#shanghai family suit apartment | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

leclerqueensainz · 6 months

Text

A Family of Three (C.L 16)

Part. III - Heroes, Princess and Fewawi.

⚠️ Warnings: Distress (Charles is very sad talking about losing someone he loves), mention of maternal abandonment, issues with parents, and postpartum depression, among other triggers. However, there is also a cute interaction with Vincenzo for the first time, so that's a step forward.

Enjoy the reading!

P.S.: This is entirely based on Charles's point of view.

Word Count: 4,332.

🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨

April 19, 2019 - Monte Carlo, Monaco.

When my father died a few years ago, I thought I would be prepared for any loss I would have endure later on. I anticipated losing other people, of which I had no doubt, but I swore that nothing could shake me as much as losing my hero.

When I lied to him about securing the Ferrari contract because it was his dream, and I wanted him to rest in peace, knowing that we had achieved it, that all the effort he had put into my future had been worthwhile, I thought nothing else could hurt as much as knowing he would never have the opportunity to see me don a red racing suit and drive a Scuderia car.

When I was given permission to drive the car carrying his casket, and I drove through the city so my father could bid a final farewell to the place he lived and loved for so long before taking him to the cemetery, I thought nothing could destroy my heart and burn every cell of my body as much as that did.

I was wrong.

But I should have known better. I should have understood that no pain would be enough to call someone's soul.

The news reached me two days ago on Monday when I was still in Shanghai after a race. Marie, my ex-girlfriend, called me in the middle of the night, and I couldn't fathom why she was calling me when we hadn't spoken in six months since the breakup.

My heart had raced before answering the phone, and a thousand thoughts crossed my mind—whether she was drunk and missing me or if she dialed accidentally. If she just wanted to talk because she had a bad day and Jules didn't answer when she called. I could expect anything and think of any possibility, but never these words. "Jules is dead." That's what she said right after my hello. There were no tears, no pauses. Just a broken and lifeless voice. A dead and cold voice.

Marie hadn't called because she was drunk or had a bad day and had no one else to talk to. It wasn't nostalgia for the six months we had been apart. It wasn't to tell me she loved me, as I had dreamed so many times before.

Marie called because our best friend, my godfather, was dead. No tears, no pauses. Just shock. It was direct. It was terrifying.

I wanted to know what she was talking about because Jules had left after the race, and he was fine. He was happy with the position and wanted to return to Nice to celebrate with the family. She didn't answer me. And I wondered if she had a baby or if it was a playful way to start a conversation with an ex-boyfriend. But she didn't laugh like I knew she would if she were joking. Then I felt it. The silence that told the truth. I had lost Jules, too.

So I shouted into the phone, said it wasn't funny, I was late, and I didn't want to participate in that cruel game. Denial. "Come to Monaco, Charles." She said and hung up.

I never wanted to have answered. I never wanted to pack hastily, wake up Pierre, and tell him we had lost him. I didn't want to arrive in Monaco and see the faces of my brothers and my mother painted with grief again. "I'm so sorry, my love." That's what my mother said when I fell to my knees and allowed myself to cry in front of my family as she hugged me. "It will be okay." That's what Lorenzo said. But we both knew it wouldn't.

I thought I wouldn't feel the sense of helplessness and bitterness when putting on a black suit again. I thought grief would be something I could handle. But it wasn't.

I begged anything that existed not to take anything else from me. I couldn't bear to make the same journey to that church because of another funeral. And I didn't want the experience of that shadow that left me shattered again.

I didn't want to overcome another loss; I didn't want to wonder why the pain didn't pass and didn't seem enough. I didn't want to try to understand or hear people saying that he would be in a better place and everything was God's purpose.

God. Why did he seem so angry with me? Wasn't losing my father enough? Why did he need Jules, too?

knowing that the only certainty of life is death, why didn't God bring an easier way for those who remain to overcome it?

There was no more my father; there was no more Jules. My heroes were gone, and I was left here. Why was I left?

I was being selfish and wise. Nevertheless, it was what allowed me to feel at the moment. I was alone, without those who once helped me become who I am. There was no one else to advise or guide me. And even though I still had Lorenzo or Arthur, I felt lost, like a drifting boat.

When the car parked in front of that church, I asked my family to proceed. I need a few minutes. I gathered the courage and strength to enter that place once again and face what I already knew would be the cause of my nightmares in the coming days. "Confront your demons," everyone says. But whoever coined that phrase never understood the complexity of the dark and bitterness-filled hole that grief brings.

I stared at the church from behind the car window. The same car in which I had once smiled with my best friend for having won it and carrying the Ferrari brand on its bodywork. The same car where I cried when I thought about how my father would have reacted to seeing me come home with it, and Jules hugged me and said it didn't matter where he would be; he would be selling and proud of my achievements.

And now I'm here inside. I'm inside this car, once again, in front of this church. However, without the consolation of someone I love this time. I'm inside this machine, summoning the courage to enter the funeral of someone who once comforted me for a loss.

I'm here summoning the courage to say goodbye to another of my heroes.

🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷

January 20, 2023 - Nice, France.

I park the car in front of an old, low-rise building. Beside me, Marie watches closely as Cecilia steps out of the car in front of us. I can feel her nervousness and notice her hands tightly gripping the cuffs.

I know exactly what she's feeling, and a part of me is proud that I still manage to understand her body language even after all these years, but I try my best to downplay it since it's a delicate moment for both her and me.

After the meeting, Cecilia made a request that we expected but still caught us somewhat off guard. She wanted us to meet Vincenzo that afternoon. And that's where we are now—parked in front of the building, which I assume is where Cecilia lives with Vincenzo.

"What if he doesn't like us?" Marie asks softly. And I think she's posing the question more to herself than me.

"Hey! He's going to adore us!" I say, and she looks at me. Her eyes are wide with fear and anxiety. "Marie, it won't be easy initially, but we've discussed this before. Let's take it one step at a time. Don't think of Vincenzo as our future responsibility for now; think of him as a piece of Jules we will meet, okay?" Her eyes fill with tears, but she nods and smiles.

I take her hand, still clenched into a fist, and slowly bring it to my lips, gently touching it. Her hand opened, and I saw the half-moon red marks in her palm. She sighs in surprise, and I smile, trying to convey reassurance, even though I'm as terrified as she is deep down.

"We'll make it, my dear. Trust me," I say, and she agrees.

She subtly motions for me to release her wrist, but before I can feel my stomach sink with her rejection, her hand grabs mine and squeezes—a firm grip with a lot of meaning. My eyes go from our joined hands to her face, and this time, she has a small, reassuring smile on her lips.

"Let's go, Leclerc! Let's meet the legacy of our best friend."

(…)

"Sorry for the number of stairs! Our elevator hardly ever works," Cecilia says when we finally reach her apartment door after climbing about eight flights of stairs.

I lean against the wall next to the door and pull the air firmly into my lungs. On the other hand, in the last step, Marie depends on the railing, trying to laugh her heart out and normalize her breathing.

"Jesus! How do you manage to do this every day?" She asks Cecilia, who laughs and shrugs.

"Try doing it with a child in your arms; you'll guarantee it's much worse," she says, and Marie laughs lightly.

"So, good for you that you'll soon be free from going through this, right?" I speak, and the smile once painted on her lips fades.

Marie clears her throat, making me take my eyes off Cecilia and look at her. She is giving me a reproachful look, and I muster all of myself not to roll my eyes.

"Cecilia, do you want to go in first and talk to Vincenzo for a bit?" She asks, and Cecilia agrees.

"Good idea! Be back in a minute," she says, searching for the key inside her bag until she finds it and inserts it into the door lock. Before she turned the doorknob to open it, she waited for me for a full minute.

"I'm not asking you to like me, Charles," her tone is profound, and I stare at her with the same intensity. "But know that while we are in my house and front of Vincenzo, you won't talk to me like that, and you won't disrespect my pain in front of my son. I know I can't expect much from you because you're a man, and you'll never understand the situation with any view other than a man's." She turns entirely to me. "None of this is a walk in the park. Not for any of us. And this is the saddest thing I've had to do since I spent 12 hours in labor alone in a hospital while still mourning the father of my child." Tears overflow in her eyes, and I swallow hard.

"I messed up, and I messed up a lot. But I pay my penance every day for it. While you could feel the pain of mourning at your doorstep, I had to get up every day to feed and change a child who depended on me, and for a long time, I considered him to blame for everything." She lowers her gaze, shame and regret in her words reflecting her being. "They said it was postpartum depression, but I always knew better. I always loved Vincenzo, but I will never be able to look at him without seeing the reflection of my mistakes." She wipes the tears streaming down her face with the backs of her hands. "I will live eternally with these ghosts haunting me, but I won't let my son go through this." She says and turns, opening the door and entering right after.

The door closes with a soft thud, and I look at her. I don't know how I should react or even what I feel in the face of Cecilia's declaration. But even without knowing, shame points at the pit of my stomach. It's a shame because I wonder what Jules would say if he could see me now. And I think about my father for the first time in a long time.

"She didn't say that for you to feel bad, Charles," I'm drawn by Marie's voice. Her expression is serious, but her tone is gentle. "But she's not entirely wrong. You'll never understand her, not just because you're a man, but because this situation is far beyond any understanding and empathy you and I can have." She says, and her gaze shifts momentarily before returning to me. "I think the only one who could understand her is no longer here." She whispers the last part, and I continue observing her and digesting her words.

I also wonder if Marie has ever felt like Cecilia, not for the same reasons; that's obvious. But for different reasons, has she ever felt so alone with no one to understand her motives?

And then, I remember when I found out she had left a few days after Jules' funeral. I went to her apartment in the center of Monaco, and when I arrived, the landlord told me she had moved two days ago. I remember the emptiness that filled me: the pain, the loneliness, the mourning.

I had questioned many times why she left and abandoned me, even though she had nothing left with me and no obligation to try to restore what was broken inside me. But at no point did I wonder what she felt.

Jules died, and Marie and I no longer had a relationship. Her parents were never real parents. She had no one else but me, and even though I felt lonely and abandoned, I still had family who felt my pain.

So, is that it? Is that why she left? Because she thought she had no one else? Did she go through all of this alone?

"Please, Charles. Don't do this," she says, and I stare at her.

"Do what?" I ask, confused.

"Don't try to decipher if there's more to what I said than what I said," her gaze is as intense as Cecilia's a bit ago. "This is not about me and certainly not about you." And with these words, she ended the subject.

I wish I could retort and ask her, but that wasn't the moment, and I had already messed up enough for today. So, I nod in understanding, and she relaxes her shoulders and clears her throat.

Marie walks towards me in small steps, my trained eyes on her movements. She stops by my side, leaning against the same wall as me. Her face turned to the stairs where she was before.

"I'm sorry," is what I say because that's what I feel. Marie looks at me, and a faint smile adorns her lips.

"It's not your fault," she looks back at the stairs, and I follow.

We spend a few more minutes facing the cold steps, both immersed in our thoughts until I hear a slight maneuver coming from inside Cecilia's apartment. The door opened, but there was no one there.

"Hi!" A childish voice says, and I look down, seeing a tiny being with dimples and chubby cheeks staring at us. "I'm Vitiendo."

I feel my body freeze, and everything around me seems blurry. The little one looks at me with big brown eyes, just like Jules'. My heart races inside my chest, but still, I try to pull the air as deep as I can.

I crouch down, getting as close as I can to Vincenzo's height, and he keeps looking at me with big and curious eyes.

"Are you a friend of Daddy?" He asks, and I nod.

"Your father was my best friend," I say, his eyes light up. "I'm Charles. Nice to meet you, Vincenzo," I add, extending my hand for him to take.

"Will you be my best friend too, Shal?" he asks, looking from my hand back to my face.

I feel my eyes welling up, and a smile grows on my face.

"Yes, Vincenzo. You'll be my best friend," I reply, and he throws himself into my arms. I was startled and remained still momentarily, feeling his little arms tightly wrapped around my neck.

I instinctively hugged him back when I finally realized he was hugging me.

Tears I tried to hold back streamed down my face. It's Jules' son who is in my arms now. And it's him to whom I will give my word and my life to protect, no matter what happens. Just as Jules once did for me.

I lose myself in the feeling of that hug. I lost the sense of familiarity I felt at that moment. It's as if I've been transported back a few years, and the person in my arms is my best friend. I close my eyes tightly and suppress the urge to say everything. I never had the opportunity to speak to Jules one last time.

I love you. I miss you. I'm sorry. Thank you for being my hero. Stay.

I don't know how long we've stayed in this position, but I've returned to reality, or at least part of it when I hear a sniffle and a half sob behind Vincenzo. He must have heard it, too, as he squirms slightly in my arms, urging me to let go. He then turns to his mother and Marie, who are watching us, tears in their eyes.

Many things are happening on Marie's face, but for the first time since we learned of Vincenzo's existence, fear is not a part of any of them.

I watch her eyes shine with inspiration as she looks at the little boy in front of her, who looks back at her with sparkling eyes. They stand there, staring at each other for a few seconds, until Vincenzo tilts his head in confusion.

"Hi!" he greets with a shy smile. "Are you a princess?" I let out a low laugh, and Cecilia joined me. Marie bends down to his level. Her right hand slowly traces Vincenzo's face as if she wants to capture every feature.

"You look just like your dad," her voice falters with emotion, and Vincenzo extends a hand, mimicking her movements.

"Were you also a friend of Daddy, Princess?" He smiles openly, and Marie quickly nods with closed eyes, savoring the affection Vincenzo is showing.

"Yes, my love. I was excellent friends with your daddy," she says in a soft voice, and just as he did with me, Vincenzo throws himself into Marie's arms, who holds him instantly and presses him tightly against her.

I approach the two and give Marie a sideways hug, running my hands through Vincenzo's small curls.

(...)

"And this here is my Lawi Hamilton car," Vincenzo shows me another one of his toy cars when we reach the small room he shares with his mother. "It's my favorite," he says, and Marie laughs beside me when I can't hide my grimace.

"And a Ferrari? Don't you like Ferrari?" I ask him, and he leaves me confused for a few seconds.

"Fewawi? Is that the red car that breaks?" He innocently asks, and this time Marie bursts into laughter. I nod and give her a dirty look. "Fewawi is cool, Shal. But I like Cedes," he says, his eyes sparkling with the name of Mercedes, and I can't help but smile.

"Alright, I'll make you change that over time. At least it's not Redbull," I say, and Marie shakes her head, the huge smile still on her face.

"Edbull is the best! I like Edbull!" He says, and I choke on the air.

"But that's not possible!" I am incredulous, and Marie already has tears in her eyes from laughing so much.

"Don't be mad, Shal! I'll like Fewawi too, I promise!" Vincenzo extends his pinky finger towards me, and I catch it with mine, crossing them in a promise.

"I think that's great because you're going to spend a lot of time in the Ferrari box with me, little man," I say, picking him up, and he laughs.

"And are we going to meet Lawi Hamilton?" He asks excitedly, and I nod with a smile.

"Well, he won't be in the Ferrari box, but we can go to the Mercedes one; how about that?" I ask, and Vincenzo lets out a scream of happiness and hugs me tightly.

"Thank you, Shal! Are you coming too, Princess?" He turns to Marie, who looks at me awkwardly, unsure what to answer.

It has been a long time since Marie walked through the Paddock; the last time was months before Jules' death when we both ended our relationship. And I understand that for her, it might be a bit challenging.

"The Princess will go when she's ready," I say, looking at Marie. "And when she's ready, we'll both be there to hold her hands and ensure she doesn't feel scared, right?" I ask, shifting my gaze from Marie to Vincenzo, and the little boy in my arms jumps, making me hold him tighter to prevent him from falling.

"Yes! And can we take mommy too, Shal?" I feel a shiver down my spine when he asks me. I look at Marie, who stares back at me with wide, sad eyes.

I don't know what to answer. I still need to understand my position here. Vincenzo will live with us, but I don't know who or how we would break this news to him. Even though I don't like Cecilia and disagree with her parenting methods, I still don't feel that this conversation should come from me but rather from Cecilia, who is still the boy's mother.

No child is ready to leave their mother, especially one so young. Cecilia is Vincenzo's world. The only absolute truth he knows, and I don't want him to lose that, even if it's something enforced.

"How about we check if Mommy has finished making dinner, Little One?" Marie asks, lifting the rug where Vincenzo is sitting. "Will you help me find the kitchen? This house is still a maze for me, and princesses can't wander in mazes without royal guards and knights in armor to watch over them, right?" Marie gestures and puts her hands on her chest, pretending to be a distressed damsel. Despite wanting to laugh at her horrible acting, I feel grateful she thought of something so quickly to distract the boy from his question.

"Yes, Princess! I'll protect you from monsters and bad guys!" Vincenzo says, striking a pose as a brave hero, making us laugh. "Shal, floor!" I understand what he means and bend down to safely put him on the floor.

Vincenzo takes Marie's hand, pulling her towards the door. She follows him briskly, and I stay in the room for a few more minutes, looking at the toys Vincenzo had left on the floor.

His question still echoes in my head. The feeling of wanting to shield him from any pain overwhelms me, but I know it's impossible for him not to suffer from Cecilia's future absence. I wonder if she is not going through the same, for I've known him for less than an hour, and I can't imagine being away from the boy for too long. Then I remember what she said earlier, her bitter words against herself, and how she doesn't want Vincenzo to be haunted by the ghosts of her mistakes.

And remembering the feeling I had earlier with him in my arms, this may be the universe's way of telling me that even though I no longer have my heroes around me, I still have the opportunity to be someone's hero.

And there, sitting on Spider-Man's play mat, holding the toy cars in my hands, I begin to understand, or at least I think I do. If I already love him, having just met him, it's clear that this is a nightmare for Cecilia. She has to leave her son, her only companion because guilt and the consequences of her mistakes always haunt her. Sacrificing her right as a mother rather than offering her son's happiness and future might not make her a terrible mother. Perhaps it's the only thing she has done right in her entire life.

"Come on, Shal! Many monsters want to take the Princess!" Vincenzo appears at the door, and I quickly get up, running towards him. After all, I can't let such a tiny being fight against so many monsters alone.

🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨

Hello! After months, I brought another part translated into English! I apologize for the delay, but it's truly challenging to translate into another language. This weekend, I will translate the other parts :) See You!

