing a nearby letter opener, I carefully cut across the top of the envelope and pull out a neatly folded piece of paper. Unfolding it reveals a handwritten letter.

Dear MC,

I wanted to reach out to you personally and congratulate you on winning our contest on WDBL 110.6. Your submission was quite sweet, and after a bit of sleuthing, I figured out who exactly you wanted to get these tickets for. So, I pulled some strings and included a couple extra things in order to make the experience extra special for the two of you.

Hope you have a blast!

J.M.

"Everything alright, MC?" Asmo asks. "You look a little pale."

"I'm fine. Just...surprised, that's all."

"I take it you won one of the stations' contests?" Satan asks. I nod my head.

"They were giving away tickets to see this metal band called Severa at the Hell Dome on August twenty-fourth, and I figured it would make a nice birthday present for Barbatos." The two demons exchange glances, making me even more nervous. "Did I make a bad assumption?"

"Severa is one of Barbatos' favorite bands of all time," Satan responds. "Their shows are normally sold out minutes after they go on sale, though, and no amount of connections or money is going to make any of those people resell their tickets."

"I...I didn't know that."

"He's never had any luck seeing them live," Asmo continues as I sit down next to him on the couch. "The one time he got tickets, he ended up with a horrible stomach flu that knocked him out for the entire week of the concert. Rumor has it that when he wasn't throwing up, he was straight up crying because he couldn't attend the concert. Apparently, he was that distraught."

"So, in other words, I picked out a good gift for him."

"Not just a good gift, MC: the perfect gift. Nothing anyone else does for him is going to top that." I breathe a sigh of relief. I'm glad I didn't mess up by getting Barbatos something he wouldn't like or enjoy for his birthday.

"What all is in the envelope?" Satan asks. "It looks awfully thick for it to just have tickets and a letter." I carefully dump out the remaining contents on the coffee table in front of me.

"Front row tickets?!" Asmo exclaims. "AND VIP lanyards?!"

"Looks like there's backstage passes, too," Satan remarks.

"He did say that he pulled some strings," I explain as Asmo unfolds another piece of paper.

"I would say a lot," he replies. "He reserved you a suite at the Utopia Hotel." Upon seeing the confused look on my face, he explains that it's one of the most expensive hotels in the Devildom, partly due to its close proximity to the Hell Dome, and partly due to how fancy the building itself is.

"You also have a reservation at Ristorante Ninurta the night before the concert," Satan continues. "They're usually booked for months at a time, sometimes years."

"You two are going to be so spoiled! I'm super jealous!"

"You don't even like metal music, Asmo."

"That's not the point!" Asmo turns his head to look at me. "What's important is that you're going to have one of the best experiences of your entire life. Barbatos is going to be all over you, MC."

"No offense, but I find that hard to believe," I tell him.

"Asmo might actually be right for once," Satan interjects. "People have told me that live metal music brings out a different side of Barbatos, one that no one really expects. He gets a bit rougher around the edges, saying and doing things he normally wouldn't in any other circumstance."

"In any case, you need to get this to Barbatos as soon as possible," Asmo instructs. "That way, he has plenty of time to prepare for it."

#obey me shall we date #obey me mc #obey me satan #obey me asmo #obey me asmodeus #obey me barbatos #this is me expanding upon what i wrote for “barbatos as a lover”#you see #the idea just hasn't left my head #it's kept popping up #especially when I'm bored at work #I'm splitting this into parts/chapters so that you guys aren't reading one super long post #plus tumblr has a word limit for each post #and this would probably exceed that limit if i did everything in a single post

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kindoffruity · 1 year

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Smitten - Chapter Five - Aonung's POV

Mild Warning: This isn't essentially accurate. It is a bit longer than usual. I apologize for the delay as I have been sick.

Smitten: Chapter Five - Gift - Aonung's POV

A week seemed to fly for Aonung, everything was actually going great for his relationship with Neteyam. While he did train in the morning, he had to finish his and Lo’ak’s chores before lunch, and he usually spared time before and after dinner for Neteyam. Aonung was trying his absolute hardest to always keep a smile on Neteyam’s face. Late in the evening, he dedicated many hours to creating a gift for his lover.

Aonung wasn’t as good at crafting as his sister was, but the important part was he did it himself. Despite the countless times the pearls fell off their string and he had to redo it, he had poked his fingers several times. Sometimes he was so frustrated he wanted to throw it, but he knew he needed to treat it with care.

Ronal, his mother, was relatively quiet since the outburst, only checking on her son occasionally with a mild disapproving look as she watched him struggle to craft, one day he assumed she got tired of watching him stuck on the same part, she stood over him, casting a glance down, “There is too much weight on the string, you need to double it to make it sturdier otherwise it will not last. Here, like this.” Ronal slipped another string through and pulled on it to show how much stronger it was now.

Aonung could only thank his mother, he was a little shocked, did this mean that she was accepting Neteyam? She must have accepted the idea.

After a week full of long evenings, Aonung had created two pieces for his lover. He looked over them carefully, he looked at them and could see Neteyam in their beauty. Yet, he had gotten second thoughts wondering if these were even good enough for his lover. There was only one person who would be completely honest with him. He placed both gifts in a small box, laying them gently and walking to his mothers room. He knew Ronal would tell him if they were ugly or not good enough for a courting gift.

“I think they are lovely, I am impressed you put such an extreme amount of effort. This..Takes a lot of dedication.. You must really love him..” Ronal spoke, trailing her hand gently over the high quality pearls and sea glass. She may not have approved of Neteyam but she respected Aonung's intentions of courting Neteyam. That was all Aonung could ask for, everything else they could work on.

- - -

Aonung hardly felt nervous, it wasn’t like him. He was usually confident and cool, when he approached Neteyam bullying him those months ago, he never would have thought his crush would have returned his feelings. Let alone, be willing to mate with him. They have known each other for years, he knew how Neteyam was. Neteyam would have probably been happy with some sappy seashell had Aonung said that it reminded him of Neteyam.

But this wasn’t some sappy seashell, this was the real deal, he had spent long nights working hard. Yet suddenly, it all seemed so small and not enough when Neteyam deserved the world.

Aonung tried not to get anxious as he approached the Sully home, he needed to be confident, seeing Jake stand to greet him took him back, he realized he was no longer a kid anymore. He was a grown man now, taller than even Jake Sully.

“Aonung, what brings you here?” Neytiri called out as she approached the two men, she welcomed him inside to take a seat. Neteyam was nowhere to be found at this very moment, it made Aonung more nervous as he stared at the two forest Na’vi’s. Suddenly, he remembered how as an ignorant child he had bullied the Sully kids, he really hoped that didn’t come to bite him.

“Ah yes, I was hoping to speak with both of you and Neteyam but it seems he is not here,” Aonung started, despite internally screaming at himself, he kept a cool composure, imagining Neteyam was right there. “Nonetheless, I wish to court Neteyam. I have been working very hard to become a man worthy of him, he means the world to me, I wish to court him but I would like your approval to do so.” Aonung gained confidence as he spoke, looking between the set of parents. Both parents seemed to be shocked, as if they had no idea he and Neteyam were even a possibility, where did they think Neteyam ran off too at night?

