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#she can't finish a meal anywhere so anywhere we go i have to eat half of her lunch. so it's not stuff i would pick anyway
blunderpuff · 2 months
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put on tshirt after doing yardwork (cuz i got hot) and my mom immediately commented "look at YOU in bArE aRmS"
so i put on my long shirt again
#me and my mom#no matter how upset i get or tell her to keep her comments to herself... she won't#i'll knit a whole-ass fucking sweater and she'll immediately say 'it's too short'#thank u for invalidating every fucking thing i do and/or make#i made beef stew and it actually turned out good but all she could say was 'the house smells like onions.'#and then i'll see a job listing for something i don't have experience with/can't do and she'll get mad at me and aggressively#tell me 'you can do anything! library work translates to (job field that library work doesn't translate to)'#and it's just so frustrating bc she obviously has this idea of me in her head and i just don't match up#the whiplash from the 'you are so smart and you can do anything!' abt hypothetical things to the 'it's too short' abt things i actually do#'i don't like the color' 'i don't like the neckline' 'i don't wear wool' (it's not a sweater i made for anyone but me)#'oh look at you wEaRiNg ShOrTs' 'oh look at you wEaRiNg a sKiRt'#and danny got fat and she keeps commenting on it and all i can assume is that it's ALSO a comment on my putting on weight#but then we eat at fucking Popeye's for lunch twice a week#and no matter how much i say 'please stop making me eat junk food' we keep going#she doesn't leave the house on her own. she won't let me leave the house on my own#i had more freedom as a 16yo than i do now#wonder why i'm so FUCKING miserable and depressed all the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#i left a decent-paying job! for nothing!! i'm just sitting here and rotting and the library system here sucks and they STILL haven't#gotten back to me even though i applied in FUCKING DECEMBER#she can't finish a meal anywhere so anywhere we go i have to eat half of her lunch. so it's not stuff i would pick anyway#how do you even apply for jobs and put anything in your 'skills' when you're so fucking miserable you wish you were dead
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votestaynight · 1 year
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1st Day - "One day" (scene 2)
―――That's right, I have to go and help Sakura. I'd feel bad, both for letting my junior do all the work, and for Sakura coming here so early in the morning.
But I'm too late. It seems breakfast has already been made. I can smell the elegant scent of breakfast befitting Sakura. Sakura has finished cooking and is opening the cupboards. I can see that all she has left to do is set the table.
"I'm sorry. I'll at least get the dishes ready, so you go and sit down." "Huh? Oh, you're here already, Senpai?"
"Not 'already'. We're usually eating by ten past six, so I certainly slept in." "I don't think so. You're not in any clubs, so this is still early for you."
"Clubs have nothing to do with this. When you bring clubs into it, the problem is that you come here when you have morning practice to go to." "Ah… no, I'm doing this because I want to, so please don't worry about my club."
"Yeah, you always say that. That's why I wake up early, clubs or not. It's rude for me to sleep in if you're going to be here."
For me, waking up early is waking up before Sakura gets here, and sleeping in is making Sakura prepare breakfast on her own―――like today. Though, this has only been a habit for a year and a half or so.
"Anyways, you take a rest. We only have to set the table, so at least let me do that." I stand next to Sakura and take out the dishes. Sakura is stubborn at times, and in situations like this, she won't rest unless she's forced to.
"Oh, then I'll help too. I'll load the plates and you can take them out."
"No, I'm saying I'll do it all myself." "That won't do. You're head of this household, so you should just sit contentedly in the mornings."
"Sit contentedly? A head of household who leaves you to do the work by yourself is a failure. It's okay, so go to the living room."
"That's right, please be a failure. This is repayment for letting me eat good food all the time. So if it's possible, I'd like for you to rest."
"Hey. We're going fifty-fifty on the groceries, so you shouldn't worry about it. I should be the one thanking you. Since you've started coming here, our meals have improved."
"Oh, I knew it. You don't get it, do you Senpai? That's not why the meals here are good." "Huh? What do you mean that's not why?"
"No, it's nothing. But please take responsibility because I can't eat a pleasant meal anywhere else any more." Sakura smiles while blushing.
"I-Idiot, don't say such weird things. What if Fuji-Nee hears that? She doesn't understand jokes." "You're right. It would be a big problem if Fujimura-Sensei overheard that." "Right. Don't say so much weird stuff." "Yes, I won't. I won't say anything. So I can help you, right Senpai?" "……" Sakura looks up at me, naturally and calmly.
"Fine, do what you want. If you want to help so much, go right ahead." "Yes, I'll do as I please." "…Geez, you really don't listen to anything I tell you anymore, do you Sakura?" "That's true. Maybe I'm becoming more like Fujimura-Sensei." Speaking softly, Sakura reaches up for the cupboard.
Her silky hair and smooth skin catch my eye. "――――" …How can I put this… it's troubling. She must be maturing as she seems really feminine these days. Her casual movements and her figure are so beautiful that I instinctively look away.
"Senpai? Is something wrong?" "―――No, it's nothing. Don't worry, it's nothing." "Hm?" …Honestly. Why am I feeling tense around my friend's sister? After all, Sakura's not like that. She's a good underclassman, and a junior I need to take care of.
First of all, the relationship between me and Matou Sakura is just that of a Senpai and a junior. She's the sister of a close friend of mine, but since she's a grade below me, we weren't that close.
It all changed a year and a half ago into this cooperative kind of relationship. Sakura came to cook when I was injured, and after that, I think we just ended up like this.
…I think we intended to do it until my injury healed, but some trivial thing came up to make her stay with it.
Anyways, Sakura is a good cook, and perfect at cleaning and doing the laundry. It's a big help to have her helping around here in the mornings, but it's been a bit troubling recently. The problem is not in Sakura, but me.
"――――" Frankly, Sakura is beautiful. She's one of the best looking first years, and I'm sure there are lots of guys who want to date her. And on top of that, she's been growing in certain places recently and some of her casual gestures have started to catch my eye.
…That's what I mean by a small problem. Maybe I'm just feeling guilty about being attracted to my friend's sister. Usually I'm fine, but when I'm caught off guard like just now, I blush… does this make me an unsuitable Senpai…?
Breakfast is placed on the table. A perfect breakfast consisting of chicken salad, cooked salmon, spinach, radish and carrot miso soup, and yam soup.
Sakura and I bow and start our meal quietly.
The sounds of our chopsticks echo. Sakura isn't the talkative type, and I'm not versatile enough to talk while eating.
Naturally, mealtimes are quiet. Usually it's louder, but today, the loud person is… She must have been watching spy movies last night as she's eyeing us while hiding behind a newspaper.
"Fujimura-Sensei, don't you think you shouldn't read the newspaper during meals?" "……"
Fuji-Nee ignores Sakura's question. She's acting weird, but Fuji-Nee always acts in suspicious ways during breakfast. Sakura must be used to it, as she continues to eat with no particular care.
Sakura prefers to make Western foods. She learned to cook Japanese food after she started coming here to help. Fuji-Nee and I preferred Japanese, so Sakura learned to make Japanese food for our breakfast.
Now she's so good that she's almost surpassed me, her teacher. The salmon is especially good as it's cooked to perfection. Her miso soup is tasty, and she has shown some capacity even for making yam soup by grinding yams. Actually, I think this is the first time she's made it.
"Sorry, Sakura, can you pass me the soy sauce?" "There you… oh wait, Senpai. Your soy sauce is empty." "Fuji-Nee's will do then. Can you get it?"
"May I, Fujimura-Sensei?" Fuji-Nee nods. Her newspaper trembles.
"There you go. Are you going to use it on the yam soup?" "Yeah, you usually put soy sauce on yam soup, right?" I put the soy sauce onto the white yam soup. After stirring it, I put it on the rice and take a bite.
Mm, the stickiness of the yam and the taste of the soy sau―――― "Ugh…! This is terrible! This is oyster sauce!" I almost throw it back up. And then,
"Haha, ahahahahahaha!" Fuji-Nee throws her newspaper away.
"How's that? It was my plan to switch the labels earlier this morning!" The female spy throws up her arms to show her happiness.
"W-What are you thinking!? You're always like this even though you'll be turning twenty-five this year!" "Haha. Did it teach you a lesson for what you did yesterday? It's divine justice for picking on me with everyone else."
"Divine justice doesn't come from people! I thought you were calm, but this is what you were thinking about!?"
"That's right. That's why I have to go and start grading the exams now. Yup, I should hurry up." Fuji-Nee sits back down and finishes her breakfast quickly.
"Thank you. Breakfast was lovely as always, Sakura-chan." "Ah… thank you, Sensei." "I'm going on ahead then. I'll get mad if you two are late."
And she runs off. …There's something wrong with a world in which that thing is a teacher.
"…Um, Senpai?" "Sorry about that. Fuji-Nee didn't really take the time to enjoy your breakfast." "No, it's not that. Um… did you do something to her yesterday? It's a bit too much for Fujimura-Sensei to play with food."
"Uh… well, yeah. I accidentally called her by her nickname." "I guess it can't be helped in that case. You didn't apologize to her, did you, Senpai?" "Sorry. I forgot since it happens all the time."
"You mustn't. Fujimura-Sensei doesn't like you calling her so, Senpai. You made her cry again, didn't you?" "…I made her run away too. Yesterday's English lesson was a self-study because of it." And I was awarded a student honor written on note paper, but I threw it away.
"Geez. It was all your fault, then." Fuji-Nee is like a big sister for Sakura, so she's basically on Fuji-Nee's side. That's good in its own way, but I wish she'd consider my situation where I have to deal with Fuji-Nee 24-7.
Fuji-Nee was originally an acquaintance of Father's, and she's been coming to the house a lot since I was adopted. She started to show up even more after Father died, and she's now almost a dependent, eating breakfast and dinner here.
―――No. Maybe she's why I was able to make it on my own even after my father died. Fuji-Nee, Sakura, and I are now the residents of the Emiya household.
…But I'm the only one who knows that my father was a magus. It's said that magi must hide their identities. That's why I've been hiding the fact that I'm learning magic ever since I became my father's student.
I say I'm learning, but I can't even cast a single magic spell properly. With this kind of a skill, it wouldn't make much difference whether I hide it or not. But because it was how my father wanted things, I've trained secretly since then.
I finish breakfast and prepare for school. I clean the dishes with Sakura while listening to the news on TV.
"―――" Sakura is staring at the TV screen. Over the screen runs an exaggerated teletype reading "Gas Leak Accidents Continue".
It seems there was a big accident in the neighboring town of Shinto. It happened in a building in the business district. It seems a whole floor of people ran out of oxygen and fell unconscious. They've called it a gas leak, but this kind of accident is happening often recently.
"Are you worried about the news, Sakura?" "Eh? No, not really. I just thought it's near… Senpai, your workplace is in the Shinto area, right?" "Yeah, but it's not really a big place. I don't think an accident like that would happen there."
…But it's not a risk I can completely ignore. Gas leaks can happen in any building, and on top of that, it hurts to think that hundreds of people are suffering.
It's said that the accidents are happening often because of defective construction work during the rapid development of Shinto. Whether that's true or not, I certainly don't want any more victims―――
"…It is dangerous. We'll have to be careful here too." "Oh, don't worry, Senpai. I check the gas twice every time."
Sakura boasts with pride. "No, that's not the point." …Yeah, I've thought so before, but Sakura is a bit off too.
"Senpai, did you lock the back door?" "I did. I bolted it. Is there a problem?" "Not at all. Then I'll lock the front door now. When will you be home today, Senpai?"
"I think I'll be a bit late. What about you, Sakura?" "I'll be back at the usual time. I'll probably be here earlier, so I'll start getting dinner ready." "…Yeah, that'll help. I'll try to come home early too."
We lock the gate. Sakura and Fuji-Nee also have keys to my house, and the rule is that the last person out locks up. "Let's go. You won't make it to morning practice unless we hurry." "Yes, let's hurry then, Senpai."
We walk down to the town together. Passing the long wall and going downhill, we reach the residential district. My house is on top of the hill, far away from the center of town.
Going down the hill takes us to the residential district, and beyond that… We reach the crossroads at the center of this town.
From here, there are many roads: a big bridge leading to the neighboring city… …A hill road that leads to Ryudou Temple… …The residential district on the other side of town… …The shopping district Sakura and I always use… …And the school we're headed to right now.
We head for the school without stopping elsewhere. We don't talk much as we walk up the hill. Since it's still seven o'clock, there aren't many others on the road. Other than us, all you can see are a few others heading to their morning practices.
"Well, see ya. Have fun at your club." I part with Sakura at the school gate like usual. Sakura's in the archery club, so we have to part here in the mornings.
"……" But today, Sakura doesn't go.
"Sakura? Are you not feeling well?" "…No, that's not it, but… um, would you like to come to the dojo?"
"No, I've no business there. Anyways, Issei asked for me, so I have to go to the student council room today."
"…I-I see. Sorry for troubling you then." Sakura bows. "Hm?"
"I'll be going now. Please look forward to dinner tonight." Sakura runs off like she's ashamed of something. "…?" Hm? I wonder what that was all about…?
"Issei, you there?" "I am. You're a bit late today, Emiya." He must have been studying, as Issei looks up from the paper he's reading.
"Just you, Issei? Where are the others? Shouldn't they be here now as well?" "No. Unfortunately, our members are very businesslike. They have their set work hours, and they don't want to come in early or stay late." "That's why the student council president is doing the routine duties himself, huh? I guess this place has its own problems."
"No, it's the kind of trouble I like. You don't need to pity me." "Huh? Uh, no, I wasn't pitying you or anything." "Hm. I'm not happy about that either, but I'll pretend I didn't hear it. It still means that you care."
Issei, who is organizing the papers he was reading, is the big boss of this student council room. He's the guy trying his best to reform this lax student council, and he's been a friend of mine since first year. His full name is Ryudou Issei. Despite his old-fashioned name, he has elegant features and he's really popular with the girls. And he's also the student council president, so you'd think he'd take to it like a duck to water, but…
"Hm. Hot tea is certainly a good way to start a morning." He's just sipping tea like this, so he's not that firm.
As you can see, Issei has a plain personality. It's easily misunderstood, but he doesn't involve himself in love affairs nor engage in normal student recreations. It's because he's the successor of the Ryudou Temple, up in the mountains. He's fine with that idea, so there's a good chance he'll shave his head when he graduates.
"So, what am I doing today?" "Hm? Well, I'd like to let you sit down and take a rest first… but I guess we don't have time. I'll explain as we go, so bring your usual tools and follow me."
"Frankly, our school's budget is completely unbalanced." "I know. The athletic clubs are favored, so other clubs don't get much, right?" "Right. As a result, members of the other clubs are in trouble. I'm working hard to make the budget go to them, but I'm having trouble because it's not clear where the money's going. In particular, there's no solution for the shortages of heaters during winter."[l]
"I see. Oh, can you hand me the torque screwdriver? The biggest one. And the conductive wire too. …Yeah, I should be able to fix this." "Conductive wire? …Uh, is this it? Sorry, I don't know exactly.[l] Tell me if I'm wrong." "You're right. So, what was that about the shortage of heaters? Are there other broken ones?"
"Yes. In the 2nd AV room and the art club. The petitions requesting new stoves are multiplying." "But there's not enough budget to meet the demand, huh? As I thought, it's just getting old. Good thing it's not broken on the inside."
"…Hm. You think it can be fixed, Emiya?" "Yup. In cases like this, old things are nice because they're easy to understand.[l] It's just a shorted connection, so it should last the whole year if we replace that." "I see! Good job, Emiya. I'm always so pleased when you're reliable."
"You're wording it weirdly, Issei… Oh, I'll be finished soon, so could you wait outside for a bit?" "All right, I'll be out of your way."
Issei leaves the room quietly. …It seems he assumes that I'm going to do something delicate.
"…Well, it is delicate, but…" I place my hand on the old electric heater. Usually, even if you're used to fixing things, it's hard to figure out what's wrong with it just by looking at it. So the fact that I figured it out means what I'm doing is not ordinary.
I block off my vision and look inside the heater with my sense of touch. ―――In that moment… An image appears in my head.
"…There are two places where the wire's about to break… The pipe should last a bit longer… Insulation tape should be enough for the power cord…" …Good, I can fix this with the tools I have with me.
If the pipe were broken, it couldn't be fixed by an amateur. If that had been the case, I would have had to "strengthen" it in a very unamatuerish way. But in this case, just looking at it will suffice. That is the "magic" Emiya Shirou learned from Kiritsugu.
"――――All right, let's begin." I take the cover off and start to work. I already know where it's broken, so the rest is easy. "…Man. This is the only thing I'm any good at."
That's right. Emiya Shirou has no talent for magic. Though it doesn't make up for it, I think I'm quite skilled at visualizing structures like I did just now. In fact, when I first figured out a structure and reproduced it, my father looked surprised and said "what a useless ability".
I guess my strong point isn't a useful ability. According to my father, it's already a waste of effort to perceive the structure with my eyes. For a real magus, there's no need to understand every corner of a structure like I just did.
They say that the battle of the magus comes in reading the center, the core of things instantaneously, and changing it faster than anything else. That's why reading the structure is a wasted effort, as even if you do understand the structure, all you can do is determine where magical energy could be more easily transmitted.
So all in all, it turns out that my strong point is just in fixing things like this. I don't have to open them up to look for damage. If I can quickly search for broken parts and have the skills to repair them, most things can be fixed. Though, that's only the case for simple things that can be fixed with "amateur knowledge".
"―――Done. On to the next one…" I pack away the conducting wire that I used and go out into the hallway with screwdriver and wrench in hand.
"Issei, the repairs are done." ――――But. In the hallway is someone else apart from Issei, a girl.
"――――" I'm a bit surprised. The person talking to Issei is Tohsaka Rin, from class 2-A. She's a lady who lives in a big mansion on top of the hill, a perfect honor student. Good looking, smart, athletic, and faultless. She's intelligent, well mannered, and modest about her looks. People say she's the ideal woman.
So it hardly needs to be said that the guys at my school treat her like an idol. Though in Tohsaka's case, she's so perfect that she's considered unreachable. It's commonly believed that only teachers and guys like Issei can even talk to her.
…Well, to be honest, I'm a guy too. So I'm one of Tohsaka Rin's admirers.
"……" Tohsaka looks at us as if she's in a bad mood. It seems to be true that she and Issei don't get along.
"Ah, sorry Emiya. I'm the one who asked for help, but it seems like you're doing all the work. Forgive me." Wow. Issei's an amazing man, talking like that and ignoring Tohsaka.
"Don't worry about it. So, where next? There's not much time left." "Yeah, the AV room is next. It seems it's been working badly for a while, but now it finally died."
"It can't be fixed if it's dead. It would be quicker to just buy a new one." "…True, but it'd help if you could take a look at it. It might be dead to my eyes, but only faking it to yours."
"I see. Well, let's take a look." There's only about 30 minutes left until homeroom. I'll have to hurry if I'm going to fix it.
I start for the AV room with Issei. But it's impolite to ignore her completely when we've met like this.
I turn back to Tohsaka, who's standing in a daze. "You're up early, Tohsaka." I make an honest comment, then follow Issei.
"We barely made it. Thank you, Emiya. I caused you trouble again. I would be a failure as a friend if I made you late doing things for me." "Don't worry about it. It's no big deal for me to be late. Though I guess it would be for you to be…" "Indeed. Well, I'm glad we made it." Issei heads to his seat, relieved.