Tag list:

@woofgocows

@livinglifethroughfanfic @allthisfortommy

@kyomihann

@numafarawayglxy

@ushygushybaby

@lara03

@alwaysclassyeagle

@ru-kru @pjofics

#carlos sainz fanfic #charles leclerc smut #charles leclerc x black!reader #charles leclerc x reader #charles leclerc x leitor #carlos sainz x reader #f1 smut #charles leclerc x reader angst #f1 x y/n #angst

102 notes · View notes

accio-victuuri · 6 months

Text

I was so curious about the red string bracelet ( clearly seen in airport photos shanghai > singapore ) and charm XZ is currently wearing. i’ve been using mine for more than 3 years now because of him among other “charms” here and there. i’m referencing this post by FlowerField_博肖拾光机.

The bracelet composition itself is a red rope, similar to his old one. This kind of red string has different meaning depending on the culture but for XZ i would think it’s more of having a personal instrument of luck and protection. tied to a belief in Buddhism that this bracelet can ward off evil spirits. These bracelets are handmade. While making knots, they ( buddhist monks ) repetitively recite mantras for the goodwill of the wearer.

now for the charm, there are two meanings as both sides have 2 different designs. the first one being “fu” which means luck. traditionally it symbolizes goodwill & happiness— placing the character upside-down symbolizes it 'pouring out' or 'arriving. ' and upside-down fu character on your front door is a clever way to invite luck's arrival at your home.

the other side is a horse. i was wondering why, cause i’m 90 ( year of the horse ) and ZZ is 91 ( year of the goat/sheep. literally greatest of all time lol. it suits xiao laoshi ) so he should not be wearing it.

the OP suggested to use the 十二生肖 3合6合生肖查询表 table. as per the grids, the match for sheep for “6” is horse and this is possibly why the charm he uses is this.

okay, let me try and explain it further…

Ancient Chinese sages believed that human life is destined, but destiny can be changed. One’s fortune is closely related to the mutual growth and restraint of each person's zodiac signs. Therefore, there is also a mutually reinforcing relationship between people. Finding the zodiac who is compatible with your own sign will be helpful to your life's fortune, interpersonal relationships, marriage and family.

The so-called Sanhe (3) and Liuhe (6) are the attraction and concentration of the power of certain elements among the Five Elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water). It can be seen from this that unity is the attraction, affinity and cohesion of the five elements. It is mainly based on the three combinations and six combinations of the earthly branches (i.e. "zodiac signs") of the year of birth.

In the 3 part of the table, for example in XZ’s case, sheep/pig/rabbit zodiac signs form a good triad together. Think of it as a kind of "bright combination", one that is fair and upright. It is the auspicious match of the three zodiac signs.

The three-in-one combination not only has a good fit, but also has thoughts, values, habits, actions. These people are usually so in tune with each other. The three-in-one zodiac signs are four years apart. As the saying goes, getting married four years apart is a match made in heaven. This is based on the "three-in-one".

As for the 6, known as your zodiac’s Liu He ( the six directions hence marked as 6 in the table even if there is just one match ). This is more of a secret alliance to that particular zodiac.

They may give strong support to the zodiac sign at work, or give timely advice/help the sign of the zodiac sign in terms of wealth, interpersonal relationships, or provide spiritual comfort. They co-exist harmoniously.

It makes sense. That luck charm added with the the strongest sign that helps the sheep which is GG ❤️

#xiao zhan #i am not an expert on this okay #AM I LOWKEY ENJOYING MY RESEARCH ON THIS CAUSE IT IMPLIES MY ZODIAC MATCHES WITH XZ? lol.#and i think it’s true cause i’m out here doing the most to promote him 😂😂😂😂#this is just a possible explanation and his charm could mean a different thing okay?

55 notes · View notes

ilgaksu · 10 months

Text

for everyone who was lured into the concept of @difeisheng and i's detective l au on the grounds of the liang wan content, may i offer you the following a.k.a when your ex-roommate gatecrashes your apartment when you're getting dressed for your not-a-date with the local mob boss. featuring actual historical 1930s shanghai cabaret music.

“I am trying,” Hei Xiazi reminds Liang Wan, “To get ready.”

But five years prior, they’d lived in a one-room apartment while searching for somewhere bigger and better, so when Liang Wan says, “I have seen it all before, Hei-ye,” it’s not really wrong. She even gestures to the scar slipping up above the neckline of his undershirt, once a wound she had sutured shut while he had still been pretending to her he didn’t know how to hurt, never mind whether this injury itself did, which is a -

It’s a low blow, but those are Liang Wan’s speciality sometimes. People look at her little heart-shaped face and the round and outraged shine of her eyes and they do not see the full and awful truth, which is that she is a force as unstoppable as an earthquake. You do not reason with earthquakes. You simply brace yourself for impact and hope the ceiling doesn’t cave in.

However, Hei Xiazi still remembers her as a small and scared woman on a ship to Europe, with no family and no future and barely her own name, drifting with every mile at sea further and further away from everything she had ever known.

(At the time, Hei Xiazi had assumed she was running from a man: so often, what’s worse for a woman than a man?

The answer is: men, plural. Multiple of them.

Fuck the Wang family. They never deserved her, for all she’s a fucking nightmare.)

So, overall, when Hei Xiazi pushes her out of his bedroom and shuts the door in her face, he’s a lot more gentle about it than he could be. She tries to open it, but Hei Xiazi is already turning the lock in the door.

“Fine,” Liang Wan calls through the now locked door, “Keep your chastity intact if you insist, Hei-ge. There’s so much of it left, after all.”

Hei Xiazi listens to her stomp through to his main room, and calls, “Don’t touch my gramophone,” through the door at her. He, almost immediately, then hears the sound of her changing the record on it anyway. He knows, without having to look, what she’ll have reached for. Right on cue, the opening strains of Unobtainable Love start winding their way to him under the door, much like a cat yowling - and all of the same incessant yearning, for all it sounds much more pleasant.

He sighs. He changes his undershirt, which had been clean before Liang Wan had retaliated against him, and now is sticking to his skin. His slacks, miraculously, are either safe or dark enough to look safe, because he doesn’t have another pair as well-suited to tonight’s dress code. He finishes buttoning a clean shirt over it all and unlocks the door.

In his main room, sitting daintily on one of the heavy wooden chairs at the matching table - all of it kept over from the previous occupant and at cheap rent because the poor bastard had dropped dead on the kitchen floor or something, and Hei Xiazi had nearly laughed when the landlady had worried he’d not want it for the bad luck - Liang Wan is helping herself to his leftover dinner. Hei Xiazi watches her inhale the last several dumplings in succession with a sense of resignation.

#this is a liang wan appreciation blog actually #own writing #detective l au

9 notes · View notes

umichenginabroad · 18 days

Text

Week 1: Navigating Around

Hello! Welcome to this week's blog on adapting to Shanghai and navigating around SJTU campus. With my terrible navigation skills and flawed adaptability to new environments, the first week feels like a rollercoaster ride. Defeated feelings of loneliness and self-doubt eventually vanished as I got more comfortable with new friends and learned my way around campus. That’s when the excitement of exploring Shanghai picked up and took over the trill. For this week’s blog, I’m aiming to be more detailed and informative on how I settled into my new home here.

Day 1: I hugged tight onto three packages of bedding sets at the lobby of the international student dormitory, my sole wish at the moment was a much-needed nap. With the help of JI student volunteers, I filled out forms, set up my face ID, and downloaded a very important app called My SJTU. It has a QR code called Siyuan Code with si translated to miss and yuan meaning origin. We use it to enter our dorm, campus gates, and libraries. The app contains many services, including dorm electricity billing, library seats and shuttle bus reservations, dining dollars, etc. Interestingly, half of the app is in Mandarin and the other half is translated to English. I quickly overlooked the details when I finally entered my room on the 11th floor.

The suite was way better than any housing I could hope for at Ann Arbor, prettier than South Quad and more furnished than my apartment on Central Campus. We were lucky to get our own private bedroom with a huge sitting deck in front of the window that captures the sunrise every morning. Hungry and exhausted from the flight to unpack, I joined my cousin Christine in the search for food. We looked up restaurants near us on Gaode Map and found that the nearest restaurant and literally everything is at least a thirty minute walk from our dorm. So I gave up on dinner, headed straight to bed on an empty stomach, and got a full 12 hours of sleep. My body requested a replenishing sleep, and I was still deep in sleep when my suitemate Gracie arrived. Oopsy.

At first, I was overwhelmed by the prospect of walking long distances to eat or go to classes. It is as if I’m stranded on an island, and the thought of isolation discouraged me. The next morning, I finally met Gracie and discovered the conveniences of our dorm. Fortunately, there is a cafeteria on the basement floor and I had steamed meat buns and hard boiled eggs for breakfast. Next to the parking garage, there is also a convenience store, package room, laundry room, and a gym. All the basic amenities except the kitchen are provided. If I wanted to explore more food options, I need to find a way to go outside of this neighborhood.

This is a typical breakfast from the cafeteria in the basement downstairs.

The blue Hellobikes are my solution for cutting the time to campus down to a 20 minute bike ride. They are commonly found on the sidewalks and can be scanned through the Hello app. I purchased the unlimited monthly plan using Alipay with my grandpa’s Chinese bank card. Without family connection, Alipay can also be set up with foreign bank cards, with additional foreign charge for every transaction.

The first weekend’s schedule was dominated by buddy group events. With my buddy’s help, we began checkmarking our to-do list, completing student registrations and applications for bank cards. On Saturday, we had a campus tour and visited the main libraries, a souvenir store, and popular campus sites. We also had lunch at Canteen Two. It’s bigger than South Quad’s dining hall and has more food stations with three floors to explore. There’s a total of seven canteens on campus and I plan to try out all of them. Yay, we’re back to the dining hall exploration era! The meal I had was very cheap after converting it to USD. With the ratio of USD to Chinese Yuan being 7 to 1, I was satiated at a little over $2 USD.

A tiny peek of our beautiful campus.

This is one of the two libraries that we visited. After we entered the building using the student Siyuan Code, we entered the quiet zone. The library vibes clearly didn’t match ours as we walked around leisurely and took pictures of the pretty spiral staircase. With the weekend almost over and classes starting on Monday, I would be joining the students in the quiet study tables soon but I was relieved to be just a tourist that day.

Here's the second library on the SJTU campus, and the front yard is home to a flock of pigeons. I haven’t seen any squirrels in Shanghai, but there are very well-fed pigeons and we were lucky to see two elegant black swans!

My first coffee with my buddy group at Manner’s Coffee. I wanted to try something US doesn't have, so I got the osmanthus (guihua) flavored latte. It was very delicious with a strong flower fragrance.

My first boba tea at HeyTea.

After our buddy events ended, many of us couldn't wait to explore Shanghai. Within the first week, I visited several shopping malls, took the subway to the city and walked around Nanjing Road (a famous shopping district), and had a fun adventure at Shanghai Disney. There are many methods of transportation here, and many are accessible with mobile phones. The must have app is WeChat which I associate as the equivalent of iMessage, Instagram, Uber, and ApplePay combined, with many more useful services offered. Mobile pay have taken over cash and physical credit cards as the dominant payment method in China, so I used WeChat pay for most of my purchases. To navigate around, I use Gaode Map, and it conveniently lists the car hailing services and their prices. After getting to know my way around here, the sprawling city no longer intimidates me and Shanghai becomes so much funner.

As a poor navigator and adaptor to new places, I'm lucky to find groups who are welcoming and equally excited, if not more, enthusiastic to explore the city together. The journey is gaining momentum as classes begin and next week's content will touch on school life in Shanghai. See you all next week!

Vivien Lin

Computer Engineering

UM- Shanghai Jiaotong University Joint Institute

#UmichEnginAbroad #IPEShanghai #VivienLin #IPESummer24 #China

0 notes

shanghaibun · 1 year

Text

Embark on a Flavorful Journey: Shanghai Bun - Your Destination for Authentic Asian Food in San Diego

Are you in search of a delightful Asian food experience in San Diego? Look no further than Shanghai Bun - the finest Chinese Tapas Bar offering a delectable array of dishes that will transport you straight to the heart of Asia.

When it comes to Asian food in San Diego, Shanghai Bun is a name that stands out. We take immense pride in providing our customers with a truly authentic taste of Asia right here in the heart of San Diego. Our menu is a celebration of Asian flavors, featuring a variety of mouthwatering dishes that will leave you craving for more.

Step into Shanghai Bun and embark on a culinary journey like no other. Our skilled chefs meticulously prepare each dish, ensuring that the flavors are as vibrant and true to tradition as possible. From our flavorful dumplings to our aromatic stir-fried creations, every bite is a symphony of tastes that will tantalize your taste buds.

What sets Shanghai Bun apart is not just the remarkable food, but also the warm and inviting ambiance that we offer. Our goal is to create a cozy and welcoming space where you can relax and enjoy your dining experience to the fullest. Whether you're visiting with friends, family, or that special someone, Shanghai Bun provides the perfect backdrop for an unforgettable meal.

When it comes to our menu, variety is key. We understand that everyone has different preferences and dietary needs. That's why we offer a wide range of options to cater to various tastes and requirements. Whether you're a vegetarian, gluten-free, or have specific allergies, we have carefully curated dishes to suit your needs without compromising on taste.

At Shanghai Bun, we go the extra mile to ensure that every aspect of your dining experience is exceptional. From the moment you step through our doors, our attentive and friendly staff will be there to greet you with a smile. We strive to provide top-notch service, ensuring that you feel valued and well taken care of throughout your visit.

So, if you're in search of Asian food San Diego that will transport you to the vibrant streets of Asia, make sure to visit Shanghai Bun. Indulge in our flavorsome dishes, savor the authentic taste, and experience the warm hospitality that sets us apart. We're here to create a memorable dining experience that will keep you coming back for more. Come and discover the true essence of Asian cuisine at Shanghai Bun. Your taste buds will thank you!

#best chinese food san diego #Asian restaurant San Diego

0 notes

homeofshanghai123 · 1 year

Audio

Home Of Shanghai offers a platform for people to find and rent apartments in Shanghai. They also provide a wide range of apartments for rent in Shanghai, from cozy studios to spacious family homes in different neighborhoods across the city. Home Of Shanghai also delivers various search filters to help you find the perfect apartment that suits your needs and preferences. Visit today to get more information!

#apartments for rent in shanghai

0 notes

aquaspacegroup · 5 years

Photo

Spacious upholstered family house with garden for rent in Lujiazui with 3 bedrooms and situated in the New Pudong district. The living room is in the full width of the house, creating a spacious and light look. Adjacent to the living room is the luxurious semi-open kitchen with fridge / freezer, 5 burner gas stove, luxury stainless steel extractor hood, oven, dishwasher, microwave. 装修精致独特的陆家嘴3房公寓，客厅宽敞明亮，视觉极佳。与客厅相邻的是豪华的半开放式厨房，设备齐全，拎包入住即给您高品质的体验。

#上海租房 #陆家嘴租房 #上海旅居 #上海公寓出租 #家庭套房出租 #精装公寓出租 #shanghai apartments #shanghai apartment for rent #shanghai family suit apartment #shanghai living #shanghai housing

0 notes

alreadyblondenow · 4 years

Text

Paint the lot red | Qian Kun

Qian Kun x Reader

▸ FLUFF, ANGST, Smut, Vampire au ▸ Part of the Stephen King’s collab, hosted by @starryqian & @takitaro ▸ Inspired by Stephen King’s, Salem’s Lot

Summary: Kun is a vampire, buying humans in exchange for immortality. He wanted to buy you and your house, but love changes everything. Convincing each other to be something you’re not. Kun wants to turn you into a vampire, but you want him to embrace being a human. Will Kun leave his family for you? Or you will accept the immortality he offers?

Word count: 6.8k

Warnings: mentions of car crash, family loss, Vanilla sex, depression from family loss, bloodsucking, virginity loss, unprotected sex, swearing, major character death, blood, mentions of alcohol, depression

A/N: Salem’s Lot is a handful but great book. I can’t follow the entire plot of Stephen King’s work, so heres my version of it. This is also inspired by Vampires VS. The Bronx... HAHAHA so, here. And sorry if the ending is SLIGHTLY close to my Jaehyun’s Body, but I plotted this first so 🤷🏼‍♀️

Tag list: @jimjamjaemin @inseonqt @thefouranemoi @jaehyunoos @sunshinedhyuck @neospirited @shanghai-lu @loeygotospacenow @mal-nakamoto23 @svteencarat @commentgirl @yukine-smx (I hope I did not missed anyone)

NEWS FLASH: The family of the famous writer Y/N, died in a car crash on their way to the airport for a family trip to Hawaii. All four passengers are dead on arrival including the driver. The funeral will be closed and private, as per the writer Y/N’s request.

The sky has your favorite shade of orange when you arrived at the house. Home, you thought. Always the same big house that you grew up to. It’s been almost ten years since you step foot in this house and seeing it again for the first time made you regret every Christmas that you purposely missed just so you can avoid spending time with your family. And besides feeling that you’re home, you feel regret suffocating you. What was I thinking, you murmured. This house used to be filled with laughter and happiness. Nights where you and your family will watch TV together in the living room with all the lights closed, countless meals together and talking about random stuff while eating, drinking coffee with your mother, playing board games with your brother. But now, the house is filled with dust and despair.

The house feels cold and dirty but either way, it’s what you need. You would rather feel the emptiness of this big house and miss your family than be alone in your apartment. Maybe being home can make you write something worth reading for again, maybe being home will help you be alive again. Losing your whole family is a different kind of pain. The word ‘alone’ does not cover what you’re feeling right now.

It has been nine months since the accident but the sad news is still fresh in your heart that sometimes when you remember it, you just turned into stone and start crying out of nowhere. Thankfully, the town was understanding enough about what you’re going through in life. They were all careful not to make you remember your family’s death, and made sure to take care of you in ways that they can.

“I see some stores are closing? What happened to Miguel’s Ice Cream shop?” you asked Sophie, the owner of the small grocery store in town. You’ve known her since you were just a little girl, and your mother and father helped her grow her business.

“Well, since your father’s death there's this vampire family who’s been buying the whole town. One by one, Qian Properties. Offering money and immortality as payments” she says. The worry in her tone is quite evident as if she knew that vampires will soon knock on her store and offer her the same thing. Money and immortality.

After your family’s passing, the world has gone mad like they took every good thing from this world with them on their graves. Crazy how in nine months the things that are used to be fiction like vampires, are now the new normal. Everything happened so fast. Their kind grew and grew and now their population covers over almost 1/4 of the world. Vampires school, condominiums for vampires, hotel ran by vampires, humans being vampires. It’s crazy. But even though the world has gone mad, it doesn’t bother you because the pain that you’re dealing with right now is taking too much of your sanity.