Jake Sully seemed to be staring him up and down, probably wondering if he would even be able to provide for his son. “I will be Olo'eyktan one day, Neteyam is my better half, I do not see a future without him by my side.” Aonung felt the need to sell himself as a worthy mate.

Neytiri was still processing everything, before she started to laugh, Aonung was thankful for that, it really eased the tension that had been forming. “This explains a lot. I was wondering why he had hesitated so much the other day, and now I recall every night he is nowhere to be found.” Neytiri spoke with a knowing-tone. From what Aonung had heard, Neytiri had mated even younger than they were at only 18. So he assumed she knew a thing or two of sneaking around.

The couple exchanged looks with each other, Jake seemed reluctant but Neytiri was clearly in charge, “Absolutely, you have our approval. As long as Neteyam is happy and he chooses you.”

Aonung was relieved, it visibly had shown on his face now that he had the approval of the Sully’s to court Neteyam. “I am relieved, thank you very much, if you’ll excuse me I really need to find Neteyam!” Aonung had bowed his head respectfully and stood from his kneeling position. It took everything for him not to run out of there, he needed to look calm and collected.

“Ronal is going to have a bitch fit,” Aonung could hear Jake say to Neytiri, “Good. She deserves it, she was so against our kids and now look, we are going to be family whether she likes it or not. I could not be more pleased.”

Aonung quickly learned that Neytiri was petty, he was sure Neteyam had gotten that trait from her.

- - -

Aonung had searched all over the reef for Neteyam, it felt like they were playing hide and seek, everywhere he would check it seemed like he just kept missing Neteyam. Neteyam hadn’t even been at dinner, Aonung was starting to get worried when Neteyam hadn’t immediately shown up to their usual spot on the beach.

“Aonung! Aonung!” Neteyam called out running towards him, he looked out of breath like he had been running for a bit, his braids damp as if he had just gotten out of the water not too long ago, Neteyam held something behind his back as he ran. He stumbled as he finally made it to Aonung, he had to take a large pause to catch his breath.

Aonung could tell Neteyam had probably been running for a while considering how out of breath he had been, it had really taken him by surprise to see Neteyam winded.

“I have been looking for you all day!” Aonung complained, reaching to pull his lover into his arms, to which Neteyam held out his arm to keep him at arm's length. “I know, I have been busy today, I can only tell you part of what I am doing- just give me a second to calm my heart rate-” Neteyam laughed, Aonung had never been more confused as to what Neteyam had been doing to be this out of breath.

“What could be more important than your future husband?” Aonung couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous, Neteyam looked at him and rolled his eyes, but there was a playful smile on Neteyam’s lips. “I could give you a long list, or you could close your eyes and stop acting like a jealous baby.” Neteyam pressed a hand to his face, forcing him to close his eyes. Aonung could only huff in response pretending he was annoyed.

“I know you have been busy, and I appreciate everything you have done to make more time for me, so I have decided to create something for you to make everything easier on you.” Neteyam shifted to rest on one knee and grasped Aonung’s hand, placing something in his hand and closing his hand on the object. “Open your eyes,” Neteyam spoke softly, looking up at Aonung with bright eyes.

Aonung was completely surprised, opening his eyes to see Neteyam on his knee, it took him a moment to process what was going on. Neteyam was courting him. Aonung couldn’t help the large smile that overtook his face as he opened his hand to see an armband that Neteyam had created for him, it was braided much like Neteyam’s yet had golden sea glass embedded with it that distinctively reminded him of Neteyam’s eyes.

“Aonung, will you be my mate?” Neteyam asked with a smug grin, of course Neteyam would take courting into his own hands when he felt like Aonung was taking too long. “But what about your parents?” Aonung teased that Neteyam had no idea he had already asked for his hand. “I already asked yours.” Neteyam expressed.

Aonung was at a loss for words, while he had been running around searching for Neteyam and asking his parents, Neteyam had been doing the same thing? Neteyam had asked his mother and father if they could be together, Aonung could only imagine how the whole thing went, it was clear Aonung was processing how the conversation went, he was deep in his thoughts.

“Aonung! Will you be my mate! Do you accept?” Neteyam asked him again, Aonung snapped out of his thoughts and laughed, “Of course I accept,” Aonung knew he was going to accept regardless. They both knew. But it was surreal actually doing this. Aonung slid down to his knees, holding out his arm for Neteyam to place the band on him, “If you couldn’t tell, the gold is so you can always have me with you,” Neteyam explained.

“Really? I had no idea, I thought it was for Kiri or Lo’ak- Too tight!” Aonung had been joking, Neteyam tightened the armband painfully tight to make a point. As if Aonung could ever think of anyone but his lover. Aonung waited for the other to finish before he grabbed his face for a long kiss, he held Neteyam in place for a moment before he slowly shifted to sit down on the sand, pulling Neteyam to straddle his legs and sit on his thighs mid-kiss.

Neteyam easily allowed himself to be moved without them ever pulling away, Aonung swore that Neteyam was getting better with holding his breath. It was Aonung who had pulled away first, reluctantly albeit.

“I love you.. But don’t think you have beaten me because you have courted me first..” Aonung spoke against Neteyam’s lips, planting another heated kiss on his lips while his hand reached for his box that he had planned on giving Neteyam in the beginning.

Neteyam’s arms were around his neck, hands in his bun, Neteyam had grown more bold whenever their lips locked. Aonung could feel the heat building in their touch. Neteyam was distracted by his kiss, Aonung used this to his advantage to slip on the waist beads he had created for his lover. Neteyam hardly felt them being put on.

Neteyam pulled away from the kiss breathlessly, it was only after he relaxed his posture did he recognize the foreign object, his eyes trailed down towards his waist that was now adorned with some of the prettiest pearls he had ever seen. Neteyam trailed his hand lightly over every piece, the pearls and sea glass followed a pattern of white, yellow, white, blue and so on. Neteyam looked quite pleased with his gift, in the middle lay a sharp tooth of what Neteyam could only assume belonged to an Akula.

“You.. When did you have the time?” Neteyam’s eyes were large and full of wonder as they locked with Aonung’s light blue. Aonung felt proud receiving this reaction, it was worth the wait, “The day after your birthday, we went hunting for the materials, you deserve nothing but the finest.” Aonung had imagined what Neteyam would look like wearing this countless times, but this was much better.

While it hugged Neteyam’s waist perfectly, it also showed anyone looking that he was taken.

“And to make it?” Neteyam seemed in disbelief, Aonung was sure he was just shocked that Aonung had put so much work into it. “Every night. It was nice because we would hang out beforehand so I always felt motivated after we spent time together to complete it.” Aonung would be lying if he didn’t say he felt smug seeing how flustered Neteyam had gotten.

“I never said I was done, Neteyam.”

Neteyam was still mesmerized by the extravagant piece resting on his waist, “My love- this is enough really, it more than enough,” Neteyam was too flustered to accept anything else from Aonung.

“It would be rude of you to not accept, are my gifts not good enough for you?” Aonung practically purred teasingly in Neteyam’s ear, “N-No, it's not that, It’s just this gift is enough as a courting gift-” Neteyam hadn’t stumbled on his words since Aonung had started praising him.

“It’s not a courting gift though, it is a birthday gift, my love.”