It's exactly eight o'clock. The first homeroom bell has rung, so Fuji-Nee should be here in about five minutes.
"―――Phew." I'm a bit out of breath since we ran here from the AV room. Taking a deep breath, I head to my seat.
"You're so noisy in the mornings, Emiya. I was wondering what you'd been doing since quitting the club, but all you've been doing is helping out Ryudou? It's not my concern, but don't do anything to bring the club into disrepute, okay? You're pretty uncommitted after all."
Matou Shinji, a friend of mine from middle school, is standing in front of my seat. As you can tell from his last name, he's Sakura's brother who's one year older than her.
"Yo. Is the archery club doing well, Shinji?" "O-Of course…! There's no point in telling an outsider, but it's been peaceful since a certain attention-hog left. We'll do well in the next competition!"
"I see. Mitsuzuri must be working hard." "Huh? You're talking rubbish. The archery club is doing well because of me. You're just an outsider, Emiya, so you'll just embarrass yourself if you talk like you know about it."
"I see, I'll be careful. But I won't have any concerns with the archery club since I don't have any business there." I put my bag on the desk and pull out the chair.
"What's that about? You're saying you're not interested in my archery club?" "I said business, not interest. It'd be weird to go there when I'm an outsider, right? But tell me if something comes up. I'll help if there's anything I can help with. You weren't good at fixing the bows and bowstrings, right?"
"Oh, thanks. I'll call you if there's any work to be done. Though I don't think that'll happen."
"Yeah, that's good. You're not captain material if you leave work that needs to be done. Don't give Fujimura-Sensei too much trouble. She's scary when you piss her off." "…! Huh, mind your own business. You're an outsider, so keep away from the dojo!"
Shinji returns to his seat in his usual manner. …Hm, he seemed even more irritated than usual today.
"What a guy. How can he talk like that when he's the one who drove you out?" "Oh, you were here, Issei?" "What do you mean!? You're so cold, saying that to a friend who was listening in out of concern!"
"Hm? Why would you do that? I'm not doing anything that should make you worry about me." "Idiot. Of course I'll worry about you. You're the sort to lose your temper easily. Some people would cheer if you beat Shinji up, but all the girls would condemn you. It's not good to let a friend get into a situation like that."
"I see. You're right now that you mention it. Thanks, Issei. I don't think it'll be a problem, but I'm grateful for your concern." "Yes, well, as long as you understand… but it's strange. You lose your temper easily, but you're tolerant of Matou." "Yeah, that's just his style. You get used to it if you hang around him for a long time."
"Hm, I see." "Yeah. If you understand, go back to your seat. Fujimura-Sensei will fly in here any second now." "Haha. It's more like her to come floating in than flying in."
The homeroom bell rings. A homeroom teacher usually would come five minutes early, but our homeroom teacher isn't like that.
For class 2-C, homeroom starts one minute after the bell rings. Right when we hear… "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late…!" And Fuji-Nee runs into the classroom.
"All right, I made it! Good morning, everyo―――" Wham! Fuji-Nee falls over with a terrible sound.
"――――――――" The classroom is filled with silence, in contrast to the clamor from a second ago. A sudden change of atmosphere. Just as you'd expect from Fuji-Nee. Her nickname of "human jet coaster" isn't just for show.
…But that really was a bad hit. Fuji-Nee is still on the ground, having hit her head on the platform. You can't see her expression with her head facing the ground, so it gives you a bad mental image.
"…Hey. Front row. Wake her up." "…What? I don't want to. I'm scared she'll bite me if I go near her…" "…She's not a Mimic or anything. She won't go that far." "Hey, if you're saying that, why don't you do it?" "Uh, I'll pass. I'm not used to this." "Me neither! And why would you make a girl do it? A guy should do it!"
The front row is getting noisy. As we're in the middle rows, we can't tell what sort of state Fuji-Nee is in. We can't tell, so we all stand up to look.
"Hey, she's not moving. Has she passed out?" Someone asks. If so, the problem would be how to get her to the nurse's office.
Everyone here is a warrior who has been with Fuji-Nee for the past year. They probably want to get out of the habit of taking their teacher to the nurse's office.
"Fujimura-Sensei…? Um, are you all right?" A brave female student calls out to her. Fuji-Nee doesn't even twitch. A sense of worry runs through the room.
"…That was a bad fall. She hit her head right on the platform. She'd have to be invincible to come out of that without a scratch." "Hm. How about getting her for our baseball club?" "D-Don't even joke about that! The day she's in charge of us, we'd get into the regionals!" "Fujimura-Sensei, Fujimura-Sensei…! It's no good, there's no response…!"
"Hey, why don't you wake her up since you're in front of her?" "What!? No way! If she's really dead, I'll be killed!" "But things could get bad later if we leave her like that." "But no one wants to go near her." "…I guess it can't be helped. We'll have to do… that." "Yeah, that." "All right."
All our hearts become one. …Well, not Shinji and I, because we're too scared.
"One, two… wake up, Tiger!" Even though everyone said it at the same time, it's only as loud as a whisper. The "Tiger" part is especially quiet. But still… …A twitch. The silent Fuji-Nee reacts.
"Whoa, she moved!? It's working, everyone!" "All right! Continue the punishment!" Everyone must be stressed from the impending exams. Even though they shouldn't, they repeat Fuji-Nee's nickname while waving their arms.
"Wake up Tiger, it's morning!" "Sensei, you're a tiger if you don't wake up!" "Don't give up, Tiger! Stand up, Tiger!" "Yeah, wake up, Sensei! Then you'll be a true Tiger!" "T-i-g-e-r! T-i-g-e-r!"
"Gahhh!! Don't call me Tiger…!"
A roar of lightning. She stands bravely as if the fall has done nothing at all.
"…Huh? What are you all doing? You can't stand up in middle of homeroom. Come on, sit down and I'll get started." Fuji-Nee stands before everyone in her usual manner. …It seems all memories from the moment she entered the classroom have fled her head.
"…Hey, it seems Tiger doesn't remember what happened." "…Lucky. We're really fortunate this morning." "…Well, I don't know if we can call it 'lucky'…" Everyone returns to their seats, chatting.
"Huh? Did someone just make fun of me?" "No, we didn't. Maybe you imagined it?" "All right, good. Then I'll start homeroom, so listen up."
Fuji-Nee starts homeroom slowly. She chats in between the announcements, so we don't get through it very fast.
"So everyone, please note the curfew.[l] It's at six o'clock, so people with club activities shouldn't stay too late either." "What? Six o'clock is too early, Taiga-Sensei. Can't the athletic clubs be exempted?"
"Nope. And please address your teacher as 'Fujimura-Sensei'. I'll get mad if you call me that again." "All right, I'll be careful." He sits down again, not showing any signs of listening to her.
…How stupid of him. Fuji-Nee gets mad when she says she will. It makes no difference that he's a student and she's a teacher. He doesn't realize that she just gave him a final warning.
"Well, that's it for today's homeroom. Let's meet again in English class in third period, everyone!" Fuji-Nee leaves, waving her hand.
She's the teacher responsible for class 2-C, Fujimura Taiga. Her nickname is Tiger. You might doubt it, but it really is her nickname.
People like calling her so since she has a name like "Taiga" even though she's a woman. But Fuji-Nee herself hates the nickname. According to her, it's unfeminine. But she's that kind of person, so I think it's her own fault she has an unfeminine nickname.
"We're starting class. Day monitor, the bows." The teacher for the first period enters as Fuji-Nee exits. It's like this every morning, as Fuji-Nee continues homeroom until the very last minute.
And the classes end like every other day. There are many kinds of students: ones that go to clubs, ones that hurry home, and ones that stay in the classroom for no reason. It looks like I won't be in any of those categories.
"Sorry, Emiya, about the rest of the repairs… do you have time today?" "Well, I do have plans, but…" It's not like I'm just playing around. After all, the main reason I quit the archery club is because I wanted to prioritize work.
It's already been five years since Father died, and I decided to start working to pay my living expenses. If you work a lot, there are some jobs you just can't refuse.
Today's an example. They're restocking inventory at work, and they asked me to come if I can as any help is appreciated. But it's certainly not something I have to go to. They're probably just having people come in because they want to party after work.
"――――" There are two options. I―――
11 notes · View notes
fatopiaplus · 8 months
Text
 Roxan Micha Foxx
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Now, you ask, why the hell I wanna be so fat? Well, lemme tell you. When I was a kid, I was chubby. Not fat, just a little overweight. Well, my mom constantly nagged me to lose the weight and I did, nearly becoming a full fledged bulimic in my quest to please her. Then one day, I said, Hell no! I'm not going to deny what I want just to please her! From the day I moved out of the house, I began to pack away as much food as I could. I didn't have a big capacity at first, but I finally built up to over 20,000 calories a day and I'm getting so fat, my mother can't stand to be anywhere near me. Good. That's my defiance of her. I don't want her to be a part of my life. I want to be a fat woman. I want to die in my sleep when I'm old, lying on my many rolls of fat, my loving husband by my side. When I begin to have difficulty with my weight, then I'll be finished and might even slim down. Until that time, pass the grub and get the hell outta my way or you might be dinner.
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Wow! Check it out! Roxi at 160 skinnnnny pounds! Heh. This was for Senior Prom. My date was a loser and I remember how beautiful this one fat girl looked and how much she and her boyfriend were in love. I wanted that. It wasn't really a conscious effort to fatten at first. It just sorta happened. Then, I decided I like what I saw and felt.
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Over the course of a year and a half, my weight has creeped up to 235 pounds. I kinda like the way it feels. This is how big I was when Alexander Veranovich asked me out on a date. Little did either of us know where that first date would lead us.
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I've gained up to 270 pounds after a few months with Alex. That man loves to feed me and watch me eat. He loves my growing self and with him by my side, I'm wanting to grow fatter and fatter. And this is where I made the active choice to grow.
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330 lbs in just over seven months. Wow! That's almost a hundred pounds of fat! It feels so wonderful to have Alex massage my growing gut. I find I'm getting hungrier sooner and that it's taking more to fill me up. I guess my stomach is gaining capacity. Hmmmm. Yay!
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It is I, Roxan Micha Foxx, enjoying a nice dip in a paradise freshwater spring. Alex says I'm sassy for sure, and a definite feedee. I love the way I look and feel and can't wait until my next yummy meal. I'm 5'8" tall and around 380 lbs of sexy vixen here. I dyed my hair a more normal vulpine color but I think my flamingo heritages (yeah, my dad was a flamingo) means I should have pink hair and I'm gonna grow it back to it's natural color.
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Meet Alexander Veranoff. This is MY hunky guy. He's a feeder of the ultimate persuasion. He can think of nothing more enjoyable than watching me grow fatter under his diligent care. He met me when I was a mere 200 pounds and under his astute and loving hand, my weight has soared faster than I had ever dreamed possible. We'd both like me to hit 1000 pounds of wonderful foxy flesh, and the way I can pack it on, there's no doubt we're both going to get our wishes. I'm about 420 pounds here.
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"Chocolate cake? Did somebody mention CHOCOLATE CAKE?" I love sweets and am particularly fond of chocolate cake. In fact, I have more than once devoured a full sheet cake by myself in about three hours. I can eat so much, my tummy actually distends and pokes out a little bit. My thing then is to brush these pretty teeth and go take a nap, slowing my metabolism and increasing my weight. Here, I'm a lovely 460 pounds and definitely looking for more weight to settle on my frame. I'm just too skinny! When my hip measurement reaches 100 inches, then I'll stop.... maybe.
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Hmmm. Lookit that belly! Wowww! Five twenty. What a growth spurt! I think I'm getting prettier as the pounds go on. And on. And on. My hair has finally grown back out to it's naturally beautiful pink color. I'm never gonna do that again!
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I got snowed in with Alexander and since there's always plenty of food on hand, we made good use of it to further enhance my heavenly body. I'm just a growing girl, you know. I can't wait until my belly slips past my knees. It won't be long the way I'm going. I hope to be the fattest woman who ever lived. I'm a beguiling weight of 572 luscious pounds.
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Since I still work in a public enviroment, I have to dress conservatively, here in a suit by acclaimed large fashion designer Natalia Daski (who incidentally is 450 delightful pounds of Venison). I started at the CPA firm when I was 160 trim pounds and quickly got promoted to a partner when one of the senior partners retired. As the years passed, my weight increased, but "her beauty, intelligence and her kind nature have won her the admiration and respect of all with whom she works." Not my own words, mind you. That's from my co-workers. Alexander was a client of mine before we got together, and when he saw me growing bigger, he knew he had to marry me. I weigh in at about 593 pounds in this picture. I love this blue suit. It'll be a shame to lose it.
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Once I got my sisters living with me, Alex and I took them out to Washington state to meet Alex's parents. I think they were a little shocked at my size, but they're wonderful people and respect me for who I am. Anthy and Cici are so happy to be with me and Alex. I love road trips. It give me a chance to chow down on the road. All that riding and eating with little activity ... I gained about 25 lbs on this trip. Man. I'm 618 pounds now and I just can't keep my tiny tummy full. Keep it growing, Roxi!
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I love this picture. Thanks to Anthy for taking it. Look at how happy Alex is! Not to mention how darn big I'm getting. This was about 4 hours of straight feeding and I could barely move, I was so stuffed. I rolled over and went to bed not long after Anthy snapped the pic. I weighed in at about 658 pounds here. I can't help myself anymore. I just can't wait to get fatter and fatter. It's so much a thrill to have Alex read my weight to me. I won't be happy until it's four digits instead of three.
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"She wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny fuschia polka dot bikini ..." Those long winter nights of gorging myself on everything that Alexander feeds me has paid off. I'm getting so big that Alex has to lay on top of me just to find room in the bed. I'm still going strong though, and I ain't gonna stop until walking becomes a major production and then, I'm off to the bedroom and there, I'll just gain until the bed breaks. I love to be fat and will not be satisfied until I'm as fat as I physically can be without exploding. This is called, "The Low Rider" ...for obvious reasons. Weight of 708 pounds, give or take. The scale broke when I stepped on it. =BLUSH=
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votestaynight2 · 10 months
Text
1st Day - One day (I) (Scene 2)
―――That's right, I have to go and help Sakura. I'd feel bad, both for letting my junior do all the work, and for Sakura coming here so early in the morning.
But I'm too late. It seems breakfast has already been made. I can smell the elegant scent of breakfast befitting Sakura. Sakura has finished cooking and is opening the cupboards. I can see that all she has left to do is set the table.
"I'm sorry. I'll at least get the dishes ready, so you go and sit down." "Huh? Oh, you're here already, Senpai?"
"Not 'already'. We're usually eating by ten past six, so I certainly slept in." "I don't think so. You're not in any clubs, so this is still early for you."
"Clubs have nothing to do with this. When you bring clubs into it, the problem is that you come here when you have morning practice to go to." "Ah… no, I'm doing this because I want to, so please don't worry about my club."
"Yeah, you always say that. That's why I wake up early, clubs or not. It's rude for me to sleep in if you're going to be here."
For me, waking up early is waking up before Sakura gets here, and sleeping in is making Sakura prepare breakfast on her own―――like today. Though, this has only been a habit for a year and a half or so.
"Anyways, you take a rest. We only have to set the table, so at least let me do that." I stand next to Sakura and take out the dishes. Sakura is stubborn at times, and in situations like this, she won't rest unless she's forced to.
"Oh, then I'll help too. I'll load the plates and you can take them out."
"No, I'm saying I'll do it all myself." "That won't do. You're head of this household, so you should just sit contentedly in the mornings."
"Sit contentedly? A head of household who leaves you to do the work by yourself is a failure. It's okay, so go to the living room."
"That's right, please be a failure. This is repayment for letting me eat good food all the time. So if it's possible, I'd like for you to rest."
"Hey. We're going fifty-fifty on the groceries, so you shouldn't worry about it. I should be the one thanking you. Since you've started coming here, our meals have improved."
"Oh, I knew it. You don't get it, do you Senpai? That's not why the meals here are good." "Huh? What do you mean that's not why?"
"No, it's nothing. But please take responsibility because I can't eat a pleasant meal anywhere else any more." Sakura smiles while blushing.
"I-Idiot, don't say such weird things. What if Fuji-Nee hears that? She doesn't understand jokes." "You're right. It would be a big problem if Fujimura-Sensei overheard that." "Right. Don't say so much weird stuff." "Yes, I won't. I won't say anything. So I can help you, right Senpai?" "……" Sakura looks up at me, naturally and calmly.
"Fine, do what you want. If you want to help so much, go right ahead." "Yes, I'll do as I please." "…Geez, you really don't listen to anything I tell you anymore, do you Sakura?" "That's true. Maybe I'm becoming more like Fujimura-Sensei." Speaking softly, Sakura reaches up for the cupboard.
Her silky hair and smooth skin catch my eye. "――――" …How can I put this… it's troubling. She must be maturing as she seems really feminine these days. Her casual movements and her figure are so beautiful that I instinctively look away.
"Senpai? Is something wrong?" "―――No, it's nothing. Don't worry, it's nothing." "Hm?" …Honestly. Why am I feeling tense around my friend's sister? After all, Sakura's not like that. She's a good underclassman, and a junior I need to take care of.
First of all, the relationship between me and Matou Sakura is just that of a Senpai and a junior. She's the sister of a close friend of mine, but since she's a grade below me, we weren't that close.
It all changed a year and a half ago into this cooperative kind of relationship. Sakura came to cook when I was injured, and after that, I think we just ended up like this.
…I think we intended to do it until my injury healed, but some trivial thing came up to make her stay with it.
Anyways, Sakura is a good cook, and perfect at cleaning and doing the laundry. It's a big help to have her helping around here in the mornings, but it's been a bit troubling recently. The problem is not in Sakura, but me.
"――――" Frankly, Sakura is beautiful. She's one of the best looking first years, and I'm sure there are lots of guys who want to date her. And on top of that, she's been growing in certain places recently and some of her casual gestures have started to catch my eye.
…That's what I mean by a small problem. Maybe I'm just feeling guilty about being attracted to my friend's sister. Usually I'm fine, but when I'm caught off guard like just now, I blush… does this make me an unsuitable Senpai…?
Breakfast is placed on the table. A perfect breakfast consisting of chicken salad, cooked salmon, spinach, radish and carrot miso soup, and yam soup.
Sakura and I bow and start our meal quietly.
The sounds of our chopsticks echo. Sakura isn't the talkative type, and I'm not versatile enough to talk while eating.
Naturally, mealtimes are quiet. Usually it's louder, but today, the loud person is… She must have been watching spy movies last night as she's eyeing us while hiding behind a newspaper.
"Fujimura-Sensei, don't you think you shouldn't read the newspaper during meals?" "……"
Fuji-Nee ignores Sakura's question. She's acting weird, but Fuji-Nee always acts in suspicious ways during breakfast. Sakura must be used to it, as she continues to eat with no particular care.
Sakura prefers to make Western foods. She learned to cook Japanese food after she started coming here to help. Fuji-Nee and I preferred Japanese, so Sakura learned to make Japanese food for our breakfast.
Now she's so good that she's almost surpassed me, her teacher. The salmon is especially good as it's cooked to perfection. Her miso soup is tasty, and she has shown some capacity even for making yam soup by grinding yams. Actually, I think this is the first time she's made it.
"Sorry, Sakura, can you pass me the soy sauce?" "There you… oh wait, Senpai. Your soy sauce is empty." "Fuji-Nee's will do then. Can you get it?"