As months slowly pass by, even though you hate writing right now, you still try and find your way back to loving what you used to do for a living. Writing was everything to you. There’s no greater feeling than sharing something you’ve created to the world, show it entirely, and watch the people love every bit of that thick thing we called a book. You lost your spark with writing when the accident happened and it changed your life. Everything you published became the talk of the world, people hating it and blaming what happened to your family. It was your darkest time. Losing your family and watching your career end.

You type, delete over and over again, and tried writing your feelings away until you see the sun setting again. A good reminder to call it a day. Then someone rang your doorbell. You quickly grabbed your robe and make your way downstairs, you see a man’s figure on the other side of the gate, wearing a nice suit, black trousers, and nice leather shoes.

“Good evening. I hope I did not interrupt you, I’m Qian Kun” he offered his hand for you to shake it which you accepted with a straight face. Qian. The family name of the vampires who are buying properties in this town and you’re not stupid to not know what he came here for. You wanted to shoo him away and tell him that you’re not interested in anything that he will offer. You have a lot of money and you don’t need immortality.

You crossed your arms and waited for him to talk more. “May I come in? I’m looking forward to this meeting for quite some time now” he says. You turned around and did not say anything but left the gate wide open. “Please” he added and he sounded desperate.

“Mr. Qian, I left the door open. What are you waiting for?”

“I- I suppose you don’t know that vampires cannot come in unless you invite them in” you didn’t of course.

“I’m sorry. I did not know. Please come in”

When you two settled in the living room, he started the conversation by introducing himself. You notice that he’s well mannered, polite, and careful with his words. He doesn’t sound fake like the monsters who pretend to care for you in the writing industry. Kun was straightforward without offending you, intimidating but not enough to make you feel small. He stated his intentions very clearly, “As a firstborn, I want my family to have a nice home. And this house is perfect. You will not be homeless, of course. We will find you a new house, cash, and immortality” he says.

You couldn’t agree more with what Kun told you. But the reason that he’s here to buy your house is something you can’t let him do. Even if he’s polite, nice, and handsome if you’re being honest. You can’t let him take away your home.

“It’s good that you love your family so much and you’re taking care of them. Something that I regret not doing” you take a sip from your coffee before you continue saying something that will bring you to tears, “are you aware that I lost my family, about a year ago?” you were calm when you said it, but it still hurt like hell. Admitting that they’re gone.

Kun was speechless. He felt like he ruined your peace and your time to mourn your family but most of all, it felt like he’s disrespecting you. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know” is all he can say.

“I have way too much money and I don’t want immortality. Thank you for your offer, but this is all I’ve got”

“I cherish my family too. I have a family and we don't have a home, you don’t have a family but you have a home. Be part of us, we can be your family”

You got offended, but still, there’s not enough reason to burst out and be hysterical. You gave him a small smile and shook your head, “Good luck finding a home Mr. Qian. I admire you taking care of your family”

The night ended coldly, both disappointed with personal reasons. Although he felt sorry about his visit, he still got his eyes on the prize. Kun will stand his ground and will try over and over again until you say yes to his offer. You, on the other hand, don’t know why you have a soft spot for the vampire even though he already offended you. Maybe it’s because you were moved for his honest reasons that you can’t let out your anger towards him even if you force yourself. He was just trying and finding his family a stable home, no need to get mad, you said to yourself.

As days go by, the vampire did not give up as expected. He continued his visit and greet you with the sweetest smile. He tried pursuing you, giving you flowers, bringing you books to read, chocolates, fruits, anything that crosses his mind that will try to change your decision. He was desperate for his family’s sake and it was obvious.

Sophie said that Qian properties chose this place because it’s far from the city. There’s a lot of trees and the neighborhood is peaceful. “That’s why he’s desperate. Your father made this town great. Don’t let that Qian family eat up of what your father built” she says sternly.

You walked alone to your house with a bag of take out, thinking of other ways to make your meal even more delicious. Since you’re alone in life, you don’t have someone to cook you a decent meal. When you were living alone in the city, you have your manager cook you good food. But now that you’re completely alone, you just have to make the best out of this take out.

“Hi” of course the vampire waited for you to come home. You smiled and let out a small laugh because both of his hands are carrying grocery bags.

“What are you doing? I have food and enough stocks for a whole family, and I live alone” It was a joke. You giggle and opened the gate, this time you did not forget to invite him in.

“That’s not why I’m here. I’m here as a friend a new vampire friend- Let me cook for you please, I need a friend”

Hearing him say those words made you think that Kun is a blessing in disguise. Finally, decent food. You don’t want to admit but having Kun’s company tonight made you feel happy. Not genuinely happy of course, but it’s nice to have someone to talk to. Surprisingly, he’s talkative but not annoying. The words that came out from his mouth made sense to the point that you’re learning new things from him. He was right, he’s here as a friend and not as a buyer of your house.

“Why do you want my house so bad?” you asked. Stirring the spaghetti sauce that he made.

“Hmm. I thought I’m here as a friend?” he smiles and refuses to answer your question. He looked handsome up close, but his unbelievably white skin is scary. It reminded you that he’s a vampire.

“Well okay, if you don’t want to answer that question. I didn’t know vampires eat. I thought you only drink blood from humans” you quickly changed the subject so he can feel comfortable.

“I love food and I love cooking. It’s my guilty pleasure. It doesn’t make me full, but if what I made taste good then I’m satisfied” he answered your question with a big smile. Proud and happy to talk about how he loves cooking.

For someone who doesn’t have a soul, Kun is a vampire full of life. You listen to him talk about the things he sees on TV and watches his eyes show you and tell you how he’s curious about the world. He’s well aware that there's so much you can do in a lifetime, he wanted to learn many things and go around the world. He’s almost more human than you are. “Well if you have all these dreams of yours why don’t you embrace life instead of living in the shadows for your family?” you hope he answers your question this time.

“My family is more important than my dreams and my wants in life. The things that I long for will forever be in this world, but my family can die anytime-“ he realized what he just said, “I’m- I’m sorry. I got carried away. Please- Uh, how’s the food?” he tried changing the subject but it was too late.

He’s right. Everything he said is right and you’re realizing it just now, “I wish I met you before my family died. Unlike you, I chose my dreams and turned my back against my family. And now I’m regretting it. Don’t worry, you didn’t offend me and the food is great. Really great” your tone was slowly turning sad and gloomy. The vampire was quick to be concerned but he can’t do anything to help you heal. So, he changed the mood and joked about offering you immortality and you argued with him and tried convincing him to embrace being human. It was a friendly debate that made him blush and your heart flutter.

Kun hates lying, even to himself. As he listens and watches you speak very closely while you drink your wine, he's slowly liking you and he's not afraid of what he's feeling right now. He loves how you talk about the things you've experienced already like he's listening to a book about wonders. You must be a great writer. The whole time you were talking about your first book to him, he was really impressed by your talent but he can't listen to you further. Instead, he just admired you closely.

Then he kissed you.

He noticed how your lips were plump and red because of the red wine and the kiss was something he can’t control because he wanted to do it. “I’m not sorry about the kiss, I wanted to do it” at least he was honest about what he feels. "Please continue your story" and so you did, but this time you were smiling from ear to ear.

Good things come to an end. You felt that you went out on a date with Kun when the night ended. You felt nothing but happiness, butterflies in your stomach, cheeks hurt because of too much smiling. He flashed those handsome dimples of his and waved goodbye to you. Neither of you wanted to end the night so early but he had to go home to his family.

The next day, while you were trying so hard to put what you feel into writing, you look over the window and hope to see Kun’s figure outside your huge gate. But no, he’s not there. Until the sun is finally setting again and the sky turned into your favorite shade of orange, you were disappointed but only for a short span of time.

The same thing happened for a week. You waited for the vampire to show up outside your gate, but he never did. Maybe he finally gave up.

One fine beautiful evening, you were reading the books Kun gave you while you enjoy a cup of warm tea then your doorbell rang three times that it almost sounded so desperate for attention. Finally, the figure that you’ve been meaning to see showed up. You welcome him in like an old friend and he greets you with an exhausted smile. He looked tired and dull you noticed.

“I’m sorry I didn’t show up for days” you haven’t seen each other for a week and the first words you heard from him are apologies. “I was busy running the family business” he clears his throat and sat comfortably on the couch.

“Which is?” you asked.

“Buying humans so my family name will forever live,” he said oh so cooly. Surprising you with honestly again that never bothered you. In fact, he continues to surprise you. “And looking for a new town to buy” he added. You noticed during your long walks that people in this town continue embracing immortality in exchange for their establishments and loyalty for Qian properties. It sounds complicated, their business, but really it’s not hard to understand. It’s like a normal business that buys and sells properties and a big company that needed a lot of staff. But for Qian properties, lives are involved.

“What happens to the people you turn to vampires?”

“Besides being rich, they will have a long life, my family owns them and as long as they live, they will work for my family. But I can assure you that their lives are safe. We don’t harm them, rather we help them adjust to this new life they swore to- How are you?”

His sudden concern for you caught you off guard that you smiled and became shy in front of him. He’s not here as a businessman again, he’s here as your friend, Kun. Whom you kissed and waited for his presence every day.

“I waited for you every day” he smiled at your honesty. But then, his smile slowly fades away. He holds his chest and pretends that he’s okay to not make you worry. “I’m not stupid you’re hungry. When was the last time you drank blood?” you brought him to your kitchen to give him a plate of raw steak. But he told you steak does not cover it. You were trying so hard to help him ease his hunger. Then you realized, you have blood.

“Try not to kill me? Or turn me?” you exposed your collar bones to him and standup in between his legs. He was sitting on the kitchen counter like a bored teenager with a bottle of water in his hand. He let out a cute laugh and fixed your robe.

“No. I can’t do that to you. I’m not here to ask for blood. I’m just tired and pressured because of my family. I just needed to see you” he smiled so sweetly again, making you fall in love with his gaze. Even though he’s tired and weak to the core he can still make your heart flutter.

“I’m not going to take no for an answer. If you don’t drink my blood, you can never see me again” it was a dangerous bargain but you had to try. You came closer to him, felt his cold skin, smelled his cologne, and hope that he smells your blood. It was a struggle for him and he enjoys your sweet torture. Until he finally gave in.

“Just one swig,” he says.

“That’s all I want to happen. Please, you look dead” you insist.

He took his time untying your robe, remove it from you and watch it hit the tiled kitchen floor. He kissed your neck like the gentleman that he is making you weak and let out soft moans. His lips are cold and it sends a shiver straight to your spine. Then he bit you. Drank your blood like he’s just kissing your neck. It felt like you’re high on drugs, everything kept spinning and the moment he stopped. You feel weak and he was quick to catch you with his strong arms. Kun kissed the part where he had bit you a few seconds ago and kissed you all the way from your collar bone, neck, chin, and finally your lips.

Everything turned slow. Like a moment being kept for safekeeping and no one dares to move too fast. Scared to ruin such a beautiful moment.

You took him to your room and there you two continued that beautiful moment. He watched you remove your clothes in between his legs as he comfortably sits on the edge of your queen-sized bed. Once you discarded all your clothes and exposed your bare body to him, his hands roam freely around your body. It’s his first time, he whispered. “I’ll try not to disappoint you” he promised.

While you help him remove his clothes, Kun learned to kiss your body. He was shy but you told him he doesn’t have to. He learned to kiss your chest, the valley between your boobs and your stomach. “Why are you avoiding my boobs?” you asked with a slight giggle, waiting for his lips to brush your perked nipple and make you shiver. He looked at you directly in the eye as he starts sucking your left nipple, then he turned to your right boob, and in a matter of minutes, he finally learned how to use his tongue. You gasped and breathed in deeply as you were just standing in between his legs, naked, shivering, and moaning at the things he’s been doing to you.

“You’re going to make me cum undone” you informed him. He stopped and leaned back, admiring your swollen nipples as if he’s proud of his work.

“Is that a bad thing?” he asked oh so innocently.

“No” you pushed him slowly to the mattress, “But I’d rather cum in other different ways,” you said. This time it’s your turn to kiss his cold body and let him experience the pleasure he’s been giving you. His low groans were music to your ears when you licked his nipples while you unbutton his pants and remove it swiftly leaving him only with his boxers briefs.

Given that this is his first time, you decided to stay on top tonight and take charge. You kissed his abs, feel it with your hands, and took time kissing his lower abdomen, making the vampire impatient and push his underwear down so your lips can finally make contact with his cock. You gave him his first blow job, sucking his dick slowly and pumping it over and over again until it’s really hard and thick. “I promise to give you a proper blowjob someday” you crawled on top of him until your wet folds are coating his cock with your pussy juices.

“I can get addicted to you, you know that?” he says and smiled before you reach for his lips to distract him as you line his cock to your entrance and slowly sink down on him. His reaction was something you will never forget, the sound that he made once he’s fully inside you. You intertwined your fingers with him before you roll your hips deliciously.

“Ready?”

“Yeah- Oh, ahh” he part his lips and did not get shy anymore as he continues to let out his moans and feel your warm walls around him. He pulled your body closer to him, wanting to never leave those beautiful lips of yours. You made his arms rest on your hips, as you bounce up and down on his cock with utmost care. There’s no need to go wild and crazy for tonight. Everything is perfect.

“I’m close” he admitted. But you didn’t stop moving your hips.

“Can you make me pregnant?” you cage his head with your arms, your face is close to him so you can nip his lower lip and kiss him every second.

“I can’t” he answers your question. There was a slight disappointment of course. But this is not the right time to think about having kids.

“What are you waiting for? Let go and cum inside me”

Kun did what you said and had the time of his life, enjoying his first orgasm from having sex. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t cum tonight, Kun’s cock felt great and that alone satisfies you. He didn’t let you go for some time, you stayed on top of him as he continues to kiss and talk to you while he still enjoys your warmth.

Soon, you lay beside him and covered you with your clean thick sheets. You talked some more, about things that are intimate and are for the two of you only. You never felt so happy being in the arms of a… vampire. You felt alive again but you don’t say it out loud, you just wanted to bask at this moment with Kun and feel the happiness flood your heart.

“How are you feeling?” you asked. Maybe he needed more blood?

“I’m feeling just fine. Thank you. And I’m not talking about the sex and your blood. Thank you for letting me in your life” he was holding your hand while drawing small circles using his cold thumb.

That night, you two slept really late and talked more about life and the things you wanted. You learned that the two of you are very different from each other but you’re ready to love him deeply and he’s ready to take great risk for you too. And you think the beauty of loving someone so different from you is a different kind of great love.

Kun’s cold figure still hugs you tightly when you wake up the next day. The morning light hits his skin perfectly that he shines effortlessly. “fuck” you muttered and quickly tried getting out from his cold embrace to close the curtains. But he tugs you even closer to his body making you panic even more, “are you hurt?”

“No” he kissed you good morning and sweetly requests, “can we stay a little bit longer like this? I still don’t want to face the day”

You raked his hair away from his face and gave him his morning kisses, “we can stay like this forever” you said.

“Does that mean you’re accepting immortality?-“

“That’s not what I meant”

“Oh”

Even so, being human and vampire in a relationship did not stop you two from loving each other without bounds. Every day has been nothing but happiness with Kun even though you both have your own disappointments with yourselves. You’re disappointed with writing, he’s disappointed with his family’s business. Every bit of the relationship was not easy but you two chose to be happy together every day and face each day together.

He starts calling your house his home because you are his home and you don’t mind him calling you that. It makes you happy. Every day, when the sky turns to your favorite shade of orange, Kun will ring your doorbell and you will welcome him home with kisses and warm hugs.

Soon, you two became confident about telling each other everything about your family. And for the first time, talking about them didn’t make you sad, but rather happy because you can share that part of your life with Kun who listens to every word you say attentively. He told you that his mom was the one who told him to give you books to read, give you flowers and treat you with respect. His stories about his family make you want to meet them someday. It will not be easy but, “We will get here eventually”

Speaking of eventually, he finally learned how to fuck after a few nights of making love with Kun. He finally became confident in bed, making you moan his name over and over again. Memorizing every inch of the places you loved being touched the most. Oh, he’s a fast learner and a great one if you’re being honest to the point that night after night you grip the sheets so hard because he was fucking you good.

Perfect. Everything is perfect.

“Good morning” you greet him with loving kisses as always before you make your coffee. He’s still shirtless and just wearing his pajamas while he makes breakfast. You hugged him from behind and enjoy his cold skin on a beautiful warm morning. “Can we stay like this forever?” you asked, hugging him tightly.

“Is that a yes for immortality?” he’s serious when it comes to ‘immortality’ but it never annoyed you because it’s his love language. You understand him.

“I want to be with my family, Kun” you bit his shoulder playfully and placed soft kisses after. He loves it when you do that.

“And I don’t want to watch you die,” he asked for a kiss on lips, which you gave happily.

“Why are we having this conversation?” you roll your eyes.

“You’re right. I love you, I’m sorry”

See. Push and pull. And it’s a decision that one day you’re going to face and not even ‘i love yous’, ‘i’m sorry’, hugs or kisses will solve that problem for you. Someday he will not joke about it. And you’re scared because the question is, family or Kun?

During the day, you kept thinking about the conversation you had with Kun before breakfast. It made you think hard and ran through every loophole. You imagined life without Kun, you imagined him watch you die in a hospital bed, and you imagine not being with your family ever again. Every decision broke your heart.

When Kun finally came home, you try shrugging the thought of making a decision one day and admire your boyfriend as he is about to prepare you dinner.

Having a very handsome vampire in your kitchen cooking you good food is definitely one for the books. It’s like watching a live cooking show and you’re the only audience who can taste what he’s cooking. The way he walks around and smiles at you from time to time is making you feel things you shouldn’t be feeling. Heck, even watching him sprinkle salt and pepper, chop the peppers, and squeeze some lemon is making your heart jump.

Such a waste.

All these talents for singing, great skills at the kitchen, handsome face… And yet he chose to live in darkness. You have nothing against the vampire, he didn’t choose to be born as a bloodsucker, but he did choose to serve his family. His number one mistake, honestly speaking.