Before Neteyam could oppose, Aonung placed a hand over his mouth and forced it shut while he slipped on a headpiece that had been modeled after Neteyam’s visor, it was much more extravagant than even the waist beads that had been created for him. The piece was clearly for decoration or to show off, the complex design of it showed Neteyam he had taken his time with it.

“Obviously, I know you are a warrior first and foremost, I do not wish for you to think I am undermining this, however I wanted to create something as beautiful as you. I know you cannot wear it for hunting or your chores, but for celebrations or when we marry.” Aonung expressed, his hand tracing over the headpiece that had framed Neteyam’s face, it was delicate just like Neteyam could be whenever they were alone.

It took Neteyam’s breath away to be adorned by pearls and jewels by his lover, he couldn’t see himself but he knew he Aonung must have loved everything he saw. Aonung treated him like he was a strong warrior yet Neteyam knew he could be fragile with him.

“You are worth the whole world, I will make sure you only ever have the best, I vow that to you.” Aonung continued.

“Aonung…” Neteyam started to speak, tears threatening to escape but he blinked them away and took a deep breath, ‘Thank you.. These gifts are lovely, I will treasure them forever. When we mate before Eywa, I will make sure to wear this.” Neteyam promised with a flushed look at the thought of them getting to that actual point.

“Soon, my heart,” Aonung caressed Neteyam’s cheeks, his touches light and gentle as they shared a moment more intimate than sex. The air surrounding them was full of love, passion and vulnerabilities.

Aonung knew he hadn’t always been the best mate, nor was he perfect, but Neteyam made him feel damn near perfect. Aonung could do anything he wanted as long as Neteyam was in his corner.

Aonung admired everything about his lover; the way his braids seemed to bounce everytime he stepped or laughed loudly; the way his thin baby tail seemed to wag excitedly and wrap around his own whenever he complimented his lover. And, he couldn’t forget about how Neteyam’s strong thighs seemed to lock Aonung in every time.

“Nung.. You are staring so hard..” Neteyam’s words snapped Aonung out of the trance he had been in, he had been staring hard at him, “I just love everything about you..” Aonung confessed.

Aonung really was in love, possibly even obsessed with his lover, so he pulled him in for another kiss. His hands gripped Neteyam’s thighs and pulled them around him as they sat on the sand. There was no care now about getting caught, the world would know by sunrise.

Neteyam’s hands traced over Aonung’s arms, squeezing the muscles firmly, as if he was trying to remember each curve. His hands rubbed at his shoulders and traveled to his chest, just exploring all the places he had been too shy to explore during the day or continuing where they seemed to always get interrupted.

Aonung used the hands traveling his body as an invitation for him to return the favor, his hands slid further up from Neteyam’s thighs towards his butt, gripping it softly admiring how it filled his hands nicely. Aonung couldn’t help but notice how Neteyam arched into the squeeze, he noted it mentally as he dragged his hands up his back in a teasing motion that left goosebumps on Neteyam’s skin. Despite their lips being interlocked he could hear a small moan escape Neteyam’s lips, it was practically engulfed in the kiss though.

“I love you..” Neteyam whispered against Aonung’s lips once they pulled away for air. It was intoxicating, they couldn’t get enough of one another, their touches were soft and sensual yet each one left them yearning for more. Aonung’s hands gently grabbed onto Neteyam’s waist as his lips moved down to plant gentle kisses from his jaw down to his neck.

The kisses to his neck left Neteyam practically melting, his arms wrapped tightly around Aonung wanting to be as close as possible. “Ao-Aonung..” Neteyam was left whispering his name, not knowing if he wanted more or just wanted to Aonung to hear how good he felt with each heated kiss pressed to his neck. Aonung couldn’t help but smirk as Neteyam’s thighs tightened around him, their hips pressed together causing only the sweetest friction between them.

Aonung bit gently into his lover’s skin, sucking on the flesh and only pulling away when there was a small hickey left over. Neteyam had tensed as his teeth sunk into him, Aonung could only imagine Neteyam was struggling to hold back the prettiest moans of pleasure.

“You are so perfect… I am so lucky..” Aonung whispered just for Neteyam, slowly moving to lay Neteyam back gently on the sand, Neteyam moved easily with him, resting his back on the sand as Aonung hovered over him. Aonung’s build practically surrounded Neteyam, his curls tickled the crook of Neteyam’s neck as he continued to pepper his neck with soft loving kisses. Neteyam’s hands dragging down his back gently scratching. Neteyam didn’t know where this was leading, but he didn’t want it to stop any time soon.

Aonung pulled away from his neck to admire his lover sprawled out underneath him, his freckles glowing underneath the moonlight, Neteyam beaming up at him with the happiest smile as he pulled him for a slow and sensual kiss. Their hips brushing against one another, sending a pleasurable thrill through their bodies as they clung to one-another. Aonung couldn’t help but release a low groan against his forest boy’s lips.

If Aonung had it his way, he would have taken Neteyam right now. But he didn’t want to ruin everything they had worked so hard for, so with great restraint he pulled away.

Neteyam made a sound of disapproval, it was almost like a whine or a quiet protest, as Aonung had started to pull away. Aonung pressed a kiss to his forehead, “We have the rest of our lives.” Aonung gently reminded his lover. It was difficult, it took great strength to pull himself from ravishing his lover on the beach, but he wanted their first time to be special.

Neteyam looked up at him with dazed golden orbs, his hand traveling down his arm and intertwining their fingers. “I know..Doesn’t change the fact that I want you now too.” Neteyam teased as he brought Aonung’s hand to his mouth and pressed soft kisses to each of his fingers.

It drove Aonung insane, Neteyam knew what he was doing, Aonung had to practically lift him off the sand.

It was time to return home.

- - - -

Aonung’s Iknimaya came shortly after that evening on the beach, once he returned from the trials with his spirit brother he would be a man.

Aonung did not know when he would return, as there was no set date, but he prepared himself mentally to be gone for quite some time.

The great thing was, the whole island knew Aonung and Neteyam had been promised to one-another, it pleased Aonung greatly to see Neteyam bustling around as usual with the beads bouncing around on his waist, he had heard people compliment his lover on it multiple times.

“I never realized how small your waist was- smaller than some women” Aonung would hear, he also heard, “Wow, Aonung is lucky, Neteyam is pretty, if he messes up I wonder if I’ll have a chance”.

They were right, Aonung was lucky.

However, every time he heard those comments or someone even admiring his future mate, he felt the need to just grab Neteyam by his pretty little waist and slam a hard kiss on his lips.

Aonung had only done that once though, it was on his last day before he left for his Iknimaya. A large group of those who were leaving to become men, had gathered together for a last hurrah. There was dancing and food, it was truly a great event.

Neteyam had been talking with many Na’vi to find out what their trials had been like, or the placement of their first tattoo, Neteyam was just trying to find as much information to know what to expect in the future for Aonung.

Aonung knew this, he had no doubt in his mind that everything Neteyam did revolved around him in one way or another, in the best way of course.

“You know it’s not uncommon for some to come back bound and mated, don’t worry Neteyam. If Aonung doesn’t make it back, or if he chooses someone else, I’ll take one for the team so you don’t have to be alone.”

It was supposed to be a joke apparently but it didn’t go down well with Aonung. Neteyam looked visibly uncomfortable by the joke too.