"May I, Fujimura-Sensei?" Fuji-Nee nods. Her newspaper trembles.
"There you go. Are you going to use it on the yam soup?" "Yeah, you usually put soy sauce on yam soup, right?" I put the soy sauce onto the white yam soup. After stirring it, I put it on the rice and take a bite.
Mm, the stickiness of the yam and the taste of the soy sau―――― "Ugh…! This is terrible! This is oyster sauce!" I almost throw it back up. And then,
"Haha, ahahahahahaha!" Fuji-Nee throws her newspaper away.
"How's that? It was my plan to switch the labels earlier this morning!" The female spy throws up her arms to show her happiness.
"W-What are you thinking!? You're always like this even though you'll be turning twenty-five this year!" "Haha. Did it teach you a lesson for what you did yesterday? It's divine justice for picking on me with everyone else."
"Divine justice doesn't come from people! I thought you were calm, but this is what you were thinking about!?"
"That's right. That's why I have to go and start grading the exams now. Yup, I should hurry up." Fuji-Nee sits back down and finishes her breakfast quickly.
"Thank you. Breakfast was lovely as always, Sakura-chan." "Ah… thank you, Sensei." "I'm going on ahead then. I'll get mad if you two are late."
And she runs off. …There's something wrong with a world in which that thing is a teacher.
"…Um, Senpai?" "Sorry about that. Fuji-Nee didn't really take the time to enjoy your breakfast." "No, it's not that. Um… did you do something to her yesterday? It's a bit too much for Fujimura-Sensei to play with food."
"Uh… well, yeah. I accidentally called her by her nickname." "I guess it can't be helped in that case. You didn't apologize to her, did you, Senpai?" "Sorry. I forgot since it happens all the time."
"You mustn't. Fujimura-Sensei doesn't like you calling her so, Senpai. You made her cry again, didn't you?" "…I made her run away too. Yesterday's English lesson was a self-study because of it." And I was awarded a student honor written on note paper, but I threw it away.
"Geez. It was all your fault, then." Fuji-Nee is like a big sister for Sakura, so she's basically on Fuji-Nee's side. That's good in its own way, but I wish she'd consider my situation where I have to deal with Fuji-Nee 24-7.
Fuji-Nee was originally an acquaintance of Father's, and she's been coming to the house a lot since I was adopted. She started to show up even more after Father died, and she's now almost a dependent, eating breakfast and dinner here.
―――No. Maybe she's why I was able to make it on my own even after my father died. Fuji-Nee, Sakura, and I are now the residents of the Emiya household.
…But I'm the only one who knows that my father was a magus. It's said that magi must hide their identities. That's why I've been hiding the fact that I'm learning magic ever since I became my father's student.
I say I'm learning, but I can't even cast a single magic spell properly. With this kind of a skill, it wouldn't make much difference whether I hide it or not. But because it was how my father wanted things, I've trained secretly since then.
I finish breakfast and prepare for school. I clean the dishes with Sakura while listening to the news on TV.
"―――" Sakura is staring at the TV screen. Over the screen runs an exaggerated teletype reading "Gas Leak Accidents Continue".
It seems there was a big accident in the neighboring town of Shinto. It happened in a building in the business district. It seems a whole floor of people ran out of oxygen and fell unconscious. They've called it a gas leak, but this kind of accident is happening often recently.
"Are you worried about the news, Sakura?" "Eh? No, not really. I just thought it's near… Senpai, your workplace is in the Shinto area, right?" "Yeah, but it's not really a big place. I don't think an accident like that would happen there."
…But it's not a risk I can completely ignore. Gas leaks can happen in any building, and on top of that, it hurts to think that hundreds of people are suffering.
It's said that the accidents are happening often because of defective construction work during the rapid development of Shinto. Whether that's true or not, I certainly don't want any more victims―――
"…It is dangerous. We'll have to be careful here too." "Oh, don't worry, Senpai. I check the gas twice every time."
Sakura boasts with pride. "No, that's not the point." …Yeah, I've thought so before, but Sakura is a bit off too.
"Senpai, did you lock the back door?" "I did. I bolted it. Is there a problem?" "Not at all. Then I'll lock the front door now. When will you be home today, Senpai?"
"I think I'll be a bit late. What about you, Sakura?" "I'll be back at the usual time. I'll probably be here earlier, so I'll start getting dinner ready." "…Yeah, that'll help. I'll try to come home early too."
We lock the gate. Sakura and Fuji-Nee also have keys to my house, and the rule is that the last person out locks up. "Let's go. You won't make it to morning practice unless we hurry." "Yes, let's hurry then, Senpai."
We walk down to the town together. Passing the long wall and going downhill, we reach the residential district. My house is on top of the hill, far away from the center of town.
Going down the hill takes us to the residential district, and beyond that… We reach the crossroads at the center of this town.
From here, there are many roads: a big bridge leading to the neighboring city… …A hill road that leads to Ryudou Temple… …The residential district on the other side of town… …The shopping district Sakura and I always use… …And the school we're headed to right now.
We head for the school without stopping elsewhere. We don't talk much as we walk up the hill. Since it's still seven o'clock, there aren't many others on the road. Other than us, all you can see are a few others heading to their morning practices.
"Well, see ya. Have fun at your club." I part with Sakura at the school gate like usual. Sakura's in the archery club, so we have to part here in the mornings.
"……" But today, Sakura doesn't go.
"Sakura? Are you not feeling well?" "…No, that's not it, but… um, would you like to come to the dojo?"
"No, I've no business there. Anyways, Issei asked for me, so I have to go to the student council room today."
"…I-I see. Sorry for troubling you then." Sakura bows. "Hm?"
"I'll be going now. Please look forward to dinner tonight." Sakura runs off like she's ashamed of something. "…?" Hm? I wonder what that was all about…?
"Issei, you there?" "I am. You're a bit late today, Emiya." He must have been studying, as Issei looks up from the paper he's reading.
"Just you, Issei? Where are the others? Shouldn't they be here now as well?" "No. Unfortunately, our members are very businesslike. They have their set work hours, and they don't want to come in early or stay late." "That's why the student council president is doing the routine duties himself, huh? I guess this place has its own problems."
"No, it's the kind of trouble I like. You don't need to pity me." "Huh? Uh, no, I wasn't pitying you or anything." "Hm. I'm not happy about that either, but I'll pretend I didn't hear it. It still means that you care."
Issei, who is organizing the papers he was reading, is the big boss of this student council room. He's the guy trying his best to reform this lax student council, and he's been a friend of mine since first year. His full name is Ryudou Issei. Despite his old-fashioned name, he has elegant features and he's really popular with the girls. And he's also the student council president, so you'd think he'd take to it like a duck to water, but…
"Hm. Hot tea is certainly a good way to start a morning." He's just sipping tea like this, so he's not that firm.
As you can see, Issei has a plain personality. It's easily misunderstood, but he doesn't involve himself in love affairs nor engage in normal student recreations. It's because he's the successor of the Ryudou Temple, up in the mountains. He's fine with that idea, so there's a good chance he'll shave his head when he graduates.
"So, what am I doing today?" "Hm? Well, I'd like to let you sit down and take a rest first… but I guess we don't have time. I'll explain as we go, so bring your usual tools and follow me."
"Frankly, our school's budget is completely unbalanced." "I know. The athletic clubs are favored, so other clubs don't get much, right?" "Right. As a result, members of the other clubs are in trouble. I'm working hard to make the budget go to them, but I'm having trouble because it's not clear where the money's going. In particular, there's no solution for the shortages of heaters during winter."[l]
"I see. Oh, can you hand me the torque screwdriver? The biggest one. And the conductive wire too. …Yeah, I should be able to fix this." "Conductive wire? …Uh, is this it? Sorry, I don't know exactly.[l] Tell me if I'm wrong." "You're right. So, what was that about the shortage of heaters? Are there other broken ones?"
"Yes. In the 2nd AV room and the art club. The petitions requesting new stoves are multiplying." "But there's not enough budget to meet the demand, huh? As I thought, it's just getting old. Good thing it's not broken on the inside."
"…Hm. You think it can be fixed, Emiya?" "Yup. In cases like this, old things are nice because they're easy to understand.[l] It's just a shorted connection, so it should last the whole year if we replace that." "I see! Good job, Emiya. I'm always so pleased when you're reliable."
"You're wording it weirdly, Issei… Oh, I'll be finished soon, so could you wait outside for a bit?" "All right, I'll be out of your way."
Issei leaves the room quietly. …It seems he assumes that I'm going to do something delicate.
"…Well, it is delicate, but…" I place my hand on the old electric heater. Usually, even if you're used to fixing things, it's hard to figure out what's wrong with it just by looking at it. So the fact that I figured it out means what I'm doing is not ordinary.
I block off my vision and look inside the heater with my sense of touch. ―――In that moment… An image appears in my head.
"…There are two places where the wire's about to break… The pipe should last a bit longer… Insulation tape should be enough for the power cord…" …Good, I can fix this with the tools I have with me.
If the pipe were broken, it couldn't be fixed by an amateur. If that had been the case, I would have had to "strengthen" it in a very unamatuerish way. But in this case, just looking at it will suffice. That is the "magic" Emiya Shirou learned from Kiritsugu.
"――――All right, let's begin." I take the cover off and start to work. I already know where it's broken, so the rest is easy. "…Man. This is the only thing I'm any good at."
That's right. Emiya Shirou has no talent for magic. Though it doesn't make up for it, I think I'm quite skilled at visualizing structures like I did just now. In fact, when I first figured out a structure and reproduced it, my father looked surprised and said "what a useless ability".
I guess my strong point isn't a useful ability. According to my father, it's already a waste of effort to perceive the structure with my eyes. For a real magus, there's no need to understand every corner of a structure like I just did.
They say that the battle of the magus comes in reading the center, the core of things instantaneously, and changing it faster than anything else. That's why reading the structure is a wasted effort, as even if you do understand the structure, all you can do is determine where magical energy could be more easily transmitted.
So all in all, it turns out that my strong point is just in fixing things like this. I don't have to open them up to look for damage. If I can quickly search for broken parts and have the skills to repair them, most things can be fixed. Though, that's only the case for simple things that can be fixed with "amateur knowledge".
"―――Done. On to the next one…" I pack away the conducting wire that I used and go out into the hallway with screwdriver and wrench in hand.
"Issei, the repairs are done." ――――But. In the hallway is someone else apart from Issei, a girl.
"――――" I'm a bit surprised. The person talking to Issei is Tohsaka Rin, from class 2-A. She's a lady who lives in a big mansion on top of the hill, a perfect honor student. Good looking, smart, athletic, and faultless. She's intelligent, well mannered, and modest about her looks. People say she's the ideal woman.
So it hardly needs to be said that the guys at my school treat her like an idol. Though in Tohsaka's case, she's so perfect that she's considered unreachable. It's commonly believed that only teachers and guys like Issei can even talk to her.
…Well, to be honest, I'm a guy too. So I'm one of Tohsaka Rin's admirers.
"……" Tohsaka looks at us as if she's in a bad mood. It seems to be true that she and Issei don't get along.
"Ah, sorry Emiya. I'm the one who asked for help, but it seems like you're doing all the work. Forgive me." Wow. Issei's an amazing man, talking like that and ignoring Tohsaka.
"Don't worry about it. So, where next? There's not much time left." "Yeah, the AV room is next. It seems it's been working badly for a while, but now it finally died."
"It can't be fixed if it's dead. It would be quicker to just buy a new one." "…True, but it'd help if you could take a look at it. It might be dead to my eyes, but only faking it to yours."
"I see. Well, let's take a look." There's only about 30 minutes left until homeroom. I'll have to hurry if I'm going to fix it.
I start for the AV room with Issei. But it's impolite to ignore her completely when we've met like this.
I turn back to Tohsaka, who's standing in a daze. "You're up early, Tohsaka." I make an honest comment, then follow Issei.
"We barely made it. Thank you, Emiya. I caused you trouble again. I would be a failure as a friend if I made you late doing things for me." "Don't worry about it. It's no big deal for me to be late. Though I guess it would be for you to be…" "Indeed. Well, I'm glad we made it." Issei heads to his seat, relieved.
It's exactly eight o'clock. The first homeroom bell has rung, so Fuji-Nee should be here in about five minutes.
"―――Phew." I'm a bit out of breath since we ran here from the AV room. Taking a deep breath, I head to my seat.
"You're so noisy in the mornings, Emiya. I was wondering what you'd been doing since quitting the club, but all you've been doing is helping out Ryudou? It's not my concern, but don't do anything to bring the club into disrepute, okay? You're pretty uncommitted after all."
Matou Shinji, a friend of mine from middle school, is standing in front of my seat. As you can tell from his last name, he's Sakura's brother who's one year older than her.
"Yo. Is the archery club doing well, Shinji?" "O-Of course…! There's no point in telling an outsider, but it's been peaceful since a certain attention-hog left. We'll do well in the next competition!"
"I see. Mitsuzuri must be working hard." "Huh? You're talking rubbish. The archery club is doing well because of me. You're just an outsider, Emiya, so you'll just embarrass yourself if you talk like you know about it."
"I see, I'll be careful. But I won't have any concerns with the archery club since I don't have any business there." I put my bag on the desk and pull out the chair.
"What's that about? You're saying you're not interested in my archery club?" "I said business, not interest. It'd be weird to go there when I'm an outsider, right? But tell me if something comes up. I'll help if there's anything I can help with. You weren't good at fixing the bows and bowstrings, right?"
"Oh, thanks. I'll call you if there's any work to be done. Though I don't think that'll happen."
"Yeah, that's good. You're not captain material if you leave work that needs to be done. Don't give Fujimura-Sensei too much trouble. She's scary when you piss her off." "…! Huh, mind your own business. You're an outsider, so keep away from the dojo!"
Shinji returns to his seat in his usual manner. …Hm, he seemed even more irritated than usual today.
"What a guy. How can he talk like that when he's the one who drove you out?" "Oh, you were here, Issei?" "What do you mean!? You're so cold, saying that to a friend who was listening in out of concern!"
"Hm? Why would you do that? I'm not doing anything that should make you worry about me." "Idiot. Of course I'll worry about you. You're the sort to lose your temper easily. Some people would cheer if you beat Shinji up, but all the girls would condemn you. It's not good to let a friend get into a situation like that."
"I see. You're right now that you mention it. Thanks, Issei. I don't think it'll be a problem, but I'm grateful for your concern." "Yes, well, as long as you understand… but it's strange. You lose your temper easily, but you're tolerant of Matou." "Yeah, that's just his style. You get used to it if you hang around him for a long time."
"Hm, I see." "Yeah. If you understand, go back to your seat. Fujimura-Sensei will fly in here any second now." "Haha. It's more like her to come floating in than flying in."
The homeroom bell rings. A homeroom teacher usually would come five minutes early, but our homeroom teacher isn't like that.
For class 2-C, homeroom starts one minute after the bell rings. Right when we hear… "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late…!" And Fuji-Nee runs into the classroom.
"All right, I made it! Good morning, everyo―――" Wham! Fuji-Nee falls over with a terrible sound.
"――――――――" The classroom is filled with silence, in contrast to the clamor from a second ago. A sudden change of atmosphere. Just as you'd expect from Fuji-Nee. Her nickname of "human jet coaster" isn't just for show.
…But that really was a bad hit. Fuji-Nee is still on the ground, having hit her head on the platform. You can't see her expression with her head facing the ground, so it gives you a bad mental image.
"…Hey. Front row. Wake her up." "…What? I don't want to. I'm scared she'll bite me if I go near her…" "…She's not a Mimic or anything. She won't go that far." "Hey, if you're saying that, why don't you do it?" "Uh, I'll pass. I'm not used to this." "Me neither! And why would you make a girl do it? A guy should do it!"
The front row is getting noisy. As we're in the middle rows, we can't tell what sort of state Fuji-Nee is in. We can't tell, so we all stand up to look.
"Hey, she's not moving. Has she passed out?" Someone asks. If so, the problem would be how to get her to the nurse's office.
Everyone here is a warrior who has been with Fuji-Nee for the past year. They probably want to get out of the habit of taking their teacher to the nurse's office.
"Fujimura-Sensei…? Um, are you all right?" A brave female student calls out to her. Fuji-Nee doesn't even twitch. A sense of worry runs through the room.
"…That was a bad fall. She hit her head right on the platform. She'd have to be invincible to come out of that without a scratch." "Hm. How about getting her for our baseball club?" "D-Don't even joke about that! The day she's in charge of us, we'd get into the regionals!" "Fujimura-Sensei, Fujimura-Sensei…! It's no good, there's no response…!"
"Hey, why don't you wake her up since you're in front of her?" "What!? No way! If she's really dead, I'll be killed!" "But things could get bad later if we leave her like that." "But no one wants to go near her." "…I guess it can't be helped. We'll have to do… that." "Yeah, that." "All right."
All our hearts become one. …Well, not Shinji and I, because we're too scared.
"One, two… wake up, Tiger!" Even though everyone said it at the same time, it's only as loud as a whisper. The "Tiger" part is especially quiet. But still… …A twitch. The silent Fuji-Nee reacts.
"Whoa, she moved!? It's working, everyone!" "All right! Continue the punishment!" Everyone must be stressed from the impending exams. Even though they shouldn't, they repeat Fuji-Nee's nickname while waving their arms.
"Wake up Tiger, it's morning!" "Sensei, you're a tiger if you don't wake up!" "Don't give up, Tiger! Stand up, Tiger!" "Yeah, wake up, Sensei! Then you'll be a true Tiger!" "T-i-g-e-r! T-i-g-e-r!"
"Gahhh!! Don't call me Tiger…!"
A roar of lightning. She stands bravely as if the fall has done nothing at all.
"…Huh? What are you all doing? You can't stand up in middle of homeroom. Come on, sit down and I'll get started." Fuji-Nee stands before everyone in her usual manner. …It seems all memories from the moment she entered the classroom have fled her head.
"…Hey, it seems Tiger doesn't remember what happened." "…Lucky. We're really fortunate this morning." "…Well, I don't know if we can call it 'lucky'…" Everyone returns to their seats, chatting.
"Huh? Did someone just make fun of me?" "No, we didn't. Maybe you imagined it?" "All right, good. Then I'll start homeroom, so listen up."
Fuji-Nee starts homeroom slowly. She chats in between the announcements, so we don't get through it very fast.
"So everyone, please note the curfew.[l] It's at six o'clock, so people with club activities shouldn't stay too late either." "What? Six o'clock is too early, Taiga-Sensei. Can't the athletic clubs be exempted?"
"Nope. And please address your teacher as 'Fujimura-Sensei'. I'll get mad if you call me that again." "All right, I'll be careful." He sits down again, not showing any signs of listening to her.
…How stupid of him. Fuji-Nee gets mad when she says she will. It makes no difference that he's a student and she's a teacher. He doesn't realize that she just gave him a final warning.
"Well, that's it for today's homeroom. Let's meet again in English class in third period, everyone!" Fuji-Nee leaves, waving her hand.
She's the teacher responsible for class 2-C, Fujimura Taiga. Her nickname is Tiger. You might doubt it, but it really is her nickname.
People like calling her so since she has a name like "Taiga" even though she's a woman. But Fuji-Nee herself hates the nickname. According to her, it's unfeminine. But she's that kind of person, so I think it's her own fault she has an unfeminine nickname.