“If you’re not a vampire, what would you want to be?” you asked him bluntly, sipping on your wine while you watch him cook. “I hope you know that you’re talented and that if you embrace being a human you can be many things. For starters, you can be a cook at a famous restaurant or a pilot”

“Are we seriously having this conversation?” he chuckles, turns off the stove and faced you, leaning on the kitchen counter, looking handsome as ever, “Do me a favor and imagine yourself being 200 years old still looking young and beautiful. Or being happily married for hundreds of years. With me” he left a kiss on your forehead and goes back to plating the food.

The words ‘happily married’ doesn’t sound so bad.

“So you’re telling me that if we stayed like this, vampire and human, and I’m finally old and wrinkly, you won’t love me anymore?” you tease him, not letting him know that the idea of being married affects you.

“Why can’t we have a normal dinner without being on each other’s throats? Come on let’s eat. Grab the wine please,” he offered his cold hand to help you come down from the stool and go together to the dining area.

Before eating he did notice you were spacing out, he puts down his spoon and fork and reached for your hand. “Look at me,” he says, “Vampire or not I’m going to marry you and we’ll live happily together”

“You promise?”

“I promise. Now, come on eat. Tell me if it’s delicious, I just learned this from the cooking show I’ve been watching”

The constant push and pull continued. Your relationship has always been a never-ending convincing each other to be something you’re not. But ever since you let Kun in your life happiness is present in your life again and you’re worried that maybe someday that happiness will be taken away from you again. Kun is literally the reason why you smile first thing in the morning and sleep peacefully at night.

After having dinner and you two are ready for bed, you can’t stop thinking about the conversation you had this morning. The decision you’ve been thinking about has been running in your mind the whole day but there's another thought that’s been bugging you all along and you’ve been wanting to ask Kun.

“Can you really not die?”

He must be tired. He closed his eyes and kept you close. You wait for his answer but it seems like he doesn’t want to keep the conversation. Then he looks at you, “I can. I just have to be careful. I can die like how humans die except for dying at old age” he explains and you don’t want to pry further. “I'm scared of dying, you know. There’s so much I want to do in my life even before I met you. But since then I became even more scared to death. This world holds everything important to me, my family, and you. I can’t die” he answered your question honestly of course.

The next day, Kun woke up before you because he’s been planning to do something lately but can’t execute his plans correctly. He was about to do it last night but you asked him a heavy question so he didn’t have a choice but to set aside his intentions first.

He carefully opened the bedside drawer and reached for the tiny object inside. Since he doesn’t know anything about romance, he doesn’t know how to propose beautifully to you. So he went for something he’s confident with. Honesty. He grabs your hand and slips the ring on your finger, carefully but his movements still woke you up.

Any girl would freak out seeing her boyfriend propose to her the moment she opens her eyes in the morning. The diamond is quite big and it made you gasp. Not that you cared about the rock but the fact that Kun just proposed to you the moment you wake up is just enough reason to panic.

But he made a ’Shh’ sign that made you follow him and kept yourself quiet. You feel your heart thumping and beating so fast at this moment that you want to burst out of happiness already but Kun is calm in front of you. Just calm.

“Listen” all you hear are birds chirping and comfortable silence, “peaceful right?” you nod your head, “Let’s never break that peace in our relationship. I don't know how to make things easier for us but let's start with, no more push and pull. Last night I promised you that vampire or not, I’m gonna marry you and this is me keeping that promise. I would rather watch you die at old age, wrinkly and weak than lose you” He kissed your hand, and the panic that you’ve been savoring is long forgotten. Instead of screaming your lungs out because of too much happiness, you kissed each other and engraved that beautiful moment in your hearts.

And because you and Kun have been living together for quite some time now, you’ve become the talk of the town. Everyone thought that Kun is keeping you hostage and is only using you to get the house and to get the whole town. Even though he has been really successful in buying lives lately and earning the people’s loyalty in this town, the ones who strongly refused Kun’s offer is now making a plot behind his back.

A plot where they plan to kill him and save you. They’re just waiting for the perfect timing to strike the vampire.

“He’s just using you to get the house. Of course, he had to marry you so he can have legal rights to your house. Trust me, that vampire will leave you” Sophie hated Kun so much that when you told her that you’re engaged she didn’t take it lightly. The old woman shoos you out of her store and told you to be smarter. It’s sad how she can’t see that you’re really happy with Kun.

When you got home from grocery shopping, you wait for Kun to arrive before you leave him for one night to meet your manager back to the city. It pains you to be away from Kun. It’s like there's this magnet that’s keeping you near him and stopping you from leaving the house but finally, you finished a good book. All thanks to Kun. Your manager wanted to meet you so you can work on the details and finally, go back to the world and show everyone how you’ve been.

“The city is great. You sure you don’t want to come? There's a lot of vampires in the city-“

“And my fiance is a famous writer. Who’s about to have her come back to the industry that she loves. I don’t want to give you a problem before you can even go back out there. People will not take it lightly if they see you with me” he kissed you and hope that you will not argue with him further.

“But we just got engaged. I don’t want to be away from you” you pout like a little girl.

“Well then come home soon” he smiles sweetly to you and finally made you stop your whining.

Leaving home never felt so wrong. But you realized, he’s right. You just have to come home soon.

When you were back in the city and in the familiar office of your manager, you can’t help but feel out of place. Is this really what you want? Because if your manager agrees to publish this new work of yours, that means you have to leave home again. You have to leave Kun and live in the city. Something you think you can’t handle. It's like making the same mistakes again.

“I love it! You’re back- amazing work. I have to meet this vampire that you’re talking about. The one who inspired you to write this beautiful masterpiece. Ugh! Welcome back!” he exclaims excitedly. But his approval did not make you excited or anything. You’re happy of course, but you’ve been thinking about coming home and telling Kun the good news.

“Are we done here?”

“Uh- yes, bu-“

“Great. Call me if you need anything. I have to go home now. Thank you” you shake his hand and bid him goodbye. You were quick to get out of there and head home already. The plan was to stay the night in your old apartment, but you can’t. You really can’t. It’s almost 3 in the morning and Kun must be sleeping already because he hasn’t answered your calls. You drove excitedly while playing with the ring on your finger, thinking about how to spend the following days with Kun as an engaged couple.

When you finally arrived in town, people in their sleep wears welcomes you in the street. But their faces looked worried and concerned. What’s happening, you murmured. Since a lot of people are blocking the street you decided to get out of the car and check what’s happening.

“Y/n… the house….” someone shouted.

“My house?” you ran as fast as you can to see what they’re talking about. Hoping that everything is fine and that Kun is safe and not inside the house.

Then you see it.

It was your favorite shade of orange. Eating your house, ruining your home. You watched the house burn and you never thought that watching it will make you hate something you used to love ever since you were just a kid. You wanted the bright colors to fade. Your hands are shaking as you call for help. Screaming at the top of your lungs as people try to stop you from running towards your house.

“Kun!” you screamed and asked for him but no one is answering you.

Sophie tried to make you listen to her while you push everyone away. “I’m sorry. We had to do this. The town was slowly dying and turning into a vampire town. Y/n! He will leave you in the end or worst, he will change you” she was apologizing but you didn’t want to listen to her anymore. You slapped the old woman and tried to kick her with all your might but the people are quick to stop you.

The fire spread so fast that Kun didn’t have time to save himself. He tried calling for help but the lines were already cut. It’s obvious the fire was planned. He was trying so hard to escape death, coughing and covering his mouth, crying while he bangs through the door that seems to be locked from the outside. I don’t want to die. He repeats over and over again, thinking about his family, his brothers, and of course you.

But he couldn’t go out. He banged through the door until his last breath and strength but it did nothing. Soon the fire ate him and all he can do is scream through the pain, cry, and accept death.

The next thing you know, you’re at the hospital. You see your manager sleeping on the couch. Tears started falling but you don’t know why. On top of that, your heart feels heavy. It’s a familiar feeling, you thought. Like when the news that your family died reached you.

Then you see your ring. And suddenly you understand why you started crying out of nowhere and why that familiar feeling of losing someone is back.

Kun is dead.

And once again you’re back to rock bottom but this time you don’t have a home or a place to help you heal.

406 notes · View notes

your-brilliant-lady-m · 3 years

Text

Part 5 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Guardians

Helloooo! Did you think I was done? No!

My PhD thesis chapters were approved last week, so have some celebratory meta. I haven't seen the latest Season 4 episodes, so do forgive me for not being up to date.

Welcome to the next part of my analysis of the basic concepts of Miraculous Ladybug. Today we are talking about Master Fu, Order of the Guardians and how little everything here makes sense. I highly recommend reading previous parts to fully understand this one, but I'll try to quote most parts of earlier posts.

Order of the Guardians

Order is an international and ancient organisation (New York Special showed us the guardian from North America and he was dressed like Su Han). Presumably, Miraculous jewels were created by these people. Guardians are responsible for the preservation of jewels and knowledge about them. They also distribute Miraculouses to worthy people around the world to combat mostly magical threats, but sometimes jewels are used against normal threats too. It's implied that Master Fu used Miraculouses during WW2 when he was in Paris. Perhaps he performed some spywork with Marianne, but the magical nature of his interferences was discovered and he was forced to flee, before returning to France many decades later.

Why does the Order need so many people to take care of a 3 Miracle Boxes? If its only purpose is to preserve knowledge, keep magical secrets and distribute Miraculous jewels then wouldn't it be more logical to have Master-Apprentice system? It's much easier to keep magic knowledge a secret and train a few people in martial arts than doing the same in the self-sufficient temple full of people, keeping in mind that a good part of them are teenagers and children, who are bad at keeping secrets. Also a single person can travel around the world much easier to give out Miraculouses. Imagine that we have a few active guardians traveling the world with Boxes. What do other people at the temple do in the meantime? They teach the next generation about the powers of each Miraculous and Mirakung Fu, but besides that?

Master-Apprentice system gives us more personal conflict between Fu and his mentor and makes his relationship with Marinette and Adrien more nuanced. In this scenario Fu accidentally caused the death of his Master at 14 because he wasn't careful. It makes sense for him to take on only 1 or 2 students if this is how things were done with Miraculous Guardians. This Wang Fu is very cautious and protective, he spent the majority of his life afraid of hurting someone else and never took an apprentice as a result. But now he is ready to try again, since he is not getting any younger and he likes these 2 kids. He wants them to succeed. Maybe Master Fu, becomes the father figure for Adrien in this situation and a guide for Marinette. Just think about it. This way writers avoid the need to develop all these extra characters (Su Han) and traditions related to the Order. All inconsistencies I mentioned before and later in this post are gone now! Hell, even memory loss and the changing of the Miracle Box shape could make more sense. We also raise the stakes post-amnesia, if it happens of course (the whole Season 3 finale didn't make sense, so stay tuned for my next meta). Marinette and Adrien are on their own now, there's no one who can give them answers. It's very fun scenario, which has potential to be brilliant. Any thoughts on that?

The existence of Order of the Guardians is not quite a secret, at least it wasn't in XIX century China. Master Fu in "Feast" says that guardianship was considered "a great honor". It implies that people who lived close to the temple of the Order knew about Miraculouses and what exactly guardians did for the greater good.

The existence of other Miracle Boxes around the world makes sense from a real-life perspective. Writers have the ability to create many stories set in the same universe and use them for merchandise and an almost unlimited amount of content. Judging by the unholy amount of specials in production, this is exactly what the creators are going to do. It probably won't go down well, but who knows?

However, it doesn't work in our main story. The main conflict is Paris-centred. Gabriel's motivations revolve around Emilie's resurrection and Season 4 gives us more reasons to suspect that Adrien's mom wasn't as wonderful as everyone says. Hawkmoth still remains the main villain of the show and most likely it's going to stay that way. There's no point in moving the main story to different places for the sake of introducing more Miracle Boxes from around the world. Ladybug and Chat Noir aren't needed to fight something halfway across the world unless Hawkmoth also changes locations.

LB and CN are centrepieces of this franchise. They brought success and money to ZAG. Creators constantly need to remind the audience that this new piece of media with new characters who will never be mentioned again is connected to Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Writers have to come up with reasons to include our heroic duo into the story even if makes no sense.

New York Special had to introduce American Heroes whose names rarely come up in the fandom because people stopped caring about them or their stories shortly after the release of the Special. I barely saw any content dedicated to them. In order to bring LB and CN into the story, you have to include Hawkmoth too. Gabriel suddenly needs to get his hands on the Eagle Miraculous and goes to USA. Marinette and Adrien suddenly have a class trip to New York. Unfortunately, their presence in this story is required only to expand the world of Miraculous and attract fans of the show, so that they could keep an eye on new content related to newly introduced characters.

In the end, it's not their story. Events of the special don't affect main story of the show and the development of the love square is merely an illusion, because Adrien and Marinette are no closer than before. In season 4 LB and CN are growing apart and their test of trust in NY Special doesn't matter. Perhaps, some people don't see it that way and it's their right, but I find it hard to see NYS as a valid contribution to canon. I mean, even people in large portion of the fandom state in the tags on AO3 that "specials are not canon", "specials didn't happen" or "ignores both specials". It speaks volumes about continuity and preferences of your fandom.

Shanghai Special didn't give us more information about the Order, which is located in China, history of Miraculous jewels. We still don't know much about how Gabriel and Emilie found Peacock and Butterfly. Maybe, Marinette's family had connections to Miraculous jewels. Maybe, Adrien does some snooping and discovers research his parents made while Gabriel is away. All of these are relevant to the main story. However, we got something much different in the end.

Marinette chases Adrien across the globe and they make new friends. Fey becomes Ladydragon and now has a direct contact with Marinette through her uncle. Gabriel's desire to get his hands on the Prodigious comes out of nowhere. Apparently, he had been planning this trip for years, presumably even before Adrien was born. It probably happened at the same time as Agrestes found 2 Miraculouses. He bought bracelet-key (which is also a Miraculous apparently, but its Kwami is a Guardian of the Prodigious and they existed separately for a very long time - and let us not dwell on this mess) from some shady mafia boss, who can easily find out just who Gabriel really is (fashion designer billionaire) and use this information to blackmail him. This Special didn't answer important questions, but it gave us a new superhero character.

The real question is whether Miraculous as a project will survive long enough for writers to create content for every minor character they introduced in all specials. This is only a beginning after all.

Miraculous is not a global show and it can't be globalised in a way that makes sense, at least with Ladybug and Chat Noir in the centre of action. Case closed.

Mirakung Fu

I liked the idea of Mirakung Fu introduced in "Furious Fu". It makes sense and things rarely do in this show. Miraculous grants its holder superhuman strength, stamina, endurance and ability to fight. This means that essentially transformed heroes are guided by magic in combat. There's nothing personal in the way Miraculous holders fight. You can predict their moves and learn how to fight this magic guidance, which is what Su Han does.

However, if the holder has any special training, skills or knows any martial art in their civilian life then they become more dangerous opponents during transformation because now their fighting is a mix of magical moves and their personal knowledge, tricks and style. Therefore, Adrien and Kagami as skilful fencers have more chances of winning against someone who knows Mirakung Fu than Marinette, for example.

Memory loss

At the end of season 3, we find out several things:

apparently, now Miracle Box can change appearance to suit its guardian;

when Guardian passes down the Miracle Box to someone else, they lose memories not only about everything related to Miraculous, but also about pretty much everything in their life (Fu doesn't recognise Marianne, instead he experiences the love at first sight)

Master Fu trains Marinette to be the proper holder and next Guardian off-screen. He says that her training as the holder is complete in "Feast" and wants her to become the next Guardian. Fu told her lots of things, and yet, he never mentioned the fact that he would lose his memory after relinquishing the box, nor the fact that Marinette would lose her memory afterwards. She finds out about this from Wayzz after the battle with Miracle Queen and the letter that Master Fu gave her. That's not proper training! How on Earth do you forget to mention this memory loss? How?

Master Fu's amnesia is a convenient plot device that removes him from the narrative almost completely. That's mostly all there is to it. Why? Because it doesn't make sense.

Fu was around 7 or 8 when he started his training. The disaster at the temple happened when he was 14. He stated that his training was never complete, which means that he never passed any magical ritual, never swore an oath or was bound by some kind of spell that made him subjected to the rule of memory loss.

Miracle Boxes belonged to the order, not Fu. Their design reflected their country of origin because these Miraculous were made and kept in China. They were just standing there on the shelves not magically bound to anyone in particular. When Feast attacked, monks just tossed Wang Fu the miracle box and grimoire. No one at the temple lost their memory after Fu took the box with him (Su Han is the proof). Su Han not only remembers Fu and his mistake but everything that happened that fateful day as well. In "Furious Fu" Marinette explains Su Han that Master Fu lost his memory in the very first conversation they have. However, after Ladybug and Chat Noir fight Su Han on the roof and escape with the Miracle Box, the latter searches for Fu and attempts to take his staff from him. In this scene, Su Han acts like Fu knows very well what is going on and who he is.

Su Han should be aware of the memory loss rule as the Celestial Guardian. He remarks on the different shape of the Mother Miracle Box and calls her "incorrect", which means that Su Han should have been able to easily tell that previous Guardian lost his memory and the Miracle Box is now bound to someone else. But he doesn't say anything. Moreover, since Su Han is supposed to know about amnesia, he seemed awfully chill about forcing this 14-year-old girl in front of him to give up the box and her memories. Hell, Chat Noir wasn't on board with this. But we get zero reaction from Su Han.

During the first conversation between Marinette and Su Han, he doesn't ignore what she is trying to say, instead he actively comments on every word. Even if Su Han didn't listen when Marinette told him about Fu's memory loss, than he still should be able to understand that Fu doesn't recognise him, because of common sense and the "incorrect" shape of the box. But nothing of the sort happens. Because writers apparently forgot that "memory loss" is supposed to be known to everyone in the Order. On-screen it looks like Su Han is not aware of the "amnesia rule".

"Furious Fu" makes the concept of memory loss a plothole no matter how you look at it. Just like "Timetagger" and "Chat Blanc", as well as "Kwamibuster" this episode is not consistent within itself. It does not surprise me, however.

Grimoire and Guardian Staffs

Let's talk about the Miraculous Grimoire. Good things first.

There are no illustrations of Miraculouses in camouflage. Kwami can't read its contents, only guardians can. Certain elements are written in riddles as an additional precaution. The book contains only the information people have learned so far, which means that Miraculouses have more unexplored potential ("Mr. Pigeon 72"). It describes powers of each Miraculous, provides information about weapons, has instructions for potions that don't make sense (see previous parts).

Unfortunately, everything is about to go downhill from here.