Aonung reacted out of pure jealousy and frustration, sliding behind Neteyam, an arm wrapped around his waist and his hand guiding Neteyam’s face up towards him to plant a firm kiss on his lips. Neteyam had easily complied to the kiss, eyes falling shut as Aonung claimed him as his own in front of the pool of potential bachelors. Aonung’s eyes didn’t shut though, they locked directly on the bearer of the bad joke.

“Don’t worry, Neteyam is good. He needs no other mate. None of you could handle him anyways.” Aonung smirked as he pulled away, it left Neteyam flustered as Aonung led him away from the celebration. “You are.. So jealous..” Neteyam spoke in a hushed tone to his lover, lightly slapping his arm but not really having any complaints.

The night ended, with a kiss goodbye, the couple not knowing an exact day of when they’d see each other again, only that they would see each other once again.

- -

It had been a good month and half before the couple was reunited.

While he had been gone, his parents and Neteyam had moved his stuff to his own place, he had a Marui of his own.

Aonung had returned; he had many stories to tell, a new gift from Eywa (his first tattoo), and a collected seashell from every day that he had been separated from his lover.

The day of his return there was loud whooping and hollering, many people were proud of him, he was the center of attention for the whole day. It was truly a gift and a curse. The gift made him feel important and accomplished, he was a man now, a warrior, someone worthy of his partner who had been considered a man far younger than him.

The curse was, he barely got to even hug his lover, Neteyam looked at him with so much want and yearning but everyone had crowded him wanting to hear his stories and how his spirit brother was doing. It was a lot, and by the end of the evening, he had been absolutely exhausted with a social meter completely drained. He was so tired he instinctively walked into his old home, only realizing that all of his stuff had been moved.

A huff of frustration as he had to walk to the furthest end of the island to get settled into this new foreign home. He looked around and couldn’t help but smile a bit, he could tell Neteyam had been there. There were subtle signs all around, from a little plate with some of the beads from his braids to the plants that had decorated the space. Only Neteyam would elect to take care of plants by the reef. Aonung was sure it was a reminder of the forest.

“You have arrived, I have missed you.” Neteyam called from outside of his new home, Aonung albeit exhausted, practically yanked Neteyam inside and to lay down with him, his arms wrapped tight around his lover. Ignoring the sting from the fresh tattoo burning on his arm.

“Neteyam.. I missed you too, today was so long, I’m sorry we didn’t get to spend much time together..” Aonung closed his eyes, the wave exhaustion rolling over but feeling warm and comfortable once again, “We have the rest of our lives.” Neteyam teased bringing up their last steamy scene.

“I’ll leave you to rest, my love..” Neteyam moved to get up but Aonung did not budge, pulling him right back down and hugging him from behind as he kept him close. “You are not leaving tonight, you and I have a lot of catching up to do.” Aonung refused to let Neteyam go.

It was nice to have their own spot, Aonung could only think that this would be their home. They had fallen asleep together, it was surreal to be able to sleep with his lover. Aonung swore when he woke up he would get to admire his beautiful face.

Except when he woke up, he had woken up to Lo’ak staring above him, glaring down on him. For a brief moment he had thought it was Neteyam, but Neteyam was in his arms. “What the fuck?” Aonung jolted, Neteyam instantly jumped up with him.

“So you think you can come back here a man, molest my brother and hold him captive here in your home. I came here to remind you that I am always watching you! You hurt my brother, I will break your neck.” Lo’ak warned.

“Enough Lo’ak, I can handle myself. But you’re pretty relentless for someone who has bonded before Eywa with Aonung’s sister.” Neteyam teased, it was clear Aonung had no idea yet.

Aonung shot out of bed and Lo’ak ran as fast as he could away from him.

It left Neteyam alone in what would soon be their new home..

#aonung x neteyam #aonunete #neteyam x aonung #aonung #avatar #like two chapters left #we love a happy ending #will probably have them mate before ewya in the final chapter #just a heads up that one will probably be rated M #lmk what you think

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flufflecat · 7 months

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Can someone explain what the narrative stakes are even supposed to be anymore in jjk. All the characters are essentially guaranteed to die, the current cast is comprised almost entirely of characters who showed up 2/3rds into the story and we're supposed to care about them for some reason, and I do not even know what the threat is supposed to be anymore. The apocalypse? Destruction of an amorphous innocent society? Like has ANYTHING been shown of "here's the regular world that apparently needs to be saved" or are we just supposed to assume "this society is just Real Life+, so you're REQUIRED to care if some guy threatens to kill all humanity, because one of those humanities may be... a child" or something. Can you spare two seconds to show anything other than some magic randos fighting, or is it just a superhero story all the time now, minus the fun. Remember when yuuji had friends.

#jujutsu kaisen #jjk crit #sorry for like being salty in what will prob be the main tag #I simply do not vibe at ALL with the direction this series has gone in and would love someone to complain about it with ahfkaj #I'd write an entire meta on the narrative flaws but I do not feel like it #seriously though it's chill if people like the story and I'm not trying to cause shit by tagging it #well I'm sort of trying to cause shit #but that shit is 'blease will someone complain with me because I love complaining'#I just don't get it #like oh wow you killed characters off and established stakes! that sets a tone and shows that this is a serious conflict!#oh nvm you've killed everyone just to be gratuitous about it and prove how tooootally realistic your story is #and now there's no reason to care bc why get invested when there's an 80% chance the characters will all die #like. you're just alienating people from caring about the story you're trying to make them care about #idek what kenjaku is supposed to be up to anymore #for all I care he could explode the world and I'd be like whatever there was probably no one interesting left anyway #everything that happens anymore in jjk feels like someone said 'but what if all the nonsense in DBZ... was edgy'#and then thought they did something interesting #wooooahhhh someone did a fight for 70 chapters! so innovative and unique!#someone transformed! what a twist!!#woooahhh you did a nonsense rug-pull and are now lying to us acting like it was intended the whole time! sacre bleu!!!#anyway see my previous complainy post to see why gojos plot specifically is harmful bullshit #but it's a shoooooneeennnnnn #it doesn't neeeeeeeed to be written well or responsibly amiright?!#it just needs to make straight guys on twitter think they're unique for saying 'the real issue with jjk is that some women like it '#ok I'm done complaining. FOR NOW.#I'm sure I'll think of something else to complain about in two seconds.#fluffle talks

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meownotgood · 4 months

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under the influence is 80k words in total today...