"We're starting class. Day monitor, the bows." The teacher for the first period enters as Fuji-Nee exits. It's like this every morning, as Fuji-Nee continues homeroom until the very last minute.
And the classes end like every other day. There are many kinds of students: ones that go to clubs, ones that hurry home, and ones that stay in the classroom for no reason. It looks like I won't be in any of those categories.
"Sorry, Emiya, about the rest of the repairs… do you have time today?" "Well, I do have plans, but…" It's not like I'm just playing around. After all, the main reason I quit the archery club is because I wanted to prioritize work.
It's already been five years since Father died, and I decided to start working to pay my living expenses. If you work a lot, there are some jobs you just can't refuse.
Today's an example. They're restocking inventory at work, and they asked me to come if I can as any help is appreciated. But it's certainly not something I have to go to. They're probably just having people come in because they want to party after work.
"――――" There are two options. I―――
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Aim For The Heart | Chapter 1: At First Sight
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Pairing: hitman!jk x female reader
Genre: E2L, romance, angst, drama
WC: 4.5k
Warnings for this chapter: alcohol consumption, language, stalking kind of? I think that's all lol. Pls let me know if there is anything else I should put.
tag list; @teresaisla @hopekookies @moonchild1 @barbellastyles98 @ggukkieland @mwitsmejk @yukiehyukie
summary; Jeon Jungkook is an infamous hitman, known for his inability to fail at whatever job is thrown his way. At least, up until now. Y/n, a kind-hearted and full of life teacher, is his newest target. Jeon isn't sure who would put a hit on this seemingly innocent girl, but fortunately, that isn't his problem. All he has to do is pull the trigger. 
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A bright smile graces your features as you tuck the little star-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into a tiny container, just barely getting two of them to fit as you squish them down a tad bit in order to get the lid clipped on.
Then you grab a little tangerine and a cheese stick to drop into your lunch bag along with the sandwiches, counting the number of items aloud to yourself as they make themselves at home and then you zip it all up.
"Th-There we go!" You lift your lunch for the day in triumph.
Your phone startles you when it starts to ring, then you grapple in your purse to find it. You pull it out and answer right before the last ring.
"Hello?"
"Hey, girl! Are you ready to go? I'm downstairs." The voice of your best friend comes through the phone and you look at the clock on your microwave. You stare at the little black screen, confused as to why the time isn't showing up before remembering that you were never able to figure out how to display the clock when you bought the microwave three years ago. So, you hold your phone out to look at the time.
6:32
"Oh geez! I didn't r-realize the time. I'll be d-down in a minute, k?" You say, earning a lighthearted laugh from the girl on the other end.
"Take your time, hun. I'm not in any rush."
You thank her quickly and hang up, then you run to your room to grab your favorite pink cardigan and throw it on over your white shirt. As you're hurrying out and grabbing your lunch, you stumble and knock your knee into an open lower cabinet that you had forgotten to close the previous night after pulling a pan from it to make dinner.
"Ouch!" You hiss in pain and rub the sore spot, although it does nothing to ease the ache. Then you grab your purse and run outside, almost forgetting to lock the door. But you remember just in time and clumsily lock it before rushing down the stairs leading to the parking lot of your apartment complex.
Your best friend, Mina, is laughing. You can see her through the windshield as she waves to you. Lifting a hand to wave back, you don't realize in time that your arms are full. You drop your lunchbox and have to crouch to get it again, only taking up even more of your time.
But Mina finds it hilarious and tells you so as soon as you slide into the car and fumble with your seatbelt to get it buckled.
"Honestly, ___. I can't believe you're still single. If I wasn't straight as a board, I'd be head over heels for you and all your shenanigans." She states in a matter-of-fact tone as she pulls out of the parking spot.
A blush creeps up your neck and you try to laugh it off, "D-Don't be silly." You whisper, turning your gaze outside to look at the fluffy white clouds decorating the sky beautifully. You smile and lean your forehead against the glass as you imagine lying on a soft cloud, just drifting in the air.
"If you c-could go anywhere at all, where would y-you go?" You ask Mina suddenly, turning to her. Her eyes are focused on the road but she bites her lip in thought at your question. "Mm, probably Italy. What about you?" She's used to your sudden questions and ramblings, so she smiles when you start to go off.
"I'd wanna go up in the c-clouds. I wanna sit on one and maybe even see a r-rainbow up close! I wonder if I could slide down the rainbow..." Your brows furrow in deep thought. "Or would I f-fall?" You turn to her again and she glances over to see your signature puppy dog eyes that you use when you are either confused, upset, or want something.
Mina turns back to the road, a tiny ache in her heart that she hides with a bright smile, "Girl, you would ride that rainbow straight down into a pot of gold!"
"Really?" Your eyes widen and you feel your heart lift at the image.
She nods and you giggle happily, "You can come w-with me, Mina." You say confidently, your gaze turning back to the sky. "We can sleep in the clouds and slide down rainbows for the rest of f-forever."
"Sounds like a deal."
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By the time Mina pulls up to the school, you've discussed everything you'd do up in the clouds and what you'd eat when you're hungry (stardust, you've decided, is the best meal anyone could eat.)
You unbuckle and gather your things. Then you remember something and turn back to Mina, "Oh yeah. W-When are you leaving on your business trip?" You ask a tinge of sadness in your voice.
"This weekend," Mina says solemnly. "I'm sorry I won't be able to drive you for a while. I'll be gone for a month this time."
That makes your heart sting but you manage a small smile, "D-Don't worry about me. I can walk! I'm gonna m-miss you though."
"I'll miss you too, buttercup. We'll hang out this Friday night before I leave the next day. How about that?" Mina asks kindly.
You nod enthusiastically and she smiles, "Ok, get your butt in there before you're late! The bell rings in half an hour and you can't be late on a Monday." She urges you and you nod, hopping out of the car and thanking her again for the ride, reassuring her that you'll walk home from work today.
You blow her a kiss and she laughs as you turn and hurry into the school.
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You're all set up only a few minutes before the kids are supposed to arrive, so you go onto Pinterest and look through your fairytale boards, feeling a little spark of joy in your chest.
A couple of minutes later, the kids start streaming through the door, greeting you with the same amount of enthusiasm as you greet them. Your kiddos love you so much that all the other teachers are jealous and they let you know it every day. Of course, you have the sweetest kindergarteners and they're always the best for you.
"Hello, Teacher! Good morning Miss ___! Teacher, look at my new haircut!"
"Hi, Jina! Hello M-Minhhyuk! Kun, your new haircut l-looks so good!" All the kids have bright smiles on their faces by the time they've settled in their seats.
You always start the day off by getting everyone to stand and do a few stretches, then you sing the nursery rhymes you learned yesterday and start learning a new one. You honestly have as much fun as the kids during the school day.
"Ok, l-little ducklings, have a seat!" You get their attention and they immediately oblige. Next, is the alphabet that you guys have been working on since the beginning of the year. Every little one sings it perfectly all the way through and you give them a round of applause and they each get a little punch in their reward cards.
The rest of the day goes by smoothly, with only one temper tantrum thrown and that was resolved quickly.
It's nearing the end of the school day and the kids are all playing during their free time. You're sitting with Ae-Cha, a small and fairly quiet girl, playing with colorful blocks; the both of you competing to see who can build the highest tower. You've learned that she responds well to playing games when there isn't too much talking involved.
You're constantly glancing around the room to make sure everyone is safe and playing nicely and you're always pleased. They've all improved so much since the beginning of school back in September. It's June now and they've all learned their alphabet and how to play nicely with their new friends, along with so many other things. They've really made you so proud this year. You can even hear them reciting the alphabet and nursery rhymes to each other as they play.
Your heart warms at the sound of tiny voices filling the room as they sing. Then you glance at the clock and realize the bell will be ringing in a few minutes. So, you declare Ae-Cha the winner with her foot-high tower of blocks and she beams proudly. Then, you get up and clap three times, "One, two, th-three! Eyes on me!" You singsong, then smile when the kids immediately respond by clapping twice and shouting "One, two! Eyes on you!"
"G-Great attention today, everyone! Alright, the bell will ring soon. Who can tell me w-what that means? What are we doing n-now?" A few little hands go up and you point to the little boy that raised his first, "Yes, Joon Woo?"
"We...Uhm...time to clean up toys...Uhm..." You smile to encourage him and he finishes cutely, "Time uh, to clean up our toys and pack bags."
"Yes! Thank you, Joon Woo. It is t-time for us to clean up and make sure our bags are packed up and ready for h-home!"
The kids start to pick up their toys as you put on the cleaning song that you play every day for them. You all sing along until the room is all tidied and their bags are packed with their homework papers.
You always give them little mazes to do for homework to get their little brains to learn to concentrate, along with instructions on what to draw to show the class the next day. Today, their homework is an extremely easy maze, a coloring page with the alphabet and instructions to draw themselves doing their favorite activity. The kids always love drawing pictures and sharing them with the class and it's a good ice breaker for the shy ones at the beginning of the day.
You always have less and easier homework for the kids on Mondays and Fridays, it just seems fair to you that way. You also feel like it's good for kids to express themselves and be able to share what they like and dislike. You've found drawing helps with communication and creativity for the kids in your class.
The sound of the bell ringing makes a few of you jump, then you hurry to the door. "Alright, ducklings! T-Time to line up!" A few of the kids make quacking sounds as they line up, giggling and talking to their friends.
You smile and open up the door, holding it as the kids walk out in a straight line, some of them still quacking like little ducks.
You lead the kids to the front of the school and make sure they get into the correct line for the bus if they take it. You wave goodbye to them as the kids that take the bus climb on and they run to a window to wave back to you.
The rest of the kids that are left are soon picked up by their parents or siblings. You wave to Ae-Cha, the last student to be picked up. She smiles shyly and waves back before hurrying after her big sister.
After that, you go back to your classroom and finish a few things before packing up to go home. As you're leaving your classroom, you run into one of the other teachers coming from his own room.
"Oh, h-hello Mr. B-Baek!" You bow, missing the ugly sneer on his face as you smile brightly at him. He pushes his glasses further up his nose as he scrutinizes you with his beady little eyes. "You don't belong here, Miss ___." He snaps.
You look at him in confusion, "I-I'm sorry, I don't understand."
"I've waited the entire school year to say this to you. But now that we are nearing the end, I think you should know that you have no business being a teacher at this school. You ought to make the right decision to discontinue your work here." Mr. Baek watches your face fall with a sick sense of satisfaction.
"B-But, why?" You ask, still not understanding.
"First of all, you're inexperienced. You just got out of college last year, am I right?"
You nod uncertainly.
"You're still a child. Why should a twenty-two-year-old girl come marching in here and take a spot that should have been given to someone with more experience? And especially someone like you." He glares at you before turning on his heel and walking away briskly.
Someone like me? What does he mean by that?
You watch after him, feeling a tiny pinch in your chest. You aren't sure what he means, but whatever he's talking about, it sounds like he believes you shouldn't have become a teacher at all. At this school or another. You'll have to ask Mina later because you really have no idea where his rant came from.
Is there something wrong with you becoming a teacher?
You shake your head and laugh it off, "He's probably just had a bad day." You tell yourself as you make your way out of the school.
As you walk home, you sing quietly along with the song in your headphones, a little skip to your step.
You never notice the dark figure across the street, his eyes trained on your every move.
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One day earlier...
Jungkook groans as he tosses and turns in bed, searching for his phone to turn the alarm off. He finally finds it and hits dismiss, tossing the phone back down and rubbing his eyes with a tired yawn.
After another minute he sits up and looks out the window, frowning at the sun seeping in and pooling across his floor in a golden river. He stares at a small bird that lands on his windowsill until it flies away.
Jungkook yawns again and reaches up to rub his eyes for the second time. After a few minutes, he's finally able to drag himself out of bed and into the shower. He almost falls asleep again in there, but he manages to make it out after half an hour.
With a towel wrapped around his waist, he makes his way to the kitchen and grabs a bottle of soju that's sitting on his tiny dining table to take a small swig from, finishing off what he'd left last night after his third bottle right before he passed out in bed.
He sighs and grabs a bagel, searching for the cream cheese he swears he saw in his fridge last night. A small smile appears on his lips when he finds it. He snatches it and makes sloppy work of spreading it on his bagel before tossing the leftover trash onto his counter and plopping onto the couch, snarfing down the first half of his bagel in thirty seconds.
Jungkook sighs through his nose as he tiredly chews his breakfast, then he glances down and sees the file he'd left open on his coffee table last night. He swallows the bite he has in his mouth and leans forward to read over it.
Y/L/N Y/N...
Why is that name so familiar?
He shakes his head and flips the file closed, then he leans back on the couch, wanting to spend his Sunday relaxing before he has to get to work on this case. He isn't going to think about it again until tonight.
Jungkook settles down and lays his head on the back of the couch, closing his eyes and breathing deeply.
He won't think about it.
Jungkook lays there for a minute, then he opens his eyes and lifts his head, glaring at the closed file on the little table.
He grunts in annoyance and drops the other half of his bagel onto the table, grabbing the file angrily and sitting back again. He opens it and starts to reread everything he's read many times since Friday. There's just something that has felt off since he met with Mr. Ling, but he can't put his finger on what it is.
Jungkook squints at the name he's read a thousand times.
Y/L/N...Y/N...
"Ugh." He rolls his eyes, frustrated at not being able to remember where he's heard that name before. Then he looks at the occupation.
Teacher at Sunshine Kindergarten.
His brows furrow again, much like they have each time he's read this. He's never had a hit on a teacher before, let alone a Kindergarten teacher. That's such an odd target...
Most of his targets in the past have been sleazy business owners, rapists, leaders of gangs that have terrorized neighborhoods for years, even other hitmen. He's never had a problem with those jobs, but there's something about this one that's telling him to be careful.
Maybe it's because he knows nothing about his client, except for the large sum of money he must have due to the pay he's been promised. Other clients of his were more than happy to explain why they wanted him to do what he does. They never paid him until after the job was done, either.
That leads Jungkook to believe that this guy (or girl) is desperate for his services, convincing him to do it with payment before and after. Almost as if Jungkook would refuse after he found out who the target was...
Jungkook flips the page and scrutinizes the picture of the target.
She's very simple looking, Jungkook thinks. The girl in the picture is wearing a white flowy skirt with a blue blouse that covers her whole arms and white chunky tennis shoes. Her hair is in a low ponytail and it seems like she has headphones in as she walks down the street. There's a tiny smile on her face as if she's thinking about something that makes her happy.
Jungkook doesn't find her particularly beautiful, but she isn't ugly either. She's just very...
Simple...
Jungkook shakes his head, his eyes going over the photo and the girl's smile one more time. Maybe she's a double agent? Or a part of the mafia disguising herself as a school teacher?
He can't figure it out.
It doesn't matter much though, the job seems simple enough and the pay is more than he's ever gotten. After looking through everything once more, Jungkook closes the file and grabs his bagel, quickly eating it before getting up to get dressed for the day.
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That night, Jungkook lays out his outfit for the next day.
It's all black, but not suspicious-looking. After all these years, he's been able to design the perfect outfits to avoid attention being drawn to him and simple enough so that no one would think much of him if he were to catch anyone's attention.
It might seem simple, but he prides himself on being able to get each part of his job perfectly designed for each case he gets.
Heaven knows it's taken him years to accomplish.
After he's gotten that all figured out, he walks over to his closet and pulls out a small safe. Setting it on the bed, he swiftly unlocks it and looks inside. He pulls out a few things, examining each of them before he sets them one by one onto his bed. Once he's got the items all laid out, he steps back to look it all over.
"I should wait to decide..." Jungkook mumbles to himself. After a minute of staring at everything, he nods and gathers it all up, carefully putting it back into the safe and locking it tightly. Then he brings it back to his closet and shoves it into the darkest corner where it lives.
That can wait.
He pulls his phone out and checks the time.
11:45
"Damn it," Jungkook mutters. He had wanted to get some sleep earlier tonight since he would have to be awake early tomorrow.
He changes into some shorts, then he yanks his shirt off and immediately climbs into bed, not even bothering to shower or brush his teeth. He really couldn't care less with how tired he is. And he hasn't even started yet.
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His alarm blares at an ungodly hour as Jungkook groans loudly, resisting the temptation to chuck his phone across the room.
"I hate Mondays." He mutters angrily, setting his phone back on the nightstand far from gracefully.
He miserably drags himself out of bed and into the shower, going through his morning motions almost like a robot. His brain isn't fully awake and it's just on autopilot right now.
An hour later, he's just finishing his coffee, his eyes no longer squinting in exhaustion. Jungkook unceremoniously drops his coffee cup into the sink, promising himself he'll clean it up later, then he sighs as he grabs his black boots, walking to the couch to sit and pull them on. After he's done lacing them up, he grabs the file he's been avoiding like the plague since yesterday morning.
He mutters to himself, looking at the name on the page.  
"I know that name."
Then he smacks his forehead to get himself to focus again. He stands up and folds the page with the girl's information and then her picture and tucks them into the inside pocket of his black jacket.
Time to get to work.
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Jungkook spots the girl almost instantly, the second she steps out of a black car. He glances at the driver, but can only see a person with shoulder length black hair waving. The girl from the picture has a bunch of things in her arms as she blows a kiss to the short-haired driver.
Jungkook has been here since six-thirty in the morning and just as he was beginning to think she called in sick for work, he's finally gotten a chance to see this girl in person. She looks exactly as he remembers from her picture...plain.
She's even wearing the same white skirt and chunky tennis shoes, although this time she has a different top. Her hair is in a high ponytail this time.
"Well, ___. Nice to meet you." Jungkook mutters, watching closely.
After a moment, the black car drives away as the girl scurries into the school, tripping on the last step before straightening herself out again, then disappearing from his sight.
Huh.
Jungkook stares at the door for another minute, then he makes his way to the stores nearby, knowing he's gonna have to wait until the girl leaves. School for the young kids typically gets out at around three-thirty. So, he'll have to be back here around then.
He's definitely going to need to find something to do to kill time.
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Jungkook heaves a sigh of relief when he hears the school bell finally ring.
He hurries from the clothes store he was browsing and down the street a block until he's almost across the street from the school. He finds a good spot where he can sift through some newspapers at a little stand and still have an eye on the school.
After a minute, he sees a long line of tiny children coming out from the school. The girl is with them and smiling brightly. Jungkook thinks he can hear some of the kids quacking like ducks. He tries not to look puzzled as he goes back to talking to the person working the paper stand. Jungkook makes small talk with the old man, still keeping an eye on the girl across the street as she waves to each child that leaves.
If she's some mafia boss disguised as a kindergarten teacher, she's one hell of a good actress.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" The old man inquires curiously.
Jungkook laughs softly and shakes his head, "No. I've been so busy with my work I never got the chance to date."
The man nods knowingly. They chat a bit more and Jungkook finds himself trying to balance talking to the man and watching the girl.
"Well, did you want to buy a paper for the day?"
Jungkook turns his gaze back to the old man and nods, "Yes. Two, please. My neighbor would probably enjoy one as well."
The old man laughs and nods, taking the money Jungkook hands him and giving him two papers, "What a kind young man you are. Someday you'll find a lovely young lady, don't you worry, son. You will realize that work is important, but love is even more so."
Jungkook just laughs and thanks the man, then he opens the paper as he slowly starts walking, pretending to read.
He stops at a bench and sits down to wait. The girl went back into the school a few minutes ago, hopefully, she won't be in there long.