Guardians are taught how to read the writing in this book. They can read it just like people learn to read texts in a different language. This means that one can read Grimoire like any other book (you don't need to consult some guide to decode each letter or word). Master Fu proclaimed Marinette an almost fully trained Guardian. He should have taught her how to read the Grimoire then (he doesn't know the code very well, but he knew enough to understand the general meaning and content of the book according to "Collector"). He didn't. We don't know why. He shows her powers of every Miraculous but doesn't teach her the code.

Master Fu knows that Grimoire now belongs to Gabriel Agreste. He knows that it's dangerous for someone else to have it. If they knew how to read the Grimoire, they could discover all secrets of Miraculouses and harm Ladybug, Chat Noir and other heroes. It's very important to keep the information about the code top secret because Fu is not the only one with the source material.

What does he do then? Master Fu proceeds to write a French translation of Grimoire for Marinette, a translation that he doesn't even need. He carries it with him at all times on a tablet (without any precautions) just like the Miracle box after "Feast". Naturally, it means that in "Miracle Queen", Gabriel and Nathalie easily managed to get their hands on the tablet and Miracle Box. It allows the plot to happen, sure. But it doesn't make any sense.

"Furious Fu" created another curious plot hole. It will probably be ignored, of course. Su Han has a staff with a magical compass that allows him to find any Miracle box, but not the Miraculous jewels for some reason. How does the staff work? Can it locate the box without the Miraculous? If yes, then it seems useless. What's the point in the ability to locate an empty box? If it can locate the box only with the Miraculous jewels inside, it implies that the staff can track the location of every Miraculous too. So, Su Han could just locate the Butterfly and Peacock without any problem. But he talks about reassigning Ladybug and Black Cat to adults and defeating Hawkmoth like locating the Butterfly is not possible. This situation makes the Guardian Staff a simple plot device that creates plot holes and its only purpose is to explain how Su Han found Marinette.

Also, I have a few more words to say about this. Master Fu had a Guardian Staff that was never mentioned before. I wonder why? That's because the staff didn't exist before "Furious Fu" was written. Writers just went: "Do you know what would be cool? If Fu's cane was really a secret Guardian Staff with a compass all along that he decided to keep even after he lost his memory? It would make people wonder whether Master Fu is faking amnesia, and everyone will definitely call him an awful mentor after this even though we kind of tried to make him a good and responsible person."

Fu didn't give it to Marinette and didn't mention it to her. Why? When he gave up his memory, he should have written about this in his letter at least. Why did he decide to keep it? He can't use it anyway now.

Please note how in the flashbacks Fu didn't take any staff with him when he escaped the temple. Su Han seemed to know how Fu's staff looked like. It means that Master Fu didn't make this staff himself, because it belonged to the Order.

Su Han wasn't even surprised that Marinette didn't have the staff as the current Guardian. Was she not supposed to have it? He never questioned the fact that the former Guardian without memories has the staff. Su Han actually returns this staff to Fu after he is deakumatized and Fu acts like they have never met before. Why did Su Han gave the staff back when he knows what it is and to whom it should belong (to him or to Marinette as the current Guardian)? The staff is useless in the hands of the civilian. Does Marianne know about its secret? We'll probably never find out, unfortunately.

Guardian Staff of Master Fu has a compass too and therefore this also makes it a plot device, just like Su Han's staff.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #miraculous analysis #miraculous meta #ml meta #ml analysis #miraculous critical #miraculous ladybug critical #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #mt of lb and cn #miraculous guardian #miraculous order of guardians #master fu #miraculous master fu #wang fu #miraculous su han

21 notes · View notes

magnus-the-maqnificent · 4 years

Text

Lost Book of the White Countdown Event

There’s only about ten days left for the release of LBOTW, and since we’re all dead inside right now thanks to the year’s events, I thought I’d do something fun to build up the hype!

The rules are simple. Eleven days, eleven prompts. You can make any content related to the given prompt of the day - edits, drawings, fics, headcanons, whatever suits you. And if you participate, it’s not compulsory to make content for every single day - you can skip out on some. Don’t burden yourself. It’s only supposed to be fun.

Now the prompts-

22nd August (10 days to go) - Bromance (There’s a lot of that in lbotw... from Alec and Jace to Clary and Simon... or maybe Shinyun and Ragnor strike up an unlikely bromance? Who knows?)

23rd August (9 days to go) - Parenthood (From Magnus and Alec learning how to be parents, to the others babysitting little Max... after all, it’s not easy to raise a child, especially if it’s a warlock)

24th August (8 days to go) - Whump (When you’re on a dangerous mission, someone’s bound to get hurt. Be it in New York, Shanghai, or even in Hell)

25th August (7 days to go) - Magic (From Magnus learning to use his new altered magic to the gang dealing with baby Max’s shenanigans... there’s a lot of warlocks and demons and a lot of magic going around)

26th August (6 days to go) - Emotions (A mission to hell and back can be emotionally toiling... especially when you’ve already been there, and the past is not going anywhere)

27th August (5 days to go) - Interruption (Is it really a Magnus and Alec story if someone doesn’t get caught in the throes of passion?)

28th August (4 days to go) - Fluff (Everyone needs a break in between their hellish adventures. Let them have a night-in, or maybe go stargazing, or just relax with their significant other)

29th August (3 days to go!) - Homeliness (Just... domestic family feels. Living in a nice apartment in Brooklyn with your fiancé and new baby, who has several doting uncles and aunts and even a grandma can be nice)

30th August (2 days to go!) - Battle (From Clary and Simon learning to fight as Parabatai, to the gang battling several hordes of demons, and maybe even a magical warlock duel, there sure will be a lot of action)

31st August (1 day to go!) - Death (Someone nearly dies. Or maybe someone contemplates the possibility of Death, and what it will mean for them and the future of their loved ones)

1st September (Release day!!) - Free day! (Make whatever you like. And if you somehow manage to grab a copy... post a picture for us to drool over!)

Once again, anyone can participate, and you aren’t obligated to make content for every single day of the event if you do participate. This is only to have fun, and to build up hype for Lost Book of the White.

A few quick rules -

Tag your post with #lbotwcountdown or #lbotwcountdownevent and tag this account ( @lbotw-countdown-event ) so I can reblog your content to that account. Or you can simply dm me the link to your post on this blog or the sideblog.

Keep your content simple. For fic writers, about 1.5k to 2k words is more than enough.

Adhere to the given schedule. You can post a previous’s day’s prompt anytime after the given date, but you can’t post a future prompt before its given date.

Have fun!!

Support the creators. If you like any content, please REBLOG it.

And.. that’s about it.

Tagging some peeps so this doesn’t flop: @tsccreatorsnet @beclynn-herondale @khaleesiofalicante @high-warlock-of-brooklyn @a-very-gay-spider @banesbitch @ghostlivvy @akaaoko @sarcasticmalecfan @chibi-tsukiko @jazzkaurtheglorious @themimsyborogove @themostawesomehuman @theldestcurses @thorndale

#lbotwcountdownevent #lbotwcountdown #lbotw #tec #malec #magnus bane #alec lightwood #lightwood bane fam #jace herondale #clary fairchild #isabelle lightwood #simon lovelace #tmi gang

152 notes · View notes

blackswaneuroparedux · 4 years

Photo

Fashion is an instrument through which you show you belong to a group.

- John Weitz

John Weitz was a man for all seasons. Handsome, intelligent, and debonair. He was a novelist, historian, businessman, spy, and above all a renowned mens and ladies fashion designer. James Bond was fiction but he was the real deal.

Born in Berlin in 1923, Hans Werner Weitz was the son of a prosperous clothing manufacturer and German first world war hero, who had won the Iron Cross in the infantry. The family was living well when Christopher Isherwood visited. But they were Jewish, quick to understand what was about to happen, and, in the early 1930s, moved to London, where the young Weitz went to well known private school, St Paul's in London. At St Paul’s he said it was normal to be caned if he didn’t wear morning clothes to class, so he always did with lapels rolled properly. “On weekends we wore blazers…correctly…with the collar up and with a scarf and with brown suede shoes, which were very new then….but never, of course, after six,” he once reminisced.

He was an apt pupil and Oxbridge seemed to be a seamless next stage. However he lasted only a year studying at Oxford University.

Instead he headed off to Paris to begin an apprenticeship with the women's tailor, Captain Edward Molyneaux. In 1938, at the age of 18, Weitz was falsely arrested as an enemy agent while working in the London office of the Paris fashion house Molyneux.

His father was already in America and in 1939, and when France was overuun at the outbreak of the war, Weitz could see he had to get out of Europe. After a tortuous trip through Shanghai, China and later Yokohama, Japan to reach the USA.

In 1943 and now a naturalised American citizen and aged 21, John (as he was now dubbed) was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, operating in Germany until 1946. He was fluent in both French and German which came in handy in his work during the war in Europe.

He would only ever describe his work in Germany until 1946 as "sensitive," though, much later, his publisher John Fairchild told the New York Times that Weitz "loved all that romantic part of his past. He was a perfect gentleman." What is known about his OSS work was that he was part of a 1944 mission in support of the plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler formulated by German Wehrmacht officers, under the instigation of Claus von Stauffenberg. After the war, Weitz helped to liberate the Dachau concentration camp

Weitz was also a man with connections, as when he confirmed that a former OSS boss had shown him gangster blackmail photos of the longtime FBI director J Edgar Hoover with his boyfriend, Clyde Tolson. In the 1970s, Weitz's friend Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, producer of the James Bond movies, teased him about his resemblance to the character - adding that Weitz was better looking.

Weitz returned to New York in the 1940s, a young garment trader well placed to pick up on American women's new taste for informal sportswear, leather coats and men's shirts.

Weitz founded his women’s sportswear business, John Weitz Designs, in 1954, and launched men’s wear a decade later. For his women’s wear, he often tailored the best of men’s designs for the female figure, with looks such as shaped houndstooth checked coats, formal shirts with jet buttons and cuff links, and corduroy pants.

“Whatever happens in women’s pants comes from the men’s pants,” he said in 1965.

In the Sixties, Weitz began phasing out his women’s and children’s apparel business to concentrate on men’s wear. By 1977, Weitz had 18 licensees and $150 million worldwide retail sales of products bearing his label, including sunglasses, belts, umbrellas and even cigars. That year, he also reentered the licensed women’s apparel category, because, he said, he saw the need for an alternative to coordinated sportswear merchandising.

“I’m rather sick of seeing American working women treated as children with prepackaged clothes,” Weitz said at the time.

In 1964, he launched his menswear range, applying the technical standards of manufacture he had learned from his father. Unusually, in that era of obsolescence, he went for ease and wear - clothes, he said, should be worn "as if they are old and valued friends".

Of course he committed fashion faux pas here and there. This was the 1970s after all. But the previaling zeitgeist had to be understood before we laugh or wince at the designs today. None left a lasting impression quite as strong as the posthumously awarded ‘king of the ‘70s’—the leisure suit.

Once hailed by top designers John Weitz and Calvin Klein as a garment with staying power, the leisure suit was ostracized from the kingdom of en vogue before the 1970s ever came to an end. Just as it had swiftly risen to the top of fashion, it fell into the leagues of comic relief twice as fast. Today we laugh at the cheesy styles, feminine colors, and garish plaids. But what we seem to have forgotten is that the leisure suit did more than just provide us with years of laughs. The leisure suit helped men open themselves up to new ideas in clothing. It allowed them to experiment outside of the style box they’d been locked in for too many years. If the 1970s had passed without the leisure suit, “business casual” for men might never have developed as soon as it did. The leisure suit may have been a fashion catastrophe, but it laid the groundwork for men to strut their fashion stuff for decades to come.

He was his own dream model - "healthy and scrubbed," with a flat stomach - and toured stores showing off his new line of narrow, European-cut shirts, half the width of the standard American style. His navy suit, alphabet-patterned ties and aubergine socks are commonplace now, but were then part of a new, executive self-presentation, more about putting it together than design. By 1974, he had become a household name, with annual earnings of $18m and a Coty Award, fashion's prize for innovation.

Weitz skilfully let his name generate money by itself, using witty advertisements to maintain a high public profile. A poster on the back of New York buses announced, for example, "She ditched him, John Weitz ties and all".

He also used his writing abilities to promote the business image: his book Man In Charge, The Executive's Guide To Grooming, Manners And Travel (1974), became a bestseller, but was really just part of his trade in suavity and martinis. Even his headquarters was above Madison Avenue. There were also two well received novels, Friends In High Places and The Value Of Nothing.

Two other books, however, marked out Weitz as a historian of the Nazi period. He wrote Hitler's Diplomat, a biography of the third reich foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Hitler's Banker, about the president of the Reichsbank, Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht.

He was repeatedly asked about reconciling the sale of navy blazers and researching von Ribbentrop, but he saw no clash: "Who else but a fashion designer would understand such a worldly man?" Weitz certainly comprehended the Nazis genius for the projection of personal image, and, though never a major historian, established a sufficiently solid reputation as a researcher that the president of Germany consulted him on the subject.

Meanwhile, he lived the life of his executive book, raced cars at Sebring in the 1950s, and belonged to the New York Yacht Club and the Vintage Sports Car Club. In his Park Avenue apartment, a Chinese chef cooked dinner parties for his friends - among them the novelist Tom Wolfe- and film people.

In 1964, he married the actor Susan Kohner, and their two sons, Christopher and Paul, remembered Ingmar Bergman taking them to the circus, and film directors John Huston and Billy Wilder dropping in for coffee -"just nice old men around the house every once in a while". The boys' chief complaint about their father was that he made them wear blue blazers. Both Chris and Paul would go on to forge their own Hollywood careers as the producers and directors of such movies as American Pie (1999) and About a Boy (2002).

John Weitz had a deep fondness for cats which raised eyebrows amongst his more masculine following. But Weitz was unrepentent. Weitz adored their elegance, and was quoted on them more often than on the Nazis. "Even overweight cats instinctively know the rule: when fat, arrange yourself in slim poses," he wrote.

John Weitz died on 3 October 2002 at the grand old age of 79. He remained a dashing figure and aged well - like the American version of Gianni Agnelli. He had throughout his life the air of adventure, even danger. He was stylish fashion designer who lived up to the executive image of his clothes. It’s no wonder no one balked when he made a name for himself with the nowadays unthinkable ad slogan, “John Weitz designs for the woman who wishes her husband could afford her.” His was a life well lived.

#john weitz #weitz #quote #fashion #spy #history #style #menswear #gentleman #icon #oss #germany #war #america #europe #culture #society

51 notes · View notes

cordonian-literature · 4 years

Text

Reluctant Reunion

Summary: Olivia reflects on her relationship with Vivienne

Premise: majority of TRH thrown out the window, but some elements are present. overall i’d say this isn’t canon. the MC’s name is Vivienne (nicknamed Vivi). her and Liam have two children: Eleanor and Evangeline. the gang hasn’t seen each other much.

A/N: hi! so i wanted to practice some writing since i’ve been kinda out of it, so i decided to do a @wackydrabbles prompt! i’ve seen some people do it and just wanted to participate :) this week’s prompt is not everything is a joke, and will be in bold

A/N 2: the idea for this fic came from Prompt #1407 (i’ve changed it up a bit though). i don’t know if i’ll continue this or not, but i’ve been playing around with the idea and just might

Word Count: (+/-) 1540

Warnings: none (i think. feel free to call me out if im wrong)

*All characters belong to Pixelberry, except those unique to my story*

✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧

Olivia tried to do what she could to keep Vivienne at arm’s length. But her smile was so disarming, and she was so genuine — how could one help the overwhelming want to get close to her, to be embraced by the soft care she expressed to everyone in her vicinity? Olivia didn’t want the bubbly feelings, the pounding in her chest. She believed that if she kept ignoring it, the emotions would go away.

The isolation of Lythikos allowed Olivia to stay focused; there was always some issue that would occupy her mind long enough so Olivia would not think of Vivienne, and would instead attend to her people’s concerns like the old rulers of Lythikos.

But Valtoria’s issues were not unique to Vivi’s duchy. The smallest familiarity between Valtorian and Lythikosian concerns would prompt a lighthearted, heartbreakingly friendly phone call from Vivienne. The Queen would invite the Duchess over for a discussion, and would afterward ask Olivia to extend her visit, which Olivia never did.

But something she couldn’t ignore was a surprise invitation from Duke Bertrand — “financial proposals need to be overlooked to confirm suitability for all duchies of Cordonia” prompted Olivia to start towards Ramsford. Olivia did not expect that the King, Queen, and their friends were already there.

It had been Lady Hana’s idea for them all to meet and enjoy an evening over tea after having spent months apart. But for the afternoon, the Queen and Duchess Olivia would attend Duke Bertrand’s meeting.

They both sat in front of Duke Bertrand, their chairs some feet apart, a distance Olivia felt keenly towards her left. Olivia’s chair fully faced the Duke, while Vivienne’s was turned so that in one swift glance she secured both their attentions.

Vivi didn’t hesitate in commenting that Bertrand’s proposal would negatively affect more than half the country. She opened up the discussion, allowing Olivia to speak first, then adding in her own opinions.

The three of them formed a rough plan with enough moving elements that at least one was sure to work. Leaving the office, Olivia made a beeline for the front of the estate.

Her heels tap sharply on the wooden floor. Olivia slows her pace so the taps are the same rhythm as the melody of Vivi’s voice, drawing Olivia into tranquil peace.

Unfamiliar tranquil peace. The inclusivity of Vivi’s words were not well-known to the Duchess that had come to terms with isolation. She wasn’t ready to embrace the friendships that she had disconnected from years ago.

She stood in the front of the estate, watching the fog lift and dance around the marble columns. Some puffs of clouds were so large Olivia could put herself in a daze and imagine she had climbed the North-most mountain in Lythikos, her body kindly begging for oxygen, the ghost of Misha just on her heel. Other warm clouds were so small that Olivia could close them in her palm and diminish it from its lonely existence.

And then it was time for tea. When Olivia walked into the sitting room, the soft colors of the curtain compliment the gentle conversation of the friends who hadn't seen each other in a while. Olivia takes a seat on an empty couch, attempting to avoid bringing attention to herself.

Olivia takes a long breath. She smells the scent of the tea on the small table in front of her, the dry lemony tang of furniture polish, and the faint scent of Vivi's perfume, who had come to sit next to Olivia.

Eleanor takes a seat on the gray velvet settee with her father and asks where her sister, Evangeline, is.