#that's 46k for chapter two so far and 34k for chapter one #and I just finished the first seggs scene... moving on to the second one now...#100k soon???#oh god no #I don't know if I have 20k words of aki sex left in me LOL #100k is probably a little tooooooo long #it's long enough as is #truthfully... I'm putting in a lot of effort...#but I worry maybe it's just too long or will be boring...#I worried about that a lot with the first chapter but I was pleased to see people enjoyed it #I guess it's definitely not for everyone though...#every time I read through what I wrote I'm like #damn you'd have to be a whole new level of insane for aki to read this many words of you getting it on with him #and then I remember I wrote the fuckin thing #and then I remember I am in fact that insane

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ct-multifandom · 9 months

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Forever lamenting that YTTD chapter 1 dropped during the Trump presidency because this meme wasn’t invented yet

Spent the entire Sara minisode going “it’s joever” over and over again in my head

#yttd #your turn to die #kimi ga shine #kgs #yttd mini episodes #yttd minisodes #he looks particulary salad fingers esque in this image #I know I usually make posts when new yttd comes out but I don’t really have anything new to add this time?#my only thought is whether Nankidai plans on making all the side content before releasing the ending chapter of the actual game #or releasing the ending whenever it’s ready and then making whatever else he wants after #the way the minisode select screen is laid out makes it look like there are only a few left so not one per character but maybe he’ll add #another menu and make more of them #I need to replay the game I feel like. I’ve been forgetting some stuff #might make a post with predictions for 3-2 at some point #it was good to finally see Ryoko tho damn I’d love to like play as her or something. there is another sprite of her she’ll probably return #maybe I’ll make a Ryoko post I want people to be talking about her more #yttd spoilers #your turn to die spoilers #kimi ga shine spoilers #kgs spoilers

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ortustheninth · 2 years

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real quick before I forget but now that we know about jod’s heroic attempt to save all of humanity by cryogenically freezing them tragically thwarted by funding cuts to the sciences (narrated to us of course, by jod)… was that post about ‘imagine just living on planet earth and then waking up 10 thousand years later on the universe’s most miserable goth and catholic planet’ actually correct?? the 300 people shipped off to the Ninth were the people the proto lyctor cryogenics team managed to freeze before the governments and elon musks of the world revealed they were ditching earth for kuiper 7??

if they were frozen preResurrection do any of them even have necromantic potential? is Jod no longer the last person who knows what none pizza with left beef is?

#please it would be so funny #actually tho. real talk maybe but uh. sadly could def see tazmuir doing this to us. think we already know aiglamene’s making an appearance #in nona. she probably left the ninth house bc the newcomers outnumbered the pissed off elderly nuns and wouldn’t stop holding group therapy #sessions and refusing to wear the skull makeup #the locked tomb #tlt #nona the ninth #the locked tomb spoilers #the ninth house #nona the ninth spoilers #ntn #emperor john gaius #alecto’s going to open up w narrow escaping the tomb rolling away the rock and walking straight into a poetry reading session #since there’s nothing else to do on god’s most decrepit space cult. and harrow may’ve just escaped literal hell but the chapter ‘s going to #be about her in metaphorical hell #it’s what ortus Nigenad would want #this is a very long post for one that begins with ‘real quick’ sorry about that lads

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boycritter · 4 months

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there are so many things i want to make constant references to but i CANT bc no one outside of like. 3 other people will understand me

#those things are.#annotations left by my ex boyfriend when he was 12 in a physics book #fermats last tango copypasta #jokes chapter of the knot book by colin c adams #and probably more im forgetting but those are the main ones

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cwritesfiction · 1 year

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I’m officially 30k into draft 2 of It’s in the Cards 🎉

#it's in the cards #i'm not sure how long this draft will be #draft 1 was short partially because i left a full chapter summarized instead of written out #this one will probably be in the 60-70k range

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miminmimikyu · 1 year

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Hearing that PPPPPP has been cancelled is making me feel so sad and so angry. It's not the first time Jump axed one of my faves (RIP Mitama, Magu-chan, Agravity boys...) But this one really stings.

PPPPPP was a real gem among the current lineup-- unconventional and with so much potential. Of course an introspective story about classical music was never going to be the number one series in the home of the battle manga. But it took some other Jump staples as a starting point (the school setting, the mediocre main character persevering through effort, friendship and (piano) battles) and turned it on its head-- using beautiful silent panelling to convey sound! And convey complex emotions! Gently twisting reality and portraying devastating loss by making chapters 61-64 feel off and dreamlike. Losing competitions but winning the bigger fight: helping his siblings one by one by showing them kindness and love. A manga you'd expect in a magazine like Harta, or published alongside Totsukuni no Shoujo.. but read by thousands in Shonen Jump!

Yes they took a risk but you'd think that PPPPPP did enough to prove its value in Jump during its 70 chapter run: Despite not scoring high in weekly rankings, the volumes sold well (350.000 for 7 volumes in one year is not bad!!), it's been recommended by other mangaka (including Shiro Usazaki, artist of Act-Age), it ended up on a few lists of manga to watch out for (THIS MONTH placed #10 in the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2023). It was by no means an unpopular or bad manga! It did not deserve to be cancelled like this. It's not even moving magazines or to Jump+. Not getting a long epilogue chapter in Giga or online. Not getting extra chapters in the final volume. Just an axe.

This story deserved a proper ending. No way Lucky is getting his catharsis in one 24 page chapter. No way are we going to gain insight into Gakuon's mind. We won't get proper reconciliation between the siblings. Find out how Don and Shikato played the piano, their relationship with Lucky. Or see what happens to Lucky's friends who have been deciding on their own futures.

I can only commend Mapollo 3 for still giving us so much in those last few chapters. I don't know how much notice he was given before the axe, but I am thankful that we got to meet Don and Shikato and got Dada's flashback. Shikato's creepy, dissolving smile and the "average Gakuon fantasy" two page spread will be seared into my brain for a whille.

For us readers, for a few days more, Lucky is still lying in that graveyard with Gakuon gazing silently at his unconscious body. It seems like a cruel, poetic coincidence that actually feels fitting for this manga. I hope chapter 70 takes us back there, so we can say goodbye to Lucky, and Mapollo 3's quietly captivating story.

#pppppp #i was so angry i rage-infodumped the entire jjk manga at my brother (he's anime only but didn't mind me spoiling) and calmed down #but still wrote more than i thought i would #i'm probably not done...#well. one chapter left. let's hope its a good one #mmnmmq.txt

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miniscule-meow · 1 year

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Charlie and Felix: Bad Decisions

The long awaited follow-up to Bad Times

Writing Masterpost is Here

Extra long chapter (about 4.5k) I thought about splitting it into two but decided to go ahead and post the whole thing because I felt bad about how long it took me to write this

Warnings: Blood Mention, Alcohol, Some Language

~*~*~*~

For the first time since the beginning of the semester, they don’t sit next to each other in class. The room isn’t a huge lecture hall, but there are still plenty of open seats. Charlie sits off to the side, a little closer to the front than her normal spot next to Felix. She doesn’t turn around to check if he’s there, as far as she knows, he might have skipped the class today. The minutes drag along, the lecture seems extra boring without her friend sitting next to her. She knows that they probably just need to talk it out, and everything could be fine again. But honestly, she doesn’t really feel like doing that right now. He took all of her trust and threw it right back in her face. She’s allowed to be upset about that. Not that he even cares. If he didn’t want to be friends with her anymore, he could have just said that. But whatever, no time to think about dumb boys, she tries to focus on the boring lecture instead.

It goes on like this all week, they just mutually pretend that the other one doesn’t exist. Today, once class is over Charlie takes her sweet time packing up her stuff at the end of class. Usually, she would go get lunch with Felix after this class, but that’s obviously not going to happen right now.

“Hey Charlotte!” She turns and finds a girl standing next to her. They have… never really spoken, it takes her a moment to place a name with the face before her. She thinks it’s Madison. She was in her group at the first day orientation for transfer students, but aside from that they haven’t really spoken much. “Not to be, like, nosey or anything, but did you and Felix break up?”

“Um. We weren’t dating.” Charlie says, uncomfortably shifting her backpack onto her shoulders.