Luck seems to be with him today, because, after only about five minutes, Jungkook sees a familiar white skirt flowing as she skips down the steps of the school.
He folds his paper carefully, tucking it into his back pocket. The girl puts little earbuds in and immediately starts to mouth the words of whatever song she's listening to. Jungkook tugs his black baseball cap down a little more as he follows on the other side of the street.
The girl has a bag decorated with cupcakes and cookies that bounces up and down as she dances a little.
What is she, twelve?
Jungkook watches in confusion as the girl stops to pet a dog, giggling when the puppy licks her hand. She straightens up, then after another minute, she seems to get distracted by something else.
Jungkook looks carefully and notices she's picked up a flower that was laying on the ground, seemingly trampled on. She gently holds it in her hands as she continues on her way. It goes on like this for the next fifteen minutes, the girl waving to people and smiling almost the whole way.
By the time she is walking up the steps to her apartment, Jungkook is dying to just get back home. That must have been the longest most annoying walk he's ever taken while tracking someone. The girl had stopped over twenty times, distracted by something else each time, he's sure of it.
Just to be sure, Jungkook lingers around the apartment building a little longer, but when it seems apparent that the girl is going to be staying there, he finally heads home.
Geez, Jungkook thinks in annoyance as he climbs the stairs that lead to his own apartment. His head is spinning with so many questions while he unlocks his door and yanks his boots off with a groan.
But when he plops down onto his bed in his tiny studio apartment, he just stares at the ceiling, his mind suddenly blank apart from one question.
Who in the hell would put a hit on this girl?
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Copyright © @writemywaytoyourheart 2021
Next
a/n: I hope you guys are liking the setup so far, thank you for all the positive reactions from the prologue!
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the-fiction-witch · 3 years
Text
Blind Date p1
REAL LIFE
COUPLE TBS X READER
RATING ADORABLE AF
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I sat with my friend luke as we had some coffee outside of a local london cafe. 
"How's things with you and arthur?' I asked before having a sip of my tea
"Great got the ticket confirmations for our trip to south korea" he smiled
"Awesome" I laughed
"You have got to get back on the dating game"
"Eh, I like dating I just don't like the apps and stuff you know, tinder is just people looking for sex I want something more then two shags and another blocked number" I sighed 
"You know I had this exact conversation with someone earlier" he laughs 
"Luke I am not going out with Mikey so his parents think he's straight we've been over this" 
"Not Mikey,"
"Who then?"
"A mate of mine, little older then you, into motorbikes, fits your aesthetic-"
"I don't need a boyfriend who fits my aesthetic"
"Don't you?"
"Shut up"
"And I was having this exact conversation with him this morning, he hates the Apps and wants to meet some nice girly for more then a fling"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, trust me dudes a boarded line technophobe" he says "I had to go over and show him why he kept getting instagram notifications"
Which made me giggle 
"You see, how about I see what he's doing and arrange you two a little blind date?"
"I guess so Luke" I shrug 
I sat at my vanity in my tights, bra and underwear, slowly taking my hair out each curler and brushing it down a little so the curls where not quiet so intense doing my make up nothing too heavy as it is first date and a blind date at that. Once I was done I got up and forced my heels onto my feet already hating it when my phone went off 
Luke: hey hun, your date just left and is on his way to the restaurant have fun you too ;) 
I slipped my dress on and packed my handbag slipping my Jacket over my shoulder, 
Y/n: okay tell him I'm on my way, how will I know him?
I locked up my house and headed down the driveway as my phone went off again 
Luke : he says he's waiting outside with a cigarette and a present for you
I was worried but I kept walking down the dark, half broken London streets, all I had to light my way was the street lamps and my phone as I followed the maps to the restaurant, the clicking of my heels against the pavement, the sounds of cars and buses rushing by, why did I wear these shoes? I hate these shoes. Why did I walk? Why didn't I just get a taxi? Ughh I am so having a large red wine when I get there. I saw I was just down the street from the place so I put my phone away and checked my make up and reflection in the window of a closed shop. I was all good so I took a breath a walked up to the restaurant initial I panicked as I didn't see anyone, but I saw a little down the street where some chairs and tables sat for the restaurant during the day, it had a black metal fence to seperate it from the rest of the pavement, a man stood there.
He was taller then me, if I had to guess from here he wasn't six feet but high fives atleast but I think the shoes helped. He had black dress shoes, a black pair of suit pants with something in his pocket, a tight leather belt a black button down tucked into the pants with a slight patten I wasn't sure what of in it, he had a black slightly trench coat like jacket over him a ciggertte in his hand, watch on his wrist, he looked nervous in his face even if he still looked attractive, his hair fixed to one side alot clearly still a little wet from where he had washed it. He was the only one around so I went closer catching his attention away from the ciggertte in his fingers, his eyes glanced to me looking me up and down quickly taking in alot of me much like I did to him moments ago. He put the ciggertte out on the metal fence and smiled 
"Y/n? By any chance?"
"Yeah" I nodded 
"Ahh great, I was getting worried" he says 
"Yeah I uhh I walked" I smiled "sorry luke didn't"
"Oh, Thomas" he smiled offering his hand 
"Lovely to meet you" I smiled taking it he gave my hand a gentle kiss 
"Lovely to meet you too, he uh he didn't say you'd be so beautiful" 
"Ohh well thank you very much" I blushed "he didn't say how handsome you where"
"Your sweet, ohh uhh I got you something" he smiled moving his hands to his pocket "I wanted get you a real one but all the shops where closed so I thought then you can keep it longer" he smiled heading me a silk rose 
"Ohh thank you, it's beautiful" I smiled happily taking it "shall we go?"
"Well if you'd like to have dinner with me?"
"I'd love to" I smiled offering my arm, he happily linked arms with me and lead me inside he delt with the hostess and we where lead to a table that overlooked the outside garden space of the restaurant closed up at the moment for the night I went to get my chair but he stopped me 
"No, no let me" he says pulling my chair out for me
"Ohh why thank you" I giggled letting him tuck it under me and then take his own seat across the table "your very sweet" 
"First impressions you know" he smiled fiddling with his hair 
"Can I get you two started with some drinks?" The waiter asked bringing some meal menus I hadn't even looked at the drinks one on the table already but I knew what I wanted 
"I'll have a large glass of red wine please" I smiled 
"Very good madam, and for you sir?"
"Uhh I'll take a large cola, I'm driving" he answered
"Aww don't make me drink all by myself" I laughed
"Ughh alright, white wine but make it a spritzer" 
"Very good," he says before heading off 
"Sorry I shouldn't" I began
"It's okay, your right. One drink with you isn't going to hurt" he says 
"So you drive here?"
"Yeah, it was pretty far so I just drove" he shrugs "you said you walked?"
"Yeah, I thought I'd have a wine and I didn't want a taxi"
"Perhaps if we… go out again I'll have to come by and pick you up" 
"If?"
"If" he smiled "you ever been here before?" He asked as we both glanced over the food menus it was all so impressive and I had no concept what half of it even was 
"No never, have you?"
"Once but they have… changed things since I was here last"
"What sort of things?"
"The thing I liked has disappeared from the menu"
"Aww that's disappointing"
"Yeah, but hopefully that will be my only disappointment this evening" he says gently moving his hand across the table so his fingers grazed mine not looking up from the menu as he did. 
"Let's hope" I smiled gently moving my fingers against his own the waiter returned and we out in our order and he dropped off our drinks "so? How do you know luke?" I asked 
"Uh, not all that well actually." He says "I went to school with arthur"
"Ohh, yeah I like arthur"
"I kinda think it's impossible to not like arthur he's a bundle of joy and enthusiasm" 
"He is," I laughed
"How do you know luke and arthur?"
"Luke and I where neighbors growing up, he's probably my best friend" I smiled "he said you uhh don't so all apps and all"
"Ohh no not really, I keep forgetting my phone does more then just… be a phone. I'm not good at all the twitter, facebook, and that sort of thing"
"Yeah me neither" I smiled just then our food arrived "so uhh… how long have you been single? If you don't mind me asking"
"Ohh uhh," 
"It's okay, I shouldn't have asked" I said playing with my food a little
"No, not it's alright, I understand if your curious" he says "about six, seven months now. So… not to long,"
"Six months isn't that long" I said more to myself 
"Yeah I know, it was uhh a quick seperation you could say" he says "do you uhh mind if I ask?"
"A year" I answered trying to smile 
"I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked"
"It's okay, he ran off. Cheated on me got another girl pregnant" I said 
"Y/n. I'm so sorry" he says taking my hand 
"It's okay, I'm good" I answered smiling at him 
"I feel like I have to tell you now since you told me" he laughs
"You uhh don't have to"
"No it's okay, moved to the other end of the world, missed her family and all, and then just broke it off said she found someone down there so" he says "very much done and over"
"I'm sorry"
"It's alright, if she hadn't then I wouldn't be on this nice date with you" 
"Smooth" I laughed having some wine
"I try" he smiled "sorry I haven't even asked you what you do or anything"
I explained my job to him as simply as I could and he did likewise explaining it in that wash where you never completely say what your job title is but give and overview of what you do, the conversation moved to family and such, and we ended up just chatting about everything and nothing for a good while until we had finished eating, our plates taken away just nursing our drinks 
"I uhh I have to be honest y/n." He spoke up
Yay, here it comes the this was really fun but I'm not feeling any connection or anything
"I uhh I really like you,"
I stopped short almost choking on my drink 
"Sorry I know it sounds a little strange when we have literally been on one date but, I really like you. And I would really like a second date if… you wanted to go out with me again?"
"Yeah I'd liked that" I blushed "I'd love to go out with you again Thomas"
"Great uhh when are you next free?" He asks 
"Well I have nothing going on tomorrow night"
"Yeah me either," he says moving his hand to ghost mine a little "anywhere you wanted to go?"
"I've been dying to see that new movie everyone's been talking about" I said moving my hand closer too "but since it a horror, you'll have to promise to hold my hand if I get too scared" 
"I'll happily hold your hand, weather your scared or not" he smiled taking my hand intertwining our fingers "shall we get the bill?"
"Yeah its a long walk home" I said 
"I'll drop you off home don't worry about it" he says as he got the waiter to bring the bill 
"You sure? I don't want to be any trouble"
"I'm sure it's no trouble at all. And I'll pick you up tomorrow for the movie" he says "ooh I should probably give you my number so we don't have to talk though Luke'
"Ahh yeah good point" I said as I got my phone and we traded numbers just then the bill came so I reached for my purse
"No, no I'll get it" he says getting his wallet from his pocket
"No I can't let you pay it's not fair"
"I'm more then happy to y/n, its a date put your purse away it's on me" he says putting his card on the table 
"We split it. I insist" I said putting mine with his 
"Alright, but I'm paying for the tickets tomorrow" 
"And I'll pay for the popcorn" 
"Alright love" he smiled
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yunho-es · 3 years
Text
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Member/s: Seonghwa (ATEEZ), Namjoon (BTS)
Genre: soft/angst
Warnings: swear words
Words: 2133
"May I take your order?"
"Chocolate croissant and orange juice, please." I say, handing back the breakfast card to the waitress. "Namjoon?"
The man in front of me lifts his look from his card. "I will have blueberry pancakes, please." he gives back his card and smiles politely at the waitress. She smiles back at us and leaves with our orders. "I heard your little boyfriend is in town." he coughs.
"Little baldie is here?" I reply calmy, ignoring the fact that he calls him my boyfriend. He laughs and slaps his hands at my words. I know his laugh is coming from his heart when he does that.
"Why baldie?"
"Since he became a little famous on YouTube with his singing he behaves like a kpop idol; dyeing his hair 3 times a month." I roll my eyes and look over at the kitchen door, waiting for my meal to come out.
"So... He's behaving like me?" Namjoon raises his eyebrow.
"You can make fun of me but at the end of the day you are the ones that will end up bald." I can't help myself so I start laughing and he joins. "Also, he's not my boyfriend."
"If we ask you, of course he isn't." the brown haired boy looks towards the kitchen door too, ignoring my suspicious look. Then he takes his phone and starts texting someone.
"What do you mean if you ask me? Who else do you ask?" I know who, but I want to hear the words from someone else so I can be sure. But Namjoon pretends he doesn't hear me and continues to type on his phone. I look down on his screen trying to read the person's name. "Typing on the phone while you're with someone is considered rude, in case you didn't know."
I lean back in my chair and watch his face, waiting for a reaction. But he doesn't move anything except his fingers. Finally, I saw the waitress coming towards our table.
"I swear I'm gonna eat all your pancakes." he smirks and leaves his phone.
"If you do that, it will be your last meal." he says with a wink. The waitress put he croissants and orange juice in front of me, then the pancakes with a glass of water in front of Namjoon. Just as she was about to leave, he stops her. "One medium vegetable omelette and sausages too, please. Thank you."
I give him a confused look. "Don't you have to watch what you eat?" he looks at his pancakes, then at me, then back at his pancakes.
"What are you talking about? I am watching what I eat." he proceeds to stare at his plate. "And it looks delicious." as soon as he said that he stuffed his mouth with the blueberries first, then pancakes.
"You're so funny I forgot how to laugh. Sometimes I miss you when you have a busy schedule but I get tired of you real soon."
"Isn't she a delight?"
I turn around quickly as I feel a voice near my ear. "Holy sh*t!" I jump and the person laughs.
"Nice to see you again." the blonde haired boy said. Just two weeks ago he had blue hair and a different clothing style. "Hi, Namjoon."
"You made it! Unfortunately I'll have to go as soon as I finish this but you have your little girlfriend here." Seonghwa sits next to Namjoon on the opposite side of me and smiles. "You two enjoy. I ordered what you told me." so that is why Namjoon was on the phone the whole time.
The two of them start a small talk and I find myself staring at Seonghwa. His look changed, but his facial expressions and body language didn't. I know exactly how he reacts when he's surprised, angry, happy or sad. I know his eyes very well. Speaking of his eyes, I noticed him giving me a few quick glances. My boyfriend, says Namjoon. I can't wait to find out what that is about.
***
"Kids, it was nice seeing you, but Hoseok told me I have to leave soon to catch them on the bus." Namjoon takes his jacket and puts his sunglasses on. Then he does his little handshake with Seonghwa and hugs me. "Enjoy your meals!"
"How old do I have to be for you to stop calling me a kid?" the blonde boy complains.
"I don't know. All you can do is wait and find out." finally, he gets up and leaves the cafe. Now I'm left with one chocolate croissant, half glass of juice and a boyfriend. They say that based on your morning, that's how the rest of your day will be. Let's see.
"Hi." he speaks first. "I'm sorry I didn't ask if you were comfortable with me coming here. I know that you're not a big fan of me." I notice one of his movements when he's nervous: playing with his fingers and rings.
"Says who?" I can be rude towards him sometimes, roasting the h*ll out of him just to have a good laugh. But as time passes I realise that while I'm getting the laugher, he's getting the embarrassment and lower self-confidence. Today I will be the best I can. "Just because I make a few jokes sometimes that doesn't mean I can't stand you."
"I wouldn't say a few jokes..." he grabs the fork and starts picking the remaining vegetables on his plate, then continues. "Are you still working in the same place?"
I explain to him that our boss had a case in her family and gave all employees three days off. He nods his head at my words as a small sign that he understands. "What about you?" I finish the other croissant, together with the juice and lean back into my chair, ready to listen to him.
"I have a few days off too. Not because something happened to my boss, but because I accidentally set the studio on fire." he replies calmly. I stare at him wide eyed, waiting for him to laugh or at least say that he is joking. But when I see that he doesn't even look at me I realise he is serious.
"Even though I'm really curious about what happened, I have another question."
I decide to ask him about Namjoon's words. It is a joke, but there must be something that created it: a situation, or a person. Seonghwa finishes his plate as well and takes a sip of his water. Then I decide that we should rather take a walk. We've been too long in this place and I need fresh air. I will ask him about it outside.
***
It is a warm, sunny day, just like they said last night on TV. Seonghwa decided that a nearby park was a perfect place to sit and talk, and I agreed. So here we are, sitting on a wooden bench, listening to birds.
"Look, I wanted to ask you-"
"Namjoon told you, didn't he?" he interrupts me. As usually, he avoids to look at me and instead just looks around the park. I turn my body towards him, putting both of my legs on each side of the bench.
"He didn't tell me much. If you want, I can pretend that I don't know anything and you can say what you wanted instead of him." I try to speak as calm as I can. With his hands in his pockets and his lip under his teeth, he still refuses to look at me. I never saw how pretty his side profile is. He truly looks like an idol: with his clear skin, sharp jaw, almost perfect face proportions.
Finally, he sighs and turns his head towards me and catches me staring. "I think I have feelings for you." he goes straight to the point. My mouth suddenly gets dry and I try to think of my next words, but when he sees that I'm trying to speak, he puts his hand up as a sign to stop. "Let me finish. Believe me when I say that I have no clue when this started, and how it started. You always made fun of me and my dreams, but I laughed with you. You always refused to go out with me anywhere, and when you did go out with me, suddenly a third person would join. In case you didn't notice, I found a job in a studio on the other side of the city, just to be far from you. That way I could help both of us, but it didn't work. I still have no f*cking idea how I fell for a person like you, but I'm-"
"A person like me?" I raise my eyebrow. "What is that supposed to mean?" the blonde haired boy laughs at my words, making me even angrier.
"From all of the things I said, that's what you decide to ask me? Yes, a person like you. A mean person. A person that would embarrass anyone just to give the crowd a good laugh, even if it meant breaking the person. You know what? Forget it. I'm going back to the hole which I came from and I'll continue working hard on my stupid and impossible dreams, as you say. I don't even know what I expected from you." with those words, he gets up from the bench, not giving me a single look. Then he starts walking away. It takes me a few moments to replay all of his words in my head, and I get mad at myself for getting mad at him. He has every right to be like this, but one thing I still can't understand.
"Hey, idiot!" I slap myself mentally. Was it hard to call him by his name? It stayed as a habit, I guess. As expected, Seonghwa doesn't turn around, so I'm forced to run towards him. I grab his arm and stand in front of him, thinking of my next words. A sorry is all I can say. His gaze is killing me. From the look on his face I can see that he is remembering all the moments I let him down. I've never felt more ashamed and bad. He laughs sarcastically again and keeps walking. "No, please! You have no idea how sorry I am. All I wanted was to fit in I didn't even think about-"
"That's the thing. You didn't even think." he interrupts me for the second time today. "I hope you feel at least a little bit like I felt most of the time."
He's trying to look angry, but every few seconds his gaze softens. I used a boy with dreams to impress people I didn't even know. As a result, I broke him.
"But still, my mind and my heart are so tired and broken that I still wish to grab you and kiss you right here, hoping that you won't push me away." the words leave his mouth as a soft whisper. My hand is still holding his arm and I can't seem to let go.
All the words he said to me made me see him in a different light. I always saw him as that guy with good grades, but too big dreams, as the guy who could take all the jokes and even make jokes about himself. But right now, in front of me stood a grown up man, confessing everything so bravely. And his wish became true; I did feel a bit like he did. Humiliated and ashamed, but ashamed of my behaviour, not my dreams.
As we stood like that in the middle of the park, I didn't notice that he closed the gap between our bodies and gently removed my hand from his arm. "I really want to kiss you." he admits and waits for a response.