As if she'd been conjured by the mention of her name, the girl enters the room and grabs the pitcher off the table. Olivia notices that she is almost as tall as her father. Evangeline stares carefully at everyone's glass as she fills them, the tea pitcher looking like a child's toy in her hands.

She smooths the edge of her rose-colored dress as she sits near her mother, cupping the tea in her hands as if it were a valuable heat source. She looks over at her sister, who converses with Liam and Drake.

After she reached the age of twenty, Liam pulled Eleanor on the front lines of Cordonia’s issues, leaving the girl little time to spend with her family. Many called the Crown Princess rough, claiming her serious exterior was too extreme.

But now, next to her father and his friend, Eleanor is relaxed and leans back against the cushion. Evangeline eyes her sister, her own posture as stiff and straight as a wall. She analyzes the sleeveless, light green dress gently draped over Eleanor.

“Do you want me to put some ice in your tea?” Evangeline asks, motioning towards her sister’s casual attire. “You seem like you feel hot.”

Eleanor drifts apart from Liam and Drake’s conversation, a vacant smile on her face as she answers Evangeline. “No? Why do you ask?”

“Oh, nothing,” Evangeline smirks and takes a calm sip of her tea, a laugh hidden behind every word. “Just that I’ve never seen you wear something so… revealing.” She gives another critical look, her eyes glazing down to her sister’s shoes and back up to her face, giving an angry smile at the last second. “It doesn’t look too good on you. I’ll tell my dressmaker to make something that suits your style.”

“Thanks, but there’s no need.” Eleanor’s face falls as she turns back to her father.

“Oh, don’t be like that!” Evangeline leans over to put a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “I was just joking with you. It’s sarcasm. Ever heard of it?”

“Not everything is a joke just because you say it is. Sarcasm or not.” The sisters turn away from each other.

Vivi gives a gentle laugh in the direction of her daughters. “Drake was your babysitter once and all his sarcasm rubbed off on you.”

Conversations are paused as everyone absorbs Vivi’s words. Olivia remembers the diplomatic trip Liam and Vivi took to Italy less than two decades ago. Eleanor was able to come along, but Evangeline had been too small. Duke Bertrand and Lord Maxwell were also meant to make an appearance, Lady Hana was called to Shanghai to visit her parents, and Olivia had issues in Lythikos to attend to. The only person available had been Drake, and after that one week, he had become baby Evangeline’s favorite person.

When she was a child, she would constantly urge her parents to let her go on camping or fishing trips with Uncle Drake. Liam would always accompany them, but the younger sister had always been cold towards Eleanor, throwing a fit if her parents suggested she accompany them.

The group chuckles when they remember, even earning a smile from Olivia. But the grins dissolve into lost looks. They meet each other’s eyes, and though Olivia remains focused on the tea pitcher, she can sense the sad questions they kept to themselves: where had it all gone wrong? How did we let the distance become so large?

Olivia knows these questions depress those around her, but she has had a lifetime to adapt to them. From her lonely childhood — being her parents’ second priority, then being treated as the traitors’ daughter after they died. To growing distanced from the friends of her youth and her first love — Liam making it clear to her countless times that he would never reciprocate her feelings, and Olivia eventually coming to terms that such a love was never meant to be her’s. To a vast space having formed between her and the only woman that had ever believed in Olivia.

Maxwell gives an audible sigh. “If only my puns rubbed off on Eleanor.”

The girl rolls her eyes, while her sister inspects her freshly painted nails.

Maxwell playfully scolds her: “Were my play on words not good enough for you?”

Eleanor laughs, a bright smile lifting the mood of the room. She speaks of her childhood, everything she remembers and misses, the adults adding in silly details of her childish antics. But Olivia has no memories of Eleanor’s childhood, nor of Evangeline’s.

The friends’ conversations flowed gracefully, but Olivia could not contribute anything.

And so she stood and left, quietly lifting herself out of her seat and spinning towards the door. She wondered if her driver were ready to bring her back to Lythikos.

The fog embraces her, wrapping wet coils of air around her waist, drawing her away from Ramsford, away from memories she wasn’t a part of, away from Vivi.

But before she can lower her head and enter the limo, Vivi’s slender fingers wrap around Olivia’s wrist, drawing her away from the vehicle and slipping an envelope into her hands.

Her disarming smile doesn’t disappear until Olivia has opened the envelope: it’s an invitation to the palace.

Decline it, her head tells her.

Accept it, her heart tells her.

Vivi sighs, holding her arms against herself as if she were about to break.

“You’re cold,” Olivia states.

Again that smile. Vivi agrees to go inside, Olivia agrees to consider the invitation, though she doesn’t want to.

But her incompetent driver leads her to the palace anyway.

✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧✦✧

i don’t have anyone to tag - but if you would like to be tagged if i continue this, let me know :)

#wacky drabbles #trr fanfiction #trr au fanfic #the royal romance fanfic #the royal heir fanfic #trr fanfic #cordonia #liam rys #trr liam x mc #trr olivia x mc #olivia nevrakis #choices fanfic #choices fanfiction #choices the royal romance fanfic

23 notes · View notes

purplehairedwonder · 3 years

Text

Hearts With(out) Chains Chapter 3

Fandom: One Piece Rating: PG-13 Pairings: Gen (eventual Lawlu) Words: 3597 Characters: Trafalgar Law, Violet, Donquixote Doflamingo, Baby 5, Trebol, Diamante Note: I’m taking my turn at the Corazon!Law AU because my brain won’t leave me alone until this is written down. Tags will be updated as the chapters come out.

The story title is based on the Ellie Goulding song “Hearts Without Chains.”

Summary: Law is reclaimed by the Family when he’s 17 and, with Doflamingo holding the lives of his crew as collateral for his good behavior, eventually becomes the third Corazon. Years later, trapped by his impossible situation, Law can’t help but resent Monkey D. Luffy for offering a glimpse of something he’s repeatedly had ripped away from him: hope.

Previous chapters: Prologue | 1 | 2

Read also at AO3 / FF.N

Law stood on the deck of the Polar Tang, Bepo at his side, as the ship ambled into the East Harbor of Dressrosa. While the ship could have remained underwater until much closer to the dock, Law wanted to show Doffy that he wasn’t hiding, so he’d ordered the Tang to surface early. Dressrosa was a country Law could have seen himself enjoying, had Doflamingo not ruled with a façade of generosity and warmth while hiding a dark, cold underbelly. As it was, the sight of the familiar island made his stomach turn.

There was a lone figure waiting at the dock.

“Be careful,” Bepo said as the ship eased to a stop and dropped anchor.

“You too,” Law replied, hopping down from the ship to the dock. He adjusted his grip on Kikoku and greeted his visitor. “Violet.”

“Corazon,” she replied. “Welcome back.”

Law inclined his head and fell into step with her as they headed toward the city. He chanced one final glance back at the Tang—Bepo was securing the ship to the dock—before shifting his focus to the task at hand.

“Did he send you to meet me?” he asked.

“Yes, but I would have come anyway.”

When Law had first arrived in Dressrosa at 17, it had taken some time to find his footing among the Family again after four years. Not only had the operation grown significantly since Spider Miles, but Law’s own reluctance to return after his disappearance with a traitor to the Family hung like a noose around his neck. The executives and officers had been loath to trust him, though Doffy had overruled their concerns, and weren’t shy about taking out their suspicions on him and his crew. For the longest time, the only member of the Family he could stomach being around was Baby 5; they’d picked up their antagonistic but affectionate dynamic almost immediately upon Law’s return, which provided Law a small measure of comfort in its familiarity.

At first after arriving, Law had lashed out—his frustration exploding out of him when he couldn’t contain it any longer, usually as a result of the goading of the other executives—but when Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo had been punished rather than Law himself, he’d withdrawn into himself to protect them. He’d trained and studied and completed missions, but he’d shown little interest in living beyond the minimum required of him, despite the attempts of his friends to pull him out of it. Even Doflamingo had tried without success to bring some life to his protégé—he’d gifted Law Kikoku in the hope that the challenge of mastering a cursed blade might inspire him; he’d mastered the sword, but it hadn’t done much to liven him up.

Despite her wariness of anyone associated with the Family, Violet had been the only one to reach out to Law during his withdrawn period and actually reach him. After about a year into Law’s return, she’d read him often enough for Doflamingo to recognize a kindred spirit in the future Corazon. Three years apart in age, they’d both been shanghaied into the Family’s service due to their useful abilities with the threat of violence against their loved ones hanging over their heads if they were to rebel.

Her cynicism after the fall of her family’s rule was an equal match for Law’s, and they both had dark senses of humor forged from their circumstances. Violet was also well-read and intellectually curious, so their conversations kept Law on his toes. They found comfort in one another, which made life on Dressrosa bearable enough for Law to slowly emerge from his shell.

Though some of the executives and officers had been concerned with a friendship between the two people with the most reason to betray the Family, Doffy had been amused—even pleased. In the last year, he’d floated the idea of the two marrying to tie Dressrosa more formally to the Family; after all, though Doflamingo was a Warlord with government immunity and his own family name tying him to the kingdom, many other kingdoms still considered him an interloper. Having his second married to the former crown princess would be politically advantageous.

“He wants you to read me. To catch me lying,” Law said, coming to a stop. Violet stopped next to him and nodded. “Go ahead then.” He knew she’d need to be able to give Doffy something useful.

Violet frowned. “Are you sure?”

Law just shrugged. “No need to give him more reason to doubt.”

Violet pursed her lips but put her fingers to her eyes and used her Fruit to read Law’s thoughts and memories. After a few moments, she dropped her hands. “The Isle of Women. Really?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Law snorted and started walking again. Violet fell in beside him, her heels clacking on the cobblestones as they made their way toward the distant palace. “All we saw was the coastline. Much to the crew’s disappointment.”

“And you still don’t know why you did it.” Her tone was skeptical.

Law glanced sideways at her. “You read my thoughts, Princess.”

She rolled her eyes, as she always did when he called her that. “You took a serious risk, saving that boy. And for what?”

“That remains to be seen, I suppose.”

“I hope it was worth it,” Violet said, something dark underlying her words.

As they walked, Dressrosans bowed and murmured their names as they passed. Law paid them no mind, though he knew the deference to her alias as an officer of the Family bothered Violet by the tightening of her eyes.

“How’s Doffy been?” Law asked after a few quiet moments.

“Furious,” she replied. “But you already knew that.” She bit her lip briefly, a nervous habit of hers. “His mood has improved since you called a week ago, though.”

“That’s not good.” It meant he’d made a decision about how to deal with Law, and that didn’t bode well for him.

“Doubtful,” she agreed. “But I don’t know what he’s up to.”

Law had once asked her if she’d ever tried using her abilities on Doflamingo, but the look she’d given him in response had been withering. “What kind of fool do you take me for?” she’d demanded.

“And the crew I left behind?” Law asked, dread pooling in his gut. “How are they?”

“Fine, as far as I know.”

The relief that washed over him was short-lived as Law realized it simply meant they would be punished alongside the rest of the crew now that everyone was back.

He nodded stiffly, and they fell into silence once more as they walked. Unlike other silences with the Family, though, it was comfortable. He didn’t have anything to prove to Violet. Once they arrived at the palace, they headed into the courtyard.

“Oh, look who’s back,” Baby 5 said, hand going to her hip as the pair walked in. “It’s about time, Corazon!”

Law rolled his eyes at her. “Did I miss any more ill-fated romances while I was gone, Baby?”

“Shut up!” she snapped around her cigarette. “He needed me!”

Law opened his mouth to retort—the banter familiar and comforting—but he was cut off by his least favorite executive. “Ne, ne, Corazon. Doffy is in the Suit Room. I wouldn’t keep him waiting. Behehe,” he chuckled, clearly pleased that Law was going to face consequences for what he’d done.

Law flipped him off, which only made the slime bucket laugh harder. Taking a steadying breath, Law turned—briefly meeting Violet’s gaze—and headed into the palace toward the Suit Room. Doffy would know of his arrival by now, so Trebol, as annoying as he was, was right about not keeping the king of Dressrosa waiting.

Once he reached the door, Law raised his free hand and rapped on the shut door twice. A moment later, it opened. Law schooled his features and stepped inside. Doflamingo sat by the window, across from the four seats of his top executives.

“I’ve returned, Young Master,” Law said, trying to assess the other man’s mood with little luck.

“Corazon. Come.”

Law made his way to the Heart seat and sat down, resting Kikoku against the chair. When he looked back up, Doflamingo was watching him, expression inscrutable behind those glasses. Law let the part of him that was Corazon take over, pushing the other parts of him aside. This part of him didn’t concern himself with the two men who’d claimed this seat before him or cower in the face of the man who had dominated his nightmares for more than a decade. His back straightened and he raised his chin as the mask slid into place. He also knew better than to speak before the king.

“I trust there were no more… detours on your return home,” Doflamingo said after a pregnant pause.

“No, we made good time,” Law replied evenly.

Doflamingo nodded and pushed himself to his feet. He towered over Law even when Law was standing; when Law was sitting, he was downright dwarfed by the other man. But Corazon, the captain’s second in command, was not bothered by that.

“You’ve caused me quite a bit of trouble with the World Government.” He’d said as much during the call a week earlier. “I’ve smoothed everything over, with no little effort.”

“My apologies, Young Master. It was not my intention to cause you problems.”

Doflamingo stepped into Law’s space, leaning over him. “And what was your intention?” The tension bleeding from that last work was palpable.

Corazon knew the importance of telling the truth in this interaction; still, Law hesitated, knowing Doflamingo wouldn’t like the answer. “I don’t know why I did it. I just acted.”

Doflamingo leaned over, placing his massive hands on the arms of the Heart seat, enclosing Law in his presence. “You don’t know,” he repeated, as if testing the words to see how they tasted. “You just acted.” His features tightened. “That doesn’t sound like you, Corazon.”

“I know.” Law preferred to plan for every contingency, plans on top of plans and every possibility considered before he made a move—all the years of evening games of chess with Doflamingo had drilled into him the importance of tactics—but he’d thrown all of that out for a feeling.

“You know I don’t like questioning the loyalty of my subordinates—especially my righthand man.”

“I know.”

“And yet,” he went on, as if Law hadn’t spoken, “how I can do anything but when my second comes out of the sea to save not one but two enemies of the World Government from the battlefield?”

“I will accept the consequences of my actions,” Law said, doing his best to keep his voice even. “My loyalty has not changed.”

Doflamingo stepped back, huffing a wry laugh. “Now that I believe.” He shook his head to himself. “Get yourself cleaned up. We’re taking a trip this evening.”

Law blinked in surprise at the sudden dismissal but nodded. “Yes, Young Master.” He grabbed Kikoku and rose. He was halfway to the door when his haki flared and he felt the air shift. But he was too slow in reacting.

A massive hand pressed suddenly against the back of his neck, shoving him forward into the closed door. Law let out a startled gasp as the air left his chest. Doflamingo draped himself over Law’s back, his lips by Law’s ear. Law did his best to suppress his instinct to fight back.

Doflamingo’s breath was warm and moist on Law’s skin as he murmured, “It wouldn’t be appropriate for the rabble to see an executive punished. But I can’t let insubordination stand either.”

Law’s breath hitched as Doflamingo spun him around so his back was pressed against the door. The hand that had been holding him immobile wrapped around his throat. It squeezed, cutting off Law’s breath. Law’s eyes widened and his free hand clawed at Doflamingo’s wrist on instinct, but the Warlord continued to squeeze. Black encroached on Law’s vision as his lungs screamed for air. His head spun and Kikoku slipped from his weaking grip.

Finally, when Law thought he would pass out, Doflamingo released him.

Law gasped greedily for air as his legs gave out from under him and he brought both hands to his neck, wincing at the tenderness. Once his breath had returned to semi-normal, he looked up at Doflamingo.

“Never forget who holds your life and the lives of your crew, Law.” Again, he’d purposefully used Law’s name. “Now go clean yourself up.”

Law took a steadying breath and nodded. He grabbed Kikoku and used her to push himself unsteadily to his feet. “By your leave, Young Master,” he croaked, throat feeling like he’d swallowed broken glass, as he opened the door and stumbled into the hallway toward his room.

-----

Viola entered the Suit Room when Doflamingo summoned her; his meeting with Law must have ended already, as he was alone. She kept her eyes on the usurper as she approached, knowing why she had been summoned. She stopped a respectable distance in front of the Warlord.

“Doffy,” she greeted, bowing her head.

“Violet. You read Corazon upon his arrival.” It wasn’t a question.

“I did.” She’d been ordered to do so, and she followed her orders to keep her family safe.

“He says he doesn’t know why he saved Straw Hat.” Again, it wasn’t a question. Still, he was expecting an answer.

“True,” Viola confirmed. In Law’s memories, she’d felt the tug in his chest that had guided him, but he hadn’t understood what it was or what it was telling him. “He acted on instinct.”

Doflamingo frowned, looking out the window. “It’s not like him.”

“He’s been wondering about his actions since that day,” Viola said, hoping she might buy Law even the smallest amount of leniency if she confirmed his story. She kept the truth of Law’s name and its connection to the other boy to herself, though. He’d confided in her about that secret name years earlier and the danger he would be in if Doflamingo found out about it.

“Where was he?”

“Amazon Lily.” She couldn’t say she didn’t know something so prominent in his memories. “Boa Hancock seems to have a soft spot for Straw Hat Luffy.”

Doflamingo barked a surprised laugh at that. “Interesting.” He seemed to file that information away for later. “And his loyalty?”

“Unchanged.”

That much was true; Law, like Viola herself, hadn’t been truly loyal to the Family since she’d known him, but his desire for the safety of his crew and his willingness to do whatever it took to protect them had been a constant since he was 17 and newly arrived in Dressrosa. Saving Straw Hat Luffy hadn’t changed that.

Doflamingo smiled, but there was no warmth in it. “It seems he was honest with me, then.” He glanced back at Viola. “Keep an eye on him. Shouldn’t be hard since he enjoys your company.”

Viola frowned at the implication but quickly schooled her expression. “Of course.”

-----

When Law reached his room, he found his belongings had already been brought up from the Polar Tang. As he shucked off his clothes and hopped in the shower, he wondered where his crew was. Had they been allowed to return to their rooms? Shaking his head, he washed the travel from his skin and hair. Once clean, he wrapped a towel around his waist, and, on the way back into his room, caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror.