“What? Totally thought you were. Huh. But, so like, you’re fighting then, right? You haven’t sat next to each other all week”

“Why do you care?” Charlie raises an eyebrow.

“You totally are. ‘OMG’ Did he go total werewolf on you?” Charlie is briefly taken aback by her saying ‘oh em gee’ out loud in real life, it takes everything in her to not make a face at that. “It was a full moon recently you know and I-”

“No. no, no,” Charlie cuts her off, definitely making faces now, “I’m not going to listen to your stupid conspiracy theories. He’s not a werewolf, okay? He’s just a dumb boy. That’s it. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sorry. I mean, you two have been inseparable like… the whole year and now...” She shrugs. “Nikki totally thought you were being mind controlled to hang out with him.”

“Yeah. Okay, I’m walking away now.” Charlie turns to leave.

“I told her that was stupid!” Madison calls after her.

“Okay, bye.” Charlie waves as she walks off, thankful to escape that conversation before she was asked if Felix has scales or something. Great. Apparently, some people still have time to be curious about her stupid personal life drama. She doesn’t get why everyone is so curious about Felix. He tries to keep to himself, but everyone seems to want to insert themselves in his business. There is that picture of him floating around, but it’s super blurry and you can’t really tell that it's him, or that he’s gigantic. But ever since then everyone just seems to have their own version of who -or what- Felix really is. She guesses it makes sense that people would try to get information out of her, because Madison was right, her and Felix had been inseparable until recently.

“Charlotte, wait wait wait!” Madison runs after her. “I’m really sorry about your breakup and stuff. If you want, next weekend there’s going to be a huge party at Troy’s place. You should totally come. Meet some new people and stuff.” She hands Charlie a scrap of paper with an address on it. Then Madison stands there just long enough to make Charlie feel awkward, “Okay bye.” And with that, she flits off. Charlie looks at the note in her hands.

She’s never been invited to a party before. But thinking logically, there’s no way that would be any fun. Just a bunch of people shouting at her over music, asking her about Felix the whole time, drinking cheap beer, not studying for the finals that are right around the corner. She balls up the note and shoves it into her pocket.

Nothing changes the next week. Felix still hasn’t reached out to her, and she has stubbornly refused to reach out to him first. People mostly leave her alone, everything is relatively normal, if this is what normal has become. No friends, no fun, super normal. By the time the next weekend approaches, she finds herself seriously considering the party thing. She finds the crumpled note and smooths it out on her desk.

The night of the party rolls around, and she actually finds herself driving to the address, and parking a block down from the house. There are a LOT of cars on this street. Once she steps out of her truck she can already hear the dull thump of music and sound emanating from the house. She takes a deep breath before heading inside, determined to make some friends. She’s wearing her hair down, and she took care to pick an outfit that was both cute and comfortable. It’s a pair of overall shorts with a light long sleeve shirt underneath. That, paired with her black combat boots and some tall socks pushed down around the top of the boots. She wore her cutest bralette underneath for herself to help boost her confidence. She felt so cute she even took a selfie before she left. Here’s to new beginnings. It’s a little too cold outside for her outfit, so she grabbed a jacket before she left, but once she entered the house, she quickly ditched her jacket and pushed her sleeves up to her elbows.

It's loud and crowded. The people are packed into every room. Music is playing everywhere, and people are holding drinks, shouting over the music. She looks around. Some people glance her way, but she’s mostly ignored. She finds her way to the drinks.

“What is this?” She asks someone near a big container of a red liquid.

“Jungle Juice.” They shout back.

“What’s in it?”

“I don’t know. Everything?” They laugh and wander off. She’s sure there was something warning her about stuff like this in orientation. She pulls a mug out of an open cabinet and pours herself a glassful. It’s weird that they don’t have plastic cups? She always saw the stereotype of the red solo cups, but I guess they really like to play by their own rules here. Who is going to do all the dishes? What if something breaks? She shakes her head, this is why she doesn't get invited to parties. She just tries the drink already. Bleh. It’s strong to say the least, but... it’s relatively drinkable.

Several cups of jungle juice later she has flitted through several groups. Introductions, small talk, wander, repeat. There hasn’t been anyone she’s immediately clicked with like she had hoped. She joined a group playing a drinking game for a bit, which was fun, and got more fun the more drunk she became. Eventually, she finds herself sitting on the couch in the living room, the room twisting around her. Everything is just sounds and shapes. It's awesome, it's horrifying. Part of her thinks she’s had too much, and part of her is trying to reason why she should have just one more.

She pulls out her phone, it’s late. No notifications. No that's not true, she got a spam email for hot singles in the area, great. No real notifications at least, that is to say, nothing from Felix. She’s not surprised but she’s bummed. She can’t help but wonder what he's is doing right now. He would hate this party, she’s not sure if she hates this party or not. She should call him. She should absolutely not call him. Her phone is already ringing.

“Hello?” His voice answers. Oh my gosh he actually answered. She didn’t think he would answer. Why did she call him right now?

“...Hey.” She is immediately conscious of how she sounds so drunk. He must think she is so drunk. She is so drunk.

As she’s thinking that things couldn’t get any worse, fates twisted smile shines on her. Todd, resident bully, guy she’s pretty sure was in the fight with Felix the first day he actually talked to her Todd takes her phone, holding it away from her.

“Don’t drunk call boys that aren’t here sweetheart, pay attention to the ones that showed up.” He looks at the phone, laughing “Felix.” He reads quietly, looking at her once more, recognition sparking in his eyes. She stands, protesting and goes to grab for the phone. This would be easier if the room didn’t warble as she stood. To make matters more complicated Todd’s buddy, Drew comes from out of nowhere and slings an arm around her, holding her back. “Oh. Well, this is interesting.” He exchanges a glance with Drew. “You wouldn’t mind If I invited your boyfriend to the party, would you?”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” is all she can think to say. He just laughs and holds the phone up to his ear. “He probably already hung up he-”

“Hey Lizard boy." What a stupid nickname, he isn't even a lizard or a werewolf or anything like that. "You still there? Yeah. No, no this is your buddy, Todd. Remember me?” Her stomach drops, he didn't hang up. Maybe he did but Todd is just bluffing. There’s a pause. She tries to interject, but Todd just holds out a finger her direction, and turns away. “What? Aw that’s cute she’s got a nickname. No, Charlie can’t come to the phone right now.” He speaks mockingly and shares a sly look with Drew. Him saying her nickname makes her feel wrong. “She’s a little preoccupied with my pal Drew. Hey, you two, keep it PG over there.” He winks at her; her cheeks burn and Drew just laughs.

“Hang up! That’s not funny!” She tries to get away from Drew to snag her phone back, but she has no luck.

“Anyway, we’re at Troy’s place. I believe you and I have some unfinished business, if you want to come pick up your girl. Two birds, one stone, you know?”

“I’m not anybody’s ‘girl’ can you grow up?” She thinks that this would have been a cooler thing to say if she hadn’t slurred through half of her words.

“Yeah, yeah, that was her. I don’t know how she’s getting home, man. If you don’t pick her up, she could always stay with me. Plenty of room for two in my bed.” Him and Drew share another crude laugh at her embarrassment.

“No. No. Felix don’t come here. I’ll just uber or sober up soon I-” She’s certain that most of this is coherent. “He wouldn’t come pick me up guys, we’re not… He doesn’t even-” She’s being solidly ignored.