"How can you kiss a person like me?" my eyes are slowly starting to get teary as I keep replaying all his words in my head. He doesn't respond to that. Instead, he grabs my face gently with both his hands and presses his soft lips on mine. I close my eyes with a sigh and allow myself to return every kiss he gives me. I melt into his touch and find myself asking for more. After a few very short kisses, he pulls away.
"How can I not kiss a person like you?" he smiles. "You did make me feel miserable, but that didn't stop me for developing feelings for you. And I always believe in second chances when it comes to people. So please use it well."
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freebiebird · 3 years
Text
SILENT LOVE
Hey my "YOU",
Stopped by to write a silent text...
Don't stumble while you walking,I won't be there to catch you.
Don't catch feelings too soon on anyone,I won't be there to keep an eye on you.
Control your anxiety when you search something and don't get,I won't be there to indirectly make it available.
Don't talk to me so much silently,I won't be there reading your eyes.
Take your food on time though I always got a tiffin for us but never had guts to tell ,"Let's eat together my mini lunch",I won't be there to check if you are gone home in lunch either by my presence or by calling someone.
Don't walk out from your chair every half an hour to watch what am I doing,I won't be there to tell you" Love you too" , silently.
Don't go out anywhere without finishing your water,Stay hydrated.
Dont close the doors and windows around you,I know what it meant,but I won't be there saying,"Let the fresh air and light come in".
Don't ruin your life taking bad addictive things,live long for the people who need you.
Don't get irritated on my absence,I won't be there to calm you by my presence.
Don't walk out in the middle of something to have a glimpse of me,to know whether I am safe,I won't be there saying"My sweet little monster,I will come over and eat you if you don't stop doing these stupid things", silently.
Don't wait for me to return till lunch so that we walk out together,I won't be coming anymore you know.
Don't murmur stupid things like burr-burr,hussh-hushh...you know it sweeps me off my feet.
Don't leave stupid things in your office drawer where people come and make fun of it,I won't be there to put it aside.(I never opened but saw them do it,it's totally upto you if you believe or not and they told me afterwards,please don't tell)
Make sure to arrange a key for office your drawer and check it before you go anywhere,I won't be there to check that all is untouched.
Don't talk to yourself so much while working,I won't be there to watch you and go wooooooooooo
Don't be in a hurry always to walk in or walk out ,atleast wear your shoes nicely,I won't be there to compliment you "why are you so cute"?
Don't be late to home and be such an workaholic,I won't be there nagging and requesting to go home.
Don't be engrossed in your mobile games so much that you forget that the world around is playing with you,I won't be there noticing.
Don't leave ur tea cup as it is in the table after you are done,I won't be there taking the final tiny little sip.
Don't leave the cap of your water bottle in your table as it is,I won't be there to check it.
Don't come out of the washroom keeping the basin water open,I won't be there to have a check on it.
Don't skip meals or go restless,I won't be there saying" I will do what you do".
Don't trust anyone around you,I won't be there to give them a robust comment .
Don't miss me so much always,I won't be there to hug you tightly just by being with you.
Don't do stupid playful things with anyone, what we did,I won't be there to tell "Hey,She might be literally playing you"..Common,Not all girls are naive like me who will fall in love with you.
Don't tell anyone "Uff,It's started to rain" ,I won't be there to give a smile and write 100 poems on you after you are gone home then.
Don't tell anyone," If you do anymore the same mistake,I will.....",I won't be there to committ it again and again to get your attention by lovable kind words or scolding.
Don't drink too much,I won't be there always to kiss you to sleep silently.
Don't wear your black collared t- shirt,short sleeves too much,I won't be there to fantasize "If you don't kiss me now,I will kiss you forever ".
Don't run away from your cabin often as you can't withstand my absence,I won't be there saying"I can stay in office all day long,I have no problem".,
Don't notice my empty chair so much,I won't be there to hold you and say" It's okay,It's not your fault".
Don't tell me to "Go home,it's late.People will spread rumours.Well,we already knew they did.But see,it happened what you wanted..I am gone ..but you too said- You will be home but late !! Guess ..when?
I just want you to know - "YOU ARE LOVED,NO MATTER WHAT.CUSS,LOVE,HATE ME- I WILL ALWAYS PROTECT AND CARE FOR YOU".
Because Nobody cares.
And so ,"WILL CONTINUE LOVING EACH OTHER IN SILENCE".
And then,
You know,
I do for you,
You do for me,
We do for each other....
(Afterall, YOU are my last
{S}ignature)
~11:11
6 notes · View notes
rikumorimachisgirl · 4 years
Text
So, I started writing this Mystic Messenger fic last year but lost the inspiration to continue. I finally finished it today, so I hope you like it.
Oh, and I commissioned this lovely artwork from @hydeine last year, too. I said I'd tag her when I finally post the fic. I suppose today's the day. Here we go...
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Title: Strawberry Pancakes
Pairing: Jumin Han x OC (Iris)
Genre: Fluff
Word count: 2,665
Author's notes: Some of the scenes were faithful to the game.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mystic Messenger, but I own the idea of this fanfic.
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It started with pancakes. Those thick, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth fluffy stove-top cakes that both of them - apparently - were both fond of. 
The first time they talked about it got him into a spot of trouble. Over an utterly dull lunch date with his father and his latest conquest, amidst the rich ambiance of the Michelin star restaurant where only the who's who in society were spotted, Jumin Han chose to indulge in a little tête-à-tête of his own at the RFA chat room with her. 
Her. Iris  - RFA's accidental member, unofficial party organizer, everyone’s cheerleader, and about the only other person who resonates with him. Jumin quietly as he waited for her to respond to his last message. Over the last twenty minutes, they have gone from talking about Elizabeth the 3rd’s grooming habits to his favorite breakfast food.  
| ‘I like chocolate chip pancakes.’  He felt his lips stretch sideways as he read her message. It was strange, he thought, how he's been joining the chat room more often since she joined. In the two weeks that they've been chatting, he felt closer to her than he's ever been with anyone in his life. 
| ‘I figured you would.’ He typed and sent.
|’Huh?’
|’You seem like the type who'd indulge in something with high sugar content early in the morning.’
|’That was a lucky guess, Jumin.’
|’But I don't believe in luck.’
|’Oh, and I suppose you think you've got me all figured out already? If you're so smart, tell me what I’m thinking at the moment.’ He smirked at her cheeky response. 
| ‘Iris, I'd like to remind you that I’m a businessman, not a fortune teller. If you’d like me to infer based on our conversation though, I'd say you're thinking that I like buttermilk pancakes, to which the answer is no. I prefer strawberry pancakes.’
Silence. 
| ‘Am I really that predictable?’ Her message finally came in two minutes later. He chuckled. In his mind, he imagined she probably would’ve pouted as she replied. 
“You seem rather amused, son. Did something happen?”
The sound of his father's voice snapped him out of his daydream. The young executive silently cursed himself for carelessly dropping his guard. Clearing his throat, Jumin straightened up and ran a hand through his dark locks. 
“My apologies, father. I had urgent business to take care of.” He tucked his phone in his pocket while wishing that Iris would understand why he hadn't gotten back to her. 
“Judging by your smile, I take it that business is going well?”
It took all of his willpower not to roll his eyes at his father's new girlfriend. Glam Choi was it? And what was it that she did? Judging by how she managed to turn heads, he deduced she must be some kind of celebrity. Nothing special, he thought; after all, his father, the Chairman of the Board of C & R International, seemed to have dated them all - socialites, celebrities, models, beauty queens - some of whom were even a year or two his junior. 
“Jumin? Are you all right, son?”
He silently cursed himself once more. While he was silently judging his father’s new girlfriend, he had once again dropped his guard and gave the older man the opportunity to call him out. 
“My apologies.”
“That's twice you've apologized. My, what an interesting day it is indeed, ” the stately older man said curtly. “Is our company not to your liking, son? Please just bear with us for a few minutes more. After all, your assistant told me that you won't have an appointment in the next hour or so.”
Jumin took a deep breath and sighed. If he had only known his old man’s agenda was to introduce his new girlfriend, he would’ve begged off right away. God knows he’d much rather be eating pancakes with her now than having a full-course meal in this place. He shook the thought away for a moment. Now wasn't the time to dream of her. Fixing his grey eyes at his father and the young celebrity he decided to date, he feigned a smile. “Very well, father, you have my full attention until then.” 
OoOoO
The second time they talked about pancakes was more of an afterthought. It happened right after their first kiss. 
Their first kiss. The very thought of it still made his heart race. He remembered every little detail as if it were yesterday. He had Assistant Kang to thank for arranging everything for him. Thanks to his efficient employee’s quick thinking, he was able to meet Iris a week earlier than the rest of the RFA members, although if he had a chance to do it over, he wouldn't be as flustered as he was when he first laid eyes on her the night before.
He watched in awe as she stepped into the foyer. She was everything he’d imagined - slender and graceful, her brown hair cascaded down her back, and her dark brown eyes looked back at him with the same level of wonder. 
“Jumin, i-it's so nice to finally meet you.”
He swore he’d never felt his heart beat faster than it did at that exact moment. ‘Get a grip, ’ he scolded himself, as he schooled his emotions before it got the better of him. He must not lose his footing, after all, he was Jumin Han - businessman, philanthropist, future CEO.
“You’re beautiful.” The words slipped from his mouth quite naturally, and he immediately regretted it when he saw her cheeks turn several shades redder. 
“I’m sorry, ” he cleared his throat. “What I meant to say was that I hope you traveled safely. If I had known Assistant Kang was going to ask you over, I would’ve sent out my driver to pick you up.” 
And then she smiled, and he knew right away that he was going to do whatever it takes to keep her. 
“Who is this woman and what is she doing in your house?”
Jumin gazed at the shameless woman his father had been forcing him to marry and resisted the urge to throw her out of his penthouse himself. 
“Sarah, please don't be like that. I'm Jumin's friend -”
“And what kind of friend comes a man's house alone? By the looks of it, you probably stayed the night, too!”
If Iris was the least bit upset at the insults hurled at her, she did not let it show. Unfortunately, he was far from being gracious. 
“This is dragging on far longer than I expected. I'm actually quite surprised I hadn't thrown you out the door the minute you showed me that fake cat picture. My security will show you out.”
“What? No, you can't do that. I'm your fiancée,” Sarah cried out incredulously. 
“Oh, please,” he said haughtily. “If you think that we'd  gotten engaged just by exchanging a few words, you're clearly delusional.”
“So, you're choosing her over me?”
“I don't know why you're even asking,” the dashing Chief Director of C & R International said, as he turned his attention to the willowy brunette who stood quietly in the corner. Something about the way she looked at him urged him to come closer to her. With each step he took, the answer became clearer. He stopped in front of her and smiled. She was a good head shorter than him, and she looked adorable gazing up at him with those big brown eyes. 
“It wasn't like I had another choice to start with,” Jumin finally said, his eyes never leaving hers. “Iris,” he whispered, as he lifted her chin and closed the gap between them. He could've sworn he felt a shock wave run through his body the minute his lips touched hers. Suddenly, the sound of Sarah's protests faded, and all he could hear was the sound of his heartbeat - or was it hers? He really couldn't tell - but every single one of his senses zeroed-in on the beautiful woman in his arms.
Her lips were the softest he’d ever kissed - not that he’s had lots of experience - as a rule, he only kissed women because he needed to close deals with them and the kisses they shared were always cold. This, however, was different. As his mouth moved over hers, again and again, all he could think about were two things - how her kisses taste like strawberry pancakes, and that he could never get enough of her. 
OoOoO
The third time they talked about pancakes was a memory guaranteed to make her blush almost immediately. He remembered vividly - Provence in July, a month after they'd gotten married. He promised to take her on an unforgettable honeymoon anywhere she wished. He thought she'd choose to go to Paris, Santorini, Milan, or even Ibiza, and he’d be happy to take her there; but instead, she chose to go to his newly-purchased winery so he could still oversee their daily operations while spending time with her and Elizabeth the 3rd. 
That's so like her. 
He woke up alone in bed one Sunday morning. Frustration marred his beautiful face as he ran his hand over her now-empty side of the bed, and found it still warm. She couldn't have been gone for long, he thought. And Elizabeth the 3rd, who usually enjoyed sleeping late, was not in the room as well. Still half-asleep, he forced one eye open to glance at the clock on her nightstand. 
‘Six-thirty, ’ he groaned silently, as he rolled on to his back. What exactly could his wife be up to this early? Sighing, he rolled out of bed and left the room in search of the beautiful woman who disappeared from his side before he even got to kiss her good morning. 
The house was quiet except for some movement coming from the kitchen. Raising an eyebrow, he quietly made his way to the large French country-style kitchen his wife loved so much and found himself entranced at the sight of the lovely brunette he now called wife, stirring something in the mixing bowl while their pet sat on the counter, looking curiously at her. 
"I hope I get this right, Elizabeth the third, " she told the cat softly. "Jumin's pancakes always taste good, so I hope he'll like these."
Her innocent declaration made him gasp. She was making pancakes for him. And that realization made him pick up his feet and head over to where she was at. 
"I see you both are up early."
"Jumin -, " she cried out in surprise, as she felt his arms wrap around her waist from behind. "Good morning, my love. I didn't expect you to be up so early."
"I could say the same about you, especially after we made love several times last night, " he responded, as he planted soft kisses on the side of her neck. Her cheeks turned red at the thought of their passionate night together, and he smiled, knowing how embarrassed she was. "You're blushing."
"I can't help it…, " she murmured. "And I think you've disappointed Elizabeth the third." 
He watched their pristine white cat jump off the counter and saunter out of the kitchen. "I think she's just giving us some privacy. Don't worry, she'll be fine, " the dashing young businessman said as he stopped kissing her, but kept her in an embrace. "So, tell me what you're up to." 
"I was going to make strawberry pancakes for you, " she started, her face still flushed. "But I'm not sure they're as good as the ones you make."
"Is that so?" He unwrapped his arms and moved closer to the counter where the mixing bowl was. "I suppose there's just one way to find out." 
She watched in silence as he dipped his long and slender finger into the bowl and scooped up a tad bit of better. Carefully, he brought his finger near her lips, while watching her gently. "Say ahhh…, " he said and laughed at how dutifully his wife complied. "Well?"
"It's sweet…"
Cocking his head to one side, he smiled at her wryly. "Is that so?"
"Why don't you taste for yourself?" 
His eyes twinkled with excitement, as she failed to realize how enticing her offer was. Cupping her face with his hands, he leaned forward and whispered, "I suppose I will, " before he ravished her mouth - and all of her body - over and over just like the night before. 
The pancake batter was left untouched until later that day. And as she had placed ointment on the scratches she had left on his back, he feasted on the strawberry pancakes she had made just for him. 
OoOoO
The fourth time they talked about pancakes was on Valentine's Day - the first of many they'll be spending together. He thought of many ways they could be celebrating this together and spent a lot of sleepless nights thinking of the perfect present for her. Never once did he think they'd be spending the day spooning her in bed, with one hand caressing her swollen belly. 
Thirty-eight weeks. She had been carrying their first child for nearly nine months, and despite her growing belly and her slight weight gain, she continued to look even more beautiful. 
"I really want pancakes, Jumin."
His hand stopped moving, and he raised an eyebrow at her upon hearing her request. "Darling, I asked you what you wanted for Valentine's…"
She snuggled closer to him as she felt his low voice vibrating on his chest. The gentle sound of his voice always soothed her and the baby, and she wanted to hear more of it today. "And I told you I want pancakes."
He frowned, feeling a little upset at her answer. In truth, she could have anything she wanted - jewelry, cars, all the designer items a woman could get her hands on - but all she wanted to for Valentine's was his home-cooked pancakes. "That's all you want?"
"That's all I want, " she hummed. A few seconds later, she felt the baby kick and the sensation made her giggle. "See? Even the baby wants pancakes."
"But the doctor said you should lay off sweets…" He should have known better than to speak those words because no sooner had he said them, she immediately turned to him with sad puppy eyes. He sighed. He knew at this point that he had lost to her once again - after all, he could never resist her - but he wanted to make her victory a little harder. "As I was saying, the doctor said…"
"But Jumin, I haven't had anything sweet since we found out I was pregnant, " she said, pouting. "And I'm really craving the strawberry pancakes you make."
"Will that make you happy?"
"Very much so."
Sighing again, he untangled himself from her and rolled out of bed. "All right. I suppose I can alter the recipe a little bit. You just lay there and rest, okay? I'll be back with your pancakes."
Elizabeth the third jumped from her bed and walked beside Jumin as he stepped out of the room. "How long do you think before she rolls out of bed and follows us?" He asked, glancing sideways at their precious feline as she mewled her response. "Ten minutes? That's too generous. She's been too fussy lately, but something tells me you're spot on, so we need to move fast."
And true to form, a very pregnant Mrs. Han waddled out of their room ten minutes later, enticed by the mouthwatering scent wafting from the kitchen. 
"Those smell heavenly, " she said excitedly, as she made her way beside her husband and stood on tiptoes to give him a kiss. "Thank you, Jumin, " she whispered before she waddled towards the cozy little breakfast nook she had designed for them. 
He smiled, as he watched her walk away from him. She had no idea how happy she's made him, how lucky he was that she came into his life, and how thankful he was for all the many things that brought them closer together. Especially strawberry pancakes.  
The end. 
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Superheroes with Secrets: Seen Through Different Eyes Part 1 (Fic part 117) (Set in 2001)
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Around 2000 Words. 18+ in places.
please inform me if you wish to be tagged/untagged from posts.
Tags: @piratewithvigor
‘Giantess’ Kirby Roussimoff x Shane ‘Hurricane’ Helms (Circa 2001)
Reference Posts: Shane ‘Hurricane’ Helms
Kirby ‘The Blacklight Bandit’ Roussimoff
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"I think I've got an idea."
"Oh really, what ya thinking?" Kirby asks gently.
"Should clarify that it's a secret idea that's gonna take a while to plan."
"Wow, way to make me suspicious about what you're planning, I'm never going to sleep at this rate." Kirby half-jokes.
"Just know that's it's gonna be good. Really good."
Kirby's phone goes off on the nightstand, "alright, whomst the fuck." She murmurs.
"A lunatic, it has to be."
Kirby checks her phone, "why is Kurt awake and more importantly, why is he texting me?"
"What’s he want?"
"I'm not sure, it says, 'Hey Kirby, can I have a chat with you, whenever you're available', which is weird because Kurt never texts me."
"Sounding like he's got a scheme."
"Yeah, well, his scheme better not involve me."
"Got beef with Kurt?"
"I don't have beef with him, but what I do have is a list of reasons not to do any backstage segments with him, mainly the whole Kurt-Stephanie thing."
"Jeez, I'd be more concerned about the other McMahon he beat the shit out of. I really don't know how Shane got through that match alive."
"Shane's a McMahon, you know how they're built." Kirby chuckles.
"Yeah, but he was almost broken in two."
"True, but it was his idea to persist with attempting the spot."
"Which is why he's crazy"
"He's a McMahon." Kirby states flatly.
"Exactly."
Kirby shrugs, "they're all just, insane."
"Absolutely. You'd have to be to come from that family."
Kirby stretches her arms, flexing as she does so but not showing off intentionally.
"I always forget just how built you are until you flex." He chuckles.
"I only work out so my muscles match my strength." Kirby murmurs.
"Definitely not complaining."
"You like what you see, Shane?" Kirby teases.
"Absolutely."
"You wanna touch?" Kirby purrs.