He grimaced, fingers lightly tracing the already-purpling marks on his neck. He knew the marks would be visible for days, and his voice would be rough for about as long. He could use his powers to accelerate the healing, but that would defeat the entire point of the exercise, and Law knew better than that.

Executives had to appear above reproach in the eyes of the public to keep up the illusion of their absolute power, so Doffy couldn’t punish him publicly, but the evidence of punishment would show Law’s actions had been dealt with. But Law also knew some ugly bruises around his neck wouldn’t be the only punishment; at this point, however, he could only worry about what would be done to his crew, as they were Doffy’s primary means of keeping Law in line.

With a scowl, he returned to his room and pulled some clothes nicer than his typical jeans and a hoodie that Doflamingo insisted he have for formal events from his closet. The fabric was light since Dressrosa was a summer island, and Law made sure not to choose anything that would cover his neck; Doflamingo, sadist that he was, would want his handiwork on display.

Grabbing Kikoku, Law gave himself a final once-over; satisfied, he left his room. He’d just turned the corner when he nearly ran headfirst into Baby 5. She opened her mouth, undoubtedly to snarl something unkind at him, but the words died on her lips as her gaze dropped to Law’s neck. Her eyes widened.

“What?” Law demanded, hating the rasp in his voice.

Baby shook herself before looking Law in the eye again. “The Young Master told me to find you. He’s waiting in the courtyard.”

Law frowned at that. He could have sensed Doffy himself with his haki; there was no reason to send Baby as a messenger—except to make sure she saw Doffy’s handiwork up close. Law ground his teeth but nodded at Baby.

“Thanks.”

She gaped at him as he stepped past her. “Seriously?”

Law paused with a tired sigh. “What?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Since when do you thank me, Corazon?”

Law rolled his eyes. “It won’t happen again if that’s the reaction I’m going to get.” He made to start walking again.

“Wait.”

Law stopped and looked at her expectantly. Baby swallowed and reached a tentative hand toward his neck. Law flinched but didn’t stop her gentle touch to the purpling handprints. Her fingers were ghost-light as she touched the marks.

“Are you okay?” she asked quietly.

Law looked away, unable to deal with the genuine concern in her expression. “I’m fine.”

“Cora— Law.”

Law started and looked back at Baby. What was with people using his name lately? “What?”

“Just. Be careful. I don’t know why you did what you did, but the Young Master…” She trailed off, biting her lip.

Law took Baby’s hand in his grip, gently pulling it away from his neck, and nodded. “I know,” he said, not unkindly. He let go of her hand.

Baby dropped her hand and watched him, uncertain.

“I shouldn’t keep Doffy waiting,” Law said, and Baby jerked.

“Damn right, asshole,” she said, though her voice lacked any heat.

Law’s lips twitched and he headed for the courtyard, feeling Baby’s eyes on his back. When he entered the courtyard, Doflamingo appraised him. When he was satisfied with what he saw, gaze noticeably lingering on Law’s throat, he rose from his seat.

“There you are, Corazon. Come, we’re going out.”

Law nodded, ignoring Trebol’s knowing look. He didn’t speak, not wanting the sentient snot to hear his broken voice, instead simply falling in a half step behind Doflamingo, the appropriate place for his second. A carriage was waiting just outside the palace gates, and the two men entered and took their place across from one another.

Law remained silent as the royal carriage wound its way through the familiar streets of the capital, looking out the window and considering the direction they were taking.

“You haven’t asked where we’re going,” Doflamingo finally commented.

Law turned to the king. “Would you have answered?”

Doflamingo smirked, and Law had a feeling at least part of his amusement was at the sound of his voice. “No,” he allowed. “It’s a surprise.”

Law nodded, having assumed as much. He returned his gaze to the window, though his thoughts were with his crew and not the city they were meandering through. Violet had said Ikkaku, Clione, and Uni were unharmed, but how much longer would that last? What had happened to the rest of his crew once they’d disembarked the Polar Tang?

He was pulled from his thoughts when the carriage came to a halt. Law blinked when he realized where they were.

Law looked back at Doflamingo with a sinking feeling that he couldn’t explain. “The Colosseum?”

Doflamingo simply nodded and gestured toward the carriage door. “Let’s go.”

Law had little choice but to do as he was bidden, so he followed Doflamingo out of the carriage. The king was in his element as he greeted his adoring public. Law fell into place behind the other man and followed him inside to the king’s private box.

His hackles went up when he saw Diamante waiting inside the box. The executive gave Law an appraising look before nodding at Doflamingo. “Doffy,” he greeted. “Everything is ready.”

“Good.”

Doflamingo sat and nodded for Law to take the seat to the king’s right. Law did as he was bidden, and Diamante took his place to Doffy’s left. Law looked out over the amphitheater to see, as usual, a large crowd of raucous citizens. The Corrida Colosseum was the premier entertainment in Dressrosa, after all.

“Welcome to this special event at the Corrida Colosseum!” the commentator, Gatz, announced. “Today, we will see fighters from around Dressrosa get the opportunity to earn their freedom or even join the Donquixote Family by defeating a member of Corazon’s own crew, the Hearts!”

Next chapter

#Caitlin's fic #Two chapters in a week #Who am I?#I really love this chapter so wanted to post ASAP #Trafalgar Law #Donquixote Doflamingo #One Piece #One Piece fic #One Piece fanfiction

6 notes · View notes

iggy-of-fans · 5 years

Text

Of Being a Ladybug part 4

The cons of having your identity revealed

Sitting in the apartment that Penny had taken her to, Lois was gobsmacked. She watched the footage taken by both the local news station and a blogger and an amateur "journalist". She watched it again just to be sure she'd seen it properly. She turned to Penny, Penny's client Jagged Stone and his fiancée, Clara Nightingale. Piled on the floor in a corner, on pillows and blankets, were a group of teenagers, all surrounding a single black haired girl.

"As soon as I saw the video I got her parents out of the country. They couldn't wait for her and we couldn't let Hawkmoth, whoever he may be, find her earrings" Jagged stated, looking over his shoulder to pile up.

"She's been under so much stress. She's only thirteen" Penny sighed. The three adults looked so tired.

Marinette stood by the broken window by the store when she heard the police sirens in the distance. Fear gripping her heart she turned and ran down a few side alleys to hide.

"What do I do, Tikki? Master Fu is… And everyone knows who I am!" her head clutched in her hands and her whole body shaking, Marinette had no idea what to do.

"You need to calm down. Nothing good will come of this if Hawkmoth Akumatizes you right now. First, call your parents. We'll go from there" Tikki whispered.

"Okay, okay… I can do this" Marinette whispered, pulling her phone out and dialing the bakery. When no one answered she tried their personal cells and the house phone. No answer. Marinette paled further with every call that wasn't answered. Finally pulling the phone from her ear she looked blankly at it.

"Now what?" her voice cracked, tears gathering in the corner of her eyes.

"Marinette! There you are!" her head snapped up, her body falling into a crouch. Standing at the entrance to the alley was Luka Coffaine.

"Marinette, listen to me. We need to get you to a safe place to make a plan. Please, you trusted me with Sass, now trust me with you!" he called, waving her over. What else could she do? With Tikki back in her purse she ran off to Luka's side. Three blocks later and a phone call to Juleka had Chloé, Juleka, Kagami and Marlene meeting up. Chloe dragged them into a backdoor of her hotel and into her room. While Chloe went into her closet to find a disguise for Marinette, and Luka and Marlene sat with her to keep her calm, Kagami went back down a few floors to find someone who might be able to help. Knocking on the door, she pulled herself upright. 'No weaknesses now Tsurugi' she thought as the door opened.

"No autographs, a woman in a dress suit and pink hair said, not looking at Kagami and going to close the door again. Kagami was quicker, slamming her hand on the door," Marinette needs help!" she said. Everything in the hall became still. The door opened and Penny Rolling finally looked at the girl before her. In a black skirt, red blouse and white cardigan, with black hair and brown eyes. If it weren't for the eyes, Penny might have thought she was Marinette's sister.

"Talk. You have 60 seconds before I call hotel security."

"Her identity was revealed today, and I know I saw the blogger and a news anchor close by. She can't reach her parents and we don't know who else to call. She trusts you and I know you're close with her family. She needs to get out of Paris. We know Hawkmoth is after her, and by the look on Chat's face, nobody is sure what he'll do. We brought her here, but we need help. Paris should never have been left in the hands of kids" Kagami spat out quickly. She'd been so proud when she'd been chosen, but right now? Now she hated whoever had given the Miraculi out to kids. What could any of them do? They had no idea where to start with a plan, and their leader, the one to make the plans usually, was too emotionally compromised to do anything but breathe right now. What to do? Who to trust?

"I already took care of Sabine and Tom. They're on a trip to visit family in Shanghai" Jagged Stone stood behind Penny now, a hand on her shoulder, "We will get dressed and take her to a safe place in Paris. Penny has a contact from the US on the way already. We will wait for her to land. If we can get the Bourgeois girl involved, we may be able to get Marinette out to safety until the heat dies down" his voice was strong, Soothing and Kagami felt the tension leave her for the first time.

"We're in Chloé's room now, so I think we can count on her cooperation. But you need special access to get in."

Nodding Jagged looked at her, "Wait inside the main room, but make sure Marinette doesn't answer her phone for anything. I mean it, no other people should talk to her until we get her and her parents to safety" Jagged said as he walked to his room. Kagami quickly pulled out her phone and let Luka know. Luka fired back with a picture of Marinette wearing a ripped pair of black jeans and converse and a grey off the shoulder t shirt saying "awkward is my specialty" and a pair of dark sunglasses that covered most of her face. A red wig finished the transformation into someone who wouldn't be recognized. Kagami chewed her lip as she wondered if Jagged Stone wouldn't ruin things. Just as she thought that, the door to Jagged's room opened and out stepped an unrecognizable business man, with long black hair freshly washed and tied at the nape of his neck and a simple black suit, his tie loosened and the top button undone. Kagami blinked, then blinked again just to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Out of the opposite door came Penny, fuzzy long brown hair, jeans and a tank top and a sleek leather jacket, Kagami could hardly believe these were the same people. She texted Luka to meet them in the lobby and led the way there herself. When Clara Nightingale opened the door to her apartment, Kagami didn't even pretend to be shocked. Of course Marinette knew them all.

Lois heaved a heavy sigh, before pulling out her Justice League phone.

"Bruce? We have a problem"...

To be Continued…

@sidd-hit-my-butt-ham @kuroko26 @northernbluetongue @chez-pezeater @luciferge @vixen-uchiha @bluerosette23 @mochinek0 @krunchy-tuna @treebrosha @geekydragonyt @vivilakitty @sassy-spocko @bluefiredemon-blog @mindfulmagics @thornangelic727 @xxmadamjinxx @thepeacetea @whomthefyck @lamestplaceintheworld @miraculous-ninja @mikantsume @unabashedbookworm @kandi-pie @2sunchild2 @redsparrow12 @shamefullove @cadencehood @yin-390 @tazanna-blythe @bb-basbusa @zazzlejazzle @fanfictionaddict13 @royalchaoticfangirl @god-is-dead-and-so-am-i @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @imanerddealwith @tinybrie @angelisalise @graduatedmelon @trickstermiraculous @ayuchan07 @thatrandomfandomsgirl @sweatyruinsstudentbored @chloe-bourgeois-is-big-gay @captainmac6 @rag1000 @cupcakesandkisses @crazylittlemunchkin @vivian077

#lois lane #loisfreakinglane #marinette dupain cheng #ml marinette #marinette x damian #marinette deserves better #marinette protection squad #bruce wayne #diana prince #wonder woman #Batman #damian wayne #Of being ladybug #Hero training #Adrien is a victim

575 notes · View notes

cosmichoneyedblossoms · 4 years

Text

Borderline

— Lose You Too —

Pairing: Chanyeol x Reader x Sehun

Genre: Syndicate!au | Angst | Smut

Word Count: 5.7K

Warnings: Smut, mentions of murder

A/N: finally getting to post this after this long hiatus

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

The weeks you spent away from Chanyeol only fueled him, adding gasoline to the flames that were already blistering. He knew there was a limit that you and Sehun could take around each other before things flourished into what he wanted with you, but he knew that he would never be as good as Sehun when it came to taking care of you—emotionally. Out of the two of them, Chanyeol was the one who had edges that were too sharp, ones that could easily rip you to shreds if you got too close; he remembered a time when it was never like that. When it was just the two of them, the best of friends that seemed like nothing could ever break them apart—that is until you showed up, and then it was Sehun to sharpen his edges. Chanyeol saw it with every smile you and Sehun shared; he was going to be a bother in your growing relationship…

“Where’s Baekhyun and Kyungsoo? They already finished their jobs?” Chanyeol asked, but your father didn’t seem too keen on discussing where the other members were.

“They’re conducting some business in Granada with the company party.”

“Does that mean I can go join them since I’ve finished my jobs?” The thought of being able to see you again had his heart pounding in his ears, and it was time that he made up with you and now that he was finished with everything in Shanghai, he could—

“You’re not done here.”

“What do you mean I’m not done?” Chanyeol hissed, the blood coursing through his veins began to boil as your father told him that his jobs in Shanghai weren’t done with, “I’ve completed all the missions you gave to me, why can I not join Sehun and Y/N in Granada?”

“Because you are to stay away from them—”

“You mean you don’t want me to interfere with your shitty version of matchmaking and make Y/N second guess herself…” You were his and no one else’s, Chanyeol wasn’t going to let your father keep him from you, “If you think that she is going to stay with Sehun, you’re just kidding yourself.” He scoffed, slamming his hands down onto the desk, “She is devoted to me and only me, Y/N is mine, and I’m not going to let you take her away from me!”

“Chanyeol!” Your father stood up to face him, trying to back him down to size, “You need to get your head in straight before I send you on your next mission. Go home and clear your head and be here on time tomorrow.” He could see the dark energy filling Chanyeol’s eyes, he knew that he wasn’t going back down from his spot, but his daughter deserved better than Chanyeol, “Go. Now.”

“Fuck you.” Chanyeol bellowed, “At the end of the day, Y/N is mine and will always be mine...” Pushing off the desk, he turned on his heels and made his way to the door.

“Be here tomorrow at seven.”

“Go fuck yourself.” This was going to be the last time that he listened to your father, the man who is so disapproving of him, that he sent his girlfriend and his best friend to another country just to get them together. For years you’ve always been so devoted to Chanyeol, so why now are you putting up a fight? He had cheated on you multiple times before, and you knew about it, but you continued to stay next to him—did your father and Sehun finally get into your head? He needed to get to you before anything happened that couldn’t be changed, needed to make it up to you before you changed your mind and decided to leave him for good.

The 19-hour flight was long enough for him to hack into your father’s personal accounts and find the hotel you and Sehun were staying at as well as push past the hotel’s firewall and add his name to the room reservation so he wouldn’t have to interrogate the front desk when he arrived. Getting to the room was the easiest part of the whole trip, but now that he was standing in front of the door, his skin prickled with goosebumps as he slid the room key into the lock. Upon walking into the suite, the main living area was empty, but the lights were on; he was suspicious as he walked to the stairs and snuck up them, making sure not to make any noise as he ascended them. The hall to the bedroom was dark, except a little sliver of light escaping an ajar door, the door that led to the bedroom; he approached the crack and peered inside it, his heart immediately dropped into the pit of his stomach. Sehun’s hips we’re flush with your thighs while his body was on top of yours, he didn’t have to watch long to know what was going on—Sehun had finally taken you away from him. The pang in his chest went from painful to numb; anger took over his emotions; Chanyeol balled his fists as he watched Sehun take you in front of his very eyes.

“Sehun...” You whispered between your breathless moans, Sehun pushed up from your body, revealing your face to Chanyeol. He could see the faint red glow in your eyes from where he stood, but he had no idea what was happening, “Someone—” Sehun’s hands caressed your cheeks, and he spoke softly as if he knew Chanyeol was there and he was trying to keep anything he was saying a secret to him, but he heard him.

“You’re safe. It’s just us here. I’ll always keep you safe.” Sehun pressed his lips to yours, silencing any words to escape you.

You’ve got to be kidding me…

He watched as you flipped places, Sehun was under you, and you were taking control of the situation. His eyes followed you as Sehun’s cock disappeared into you and your body bounced on top of him, the moans that fell from your lips were nothing like the ones he was used to hearing—were you just playing with Sehun or were you toying with his feelings?

The hiss of the shower pulled Sehun from his slumber; the space you filled in the bed was empty. Rolling over, he began to get up when his eyes caught the time; it had only been a few hours since you fell asleep. He stumbled into the bathroom, the bright light stinging his eyes as he made his way to the shower; stepping into the steam-filled space, your back was facing him, water beaded over your skin as you stood there. It wasn’t the first time he had seen you like this, distant, and feeling small. He didn’t have to see your face. He knew you well enough to tell by the way your body held itself together. Fingers gripping your shoulders, arms tight over your chest, face buried in the crossing of your arms—something was on your mind.

“Y/N…” He whispered while wrapping his arms around your waist, “You okay?” He asked, pulling you into him, his lips pressing gentle kisses over your fingers. You were quiet, but you let your arms fall to your side, and you leaned into him, “Did something—”

“Everyone that comes in contact with me… ends up dying…” You breathed, your voice barely making it over the rush of the shower.

“What are you talking about?” He asked, tightening his grip around you. The subtle shaking that took over your body told him that you were scared, the thoughts in your head had dug their claws in so deeply that you could feel them in the real.

“The blood that runs in my veins is of the Lee Clan… That’s why they’re after me…” Sehun felt like his heart had stopped in his chest upon hearing the words that escaped you.

“That can’t be why they’re attacking you. There’s got to be another reason besides that you’re a child of their clan.” People leave their families all the time, and you were adopted, so there just had to be another reason they were after you, Sehun knew that.

“Remember the second man? He said that killing was in my blood. The three boys I murdered, they came to inject a revealer to clear the mind block, and that’s when my memories came flooding back to me… Like a dam had burst open and now I’m drowning in the water…”

“What memories…?”

“Before I was adopted… When Chen and I were kids… We were in a cell together… and I turned him into what he is…” Everything that was leaving your lips wasn’t making sense to him. Turning you around to face him, your dark eyes held a red glow, just flickering like a flame.

“Y/N—”

“They turned me into this monster, and I turned Chen into one, too— I— I’ve killed hundreds before I could even speak—” Sehun cradled your face in his hands, watching as the glow turned brighter the more you panicked, “The man Chen killed said that… he told me that I was an outdated mutation…”

Mutation?