“What’s that? 20 minutes. Yeah. See you soon.” He tosses her phone back to her. She fumbles with it and ends up having to pick it up off the floor. Thankfully the screen is still intact, unlike her social life, and her sense of pride.

Todd and Drew finally get out of her space, but they stay in the living room, it has the best view of the door. The groups around the immediate area sneak glances they think she can’t see, and they’re all huddling talking and giggling. She sits back down on the couch and waits.

The door opens several times as people come and go, she holds her breath each time. Eventually, Felix steps in. She looks at him, wide eyed. He actually came. Why did he actually come here? He scans the party before his eyes lock on her. He looks pissed, and it makes her heart freeze. He stalks across the room with such intensity, shouldering through everyone in his way with ease. He stops in front of her, saying nothing but holding a hand out to her. He's inviting her to take his hand, but his irritated expression makes her faulter, and freeze in place.

“Hey lizard boy, looks like you made it after all.” Todd pipes up. The room is absolutely buzzing with electric energy.

“Come on. Let’s go.” Felix says down to her, breaking her from her frozen state. She realizes she doesn't want to piss him off any more than he already is. So she takes his hand. He helps her up, completely ignoring Todd.

“What? Leaving so soon? Stay awhile. Have some fun. I believe you and I need to finish up an old conversation we were having anyway.” Someone slings an arm around her shoulders, pulling her away from Felix. It’s probably Drew, Todd’s sidekick.

What happens next all moves so fast. One moment Felix and Todd are having a tense conversation, the kind you just know will end in a fight. The next moment, she’s tossed backwards. She stumbles back, catching herself on an end table and toppling the whole thing over. She manages to crash down with the table, a decorative lamp and several cups with varying amounts of liquids all smashing down on top of her. Shit. Her cute outfit is soaked in alcohol and whatever else it was mixed with. That’ll probably stain. She pushes herself up onto her hands and knees. This would all be so much easier if the room wasn’t spinning. She looks down at her stained outfit and briefly registers the cuts on her arms. Why did they think that using actual glass would be better than red solo cups?? Now they have to do a bunch of dishes AND they have to clean up a bunch of glass. Clearly this was not well thought out on their end.

By now, the music has stopped, and a circle has formed around the boys. There is a lot of shouting, everyone has their phone out. She pushes her way through the crowd to find Felix on top of Todd, just absolutely wailing on him. He’s landing blow after blow, before Drew comes up from behind him, his nose already bleeding, and he rips him back. The two of them struggle on the ground while Todd writhes in agony, trying to get back up.

“Felix! Stop! Stop!” She shouts, rushing forward. The two boys make their way to their feet, and Felix, having sustained several hits himself, shoves Drew back before she can get there. The crowd scrambles to part to avoid him. He slams against the wall, leaving a nice big dent in the drywall. Felix looks around the circle, and everything is still for a moment. He nods once before his gaze lands on her once more. He's not even gigantic, but just by looking at her it makes her feel no bigger that a gnat. He’s bleeding from his knuckles and a lot from his face, but he’s the only one standing so she supposes that’s a win? He steps forward, not offering a hand to her this time. Instead he pulls her tightly into him and promptly leads her out of the house. Everyone is staring. She quickly grabs her things as they leave.

She glances up at him once they get outside. It’s much quieter out here. Wait. He’s not normally taller than her, They’re roughly the same height, but now he’s at least a head taller than her.

“You’re taller.” He scowls at that, not responding otherwise. “Like… like holding a rubber band stretched open all day?” She recalls one conversation they had, where he compared it to that. He said if he were to try to maintain a height taller than his ‘normal’ height, it would be like trying to keep a rubber band stretched at the same distance all day long. She could imagine him trying to appear more intimidating in there by making himself larger. It also probably would make him stronger she guesses? Charlie doesn’t know how that works. Felix shakes his head slightly.

“Like trying to shove myself in a little box.” He whispers to her. Oh. He’s fighting it off. He’s trying to stay a normal height, but he can’t hold it back completely. That also makes sense. It seems to be triggered by intense emotions sometimes? Charlie also doesn’t know how that works. She knows very little about how his abilities work, she just knows that they exist.

“Oh,” is all she can think to say. “Um. Felix, I wanted to say. Um-”

“Keys.” Felix cuts off her thanks or apology or both, she honestly hadn’t decided yet. She realizes they’ve made it to her truck.

“But, wait. How did you get here if… How will you get your car-”

“Just give me your keys, Charlie.” He holds out his hand to her.

“Right. Sorry. Okay.” She digs through her bag, and after drunkenly fumbling through her belongings, she fishes out her keys and hands them over. He helps her into the passenger side of the truck. “Don’t um, don’t grow and break my truck, please.” It’s not really funny, but she laughs anyway. He just gives her some irritated side eye. They start down the road in silence. It's uncomfortably quiet, so she tries to fill the silence with some chatter. “So, uh I just wanted to tell you I-” He cuts her off again, this time reaching forward and turning up the radio. Message received, shut up Charlie. She sighs, and quietly leans against the window. She doesn’t try talking to him again, instead she focuses on a more important task, not throwing up.

They get back to his house, a decent looking barndominium- that is to say, basically a remodeled barn. It's in a secluded area, and it's got high ceilings, what more could a size shifter need. Felix steps out of the truck, immediately significantly taller than he should be. He fumbles with opening the door for her, his hands are an awkward size for the handle. He finally gets it open, and catches her as she half stumbles, half straight up falls, out of the truck.

“I’m gonna throw up.” She mumbles.

“For real?” He asks.

“For serious.” She nods. He sighs and forces himself to be a few inches shorter. He’s shaking with the exertion of keeping himself human sized, but he helps her inside, and leads her to the bathroom. “Oh jeez. I don’t want to puke in front of you. This is so embarrassing.” She’s sprawled on the floor, hovering over the toilet. He silently ties her hair back before just leaving the room as she revisits all the drinks and bad decisions that she made that night.

He leaves her be, going outside to finally stretch out. He grows to full height, sighing in relief. It gets easier to get this big every time he does it. It feels like he's unlocked something, and there's no going back now. He figures he has a few minutes alone while she’s in there throwing up. He can just sit like this for a moment and get it out of his system. He focuses on steadying his breathing. He should really clean up after Charlie is done in the bathroom. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror when he was in there and he is a bloody mess. All too soon, Charlie’s small voice reaches his ears.

“Felix.”

“Go back inside.” He huffs, not wanting her to see him gigantic and bloody and stressed.

“Yeah. I get it, you hate me, and you don’t want to talk to me, but-”

“Charlie. Just go back inside.” Not feeling up to unpacking that right now, he brings his hand down, gently ushering her back inside and blocking the door with his fingers.

“Can you just listen to me?!” She shouts, kicking at his fingertips, “I just need like, a first aid kit. Or maybe, I dunno, some bandages?” This gets his attention. He pulls his hand back, grimacing as she stumbles forwards.

“You’re hurt?”

“No, I just wanted to play Doctor!” She throws her arms up exasperated. He just looks down at her, brow furrowed. He looks annoyed or maybe concerned. He’s probably both, she’s both too drunk to discern the difference and too drunk care. “Not that you really care either way," she huffs. "It isn’t a huge deal I just, I fell back at the party, you were there but you might have been a little… distracted, and … yeah.” She gestures to her arms, having carefully rolled up the sleeves once more.