"Yes please."
"Then touch me, feel me, I'm all yours."
"You sure you don't want to finish eating before I ravage you?"
"I'll finish my food, but I'm fine with you touching me, anywhere you want to." Kirby whispers.
"I'll keep that in mind."
Kirby goes back to her food and quickly finishes her meal, going to the bathroom afterwards. Helms finishes not long after, lying back against the bed.
Kirby comes back in after freshening up, "what a handsome man, such a strong and loving presence." She whispers.
"Also feeling lazy and covered with grease." He grins.
"Well, we can sleep, or you can ravage me."
"I'll take the second option."
"You wanna ravage me, mon sauvage?" Kirby questions teasingly.
"Yes please."
Kirby climbs into the bed next to him, pulling Helms into a heated kiss. He kisses her back eagerly, licking off the remaining ice cream from her lips. Kirby moans against his lips, sliding one hand down to his crotch and gently squeezes his cock. He groans softly against her lips, his head tilting back.
"You wanna taste me?" Kirby questions teasingly.
"So badly."
Kirby guides one of his hands to her crotch, kissing his neck softly.
"Only thing sweeter than ice cream is my wife's pussy." He grins.
"You charmer." She whispers against his neck.
"That's me." He grins.
"You know, I wouldn't mind being chained to the bed." She purrs.
"Mm, is that a fact?"
"Yeah, fact of life, Sexy man."
"Think I might be able to chain you up."
"Really, baby daddy?" She questions teasingly.
"Absolutely. Enough so you can't even squirm."
"I thought you liked making me squirm." She teases.
"I do. But it's even prettier when you can't even squirm."
"Evil little beastie." She jokes as she kisses his jawline.
"That's what you love about me."
"One of many things I love about you."
"You sweet-talker."
"Sweet but honest."
"One of the many things I love about you."
"You flirt." She murmurs as she kisses his neck and nips at his flesh.
"Would it be forward of me if I requested to undress you, tie you up, drink your blood, then fuck you until you beg for mercy?"
"No, go right ahead, mon sauvage."
"Good. Lie down."
Kirby does as he says, laying down and putting her hands above her head. Helms climbs off the bed to fetch the handcuffs from her bag.
"I love you endlessly, my hero." She purrs.
"I love you too, sweetheart. So damn much."
"I absolutely love you, mon mari, you complete me."
"So do you."
"My perfect opposite and my one true love." She whispers.
He clasps the handcuffs around her wrists and the headboard. "My better half."
"Two halves make a whole, and it takes two to make a baby." She murmurs.
"Damn right." He chuckles.
"But, we've already started on that, mon mari." She chuckles.
"You're on your own for the rest of the making. I'll just be cheering you on from the side."
"And protecting me, and providing me relief, and making me feel beautiful."
"All part of cheering on, sweet stuff."
"I love you, mon ange. I have no doubts that you're going to be a great dad."
"I hope you're right."
"Shane, I'm certain you're going to be fine, alright, mon ange, you'll be an amazing dad."
"And you're gonna be just as good a mom."
"Thank you, mon amour, I'll believe that when we've survived a year as parents."
"If I can believe I'll be a good dad now, you can believe you'll be a good mom now."
"Alright, mon mari, I'll be a good mom, from this point on, I'll believe that." She whispers, blushing a light pink.
"Thank you. Truly, that's all I ask."
"I already technically a mom, so I'm doing great so far." She whispers to herself.
"You definitely are."
"And technically, you're already a dad, so you're also doing wonderful."
"Guess we're great parents already."
"Yeah, but there's always room for improvement, or so people say."
"That's also true."
"I swear people only say that when they have no advice to give."
"Well, do you have advice for how I intend to eat you out?"
"Well, I don't have advice for how you do that, but I can suggest foreplay." She purrs.
"Mm, what kind of foreplay?"
"Take it slow, be sensual."
"I can do that."
Kirby smirks as she gets comfy, "if I could, I'd marry you again in a heartbeat."
"Well, I already married you a second time, what's stopping you from doing the same?"
"The fact that I intend to make you blush in public when I do."
"And you say I'm the beast." He laughs.
"I just want people to know you're mine." Kirby teases.
"They'll know. I'm sure they'll know."
"Eventually the whole world will know, and then, I'll cut back on trying to show off how much I love you."
"You don't have to cut back."
"If you don't want me to cut back, then I won't. I'll make everyone know how much I love you " She states proudly.
"No qualms about that." He grins.
"Even if it makes some people uncomfortable, mainly X-Pac, I'll keep going, mainly because fuck Sean."
"I keep waiting for him to come back and apologize. Guess I should probably drop that mentality."
"As if a member of the Kliq would ever apologise. Biggest bunch of dicks in wrestling." She almost growls out the words.
"Do you have prior beef with them?"
"Kevin fucking Nash, and motherfucking Hunter Hearst Helmsley, if I could, I'd smash their heads together."
"What'd they do?"
"Nash found out I used the term 'Giantess' to make myself feel terrible about my height, so, he and Hunter started calling me it. Then Nash made it worse for me by sneaking up behind me one night and pouring ice cold beer down my back and pantsing me outside a bar the night before a show."
"What about Scott and Shawn? Just wanna know how much Kliq ass I need to kick?"
"Scott was alright for a while, he didn't want to piss me off because he knew how strong I was, he saw me literally lift a car. Shawn ... Shawn would flirt, he saw me as little more than a ring rat given a job when I started."
"So I'll save their asses to kick last."
"I thought Sean was good ... should've known better than to trust a member of the fucking Kliq."
"I'm just sorry we didn't figure it out before we invited him in."
"It's not your fault, it's mine, I had so many years to figure him out and I didn't."
"I'm sorry it had to end that way."
"He along with so many other people led me on to believe that they liked me and would never hurt me, doesn't matter where I was at the time, I got taken advantage of." She admits softly, not looking at Helms.
"He fooled me too." Helms sighs.
"I guess I've always been desperate for people to have friends and a family."
"So have I..."
"I just wanted to be loved, not just in the sense of family, but to have someone like you, sooner, would have helped me so fucking much in those earlier years."
"I hope for the time being... maybe I can be enough."
"You are all I ever need, and all I've ever wanted." She whispers, trying not to let him hear her voice cracks as she holds back her tears.
He leans forward and undoes the handcuffs, pulling her into a tight hug.
"I fucking love you, Shane, I'll always love you and I just want to be with you, forever and always." She whispers, her voice wavering as she struggles to hold back tears.
"You'll always have me. Nothing in this world could ever tear us apart."
"Shane, you're so fucking perfect."
"Only to you, my love. And no one else matters."
"I don't really feel like having sex anymore. I'm sorry." She whispers as she wipes away tears.
"Didn't think so. That's why I unlocked you. And even if you were in the mood yet, I wasn't sure if I was anymore."
"I just wanna hold you."
"Then hold me. Let me be your teddy bear."
"I promise not to crush your spine." She whispers.
"I appreciate that. I like my spine where it is."
"My favourite person to hold, my tiny husband." She half-jokes.
"Am I really that tiny to you?" He chuckles.
"Maybe." She murmurs.
"We're not even a foot apart, and I'm no more than sixty pounds skinnier."
"Proportions, Shane," She whispers as she pulls away, covering his face with her hand, "proportions."
"I'm just saying..." He mumbles from behind her hand before moving her palm enough to speak clearly. "...that the difference between us... I think you think it's more than it actually is."
"Because I've been raised to see myself as a giant, bigger than everyone else who doesn't have gigantism." She explains.
"I think in your head, you're bigger than you actually are."
"Maybe you're right, can't really change that about myself without help, though."
"Then let me help."
"I'll let you help, but how can you help?" She asks gently.
"There's a mirror in the bathroom, right?"
"Yeah..." She whispers
"You willing to join me in there?"
"Sure..."
He takes her hand and leads her into the bathroom slowly. She looks at Helms before looking at herself in the mirror, thoroughly confused.
He stands her in front of it, standing right behind her. "What do you see right now?"
"Me, tall, blonde, pale ol' me." She states matter-of-factly.
"Yup. You. You're so goddamn beautiful, I can hardly believe it sometimes."
"You say that, I ain't seeing it." She murmurs.
"You see your eyes?"
"Yeah."
"They sparkle when you're happy. I could compare them to the ocean, but they're so much more than that. When you're happy, your eyes look like a tipped snow globe at Christmastime. They shimmer and light up and when I look at them, I see a bright future. Do you see your lips?"
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samknitchester · 6 years
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I'm on mobile, and idk how to insert a read more from here. This is a fairly personal post, but nothing graphic/nsfw. Possibly triggering(?) if you have experience caring for elderly loved ones. Just keep scrolling if you don't wanna read this, I guess.
I know I've posted about my mom having health issues before, but this one's on my dad.
This happened last Sunday (mother's day). I know I didn't make a post right away. Maybe I was a little shaken. Maybe it just didn't occur to me to get online about it.
Relevant info: My dad and I are T1 diabetic (meaning insulin shots) and my mom is T2 (no shots). They're both in their 60's.
The day started out pretty normal. I gave mom her card/gifts, ate, got in the shower. While I'm in there, Mom tells me Dad is mowing the lawn, and I have to help move lawn furniture.
Ok. Whatever.
After that, Dad came in, had lunch, cleaned the inside of the car. (Idk about the outside.)
Eventually we all lied down for naps at different times. Somehow, we all woke up at 6. Mom thought it was too late to go anywhere, but Dad insisted. (We always go out for mom's day dinner because lunch time is too crowded.)
At the restaurant, Mom and I finished our meals first. Odd. Then we notice Dad.
He's struggling with his food. It's not in an "I ate too much, and I can't eat anymore" kind of way. His hands and even his arms are shaking and unsteady. He's scooping the food up as for a spoon instead of stabbing at it the way a fork should. He's missing his mouth. When he wants a drink, he's picking up the cup and tilting it to the point that it's pouring out onto his plate. There's a straw, and he does usually tilt some to aim the straw. He was looking right at the straw and missing it, too. He's lucky it's running down the side of the cup to the plate instead of directly to his lap. Mom tries to talk to him about it. His responses are a little slower than usual and curt in tone. I can think two things right now. One: his sugar is low. Two: he looks not quite all there. Senile, even.
Mom looks at me. We know where this could go.
"You said your sugar was low earlier, and you ate some candies. What was it?" - Mom
"61." (A little low, not dangerous.)
"How much (insulin) did you take?"
"20." (A usual amount for him, but given his sugar and his meat-and-egg-based meal, too much. Knowing him, the "candies" he ate were half the serving on the label, if that.)
He's still trying (poorly) to eat, and now Mom and I are trading worried stares.
"Should I step out and call 911?"
"No."
The next few minutes are just him struggling and making a mess while Mom and I watch him and each other. Then it's Dad insisting we leave while Mom insists we should wait for his food to kick in. (None of us are denying that it's low. Dad's just denying that it's a problem.)
"Ok, I'm stepping out to call an ambulance."
The dispatcher comes off a little insensitive, to be honest. I guess she thinks I don't need any comfort since I seem calm. She wants me to go back in and give her a front seat play-by-play, but there's a lot of background noise and I have a hard time focusing my hearing. I walk to the window we were seated by. Dad's being held up by two strangers that I assume work there. (I later learned they were just nearby customers who rushed over when he fell.) I hear, then see, the firetruck and EMT SUV. The dispatcher ends our call.
They ask if I made the call. I say yes and lead them in, adding as much information I can that they might not have yet from the call. They pull a gurney through the restaurant to him.
Dad insists on sitting in our booth. He doesn't want to go to the hospital. They're okay with that. Mom tells them he fell. They check his sugar. It's 24.
Twenty. Four.
Once, years ago, his sugar dropped like this was during the night. Mom tried to help with juice and such, but he went comatose.
He went comatose at 22.
He's at 24.
If I had waited so much as two minutes longer, he could've gone into a coma.
They give him this tube of flavored sugar paste. It's like toothpaste but grainier and flavored lemon instead of mint. (That part is a little ironic since Mom and I love lemon, but Dad... Dad hates lemon.) They check his sugar. It came up five. They give him a slice of pie. It doesn't budge. They give him half an IV of sugar water. It comes up enough for them to let him leave. Again, he refuses to go to the hospital.
We ended up being at the restaurant for two hours, one of which was after closing. The ride home was sorta quiet. Dad was mellowing out from the physical reactions; Mom and I came down from our adrenaline rushes.
I'm still... shocked that I was the one to make that call (decision, not be on the phone). I was so level headed about it? How??
Looking back, Mom basically waited until Dad went comatose last time. She even mentioned to someone that if she'd waited longer than she did, he could've died. Good thing I was there.
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weightloss18-blog1 · 6 years
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Perfect Fat Burning Dinner -- Even If You Can't Cook!!
New Post has been published on https://designweightloss.com/perfect-fat-burning-dinner-even-if-you-cant-cook/
Perfect Fat Burning Dinner -- Even If You Can't Cook!!
Hey everybody! Hannibal Bray, Perfect Day Lifestyle and I'm gonna take just a couple of minutes to show you a super easy way to prepare a healthy dinner for one even if you have zero cooking skills okay? But first things first let me give a little shout out here to – what's up Atticus? Atticus is gonna play the part of my cameraman today he's gonna help me out here aren't you okay and I also gotta give props to Babette, Babette's gonna play the part of the cat just kind of doing her thing, so first things first it's all about the prep it helps if you do some prep ahead of time I'm gonna do a video this weekend probably Saturday and Sunday I'll do a couple of videos as I'm doing my prep for the week and I'll just show you guys exactly how I do this how I get all my salads ready how you can actually do a lot of the cooking ahead of time so if you've got a busy lifestyle like most of us do it's still real easy so let's um let's go over here do fridge so in the fridge here's what I'm gonna get I've done my prep already so I've got my uh my salad basically just some leftovers from last night I got my Bubbies sauerkraut which is awesome and that one's almost empty so I'm gonna get may get a second one here we're gonna finish that off and then I'll bring this out just you can see this is my my recipe for the salad dressing and then while we're in here eggs so these are hard-boiled eggs because tomorrow morning I gotta get up really early I don't have time to cook before I hit the road so I'm just gonna grab two eggs hit the road and go and what what's this what what I don't think I don't think this is on the Perfect Day Lifestyle is this is this Atticus is this yours is this yours? okay all right so not everybody here at the Bray household is on the Perfect Day Lifestyle and that's okay so I'm gonna hand this off to Atticus here he's gonna do a little bit of filming for me all right you got that buddy all right so what do we gotta do sauerkraut so sauerkraut is awesome and if something about fermented food I never knew this I mean you can make your own fermented foods sauerkraut's like the easiest one like readily available to get you can get this at the grocery store and I really prefer this this Bubbies brand because there's no vinegar or anything in there you don't have to cook this to do anything to prepare it except just spoon it out of the jar right and you're supposed to like leave it in the juice you can drain some of the juice out of there as you start to work your way through the bottle but I've kind of measured out before I try and do a full cup size serving because I'm
you don't have to do that if you're already pretty fit yeah you don't have much weight to lose you don't have to do that but I'm in still in like maximum weight loss mode where I'm trying to drop another 10-15 pounds and so I'm maximizing these fermented foods, if when I fill this little thing up here I know it's about a cup about one cup of sauerkraut so that's all set ready to go and the other thing I'll show you is this is so I've already got my lunch all set ready to go for tomorrow too so I've got this ready I got this handy dandy little neoprene deal and I've got these little guys right here I've got a bunch of these so I can fill them up with sauerkraut so I've got ready to go and we already see the salad I'm going to show you what we do with that all right so sauerkraut's all done take a peek there zoom in yeah sweet treats out of the way if you if you want to try out this recipe I mean it couldn't be simpler for salad dressing yeah we have to go to salad dressing recipes around here this is one and I have another video here you can see kind of how you put it all together and the other one is even simpler it's just lemon lemon juice I take half a lemon take a little little squeezer and I usually put this little thing like this lemon juice and then olive oil give that a little stir that's uh that's my wife's favorite so we do that we mix it up kind of 50/50 with this so we got our sauerkraut ready to go this is how how I pack my salads screw-top I don't have to worry about this making a mess got my little salad dressing here this is rubbermaid you can get these on Amazon but it holds like 2 tablespoons of a salad dressing which is perfect I got my protein here so this is typically gonna be I know this this may not look like much but when you're eating everything else here on this your perfectly balanced meal plan this is plenty this is really plenty of protein about the size of your fist and this is probably a little bit a little bit smaller but I'm taking like a protein shake in the afternoon so I'm trust me I'm getting plenty of protein this is just chicken thighs and you can bake like a whole tray of these in the oven on the weekend and that's what we do is this is actually half of one chicken thigh season just with salt and pepper no olive oil none of that I just put it on the on the on the tray with some parchment paper or some aluminum foil and you're good to go little paper towel in there just to kind of keep you know stuff from getting all mixed together so all I do in my salad again I'll show you this this weekend but I've got some greens you can buy some some pre-sorted fresh greens I usually throw in some some red cabbage just because I like the antioxidants and cabbage is really good for helping you to get into ketosis and this isn't a keto diet per se but there's some elements of a ketogenic diet that are certainly in here carrots I go easy on carrots because there's a lot of sugar in carrots but carrots are fine in salads I won't run them through my juicer though because it just turns them in a straight sugar we got some green pepper got some green onion I got walnuts I've got pumpkin seeds and that's about it so what do i what I like to do is I take the salad dressing give a little shake and I can do this anywhere I can do this if I'm at, you know working at a hospital cafeteria I can do this in my car you know if I get stuck somewhere or whatever and I usually screw this back on you know shake oh so this I don't even know Atticus is asking me what size are the the containers I don't know I got these away it spilling oh, is it spilling? no biggie dump it in there get all the good stuff in there take my little fork make sure we're all set and if you want you can heat up the protein whether it's you know chicken or chicken or steak or fish but I can just have cold usually totally fine if you want to heat it up you sure can and you can have this on the side I usually just dump it right in the first couple times ended I thought it was kind of weird to add the sauerkraut into the salad but now I've really developed a taste for it and it is all good just boom there's my dinner and I promise you I will not be hungry this will fill me up um if I do find myself hungry I've got some broccoli from last night I'll pull that out and I'll throw that in the microwave well that's it guys healthy dinner for one because oh you don't thing I wanted to address healthy dinner for one I mean when if you if you're trying to adopt a more healthy lifestyle right whether it's exercise nutrition it can be and I was kind of joking about it at the beginning you know my wife's got you know the sweet treats here the first two or three weeks this would have been a real problem if this was in the fridge okay I would have gobbled this right up and like like nobody's business um cuz I have yeah cuz she always has leftovers and that was that was part of the dilemma for the last two years um my wife went back to school for a second career long hours out the door early home after like 8:30 9:00 o'clock at night so I'm kind of left to my own devices and I was traveling a lot to work making really bad food choices and then we got pregnant with this one and so for two years you know I had excuses for you know why I was eating like crap so I had habits that I had to overcome you know I had you know I know you know I had I'd uh I'd detox you know I had to go through the the carb withdrawal and all that and it only took about ten days to really detox off all the hey buddy only took about ten days to detox off all the carbs but I'll say it probably took a full six weeks if not closer to eight weeks to establish the new habit to the point where this is ingrained in me and I'm like fine like in social situations other people are eating crap or if I can smell you know fresh bread or you know if somebody else is drinking like you know I will I will drink alcohol again but right now alcohol is not it doesn't contribute to weight loss and you know I believe in moderation if you're trying to maintain but I'm not in maintenance phase yeah I'm still trying to lose weight so I just made a decision that if it doesn't contribute and help the weight loss it's not on my diet for me okay once you get down to your target way you can reintroduce things you can reintroduce some of those fruits you can reintroduce some of those carbs particularly particularly you know you're gonna be more active so it's not just one diet it's not just a one specific meal plan that works and everybody's a little bit different but what I found to work is you know these perfectly balanced meals where I have my eggs and my green juice in the morning I have a lunch that looks almost exactly like this a dinner that looks almost exactly like this and I supplement in the afternoon with a protein shake and I take some vitamins and stuff that I'll talk a little bit about later in a future video but hopefully this helps and if you know if you can get the whole family on board that's great but even if you can't you just have to carve out you know carve out some shelf space in the fridge you know carve out some cupboards and and that's what we did before we started this we came back from Thanksgiving and I'm like all right hun, this little cupboard here is mine this little spot here is mine you can keep all your you know your goody stuff because you know you can't inflict this on somebody else if they're not ready to make a healthy change that's um that's you know that's cool you just have to you have to do you know you have to do what's what's best for you what's what's going on? Nicole:I said "plus, I'm breastfeeding" Oh, I guess I didn't really take the hint Plus, my wife's breastfeeding so she's yeah she's definitely got to to supplement and eat a little bit more but I can't see the comments if you have questions shoutouts go ahead and drop him in here if there's certain things that you'd like us to cover in in future videos let me know give me some ideas or anything you're seeing popping up oh yeah Nick just said next thing you know you'll be on the food TV on food TV I don't buddy I don't think there's any any danger of that, Gordon Ramsay or Martha Stewart I am NOT but I'm all about keeping this real if I can do this Rachael Ray keeps it real, Rachael Ray yeah next it can be then mister Rachael Ray, Rachael Bray or yeah alright appreciate you guys I want to encourage you if you have not here let me flip this around boom if you have not um downloaded yet I've got this uh show you this here I've got this free report here okay it's called Perfect Day Lifestyle it's just a one pager here this is exact this is all the elements of the program this is exactly what I did to lose 52 pounds in ten weeks and you may not have that much to lose you may have more than that to lose but download this totally for free go to perfect day lifestyle dot com, check it out and if you have friends who want to check this out to invite them to join the Facebook group here, we'll talk to you soon, take care!