He couldn’t stop watching the flame grow inside your eyes, he always knew there was something different about you the past few weeks, but he never thought that your head would be filled with so much fear, “Y/N, no matter what these people say, you are you and you are the only one in control of what happens to you now… No matter what happens, I’ll be standing right next to you, willing to fight for you, and ready to protect you.” The glow faded with every word of reassurance he was offering you; in all the years that he had known you, he was always there for you, and now that he had you to himself, there was no way he was letting you burst into flames.

“I don’t want to end up losing you, Sehun…” The shaky whisper that you breathed sounded like a goodbye like you were scared to hurt him, so you were going to leave him before he could get tangled up in a mess you didn’t even know you made.

“The only way that you could lose me is if I die, and I don’t plan on doing that, ever, not while you’re still alive…” Pressing his lips to your forehead, he was attempting to melt the agony in your mind, “I love you, and nothing is going to happen while I’m here.” His gentle kiss appeared against your cheek as you closed your eyes, “We’ll end this, and we’ll change our identities…” Warmth brushed over your other cheek, making your heart flutter, “Live in a little cottage in Paris and fill its rooms with children, our children…”

“Promise…?”

“I promise.” Looking up at him, you pushed up onto your toes, raising yourself until your lips crashed into his.

“Staying with me is only going to get you killed, Sehun.” You growled, throwing your phone through the stillness of the alleyway leading to your hotel.

“What are you going on about?” He whispered, trying to calm you down, but you were past the point of calming—you were gone. The girl that stood in front of him no longer looked like you; deep crimson filled the eyes he fell for, the last shred of happiness he used to see was gone. Blood splattered over your skin as your face became a blur as his body fell to the ground.

“What did she tell you, Sehun?” Chen’s voice filled his ears as he looked up to see blood dripping from his fingers, “It was only a matter of time before she murdered you—”

“No!” Sehun shot up from his pillow; his heart thrashed inside his chest as he looked around the bedroom, finally coming to the realization it was a dream, “Fuck…” He sighed, running his hands over his face. The expression that was burned into his eyes was one that he hoped he would never see on you; he didn’t want to see the demon that laid behind those eyes. Coming back to reality, he noticed the mid-morning sun dancing over the foot of the bed, but then he noticed that your side of the bed was empty—were you really saying goodbye to him last night? Sehun had never imagined that you would leave him, especially since he made a promise to you, and he was the one not to break his promises.

“Y/N…” He heard your name from outside of the bedroom, then your voice responding. Quickly getting up, he made his way out to the top of the stairs to see you standing in front of Suho, Lay, Kai, and Chen that were seated around the table.

“Y/N.” Sehun husked as he walked down the stairs to join the group. You turned to see him, a slight smile coming to your lips, “Why didn’t you wake me?” His lips pressed against your forehead while he wrapped an arm around you.

“You needed sleep.” You hummed, leaning into his touch, “They just got here, so you didn’t miss anything.”

“What’s this?” Lay’s voice interrupted the tender moment, “You’re with Sehun now? When did this happen?”

“None of your business.” You scoffed, rolling your eyes in annoyance like he was your brother who was pestering you about having a boyfriend, “Not to mention, that’s not the reason why we’re all here today.”

“That’s right.” Sehun added, “With the rescue mission of Chen being a success, we need more detail about the Lee Clan from someone who has been under their lock and key.” Chen’s eyes jumped from the floor to you then to Sehun and then back to you as if asking permission to speak on the subject.

“Go ahead, Chen. You won’t be scrutinized for what comes out in this room.” Chen let out a relieved sigh as he leaned back into his chair.

“The Lee Clan has been experimenting on humans since day one of the gathering of the clan. They were looking for a way to make them the most superior in the country, and heaven forbid they ever die out because of trivial things like dying in combat.” Sehun furrowed his brows, listening to Chen when his last statement clicked.

“You’re telling me that—”

“Yuta, Jaemin, Jeno, Jisung, and Taeyong are still alive. The only way to kill them is to mix the blood of an X strain with their own. Ingesting, injecting, anyway that it can get into their body, the X strain mutation will mutilate the Y strain, which is what those boys are.” Sehun glanced your way to see your face drained of any color, but your expression told him that this news didn’t shock you.

“The only way they can make the Y strain is with my blood, right?” You asked, and Chen’s eyes dropped from your gaze.

“Wait…” Suho interjected, “How are they using your blood if you’re an X, and they’re trying to make a Y?”

“I’m no scientist… all I know is that the last time I heard them talk was about needing the main source of the X strain, which would be the first successful turned, which is—”

“Y/N?” Kai cut off Chen, but there was confusion in his voice, “How is that even possible? We’ve known each other since we were young, and you were never held in a lab or even remotely around other people.”

“That’s because I’m of the Lee Clan bloodline. I was put up for adoption when I was a child, way before I met you or either of the boys.” Silence fell around the room; sure it was a shock to the three boys you’ve bonded with since a young age, but Sehun and Chen already knew this, “I guess they’ve had a supply of my blood until now since they’re trying to mass-produce the Y strain.” Sehun stared off into space, lost in the information that was being dumped into his lap. They wanted you for your blood to make more of a genetic mutation to force into people’s bodies? Not only did that news not settle well with him, it included taking you away from him.

“Well, that just means we’re going to have to get you out of town.” Sehun blurted out, causing the room to fall silent once more.

“What?” You asked, looking up at him with a confused expression gracing your face.

“I’m not going to let them get their hands on you.”

“Who said that was your decision to make? To be frank, they're after me. Not you, me. So, why do you think that you get to tell me where I’m to go?” Your harsh tone had Sehun furrowing his brow in anger, he was trying to protect you, so why were you putting up a fight?

“Because I’m to protect you, job or not.”

“I don’t care—as far as I’m concerned, I’m no longer part of your job description! I have put so many lives in danger, and I could end this all if I could just—”

“No, Y/N! If I remember correctly, that man they call Taeyong didn’t care if he took you alive or dead! What makes you think that they won’t just kill you right then and there when you waltz in through their doors?! Huh?!” Sehun couldn’t stop his voice from getting louder with every point he was bringing forth. He could see your face contorting with an expression he’d never seen—a demon with red eyes glared at him like it was hungry for blood.

“Woah—” Chen quickly stood between the two of you, with his back towards Sehun, “Hey, calm down. Think about this, you don’t want to flip on him, do you?” Sehun took a step back, your face coming into view over Chen’s shoulder, “You’re not in any danger, why the flip, Y/N?” Chen’s voice was soothing, a whisper of words like he was trying to calm a wild animal.

“Out of my way, Chen… Sehun and I are not done with our conversation…” Your growled words were enough to make the hair stand on everyone’s skin, was this the X strain taking over?

“I don’t think that’s a good idea—”

“I’m trying to protect people and make sure that the hundreds of people that died didn’t die in vain, and what do I get? Talked down to like I’m a fucking child?!” Chen knew that you were in your right mind, but the mind block removal had all your hidden memories and powers coming back—the abilities you have no control over.

“If you’re going to act like a child, I’ll treat you like a child. We’re leaving this town no matter how badly you want to stay here.” Sehun watched as your eyes darted to his from Chen’s gaze.

“Sehun…” Chen spoke coolly, “I think it’s best that you remove yourself from the room for a while…” Sehun didn’t quite approve of Chen barging into the situation, but he couldn’t deny that the only thing standing in the way of you ripping him a new one was Chen.

It had been hours since Sehun faced you, Chen kept you separated from him to ensure that you weren’t going to do something you would later regret, but now that it was getting close to dinner time, he knew that you would be starving.

“Chen?” His voice rang out into the living area where everyone remained as Sehun made his way down the stairs, “Where’s Y/N?”

“She’s been on the balcony for the last hour.” Chen replied while glancing towards the glass door, “She’s calmed down for the most part, but I wouldn’t put it past her to still be upset.” Sehun sighed, his anger that subsided wasn’t misplaced, was it so wrong to want to protect you?

“At the end of the day, her safety is all that matters.”

“Who decided that, Sehun?” Suho emerged from the kitchen, “Y/N is trying to right her wrongs, do you blame her?”

“What wrongs—”

“She believes that she is the reason for all those deaths and not the Lee Clan. Imagine being told that hundreds of people died so that you could live? Imagine being experimented on and then being forced to forget everything and then having to remember everything. She is trying to figure out her path…” Lifting his glass to his lips, he took a drink before stating his request, “Let her.” Sehun flicked his eyes over to the balcony to see you pacing, left to right, right to the left. Your face was tight with emotions he couldn’t place, but it was his place to keep you safe, but it was also his place to keep you happy.

“If we stayed, that’s just putting all of us in danger…” He husked.

“We know that, but they’re going to find her regardless of where she runs to. Why not just face it head-on?” Chen added. Sehun knew Chen was right; they found you so quickly there as well as here in Granada—running would do you no good.

“I still have to try to protect her…” All eyes in the room flicked to Sehun as his voice cracked, “I’ve learned to lose her, but now I can’t afford to.noa”

“You’re taking me to the mall?” You asked as Suho pulled into a parking spot in front of the mall entrance.

“I figured you needed out of that hotel room. After that fight this morning, you and Sehun have been on edge.” You could hear the worry that was hiding in his voice, “You know he loves you, right, Y/N?”

“More than you know.” You loved Sehun. You always had, he was the one that you could go to when you were unsure of yourself or if you needed a shoulder to cry on; you were pretty sure that he was your first love, but the fact he wasn’t giving you wants the time of day was frustrating, “I understand his stance. I know his plan, it’s the same one that we’ve been using for a while… so why can’t he just listen to me?”

“You want to know what he told us?” Suho rasped, turning off the engine, letting the silence fill the space between the two of you.

“Do I want to know?”

“It might change the way you look at him…” He glanced your way to see the gears turning behind your eyes.

“What did he say?” Deep down, you had a feeling, but what Suho spoke into existence had your heart sinking into your stomach.

“He’s had to watch you walk away from him over a million times, and now that he finally gets to be by your side, he doesn’t want to lose you. I tried to get him to understand your side, but as someone who has watched you suffer from being in a relationship with Chanyeol—seeing you with Sehun…” Suho paused, trying to find the right words, “He’s good for you, and I don’t want to see that ruined.” He turned his gaze onto you to see the gears that were turning had stopped like Suho’s statement had made a difference in the plans you were already working on. Dropping your gaze down to your lap, you cleared your throat as you gathered your thoughts.

“Are you sure that he’s the right choice?” You whispered, “What if I turn him into a monster with me or worse… what if I can’t save him from the one I’ve become?”

“You know that he’s going to kill just to be by your sword, as far as I’m concerned, you’ve tamed the monster inside him. As for the question of if he’s the right one… I can’t say he’s the right one, but I know he’s the best one, and he makes you happy, right?”

“Always has…” You hummed.

“Then, you have your answer.” Suho reached over the center console and gently lifted your chin to face him, “Now, if you want to continue with our makeshift way of getting you guys to go on a date, exit the car. Your answer is waiting inside.”

“Hold on, what about—”

“Lay, Chen, Kai, and I are here as protection just in case they show up here.” Suho soothed your worry as he opened his door, “We’re making sure you guys won’t be interrupted.” Sliding out of the car, he closed the door behind him and appeared at yours to open it for you, “Are you ready?”

Sehun paced back and forth in front of the stained glass entrance of the mall, his nerves making themselves known as the knots in his stomach made it hard for him to breathe, “Sehun, calm down.” Chen sighed, “Being nervous is fine, but watching you pace is making me anxious.”

“Well, excuse me if I’m making you anxious, this is my first date with her, so I don’t want to mess anything up.” Sehun hissed, “That is if she’s no longer upset with me.”

“Wait a minute—this is your first date with Y/N? I thought you guys were already dating?” Chen cocked his head, his confusion speaking loudly.

“Oh, no, man.” Lay spoke up, “She’s been dating his best friend since they were in high school.” Sehun tried to block out their conversation, but the more in-depth they talked, the harder it was to ignore, “Chanyeol was pretty much her life, but Sehun here was practically her knight in shining armor when Chanyeol broke her poor little heart.”

“Man, that’s pitiful that you were just the cleaner-upper in their relationship. Are you sure she doesn’t just stay with you because you’re the only one she can depend on when her life spirals out of control?” Chen’s question didn’t help Sehun’s feelings, just as he was about to scold Chen, a soft voice radiated from behind him.

“I’m with Sehun because it’s always been him, even when I was with Chanyeol, it was always Sehun.” He turned on his heels to see you standing before him, part of him expected your usual aesthetic of dark clothing, but the outfit Suho had suggested for you was gracing your figure. Silence filled the air around the two of you as he took it all in; your cheeks pinked up as your fingers gripped the powder blue fabric of your sundress.

“Is it too much? Suho said it was cute on me, but—”

“You’re perfect, Y/N…” Reaching his hand out to you, Suho nudged you, pushing you into Sehun.

“You two have fun, we’ll be around.” Suho signaled for the rest of the guys to disperse, and you were finally alone with him.

Sehun didn’t have much planned for your date, he just wanted time alone with you, moments where he didn’t feel like he had to be on edge because he was worried that you were going to be attacked, or because you were in the company of another man—he wanted any. Every second he could get with you, even if it was just roaming around the mall. From window shopping to eating in the food court, he wished he could only be in the moment with you, but couldn’t get one thought out of his mind.

“Sehun?” You hummed from beside him, and he looked down at you, “You’re quiet… is something bothering you?”

“Oh…” He let a small laugh escape him as he pasted a smile onto his lips, “Nothing really, I just got lost in thought for a minute.”

“Are you worried that I’m still mad at you for forcing the decision to leave Granada?” His eyes widened at your question—you hit the nail on the head, “I’m not; there’s nothing to be mad at.”

“You seemed pretty upset that I told you that we weren’t going to stay, so can you blame me for being worried?” You stopped in your tracks, and he turned to face you, he could see a faint smile on your lips as your eyes met his. What could’ve changed your mind?

“Just as you, I don’t want to lose something precious to me. If leaving Granada will help keep you with me, then that’s what we’re going to do.” You reached for his hand and slipped your fingers in between the gaps of his, “I love you, Sehun, and… I’m ready to be with you and stay with you.”

“A-are you sure…?” He questioned, “I don’t want you to be with me just because I’m—”

“I was telling the truth when I said it was always you. I do not doubt it.” Your eyes didn’t waver as they stared deeply into his, they were still and heavy as if they were begging for him to believe every word that left your lips; you didn’t only need him to believe your words, but you needed him to believe in you.

“Prove it.” He breathed, “Only after you prove it, will I believe you.”

“How would you like me to prove it?” You asked, your eyes already telling him that you had an idea.

“Any way you want.” A slight smirk appeared on your lips as you turned on your heels.

“Don’t regret what you just said!” Pulling him, you guided him to a shop that had a bright neon red ‘tattoo’ sign above the doors.

“Hold on. You’re getting a tattoo?” Sehun furrowed his brow, and you looked over your shoulder as you entered and walked up to the desk.

“Not just me, you’re getting one, too.” Sehun just stared at the back of your head as you spoke to that man at the front counter about the tattoos.

“That’s all you want to get?” The man asked, and you nodded your head.

“Something super simple for two complex creatures.” The man gave you a slight nod and waved the two of you back into one of the rooms that looked set up minus the put together tattoo machine.

“Are you sure about this, Y/N? Tattoos are permanent…” Sehun rested his hand on your shoulder, and you placed your hand over his.

“And so is your presence in my life.” Your voice sounded so sure, there was no change in pitch or any waver in your tone—you were serious.

“Alright, little lady.” The man sat down on his chair as he hooked the machine up to the power supply, “Hop up in the seat.” You did as you were told, and within seconds, the needle began inking a thin red line around the base of your pinky, as any tattoo artist would, he asked you the same question that many have heard before, “So what’s the story behind this red line?” Sehun himself was interested in your sudden tattoo, so he stepped closer to you, getting a better view of your face.

“The red string of fate is a belief stemming from Chinese mythology. It’s an invisible red cord wrapped around a couple’s pinkies connecting them to their true love. Getting it tattooed is basically like an act of gamble. The moment that you enter into any kind of relationship, it's an act of faith—” Your eyes fluttered with the surge of pain that the needle was gifting you, but you continued, “You're giving yourself up, and that’s the most powerful thing that anyone can do: surrender and love is an act of surrender.” Moving your eyes over to Sehun, he could see the girl he knew a long time ago as you smiled gently, “So in other words, I’m telling him that ‘I’m giving myself to you’ with the trust of the needle entering our skin making a permanent red string of fate.” A slight smile tugged at the corners of his lips, hearing your reasoning behind the tattoo—that was all you needed to say for him to believe you.

The silence that filled the evening air was a comfortable one, the quiet scuff of feet over the pavement, the hum of the city just feet away from you, and the warmth that filled your hand was enough to soothe the ache around your pinky, “Thank you for today.” You hummed while squeezing his hand, “I needed it.”

“Don’t thank me, any time I get to spend with you is worth it.” Sehun lifted the back of your hand to his lips, gently burning the shape of his kiss into your skin.

“I love you, Sehun, and I’m sorry it took me this long to see.” Pulling your hand away from his lips, his eyes landed on the matching thin red rings around your pinkies and couldn’t help smiling.

“I don’t need you to apologize, I’m just glad that I can finally enjoy my time with you without having to worry about Chanyeol.” A small laugh left you as you leaned into him, your head landing against his arm.

“You don’t have to worry about him. If anything, I’ll be the one to deal with him.” That’s right, you were always the one to deal with Chanyeol when he got out of hand or had something to say that was derogatory towards Sehun. He always thought he was protecting you from him, but now that he thought about it, you were protecting him too, “Oh yeah— Where are the guys? I thought they were our bodyguards tonight?”

“Oh?” Sehun dug his phone from his pocket and unlocked it to show you the text he sent Suho, “I figured the least I could do is walk us home, I think we earned a little privacy.”

“You planning to seduce me, Sehun?” He could see the mischievous smirk appearing on your lips.

“Would you turn me down if I said yes?” His hand slipped from your grip to wrap around your waist, “I may not be able to stop like—” A sharp pinch at his neck caused him to stop mid-sentence, and his vision started to blur.

“What are you doing?!” He could hear your scream clear as day, but his body refused to move or respond, “No! Get—get off of me! No!” Your shrill scream only seemed to fade as Sehun’s mind drifted into darkness.

15 notes · View notes