“Let me-” He whispers, already seeing the red staining her arms. He pauses for a moment like he’s trying to focus, but then he huffs, looking frustrated. She supposes he can’t shift back to normal just yet, another thing she doesn’t quite understand how it works. He moves over from his seated position to laying on his stomach. It’s kind of dizzying watching him move when he's that big. Just simple movements send vibrations through the earth around her. She swallows thickly, and can’t stop from taking a step back away from him as he settles before her. “Just let me see," he says gently. He props himself up on one arm, and reaches his other hand towards her slowly. She hesitates, but eventually she reaches out one of her arms and his gigantic fingertip comes to meet her.

Delicately, he pinches her wrist between his finger and thumb and pulls her arm out so he can get a better look. He leans forward, taking the scene in with wide eyes. He’s close enough for his breathing to ruffle her hair. Her heart pounds in her chest as he silently scans over her. His eyes rake over the cuts on her forearm, flicking over to see the same situation decorating her other arm. He only holds her there for a moment, but he is completely focused on her. She’s never felt more seen than right now. His eyes find their way to her face, she looks from his massive fingers holding her hand to finally bringing herself to meet his all-encompassing gaze. She thinks this is the first time he’s actually looked at her since he picked her up from the party. Or since their fight. It almost feels like it’s the first time anyone has ever really looked at her. Maybe it’s just because she’s drunk, hurt and relatively tiny. Like a bird with a broken wing, a mouse stuck in a glue trap. But, the way he looks at her, she doesn’t feel like a wounded animal he’s taking pity on. She feels like his whole world, at least for that one fleeting moment. He seems so captivated with her. She’s so insignificantly small, she could fit into the palm of his hand. And yet, he looks her over with such care and intense attention to detail it makes her feel like he can see each of her individual eyelashes.

“I'm sorry. you wouldn't have gotten hurt if I would have just-" he clenches his jaw, his expression turning dark and unreadable. Her pulse picks up, this is what he looked like before he decided to make it his mission to make her fear for her life. She pulls her arm back, it's still clamped solidly between his thumb and forefinger. That seems to get his attention. "Okay. Yeah.” He lets her go, withdrawing his hand. Part of her misses his warmth immediately, but another part of her is just relieved. He pushes his palms into the ground and returns to sitting, towering above her. “Just give me ten minutes and I’ll come in and help. Okay?”

“Alright,” she answers breathlessly before turning and going back inside. She sits on the floor in the bathroom, just trying not to bleed on anything important. She feels both better and worse since throwing up, mostly better though she thinks. The room still spins lazily around her as she waits. She is very aware of how cold and wet her clothes are. With sore arms she peels her shirt off, leaving her still wet overalls on, now with just a lace bralette underneath. At least her shirt isn’t sticking to her anymore. She’s still drunk and cold though. One step at a time she supposes.

Eventually, Felix comes back in, his normal height once more. He lays eyes on her for a beat before quickly averting his eyes with a quiet, "Oh Jeez." He digs through the bathroom drawers, setting out first aid supplies on the counter. “You, um. Why did you feel the need to take your shirt off?” He doesn’t look at her, but she can see in the mirror, he's blushing.

“Everything is wet and sticky, and cold. I spilled a lot of drinks on myself when I fell.” She says very matter-of-factly.

“Alright. Um. Okay.”

“I think I broke their lamp too. What kind of person has a house party but doesn’t invest in red solo cups. All the cups were glass. I broke so much glass. Why didn’t they think about that as a possibility. And besides, who is going to be stuck doing all those dishes? Cups aren't even expensive.” She shakes her head, looking up at Felix, his hands are braced on the counter, he’s focusing on the medical supplies, taking stock of what he has and definitely avoiding looking at her. “You can look at me, dude. I would probably wear this in public in like… the summertime. Maybe I’d put like a flannel on top of it. Different shoes. You don’t need to be so… scandalized.” She shrugs.

“Okay.” He nervously taps the counter a few times, she’s pretty sure he only spoke up so she would stop rambling. He takes a deep breath before continuing, “I just, you are very drunk and now you're removing... layers. I just don't want to make you... uncomfortable" he clears his throat. "Okay. Okay. Come here, let’s make sure you don’t still have glass in your arms.”

He bandages her up, taking care to rinse and disinfect the wounds. Her arms took the brunt of the damage, but she has some scrapes on her knees as well. She rambles as he works, and when he doesn’t respond she rambles some more, her words slurring into one another. As he bandages her first arm, she mostly just does a lot of apologizing. ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘This is embarrassing, I’m sorry.’ Just looping. Felix responds once or twice with something resembling ‘it’s fine’ or ‘you’re okay.’ But once it’s clear that she’s still going, he just lets her talk. It’s when he switches to work on the second arm that she takes a big breath and starts really getting into it.

“I guess I kind of ruined your night, huh? You probably had better things to do with your Friday. I’m sorry. I know you wanted me to just leave you alone. I'm... I'm still mad at you by the way. So, I promise, I will leave as soon as I'm sober, and we can go back to pretending that we’ve never met. I know that you don’t want to be my friend anymore and stuff. So, that’s why I went to the party in the first place. I thought that I could meet someone cool and make new friends and stuff. That obviously didn’t happen. Lesson learned though, and I probably won’t be making that mistake again. I know it sounds super lame, but you were my only friend. I don’t mean to say that to be like ‘oh feel bad for me and be my friend again.’ I don’t mean it like that, it’s just… how it is. I just, I don’t know. I guess I just wish I knew what I did to make you not like me anymore. I just- Gah, I’m such a loser.” She is just noticing the tears streaming down her face. She uses her free hand to attempt to wipe them away. “This is so embarrassing. I’m sorry. Forget I said any of that. I'm mad at you." He lets go of her other arm. She finds her way to the floor, leaning against the cabinets and she buries her face in her hands.

“Charlie. I don’t hate you.” He sits on the floor beside her. “I never hated you. I have just been a really, really bad friend to you. I'm sorry."

“Yeah.” She sniffles. Dropping her hands into her lap. “Why did you want to do that?”

“It’s dumb.” He sighs, “I just. I'm not used to getting that big. My classmates always said I had a useless power and... Anyway I have to go back to the academy for the summer and I just. It's kind of really complicated, but I took some shit out on you and... You don't deserve that. I'm sorry. I understand if you want to pretend like you never met me."

Charlie looks at him for a long while before she leans into him, wrapping her freshly bandaged arms around him and burying her face in his shoulder.

“I missed you.” She mumbles into him.

He sets her up to sleep on the couch, but first he gives her some clean, dry clothes to wear. He sets a glass of water and some aspirin on the coffee table in front of her for the inevitable hangover she will have in the morning.

“I missed you too.” He says resting his cheek against her head.

#g/t #g/t writing #g/t story #size shifter #g/t community #my writing #here i am posting super late at night again #one day i'll figure all this out #until then at least i can offer this chapter #life is busy motivation left me but i finally updated this #i have other plans hopefully i will have time to write them soon #i didn't proof read this as much as i normally do so sorry if it's bad i guess #i'll probably fix it sometime tomorrow so enjoy the mistakes while they last lol #characters are 21+#Charlie and Felix

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