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You Had Me at Step One: The Recipes We Can't Quit
New Post has been published on https://culinaryinquisitor.com/you-had-me-at-step-one-the-recipes-we-cant-quit/
You Had Me at Step One: The Recipes We Can't Quit
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[Photograph: Vicky Wasik, J. Kenji López-Alt]
What are your criteria for a Valentine’s Day crush? Exciting and obsession-worthy are good starts. But we look for other traits, too—tender and comforting is nice, and trustworthy, steadfast, and reliable are all musts. Ideally, they’ll also be eye-catching and captivating, they’ll stimulate your senses, and they’ll always, always leave you wanting more. And, of course, variety in texture is of paramount importance—and we’re definitely partial to a balance of sweet and salty, tart and herbal…
Oh, that’s an important distinction. We’re talking about our food crushes here, not human ones.
Romance with a real, beating-heart life form is all well and good, but a beloved recipe will let you have your cake and eat it, too—or your pie, or the eggplant parm of your dreams, whatever the case may be. Below, you’ll find the recipes that, for us, check all the above boxes and more. These are the dishes that we come back to time and again—the meals we gaze at lovingly, take countless pictures of, and can’t stop bragging about. You might say we’re too engrossed in our work, that maybe we should consider stepping out of the kitchen and tending to our relationships with friends and family. To that, we can only reply: These recipes would never say that about us.
Pressure Cooker Chicken With Chickpeas, Chorizo, and Tomatoes
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
Whenever someone asks me what I make in my Instant Pot, I tell them about this recipe—it’s the first pressure cooker meal I ever made, and it’s super easy. Why? You simply throw in the ingredients and cook them on high pressure for 15 minutes, and dinner is ready. What’s more, most of the ingredients are things you likely already have in your pantry, like chickpeas, paprika, chicken stock, and diced tomatoes. Just pick up your chicken and chorizo, and you’ll be good to go. I really can’t say enough about how delicious this is—it’s spicy and salty, comforting and filling. It’s hearty, but the dash of sherry vinegar at the end gives it a wonderful brightness. I like to pour in some couscous at the last minute or prepare some rice on the side, then eat the leftovers all week long. —Ariel Kanter, marketing director
Get the recipe for Pressure Cooker Chicken With Chickpeas, Chorizo, and Tomatoes »
The Best Cherry Pie
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]
When Stella first joined the Serious Eats team full time, among the first things we asked her to prioritize were classic fruit pies, like apple, cherry, and blueberry. She was not excited. “I don’t really like pie,” I remember her telling me, her slight Southern drawl dragging out the word “like” so as to more delicately deliver the bad news. “No kidding? That’s crazy…but you can make pie, right?” I shot back, the pushy New Yorker in me cutting to the point. “Sure, I can make pie.” I wasn’t too worried. With Stella’s talents, her pies weren’t going to be bad, that much was certain. So when she flew to New York to make and photograph her pies for publication, I looked forward to tasting them. Still, given her warning, I wasn’t expecting to take a bite and then have my eyes bulge from their sockets, a condition that I believe has caused a permanent change to my glasses prescription.
Stella’s pies, and her cherry pie in particular, are the greatest pies I have ever eaten anywhere in my entire life, full stop, period, the end. And I love pie, so that’s saying a lot. The fillings explode with fruit, and she’s dialed in her sugar and starch levels for pitch-perfect texture and flavor. And her crust! It’s the flakiest, the crispiest, the golden-est, the moisture-resistant-iest, the still-perfect-the-next-day-iest (yes, even the bottom crust, after it’s sat below the filling overnight). How a person who claims to not like pie could make the world’s best version, I’ll never know, but I’m eternally grateful. —Daniel Gritzer, managing culinary director
Get the recipe for The Best Cherry Pie »
30-Minute Tuscan White Bean Soup
[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
I make a batch of this soup at least three times each winter. It’s incredibly easy (as all soups should be, in my opinion), and, in the words of Kenji, it has a great flavor-to-work ratio. The white beans give it the heft I want from a hearty winter soup, and the addition of a Parmesan rind to enrich the broth is a revelation. Pro tip: Take a hint from another one of Kenji’s soups and add some lemon zest to brighten it all up. —Vicky Wasik, visual director
Get the recipe for 30-Minute Tuscan White Bean Soup »
Perfect Prime Rib
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
My wife, Vicky, is the baker in the family, so if she were looking over my shoulder as I wrote this, I’m sure she would be extolling the virtues of one of Stella’s recipes, like her angel food cake. But she’s not here, so I’m going to give props to an oldie (and, if it’s dry-aged meat, moldy) Serious Eats recipe: Kenji’s unforgettable prime rib. It’s time-consuming, and the finished product is more than a little unwieldy, but damn, is it delicious. In my estimation, it might be beef’s Platonic ideal. Plus, if you make Kenji’s prime rib for a dinner party, it’ll make one hell of an entrance when you bring it to the table—your guests will be impressed before they take a single bite. Make sure to give the entire article a read, even if it isn’t till after you put the roast in the oven: It’s full of both useful and interesting beef-related tidbits and down-to-earth scientific intel. —Ed Levine, founder
Get the recipe for Perfect Prime Rib With Red Wine Jus »
One-Bowl, Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]
My ultimate move for proving I’m a strong, independent woman—to my parents, to my friends, to my potential suitors—is pulling out an impressive recipe and executing it flawlessly. The key is for said impressive recipe to be deceptively easy. Enter Stella’s overnight cinnamon rolls. They truly require only one bowl and a stand mixer, and the rest is up to simple science. There’s not much more I can say about this recipe, except that it just works. The Greek yogurt incorporated into the dough gives the buns an almost Cinnabon-like quality—it keeps the dough super light and fluffy and produces the most amazing smell while they bake. It gets people hyped. I firmly believe there is no more special way to start the day than with one of these rolls. They turn an average Saturday into a memorable one. And on an already-special day—like when I made them for my family for Christmas Day—they’re just the icing on the, well, cinnamon bun. —Kristina Bornholtz, social media manager
Get the recipe for One-Bowl, Overnight Cinnamon Rolls »
Chicken Paprikash
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
In the depths of winter, when we’re craving something hearty and soul-warming but not overwhelmingly, tiringly rich, and neither a soup nor even a chili will do, my boyfriend and I can always agree on the merits of chicken paprikash. Kenji’s recipe takes more effort, but in just a bit more time than your run-of-the-mill paprikash recipe, it produces a silky, tangy, full-bodied stew punched up with plenty of good paprika, enriched with fish sauce and gelatin-enhanced stock, and brightened with yogurt, citrus, and grassy dill. If I have an extra half hour, a spare burner, and a few clear inches of counter space, I’ll boil up some shreds of homemade herb spaetzle and ladle the paprikash over it. On a leisurely late afternoon, over our two steaming bowls and another episode of some TV show we’ve watched a million times, nothing could be more comforting. —Marissa Chen, office manager
Get the recipe for Chicken Paprikash »
Vegan Garbanzos Con Espinacas y Jengibre (Spanish Chickpea and Spinach Stew With Ginger)
[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
There’s a reason Kenji calls this his favorite Serious Eats recipe. Okay—to be fair, I don’t know if he loves it for the same reasons I do, but I can come up with a few possibilities. Like some of my favorite people, it’s special because it doesn’t require a lot of poking or prodding or huge expenditures of effort to be good. It combines a handful of really unassuming and ordinary features—chickpeas, tomatoes, fresh spinach, ginger, paprika, vinegar—but they’re not quite ingredients you expect to see together, or not ingredients you’ve seen assembled in quite this way, and so they become exciting again. It doesn’t ask too much. Canned beans are okay; white wine vinegar works if you don’t have sherry. It plays happily with your vegan friends and converses easily with your health-nut family members. It’s simple enough that you can start it at the end of a long workday and have energy to spare when it’s done. When you sit down at the table with a bowl of it and a side of crusty bread, you’ll let out one of those little sighs that say, I’m at home, and everything’s okay. And that first bite, a mix of smoky from the paprika and earthy from the chickpeas and bright from the vinegar, will remind you that good and nourishing and easygoing, in food as in people, doesn’t have to mean boring. —Miranda Kaplan, editor
Get the recipe for Vegan Garbanzos Con Espinacas y Jengibre »
Sunny Lemon Bars
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]
I’m what you might call a reluctant baker—I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, my oven is tiny and unreliable, and even after completing culinary school, I continue to find cakes and breads deeply intimidating. Collectively, these factors have led me to worship Stella’s lemon bars. The buttery and rich shortbread-style crust takes just a few pulses with a food processor to make, and the custard is bright, vividly yellow, and tart enough to keep the sweetness from becoming cloying, a distracting feature in other lemon bars I’ve encountered. They require very little time in the oven, which means I don’t need to stress about them coming out under- or overdone. And, provided you have a good instant-read thermometer, they’re virtually impossible to mess up. The only thing that would frustrate me is the mountain of lemon carcasses left over, but Stella has a solution for those, too: Macerating them in sugar for several hours yields a sweet, lemony syrup, which you can mix right into some whipping cream to top the whole thing off. —Niki Achitoff-Gray, executive managing editor
Get the recipe for Sunny Lemon Bars »
Foolproof Pan Pizza
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
Most Friday nights when I was growing up, you could find the Cline family at Pizza Hut. The four of us would pile into our wood-paneled station wagon and drive across town to the second-closest Pizza Hut (the nearest location lacked a license to sell beer). My brother and I would spend our time bouncing between the table, the cocktail-style Galaga/Ms. Pac-Man machine, and the jukebox, but eventually we’d settle down for some of Pizza Hut’s pan pizza.
I haven’t been to a Pizza Hut in years, but I make Kenji’s Foolproof Pan Pizza every few months. It’s more or less the perfect re-creation (of my memories) of Pizza Hut’s pan pizza—and it’s really hard to screw up. —Paul Cline, developer
Get the recipe for Foolproof Pan Pizza »
Light and Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
You know that feeling when someone you’ve cooked for graciously asks for the recipe, even though you both know that they’ll never try it at home—perhaps because it’s too hard, it requires special ingredients, or it calls for a six-hour-long rest in the refrigerator? Well, I’m a firm believer in the idea that you can change someone’s life with a short stack of great pancakes, and maybe some decent maple syrup. That’s why I love Kenji’s buttermilk pancake recipe. If you’re into food science, you can read all about glutenin and gliadin, the pair behind the magic of gluten, in his full article. But let’s say you’re not, and that it’s breakfast time, and you want to feed your family. For a little extra time and prep work (whipping egg whites, folding said whites), you can serve up some pancakes that are way better than the boxed stuff.
When someone asks for this pancake recipe, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll try it for themselves. Today it’s pancakes; tomorrow it’s prime rib (or, you know, waffles). —Sal Vaglica, equipment editor
Get the recipe for Light and Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes »
Double-Chocolate Cream Pie
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]
For special occasions, I pretty much always make Stella’s double-chocolate cream pie. I wouldn’t call this an easy recipe, but Stella’s directions are clear and simple to follow. Go step by step, from the buttery crust to the Swiss meringue, and you won’t fail. This pie is a showstopper for a lot of reasons—the deep chocolate custard (made from dark chocolate and Dutch cocoa powder) is so rich, and the burnished meringue on top looks really professional. The first time I pulled it out of the oven, I couldn’t believe what I had achieved. If you’re looking to impress someone, especially someone who loves chocolate, this is the way to their heart. And mine—please make this for me. —Ariel Kanter, marketing director
Get the recipe for Double-Chocolate Cream Pie »
15-Minute Creamy Tomato Soup
[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Once the temperature dips below 50°F, I go hard on soup. It’s warm, it’s filling, it’s usually pretty cheap, and the leftovers only improve with time. Plus, you can dip stuff like bread and grilled cheese sandwiches into it. ‘Nuff said. This year’s gray skies and cold snaps have had me reaching for easy comfort food, and Kenji’s 15-minute vegan tomato soup couldn’t be easier or more comforting. “15-minute” jumped out at me first, but it was the simple ingredient list that sealed the deal—I had practically everything I needed to get started. After just 15 minutes, I savored the tangy sweetness known to all good tomato soups, and none of the richness that cream usually brings to the game. So I felt just fine having two bowls of it (so much for leftovers). —Natalie Holt, video producer
Get the recipe for 15-Minute Creamy Tomato Soup »
Salisbury Steak
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]
There are a lot of exceptional recipes on Serious Eats that I turn to again and again: Kenji’s perfect risotto, Stella’s cheddar biscuits, Daniel’s clams casino, and, more recently, Sohla’s cheesy bread.
But if I had to pick one recipe I love above all others, it would be Daniel’s Salisbury steak, since it embodies everything I love about our approach to recipe development. It isn’t expensive or fancy; it doesn’t really require any special ingredients (aside from liquid smoke, which is optional anyway); it isn’t particularly time-consuming or hard to make; and it is extremely good. I didn’t grow up eating this stuff at lunch counters or cafeterias or out of TV dinner trays, so there isn’t even any element of nostalgia for me—it’s just supremely tasty. And how could it not be? It’s basically a good meatball in patty form, topped with a rich mushroom sauce.
After making it more times than I care to count, I’ve realized that the recipe is also a prime example of the importance of technique, and of how paying attention to the little details can make a good dish great. Sure, you can choose not to mince the onions that go into the patties, and you can choose not to diligently slide the patties around in the pan so that their surfaces are nicely browned all around; it’s true that you can skimp on properly browning the mushrooms, or overshoot the final cooking temperature, or skip the smidgen of cider vinegar at the end. The Salisbury steak you eat will still be pretty tasty. But if you do cut the onions into a proper mince and check the meat mixture for seasoning, if you properly brown the meat and the mushrooms, and if you taste the final sauce and add vinegar bit by bit at the very end, what arrives at the table is the kind of meal only an accomplished cook could produce—and that accomplished cook is you. —Sho Spaeth, features editor
Get the recipe for Salisbury Steak »
Italian-Style Eggplant Parmesan
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]
I used to live my life believing that eggplant Parmesan was an abomination. I never understood why anyone would take the time to painstakingly put slices of eggplant through a careful three-stage breading procedure, only to drench them in tomato sauce and transform the once-crisp rounds into a soggy scourge on society. Daniel was working on the video for his Italian-style eggplant Parmesan when I first started at Serious Eats, and I knew I was home when I noticed there wasn’t a crumb in sight. Instead of using a heavy breading, this recipe starts with tender slices of eggplant at the peak of their season and fries them stark naked, like the day God made them. The eggplant slices swell with grassy olive oil, becoming creamy and rich, before they’re layered with mozzarella and a triple-threat tomato sauce. After eating half a pan of the stuff at the test kitchen, I went home and made a batch for dinner the very same night. This recipe continues to make frequent appearances in my kitchen, and has permanently changed my stance on eggplant Parmesan, while simultaneously quadrupling my olive oil consumption—because you gotta get in those macros, bro! —Sohla El-Waylly, assistant culinary editor
Get the recipe for Italian-Style Eggplant Parmesan »
Pressure Cooker Beef Barley Soup
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]
Even before the pressure cooker variation came along, Daniel’s stovetop beef barley soup was my favorite recipe of 2016, and on regular rotation at home. I always feel so virtuous putting that many grains and vegetables into a dish, and the tender, melt-in-your-mouth chunks of beef make the dish rich and hearty enough to justify popping a bottle of red wine. It was always a Saturday-afternoon thing, a recipe I could have going in the background while I puttered around the house with other chores. But the pressure cooker version changed all that, slashing the recipe’s timeline in half and making it fast enough to throw together on a weeknight, too. —Stella Parks, pastry wizard
Get the recipe for Pressure Cooker Beef Barley Soup »
Charred Salsa Verde
[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]
I discovered this recipe pretty late—just a few weeks ago—but it has very quickly become my go-to salsa recipe. If you can find tomatillos, the salsa is unbelievably easy to make: big, rough chops on the veggies; a quick stint under the broiler; a whir in the blender; and that’s it. Smoky, sweet, charred, peppery, and as fiery as you want to make it, the flavors are deliciously complex. And it only gets better when you’ve made it a few times and have gotten a feel for how much heat you want. (I may or may not have burned off all the taste buds on a loved one’s tongue the first time.) Try it with Kenji’s sous vide carnitas! —Tim Aikens, front-end developer
Get the recipe for Charred Salsa Verde »
BraveTart’s Quick and Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies
[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]
Everyone knows that freshly baked cookies are always better than the store-bought packages. We also know how disappointing it can be to try a recipe from a random search and end up with a sad, bready-tasting batch. However, since trying out Stella’s chocolate chip cookies, I’ve bookmarked the recipe, and baking them has become a weekly tradition. The recipe works perfectly well with mass-produced chocolate chips. My recommendation, though it’s going to take some self-control, is to bake only as much as you’ll devour within 24 hours, then freeze the remaining dough for another indulgent time. Be sure to read the full article, too—I love the historical nugget in which Stella explains how chocolate chips first came to supermarkets. —Vivian Kong, designer
Get the recipe for BraveTart’s Quick and Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies »
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